Into the Core: Joshua Keyes

Elizabeth Aiken

Disclaimer: I do not own "The Core" or any related characters.

Author's Note: Okay, after this chapter I'm going to start going into my ideas, and some from the reviewers, so if you got any ideas please share! Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed.

Chapter 3

So far the ride had been smooth. There had been no trouble whatsoever, and the tension between Zimsky and Braz had been taken care of by Serge and I, keeping the two of them separated whenever possible.

Iverson sat comfortably in his seat, eyes focused dead on the screen, when a strange, dulled form of static became apparent. He frowned and looked questioningly toward Beck. This certainly wasn't good. I walked seemingly oblivious into the cockpit of the ship, seeming oblivious to his current position. Something was going through his head, but no one noticed his distracted mood.

'People." Iverson stated with some strain, drawing me from my idle mindedness. "Doctors Zimsky and Keyes?" he pointed at the screen. I stepped forward, frowning. Zimsky joined me at my side a few seconds later looking disturbed. "You guys are our resident geophysicists. What do you make of this?"

Zimsky bit his lip. "Um. The mantle is a chemical hodgepodge of...a variety of elements..." he strained to make sense of himself, as if he believed their respect for him diminished by the second. Braz leaned over his shoulder.

"Say it with me: I don't know." he mocked. Zimsky rolled his eyes and frowned bitterly.

"Well commander." Serge came in with a small chuckle. "Wise men say, 'When in doubt you should go around.'"

"No it's too big." Beck objected. "We turn too slow." There was a pause. "Anything that we can't go through displays as black. So what's...what's static?"

"It's nothing." JI unwittingly answered, leaning against Beck's seat lost in frustration at my lack of knowledge.

Braz frowned and turned his gaze toward me. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing." I answered again. My voice was building. Suddenly the nothing wasn't nothing. It was nothing, but that was something for them. A big problem. Zimsky's eyes were now on me as well, questioning. Suddenly my head flew up, eyes wide and full of panic. "It's empty space."

Braz's eyes widened, and he moved quickly to his seat. Zimsky's eyes did the same. He did a few double-takes between me and the screen before finally moving to his own seat. Beck and Iverson looked up at me, concerned. Everyone soon rushed to their seats. "I never taught the computer how to read empty space."

"And I never taught Virgil how to fly." Braz added.

Zimsky stuck a cigarette in his mouth as he fastened his belts tightly. Serge rushed through his own belt arrangement.

"Oh, God." Iverson braced himself. The static exploded on the screen just as I turned my head to see if Serge was fastened in. I only had one shoulder harness on, but I wasn't concerned with that. At the beginning of the trip they had all had a problem getting the belts fastened, but Serge had had the worst time with it. I reached up to clasp my last harness, but it was too late.

Virgil broke through the barrier sooner then any of them had anticipated. Zimsky was thrown forward in his seat, biting the end of his cigarette clean off. Braz went forward with a grunt. Iverson and Beck, familiar with this extreme display of gravitational force, pushed themselves as far back against their seats as they could. Serge's head flung forward and snapped violently. I lunged ahead at an angle, snapping my one braced shoulder and sending the other forward along with my head, nearly hitting the back of Beck's seat.

"Oh, no man!" Braz grunted as his braces started to choke him. Iverson and Beck held well, but I was fighting against hell to keep in my seat. I hung limp at an angle as the nerves in my right shoulder was pinched beyond anything I could bear. My right hand went dead at my side and hung forward along with the rest of me.

Serge struggled in his own seat as Zimsky tried to adjust himself in his. Virgil flew forward at an incredible speed, forward and down.

"Oh, dear God." Iverson whispered. Suddenly he saw solid floor beneath them, lined with sharp and solid crystals. Iverson grasped the back of his seat, the rest wishing desperately that we had the strength to do the same. Suddenly all were jolted backwards, then forward once more as the ship careened across the floor and the field of crystals miles wide and yards high.

I couldn't do anything as I struggled to keep my limp body in some kind of control. I heard Serge cry out beside me, and that was enough to bring me back into a semiconscious state. Zimsky and Braz struggled to keep themselves in their own seats, Zimsky grunting as he seemed to be fighting off the belts. As the G's around them grew, the straps became tighter. Beck and Iverson in the front row seemed to be faring just find, but their crew might as well have been dying or dead behind them. There were no helpful responses other than Zimsky's grunts and Serge's shouts of pain. I was being thrown every which way in my seat, and I noticed that no one had noticed.

