Legal Stuff: I don't own Enter the Matrix, the Matrix Trilogy, or any of its characters.

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Deep Freeze

Chapter 3

It hadn't taken them a day and a half.  It hadn't taken them two days.

It had taken them three.

The small, yet heavy energy core bore several dents from its long journey across the tunnels of the real.  It was lucky to have survived the trip at all—Niobe and Ghost were on the verge of killing themselves to get it back.

It had been four days without food, and they'd only had ice to chew on for a water source.  All the signs of dehydration were beginning to show—dry mouth, sunken eyes.  They wouldn't last long at that rate.

Both were exhausted, but they pushed on, resting only occasionally.  There was no time.  If they didn't get back, they would die out there.  In all honesty, they left the Logos without expecting to come back.  They never expected to find anything.  But now they had.

Maybe it was false hope.  But maybe, just maybe, it wasn't.

Maybe Zion had held off the machines, and if they could just reach it's docks…

Finally reaching the Logos was a cause for celebration in itself.  Niobe and Ghost all but left the core behind, collapsing on the floor of their home.

Sprawling, Niobe bitterly laughed.  "We've drug ourselves all this way, and I don't think I can move another inch."

"We must."

"What if we can't?"

Ghost slowly turned himself over and stood up.  "We will."  He extended a hand out to Niobe, which she took and pulled herself up.

"I'll go check on Sparks," she finally sputtered.  "You see if you can move this thing in."

She leaned against the wall for support as she put one foot in front of the other, heading in the direction of Sparks' room.  When she arrived, she pushed the door open, not even bothering to knock. 

The room wasn't quite as cold as the outside, but only because it had apparently been shut up for a while.  Niobe's eyes trailed slowly over to the bed, almost dreading to look.  Sure enough, Sparks was curled up under several blankets, one of his arms slumped over the side of the bed.

He wasn't moving.

She shivered before slowly making her way over to his bedside.  "Sparks?" she said as loud as her voice would allow. 

No response.

She dropped to her knees and grasped his limp hand in hers.  It was icy to the touch, and her hands were too numb themselves to try to feel for a pulse.

"Sparks, please," she whispered.  Her eyes began to cloud with tears as her gaze fell to the floor.  "Too damn late," she muttered.

It was then she heard a raspy breath.  "Cap…tain?"

Niobe's gaze immediately darted back to Sparks.  He was turning over to face her.  "Sparks, we came back."

"Yeah," came his small, quiet reply.  "Find…anything?"  He finally opened his eyes to look at her.  His eyes had a 'barely there' look about them.

"We did.  Can you get up and help us?"

"No."

Niobe nodded slowly at him.  "All right.  You just stay here and rest.  We'll have this ship up and running in no time."

He didn't respond.  His eyes seemed to drift further away as she stared at him. 

Frowning, she continued to talk.  "We found another ship's power core.  It seems to have power left."

He still didn't respond.  He seemed…had he stopped breathing?

"Sparks?  Sparks!"  She stood up quickly and leaned over the bed, grabbing either side of his face.  "Sparks, answer me!"

A bit of a groan escaped his lips.  "It…was…fun."

"What?"

"I always…complained.  But it was…fun."

"Shut up!  You're not leaving now, Sparks!"  Niobe was gripping his face tighter and tighter.  "Dammit, that's an order!"

His only response was a raspy breath.

"We need you.  We need our operator!"  She was to the point of shouting, but she wasn't about to let him die after everything that had happened.  "We have to hold on for each other until we get back to Zion."

"There is…no…Zion."

Niobe grimaced for a split second.  "We need you, Sparks!  Ghost and I can't do this alone!  We need our friend with us."  She looped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him up a bit, his head lulling back.  He groaned in protest.

"Please…Niobe…I can't.  Let me die…" His whole body was limp in her arms.

She frowned for a moment.  Didn't everyone have the right to die in peace?  Was he begging her to let him go?

But she couldn't.  "No.  You're coming with me." 

She barely had the energy to stand, let alone carry him.  But somewhere, she found the strength to pull him up, sling his arm over her shoulder, and drag him with her across the ship.  His eyes were closed, and he grunted every other breath.  But she didn't care.  She was the captain.  She had to keep her crew alive.  She finally pulled him down to the Core, and set him down in one of the chairs they used for jacking in. 

