194

One

Professor Ochanomizu had a good view of the sun from his observation post in the nose of the spaceship. On the monitor he could clearly see the projectile disappear into the star's coronasphere. Almost immediately his instruments registered a noticeable change in the outward flux of the solar neutrinos, the constant pulsating of the cosmic ray emissions were now gone as well. It seemed that Atom's plan was working, the device that the robot scientist Napoleon had constructed was doing its job.

Dr. Von Wormer of NASA, and Dr. Moss of the JSA had also observed the entry of the capsule containing the solar equalizer into the sun's atmosphere, and they both had measured its effect. The three scientists conversed over the video link and they mutually agreed that it would now be safe for the fleet to return to Earth.

The ship to ship chatter within the fleet carrying the human population of planet Earth suddenly picked up in intensity. No longer was it if, or even when they might be able to return home, now it was only a matter of getting in line as Duke Red, the admiral of the fleet began assigning landing coordinates and time slots to each of the thousands of space ships now resident among the solar system Lagrange points. Almost unanimously the former leaders of every Earthly state had voted to declare Atom a hero and hundreds of statues in his honor were committed to be erected in every corner of the world.

"I can only imagine what Atom's reaction will be to all of this," Mustachio told the professor. "He's such a modest individual."

"Yes I agree," the professor said. "It may be a good thing that the orbit of his spaceship placed it on a long return path via the opposite side of Earth's orbit, if he were able to hear all of the praise being heaped upon him, he might disappear in a state of Hikikomri for years."

"You know Hakase," the teacher said, "It does seem a bit strange that we've not heard back from him after he released the capsule sunward. Surly he'd have wanted to let us know that he'd succeeded."

"That thought did cross my mind," Ochanomizu said, "But the electromagnetic interference from the sun's coronasphere, plus the fact that his rocket would now be on the other side of our star which is blocking his radio transmissions, means we won't be hearing from him for some time until he is on the return side of his orbit. We'll be back on Earth before we see Atom again."

The captain of the spaceship stuck his head though the doorway of the observation deck. "Hakase," he said, "I've just gotten our orders from Admiral Red. Our ship will be in the first group to land. I'm going to have to order everyone to leave and get back to their cabins, we need to prepare for landing now!"

"Hai!" Ochanomizu replied, as he started to shut down his instruments. "I'll see you back in Tokyo after we land," he said.

Mustachio started on his way back to his cabin, but the professor turned to speak with the captain.

"Captain, is there any room up in the cockpit area?" the professor asked. "I'd like to be able to keep monitoring the instruments during our return to Earth."

"Yes Hakase, we do have one extra seat available up front." Captain Ketchup replied. "You're welcome to the jump seat if you like."

"Dōmo arigatō gozamiashita, Ketchup-san," the professor replied.


The Professor had a good view of their approach to Earth as the ship left the L5 Lagrange point and entered an orbital path back home. It had been a little over a year since the massive fleet of spaceships had been hastily prepared for travel with almost all of the planet's population crowded on board. Almost all of the world's robots had been left behind, only those essential to the safe operation of the space fleet had been taken on board. The robots left behind on Earth were put in charge of the world, in the hope that some day mankind might be able to return.

"Time to buckle up, Hakase!," Ketchup said, looking over his shoulder at the professor. "We're in our final approach now!"

As the spaceport came into view, Ochanomizu could see that less than a dozen ships in the fleet had already landed and were still being unloaded. No doubt the government VIP's and officials of the JSA had been among the passengers of those ships.

The Professor could feel the deceleration forces getting stronger as the ship's braking engines increased their thrust. Finally he could fell the gentle jolt of the landing legs touching the ground as the spring loaded pads compressed and then released their tension as the main engines were shut down.

Ochanomizu unbuckled himself from the seat and turned to exit the cockpit. "Thank's for the ride up front," he told the captain. "I need to get to the Ministry ASAP, and check up on things. We left the computers on automatic while we were gone."


Professor Ochanomizu grabbed one of the first available ground cars and programmed it to take him to the Ministry of Science. The ground car made it quickly from the JSA spaceport to the Ministry of Science, as few of the other spaceships had yet landed ground traffic in the Tokyo - Metro City area was quite light. The professor made his way up to his office to find the place exactly as he'd left it. The building's systems had kept the place clean, the air conditioning systems functioned perfectly, and the computer systems were all up and running.

