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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-04
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1,943
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1/1
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12
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7
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1,088

Cool As Ice

Summary:

A young man frozen for a decade is brought back to life and runs amuck at NNL

Work Text:



Cool As Ice
By David Lee Rickman II
*****

"Whew! It sure is cold in here Phil!"

"Yeah, so let's try to hurry."

Phil and Tom shivered as they walked into the 8x10 foot freezer built into the basement of the Nevada University of Medicine. The dean couldn't think of a worse punishment for these two troublemakers than spending an hour in the basement freezer that a decade before had been used to hold specimens.

"The sooner we clean this up, the sooner we can leave."

"Hey Tom, look at this." Phil pointed to a corner of the freezer that had the outline of a huge drawer. "Help me open this."

"No way, who knows what's in there."

Phil ignored Tom and forced the drawer open.

"Uh, Tom...There's someone here!"

***

Olga had placed electrodes on a frozen frog before, but never a frozen human. Frank Parker sat watching in morbid fascination.

"But why did they bring it here?"

"Because Parker, this is the closest secure facility that could handle this. You can leave if you want."

"No way, I want to see if you can bring this popsicle back to life."

****

Olga placed the last electrode on the body and closed the door as she left the glass enclosure that imprisoned the body.

"O.K. Parker, every five minutes we'll raise the temperature one degree celcius."

Several hours passed, and Parker left to get coffee.

****

"How's Frosty?," Parker asked as he returned.

"I am starting to give up. It's almost at room temperature and..."

Suddenly beeps started to come from the computer. "Oh my!" Olga looked from the computer, looked at the body, and then back at the computer.

"Now what?"

"Stay here!" Olga ordered.

Olga slowly got up and walked toward the glass cell that held the body. As she went inside, the head sharply turned and Olga could see green eyes looking at her.

"Do you have the cure?"

"What cure?"

The formerly frozen body struggled to get up, but gave up. "You unfroze me because you have the cure, right?"

"What do you have?"

"I...I have AIDS." The body then bacame unconscious.

****

"Earlier yesterday, two college students found an unidentified frozen body. Today, Olga succeded in bringing it back to life." Talmedge handed an NSA folder to each Alpha team member at the briefing. "We now have a name. His name is Timothy Anderson O'Neil. In 1984, he accidentally contracted AIDS during a blood transfusion. His father, Dr. Emanual O'Neil was a leading authority on cryogenic suspension. Apparently, he was so good he could freeze his son to buy time until we had a cure. Unfortunately, from what we can tell, he was killed in a car crash before he made a record of the experiment."

"The bad news is who is going to tell Tim we don't have a cure yet."

"Correct Ballard. Until the NSA panel decides what to do, we need to isolate him to a room. That includes not telling him what this base is really for."

***

"Mr. O'Neil." Mentnor helped Tim stand up and shook his hand. "My name is Isaac Mentnor and this is Nate Ramsey. He'll show you to your room where you'll stay isolated for a few days. Just routine of course."

As Ramsey and Mentnor led O'Neil down the hall, Tim stopped suddenly.

"What's that?"

"What?" Ramsey and Mentnor quickly looked around. Tim knocked them to the ground and ran down the hall.

****

Frank Parker woke up from his nap because of the siren. Parker put a pillow over his head to try to block out the sound. "If this is another one of Ramsey's drills, so help me I will go back to the nut house. At least I could sleep in peace there."

***

After trying in vain to block out the sound, he decided to get up and brush his teeth. "If they want me to do tricks like a dog whenever they ring a bell, they have another thing coming.," Parker thought to himself.

As he began brushing, a man walked out of his shower stall. "Uh, you're that Tim O'Neil guy, right?"

Parker could see O'Neil's reflection off the mirror hiding something behind his back. "This may be a wild guess, but are you why the siren is going off?"

O'Neil pulled a gun from behind his back and held it to Parker's head.

"Mr. Parker? Are you here?" Olga was knocking on the bathroom door.

"Olga, get help!"

Parker felt O'Neil's gun slam against the back of his skull. Then everything became black.

"I say we storm that son of a b-----.," Ramsey was very direct in his thinking about hostage negotiations. It was always like war where to get the enemy you had to accept some innocent lives would be lost.

Talmedge shook his head. "No, we need to do this right. We need to talk to him. The real problem is that O'Neil broke the security camera, so we can't know what's going on."

"Oh, my head!" Parker became conscienious. His first instinct was to feel his head, but he realized his hands were tied.

"Good evening Mr. Parker." O'Neil sat in a chair in front of Parker. "Evening? How long have I been out?"

Parker then realized Olga was next to him also tied up.

"I know what's going on here.," Tim moved a kitchen knife slowly along Olga's cheek. Luckily, she was still unconscious.

"What?," Parker learned as a Navy seal never to show more than a tenth of what one knows.

"This confirms my dad's theory. This is the same base that created AIDS, isn't it?"

