such-a-random-rambler asked: Febuwhump is coming! DAY 21 for John please ;)
Day 21: Unresponsive
'And that's a wrap!'
John groaned. It had been a long, long rescue. Earthquakes always were, and they grated on John's nerves more than almost every other rescue. In fact, only one was worse, but earthquakes kept them on their toes for hours, or in this case days, trying to rescue people and beat the next tremor.
Four days was a record for both International Rescue and certainly one of the longest on record. Not the longest, thank goodness, but certainly up there. Sure John had made sure that everyone had had their mandatory rest breaks, and certainly with EOS on board he should have had his own, but that ever-present terror of not being quick enough to read the seismographs and predicting when to move and save a brother's life had kept John at comms far longer than he should have.
He'd kipped. Of course he had. Passed out, more like the Virgil in his head snarked. John did what he always did and ignored his brother with as a dramatic an eyeroll as possible. He knew what he was doing.
Now, as Scott glared at Gordon's flippant dismissal and gave the official word that the rescue was finished, John stretched out the kinks in his back and neck, feeling the satisfying 'pop' of synovial gases. The yawn that followed was epic, even by John's standards.
'EOS, I'm going to bed. Schedule an alarm for six hours please. You have the comm.'
'FAB, John. Sleep well.'
'Thank you.'
John hesitated at the door to his room, torn by the idea of having one more coffee before bed. He knew that a shot of espresso could help him sleep in the short term, but he was pretty wired already. Another caffeine hit would probably not be a good idea. With a sigh he turned into his room and tumbled straight into his bed.
He was dead to the world in less time it took Scott to fly to Australia from home.
Six hours later EOS hit the chimes that would wake John.
Normally they woke John.
Today they did not.
'John? Time to get up.'
Nothing.
She raised the volume of the alarm to see if that would help.
Nope.
EOS raised the temperature.
Lowered the temperature.
Put the gravity back on.
She tried sounding the emergency alarm.
Shouted 'John – we have a situation' as loud as she could.
Nothing worked and it had been almost 40 minutes since the initial alarm.
She resorted to making coffee and toasting bagels, hopeful that the aromas would do what her voice could not.
It didn't work.
Even a recording at full volume of Fischler's comments when he'd been on Five didn't get a reaction.
EOS resorted to one of Gordon's playlists, the one that Virgil had said if he ever heard again he would do unmentionable things to parts of Gordon's anatomy. If it was bad enough to get *Virgil* swearing then it should be bad enough to get John conscious.
It did nothing but hurt her processors.
If EOS had lips she'd be biting them. It was time to get help. It had been almost an hour.
Time to call the island.
Scott had enjoyed his morning run. He had slept for three hours and gone for a long, long jog around the hardest island trails. Not even Gordon was up by the time he returned home, which hadn't surprised Scott at all. His brother had gone to bed with strong painkillers and would sleep for hours yet.
He grabbed a coffee and a bagel and settled at the desk to begin writing his report of the rescue up. He'd barely put stylus to pad when EOS' camera appeared before him. Her lights were purple.
She was afraid. And Scott's heart leapt into his mouth. He was running for his chute even as he spoke.
'EOS, report!'
'I can't wake John! He's unresponsive!'
'Lower the elevator now!'
'Lowering.'
'Virgil! Virgil, I need you!'
Scott didn't wait for Virgil to respond, knowing his request would be enough. EOS had swapped his normal uniform out for his space-rated one. But Scott hit the emergency release bypassing the bots that dressed them. Instead he hung on and took his uniform with him, intent on dressing on the journey up. By the time the elevator had landed Virgil was just entering the hangar. It was telling that Virgil didn't raise an eyebrow at Scott's breaking of protocol.
'Get the infirmary ready, Virgil. I'll let you know what we're dealing with as soon as I can.'
'FAB, Scott.'
The space elevator was designed to take 15 minutes to travel the distance between Tracy Island and Five's orbit. That was Brains' design. But, being Brains' design also meant that there were a lot of safety features that could safely be overridden.
John had done it a couple of times. Orbit to Earth in eight minutes in the case of a couple of dire emergencies.
Well, this was a dire emergency.
Scott did it in seven and a half.
He fidgeted as those 450 seconds each seemed to take an hour. Scott was fairly vibrating to get out by the time the elevator had docked and it took all of his self-control not to tear the doors off while he waited for the clearance to dock.
65 seconds from the call to the chute.
180 seconds from chute to elevator.
450 seconds from Earth to Five.
But the 15 seconds for the doors to open was by far the longest.
Without the uniform Scott would have lost a layer of skin as he pushed through the barely opened doors and rushed through to John's room, sparing a thankful thought that EOS had put the gravity to normal. While in theory running in half-grav, John's usual setting, would be easier it was not Scott's natural setting.
John was still cocooned in the special sleeping bag that he used, resting on his bunk. He looked like he was asleep. Scott felt for a pulse and sighed in relief when he found one.
The relief didn't last long. With a gasp Scott uncoupled the sleeping bag, hoisted John over his shoulder and ran back to the elevator, ignoring EOS' following his every move.
'Virgil! Tachycardic pulse, lips beginning to turn blue. Code red. I repeat, code red.'
'FAB, Scott. I'm ready.'
'EOS, drop the elevator.'
'But it will be too late, Scott!'
'Disable all safeties. Drop as fast as you can. Pull it back at the very last minute.'
'But – '
'For John, EOS. For John.'
'FAB Scott.'
'Scott – that kind of rapid decompression…'
'I know, Virgil, but John needs this. Get Gordon and Alan up and the HBOT chamber ready just in case.'
'FAB, Scott.'
'EOS – NOW!'
And they fell.