Bligh was furious when he told her. "You're not seriously considering this are you? Giving the Rings back to them?"
Devorux shrugged. "I don't know, okay? We've tried everything else! Chemical tests, kinetic tests… We broke a drill bit trying to take off a sample of the material! We broke an industrial strength drill bit. Now you tell me, what kind of material can do that without as much as getting scuffs on it?"
"I don't know." Bligh took in a breath. "Captain, I have a feeling that when the time comes, 'I told you so', simply won't say it. We could drive a stake through this thing's heart right now. Nobody knows they're here, we haven't even slowed down production, we're making all our quotas, and we haven't even reported it. We can end this right now while we're ahead…"
"NO!" Devorux said seriously. "We're close. I can feel it. This will be the Big One, I can taste it. We can argue back and forth about how something works for months. But sooner or later you just have to turn it on."
"Look, even if I was okay with it, and I am REALLY not, then it wouldn't be the boy."
"Why not?"
"My people speak Spanish. You should hear some of the things he's been babbling. For my money, he's unstable! Is there no other way we can try first? What is it about them? She told you that the wearer wasn't the power source, but if that's the case, then they're still part of the equation."
Devorux nodded. "Figure out which part. This could make us for life!"
Devorux came back into the stateroom and sat back at the table. Linka hadn't shifted. The plates, the food, the candles, the silverware... all of it where he left them.
Her eyes flicked to him or the food every now and then, but mostly, she watched the screen out of the corner of her eyes. If she had gotten to him with that last shot, he might be sending the rings down there... He might show her what was happening...
Devorux followed her eyes. "You don't need to be down there you know. There are five of you. I doubt we can get much from five that we can't get from four. Considerably more, if you felt like being a little more... reasonable."
Linka racked her brains. "Nothing new from a few minutes ago. There's very little more I can tell you without sounding like a lunatic."
"If you feel we have nothing more to talk about, I may as well put you down there with the others. They haven't had as comfortable a time of it as you have. Certainly the food and surroundings are more comfortable up here. I wonder if young Miss Gi would feel that there was nothing more to say. You never know. I take her away from down there and make her the same offer, she'd probably be a lot more grateful."
Linka froze. This was not good. It felt like they were getting closer to the endgame.
Devorux stood up, moved around the table slowly, still talking. "My people are getting frustrated. When smart people get frustrated, they start getting desperate. There are a few suggestions floating around that say maybe all the Rings need is a biometric scan, which we have. Maybe the rings can read your fingerprints, or your DNA, or your skin patterns… If that's the case, all we have to do is lop a hand off, and we could easily put the rings back on your fingers."
Linka stilled in horror at that image, as Devorux got a lot closer, ran his fingertips across the back of her shoulders.
"I admit, that's a pretty extreme idea." He said, letting her imagination work overtime. "And if it doesn't work, then you will be the only one of them still… whole. You've shown some remarkable qualities Linka. We could find a place for you. All you would have to do is go that one step further." He gestured at the table. "You've already accepted what I've offered you. You've already enjoyed what I have to offer. You've already excused yourself from the problems that your original team are suffering under. You've given me things that I want. Is it really asking so much more of you?"
Linka was out of her depth. She had no idea what to do. She'd never been faced with anything like this. She felt her skin crawling where he was touching her. She'd never done anything like this before.
What am I doing here? Linka asked herself fearfully, feeling his hands stroking over her neck... Why aren't I at home right now?
Her eyes fixed on the table. She had knives, forks... Instead she stared down at the candelabra. Three lit candles on each. For a microsecond, she thought of Wheeler. If he was here those flame would jump up and...
Then again... Who needed Wheeler?
Linka made her move. Devorux moved too, trying to block her. His hand got to the silverware first.
But Linka had a different target in mind, and he was caught by surprise...
Linka's hand flashed out, caught the candelabra and jerked it back over her shoulder, the lit flames going straight into Devorux's face.
"AAAARGH!" Devorux grabbed at his face, flame and melted wax all over him...
Linka left him and went for the door. Locked! She went to the window. Locked!
"Grrr!" Devorux had apparently gathered himself enough to stand up and glare at her. "If you messed up my face... What exactly was your plan, you crazy bitch? Stab me in the face with a lit candle and then what?"
Linka looked around quickly, trying to find something... anything she could use. The table was behind Devorux. And he knew it too. He didn't take his eye off Linka once while he reached back and picked up a steak knife. "Like I said. There's nothing we can get from five that we couldn't get from four. I was hoping that we could do this the fun way. But then... there's a thousand girls like you. I should know. I've bought and sold enough of them."
He was taking too long. He didn't need to talk about it this much... Linka scanned back and forth. Wall behind her. She grabbed for the paintings. The frames were bolted to the wall...
