Post by sean on Feb 22, 2008 16:07:02 GMT -5
Across the Shadows
Prologue
The waves rolled across the ocean faster than they ever have. Something was about to happen. Children and parents played in the water while everyone else was sunbathing. The beach grew suddenly bright. Then, the sun seemed to shrink rapidly until it was no longer visible. What happened next would change the world forever, within a second. A wave one thousand times the height of the tallest building engulfed everything as far as the eye could see, but never broke or fell down to the ground. It was pitch black and nothing could be seen. There was a loud exploding sound and it was as bright as it had been a second ago. The sun had just imploded. A thick fog covered everything, then it was pitch black again.
END REPORT
1
“dangit!” A man with long blond hair stood in front of a podium with many buttons and levers. “Almost! So close, yet so far away.”
A tall man in his late forties stood behind him. “Sir Flan, maybe we should pack up and try again tomorrow. You need rest. We've been out here for a straight week.”
Flan fell backwards into his chair, exhausted. “I think you're right, Dill. We were so close!” he stood up and looked across at his crew. “That's enough, you all can go home.” The crew began shutting down the monitors and turning everything off. “Dill, will you fetch the goggles for the crew?”
“Of course, Sir Flan.” Dill turned around and walked over to a cabinet filled with goggles. He went around the room, handing goggles to everyone until there were only two left. These goggles, however, were different from the others. “Sir Flan, be careful.” he said as he handed Flan the goggles.
“Always am. I'm in a rush so if ya would tell everyone they don't need to come in tomorrow, that would be great. It'll just be me and you.. I'll explain tomorrow.” Flan took his goggles and ran out the door. Dill made the announcement and did the same.
2
“Assemble in the armory immediately. I repeat, assemble in the armory immediately.” A woman with shoulder length black hair got out of her chair and did as the voice from the radio told. She picked a pair of goggles from a table by the door. The air outside was cold. The woman put on her goggles and began running, to get indoors as quickly as possible. It was pitch black, but the goggles indicated which way to go. The woman soon found herself in front of a door which she couldn't see. She felt around with her hands for a minute until she found the handle. She stepped in and took off her goggles as she was greeted by two men in the same uniform she was wearing.
“Hey! Officer Jenda! How've ya been?” the men seemed very happy to see her.
“Well, I've been better. So, what's going on? Why were we called here?” Jenda was puzzled when they stared at the ground for a minute before answering.
“Well, Ted and I were on duty, monitoring the progress as usual, then, they almost made it! We informed Sir Lanch immediately.” Ted and Blaine stood there, waiting for a reaction.
“Are you serious! That's great! How close did they some?” Jenda was smiling from ear to ear.
“That's not such a good thing! The device landed soaking wet!We don't know what's up there!” Ted stood still, furious.
“Calm down! I out rank you. Raise your voice again and you'll be demoted further!” Jenda, also furious, proceeded to her assigned post on the other side of the armory.
The crowd of people started moving more quickly. Everyone had moved into 10 rows of 50. The room was silent. The double doors at the front were quickly pushed open from the other side until they slammed in to the wall. A tall man with short black hair and an eye patch hurried to the podium on the stage. He looked across at the rows of people in uniform. Some looked scared, some looked anxious, and one looked delighted. The man stared at officer Jenda for a second before speaking.
“I have been informed that Garrett Sciences reached the top.” as Lanch said this, all except three gasped. “However, they did not make it any further. Once at the top, they came crashing down...soaking wet.” Everyone began calling out questions. Lanch made a gesture with his hand and the room fell silent.
“I've sent out retrievers to recover the object, see how they did it, and prevent it from happening again.” Immediately after saying this, Lanch turned around and left the room. The crowd was in an uproar.
3
Flan walked into his living room after a long period spent sleeping. He looked around the room at all of the electronics that haven't worked for years. He sighed, “Soon, very soon.” He grabbed his jacket and goggles off of the back of his couch and ran out the door.
