Sky Fall
A.N. Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka, and all rights are owned by Tesuka Productions.
The title 'Sky Fall' has nothing at all do do with James Bond, I just thought it sounded right for this story.
It was the first summer since my retirement. My wife Robin and I were spending the summer with our new friends, June and William Trout, out in the country on a farm. It was a small farm that was owned by her brother and his wife, who were currently across the country on vacation. We were watching the place for a few weeks. There really wasn't very much we had to do, the irrigation systems were automated, and the planting had all been done. June's brother and family would be back long before harvest time. We did have to take care of a few animals and check on the fields once every other day. Learning how to milk a cow was a lot of fun, let me tell you! But, it was great being way out away from the city light pollution, the sky at night was beautiful! I brought my telescope with me and set it up every night to get a great view of the heavens. Bill Trout couldn't get enough of the view either, and he often hogged the eyepiece, but I was more than happy to show off my homemade telescope.
I heard on the TV newscast that an old Russian satellite left over from the cold war was slowly falling out of orbit. It was expected to crash somewhere in the middle of the pacific ocean far away from any land. The thing was so huge that it would be an easy naked eye object as it passed over the US mainland. They expected it would be visible for the next few nights before it started to burn up. I found tracking details on line and I adjusted the setting circles on my telescope so I could find "Big Ivan", as the news media was calling it. Sure enough, when we looked though the eyepiece of my hand made telescope, there it was! It was an evil looking thing, I almost got the impression that it was some kind of weapon, maybe a bomb platform. Ivan showed up right on time during the next few nights, each time getting a bit larger in my field of view. It was clearly falling out of orbit.
One night shortly after I had caught a good view of the Russian derelict passing overhead, there was a news report on TV that a huge fireball was seen in the sky over the pacific. It was visible from California to Japan, and was so bright that there was some speculation it might have been a nuclear explosion in space. Adding to that theory was the fact that there were a few power outages along the US pacific coast and in Hawaii, which the 'tin foil hats' said had to be caused by the EMP from a such an explosion.
It had started to rain shortly before the newscast. It was a heavy downpour for about a half an hour or so, and then the sky cleared. As soon as the rain stopped, I stepped outside with my binoculars to get a last look at the heavens before turning in for the night. That's when I saw the fireball of a meteor like object streaking through the sky. It looked like it might have landed in the back 40 acres of the planted field. Wondering if it might be a piece of that Russian satellite, I figured I'd go take a look in the morning and see if I could find any fallen debris.
Other than the horses and cows making a bit of noise in the middle of the night, I slept fairly well. The four of us had a good breakfast, and then Robin and June took the car into town to go shopping while Bill and I got in the pickup truck to inspect the fields. I really didn't expect to find anything, when ever you do see a shooting star that looks like it landed nearby, it usually fell many miles away.
About halfway into the back 40 acres we came upon a small crater. The ground had gotten really soaked due to the rain last night, but it had been a warm night and the hot morning sun evaporated what was left of any water on the ground. Any mud that had been formed had solidified. The small crater had been created while the ground had been damp, I could see the impressions of the debris in the ground from whatever had crashed down from the sky. There were bits of charred twisted metal all about that must have been part of the object which had streaked red hot across the night sky.
Then we saw something that really spooked us. Leading out of the crater were a set of footprints heading in the direction of the barn. The footprints were small, they looked about the size and shape of a ten year olds Keds. There was an impression in the ground right where the footprints started that was just about the size of a small body lying down in the mud. There were no tracks leading into the crater. It was almost like whatever had walked out of there, had fell down from the sky with the debris from space.
