Finding Atlantis - Ch12
#11 of Finding atlantis
It's here! It took some time, and some poking and prodding, but it's out! And, since I got called out for being late, it's even a bit longer than usual, enjoy.
Disclamer:
I have not, nor do I ever intend to create any kind of nuclear weapon, or any weapon of a chemical or biological nature. Including, but not limited to the ones created and used in this story. and I recomend that you don't eather.
(Why? Because the FBI is freaking everywhere!)
I looked down at the vixen leaning against me. Her shoulder wasn't even bandaged.
'Can I see it?' I knew She was still stiff from being shot in the arm. I wanted to see for myself that she was alright.
Here, see? It is fine. She twisted around and I rubbed the fur over her rapidly healing scar.
It will be gone in a week. Having placated my concern for the moment, a new thought flashed into my head. I shuddered remembering, "What happened when you got hit? I couldn't feel you." I turned to look her straight in the eyes. "I shut you out. So you would not feel the pain." She answered slowly.
"what?"I screamed, the chill in my veins suddenly turned hot."I thought you were dead! Don't you ever do that again!"
"I did it because you had to get us both out of there." she spoke out defensively. "If you had been feeling what I was feeling you never would have been able to think clearly enough to get us out of there in time."
I started to calm down a little. "Okay, But promise you won't do it again."
she thought for a moment. "I will not shut you out again."
I let my mind wander back to the present. There was my cell phone sitting on the floor beside my right foot. I quickly reached down and grabbed it. I held the top and bottom twisting it in half, it slipped through my fingers in half a dozen pieces that landed at my feet. Glancing sideways I felt Corinth staring at me.
"That's how they found us." Ariana explained.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was content to listen to Ariana's thoughts. It was comfortable to feel her at the back of my mind again, never a distraction, but always there. She was thinking about the remainder of our plan. Apparently, my capture had put us two days behind schedule. We could make it up, but things would have to be rushed.
"Alright Let's do this." I suited up in the foil suit that Janis had managed to make for me. It was pretty uncomfortable. It was just a thin skin of lead to protect me from the powerful radiation, but it was still heavy.
"Be careful." Ariana kissed me quickly and slid the hood down over my face Once I had it on I trudged into the small room that had been prepared just for this purpose. Once the door sealed behind me I looked around. Just as I expected the Canisters, all six of them, stood in the corner. There was a small counter with three buckets on it. They were made of plastic with a lead layer on the inside. Each held exactly six gallons. I knew this because I had designed them. Beside the buckets was a small mountain of plastic explosive.
I opened the first canister. There were twelve rods inside which I slid out. The rods were hollow and inside I found the Uranium Pellets themselves. They were about an inch in diameter and two inches in length. They looked like a hard smooth stones. I emptied each rod into the first bucket. It filled it about half-way. I used a stick to dig a hollow in the middle. Then I cut off a chunk of plastic explosive and formed it into a cylinder eight inches long by three inches wide, adding more clumps until it was just right. I slid it into the bucket and reached into a drawer under the counter to find a set of three detonators. I grabbed the first one and stuffed it in the top of the Play-dough like plastic explosive.
I then emptied one more canister into the bucket, which filled it nicely. I sealed the top and set it down on the ground by the door and moved on the the next one. After about three hours I was done.
I slid the bucket bombs into the hall outside and stripped off the lead suit. "Whew!" I sighed. That lead-lined suit was hotter than the fires of hell! The cool, fresh air tingled on my sweaty fur.
"Are you done?"Asked Ariana. I yawned. "uhuh." It was nerve wracking working so close to something so deadly. I was ready for a nap.
"You can sleep on the way."
It is time to get up. We are almost there.
Slowly, I became aware of the world around me. I was in the cockpit of our camouflaged jet.
'What's the situation?'
We are five minutes out. The ships landed four hours ago. I expect that we will have about that much longer to get the bombs planted.
'Sounds good to me.'
I pulled up the blueprints on the ships we were about to take down. While we were gone, Turk had rounded up enough help to seize a takian intelligence base. What they found was the missing info that pointed to an attack on earth. They also found blueprints to the giant transporter ships that the takians were using to evacuate.
"main ventilation shafts located here, here, and here." several sections of the blueprint holograph lit up red. "Thanks Oracle." I responded. Now that we were back on Atlantis, our ship was able to sync with Oracle's network.
"Calculating access points... Solution found." the computer continued. all the red lines went away, except one. There was a main air circulation duct running through the hanger bay right above the main doors. I looked over the plan Oracle had calculated. It seemed like it was reasonable enough.
"Estimated time to completion: twenty-five minutes, eighteen seconds."
