Becky, Jon, Beth, Bob and Kyle sat in the library of the spaceship, discussing the next step to their plan to overthrow the committee of people at the head of Lexicon, and to bring the real Jon and Beth back into power, save the citizens of Lexicon and restore them from their brainwashed state to bring Lexicon back to justice.
"If we can do it without causing any acts of violence that would be great. Once you get into a brawl with a Lexiconian, there's no way they'll let themselves lose….I'm sure you realize that, though, Becky….what we need to try to do is get Beth and Jon—robot Beth and Jon—alone somehow, and deprogram them. My theory is that if we can get Becky back into that house, explaining that she didn't mean to run away and that she's sorry, or make up an excuse that they'd buy, we could get Becky to reactivate the security system to lock all three of them inside the house, and shut them down, the feat will be completely peaceful. The more peaceful the better." Kyle explained.
"But what do I tell them when I randomly show up at their house again? 'Sorry I ran off mysteriously during the night, I was plotting against you but realized the mistake?'"
"No, you'll have to tell them it was an emergency…tell them…uhh, tell them that you were in the garage getting a drink from the freezer when you tripped on something and fell, but instead of going back inside you snuck out of the house because you were scared. I don't know. You'll come up with something, I'm sure." Kyle said.
"But anyways, disabling your robot parents is only step one. Once the rest of the committee finds out that their leaders have been overthrown, they will NOT be happy. In fact, they're going to want to take down whoever was responsible immediately. And with our advanced technology, believe you me they will not have trouble finding us." Kyle explained. "I think most of them have been severely brainwashed. Replacing people with robots isn't our favorite way to deal with troublemakers on Lexicon, so we try not to do it. In fact, the only case where that was an option was with your parents, Becky, and obviously they never resorted to it again." Kyle explained. Becky nodded. She'd taken in a lot of information about Lexicon lately, but she found she didn't mind, considering that first of all, she was getting to know her real parents instead of robots who almost aim on destroying her, and second of all, she couldn't be happier to be learning all about her home planet.
"So I think that the best course of action to take is for you to contact me via walkie talkie once you have your 'parents' deprogrammed and deactivated, so I can proceed with the next part of the plan right away. You see, there's a specific and strict system for brainwashing troublemaking citizens and it involves a large machine hidden in the maintenance room in the capital building. In order to shut it down, I'd need to sneak in unseen long enough to disable it for good. But we need to think of a good way to do that, because security is tight. Especially since the three of us became fugitives." Kyle explained.
"Would they fall for the disguise trick again?" Becky asked.
"Maybe, but we should still come up with a backup plan. Not all Lexiconians are as easygoing as the ones that passed us on the street yesterday." Kyle explained. The gang sat there, thinking of a backup plan.
"You guys are way more advanced than Earth, right? So don't you have some sort of invisibility ray or something?" Becky asked.
"It's not that easy. The only invisibility rays invented are still under governmental control and are still experimental technology and only a select few people have access to it. Invisibility is a tricky business." Kyle explained.
"Darn." Becky said. "Any other technology Lexicon has invented that could help us?" Becky asked.
"Well sure, but like I said, security has been really tight lately, especially around the capital building. It's near impossible not to be caught in its vicinity lately."
"Oh…" Becky sighed, going back to thinking of a plan.
"….but that doesn't mean I don't know a way. I DO work for the government, remember?" Kyle smiled.
"Wait manning the airlock door is a government job?" Becky asked.
"On Lexicon it is. The government has strict control of who we let in and out. I have a specific list of peoples from different planets that aren't allowed inside the airtight dome. My boss is the assistant to the committee." Kyle explained.
"But since we became fugitives I guess the plan to pretend I'm going in to collect my paycheck is a moot…"
"But they don't know that you ran away, they just know I have. Maybe if you go back and explain to them that you got lost or something happened to you or you were somewhere studying something for school or something and lost track of time, I'm sure they'd drop whatever charges they had against you." Becky said.
"I guess, but I'd have to come up with a really good excuse. We don't have school beyond what would be fifth grade on earth, and if I said I got lost they'd never believe it because we have nowhere to get lost, like Earth's woods, and I can't say I got lost outside the airfield because no one's allowed past the airship or they're automatically zapped by a hidden electrical fence, and I can't think of any reason that something bad would happen to me."
"So, uh, can't you say you were looking some file over all night and you lost track of time?" Becky asked.
"Actually, that could work. I could say I haven't heard anything about your disappearance and say I was looking over some files out where no one could find me. What I'll do is I'll go home now and explain everything to my parents. Do you have a walkie talkie handy for me?" Kyle said.
"I think I do, let me go get it." Becky said, going into a back room to get the walkie-talkie.
"So…what was it like being in captivity for so long?" Kyle asked Becky's parents, who had been listening in on the whole conversation.
"A horrible experience full of internal suffering and mental abuse." Jon explained. Kyle nodded. Being completely honest, he hadn't seen them since he was a little kid and quite frankly he didn't remember them that well. They had been replaced a long time ago, not too long after Becky had run away to earth, so he hadn't gotten a good chance to get to know them in his best friend's absence. Thus resulting in an awkward silence in the room.
"Found them," Becky said, finding the walkie-talkies and handing one to Kyle.
"Alright, good. Now I should get home, but I'll update you whenever I can, okay?" Kyle said as they walked to the entrance to the ship.
"Just be careful, please?" Becky said.
"I promise, I will." He said with a smile. He stood there, holding her gaze for a moment before walking out to return home.
~…~
"Kyle? Where have you been? You're considered a fugitive! You need to be turned in!" Kyle's mother asked when she saw Kyle sneaking in the front door.
"Wait what? Me, a fugitive? I heard that girl from earth snuck away from her parents' house while visiting here, but I haven't been hiding from the law. I've been studying some papers from an important file all night and I lost track of time. You thought I ran off with some girl who doesn't want to stay on Lexicon?" Kyle lied, trying his very best to make it as believable as possible.
"Oh…well, I guess we have to believe you. I'll go to the capital building and talk to the committee immediately." Kyle's mother said, grabbing her coat and heading out the door. Unlike on earth, there was no procrastinating, because even the slightest bit of procrastination was frowned upon on Lexicon. Even things such as going to the committee to tell them that your son is not a fugitive of Lexiconian law and is not hiding out somewhere with an ex-Lexiconian. It wasn't uncommon for someone to go do something in the middle of the night.
Kyle sat down on the couch and sank in relief, glad to have a planet that was so strict with things that they thought could cause laziness. He pressed the button on his walkie-talkie.
"I'm in, but I still think it wasn't supposed to be that easy…I'll keep you posted."
Well that's all for now…review?