Work Text:
Status: complete
Archive: Feel free to include on any web page or archive. The truth must be known!
E-mail address for feedback: frankbparker@yahoo.com
Series: 7 Days
Disclaimers: I do not own the characters. I just report what's happened at NNL lately, which Christopher Crowe can't use because he is sworn to secrecy.
Third Wish
By David Lee Rickman II
"Ah, come on Olga!"
"No, Mr. Parker."
"It's just one little dance."
"As much as I like American oldies, I am too busy to get into a poodle skirt and go to a sock hop with you."
"Olga...."
Olga shut her office door and locked it behind her.
Parker shook his head as he walked away. "Why are Russians so square?"
****
"Thirty minutes until detonation. All personnel please begin to leave the island." The Navy captain put down the microphone and walked to the ship's upper deck.
"It's been a long time since we've detonated a test nuke."
A young private saluted the captain. "Yes sir."
"As you were." The shipmate went back to mopping.
"Private, how old are you?"
"Twenty-three, sir."
"You're too young to really understand the power a nuclear weapon has then."
The captain looked toward the shore of the island. "In a half hour that island will no longer exist."
The captain went to the radio room. He picked up a headset to begin transmitting to Pearl Harbor base when suddenly a flash of brilliant light came through the small port window. A gust of burning wind came rushing at the ship, burning everybody on the deck.
****
"How does something like this happen?" Ramsey shook his head while searching for the answer to his own question.
"I thought all our nuclear tests were only done by computer now."
Mentnor displayed the last known pictures of the island before the accident on the projector. "True Donavan, but we weren't testing the weapon. We were testing a new cloaking technique so no nuclear weapon detonations could be seen by satellites."
"Well, when do I backstep?"
"We won't get much on this side of the timeline since every clue is now nuclear dust. As soon as the NSA panel gives us the go ahead. Sorry you'll miss the sock hop you've been waiting months for."
Parker took a quick look at Olga. "It's probably for the best."
Later the next afternoon, Parker walked toward the sphere. He meet Olga on the hanger floor.
"Well Olga, I get one more chance to ask you to the Vegas sock hop."
"And I'll have one more chance to say no."
"I'll get you in a poodle skirt yet." Parker walked up the stairs and walked into the sphere.
As one of the technicians was strapping Parker in, Talmedge spoke through the intercom. "We think something was wrong with the network that sent the electrical signal to the bomb. That's our best guess Just call us and we'll stop the test."
****
Electrical sparks covered the sphere as Parker held on to the flight stick. Friday became Thursday, and last Monday came quickly. Parker could feel the reentry as the clock flipped to last Sunday.
Parker fell out of the sphere and opened the visor of his suit. The sun was out, but he was surrounded by walls of rock. "What the heck?" He pulled out his GPS locator, and discovered he was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
*****
"Sir, Conundrum is on line one."
Talmedge picked up the phone. "Yes conundrum."
"Talmedge, in less than a week the U.S.S. Eldridge will botch up a nuclear weapon test in the Pacific Ocean."
"Nuclear tests are banned by international treaty."
"This one focuses the mushroom cloud horizontally so satelites won't pick it out as quickly. Get on the phone with the Atomic Energy Commission and stop it."
"Where are you conundrum?"
"I am at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Please hurry because I forgot to put a canister of water in my flight bag."
"We'll be there in a few hours. Stay with the sphere."
*****
Parker put away his cell phone and sat beside the sphere. As he sat down, he felt something pointy against his posterior. He thought it was a rock, but then realized it was a bottle of beer sticking out of the sand. "Hhhmmm....1947 Mullinger." He shook the bottle. "But its half full. At least the bottle is antique. He poured the left over beer out and looked at the bottle in the sun.
"Hello."
Parker quickly looked around to see what appeared to be a French man behind him.
"Where did you come from?"
The man pointed to the bottle in Parker's hand. "From in there."
"In here? I think you've been in the sun too long."
"You don't understand. I am a Jinn. You released me from my prison, so I owe you three wishes."
"Sure you do." Parker was debating whether to run or fight this apparently insane man.
"Then make a wish and we'll see."
"O.k. I wish for a million more wishes."
The French man chuckled. "Happens every time. Only three. That's the only rule."
"O.K. I wish my craft and I were back at my military base."
The man snapped his fingers. "Wish one granted."
Parker looked around stunned. The walls of the Grand Canyon became the walls of the hanger, and the sphere was perfectly in place. "How...How did you do that?"
"Parker!" Ramsey marched toward Parker. "Talmedge said you just called from the Grand Canyon."
"I did. He brought me here somehow." Parker pointed to the French man.
"What the H--- are you talking about Parker? There's nobody there."
"He can't see me. Only the one with the wishes can."
"Uh, I think I'll go to my quarters Ramsey." Parker walked out of the hanger.
*****
Parker and the Jinn sat talking on Parker's bed.
"And you've been in that bottle for over 50 years?"
"Yes, and I've been granting wishes for over a millennium. So what's your next wish?"
"Well Jinn..."
"Call me Sabastian."
"Well Sabastian, you said the only rule is only three wishes?"
"That's the only one."
"So you can make any woman I want fall in love with me?"
"That's so simple I can do it in my sleep."
"O.K. Sabastian. I wish that Olga Vulkavitch would fall madly in love with me."
As soon as Sabastian snapped his fingers, a knock came at Parker's door.
