Getting out of the door wasn't hard, not with a proclaimed genius and an
angry neitchean around. One used technical means to open it half way while
the other used brute strength to finish the job. We suddenly realized that
we were in the bowls of the building amongst all the pipes and ventilation
shafts that keeps a building of this size working. We crawled among the low
intricate webbing of pipes figuring that walking down the main hall would
be suicide. Harper scooted in the lead and he seemed oddly comfortable
there, like he had done operations like this before, which I'm pretty sure
he had, fleeing from magog and nietzhean attacks. He moved masterfully
ducking and jumping and rolling at such a fast pace that it seemed like he
had a picture of the floor plans already in his head. He was conscious of
me and Tyr's bulk and size and took the bigger of the paths to shimmy
through. Our dirty journey was mostly quiet aside from the random "Stop it
Trances" He'd whine while he swatting Trances hand away every time she
pinched his butt.
"Like the view?" Beka said peering back and seeing me dazedly staring at her rotund bottom.
"Oh I was just thinking..." which was the truth, I wasn't even thinking about her butt, it was in my line of vision, but now that she mentioned it...mmmhmmm.
"Sure...just thinking, staring at my butt?"
"Well, there's nothing else to stare at." I said matter-a-factly.
"Are you implying my butt is big?" She said with her anger slowly rising. Harper gulped and Trance frantically looked for cover. Tyr just looked on with amusement. Our little march had come to a quick halt and all eyes were on me.
"No, I was just saying that it was just so breathtaking I couldn't look anywhere else." I said backpedaling for life. She grunted and turned back around.
"Are we gonna go or what?" She motioned angrily.
"I'm goin' I'm goin'." Harper said picking up his pace. It was extremely hot crawling under all these steaming pipes. I wiped my brow and cursed my idealism. I still didn't have a plan, We were playing this one by ear. I had a few questions that needed to be answered though. Where had Beka and Tyr gone during the night? They were the only ones who had a key to our room to get the weapons, fire them, and then place them back. But why would they do that? I looked at the back of Beka's head. Would she really she really do this? I looked passed her to Tyr and I had not doubt that he was capable of something so meaningless. This whole situation boiled down to trust. Did I trust them?
"This would be a whole lot easier if you didn't smell like curdled milk and Tyr didn't smell like vomit, creating this cosmic stench I'm lost for words to describe." Trance said wheezing desperately.
"I don't smell that bad..." Harper said and Tyr grunted. Trance backed up giving Harper a nice big lead covering her nose with the collar of her shirt.
"Harper, I think we should go this way." Trance piped in seeing the two possible paths.
"Why? This ways bigger...Dylan and Tyr can't fit through that, hell you can't fit through that." Harper said irritably steadily heading down the opposite path.
"Harper, really I think this is the wrong way..." She was cut off by a huge blast of steam that seemed to engulf the engineer. Trance covered her mouth to keep her from crying out. She tried to shuffle towards him but Tyr grabbed her by her tail.
"It's not safe." He muttered sadly watching the cloud of steam twist and turn on itself. The steam slowly started to dissipate and Beka had managed to scramble up beside Trance in the cramped space. The thick ozone was unbearable and breathing became laborious but we didn't care. We had to see if there was a possibility that Harper had lived.
"Harper! If you can hear me! Answer!" I called. There was nothing and my eyes started to water and my chin started to quiver. I could hear both trance and Beka trying to console each other. While Tyr looked up trying to blink away the emotions that were rising to the surface.
"Trance?" Came a small voice ahead. Trance raised her head off of beka's shoulder with a snap and looked around expecting to see his ghost.
"Harper! Are you ok!?"
", I'm just a little roasted." He mumbled coughing wildly. Trance scrambled after him motioning for use to stay behind. She's looked to be oblivious to the possibility that she too could get burned. A minute seemed like forever and finally Beka's patience ran out.
"What's going on!!" she yelled hugging herself and preparing for the worst. It was always odd to see how much she cared for the little guy. He wasn't an old friend, or family, he was just some guy she picked up on earth a few years back but in that time she had learned to love him more then she even loved herself.
