Goin’ In
"Got no choice, it’s his only chance," Terry radios to Nitro as he crosses over the bow of the monster ship. In a single rapid descent he clears the searing heat of the fire and sets down lightly on the front end of the platform, rapidly propelled towards the man, who has not yet looked up. Hope he sees me before I hit him, Terry thinks.
As if on cue, the man suddenly raises his head and stares directly at Terry. Terry is close enough to see the expression on his face, and it’s a very strange one indeed. The man is beyond terrified: his features display a strange, desperate calm, the look of someone who has accepted his fate. As Terry rolls to a stop beside him, the man reaches out and touches him. He’s obviously given up hope.
His hand probes the silver of Terry’s suit as if to comprehend it’s meaning, or whether Terry is real or a figment of his desperate imagination. Terry nods, and as the reality of his rescue registers, the man is suddenly, instantly babbling in a language that Terry can’t understand at all.
Putting his feet to the deck, Terry can feel the heat of the fire through the bottoms of his boots. This is going to be like a giant frying pan, real soon, he thinks. Best get a move on. Patting the seat behind him and shouting at the man to get on quick, Terry redistributes his weight over the frame of the bike and prepares for their getaway. Terry hopes that the man will figure out what he’s trying to say, won’t freeze with panic, but before he has a chance to give it a second thought, the man is already on the seat behind him. Even if he doesn’t exactly understand Terry’s words, he obviously understands the meaning of hurry, not to mention fire, and hold on tight. He doesn’t waste a second grabbing on so tight that he practically squeezes the breath out of Terry.
We’re Out of Here!
Terry hits the ignition button and they begin to accelerate towards the back end of the tanker and its bridge tower, which is now a wall of fire. They lift off and Terry puts RocketBike into a steep climb, banking to the left as the flames lick at their feet.
Through all of this, Terry’s passenger is repeating the same words over and over. Terry, who can’t understand a word he is saying thinks that maybe this guy has never flown before. He radios Nitro that he’s going to set it down on the beach, putting it into a slow turn as they approach the shore. By the time he closes the gap, Nitro and Celeste are already at the waterline with flashlights to mark off a good level landing spot.
Safe and Sound
RocketBike sets down smoothly on the hard sand and rolls to a stop as Nitro and Celeste come running. When Terry’s passenger sees Celeste, he finally says a word that Terry can understand, Angel. Overwhelmed, he falls to his knees, putting his hands on the sand.
"I think you better get this guy to a hospital," Terry says to Nitro. "He seems real... confused."
Nitro whisks the crewman off to the hospital in the pick-up. The entire way he continues to babble away. Nitro can’t even tell what country he’s from let alone make heads or tails out of what he’s saying. Although he probably shouldn’t, he occasionally nods in agreement to put the man at ease.
At the hospital there are a lot of questions. Nitro just tells them that the guy was found down on the beach. Of course, he doesn’t tell them how it is that he got there. There isn’t anybody at the hospital who can understand what the guy is saying either. Hmmm, Nitro thinks, we just might get away with this. We should be on our way to Florida by the time anybody can figure out what he’s talking about. As he heads toward the double doors of the Emergency Room, his thoughts continue. It would be most preferable if people didn’t know that RocketBike can fly yet. There are still a few bugs to work out before we want to go public with it. Also, people knowing that the bike can fly might bring up questions about the H²O-S system--something we don’t want to have others aware of, particularly the people from Atlas.
Gettin’ Away Clean
Early the next morning, before the Coast Guard or press can come around asking questions about how the guy from the tanker ended up on the beach. The Bikesters truck and trailer is loaded and pulling out the driveway for Florida.
On the Road Again
The trip is a fairly fast one. They drive almost straight through, with Nitro and Celeste switching off driving, and only a couple of three or four hour stopovers. TK is using the travel time to put the final touches on the paper to be presented to the Engineering Society. On the way back from Florida, they will be stopping in Chicago, where the Engineers are having their annual meeting. TK will be presenting his paper there, and it has to be just right.
TK is also analyzing data from the last RocketBike test. After getting an earful from Terry, and running the first set of numbers, it’s quite obvious that they have to find a more efficient method of stopping the bike when it lands on the trailer.
TK has some ideas, which he will discuss with Jim and Ben when they all meet up in Florida. He’s been running them by Nitro and Celeste, but they all agree, this one is going to take some major engineering talent.