Chapter 8
“Wake up, Niles. I don’t know what to do. I’ve never flown anything like this before in my life. I regret not taking my father’s suggestion to join him to learn how to do this. Everything here looks foreign to me. I can’t make heads or tails out of anything.” She had heard that these vessels were powered by not only a particle engine, but also by the mind. It was said that those that had learned were implanted with a certain neural enhancement. She did not have that, so getting out of this by landing the vessel on her own was out of the question. She did notice that she could understand the information being displayed in front of her eyes.
She slapped him over and over again and still there was no response. She was panicking over seeing that the ship was dangerously close to coming in contact with the planet’s gravitational force. It would only be a short time and then they would be in the same situation that Kaman had found himself in.
“There has to be something that I can do. Right now, I’m basically a sitting duck with no way out of here, besides an untimely death that would certainly bring war to all the colonies. My family would take a dim light about me dying on an expedition that was meant to keep our best interest at heart.” She remembered something that was said before their departure and then it was like that memory had suddenly given her an idea.
He looked around and at first, it seemed like a daunting tasks that was left to others with the intellect for this type of thing. She was tempted to pound every button, but that would have only made things worse. She finally was able to see that there was a communication device on board. She pressed on the receiver and said the only thing that came to mind “I don’t know who is out there listening to this, but I’m in a bad spot. I need some help.” She waited patiently. It appeared that her pleas for mercy had fallen on deaf ears. “I know that this is unusual, but Prince Niles has passed out and I cannot revive him. If somebody doesn’t do something soon, then the both of us are going to die right here and right now.” Once again, she could only hear static.
At first, Sousa really didn’t pay much attention, but then when he heard that his master was in dire circumstances, it seemed necessary to answer the call for help. “I hear you, Scarlet. What exactly do you propose for a way to get out of this?”
“It was said before we took off that when one of them won the battle that the ship that I was in would beam me down to the planet’s surface. I’m not sure if that’s only if the ship is destroyed, or if it’s when one of the ships is destroyed. Either way, I think that might be the answer to this little dilemma. Kaman tried his best, but he was unable to complete his task. Niles got the best of him and Kaman is right now plummeting towards the planet. If I were you, I would warn those in the vicinity of the impact site that they should not be there when it happens.” “Particle engines are very unstable and can cause a crater that is 10 miles in diameter. Whatever was in its way would ultimately be destroyed.”
“I think that you might be on to something about beaming down to the planet, but I’m going to have to consult with one of our scientists. Bear with me, as I contact him and also send out a warning to those that are in the path of the trajectory of that vessel out of control. I do hope that this will not take long, but there’s no way to know for sure.” He went and found the scientist, while at the same time informing Niles father that his son was in jeopardy.
“I do hope that you hurry up, because I don’t think that time is the one thing that we have on our side.” The proximity alarm inside the vessel began to go off. It was deafening. She found the button that would mute the alarm, so that she didn’t go completely crazy. According to the dials, it would be no more than a couple of minutes before the ship was pulled into a downward spiral that would be out of control. Niles may have won the battle, but he might have actually destroyed the chance for them to be together.
Niles father decided that it was time for him to come to the rescue. The scientist was on hand, but he looked a little confused. “Miss Lotus, this is Niles father and I have the scientist here with me. He doesn’t look at all happy about your suggestion, but he says that it is possible under adverse conditions that you both could be beamed down to the planet. I hate to tell you this, but the solution is for you to find the self destruct button and initiate a countdown. Once it reaches critical, then the ship should automatically send you and my son down to the planet’s surface. It is widely known that this can be detrimental to your health, but I don’t think that we have much of a choice. Find the button that’s’ underneath the console. You’ll need to press on it for a full of 3 seconds. Trust me, if there was another way, I would be the first to tell you.”
“What you’re basically telling me is that I have to make this ship explode, before it will allow me and Niles to leave this vessel unharmed. I really don’t like the sound of this, but if you believe that this is the only chance, then I guess I’m going to have to follow your directions to the letter.” “I feel like I’m in over my head, but it looks like it’s up to me to get this done. Even if Niles was awake, I doubt that even he would be able to bring this vessel down safely.” Suddenly, there was the sound of an explosion and even through the atmosphere the particle engine making impact lit up the planet like they were celebrating some kind of festival.
“That was too close for comfort. It appears that Kaman has come down and has taken a 10 mile piece of property with him. We barely survived the blast. The windows in our home have been blown in. We had to take cover.” Niles father listened for some kind of response, but it appeared that the blast had interfered with communications. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I do hope that everything works out. The scientist is calculating where you’re going to be beamed down to and we’re going to send out a search party to retrieve you.”
“Here goes nothing and maybe it’s a good thing that you’re sleeping right now, Niles. If this doesn’t work, you’ll just go to sleep forever and never have a clue that this even happened. I’m a little bit jealous that you have that option, when I have to face death in the face.” She reached underneath the console and found the button. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she pressed it and held it for 3 seconds. Almost immediately, the screen flashed a 20 minute countdown. She had to bypass that by pressing the button again to bring that countdown to a mere 1 minute. It wasn’t long to get things straight in her head, but she did realize that Niles meant more to her than she thought he did.
“I thought that I was immune to the charms of a man. Niles is no ordinary man by any means. I thought that I was destined to be alone, but I see now that I was only poisoning my own soul. I do want what everybody else wants, but I tried to convince myself otherwise for the sake of sticking it to my parents. Seeing my life flash before my eyes, I have come to some painful conclusions about the way that I treated them. They were only trying to make my life better. At every turn, I was more than happy to sully our good name with too many dalliances to speak of. I feel like such a fool and maybe this is the reason why this is happening.”
The time was at the 30 second mark and those 30 seconds seemed like an eternity for her and for those on the planet waiting for word if they survived or not. She did not want to go out the same way that Kaman did. She could only imagine that he was screaming all the way down, but it was the impact that had finally did him in. Seeing death come for you like that couldn’t be easy, but maybe there was a sense of peace that came along with it.
The time was at the 20 second mark. It really did feel to Scarlet that this was never going to end. She closed her eyes, as she really didn’t want to know one way or the other. If this worked, then they would find out very shortly and if it didn’t, then she probably would be meeting up with her own ancestors in the afterlife. She reached out for Niles hand, gripped it tightly and tried to find the strength from him to keep herself from screaming.
The 10 second mark was a very chilling moment. She could feel that her life was over and her only regret was that she didn’t get a chance to finish what she started with Prince Niles. That man was what she wanted in her life. The blinding bright light told her that the time for hopes and dreams were over.