Chapter 3
The ship accelerated its pace, but it came at a price.
“The ship is harder to control,” said Mister Chiffon who clearly was struggling.
“I can only go at so much speed before I start losing accuracy in my piloting abilities,” continued the little turtle that was moving his head left and right. Inside his brain were the images of what was going on in the cabin of the ship and views of the outside of the ship. Mister Chiffon had to sort out a ton of information in a blink of an eye and it was proving difficult for him to be able to cope with this sudden influx of information.
A voice came on the speakerphone of the room.
“I am afraid to announce that we are going to get it by that major storm in fifteen minutes doctors. Better prepare for the worse,” said the voice.
Doctor Dumont looked at Doctor Chalmers, really worried at the situation.
“Nomi, how are you holding up?” said the Doctor.
“I am still OK for now, but it’s getting rough here,” said Nomi.
“We will be under a bad storm in fifteen minutes, Nomi. Hopefully the tower can hold and we can finish the surgery without incident,” said the Doctor.
“OK, ten four!” replied Nomi.
“You are at seventy-five percent done Nomi. You are doing great,” replied the Doctor.
The Doctor asked the weather crew upstairs to put the radio on so they could listen to the latest bulletins coming in about the storm.
The radio was blazing the same message over and over.
“The storm is approaching fast and the winds are picking up. The city is under shutdown. The authorities have decided that everyone should stay home and not come out due to the severity of the situation. The local police is going around and asking people not go around and avoid the storm at all cost. We have never had it this bad sir. I have worked here for twenty years and it’s the first time I see this kind of storm coming towards us,” said the weatherman upstairs.
The storm came closer and closer and started to hit the tower. The building started to shake and rumble. Things fell over in the room.
“By Jove, this is insane,” said Doctor Dumont.
The tables were shaking. Cables were going all over the place and sparks were flying. In Gregory’s room things were getting pretty dangerous. The room was shaking tremendously and the nurses were now getting worried that the operation would fail.
“What is going on?” asked one of the automaton nurses.
“We are receiving a really bad electric storm with strong winds,” replied another nurse.
The little crib bed was shaking and they were getting worried that something would go wrong. But they could not stop the surgery. Nomi was in and they had to wait until she was done before they could do anything else.
“Make sure that all the wiring and the tubes hold on baby Gregory or otherwise we will lose him and young Nomi,” said Nurse Cassandra.
She went to another part of the room and took a phone off the hook and called the machine room where the doctors were.
“How are you holding up over there?” she asked to Doctor Dumont.
The Doctor opened a speakerphone.
“We are having a hard time to manage the situation. The building is shaking way too much. Everything is falling apart around us,” said the Doctor.
As he said this, another lightning strike started. It hit the tower several times, all at once. The building shook considerably that time.
“Code red, code red!”screamed Doctor Dumont.
“Prepare for disaster,” screamed the Doctor to his staff.
He took the microphone.
“Nomi, the storm is hitting us very badly. You are going to have a hard time doing this. Do you think you can hold on?” said the Doctor.
Nomi was traveling pretty quickly inside of Gregory but the ship was hitting all kinds of things and not performing as well as before.
“It’s very shaky in here,” said Nomi. The ship feels like it wants to tear itself apart. I don’t know if I am going to be able to finish this,” said the young girl.
As she said this, she heard a loud bang that came from the back of the ship. She got up and went to see.
She could see that liquid was coming in rapidly into the vehicle.
“Oh no!” she said.
“Doctor, there is a big problem here. I think the ship is breaking apart,” said Nomi over her radio.
Mister Chiffon replied at the same time.
“I can confirm we have hull breach. We do have a major hull breach of the vehicle!” screamed the little turtle.
Inside the vehicle Nomi was knee-deep in fluids.
“Can you hear me Nomi? Can you hear me?” said Doctor Dumont.
“I can still hear you doctor. But the ship is getting filled up with some goo. I think this is the end,” said Nomi.
“No Child, that’s why you are in the suit, you still have a chance. Please go open locker B. It contains a propulsion pack. It will allow you to travel and hopefully finish the job. It will take a bit longer, but we may still succeed.
Nomi opened the hatch and put the pack on her back as instructed by the Doctor.
“You will have to evacuate the vehicle Nomi. You don’t have any other choice,” said Doctor Dumont.
“You will have to use the jet pack on your back to navigate to the last few spots and finish the work that way. Don’t forget to pick up your laser gun on your way out,” said the Doctor.
Nomi made sure the pack was securely on her back and picked up the laser gun. She attached a wire from the laser gun to a clip on her suit to make sure if she dropped the gun that she would not lose it. She opened another hatch that lead to the outside of the vehicle. The vehicle rapidly filled up with liquid. Nomi struggled to stay up against the force of the current of the liquid pouring in, but she pressed on. Special enhancements in the suit gave her extra strength so she could fight the tidal wave that was raging against her, but she was still having a hard time moving.
She finally got out of the vehicle. The power of the vehicle went off and it stopped operating. Nomi got out just in time as it started to spin in the vortex of the fluid and it was carried away.
