CHAPTER SIX
December 19, 2012 AD - 12:53 PM,
Middle of the Atlantic Ocean
15:53 GMT
• • • • •
“Luke! Hold on to something!”
The noise was so loud, Luke might not have heard him if Marshall hadn’t screamed his warning into the microphone, and the big PA speakers outside the boat blasted his orders across the rear deck. The electrical sizzle from the plating started to increase in intensity just as Marshall used the oversized side-thrusters to slam the Moondance into the side of the burning pleasure yacht, Saint-of-the-City, off their starboard. The robotic motors and the gearing on the back shield-canopy screamed in a high pitch whine as they slid ninety-degrees off of the stern deck and hovered about ten feet over the rear of the smoldering luxury ship.
Outside on the back deck, Luke didn’t need to be told to hang on. After dropping the large rubber bumpers over the side of the boat from the protection of the side walkway canopy, he clung to the railing on the rear of the Moondance like he was on the side of a mountain cliff. When the two ships impacted, he didn’t want to be thrown overboard into the space between the boats. He watched above him as the robot canopy finished extending the nano-shield across to the stricken yacht, which was rapidly beginning to burn in front of his eyes.
Both ships were now moving slightly to the right as the Moondance’s massive side thrusters caught the momentum of the sitting boat and began pushing it. As soon as the umbrella canopy of radiation shielding locked out over the side railing, Luke jumped across and grabbed onto the first thing he could grab. The hot railing of the exposed yacht began to burn into his palms, but he held on long enough to get his feet under him on the slippery deck of the new boat. Then he turned and ran through the back doors of the ship into the main cabin area and began screaming.
“Hello… Is anyone here? Hello… Hello…”
‘Where the hell is everyone?’ Luke thought to himself as he spun around in the luxury cabin looking for any movement. He was about to call out again when he heard someone from down below deck yelling back. It was a man’s voice. Luke ran for the wide open stairway at the far end of the large lounge room and jumped down the first seven stairs in one leap. On the next leap, he crashed onto the floor at the bottom of the huge staircase. Then he slowly got his balance and stood up before looking down the hallway. He was shocked by what he saw. A topless young boy and girl, who looked like they had just been removed from a broiler, were shivering and crying against a wall. Between the children, a man who looked like he was probably the captain of the boat was holding them under his arms. Across from those three, was a frightened woman wearing a nightgown, who was screaming at him. Next to her, was a dog, which was also barking viciously at him.
Luke started waving his arms at the stairs and began yelling at the terrified group.
“The boat is on fire. We have to get out of here now. Come up the stairs. We have to leave.”
Dwayne looked incredulously at Luke, who appeared out of nowhere, but he instantly decided not to question his lucky break. Dwayne picked up his blistered children and started up the hallway. He looked back over at his wife when he got to the bottom of the grand stairs.
“Honey, let’s go… Now.”
Janine shook off her hysteria and took off for the stairs, but Lola just kept barking. Luke started for the dog but realized it was a terrible idea when she bared her teeth and started growling in between her barks. He squatted down and tried to call the dog nicely, but she kept growling and backed away from him down the hall. Suddenly behind him, Luke heard a thump and a scream as Janine tripped on the first stair and collapsed in a heap. When he turned and saw Janine sprawled over the stairs, he jumped back around and quickly grabbed her by the waist. Then he pulled her upright and checked if she was still conscious. When he saw her frightened face was alert, Luke slid his arm around her waist and started pulling her up the stairs next to him. Behind them in the hall, Lola stopped barking as she watched Luke drag Janine up the stairs and away, but she didn’t move.
When Luke got upstairs into the main cabin area, Marshall had just arrived and was helping Dwayne at the back door out of the main room. He turned and screamed over the ear-splitting noise coming from the static discharge in the nano-shields when he saw Luke come up the stairs with Janine.
“We have eleven minutes and counting to get the hell out of here… Let’s go!”