"You know the best thing about being above the law? You don't have to worry about ever getting caught." Devorux was moving slowly. He was trying to scare her. He was succeeding. "And after I'm done with you, I'm going to bring your little Asian friend up here and make her the same offer. Maybe with your blood all over the floor, she'll be a little more agreeable."
Linka kicked at the door. Nothing. He was close enough that she couldn't make a break for the Dining table...
Kwame licked his lips. The surgical tools had been brought back in.
"Sykes, we have a new drill bit. Let's get those rings back into the machine." One of the techies called.
Sykes looked sickly at Gi. "Gi… can I call you that?"
"Yes?" Gi said uncertainly.
"That drill is used for slicing samples off any known mineral. Diamonds come apart under that thing. But the drill bit broke on your Rings. If the drill doesn't work, then they're going to put the Rings back on your hands, just to see what happens."
Gi fought not to scream with elation. "O-Okay?"
Sykes seemed truly upset. "But they won't let you have them."
"How can they put the ring on my hand without letting me wear…" Gi felt her eyes bulge out, and she turned back to the medical tray…. And the bone saw on it.
Sykes nodded softly. "So if there was anything you wanted to tell us… Anything you wanted to teach us about how they worked… About how we could make them work for us…"
If Gi had such information, she may well have screamed it out right then.
Kwame could not understand any of that, but he saw the emotions play out on Gi's face, and sent Wheeler a look. Wheeler nodded once, very seriously. Time was up. Now or never.
Kwame flexed his hand again. The strap around his forearm had just enough give in it... the handcuff did not. He pushed against the metal around his right hand. Hard. He fought to keep his face level. The edge was painful. Bligh was professional. She was too smart to cuff him incorrectly...
"No?" Sykes asked Gi, who shook her head slightly. Miserable, he nodded and went to the tray, picked up the case with the Rings in it, carried it past their gurneys...
Kwame pushed harder. Felt something in his thumb pop... and suddenly he had his right arm free. He snatched Sykes by the neck and yanked him in a lot closer, smashing his head against the edge of the gurney. Sykes dropped, and Kwame's hand released him, grabbing for the Ring case.
"Guards!" Yelled the Techie, the only one left in the room.
Kwame caught the case and pulled it up, setting it on his own stomach. He couldn't move his thumb, so he held the key between his first and third fingers, trying to aim it straight... Kwame managed to get the case open and reached a finger into it, grabbing the ring. "Gi!" He yelled.
Gi was on the bed next to him and had no idea what was going to happen. But she tensed, ready.
The guards came smashing their way in, took the situation at a glance and charge Kwame. Wheeler heaved his whole body as hard as he could and managed to overturn his gurney. It collapsed in the way, with Wheeler still strapped to it. The guards were blocked, tripping over each other to get around him, get over him...
Kwame stretched his who upper body against the straps as far as he could, and managed to get the blue-jeweled ring into her palm.
The guard had managed to get past Wheeler, and was bringing up the rifle...
Gi managed to slip her little finger into the ring, praying it would work without being on properly. "WATER!"
Half a second of silence... And then the roar of a waterfall coming from nowhere...
And the entire ship suddenly pitched sideways.
Everything went flying.
Devorux was within reach, Linka balled her fists, ready to fight back with nothing but her teeth if she had to, when suddenly the deck just fell away from under her feet, and everything went flying around the room. She grabbed onto the wall behind her, found the picture frame, bolted to the wall and held onto it tightly, digging her fingers through the painting as Devorux was sent reeling into the edge of the table. He was out cold instantly.
The ship pitched to the left, seemed to edge on the point of going over, and then heaved back the other way as gravity caught up. A ship this size was not easy to just turn over, no matter the wave.
Linka tried to ride it out, and prayed that the ship was rolling because the others had done something heroic.
Finally, the ship settled.
Sykes looked up miserably, bleeding from the face. The only things that had not being tossed was everything bolted or secured. Including the Planeteers.
Wheeler, still on the floor, glared at him. "We are all strapped down, and you are not. If you want the washing machine to stop, you better release me. Right now."
Trembling, Sykes took the keys off the unconscious guard, and did so immediately.
Wheeler stood up, and took the keys off Sykes. "Do I have to knock you out, or what?"
"I'd rather you didn't."
Wheeler tossed Kwame the keys, and the African caught them eagerly with his free hand, turning to his restraints. Wheeler picked up Sykes by the throat and got in his face. "Where is Linka?"
"C-Captain's Stateroom..."
Wheeler shoved him toward the floor and turned back to the Ring Box.
Ma-Ti hadn't taken his eyes off the gold jeweled ring the entire time it had been in the room. Even the ship being tossed was not enough to make him lose track of it. The second he was free of his restraints, he threw himself across the room for the lock-box.
Kwame turned to Gi and started unlocking her. "Are you all right?"
Sykes spun. "You do speak English!"
Gi and Kwame grinned at Ma-Ti, who had tears streaming down his smiling face. "I do now."
