Chapter Eighteen: Time Bomb
Zack and Cody clambered over the scattered books and furniture of the small reading room and went through the damaged doorway. Immediately outside the room a small rectangular deck plan was fixed to the wall. Cody ran his finger along the plaque until he found what he was looking for.
"We're in luck, the control room is just a little ways down this corridor" he said.
They ran down the corridor and turned right into the room. Once inside both boys stopped and stared. They were in the right room for sure, all the electronics were there, but what gave them pause was the unfortunate fact that they were all bolted up on what was now the ceiling.
"This could be a problem" Zack said.
All around the room keyboards and mice hung down by their wires, some consoles buzzed and flickered, and there was an intense smell of overheated circuitry.
"I didn't think of this" Cody said.
"How the heck are you going to get up there to check the system!" Zack asked.
At first Cody just shook his head, but then an idea came to him.
"Maybe we can pile up some debris..." he said.
Zack just looked at him like he had lost his mind.
"...at least until it's high enough to where you could jump up, grab the chair, and pull yourself up" Cody added.
"Whoa wait, me?" Zack asked.
Cody nodded.
"My shoulder..." he began, pointing to his hurt shoulder "...if I had two good arms I could do it, but I don't, so you'll have be the one that goes"
"But Cody, even if I managed to get up there I don't know what to look for...you're the tech guy!" Zack said.
"You're every bit as smart as me, you just don't realize it. Remember the dance competition at the Tipton? Remember what you told me about how anything you could do I could do too? The same is true for you" Cody said.
"Did you forget how that dance competition ended? With you falling off the stage!" Zack replied.
"Because I was showing off...look, I'll talk you through it. As long as you don't start showing off yourself and pressing random buttons you should do fine" Cody said.
Zack reluctantly agreed.
"So which chair sits in front of the terminal that accesses the diagnostic system?" Zack asked pointing up at the three chairs.
Cody walked under each of them straining to see what was on each terminal above. After a few minutes he thought he spotted something that looked like an image of the ship being displayed.
"That one" Cody said pointing to the middle of the three chairs.
The two began quickly building a kind of makeshift tower out of random pieces of debris they found both inside the room, out in the corridor, and in nearby rooms. Each item they brought in they would throw higher and higher onto the pile. When it reached up to about six feet below the chair they decided it was high enough.
Zack began to climb, the pile shaking and shifting under his weight. When he reached the top he attempted to stand up straight. The pile shifted even more, making it hard for Zack to maintain his balance. Finally when he thought he had good enough footing to try, he jumped up from the pile. Thankfully, on his first attempt, he jumped high enough to grab onto the chair's front edge. He pulled himself up until his entire body was folded into the space between the floor and the bottom of the chair. Next he wrapped his legs around the pedestal that bolted the chair to the floor and lowered his body off the front edge of the seat. He found that gravity would not allow him sit in the chair as he would if it were right side up, instead forcing him to just dangle there. Fortunately, he was able to see the screen, which in his current position appeared to him right side up. He pulled up the mouse by its wire with one hand and touched it to the desk before him. Then with his other hand he pulled the keyboard up by its wire and held it to his body.
Cody looked up in amusement at the sight of Zack dangling upside down from the chair, his hair hanging down, as he tried to hang on to the two devices.
"I wish I had a camera" Cody said.
"Very funny, now hurry up, what do I do?" Zack asked.
"What does the screen say?" Cody asked.
"It's the diagnostic system display screen. There are a lot of red indicator lights all over the image of the ship" Zack replied.
"Okay, those red indicator lights sound like areas where there is trouble. Move your mouse over the indicators and see if it brings up more information" Cody said.
Zack did as he was told and moved the mouse over a red indicator. Immediately a dialogue box popped up and Zack began reading.
"You were right, this one reports flooding...and this other one reports fire" Zack said.
"Is there anything on the display that shows you where we are...where this room is?" Cody asked.
"No" Zack replied, frustrated that he didn't have a photographic memory of the ship's layout in his head like his brother did.
