Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron, any related characters, any songs, NASA (Now how could I own NASA) JPL (Jet Propulsion Labs) or any other copyrighted material Kristen and Jason however are mine, all mine, hahaha!
Collision Course
A short while later, Jimmy was back on his feet again. "Okay people, now I know we were thrown slightly off course, but we are scheduled to refuel at the moon today so we will refuel at the moon today, got it." The others nodded.
"Okay, let's light this candle!" Jimmy sat down gingerly on his sore backside; the leather of the command chair was comfortable but still painful. He winced slightly but gripped the control sticks firmly.
"Sheen, forward thrusters on my mark, three seconds into jump fire right and up thrusters for half a second MARK!" He said, yelling slightly at the end, Sheen followed his instructions to the letter. (In a spacecraft you only have to get speed built up and on course, then you can cut thrusters because there is no friction in space so the craft will continue moving at the same speed in the same direction until stopped by an opposing force, like the brake thrusters for example).
All they could do at this point was lock the course and wait until they arrived. Jimmy went up to his quarters to rest a while and Carl and Sheen decided to play cards in the lounge area on the ship (It's really big remember) Kristen decided to try to fall asleep as well, which left only Jason and Cindy without anything to do.
Jimmy really did try to fall asleep, but he couldn't. He had this feeling that their problems weren't over yet, far from it. He decided to join in on Carl and Sheen's card game, when he heard something that made his blood boil.
As he paused on the steps outside the cockpit he could hear Jason and Cindy talking, he was definitely hitting on her and she didn't seem to mind, Cindy left to go talk to Kristen after an infuriating five minutes and Jimmy stormed into the cockpit.
"Listen up Jason! I don't want you pursuing a relationship with any of your fellow crewmembers, understand!" He said, furious.
"I wasn't pursuing a relationship, I was just flirting." Jason defended himself.
"Yeah, well that comes under the heading of pursuing a relationship in my book, so you better fucking stop it!"
"Oh yeah, and why's that?"
"Because it could interfere with crew focus and thus put the mission, as well as the LIVES of your fellow crewmembers in jeopardy!" Jimmy screamed, thankful that the soundproof walls muffled the sound. He glanced back to make sure he had closed the door.
"That's shit! And you know it! You know you're just jealous!" Jason said accusingly, firing up, he too was red in the face now.
"Are you accusing me of not caring for the safety of this crew? Are you saying that I would foster enmity among crewmembers for the sake of jealousy?" Jimmy said, his voice dangerously low now. His face was contorted with rage.
Jason, cowed, backed off. "No. Of course not…I just thought, well I was getting too defensive…" He said, trailing off, Jimmy heard the words, overreacting and jumping to conclusions.
"Well, I apologize." Jason said.
"Good, I guess I kind of overreacted too. It's just that, when I was in high school, two of the people in my rocket, well they were fighting because they had broken up and we all almost died, I didn't want something like that to happen again." Jimmy said, apologetically, of course, the high school story was a lie, he couldn't stand watching Cindy fall in love with someone he considered a friend. And Cindy had a bit of a temper. Jason might do something insensitive, and then. Boom! She blows up at everyone.
"Friends again?" Jimmy offered.
"Sure." Jason said, they shook hands, Jimmy still fuming with internal rage, but his face a careful mask of cheerfulness.
"Jealous…" Jason muttered to himself, he had seen his employer flirting with the same woman earlier, even if she hadn't. "What a hypocrite." But he didn't really care, it was just flirting to him, big deal, but if it ticked off his friend too much, he would stop. Or would he, she was beautiful, and smart, and funny, and charming. Could he really let her go? Jason walked out after Jimmy, stewing in internal conflict.
Jimmy was still very suspicious as he headed to the sound of Carl and Sheen's voices, Sheen laughing hysterically at something.
Cindy was in the room above their heads, discussing the one thing that can be expected of two twenty-something year olds stuck in the middle of a love triangle, men…
"God damn it! I hate that bastard!" Jason cursed aloud, storming into his room and collapsing on the bed. "Why couldn't he just mind his own business, or maybe he still loves her? Why did they break up in the first place, Sheen mentioned something about that didn't he?" He mused. Still muttering to himself, he threw a book at the light pad, successfully dimming the light but causing the book to crumple in a heap on the ground, at the moment, he didn't care.
"Why do I still love her? Why can't I let her go?" Jimmy asked himself pleadingly. The answer is in the question he thought sardonically.
The door opened for him when the motion detector discovered that someone was storming towards it and he walked in, face the mask of calm he had been forced to use only a minute or two ago.
"Hey Jim, where were you?"
"Talking to Jason." He said calmly.
"Yeah sure. You realize this room is right next to the cockpit, those soundproof walls of yours don't do that much good at a foot away." Sheen said idly.
"You used the mike trick again didn't you?"
"Yep." Sheen replied, on a previous mission Carl and Sheen had pressed a high-sensitivity microphone against his wall and found out that he still loved Cindy, his journal, kept via digital voice recorder had to be changed to typing, for security's sake at any rate.
Carl jerked his thump at the all-too familiar mike and a portable pocket amp lying in the corner, half-concealed by a chair.
"Damn." Jimmy cursed, punching the wall.
"C'mon Jimmy, it's cool, we know why you blew up at Jason, I respect that, having gone through similar jealousy issues over my Libs!" Sheen said, pounding the table for emphasis and sending the cards there all over the floor.
"Hey!"
"Oh, sorry Carl."
"It's cool. Jim, when do you plan on telling Cindy where this mission really is going and why the government paid you so much money to take their scientist along?" Carl asked.
"Ssshh, CARL! Don't talk about that, it's classified, I'll tell her soon." Jimmy said, making hushing gestures with his hands and whispering cautiously.
"I think-" Carl began, but just then a blaring alarm klaxon sounded and a red LED started flashing on the ceiling, Jimmy turned to the screen lining one wall, which flashed the words, Approaching Lunar Destination, Manual Guidance Necessary, Autopilot overrided. Jimmy sprinted to the entranceway, Sheen launching himself out of his seat, barreled after him, Carl followed at a more sensible pace.
Jason ran in, breathless a minute after Jimmy, Carl and Sheen, and Jimmy and Sheen were already in positions, Carl was strapping on his restraints in his acceleration chair.
"Time to Lunar Atmospheric Entry, twenty seconds." Came a cool, computerized voice.
"19…18…" At fifteen seconds, all of a sudden, steering controls locked up, all manual control jammed, the autopilot was out of commission and they were on a straight downwards collision course with the rocky lunar surface…
