From: "Willard, Brian" Subject: A Giant Leap For Mankind, Part 8 Date: Wed, 10 Aug 94 08:09:00 EST Message-Id: <2E488B40@smtpgate.ncdc.noaa.gov> * - I apologize for the delay in getting out this next part, but I have been very busy. If you need one of the earlier postings, they can be found at the ftp server ftp.cisco.com. A Giant Leap for Mankind by Brian Willard Part Eight August 7, 2133 The North-South Expressway Denver, Colorado After finding that the remaining members of the Crusaders had been released, Al and Anna immediately departed for their headquarters in Littleton. Fearing that they might try something drastic, Anna had the little jeep floored. "What are you worried that they might do?" inquired Al, fighting to talk against the wind that was going by at over 90 miles an hour. "I don't know. That's what bothers me. Heaven knows what Olin and Johannes might do." The sky was just turning to dusk, and at the same moment, Lisa and Sam were confronting Cassius Prowell, the self- procliamed leader of the so-called "Great Providence". Al could see Prowell's palace as the road direction turned southeast. As he was watching, he saw a bright flash from behind the house somewhere. Seconds later they heard a blast that was stonger than thunder. "What was that?" exclaimed Al, pointing in the direction. "Oh my God," yelled Anna, "The dam!" Al looked at her curiously, "What dam?" "The Cherry Creek Dam! Johannes always thought we should blow it up and drown that fool Prowell. I told him that wasn't a good idea because...the city!" Anna suddenly jerked the steering wheel hard to the left and the jeep flew into the grassy median. She jabbed the accelerator and they took off, backtracking for Denver. "Where are we going?" asked Al, after his heart stopped jumping and his breath returned. "We've got to get to the new backup dam, and in a hurry. It won't take long for that water to get there." "Where is this backup dam?" "It's at the outskirts of Prowell's property. He planned to make a lake there, but the dam is still open. If we close it, we can hold back most of the water on his estate." They were now racing against time, and Al began to worry if they weren't going to get there in time. He could see the large outer wall of the dam as they approached it. It wasn't very tall, and Al wondered if it would even work. Anna drove up a small sideroad and suddenly they were driving on the top rim of the dam, headed for the far end where the controls were. Al could clearly see the wall of water approaching the Prowell mansion in the distance. "Sam!" ---------- As they looked out the window, Lisa and Al could see nothing, but they knew something was wrong. Prowell was still yelling into his intercom, but it was doing no good. "I cut the lines," said Lisa. "You what?" exclaimed Prowell, "What did you do that for?" "Sam is right, and I wanted you to listen to what he had to say. I didn't want you sending you guerillas on him." "So now what are we supposed to do?" "Well, I think we should try to find out what just exploded," said Sam, "Is that monitor working?" he asked, pointing to a small screen rising up from the surface of Prowell's desk. "Why, yes. It's hooked up to the outside cameras. Good idea, Dr. Beckett!" exclaimed Prowell. He rolled his wheelchair back over to his desk and turned the monitor on. He flipped through all the different channels, and yet there was nothing to be seen. "Well, maybe it was nothing," added Lisa. "Shhh, I hear something." Sam could hear a faint rushing noise, but could not identify it. The wall of water was now only a few hundred feet away, and approaching quickly. Within a period of seconds, it crashed into the opposite side of the house, and they all felt the building begin to shake. "It's the dam!" yelled Lisa. They could now hear the water rushing though the other end of the house, breaking windows and tearing down walls. The far end of the palace collapsed, and a horrendous crash was heard. Sam grabbed Lisa's arm and pulled her over to the far wall, and they laid down next to it, trying to brace themselves for the impact. Prowell began to wheel himself over toward the other end of the room just as the water broke down one of the walls of the room, and within seconds it was under six feet of water and climbing. Sam and Lisa swam up to the surface of the water, and they had only a few feet left till the water reached the ceiling. Sam noticed that water was flowing steadily out of the windows. "Lisa, swim over the windows, you can get out there. When you're outside, try to swim until you find something steady to hold on to. I'm going after Prowell." Sam took a deep breath, and then submerged back into the room. He could not see much, but he knew where Prowell had been at the time the water hit. He swam down to the floor and found the crippled man laying on his side. He removed him from the wheelchair and began to swim toward the window. When he got to the window, Sam broke out the remaining glass with his foot and slowly left the building. They were immediately picked up by the larger current and began to flow toward the city. ----------- Al watched as the wall of water smashed through the mansion, picking up whole pieces of the building and carrying them along toward the dam. He turned to Anna. "Do you think this dam will be able to hold up against that wall of water?" "I don't know, but I sure hope so." "Yeah, me too. I just hope Sam got out of there in time." Al turned back toward the estate and watched again as the wall of water closed in on them. He couldn't tell how high it was, but he could tell that it wasn't going over the dam. Maybe just through it. Meanwhile, Sam, had managed to grab hold of a large piece of wooden floorboard and had pushed Prowell and himself up on top of it. He could barely make out what looked like another dam in the distance, but they were closing in quickly. As they got even closer he saw that it was indeed a dam and moved over toward the unconscious Prowell. He slapped the man a couple times until he heard a groan. "Prowell, listen. We are going to go under again soon. When I give you the signal hold your breath, okay?" Prowell nodded and Sam moved him over to the edge of the board. He told Prowell to hold his breath and then grabbed him and jumped off the board. They were immediately pulled down into the main current, and Sam struggled to push away from the center. Suddenly he hit something with his right side and was pushed to the surface of the water. He had hit the dam. As the water continued to pound the dam it was thrown up into the air and was coming back down on him. He looked up at the top of the dam, now only a few feet higher, and saw somebody standing there. It was Al. Final part to be posted in a couple of weeks (I'm going on vacation)... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Revenge is mine, thus sayeth the hologram!" | Brian C. Willard Dr. Sam Beckett, _The Leap Back_ | bwillard@unca.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS IS MY WORK ACCOUNT, PLEASE DO NOT SEND E-MAIL TO bwillard@ncdc.noaa.gov -------------------------------------------------------------------------------