Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 14

Ascension





Lucas helped Drew backinto his wheelchair. The chair’s leather seat held Drew’s weightdespite the puncture near the middle. They were lucky the fallingdebris didn’t cause more damage. “You in one piece, brother?”

“I’m fine. Was thatanother energy field attack?”

“I think so. Itsounded like it was right above us.”

“Do you think itdamaged the science lab?”

“Yep. You can kissour experiment goodbye,” Lucas said, before coughing twice. The airwas filled with dust. “I can’t believe it affected us twentyfloors underground. I thought we would’ve been safe down here. Boywas I wrong.”

“Gives you anindication of its destructive power,” Kleezebee replied.

“Professor, yourleg!” Lucas said, seeing his boss walking with a severe limp. Bloodhad soaked through the cuff on the same pant leg.

“The video screenlanded on my ankle and I heard it snap. It hurts like hell, but I’lllive. Everyone else okay?”

“I’m not injured,”Rosenbaum said, dusting herself off with her wrinkled hands.Sprinkles of debris had been trapped in her beehive hairdo, much likein a spider’s web.

“Dr. Suki’s inpretty rough shape,” Rapp said, removing hunks of the cement thathad buried Suki. A two-foot section of rebar was sticking out of theupper right quadrant of Suki’s chest. He checked Suki’s pulse.“He’s alive, barely. He’s going to need medical attention, andsoon.”

Kleezebee picked up thereceiver to the house phone and listened. “No dial tone. Switchmust be down. Someone’s going to have to go get help.”

“I’ll go,” Lucassaid, looking up and seeing an open gap in the ceiling tiles. Dustwas trickling down through it in a swirling pattern.

Larson walked gingerlyinto the conference room. “How? The power’s out and I doubt theelevator is working.”

NASA Director Rapppulled out an ultra-thin computer from a leather bag he had sittingunderneath the table. He powered up the unit. “This facility isself-contained and has its own nuclear power plant and air-filtrationsystem. We shouldn’t be on emergency lighting right now.Something’s wrong.”

“Did you saynuclear?” Larson asked.

“Yes. Something musthave caused the reactor to go offline.”

“There wasn’t ameltdown, was there?” Larson asked.

“If there was, wewouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” Rapp snapped.

“Do you know thelocation of the reactor?” Kleezebee asked, hopping closer to theNASA director.

“I should have thebuilding’s schematics on my iPad. Let me see if I can locate it,”Rapp said, using the device’s touch screen. “What was thathorrible sound earlier? It made my ear bleed.”

“I’ve heard it afew times now,” Lucas said. “At first, I thought it was beinggenerated by the dome’s energy matrix and only extended out infront of the dome. Now I’m starting to think its more likeground-penetrating sonar. Like the anomaly is searching forsomething.”

“Searching for what?”Larson asked.

“Probably you,”Kleezebee said with an annoyed look on his face.

Lucas laughed. Drewdidn’t.

“It looks like thereactor’s two floors up,” Rapp said.

“Do you have theplans for it, too?” Kleezebee replied.

“Yeah, it’s allright here.”

“Then I might be ableto get it working again.”

“Excuse me,Professor,” Lucas said, “but if the science lab was destroyed,then I doubt the elevator’s going to work, even if it has power.There’s nothing at the top of the elevator shaft.”

“Are there stairs wecould take?” Drew asked.

“Yes, they’re juston the other side of the elevator,” Rapp said.

“Are you nuts? It’stwenty floors up,” Larson whined.

“The rest of youshould go. I’ll never make it with this ankle,” Kleezebee said.“I’ll stay behind and see if I can get the reactor going. We’regoing to need it for the ventilation system. We could be here for awhile.”

“I agree. We don’twant to suffocate before we’re rescued,” Larson said.

“I’ll assist you. Ican’t climb all those steps, either,” the elderly Rosenbaum saidto Kleezebee.

“I’m staying, too.Someone has to look after Dr. Suki,” Rapp said, staring atKleezebee’s injured leg. “We should see about getting your ankleinto a splint. You really need to sit down.”

“Then I guess it’sjust the three of us,” Lucas said to Drew and Larson, picking upthe theory notebook from the table. He blew off several layers ofdust from its cover, in the direction of Larson—unintentionally,sort of.

Larson coughed andwaved his hands in front of his face. “If there’s this muchdamage down here, do you really think the stairwell is clear all theway to the top? I think not. It’s nothing but a goddamn waste oftime and energy.” He folded his arms and wrinkled his nose and lipstogether. “No, I’m going to wait right here until help arrives.”

Lucas was more thanhappy that Larson was staying behind. He held up the notebook inKleezebee’s direction. “Professor, this contains a few theoriesthat Drew and I have put together regarding the energy fields. Youmight want to review them while we’re gone?”