Kwame marched over to Sykes as Ma-Ti started handing out rings. "It's the end for this Rig. We're going to take it out, one way or the other, with or without you on board. Get to the bridge, and tell everyone to abandon ship. You got that?"
Wheeler slid his Ring on, and took the light blue one too. "I'll take this one." He told Ma-Ti quietly.
Sykes seemed truly horrified. "They won't let you! They'll stop you!"
Kwame nodded darkly at him. "I have no doubt they will try!" He turned to Gi, who was staring at his hand.
Kwame looked. He had slipped out of the cuff by dislocating his thumb. "It's okay. It's not broken."
"Does it hurt?"
"Not as much as it will when I pop the thumb back..." Kwame grit his teeth and let out a short sharp yell of agony. "...in again." He shook out his hand and made Gi look at him. "Now, how do we take the ship out?"
"I don't know." She said honestly. "That wave was everything I had, and it came right back up again." She bit her lip. "Maybe the ship itself. There's got to be something pretty destructive below the water line. Or the bridge. We could take control of the ship, drive it somewhere it'll be visible..."
Ma-Ti turned to Kwame. "The first could get us killed if we do it wrong. But driving the ship back to people could take a while. If they decide to stay on board... They've captured us once already."
"Knowing the ship was going to blow would make everyone leave!" Gi pointed out.
Decision time. Everyone was looking at Kwame.
He took a breath. "We rescue Linka, and then we head for the Drill. We don't need to destroy the ship, or kill any workers, we just need to shut down their capacity to do damage. We head for the drill."
Gi was already ripping the fire safety map off the wall. "It's two levels below us."
"Let's move fast! Wheeler, you-" Kwame stopped short. "Where's Wheeler?"
Ma-Ti gave him a calming look, but didn't smile. "Let him go. He can handle what he's doing."
Linka steeled herself and forced herself to search Devorux for the key. She considered slamming him with a wine bottle in his sleep, and decided the less time she spent near him the happier she'd be.
She found the keys in his pocket... and he woke up.
He grabbed her wrist with a groan, and Linka pulled back, breaking free. He was still waking up, and caught a fistful of her top blindly. Linka kicked out at him, and his head snapped back as her boot shattered his nose, still not releasing her. The material ripped, and Linka dropped, overbalanced, half stripped to the waist.
She caught the first thing her fingers touched, which happened to be one of the broken plates, and whipped around, slashing his hand open.
Devorux yelled and pulled his hand back. Linka settled, ready to stab again. But he wasn't reaching for her weapon, but rather her feet. She jumped back and sprawled as his hand caught the edge of her boot. They both scrambled for their feet.
"Linka!" The door glowed white-hot for a microsecond before it exploded off the hinges and flew inwards. Wheeler was framed in the doorway, flames blazing around his fingertips. He came in, saw Devorux holding a fistful of torn fabric, Linka's top ripped open, both of them sprawled in a wrecked room covered in bruises and blood and jumped to the obvious conclusion. His face twisted with something truly dangerous, and he raised a fist at Devorux. "Fire." He snarled lethally, not even raising his voice.
A burst of white hot flame exploded out from Devorux's clothes and The Captain reeled, blinded, on fire, staggering away from them toward the wall.
"Fire." Wheeler repeated darkly, striding toward his target.
Devorux was still conscious, and over the roar of crackling fires Linka could hear him scream as he practically burst into flame himself, lit up like a torch.
And the fire just kept going.
Linka was up instantly, rushing over to her friend. "Wheeler! That's enough!" He didn't answer. She reached out and took his face in her hands, pulling his gaze to her, practically nose to nose. "Look at me. I'm okay. It's over. You're done. It's done."
The flames snuffed out in an instant. Devorux was left lying in a charred mess, the center of a blackened spot in his plush carpet, surrounded by the destroyed wealth he loved so much. He might have still been alive, but it was hard to tell.
Linka didn't let him go. They stood there for a time, her hands holding his face, his hand on her shoulder, the other still pointed at Devorux. He looked her up and down, bruised and bloodied, and his face turned dark again.
"Shhh, it's okay. I'm all right. Nothing happened." Linka said softly. "What you're thinking didn't happen. It was never going to happen. I wouldn't have let it, and neither would you."
It was what he needed to hear, and Wheeler nodded, for once without a joke. He shrugged off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. She nodded gratefully. "Come on Yankee. We've still got a job to do."
Wheeler took her left hand in his own, and slipped her Ring back on her finger. He bent down to kiss her knuckles gently, and Linka shivered pleasantly despite herself.
A low groan drew their attention, and they looked back at their fallen enemy. Amazingly, the Captain was still alive, and he reached out a burned hand pathetically.
"What about him?" Wheeler asked, letting her choose. "I could put him out of his misery. And ours."
Linka was tempted, not for the threats he had made to her, but for what he had threatened to do to her friends. She thought about it for half a second. "No. Like you said Wheeler, what if we're the bad guys? Well... we're not."