"That's it?"Corinth asked from the back. He and Athena had volunteered to join us.
"Yep, You two will take the last ship, me and Ariana will take the first two."
"Sounds Good."
We landed right on top of the giant ship. This thing was so big that it could easily dwarf the biggest aircraft carrier. We just picked a spot at random, and set our little plane down.
"See you guys later." I said as Ariana and I piled out of the plane. I scrambled around back and grabbed two buckets. Ariana waved the all clear and Corinth took off, leaving us to sling the buckets over our shoulders and walk over to the side of the ship.
I was a little worried that we would be spotted by the takian while we were all exposed on the top of the ship like that, but once we were out there I could tell that it was pretty unlikely. The tower where the bridge was was so far away that it was barely distinguishable from the overcast sky behind it.
After a quick walk we reached the edge of the roof where the huge main doors stood open below us. There was a locking mechanism that held the door shut while in flight, but now it stood out from the side of the ship, like a ladder down into the main hanger.
Slowly I stepped out onto one of the locking arms, and looked down. About fifty feet below me were two thousand taki soldiers. The sound of them marching on the hollow ramps up into the ship was unnerving but they didn't seem to notice me, so I kept going. I snaked my way down and around until I was just opposite the ceiling trusses inside the hanger. The noise of marching feet thundered off the walls, echoing back and forth as metal soldiers split off down various hallways. I took a deep breath and jumped for the rafters. Panic filled my heart until my hands slammed into the lower edge of the truss. I hung there for just a second. It didn't seem possible that the soldiers below me could miss the spectacle that I had just made of myself, but they seemed content to march along in perfectly straight lines, timing their steps with a precision that was inhuman to the point of creepiness.
I heard Ariana's hands slam into the bar beside me, so I pulled myself up and helped her do the same. We sneaked our way along the truss, toting our buckets of destruction until we reached the main ventilation shaft. It was a huge duct, nearly ten feet across, that hung down from the ceiling. I took my sword and slowly cut a hole into the side of it where It came close enough to the Truss we were on. Slowly, I slid the bucket down into the duct, suspending it just inside by the strap I had carried it in on. After I had checked that the detonator was working, Ariana and I beat a hasty retreat.
Back on the roof, we sprinted along the length of the carrier following the edge all the way to the bow where there was a maintenance ladder. I took the last bucket from Ariana and followed her down. It took us about five minutes to cross the space between the two ships, the waist high grass and early morning dusk made us nearly invisible. We skirted around the nose of the second transport and up the ladder repeating the procedure of climbing down into the rafters of the main hanger bay. This time when I looked down it seemed that the river of warriors flowing onto the ship was dwindling, there were only a few left who hadn't squeezed their way on yet.
'we need to move.' I urged as we swiftly made our way through the tangle of steel girders that supported the ceiling.
That was faster than I expected. This could be bad.
I slammed my sword into the sheet metal praying that the sound of the air rushing through the duct work would disguise the rumbling complaint that it made. Ariana tossed the can through the whole and tied it off. Then just as we turned to leave, we heard a powerful whine and unseen motors began to haul the door up.
"Shit." I herd Ariana muter under her breath. We took off towards the door as fast as we could navigate the labyrinth of beams, but our progress wasn't good enough. About half way back I shuddered as the massive latches along the top of the door drove themselves home with a resounding boom. We were locked in. Ariana closed her eyes, I could feel her send a message out to Corinth and Athena: we set the charges, but couldn't get out in time. She told them to head back without us and continue the plan. I sent an acknowledgment agreeing with her. After a few seconds, we got a message back that they were sending word back via Oracle, but that they would follow the ships to earth and rescue us if we could escape. I doubted that anyone would be able to get off a space ship in mid flight but I was strangely calm. I didn't know how much of my inner peace was coming from Ariana, she had begun to radiate a resolve as firm as the steel we were standing on.
Whatever the cause I found myself with a clear head and a firm goal. The takian would never reach earth. And we would not die here.
First things first, we need to find a better place to hide. Ariana thought. I pulled out my map and studied it for a second, if we could find a way to the other end of the ship we could use an escape capsule. Unfortunately, that meant walking right through the most densely populated parts of the ship.
'We will just have to come up with something on the fly then. It's time.'
Together, we started working our way over to the wall. We were still a good fifty feet in the air so jumping was kind of out of the question. Luckily, we wouldn't have to. There was a pipe that ran down the side of the wall we were able to slide down. Silently, my feet touched solid floor once again, the hanger was deserted now, aside from the ranks of vehicles and assorted weaponry. We were alone in the enormous room. I opened my map again. There was a small room just down the hall behind us. We decided that that was as good a place as any to hide for a while. We slipped over to the door, it was a simple polished metal door, exactly like the walls and floor and ceiling. Actually, everything was the same monochrome texture. We paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to open the door. There was no handle at all. Then, without warning, the door opened to reveal two takian soldiers!