"Stay here, and don't die on me."

He muttered something in response, but she couldn't hear him at first.  Leaning closer, he repeated what he said.

"Your wish…captain …is my…command."

She smiled ever so slightly.  "Now, that's more like it.  Ghost and I'll be back here soon."

She didn't make it five steps outside of the room before she nearly collapsed into the wall again.  As she leaned against the cold bulkhead, she thought she wasn't going to be able to keep going, until the sound of metal against metal screeched from down the hall.

Ghost.

She pushed herself away and kept going.  'Just a little further,' she kept telling herself.  Finally she reached Ghost and the energy core, their last hope.

"Let's get this thing hooked up," she grunted as she picked up the other end.  Every muscle in her body protested, every bone creaked, and she honestly did not know where her strength was coming from.  But one foot in front of the other, she kept telling herself.  Just a little further.

"Sparks?" Ghost asked calmly.

"He's alive."  'Barely,' she added silently.

Together they tugged the heavy object to the Logos' Core.  Sparks was limp in the chair as he watched them.  There was a long pause in the room as everyone rested a moment.  But Ghost was not one to be still very long in a situation such as this.  He slowly walked over to Sparks and knelt beside him. 

"I need to ask you something very important, Sparks."

"What?"

Ghost took a deep breath.  "You're doing very bad, you know.  If you don't make it…can I have your boots?"

A raspy chuckle could be heard as Sparks turned his head to look at Ghost.  "Touch those boots, and…I'll come back…to haunt you."

"Then you'd better not die."

Sparks made a sound not unlike a snort.  "Fine.  Hook the damn core up."

About twenty minutes later, the switch was complete, and the old core was discarded to the side.  Niobe forced herself up the ladder and into the cockpit.  "Moment of truth, boys," she said in passing.  She was beyond exhaustion, but she kept telling herself, 'just a little further.'  Pulling herself up into the cockpit was pure torture.  Finally, she collapsed into the chair and reached up to pump the igniter several times.  After she was sure her effort had been sufficient, she stared up at the button several seconds, and finally punched it.  And shut her eyes tightly.

The Logos roared to life around her.

Niobe's eyes snapped open, a smile on her face.  "Finally," she whispered.  Almost immediately, her mind flipped into survival mode.  She routed power through to the heating systems first, before turning on the water recycling system.  Next she set the proximity alarms. 

When she was done, she leaned back in her chair, content to go to sleep right then and there.

But still, her duty as Captain was not yet done.  Sure, her and Ghost probably would make it just fine by resting first, but Sparks? 

Her body once more protesting, she forced herself down to the mess hall.  Finding that everything was sufficiently defrosted, she turned the processor on to start making food once again.  Once the short process was done, she poured two bowls of the goop, filled a bottle of water, and made her way back to the Core.

Ghost was lying on the floor when she came in.  She gently kicked him in the side, and handed him the food.

Sparks was mostly unresponsive, however.  Niobe frowned.  He had to eat, or he was done for.  She sat down beside him and pulled him up, leaning his weight against her. 

"What…?" he muttered, but she silenced him.

"Eat."

She had to feed him.  He had no strength to feed himself.  She slowly spooned food into his mouth, hoping not to make him sick.  He complied, swallowing most of what she fed him, until finally he told her he wanted no more.  Then she forced him to drink a good portion of the bottle of water she carried with her.

He groaned sickly when she was finished, and turned over on his side just a bit.  Niobe sighed as she watched him.  "Don't die."

"Mmm."

She had just turned to go get herself some water when her mysterious source of strength gave out on her.  She went tumbling to the floor, painfully hitting her head on part of the metal walkway.

"Oww," was all she could manage to groan, but she didn't care.  'I'll just stay here and rest a while,' she thought as her sight began to get fuzzy.  Apparently, she noted, she'd managed to give herself a concussion on top of everything else. 

Just before she blacked out, she faintly registered the sound of the proximity alarms going off.

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Oooh, don't you just hate cliffhangers?  I've got my motivation back for this fic, so expect frequent updates!  Please R&R!!