Wheeler nodded, pleased with that. "Come on. We're getting far away from this room."
They came out of the Captain's Quarters, and at the end of the hall, came a team of armed guards. They saw the two Planeteers and raised their weapons instantly.
Linka and Wheeler reacted in the same instant. "Wind!" "Fire!"
The wind and flame came from nothing, in the middle of the hallways. The elements merged, and a twisting windblown fireball stretched like a snake down the hallway, and around the corner, clearing it out dramatically.
Linka and Wheeler took the corridor at a run, not breaking stride as they passed the guards rolling on the floor, trying to pat the flames out.
"Where are the others?" Linka demanded.
"The center of the ship. That's where the drill is."
Linka ripped another evacuation plan off the wall and they both scanned it for a second.
"Waitwaitwait!" Wheeler went back to one of the guards they had dropped, and pulled the singed radio from his belt. "Anyone who cares, the Captain's in his stateroom. He could probably use a doctor."
"Who is this?" Came the answer, as Linka nodded approvingly at him.
Wheeler dropped the radio and stomped on it without giving a name.
That done, and map in hand, they both ran as fast as they could.
In the Control Room, Bligh was the first one back up when the ship stopped rolling. "REPORT!"
Her people were scrambling, getting themselves back together. "There's damage reports coming in from all over the ship. External communications are... off-line. The drill is off-line. Reports of injuries coming in from all over the place."
"The Lab?"
"I've lost contact. Camera's are going off and on. It's a problem with the electrics. Something must have gotten knocked loose."
Bligh bared her teeth, going from beautiful to feral in a heartbeat. "I told that bastard we never should have kept them on board. Tell Security to mobilize. Find the prisoners! I want them back in custody, or dead within five minutes. Lethal force, live ammo!"
"Chief!" Someone yelled. "Reports from the Drill Room. The pipeline to the seabed has been ruptured. They cant contain it. The oil pressure is at 400 psi and climbing."
Horrified silence. The oil well had been shattered by the roll of the ship. They were spilling. Not their own tanks, the underwater supply. The ultimate downside of the mission. One that was certain to draw attention... and blame.
The next step was clearly defined. Secrecy had to be preserved. No witnesses who might later feel guilty at causing the oil spill. No evidence that The Corporation did anything illegal. No high level members of the company that could be arrested and convinced to rat out other members of the Corporation...
"Well then." Bligh said coolly. "Our work here is done. Secrecy is now the most imperative priority. Evacuate the necessary personnel, make sure there's nothing incriminating left. I'm authorizing the self-destruct."
People hopped immediately to work, shredding documents, deleting files, typing in command codes... They had practiced for this, but hoped never to do it.
"Ma'am, I found the prisoners!" Someone called from the bank of screens. "They're heading for the Drill."
Bligh and Mal traded a glance. "Making sure the job is done." Bligh said.
"Let them." Mal counseled. "The ship will be vapor inside ten minutes. As long as they don't get off, we'll have beaten them too anyway. And we control all the ways off the ship."
Bligh could feel her fist opening and closing. She knew she should. But... But if they... if she just left, then it would be because they drove her off. It would mean that they had beaten her. It would mean that five juveniles had won a war when she had them strapped to tables, and cut off from their abilities.
"Mal, Team one. With me." Bligh directed. "Everyone else, get off the ship. We'll join you soon. And as soon as we do, destroy all the helicopters. Anything that could clear the blast radius in time."
"What about their stuff?"
Bligh looked at the personal effects of the Planeteers, kept in a box on her desk. The box was still closed, but had gone rolling with the rest of the ship. "Leave it. It'll be dust soon anyway." She hefted a rifle. "And somebody go and see if the Captain's still alive."
Gi was looking in shock. Down below, at least three stories below them, was the dock where the drill was lowered through the center of the ship, and the endless flexible pipe that sucked the oil it tapped. It was the purpose of the ship, the huge room was at least six stories high, and hundreds of meters across, filled with heavy equipment and gantry-ways.
And down below, where the water was visible, the lower half of the room was filling up with thick black oil. Which meant the water was too.
"The drill line was ruptured!" Kwame yelled over the alarms and sounds of machinery.
"What have I done?" Gi rasped in horror. "I've created another spill!"
Ma-Ti put a hand out. "Look out! Side Corridor!"
Gi looked. The huge chamber had entrances all over the place, the gantries leading to the other levels, and all of them had pressure doors. The nearest one started to open, and Ma-Ti and Gi shoved themselves against it, forcing it back shut again. Kwame spun the wheel on the pressure door, and Gi quickly rushed to the door controls, setting the locks electrically, so that it couldn't be opened again.
The Pressure door with thick and strong, with a small window in it to see through to the other side. They looked and saw Bligh with her security team.
