Disambiguation (continued)

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Part III – The Last Minutes “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.”

Rabindranath Tagore

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“They’re never going to make it here in time,” Joel was upset and it showed.

“Look Joel, that solves one big decision,” Jack held his gaze.

“What? What are you talking about?” Joel just couldn't focus, his mind was doing cartwheels trying to figure out what might happen, what to do.

“We stay. We aren't going anywhere. We'll take our chances with your uncle and Joseph. Then when the storm has passed, we can go look for your mom.”

“But we need to send a message to Steve,” Mark absolutely did not want his brother and Grif disappearing forever into space.

“Joel, you stay here, Mark and me will go to the evacuation station and try to see if we can get a message through to Mount Columbus.”

There was no argument from Joel, but the thought did cross his mind about something happening that would see them onboard that evacuation pod. He dismissed it. There were more important things to concern himself with, like what had stopped his mom and Charlie from getting here? Something must have gone wrong, his worst thought was an accident.

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“Oh shit! You scared me. I thought the whole place was deserted,” Grif was surprised.

“It is. Only us left here,” Henry smiled. “How are you?”

“I guess I’ll be just fine, if that really matters.”

“Of course if matters,” Henry approached to stand beside Grif's trolley.

“No, I mean, if the whole fucking planet is finished...”

Henry chuckled. “I wouldn't go that far.”

Grif was puzzled by Henry's enigmatic reply.

“Where's your friend?”

“Steve has gone to the pod thing, the evacuation station.”

“Oh I see.” Henry pulled up a chair and sat down next to Grif. Now they were practically on the same level.

Grif didn't think Henry saw at all. He thought he was probably under the impression that Steve had deserted him.

“I told him to go. We don't all need to die here.”

“Don't be so dramatic. Who said We’re going to die.”

Grif was still feeling tired and the conversation with Henry was not helping, why couldn't the guy just talk normally, why did he feel he had to always analyse everything being said. Analyse? Maybe decipher was a better description? Whichever it was it was making Grif feel even more exhausted thinking about it.

“He needs to get back here. Your friend. Before the launch.”

“Why?”

“So that I can offer you both an alternative. A way in which you will live on forever, somewhere in the far reaches of space. You might call it a backup.”

Henry smiled at his own sense of humour and then went on to explain to Grif about depolarisation and memory transfer. They had time – Henry gave Grif the whole picture, the interstellar ships manned by robots, the search for another planet, survival of the species, etc.

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The car that showed no charge whilst it should be recharging, did actually work. Steve lit up the control panel, keyed in the coordinates, and it lifted off.

About twenty minutes later it stopped and the doors opened. Should have dressed for the outdoors, Steve thought as he climbed out. The wind was blowing and it was cold, but what was really weird, it had stopped raining. It never stops raining!

Perhaps the professor had been successful. He had no time for thinking about that possibility, he had to get to the pod. There was a countdown clock in the car, it read 00:45:01. The only place to go was a solid black building standing fifty meters away on its own, there was nothing else here. The coordinates must be right. He walked towards what looked more like a smooth wall, than a building with doors and windows, there weren't any.

Standing in front of this large structure whose blackness reflected the ever menacing sky, he was at a loss as to what to do. Then, quite unexpectedly, part of the wall opened, somehow moving inwards to reveal the interior. With some trepidation Steve advanced and stepped inside. A passageway lit by dots of amber light in the floor led him further inside, finishing at a small room which had the same solid black construction forming a sort of shelf around two walls, a seating area perhaps, but it made for an odd waiting room.

Another door was open and lit up, in the centre of the other side of the room. There he noticed someone. “Ah hello!” Steve ventured.

“Welcome to evacuation point Alpha Two,” a pleasant young man in uniform greeted him. “Please enter, we shall be leaving shortly.”

The guy had a strange way of talking, not an accent or anything, there wasn't one, just an odd manner.

“I'm not leaving yet,” Steve started to explain. “I have come to see if there is any way I can get help to get my friend here.”

The young man opposite him seemed to reflect on what Steve had said before making any reply.

“I regret we are not able to assist you with that. Do please board, we shall be leaving shortly.”

