The great finale! I can't believe a wrote a five part fic
without mushy scenes between J&J and no references to "Ghost Quest"
and such... *shudder!* What's the world coming to?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, except Mary
Walker and the staff of the Chronos Complex! Oh,
yeah, I am not making any money with this!
Sinopsis: A trip to a laboratory that does research on time?
Why does that sounds like trouble?
Classification: E
Archivers: Go ahead!
-----------------------
The Time of Your Life
by Carlos Rodriguez
-----------------------
Final Chapter
"Revelations"
The emergency generator was in a small shed apart from the
Complex's main building. A loud hum filled the air around it.
Jessie and Mary reached the door and Mary quickly tapped an entry
code into the small touchpad.
Nothing happened.
"Damn!" Mary muttered under her breath. She quickly looked
around for something she could use to open the panel...
"The air has gotten very thin, Race" Hadji observed. "I'm
afraid an explosion that might open the door would also consume the
rest of the avalaible oxygen."
"Besides, I'm not sure how big an explosion we would need to
crack it open." Dhatu added.
Benton sighed and tried once again to communicate with
Jonny and Jessie using his Questwatch. The only thing he received was
static. Somehow, Noys was jamming the transmission.
'When I get out of here' Benton thought 'I'll have to do
something about the security of the IRIS computers. Surd will pay
for this.'
Jonny dashed through the woods, trying to reach the Complex
to help Mary and Jessie. He knew they must have reached the emergency
generator by now and were trying to shut off Noys. He was worried about
them. He was sure that Surd had a trap waiting. He'd even told them as
much, but Jonny didn't know how seriously Mary and Jessie had heeded
the warning. So he ran blindly, praying that he wouldn't be too late.
"Just as I thought." Mary said as she studied the wires behind
the panel. "Julia has been tampering with this as well. Damn security
system!"
Jessie looked at the panel very carefully. A small device,
with a LCD screen and some keys, was wired into the main panel of
the circuitry.
"I've seen one of these things before... I think I can use
it to crack the code."
"Then do it, Ace. Every second counts!"
"Well, this is our last shot." Race said, as he removed the
panel from the wall.
He hadn't expected to see this. Thousands of wires were
running behind the wall, each one of them controlling one feature of
the room.
Race sighed. This wasn't going to be very easy.
"I need your help, Hadji. We have to find a wire."
"That's it!" Jessie exclaimed as she issued a last command.
The door opened, and Jessie got a glimpse of a room with
a couple of monitors and a keyboard, illuminated by a red light.
Several switches lined the walls.
"OK, I'll go inside." Mary told her.
"You mean _we_ will go inside."
"Oh, no, we won't! Surd's style..." Then she quickly remembered
that there was no way Mary Walker could know about Surd's way of using
traps within traps. "If that wacko is as sick as Hotshot said, then why
did he leave us a device we could use to open the door? And why did he
remind us of the existence of this building in the first place?"
"I don't care. I'm going in."
She started to enter the room when someone grabbed her by the
collar of her blouse and tossed her to the ground as gently as
possible.
"I'm sorry!" Mary said as she crossed the threshold.
Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind her.
Jessie cursed her and ran to the keypad she had hacked INTO.
She typed the same password she had used before. But this time,
nothing happened.
"Good evening, whoever you are." Surd's voice boomed. "If
you have maneged to enter here, then you are either the Quest brat or
Bannon's daughter. Well, I have a little game for you."
The monitors lit up, displaying a video feed from the Complex's
Computer Room.
An holographic figure appeared in the middle of the room.
Benton turned around expecting to see Surd, but it wasn't him. It
was Mary Walker, and she had a very worried look in her face.
"The game is this. The generator can be turned off with very
little trouble. I'm afraid that I didn't have enough time to take care
of that small detail. However, I did manage to add a little extra
feature. The instant you turn off the power, you'll have sixty seconds
before a bomb hidden inside this control room goes off."
Mary cursed Surd once again. This guy was, indeed, completely
insane. Not only had he planted a bomb, but he had made sure the
victim would suffer through sixty seconds of pure desperation.
