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"There, that should do it," said Nina McCleer, setting aside the screwdriver. "Ooo! I hate this! That portable heater sure comes in handy, but even with it on full blast, this screwdriver's awfully cold without my gloves!"

"But it's hard to manipulate the tools with gloves on," the mangled robot told her.

"Al," began Nina, a bit anxious, "if you would do the honors- This phase is yours to complete, and then we are finished." She tried to mask the fear she felt for her friend. X-9 might only be a robot, but she regarded him as a friend indeed.

"The honors? Or," Albert Zoeniga suggested, "the dirty work." He, too, valued their companion who was made of metal and plastic. And why not?

While it may be a robot's duty to do all the things which X-9 had done, still, X-9 had done quite a lot. He had shielded Nina McCleer from the blast that destroyed the whole building where the illegal church had been holed up. He had hunted throughout Sparkle City, looking for Albert Zoeniga, another survivor of the blast, like Nina, to get his help to nurse Mrs. McCleer back to health because her injuries had been severe. X-9 also accompanied them both up north here through the terrible blizzard to the secret Research and Development Laboratory, where Nina had planned to ask Dr. Kitchen's help. Dr. Kitchen had been one of the developers at work in the R and D Lab. She had been Nina's college professor years before, and she owed Nina a big favor. NIna had planned to ask her to pay it back. Nina intended to ask for help in finding out if her husband George McCleer was stuck secretly in the fuel ore mines or not. Nina refused to accept the official story that he had been killed in a cave-in.

Unfortunately, Dr. Kitchen was no longer there at the R and D Lab to aid Nina in any way. Nor was anyone else. The whole staff had been killed by Dr. Kitchen's shaggy blue hybrid pet- half doberman, half lion. Fuzzy.

X-9 had protected them from Fuzzy and had helped them get to safety back inside the R and D Lab building, locking the wild creature outside in the green snow. But he had paid a price- Fuzzy had damaged him far beyound the recycle-threshold.

Fuzzy had also wrecked the power distributor box in the electrical power relay room- that was way before Nina McCleer and Albert Zoeniga and the robot had reached this Research and Development Laboratory. So now the only working lights the R and D Lab were their flashlights. And the only heat came from the portable heater Nina had mentioned earlier. At least they had enough food supplies for  a few weeks. Maybe they could outlive that hungry beast outside the door waiting for them, blocking their way to the outbuilding beyond, in which sat a prototype for a new kind of aircar.

However, Fuzzy had torn X-9's robot body to ribbons. X-9 did not have two of his four limbs anymore. Wires hung out from all over. And his main battery, cracked open and ready to split in two, leaked battery fluids. The battery would not last for much longer. Once the battery completely failed- unless the two humans had managed to perform this delicate operation correctly, X-9's mind would vanish when the current from the fractured battery keeping the artificial brain still functional was gone.

X-9 encouraged them. "Come now, Mrs. McCleer, Mr. Zoeniga, I am sure you have done the procedure correctly so far. You two have done enough practice exercises to improve your dexterity to be able to accomplish this. I trust you have connected my auxiliary battery to my brain just the way I described it to you. I know you took it from my body with ease. It is a back up battery to keep my brain alive if the main battery goes out. Since the main battery is shot, and the leads from the spare battery to my brain have been damaged, that's why I asked you to install the spare in my head, connected directly to my brain. How long could the auxiliary battery last, if we left it remain in my body, even if its circuits to my brain were okay? Look at me- My body's so full of short circuits and damaged wiring. yhe auxiliary battery would drain very quickly. But now, since you have done this operation, you can safely take my head off my dying body."

"Unless we accidentally crossed circuits connecting it, and the spare blows out once we remove your head," murmured Nina. "There are so many circuits, you know, and so tiny- Can you be sure we did the job right, X-9?"

"Well, technically, I cannot be sure, not until you pull off my head. It could be that you didn't securely fasten the connections, or that you-"

"Okay," protested Albert, "stop! Don't tell us all the things that we may have done wrong!"

