Thank you for waiting it has be a busy summer. Please comment.
Thank you for reading,
Sir Aroun and Sixpence
Edit: Some parts of this Chapter have change!
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I floated in a void above a red sphere as it turned to green and blue with gray streaks. I stared in wonder, then in horror, as the sphere was swallow by the Sun. Then I felt a blinding pain. Looking down I saw a large horn piercing me heart. I turned around to see a shadowy man with a gun. A bullet shot through the back of my skull and exploded out of it, splattering my brain against the void.
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I open my eyes to blinding light and steady beeping.
"Good Morning."
"Nigel?"
"Eyup."
"What is going on?"
I looked around what appeared to be a room in our medical wing.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Politics, science to be done, we have announced our top secret project to the general populace, the tomatoes are in bloom-"
"You Revealed Operation Ares' Kingdom?!" I yelled, jumping up in my bed before the pain made be lay back down.
"Oh, it isn't that big of a deal. I mean, sure the press is trying to get in our door at this very moment, but look on the bright side: We can order pizza from off the base now! Sure its terrible syntho-pizza but..."
"What of the Arc ship? The Spacejets? The Domes? HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN OUT?!"
"The Arc Ship is ahead of schedule, the Spacejets are done, and the Domes are a bit behind schedule. Oh, and about two weeks. I've never seen someone be unconscious that long from a bullet, shock, and a concussion. Congrats."
"TWO WEEKS! When did you announced the project?!"
"Eh, shortly after the attack got leaked to the media, so like three and a half weeks ago."
I just stared in horror. What was going on out there? Fire? Panic? No I needed to calm down
"How has everyone reacted to the news?"
"Well, let me put it this way: Before the media showed up, it was protesters and the panicked."
"and now?"
"Well, now its the Press and the protesters."
"Protesters? HLF or PER?"
"Both, actually. Its not a good day for us."
"What's their reasons?"
"Well, the HLF wants us to use this as a type of war machine and bombard the ponies with death from above, or at least make it open to every single living human. PER just doesn't want us using it to ship humans off to Mars. They also hate each-others guts and the security team regularly has to patrol outside to stop them from shooting at each-other. Though that would solve most of our problems."
"They're outside!"
"Yes, they as a matter of fact are. They even have tents set up, and people are afraid if we try and make them leave they'll start shooting. Which they probably will."
"And the Media?"
"They are interviewing, or trying to interview everyone. They also have news tents set up. We would try and make them leave, except that both HLF and PER loves the publicity. I guess that is how the news of the attack got of to begin with"
"Would the word 'besieged' be appropriate for our situation now?
"That will do."
I sighed.
"Have they stared the lottery for the spacejets?"
"No. It's been publicly announced that there will be one however-"
Just then a nurse entered the room.
"Time for you medicine Dr. Freeman."
The nurse walk over to me caring a siring of yellow fluid. The weird thing was that I had never seen her before, and I knew every one here.
"Excuse me ma'am but who are you? I've never seen you before."
"Oh, I just started working here a little while ago." She said with a smile.
"Oh, thats strange." Said Nigel with an equally large smile. I saw his hand reaching for a lamp subtly. "We stopped hiring new employees about a month after the project started."
Her smile wavered slightly. "Well, they opened it up to replace employees they lost in the attack by PER."
"Thats stranger. We never announced exactly who attacked us." They both stopped smiling.
For a moment, every thing was a blur of motion, and I found myself on the ground. I heard the sound of something colliding and something breaking, and things were silent for a moment. Then Nigel looked over the side of the bedpan. "We should probably get you out of the hospital wing."
He helped me up. and i saw what had happened. The nurse was on the ground, a bloody lamp next to her. The syringe she was holding had broken on the floor, the yellow liquid had flown out of it.
"What just happened you mad man?"
"We haven't hired new employees since this project started, she knew information she shouldn't know, and was about to inject you with a strange liquid. So i threw you off the bed and hit her in the head with a lamp. Do you see a phone? I need to call security."