"The other way!" Bligh yelled. The team turned around and tried to get back up the corridor. Gi quickly worked the controls again and the other door swung shut, locking the armed men with by between two pressure doors. So did every other door leading to the room. The huge cavern echoed for a moment with the sound of doors locking. Kwame could feel the pressure seal in his ears.
"Why would the corridors all be between two pressure doors?" Ma-Ti asked blankly.
"Safety. For gas pockets or oil fires and such. This room can be sealed off from the rest of the ship at a moment's notice. They aren't corridors, so much as airlocks."
The Planeteers looked through the window at them and let out a breath.
Bligh's face twisted spitefully. "Shaped charges! Blow the door!"
Her men got to work, unpacking their equipment.
Kwame spun on Gi. "Won't they kill themselves doing that?"
"Shaped charges!" Gi said. "Not enough power to blow the door, or the corridor they're in. Just enough to detonate the lock."
Kwame looked around the room. "We have to get outta here."
Gi bit her lip and went to the Pressure Door. She got a look through the window. "Water!" She shouted, loud enough that they could hear it.
The water lines and the feeds to the sprinklers in the sealed corridor all burst open at once, and water came pouring through, unnaturally fast.
At first the guards ignored it. They could work in the sudden downpour. but the room was sealed, airtight, watertight. Gi focused and the water came rushing through faster still.
Gi could see the look of horror on Bligh's face. The sealed room she and her team was in was suddenly filling up with water. It was already at knee height in the small room. "Other door! Blow the other door!"
Her men yanked the charges off the door and tried to slosh through the water to the other end of the room. The sealed corridor wasn't a big space, and the water flooding in against the airtight doors was moving faster than normal, with Gi's help. The rising water was already up to their chests.
Bligh tried her weapon, pointing it at the door and pulled the trigger. No luck. The gunpowder was wet. She threw the useless thing away and glared at Gi, the water at her throat. Her guards were already treading water. Over at the other door, her demolitions man was holding his breath trying to get to the charge against the wall, and set it to blast.
Outside the Pressure Door, Kwame spun around and grabbed Gi's shoulders. "Enough. Let them go. Don't do this!"
"I let them go, they come back around and kill us." Gi growled, tears streaming down her face. "Kwame... They were going to cut our hands off!"
The corridor had filled up, and Bligh was beating at the window, trying to get through. She was looking beyond furious now, and more than a little scared. She had nowhere to go, no way out, and no room left to breathe. Six inches away from air, she was going to drown.
"Gi! Please! Let her go!"
Bligh was still slapping the door. They could hear her thumping at it. They could see her face in the window. And they could see the exact moment when her eyes rolled back in her head.
"Gi, you do this, you cannot go back. You cannot undo this Gi!" Kwame said desperately. "Please! For me!"
There was a sound like rushing water, and suddenly Bligh vanished from the window. The water vanished with it, and Kwame could see through the corridor. The door at the opposite end had been unlocked, and the pressure of the water had forced it open. Bligh and her men had gone sprawling along on a sudden out of control water slide. Kwame couldn't be sure, but he saw more guards he didn't recognize trying to hustle Bligh's motionless form away. They had saved her.
"Was... was she breathing?" Gi asked. She didn't trust her own voice.
"I couldn't see."
"GUYS!"
The three Planeteers looked up, and saw Linka and Wheeler a level above them on the gantry-way. It took a little doing for them to find their way around the maze of gantries to find each other, but there was a teary reunion soon enough.
Gi was stunned when Linka wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" Linka cried out.
"Um... for what?" Gi asked ruefully.
"I've been trying to get her to tell me." Wheeler put in. "Ugh. What stinks?"
Kwame pointed straight down to the floor far below. "Crude oil and salt water."
Wheeler looked down. "Oh, hell."
Gi and Linka broke apart. "Apologies to go around." Gi said mournfully.
And then there was an explosion. The five of them were thrown against the edges of the gantry. Something had been ruptured by the rolling ship. Something electrical had started a fire, and they were in a huge airtight room filled with flammable and explosive materials. Down below was a sea of oil that suddenly caught light, and flames flared up to choke them with heat and toxic smoke.
Ma-Ti was coughing from the fumes. "We have to get up on deck. The way to the bridge will be there. How do we get out of this room?"
Gi went to the controls again, when something burst up above, and the air filled with an electrical crackle. Kwame lunged for Gi and yanked her away as the control panel exploded with a shower of sparks.
"Electrical fires!" Gi yelled. "Be careful about what you touch! Anything conductive that's touching a live wire will kill you!"
The Planeteers were suddenly aware of how much metal was in the room. "How do we get out of here?"
Wheeler looked up. "There!"
Two levels above them was the control room. The viewing window was broken.
"How do we get up there?" Kwame asked.
Gi pointed. There was a maintenance elevator. "But if the controls down here are shorted out..."
Linka bit her lip, and then calmly jumped off the walkway they were on.
