Sheentastic Voyage

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 8:

Sheen got back to his feet. "We?"

Libby nodded. "We." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before going on in a hesitant voice. "I don't really understand it all, but I guess I can at least see that this is important to you…and I couldn't call myself a friend if I turned back now. What I guess I'm saying is…maybe Ultra Lord doesn't mean that much to me…but you…well, you…"

Sheen's tone said far more than the simple words ever could. "Thanks, Libs." He looked at his watch and said, "Like you said, we'd better get – holy shazbot!" He held the watch to his ear and then looked at Libby. "How long have we been talking here?"

"About ten minutes. Why?"

He should her his watch. "Because my watch says that about ten minutes have gone by. In computer time in here, that should be days!"

"What?" She grabbed his wrist and confirmed that what Sheen had said was correct. She released his arm and shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless," she continued, "computer time doesn't work in here." She looked around them speculatively. "This part of the system is gone. I guess that the time synch thing only works in parts of the system that are still functioning."

Sheen looked worried. "Then we'd better book. Vox said we only had about an hour before the system failed. We might not have as much time as we thought we had. If we're in here when. – I mean if – that happens, I don't know what will happen to us."

It was something that Libby hadn't thought about and wished she hadn't been told about. "Neither do I. And I don't want to find out. Let's go." As they jogged towards the far doorway Libby asked, "Why did you hold your watch up to your ear?"

"To see if it was running."

"But it's electronic. It doesn't make any noise."

"What? Are you sure?" He held the watch up to his ear and sounded surprised. "Well, what do you know? It doesn't."

Libby shook her head but couldn't keep the amusement out of her voice. "The friends I have," she commented.

He gave her a curious look. "Friends?" he wheedled, fishing for more.

"Friends," was Libby's firm answer, but she began fidgeting under his gaze. "Ok, at least friends," she conceded. Cindy would be having a field day right now, she thought as she and Sheen exited the ruined chamber. But I have her hole card. She isn't fooling anyone about her and Jimmy.

At that moment in the Other World Cindy and Jimmy were at the Retroville Mall, egging each other on as their parents conversed over cups of coffee at Storebought's. "So I guess it's true, Nerd-tron," Cindy said, pointing to some large bags containing shirts and pants. "Your mother really does pick out your clothes for you." She snickered. "I hope that she at least got you some jammies without the attached booties."

"Hey, is it my fault that I'm too busy advancing the boundaries of science to go shopping for my own clothes?" he defended. "At least she's able to buy me clothes that fit. When was the last time you had pants with legs that actually covered your ankles?"

"These happen to be the style, you fashion-challenged –"

An insistent beeping from Jimmy's wristcomp interrupted Cindy's counter-attack and Jimmy activated the device, pushing several buttons to navigate to the source of the alert. "Now, what in world could this be about?" he mumbled. "I took care of everything before I left the lab."

"Another of your brainstorms going down in flames back home, Neutron?" Cindy taunted. Her expression changed from one of mocking to concern when he didn't answer. The concern changed to outright worry when it seemed to her that his face appeared absolutely white. "What is it?" she asked.

In reply Jimmy jumped up. "I've got to go," he said. "Mom, Dad, there's something back at the lab I forgot about. I'll see you back home."

His father looked mildly confused. "But we haven't even been to the Ducks Non-Limited store," he pointed out. "They're having their Annual Egg-stravaganza today. You don't want to miss that, do you?"

"You can tell me all about it when you get home," Jimmy answered. "Come on Goddard." Goddard, lying under the table, got to his feet and obediently trotted out.

"But –" Hugh began.

"Oh, let him go, Hugh," Judy Neutron said. "We already have his clothes. He doesn't have to stay any more."

"Thanks, Mom." He dashed towards the mall entrance. "'Bye. Love you," he called back.

Jimmy's actions worried Cindy. He wasn't one to act this way unless something was seriously wrong and if that were the case she wanted to know what. Without saying anything she took off after Jimmy, much to her parents' annoyance and the Neutron's amusement.

"Really," Mrs. Vortex sniffed. "Chasing after boys at her age. The very idea." She gave Judy an icy stare. "It's so difficult for raise her properly with such bad influences in her life."