Then I remembered the horses and cows being disturbed last night, and I pointed that out to Bill. We both got back into the truck and high tailed it back to the barn. I jumped out of the truck and grabbed a pitchfork, it being the closest thing to a weapon that I could find. The door to the barn was open a crack, and the two of us squeezed in and looked around. Lying face down on top of a pile of hay was the nearly naked form of a small child. All he had on was a tight fitting pair of dark briefs and a pair of red boots. His skin and hair were covered with mud and soot. He was still asleep, and didn't flinch a muscle as I walked closer. The child didn't look dangerous, but I was still confused as to how he had got into the barn and where he had come from. I turned the pitchfork around and gently poked him with the wooden handle. There was no response. Now I was worried for a different reason.
"I think we'd better take him into the house." Bill suggested.
"I'm sure the women would agree with that." I answered.
I handed Bill the pitchfork and I walked up to the hay pile where the child lay. As I tried to get my arms under his body to pick him up I got a bit of a shock. His skin was quite cool to the touch, and he felt a bit too rigid. For a few moments I was quite afraid that he was dead. As I picked him up to carry him he lay limp in my arms, and I couldn't feel any sign of a pulse or any breathing. The poor child felt more like a doll or a manikin than a flesh and blood boy. He was easy to carry though, probably weighing about 60 to 70 lbs at most.
Bill opened doors ahead of me and I carried the limp body up to the second floor of the farm house where there was an empty bedroom with an available bed. As I lay the child down on the bed, he flinched a bit and then lay quietly.
"There seems to be a sign of life after all." I told Bill.
"Let's let him rest until the women get back." Bill suggested.
Bill worked in the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes left over from our breakfast while I went back to the barn and took care of the cows and the chickens. I saw the car with our wives coming up the road just as I was heading back to the house. I went into the bathroom and washed up a bit, I didn't want to smell like chicken poop when the women arrived. Bill had already gone outside and was carrying in the first bag of groceries. I met my wife halfway between the car and the house and was handed another full bag to lug in. While June and Robin were stacking cans onto the cupboard shelves Bill and I were folding the paper bags up and putting them away. We then heard the sound of squeaky feet plodding down the stairs, and our guest poked his face into the kitchen.
"How do you feel son?" I asked.
"Who's that?" Robin said, turning around from the cupboard. June got a look at the boy a second later.
"Bill and I found him sleeping in the barn this morning." I answered. I figured it best to leave out the part about the meteor crater and the footprints leading out of it.
The boy rubbed his eyes and looked around.
"Where am I?" he asked. "How did I get here?"
"You're in a farmhouse near the New York and Pennsylvania border." June said.
"What's your name?" my wife asked.
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to answer, but couldn't seem to form the words. After a pregnant pause he spoke.
"I .. I don't know!" "I don't know my name!" He started to sob.
June pulled the boy against her body to hug him.
"Don't cry." She said. "Lets get you cleaned up and find you something to wear. I think my brother's son's clothes should fit you."
June took the boy by his hand and led him up the stairs. Robin and I watched them disappear to the second floor.
"What happened to him?" She asked me.
"I'm not sure." I answered. "I think he was outside in the rain last night when part of that Russian satellite fell to Earth out in the back 40 acres. Maybe he got hit by a chunk of it. I think I saw his footprints out in the field."
About ten minutes later June and our little guest came back down the stairs. He looked a lot cleaner now, all of the soot and mud were gone, and his hair had been washed and combed (except for two naughty cowlicks that refused to be combed flat). June had found him a nice pair of jean shorts and a tee shirt that fit him rather well. He still had his red boots on, now cleaned up.
"Good job, June." Robin said with a thumbs up.
Bill got on the phone with the police to inquire about any missing persons reports that might have been filed. They were not aware of anyone reporting a missing child, and Bill was told we would be contacted if something was reported. June picked up the phone before the officer on the other end hung up and told him it was OK with her if the kid stayed with us for now. The policeman knew her brother and had no issues with this.
The next order of business, as far as the wives were concerned was to feed our guest. June whipped up some scrambled eggs and toast, while Bill left the kitchen yelling he couldn't stand the smell. Our guest nibbled at the food, but he didn't seem to be very hungry.
"I guess I'm not a big eater." the boy said. "I just don't feel very hungry right now."
