The Dealer's Hand

(Well today ill give you a piece of my thoughts in a quote)

"Burden's are like chain's for the soul, weighing it down till it can not soar."

Cory Williamson aka MisterSkids

“Why the hell can’t this thing give us a warning when crap like this happens” grumbled Honeycut, bring his fist down on the arm of his chair with a small thud. Before his hand even made contact, Bruce had jumped out of his chair as soon as he saw the problem. Though he was crazier than most mental hospitals put together, he could fix anything from a hydra power module to an antique toaster. If anybody could fix this problem, it was him.

He nearly shoved Sandy out of the was as he ran out the door, and miraculously, without making any kind of sound effects. Jack took the opportunity to take Bruces now empty spot. He calmly sat down and brought up the computer console board, but instead of using the main holoscreen, he brought up a much smaller version right behind the console. The screen flashed a faint blue light as it came to life. He started typing as soon as the screen turned a normal darker blue, never taking his eyes off the monitor. He brought up the same analyzers that Jared had used only minutes ago, and ran a manual diagnostic. jack Would have a far better understanding of the system than the good old captain any day of the week.

His fingers moved in a blur, his eyes taking in every drop of information that appeared. Window after window, paragraph after paragraph, word after word. the scanners said that the anomaly was emitting a strong energy, but the strangest thing was the signal. It was like a radio wave, but all he could see from the readings was static. He could feel the eyes of the last three people in the room, watching as he performed his magic. He did not want them to ask him any questions as he figured out this problem, and having a smaller screen made sure that they couldn’t see anything to question. That, and it would annoy Sandy to no end. He took pleasure in knowing that right now, she was staring daggers into the back of his head.

One last window popped up, and it only took two seconds for him to read the five paragraphs of information, but too him, it had felt like months had passed.

“I...it’s some kind of...portal,” stammered Jack “like a wormhole, and it’s pulling us in”. He had thought that it was just a gravitational flux, he had heard of them before and ships wouldn’t be in any danger. This on the other hand, was a high threat. If they get dragged in, the had a chance of being spit out of the other side of the univeres, and who knows where they would end up. They might even get crushed by the gravity inside the portal itself, killing everybody inside. Jack looked over to Jared, the Captain gave a slight nod and pressed a small button on his wrist mounted communicator, but they were normally called a Voice.

“What’s the status Bruce,” he commanded. The small device was no bigger than an average wrist watch, looked quite like one too. Even with there there small size, they could be loud enough to hear from four rooms away. Jared’s crackled to life and Bruce could be heard with a slight static tone.

“It’s bad, both of the main pipelines are leaking, and in several place’s. It’s going to take a while to get to them and weld them.”

“How long is a while" asked Jared.

"Thirty minutes, maybe" he responded

"We don't have thirty minutes, we got ten at best!" roared the Captain. He thought for second before saying anything else, but it was Zed the spoke up first.

"Can you get at least one thruster to work in time?" he said, his voice shook from his nervousness as he talked into his own Voice, "It's the only way I can think of".

"Well maybe," he answered back " the port thruster only has three leaks," only three he say's Jack thought in disgust, "but I think so since there close together."

"freaking cheap ass ship," swore Jared "if I get out of this alive, I'm going to make sure some head's are going to roll for this". His face was positilivy livid, his he looked like he could murder with those ice cold look.

Jack was still sitting at the chair, calculating how much time it would take to reach the dark highway of space. Counting the number's proved that it would only take a little over seven minutes. He was surprised how close the Captain had been, but there was definitely not enough time. He stood up, determined to survive.

"We have to abandon the ship," he declared, bringing there full attention upon him. Both Sandy and Zed frowned at him, but it was Captain Honeycut who again spoke first.

"Abandon the Darwin, are you freaking kidding me! After the hell of being here for so many years, with all the data we collected, you want to waste all that time for nothing!" he shouted. Jack could see several blood vessels nearly ready to pop in his forehead. His eye's where narrow slits as he stared at the scientist.

Jack just did not care what happened, as long as he got out intact. He wasn't going to stand there arqueing with this fool, there was no time. He looked the Captain straight in the eye, and took a deep breath, and let it out.

"Fine stay here for all I care. You can rot in that thing. I just thought I would give you a fair warning," Jack clicked on his Voice, "Here that Bruce, if your smart, better leave the ship now."

"Ahhh-" said the little communicator, but before any real words could be said, Jared pressed his own button on his Voice.

"Don't you dare stop welding. Your the only one that can repair the ship and ill be damned if we dont get out of this alive WITH the ship intact." he growled.

"Like I said, i am just giving you a warning. Do whatever you want," he shrugged as he turned around and jogged right past Sandy and Zed, who where still standing there like statues. They both looked unsure what to do, but Jack just kept on going. He knew that telling them about the SEC would have gotten them all to leave, but then he would have to share the spot light with these four idiots.

It didn't take him only a minute to reach the four corner's that he had past only minutes ago, but he heard afoot steps come from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Captain Honeycut trailing by only a few feet, and catching up fast. Jack smiled as he turned back, a plan already forming in his brain. He quickly took a right at the fork, but isntead of running, he stopped instead. He faced himself towards where the branch, and cocked his arm. Less than a second later, Jared barreled around the corner, only to be met by Jack's fist. It knocked the wind right out of the older and bigger captain as it connected with his stomach. He doubled over with a whooshing sound escaping his lips, but Jack wasn't done. He brought his knee swiftly into Jared's manhood, which brought a small whimper as he fell to the ground face first. Jack might no be as strong or fast as Jared, but he knew what it take's to bring a man down, and surprise was the best way.