"Trance!" Beka growled at the black blanket ahead of us.
"He's over here." Trance called and Beka was instantly relieved. She literally shot over and I looked over to Tyr to see him wiping his eyes. Seamus Zelazny Harper...If he only knew how much we cared.
We crawled over and we saw just how Harper had survived the scorching mist. It was a huge opened hatch that lead into another pipe. We jumped down into the huge pipe next to trance and Beka who were looking over Harper . The pipe was large enough for us to sit upright in and we looked over Trance treating harpers wounds. He laid on his stomach with his mouth hanging open in agony. He writhed under Trances touch and she instantly regretted . I flinched when she lifted his shirt to show the scorched skin on his back and neck. He must have fell into this huge pipe just before the steam spewed out but it had had a chance to scorch his back, neck and hands. His skin looked filmy and already plasters started to form. All over his red, black and blue skin. He groaned while Trance looked at his injury with frustration because she didn't have anything to help him with. Beka watched intently while Tyr crawled down the tunnel somewhat.
"How bad is it?" She demanded.
"It's bad; I've never dealt with a burn this sever..." She trailed off, leaving out the part that she had no idea what to do. But we all picked it up. Beka pushed back a strand of Harper's hair that was soaked from his sweat while he struggled for breath.
"Did you fix it?" Harper grunted. We all looked at each other figuring his words were the effect of delirium. We knew it was best to just feed into it.
"Yes, I fixed it Harper." Beka said trying to sooth him
"Good, I didn't bring my gel with me." He said chuckling and we all laughed despite the seriousness of the situation. His nonchalance about his own possible demise made me overwhelmingly sad. Covering everything up with humor...all the way to the bitter end. His chuckle launched him into a coughing fit that wracked his body and drained his face 4 shades. Beka burst out crying. She wanted to hold him but hesitated 'cause of the burns.
"God damnit! I can't even hold his hand!" She yelled in frustration and sorrow.
"I suggest we move, This seems to be an exhaust pipe of some sort." Tyr said and we knew he was right but we were thinking with our heart and not in the mood to hear logic.
"Harper..." Beka whispered. He looked already dead. His eyes just staring forward void of any feeling or emotion. He laid on his stomach and he breathed like a fish out of water drawing in it's last few breaths.
"Turn around." Trance said with a furrowed brow.
"What?" I said while beka refused to look away from Harper, she refused to leave him alone.
"Turn around. Just trust me."
"There has to be something you can do Trance." Beka weeped.
"Trust me." She said positioning herself better to do whatever she had planned. Our stares lingered but we knew we'd do as she said. We just had to make sure we were using both our hearts and our logic to make this decision. I assumed Trance was gonna help him along in his passing. Beka leaned into me blubbering incoherent things about Harper. We looked away and immediately trance began to whisper something that I couldn't make out. I closed my eyes at the sound and told Beka that everything would be ok.
"I'm done." Trance said innocently, less then a minute later. We slowly opened our eyes. I expected to see a cold dead harper and I wondered just what that would look like. Would it look like he was sleeping or would it look odd, odd as in still, like his soul was dormant? I looked back to see Harper sitting up right and shaking off what ever daze was left from his injury. He looked brand new, almost better then he usually looked.
"What did you do?" I said in amazement and Beka just reached out and touched his face. She almost expected it to be cold with death but it wasn't and when she realized it she brought Harper in for a hug of a lifetime.
"Boss..." Harper whined.
"Well, I guess you could say I rewound him but he's better so it doesn't really matter how I did it." She said grinning from ear to ear. She looked over at Harper who was still trapped in Beka's parental embrace.
"That sound..." Tyr said questioningly. We all paused our celebration and listened intently. First we heard nothing then a slight roar from the dark depths of the black tube, behind us. The pipe started to rumble under us and panic diminished our ability to talk. A loud screech from above made us realize the dwindling light and we looked up to see that the Pipe was sealing it's self automatically. The light crept away until all was left was near perfect darkness. The vibrations became stronger and so did that ominous roar of something big and menacing.
