Chapter 29: Man Down
Everyone in Jimmy's rocket was violently flung to the right, and slammed against the wall. Jimmy was piloting the roller coaster. Kids were crammed into every car, including his. There was a sickening smack as several asteroids the size of basketballs slammed into the tail end of the coaster.
"Stick together!" he shouted into his headset to Sheen, Cindy, and Nick. "If we stray too far apart the asteroids will block our communications."
"Roger!" Cindy shouted while pulling up beside him. They flew straight ahead to one of the 'medium' asteroids that Libby had described. It was two kilometers long and flying right at them. With perfect precision, Cindy banked left and Jimmy pitched right as the rock flew past them.
Sheen struggled to keep up with Cindy, Jimmy, and Nick, who were flying at incredible speeds and still managing to dodge the majority of asteroids. He pushed a red button, and the reinforced windshield that Jimmy had designed finally sealed his cockpit closed. He breathed a sigh of relief, but dove sharply as a pack of rocks flew straight at him. He cringed as he heard the bottom of his rocket scrape against another asteroid.
"Damage received!" Sheen shouted into his headset.
Jimmy pulled his ship's joystick up and rose above several more asteroids the size of his house before swerving the narrow snake-like rocket through several asteroids in front of him and to his right. "That goes without saying!" Jimmy shouted as several more rocks pounded. He hoped that the reinforced hulls would hold together until they got out of the belt and he could try to repair them.
Nick gritted his teeth and rolled his Enterprise ride to the left. A small rock slammed into his windshield, cracking the glass and sending sharp shards into the cockpit. He shouted in pain as they flew over his face.
"Nick!" Jimmy screamed while pulling the roller coaster up and doing a vertical 360 degree turn. "You alright?" he nervously asked.
"That's a damn stupid question!" Nick screamed back while a dozen more asteroids cracked the hull of his ship. "I'm taking heavy damage here!"
"Me too!" Sheen cried out while an asteroid bumped the tail end his rocket and sent him spinning into another jumble of rocks. An alarm blared in his cockpit. The words critical hull damage appeared on his tiny monitor.
Cindy seemed to be doing the best job of evading the asteroids, even though her ship was the largest. She was manning the Ferris wheel and skillfully weaving her way through the endless horde of oncoming stones.
Jimmy dodged several more 'medium' sized asteroids before glancing over at Cindy. She was handling the large rocket with surprising skill, but she didn't appear to see a torrent of asteroids coming at a forty-five degree angle from her left.
"Hang on, coaster riders!" he instructed everyone on his rocket. He viciously turned right and increased his speed as much as his rocket allowed. He flew diagonally to intercept the asteroids hurtling towards Cindy.
"Neutron, personal space please!" Cindy shouted while noticing him flying towards her. The roller coaster barreled past her, only a few yards from her windshield. She dived downwards as the asteroids slammed into the middle section of Jimmy's rocket.
Jimmy was sent flying into the windshield as the asteroids bombarded his rocket's midsection. The kids in that car were slammed into the wall, several being knocked out. "Watch we're you're going!" Jimmy heard an angry voice from that car scream into his headset.
Since Cindy and Jimmy seemed to be helping each other, Sheen tried to move alongside Nick. Sheen's rocket was by far the smallest and most agile, yet he seemed to be having the most difficult time.
Nick rotated his rocket so that the cart two seats above him now faced the asteroids. If another rock slammed into his windshield, it would easily break through and kill him. Being near the bottom of the rocket made piloting more difficult, but he didn't see any other choice.
"We've passed through the first wave!" Jimmy shouted, although his voice was quickly dying on him. His throat burned from the constant yelling he had been forced to engage in for the past half hour. There was a brief lull in the storm as they passed through empty space.
"Is that it?" Sheen asked.
Jimmy angrily shook his head. "New batch coming in!" He warned everyone. "Instigate evasive maneuvers!" He instructed them before banking to his right. Come on, Little Boy. Just die. If the other asteroids could cause enough damage to Little Boy and it completely fell apart, there would no more gravity to pull in the smaller asteroids. They just had to survive a little longer.
