(no subject)

[eureka_npcs]

-- WEAPON WILL DEPLOY IN 3 HOURS --

Henry, Nathan and Allison have all gathered for the umpteenth time in Nathan's office overlooking the first floor lobby of Global Dynamics. The picture would probably look almost amusing to the average GD employee - Dr. Stark leaning against his chair with one hand on his hip, Henry in his garage jumpsuit and driver's cap looking almost ready to restrain one Allison Blake who might jump over the desk at Nathan any second.

"Well, there's gotta be something. Use...explosives to blast through the rest of the bedrock," Allison suggests helplessly.

Henry's already shaking his head. Again. "This machine was programmed as a second strike dead-man's weapon. Any kind of explosion and -- " A snap of Henry's fingers. Boom.

"I cannot believe we built this thing to protect ourselves," Stark offers more to himself than to the others in his office.

Allison keeps going. "I'm going to have to put a call in to the DoD."

"You can't!"

"I have to."

"You can't!" Henry repeats himself.

"I think they'll notice if we start World War Three!"

"Allison," Nathan offers as calmly as ordering a cup of coffee, "Think about it. What are you going to say? We may accidentally blow up Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and...Stockholm?"

That is it! "I know how fond you are of Stockholm, Nathan," Allison retorts, "but this is bigger than you."

"If you tell them that we can't stop it, then they're going to try and stop it, they'll nuke us, and -- "

Shouting, "I know! Any kind of explosion can trigger the device, I get it! But we're running out of options."

Jack Carter storms into Nathan Stark's office behind Nathan's back just then, smiling that smile of finally having a plan. "Beg to differ," he addresses Allison while drawing his sidearm. To Nathan: "Gonna have to borrow your Nobel."

With a clattering smash, Jack whips the butt of his pistol against the glass case containing Nathan's Nobel Prize, leaving everyone in the room in a moment of silence.

Nathan sighs. "It was open."

"Oh. Sorry." Jack opens the case while completely ignoring the gaping hole now in the glass, taking the award down off its perch.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Nathan finally snaps at him.

"Oh, we're gonna party like it's 1962." Award in hand, Jack disappears again out of the office. Nathan turns back to Allison and Henry before they have a chance to follow.

"I miss Sheriff Cobb."

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[eureka_npcs]

Henry stands with Allison, Nathan, Jack and Fargo, watching Irvin and his crew work to repair the device. He's glad that Jack's plan worked, but he knows that time is running out.

He glances at the countdown clock. "Thirty seconds and counting guys."

Even in the lab, they can hear the device opening up and Henry imagines that there is quite a bit of panic on the streets.

Irvin looks at his crew members. "Ready... set... go!"

Henry's eyes dart back and forth. He has no idea what they are about to do but he hopes to God that it's going to work.

"Key one, Key two and off." His assistants follow his orders and there is a moment of silence when it sounds as if the machine is shutting down.

The countdown clock starts again and Henry's eyes dart around the room again. The fear is palpable. Irvin looks confused. He watches a few seconds count down and then kicks the machine.

The digital displays changes from ten to nine and then the mechanical voice fills the room. "Launch code override initiated."

"Yes!" Henry yells as everyone in the room breathes a collective sigh of relief and celebrates their near miss. There are hugs and high fives all of the tension drains out of his body.

The celebration is cut off by the mechanical voice. "Dead man's protocol activated. Launch sequence initiated. Second strike weapon will deploy in five minutes."

Henry sees the countdown clock re-set it self to display 5:00 and it immediately starts counting down.

Everyone in the room gives each other confused glances. "Did somebody cut the blue wire?" Irvin asks.

Oh shit, Henry thinks, looking up at the older man from his position on the floor.

[felon-spice.livejournal.com]

Jack brakes quickly at the weapon site and hurries out of his car, followed closely by Irvin, Stark, Fargo, Allison and Henry.

"Not good," he says, looking up at the new problem. "Very not good."

"This is the one that assures mutually assured destruction," Irvin says, pointing at the weapon.

"How do we stop it?" Jack asks, hands on his hips. It's clear he's not going to take 'there is no way to stop it' for an answer.

"It can't," Irvin says. "It can't be shut down."

"Henry, how much time do we have left?" Nathan asks after hearing that.

"Thirty seconds," Henry says.

The top of the weapon encasement opens and Jack asks, "Is there any way we can, uh... re-aim it?"

"Once it's locked on to its target, it can't be re-aligned," Irvin says, as the missile extends from the top. He looks around hopelessly for a moment, his eyes falling on Jack's SUV.

Jack follows his gaze and asks, "Will it work?"

"I think desperate times call for desperate measures," Irvin says.

"Henry," Jack says, getting behind the wheel. "When you outfitted my jeep, did you put in any airbags?"

"A full set," Henry replies.

Jack puts the jeep in gear, ignoring Stark's "Carter." He's going to do whatever he has to do to save his town. His foot hits the gas and he drives toward the metal enclosure, bracing himself for the impact.

He hits just as the mechanical voice counts down to 'one' and the metal silo shifts just before a blue beam shoots from the top.

"Henry, you got it?" Stark asks.

Henry pulls out his telescope and watches the weapon take flight. "It missed! We missed the moon!" He runs over to Jack's vehicle. "Carter, Carter! Great job, man. We missed the moon. We missed it, we missed it!" He bangs his hands on the roof and then runs back to the others.

Jack breathes a sigh of relief and pushes the airbags away from his face. "A little help?"

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

Across town, SARAH has been keeping an eye on things. As much as she can, of course, but it is easy enough to do so with Jack driving his Jeep and Zoe's constant contact with her mobile phone.

The ionosphere particle beam misses the moon. It takes a second for SARAH to readjust her focus to follow the beam's trajectory out into space.




"The Central Rover is making its final approach to Jupiter -- " SARAH can hear the transmission from the satellite back to Command.

Before the IPB blows it to smithereens.

"Pasadena, we have a problem."

Pasadena might, but not Eureka. At least for today.