The Speed of Darkness

Chapter 30 – Transportation

"GO, GO, GO!"

Skipper watched Rico hop around crazily, almost maniacally, after he had mentioned the boat.

"Are there any boats nearby we could take, Skippah?" asked Private.

"No clue, soldier," responded the leader, "but chances are pretty high, considering this is a shipyard."

"Do you guys even know how to drive a boat?" asked Marlene.

Skipper recalled the time that he and his team had hijacked an entire shipping barge. The ship had been on a straight shot from New York to Africa, but the penguins managed to overpower the dozens of sailors on board and sent them off in rubber, inflatable rafts. Of course, they had left a radio and tracking beacon with the sailors so they could be rescued. Later, they redirected the ship to go directly south. That had been a triumphant day.

"Of course," the square-chested penguin responded, smirking slightly. He didn't realize it, but it was the first time he had smiled all day.

"Skippah," spoke Private, "what are we going to do about Manfredi?" The specialist was pointing to the robot-penguin, still unconscious, laying up against the wall of the sewer.

Skipper rubbed his beak thoughtfully. There was no way they'd be able to carry him all the way to the boat, and in his current state, he would be a huge hindrance if they had to attempt to be stealthy or take out a few humans. Though, there was no telling how long it would be until he woke up.

"I'll see if I can get him to wake up," Private offered after nobody responded, grabbing the rag from where he had tossed it earlier. He proceeded to dampen it in the clean stream from the broken pipe.

"In the meantime," Skipper said, turning to Julien, "You need to get yourself and Phil back to the zoo ASAP. Alice already knows about us leaving, and most likely about Marlene. Some bad stuff could go down if she knew even more animals were missing."

"Pfft," scoffed Julien. "Dat is the only thanks I get for my heroic deeds?"

The lanky lemur was standing tall, his arms crossed. Skipper again noticed just how matted his fur was, and how droplets of water were still dripping off it. The leader knew from experience that Julien was not one to show signs of selflessness. He might even go so far as to say the lemur king valued his own fur more than the lives of his friends. However – this was a different side of the lemur that Skipper had not seen before. The king had obviously not cared very much about staying clean and dry to have sneaked onto the ship to rescue Phil. Skipper briefly wondered if there was some, more pronounced reasoning behind the lemur's actions. He thought back to the night that the two of them had spoken on top of the penguin headquarters, as Skipper had tried to leave the zoo.

"Thanks, ringtail." Skipper returned.

"It is not being a problem," smiled the lemur. He spun around and began walking out of the sewer. "Phil, Marlene, please be following de king back to de zoo."

"Wait, what?" said Marlene, confused. "I can't go back to the zoo."

Skipper saw a sudden look of fear in Marlene's eyes as she looked at him. He could tell she was worried that something bad might happen if she went back to the zoo right now. After all, she had outright attacked a human, and not with the stealth that the penguins use. Skipper remembered hearing about dogs that were put down because they had attacked their owners...

"She's right, Julien," confirmed Skipper. Marlene looked relieved. "Marlene's coming with us."

Julien stopped in his tracks, but didn't say anything. He looked back over his shoulder at the leader penguin, and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. Skipper saw his eyes dance between himself and Marlene. Julien, not arguing? Something must have happened that seriously changed that lemur, thought Skipper. Julien looked back towards the exit of the sewer after a moment.

"Let us be going, Phil," said Julien, almost shakily. Phil walked over to Skipper and raised his hand. Skipper shook it, and the chimpanzee nodded, as if he was wishing Skipper good luck. The two of them rounded the same corner they had emerged from, and after a little while, their footsteps could no longer be heard.

"Guys, I think he's coming to!" said Private from across the sewer shortly after Julien had left.

"Johnson? Johnson!" came Manfredi's voice suddenly. He sounded groggy, like he was still half asleep. "Johnson, you are alive!" Private gasped as Manfredi reached up and pulled him down into a tight bear hug.

"I can't believe it, you survived!" the mechanical bird's voice sounded shaky suddenly, as though he was about to begin crying. Manfredi pulled himself and a terrified looking Private up off the ground, though not releasing the specialist. Skipper waddled over and attempted to pry the two apart, but Manfredi was not budging.

"Manfredi!" urged Skipper, "Manfredi, that's not Johnson! Snap out of it, man!"

Manfredi looked down at Private, who whimpered. Skipper couldn't tell if the droplets running down the robotic penguin's feathers were from Private splashing water on him, or if they were tears. The large bird released Private at that point, who quickly backed up, still looking as though he had just seen a ghost.