"Linka!"
Linka managed to flip enough to get her feet under her, and she landed at the next walkway down. She went running along it till she reached the ladders. "Gi!" She called. "Clear the way!"
"Water!"
The walkway was suddenly awash in cool water, the flames and smoke being washed away. Linka knew the oil based fire wouldn't stay away that long, and ran through while she could. She gathered speed, leaped, planted a foot on the edge of the handrail, and launched herself up to the next walkway, hooking her wingers through it, and hoisting herself up. The move took her a good bit closer to the control room.
She was still two levels below it. She started casting about, looking for a way to get up to the next level.
Wheeler saw the way she was moving, and acted. "Fire!"
The gantry up above was secured by a number of good solid bolts, and they boiled white hot in a second, breaking under the weight. The gantry dropped, and the end of it slammed down. Linka quickly climbed over the edge of the walkways she was on, and hauled herself up the impromptu ramp.
Wheeler grinned up at her. "Man, look at her go!"
Linka leaped clear of the tilted walkway to the edge of the control room, hanging from the windowsill of the viewing window, edging her way around to the broken part.
"Linka! Watch out for the broken glass!"
Linka swung back and forth a bit, then a bit further, and then swung upright, balanced on her palms on the narrow windowsill, till she was upside down. In a perfect gymnastics move, she turned around on her palms and managed to sit on the edge of the Control room.
The Planeteers whooped down below, cheering for her. They managed to cheer for a few seconds before the billowing smoke made them all break down coughing.
Linka smacked the broken glass out of the bottom of the window, and clambered in.
The ship was coming apart underneath them, and the Planeteers felt the metal walkway the were standing on start to overheat under them, and then creak and groan as the explosions burst out from the electrical conduits and control panels. At the end of the gantry, the elevator came to life and moved down a few levels to them. Linka waved from the control room. "All aboard!"
The Planeteers took of running for the elevator, which took them up to the top level. The path to the Control Room was clear after that.
Out of breath, overheated, sweat plastering their clothes and hair down, covered in smoke and ash and fumes, they almost fell into the Control Room, Linka slamming the door shut behind them, sealing the smoke and heat and flame outside.
Exhausted, elated, relieved... the five of them took a breath.
"This is too easy." Kwame said finally.
"Easy?" Linka blurted. "You call what I just did easy?"
"No, not that... it's just... where is everyone? There should be people trying to get the fire under control, teams charging around trying to find us! Where are all the workers trying to salvage their oil?"
"He's right." Gi said. "Where is everybody?"
Kwame stood up. "Let's get to the bridge and find out."
"Hey! Look what I found!" Ma-Ti called.
They did so, and grinned. The box full of their things was there too. Ma-Ti pulled out his Camera, and noticed an large envelope. "Hey! They developed the film for me!" He tucked it under his clothes protectively.
Gi grabbed her sat-phone and checked it. "Three missed calls. My parents are going to kill me!"
The comment was so out-of-place as the ship shuddered under another explosion, that the five of them almost burst out laughing.
Another alarm went off directly over their heads. Another blast came from underneath them as some pocket of something flammable ignited. Time was running out for the ship.
"Let's move fast. We've gotta get off this ship!"
Gi looked out the broken window at the the billowing smoke. The oil level was rising, and so were the flames. "We were supposed to help the world Linka. Look what I did."
"Gi..." Linka said darkly. "Your timing could not have been better. Trust me."
The Planeteers bolted out through the door into the control room, on the deck. It was a quick run to the bridge.
They couldn't believe it. The door wasn't even locked.
Wheeler tensed. "Kwame's right. I'd almost rather be fighting my way through."
The deck shook as something ruptured far below their feet.
And as the rumble faded, they heard another familiar sound.
Helicopter blades.
"Get inside. Get inside. Getinsidegetinside!" Gi was yelling, and they rushed into the Bridge.
Once there, they had a clear view of the Helicopters through the huge viewing windows. They were swinging around toward the front of the ship. Their cannons lit up with pure hell-fire, and the bullets shredded into their targets; which erupted into a massive explosion.
But the bridge was not the target. The ship was so big that the Planeteers didn't even bother to duck for cover. The helicopters fired away with missiles and chain guns, explosions ripping across the front of the ship...
"What are they shooting at?" Linka demanded.
"The other helicopters on board."
The Planeteers all spun, and there was Sykes, watching the fireworks show listlessly. "I'm surprised you made it. Well... doesn't matter now I guess."
The Helicopters turned and flew away. They were moving as fast as they could.
"Before she took off to find you, Bligh rigged the ship to destruct." Sykes said listlessly. He was going to die, and he knew it.
"Why would she do that?"
"She knew that the Rig couldn't be discovered. None of this could. Not with a spill. We're a Kite project. Cut the string and we vanish off into the clear blue sky." Sykes whispered. "The explosions were the other helicopters. The ones she took with her... are the ones she trusts not to talk. The rest of us are done for."