He looked down at the pained captain, looking smug in doing so

"Your not going to stop me." Jack declared, taking satisfaction in out smarting him even if he was a dolt, "Just because your desperate to prove yourself to prove yourself does not mean you can risk my life. Your just a washed up old soldier, looking for glory in all the wrong places," and with that, he turned back around and continued towards the escape pod with his box hidden away inside.

He ran at top speed the rest of the way, long red hair trailing behind him, giving the illusion that he was on fire. for he thought to himself. Only five minutes left to go by his calculations, but that was plenty enough time. Once the escape pod launches, it well automatically send out a distress signal, but it would still take a near week before anybody would find him. Good thing there was two weeks of food supply's underneath the seat of the one man pod, he could wait it out..

It tool him only seconds to reach the mini ship, the similar three set of doors sat to his left. Rushing over, he pushed the button, letting the heavy door slide up. First thing he grabbed was the SEC, throwing it into the small cabinet holding the food supplies. It took a bit of shoving but it fit, and he latched it closed. He then climbed in himself, settling into the slightly padded seat. The seat itself took almost the whole pod, there was just barely enough room to fit one person inside the cylinder shaped ship. He grabbed two seatbelts over each shoulder, bringing them down over his chest in a criss-cross pattern. Inserting them into the slots, he brought one more over his lap the buckled in both they other side and one more in between his legs.. After finally securing himself, Jack opened up a small hidden compartment in the right arm of the seat. A tiny blue holoscreen popped up from inside, giving off a faint glow. He pressed the top button making both the inside and outside door slam shut, making the pod was closed off from the rest of the Darwin. There was no light but the one from the screen now, giving the compact room a claustrophobic feeling.

Jack took a deep breath and hit the launch button. Immediately he felt the pod speed upwards, leaving his stomach back on the ship. he gritted his teeth as it shook. Finally after what felt like a life time, the pod stopped rattling his bones and began to free float threw space. Jack let go his death grip of the chair, reached over and pressed another switch on the floating screen. Another screen popped in front of him on the curved door, revealing the outside with a bluish tint. What he say nearly made his heart stop, his pod was nearly on top of the black portal.

"What the hell!?" screamed Jack, is Scottish accent working its way into his voice. Before he could do anything else, the pod began to tremble viciously again. Both screens went out, leaving him in total darkness, frightening him even more. The only thing he could think of was how the pull from the wormhole must have gotten stronger, leaving no escape, even for him.

Jack couldn't see the tiny ship enter the black vortex, but he could sure feel that he was in it. His whole body felt like it was being stretched and pulled, as though god himself had turned him into putty and was playing with his limbs. The pain nearly made him blackout, and he wished he really had.I get to die in a great discovery, I guess there are worse ways to go was the only thought that went through is agonized mind.

The feelings went away just as quickly as it came, but the ship was still shaking, but it was different this time. After that experience Jack was feeling very groggy, but he could tell the pod was moving. Falling meant gravity, gravity meant something large enough to have that kind of pull. He just hoped it wasn't into a real black hole or a super nova. he gritted his teeth again as he prepared for impact. There was a great jolt as the pod finally crashed into something solid. He smacked the back of his head against the thin cushion back rest, nearly losing conciseness again.

In a daze, Jack somehow climbed out of his seatbelts He looked over at the small orange screen next to the door. A little green light was on next to a label the read O2, proving that it was safe outside. Jack slammed his hand on the orange screen, opening the door to the outside world. As always the door slid up, revealing more inky blackness. jack could just barely make out very faint outlines of what he thought where trees, and quite a fair few. Jack plopped out of the pod on all fours, still very dilerous from the whole trail. He looked up to see a small hole in the trees where his mini-ship had went through. He saw twinkling stars inside the cavern of leaves and branches, indicating that it must be night on this planet. He could also see that the foliage in the trees where nearly twenty feet thick, and if he hadn't made that hole, he wouldn't even know if it was day time or not.

He tried to take in everything, but he felt like he had been out all night drinking, hang over headache included. He was just about to try to stand up, but a sudden noise stopped him. It was a snapping sound a twig being crushed, but it was followed by a small thump, like somebody had dropped a big rock a couple of inches off the ground. He looked to his left where the sound originated, forgetting that the crash might have alerted anything to his presence. As he looked he saw another outline, this one was much shorter than the tree but was still nearly double his height. It was nearly three times as wide as well, but it's most frightening feature was the pair of yellow glowing eyes that towered over him.

Still recovering from the crash, he did the only thing he could think of, he ran. He scampered on all fours, to scared to try and getup normally. He weaved in and out of the trees, hoping that the creature would have a harder time catching him. Jack could hear the heavy footsteps of it in hot pursuit. Thinking fast, he pushed several random buttons on his Voice, its started to cause a loud static noise. He then flung the thing of his wrist into the woods, hoping his plan would work. The sound confused the beast, it slowed down and then stopped chasing Jack completely, and started chasing the Voice. Though jack kept going with original plan, ducking in and out of the forest just to make sure he stayed alive.

He could barely breath, his lungs burned from each and every breath, but he pushed on. He finally reached what appeared to be a clearing. Unable to deal with the stresses of both psychical and mental, Jack collapsed in the grass, and falls unconscious.