Chapter 28: A Minor Inconvenience
"Cindy!" Jimmy whispered while tip-toeing into her tent. "Cindy, wake up!" he whispered a little louder while gently shaking her. He watched as her eyelids slowly parted to reveal the beautiful emerald gems that lay beneath.
"Jimmy?" she muttered while grabbing his outstretched hand. He helped her stand up. "Is something wrong?" she whispered, trying to not disturb her roommate, Brittany.
Jimmy shook his head and led her out of the tent. "Far from it. You've got to come see this," he quietly told her while squeezing her hand and jogging away from the camp.
Cindy yawned as she struggled to keep her feet moving at the same pace as Jimmy's. "Jimmy, what's going on?" she tiredly asked. She knew that it was early in the morning, far too early to wake up. Yet Jimmy was wide awake and already dressed. Something was up.
"Just wait and see," he anxiously told her while continuing to jog away from the camp. He continued leading her for several moments before finally sliding to a stop.
"Neutron, I'm trying to stay calm, but it's," she paused to look at the watch around her right wrist, "three o'clock in the morning!" she nearly shouted. She swiveled around and glared at Jimmy. "This better be good!" she snarled.
Jimmy just smiled as he stared straight above him. "I'm talking to you!" Cindy shouted at him. Jimmy just grinned wider and pointed above their heads. Cindy followed his gaze, and her jaw dropped slightly as they both stared at what lay above them.
It was the most beautiful celestial object that she had ever seen. The sky was swirling crimson red only a few million kilometers above them. Yellow stars shone brilliantly amidst the red canvas. In the center of this swirling beauty was a circle of blue, green, and yellow gases. It was the most amazing, and most intimidating, thing that she had ever seen.
"It's an emission nebula," Jimmy explained as they sat down on the ground and lay back, not caring about the pebbles pressing against their heads. The sky was far too beautiful to worry for them to worry about pain. "Swirling clouds of ionized gases. Amazing, isn't it?" he asked while looking over at Cindy. She was still staring wide-eyed at the sky, shaking her head a little in disbelief.
"It's so…big," she answered, taking a while to figure out that last word. "I mean, wow."
Jimmy nodded in agreement. "It's really amazing, isn't it? This is just one of literally billions upon billions of nebulas. I can't even begin to imagine how much bigger this object is than our planet. The universe is riddled with planets, stars, galaxies, life," he explained. "It just makes you so feel so completely and utterly small, yet implausibly brilliant and beautiful for just being a microscopic part of this vast landscape."
Cindy used all of her willpower to draw her gaze away from the swirling sky to look over at Jimmy. He was also looking back at her. They grabbed each other's hands again, this time intertwining their fingers. They stared into each other's eyes, smiled, and let their lips connect once more.
Jimmy let his eyes narrowly open for a moment to stare at the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He took in her hair; she hadn't had time to put it back in her usual ponytail. Her eyes were also slightly open, and he stared into the mysterious green pools that he had waited so long to dive into. He put his hand on her waist and opened his lips wider. Just then he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
"What's wrong?" Cindy sadly asked as Jimmy quickly pulled out of the kiss and stared past her. His eyes held a look of horror.
"Get down!" he shouted while tackling her to the ground.
"What are you?" was all she had time to ask before he slammed into her, smashing her head against the rocky ground beneath them. She was about to kick him off of her before she saw a rock the size of her head slam into the ground, barreling past where her back had been a moment a few seconds ago.
Jimmy rolled off of her and they both jumped up. "I owe you one," Cindy casually told him. Saving each other's lives had become both common and meaningless over the years.
"What was that?" Jimmy thought out loud while walking over to the jagged rock that had smashed several feet deep into the ground. He and Cindy both stared down the barely lit hole. Jimmy pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and shone it on the object beneath them.
"That's an asteroid, isn't it?" Cindy asked, quite perplexed.
"Yeah," Jimmy agreed. "That was weird."
They looked toward each other, and then back up at the sky. "Jimmy, look over there," she told him while pointing away from the nebula.
The part of the sky that Cindy was pointing at was dark, illuminated by only a few twinkling stars. But he could faintly make out silhouettes flying past them. They turned back to look at the emission nebula, and several large rocks flew past them, and then several more.
"Duck!" Cindy shouted. They both immediately hit the ground, and several small rocks crashed several yards away from them. "Should we get out of here?" she nervously asked while stepping closer to Jimmy.
Two smaller asteroids slammed into the ground near them. "Yeah!" Jimmy shouted while running back towards camp. The sky seemed to be falling as rocks the size of baseballs bombarded the area around them, leaving large craters and plumes of dust in their wake.
Jimmy quickly took his headset out of his jeans' loop and put it on. He set the frequency to the common channel that everyone used. "Libby, mind telling me what's going on here?"
Jimmy was surprised to hear Libby's voice immediately answer him. He hadn't expected her to be up this early. "Jimmy, you've got a problem over there," she nervously explained, a hint of static permeating her voice.
"We noticed!" Cindy shouted into Jimmy's microphone while covering her head as another three rocks whizzed past them.
"Details!" Jimmy pleaded as the edge of the camp appeared on the horizon.