Wheeler swallowed. "Where's the bomb?"
"Already went off. She's killed the coolant feeds. They're destroyed, not switched off. It can't be stopped. The turbines will all spin up and generate heat, engines will overheat without the coolant feeds, and that'll rip apart... everything."
"Everything?" Kwame pressed.
"This ship weighs many millions of tonnes. The kind of power that builds up in those gears is incredible. The boilers, the steam, the reactors, the generators… the many millions of gallons of crude oil... There's no stone wall that blocks that. You'll never get out of range with all our helicopters destroyed."
The Planeteers all looked at each other, worried.
Gi stepped forward. "I can put water into the engines, cool them down, and the water might make them stop working…"
"Nope. Those engines will work underwater. And the coolant we use is industrial stuff, not water pipes. No natural element could possibly be cold enough."
"We gotta get this ship to the bottom of the ocean FAST!" Kwame said. "Back to the landing craft!"
"You'll never sink her fast enough!" Sykes called after them.
Ma-Ti leaned back in. "Come with us! There's still a chance."
"No there isn't. If I'm going to die, I want it to be relaxed like my grandfather, not screaming, like his passengers."
The Planeteers had boarded one of the motorboats along the side of the ship and lowered it down into the water. Gi gunned the engine and steered the motorboat away from the ship.
But the ship was huge, and though they were skimming the waves, with Gi helping them along, they weren't moving nearly fast enough.
"Linka!" Kwame shouted over the engine. "Wind and dirt! Build up the charge, see if we can strike it with lightning."
"Can we control lightning?"
"Why not? We can control tornadoes!"
"WIND!
"EARTH!"
The dust conjured from nothing and was swept up in a sudden unnatural wind-storm. Dust coalesced into cloud as the waves were picked up with it, and the energy produced caused outbreaks of electrical charge as it did in the sky. Lightning forked across the air and slammed into the ship. Pinpricks really. The whole ship lit up as electricity raced through it; fires broke out on top, and along the hull, but the ship was made of metal, and was conducting the electricity through.
"NO GOOD!" Wheeler yelled over the cracks of light. "NOT ENOUGH FORCE! THE THING CAN CONDUCT ELECTRICITY!"
Gi fought to straighten up. "Maybe I can make a wave go deep enough over it to..."
"No good Gi, it's a boat! It's mean to keep floating in the water. You nearly flipped the thing over, and it came back up again..."
"And we don't need it flipped, we need it sunk!"
"What about the oil-spill?"
"No choice! Nothing we can do!"
Lightning blazed again, and the waves lurched. Thunder clapped overhead. They were in the heart of the storm they made.
"WHEELER!" Kwame shouted over the wind and waves. "BURN THE HULL! MELT IT! IF YOU CAN BREACH THE HULL IN ENOUGH PLACES, IT'LL FILL UP AND SINK!"
"DO WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME?" Wheeler yelled.
"GOT A BETTER IDEA?"
Wheeler pointed his ring. "FIRE!"
Flames danced against the hull, over and over again. The water splashed against the fire and the ship wall. The hull glowed, but every wave cooled it again.
Despair was setting in. They were not going to make it and they knew it.
A sound built up. It was the whine of power growing, with nowhere to go. They could hear metal groaning under the weight of an eruption that would kill them all...
"LINKA!" Wheeler yelled. "HELP ME! MERGE THE POWERS! LIKE BEFORE!"
Linka and Wheeler stood together, summoned their powers. The flame and wind merged into a fireball again, the wind gusting it across the waves into the hull of the ship. The flames erupted against the ship wall, and it bent inward sharply, but didn't breach.
"NOT STRONG ENOUGH!" Kwame yelled.
"OUR POWERS ARE STRONGER WHEN WE MERGE THEM!" Wheeler yelled back. "WE NEED MORE!"
Kwame stepped up. "WILL MY EARTH FORCE CANCEL OUT THE FIRE?"
"I DON'T KNOW! BUT WE DON'T NEED DIRT! WE JUST NEED THE RING POWER BEHIND IT."
Explosions were breaking out across the ship... even so far away, and through a storm and waves, they could barely hear anything over the sounds of power building in the turbines of the ship.
"ONE CHANCE LEFT!" Kwame yelled. "ALL OF US! GI! MA-TI, YOU TOO!"
And in the last ditch effort, with nothing to lose and their lives about to end, The Planeteers let their powers combine.
"Earth!"
"Fire!"
"Wind!"
"Water!"
Ma-Ti shivered, suddenly terrified. A terrifying premonition rang through him, warning him of something terrible...
… And his lifted his ring anyway. "Heart."
And the world suddenly became a very different place.
What have I done?
I go where the spirit moves me, and I shudder at what I see. I don't know how... How did this happen? How did it come to this so quickly? I was whole. I was complete. I was hopeful. And then...