"There's no way you can get out of here, by the way. The
door is closed and the electronic program that checked the password
must be little more than garbage by now. In one hour, however, the door
will open by itself, so if you wait, you'll be free. However, your
father and the rest of the Chronos staff will all be dead. It's your
choice: your life or theirs."
Benton heard Surd's voice and watched Mary's reaction.
He was breathing heavily by now, his lungs demanding more
oxygen.
But despite the difficulty, he raised his voice and yelled
"Don't listen to him, Mary!"
Mary's face brightened. "Dr. Quest?"
He smiled. "I can hear you!" Not surprisingly. After all,
he was facing Surd. The trap had been designed for Jonny and Jessie,
and he wanted to give Race and Benton a good show.
But the woman inside the room was neither Jonny nor Jessie.
And Benton had to admit that he believed that reduced their chances
of getting out of this alive.
Then he realized that he didn't know where Jonny and Jessie
were.
As if she had read his mind, Mary spoke. "Jonny and Jessie
are fine and out of danger. They're not in the Complex, they're out
in the woods. That will keep them safe."
Mary paused for a moment to clear her mind, then went on.
"Listen, Benton. If I were Surd then I would like to have
the knowledge of time dilation for myself, don't you think? What is
the best way of doing that? Well... If I was Surd, I'd hack into
Noys, download all the records of the time dilation experiments, then
blow up the Complex and eliminate all the other people who have any
knowledge of this technology." She closed her eyes and went on.
"I'm sure that the bomb in this room is not the only one. I'd be
willing to bet that there is one in the computer room, too, set
to destroy Noys. So this is the deal: I'll open the door and then
you'll have thirty seconds to get out of there."
"Wait, Mary!"
But she didn't listen to him. She flicked a couple of switches
and the hum stopped. Noys had been shut down.
The monitors went to black. Then a number appeared: '1:00'
The air quickly began to filter back into the room. Benton
breathed deeply, enjoying the sensation of filling his lungs once
again.
Mary's image had disappeared, but they didn't have time to
dwell on that right now. They had to get out of the Computer Room
Race reached for the door. "Now, Benton?"
Dr. Quest raised a hand. They both knew that if they opened
the door too soon, the difference in pressure could be excruciating.
He let five more seconds go by, then lowered his hand. Race opened
the door.
"Let's scram!" he said.
The scientists were the first to go, quickly followed by Dhatu.
Hadji, Race and Benton were last, and Race hit the fire alarm on their
way out. This time, without Noys overriding the system. it worked. A
high-pitched siren filled the hallways of the Complex as they ran for
their lives.
"Jess!"
She stopped thinkering with the electronic device and turned
around. "Help me with this, Jonny. I can't open it!"
Then the hum stopped and a number appeared in the LCD screen.
'1:00'
And it was decreasing.
"Where's Mary?" Jonny asked.
"She's inside! We have to get her out of there!"
Jonny took a deep breath and tried to quickly assess the
situation. It was a trap, after all. The generator was now off, which
meant that Noys had been shut down and his family was safe...
And he had 55 seconds to rescue the woman who had saved all
their lives.
A tought quickly crossed Mary's mind. Jessie was still outside.
The explosion would kill her, if she didn't get away from the shed.
Panic almost consumed her. She didn't fear for her own life,
for they had promised they would get her out in time.
Big Sister had never let her down before.
But what about...?
How could she reach them? she knew they wouldn't leave her.
How could she convince them to leave her to die?
Suddenly, she spotted the keypad.
The high pitched fire alarm reached Jessie's ears. "Something
is going on on the main complex."
Suddenly, letters appeared on the LCD screen.
GO AWAY.
Jessie was started. "What?"
New letters appeared, taking the place of the old ones. 40-
SECONDS - CANT GET OUT - GO AWAY
Yes! The door's security system was still working. Thanks
to Julia's device, no doubt...
Then Mary tought that if they ripped the unit from the wires,
maybe the door would open. But the idea dissappeared as soon as it
formed. Surd would have thought of that, and surely that would cause
the bomb to explode.