"I suppose I might feel that way if my mind was all confused and I'd forgotten who I was." I said. "Don't worry, something will probably happen that will spark your memory and it will all come back."
"I hope so." He said glumly.
"You know, I've got an idea." I said. "Bill, let's take the kid out to the crater and see if he remembers anything from last night."
"Might be worth a try." Bill said.
The three of us got into the pickup truck. I drove, and the kid sat in the middle of the bench seat. He didn't seem to recognize anything along the way. We got out of the truck and walked down to the crater. The small footprints were still visible. The kid tried his foot in one of them, and it was a perfect fit.
"I guess I must have come this way last night." The boy said "but I don't remember it."
I pointed to the metal fragments on the ground.
"Last night whatever this was fell from space." I told him. "I could see it glowing red hot as it streaked across the sky. The TV news reported that a huge fireball lit up the sky on the other side of the country. They said it looked like an atom bomb going off in space."
"That's it." the kid said.
"What is?" I asked.
"Atom. You said Atom, I think that's my name."
"Atom?" Bill asked. "Don't you mean Adam?"
"No, I'm sure I remember now. My name is Atom. But, …. That's all I remember."
"OK, well that's a start. At least we know what to call you now. Atom is a lot better than 'Hey you' any day." I told him.
The three of us got back into the truck. Bill wanted to inspect the irrigation pump near the far edge of the property. It took us nearly twenty minutes to get there, driving on a very bumpy gravel road that ran around the two planted fields. Bill looked at the pressure gauges and announced that everything was in perfect working order, so we started back toward the farmhouse. We didn't get very far before the ride got even bumpier as the front left tire softly blew out, leaving us driving on the rim.
"Looks like we got us a flat tire." Bill said.
"No shit, Sherlock." I agreed.
We all got out of the truck, and I inspected the damage. Besides being deflated, the tire was quite bald, in fact all four tires had almost no tread left on them. The spare tire that was sitting tied down in the bed of the pickup wasn't in any better shape, except for being somewhat inflated. I dropped the tire onto the ground, it bounced a few times and then I rolled it toward the front of the vehicle. Next I searched in the tool caddy that was built into the truck bed for the jack and lug wrench. Both were missing in action.
"Say Bill, what the hell did your brother-in-law do with the jack?" I asked.
"Oops. I think I saw it in the barn. He must have used it to change out a tire in on the tractor and forgot to put it back in the truck." Bill said.
"Yeah, and I guess that's where the lug wrench is also. Well it looks like we have to walk back and fetch the tools." I sighed. "That will only take us like an hour or so."
While I was complaining to Bill about his brother-in-law, Atom had crotched down in front of the flat tire and was examining the wheel. I caught a glimpse of him twisting the lug nuts with his fingers. He had already removed three of the nuts and was working on the fourth.
"Did you just remove those nuts with your bare hands?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was no problem." He said, as he finished with the last one.
"That shouldn't be possible" I said. I could see maybe one or two of the lug nuts being loose, but not all five of them! "If they were so loose that you could remove them by hand, that tire would have fell off on its own miles ago!"
Atom just shrugged his shoulders and handed the five nuts to Bill, who dropped them into his left rear pocket.
"Well we still don't have a jack. How the hell are we going to lift up the axle to change the wheel I'd like to know." Bill asked.
I was thinking of looking for a long pole, like a tree limb to use as a lever. Just then, Atom grabbed onto the front bumper of the truck with both hands and lifted it! Bill's jaw dropped when he saw what the kid was doing. I quickly pulled the flat tire off of the truck and just as quickly replaced it with the not quite as flat spare. Atom released his grip on the bumper and the tire touched ground bearing the weight. Bill replaced the lug nuts, twisting them as tightly as he could by hand.
"I hope I've got them tight enough so they stay on long enough to make it back to the barn." He said.
Atom 'tested' each nut with his fingers. "I think they'll hold" he said slyly.
