Jennifer, already cold and wet through from the storm, looked up at the damaged area on the wall. There was no way to reach it without climbing up. Driven partly by her anger against Dyson she moved back into the interior warmth to look for anything that could aide her climb. As she moved into the quiet warmth she heard Lorne on the radio.
"Doc, it is me Lorne. We need to assess if it is even possible for you to reach that box."
"Didn't think I had much choice." Jennifer replied.
"This is now a military operation and I alone will decide if it goes ahead." Lorne said calmly. "How far away is the box?"
"About ten to fifteen feet."
"Is there anything you can use to climb on, like a chair?" Lorne asked.
"No. It is pretty sparse up here. Also it is not over the balcony, a chair wouldn't do any good." Jennifer said.
"You ever climbed before?" Lorne asked.
"I hate heights, why would I climb?"
"Ok doc there is emergency climbing and abseil equipment stored at your location. You can use it to secure yourself, but all it will do is stop you dying if you fall. It won't stop you falling."
"Not dying is a good first step." Jennifer said, trying to sound more optimistic than she felt.
"Seeing how wet it is out there an experienced climber is likely to fall, so your chances of not falling are pretty low."
"You suck at pep talks." Jennifer said.
"I haven't got to the pep talk yet. My instinct is telling me not to green light your climb." Lorne said.
"If I don't do this is there any other way to restore power?" Jennifer asked.
"Not until the Apollo returns." Lorne replied.
"There could be injuries caused by the outage." Jennifer said. "I have to do this."
"You sure?" Lorne questioned.
"Yes." Jennifer said, whilst her mind screamed 'no'.
"Ok. I am going to talk you through setting up a harness. I will need you to do everything I tell you. Anything you are not one hundred percent sure of ask. You clear?"
"I'm clear."
Over the next half an hour Lorne went through, in painstaking detail, the equipment that Jennifer would have to use and how to use it. As he talked her through securing her harness and the rope he hoped that Zelenka would come up with an alternative. By the time he was done there was still no backup plan and he once again gave Jennifer the option to back out.
"I can do this, or at least try." Jennifer said as she looked over the edge of the balcony questioning her sanity. She then listened as Zelenka told her what to do when she reached the box. Finally Lorne said.
"Ok doc. Whenever you are ready. Be careful."
Jennifer looked over the balcony once more then turned and faced the tower. She located her first foothold and lifted her leg up, trying to ignore the cold biting wind and almost hail like bullets of rain. As she worked her way up and over the balcony she kept muttering. "Don't look down. Focus on the next foothold. Don't look down."
Her progress was at first slow and steady. But the slowness meant it was longer her muscles had to fight against the wind and gravity. She was fairly sure there was a muttering in her ear, but she was so focused on not plummeting to her death she ignored it. She could clearly see the box that she was aiming for now. She could also see there were no decent size handholds near it. By now her hands were raw and numb from cold. She knew that that unless the handhold was decent she would get a good grip so decided to risk stretching towards the elusive box.
Feeling her muscles burn she managed to reach over and pull the cover off, revealing the burnt out remains of the crystal. Grasping the crystal she pulled it out and brought it towards her. Not really sure what to do with it she attempted to put it in a pocket. Unfortunately her numb hand was no longer supple and before she could secure the crystal it fell from her grasp. Instinctively she lowered her head and tracked its fall as it hurtled groundwards. Her eyes lost track of it, but quickly looked on to the blur that was the ground. Feeling a huge wave of nausea sweep over her she quickly looked at the wall directly in front of her and tried to take a few deep breaths and think about anything that was not height related.
Unfortunately the vertigo induced distraction had caused Jennifer's limbs to cramp further and she could barely feel the hand that clutched to the wall. She could feel the rain and wind relentlessly pushing her body, almost enticing it from the wall. Knowing she would not be able to hold on for much longer she managed to get a firm hold of the replacement crystal and lunged towards the box. The crystal slipped into place just as her hand gave out. As she began to fall her head scraped against the wall knocking her radio from her ear. She didn't see the city begin to light up.
