Final Fantasy VII [3rd Instalment]
Emerald Princess of Vernea
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Hey-hey!"
Recognising that annoyingly whiny voice, Cid's lip curled in disgust. "Palmer!" he shouted. He looked up and around the cockpit, trying to find the speakers that were projecting the voice. "What the hell did'ya do!?"
Somewhere outside of Rocket Town Cid could picture the obese Head of the Space Program sitting securely in a chair, with a stupid grin on his weasely face. "They said they finished the Auto-Pilot," his voice came over on the intercom. He chuckled. "So, I laun---ched it!"
"Goddamn Shera!" Cid kicked the floor. "Why'd she pick today to get fast!"
The pilot ran over to the cockpit's main control panel where the mechanics had been working. Frantically he began pushing buttons and turning dials, trying to override the Shinra No. 26's launch system. His efforts proved fruitless. The controls had already been diverted from the cockpit to another location, probably wherever Palmer was currently based. Realising that his efforts were in vain, Cid clenched his fists and slammed them against the console.
"DAMN!" he cursed. "Won't even budge! It's completely locked up!"
"Hey-hey-hey!" Palmer's voice was still brimming with innocent cheerfulness and excitement. "Almost lift off!"
"What the!?" exclaimed Cid. He looked up at the ceiling, still searching for the speakers, even though he knew he could not get to Palmer through them. "No countdown?" The pilot shook his head. "It just don't seem the same without it!"
Cloud smacked his palm against his forehead. The lack of countdown was the least of their worries right now. There was no way they could allow the rocket to take off with the Huge Materia still on board, no matter what Cid said. It wasn't about science or magical power. The Huge Materia had incredible powers sealed away inside them, powers that would be essential to stop Sephiroth. Maybe even Meteor.
Cloud looked to the doorway as Vincent re-entered the cockpit, after slipping out briefly when Palmer started talking to check the exit. The gunman looked at Cloud and shook his head. Cloud sighed, his fears realised. The exit was locked. Shinra had been expecting them and had used this chance to lure them onto the rocket ship. Now Shinra could get rid of them AND Meteor in one blow.
The overhead speakers crackled with interference from the engines as Palmer spoke once more. "Hey!!!!" they heard him say eagerly. "Hey-hey!!! Blast------off!"
Outside, the engines began to roar loudly. The external vents opened to release the billowing clouds of piping hot steam that was building up inside the engines, and it flowed down the side of the rocket like water. When the countdown reached zero the ten thrusters ignited and sent searing hot flames rushing into the ground. They tore up the grass and soil, ripping it apart and burning it to cinders. The land began to tremble violently by the sheer power the thrusters puffed out, and the rocket strained against the tall metal pillars that bound it to the ground.
A giant cloud of smoke rose up around the Shinra No. 26 and spread out like a shockwave. The cloud, thick and smothering and burning hot from the blast, headed straight for Rocket Town. The townspeople had long since fled the blast zone, seeking shelter in their homes.
The cloud hit one of the nearby houses and ripped through the building as though it was paper. The roof came off and smashed against the ground. The windows shattered, sending deadly shards of glass flying throughout the town. The walls, unable to stand the strain, came apart and were carried away by the cloud. A nearby tree suffered a similar fate as it was blown sideways, held in place only through the strength of its roots. Its leaves, however, were blasted away, leaving it bare. The cloud, undeterred, swept through the rest of town, covering everything with dust.
The remaining bits of scaffold fell and clattered to the ground as the rocket shuddered and strained against the four restraining pillars. At last they gave way and pulled back, releasing the rocket. The Shinra No. 26 tilted sideways into the position it had held since its last failed launch, and for a moment it looked like the rocket would fall over completely. It didn't, and after a few unbearably long-feeling moments, the Shinra No. 26 began to rise up from the launch pad.
The rise was agonisingly slow at first as gravity sought to pull the rocket back to the ground. In the end the sheer power of the engines and the thrusters won out over the forces of nature and the ship rose higher and higher until it was over the town and rising higher into the sky. A trail of smoke was left in its wake as it soared up into the sky. Rocket Town was no longer visible from above, engulfed in smoke.
The rocket ship continued to rise higher, away from the earth and higher up into the sky than any airship could. It reached the ozone layer. The air rushing past the rocket burned red as it ploughed past, fighting its way through the ozone layer to get to the first reaches of space. Finally the rocket broke through, and the rocket emerged into outer space.
And then… silence.
Those inside the rocket stood still in silence, their breaths held fast in their lungs, for they dared not even breathe. The roar of the engines died down as the thrusters slowed down, until only the soothing hum of the engines far below them remained. The only other sound was that of the main console, which beeped every so often.