"Over there." I pointed to the red wall phone "and I'm asking why you throw me off the bed on right next to the poison."
"Because she wouldn't be expecting it and the poison hadn't hit the floor yet. So yeah. Besides, for all you know it might just be some other yellow liquid. Either way, you lived, and better safe than sorry."
I stared at him. "Of course it was not poison, she just trying to inject me with yellow food coloring." I said sarcastically.
"Well, I hit her with a lamp, so the point is moot." He said as he helped me up slowly. "Now come on. Lets get you to a slightly less dangerous place."
Moving through the halls, we took a familiar route to Dr. Zims office. "Nobody would expect to find you there." Was Nigel's reasoning. Just as we turned a corner, we saw movement. There, standing in the hallway, was the Mega-Fox News Team.
"O God." I said putting my hand over may face"
"Ah, Director Freeman. We were looking for you." said the interviewer. "Would you like to share a few words with us?"
"No. He would not." Said Nigel as he attempted to get around them.
"I'm sorry, but nobody asked you Mr-"
"Assistant Director Sanguis, thank you very much."
"Ah, well we would also like to speak with you."
I could practically smell Nigel's irritation.
"How did you even get in here?" He said with a roll of his eyes.
"That is irrelevant. Would you like to give us a few words on your inventions? Your previous military career? Your actions in project Ares?"
"Security!" I yelled.
It took about ten seconds for the security team to arrive, and escort the Mega-Fox interviewees off the the area, them shouting questions at us the whole time.
"Annoying little..." I heard our co-worker mutter. "I swear, the holes in our security have gotten bigger since the whole disaster. The science teams call it the Deluge."
"Get me to my room, there is work to be done." I said
"Forgive me my hesitance, but you just got out of the hospital. I really don't think you should be working."
"No, with things as they are it is vitally important that we reestablish order and get things going as fast as we can."
"Alright, if you insist..." I could tell it was mock opposition. he wanted things to be set right as much as i did.
We went to me room where got out me work clothes, lab-coat, and a walking stick.
"Get the team together, I want to talk to them and set up some new equipment" I said as I got dressed.
He got started on just that without a word. There was nothing to be said.
After he made the calls we headed to the main auditorium.
"So what is to be our fate now, old friend?"
"Don't be so dramatic. Lets just get things under control, then think about the future eh?
I let out a little chuckle and smiled.
The crowd of scientists had already gathered when we arrived. Nigel stood aside while I took the stage hobbling with me walking stick. I could here them whisper as got ready to speak.
"Men and Women of Operation Ares!" I started. The crowd went dead silent, and all eyes were on me. I took a deep breath before continuing. "Thank you for seeing me today on such short notice. As you know, things have been a bit hectic in my absence, to understate it a bit. Unfortunately, it appears that things shall only go down from here. Today, a lady tried to inject me with poison, stopped only by the quick thinking of Assistant Director Sanguis. Those outside would stop us from completing our goal, to twist our hard 20 years of work into something vile, a weapon, or just end it period. We cannot let this happen! We have worked to hard on this to have it end here. We have suffered much hardship, went through many setbacks, but here we are against all odds, about to make it happen. "
I take a deep breath and signal a camera man in the back.
"This next part is for the people of the world."
I turned to look at the camera
"The Ares project is not a weapon to be twisted to violence, nor will we be bullied by PER and Terrorist supporters. We will not break; We not fold; for If humanity is to survive We Must Succeed! and We Will Succeed!" I throw my fist into air.
The crowd roared in excitement as i signaled to Nigel to cut the camera.
I was hurting badly but I was glad, even if barely stand.
"How long until you can have that on the air?" I said weakly to Nigel hobbling over to him.
"Tomorrow." He said putting my arm over his shoulder.
"Good. By the way, Have they named the Arc-ship?"
"Actually yes, Dr. Zim named it."
"Really? What did he call it?"
"The UNS Everfree."
I smiled a little as Nigel helped me back to the medical wing.