The entire Control Team was awake in Jimmy's lab, all furiously typing on their keyboards and staring at their monitors. "Jimmy, Little Boy is about to fly straight through an asteroid belt!" she shouted.
Jimmy and Cindy looked to each other as they continued running as fast as they could towards their camp. "How big?" Jimmy shouted above the roaring of rocks flying by them and slamming into the ground.
"You know the one between Mars and Jupiter? About ten times bigger than that!" she exclaimed.
Jimmy finally reached camp and ran into his tent. Cindy was right behind him. "Why didn't you give us a heads up?" he angrily shouted while throwing some clothes on the ground out of his way.
"This wasn't on your map!" she defensively answered.
Jimmy threw some more junk out of his way and saw a large red button attached to the ground. He slammed his fist into it, and bright flashes of red light emanated from the center of camp. "Emergency! Emergency!" a recording of his voice shouted from the alarm system he had set up two days ago.
"Weren't you guys using radar to check for any obstacles on our course?" Jimmy shouted as he ran out of his tent. Everyone was slowly coming emerging from theirs as well, staring at the fifteen foot high pole atop which sat the alarm lights and speakers. "Emergency! Emergency!" the recording continuously shouted.
"We've got a lot to do down here!" Libby screamed over the alarm system, the roaring of asteroids, and the growing static. "Stupid me, I trusted your map!"
Jimmy swore under his breath, but shoved his anger and fear out of the way. "We'll abandon the asteroid and fly our rockets the rest of the way," he told Libby and Cindy. "Unlike in the movies, asteroid belts are very spread out in reality. The asteroids are far away from each other, and slamming into one is extremely unlikely."
"Jimmy, that's the other bad news. See, your asteroid is a lot bigger than the majority of the ones in this belt. Apparently, all of the smaller asteroids are being pulled towards your asteroid by its gravity. You've got a pretty dense ring of small and medium-sized asteroids surrounding yours."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Jimmy shouted, amazed at how unlucky he was. "How long do we have?"
Libb
y put a foot on the wall beside her, and kicked off of it. She rolled across the room and stopped near another computer. She quickly tapped in a few keys. "My most optimistic estimates put you at thirteen minutes away from fatal collision," she told Jimmy. "Get off of that rock, Jimmy," she nervously instructed him.
Jimmy sighed and shut his headset off. He had gotten all the Intel he needed from Libby, her voice was just distracting him now. "Cindy!" he shouted while grabbing her shoulders. She looked away from the chaos that was enveloping the camp and looked into Jimmy's eyes. "Load all of the people and as many guns and supplies as you can onto three rockets!" he shouted. He was about to run off, but Cindy grabbed his wrist.
"Why three?" she shouted. "We've got forty rockets! We'll never fit everyone on three!"
Jimmy looked down at his watch. Time was quickly running out. "Cindy, god damn it, you're going to have to trust me. Get the three biggest rockets and get everyone inside. Now!" he shouted. She stared at him another moment. "GO!" he pleaded. She took a few steps back, started to run towards the rockets, looked back at him, and then set off at full speed.
"FOLLOW CINDY!" Jimmy shouted while running around the camp, instructing everyone he could find. Asteroids were hitting the ground every few seconds, and people were beginning to panic. "Grab any supplies you can and follow Cindy!" he shouted while running by everyone's tent.
"Jimmy!" Nick shouted, his voice barely audible over the camp's chaotic shouting and the asteroid's roaring. "What the hell is going on?" he vociferously asked.
Jimmy looked at him and grabbed Nick's shoulders. "Get everyone to follow Cindy. Load them onto three rockets. Leave now!" Jimmy instructed him. Nick was about to question Jimmy's strange choice of only using three rockets, but he only saluted his friend and ran off.
"Jimmy!" Sheen shouted while running up to his friend. He was thrown onto the ground by the shockwave of a twenty foot asteroid slamming into the ground ten meters behind him. Jimmy grabbed his hand and hoisted him up. "Why are we only using three rockets?" he asked.
"Not now!" Jimmy shouted as he saw that Nick was leading everyone towards Cindy and the rockets. He turned his headset back on and motioned for Sheen to follow Nick, but he just stood there. "Libby! You there?" There was no response, only static. "Folfax, answer me!"
Jimmy listened intently, but there was still only heavy static. "Libby, if you can hear me, I need you to give us info as we fly the rockets. Warn us of the asteroids' paths and help us navigate through the field. Do you understand?" he shouted even loader, his voice cracking at the end. His throat was strained and burning with pain.
Jimmy waited a few seconds, and Libby's soft voice interrupted the static. "Jimmy…communications blocked…asteroids blocking…waves…can't…you." Jimmy clenched his hand into a fist and punched a boulder beside him in anger. She couldn't help them any further.
"…Luck," she continued, the static interrupting most of her words. "Talk…later…make it….shake…you Sheen…out." The line suddenly became enveloped with static. Jimmy turned his headset off and turned to Sheen.
"Why are you only taking three rockets?" he asked.
