It's an Alternate Life

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 12:

Circling somewhere above the Retroville power station in the blizzard, Jimmy was beginning to panic. Even with his heavy coat the relentless cold was beginning to chill him and he knew that Cindy was in far worse straits than he was. Despite several sweeps of the area using Goddard's thermal imaging system, however, he had been unable to find any signs of Cindy. At last he was forced to admit that the storm was too heavy for the infrared sensors to work reliably.

"So what now?" he asked himself. "Give up?" He shook his head. "No way. Cindy didn't give up on me, and I'm not leaving until I find her. Come on, Neutron, you're supposed to be a genius! Think! Think! THINK!"

Enough power to recharge the energy cells…

The matrix reconfiguration engine needs a little more…

1.21 gigawatts…

"Brain blast!" he cried. "If I can't zero in on Cindy, maybe I can find the Reality Extrapolator! I just hope she still has it with her." He swallowed hard. "Goddard! Scan for all 5 terajoule or greater energy sources in Retroville!"

Instantly the display screen in front of Jimmy showed three bright dots. Jimmy studied them carefully. That one over there was the reactor at Jimmy's lab, and that one just below them had to be the power plant. That meant that the last one should be the extrapolator. As Jimmy maneuvered the Flycycle towards the location of the energy source, he was relieved to see a faint thermal image appear on the screen at the same location. "Okay, Goddard, that's it! Let's get down there!"

As Goddard descended on his landing jets with a hiss of vaporizing snow, Jimmy leaped with the parka from his seat and ran to the small mound of snow identified by the imaging system as the location of the energy and heat sources. After a few frenzied seconds of brushing away the snow he uncovered Cindy, curled up and apparently asleep. Jimmy began hauling her to her feet. "Come on, Cindy! Wake up!" To his relief Cindy began mumbling in protest as he pulled the parka on her and began walking her to get her circulation going. After a few moments of this Cindy opened her eyes.

"Neutron? What are you doing in my room?" She began to shiver. "Why is it so cold in here?"

Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll explain it all later. For now, let's just get you someplace warm."

The Flycycle was designed to be a one-man vehicle, so Jimmy put Cindy side-saddle in front of him, steadying her on both sides with his arms. Instinctively Cindy curled up and nestled into him, trying to conserve as much body heat as possible. To his own surprise, Jimmy found he didn't mind it as much as he thought he would have. In fact, he didn't mind it at all. The ride back seemed much shorter to him than the ride out had been. No doubt it was due to the strong winds being behind them this trip, Jimmy reasoned, or possibly his relief at having found Cindy. Or maybe, he reluctantly admitted, he didn't really want the ride to end. As they came in for a landing, Cindy stirred.

"Jimmy?" she murmured.

"Yes, Cindy?"

She opened her eyes and looked into his. "You owe me big."

Jimmy decided that bringing Cindy to his house before she went home would present the fewest problems with the parents. She was completely thawed out by her third mug of hot chocolate and second piece of hot cranapple pie and seemed no worse for wear from her experiences of the past 2 days. Judy Neutron was delighted that Jimmy had brought her over.

"It's always nice when Jimmy's friends stop in," she said. "Well, except Sheen," she added. "Jimmy, since Cindy is here, why don't you go up to your room and get her that present you've been working on?" Cindy looked at Jimmy in surprise.

"Mom!" Jimmy protested, aghast both that his mother knew about that and that she'd actually mention it in front of Cindy.

"Now Jimmy," said his mother soothingly, "I know that you've been working on that thing since Thanksgiving." She chuckled. "You can't keep secrets from me in this house, young man. Now, scoot. Cindy said that her parents are expecting her home for dinner soon."

Jimmy headed off to his room, grumbling. "I'll bet Einstein's parents never embarrassed him this way," he muttered. He returned shortly with a small wrapped package and presented it to Cindy. "Merry Christmas, Vortex," he said awkwardly.

Cindy unwrapped the gift, nonplused by and yet enjoying the attention. "Well, it's a picture frame," she said, once she had the package open. "Thanks, Neutron."

"Not just a picture frame," Jimmy responded. "It's the Neutron Panzoomatic picture frame, allowing you to interactively zoom in, zoom out, rotate, or pan to any part of the picture with the touch of a button."

"Yes, it was my idea," added Jimmy's dad. "Or at least, Jimmy got the idea from me. I just never could get the hang of those camera…looking-through…thingies and get any of those photos right. More pie, anyone?"

Later that night in her room Cindy spent a few minutes working with the Panzoomatic before going to bed. Once done she place the frame on the night table by her bed and surveyed the result with satisfaction. Inside the frame, carefully enlarged and centered, were the happy faces of her and Jimmy at the Retroland amusement park.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," she murmured deamily to herself as she drifted off to sleep. "For a nerd, he sure comes in handy."

End of Part 12.