As we drove back to the barn, Bill and I kept glancing back at Atom wondering just what was going on here. Once back at the farmhouse, I found the jack and lug wrench and returned them to the truck where they belonged. Just out of curiosity I took the lug wrench to each of the nuts on that wheel to see just how tight they were. Using the wrench I could not get them one bit tighter than they were. I tried backing one of the nuts out, and had a hell of a time doing that as well. Atom had not only tightened those nuts by hand, he had over torqued them as well. You'd need an air driven impact wrench to do that!
There was still a few hours of daylight left, and I told Bill we ought to go buy a new set of tires for the pickup. All four of them, including the spare were totally bald, and I didn't trust driving the truck anymore the way it was.
"My brother-in-law has a charge account over at the farm hardware store in town." Bill said. He handed me a store charge card from his wallet. "If you want to, you can take the truck over there and pick up a new set of tires. I think they might have some good re-treads cheap."
"Sure, I'll head over there before they close." I said. Atom climbed into the passenger seat with me, I guess he wanted to see what was in town.
As soon as we were on the two lane blacktop that headed into town I asked what was on my mind.
"How did you manage to do that?"
"Do what?" Atom asked.
"You know. You lifted the front of the truck up like it weighed nothing. That had to be a good few hundred pounds. Then you tightened those lug nuts by hand so tight I couldn't break them loose with a lug wrench. You from the planet Krypton or something?"
"I don't know." He said. "I just wanted to help."
"Well, thank you very much. It's not that I'm not grateful for your help, I just don't understand it." I said.
We arrived at the farm hardware store, and just as Bill promised, they had a good selection of re-tread tires that would fit the truck. They looked to be of good quality, so I had them mount a set of four on the truck and one for the spare. It took about an hour and a half to have the tires mounted, so I took Atom over to the drug store down the street for a root beer float while we waited. He seemed to enjoy it as much as any other ten year old kid would.
"So you still don't remember anything do you?" I asked.
"Not really." He said.
"Don't worry. Something will trigger your memory and it will all come back." I said.
"You really think so?" he asked.
"I'm no doctor, but yes I think so. A kid your age heals quickly. Hopefully, that will apply to your mind as well." I said, though I wasn't so sure just what we were dealing with here.
I took the long way back to the farm from town, mostly because I needed to think, but also to get a good feel as to how the truck rode on the new tires. When we got back to the house we were greeted by the smell of dinner cooking. June and Bill were doing the kitchen duties, preparing a salmon roast, the fish having been purchased earlier in the morning. Robin was working on preparing green beans and corn on the cob, to go along with the fish. I suddenly realized how hungry I was, and couldn't wait for dinner.
The five of us sat down to eat, it was the Trout's custom to say a brief 'grace' before eating and my wife and I waited for them to finish before breaking bread. Atom just picked at his fish and I hoped that I hadn't spoiled his appetite with the stop at the drug store. Just as we had finished eating, we heard the wind pick up outside, and the crash of some objects being blown around. The lights flickered as the power went out for a few seconds. The storm didn't last very long, and all was back to normal in under a half hour.
Bill turned on the TV, but it seemed that the wind might have knocked out the antenna for we couldn't receive any stations.
"I'll have to take a look on the roof tomorrow." I promised.
I decided to set up the telescope outside as it was already dark enough, and we weren't going to watch anything on the boob tube with the antenna out of whack. I was surprised to see the satellite passing overhead again, I thought it had re-entered the atmosphere the night before when that fireball came down in the back 40.
"Can I take a peek?" Atom asked.
"Sure, knock yourself out" I told him. He seemed at home with the telescope and quickly had it aimed and focused. I could see that the scope was now pointed at our Russian friend. Atom backed off from the eyepiece with a puzzled look on his face.
"I've seen that before. Close up. Really close up." He said.
I took another look at "Big Ivan". The satellite seemed a bit closer than it had last night. It also looked smaller, like something had broken off. Maybe that's what had landed in our back yard.