“Why don’t you keepthem for now? I can’t do anything with ‘em down here.”

Lucas slipped thenotebook into the zippered section of his brother’s backpack. “Doyou remember the way back to the elevator, brother?”

Drew shook his head.“You should go alone.”

“No chance. I’m notleaving you behind,” Lucas said, looking at the others in the room.He knew with Rosenbaum and Rapp staying behind to help Kleezebee andDr. Suki, that would leave only Larson to look out for Drew’ssafety. Larson was the last person he would choose to watch hisbrother.

Drew looked down at hiswheelchair. “If the elevator’s disabled, how am I supposed to getup the stairs?”

“I’ll carry you onmy back if I have to. But there’s no way in hell I leaving youhere. We’re going together.”

“You two need to getmoving. Once you let the emergency crews know where we’re at, findTrevor. He’ll get you someplace safe,” Kleezebee said.

“Sure, but what if wecan’t find him?” Lucas replied.

“Then get as far awayfrom Tucson as you can,” Kleezebee said, tossing a set of keys toLucas. “My car’s in the rear parking lot of the apartmentcomplex.”

Lucas didn’t knowKleezebee owned a car. The professor always seemed to travel aroundcampus on foot. “How will I know which one it is?”

“It’s a yellow’eighty-two Volvo. You can’t miss it. There’s a three-footcrack across the windshield. You can drive a stick, right?”

“Sure, Professor, noproblem,” Lucas replied. He remembered seeing a faded, piss-yellowfour-door sedan parked next to the dumpster whenever he took out thetrash. It had numerous spider webs stretching from its undercarriageto the pavement, and a year’s worth of bird crap all over its hood.He doubted whether the Volvo would start—its battery was probablydead.

He slid a chunk ofcement out of the way and pushed his brother out the conference roomdoor. There was much less debris in the hallway as they made theirway back to the elevator through the maze of connecting corridors.When they arrived, the elevator doors were compacted to half theirnormal height and bent outward into the hallway.

“Looks like theelevator is out. I guess that confirms there’s nothing up top,”Lucas said.

“I wonder if anyonewas in it?”

“Let me check,”Lucas said, peeking into the partially separated elevator doors. Hecupped his hands around his face to block out the hallway light.“It’s too dark in there to see.” He pressed his right earagainst the crack in the doors and listened. “I don’t hearanything, either. We should keep moving. Got a long way to go.”

“Do you think Brunowas at his station when the energy field hit?”

“Jesus, I hope not,”Lucas answered, thinking about Kleezebee’s note to Trevor rightbefore the meeting started. “I wonder where Kleezebee sent Trevorand Mary?”

“You don’t thinkthey were in the science lab, do you?”

Lucas shrugged. “Ifthey were, they’re sushi by now.” He opened the doorway to thestairs and walked inside. Above him was a seemingly endless series ofswitchback metal stairways that stretched as far as he could see.“F*ck me,” Lucas said, hearing his voice echo. Light in thestairwell came from emergency lights installed above each level’sentry door.

“Are you sure youwanna to do this?” Drew asked.

Lucas bent down withhis back to Drew. “Hop on, like when we were kids. Just don’tsqueeze my neck too tight.”

“Don’t forget mybackpack,” Drew said, climbing up onto Lucas’ back,piggyback-style.

Lucas removed theknapsack from the wheelchair and handed it to Drew. “Can you putthis on, or do I need to put you down first?”

Drew slung the packover his right shoulder. “Nope, I got it.”

Lucas went up sixflights of stairs before his leg muscles screamed at him to stop. Hedid. “Where’s Trevor when you need him?” he asked, gasping forair. Stenciled on the entry door in front of him was the number 14.“For a little guy, you weigh a shitload. It’s probably all thosepush-ups every morning. Or maybe it was all those f*cking burritos.”

“You can put me downfor a minute if you need to.”

“No, I wanna keepmoving. Just give me a second.” Lucas took a few deep breathsbefore resuming the climb. He used the handrail to balance himselfwith his brother’s arms wrapped around his neck. He pressed on,floor-by-floor, ignoring the occasional twinge of pain in his lowerback. When he needed to rest, he stopped for a few minutes beforecontinuing the journey.

* * *

Kleezebeeand Rosenbaum huddled in the control room on Sublevel 18, sitting infront of the twenty-foot-wide operator’s control panel for NASA’sunderground power reactor. The front half of the room was crammedfull of screens, gauges, switches, knobs, and instruments,surrounding Kleezebee on three sides. It reminded him of NASA’slaunch control room in Houston, which he had seen in person severalyears before.

Kleezebee’s injuredankle was resting on top of an upside-down trashcan while he reviewedthe control station’s instruments. A homemade crutch, fashionedfrom an old janitor’s mop and duct tape, leaned against the controldesk.

“Can you tell whathappened?” Judith asked.