Marshall reached down and grabbed the two children out of Dwayne’s hands before he could object. Then he turned and ran out the back cabin door carrying them like large half-naked sacks of potatoes. Marshall rounded the corner on the back deck and leapt across the railings of both ships in one jump like a hurdler. The bare feet of the facedown children dragged across both railings, smacking the bones on the top of the shoeless feet of Dawnne. When he landed on the other side, she began to scream again while she curled up into a little ball under Marshall’s iron gripped arm. This only made it easier for Marshall to hold on to her as he sprinted across the giant rear deck on the Moondance. He ran up to the open sliding glass doors then tossed the children inside the room like bowling balls. They both slid under the exam table, curled up into fetal positions and didn’t move.
Marshall started to turn around and run back, but he quickly took one last look at the timer and saw that it was approaching ten minutes; the halfway mark. He ran back over to the railing just in time to see Dwayne looking at the distance over the rails and the churning water between them. Marshall jumped the rails and grabbed Dwayne by the shoulders. Then he pointed to the cabin on the Moondance.
“Go… NOW!”
Dwayne looked at him, then looked at the railings again. He gritted his jaw together and forced his round midsection down onto his legs before springing up and over the sides of both boats. He tumbled onto the deck when he landed then rolled toward the middle of the boat. He bounced back up and looked back across at Marshall, who nodded his head and pointed inside the cabin of the Moondance. Dwayne looked in and saw his children, then took off for the rear cabin doors. When Marshall turned around on the burning boat, he saw Luke coming out of the rear door to the cabin with Janine. Luke looked up at his uncle as he ran past him.
“I need help with her. She’s almost catatonic,” he shouted as he shoved Janine over to the railing.
Marshall stepped next to Luke and jumped the railings in one stride again. When he landed on the Moondance rear deck, he flipped around and reached across the bumper car boats, grabbing Janine by the shoulders. His massive forearms flexed as Marshall’s thick fingers gripped onto her small frame. Then he yanked her airborne across both railings so quickly she looked weightless. Luke just barely had time to grab her ankles and keep them from banging on the hot metal railings. Then Luke mimicked his uncle and leapt sideways from one boat to the other. Then the two of them dragged Janine the rest of the way into the main cabin.
Lola started barking one deck down below just as Marshall pulled the Moondance away and started to retract the canopy of life. Somehow the sound penetrated her catatonia, and before the canopy was fully retracted back in, Janine snapped out of her shock and screamed.
“Lola!”
Then Janine tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t move very well. Dwayne grabbed her and held her from moving.
Marshall looked with confused open eyes at Luke. Luke quickly realized who Janine must have meant by Lola.
“Shit! It’s their dog. I forgot about her.” Luke realized his perfect memory had just failed him under stress. He tried to explain it to Marshall. “She wouldn’t come when I tried to get her. She’s down below in the hallway. I didn’t—”
Marshall reached back over to the panel and slammed the thrusters back the other direction throwing everyone in the cabin across the room from the sudden change in momentum. He looked at the countdown clock and saw it was now under ten minutes. They had passed the halfway point. Before he could think, the Moondance slammed into the Saint
-of-the-City once again, which was now on fire from stem to stern. Marshall sprinted back out the back door and rounded the corner. The canopy had not yet extended fully back over the side decks of the momentum connected boats, but Marshall dove headfirst through the air as he reached the railings, anyway. As his body became horizontally airborne, he left the protection of the radiation shielded canopy, and he immediately felt the burning rays of the Sun penetrating his back. He arced gracefully over both railings and landed on his hands doing a perfect forward roll onto the back deck of the stricken boat. Then he bounced up onto his feet and jumped into the open rear door of the lounge.
His back was steaming and already showing signs of a sunburn as he ran headlong into the main cabin area. When Marshall was inside a minute earlier, he saw an elevated railing for a sitting area above the grand staircase leading to the luxury cabins below. He charged across the room and leapt out over the staircase then grabbed the bottom rail over the opening to the lower decks like a gymnast mounting the high bar. As his body swung down and out over stairs below, he let go of the railing with his hands and his momentum carried him down the entire flight of stairs in a long, graceful movement. He hit the bottom of the hallway floor in a three point stance like a superhero landing off a building.
Lola had not moved an inch from the back of the hall. She was now barking full blast as Marshall slowly stood up and looked at her. He began to walk forward, and Lola barked even louder. Never taking his eyes off the dog’s eyes, he quickly picked up speed charging straight for the frightened animal. As he reached her and leapt forward, he swung his left arm across his face and extended it slightly out to the side. Lola took the bait and at the last minute turned to bite his left forearm just as he tackled her onto the floor. His impact knocked the breath out of the full-grown puppy, but she never let go of her bite.