"What do you mean, Atom?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. But I remember this. I think I was up there, next to that thing. Like I was an astronaut or something." He had a real serious look on his face, trying to remember.
"Sounds like a bad dream to me." I shrugged my shoulders. He was talking a fantasy here.
June stuck her head out the window and yelled to us.
"I think the kid should be getting to bed. He needs his sleep." She said.
"OK, we're coming inside" I said, as I started to pack up the telescope.
Atom helped me carry the scope into the house before heading upstairs to brush his teeth and change into some bed clothes that June had found for him. I thought he looked rather cute in the footy PJ's. The top had a hood that he could pull over his head, with two little bear like ears on top.
"Where did you get those?" I asked.
"My brother's son used to wear them when he was ten." June replied. "I guess they never threw them out when he out grew them."
We all got to bed early that night. Morning comes quickly out on the farm.
After breakfast the next day I took a walk around the farmhouse to look for any damage from the windstorm we had the night before. The farmhouse was a three story affair with a high peaked roof and a full attic. The television antenna was mounted on the chimney at the highest point of the roof. It would be a hard climb to get at it. I looked through my binoculars, and could see where the driven element of the yagi had broken off and was hanging by a thread. The feed line had also become detached. No parts were missing, it could be fixed with a hose clamp and some elbow grease.
I decided to wait till after lunch to try and tackle the project. Bill dragged a forty-five foot extension ladder from the barn and leaned it against the roof. I'd have to climb up the ladder, and then crawl up a fifty degree incline to reach the chimney and the antenna. I found a tool belt in the barn, and the necessary hand tools. I put on my work shoes that had a good rubber tread on them. They would give me plenty of traction on the roof. Robin and June both told me to be extra careful, at least a dozen times. I wasn't afraid of the heights. When I was still single I had a forty foot tower in my back yard supporting a huge twenty meter beam for my ham radio station. I was used to climbing that thing to adjust the antenna, so I felt comfortable with ladders. Of course that was at least 25 years ago, before my open heart surgery.
While the women and Bill watched below, I climbed the ladder up to the edge of the roof. I then scaled the rest of the mountain to reach my objective. I re-attached the broken feed line and repaired the broken bit of the driven element, and then noticed that the rotor was jammed. I was now glad I had thought to bring a can of WD-40 up with me to free up the rusty bolts. It was going to take a small hit with the hammer to free the thing, and that was where I made my almost fatal mistake.
It was Newton's third law that got me. I swung the hammer at the rotor to free it, and the impulse knocked me backwards. I didn't have myself secured to the chimney with rope or anything, and I lost my footing. Before I knew it I was sliding down the steep incline of the roof trying in vain to find something to grab onto to stop myself. If there had been a rain gutter at the edge of the roof, I should have been able to grab onto that, but no such luck.
I heard the women scream when they saw me fall over the edge to the ground some forty feet below me. I didn't have a chance to think about what the end result was going to be before I felt a pair of arms grab me about my torso just below my arm pits.
"Don't worry, I've got you!" Atom said.
The two of us flew over the house, and then I saw the ground coming up very slowly to meet me. It sort of reminded me of the first time I had experienced a spin in an airplane. Rather than a free fall plunge to the ground, I was now in a controlled decent. We touched down gently on the far side of the house.
My brain was running at several GHZ trying to compute what had just happened. I had all the clues I needed to solve the mystery, all I had to do was pull out the stops and let the logic lead where it would. Atom was amazing, the kid could actually fly!
"Thank you!" I said once we were on Terra firma again.
"Do you remember anything now?" I asked Atom.
His eyes slowly seemed to light up. I could almost see the gears in his mind turning. The leap skyward to my rescue had been an unconscious reaction on his part not requiring any thought or memory. It also was the trigger he needed.
"I remember. I remember now!" Atom cried. "But I don't think you're going to believe me."
