"You're useless," The keeper said. Smith blinked adjusting his vision.
"Pardon me?" Smith asked.
"You're not a threat or something that visitors would like to look at," the keeper said. "by your people's way, you're a old predictable man."
Being awakened ever so suddenly finding himself in a dark spaceship was terrifying.
But being told that he was useless was alarming and insulting.
When Smith looked back at his time on Preplanish, he did only what he could only after being forced, to help in the chores. How was he useless when he repaired the robot? A tedious task that required training and being highly familiar to the technology. Will was getting adjusted to Robot but his previous efforts to reprogram him have been disastrous. Smith saw there were more empty like elevators dotting the room, some of which were stacked on top of each other, and the sounds he heard coming from the room itself made chills go down his skin. The interior of these cages were a bright yellow with a light blue exterior theme to it. Like a show case. Smith narrowed his eyes staring back at the younger man. The keeper had a white staff with a circular object on the top and was in a two piece light green suit. Instead, Smith folded his arms as he came to a rather unique argument.
"If I am so useless, then why am I on your ship, hmm?" Smith asked.
"A mistake," The keeper said, factly. "My scepter can attract the worst of species."
"A mistake?" Smith said. "You say I am the worst of my species yet you say I am useless."
"Yes," The keeper said.
"People like me get things done," Smith said. "We start things. Things that everyone say they'll get to and they get it done."
"That's a villain's philosophy," the keeper said.
Smith nodded, with one finger on his chin.
"For example, we were headed to Alpha Centauri," Smith said. "Earth is becoming over populated. And the state of the environment is."
"Is what?" The keeper asked.
"Imagine a planet with long, hard winters," Smith said, lowering his finger. "Hot boiling summers. Deadly, sometimes."
"The planet is dying," The keeper said, in understanding.
"Exactly," Smith said. "I only agreed to do it because my efforts spare Alpha Centauri. We call it global warming."
"The planet is warming itself because of your civilization's progress," The keeper said. "they are industrial."
"They refuse to believe it is their fault the planet is dying," Smith said. "I love my planet. Love to get back. I saved a planet."
"I find that hard to believe from an old person," the keeper said.
"I sabotaged a ship," Smith said.
"Anyone can do that," The keeper said.
Smith widened his eyes and changed his tone of voice.
"By being aboard," Smith said, grimly. "It was my weight. One hundred or so pounds sent them off course."
"Anyone can do that." The keeper said
"No one expected me," Smith said. "I had no personal connections to Alpha Control. Did not act suspiciously. Besides, not everyone has a conscience."
"That's impossible," The keeper said. "everyone has one."
"Having two little angels side by side on different shoulders?" Smith asked.
"Yes, like that," the keeper said.
"I have neither," Smith said.
"I don't believe you," The keeper said.
"Then why did you attract me?" Smith asked. "You did say the scepter attracts the worst."
"You're just susceptible to it," the keeper said. "Go, return to your people, and don't come back."
"What if your staff summons me," Smith inquired, twirling his finger at the staff. "I will come back."
"Then I will shut the door on you," the keeper said. "go."
"Doctor Smith!" Will cried, running after Smith.
Smith was seated on a boulder feeling miserable cupping the side of his face. Don, John, Will, and the robot came around him. Smith wasn't paying attention to the people around him looking off into the distance. Being told to his face that he was a old and predictable man had finally stung roughly an hour after leaving the ship. The energy he had a hour ago had suddenly been depleted. All the content he had felt was sapped away. In fact, it was like he had been punched in the chest at a very critical area responsible for breathing and-a hundred of other feelings. Smith sighed.
"Doctor Smith, are you all right?" John asked.
"Terrible," Smith replied.
"Terrible?" Don asked, disgusted. "We've been looking for you a hour and you got to say terrible?"
"Yes, it is," Smith replied, defeatedly.
Don and John shared a look.
"Doctor, what happened?" John asked.
"Besides being told by a alien lifeform that I am useless as a piece of paper, nothing that alarming," Smith said. "I will get over it. . . Eventually."
"What was this alien lifeform?" John asked.
"I don't know," Smith said.