"Well," Judy purred with a venomous smile, "you have to admit that he's quite a boy to chase after. After all, he is a genius."

The two men looked at each other and shrugged. "I don't see what the problem is," Hugh said. "When I was Jimmy's age girls were chasing after me all the time. Of course," he admitted, "they were usually waving their fists and shouting, but I certainly enjoyed the attention."

"Same here," agreed Cindy's father. "I rather liked it, too. In fact, Honeycakes here would call me two or three times a day, and –"

"I did no such thing!" Mrs. Vortex spluttered. "I called once when I had to stay hom sick from school to find out what the homework assignment was, and I asked you over to help me with it."

"What homework assignment was that?" Hugh asked innocently.

"Biology," Mr. Vortex replied as he took another sip of coffee.

"How fascinating," Jimmy's mother said knowingly. She raised a eyebrow and smiled in satisfaction at Mrs. Vortex's irritated expression. "Biology."

Cindy was by far a better athlete than Jimmy and easily caught up to him before he reached the exit. "Okay, Neutron, what's the story?" she demanded.

Jimmy didn't slow his pace and gave her an annoyed stare. "What are you, some girl reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper?"

"Out with it!" Cindy insisted, refusing to be put off by Jimmy's evasive response. "Something big is going on and I want to know what it is."

"There's a problem at the lab," Jimmy told her as they emerged from the mall. "I have to get back right away. Goddard! Flycycle Turbo Mode!"

"How bad is it?" Cindy wanted to know as Jimmy climbed aboard Goddard.

"Bad." The short answer was all Cindy needed to know that the problem was extremely serious. She had learned that Jimmy could and would go on at great length about nothing in particular, but that the less he said the more serious the situation was. Without hesitating she leaped onto the flycycle, sitting sidesaddle across Jimmy's lap and putting her arms around him for stability. "What are you doing?" Jimmy asked, astonished.

"I'm coming with you," was Cindy's answer.

"But –"

"We're wasting time, Neutron."

Any answer would have failed to dissuade Cindy and Jimmy had none. With a grunt of exasperated resignation he piloted Goddard up into the air and in the direction of his home. "You're making a mistake," was all he said.

"Why?"

"Because there's nothing you can do to help. And the less you know about it the better."

This only added fuel to the flame. "What are you talking about?"

"That alert was from Vox," Jimmy replied with a grim look. "The system is shutting down."

"Okay. So what? You shut it down all the time, don't you?"

"For periodic maintenance and upgrades I shut off some of the subsystems. Once in while I power it down entirely. But those are controlled shutdowns. This is an uncontrolled one. Something is wrong. It's almost like Vox is dying."

This still told Cindy nothing. "Okay, so you just fix it and start it up again, right?"

Jimmy shook his head. "If the system doesn't power down in the correct sequence, or the control processes shut down before some of the systems they control are shut down, things could get very bad."

"Which systems? How bad?" Cindy asked, although something told her that Jimmy had been correct about the less she knew about the matter the better.

"Well, my reactor, for one. It could fail."

Cindy was speechless for several seconds. When she finally regained her voice she said, "Are you saying that you could have a meltdown?"

"I'd be willing to settle for a meltdown. The three feet of lead compound that shields my lab would contain all the radiation until I could scrub it. I'm thinking of something much worse."

"An…an explosion?" She could hardly get the words out.

Jimmy nodded. "A very big one. I've got to find out what's going on and fix it before it's too late."

"How long do we have to fix it?"

Jimmy gave his watch a quick look as the flycycle began its descent into Jimmy's back yard near his clubhouse. "Core systems are projected to fail in about fifty minutes. After that…where, there won't be any 'after that'."

Cindy and Jimmy alit from the flycycle and walked to the clubhouse that led to Jimmy's lab. "Jimmy?" Cindy asked tentatively.

Jimmy activated the clubhouse door with the DNA scanner. "Yes?"

"Have you ever considered studying music or art or something less technical instead of science? Maybe things would be less hectic around here at times."

End of Chapter 8

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