“Looks like theReactor scrammed on its own. The Boron control rods dropped into thecore to stop the reaction.”

“Can you get itrestarted?”

“I think so. Thecoolant pumps are running on backup power, so the water is stillcirculating through the core. All we should need to do is reset thetrip condition, and then pull out the control rods sequentially torestart the reactor.”

“Do you know whatorder to pull them out?”

“Luckily, it’s allcomputerized.” He showed her the schematics on Rapp’stouch-screen computer. “All I have to do is tell the computer toinitialize the power-up sequence, and it’ll pull the rods out inthe correct order. Then the reaction should resume automatically andstart superheating the water.”

“How hot does thewater need to be?”

Kleezebee looked at theschematics and then pulled up a saturated steam table on the iPaddevice. “The reactor’s coolant system is pressurized to 1600 PSI,which means the water temperature will need to reach 480 degreesFahrenheit. Otherwise, it won’t be sufficient for the steampressure to power the turbine.”

“How long will ittake?”

“It’s a controlledbuildup in temperature, so I’d say about an hour or so.”

Dr. Rosenbaum lookedaround the room and asked, “Where exactly is this reactor?”

Kleezebee checked theschematics again. “It’s a hundred feet down the hall, in aseparate room.”

“Is it safe to be inhere while the reactor’s powering up?”

“We’ll be fine. Thereactor’s surrounded by a thick, reinforced wall of concrete andthere’s a three-quarter-inch metal plate lining the inside of theroom. There’s virtually no risk of being irradiated.”

Kleezebee used thetouch screen interface embedded into the reactor’s control stationto change the computer display until it read REACTOR FAST RESTART.“Trip condition reset. I’m ready to power-up. We’ll knowshortly if this is going to work,” he said before pressing threedifferent button icons on the touch screen. The phrase REACTORINITIALIZING started blinking in center of the screen.

Kleezebee waited aminute. “Looks good. The control rods are retracting.”

“Should we head backto the others now?” Rosenbaum asked. She seemed to be in a hurry.

“Not quite yet. Let’swait here for a bit to make sure there are no surprises.”

* * *

Lucascarried Drew past the access door to the third sublevel. Lucas lookedup and realized the path above them was much too dark. “That’snot a good sign,” he said, pointing up. “There should be morelight.” He hated to admit it, but it looked like Larson was right.

They were able to climbtwo more sections before they were forced to stop. The stairwell wasalmost completely blocked by twenty-foot-high mound of cement, dirt,gravel, and other debris that had caved in from above, but it was notcompletely solid. A steady stream of light was shining through a gapat the very top of the pile. He pointed at the opening. “That maybe our only way out.”

Lucas leaned down toallow Drew to slide off him, welcoming the chance to straighten uphis sore lower back. He rubbed the area just above the back of hisbelt, kneading it with both hands to see if he could loosen up theknot that had formed. If he had to carry Drew much farther, he mightnever walk upright again.

There was a twistedsection of metal stairway sticking out of the wreckage at a downwardangle. The lowest part of it was about ten feet off the ground. Hethought they might be able to use it as a ladder, if they could reachit. “The stairs must have broken loose from above,” he said,scooping up a handful of loose dirt and gravel. “All this must havecome from up top.”

“You’d think itwould’ve been sucked up by the dome.”

“It might’ve beenjust beyond the reach of the energy field. The dome probably shook itloose and it fell down the stairwell. There’s no telling what’spiled up, up there.”

“Maybe we should goback?”

“Hell, no. I justhauled your butt up seventeen floors. Let’s just take a minute andthink.”

Lucas looked up andstudied the opening where the light was shining through. It appearedto be about two feet in diameter and might be big enough for someoneto crawl through it.

“Drew, if I can getyou up there, do you think you can squeeze your ass through thatopening?”

“Me?”

The brothers both hadthirty-two inch waists, but Lucas’ shoulders were wider despiteDrew’s powerful biceps. He wore a large shirt and Drew a medium.“Yes, you. I’ll never fit.”

Drew wrinkled hisforehead and shook his head. “I don’t know. Looks awfully smallto me.”

“Well, you need totry. I don’t see any other option, do you?”

“Let’s assume for amoment I can get through, what about you?”

“I’m hoping you cancrawl up a couple more flights and yell for help. We’re not thatfar from the surface. The dirt and stairs had to fall in fromsomewhere. It should be open, up top.”

“And, if it’s not?”

“We’ll cross thatbridge when we come to it,” Lucas said, bending down to let Drewshimmy up on his back.

Lucas worked his way up the wreckage by using the fallen cementblocks as footholds. It was difficult to maintain his balance withDrew hanging off him, but he managed to climb up to within a foot ofthe metal framework he intended to use as a ladder. “It’s time toput all the pushups to good use. See if you can reach it.”