00119





"Yeah, listen to the robot head," Clyden advised everybody. "We can't stop for a social!" He nodded over his shoulder, back to the hallway. "We gotta get that long metal sheet that fell from the roof. Billy Boob, give me a hand."

Billy Boy stepped back out into the hallway with Clyden.

The robot's head called, "Mr. Clyden, why do you want that? And do we really have time to grab it, anyway?"

As Clyden and Billy Boy struggled to maneuver the heavy metal sheeting through the doorway and into the foyer, Clyden explained how they would use it to hide under from the acid spray. As Clyden and Billy Boy came back into the foyer, Clyden looked hard at the robot head in Albert Zoeniga's arms. "Is that you, X-9? You just up and left Gov. Xavier one day, awhile ago. We never knew what happened to you. Seymour's Disease, I take it?"

"I suspect as much," admitted the metal head.

As Clyden and Billy Boy lugged the sheeting across the short foyer, Clyden gave a cocky laugh. "Well, you seem to be doing all right for yourself, since you struck out on your own. Ya look great, X-9."

Meanwhile, George and Nina McCleer held each other in a tight embrace. They had been this way since they first recognized each other. George had to stoop down to even reach his wife very well to hug her, since the miner transformation had increased his height as drastically as his frame.

Nina told George, "X-9 protected me from the blast. That's why I'm still alive, George."

"What blast?" a stunned George McCleer asked. "This blast- Is that why your face is scarred?"

Nina touched her face self-consciously. "Oh, you noticed."

He hugged her harder, taking care not to crush her with his transformed body's strength. "Yeah, a little, but you're still my beautiful Nina. And did you notice I, too, am different?"

She glanced at his miner's body. "Yeah, Hon, you do seem a bit... different, truth to tell."

George chuckled at this.

Clyden interrupted. "Okay, time to go. The acid's starting to nibble away this foyer, and we better get moving."

George McCleer glared at Tretl Clyden. "What's this about a blast that Nina says? What haven't you told me? You obviously knew about it, because you were surprised to see my wife still alive!"

Nina side-tracked George's anger with another squeeze and a kiss. "George, I'm so glad you're back! I always suspected you were alive and had been made a miner! We have stories to tell- but now's not the time! We have to go, and right now!"

The acid burned a hole completely through one of the walls. Acid splashed in, carried by the wind.

Albert Zoeniga and the others noticed it. Albert told the escaped miners, "There's an aircar out in the building in the back. We planned to use that to get back to Sparkle City, by hooking up X-9 to the control console computer inside the aircar. But that blue creature out there has been waiting for us, to make a meal of us-"

"Not anymore," replied Clyden, "so let's get out to that aircar. It is, after all, why we came here in the first place."

Albert puzzled about that. "You escaped the mines and came all the way up here, for an aircar? You could've gotten one in Sparkle-"

"It's a long story," said Billy Boy, "and no time to tell it at the moment."

"Okay. But we also have another problem," Albert said. "The back door is jammed shut and we can't open it."

Clyden snorted. "No trouble for a miner, Zoeniga." Obviously, Clyden remembered Albert. "McCleer, Billy Boob and I got this here metal sheet. You go get the door- and hurry!"

George nodded. He went to the door and seized the lock wheel in his grip. His muscles bulged as he pulled hard to open the hatch. The door squealed at him in pain. Nina watched her husband, amazed and impressed with his strength.

As George did this, Clyden, while waiting and holding onto the sheeting, chortled. "Now let me get this right," he said to Nina McCleer and Albert Zoeniga. "You guys were gonna let X-9 fly ya outta here? I don't think the robot's ever had any flying experience. And in this blizzard, you were going to let him fly you?? No way!"

"We didn't have a choice," Albert reasoned. "None of us know how to fly. At least X-9 read the manual. And there's another problem. We found out, when we accidentally set off the self-destruct system, that someone put a secret code in the aircar, and that we can't activate the engines unless we know it. We hope X-9 can override it. I have a uni-link wire to connect him to the aircar computer. It's still in my pocket from earlier use."

George at last forced open the door. "Okay, we're ready! Quick, hide under the metal sheet and run for your lives to the hangar!"

Clyden took the front end of the sheeting, and Billy Boy took the rear end. They held it over their heads and darted through the snow, with everybody else ducked under the shielding in between them. Acid geysers sprayed on both sides of their path, the ring of death drawing still closer and closer.

Albert stole a look behind them. One whole wall of the R and D Lab had melted into the green, steaming, slushy snow, and now the deadly fountains worked on a second wall. And the acid's onslaught pressed on, chasing them even as they raced across the ground!

