Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

"A Stitch in Time"

by

Keith M. Shaw

Chapter 1

Colonel Wilma Deering stepped through the open door. Doctor Elias Huer looked up from his cluttered desk and smiled warmly.

"Ah, Colonel Deering. I heard you had just returned from your training flight."

"Yes, Dr. Huer. The officer on duty in the flight deck said you were looking for me."

Huer nodded. "Indeed. I have a job for you and Buck. I tried calling his apartment, but he appears to be out. No one is answering."

"Have you tried Twiki?"

"Yes, I have. Twiki isn't answering either."

"That's odd," Wilma mused almost to herself. "It's not like Twiki to ignore a call from the Directorite."

"We could use the tracer beacon in Twiki's core to find his location," suggested the small computer sitting on the desk. "Chances are very good that if you find Twiki, you will also find Captain Rogers nearby."

"Good idea, Dr. Theopolis," Huer said. He stood up and went to one of the monitors on the wall. He typed in a couple buttons and waited for a reply. A map of Buck's apartment complex immediately displayed on the screen. A flashing blue light appeared at the bottom of the map.

"Twiki appears to be in the basement of Buck's apartment building."

"I wonder what he's doing down there?" Wilma asked.

"You can ask him when you find him," Huer grinned.

"According to the sensors, you may want to hurry, Colonel," Theo said excitedly. "Twiki appears to be overheating for some reason. At his current rate of acceleration, he will melt his internal circuitry in less than twenty minutes."

"I'm on it!" Wilma said as she ran out the door.

She hurried as fast as she could to the apartment building. She bypassed the elevator and took the stairs to the basement. Quickly she rushed toward the room that had been displayed on Dr. Huer's monitor. As she neared the room, she could hear grunts of pain and an occasional thumping sound against the walls. She broke into a sprint. When at last she reached the right door, she cautiously placed her ear against the metal. A loud thump sounded in her ear and then another grunt. Quickly she fumbled for her all-access key card. She swore silently as it fell to the floor. She picked it up and swiped the key in the slot beside the door. She drew her pistol and rushed into the room. Just as she stepped into the room, a small spherical object wizzed by her head. Instinctively she fell to the ground and trained her pistol toward the front of the room.

"Wilma!" Buck exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Buck stepped over to her and extended his hand to help her up. She simply stared at the object in Buck's other hand. Twiki stepped up to her and almost appeared to smile.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Hi ya, Wilma."

She noticed that Twiki also had some kind of paddle in his little hand. A small spherical ball slowly rolled to a stop against her knee. Wilma looked up at Buck.

"What are you doing?" she huffed. "I ran here all the way from Dr. Huer's office because I thought you might be in trouble!"

"How'd you find us?"

She took a moment to catch her breath and then allowed Buck to help her to her feet. "We used Twiki's internal tracing beacon to find him. And Dr. Theopolis said that Twiki was beginning to overheat!"

Buck chuckled as he picked up the ball. "It's called racquetball," he explained.

Wilma cocked her head to one side. "Racquet…ball?"

"Yep. I found these rackets in the archives and then I had Dr. Juneas construct me some rubber balls. It's an old Earth sport."

Wilma took a deep breath. "You mean to tell me I rushed all the way over here because you and Twiki are playing a game?"

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: Sure thing, Hot Stuff."

She glared at Twiki for a moment before breaking into a slight grin. "You two are something, you know?"
"Hey Twiki," Buck started. "Give Wilma your racket. Let her try a couple hits."

Wilma's eyes widened. She shook her head vehemently and waved her hands. "Oh, no! I'm just a messenger. Dr. Huer sent me to find you. Apparently he's got a job for us. He tried to call you, but you weren't answering."

"Oh, come on, Wilma," Buck coaxed. "Just a couple hits. It won't take long." He took Twiki's racket and handed it to her. She hesitated for a moment before finally accepting the racket. "Here, you want to hold it like this," he instructed. "And then you put this strap around your wrist so you don't drop the racket."

Wilma shook her head. "I don't know about this, Buck."

He smiled reassuringly. "There's nothing to it. All you do is bounce the ball and then hit it with the racket as hard as you can so the ball bounces off of that front wall. I'll be standing over there. After the ball hits the wall, then it's my turn to hit it. We take turns hitting the ball against the wall until someone either misses the ball or the ball doesn't hit the wall. Easy, right?"

"Buck, we don't have time-"

"It'll be alright. This will only take a minute. Here's the ball." He moved forward and to the right. "Now all you have to do is bounce the ball and then hit it with your racket."

Wilma looked at the ball and her racket for a long minute. Finally she shrugged her shoulders and bounced the ball. She swung the racket as hard as she could but missed the ball. It simply bounced away. Buck retrieved the ball and bounced it back to her.

"Try it again. Try not swinging quite so hard. Keep your eye on the ball when you're trying to hit it."

She took a deep breath. "My eye on the ball?" she muttered. Once again she bounced the ball and swung her racket. The ball screamed forward and impacted Buck squarely in the middle of his forehead. He fell to the floor in a heap as the ball bounced back toward Wilma. He sat up as Wilma rushed to his side.

"I'm so sorry, Buck! Are you alright?"

He raised his hand to his head to feel the welt already beginning to form. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied slowly. You really laid into that one, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Buck!"

"You're supposed to hit the wall, not me!"

Twiki stepped up behind Wilma. "Beep-be-de-de-beep: that's the way to use your head, Buck."

Buck gave Twiki a sarcastic smirk. "Thanks."

"I'm so sorry, Buck. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've been hit harder. I don't remember exactly when, but I'm sure I've been hit harder than that."

"How can I make it up to you?"

He waved his hands as he slowly stood up. "Don't worry about it. Maybe we should do this another day." He sighed heavily. "You said Dr. Huer is looking for us?"

"Yes, that's why I'm here. He sent me to find you."

Buck nodded, grinned slightly. "Fine. Let's go see Dr. Huer. Right now I could stand seeing a doctor."

Wilma looked at him sheepishly.

Buck glanced at Wilma out of the corner of his eye. "Next time I'm gonna teach you how to play chess. It's a lot less… physical."