Chapter 18 | Mission Born: Space Twins
Walter, Jess, Kat, Winterlock, Argent and Doo-dad are all buckled in and ready to face their mission, with the acknowledgement that it might be their last. Are you ready to face it with them? Or do you need to catch up first? Locate the appropriate chapter and return when you're mission ready.
Chapter 5 Twins Divided
Chapter 6 World's Apart
Chapter 7 Escape from Planet Orc
Chapter 8 Twin's Flight
Chapter 9 Docked in Space
Chapter 10 Knowledge Unbound
Chapter 11 Decisions
Chapter 12 Training
Kat maneuvered the ship according to the trajectory of the barrage. The shield would be projected over a massive area, but the more of the barrage they stopped, the easier it would be for the defense cannons on the ground to clean up the rogue missiles that were left over. They, also, needed to be ready to initiate their own escape boosters, which were the key to their survival.
She signaled to Jess by pointing at her. Jess flipped on the comms and shouted, due to nervousness, into the speaker, “HQ, we are deploying the shield on your mark!” This meant that Kat would activate the shield when Urlanna’s people calculated the best time for activation. They would be running algorithms on their computers that would note the beginning of the barrage and the trajectory of each missile. Everyone knew that the barrage would be focused on the capital city, located under water as were all of the Mermen cities.
Walter was working on the problem of when to activate the boosters, which would shoot them down toward the planet, away from the shield platform and the massive explosions that would eventually rip through it.
Winterlocke was observing all data on a rather large data pad, his face was twisted up in concern. “Ya know, I think we might actually live….” Winterlocke was smiling, which meant he was trying to make light of this very serious situation.
“I agree, brother, it seems like a very well-thought-out plan. I just wish we had something to eat…” Argent smiled naively at them.
Walter reached under his seat and pulled out an odd-looking apple. “Here you go, Argent, eat up. It may be your last meal. Enjoy…”
Jess looked back. “Hey! That was one of our secret stash, Wally!”
“Yeah, yeah. Let him eat it, we can get more later on if we
survive.” Walter shrugged his shoulders
at her.
“You got a point there, any idea when ya goin ta pull the
trigger? I would like ta live, if ya know
what I mean?” She smirked and checked
the comms again.
“You two sure do talk a lot.
And what’s up with the apples?”
Winterlocke looked up from his pad.
“Um, well, they’re our favorite! It’s one of the only things from Earth that
we could find that was somewhat normal….”
Walter smiled at the warmest memory of Earth the twins had been able to
find.
“Okay…” Winterlocke
thought to himself and then responded.
“I like sunsets. You can get
those on any world.”
Kat turned around in her seat, “Then why did you stay on an
asteroid with Gnomes for the past several years, Old Man?” She threw up her arms in exasperation and
swiveled back to her controls.
Doo-dad started bleeping and blooping in alarm.
Winterlocke shouted, “He says they launched
the missiles!”
Suddenly over the comms, HQ blared a warning as well, “The
Barrage has begun! Calculating
activation time…”
“Okay, kids, we’re in it now!” Kat started barking orders. “Walter, get that booster calculation ready! Jess, make sure we don’t lose comms, and be ready to get more info from HQ if we need it. Old Man, You’re the back-up, so be ready!”
Both of the twins looked at each
other when they heard the last part and said in unison, “Back-up?!” Kat and Winterlocke just shrugged at them and
went back to work.
“Project: Shield, deployment of shield in t-minus twelve seconds. On mark, 12…11…10….”
Walter shouted above the countdown. “I will hit the boosters 5 seconds after the deployment! It should be the exact moment we need to get out of here in good shape!”
Kat gave him
a thumbs up and smiled. “We got this,
Wally!”
“…5…4…3…2…1…” HQ’s countdown concluded, Kat flipped the shield on. A huge, glowing, blue shield came to life above them. It was almost one-hundred times bigger than their ship.
Suddenly everyone could hear Walter shouting, "…3…2…1…FIRING!" The boosters hit so hard, as the ship detached from the platform, that they were all tugged upward. Winterlocke dropped his data pad, and the screen shattered on the ceiling. “Ugh!” erupted from their lips as the seatbelts pushed all of the breath from their lungs.
The boosters made it very hard to hear anything, as the rumbling vibrated through the entire ship. Jess shouted to be heard, as she was the only one able to relay comms to them from the world’s surface. “IMPACT!” The barrage had hit the shield’s surface.
They could see the light of the explosions bouncing off the interior of the cockpit. A few seconds passed as the light continued to illuminate the cabin, and then Jess relayed new information. “Secondary Impact in 5…4…3…2…1…IMPACT!”
Suddenly, the ship was hit by a blast, and it
took everything Kat had to keep the ship from being redirected and putting the
ship on a trajectory where they would just bounce off of the atmosphere and
shatter like an egg. The only problem
was that the ship was now upside down and the blast shields necessary for
landing in atmosphere were on the bottom of the ship. As the blast subsided,
and Kat redirected the ship into a landing pattern, alarms started
blaring.
Some piece of debris must have hit the bottom, rear end of the ship. They were losing power and the blast shields had been scarred enough to let through heat to the cabin of the ship. “This is not good!” Jess looked at Walter and they shared the scared feeling together.
Kat yelled back, “Old Man, it’s time to save us! Use it now or lose it!”
Winterlocke nodded and then unbuckled himself and climbed to the floor of the cabin. “Lord, help me now, in my time of need.” As he uttered the words, Winterlocke started to glow with a resonating white light fringed in blue. A soft haze of frost hung in the air around him. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” Ice crystals started to form from Winterlocke’s hands and arms. “For though art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” He continued to speak, and as he spoke the ice formed a barrier through the floor of the ship.
“That’s got it, Old Man!” Kat maneuvered the ship into the atmosphere.
The flames coming from the friction between the ship and the atmosphere flared around the viewscreen. “We’ve lost power! I’m gliding her in! You may need a bit more ice to break the landing!”
The twins stared on in amazement, they had never known of this secret power residing inside their friend. Winterlocke nodded and started again, this time with one declaration, “God, help me!” This time the ice crystals flared across the floor and he screamed as he pulled the ice into being. Outside the ship, the ice formed a sheet to elongate the wing, and as it melted it continued to reform. Winterlocke’s face was in agony as he unleashed more and more of the ice.
As they hit the ocean’s surface, the impact broke Winter’s contact with the ship. Winterlocke bounced down the cabin’s walkway, roughly hitting most of the objects in his way. Gashes tore open on his face and arms from contact with metal furniture and he came to a rest near the ship’s back entrance. The twins screamed, and together their cries spurred Argent to take a dangerous step by unhooking himself and clawing his way over to his brother. The ship bounced him into the ceiling several times, but he moved on. The twins could tell he was hurt, but he finally made it to his brother’s unmoving body.
The ship was finally slowing and now glided on the water to
a full stop. Kat flipped a switch and
interior floats erupted out of the ship to keep it afloat. Kat and the twins made their way over to the
brothers. Argent looked up at them with
tears in his eyes.
(Click to "turn the page" to Chapter 19)
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