Cid raised his head and looked up at the display screen. The view outside was utterly breathtaking. Outside there was nothing but a vast black ocean, glittering with stars. They did not twinkle like they did on the planet, but simply shone with majestic radiance. The pilot's jaw fell open and his eyes widened as the knowledge of what happened finally settled in.
"I finally made it…" he whispered in awe. "Outer space…"
He was not the only one who was overcome by the view. His friends were also staring up at the screen, watching as the external camera positioned on the rocket's side slowly panned around the rocket. Even Yuffie forgot about her motion sickness as she stared at a sight no other ninja in Wutai would ever see as the planet slowly came into view. They saw the vast oceans, the continents, the scattered islands, and the swirling clouds. That was their planet, their home, so many miles below.
Cid took a deep breath and exhaled softly. He would commit this image, this moment, forever to his memory. It was possible he would never see this ever again, and he wanted to be sure he would remember this feeling until his dying days. Locking that image securely in his heart, he tore his eyes away from the beautiful view and looked down at the console before him. "Let's see, how's the course set…?" he asked himself, scratching his head.
He pushed a button. He then folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the console to respond. The camera's view faded and a star chart appeared in its place. To the left was a large green circle that represented their planet. To the right—moving slowly across the screen—was a smaller red circle. That red circle was Meteor: a vast stain on the blackness of space.
A dotted line appeared on the chart, extending from the planet and moving on an arced course towards Meteor. Watching this, Cid nodded his head. "Yup, it's headed for a collision with Meteor," he confirmed, as the dotted line flashed at the point of impact: the centre of Meteor. The star chart faded, and the camera returned.
"Can't we do something?" asked Tifa. "If it goes on, we're……"
She didn't finish her sentence. The external camera finished it for her, this time turning away from the planet and bringing up the view in front of the rocket. The large globe that was Meteor rolled into view, almost filling up the whole screen. At the sight of it, the others felt shivers go running down their spines. It was a chilling enough sight from the ground, where Meteor hung in the sky like a slowly growing sun. Up here in space, seeing it move, it was much more terrifying.
The planet was bombarded by space debris all the time. Most people never saw or heard about them, simply because they were too small to be worth mentioning on the news. Most debris in fact burned up in the planet's atmosphere upon entry, but some were large enough to make it through and crash into the ground as a lump of space rock without doing any damage to the land at all.
Meteor, on the other hand, was completely different. This 'rock' was gigantic in size, dwarfing even Midgar, the largest city on the planet. It was what was known as a 'planet-killer' amongst scientists. Meteor would not simply land in a muddy field, perhaps in a small crater, and lie there for eons to come. Meteor would smash into the planet, and the resulting shockwaves of wind and fire would tear the planet asunder. Nothing would survive that impact.
Even here, in the dark reaches of space, flamed raged across Meteor's dark and rocky surface. Looking at it brought waves of despair and fear amongst the party inside the Shinra No. 26, and so they turned their eyes from it.
Cid turned his attention back to the control console. He pushed some more buttons, scowled, and then kicked the console. "That damn Palmer went outta his way to lock the Auto-Pilot device," he informed them. "We might not be able to change course."
Another sombre silence fell as those words sank in. Cloud looked up at Meteor once again, watching as the flames that moved cross its surface fought to break away, like tendrils looking for something to hold onto. "…This is the end?" Cloud whispered.
Cid turned and looked at Cloud in surprise. "Huh? What the hell're you sayin'?" he asked. "You're still young, and you give up that easily? I'm not gonna crash into Meteor." He turned back to the console, pushing another button. "Just watch."
The display screen changed once more, and Meteor thankfully disappeared from their sight. In its place appeared a view of one of the corridors in the lower bowels of the rocket ship. In the corridor stood what looked like a pod. Cid pushed another button, and data began to sprawl down the screen, revealing the pod's statistics. Cid looked at the data for a moment, and then smiled to himself. He turned to the others.
"I keep an Escape Pod on the rocket just for emergencies like this," he explained to the others. The pilot sounded much more casual now, acting as though being in space was a natural thing. He walked past Cloud to the wall and reached up to tap a code into a panel there. He then pulled on a lever. "I deciphered the lock code on the Escape Pod," he added, turning back. "We'll bail right before we crash into Meteor."
"But, what are we going to do with the Huge Materia?" Red XIII asked. He lifted a hind leg to scratch behind his ear. "Are we just going to give it up?"
"……" Cid closed his eyes thoughtfully for a moment. Despite his bold words about science and power earlier, he didn't really care what became of the Huge Materia. He'd achieved his dream, and that was all that mattered. "If you want the Materia, do whatever you want!" He nodded his head towards a recess in the opposite wall, where a ladder stood. "The Materia should be there after you climb the ladder."
Cid turned and looked at the ladder. "…You sure?" he asked sceptically.
