Who Mourns for Methuselah?
Chapter 11
Cobalt was in the office early the next morning trying to catch up on his paper work. Before he had gotten very far he was interrupted by a phone call. Cobalt's spirits took a dive in the downward direction when he recognized the caller on the video screen. It was Dr. Fong, the director of the hospital where Titan was being treated. Cobalt reluctantly answered the phone.
"Hello Dr. Fong, what can I do for you?" Cobalt asked, expecting the worst.
"Good morning Cobalt. I just wanted to let you know that I've ordered your brother released from the hospital this morning. He'll be your problem now, I hope you've arranged for housing for him."
"Wait,a minute, I was told by Dr. Smyth that he wanted Titan under observation for a few more days," Cobalt protested.
"If I allowed that, I might not have any hospital left by the time he was out of here!" The director yelled. "I've had to replace the windows and all of the wiring in one patient suite, and reupholster the furniture, and re-plaster the walls in the patient lounge. Another patent suite had the windows blown out, the paint is peeling off all of the walls, and it smells like a Venusian whore house in there! I've been told by the maintenance staff that they might never get the smell out of that room! In addition, now I've got to send in a HazMat team to disinfect one of the operating rooms. The next time your younger brother needs any medical work, he's going to have to be taken to the machine shop for repairs because he's NOT going to be admitted to MY hospital. Good day!"
The line went dead at the other end.
Cobalt was dumbfounded. Just then Uran and Astro walked in, pushing a wheelchair with Titan in it.
"Sorry bro, it looks like you're stuck with me, until you can find me my own apartment." Titan sighed.
Cobalt looked at Uran. "Want to tell me about the operating room?"
"That was all Fong's fault!" Uran insisted. "It was his idea. He instructed Dr. Smyth to take Chi-tan into the O.R. for an enema. The doctor told him that it was a very bad idea, but the director insisted. He said, and I quote, 'you get that GD robot cleaned out and release him from my hospital, or you're fired!', unquote."
Cobalt started to laugh. "Oh my god, I wish I was there! I can only imagine! Well THAT was poetic justice for sure!"
"I guess Titan can sleep on the daybed in our common area." Astro suggested.
"I'm going to start looking for an available apartment for him right away." Cobalt promised.
"Here's an extra key to the apartment," Astro said, removing it from his keyring and handing it to Uran. "Why don't you take him over to our place and get him set up in the lounge area for now?"
"Do you actually trust him there?" Uran asked.
"Hey, his system has been completely cleaned out and we don't have any beans in the kitchen." Astro said.
"OK" Uran said, "I'll take him over there."
"See you guy's later" Titan said as Uran wheeled him out of the office.
"I'm going over to my office and catch up on paperwork." Atom said.
"Good idea!" Cobalt nodded as his brother walked out.
That evening the day bed in the common area between Atom's and Cobalt's bedrooms was set up as a temporary sleeping area for Titan. He was up and about now, as his strength began to come back thanks to the nanite transfusion. Atom offered his brother the use of his bathroom area, and Titan took a long soak in the whirlpool tub, in a hot oil bath, before retiring for the night.
Titan fell asleep on the daybed before either Atom or Cobalt were ready to get to sleep themselves, but with the access to the large screen TV blocked by their younger brother's occupying their entertainment area; Cobalt sat in bed catching up on a book while Atom looked through some old photos. Eventually all three of them were sleeping in their separate areas of the suite.
About two o'clock in the morning Cobalt was awakened to a loud vibration coming from the door to his bedroom. It sounded like heavy machinery drilling into the door. He tried putting the pillow over his head but the sound was too loud to blot out that way. Eventually, Cobalt decided to investigate. He got out of bed and opened his bedroom door and walked into the common area. On the other side of the large room, he saw Atom's door open up, and his brother also walked out of his bedroom. It appeared that both of them were awakened by the same sound at the same time. The source of the noise was immediately obvious.
Lying asleep on the daybed, Titan was sleeping soundly. VERY soundly, as in he was making a lot of sound! Their younger brother was snoring at such a pitch and volume that the doors and walls were resonating with it, and were set into vibration. He sounded like a saw mill with a dull blade trying to cut though petrified wood. Suddenly another sound joined in the chorus, that of heavy banging coming from the ceiling. It seemed that the upstairs tenants were also being kept awake by the sound of Titan's engine running, and they were voicing their protests by slamming something heavy on the floor.
"I guess first thing in the morning you are going to find him a place to stay." Atom said.
"Hell no!" Cobalt replied. "I'm going over to my office right now and take care of that this instant, and I don't give a damn who I have to wake up at this hour to do it!"
Cobalt got dressed and stormed out of the apartment. Atom followed him moments later. Neither of them were going to get any sleep with Titan's snoring so they figured they might as well start their office work a few hours early.
Titan pushed the door to Cobalt's office open and slowly entered.
"What time did you two leave for work?" He asked. "I woke up and you were both gone."
"Oh about three in the morning." Cobalt said. "Atom and I found we couldn't sleep, so we decided to get an early start."
"Don't tell me my snoring woke you?" Titan asked.