"I... I am sorry..." Manfredi said, rubbing his eyes. Skipper placed a flipper on the penguin's shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked his ex-teammate. Manfredi looked tired. Not physically tired, either – he still stood up straight and towered over Skipper. It was as if it was on a mental level. It was like his eyes were tired of seeing false images; mirages.

Manfredi nodded slowly.

"How about you, Private?" The specialist also only nodded, his eyes locked on the robot-penguin. Skipper didn't know why Private seemed so traumatized by the event. Marlene walked up and wrapped him in a hug.

"How did we arrive here? What happened? Where is my target?" Manfredi began, now a little more composed.

Skipper bought him up to speed. "So now we need to locate and commandeer a vessel to get us to Kowalski," he concluded after the short briefing, "and we need to do it fast. This CIES GPS only has a fifty mile range on it. If we don't leave soon, we'll loose track of our boy."

Manfredi nodded understandingly, and the group moved out.

The dock was abandoned. Skipper thought for sure there would be people here, even at this late hour. He even had fears that there would be some people here overnight, like security guards. His hopes were raised a little knowing they would not have to worry about being stealthy or having to take out a few humans to get a boat.

However, it was as if there was a lack of boats as well. Skipper hadn't noticed it when they had first arrived at the docks, but the they were almost fully abandoned. It was like a ghost town on the edge of the Atlantic ocean. The narrow wooden walkways were lined with ropes that weren't tied to any boats, yachts or trawlers. Life vest racks were left empty. A spider slowly spun her web underneath a bench.

It was dark now, as well. The sun had fully set. There was a slight glow from the city; just enough to illuminate the animal's way so they didn't fall in the water. However, the floodlights that would normally illuminate the entire area remained unlit.

"Skipper, look," said Marlene, suddenly. She was gesturing to a small, rusty looking boat tied to the very end of one of the docks. As far as Skipper could see, it was the only boat still there.

Skipper nodded to the Asian otter, and the group proceeded to the boat. Skipper noticed the name of vessel as the climbed aboard, painted on the side in peeling paint. It was the S.S. something, but he was unsure how to read the rest.

After the entire group boarded the boat, Skipper made his way to the control room. He recognized it immediately from his past experience on the giant fishing barge. It was considerably smaller than that one and much less high-tech. The seat was torn and smelled like rotten fish. Many of the dials were broken. The compass was smashed. The glass in front of him was dirty and cracked. It didn't seem like any of the humans had driven this boat in a long time. Skipper hoped that it still worked.

Getting the boat to work was going to be an issue. The shipping barge the penguins had hijacked last time had already been running when they took control of it. This boat was inactive, and Skipper had no clue how to start it. A little inspection shed light on it though. There was a keyhole – not much unlike the one that Skipper had seen in the golf cart back in the zoo.

"What's the matter, Skippah?" asked Private as Skipper touched the keyhole thoughtfully.

"This boat needs a key before it will run," the flat-headed penguin answered, tapping the dashboard of the boat.

"Well darn," said Marlene, "There aren't even any people around here that might have a key on them."

Skipper closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. There must be another way to start the boat's engine. Someway to bypass the mechanical lock on the ignition. Kowalski would know how to start the boat. If only he were here...

Suddenly, Rico began blabbering from underneath the cabin's seat. Skipper went to see what he had found. There was a metal fuse box he had opened, revealing a lot of cobwebs and several decaying wires, giving light onto just how old this boat really was.

"Skippah, I remember Kowalski messing around with wires like those once. That time that we lost the key for the zoo golf cart. He was able to start it by rearranging the wires." said Private.

Skipper nodded, "That's right, Private, but I haven't the slightest what he did."

Manfredi came and looked into the fuse box as well, causing Private to take a step back. Skipper didn't look directly at him, though he could tell the specialist was thoroughly scared by his ex-teammate.

"This red wire is the voltage source from the battery," he explained without prompt, gently touching a thick, crimson wire. "The black wire is what comes out of the electronics of this boat; it is called the 'ground.' The gray, orange, and purple wires are probably associated with some sort of navigational or sensor equipment that we should not need to alter.

"However, from my experience, this pink wire should be the feed to the ignition. See how the red wire runs up in the direction of the dashboard, and then the black wire returns to feed into the pink wire? Somewhere on that line is the switch, controlled by the turn of the key, that will complete this circuit and allow current to travel to the ignition of the engine."

