March 22, 2013

No. 335A - CYOA2 Part 10 - Martin Fights in the Future

Part 1: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-322.html
Part 2: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-327-cyoa2-part-2.html
Part 3: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-328a-cyoa2-part-3-ridgeway-is-ally.html
Part 4: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-329a-cyoa2-part-4-martin-doesnt-know.html
Part 5: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-330a-cyoa2-part-5-martin-plays-along.html
Part 6: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-331a-cyoa2-part-6-everything-is.html
Part 7: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-332a-cyoa2-part-7-martin-goes-quietly.html
Part 8: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-333a-cyoa2-part-8-experiment-begins.html
Part 9: http://aroundgray.blogspot.ca/2013/03/no-334a-cyoa2-part-9-martin-enters.html


A guard approached Hodge with a status report. Martin watched the guard carefully. There was something about the man’s demeanor that made him seem vulnerable. Martin saw Hodge give the guard an order. As the guard turned to leave the room, Martin understood what his captor’s weakness was. Hodge was a scientist, not a soldier. If he’d been commanding the rogue staff of the Nautilus for two years, their training wouldn’t be as efficient as it could be. Martin knew the advantage in a straight fight would be his.

All he needed was a distraction. Hodge seemed like a talker. Maybe that would work. “Do you remember coming through the time-barrier all those years ago?” he asked the scientist.

Hodge turned to face the prisoner. He shrugged. “I was young, then, only nine. One minute I was at home, the next I was in a strange place, like a factory. Somebody with a gun threatened me, and I tried to run, only to stumble back into a giant light. I thought I’d fallen in fire. But, instead, I was home. Unfortunately, it seemed that almost a year had passed. My mother had died in that time, and my father had started drinking.”

  “I see,” said Martin, as he struggled surreptitiously to escape from the handcuffs. “Do you know what happened to the man that was sent from the Chernobyl side?”

“Yes,” said Hodge. “I killed him. He would have been the only other person who knew that we weren’t from the distant future. If he had reported back to the people in charge of the time-barrier, they would have hunted me down and prevented me from achieving this,” he concluded with a grandiose sweep of his hook.

Martin had freed himself from the cuffs and made his move while Hodge was mid-swing. He dove at the smaller man, tackling him to the ground while at the same time trying to avoid the dangerous pointed claw. “Ridgeway,” he shouted. “Hold on.”

Ridgeway shook her arm weakly against her restraints. “No problem,” she said sarcastically.

Hodge was quickly subdued, but before Martin could free Ridgeway, the guard returned. He saw Hodge on the ground and turned his gun immediately toward Martin.

“Freeze,” was the unoriginal command.

Martin slowly raised his hands. At the same time, he was able to take an extra step toward the guard without being noticed.

Ridgeway saw martin move forward and created her own distraction.

“Look out!” she cried from the chair. The guard’s head snapped toward the sound while Martin lunged forward to grab the gun. Once the guard was disarmed, he too was tied up next to Hodge.

Martin released Ridgeway. She gave him a light kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Martin told her. “We’re still not where we’re supposed to be.”

They turned back to confront Hodge, but he was missing. Martin pointed the gun at the remaining guard. “Which way did he go?”

The guard gave up the information without hesitation. “Toward the bridge. There’s a master-control for the Core that’s been installed there.”

“Can you walk?” Martin asked Ridgeway.

She took the gun off him and cocked it aggressively. “No problem,” she told him. Then she swung the butt of the rifle into the guard’s face, knocking him out. She shrugged at Martin. “They weren’t very nice,” she explained. “Let’s go finish off that maniac.”

 

The bridge was dark and silent when they approached. The giant holograph had been replaced by a hastily installed booth. Great snakes of wires flowed into the base across the previously uncluttered deck.

“I think we found him,” Martin whispered.

Ridgeway pulled the trigger and sent a hail of bullets toward the compartment. The assault seemed to do very little in the way of damage.