"If you move the mouse over different levels of the ship or individual rooms, does something come up telling you which level or room it is?" Cody asked.
Zack moved the mouse over an area not occupied by an indicator light which wasn't easy since the whole ship seemed to have them. He settled over a blank section on deck 2 all the way forward. A box appeared announcing the room was the Star Tropics Lounge.
"Yes it does" Zack said.
"Okay, now I'll help you find this room...start at the bottom of the ship and count down five lines, that should be deck 9" Cody said.
"Okay got it" Zack said.
"Now, towards the middle of the ship you'll see the corridor interrupted by tiny sections, move the mouse over those sections" Cody said.
Zack did this until a box appeared announcing the secondary control room.
"Found it!" Zack said.
"Okay, are there any threats in our immediate vicinity?" Cody asked.
Zack looked around the rest of deck 9 but found it relatively indicator free.
"No, it looks pretty good on this deck" Zack said.
"Okay, are you getting the hang of the system now?" Cody asked.
"Yeah I think so" Zack replied.
"Can you find us a path up to the bottom that avoids any trouble spots?" Cody asked.
Zack moved the mouse back the way he and Cody had come. He located the reading room and the stairwell where they had parted from Max and Russell. He followed those stairs up to deck 11 and began searching for a path. He noticed that once again they could not go toward the stern because a fire was trapped behind a sealed door that way. Forward looked like a better option but only for a short distance. Then another fire indicator revealed a dead end that way. Between the two sealed doors on deck 11, Zack managed to locate an access route up to deck 12, one which they never would have found on their own. It was another secret door off one of the side passageways that led to a short, one-flight set of stairs. However, once he followed those stairs up to deck 12 two more indicator lights let him know that there was nowhere to go in either direction. Flooding on deck 12 had been sealed off forward and aft leaving only one large room dry at the top of the stairs. He relayed all this to Cody.
"What is the name of that room?" Cody asked eagerly.
When Zack had first mentioned deck 12, Cody's mind had instantly raced to a possible solution, a possible way out. He hoped against hope that Zack would name the room that would make this solution possible. And then he did.
"The transfer room" Zack said.
Cody was so happy that tears threatened to spring into his eyes.
That's it, that's our way out! He thought.
He decided for now to keep this to himself. He needed to find out more information about the ship before Zack passed out from all the blood rushing to his head.
"Alright, I think I have a plan but now I need you to look at other areas of the ship. See if you can find out how much time we have. Look at the indicators that show where the flooding is. Also, try and see if you can find anything that might explain what is causing those explosions" Cody said, suddenly realizing it had been quite a while since they had experienced them.
Zack zoomed the mouse around the ship in the general area they were in, checking for flooding indications. He found several, but most of them were still below their location where they had just come from. Every once in a while a new one would pop up on a higher deck, closing in on their level. This made sense to Zack since the water had been flooding behind them during their whole journey so far. What became alarming was how fast they were popping up.
"The water is mainly still below us, but it's coming fast. There are a few scattered pockets of water on some of the lower decks above us, like the two flooded sections of deck 12 I just mentioned, but none of them are around where we are now" Zack reported. His legs were aching and straining at this point to hold him in place.
He glanced over at one of the other monitors nearby. The screen was flashing something in red letters.
"Hey Codes, this other screen says the ballast tank system has been activated. It says tanks one through six have been filled, is that bad?" he asked.
The euphoria Cody had felt seconds before drained away from him. He knew from hanging out with Harold that the ballast tank system did not come on by itself. Someone had activated it. The ship was not only taking on water from below them now, but also from above them in the ballast tanks.
That could be where those areas of water above us came from, I doubt those tanks were meant to hold water while upside down Cody thought before answering Zack.
"Uh...yeah, it means we really don't have much time. Quickly, check the engine room indicators for any information on the explosions" he said.
"That's in the bottom by the back right?" Zack asked. His head was really hurting now.
"Yes" Cody said as calmly as he could manage.
Zack moved the mouse over where he guessed the engine room was, over a swarm of glaring red indicator lights. The information in the boxes that popped up caused his heart to nearly stop in his chest.
