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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