Flan arrived at an elevator. With the goggles he designed, he could see perfectly. Using the handles, he ripped off the elevator doors, stepped in, and replaced the doors. There was a blue piece of construction paper on the back wall. He replaced it with a green one lying on the floor, then pulled a lever that was next to it. There were several loud clicks and the whole elevator shook violently. Flan held onto the rails on each side of the elevator and squeezed his eyes shut. He could almost hear a man screaming. The elevator came to an abrupt halt. The clicking stopped and Flan opened his eyes. Removing the doors, he stepped into the room he had been in the day before and replaced the doors.
“Sir Flan! I went out after I left and retrieved our launch.” Dill was smiling. Flan was bewildered by this. He could have been smiling because this was the first time they've been able to recover a launch, but this smile was much to happy for that to be 2 the only reason.
“Why do you seem so happy?” Flan thought about it for a second. Then it hit him, his face lit up as he said, “We've reached the top!?” Dill nodded. Flan jumped so high, he almost hit the ceiling. “Where is it! I wanna see!”
“Right over here.” Dill led him to the opposite corner of the room. Flan froze in place.
“Come on Grandpa! The water's fine!” called a child with short blond hair wearing goggles. He waited until a wave came, then ran away from it as if it were chasing him. “Come on! Come and play!” A bald man in his fifties stood and watched his grandson play in the ocean water.
“It's almost time to go home, Jeffy. We can stay for a couple more minutes.” Jeffy continued to play as if the man hadn't said anything.
“Oooooohhhhh! Grandpa G! Look at that big wave!” Just as he had said that, it became suddenly bright. A small wave knocked him under the water. The light hurt his eyes a little for a second, then it got dark and everything began to shake violently. He came up out of the water and scanned the beach for his grandfather. He began to cry when he couldn't find him through the crowd of people. Jeffy heard a rumbling sound from behind and turned around to see the giant wave he was pointing at a second ago fly over his head. It got bright again for only a second. In that second, he saw grandpa and ran over to him. A thick fog suddenly appeared and then it was pitch black.
“Sir Flan! Are you alright?” Flan was back in the room, crying half from joy of hitting the wave, and half from finally remembering the worst day of his life.
He sniffled before saying, “Yea...I'm alright. It's wet. That's good. Tomorrow, it will rain. Today, we work our asses off.” Flan began smiling. He ran to a door next to the elevator. He entered a room filled with suits meant to withstand any heat. He put on a suit and entered the next door, shutting it as soon as he got through. The room was one hundred times hotter than the hottest oven. “Perfect.”
He left the room and took off the suit. Without saying a word, he took the wet launch and threw it into the hot room. “Sir, what are you planning to do now?” Dill stood, eager to help.
“At the top is water. We super heat the launch and shoot it up there. All the water evaporates, or at least a portion, and we've made it through! We just need to build something to propel it up there in under a millisecond.” Flan was almost laughing.
“But that's pretty much impossible!” Dill replied. Flan nodded.
“We must use our time wisely. It's not an easy task. It should take hundreds of years. We're gonna do it in a day!” He ran to a cabinet by the podium and began pulling out all sorts of tools, bolts, and many others. “Let's get to work!” He began working immediately.
4
Jenda entered her house and took off her goggles. She pulled a magnet out of her pocket and placed it on the doorknob. Lights flickered on, clocks lit up, and other electronics began working. A cat with a mechanical paw ran over and jumped into her arms. She walked over and sat down on her couch. She put the cat down next to her and pulled up her right pant leg to reveal a mechanical leg. She undid five latches down the front of at and pressed a button. The case slowly opened to reveal a human leg, no thicker than a pencil. She removed her boots, revealing her two normal sized feet. She laid down on her couch and stroked her cat. The radio in her pocket started vibrating. She pulled it out and pressed a button labeled COMM.
“Officer Jenda, the retrievers haven't been able to find the GS device. I am sending you and your squad to locate it.” Lanch sounded very frustrated.
“Ya know what Lanch?! Find it yourself! I'm done taking orders from you! I quit! And by the way, I'm shutting down your power magnets. Have fun!” Jenda threw the radio down and repeatedly stomped on it with her left foot. She picked up what looked like a hand held video game. She switched it on and pulled down a lever so hard, it snapped off. She pressed a button and the screen came onen she began pressing buttons, the screen showed the outside, as if it were as bright as day. Using a directional pad, she steered whatever the device was connected to. As it moved, wipers constantly cleared the screen of moisture. Jenda moved it around for awhile until she came to a big door with a tiny label. She waited a second, examining it. She then put the device down beside her and walked over to her door. She pulled the magnet off and stepped outside. She bent over and pulled off what looked like a scar on her right foot.