"The engine room is on fire! This says there is an oil fire and it's spreading!" Zack said.
"Are there any indications of a fuel leak nearby?" Cody asked. He did not like where his mind was suddenly taking his thoughts. Please say no...but it's the only thing that makes sense for the explosions... he thought.
"Yes, several of them. The main tanks just behind the engine room are leaking. There are several smaller tanks in a separate room nearby but they are no longer giving off a reading" Zack said.
"That's because they already blew up! Zack, that's what's been causing the explosions! The fuel from the smaller tanks met up with the fire in the engine room and they ignited one by one!" Cody said.
"And if those were the smaller tanks, and the main ones are still there but leaking..." Zack said.
"It's a time bomb!" Cody exclaimed.
Zack could no longer hang on. The shock of this news and his fatigue overwhelmed his body and his legs let go of the chair. He slammed into the pile of debris and began falling as it collapsed beneath him. Fortunately, Cody was ready and did his best to stop his brother's fall.
Zack tried to jump to his feet but immediately collapsed again. They had no choice but to wait until some of the blood returned to Zack's legs. As he began to recover, Cody summoned the strength to partially drag Zack down the corridor as the older twin clung to him, an arm over his good shoulder.
Zack had fully recovered by the time they ran back into the reading room. The new surge of adrenaline surging through their bodies allowed them to effortlessly stack some chairs beneath the opening to the air duct until they could climb up to it. Cody went in first with Zack's help. Then Zack climbed up and followed him. This time around they moved through the small duct at a much more frantic pace. They rounded the corner and began heading back toward the stairwell. Before reaching it they heard and felt a large rumble begin somewhere in the ship.
"This is it! The engine room is going!" Zack exclaimed.
Cody had a momentary flash of thought about he and Zack dying inside the tiny little air duct and it terrified him to no end. The ship began to shake violently and both twins heads began to be bounced up and down between the top and bottom of the duct despite their efforts to hold them still. As it was happening, Cody became aware that blood was coming from his nose and smearing on the front of his face. From behind him where Zack was, he heard an even louder sound of bone hitting sheet metal than even his own head was making. Then, just as suddenly as it had started and increased, the shaking stopped.
"Zack? Are you okay?" Cody asked, dazed.
Silence.
"Zack!" Cody called back again.
Silence.
Cody fought a similar urge to panic that Zack must have encountered before. But his urge had nothing to do with claustrophobia.
"Max! Russell! Are you out there!" Cody yelled.
"Yes, we're here! You guys better hurry up! Whatever that was just caused the hatch we came through to give way and now the water is coming in!" Max yelled back.
"Yeah, well whatever it was it knocked out Zack, I can't do anything to help him!" Cody said.
"Are you behind him or in front of him?" Max asked.
"In front" Cody replied.
"Okay, crawl the rest of the way here. We'll pull you out then I'll go in after Zack" Max said.
Cody did not want to leave Zack just laying there in the vent but he knew he couldn't do anything for him in his current position. Reluctantly, he inched away from Zack and reached the opening a few seconds later. Russell and Max caught him as he dropped from the opening.
"We have to hurry guys, and not just because of the water..." Cody began as he glanced down at the onrush of water blasting through the hatch below "...Zack and I found out what's been causing the explosions. We probably don't have much time before the whole engine room explodes!"
Upon hearing this Max and Russell looked at each other in shock, their eyes growing as big as saucers.
"Oh great!" Max exclaimed.
Cody noticed that they had found some supplies during their trip up to deck 11 which included another rope, more flashlights, and a first aid kit. Max took the rope and tied it around one of her ankles.
"When I get to him, you guys pull us both back out" Max said.
Hastily, Russell hoisted Max up to the opening. Smallest of the four, she was able to get through the opening with less difficulty. She made her way over to Zack and grabbed him by his wrists with both her hands.
"Okay, I have him!" she called back.