Then, just as quickly as hell began, it stopped. All of us were thrown at full force forward, and then collapsed back into our seats. Virgil was no longer moving, but no one seemed to mind at the moment. I turned my head toward Serge.

"Serge, you all right?"

The old man winced, turned his head and nodded. "Yeah."

"Anybody hurt?" Iverson asked.

Braz and Zimsky exchanged glances momentarily before turning their heads away with a non caring glare. Beck turned her head toward Serge to confirm her concerns. The Frenchman's eyes were on me, for I was finally pulling myself out of my seatbelts.

"No." Zimsky breathed.

"You okay?" I asked Iverson.

"Yeah."

I looked at Serge, and then past him, frowning.

"What's that? What is that?" Zimsky asked in concern. Serge looked up to see a fog like substance pouring in over his head.

"From the cooling system." Braz confirmed. "Shut that down."

Serge stood and reached for it. "I told you go around her. Nobody listens to me."

"Where in God's name are we?" Beck asked in confusion.

"Whatever has us jammed up is inside our lasers." Iverson noted, staring concernedly into the screens. "Shut 'em down." He looked at Beck. "We're not going anywhere."

Beck sighed. "Powering down." she hit the power switches. The lasers died, and Virgil was left in the dark. She turned her seat to face the man behind her. "Josh, is there any other image you can pull up?"

I glanced into my computer.

"Nope. Whatever it is, it's also inside our MRI cameras." I got up, stretched, and started to adjust a few of my settings.

"We have to go outside." Braz declared.

Serge sat up and turned his head. "What?" He didn't like the idea.

"Believe me." I came in. "I hate to admit it, but I think he's right."

Zimsky jumped from his seat like a kid on Christmas. "I'm coming with. I want to collect samples-"

"Wait, hang on, hang on." Iverson interjected.

"Wait, the first problem is the only way we came out of the ship is the way we came in..." Beck came in over the commander. "Which is through the impeller outlet,"

"Which is still at five thousand degrees." Serge went on.

"Exactly, I mean-"

"I'll just flush it with liquid nitrogen from the cooling system." Braz responded as if it were the easiest problem in the world.

"Wait." I argued. "The cooling system that's keeping us from roasting to death in this ship?" I smiled mockingly.

"Well, just a small part of it."

Nervous glances went through the entire crew. Iverson decided this was his time to take the initiative.

"Alternatives? Anybody?"

Serge moved to object, then thought twice. It wasn't up to him anyway.

I was the first to step out onto the new frontier. At first, all my eyes could see was the liquid nitrogen leaking out to help cool the space for them to exit out of Virgil. Then my eyes fell upon the most beautiful and horrifying sight my eyes had laid eyes on. A giant crystal jammed into the propeller of the ship, as wide as he was and definitely twice as tall, or would have been if it weren't lying at an angle.

"Whoa, whoa that's it." Iverson stated as he came after.

"It's like a giant...giant crystal." I stated, eyeing it with amazement.

"Where the hell are we?" Zimsky looked around in amazement. They ignored him.

"Well the good news is, it looks like the suits can take the pressure." Iverson came in. He inspected the crystal more closely. "It's completely jammed the laser assembly. We just...we got to hope if we can cut it loose they're still functional."

"Careful." I hissed as they carried out the equipment to melt the crystal. "Okay." I handed a few chords and hoses to Iverson. "Beck, try the lights would you?"

"Lighting up." she responded from inside. She and Serge had remained behind as the others did their job. The lights came on, and all four of us stood in amazement.

"Oh, it's magnificent." I stated with awe.

"Oh, my God." Iverson gazed out over the sight.

"Aladdin's cave." Braz laughed with some humor.

"It's like a crystal Grand Canyon." Zimsky stated.

We stood before a vast horizon of amethyst crystals, jutting out at all angles and elevations for miles on end. Every turn revealed a labyrinth of rotating lights and brilliant visualizations that even the most illogical of all the geoscientists could not imagine.

"I think it's a geode." Zimsky contemplated, speaking excitedly. "But I don't understand how it could have survived down here.

