Subject: escape into sunlight.1
From: chandler@mail.sjcsf.edu (Jared Chandler)
Date: Sun, 09 Jun 1996 21:57:27 -0700

RightSaid gently feels underneath the interface box, groping for light
within the belly of the beast. Sliding his fingers across the switches,
silently counting each one off in his mind. "36B." pulling up hard to
depress the button. 

Now turning. waiting for the rush of air. The vent grill disengages,
folding into the side of the wall. RightSaid's ready. Smashing the ceramic
flask full of liquid hydrogen against the metal ceiling a few inches from
his face, he shoves himself forward, gliding on a bodyboard of
electromagnetics as thick as a sheet of paper. The vent is linear. No
lefts, rights, ups, downs; just a 3 x 4 foot titanium tunnel a 1/4 of a
mile long.

and a mile high.

RightSaid knows it's coming up soon, he slaps a contact pad on his
shoulder, igniting a pair of magnesium flares strapped to his back. Bits
of light whiter than the sun peel off at 83 mph, leaving a trail of stars
back through the darkness as the two cylinders careen and bounce along
just behind him.

a red digital readout appears on his wrist. a countdown from 5000 just as
the sudden force of air from freefall hits him. 

digits blurring by together they scream toward zero. 

the flares are falling right there beside him, illuminating the verticle shaft.

 the slipstream tears away the electromagnetic bodyboard, spinning it up
into the eternal night.

RightSaid waits for the crack as the explosive teathers holding most of
his equiptment blow out. Consigning it to a somewhat slower descent. 

the feeling is comparable to getting slammed against the ground by a .38,
only this time, the grounds still 1000 feet away. Gloved hands tense,
arming the package strapped to his chest. Gloved hands tense again. 

RightSaid gains 900 cubic feet of volume in just under a second; screaming
down a shaft at terminal velocity with a kevlar airbag strapped between
him, and a state resembling a very watery soup. 

he smiles, not because he knows whether he'll make it, but because he
get's to find out...

chandler@mail.sjcsf.edu