“No, you don't understand. I can't go without Grif.”

“As you wish. The boarding will be open for another twenty minutes. We leave at 00:20 exactly.”

There was obviously nothing to do here. He would have to go back and see about Grif.

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Jack and Mark made there way into what looked like a large wooden hut, but the door was open and once inside there was a staircase going down perhaps to some kind of basement. A faint green light illuminated a door at the bottom of the stairs.

“There’s a keypad there,” Mark shone the torch he held.

“The door's locked,” Jack said, pushing against it.

Inside a sort of alarm sounded startling Eve, but Emret just turned to look at the screen underneath the countdown clock. Obviously, he was used to this place or had been on a similar site.

“We have company.”

Now all eyes were watching the image of two teenagers standing outside the outer door.

“Hardly a threat,” Howard had that weird smile playing across his face. “What do you want to do?” He looked at Eve.

“Let them in.”

Emret moved over to a keypad on the wall and tapped in some numbers. They watched the screen.

“Hey look!” Mark exclaimed.

There was a click and the keypad lit up with the word PROCEED. Jack pushed the door and it opened. They were then walking down a slightly descending corridor at the end of which a second door blocked their passage. However, this time when he pushed it, the door opened.

“Wow!” Jack was surprised.

There were a group of people standing inside looking at them as they entered. Three youngish guys and a lady, it wasn't them that surprised Jack, but seeing Howard and Emret the two guys from X-Corp.

“We meet again young man,” Howard smiled that smile of his that wasn’t very welcoming, more sinister.

“Looks like it.” Jack felt like turning around and getting the fuck out of there.

“You know these boys?” Eve asked.

“Yes. We have met.”

Eve looked at him. “And?”

“Oh yes, excuse me. This is Jack, a friend of Professor Madison’s nephew.” He returned his attention to Jack. “I’m guessing you found the Professor or you lost your buddy and,” he paused glancing at Mark, “found somebody new.”

“I never did like you and Tonto much,” Jack replied very sarcastically.

“In which case you won't be staying,” Howard took a step towards the two boys.

“Cool it Howard,” Andre entered the exchange, which made Howard pause.

Howard and Emret being rather out numbered backed off and Eve took time out to explain things briefly. Jack and Mark told her and the group that they needed to try to get a message to a friend of theirs via the escape pod. They outlined their situation and how they had made a decision to stay, they mentioned nothing about the robot manned interstellar ship and Plan B, assuming they already knew about it.

Mark went with Evan to access the pod communications and they successfully sent the message over to Mount Columbus, it was even acknowledged that it had been delivered.

“That's a fucking first,” Jack proclaimed. “Something that actually works.”

Evan smiled. “I hope your brother is there to get it.”

“Yeah, I hope.”

They re-joined the rest in the white room. The clock now read 00:31:57.

“We're leaving then,” Jack told them. “What are you guys gonna do?”

“Leave us your coordinates, okay. I think we need to talk about it.” Eve was looking at her little group and Andre nodded his agreement.

“We are definitely leaving on the escape pod,” Howard announced. “You're nuts if you stay. All the important people are on those ships.”

“We’ll I guess this really is goodbye then!” It was Jack's turn to smirk as he and Mark turned and left, going back the way they had come. There might be just enough time to get back before the storm broke. He wondered what Eve and the other guys would do, but it wasn't really his concern. Mark just hoped Steve received the message.

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Steve was anxious even though it was a short journey back, the car just didn’t seem reliable, more than once it hiccupped, but it got him there. He was surprised to see Henry, Grif was sitting up in bed.

“I didn't expect to see you so soon.”

Steve smiled to himself, he knew exactly what Grif was saying, he never expected him back.

“Now you’re here, we just have time,” Henry was tapping a syringe and had some equipment wired up to Grif. He'd positioned a second trolley next to Grif.

“There's no time to explain, but just go with it, okay,” Grif smirked with that cute twinkle in his eye.

Steve took his place on the empty trolley and Henry gave him the injection and wired him up.

“It's just like dreaming, relax,” Henry told him as he faded away.