"Because only Nick, Cindy, and I are good enough to pilot them through this!" he shouted while motioning to the swirling mass of tiny rocks circling above them and crashing. "Anyone else trying to fly one is suicide!"
"You'll never fit the guns and all of the kids into three rockets!" Sheen shouted while following Jimmy as he ran towards Cindy and the rockets.
"We'll put the guns in the hypercube!" Jimmy shouted as he and Sheen came up to Cindy.
"The kids are in, but we don't know where the hypercube is!" she shouted, overhearing Jimmy's conversation.
Jimmy looked at the three rockets loaded with kids in front of him. They were crammed into every cart in the Ferris wheel, and packed to the brim in all of the other rockets. It looked hideously uncomfortable, but it was better than being bombarded with rocks. "Screw it! Forget the guns! We're leaving!" Jimmy shouted. Cindy and Nick nodded and jumped into their pilot seats.
Jimmy was about to follow suit, but Sheen grabbed his arm. "The asteroid and the guns were our main weapons against the Yolkians!" Sheen told him. "We're losing the asteroid, so we need the guns!"
"What are you suggesting?" Jimmy asked while jumping into the rocket Cindy had prepared for him and flipping several switches.
"I'll load a rocket with supplies and fly it!" Sheen offered.
Jimmy looked at his watch. Seven minutes. "You're not skilled enough to fly a rocket through this. I'm not even sure I can!" he shouted back, talking twice as fast as normal.
Sheen's face became red with anger. "God damn it Jimmy, I can do this!" he screamed. "I've flown with you more than Cindy and Nick combined. I've spent five hundred hours piloting a rocket in my video game. And without the guns you've already lost the fight! There's no time to argue, let me do this!" he quickly shouted.
Jimmy's mind raced as his precious last minutes began to run out. He's right. We need the guns. Jimmy looked Sheen in the eye. "Are you sure you can do this?"
"Yes!" Sheen shouted.
"Then go! Hurry!" Jimmy told him, but communications weren't possible at this point. The only sound that anyone could hear was the constant whizzing as asteroids flew by them and the loud roaring they made when they hit the ground. Jimmy nodded to get his point across, and Sheen ran off.
Jimmy turned on his headset. "Cindy, Nick, if you can hear me, we're going to wait until Sheen gets back to leave. I need to disengage another rocket from the asteroid!" he shouted while jumping out of his rocket. He ran towards the dozens of rockets tied down to the asteroid, their thrusters still firing every few seconds to alter Little Boy's course. He briefly glimpsed the Strato XL, sorry to have to leave it behind.
Sheen ran faster than he ever had in his life. He ran into his tent and grabbed his backpack and the canvas bag that was filled with all of his clothes. He dumped the clothes out onto the floor. He then grabbed his headset, put it on his head, and turned it on. "Sheen, if you can hear this, we're leaving in four minutes!" Jimmy shouted. "Move!"
Sheen ran towards the two tents filled with guns and ammunition. It was one of the rare times when luck was on their side. Nick had apparently brought all of the actual guns back from the firing range. The paintball guns were still there, but Sheen didn't give a rat's ass about those right now.
"Leaving in two minutes!" Jimmy warned Sheen. Sheen immediately threw as many pistols as he could into his backpack. "One hundred ten seconds!" Jimmy shouted.
"Shut up!" Sheen shouted back. Jimmy's voice was distracting him. He grabbed a few shotguns and rifles and ran into the next tent. He knelt down on the ground and threw the shotguns and rifles into the canvas bag. He then grabbed as many of the boxes of ammo and magazines that he could. He threw those into the canvas bag as well and zipped it closed.
"One minute!" Jimmy's terrified voice shouted. "Grab what you have and leave now!" Sheen grabbed two more boxes of shotgun ammunition and put them in his pockets. He put a box of pistol ammunition in between his teeth. He slung the backpack over one shoulder and the canvas bag over another. "Screw the guns, Sheen. You're more important! Get over here!" Jimmy shouted as loud and forcefully as he could. "That's an order!"
Sheen ran out of the tent as fast as he could. Dozens of asteroids touched down all around him. He tripped and fell onto the ground, and the box of ammo in his teeth fell out. He felt warn blood flow from his nose and down his shirt. He jumped back up, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulders from carrying his heavy load. He bent back his foot and kicked the box of ammunition of the ground as hard as he could. "Twelve seconds!" Jimmy shouted.
Sheen finally reached the rockets and threw the two bags into the back of the rocket Jimmy had prepared for him. Cindy, Nick, and Jimmy had their rockets fired up and ready to go. Sheen ran back a few feet and grabbed the box of 9mm bullets. "Get in the freaking rocket, Sheen!" Jimmy pleaded.
He tossed the box of
ammo in the back and jumped into the pilot's seat. Larger asteroids were now slamming into the ground around them, causing Little Boy to shake and start to crack into pieces. Sheen feverishly flipped switches and pushed buttons. "I do so relish these times of peril," he whispered, getting a heavy sense of déjà vu.
"Liftoff!" Jimmy shouted, not waiting any longer. He, Cindy, Nick, and Sheen barreled off into the sky, and straight towards a seemingly impenetrable wall of asteroids.