Smith finished his next bar then handed the other two to the children beckoning them to eat on their way down to the facility then put away the synthetic napkins back into his pocket. Smith had two bars left to tide him over. There were space moose lingering about the scenery. A sight that Smith did not miss quite a bit when it came to moose. Except these had more than two eyes, they had four eyes that seemed very disturbing. Four eyes must mean this planet was dangerous than it looked. They had to carefully avoid the space moose while making their way to the facility. They hid behind the large pine trees. Smith had a rough idea of what was going to happen. He looked over toward the children and nods were returned to him. Their dark, warm hoods were up over their heads.
They came to the weak point to the building.
"That wasn't there before," Penelope remarked.
"Ladies first," Smith said, kneeling down. "Gentlemen go second."
"Aren't you concerned about that wall?" Penelope asked, raising a eyebrow. "It could be armed with little bugs capable of going into your ear and killing you in a violent way. Bleeding all over, having seizures, and foam forming in the mouth or eyes becoming so big they pop right out of our eye sockets."
Smith had a hand on his knee not very phased by the throw away lines of potential danger.
As Doctor Smith, he had been as cautious and terrified as she was about blindly going in to danger. That persona wasn't going to do much good rescuing the Robot. Smith nodded, she was right about the possible danger. He accepted that risk and they had too accepted that risk going with him. He knew she was suggesting they could find another way but the gate way in to the building was blocked off and they couldn't be big damn heroes. Because if they did that then they would be quickly surrounded after making their aesthetically pleasing entrance. For this occasion, he had to be Colonel Smith.
He looked back up toward the wall scanning it with his eyes then on toward the children.
"Not when there is bricks sticking out," Smith said, pointing toward the climbing stones. "Do you really think they would purposely hide deadly bugs in there?"
"Bugs like hiding in dark places," Will said.
"Ask yourself this," Smith said. "Would it fair well with technology? Wet? Dirty? Corner?"
"No," Penelope said.
"It's not a electrified barrier, so count your blessings with that," Smith said.
"Sounds like you got experience with that," Penelope said.
"Galactic Tribunal of Justice came after me once," Smith said. "William dug me a way out."
"What do you mean there's a Galactic Tribunal Council?" Penelope asked. "Like, have we done crimes that we're unaware of?"
"Cool," Will said. "we could be the first colonists who are criminals."
"Don't worry about it, dear children," Smith said. "It took them a year to come after us."
"So that's a yes," Will said.
"Penelope," Smith said. "Up."
Smith tossed the children up one by one. Penny held a hand out so he took it then climbed up the barrier using the stones as his support to get up. He fell to the floor with a thud then hid under the railing as a faint red light passed on above them. He looked over toward the children. How could they have possibly gotten in the way they had with the Robot. Penny mouthed back 'Open door'. Smith shook his head and rolled his gray eyes. He looked over in the source of the red light then aimed the laser pistol at the illuminating light. Smith fired three times. The light stopped illuminating from the center. Smith looked over the edge to see a stair case. There were strange spiky covered guards in armor that was similar to ones he had seen before but it was thicker and heavier. He glanced off toward the children raising his eyebrows. Will and Penelope shared a shrug. So they hadn't been there the first time around, either.
It was strange.
As though the aliens expected a rescue mission to be launched for the Robot.
It was compelling enough to wonder about it.
The logical explanation was that they were used to parties coming back for the collateral. They probably had a plan set up to catch all the Robinsons. Only they weren't going to catch the Robinsons as they liked to. It satisfied Smith's question regarding the truth. They have been waiting for days for this rescue mission to be squashed. He rubbed his stubble looking down toward guard by guard. He then fired his laser pistol on the figures knocking them down. The door was up ahead apparently unguarded. If what he had been told by Will about the door was true it wasn't going to be easy getting in this time around. He gestured the children to come with him while keeping himself lowered. They came to the door to the building. Penelope slipped over a small keyboard to him as he slid open the panel. He connected a cord to the keyboard then watched the screen boot up. His fingers flew on the screen typing in a virus. He disconnected the keyboard then handed it off to Penelope. The doors to the building smoothly opened.
"I just used a very effective door virus," Smith said. "We have one hour."
"One hour!" Will said.
"You said we would have two," Penelope said.
"This is a very different system and it is already working on the virus," Smith said. "One of us won't come back," he gestured in ominously while tightening his grip on the laser pistol. "Go."
The children went in as Smith looked around one last time to make sure that was one was watching then went in after them.