"Can you lead us to him?" John asked.
Smith looked over with a incredulous expression.
"Me?" Smith asked. "No. I am doing you a favor."
"Your feelings were hurt by this alien lifeform and you're thinking you're doing us a favor?" Don said, bemused.
"This alien man is the kind of person who doesn't care about feelings," Smith said. "He is a collector. You wouldn't really belong in his collection."
"He is depressed," the robot said.
"Aahh," Don said. "For once, someone non-threatening is doing something non-threatening to you. . . Wow, you actually got what you deserved."
"How do we help him?" Will asked.
The robot turned in the direction of the doctor.
"Self-care is crucial for himself," the robot said, as John looked down toward the man's bootprints then back toward the doctor.
"We don't know what the alien lifeform is capable of," John said. "Return to the Jupiter 2. Now."
Smith propped himself onto the edge of the rock.
YOU'RE USELESSS! YOU'RE NOT HELPFUL TO ANYONE! AT ALL.
Smith placed his hands onto his knees.
"I want to go home," Smith said, emotionally. "I just want to go home."
Smith bolted past the group.
"I have not seen Smith shaken so . . ." Don said, watching the man flee.
"Badly?" John finished.
"Yes," Don said.
"Let's go back to the Jupiter 2," John said.
The small group headed their way back in the direction of the Jupiter 2.
The keeper made his appearance, and gave no apology (Smith was absent at the time). Smith was resting in his cabin. He had overheard the discussion that Maureen and John shared about the Keeper. Smith had cried out all his tears by then. He rubbed his forehead. He hated the planet. He hated the Robinsons, happy and content with the planet, and Nebby. He hated the ridiculous ostrich. He hated the landscape. He hated the trees that lacked leaves. The vaporizing period that the Planet had. He hated how they wanted to go straight to Alpha Centauri. He hated how he decided to play his role. He had a pair of plugs in his ears. He didn't want to see the face of the keeper when accidentally being summoned. Smith then sat on the edge of his bed. His tear ducts had gone dry.
The door to his cabin opened sliding aside.
"Do you feel any better, Doctor Smith?" Will asked.
Smith shrugged.
"Getting there," Smith replied. "why don't you run along and play with Penny?"
"Penny is helping out with the garden," Will said.
"And Judy is helping her," Smith said. "Don and John are busy. I bet the Robot isn't."
"You know, you're not useless to me," Will said, coming over. "You're . . you're . . . You're like a grandparent."
Smith glared toward him.
"A grandparent doesn't get you into trouble," Smith said. "I am not part of the family. I am a stowaway."
"You're our stowaway," Will said. "You helped us so far find threats and find out about the parasite."
"Oh that," Smith said. "Anyone could have figured that out."
"No, we wouldn't," Will said. "We would never found out had you not come with us."
"You're right," Smith said.
"You've made yourself useful by teaching me and Penny what is wrong and what is right," Will added.
"Oh really?" Smith asked.
"Yes," Will said. "I learn from your mistakes, Doctor Smith, from the week to week adventures."
"Villains do tend to be educational," Smith said, with a shrug staring at the screen.
Will nodded.
"How about we go exploring the mountain again?" Will asked. "Just for a few hours this time."
Smith's right hand was laid on his leg with another on the edge of the bed.
"Few hours," Smith said. "Define a few hours. Not three like last time."
"Two hours," Will said. "and if we find some eggs, we can take them back."
"What if there is one?" Smith asked.
"We share them," Will said.
"Divide and conquer," Smith remarked. "Go along, tell your father."
Will smiled then ran off. Smith sighed. If the keeper was still around getting-his mind stopped. Zookeepers had a tendency to separate animals from their family out of the wild into a cage. Rather young animals. Smith put his hands together placing both under his chin. If he was capable of summoning humans, as well, then who knew when he would use it on the children. Smith rubbed his chin lowering his head. He knew what was best. He looked over toward the half way open sliding door. He relaxed, closing his eyes. It was decided. He opened his eyes staring at the wall. Would a coward attempt to save a life? A life that was not his? Smith stood up then came over to the drawer. He opened it up to see his familiar outfit from the beginning of the adventure staring back at him. The rank of colonel. The United States Space Corps. He closed the drawer. Smith had some seeds to collect.
