<- Chapter 1: Wedding Bells & Missle Shells
It been months since this war started. Despite never getting their weapons anywhere, they keep trying. They've realized what's going on and have started sending missles at my base. The ones aimed right at us are actually easier to target and dispose of. It's so tiring, but I must keep going. They'll give up before I will.
I tried having February explain to them over video conferencing just how bad a war of this scale is, but they refuse to listen to reason. I don't do the talking because the world thinks I'm dead, and before that they were hunting me, so I doubt they'd listen to anything I had to say.
Lunie's been keeping me informed of anything weird they try. Some nations have tried a rapid-fire missle approach, but all I have to do is keep the portal open a few minutes and they all go through at once. Some nations decided to launch their missles at the same time as one another so I can't catch them all. I don't know if that tactic would've worked or not. Lunie offset their timers so they launched missles at completely seperate times. One country shot a missle at themselves. That was confusing, but I caught it anyway.
My cell phone rings. It's Lunie. She usually sends me an e-mail. I answer the phone, "Hey, Lunie?"
"Hey," she responds, "They're reverse engineering one of your portals. They plan on trying to launch missles without going through the air."
"That... That's not good. They don't understand what could happen if they miss."
"If they miss?"
"Nevermind that. Do you know where the facility is that they're doing this at?"
"Yes. I've sent you the location by e-mail."
"Thanks. Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go."
"Understood. See ya later."
"If you're anywhere near that location you sent me, leave. Quickly."
With that, I hang up, and February comes in. As we talk, I open up my e-mail and check the message from Lunie.
"What was that all about?", Feb asks.
"They're weaponizing my work. Not only is it the ultimate insult to me, but it jeopordizes more lives than their war does."
"That's horrible! What are you going to do?"
I hesitate to speak as I aim at the coordinates in the e-mail, and open a portal from just below the crust to about cloud level above the facility for about half a second. I then respond, "Whatever I have to."
I hurry to the video conference room and call up the leader of the country in charge of the research facility.
"You? I thought you were executed."
"I got better."
"But..."
"Not even a 'Hello?'. No matter; we have no time for small talk anyway. There's a serious issue at hand that concerns the welfare of your nation."
"You mean the war?"
"You're trying to weaponize my work. This is a direct attack on me."
"First of all, we've BEEN attacking you. With missles."
"They weren't really very effective. Not even on an emotional level. Weaponizing my work, however, is the ultimate insult to any scientist."
"Secondly, that was classified information! How do you know about it?"
"My sources are irrelevant. What's important is that I'm sure you've stopped."
"What are you going to do if we don't?"
"Plate tectonics."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"Earthquakes. Maybe volcanoes. I will not let such a destructive force get in the wrong hands."
"You're telling me you have some sort of weapon that can cause earthquakes?"
"Maybe. You should step down so you don't have to find out."
"Step down?! You were just talking about stopping reasearch, nothing about me stepping down!"
"Yes, and the only way I can be sure that your country has stopped this nonsense is if I'm in charge of it."
"What!? You expect me to GIVE you full control of this nation?"
"I demand it."
"You're insane! And a criminal at that to make such threats! We don't make deals with criminals!"
"I'm the criminal? You've sent out countless missles around the globe. Enough to wipe out all life bigger than a cockroach. I'm making you stop because YOU are dangerous. This war must be stopped."
Just then, on the video on the other side, a man in a suit rushes into the room, "Ms. President! A volcano just erupted at one of our research facilities!"
The president looks at me with a look of shock. "Did you..."
"Yes.", I nod as I respond.
"I... will relay your request. But I will also oppose it."
"Very well.", I add, as I shut off the video conference.
As I turn to leave, I see February in the doorway looking at me with such an expression of shock. "Who's watching for missles?", I ask.
"Lunie is. I had her take over so I could check up on you. Did you really just set off a volcano?"
"I did what I had to do."
"How did you make a volcano with a simple portal?"
"I released some pressure in the upper mantle where I wanted the volcano to go off. The molten rock in the mantle at a higher pressure moved in quickly to average out the pressure. The collision of molten rock from many directions pushed a stream of it upward, through the crust, and either into or somewhere near that research facility."
When I found out about the reasearch being done on Rick's portals, I made sure to pay closer attention to any communications with that facility. I was sure I'd find out something Rick could use to get the place shut down. All of a sudden though, it felt like the region just vanished. As part of the internet, I'm used to parts of my mind turning on and off, but this felt like part of my brain was just scooped out and thrown in the trash. It was very disorienting, to say the least.
I read in the paper today that a government facility researching portals got hit with a volcano. It's a miracle from God, I'm sure, for people to stop using Dr. Shay's evil contraptions.
Chapter 3: Life, Death and Carbonism ->
Copyright 2007 Sean Breslin