"I dunno…" admitted Cid with a shrug. "I know what I said a minute ago." The pilot raised his gaze to the ceiling, and the wistful look returned to his eyes as he recalled the feeling. "But maybe all I really wanted was just to go into outer space." He looked back at his friends. "So, why don't you all do what you think is right?"
Cloud met the pilot's gaze, and then finally understood. Going into outer space had always been the air pilot's dream. It was a dream he thought he'd lost forever. When he realised that he finally had the chance to achieve that dream he'd longed for, well, of course he'd do anything to make it happen. Now that he'd achieved it, blowing up Meteor was next to meaningless. The swordsman smiled and nodded at Cid, before he went to the ladder in the recess and climbed to the chamber beyond.
Cid's guess was right. There was a large chamber just above the cockpit, and it was here, luckily for them, where Shinra had stored the Huge Materia. The chamber was empty except for a secure glass case fitted into an advanced lock in the middle of the room. Pipes ran from all directions across the floor to the centre, using mako drawn from the engines to power the lock.
The Huge Materia lay inside the glass container, resting on a small tripod. The Materia glowed with innate energy, giving its immediate surroundings an eerie, mystical glow. Cloud walked up to the Huge Materia and peered inside. He could see his reflection, small and fragmented, in its rugged surface. Even locked inside a secure glass case, he could feel the huge power contained within it.
"I finally found the Huge Materia…" he whispered, awestruck. He reached out with one hand and placed his fingertips against the glass. Small electrical charges rushed through the muscles of his hands, as the power locked inside fought for escape.
Cid came to stand beside him and examined the lock closely. At the base of the lock was a keypad. "It's structured so that the lock can be opened if we enter the passcode from this control panel," he said. He looked at Cloud, and was amused by the awe-filled way the young man was staring at the Huge Materia.
"Hey, Cloud," he said, not trying hard to hide his smirk of amusement. "You know how to use it, right? Every time it says 'Enter Passcode', push one of those buttons. If you punch in the right code, it'll unlock and you can get the Huge Materia!"
Cloud caught sight of that grin and scowled, his cheeks flushing faintly. "So, what order am I supposed to enter the passcode in?" he asked hotly.
"I dunno," the pilot replied, shrugging. "Just try and punch in the code randomly."
Swallowing his irritation, Cloud tore his eyes from the Huge Materia and examined the keypad. As Cid said: it was simple enough to operate. The lock required a four-digit code in order to release its precious contents. But what code would be the correct one? Realising he had nothing else to lose, Cloud punched in the first code that he could think of.
As soon as he had finished inputting the code, the glass case suddenly dropped about one inch deeper into the lock. A number of clamps rose up and fitted around the case, holding it firmly in place. A computerised voice spoke from the machine.
"Passcode input error: Unauthorised User Identified. Protection System will activate in three minutes."
A clock appeared on a panel next to the keypad and began to tick down. Cloud glared up at Cid, who looked back at him with an innocent expression. "Seems like you missed the code!" he said. He ignored Cloud's scowl and carried on: "If we don't enter the correct passcode before the Protection System activates, we won't be able to get the Huge Materia back!"
Cloud cursed and turned back to the keypad, beginning to input numbers at random, trying to figure out the lock. Cid tried to help by offering advice, but it had been so long since he had used this locking system that he could not remember the code entirely, just bits and pieces. Each time Cloud put in the wrong code the lock buzzed loudly, as though mocking him.
As the timer ticked away their precious seconds, Cid grabbed his hair and yanked it until tears came into his eyes. The more time that passed, the further away the correct code seemed to move out of his grasp. Of all the times to forget!
Just as the clock went past the one minute mark, Cloud put in another code and the lock suddenly clicked loudly. The timer flashed and then went blank. Cloud shuffled back away from the lock as the clamps released the glass case. The light went out and it rose, and the door silently slid open, releasing the Huge Materia.
"Passcode confirmed. Identified as an Authorised User. Unlocked."
"Alright, Cloud!!" Cid cheered. "It's unlocked! Yup, my great advice saved the day." He folded his arms and nodded his head, congratulating himself for his hard work. Around him the others looked at each other, hiding their smiles behind their hands.
Cloud said nothing. He took the Huge Materia out of the case and looked down at it. The Materia was warm; he could feel its power radiating through his palms. Carefully Cloud rose to his feet and handed their precious cargo to Vincent. The dark-haired gunman took it from him and, just as carefully, stored it away.
They went back down the ladder and into the cockpit. From there, Cid ushered them out of the main door and down the corridor towards a second ladder that would take them down to the engine room where the escape pod was stored. Once they were all safely down the ladder Cid took the lead again, urging them on.
The first corridor they came across housed the Shinra No. 26's eight oxygen tanks. The door on the eighth tank was slightly open, unable to close, and electricity was sparking all over it.