"Doctor Smith?" Maureen said. "Are you all right?" She placed the laundry basket onto the makeshift table.
"I am fine, Mrs Robinson," Smith said.
"You can call me Maureen," Maureen said. "We're stuck here for the foreseeable future so drop the formalities."
Smith looked up from the planets.
"If you drop your formalities," Smith said.
Maureen puckered her lips.
"See?" Smith said, wiggling his index finger at her. "you can't drop that," he plucked more weeds out of the soil. "I am doing fine," he put the weeds into a small box on the table. "I decided to make myself useful," Smith turned in her direction. "For once."
Maureen looked at him in concern.
"Is there something wrong?" Maureen asked. "You rarely do volunteer to help around," she observed him as his hands plucked out a more weeds from the dirt. "let alone for weeding."
Smith nodded.
"I have accepted that we're never leaving this planet," Smith said. "and I have stopped to find ways to return to Earth."
"I miss it too, Doctor Smith," Mauren said, placing a hand onto his thin long shoulder. "we have one mission, and that's Alpha Centauri, and it will be just like Earth."
"You wish it was," Smith said. "Everyone wishes. . What if it's just like this planet?" he looked over, with hands placed on the edges of the box holding the plants. "Unforgiving, terrifying, and made of sand with creatures lurking at every corner. Aliens appearing. Horror every week?" he shook his head then looked on with a sigh. "I really hope it's not the case. It will be like we never left."
"We will make it home," Maureen said.
Smith stopped weeding.
"I am staying when your family go off," Smith said. The words hit Maureen like a sack of bricks. "Stowaways have one ride," he straightened himself up. "And I have used mine."
"Don't talk that way," Maureen said.
"After all I have done?" Smith asked, with raised eyebrows.
"You are a human," Maureen said. "We don't leave one of our own behind."
"You're too kind for your own good," Smith said, as Maureen took her hand off his shoulder.
"We're ready!" Will said, followed by Penny.
"So soon?" Smith asked.
"I contacted the Chariot," Will said, coming down the stairs. "Robot is helping Don and Dad with finding more fuel."
"Dad said I could go with," Penny said, with a nod.
"Alright kids," Smith said. "Go on ahead, I will be right behind you."
The children walked away of Smith going past them.
"Last of your free time, Doctor Smith," Maureen said.
"The last of the last," Smith said. "I can say. . . I will miss this."
"Is it any comfort to hear I will too?" Maureen said. "You keep the children occupied." Smith nodded.
"Take care of yourself, my dear friend," Smith said, then he fared farewell. "adieu." then he followed after the children.
The last Smith recalled was finding a nest with three eggs. The children were debating what to do with them and how to best carry the eggs when everything sort of ended there. He stopped in his tracks then shook his head noticing the familiar interior of the ship. The children were across from him in front of two cages in hypnotic states. Smith saw a vase alongside him on a counter. He was going to do it. There is no coming back now, Smith thought picking up the colorful upside down vase. Good bye, mechanical friend. Smith came forward with the vase in hand then struck on it on the Keeper's head.
Thud.
The Keeper collapsed to the ground dropping the staff to the floor.
Smith came in the way of the children then knelt down before them.
Penny shook her head rubbed her headache.
"I got a strange headache," Penny remarked.
"Felt like I was being tugged while blindfolded," Will said, then he looked on toward Smith. "Doctor Smith? Where are we?"
"We are in a spaceship, children," Smith informed them. "I am going with the keeper."
"Why?" Penny asked.
"You can't go," Will said. "The keeper collects animals. You're not a animal."
"He wants young, youthful specimens to present," Smith said. "People like you."
"No!" Will said, tearfully. "I don't want to go."
The robot came into the room.
"Doctor Smith," the robot said. "I have come as instructed."
Penny shook her head.
"You are a old man," Penny said. "Let me go in your place."
"Penny Robinson, that is out of the question," the robot said. "you would live in fear for the rest of your life."
"The isolation would kill you," Smith said. "And you, too." he looked over toward Will.
