A.S.T.R.O.
1. Loose in the world
Dr. Umataro Tenma looked nervously around the lab. He checked on his computer to make sure that the hack he had placed on the security camera system had rerouted the video feed so that the footage the cameras had captured several hours ago were now live. Good, no one would see what he was about to do. He looked over to the test station at the other side of the room. Sitting quietly next to a bunch of instruments that were recording his current parameters, sat a small robot about the size of a nine year old child. The robot had what looked like dark hair with two star like cowlicks on his head. He wore nothing but dark short pants topped with a wide green metallic belt, and a pair of knee high red boots.
Every time he looked at the prototype robot, Umataro couldn't help but think of his deceased nine year old son, who had been killed in a tragic accident earlier in the year. The android looked so much like his poor Tobio.
"Come here Astro," he motioned to the robot. The robot walked over to him. "What is it Dr. Tenma?" he asked.
"I need to make some adjustments to your systems." the doctor said.
The robot opened his chest panel and smiled at the doctor. "OK sir, I'm ready." he said.
Dr. Tenma reached inside of the robot and removed a memory module, and then replaced it with another one. He closed the panel on the robot's chest after adjusting a few internal switches. The robot's appearance changed slightly. The dark hair was now auburn in color, and the two cowlicks were now unruly tufts instead of sharp points. "How do you feel, Tobio?" he asked.
"I feel fine father, why do you ask?" The robot said.
"Oh nothing." Dr. Tenma said, handing him a small pile of clothing. "Get dressed, we have to leave soon."
The boy pulled the pair of long jean slacks over his boots and donned a tee shirt with the logo of the N.Y. Mets baseball team. He also wore a baseball cap with the team logo on it. The last item of clothing he put on was a blue jacket, which he zipped up. The doctor took a good look at the boy. "Hopefully we'll get away with this." he muttered to himself.
Dr. Tenma opened the door to the laboratory and looked both ways down the hallway. He didn't see anybody, so he motioned to the boy, "come, we're getting out of here."
They quickly entered the staircase at the end of the hall and ran down to the basement. Exiting the building from a back door, the doctor led the boy to his car. "Crouch down son," the doctor told the boy, "it would be dangerous if anyone saw you."
"OK, father." The boy replied, as he lay down on the floor just behind the front seat and pulled a blanket that had been lying there over himself. Dr. Tenma started the car's engine and started to drive away. He had to drive though a manned gate at the entrance to the complex and show his ID to the guard.
"Leaving early, Dr. Tenma?" The guard asked him, putting down a sci-fi novel he'd been reading.
"Yes, I have some personal business to take care of," the doctor told the guard, hoping he wouldn't notice how badly his hands were sweating.
"Well you take care of yourself, Doctor." The guard said, "see you tomorrow."
"Good afternoon, and thank you." The doctor said as the guard opened the gate.
Dr. Tenma had almost made it to the end of the private road that led to the state highway when Tobio sat up for a second to look around, thinking they were now in the clear. The guard spotted the back of the boy's head pop up and then disappear, but he did nothing and kept reading his paperback.
Dr. Pavilion entered the robotics lab with his clipboard ready. As he entered the room he called out for his colleague, "Dr. Tenma are you ready for me?" He noticed that the laboratory was empty, and that A.S.T.R.O. was missing. He quickly put two and two together and phoned security.
"Did Doctor Tenma sign out for the day?" he asked.
"Let me check." came the reply from the duty officer at the desk. Pavilion drummed his fingers on the desk. Finally the security officer answered back, "Yes the front gate reported he just left a few minutes ago."
"Was anyone in the car with him?" Pavilion asked. "Our prototype is missing!"
The security officer picked up the phone and called the main gate. Within a few seconds he had his answer. A few minutes later several military vehicles were storming down the state highway after the doctor.
"You can sit up now." Dr. Tenma yelled towards the back seat. "We're past the gate now."
"Why are we running away?" Tobio asked.
"The government men want to take you away from me." Tenma told the boy. "I won't allow them to do that."
Dr. Tenma looked up into his rear view mirror noticing the three olive drab Humvees coming over the horizon, and he slowly pressed the accelerator down.
"Damn it, they're after us, son." He said, "I had hoped I could sneak you out of there, but somehow they figured it out. Dr. Pavilion must have come into the laboratory early and spotted that you were missing."
The olive drab vehicles were getting closer. Dr. Tenma waited for the last instant to pull off the road and took the on ramp towards the N.J.T.P. Two of the Humvees's missed the entrance but the third one managed to follow him. Tenma blew through the Easy Pass lane and flew onto the highway. He dodged in and out of traffic trying to keep ahead of the government vehicle. Up ahead the road divided into two, with one side marked "No Trucks." Tenma kept towards the commercial vehicle side of the fork until the last second hoping to fool the G men into taking the wrong road. He quickly cut across several lanes of traffic, causing several cars behind him to spin out, almost starting a chain reaction wreck. The Humvee found itself several hundred feet to the east side of the road across a wide gulf from where Tenma now drove. The highway on the east side was clogged with truck traffic, while the west side was moving well. The doctor slammed the accelerator to the floor, weaving in and out to pass the traffic ahead of him until he could no longer see the military vehicle behind him, on the east side of the road.
Up ahead and to the east the skyline of NYC began to appear. The doctor took the exit towards the George Washington bridge, and as he did so he noticed the two unmarked cars that were following him. He quickly yanked the wheel towards the right and drove off the side of the road and down the embankment. His move took his persuaders by surprise, but they doubled back.