Once again she typed in the keyboard.
30 SECONDS - LEAVE
Jessie ignored the command and kept tring combinations.
JULIA TURNED OFF SYSTEM - THERES NO WAY OUT
"I can't give up now, Maria!" she yelled.
NICE TO MEET YOU, ACE. KEEP THE DREAM FOR ME.
Tears started to flow down Jessie's cheek. The timer indicated
that there were only twenty seconds left before the explosion.
Mary brought the communicator to her mouth. It was time to
call the cavalry.
"Big Sister, this is Eilonwy. I am in deep trouble..."
Twenty seconds left.
The LCD screen said that ten seconds were left.
A final message appeared. STILL HERE? LEAVE, YOU FOOL
"Jess..."
"I won't leave!"
Two seconds.
Jonny grabbed her by the waist, picked her up, threw her over
his shoulder and started to run. Desperation could work miracles,
indeed.
The LCD screen went to zero.
But nothing happened.
Ten seconds. She hoped that they had gotten away by now. The
ten second difference she had programmed in the LCD screen should have
scared them off.
Then she smiled. Of course they had gotten away. There was no
doubt about that!
Seven seconds. Once again she yelled into the communicator.
"Big Sister, I don't have any more time!"
Three seconds.
Panic started to take control of her. Something had gone
wrong.
"_Goddamit_, Rachel! Get me out of here _NOW_!!!"
The last word had just left her lips when the timer hit zero.
The subsequent explosion was so strong that the bulding was almost
completely vaporized.
Her body was never found.
The explosion threw Jonny and Jessie to the ground. Jonny
looked behind him and all he saw was a big smoking hole where the
generator shed had once been. He heard Jessie sob, and tears started
to fill his eyes as they clung to each other.
The sound was unmistakable. An explosion. A few seconds later,
Race finally escaped the building and saw the trail of smoke from
across the Complex.
And then a second explosion was heard, one much closer to
him.
Two days passed. As Mary had surmised, a second explosion
had destroyed Noys. There were no casualties from the second bomb.
No one could figure out how the bombs had been planted, but
Dhatu believed it had something to do with the mysterious power
failure they had experienced. When Race asked why he hadn't been
notified of this, Dhatu said it just didn't seem important at the
time.
Race was mad. And with good reason.
Nevertheless, Benton offered Dhatu a job with Quest
Enterprises. He would continue his research into time dilations, but
this time, under much tigher security.
Luckily, Noys backed up all of the important data to the Quest
Enterprises network every twenty-four hours. As soon as Jonny and
Jessie could gain access to an IRIS computer, they searched through the
network. As they had suspected, Surd had implanted a virus to try to
destroy all of the other IRIS computers. They were able to localize
and destroy the virus before it caused too much damage.
Unfortunately, some of the data from the Chronos Complex was
corrupted. Some of the work that Mary had been doing those last days
was gone. But they would recovered everything eventually. Dr. Quest
remembered the equations, and together with Dr. Dhatu, they soon
would regain whatever ground they had lost.
The final product would not bear any of their names. It came
to be called the Walker Theory of Time Dilation, in honor of the noble
woman who had made the initial breakthrough.
Many more years would pass before time dilation could be
applied to real life situations. This was mainly because the time
fields had secondary effects on normal space, something which Mary had
not completely solved.
The world would have to wait a little more for someone who
could work a set of equations that would deal with that.
But the most profound effect was on Jessie. Mary had asked her
to 'keep the dream', and she knew that meant time dilation. Mary had
wanted Jessie to finish what she had started. Jessie promised herself
that someday she would make Mary's dream come true. Time dilation
would become a reality.
What none of them knew is that when Noys backed up the data,
a special command was triggered on a special file. Normally, it was
hard to find. After the backup process, it would be undetectable. Even
after the transfer of the backed data to Noys2, the file would remain
there, invisible, and it would also be in every single succesor of the
Noys series.
That's it, until the internal clock went off. Someday, it
would reveal itself to the Head of Research at the Chronos Project,
a subsidiary of Quest Enterprises, and would be the cause of one
of the most top secret projects in the story of mankind.