"It wouldn't!" Will said.
"I don't want you to throw away your life for mine," Smith said.
"It's the Robinson way," Penny added.
"It is the Smith way to repay those who have been kind no matter how cruel a Smith was toward them," Smith said. "Will. . . I left a booklet on how to take care of the robot on my bed," a tear slid down from Will's right eye. "It used to be below decks in the navigational section in a drawer. You have to take care of him, now."
"I don't want you to go," Will added.
"So do I," Penny agreed.
"Me three," Smith said. As the robot came closer.
"I . . ." the robot started. "I will miss you, Doctor Smith."
"You too, big sack of poop," Smith said.
More tears were coming down Will's cheeks as he lowered his head. So did his sister who covered her mouth with tears stinging her eyes. Smith brought the two into a hug with both hands, eerily calm. Will's clenched the back of the man's shirt as Smith softly spoke telling them to remember the good, and that, their family needed them more than ever. Penny clenched the man's shirt with her eyes closed crying. They stood that way for a little over ten minutes. Groans could be heard from the keeper's body.
"Danger, Will Robinson," the robot said. "Danger!"
Their hands let go of the doctor.
"Oh, the pain," Smith said. "The pain." he waved them off as Penny regained her composure. "Adieu, my dears."
The robot guided the children away with his long, extended servos. Smith briefly watched the children walk away. The doctor turned away from the direction of the doors toward the slowly gaining conscious figure. He linked his hands behind his back walking away from the man then looked on making sure the group was getting out of there. He walked over toward the laid staff then picked it up. He picked up the circular light weight glass ball then dropped the staff to the floor where it clacked against the hard dark paved surface. The keeper began to get up shaking his head. Specks of red was on the odd humanoid like individual's hair with a gash on the side. The sounds of the machine and the children's footsteps were no longer being able to be heard. The keeper looked up toward the doctor.
"I am not useless," Smith said.
"Give me the sphere," the keeper said.
"No," Smith said. Smith's face turned into a grim, serious, demeaning expression as he purposely dropped the sphere. It crashed into a thousand pieces. The keeper's eyes turned off in the direction of Smith. Smith dusted off his hands with a disapproving expression. Like he had kicked out a misbehaving former stray cat. "The children are off the table."
The keeper stood up.
"Why?" The keeper asked.
"There are people like me then there are people like you," Smith said.
"And that means. . ." the keeper said.
"I have met many people worse than me," Smith began. "All different from me. Not everyone looks like me. Some of them are hairy, have two heads, and large heads. Sometimes they want the children for their personal gains. Time and time again I caved in to save myself but not this time," he waggled his finger at the standing alien. "you . . ." he shook his head. "You told the wrong person they are useless."
"Then what are you?" The keeper asked.
"Colonel Zachary Smith of the Jupiter 2 party from the planet Earth," Smith said. "Doctor Smith." He nodded, certain of himself. "A cowardly stowaway. And you are the Keeper. You're a alien species, highly advanced, compared to mine. You can make well aged individuals live longer. Young people have greater chances of dying than older people. If you took the children, they would try to escape over and over and over and over. Do you want that? No. I wouldn't try to escape. Which makes me a ideal person to take over the children."
The keeper considered.
"So they would risk their lives rather than staying in a cage," The keeper said.
"You have two people in one cage, one of them tall, and that means someone is bound to get out when it does not have a roof," Smith said. "I take it that trying to get out would be fatal," he raised his eyebrows then lowered them. "Hmm?"
"Yes," The keeper said. "I can make you live to over a hundred."
"Over a hundred human years," Smith said.
The number was staggering. Going in to his personal hell seemed daunting at first, not being able to socialize with others, and being viewed as a animal. Pitied upon. Things being thrown at him. A hundred years of that. And the children will not be put in that position. Their parents weeping for a loss that they would never be able to find in the foreseeable future. Watching them grieve would have broken what was left of his heart. Smith's hands were linked behind his back clenching on to his wrist.
"Are you sure you want to take their place?" The keeper asked.
"Certain," Smith said. "Don't bother finding me a mate. I am hardly interested in having to share a cage."