“Cover me,” said Martin. “I’m going to get closer.”

He made it to within an arm’s length of the target when the lights came on, catching him mid-stride.

“You’ve made a mistake,” Hodge’s voice mocked over the intercom. “Your friend just shot up the Nautilus’ guidance computer. We had some problems with the old one, so we had to make do with what we had on board. Lack of parts, and all that. I’m sure we could get some more from the mainland with a convincing enough story. But, for now, I think, we’ll be stuck on a course for the ocean bottom.”

“Where is he?” Martin called to Ridgeway.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t see him.”

Martin ran back up to Ridgeway. “We may have already won,” he told her quietly. “There’s no point chasing him all over the base.”

She understood. “If we can escape, he’ll die when the Nautilus implodes at crush-depth. We don’t have to fight him.”

Martin raised his voice again, for the benefit of their unseen observer. “Where are you, Hodge? We’re coming for you.”

A disgusting cackle echoed out of the speakers. “You won’t find me. And I’ve got full control of the barrier. Come on, Lieutenant, do your worst.”

Ridgeway and Martin made a show of leaving the bridge. “Are there escape pods?” he asked her once they were out of range.

“Better,” she told him. “Follow me.”

Together, they ran down the passageways of the sinking base. They began to hear ominous creaks and popping noises as the vessel descended. Luckily, their path didn’t take them near the Core, and so they did not have to deal with the security layers to get to their objective.

“Through here,” Ridgeway told Martin as they arrived at a seemingly nondescript hatch at the end of a corridor. They stepped inside and Martin almost lost his balance when he saw what was on the other side.

The “escape pod” on Nautilus Base was actually a full-sized submarine.

“Can we handle that?” Martin asked, still amazed by the sight.

“Yes,” Ridgeway confirmed. “It’s heavily automated, for emergencies. It only needs a crew of two, but can carry up to fifty people.”

“’Dakkar’,” Martin read the name painted in ornate letters on the side of the sleek boat. “Fits the theme,” he remarked with a grin.

“Stop wasting time,” Ridgeway told him. “Let’s go.”

They clambered up the narrow ladder to the boarding hatch and made their way inside. They strapped in, and initiated the sequence to eject.

They heard the outer doors of the Nautilus open, and water rush in.

Then they were free.

The radio began to crackle, and a familiar voice filled the Dakkar. “You’re getting away,” screamed Hodge. “Cowards! You won’t defeat me! I am the master of time!”

Martin laughed. “For about another minute, Hodge, and then you’ll be crushed.”

Ridgeway was less impressed. “’Master of Time?’” she replied with a smirk. “That’s what you’re going to go with?”

Martin pulled her toward him and shut off the radio. “Come on,” he said. “It’s poor form to taunt the condemned.”

Sure enough, a minute later, Martin and Hodge heard the Nautilus implode, destroying everything still on board.

“Do you think he made it out?” asked Martin. “Or to another time?”

“No,” said Ridgeway. “He wouldn’t be able to control the barrier without one of us to calibrate it. Or,” she said, pausing for effect. “Without this.” She pulled a peculiar-looking circuit board from her waistband. “They only had one on board. Funny, though, I specifically outlined that vulnerability in my initial report on the project.”

 

Three weeks later, Martin and Ridgeway were standing in the Oval Office.

“Thank you for sacrificing two years of your lives to save the world,” said the President as he handed them their medals.

“You’re welcome, Sir,” said Martin. “But I just have one question. Did you know that I came from the future when you sent me on the mission?”

“No, he didn’t,” said a voice from just outside the room. The speaker stepped through the door. “But I did,” he said just as Ridgeway and Martin recognized him. “Nautilus Base was my idea, too,” said another Martin.

“Where did you come from?” the first Martin demanded.

“From thirty-six hours before you were sent back,” answered the doppelganger. “And, by the way, instead of asking pointless questions, why don’t you give Holly a kiss?”

“Good idea,” said Martin, who took his own advice.

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