Cid stormed into the corridor, followed closely by the others. None of them noticed the eighth tank and moved straight on, hurrying to reach the escape pod before the rocket collided with Meteor. The pilot, still in the lead, was just walking past Tank Number 8 when the electricity came into contact with the oxygen flowing inside it. There oxygen ignited, and then exploded.
The resulting blast was so violent that it shook the corridor down to its core, throwing everybody off their feet. There came a loud crash and an equally loud cry of pain. Smoke filled the corridor, blocking everything from view.
At that time Shera was still hard at work inside the engine room. She had hidden inside the escape pod to evade the searing heat that filled the engine room during the launch. Once the heat had died down—escaping through the vents—she exited the escape pod and continued with her maintenance work.
She was just checking the temperature levels of the engines when a loud explosion suddenly rocked the chamber. Shera's head snapped around to the door, and her eyes widened as she saw wisps of smoke seep through the door. She dropped her clipboard and hurried towards the oxygen tanks. She knew this would happen.
As the smoke began to clear, Cloud and the others saw the damage the explosion had caused. The oxygen tank had been blown apart in the blast, and the surrounding tanks were also dented and leaking precious oxygen. Debris lay scattered throughout the corridor, charred and smoking. Steam, tainted with the scent of mako, poured from the broken pipes. Cloud went over to the tank and looked inside. It was a mess.
Cid lay in the middle of the corridor. The blast had thrown him against the far wall and onto the floor. Part of the oxygen tank's door had also been thrown away in the blast and had landed on his leg, pinning him to the floor. The pilot, stunned, struggled to sit up. When his head cleared and he tried to pull himself free, a sharp, agonising pain shot up his leg.
"Grrrgh!" the pilot cried out. "My leg's stuck in the debris……"
"Cid!!" Cloud left the oxygen tank and ran to Cid's side. Tifa joined him, and together they tried to lift the broken door off the pilot's leg. It was much heavier than they expected, and it barely moved.
"…I can't!" exclaimed Tifa, releasing the debris. "It's so heavy, I can't lift it…"
Barret started to come forward to help, but Cid waved his hand to usher them away. "Don't worry 'bout me," he said sternly. "Hurry up and go! If you don't hurry, the rocket's gonna crash into Meteor!"
Cid looked at Cloud earnestly, hoping that the swordsman would see sense and leave him behind. Cloud felt his throat tighten, torn. He already knew what decision he would make, without even asking the others. Fighting against the choking feeling, he met the pilot's gaze, level and steady. "…I can't go without my friends," he answered, before grabbing the door plate and once again trying to lift it.
"You ^%#&%……! No time to worry 'bout other people!"
Cloud didn't listen. "I'm gonna do whatever I can," he replied. He tugged again, his muscles straining with the weight. Tifa helped out too, grabbing an edge and trying to lift the plate even just a few inches off the floor. Barret and Vincent joined them, adding their strength to the rescue effort.
Cid stared through wide eyes as the four of them worked together to free him. Even with the four of them tugging together the plate was extremely heavy and difficult to lift. With each tug the plate only moved a centimetre at a time. At this rate, the rocket would crash before they could get him free. Cid shook his head incredulously.
"You're stupid," he said, though his voice lacked the anger and irritation it had before. "You're really $#&^%* stupid."
The four continued to work, huffing and puffing as they steadily began to drag the door along the floor. It was still painfully slow work. Cid raised his eyes and looked at the remains of the oxygen tank that had blown up. The irony was almost painful. Realising this, the pilot held his head in despair.
"Tank Number 8 blew up……" he said gravely. "So Tank Number 8…… really was malfunctioning…… Shera… You were right. But," Cid's fingers clenched and tears of despair formed in the corner of his eyes. "……this is the end for me."
"Don't say that, Cid."
Cid's head snapped up. Shera was standing in the doorway, looking down at him. For a moment he thought he must have banged his head harder than he thought, for it was impossible that she could be here. Cloud and his friends stopped tugging on the plate and looked up at the Rocket Town engineer, just as surprised as Cid.
"Huh!? Shera!?"
Shera, on the other hand, did not seem at all surprised to see them. Deep in her heart, she had known that Cid would turn up once news about Shinra's plans to launch the space rocket spread.
"I tagged along," she said with a smile. "I'm coming to help you." She moved a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear before walking over and kneeling beside Cloud. The engineer nodded at Cloud and the others, and the five of them together began to pull on the plate. It moved slowly, steadily, but it moved.
Cid continued to stare. "You stupid &$#&%*%&%#!!"
The pilot flushed hotly, and his hand rushed to cover his mouth. A guilty look passed over his face. After taking a deep breath, he finally apologised. Not just for swearing at her, but for all the years he had cursed and swore and treated her like… like she was garbage.
"……Sorry."