Inside the garage's hangar, Clyden smiled when he saw the aircar. They didn't need to use a flashligh, because much sunlight came in through large holes eaten into the wall.

"Ah, the new skycar! It looks great! I'm an expert pilot, and with this miner's body, I can fly it on manual and I can even fly it in this miserable weather without crashing it." In a moment they loped into the aircraft.

Clyden instructed Albert Zoeniga to take the co-pilot's seat, and to hold onto X-9's head. "Hold onto X-9 tightly, and strap yourself in snugly. Get that uni-link hooked up, pronto, Zoeniga!"

As before, Albert hooked one end into X-9's port, usually reserved for the tracking device of a robot, and the other end he linked to a connection port on the aircar's control console. "Okay, X-9, do your stuff."

"Ya got the code, X-9?" asked Clyden immpatiently.

"Give me a moment, Mr. Clyden."

Clyden and the others watched through the view window as the acid worked on the roof in front of the sky vehicle. If it ate much more of the roof before X-9 found the secret code, the ceiling would fall in on them. Clyden sarcastically said, "No hurry, robot. Take yer time." He lamented to the others, "It's a shame we had no time to get some of those wonderful prototype gadgets that the technicians had been working on up here at the lab for a long time, before Fuzzy killed them. A shame to let them go to waste."

"That's what's in those boxes on the floor in the corner," said Nina McCleer. "We were not sure what we should need to help free George. We came here to ask Dr.
Kitchen's help, and since she was no longer here, Albert and X-9 took what they found that looked like it might be useful for our mission. We were determined to rescue him, if he were at the mines, as I suspected!"

They all strapped into seats. George, of course, sat next to Nina. He held her hand. "I can't believe you risked coming here in this blizzard to help me."

"Believe it, Hon- I got the frostbite to prove it!"

Albert Zoeniga said, while they waited for the robot head to extract the code, "X-9 had found some kind of cube which could get a PIN code from locks and such. Maybe we could have used it on the aircar's computer, if only we could find it. We lost it while running from Fuzzy, I think."

X-9 informed Albert, "No, I am certain the cube would not work with this tricky code. I cannot pull it out, either. The best I can do is to suppress the program's sub-routine that makes the code necessary before the aircar will start. But, as it is, I must stay tethered to the computer, to continuously suppress the program, so that the engines will then continue to operate. Should the connection break for more than a moment-"

"Well then do it," snapped Clyden, "and let me know when to start up!"

"Sir, you could have started a minute ago."

Clyden's eyes blazed. "Then why didn't you tell me!" He hastily turned on the engines and the engines began to warm them up.

X-9 told them, "I think Dr. Kitchen planned to remove this program once she delivered the prototype aircar. She had mentioned in her message that she always liked to keep a fast vehicle on hand."

A viewscreen showed what was going on overhead. The ceiling almost directly above them rapidly disintegrated from the acid. Acid dripped down onto the floor, creating huge potholes where it fell. At this rate, the roof would surely cave in upon them any moment-

"Hang on," Clyden told them. "I am sure this baby's hull is made strong enough for us to smash through the roof, but this is sure to be bumpy from the get-go. Besides that, the acid's pretty much weakened the roof! With luck, the acid won't do too much damage to our ride, though!"

Billy Boy responded, "I don't depend on luck. I count on the Lord."

"Well, ya better pray, then," advised Clyden, "'cause we sure need good luck!"

Clyden hastily worked the controls. With quietly humming engines, with everybody "hanging on", he raised the aircar off the floor. The vehicle lurched slightly. Then, the skycar shot vertically into the air- CRASH!- punching its way through the hangar roof and soaring high above the reach of the acid spray.

They reached the cloud level and Clyden continued the climb straight upward. While they were ascending out of danger, a viewscreen displayed what transpired below them. The screen showed both buildings turning into sludge. After that, the blowing snow and increasing clouds obscured the scene beneath. Clyden leveled off the craft.

"Oh no!" Nina gasped. "I don't have Dr. Kitchen's personal screen device! I forgot it somewhere down there- Too bad. Now her memoirs will have dissolved into nothingness!"

At that altitude, the winds whipped mercilessly about. It seemed the clouds continued on upward forever, and they could not rise above the cloud cover. Everybody expected a terrifying ride. On the contrary, the vehicle weathered the flight rather well. Surprisingly well.