The file was, in fact, a mere text file. But it's contents
would define history. From such humble beginnings do great things
come:
"My name is not really Mary Walker..."
The chief of the Chronos Mission looked at the young
Intelligence One agent. She was one of the best - one of the reasons
why she had been chosen for this job.
Besides, no one else could have done it.
She looked quite different, now that the black hair dye and
gray contact lenses were gone. Her golden red mane and green eyes had
now returned to their natural state.
"Great work back there, Eilonwy." she said, using Mary's
codename.
The chief smiled to herself. Not Mary, but Maria... for that
was her *real* name.
"Thanks, big sister." Maria replied, as she combed her long
hair. Finally, she placed the comb on the table and looked at herself
in the mirror. She sighed. "It feels so good to be home again."
The chief also sighed. "At least you'll get some rest now,
sis. I still have to dismantle the entire Walker-Bannon Engine and
destroy the research documentation so time travel can't be used again.
If it is used to cause a paradox..."
"...time will collapse. I know. We both know the Bannon
Equations."
"Well, at least the mission has been accomplished. You managed
to get time dilation discovered at the end of the twentieth century,
just as the diary of 'Mary Walker' said you would."
"That's something I wanted to ask you about," Maria said as she
turned around to face her sister. "How did you know what happened? I
couldn't have written in my diary about the day of my capture..."
"You didn't. We reconstructed the events from newspapers
articles and the testimonies of the witnesses. In fact, we didn't need
to use your communicator to trace you and bring you here."
"You scared me back there. I thought you weren't able to
pinpoint my location. For a moment, I thought I was a goner."
"Hey, I wasn't worried at all.", the chief replied, but her
blue eyes betrayed her, showing that, for a moment, she'd had similar
thoughts. "We had to wait until the last moment to eliminate any
possibility of discovery or discrepancy... Sorry for scaring you."
"I still think you should have given me those journals so I
could have known everything that was about to happen. Or if I could
have seen grandmother for the last time..."
The chief frowned. "Maria..."
"I know, I know." she said, raising her hands. "The Bannon
Equations. If I had talked to grandmother, something I didn't mention
in my diary, then I could have caused a collapse in time. And if I had
known too much about what would happen then I could have changed the
future, causing a time ripple. Gee, who would have guessed that
innocent red haired girl would complicate my life so much?"
In less than a second, the chief was at Maria's side and her
arm was around her neck, holding her in a death grip. "Hey, don't
speak that way about the Head of Research!"
Maria was laughing. "Sorry! I just got carried away a little,
you know? I'll take it back if you promise not to tell her!" Her sister
released her.
Maria got up from her seat, still laughing a little. "Well,
that was quite an adventure." she said, as she looked at herself on
the mirror one last time. "A weird one, but exciting. I'm just sorry
it's top secret. This would have made a great story for our kids!"
The chief laughed as they walked toward the door. "I still
can't believe you pulled it off, sis. Ace? Hotshot? *Handsome*?"
"Hey, I couldn't bring myself to call them by name, so I
had to use *something*. Or did you want me to call him 'dad'? Geez,
I don't think I'll ever see them in the same way again!"
Rachel Anne and Maria Estella Quest laughed again as the door
closed behind them.
THE END
*whistles innocently*
As you see, there were no mushy moments between our heros...
*ducks deadly DBN brick*
You might want to read the story again. You'll see some things
under a very different light this time ;)
I want to thank Suze for the beta reading on this fic. Her
suggestions were extremely helpful. Thanx, Suze!
Well, that was fun. Now I'll go back to school life... See you
later!
_________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carlos Rodriguez | Cannot find REALITY.SYS |
| carlosrgz@hotmail.com | Universe halted |
|______________________________|__________________________|
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
-------------------<< Advertisement >>-------------------
High bandwidth usage? No problems.
http://www.astrax.com - Astra X Specialised Web Hosting
---------------------------------------------------------
Text file Source (historic): geocities.com/televisioncity/3324
geocities.com/televisioncity(to report bad content: archivehelp @ gmail)
|
|
|
|
|