Les Mousquetaires – Chapter 2 (Atlas Shrugged) Part 2

Les Mousquetaires – Chapter 2 (Atlas Shrugged) Part 2
 
 
 
 
     “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”  Michael Jordan
 
 
 
 
“Poor Man’s Caviar, this is Milk Toast, requesting permission to board.”
 
“You really are as insane as all those stories make you out to seem, aren’t you, you crazy mother fucker?” the tall fifty-two-year-old who looked like an overgrown ten-year-old said into his radio.
 
“Permission granted.”
 
“Yeah, easy enough for you to say,” Bruce Williams told the man he used to call ‘friend’.
 
“You better take another shot, this is probably gonna get insane,” the bald man with the raptor eyes said over his short hook-nose to the tiny woman standing next to him.
 
“I was in Tuscan for the Pimp Trials – I’m pretty fucking sure I can handle anything, at this point,” the spicy redhead with the bad attitude told the man she would trust with her life, just not her heart.
 
“Well, a single bolt of lightning contains upwards of three-hundred-million volts.  AND we’ve got ‘em striking every six-to-ten seconds.  So that doesn’t give us long to move from this ship to his.”
 
“You mean we have to go outside to get in his ship?” the woman asked, suddenly frozen where she stood.
 
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.  Cuz we can’t connect the ships.  For one thing, that would interrupt the wind flow keeping them both aloft, so they’d probably just drop out of the sky the second we linked ‘em together.”
 
“And secondly?” the woman asked, as she scrunched up her face and then pulled her long red hair back into a severe looking bun.
 
“And secondly, we’d probably all get electrocuted the second we connected, as it’s highly unlikely our ship’s polarity would match his.  Which, if we’re lucky, would cause a friction spark that would send us all up in smoke a second later.”
 
“And if we weren’t lucky?” Lynnette asked, strictly out of morbid curiosity.
 
“We’d all cook from the inside out.  Organs first.”
 
“Well, that’s certainly a compelling enough reason to make me consider going outside.  But you at least have suits?”
 
“I have a suit.  A biomedical suit that’s programmed to my specifications.  It won’t work for you.  And all lightning harvesters are outfitted the same way - with just the one suit for the pilot, so they can’t be easily taken over by pirates.”
 
Lynnette remembered that to be true enough, as at first she’d considered that very thing.  I mean, she had enough volunteers to run the lighting ships – she just didn’t have the right ones.  Yet.
 
“Come on.  No sense in putting it off,” the six-foot-one man said, as he grabbed up a case of the highly prized green liquor the lightning farmers were known for.
 
“What’s that for?” Lynnette asked, as together they stepped into the airlock.
 
“Persuasion.”
 
A few minutes later and they were both strapping on two ion-charged jet-packs.
 
“Strictly speaking, aren’t these incredibly dangerous to use around lightning strikes?” the woman asked in an incredibly shaky voice.
 
“Hence the need to hurry once we’re out there.  No dawdling.  Just point yerself at his airlock and go.  Even if you think you feel or see a strike coming don’t move off course – don’t budge an inch either way – you’ll only get there slower.  If something’s gonna hit you – it’s gonna hit you.  That’s it.  Lights out.  The fat lady has sung.”
 
The slight woman with the robust chest looked up at the man and smiled, “Why aren’t you wearing your suit?  At least one of us would be protected.”
 
“If you don’t make it then I don’t want to either,” the man told her, has he transferred the potent and often mildly hallucinogenic liquor into a backpack he then strapped to his chest.
 
“That’s insane.  I haven’t seen you in twenty years,” Lynnette narrowed her eyes on the man she’d only ever known as a friend.
 
“Oh, it’s not you, love,” the man told her, as he bent down and kissed the top of her head.
 
“It’s just… this is it,” he said right into her eyes.
 
“I’m pretty sure this is my last chance to make things right.  If I miss it there ain’t gonna be another.”
 
Lynnette knew that was true enough for her as well.  Time, at least for their kind, was finite – and only existed in the here and now – and if they didn’t do this now there probably wouldn’t even be much of a tomorrow anyhow.
 
And so, she smiled up at him, and then hugged him the best she could around the bulging backpack on his front.
 
“Thank you.  Thank you for believing in me,” she told him with a small tear in her eye. 
 
“And thank you - for believing in you.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Raena Exe 2021
 
 
*Inspired by life.
*All characters, places, and events are completely fictional.
*All rights reserved.

---