Parker slowly opened the door, and there stood Olga in a poodle skirt. Olga curtsied and put her arms around Parker. "Is it too late to go to the sock hop with you?"
Sabastian walked past Parker and Olga. "I think I'll leave you two alone for now. I want to go sightseeing."
****
Ballard knocked on Ramsey's door.
"Ramsey, you won't believe this! All the food in the cafeteria disappeared all at once."
Ramsey turned toward Ballard. "I can beat that strangeness." Ramsey pointed to the monitor for Parker's room. "That's Olga Vulkavitch, isn't it?"
"It has to be because Galina is dead." Ballard leaned forward for a better look.
Ramsey's security goon rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Can she get her tongue any deeper into Frank's throat?"
"I wish I had made an official policy against fraternizing. Who could have seen this coming?"
"Are you recording this?"
"As sure as my name is Nate Ramsey."
*****
v "Frankie, sit beside me!" Olga waved Parker to an empty seat beside her.
"Frankie?" Donavan chuckled.
"Good morning everyone." Parker smiled and put his arm around Olga while she put her head on his shoulders.
"Miss Vulkavich...I know there is no official written rule against you and Parker being together, but won't it interfer with your work, not to mention Mr. Parker's?"
"No Mentnor. We'll just date after hours. We're still going to the Vegas sock hop next week, right Frankie?"
Ramsey's face grew red. "Let's stop beating around the bush. Olga, what the H--- has happened to your little commie mind?"
"You can't speak to Olga like..."
"I can speak to Olga anyway I want you idiot!"
"I am sorry I joined this project. I wish you would all just disappear!"
Sabastian suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.
"Wish three granted." Sabastian snapped his fingers, and everybody but Olga and Parker vanished.
"Oh, boy! This ain't good.," Parker groaned.
Olga grabbed tightly to Frank. "Frankie, what just happened?"
"Now that I've fullfilled your three wishes, I'll be on my way. Notice how Olga is still here because of your second wish. Never say I wasn't ever fair with you." Sabastian snapped his fingers and chuckled. "Oh, that's right. I am mortal now. I have to use the door." Sabastian made a quick exit down the hall.
****
"At least we're alone now.," Olga said hugging Parker.
"Olga, stop! Please stop!," Parker said forcing his way out of Olga's grip.
"Is something wrong?"
"Olga, didn't you notice everybody just disappeared?"
"Yes, but we still have each other. That's all that matters."
"Olga, I need to go. I need to backstep."
Olga followed Parker to the locker room where the flight suits were kept.
As Parker was getting in his suit, he saw Olga also grabbing a suit.
"What are you doing?"
"I am going with you."
"Olga, please.." Parker said pulling Olga closer to him. "You can't come with me. I wish to G-- you could, but you can't."
"Why not? Don't you love me any more?," Olga pleaded.
"Olga, what I did wasn't love. I took away your free will, and I really messed up when I wished everyone gone. It's because I love you that you can't come."
Olga put her head in Parker's shoulders and cried. "Oh, Frankie!"
****
A few minutes later, Olga kissed Parker after strapping him into the chair.
"Are you sure this is what you want?"
"Yes." Until today, Parker thought he would never reject Olga. "No!," he thought to himself. "This isn't really Olga. Not the Olga he loved, even though she never believed it." Parker smiled to himself. "..And this time I AM thinking with my head."
*****
As Olga gave the order to energize and the sphere became engulfed with energy, Olga softly said, "Goodbye my love."
*****
Parker fought harder with the needles than he ever had before. "Grand Canyon. Bring me to the Grand Canyon. Don't fail me now!" Images of Olga in the poodle skirt flashed in his head. Some Doo Wop oldies also flashed in his head. The sphere reached its maximum height above the Earth, and began it's free fall.
*****
Parker fell out of the sphere and opened the visor of his suit. The sun was out, but he was surrounded by walls of rock. "Please let me be here." He pulled out his GPS locator, and discovered he was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Parker quickly searched the soil and found the fifty year old beer bottle. Parker had to recreate the conditions of his meeting with the Jinn for his plan to work.
******
He shook the bottle. "Oh look, an ordinary beer bottle! At least the bottle is antique." Parker pour the left over beer out and looked at the bottle in the sun.
"Hello."
Parker looked around to see Sabastian behind him.
"Uh, where did you come from?"
The man pointed to the bottle in Parker's hand. "From in there."
"In here? I think you've been in the sun too long."
"You don't understand. I am a Jinn. You released me from my prison, so I owe you three wishes."
"Sure you do."
"Then make a wish and we'll see."
"O.k. I wish for a million more wishes."
The French man chuckled. "Happens every time. Only three. That's the only rule."
"The only rule?"
"Yes."
"Then I wish you would get lost."
Sabastian began to vaporize into a cloud of smoke and go into the bottle.
"No! NO! Don't you understand?"
*****
The bottle floated in air, and quickly accelerated into the sky and onward to the infinte distances of space.
*****
"Well Parker, the A.E.C. rechecked the wiring, and a short was found in a timing chip. I guess it's back to the drawing board for the Navy."
****
Later, as the briefing was dismissed, Parker ran over to Olga. "Hey, Olga! Wait up!"
"No Mr. Parker. No sock hop date."
"No, no. I want to tell you something else." Parker took a deep breath. "I wish you would kiss me."
"What?," Olga stepped back.
"You won't kiss me?"
"No!"
"Good. I am glad to hear that.," Parker said walking away.
The End