"But, I am sure you both did everything the right way," X-9 insisted. "And even if you did not, I will never know-"

"Stop," Albert shushed the robot. He screwed the panel back in place on the posterior of X-9's head. Then, gritting his teeth, he took the robot's head in his hands and- he felt squeamish about this part more than anything else.

"Mr. Zoeniga, pull my head off. We don't have all day. Relax, it'll be fine. Trust me."

Albert still hesitated. "X-9, is it possible for a robot with Seymour's Syndrome to lie? Are you truly so certain we are not killing you?"

"Mr. Zoeniga, if you think a robot with Seymour's Syndrome can lie, and yet you are asking me if we can, how can you be sure, if I tell you we cannot lie, that I am not lying to you when I answer you, if you think maybe we can lie?"

Albert Zoeniga sighed, resigned. "I guess you're right. Let's get this over with." So saying, he yanked with all his strength on the robot's head. It required much strength to pull it free. But X-9's head came off without a hitch.

"See, Mr. Zoeniga? See, Mrs. McCleer? I told you, nothing to worry about," X-9's head spoke to them.

Albert let out a breath. "Whew! You're still with us, X-9. Praise the Lord!" He set the head down on the floor.

Nina McCleer nodded. "I am glad you are not gone, X-9, but I must tell you- watching your head talking without a body- It's just.. weird!" She rubbed her cold hands in front of the portable heater.

"A job well done, Mrs. McCleer," X-9 congratulated her. "And you also did well, Mr. Zoeniga. Now, what you shall do next will be easy, compared to what you have just done. You already should know your way fairly well around my body, since you had taken the auxiliary battery from it. Now you must go and get my robot interface unit. We are going to fit it into that distribution box Fuzzy smashed and I will reboot it. This should get the power in this building working again."

"I sure hope so," said Nina.

"I second that," added Albert.

"Now for the bad news," said X-9. "Before you do any of that, you must push the distribution box back upright. I know it is very dented, and it can run lying down. But let's stand it up so we can get everything positioned correctly. Unfortunately, I suspect the box will be rather heavy for a human, and, with my body smashed and useless, I cannot help you. If it is too heavy, remember what you learned in school regarding fulcrums and levers."

Albert Zoeniga agreed. "Well, okay, X-9." He went over to the distribution box, lying upon its side. Nina McCleer joined him. They both reached down for the smashed metaL box. With some groaning and moaning, they managed to stand it back on its base. Albert observed, "Well, after that work-out, we don't need the heater to keep us warm."

Nina said, "But let's not shut it off, anyway."

The robot head said, "Now you must find and remove from my discarded body the interface unit. I will direct you to it. Once you find it and we ascertain it is still undamaged despite Fuzzy's beating, then you will take it to replace the shorted unit in the distributor box. Once I reboot it to make it a useful integrator, this distributor box should work very efficiently. Then, we restart the power fuel generator and you should be able to finally get warm and comfortable in here while you wait for Fuzzy to die of starvation or cold."

Nina shook her head. "I know Fuzzy is a fierce killer, X-9, but do you have to be so matter of fact about what's going to happen to him? I mean, he can't help himself. He's just a dumb, wild animal. I don't like the idea of him suffering."

Albert patted her shoulder affectionately in a brotherly sort of way. "Sis Nina, let's focus on the task at hand. It will help keep our minds off Fuzzy."

And so they did. In less than an hour, Nina and Albert had the integrator unit hooked up inside the distribution box and almost ready to go.

Still setting on the floor, X-9's head said, "Okay, one of you must hoist me closer to the box, so that you can link my head up to the integrator unit with a uni-link wire through my port formerly used for my tracker. You can cannibalize a clip and wire from my body parts and make one, if you can't find any in the maintenance supplies. I tell you, the uni-link is a lot handier than the alligator clips I used before. Once you connect it to the proper place on the new interface unit you placed inside the distribution box, I can link with it and interface with the distribution circuit patterns. My robot brain will adapt it to the proper ranges. See how simple it all is?"

"Eh, yeah," Albert lied.