The four of us froze for a second. Clearly no one had been expecting this! Suddenly a sword flew out from beside me and slashed the soldiers in half just below the shoulders. They fell to the ground with a heavy clunk, only behind them was not a small closet, or stateroom, but a giant hall filled with soldiers looking up from what seemed like a meal to stare at us. It seemed that we weren't completely invisible to them, because one of them stood up and shouted something in a high pitched, skittering voice. We didn't need a translation to know what was coming next. I was halfway back up the hallway before I even realized we were running! We ran straight out into the middle of the hanger bay, hoping that the machinery and equipment sitting out on the floor would provide some cover.
"What the hell was that!"
Shh! They'll hear you! Give me that map.
I handed over the small holograph. She studied it for a moment.
This is where we went.
She pointed to a spot on the map that was across the hanger from where I thought we were.
'Oh' I thought sheepishly.
Yeah. I think I am taking the map now.
I was just about to come up with a stunning comeback, but I heard the clank of metal feet rush into the hanger.
'Alright, Which way there map goddess?'
If looks could kill, I would have been a dead fox standing. As it was, she spat out a quick follow me and took off for another part of the ship. Sneaking carefully around the various machines in the hanger we made our way over to a wall. At Ariana's request I cut a small hole in the wall jut big enough for us to slide through on our backs. Once the cut was made, Ariana more or less drop kicked the loose chunk of wall and slid through after it. I followed as fast as I could. I slid through the whole and fell down about two feet to the floor of what appeared to be an engine room. Ariana was standing a few feet away, the remains of two more takians at her feet.
Give it a few more minutes, then blow the bombs.
I got up and replaced the piece of wall that we had cut away. They would find it eventually, but it would buy us time.
'So why are we waiting?'
in a few minutes that hanger will be full of soldiers looking for us. When we blow the bomb they will be exposed directly to the fallout.
'good idea' I admitted.
We sat and listened to the feet stamping around outside the hole. After about five minutes, we heard a cry of alarm right outside the hole.
Now.
I punched the button on my hand held detonator, and all hell broke loose in the hanger next door.
There was a huge bang followed by a rumble that ran throughout ship. Then there was silence.
I poked my head through the hole, despite the protests from Ariana.
All the soldiers were laying down, some shaking their heads, some others trying to stand but they wobbled and fell again and again. The air was filled with a fine gray dust. In the center of the ceiling where the ventilation shaft used to be was a large black scorch mark.
"It worked!" I breathed.
Quickly, I replaced the makeshift door and turned to lean against the wall.
Of course it worked. It was a great idea. Ariana thought mater-of-factly. But now the timer is ticking.
We spent the next few hours looking over the map and discussing our options. They wouldn't be happy about what we did in the hanger. The whole ship would be on lookout. It seemed best to lie low for a while. If we could stay hidden, the takian would succumb to the radiation before us. The longer we waited the better our odds of making it out. Especially now that we were in the engine room which was fairly poorly ventilated.
The hours that followed that decision were the worst in my life! Sitting in the bowels of a hostile ship in the middle of deep space, just waiting for the enemy to find me was not my idea of a happy afternoon picnic. The only reason I didn't go crazy was the vixen who sat beside me. She leaned into my side and put her head on my shoulder. As we sat there in that moment, I was able to believe that she needed me just as much as I needed her. I could imagine that I could do anything she needed me to, whether it was possible or not.
I don't really remember how long we sat there in the corner, waiting for them to realize where we were. It felt like years, but from what I have been able to piece together since then it was only about three days.
We were hungry, tired and weak, but I rousted myself when the door slid open. There were four highly armed guards, but they seemed weak as well. Their usually shiny skin was pitted and gray, they shuffled along at a catatonic pace. Guns held at the ready. I almost felt sorry for them. It was obvious that they were suffering more than I could even imagine as the uranium ate away at their metal flesh. But then Ariana flung a chunk of something into the corner opposite from us. The clunk it made when it the ground got their attention. They opened fire on the empty corner without a second of thought. A hundred rounds or so later, they stopped firing and one of them ventured across the room to see what they had shot. That was when we made our move. As one we sprang from the shadows, they never knew what was coming as our blades sliced through the group in less than a second.
They will know we were in here when this team does not come back. Ariana looked at me with steel in her green eyes.
'Let's do this.' I nodded.
Silently we slipped through the door.