"So you're saying we need to cut the wire short, and bypass that switch?" said Skipper, understandingly. Manfredi nodded. He then waddled over to the bag and took out the crooked knife.

"Unfortunately, live electricity is a real threat to me, as you saw from our confrontation on the dock. So, though I can guide you, I cannot risk receiving another shock."

Skipper nodded, then took the dagger from Manfredi. Carefully, he cut the red wire right before it disappeared underneath the floorboards of the cabin. Then, following Manfredi's instructions, stripped the end of the wire so the copper metal was exposed. He did the same with the pink wire.

"So, all I should need to do now is connect these two wires?" Skipper asked.

"Yes, but not directly," answered the robot-penguin. Skipper looked at him, arching a brow.

"What do you mean?"

"The key switch is not a direct contact. It does not allow full, unaltered current to flow from the battery into the ignition. That would burn it out. However, there is some sort of resistor, very strong in nature, attached to the key switch. It limits the amount of current."

"So we need to access that resistor," concluded Skipper.

"If we could do that, things would be easy," answered Manfredi. It is locked deep in the dashboard. If we could get to it, we could override the key switch in the first place." he gestured up towards all of the dials. "We could also attempt to replace it, though we have no idea how powerful the resistor is. If we use one too weak, it will burn the motor out and ruin our chances."

"So lets just use one that's very powerful." offered Marlene.

"That would work," Manfredi nodded.

"But where are we going to find a resistor? We don't have time to run around New York right now." said Skipper, getting a little frustrated at how complicated this was.

Suddenly, Manfredi grabbed both ends of the wire from Skipper, being careful not to touch the wire ends together or to himself.

"Manfredi, what are you do..." began Skipper.

"The electronics intertwined with my being should provide the proper resistance." he said, calmly.

Marlene looked wide-eyed and confused at the robot-penguin. "I thought you said you couldn't take a shock like that." she said.

"I did. There is a risk that I will die."

Skipper felt a sudden wave of fear roll over him. He suddenly found it hard to breath for some reason. "You can't risk your life for this boat. We can find another that we can get off the ground more easily."
"You saw there were no other boats on this dock, Skipper. In addition, we do not have time to argue. My target is gaining ground on us quickly."

Skipper didn't respond, unsure of what else to say. He had to agree, but he still couldn't let his ex-teammate risk his life for a boat that might not even start. He knew Kowalski's life hung in the balance. He also knew that the more minutes they wasted, the closer Sarge was getting to the sun. Either or, Skipper wasn't going to let Manfredi risk his life for the boat. They'd have to find a resistor somewhere else.

Before he could open his mouth however, Manfredi gripped the pink wire tightly, and then touched the red wire to his forehead.

"No!" cried Skipper as he saw a flash, heard a spark, and then watched as Manfredi went into a seizure. It was not unlike when he had been electrocuted on the dock. Moments later, he stopped and collapsed, dropping both ends of the wire. Skipper's heart missed a beat, and he didn't notice the sound of the engine roaring to life.

"Oh my," came Marlene's voice, and she stumbled over to the collapsed metal-bird hybrid. She pressed her ear to his chest.

Skipper looked away from his friend momentarily and saw the wires hanging loose. You need to reconnect the the power source to the normal electronics equipment in order to get full functionality. He suddenly recalled Kowalski saying to him once.

Skipper grabbed the knife and cut through the gray wire, stripping both ends like he had done with the previous wires. Following the direction of the wires, he connected the red wire where he figured the source fed into, and the black wire where he figured it came out of. He twisted the wires tight, and as he made the final connection, the light overhead in the cabin buzzed to life. Shortly there after, many of the dials on the dashboard flickered and turned on as well. Finally, some soft of strange, green touch screen turned on near the captain's wheel, showing a standard radar.

Skipper's eyes drifted back to Marlene after he had finished wiring the panel. His heart sank when he saw her eyes full of fear and disbelief.

~Author's Note Merry Christmas everyone! I was hoping to get this chapter out yesterday, but I failed to finish it in time. Here you go, though!

I got a collection of Penguins of Madagasgar DVD's for Christmas. I'm going to spend some time studing them and work on improving dialog and character for all of the main characters. I hope you can see some improvement in the next few chapters.

Another note about the CIES: I'm reenforcing it's 50 mile range limit as a plot device. UMAD?. (battery still lasts forever, though).

Finally, I should have the next chapter out before the new year. It's a good one.