Cody and Russell pulled on the rope and Max felt herself moving backward. When her arms went taut her backward motion stopped. Outside, Russell and Cody began pulling harder. The combination of the rope pulling her one way, and Zack's bulk trying to keep her in one spot made Max feel like she was being stretched in an ancient torture device. Despite the pain, she was determined not to let go of Zack. Finally, they both began to move toward the opening. As Max dropped out she kept her grip on Zack, using the gravity of her fall to pull him with her. Cody and Russell did their best but the landings were still ugly. Russell absorbed most of Max's fall and Cody, hindered as he was with his arm, had little option but to let the unconscious body of his twin fall right on him. He caught Zack with his good arm and then fell flat on his back. Zack amazingly picked that time to regain consciousness.
"Huh, what happened?...Why am I on top of you? Oooo my head!" he said squinting.
"You have impeccable timing dear brother" Cody said, gently rolling Zack off of him as the others helped them sit up. They all quickly filled Zack in on what had just occurred.
"Well, that explains my headache and why your face looks like it just went for a spin in a blender" Zack said to Cody. Cody took the bottom edge of his shirt and began wiping at his face.
"Can you walk? We need to get going, and fast!" Cody said.
Zack nodded and stood up. He teetered a bit but then steadied himself.
"Alright, let's go!" Zack said.
They started up the stairs at a run. As they ran Cody filled them in about the transfer room and his idea for getting out of the ship.
"You guys remember how every time we entered a port where the ship was too big to dock that we had to get transported to shore by a ferry?" Cody asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Well, we all had to go to the transfer room on deck 12 in order to board the ferry. Remember, they would open that huge hull door and then we would walk over it to the waiting boat?" Cody asked.
Everyone nodded again.
"If we can get in that room and get that door open, it could be our way out..." Cody said before pausing and looking at his brother "...you do remember how to get there right Zack?" he asked.
"Yeah, thankfully that part didn't get knocked out of my head...what was that anyway?" Zack asked.
"No clue, I don't think it was the engine room though. I think if it had been we'd already be dead. It sounded different, like maybe how an implosion would sound" Cody said.
"An implosion! If that's true, as big as it was, we might be sinking even faster now" Max said.
This thought caused them all to quicken their pace even more.
"Cody, one question about your plan. When we open that huge door, won't the water come blasting in and drown us before we can swim out and up to the surface?" he asked.
"You're forgetting one important thing about the transfer room...that's where all the excursion equipment is kept..." Cody began.
Max smiled as realization dawned on her. Zack and Russell still had confused looks on their faces.
"The jet skis, the snorkeling equipment, the scuba gear..." Cody finished, emphasizing the last part of his sentence.
Then they got it. The water would flood in, but they would all have on scuba gear.
"Brilliant!" Zack said smiling and clapping Cody on the back.
"The problem might be in the door itself" Cody said after a few moments of silence.
"What do you mean?" Zack asked.
"Well, one thing I meant to have you check on in the control room was if there were any damage indicators on the door itself. You don't happen to recall seeing any do you?" Cody said.
Zack's face took on a look of concentration. Then he frowned and shook his head.
"I don't remember seeing anything...there could have been though" he said.
Cody could sense in Zack's voice that he was upset with himself for not being able to remember.
"That's okay, we have to go there anyway right? We will just deal with the situation when we arrive" Cody said.
They reached the top of the stairs and entered deck 11. Zack and Russell made sure to seal the hatch behind them as they had done with the last one. It wouldn't stop the water from reaching this deck, but maybe by the time it flooded the stairwell and broke through the hatch they would be long gone. As they began to walk through the fairly large room where Max and Russell had found their supplies, they noticed that light showers of water were seeping through the deck floor above their heads in various spots. Cody held out his hands as he passed under one of the showers as if he were strolling down the street in the rain.
"We must be under the flooded section of deck 12" he said.
Max looked uncertainly up at the protesting floor.
"Let's hope it doesn't collapse on us" she said.
As they neared the middle of the room on their way towards the bow their spirits once again began to rise. If what Cody told them about the transfer room was true, they were getting very close to freedom. But Poseidon had another blow to deal them, and when it was over things would never be the same again.