That was just fine for Marshall.
The pain in his forearm was intense because she was really clamping down her jaw. However, her jaw was extended wide open to fit his large forearm into her mouth, and she could only bite so hard against his flexed muscle. He used his other arm to scoop her body up and used the arm in her mouth to hold her head against his chest. Then he turned and ran back toward the staircase. He took four steps at a time to the top of the stairs and ran out the back of the boat without stopping. When he got out the door, he planted his left heel expertly like a marching bandsman holding a furry tuba in front of him. As he changed direction ninety-degrees and charged across the final few feet of the deck, he lifted the terrified pooch higher on his chest. Then he leapt across the railings again; this time, curling his body in a forward-flip. He landed hard on his shoulder and back against the deck as the dog yelped out in pain and fear on his belly.
Marshall tucked his body and rolled back up into a squatting position with the dog in front of him and just his feet on the ground. Before his momentum stopped, he shot up with his massive legs then jumped sideways into the cabin. As he flew horizontally into the room, he rotated with the dog until it was underneath his body, and they both landed hard on the smooth floor then slid inside the door. When Marshall landed on the dog and knocked the breath out of her once more, it was all she could take. Lola finally released her grip on his arm, and Marshall jumped up with perfect teeth marks from the frightened canine on his left forearm. Lola continued to lay on the floor sucking for air as Marshall charged into the captain’s chair in front of the main monitor and helm. He flipped the thrusters back away from the burning hulk of the fifteen million dollar Life-Journey-Machine of Dwayne Boudreaux’s. Then he pushed a button on the joystick on the arm of his chair as he screamed across the noise.
“Luke, get everyone down below.”
Luke quickly grabbed up the first Boudreaux he could reach and ran them downstairs to the galley. Marshall looked at the timer once more and saw that it had just passed seven minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Then he looked up at the monitors and realized how far they were inside the magnetic hole anomaly. He shoved the joystick to the left while jamming the twin multi-prop engines to full power. The boat shot forward and leapt sideways at the same time, tumbling the dog and the remaining Boudreaux bodies across the floor just as the rear sliding glass doors automatically closed and sealed shut.
As the large ship turned around and headed back due west, the Moondance flattened out and planed up on its hull, and the rear retractable canopy pulled down into its stowed position.
Everywhere around the exterior of the boat, sparks from the nano-shield plating were popping and snapping like electrical equipment gone mad. The storm was getting more intense and had been beating down now for over thirteen minutes. As the boat picked up speed, it looked like sparklers were streaming out behind it, leaving a trail of smoke and electrical sizzle. The sound from the storm and the sizzle of the nano plating screamed off the boat and combined with the roar from the engines of the Moondance into a cacophony of noise that sounded terrifying, as much as it sounded loud.
Marshall watched the speedometer approach seventy-five knots and keep accelerating. Then he punched up another screen with vector trajectory headings for the boat and the wall of the radiation hole overlaid on it. As he watched the screen data, the time-to-exit number switched from nine to ten minutes.
It was going up, not down.
He looked at the computer generated wall of magnetic hole on the main screen and could see that it was expanding faster than they were moving. They weren’t going to make it out of the storm at this speed. Marshall realized instantly he had no choice. He reached out and lifted the safety cover on the dashboard switch then flipped the unmarked knob for the second time that day. The speedometer had just hit eighty-five knots when a deep shudder came from the bottom of the boat. It stopped after just a few moments, and the sound of the engines and the multi-props changed pitch radically. Just then, the final windows sealed shut, and the boat locked itself down into racing position. From a distance, the Moondance now looked like a gigantic open water cigarette boat. Just as the silhouette became locked into racing position, the entire boat leapt three feet into the air. The multi-props folded up into the bottom of the hull just as twin jet engines, which had extended on pylon nacelles outside the large rear deck, fired into afterburner. Then the giant-sized jet on the water extended small wings from the bow of the main hull and the sides of the upper wheelhouse, which was now fully retracted onto the top of the boat. After only a second more, the boat stabilized into smooth flight and began accelerating.