“It's time!”she said to herself excitedly. Jenda pushed the magnet into the spot and replaced the cover. She stood up and cracked her knuckles as she was instantly pulled from where she was. A second later, she was abruptly stopped. Without looking, she bent over and picked up a wheel.
“Hello?”she said as she knocked on the door. A series of yelling and banging came from inside. She waited several minutes before someone came to the door.
“Hello. How can i help you?” Flan was covered in grease, sought, dirt, ash, and many more things.
“I need to talk to you in private. It's not safe out here.” Flan stood for a second, then grabbed her hand and pulled her in. He closed the door and started the elevator.
“Hold on!” he yelled over the clicks and rumbling. They arrived in the room that was now cluttered with many tools, gadgets, and pretty much everything else. “This is my good friend Dill. Anything you can tell me, you can tell him.” Jenda stood still, blinking.
“There's light in here! I knew the people at GS were geniuses, but I had no idea you could do this!” She ran around the room touching everything she could.
“Don't touch! Now what did you want to talk about?” Jenda slowly walked up to him.
“First, I want to help. Second, I have some very valuable information. Third, you're never going to get through like this.” The last one made both Flan and Dill freeze in their place.
“Flan cleared his throat, “Yes to the first, great to the second, and WHAT!” Flans eyes looked like they were staring right into Jenda's soul.
“I'm sure you've heard of Lanch Inc.. They don't like what you're doing. The reason you haven't retrieved any of your launches is because they've been finding them and studying them. You haven't broke through yet because they've been countering every launch. Believe it or not, I was a high ranking officer with them until just a few minutes ago. I quit because I was tired of being afraid of what's up there. I can help you design something they will not see coming.” Jenda waited for a reaction. He had no idea someone had been monitoring his every move.
It's a work in progress. The numbers are chapter numbers. I would be happy if i got some constructive criticism.
Prologue
The waves rolled across the ocean faster than they ever have. Something was about to happen. Children and parents played in the water while everyone else was sunbathing. The beach grew suddenly bright. Then, the sun seemed to shrink rapidly until it was no longer visible. What happened next would change the world forever, within a second. A wave one thousand times the height of the tallest building engulfed everything as far as the eye could see, but never broke or fell down to the ground. It was pitch black and nothing could be seen. There was a loud exploding sound and it was as bright as it had been a second ago. The sun had just imploded. A thick fog covered everything, then it was pitch black again.
END REPORT
1
“dangit!” A man with long blond hair stood in front of a podium with many buttons and levers. “Almost! So close, yet so far away.”
A tall man in his late forties stood behind him. “Sir Flan, maybe we should pack up and try again tomorrow. You need rest. We've been out here for a straight week.”
Flan fell backwards into his chair, exhausted. “I think you're right, Dill. We were so close!” he stood up and looked across at his crew. “That's enough, you all can go home.” The crew began shutting down the monitors and turning everything off. “Dill, will you fetch the goggles for the crew?”
“Of course, Sir Flan.” Dill turned around and walked over to a cabinet filled with goggles. He went around the room, handing goggles to everyone until there were only two left. These goggles, however, were different from the others. “Sir Flan, be careful.” he said as he handed Flan the goggles.
“Always am. I'm in a rush so if ya would tell everyone they don't need to come in tomorrow, that would be great. It'll just be me and you.. I'll explain tomorrow.” Flan took his goggles and ran out the door. Dill made the announcement and did the same.
2
“Assemble in the armory immediately. I repeat, assemble in the armory immediately.” A woman with shoulder length black hair got out of her chair and did as the voice from the radio told. She picked a pair of goggles from a table by the door. The air outside was cold. The woman put on her goggles and began running, to get indoors as quickly as possible. It was pitch black, but the goggles indicated which way to go. The woman soon found herself in front of a door which she couldn't see. She felt around with her hands for a minute until she found the handle. She stepped in and took off her goggles as she was greeted by two men in the same uniform she was wearing.
