A few days after, Will poured himself some cereal, filled it with milk, then walked about the ship searching for Robot eating his breakfast. With trial and error, Will returned to the bridge of the ship and the door was wide open to the upper deck. He looked on spotting a large and wide van ahead of him that was shining under the heated sun. Robot twirled toward the boy.
"Good morning, Will."
"Morning, Robot." Will replied as he descended down the platform joining Robot's side. "What is that?"
"It is the Chariot."
Will sipped from the spoon then raised his head up and gulped down the contents of his breakfast as his eyes flashed open.
"No way!"
"It is."
"Ours looks like a rover."
"Elaborate."
"Uh, a white space van with SUV tires." Will said. "But it counts as a Chariot."
If machines could physically frown, Will sensed that he were getting the frown as Robot lowered his helm down.
"The interior is different as it is the counterparts of the Robinsons in your world." Robot admitted to the difference. "Simplistic but very advanced."
"But all the same." Will said.
"It is not." Robot said. "My last memory banks indicated 1990's films had view screens."
"And?"
"The Chariot does not have any screens." Robot said.
"So did our Chariot."
"Will Robinson, do not compare your space rover to this vehicle. This –" Robot whirred toward the Chariot. "has personality." Robot whirred toward Will. "Yours do not."
"It did, too!"
"Then did you have curtains?"
"Wait, it has curtains?" Will looked up toward the chariot. "That's some nice curtains."
"Affirmative." Robot said.
"That's nice having something to block view of what is outside." Will noted then looked toward the front half. "Well, straight out of luck with the front window."
"The driver must see what they are going through." Robot noted.
Then Will changed the subject of the conversation.
"Come on, teach me how to drive this Chariot, Robot." Will requested. "I am of age!"
"Will Robinson, you are at least twelve years of age!" Robot protested.
"My dad taught me how to drive!" Will insisted. "He had to."
Robot sighed, exasperated, over the boy's reply.
"Because he can die," Robot said. "I will always be there."
"Pretty please, Robot?" he clasped his hands together then puckered his lips, pleadingly. "One day, you won't be able to drive and I will have to drive you back."
Robot was quiet but his insides were loud in such a way that it startled Will. It was strange to hear what sounded to be a typewriter coming from the machine that seemed so beyond that level of technology. After a few moments the sounds coming from Robot ceased.
"My processors have indicated that being without the necessary skill to drive will not be beneficial to your time here." Robot relented.
"Why do you have the Chariot out?" Will asked as he shifted toward the Chariot taking a bite out of his cereal and proceeded to chew. "Anyway."
"To give her a rinse." Robot generated several buckets of soapy water and towels. Robot twisted a towel then dumped it into the bucket of soapy water then proceeded to begin rubbing the soap on the lower frame of the Chariot. "She has been in storage for a week."
"How about I help?" Will offered.
Robot twirled toward Will as he continued the washing.
"I would be honored only after you finish breakfast and shower." Robot replied.
"But you'll be done by then!" Will insisted.
"This can easily go away just as it had been summoned," Robot clacked his claws and the material was gone. "Ta da."
Will laughed then returned over toward the platform that lead down from the upper deck of the Jupiter 2.
"Is this the door of the Jupiter 2?"
"Negative."
"Then what's the platform on the ground?"
"That's a platform."
"Yes, what's it called?"
"A platform."
"What kind of platform?"
"A platform."
"Just a platform?"
"I will call it a catwalk if you keep asking."
"What's so bad about a catwalk?"
"It is not a catwalk. It is water resistant and it does not sink into the ground during a storm. Go inside and eat at the bridge."
Will rushed in as Robot remained observing the vehicle under the cloudy sky. Robot waited quite a while until the boy returned to his side bouncing up and down earning the machine's laughter as he repeated, "I am ready! I am ready! I am ready!" Robot returned into the ship then came back out with a light gray key being twirled around the hook then came to a stop beside the boy's side.
"Put this in." Robot requested.
"Where?" Will took the key then looked toward the Chariot.
"It is on the driver side."
"Alright!"
Will made a bolt for the vehicle then climbed up the stairs and crashed against the glass then fell back landing to the ground.
"I knew that!"
Will opened the door as he rubbed his nose then climbed inside. He navigated his way through to the driver side of the vehicle then sat down into the chair. He scanned in awe at the console below him that had clock like gauges embedded with words such as: FUEL, OIL, RPM (Revolutions per minute. The gauge for that was quite large), TEMPERATURE, – Will tapped on the forth one –, AEP (American Electric Power), and Total Driven Range. His eyes spotted a rounded hole beneath the gauges alongside the steering wheel much to his shock.