The professor was happy to find that the building's plumbing was perfectly operational as he filled a small pot to boil water to make himself some tea, after finding some teabags in his desk still fresh in a sealed can. The Ministry's computer systems had remained operational during his stay in space thanks to the robotic crew left behind. As he turned on his desktop computer, Ochanomizu was surprised to discover that he had a video message sitting in his in box, dated just a few weeks ago. The professor clicked on the attachment and it started to play, as Atom's smiling face appeared on the computer screen.

"Hello Hakase!" Atom started, "I'm leaving you this message because I'm about to embark on a mission from which I may not return. As you already know, I've discovered a device that is capable of restoring the sun back to normal. It must be delivered into the atmosphere of the sun and then detonated. I will be flying it towards its target in a rocket that we've specially equipped for the mission. I hope we can put enough fuel on board to enable me to deliver the package and return back to Earth, but there are many risks, including an asteroid belt just inside of the orbit of Mercury. I hope I will return, but if I don't please tell my family not to grieve for me. I don't mind giving my life to save the Earth. It's been wonderful having you as a guardian. Sayōnara Hakase!"

Ochanomizu had been worried about not hearing from Atom, although he had been telling himself and everyone else that it was unlikely that they would have heard any radio transmissions from him so close to the sun. Never the less he was worried, so he went to his computer to see if any of the ground based solar observatories had captured any images of his ship. The professor was sure that NASA and the JSA would have left their large solar telescopes operating via robotic control to gather as much information as possible about increase in the solar constant in an effort to find a fix for the problem that had caused mankind to abandon the Earth. Fortunately the robot Napoleon had already done that, and had invented the device that had fixed the problem.

Ochanomizu's computer scanned the databases for any recent images of the sun taken when Atom's ship was deploying the projectile. He soon found what he was looking for, and his face went sour. He could clearly see the spacecraft that Atom was piloting towards the sun, the ship was slowly drifting towards the star in a path that would slowly bring it into the coronasphere of the sun. It was clear that the payload section of the ship had already been released.

"It's not on a return orbit towards Earth," the professor muttered to himself. "Something has gone wrong." He moved the mouse about and selected another image. This time he clearly saw the projectile several thousand miles from the rocket. It had just cleared a small asteroid belt inside of the orbit of Mercury. Something was clinging to the surface of the payload, as it entered the atmosphere of the star. Atom's last words were still ringing in the professor's ears and he realized what had happened. The boy robot must have pushed the device clear of the asteroid field himself and was unable to get back to the spacecraft. He probably rode the device into the sun himself and burned up as he activated it.

"I don't know how I'm going to be able to break the news to his family," Ochanomizu sighed, "Not to mention the entire world."


It took several weeks for the last of the armada of spaceships to all return to their respective points of origin. Humanity was slowly getting used to being back home. All had high regard for the robots they had left behind, for mankind returned to find a world in better shape than it was when they had left it. Not only had the robots kept everything in working order, they had repaired and improved systems that had been damaged by the extreme heat.

The professor appeared at the door to Atom's house with his head bowed, and his hat in his hand. "I'm afraid I have bad news for you," he sighed as Atom's robot parents greeted him at the door.

"Atom isn't coming back," Ochanomizu told them. "We'd hoped that the reason we never heard from him was because his ship was making a return path around the backside of the sun, that would have been the obvious path he'd have to take to use the least amount of rocket fuel."

"His ship got too close to the sun, didn't it?" Atom's mother said.

"That may have been the problem," the professor replied. "It does look like he had to manually direct the device through an asteroid field, he probably rode the projectile all the way into the sun."

"That does sound like our little hero," Atom's father sobbed, "always so self sacrificing to save others."

"He was probably very happy to do it," Atom's mother agreed, her eyes tearing.

Uran and Cobalt came into the front room, both of them whimpering in tears. "We were in our rooms and we heard," Uran sobbed. Little Chi-tan being held in his sisters arms started to cry, and the house shook from his 130db screams. The professor quickly stuck his fingers in his ears. Uran rocked her little brother in her arms and stuck a pacifier in his mouth to quiet him.

"I'm going to make an announcement on global TV tonight," Ochanomizu said. "I wanted to break the bad news to you first, I'm sure that there will be memorial services for Atom all around the world."

"Thank you," Atom's parents replied.

"I need to go now," the professor said. "I have many things to take care of."

Cobalt's eyes glazed over, "It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.", he muttered without realizing he was saying it.