"Move, Move, Move!" I could hear Harper shouting. We started to scramble pushing each other along. I couldn't' see a thing which only made the situation that much worse. I didn't think our feelings of desperation could get anymore acute until the heat started to rise in the pipe and breathing became almost impossible. I looked back to see the cloud of steam rushing down the tube at a horrifying speed. Billowing forward with no intentions of stopping until it had swallowed us up. I whimpered and Harper pushed me.
"Go!" He shouted and we all pushed ourselves to move faster. My muscles burned and the ominous roar of the beast behind us left me unable to hear the shouts and screams of my crew. The steam was right on our heels and my life started to flash before my eyes. Everything I've ever wanted to do or say differently, it was all there. A shameful display of 'what if's', 'should have's' and 'why not's'. I braced for the scorching death but suddenly the ground slipped from underneath me and I felt myself falling, a scream escaped my lips at the shock. the steam was still bearing down at us from above and the unholy moan that came from the deadly cloud rung in my ears and shook my whole world. There was a light at the end of the tunnel we were recklessly sliding down. The light seemed to grow but really it was just getting closer and before I could react the light surrounded me and for that second I didn't know up from down and my mind whirled. Then something lurched me back into reality. I opened my eyes to see beka looking into mine straining with everything she had. I looked down to see Harper holding on to my foot while he held on to Trances tail. The shouted and screamed in fear and I felt it somewhat funny that Trance had done something miraculous to save his life only for him to die only minuets later. I looked down passed panicing crew members and int the dark void below us. We braced while the steam roared passed us spraying a light mist of heat toward us. As if it was giving us a sample of what it could have done to use. There seemed to be too much going on at once and I couldn't concentrate on our situation. My fear was eating me alive. All the moisture made it hard for me to keep my grip and when Beka realized I was slipping she stared at me in horror. She looked up at Tyr who's pants she was holding on to. He Held onto a rusted bar hanging from the pipes opening just far enough out of the way that the majority of the mist didn't touch us. He was carrying all our weight on his shoulders. Then the same question as before came up again at this crucial moment. I looked into his brown eyes... Do I trust Tyr? Do I trust Beka? Tyr screamed with the strain.
"My Arm!" Beka cried. It was dislocated and I realized that she wasn't holding on to me. I was holding on to her.
"Like the view?" Beka said peering back and seeing me dazedly staring at her rotund bottom.
"Oh I was just thinking..." which was the truth, I wasn't even thinking about her butt, it was in my line of vision, but now that she mentioned it...mmmhmmm.
"Sure...just thinking, staring at my butt?"
"Well, there's nothing else to stare at." I said matter-a-factly.
"Are you implying my butt is big?" She said with her anger slowly rising. Harper gulped and Trance frantically looked for cover. Tyr just looked on with amusement. Our little march had come to a quick halt and all eyes were on me.
"No, I was just saying that it was just so breathtaking I couldn't look anywhere else." I said backpedaling for life. She grunted and turned back around.
"Are we gonna go or what?" She motioned angrily.
"I'm goin' I'm goin'." Harper said picking up his pace. It was extremely hot crawling under all these steaming pipes. I wiped my brow and cursed my idealism. I still didn't have a plan, We were playing this one by ear. I had a few questions that needed to be answered though. Where had Beka and Tyr gone during the night? They were the only ones who had a key to our room to get the weapons, fire them, and then place them back. But why would they do that? I looked at the back of Beka's head. Would she really she really do this? I looked passed her to Tyr and I had not doubt that he was capable of something so meaningless. This whole situation boiled down to trust. Did I trust them?
"This would be a whole lot easier if you didn't smell like curdled milk and Tyr didn't smell like vomit, creating this cosmic stench I'm lost for words to describe." Trance said wheezing desperately.