"Only a little." Cobalt said sarcastically. "But it seems that this cloud has a silver lining."
"OH?" Titan asked.
"Yeah, my upstairs neighbors called the apartment manager around 4 AM this morning and demanded that they get assigned different housing because of your snoring. So it appears that the apartment upstairs is now vacant, and you have been assigned there. I'm going to have a staircase installed between our suite and your apartment so we can all share our common area."
Titan looked a bit embarrassed but Cobalt added, "Don't worry, we never got along with them anyway."
"By the way," Cobalt added "I see you can walk OK now. Feeling better?"
"Oh yeah, much. I think it is time that I started working out a little, and getting my muscles back in shape." Titan said.
Atom took that moment to walk in the room.
"Morning little brother! So you feel like a little time in the gym? Want to join me?"
"Watch yourself there Atom!" Cobalt said. "You heard what the doctor told you."
Atom waved Cobalt off. "I'm fine, and the gym is a safe place. We'll have a good time, don't worry."
Atom put an arm on Titan's shoulder and the two of them left the office to head over to the base gymnasium.
The Mars base had a pretty good fitness center. It was housed in a large building that had once been used as an airship hangar. The ceiling was several hundred feet high and the building was equally large in the other two dimensions. A large elevated track was suspended from the ceiling which ran around the circumference of the building to provide a place for running. There were ropes hanging from the ceiling for climbing, several basketball courts, a hockey court, and an indoor field that could be used for baseball or football. Along the circumference, underneath the track there were all sorts of gym equipment such as parallel bars, horses, ping pong tables, and lots of free weights.
Atom decided to get his brother started on the barbells. He loaded up one with 400 lbs, 200 on each end and started to bench press them. For Atom that was nothing of course, he could bench press a locomotive when he was younger, and could still lift a multi ton piece of heavy equipment.
Titan walked over to the barbell and carefully tested it with both hands. He then lifted it with one hand high over his head and proceeded to do a one arm press for 100 reps, and then tossing the weight in the air and catching in his other hand, repeated the exercise with the other arm.
"Hey, that was easy." he laughed.
Atom face palmed. He had forgotten just how strong his younger brother was. The fact was that Titan had been built with the same abilities that Atom had, minus a few bells and whistles such as Atom's fanny guns and arm cannons.
"How about a run on the track?" Atom asked.
"Sure!" Titan agreed. Atom started to walk toward the stairs leading up to the elevated track, but Titan leaped up and flew though the air, landing 75 feet up on the elevated surface. Atom followed his brother's lead and used his own leg jets to get on the elevated track.
"You forgot I could fly, didn't you?" Titan laughed.
"Yeah, I guess I did!" Atom said.
The two brothers took their mark on the track and started to run. At first it was a friendly competition, but soon they were both giving it all that they had, each trying to beat the other to the finish line, one lap around the miles long track. From the ground, the humans noticed something was up, the two speeding robots were making a sound like a pair of runaway steam locomotives pounding the rails. Atom felt the burn in his leg muscles as he tried to keep ahead of his younger brother, who didn't seem to be the slightest bit taxed by the workout. Atom had been about a quarter of a lap ahead but soon had to slow down as his energy wained. Titan passed him in a blur as he headed for the finish line. Having bested his brother, Titan was still feeling his oats and decided to show off. He ran even faster setting the suspended track into a vibration that caused the entire building to rock back and forth on its foundation. There was a clap of thunder as the speeding sprinter broke the sound barrier.
"Titan, slow down! You'll cause the building to collapse!" Atom yelled.
Titan felt the vibration under his feet and realized he was now running on unstable ground. Too late, some of the support girders of the building ripped free from the foundation and the walls started to bend, the track to detach from the ceiling. Titan fired his arm jets and lifted off from the falling structure, dived toward the ground and then flew upward to grab the structure and keep if from falling.
Atom saw that his brother was now holding the building in place and identified where the steel had failed. He morphed his left arm into a cannon and fired a laser beam at the break to weld it back together. Atom took to the sky and repeatedly welded other broken members of the structure while Titan held them in place. Within minutes of having nearly destroyed the building, the two of them had repaired the damage.
Uran had tagged the final worm, they now had enough of them marked and would be able to round them up when the transport ships were ready to make the journey to Earth. It now appeared that the ships would be ready in time for the next Earth-Mars opposition cycle to allow for the least possible travel time between the two worlds.
"I'd like to volunteer to be part of the crew taking the worms to Earth." Titan said.
Cobalt sighed "Atom and I will miss you, but I think Uran will be happy to have your company."
"I was really closer to her than you or Atom, but that's not the only reason I want to go." Titan said. "I also miss Earth. Mars is alien to me, I'm only here by chance right now. I know that things have changed on Earth since I was last there, and everyone I ever knew there is now gone, but it's still home to me. I also have this weird idea that I need to take Astro's place."
Atom overheard the conversation from the door of the office.
"Earth can use a hero now, and I'm not going to step into those shoes again. Take care of our sister, Titan." Atom said.
"Sure thing." Titan replied.