When Sonic and Knuckles had gone, Tails had wandered over to the window and looked out at Mobius below. At sight of the planet, he let out an involuntary whimper. He worried that his plan wouldn't work. It should but what if it didn't? Mobius was still a considerable distance away, and already he could feel a cold terror rising inside. How would it feel when the Mobius blotted out the view from this window? And what would actually happen when they collided? Would it hurt?

Suddenly, Tails leapt back from the window as though it had stung him. Some things are just too terrifying to even think about. He started wandering around impatiently. His friends had only been gone a few minutes at the most, but it already felt like hours. He wished they'd just hurry. He was moving around the room staring mostly at his feet, but not really caring where they carried him. His tails dropped to the floor, wagging slightly with agitation, and his paws were clasped loosely together behind his back. His ears were slightly flattened, and his eyes were wide and watery.

His foot hit the base of the Eclipse Cannon with a loud clang. He glanced up to see the emeralds resting in their slots beside the Cannon's barrel, and the gash he had blasted in the ceiling. He had been able to hear Robotnik and Shadow talking from up there, so he had known that Eggman planned to fire the Cannon while he was trapped in the barrel. Before, they'd heard him crawling around in the cockpit of the Cyclone, trying to dislodge it from the Cannon's barrel and fly out of there... Then Robotnik had placed the last of the emeralds into the slot, and Tails could hear the hum of the weapon charging, and felt a soft vibration pulsing through the barrel. His situation had seemed utterly hopeless. The Cyclone hadn't moved an inch, despite all his pushing and pulling. He had curled up in the Cyclone, and wept in bitter frustration. At the time he hadn't know what had made the cannon stop, but he had a vague idea that Shadow had saved his life. There was an emerald missing from the slot, and Knuckles had retrieved his from the corner of the room...perhaps Shadow had yanked it from the machine and flung it across the room...but why? Why stop the Cannon from firing after he had helped to get it working?

Tails stood regarding the emeralds, idly picking one up and turning it over in his paws. Better take these with them when they went to face the creature at the power source. They needed seven, one was still missing, possibly back on Mobius some where, but the Eclipse Cannon had worked with Knuckles' master emerald replacing the seventh...maybe if he'd lend it...Still, if they had the emeralds then Eggman wouldn't, and that was a start. Tails hopped down from the Eclipse Cannon podium with a red emerald in his paw, and stuffed it into his tool bag. Then he dragged the bag over and shoved the others in. As he reached for the last, he froze, guilty. A single set of footsteps approached loudly.

The owner entered, with eyes fixed on his destination; the console beside the Eclipse Cannon. On sight of him, Tails had grabbed his bag, and vanished behind the hexagonal wall, which formerly held the emeralds. Now he lay on the floor, listening. Eggman crossed the floor, grunted at the empty emerald slots, sat down at the console and began typing. Tails crouched perfectly still, not daring to move, least he be discovered. Eggman worked for some ten minutes before they heard the first alert:

'Warning! Warning! Oxygen and gravity levels severely depleted in exterior sectors seven through eleven! All personnel are to remain inside and report to your workstations immediately!'

Robotnik sniggered as though the electronic voice had shared a particularly funny joke. He stayed working for a further twenty minutes, which seemed like hours to Tails. He lay in wait, worrying about the announcement. His fur glowed red every time the flickering warning light shone above.

Finally, Eggman jabbed a key with a decisive thud and scraped his chair backward across the floor. Tails heard him stamp out and down the corridor. Gingerly, the kitsune emerged from his hiding place and crept over to the console to view the screen. The message there sent a cold chill shivering down his spine.

CONTROLS LOCKED

LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS SHUTDOWN INITIATED

ESTIAMATED TIME UNTIL COMPLETE SHUTDOWN

00:59:45

Tails jabbed at the keyboard, watching the seconds tick by. Nothing happened. Eggman intended to sabotage the mission. Tails moaned fearfully. With no backup generator to support them, the life support systems would have shut down anyway, once the main power source was destroyed...but as Tails' entire plan had included using the time left before the oxygen became un-breathable to find a way home. Of course they would probably have to stop the Colony in less than an hour, but this message meant more than how much time they had. It meant Eggman was determined to stop any plans they had, and would stop at nothing within his power. Tails flicked on his communicator and yelled for Sonic.

"Tails? What's wrong?" he demanded.

"Eggman has...started a programme to shut down the life support systems,"

"WHAT?"

"This computer won't respond to anything, we've got just under an hour to complete shutdown...did you-"

"Shut down the backup generator? Sure, we're on our way back," Sonic told him.

"Hurry!"

"Sure thing. Sonic out."

"Bye..." Tails said into the dead communicator. He longed for company. The waiting was becoming almost unbearable, now he had little more to do than watch the numbers tick by on the console's display. Every minute was one wasted until Mobius was safe.

'Oxygen and gravity levels severely depleted in exterior sectors five through fifteen! Life support in interior areas 13 and 14 un-operational. Locking entrances.' Said the computerised voice.

Tails sighed mournfully and flopped down to sit on a window ledge. His attention was drawn to the blinking lights surrounding six giant purple and green rings floating in space, just below the window. What were those rings for? Every time you looked out of a window up here on the Ark, there was a set of those rings in the near distance. They probably surrounded every inch of the Colony.

As he watched, the lights dulled and switched off. He stared, suddenly amazed. For a few moments, nothing more happened. Then, slowly, the purple and green rings drifted gently away from the Colony. The computerised voice made another announcement, this time mentioning outer sectors one to sixteen. Tails froze, realising what the rings were for ...since the life support failed outside when they were off, they must either contain the atmosphere or generate it artificially somehow. Tails wished he had his Cyclone ...his stolen maps would show which sector he was in. Mentally, he willed Sonic to hurry.