"I don't smell that bad..." Harper said and Tyr grunted. Trance backed up giving Harper a nice big lead covering her nose with the collar of her shirt.
"Harper, I think we should go this way." Trance piped in seeing the two possible paths.
"Why? This ways bigger...Dylan and Tyr can't fit through that, hell you can't fit through that." Harper said irritably steadily heading down the opposite path.
"Harper, really I think this is the wrong way..." She was cut off by a huge blast of steam that seemed to engulf the engineer. Trance covered her mouth to keep her from crying out. She tried to shuffle towards him but Tyr grabbed her by her tail.
"It's not safe." He muttered sadly watching the cloud of steam twist and turn on itself. The steam slowly started to dissipate and Beka had managed to scramble up beside Trance in the cramped space. The thick ozone was unbearable and breathing became laborious but we didn't care. We had to see if there was a possibility that Harper had lived.
"Harper! If you can hear me! Answer!" I called. There was nothing and my eyes started to water and my chin started to quiver. I could hear both trance and Beka trying to console each other. While Tyr looked up trying to blink away the emotions that were rising to the surface.
"Trance?" Came a small voice ahead. Trance raised her head off of beka's shoulder with a snap and looked around expecting to see his ghost.
"Harper! Are you ok!?"
", I'm just a little roasted." He mumbled coughing wildly. Trance scrambled after him motioning for use to stay behind. She's looked to be oblivious to the possibility that she too could get burned. A minute seemed like forever and finally Beka's patience ran out.
"What's going on!!" she yelled hugging herself and preparing for the worst. It was always odd to see how much she cared for the little guy. He wasn't an old friend, or family, he was just some guy she picked up on earth a few years back but in that time she had learned to love him more then she even loved herself.
"Trance!" Beka growled at the black blanket ahead of us.
"He's over here." Trance called and Beka was instantly relieved. She literally shot over and I looked over to Tyr to see him wiping his eyes. Seamus Zelazny Harper...If he only knew how much we cared.
We crawled over and we saw just how Harper had survived the scorching mist. It was a huge opened hatch that lead into another pipe. We jumped down into the huge pipe next to trance and Beka who were looking over Harper . The pipe was large enough for us to sit upright in and we looked over Trance treating harpers wounds. He laid on his stomach with his mouth hanging open in agony. He writhed under Trances touch and she instantly regretted . I flinched when she lifted his shirt to show the scorched skin on his back and neck. He must have fell into this huge pipe just before the steam spewed out but it had had a chance to scorch his back, neck and hands. His skin looked filmy and already plasters started to form. All over his red, black and blue skin. He groaned while Trance looked at his injury with frustration because she didn't have anything to help him with. Beka watched intently while Tyr crawled down the tunnel somewhat.
"How bad is it?" She demanded.
"It's bad; I've never dealt with a burn this sever..." She trailed off, leaving out the part that she had no idea what to do. But we all picked it up. Beka pushed back a strand of Harper's hair that was soaked from his sweat while he struggled for breath.
"Did you fix it?" Harper grunted. We all looked at each other figuring his words were the effect of delirium. We knew it was best to just feed into it.
"Yes, I fixed it Harper." Beka said trying to sooth him
"Good, I didn't bring my gel with me." He said chuckling and we all laughed despite the seriousness of the situation. His nonchalance about his own possible demise made me overwhelmingly sad. Covering everything up with humor...all the way to the bitter end. His chuckle launched him into a coughing fit that wracked his body and drained his face 4 shades. Beka burst out crying. She wanted to hold him but hesitated 'cause of the burns.
"God damnit! I can't even hold his hand!" She yelled in frustration and sorrow.
"I suggest we move, This seems to be an exhaust pipe of some sort." Tyr said and we knew he was right but we were thinking with our heart and not in the mood to hear logic.
"Harper..." Beka whispered. He looked already dead. His eyes just staring forward void of any feeling or emotion. He laid on his stomach and he breathed like a fish out of water drawing in it's last few breaths.
"Turn around." Trance said with a furrowed brow.