As the turbo jet engines screamed open their fiery throats, the Moondance lifted smoothly up another twelve feet into the air and rocketed across the ocean. Four long, graceful blades extended down from the bottom of the hull and pierced the water. Below the surface, specially shaped hydrofoils slid through the sea like dolphins and held the massive boat above the drag of the water. Four perfect wake streams fanned out behind the boat from the wing shaped pylon blades, and the ship quickly began to accelerate faster than any normal surface ship could ever achieve. Waves of electrical sparks streamed off the skin of the nano-shield plating and made the ship look like a phoenix flying fifteen feet off of the surface of the ocean at 170 knots.
He looked at the time-to-exit as it passed seventeen minutes and was still climbing. Even at this amazing speed, Marshall realized, they still weren’t going to make it outside the edge of the hole before the radiation levels became dangerous on the Moondance. The twenty minute safety window was almost out of time.
He quickly set the auto-pilot and programmed the border of the wall into the navigational computer. Then he double-checked the sonar and ran down below. When he got to the galley, he grabbed Luke and spoke quietly to him.
“Bring everyone down below with me… and don’t ask any questions.”
Luke began to gather up the family Boudreaux, including the Boudreaux dog this time, and followed Marshall downstairs. They went down the final flight into the bottom of the boat and approached a solid metal door, wh
ich had never been entered by Luke. This was the hatch to the engine room, which Marshall had been adamant no one could enter but him. Marshall reached the door and opened a small panel on the side of the wall. He pressed a code on a keypad and the thick metal door opened slightly. Then he pulled the hatch all the way to the side and motioned for the group to enter. Everyone quickly made it into the room behind the door marked, Engine Room.
It was clearly not the engine room, however.
Instead, it was a long corridor which had plain metal walls with a few cabinets built flush into the sides and another similar hatch at the far end. It had plenty of room for everyone to be in it.
Marshall pulled the thick metal door shut behind him and turned around to see the group. He gave Luke a quick glance and then looked over to the family inside this mysterious corridor in the middle of his boat. The Boudreaux adults were holding each other against the wall, and the children were mostly just shaking and shivering on the floor across from them. Then Marshall looked at his nephew again. “Luke, come help me for a minute.”
As he walked over to a cabinet in the wall, Luke joined him. Marshall started talking quietly to him as he opened the cabinet and removed several items.
“Take this first aid kit and begin treating the two kids. It looks like second degree burns mostly.”
“What about the radiation outside? It won’t matter how deep we are in your—”
Marshall interrupted him.
“This is a radiation shielded room. It’s got both solid lead panels and your nano-stuff on the top and around all the sides. It’s rated to handle a lot more radiation than it’s getting upstairs.”
Luke started to ask, but Marshall shook his head and continued.
“I’ll check the mother and father and make sure they’re not going into shock. Try to make sure the dog is comfortable and calm, we can’t put her out of here.”
Luke nodded his head in agreement as he opened the first aid kit and turned away. Marshall debated quickly if he should tell Luke the magnetic hole was growing, but he decided to wait for later. Right now he had guests on his boat that need tending to. He looked down just as Lola walked up beside him and leaned against his leg. He got a genuine smile from the canine loving as he reached down and patted her head, and she looked up and licked his hand in return. He let her finish and rubbed between her ears. Then he and Lola walked over to Dwayne and Janine. Marshall stuck out his hand to Dwayne.
“Permission to come aboard granted. My name is Marshall Tomkin, and this is my nephew, Luke, who’s a doctor. If it’s okay with you, he’s gonna check on your children. While he’s doing that, if you want, there’s a bench in the wall behind you. I can lower it down, and you two won’t have to stand.” He looked at Luke and nodded toward the bulkhead beside the kids. “There are some cots in the wall back there. See if you can get the children into them and off the floor.”
Luke lowered the closest berth and handed the topless girl a sheet to cover up. Then he began to move her and her brother off the floor.
Dwayne tried to smile as he looked between the two men who just saved his family.
Neither Luke nor Marshall could possibly know how grateful Dwayne was.
But Dwayne grabbed Marshall’s hand and shook it for all it was worth, anyway.
CHAPTER SEVEN
1989 AD – Guatemala,
Central America