Ch3: Hello. Sorry it has taken such a long time to get a new chapter up. I wanted to work on this more but other stuff kept getting in the way. But it's here now so lets all rejoice.
Fusionista: I'm glad you like the story so far. It seems I made an unintentionally likable character in McKinley. I hope I don't disappoint you with the way a use her. And that's it I guess.
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"But our course is logged into the ships navigation systems already. It would take too much time to change it." Harrison said, almost frantically.
"Yeah, that's why I'm going to have to go to manual control." McKinley replied coolly.
"Manual control? At these speeds? You'll break your arms try to steer this thing!" Harrison replied, the concern he was feeling evident in his voice.
"Well if you have any better ideas I'd love to hear them." she said in a strangely calm voice. Not hearing anything else from him she turned back to the passengers. "Alright you two just…" she didn't really know what to say to them. Tyler was obviously still grieving over what had just happened to Polk, but they didn't have time for it. "just get back into your seats and hang on." was all she could really say at the moment. Now I just have to focus on keeping our asses alive.
The third passenger was about to obey her orders, but he realized that Tyler was still not moving from his place on the floor. "Come on Tyler, we have to get back into our seats." he said in a smooth tone in an effort to get a better response. This tactic did not seem to have any effect unfortunately, as the only response he did get was Tyler shaking his head slowly. Great, he thought, now what? Maybe I should try being more forceful. "Come on Tyler. We can't afford for you to have an emotional breakdown. You need to get into your seat, for your own safety." he said as he shook his shoulder a bit, but still Tyler refused to budge.
After seeing this, Harrison felt compelled to help the two. So he unfastened himself from his own seat.
McKinley, however, was too preoccupied with the ships controls (which were not cooperating at the moment) to notice this. She was trying to get the ship to switch to manual navigation, but in its damaged state it was proving difficult. MALFUNCTION: UNABLE TO EXECUTE COMMAND, the digital readout said as she tried to type in the proper command to disengage the autopilot. "Come on, come on!" she growled as she tried feverishly to get the controls to respond to her commands. She glanced up and saw the prison station was now in sight, a sign that she was rapidly running out of time. She typed in the command again: MALFUNCTION: UNABLE TO EXECUTE COMMAND, the screen said again. "Come on you damn piece of JUNK!" she shouted as she slammed he fist down onto the display, cracking it. Once she had done this a new message appeared: COMMAND ACCEPTED: SWITCHING TO MANUAL CONTROL. She gave a small sigh of relief, then took hold of the flight controls and began pulling it back, trying to get the ship to rise. The ship was fighting with her however. She glanced over and saw the their speed was still climbing, despite the fact that they had already reached the maximum speed the ship was suppose to be capable of. No time to worry about that, she thought as she strained against the controls; beads of sweat began rolling down her forehead from the combination of high heat, exertion, and stress of the situation. Slowly the controls started to respond and the ship gradually rose off of its preset course. She continued to pull with all her might as the station grew closer and closer. Finally the ship reached the area where the station was, and then passed it. McKinley looked out of the dash window tentatively and saw that they had flown over the station, missing it completely. Now she finally sighed with complete relief: even chuckling a little.
She was about to call out to the passengers and her copilot, but she was suddenly becoming aware of an increasing pressure that was being applied on her. Must be our speed, she thought as she looked over and watched it clime higher and higher. How much faster can we possibly go? It was at that point that the ships speed leaped up again, pushing the ship to its structural limits. It began hurtling through space at an astonishing speed. It was completely out of control.
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Harrison and the third passenger had been trying to get Tyler to get into a seat but had been having trouble. Tyler seemed to be completely dead to the world and refused to even acknowledge anything that was going on around him.
"Come on Tyler! Just work with us alright?" Harrison pleaded as tried to haul Tyler into a seat bodily, taking hold of one of his arms to do so.
"I know your upset right now, but we have other, more pressing, matters to take care of." the third passenger added as he also tried to pull Tyler by his arm. Tyler was larger than Harrison and the third passenger combined, and he seemed completely unwilling to move on his own. As the two strained they felt the ship beguine to tilt upward slightly, then contiue to rise.
"McKinley must have unlocked the controls!" Harrison said with near glee.
Unfortunately it was at this point that the ships speed spiked severely and sent all the unsecured passengers crashing into the back wall of the ship.
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And that's the end of chapter three. I realize I may be being a little cryptic with this one, but just bear with me for a few more chapters. I also should apologize for the shortness of most of these early chapter. They should get longer (and better) once we gett deeper into the story. Anyway leave review if please.