"What?" I said while beka refused to look away from Harper, she refused to leave him alone.
"Turn around. Just trust me."
"There has to be something you can do Trance." Beka weeped.
"Trust me." She said positioning herself better to do whatever she had planned. Our stares lingered but we knew we'd do as she said. We just had to make sure we were using both our hearts and our logic to make this decision. I assumed Trance was gonna help him along in his passing. Beka leaned into me blubbering incoherent things about Harper. We looked away and immediately trance began to whisper something that I couldn't make out. I closed my eyes at the sound and told Beka that everything would be ok.
"I'm done." Trance said innocently, less then a minute later. We slowly opened our eyes. I expected to see a cold dead harper and I wondered just what that would look like. Would it look like he was sleeping or would it look odd, odd as in still, like his soul was dormant? I looked back to see Harper sitting up right and shaking off what ever daze was left from his injury. He looked brand new, almost better then he usually looked.
"What did you do?" I said in amazement and Beka just reached out and touched his face. She almost expected it to be cold with death but it wasn't and when she realized it she brought Harper in for a hug of a lifetime.
"Boss..." Harper whined.
"Well, I guess you could say I rewound him but he's better so it doesn't really matter how I did it." She said grinning from ear to ear. She looked over at Harper who was still trapped in Beka's parental embrace.
"That sound..." Tyr said questioningly. We all paused our celebration and listened intently. First we heard nothing then a slight roar from the dark depths of the black tube, behind us. The pipe started to rumble under us and panic diminished our ability to talk. A loud screech from above made us realize the dwindling light and we looked up to see that the Pipe was sealing it's self automatically. The light crept away until all was left was near perfect darkness. The vibrations became stronger and so did that ominous roar of something big and menacing.
"Move, Move, Move!" I could hear Harper shouting. We started to scramble pushing each other along. I couldn't' see a thing which only made the situation that much worse. I didn't think our feelings of desperation could get anymore acute until the heat started to rise in the pipe and breathing became almost impossible. I looked back to see the cloud of steam rushing down the tube at a horrifying speed. Billowing forward with no intentions of stopping until it had swallowed us up. I whimpered and Harper pushed me.
"Go!" He shouted and we all pushed ourselves to move faster. My muscles burned and the ominous roar of the beast behind us left me unable to hear the shouts and screams of my crew. The steam was right on our heels and my life started to flash before my eyes. Everything I've ever wanted to do or say differently, it was all there. A shameful display of 'what if's', 'should have's' and 'why not's'. I braced for the scorching death but suddenly the ground slipped from underneath me and I felt myself falling, a scream escaped my lips at the shock. the steam was still bearing down at us from above and the unholy moan that came from the deadly cloud rung in my ears and shook my whole world. There was a light at the end of the tunnel we were recklessly sliding down. The light seemed to grow but really it was just getting closer and before I could react the light surrounded me and for that second I didn't know up from down and my mind whirled. Then something lurched me back into reality. I opened my eyes to see beka looking into mine straining with everything she had. I looked down to see Harper holding on to my foot while he held on to Trances tail. The shouted and screamed in fear and I felt it somewhat funny that Trance had done something miraculous to save his life only for him to die only minuets later. I looked down passed panicing crew members and int the dark void below us. We braced while the steam roared passed us spraying a light mist of heat toward us. As if it was giving us a sample of what it could have done to use. There seemed to be too much going on at once and I couldn't concentrate on our situation. My fear was eating me alive. All the moisture made it hard for me to keep my grip and when Beka realized I was slipping she stared at me in horror. She looked up at Tyr who's pants she was holding on to. He Held onto a rusted bar hanging from the pipes opening just far enough out of the way that the majority of the mist didn't touch us. He was carrying all our weight on his shoulders. Then the same question as before came up again at this crucial moment. I looked into his brown eyes... Do I trust Tyr? Do I trust Beka? Tyr screamed with the strain.
"My Arm!" Beka cried. It was dislocated and I realized that she wasn't holding on to me. I was holding on to her.