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Chapter XLVIII

Spaceman found it very easy to leave the station. His coterie of friends kept growing with each attempt at intervention until a kind of critical mass arrived. Whether or not he was a prisoner, or a Section Starfire agent, or a notorious addict became immaterial. Spaceman lead, and those looking to follow did so.

Heading up from the bowels of the engineering deck, they passed by the cryptozoological section. It occurred to Spaceman that his escape would be that much easier if the personnel in the station had something distracting them. A command to Mr. Doubtful cut off the emergency power to the pens, cages, and corrals keeping the cryptids at bay.

He figured the result would be a few sasquatch and sea serpents making a break for it. He hoped there were enough penguins in Antarctica to feed a new population of Big Feet. Big Foots? Spaceman chuckled to himself, bummed a cigarette from another engineer and directed his followers upwards.

By the time they reached the main exit, the station appeared well on its way to destruction. The deck kept rumbling under their feet, all of the coolant pipes and power ducts venting around them. A loyal platoon of henchmen guarded the gate and didn’t seem inclined to listen to Spaceman’s patter.

With regret he suggested to his friends to remove the obstacle.

On the other side of the gate the airfield beckoned. The airplane that had taken Spaceman to the Delta Omega base still stood gleaming in the sun. For the moment the runway seemed to be holding together despite the waves of tremors coming from the dying Delta Omega. Spaceman looked back once they reached the plane, and observed that the entire station had begun to list to one side. Its end neared.

The pilots insisted that they had to wait for their passenger to arrive, a frustrating situation for Spaceman. The airfield began to deteriorate, some of the buildings closer to the station slumping into the widening pool of meltwater around Delta Omega. He was about to replace the pilots when he saw a vehicle leaving one of the emergency gates, heading directly to the plane. The jeep could contain Hugo, Melissa, or the Master himself and Spaceman realized he’d like a chance to speak with any of them or all of them. He instructed his friends to arm themselves and then lower the embarkation stairs to the tarmac.

A long flight awaited him. It would be nice to have some good conversation to look forward to.



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