The keeper gestured in toward the cage and Smith obediently went inside.
He turned in the man's direction as the door closed on him, and then, just like that to the viewers eye, Smith was gone.
On the plague in front of a large installed cage similar to the one Smith had been housed in, but wider, and very large, read "Do not feed, unpredictable coward, do not throw machinery in". Smith appeared in thin air landing to the floor. He rubbed the back of his head as he started to get up. It was a zoo. A very well cared for zoo. There were no bars in the cages. Smith saw creatures from the alien planet in pairs alongside each other trying to escape. One by one the cages were being filled. He can see the city limits that had unique designs to them starting from the towers that looked like screws, some looked elegantly different in ways he couldn't tell, and some looked like a paperclip. He looked around in awe looking around. The zoo didn't have visitors coming in as it was just being filled.
Smith turned around to see a replica of the Jupiter 2 in front of him. They could not have stolen the Jupiter 2 and left the Robinsons defenseless. How could they? Smith walked forward into the replica. It had to be a replica. The Robinsons could not be left defenseless. Debbie was a exception as it was a harmless pointy eared monkey. The doors automatically opened before Smith. He looked around with a hand on the door frame. There were no pods, no center, and the whole paneling seemed as though it were empty space. It was a replica. Smith sighed, in relief, sliding down to the side of the door. He grew a small smile. He saved people. How long he had been out was a little more of a mystery better left unsolved. Smith stood up to his feet. He had to see what else hadn't been replicated.
Instead of the ladder and the elevator there was a series of long stairs.
Smith made his way down looking around to notice a alarming difference. There was a rail alongside the wall. The passage from one end to the other on the replica were short. There was the familiar sighting he would see on the Jupiter 2. The closed doors. He opened the door that would lead to Penny's room right across from her brother Will. Beside Will's room would be his room. He visualized Penny braiding her hair up using the mirror as her guide with one half of her hair down on her shoulders in her bright PJ's. He closed the door. He came to the next door that he gently opened. He visualized Will reading the novel with the robot by his side. Where he always will be. Smith sighed. The broken hearted boy looking up toward the machine commenting out loud about his design and schematics with excitement in his voice yet sad at the same time. He looked over from the room to see Maureen and John, visualizations, talking about the children. Don escorting Judy to her room being happy as he could be. He knew they were better off without him. Getting to Alpha Centauri without his constant interference. Their mission would be a massive success and they would forget about him, eventually. The children will get older and move on. Not a occasional thought to the doctor.
The robot, himself, may too someday after someone deleting his memory to make room for more.
It was best for everyone involved.
Just how they got their hands on a replica was a mystery better left unsolved. Now, he had to see if there was a storage. Smith closed the door to Will's room as he left. He came across the hall then the door opened before him with a gentle automatic touch to it. There, Smith saw what he would be using for the remainder of his life. Not bad. Not too shabby. He was fully capable of turning the conn into his personal house. Downstairs would be for memorabilia. He nodded his head, painfully, to himself. As it would be too painful to look into the remaining rooms and not expect to see Professor Robinson writing a log about what happened that day. It would take time to empty the storage but time is all that Smith had. The kitchen, that was beside his quarters, were to be moved upstairs or either blocked off the remainder of the Robinsons doors, including Don's. Maureen and John shared a room. The other unoccupied rooms would need to be blocked off.
And time to make himself a hydroponic garden.
All on his own.
Without the help of his mechanical friend and loyal child admirer.
To think he was starting to miss the bubble-headed booby.
Smith shook his head.
There stood the keeper before him.
"Now if you wanted me, you could have called," Smith said, gesturing toward the replica.
"Seven hours a day you must be out of the replica," the keeper said. "We have studied your physiology before awakening you and determined how to exactly care for your fragile body."
"Fragile," Smith said. "My body is not fragile."
"You can easily die if you are too hold or too cold," the keeper said. "your bones are so easy to break from a great distance, you're dying every day of your life, a piece of neural tissue dies every day, and you are capable of falling ill. Ill enough to fall dead should you not be treated."
"And that means," Smith said.
"The doctors around here are capable of taking care of that," The keeper said. "but being so close to death is questionable."