Once the connections were set up, X-9, his head in Albert's arms, announced to them when he had successfully taken control of the distribution box. "There. Done. I have, via the integrator interface, restarted the power generator. Hear it kicking over? Just give it a few minutes to get warm in here."

Shortly, the lights inside the room- and probably all over the R and D facility blinked on. The heating units around the building commenced operating. The box began to hum. In mere moments they could feel the air slowly start to warm.

"Yay!" both Albert and Nina cheered.

Albert reached for the uni-link wire, about to unclip it from X-9. "Wait, please," the robot said.

Albert stopped and shrugged. "Okay. Why?"

"There is a strange circuit pathway program in there that I do not understand. I do not know what purpose it serves or why it seems to be hidden. Since this is the Research and Development Lab, perhaps it is wise if I learn its reason. It might be important to know what it is, if we shall be stuck inside the Lab for perhaps several weeks."

Nina thought about that. "Maybe we shouldn't meddle with it, and for the same reason you gave- This is the R and D Lab. Who knows what it could be?"

"Yes, I see your point," X-9 agreed. "Okay, Mr. Zoeniga, disconnect me, then."

Albert did, but then the shaking started. The whole building trembled, as if caught in a violent quake. It became so severe that parts of the building shook loose and fell here and there.

"What's going on??" a bewildered Nina wanted to know, trying to keep on her feet through the shaking.

X-9 said, "Just focusing my attention on that circuit must have triggered something, but I do not know what. I suggest you take me and we go to the exit and race to the aircar in the hangar to escape before this shaking gets any worse."

"Good idea, except you forgot about Fuzzy out there, waiting for us," Albert reminded, scooping up the robot head as he and Nina dashed through the rumbling hallway, heading toward the nearby back exit.

The lights winked out. "Drat! Nice while they lasted," said Nina. "At least I still have this flashlight in my back pocket." She led the way.

X-9 told them, as they ran, "I assure you, I did not forget about Fuzzy. I expect the rattling will so rattle him, he shall take flight from his position in panic."

They reached the foyer and the back exit beyond. A shrill siren sounded inside the place for a moment, hurting their ears and getting their attention. Next, an aged voice from seemingly nowhere spoke- "Oops, now you did it!"

"That's Dr. Kitchen's voice," exclaimed Nina.

The late doctor's voice suggested, "I bet you electricians set this off this shaking, didn't your? Well, whatever, better hurry and join me in whatever is our latest highspeed vehicle parked in the garage. Not much room, but I will take whoever gets there in time to escape. You see, I always make sure we have some prototype parked out there for just such a kind of emergency as this. What you did is, you have activated Gov. Bright's self-destruct mechanism for the R and D facility. Now don't try leaving in the vehicle before I get there, because the skycar can't start without my secret code. I made it a point, so that I cannot be left behind, to be the only one who knows the code. As you can surmise, I put that secret code program into our current prototype's programing on the hush-hush. No one knows the code is embedded in there, and no one knows what the code is, either, but me."

The voice faded . And the shaking mellowed and finally halted. Just before the last spasm, however, a section of the roof collapsed right outside the foyer in which they stood, blocking their way back into the main hallway. Green snow blasted in from the hole in the ceiling created by the falling roof section.

Nina gasped, "This is bad- This place is going to self-destruct! I guess we have to risk Fuzzy and do it the way X-9 said!"

"We can't head out the front way, that's for sure. We won't get past that fallen ceiling section to go back into the hallway. I hope X-9's right about Fuzzy being upset from the quake!" Albert said.

“Before we head out, let me peek and see if Fuzzy ran away!" Nina McCleer went to the solid, locked metal exit hatch and peered out the peephole. Its small glass pane had shattered from the quake. All the abuse Fuzzy had given the door previously, and the peep window's pane had not been damaged- but the quake was the last straw. Cold wind blew in through there and from the opened roof, too, making the foyer brutally cold.