“We have lost the ship,” said Mister Chiffon as he disconnected his connection with the ship.
Nomi was able to activate the pack and navigated through the flow of liquid. It was hard maneuvering thru everything that was going on all around her. She finally managed to get to another trouble spot. She cleaned up everything she saw.
She then activated her jet pack again and then proceeded to the next spot.
“You are close to the brain now. The most critical part of the mission has started for you Nomi,” said Doctor Dumont on his microphone.
Nomi saw this and was entering Gregory’s brain. This was the most dangerous part of the mission since the neuron discharges were flying all around her. She had to navigate through those to get to a specific spot that was contaminated. She raised her laser and started to shoot the bad cells that were affecting the child. She did so for a long while. She felt a lot of vibrations while doing this.
Doctor Dumont was guiding her the best he could under the circumstances.
“You are almost done Nomi, just a few more minutes and we will take you out of there,” said the Doctor over the communication system.
Nomi was still firing the laser. There was only one cell left. When, suddenly an electric discharge hit her suit. She was sent flying and ended up in a membrane wall far from her target. She could see in the distance a lone cell that was floating. It was the last one she had to clear. Suddenly alarms went off in her helmet. Her breathing system was breached. She could see in her helmet screen that she only had less than a minute of oxygen left in the suit.
She grabbed the gun and aimed at the bad cell and shot. She missed. She pulled the trigger again and then shot. The cell got hit and got destroyed. But she left with no more than ten seconds of proper oxygen to breathe.
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“Nomi, can you hear me child!” said the voice on the radio inside her helmet.
“You need to hit the big yellow button on your chest. It will deploy a rescue capsule to where you are at and it will grab you and bring you back out,” said the voice on the radio.
Nomi was on the verge of passing out. She struggled but she finally managed to tap the button on her chest and then everything went dark for her.
Outside in Gregory’s room nurse Cassandra injected the rescue capsule in Gregory. The capsule homed in on a signal that Nomi’s suit emitted. It traveled quickly to Nomi’s location.
The rescue capsule went and grabbed her. It connected to her and repaired the rebreather which gave her oxygen. The capsule unit went back to the entry point it came from. Nurse Cassandra recuperated the capsule and brought it back to the Doctor’s room.
“Quick Doctor,” said the nurse.
Doctor Dumont quickly reached for the syringe that Nurse Cassandra gave to him and he deposited it inside the giant tube in the room. The glass door slid down.
“Now stand by for bring her back to normal size again. In three, in two, and one. Go!” said Doctor Dumont.
Doctor Dumont pulled a lever and sparks and lights and steam came out of the capsule. Everything disappeared in steam. It took several minutes for everything to clear out. The door opened. And there stood the suit.
The Doctor went up a ladder quickly to inspect the damaged suit. He looked inside and saw Nomi breathing. He unlocked the helmet and looked at the dizzy girl.
“Are you OK Nomi? I thought we had lost you for good child,” said the gopher.
It took a few moments for Nomi to gather some words.
“Yes, I am OK,” she said as she raised her arm and gave thumbs up.
“Thank the lord. She is all right,” said the gopher.
Everyone cheered. The stress on that part was over. The doctors started to remove the suit from Nomi.
A nurse gave her some juice thru a straw as she was severely dehydrated. She sipped for a while, regaining strength.
Mister Chiffon was unhooked from the machine and was waiting at the desk. The little turtle was watching the events unfolding in front of him.
They brought up a wheelchair and put Nomi in it. The old man who was there was smiling.
“I will race you to Gregory’s room,” he giggled.
They both left the room and they actually started to race towards the room where Gregory was. They both arrived at the same time and the old man gently knocked on the door.
“Is there anybody out there?” said Zeus.
“Yes, please come in,” said a voice from inside the room.
Zeus let Nomi go by as she wheeled herself in the room.
A bunch of nurses and doctors were in the room, surveying all the equipment and other medications that Gregory had to take to get back to full health.
They let Nomi go by to get to the small bed where Gregory was.
“He is getting stronger by the minute. His vitals are improving and he is gaining color. The blood tests are coming in like crazy and they are showing that he is rebuilding his body pretty quickly, thanks to you Nomi,” said Nurse Cassandra.
“You have saved our little friend here,” continued the nurse.
Nomi was just there watching Gregory. He has his eyes opened. It was the first time in a long while that the little boy had enough energy to do this. He was moving his arms a bit and was doing a bit of kicking. His parents came back to put their hands on Nomi’s shoulder.
She looked up at them.
“We have a debt that we can never repay to you Nomi. We are forever in your gratitude,” said Gregory’s father.
Nomi smiled and looked back at Gregory. The little boy started to smile and looked at Nomi. She raised her arm and took Gregory’s hand. The little boy squeezed his little hand around one of her fingers and smiled.
Nomi was in heaven.
Gregory was moving more and more.
“He is still fragile, but he will get stronger by the minute,” said the nurse.
Everyone in the room was feeling relieved. It had been a very stressful time for all of them and they were