Nick let out a primal shout of anger and fear as more asteroids flew towards his rocket. "Come get some!" He screamed while accelerating his rocket towards the asteroids. He squinted his eyes and blocked out the chaotic shouts around him. He focused only on the rocks. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and rapidly spun it as each new asteroid flew past him.
"I'm losing speed!" Sheen anxiously shouted into his headset as his rocket slowed down, although he was increasing his thrusters' power. "Help!" He shouted, but all he heard was static. He was far behind the other kids, and the hundreds of rocks that separated him from them were blocking his radio waves. Suddenly, the largest asteroid he had seen so far slammed straight into his rocket, crumpling the vehicle's nose and sending Sheen spiraling downwards.
A few seconds later, the three remaining rockets met up. "Nick, Cindy, Sheen, I think we're almost through," he told them.
"Good, because my ship's falling apart," Nick warned him.
Jimmy risked a quick look at Nick's rocket. Dents and holes covered nearly every inch of the rocket. Several of the windshields were broken, and the extra plating covering the hull was almost completely torn away. He knew that the other rockets would look the same.
Several hundred more asteroids came hurtling towards them, but they seemed to be moving slower than the others. "Split up!" Jimmy shouted. Cindy veered right and Nick banked left. Jimmy continued flying straight.
"They're not moving as quickly," Cindy told Jimmy while navigating through the asteroids. They were still flying past her, but they weren't nearly as threatening as the ones that came before them. Still, she heard several more slam into her rocket.
After all that they had just experience, Nick, Jimmy, and Cindy found evading these asteroids relatively easy. As they continued flying through the belt, the asteroids stopped hurtling towards them. After a few more minutes, they stopped seeing them altogether.
"Alright, the asteroids have stopped being pulled in by Little Boy's gravity," Jimmy explained while slowing his speed. "This is how an asteroid belt should be."
They all looked around, and they could only spot one asteroid far into the distance. "Safely spread out over an extremely long range," Jimmy finished explaining, breathing a sigh of relief. He cut his thrusters completely, as did Nick and Cindy. They slowly drifted through space.
"Nick and Cindy, check out your personnel. I want a status report in five minutes. Cindy's rocket, use frequency 1034 kHz. Nick's, use 1241 kHz. I'll use the common channel. Sheen, let me know how you are and if you lost any supplies. You've only got one person on your rocket, so you don't need a frequency. Everyone meet back on the common channel in five minutes. Neutron out," Jimmy finished while leaning back in his seat and resting his eyes for a moment before figuring out his ship's damage.
Five minutes later, everyone had turned their headset's frequency back to the common channel. "Nick, what's your status?" Jimmy asked.
"Three broken arms, two broken noses, nearly everyone has minor cuts or scrapes, and seven kids are unconscious, but alive. No casualties."
Jimmy nodded and was about to ask Cindy about her rocket when a familiar voice interrupted him.
"Communications are finally going through," Libby's voice told everyone back in the lab. "I'm trying to get in contact now, but don't get your hopes up," she sadly explained.
"Neutron here, Folfax, and it's damn good to hear from you," Jimmy happily answered.
"Jimmy!" She ecstatically shouted b
ack. "I've been trying to get in contact with you for the past half hour. Did you all get through the belt?"
"We all did," Cindy happily told her best friend. "Looks like my plating for the hull worked wonderfully," she bragged.
Jimmy nodded. "Yes, you did well, Cind. But how is everyone on your rocket?"
"My rocket has two concussions and a broken arm. Minor cosmetic injuries all around. No casualties," she explained.
Jimmy smiled widely as he heard this. "Four concussions and four broken limbs in my rocket. Minor cuts and scrapes all around, but no casualties either. We all made it!" He happily shouted. "What about you, Sheen. Lose any supplies?"
Everyone waited for Sheen to respond. After twenty seconds of silence, Jimmy frowned. "Sheen? Answer me, please. What's your status?" There was still no response. Jimmy turned his rocket around in a circle, looking for any sign of his friend. "Guys, where's Sheen?"