Nina saw that Fuzzy did not give up as quickly as X-9 had expected. The shaggy blue creature ran about in circles in the high snow, growling and screeching in fright, very scared and bewildered, and yet he never moved far from his spot nearby the door. His actions wore a path into the deep snow.

Albert Zoeniga once more set down X-9's head on the floor. He took the door's wheel, about to attempt to turn it and retract the crossbar lock. "We can still try running for the hangar, Sis. Nina. Maybe the quake confused Fuzzy and he won't notice us-"

X-9, from where he "sat" on the floor, said, "Surely the strong quaking is not the self-destruct. It already stopped shaking. Except for the portion of the fallen roof, the Lab building is hardly harmed. Either way, I still suggest we get out of here, while we can."

Nina helped Albert twist the locking wheel. “Oh, we intend to, X-9!” With much grunting, they managed to move the crossbar and unlock the hatch. But when they tried to pull it open, it refused to budge. The two humans tugged and tugged, to no success.

And, worse yet, their struggles caught the attention of Fuzzy, who ran to the door and eagerly waited for them to emerge.

Albert stared at the door. "No wonder it won't open! Between Fuzzy banging into it before, and the quake, the door is warped out of shape. And its frame is bulging here and there in the wrong places, too. The door is now jammed and stuck too tight to open! We're trapped here in the foyer!"

X-9 said, "If only I still had my robot body- Maybe I would be able to force the door open!"

Before anyone could fret anymore about the matter, a loud hissing from outside filled their ears. Hiiiisssssss!

"Now what?" asked Nina, not really wanting to know.

She and Albert tried to see out the peep window both at the same time. They saw grey, smoking geysers shooting from the ground. And not one or two of them, but scores of the geysers popped out the snow, in a pattern, one right next to another, encircling the Lab and the nearby garage building in a ring of  grey spraying liquid.

Fuzzy wailed in fright. He now ran wildly in all directions, trying to find a way of escape through the barrier of the geysers. Whatever they were, they looked menacing-

Wherever the grey liquid touched- mostly only snow for the moment- the touched object sizzled, smoked, and dissolved away. The ring of geysers surrounded the whole perimeter of the R and D Lab and the garage. And it soon became obvious that the ring was shrinking, contracting, tightening like a noose around the buildings- and those inside the buildings! The geysers moved nearer, nearer! And the nearer they got, the faster the geyser sprays seemed to be coming toward them!

The spitting fluid neared the garage building first- Only a small stream brushed against a corner of the structure, and that corner quickly bubbled and dissolved into a puddle in the snow.

X-9 could hear the sizzling spray. He inquired, "What is happening? I cannot see from here." When Albert described the scene, X-9 explained, "I think there were tanks underground, filled with at least two different chemicals, separated from each other. When the self-destruct activated, the two chemicals mixed. I am guessing the new compound created a highly deadly acid. How else should one destroy a place that does secret research? The subsequent chemical reaction of the mixture, under tremendous pressure now in the reservoir tanks buried underneath the ground, exerted unbearable force inside the tanks, trying to escape. That must be what caused the shaking. Finally, the acid forced its way out the ground, probably along a predetermined, engineered pathway which would guarantee that both buildings are completely surrounded. With the acid's release, the quaking had stopped, of course. As the acid continues to push up, the ground is melted and it creates a larger opening for even more acid to spurt up. The mixture is very energized, and, while the pressure inside the tanks is perhaps lessened, the fluid is still bubbling up with enormous force. Soon it shall cover all, and melt all. Including us."

Outside, Fuzzy screeched and roared, keeping his distance from the smoking, gushing liquids.

Albert shook his head in dismay. "I... think this is it, Nina! I am glad to have had the pleasure of knowing you and being your friend..."

Nina smiled and shook his hand. "Likewise." She tried not to think how it would feel when the acid reached them. "See you soon, then, Bro. Albert, in Paradise." She told the robot, "I hope we see you there, too, X-9. I know you are a robot, but maybe you will also have an afterlife with us..."

She and Albert discussed which hymn to sing, and they sang, bracing for the soon to come painful end.

(c) 2012 drk