“Hey! Officer Jenda! How've ya been?” the men seemed very happy to see her.
“Well, I've been better. So, what's going on? Why were we called here?” Jenda was puzzled when they stared at the ground for a minute before answering.
“Well, Ted and I were on duty, monitoring the progress as usual, then, they almost made it! We informed Sir Lanch immediately.” Ted and Blaine stood there, waiting for a reaction.
“Are you serious! That's great! How close did they some?” Jenda was smiling from ear to ear.
“That's not such a good thing! The device landed soaking wet!We don't know what's up there!” Ted stood still, furious.
“Calm down! I out rank you. Raise your voice again and you'll be demoted further!” Jenda, also furious, proceeded to her assigned post on the other side of the armory.
The crowd of people started moving more quickly. Everyone had moved into 10 rows of 50. The room was silent. The double doors at the front were quickly pushed open from the other side until they slammed in to the wall. A tall man with short black hair and an eye patch hurried to the podium on the stage. He looked across at the rows of people in uniform. Some looked scared, some looked anxious, and one looked delighted. The man stared at officer Jenda for a second before speaking.
“I have been informed that Garrett Sciences reached the top.” as Lanch said this, all except three gasped. “However, they did not make it any further. Once at the top, they came crashing down...soaking wet.” Everyone began calling out questions. Lanch made a gesture with his hand and the room fell silent.
“I've sent out retrievers to recover the object, see how they did it, and prevent it from happening again.” Immediately after saying this, Lanch turned around and left the room. The crowd was in an uproar.
3
Flan walked into his living room after a long period spent sleeping. He looked around the room at all of the electronics that haven't worked for years. He sighed, “Soon, very soon.” He grabbed his jacket and goggles off of the back of his couch and ran out the door.
Flan arrived at an elevator. With the goggles he designed, he could see perfectly. Using the handles, he ripped off the elevator doors, stepped in, and replaced the doors. There was a blue piece of construction paper on the back wall. He replaced it with a green one lying on the floor, then pulled a lever that was next to it. There were several loud clicks and the whole elevator shook violently. Flan held onto the rails on each side of the elevator and squeezed his eyes shut. He could almost hear a man screaming. The elevator came to an abrupt halt. The clicking stopped and Flan opened his eyes. Removing the doors, he stepped into the room he had been in the day before and replaced the doors.
“Sir Flan! I went out after I left and retrieved our launch.” Dill was smiling. Flan was bewildered by this. He could have been smiling because this was the first time they've been able to recover a launch, but this smile was much to happy for that to be 2 the only reason.
“Why do you seem so happy?” Flan thought about it for a second. Then it hit him, his face lit up as he said, “We've reached the top!?” Dill nodded. Flan jumped so high, he almost hit the ceiling. “Where is it! I wanna see!”
“Right over here.” Dill led him to the opposite corner of the room. Flan froze in place.
“Come on Grandpa! The water's fine!” called a child with short blond hair wearing goggles. He waited until a wave came, then ran away from it as if it were chasing him. “Come on! Come and play!” A bald man in his fifties stood and watched his grandson play in the ocean water.
“It's almost time to go home, Jeffy. We can stay for a couple more minutes.” Jeffy continued to play as if the man hadn't said anything.
“Oooooohhhhh! Grandpa G! Look at that big wave!” Just as he had said that, it became suddenly bright. A small wave knocked him under the water. The light hurt his eyes a little for a second, then it got dark and everything began to shake violently. He came up out of the water and scanned the beach for his grandfather. He began to cry when he couldn't find him through the crowd of people. Jeffy heard a rumbling sound from behind and turned around to see the giant wave he was pointing at a second ago fly over his head. It got bright again for only a second. In that second, he saw grandpa and ran over to him. A thick fog suddenly appeared and then it was pitch black.
“Sir Flan! Are you alright?” Flan was back in the room, crying half from joy of hitting the wave, and half from finally remembering the worst day of his life.
He sniffled before saying, “Yea...I'm alright. It's wet. That's good. Tomorrow, it will rain. Today, we work our asses off.” Flan began smiling. He ran to a door next to the elevator. He entered a room filled with suits meant to withstand any heat. He put on a suit and entered the next door, shutting it as soon as he got through. The room was one hundred times hotter than the hottest oven. “Perfect.”
