Goddard, Come Home
by Gary D. Snyder
Part 7:
Back in the park Goddard remained unaware of the imminent failure of his primary power system. He knew only that his internal sensors detected danger and that the danger was growing. As his power system continued to degrade, built-in safeties began to selectively shut down portions of his elaborate infrastructure. In theory these were meant to safeguard the most vital portions of his circuitry from possible damage but in practice they were electronically lobotomizing him. One by one his higher cognitive processes went off-line and the bright plasma streams that were usually visible in his clear cranial dome faded. In their place faint and intermittent flickers of electric discharges appeared, representing the most basic of instincts. Robbed of his higher thought processes and faced with danger Goddard reacted as any primitive creature would.
He became a very, very dangerous animal.
In the lab Cindy had found the alarm cutoff button and succeeded in shutting off the annoying klaxxon and flashing red light. On the main viewscreen, however, a digital timer appeared, showing the minutes and seconds remaining until the failure of Goddard's primary power system. The countdown now read 28:43. Libby was puzzled by the situation.
"Why would Jimmy be so worried about Goddard losing power?" she wondered, speaking to no one in particular.
"Who knows?" Cindy replied. "Leave it to Neutron to make a federal case about his robot's batteries going dead. Right now we have more important things to worry about. What are we going to do about Jimmy?"
"I thought you already figured that out," said Carl.
"Yeah," added Sheen. "You said that the DNA he made last night was making him allergic to himself. All you have to do is get rid of the bad DNA, right?"
Cindy stared. "Oh, is that all?"
"Well…yeah…I think."
Cindy stalked up to Sheen and poked a finger in his chest. "Look, just because I think I know what's making him sick doesn't mean that I know how to fix it. This is way beyond me."
"But what else can we do?" asked Sheen, spreading his hands.
"Get him to a doctor, of course, and the sooner the better. I don't know how much longer he may have."
Carl looked worried and fidgeted. "Will the doctors be able to cure him?"
Cindy gave a snort of exasperation at this unexpected difficulty. "Yes. No. I don't know. Eventually, I guess," she stammered avoiding Carl's pleading look. "All I know is that there's nothing we can do."
"Are you sure?" Carl continued to fidget, annoying Cindy no end. "Because, I mean, maybe we can think of something."
"Okay, fine," Cindy shot back. "Have it your way. Let's hear any ideas, no matter how absurd or impractical they may sound."
Sheen thought a second and then raised his hand. "Hey! I know! Maybe we can all move to Alaska and start a team of junior super-heroes. We could call ourselves the Teeny Titans. Or maybe the Pre-Teen Titans. Or -"
Cindy glared at Sheen. "Let me rephrase that," she snapped through clenched teeth. "Let's hear any ideas relevant to helping Jimmy, no matter how absurd or impractical they may sound." She looked around at the others, waiting for suggestions. There were none. "No? Then it's settled. There's nothing we can do."
Carl sighed. "You're right. The I guess only one smart enough to help Jimmy is Jimmy."
Libby looked up suddenly at that. "What did you say?"
"Huh?" was all Carl could reply.
"You said the only person smart enough to help Jimmy is Jimmy. But we have Jimmy right here."
"We also have some leftover pizza here, too," pointed out Cindy. "And I think that we have a better chance of getting it to talk than Jimmy right now."
"But we don't have to talk," Libby responded excitedly. "You can use Jimmy's virtual brain pod to find out from him how to cure him."
Cindy looked incredulous. "You want me to use the brain pod?"
"Yeah! Like when we had to sort your and Jimmy's memories and get you back into your bodies," agreed Sheen.
"Uh-uh, no way, forget it," said Cindy vehemently. "There is no way I'm getting my mind dumped into that thing again. If you want to use it, you can have your brain sucked into it."
"Cindy, you know we can't do that," Libby replied. "You're the only one who's smart enough to understand what Jimmy will need us to do. And like you said, we don't know how much longer Jimmy has."
"Then I suggest," Cindy said icily, "that we stop delaying and get Jimmy to a doctor right now. I am not going to have my mind mixed with Neutron's again and that's final. It's a miracle I didn't end up in an insane asylum last time."
"But maybe you don't have to completely mix your minds together like last time. Maybe you can modify it somehow to just create a mind link with Jimmy."
"Forget it. There's no way I can modify that monstrosity." With that Cindy turned and walked off, cutting off Libby's attempts to argue the point further. Libby, Carl, and Sheen looked at each other, unsure what to do.
Merge my mind with Neutron's again? Cindy through viciously, sitting down in one corner of the lab. As if reality television wasn't enough to rot my brain. She became aware of someone standing beside her and looked up. To her surprise it was Sheen, playing with one of his seemingly unlimited Ultra Lord figures. When is he going to grow up? she wondered bitterly. "You can save your breath," was all she said, looking down again.
"I'm not here to try to talk you into anything," replied Sheen sitting down. "I just wanted to say that I understand how your feel."
"Like you know what it is to share your entire mind with someone."
"No, actually I don't," was Sheen's agreeable reply. "But I know what it's like when people want you to do something you don't want to do." He made a loop-the-loop with Ultra Lord. "I mean, people keep telling me to grow up and act my age all the time."
"It's not the same thing."
"I know. But the thing is I have my reasons just like you do."
Cindy was intrigued despite herself. "What reasons?"
"Well…" Sheen looked around to make sure that Libby and Carl were still on the other side of the lab watching Jimmy. "A long time ago I thought to myself, 'What's so great about growing up so soon?' I mean, yeah, sure, you can drive cars and vote and other stuff, but those are things you'll be able to do for the rest of your life. And there are so many things you won't ever be able to do again." Cindy watched thoughtfully as he swooped Ultra Lord in front of them. "It's only when you're a kid that you can really believe that there's a hero who will always be there to do the right thing and save the day, no matter what the odds."
Cindy nodded. "You mean like Ultra Lord."
Sheen shook his head. "No. I mean like Jimmy."
Cindy started at this. "What?"
"Every time something has gone wrong, no matter what, Jimmy has always gotten us through. Even when the odds are way against him and there's no hope he'll succeed he always has. And he's always done it when we've needed him most. And I think that sometime Jimmy thinks the same way about you. Whenever he's really needed someone to be by his side he's always been able to count on you." Sheen looked down at the Ultra Lord figure in his hand. "I know I'll probably never meet the real Ultra Lord, but with Jimmy around it was a lot easier to believe that he was really out there and that it was just a question of when he would show up. I've believed that every day of my life since I first saw Ultra Lord." He looked over at Jimmy's still form and looked down again. Until today." He set the plastic toy down gently on the floor and stood up. "Maybe it really is time for me to grow up."
As Sheen walked slowly away Cindy reached over and picked up the action figure, slowly turning it over in her hands. Her eyes moved slowly from the plastic figure to her friends huddled in a group and finally to Jimmy. He lay unmoving on the couch and in the lab's artificial light looked paler than ever. Don't grow up just yet, Sheen, she thought to herself as she came to her sudden decision. Maybe we all need someone who can still believe in heroes.
The timer on the viewscreen now read 21:14.
End of Part 7.
Author's Note:
Some people may believe that the title of this chapter, "And Who, In the Guise of Mortal Men" refers to Jimmy or Cindy. It actually refers to Sheen.