"What?," This time Parker was taken aback.

Tim traced an imaginary circle around Olga's neck. "Be honest with me Parker or cutie here gets a permanent hair cut. I know AIDS was created to kill off the undesireables for the government. What is this base for?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"I guess that awnsers it." Tim was moving the knife closer to the kneck when Olga started to become conscious. "Hhmmm..Maybe cutie here will talk."

Olga was confused. "Cutie?...Why am I tied up?" Olga began to curse Tim in Russian.

"You're friend Parker here has been talking to me while you were out. He admitted they created AIDS here. So tell me about the cure cutie."

"I have a possible way in.," Ballard said while pushing a few computer buttons. "The only one Tim will talk to is his dad."

"But his dad is dead."

"Physically yes. I downloaded a few of his dad's audio lectures on cryogenics. Using digital spectrum modeling, I can take the syllabels and recreate his voice to say anything. The only thing is it won't have lot of emotion."

"I think it's worth a shot. I hope Parker still has his cell phone." Talmedge sighed. "God help us all."

"So, what will it be?" Tim said after sticking his gun on Olga's forehead.

"Be careful where you point that thing.," Parker said using any and all courage he could muster.

"Mr. Parker. I am not afraid of dying. The ironic thing is the operation to save my life used blood transfusions to kill me."

"What made you so insane? The ten year ice cream headache?"

"Are you making fun of me Parker?"

"No, I've just faced death also many times."

Tim slapped Parker's face.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!," Olga screamed after seeing the red palm print on Parker's face.

"Good."

"Olga!," Parker wanted to tell Olga to shut up. Tim walked over to the Parker's bed and used the pillow case to make a mouth gag on Parker.

"Now Miss cutie. Talk."

"First, you're father is dead. He died in a car crash after you were frozen. We are very sorry."

Tim made a face to show he was in deep thought. "And this base doesn't create diseases. We experiment with time travel."

"Liar. Time travel is impossible and my dad isn't dead!"

"I am telling the truth."

"Then go back and save my father."

"It doesn't work that way."

Suddenly the cell phone on the dresser rang. "What's that?," Tim looked around.

"That's Parker's cell phone." Tim slowly picked up the phone. "The top right button is ON." Olga said.

Tim pushed the button. "Hello,"

"Hello, Tim."

"Dad?," Tears started to form in Tim's eyes.

"Yes. Why are you doing this?"

"I...I have to dad."

"What you're doing is wrong. You should end this."

"Dad...They said you were dead. They said this basewas for time travel."

****

"They told him about us?," Mentnor asked out loud.

"Ballard, type that that is silly."

"D--- that Parker. D--- the day he was born.

Traitor!," Ramsey complained.

"Son, that is silly. But I am here. I am outside the door. I have the cure. You need to unlock the door."

"Dad. I am scared. There are security teams outside."

"They will stand back if you surrender. They just want nobody hurt. Have you hurt anyone?"

"Yes, Parker is dead. How is my aunt Amy?"

****

"Parker is dead? But...I....," Ballard was shocked.

"What do we say about his aunt?," Donavan asked.

"Ballard, tell him she's fine. We still can rescue Olga."

*****

"Aunt Amy is fine.," Came the voice over Parker's phone.

"This isn't dad! I don't have an aunt! How dare you trick me."

****

"Aw, crap. He's on to us. Great going Ballard.,"

Ramsey snapped his fingers. "Agent Tony! Agent Ralph! Help me bust down that door."

As the agents busted down the door, Agent Tony attempted to grab Tim's gun during the moment of confusion. Tim yanked it back, and shot Olga in the back.

"Nnnnoooo!," Parker shouted.

Tim's gun was grabbed by Agent Ralph. Tim fought back, but was overpowered by Ramsey and Tony.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!," Tim shouted while being dragged off."

***

Three days in the past, Phil and Tom shivered as they walked into the 8x10 foot freezer built into the basement of the Nevada University of Medicine.

"The sooner we clean this up, the sooner we can leave."

"Hey Tom, look at this." Phil pointed to a corner of the freezer that had the outline of a huge drawer.

"Help me open this."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you.," A man wearing a leather jacket said as he walked into the freezer.

"Who are you?," Phil asked.

"Ageent Parker. N.S.A." Parker showed them his I.D. badge.

"I just talked to your dean. There is some classified stuff here, and if you don't mind my friends will clean up here."

"How the heck did you talk the dean out of our punishment?"

"It's a little something called federal funding. Now scram before we change our mind."

After the boys left, Parker walked over to the wall.

"Well Tim, you'll soon be in a state of the art cryo chamber. Rest in peace."

***

Mentnor's voice is heard in the background. "Maybe in another decade, if there is hope. Hope lies in tomorrow's world. But there is a bridge for tomorrow's hope to come today. But hope isn't found in a sphere.

Hope exists in those who are their own time machines.

The ones who strive to make the future brighter for all of us."



The End