What have I done?
What have I given them?
What have I done?
For a microsecond, the universe was still. The air stopped moving. The waves froze in place. There was a beat of silence...
And then the universe exploded. The sky was black with sudden darkness, and the stars gave no light. The air itself seem to shriek, with an awful unending din of things once unbreakable being torn apart!
Then the lightning came. It sheeted across the sky in a chain of electricity, one wave of lightning coming crashing along the inky darkness above. Another came from the other direction. Waves of blinding light sweeping across them, across the water...
The Lightning gathered to a point among them and came hurtling down, pure light from the limitless darkness, like the hammer of God smashing down onto the Anvil of time. The eruptions of light and noise as the sky burned with power sent the Planeteers numb and deaf and blind, but somehow every image was burned into them.
Again. Again. The lightning bolt coming down was thicker than a redwood tree as it slammed down again and again, so fast it was impossible to tell when one blast ended and the next began, a pillar of pure explosive energy slamming into the waves which suddenly lurched, and tossed. The waves were not generated by the wind or the tides. The ocean itself was ripped from its bed, trying madly to escape the force of the lightning.
The water lifted up... up... Linka had a half seconds clear view of the Rig, being tossed around and flipped over like a child's toy, far below them! How far was the wave lifting them?
Another shattering blast of the lightning, and the wave dropped, the five of them suddenly airborne, screaming all the way back to the water...
Gi shrieked. The Ocean had turned against her, it had become the enemy, she felt water crash into her mouth, down her throat...
The water was on fire as the energy cracked against it again and again. The water boiled and burned, and from the water came a fierce glow. Kwame almost got a clear look at it for a moment as the water lurched, and up from the waves came a pillar of fire, the white-hot glow burning harshly against their eyes.
And from the fire came something impossible.
It was huge and furious, it's body was the heaviest in bedrock, the fire licking around its every limb and gesture. It just kept going up. And up. And up. It stood on pillars of creation, so wide that the puny nothing humans couldn't see one end of it from the other. It reached to the sky, so high that it could put out the sun if it wanted...
It was covered in the redwood forests; it was dressed in desert sands and coral reefs and running rivers, and shifting tides in the oceans. The waves rose with it, and it seemed to... step, through the ocean. Tornadoes wrapped across it's legs, and lightning framed it's face. Every living thing was woven through it's form,
Wheeler looked up at it as the water poured across his eyes, into his lungs...
The monster was two continents colliding. It was an ocean being dragged down. It was a canyon being dug. It was a lava flow rushing at impossible speed. It was a glacier freezing and evaporating in seconds. It was an earthquake ripping apart the world. It was the sun vaporizing the ocean to steam. It was pure supernatural, all powerful Planet-Force Unleashed.
The Planeteers knew they were in the water, except they weren't any more. The water was gone. They should have been on the ground, except they weren't. The ground was gone too.
The Force From The Earth swept its gaze across the ocean with the power of a supernova, with the ancient cosmic knowledge of worlds...
It saw them.
IT SAW THEM!
And then it roared. It's shriek was the long extinct Tyrannosaurus bellowing; a thousand lions roaring in victory, a million falcons screeching, a billion wolves howling, the air erupting, lightning crashing, planetary plates coming apart... The air howled with it. The ground howled. The sky howled. The water howled. It was Life and Death erupting. Time and Space collapsing. Matter and Anti-Matter colliding.
Kwame was screaming, and he couldn't hear it. The five of them were cowering before a limitless thing of impossible power. These young people had conjured tidal waves tornadoes and earthquakes, and It left them as puny insignificant nothings...
They were cowering, they were screaming, they were terrified...
They could hear something shifting, deep in the earth. It was lurching beneath them, the molten core of the Earth itself alive and gathering for something.
"MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" Ma-Ti was screaming. He couldn't hear his own voice over the bellow of creation...
The Planet-Force roared again. There was an unholy, unnatural joy in its shriek. Something infinite and ancient and powerful, roaring with the limitless exuberance that had been far too long held back. It was a wild elemental force of existence, contained and pushed under for uncounted eons, and was now turned loose at last, eager to act, to show it's power to the universe!
Everything went white.
AN: I hope it worked, I hope it made some degree of sense, but to be honest, the whole point of the last two chapters was to build to the Grand Finale.
One thing I didn't like about the series is that Captain Planet was supposed to be the secret weapon of last resort, but they called him out every time something happened that involved some effort.
I wanted to build the idea of the 'Last Resort'. Gaia and Elemental powers aside, I was trying to make this happen in the Real World. And in the real world... a blue guy with green hair wearing red boots and gym shorts just doesn't fit. I don't care how many puns he has.
Am I completely out of line here? It's the most serious divergence from the series, I'll grant you. If you can't forgive it, I hope you'll overlook it enough to wait for the next chapter. What you just saw was the Gamechanger.