"Are you kidding? After what just happened?" I said. "Try me."
"Well, for one thing, I'm a robot." he started.
"I kinda figured that part out already, you know." I said.
By this time June, Bill, and Robin had already gathered around us and had had heard the last few sentences of our conversation.
"Oh. Well anyway, the Ministry of Science in Japan had been tracking that Russian satellite for several weeks. We figured out there was a good chance that at least part of it might crash into downtown Tokyo and something had to be done. We also found out that there might be an unarmed nuclear warhead up there. The Russians had put that platform up during the cold war, it might have been a doomsday device."
"Charming" I said. "Go on."
"I flew up to investigate. I tried to push it up into a higher orbit to give us some time to come up with better way to dispose of the problem when that unarmed warhead suddenly came on line. I managed to lift the bomb high enough so if it exploded it would do so harmlessly. I then got back to the satellite just as the warhead blew up. The shock wave hit me just as I was lifting the satellite into a higher orbit. Part of it broke off and started to reenter the atmosphere. I think I then blanked out from the EMP . The part of the satellite that reentered the atmosphere must have acted as a heat shield and protected me during reentry. I guess you know the rest of the story."
My mind suddenly recalled the image we had seen though the telescope last night. A sudden chill ran through my brain.
"Er, so is that Russian satellite in a safe orbit now?" I asked.
Atom's face turned ashen.
"Holly Crap!" he said. "I forgot about that! I changed it's orbit, and the shock wave must have moved it too. Do you have Internet access here?"
June's brother had an older iMac computer up in the master bedroom. They had a satellite modem connection to the net. I hadn't looked at the dish antenna while I was up on the roof. Hopefully it was still aimed in the right direction. Atom yanked the Ethernet cable from the iMac. He opened his chest panel and patched himself directly into the Internet connection. He sat motionless for many minutes, deep in thought. June and myself watched him in amazement. My wife stood in the doorway with a blank stare on her face. She should have been used to this, married to a tech nerd.
After a total of some thirty minutes, Atom disconnected himself from the modem.
"I was able to hack into NASA and download the latest tracking coordinates of that thing, and then compute the path of orbital decay. We have about three hours before it comes down." He said.
"Where?" I asked.
"In two pieces. It already broke up on the last orbit. The biggest chunk is going to smash down right near the Kremlin. The smaller bit is heading for Rome."
"You know, that almost sounds like poetic justice to me." I said, almost laughing.
"I've got to stop it. I think I can redirect both pieces to fall into the deepest part of the Atlantic with just the right push." Atom said. "I should have enough energy to do it. My power source regenerates over time if I'm not over active. I've been resting for the past 48 hours. That should have been long enough."
"Yeah, I figured the three laws would apply here" I said.
We all realized what was about to happen next. June gave Atom a hug and told him to be careful. My wife did the same. Bill saluted him, and Atom returned the gesture.
"Good luck" I said.
"Thanks, guys" Atom replied. He quickly peeled off the shirt and jeans that June had given him and handed them back to her. "Don't want these to get ruined" he told her.
The next thing we knew he had become a vapor trail heading skyward. We heard the crack of a sonic boom as he quickly passed through the sound barrier on his way beyond the ionosphere.
I found out later that I had managed to repair the TV antenna before falling off the roof. The rotor worked perfectly as well, and we were able to pick up the 11 O'clock news that evening. There was a report about the re-entry of some satellite that fell harmlessly into the middle of the Atlantic ocean far away from any of the shipping lanes. Atom never returned to the farm, but I really didn't expect him to. I hoped he made it home, wherever that might be.
About two weeks latter, just as we were packing up to return home at the end of the summer, I got a postcard in the mail from the Japanese Ministry of Science. It reminded me of a ham radio QSL card, having pictures of the main building and some thumbnail shots of the interior. It was signed, "Thanks a lot!, your friend Atom." We all felt a lot better, knowing he had made it home safely. What a perfect end to a great summer vacation.