Smith rubbed his chin.
"Understood," Smith said. "wait, what do you mean by neural tissue?" he paused as the keeper's statement "You mean to say you can regrow neural tissue?"
"If we choose to," the keeper said.
"Remarkable," Smith said. "You likely have cured cancer compared to us feeble humans."
"Cancer?" the keeper asked.
"Something that keeps growing and cannot be stopped," Smith said.
"Oh, abnormal growth's," the keeper said.
"Yes," Smith said.
"Your medical team will make sure you live long enough until you have fulfilled the lifespan the little girl could have lived," the keeper said. "You are to be out of your housing starting from ten until five."
"Regular zoo hours," Smith said, bitterly. "So I only have vacation on holidays."
"Should it snow, it won't land in your cage," the keeper said. "it is programmed to keep you at a acceptable temperature for your body. You may be able to grow food of your liking here. There is a watering system installed from the replica downstairs."
"How did you get that much detail?" Smith asked. "Not as though you went inside the Jupiter 2."
"We used your memory on the interior," the keeper said.
"I have a terrible memory," Smith said.
No wonder the freezing pods were not there. He purposely forgot about them. He had mapped most of the lower half in his mind late at night when unable to sleep. The machine recharging below decks. The anguish he felt at the unlaunchable space craft. Don resting in the chair with a pair of glasses on his forehead with his arms folded taking a quick snooze. He didn't know which button or switch did what to the console. A depressed sigh being heaved as he leaned against the wall muttering to himself, "Oh, the agony." while sadly looking out to the slowly being made construction site. All he wanted was his employers to take him off the wretched ship then bring him home. They abandoned him. A loud voice jerked the doctor out of his memory.
"As I was speaking," the keeper said. "If your friends come to my collection and attempt to free you then I will have no choice but to take a replacement from among them or take you back through other means."
"No need to fear," Smith said. "Smith is here."
The keeper glared at him.
"You can be rest assured," Smith said. "I will not go with them."
And that began Smith's time in the collection. He constructed a long curtain blocking view of the rooms down in the replica. He made do with several of the items that had been made for his stay. He planted his garden seed by seed then carefully cared for them. He watched the outside change colors. The grass turn from green to brown. Seas of leaves flying in the air. The leaves falling into his cage. From time to time the goers tossed in parts of machinery or an apple. Smith stored the apple seeds into the little box to save up. So he could plant them at a later date. There was ground from the planet around him so it was out of the question to use it, so instead Smith used the fertilizer that the duplicate of the Jupiter 2 happened to have a lifetime supply of. He found screws, mother boards, disks, and other kind of hardware tossed in into the cage. Gradually, he began to build up a robot companion for himself. And it looked just like the robot.
Smith stopped. He was struck with the image of the robot laughing with the group surrounding him in black and white. Smith in the center quite unhappy with their bemusent. Smith felt something slide down his cheek. He missed them. Absolutely miserable. The laundry machine still worked and his several pairs of clothing replicated off memory didn't get holes in them. Yet he wasn't among the Jupiter 2′s crew. He cried, picturing the Robinson's returning to Earth. What use would the robot become for them? Go on the next mission in space, probably. It was saddening that he would never get to insult his friend. And his friend, well, insult him back. He enjoyed the arguments that he sometimes got into with the robot. He was a friend. A good friend. Who he programmed. Perhaps he had changed his programming and grown more as a navigational robot? In the past few weeks, it seemed like he had began to grow. Robots could not feel. Then it meant, the robot had no feelings. But possible experience . . . No, it was impossible.
Smith stopped sobbing.
You did it for them.
He repeated to himself.
You did it for them.
He closed his eyes.
You did it for their happiness.
He rocked himself back and forth gently in a manner calming himself down.
"All right, Zachary," Smith said. He looked on to the mess between his legs. "Where were you?"
