The meeting was over. It had not been a snoring meeting. It
hadn’t even been a talking or a listening meeting. It had been yelling meeting.
Toll stormed out of the conference room enraged. Rusty followed after him.
“Toll wait!” he shouted.
Toll spun to face him. “You don’t know it you’ll be able to
turn it back on!”
For the first time in his life Rusty stood his ground. “Yes!
There has never been a system wide shut down. We have nothing, not even
theoretically that tells us what to expect!”
“Don’t you think that the lack of information about this is
all the proof you need that it shouldn’t be done?” Toll asked.
“Our entire plan hinges on shutting the ring system down.
Whether or not it comes back on doesn’t matter!” Rusty stood fast.
“Yes it does! Without the ring system we can’t get home!”
Toll gestured wildly, yelling at the top of his lungs..
“We’re never going home Toll!” Rusty exploded. “You never
once thought through any of the consequences of your schemes! This is home now!
That’s the consequence of coming here! Get used to it!” Rusty was red in the
face. The other conference members quietly left the conference and headed the
opposite direction down the hall.
Toll looked like he was about to fall apart. “Not if we can
get back through the ring first.” He almost whispered.
Rusty’s face was returning
to its normal shade. “I’ve spent my entire life ignoring how truly selfish you
are. There is so much more at stake here than whether or not we get home. The
fact that you can’t see past your own nose has always gotten us into trouble.
And if you’re not careful its going to get those fools you call pilots killed.”
Rusty was still to angry to care about the daggers in Tolls eyes. “We’re here,
we have responsibilities that we can’t run from, deal with it.” Rusty turned and
stormed down the hall. He passed Ophelia and Carter without a word.
Ophelia moved to follow after rusty but Carter stopped her,
nodding in Tolls direction where he was pacing, then suddenly exploded and
punched the wall. His hand crumpled and he yelped as Ophelia stepped toward
Toll. The knuckles on his ring finger and pinky were already starting to swell up and turn colors. “The
movies never tell you that it hurts to punch things.”
Ophelia pulled her phone out of her pocket, pressed a couple
buttons and then held it to her ear. “Yeah I need a medic in meeting corridor
C, thanks.”
