Thirteen Days: Test Run (Cable & Juggernaut)

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Cain's part of the mission requires a little practice.



The lack of a floor really ought to be more jarring than it was. But even if he couldn't see it, Nathan could feel it under his feet, and however good the Danger Room's holographic systems were, he knew he wasn't really wandering around in space. "This place doesn't look quite as big as the ISS," he said, stopping beneath the representation of one of the Russian space station's modules. "Same basic idea, though..."

"Oh, same idea, he says," Cain quipped, trying to get used to moving around in the odd helmet. It cut off most of his peripheral vision, but it was better than testing his invulnerability against the cold of space. "You gotta remember, I was in a coma for the entire space race. I woke up and we went from daring the Soviets to build a bigger rocket and whammo, this Midwestern dork's taking one small step for a man and it's in the history books." He shook his head, an awkward motion under the helmet. "Now I'm goin' up in a spaceship. Sonofabitch."

"If we weren't going up there to fight the psycho with the space laser, it would be kind of cool. I should take a mental snapshot, before we hit the place, and show Ray. You know, when we hypothetically get back to terra firma." Nathan smiled a bit tightly, pushing thoughts of Rachel out of his head. It was bothering him more than he wanted to let on, that he wouldn't see her and Moira before they launched. But they'd both been safely on Muir the day Cooper had shown up, and like hell was he going to suggest they come back to New York. He eyed Cain and then the faux-station. "So, ready to give this a try?" He couldn't really simulate moving in zero-g for Cain, although he could make a good stab at it, and the whole point was for Cain to practice landing on the station with the tether.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Cain grumbled, shaking his shoulders and tugging on the heavy cable clipped into the back of the harness he wore. "Seems easy enough. Kinda like the trick we pulled on Youra, remember? Drop me from the plane, only this time I'm playin' anchor instead of wrecking ball."

The urge to growl at Cain for invoking Youra was a bit odd - but then, that was the last time he could remember having pre-action nerves this bad. "I think once Clarice's done with her turn on the Vomit Comet she'll probably be in here helping out with this," Nathan said instead, triggering the mechanism to retract the cable with a flicker of telekinesis as he levitated Cain. "You're shooting for the airlock, remember."

"Big round door," Cain mumbled, focusing on the mock-up of the station in front of him. They'd told him it wouldn't be like falling, there wouldn't be any air to provide resistance or change course. Like a rock from a slingshot, he'd just keep going and going until he hit something. Which was why they'd given him what amounted to a big magnet on a string, in case he was going to overshoot the station.

Being levitated had never sat well with him, since it meant he had no leverage whatsoever to use his strength from. He was unstoppable only so long as he was moving on the ground, and floating in midair took that away from him, a vulnerability that Cain was quickly becoming all too aware of.

Focusing on the target, he felt Nathan telekinetically push, and he drifted forwards - obviously off-target. Fumbling for the magnet, he swung it towards the station, missing by about fifteen feet as he floated past. "Crap," he cursed, "it's gonna be like trying to skid across ice, ain't it?"

"Pretty much. Remember you'll have Clarice getting you on the right trajectory, though, and if worse comes to worse, Jean and I can do a quick grab. Although that's probably a trickier proposition than it sounds," Nathan said after a moment, grudgingly. "Considering relative speeds and the like. There's a very good reason that you're the one who's doing this, after all."

Cain's only response was a grunt as he was pushed off once more, this time floating past the station but managing to 'lasso' it with the magnet, hauling himself in. "Don't go remindin' me," he said. "Someone said something about moving so many thousand miles an hour, just thinking about it makes me dizzy."

"None of this really bears a lot of thinking on. We might realize just how insane the whole thing is," Nathan said, watching Cain get a grip on the faux-station. "I can't get the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' out of my head as it is."

"Ours ain't to reason why, eh?" Cain said, reeling himself into the station and attaching the clamps to the airlock. "Good a plan as any."

"And then you reel us in," Nathan muttered, watching Cain. "You know, we actually may be able to sneak up on them. It's not like they're familiar with being in space... they may not realize the thump is the sound of the Juggernaut landing on the roof."

Cain snorted as he popped the helmet off his head. "So, get flung through space, pretend to be a big ol' rock, and reel in a big plastic glider plane? I swear to God, Nate, this is the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life."

There was a slightly maniacal gleam in the gray eyes that met his. "Cain, this is the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life. What does that say about how far the rest of you have surpassed yourselves?"

Cain thought for a moment. "You got a point," he concluded as the lights around the exit door illuminated. "This even beats the time me and Harry borrowed his dad's truck and thought we'd switch all the street signs in town. Of course, that wound up getting us lost as all hell when Harry was trying to direct himself off all the signs we'd changed, and we wound up hiding out right behind the police station. I thought that'd be the dumbest night of my life, but I see folks are determined to prove me wrong."

"We're supposed to get smarter as we age, you know," Nathan said, but there wasn't much energy behind the teasing. None of them had slept particularly well this week. "Neither of us are very good examples of that."

"Speak for yourself," Cain replied, "I ain't going off and almost getting myself killed every other week in the ass-end of Stanstanistan..." He paused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "No, I'm just volunteering to be thrown out of a spaceship. Shit."

"Look at you, recognizing your own hypocrisy. Ray would insist on giving you a cookie." Nathan just shook his head, looking upwards at the 'stars' for a long moment. "Face it, we're all nuts. But I'd rather be crazy in a good cause than find out if Lehnsherr can catch a Topol-M missile."

At that, Cain snorted and walked through the door, calling back over his shoulder "I'd rather we just keep him from catching me."