He left the room and took off the suit. Without saying a word, he took the wet launch and threw it into the hot room. “Sir, what are you planning to do now?” Dill stood, eager to help.
“At the top is water. We super heat the launch and shoot it up there. All the water evaporates, or at least a portion, and we've made it through! We just need to build something to propel it up there in under a millisecond.” Flan was almost laughing.
“But that's pretty much impossible!” Dill replied. Flan nodded.
“We must use our time wisely. It's not an easy task. It should take hundreds of years. We're gonna do it in a day!” He ran to a cabinet by the podium and began pulling out all sorts of tools, bolts, and many others. “Let's get to work!” He began working immediately.
4
Jenda entered her house and took off her goggles. She pulled a magnet out of her pocket and placed it on the doorknob. Lights flickered on, clocks lit up, and other electronics began working. A cat with a mechanical paw ran over and jumped into her arms. She walked over and sat down on her couch. She put the cat down next to her and pulled up her right pant leg to reveal a mechanical leg. She undid five latches down the front of at and pressed a button. The case slowly opened to reveal a human leg, no thicker than a pencil. She removed her boots, revealing her two normal sized feet. She laid down on her couch and stroked her cat. The radio in her pocket started vibrating. She pulled it out and pressed a button labeled COMM.
“Officer Jenda, the retrievers haven't been able to find the GS device. I am sending you and your squad to locate it.” Lanch sounded very frustrated.
“Ya know what Lanch?! Find it yourself! I'm done taking orders from you! I quit! And by the way, I'm shutting down your power magnets. Have fun!” Jenda threw the radio down and repeatedly stomped on it with her left foot. She picked up what looked like a hand held video game. She switched it on and pulled down a lever so hard, it snapped off. She pressed a button and the screen came onen she began pressing buttons, the screen showed the outside, as if it were as bright as day. Using a directional pad, she steered whatever the device was connected to. As it moved, wipers constantly cleared the screen of moisture. Jenda moved it around for awhile until she came to a big door with a tiny label. She waited a second, examining it. She then put the device down beside her and walked over to her door. She pulled the magnet off and stepped outside. She bent over and pulled off what looked like a scar on her right foot.
“It's time!”she said to herself excitedly. Jenda pushed the magnet into the spot and replaced the cover. She stood up and cracked her knuckles as she was instantly pulled from where she was. A second later, she was abruptly stopped. Without looking, she bent over and picked up a wheel.
“Hello?”she said as she knocked on the door. A series of yelling and banging came from inside. She waited several minutes before someone came to the door.
“Hello. How can i help you?” Flan was covered in grease, sought, dirt, ash, and many more things.
“I need to talk to you in private. It's not safe out here.” Flan stood for a second, then grabbed her hand and pulled her in. He closed the door and started the elevator.
“Hold on!” he yelled over the clicks and rumbling. They arrived in the room that was now cluttered with many tools, gadgets, and pretty much everything else. “This is my good friend Dill. Anything you can tell me, you can tell him.” Jenda stood still, blinking.
“There's light in here! I knew the people at GS were geniuses, but I had no idea you could do this!” She ran around the room touching everything she could.
“Don't touch! Now what did you want to talk about?” Jenda slowly walked up to him.
“First, I want to help. Second, I have some very valuable information. Third, you're never going to get through like this.” The last one made both Flan and Dill freeze in their place.
“Flan cleared his throat, “Yes to the first, great to the second, and WHAT!” Flans eyes looked like they were staring right into Jenda's soul.
“I'm sure you've heard of Lanch Inc.. They don't like what you're doing. The reason you haven't retrieved any of your launches is because they've been finding them and studying them. You haven't broke through yet because they've been countering every launch. Believe it or not, I was a high ranking officer with them until just a few minutes ago. I quit because I was tired of being afraid of what's up there. I can help you design something they will not see coming.” Jenda waited for a reaction. He had no idea someone had been monitoring his every move.
It's a work in progress. The numbers are chapter numbers. I would be happy if i got some constructive criticism.