Clyden said, "On second thought, despite his not having had any experience, I do believe X-9 could've handled flying this thing himself, even in this weather. It flies like a dream."

Finally, they all slightly relaxed, knowing they were no longer imperiled by the acid bath. Billy Boy took advantage of the lull to introduce himself to the humans "since everybody else knows everybody else."

Albert Zoeniga and Nina McCleer told him who they were. Albert added, "We thought we recognized you from your photos. We saw some old pictures of you from some members of the illegal house church we used to attend, until..."

George interrupted the conversation to demand from Clyden,"Okay, we're out of trouble. Now tell me the story about the blast, whatever it was, and how it involved my wife!"

Clyden continued the flying. "You can be mad, if you want. I don't care. I just did my job at the time. We were raiding the illegal house church, me and the Security Agents, and we accidentally blew it up. I'm not happy about it, but I sleep at night. Mrs. McCleer was there with them. She shoulda known better. Anyway, I didn't tell you earlier, for your own good. I know you'd be too hot under the collar to work with me. But see, now here we are, free- You're free, McCleer. Not only that, it turns out Mrs. McCleer is alive, too, so it works out okay because I didn't tell you, and so you were able to force yourself to work with me. A happy ending, after all."

"But.. what about the others who were also caught in the blast?" asked George McCleer.

Clyden shrugged indifferently, keeping his eyes on the view window.

Disgusted, George growled, "You're an evil man, Clyden! If you weren't flying-"

Clyden looked over and smiled to George. "Well, when this is all said and done, if you want, we can have a real gladiator match."

Nina seethed inside over Clyden's callousness, but she knew not to expect anything dfferent from the former Security Leader. He had helped turn her husband into  a miner, after all...

Albert Zoeniga also listened to the pompous baboon and he kept his peace. Of course he did not approve what Clyden had done, but he realized Clyden, like Albert's friend Osmo, didn't know any better. Clyden, like Osmo Martin, thought he had been doing his duty by obeying Gov. Bright and attacking the underground church... Poor Jane. Albert supposed he would always miss his newlywed wife for the rest of his life...

But arguing with Clyden wasn't going to bring her back. Maybe, when this was over, he could talk to Clyden, try to reason with him, show him why he needed to repent. Not just because of the incinerated church incident, but repent of his whole life- as must any man or woman, any son or daughter of Adam and Eve.

Albert stayed sitting in the co-pilot's chair, holding X-9's head on his lap. X-9, via the connecting uni-link wire, continued to bypass Dr. Kitchen's secret activation code program.

Nina asked the miners, "How do you three guys know who you are?  I thought, according to X-9, miners' ID's were wiped clean during the transformation."

"Clyden had some pill to counteract that effect," said George. "He didn't have an extra one for Billy Boy, though. But he gave me one. He needed my help to escape. That's why he looked out for my welfare."

"Oh." Nina held onto George, a little disappointed. She had hoped  against hope that Clyden had had more altruistic motives. "Well, whatever reason for Clyden rescuing you, I'm glad to have you back with his help- although he and Xavier were the ones responsible for putting you in the mines in the first place..."

George sighed. "I have some sad news for you, hon, about what happens to a miner." He sheepishly whispered in her ear one of the side-effects of the transformation.

Nina paled. "Oh, my!"

Albert Zoeniga changed the subject. "Okay, now would be a good time for someone to tell us what makes this aircar so special. I know it's a prototype, and it flies nice, but why do you want it so badly, Mr. Clyden? What does it do? Travel in time or something? What do you want it for?"

"It's like this, Zoeniga," Clyden began, and he proceeded to explain what it was all about- getting past the wormhole guards and reaching Earth via this vehicle with George McCleer along, proving what the Governor had done to him.

"That was also a plan we considered," Nina said, "to get proof to the Earth Leaders that George was still alive and held at the mines. Enough proof so that Earth could not rationalize it away and avoid confronting Xavier Bright, even if Xavier does keep them happy with his fuel ore output."

X-9 said, "If you want to go to the wormhole, which is situated in space above Hope, over the zone between day and night on the World of Hope, you are going in the wrong direction. You are going north, where it seems, as we travel on this path, that the blizzard is worse this way. Or do you only want to test this aircar, to see how much bad weather it can take?"

"Yeah, that'd make sense," said Clyden. "No, X-9's head, we are making a detour, it so happens, if you must know. See that down there?"

"I can, since I can see it through the aircar's cameras, while hooked up to the computer console, Mr. Clyden."

"I don't mean you, I mean the others. Can they see it?" said Clyden, irritated with X=9.