"Listen Tobio." the doctor told the boy. "It's vital that you are not captured. Get out of the car and make your way by foot into the city. The bridge is less than a mile away, you can see it from here." He handed the boy a piece of paper. "Go to this address and hand this note to the people that live there. They are friends of mine and will keep you safe."
In the distance they could hear the squeal of tires as the two dark colored cars that had been chasing them drew closer.
"Run!" Tenma yelled at the boy, "I'll try and find you later!"
Tobio took off into the shadows. He heard his father's car speed off. Two automobiles speed by him racing after his father. He heard gun shots, and the sound of a crash. In the distance he saw a fireball rise into the sky.
Tobio slowly walked over the bridge. He made his way into Manhattan and walked downtown the many miles toward the address on the piece of paper that Dr. Tenma had given him. Since it was now about one in the morning, he sat down on the front steps of the brownstone house and waited for someone to open the door. Placing his hand into one of his pockets, he found a tissue and wiped his eyes. He'd been crying and hadn't realized it. Leaning against the railing of the stairs leading up to the house Tobio closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The sun hadn't quite yet risen, but the color of the sky had changed from a dark indigo to a deep shade of blue with the hint of light in the east. The city had already started to awaken itself from the few hours of slumber that it was allowed. Traffic in the street had started to pick up as delivery trucks were already making their first rounds of the day. A teenage boy came down the street on his bicycle, tossing newspapers right and left. He was the delivery boy for the New York Daily News, one of the first editions to hit the street every morning before the crack of dawn. He didn't notice Tobio sleeping on the stairs at the exact spot that served as his designated target for the mornings delivery every weekday. The rolled up newspaper hit the sleeping boy squarely between his eyes.
"Ouch!" Tobio woke up instantly, rubbing his forehead where the newsprint projectile had bounced off of. "Sorry!" the boy on the bicycle yelled over his shoulder as he peddled away. "I didn't see you there!"
Tobio rubbed his eyes and spotted the newspaper lying a few feet away. He picked it up and removed the periodical from the thin plastic bag that it came in and unrolled it. The paper fell open to the third page, where a blurry photograph was printed. Despite the poor quality of the image, he recognized the face at once. Tobio read the bylines that were associated with the photograph. 'Prominent government scientist, Dr. Umataro Tenma, was found dead early this morning in the burned wreckage of his late model automobile. The New Jersey State Police theorize that he lost control of his car after a tire blew out while exiting the NJTP for the GWB. His body tested positive for a high level of blood alcohol.'
"That doesn't make any sense." he thought to himself, as his eyes teared up again.
The alarm clock rang for several minutes before Mr. Richardson walked into the boy's room to silence it. "Come on you two sleepy heads!" he shouted. "Time for school! Today's Friday, you can sleep in tomorrow if you want."
Ten year old Tommy Richardson reached over to the nightstand to hunt for his glasses. His fingers made contact with the frames and he put them into place. The boy hated having to wear the glasses, but without them he was quite blind. The kids at school always called him 'Specs', and though he had gotten used to the name, he couldn't wait for his 13th birthday, as his parents had promised him they'd have him fitted for a pair of contact lenses then.
On the other side of the room, thirteen year old Reno yawned and got out of bed to run towards the bathroom. The older boy had been adopted two years ago when Tommy was only eight. The Richardson's had taken him in after his parents had died in an airplane crash somewhere over the sea of Japan. The boy's folks had been famous scientists, they had traveled the world on various expeditions and had been en route to a dig near Mt. Fuji when their plane had disappeared. Reno had accompanied his parents on several such trips before, but for this one they had insisted that he remain in the States with his grandmother until the school year ended. He had been living with the Richardson's ever since his grandmother started showing signs of dementia and had to be committed to a nursing home. With quite a high IQ, Reno did very well at school, and he kept an eye on his younger stepbrother.
After waking his two boys, Robert Richardson went downstairs to get the newspaper. He found it opened, sitting in the lap of a nine year old boy who was quietly sobbing.
"What's the matter, son?" Bob asked the weeping child.
"My dad was killed last night!" Tobio cried. "He told me to come here, that he'd meet up with me later, but they got him!"
Tobio handed Mr. Richardson the piece of paper that his father had given him. It had his name and address written on it, along with some other cryptic writing that looked like stick figures. At first Bob couldn't make out the strange script, and then it came to him. "You're Umataro's son?" he asked.
"Yes, that was my dad's first name." Tobio sobbed.
"I knew your father from college, we were in the same frat together." Bob told the boy. "I haven't seen or heard from him in years, I'm surprised that he remembers me. We had this secret writing in the fraternity, a kind of code based on a Sherlock Holmes story. Your dad invented it." Mr. Richardson put on a pair of reading glasses and began to translate the writing.
"If my son Tobio shows up at your doorstep please take him in. I'm probably in custody, or worse if you are reading this, don't let the boy know. He must be protected, they must not find him. Sorry to burden you with this, but the fate of the world might depend on this. Your old friend, Umataro Tenma."
Bob put a smile on quickly and looked at the boy. "You father was a little strange when I knew him, always a bit paranoid. I wouldn't take most of what was in that note too seriously."
"But they were after us." Toby sobbed. "We were being chased by a bunch of military Jeeps on the turnpike, and we almost got away from them. Look." He handed Bob the newspaper and pointed to the article. "My dad wasn't drunk. I think they shot at him when his car crashed. I heard the gunfire."
"Well I don't know what your old man got himself into, but you're staying with us." Bob smiled "I can fit another bed into the boy's room and you are going to become part of this family, at least for the short term. You follow me and my wife will get you cleaned up and fed."
