At Mach three, the plane trembled. A vague blackness crept its way into the corner's of Cole's eyes - he was slipping away from consciousness as blood pooled inside his feet. He tightened his abdomen, flexed his legs, coaxing the blood to keep flowing, against gravity, to his brain. As the foggy black blur receded like a curtain being drawn, Cole flipped a bright red switch, and then he heard the ominous hum behind him. It resonated in his every molecule, rattling his teeth, vibrating his bones, before turning to an ear-bursting crescendo. Pain overtook him and, despite hiss efforts, the black curtain fell once more over Cole's eyes.