Curious, the others checked out the window. "It's an Enviro-Gen," said George. "Oh, I remember. You said you used an Enviro-Gen to make this blizzard even worse than it should be."

"That's right, McCleer. That Tech who works there all by hisself is the same one that Gov. Xavier sent there to try and keep the environment in this geo-section Earth-friendly. The tech you tricked into being indiscrete when you got that tour of the Enviro-Gen back when you first arrived on Hope. Gov. Xavier became so mad at the Tech that he stationed him at that Enviro-Gen by himself as punishment. Anyway, well, I sorta also tricked him. I made him think his Highness wanted to keep this blizzard going, the more extreme the better. This way, it kept folks away from the R and D Lab for me. I expected to return there and gather up the fancy doo-dads they were developing. Well, for except present company, the plan worked. In keeping away nosey folks, I mean, but with the R and D Lab gone, I couldn't get all that I wanted. So, anyway, now there's no need for the poor sap to stay stuck there alone in the Enviro-Gen. His job's done. The dope- he really believed me that Govenor Xavier wanted him to keep the blizzard howling like this!"

As Clyden brought the aircar down for a landing somewhere in the drifts near the Enviro-Gen  structure, George McCleer asked, shocked, "Clyden, do you mean, you actually care about the Tech- You have a conscience?"

"Ha ha, you're so funny, McCleer. Come with me, if ya wanna see something really funny- When I come to get him, the Tech'll be so spooked to see a miner at his front door, he might freak out. No matter. If he gets goofy, I'm just gonna knock him on the head and drag him onboard. I don't want to waste a lot of time yakking with him."

True to his word, he went to the door of the environment factory, and, a short time later, he came back carrying the limp Tech's body over his shoulder. Clyden dumped him in an empty chair. A goose egg bulged prominently on the Tech's forehead.

"Hey, somebody strap him in," ordered the aircar captain. "Next stop, Earth!" To the unconscious man, he mumbled, "Sorry, Wally, you're coming with. I got no time to take you back to Sparkle City."

The speedy sky vehicle veered toward the west and began to gain altitude.

George McCleer held onto his wife's hand. He smiled to her. "Look out the window, Hon. I think I can see the blinking blue beacons out there in space, marking the place of the wormhole, and our way back to Earth. After all you've been through, I don't suppose you still get the willies from traveling in the wormhole, do you, Dear?"

She chuckled. "Not so much anymore, Hon."

The air grew thinner outside their aircar, and the stormy day became a sunny noon above the clouds now that they were out of the zone of the blizzard. Just as quickly, further westward and higher yet into the sky, the noon greyed into gloomy twilight. They neared the edge of the atmosphere. The stars came out crystal clear.

"What's that bright flash coming from one of the moons?" wondered Albert Zoeniga from the co-pilot's chair.

And being so close to the atmospheric edge, the mysterious bright, very bright flash made them blink for a moment. When they opened their eyes, they noticed momentary, strange twinklings in the orbit just above and beyond their aircar. Their trajectory headed right toward the twinklings, which disappeared again in only a fraction of a second.

"Ice crystals in the statosphere, reflecting the flash from the moon," Clyden explained the phenomena dismissively. He maintained his course. "Nothing to fret about, McCleer."

"I wasn't fretting about ice crystals," George shot back, annoyed.

"Yeah, right. Maybe not out loud..." mumbled Clyden.

Suddenly, the aircar took a tangent from the course Clyden tried to fly it on. Clyden tried to bring it back to his chosen path, but the controls seemed to be fighting him. Somehow the aircar no longer flew on manual. He could not get the aircar to return to its previous trajectory.

"Hey, X-9, is that you doing that??" protested Clyden. "Quit overriding me!"

The artificial gravity compensators tried to keep things from turning topsy-turvy, but everything, including those boxes parked in a corner, taken from the R and D Lab, spun about. Fortunately, all the people, including the unconscious technician, were strapped in.

George McCleer murmured, "I hope these seat belts are stronger than those on the Security Agency aircar we used when we flew to the R and D Lab."

Albert Zoeniga held tightly onto X-9, whose robot brain via the uni-link kept control of the aircar's rapidly veering flight.

"Knock it off, X-9! Ice crystals aren't anything to be afraid of!" bellowed Clyden furiously. "What's the matter with you? Is your Seymour's Disease scrambling your electronic brain more than before?"

"Those aren't ice crystals, Mr. Clyden," X-9 replied, stubbornly refusing to let go of the control of the vehicle.

(c) drk 2012