"Cobalt shell, maybe?" I suggested, looking up and around.

"No. I-I mean...in a magma environment of five thousand degrees. Something would have to protect it." He gazed in awe a bit longer. "Unbelievable."

"Zimsky."

"Yeah."

I smiled. "We're inside a giant gem-bubble, wrapped in a cobalt cocoon, seven hundred miles below the surface of the Earth." I laughed. "Hell of a day."

Zimsky chuckled, walking backwards. "Yes, it is."

"I'll start cutting." Braz informed them.

"Okay, Braz." Iverson responded. "I'm going to check the hull. Call me if you need me."

"Okay."

Braz flipped a few more switches, and immediately the drill started to do its job. Suddenly, I saw something flaming red and orange sweep down just a few inches past his face, and fall smoldering to his feet. He looked down and could not believe what he saw. Immediately his gaze went up and confirmed his worst fears.

"Oh no." I breathed. I ran back toward Zimsky who was carving a few samples of his own from the crystal. "Zimsky!"

"Yeah?"

"Zimsky, look!" I pointed upward, but the man was only half listening. He held up a small crystal piece, eyeing it with amazement.

"Look, it's an amethyst." His eyes went up past the crystal to where Josh was pointing. "Oh, God. We've breached the shell." As he spoke, the small opening suddenly exploded into a leak the proportion of the Hoover Dam collapsing. Gallons started to pour in by the millisecond, and they were powerless to protect themselves. Worse yet, the crystals upon the roof of the 'cocoon' were detaching and falling from the heavens down upon us.

Iverson cried out as crystal shards crashed down over him. A few heavier ones hit Braz, Zimsky, and I on the other side of the ship. Those inside heard their cries and waited desperately for them to finish their job and return safely.

"Guys, you don't have to be here I want you back inside." Iverson commanded. A giant crystal crashed behind them, a few inches away from Zimsky and me.

"Well, I think that means me." Zimsky smiled politely to me and waltzed back into the ship before anymore harm could befall them. "Orders are orders."

I moved in after him until Braz called my name.

"Wait, Josh, the problem is I'm losing oxygen."

Leaving my position of abandonment, I ran back toward the drill and Braz.

"Braz, what can I do?"

"Check the feeds for me." he answered while struggling to work quickly with the failing instrument. "Check the feeds for me, Josh." I leapt over the crystal, brushed off the drill's engine and toggled a few switches in hopes that that may revive it. Nothing. "Quick!"

"I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming as fast as I can." I whispered into my mic, knowing damn well that Braz couldn't hear him. I was starting to panic. We were going to all fry up out here if I didn't find a way to solve this dilemma quick, and that meant those inside would be stuck here. As if to remind me furthermore of their predicament, Serge came in over the coms.

"Hey guys, at this rate we only have three minutes before the lava gets us." I heard Serge say into his com.

'God damn it. I better go quickly.' I thought to myself.

I was frustrated beyond compare, so I slapped the drill engine and looked helplessly to Braz.

"It's not going to work without oxygen!" Braz cried, equally frustrated. "We're losing oxygen."

With a great sigh, knowing very well that this was probably going to cost me my life, I did the best thing I could think of. Disconnecting my own oxygen tank, I connected it to the drill. There. The damn thing would run and I got to be a hero. Josh sighed, satisfied with the conclusion, other then the factor of him winding up dead. 'There. I know I'm going to die. Well better me then all of us.' I thought.

"I fixed it." I announced, taking a breath but realizing that was not the best idea. "Now, cut."

"That's good. It's working now. It's working well now." the old man was practically jumping in joy. "That's good, Josh."

I shook my head. Everything around me was starting to get fuzzy and I was starting to get dizzy.

"You're almost there. You're almost there, Josh." Braz encouraged. I tried to hold on to his voice, but I couldn't.

I could feel my breath leaving and I was getting dizzier by the moment. Soon, I heard the voices and noises from around me blur together and I got confused. Next thing I knew, I was falling.

My head hit the ground. Hard. The next and possibly the last thing I knew, was then a world of darkness, crashing down upon me.

Author's Note: Yes, just as long as the other chapter! Okay if you have any ideas for the next chapters, share please! Review Please!