"Ah ha." Will put the key in then turned it and he waited for the engines to rev to life. "That's odd. It is making no noise."
"The Chariot is fueled by solar energy." Robot replied. "It has one coupling currently being inside housed inside."
"Why is there one coupling?" Will asked.
"We used to have two." Robot began to explain. "Will damaged the second coupling making his escape back to the Jupiter 2. We had to rush to fold the Chariot then rush it inside." Robot was quiet for a long moment. "It was our last adventure as a team."
"With your Will," Will noted then grimaced. "We gotta replace that coupling sometime soon."
"We can live without that."
"What else can you live without, a departure thruster?"
"We have three Thruster Controls."
"Robot, who did Doctor Smith hand that thruster to?"
"Nerim."
"Is there a chance that Nerim will come here?"
"Fifty-fifty."
"Then we're going to steal his thruster when we meet him."
"Will–"
"He has to face the consequences of his actions."
Robot was quiet for a long moment.
"You are unlike the other Will that I knew."
"How so?"
"You're. . . quite darker and willing to do things that inconvience people."
"I have been inconvienced far too many times by a woman who pretended to be Doctor Smith and tried to kill my parents."
"And bitter."
"Would you be the same if she reprogrammed you?"
"I would be. You deserve to feel that way."
"Great! Now I am going to drive! How do I drive this thing?"
"Think of it as a steering wheel." Robot instructed.
Will slid forward the orange beams then the Chariot rolled on and whooped. He moved the bars to the side then the Chariot turned around. He pulled it back then the Chariot went backwards wheeling away from the craft. Will carefully navigated the Chariot away from the Jupiter 2 facing the distance ahead as the tank treads rolled.
"What's the range for this tank?" Will hollered.
"It has no range, Will." Robot replied, calmly. "It can go 121 kilometers per hour on land and 40 knots on water."
"Woohoo!" Will cheered as the Chariot rolled on quickly through the terrain.
The Chariot rolled through the landscape with Robot lagging behind observing the boy racing on. His laughter echoed in the air with the doors flying open letting wind enter the space. Will laughed, throwing his head back, feeling the thrill of adventure as he raced across the landscape. The Chariot raced in a way that she hadn't done for quite awhile. Robot laughed observing the creature fleeing on from the Jupiter 2.
Will looked upon the revolutions per minute gauge that indicated he were going the speed limit that it could go. He grinned as the mile pointer went over the limit as the Chariot raced forward faster with a loud rumble behind it. He saw a herd of horses that were alien in nature, taller, and stranger racing alongside him that had long snouts, giraffe spots, and giraffe horns. Will laughed as he observed the horses surrounded the Chariot then outran it except for one lone horse.
It was Will and the horse racing one another. Will steered the chariot forward as the horse and the chariot were neck to neck. The quite alien horse leaped over a small pond crashing into a lake then swam over to the other side of the area then came running back around the lake with a loud neigh as it jotted on ahead flinging the long hair from side to side then watched it hurtle toward a wall of rock. The Chariot moved against the wall of rock that acted as a race track as he slid up and down, laughing, having a grip over the fashion of driving then rolled up forward to the edge of the natural made cliff edge then flew off.
In a matter of seconds, Will was cheering then he were screaming as he gripping on to the wheel. In the next moment the Chariot crashed to the ground. Will's heart loudly beat against his chest as he breathed in and out with widened eyes. He looked around searching for potential eyewitnesses then sighed spotting there were none then lowered his head. Will slumped in the chair out of shame of his action.
"Will Robinson."
Will looked aside.
"Yeah?" Will asked, casually.
"How did you do that?" Robot asked.
"Do what, Robot?" Will asked.
"Accidentally flip the Chariot over while attempting to learn to drive." Robot's helm whirred. "This does not compute. My memory tapes have no answer about how we got here. "
"Yeah, it was the wind!" Will exclaimed, repeatedly. "The wind! The wind flung us over!"
Robot sighed as he bobbed his helm down.
"I dislike when the wind is this way on any planet that we land on." Robot whirred away to the other side of the Chariot. "I will flip the Chariot over, remain buckled."
Will kept his cool thinking thoughts that were other that he had flipped the Chariot over while racing a horse. The Chariot was flipped back over on to the treads with a thud then Will breathed in and out until he had some control over himself as Robot whirred around the vehicle coming to a pause alongside Will's side. Will unbuckled himself so he slumped into the chair as he sighed.
"That wasn't bad for your first drive." Robot said.
Will laughed.