Smith picked up a rounded gear with several rounded holes. He looked on to see the rounded circular bowl with a enclosed bottom staring back at him. He turned it over glancing aside to the connected four blades item beside him. He had several screws. He had to screw them onto the center pole. He looked over noticing it had to be some kind of fish bowl prior. He discarded the pieces of sea weed out of the remarkably intact glass. The large bulky body that resembled what seemed to be a boombox that had two suction cup like additions on both sides. Most of these did the man find them in his cage after waking up in the morning with a collection of cheese, berries, and other things. The screwdriver was hard to find. So were the tools. He screwed in the colorful blades into the pole on a base then slid the bowl over it. He smiled at his familiar friend staring back at him. He then attached the large pole to the top of the boombox like machine gripping onto the black circular item screwed in as well. He screwed in the machine using a screw driver that he turned and turned. He lifted the piece onto the machine. Smith sighed. He got up to his feet then walked out of the replica. He dusted his pants off gazing off toward the garden. He made his way over toward it. The leaves were growing as usual and there were new weeds. He plucked one by one out of the bed.
"Doctor Smith!" Smith heard.
Smith nearly ripped out a plant as he looked over in surprise to hear Will's voice.
"Oh, dear," Smith said, placing a hand on his chest. He then noticed that a member of the facility stood in front of the cage with hands behind her back. "Miss Packer."
"We acquired a new shirt for you," Packer said.
"Oh, really, what is it?" Smith said.
Packer held the shirt out.
"Doesn't it look good?" Packer asked, with a bright smile holding the green and yellow short sleeved shirt.
Smith folded his arms, in disapproval.
"I hate the v neck," Smith said. "I rather take my chances. I need some yarn. Do you have any?"
"Yes," Packer said. "Don't use them anymore."
"Can I use them?" Smith asked. "For the shirts. The pants, I love them, they are so comfortable."
Packer's smile returned.
"Oh good," Packer said. "Everyone hates them. Thought you would too."
"They make me feel good," Smith said. "I will take as many as there are."
"Really?" Packer asked, in surprise.
"Really," Smith said. "These yoga pants are truly wonderful. I feel at home with them."
"I'll get right on the orders!" Packer said, then off she went with the shirt.
Smith watched the woman go off, sadly, then turned toward the replica.
Smith was happy, yet miserable in his current predicament. It had taken close to a month to finish the new and improved robot with the new gear thrown into his cage. Had to go in a couple times to connect the systems. He used a small screened tv, a mobile version, placed onto his desk looking through the programs. It was hard work to program a friend. One that he knew inside and out. He had to take out nothing. He could not deviate from the original program. He followed up the memory banks, brutally honest with himself, then finished typing on the keyboard. He leaned back into the chair. The robot was completed. Finished. He flipped a switch and the robot was back on.
"DANGER!" the robot cried, his head turning both ways. His voice full of terror and confusion. "DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER-" and the robot short circuited then exploded.
Smith landed to his side with his hand burning.
"You accordion legged miserable machine!" Smith kicked at the machine. "Right when I need you!" he kicked at the metal then hopped on his foot shouting in pain.
Smith hopped his way outside. It was dark. He saw there were stars above in the sky that made the shapes of different constellations that were now familiar to him. He had a fantasy going on in the past few days regarding . . what if. What if the keeper had not taken him and the cage? He looked up toward the nightsky. He wiped off another tear from his face. There was something not different about the arrangement. Looking up at the night sky. He saw a rounded object fly in space. Smith sighed, sadly. Smith can easily hear Will, "Where are you, Doctor Smith?" The Robinsons were likely heading in the direction of Alpha Centauri by now. They were not searching for him in space. It would have depleted all their resources had they gone on the search that would never be concluded. He was sad. He was burned. The stinging pain was fading with hands behind his back on the back of his head. The pain didn't bother him that much. The children were happy and well. He can see Will Robinson looking off toward space alongside the robot behind Don and John. Beaming with hope.
And it saddened him. Being unable to socialize with people like him. Earthlings. His mind wondered over to what could have been on Preplanish. The voices and the shouts of the Robinson family calling him had slowly stopped over his time in the collection. He closed his eyes falling into a sleep following a tangent of what the old Smith would have done to screw up the keeper's plans. Come to think of it, he could see it. He could see in his mind. He could just reach out and feel like he was there. A moving picture that he could never join. But imagination has a funny way of being real by those who believe in it.