Chapter Four "One man's trash..."
Calvin and Hobbes stood in front of another door with 'Main Entrance' printed on it.
"Aha - the front door. Much better way to get in."
"Careful, Calvin..." Hobbes' ears detected strange noises from inside.
The door slid open noiselessly as Calvin approached. He scampered through and stopped, but saw no one.. "All clear!"
Hobbes stepped inside. The interior of the building was spacious. Whirring machinery somewhere high up echoed throughout the room, and some large machines lined the wall to the left.
Something painted on the floor attracted Calvin's attention. "Hey, look at those stripes. They look like the colors on a bee."
"Say what?" Hobbes looked. The stripes were the black-and-yellow warning pattern. "Hmm. Seems like a few things are the same in the future!"
"We had those in our time?"
"Yes...they're used to mark off a dangerous area. This looks like a path for something that goes between that tiny elevator in the floor - " Hobbes pointed to a green panel "- and that other room."
"Wow. Good thinking, pal."
"Why thank you."
With that the two started searching for something interesting. But besides a (stopped) metal press there was only a rickety old staircase that neither was eager to explore. They followed the danger line on the floor to the other room.
Calvin hung a hand on the wall and swung around the corner...and let out a whoop.
"WAHOO!"
His tiger friend came running.
"What? What is it?"
"There! Look over there!"
Hobbes looked. On one side of the room was a massive pile of discarded electronics and machinery, stacked from floor to ceiling.
"Oh yes, yes, yes!!Now we just need to pick out something to say we invented! C'mon, start looking!"
With that the young boy dug into the pile like it was Christmas. Hobbes followed him and gazed warily at the monstrous pile. "I'm...not quite sure whatI'm supposed to look for..."
"Anything. Anything small enough to carry that's in good shape."
"Ah." So informed, Hobbes dug in.
"Hey...isn't this a coffee machine?" Calvin pointed out a piece of equipment.
"It is! I suppose coffee is still around in 2100."
So the search commenced in earnest. The two each dug for anything that looked interesting, calling to each other when they found something.
"Here's some kinda helmet with a crack in it."
"I've got something that looks like a gun, but the barrel's been melted."
"Hey! I found a robot...aw, rats. His head's broke open."
"Yugh. This whatsit is leaking brown gunk."
After ten minutes of searching it soon became apparent that everything in the pile was cracked, melted, missing pieces, or just plain useless in some way. The two soon despaired of finding anything to bring back to their own time.
"Calvin...maybe we'd best call it quits. We haven't found anything useful, and I don't think we will."
"Nuts. I think you're right." The young boy sighed heavily and stood up. "Anywhere else to go in this lousy place?"
"There might be."
"Yes or no, hairball-breath."
Hobbes merely indicated a labeled door on the opposite wall. "What's that say?"
It was a long word. "Rec...reck-lah-may-shun. And that means...?"
"It means we had better go look in there."
"If you say so." Calvin walked toward the door.
'Reclamation' was a corridor with filing cabinets and drawers on both sides that went from floor to short ceiling. Every one of them had a clear front panel and was sported a small but readable printed label.
Calvin took one look and went bug-eyed. "Fuel cells...laser units...vibro-blades...hoverboard parts...oh wow oh wow! This is a treasure trove!"
"Sure looks that way! My guess is that whoever works here takes out the usable parts from all the junk and stores them in here."
"Pretty convenient for us, huh? Solar panels...nanobot bays...microblades...Hobbes, this is like being in Santa's toy store! All I have to do is pick something!"
"So pick something."
"I will. Here - 'laser generation arrays'. Sounds good to me." With that he grasped the molded handle and pulled.
Nothing.
"Hey! What the...allright then - heave!!"
The drawer didn't budge.
Calvin broke out in a string of words he'd heard his dad use to describe taxes. All that did was to make Hobbes' tail curl in shock.
"Um...might I point out the drawers are locked?" Hobbes pointed to a card scanner on the
top of each shelf.
"Locked?! Darn! Let's keep looking!"
Soon they turned a corner and spied a bulky steel desk. Calvin personally inspected every drawer and found little of importance except a bag full of chocolate-tasting candy, which he took the liberty of sampling. But the keycard was nowhere to be found.
Finally Calvin gave up hope. "This is a waste of time. We should go somewhere else; the stuff in those drawers might as well be on Mars."
The two retraced their steps and were soon standing outside again.
"So what now, old buddy?"
"Maybe go to another recycling plant? I dunno...where's someplace else we can get our hands on some future gadgets?"
"A better question might be where are we?" Hobbes examined the horizon critically. "This city goes on formiles and we haven't got so much as a roadmap!"
"Ooh. Good point." This made Calvin stop and think. "Well...mom got some maps at the gas station one time."
"See any gas stations around?"
"Sure! Right over..." Calvin immediately looked around for one. But there wasn't anything in sight that even remotely resembled a gas station.
"My point exactly."
"Then how about computers? Dad printed off a map of Seattle when he went there for a business meeting once. There have to be computers in 2100!"
"Sure thing. How about we find one?"
"Sure!" Without a moment's delay the young boy chose a direction and sprinted down the walkway to look for a computer. Hobbes followed, amazed at his friend's eager-but-naive attitude.
First the two ran all around the recycling plant. Then they walked through all the walkways around the building at the end of the walkway. Neither of those places contained a computer, and Calvin decided to check the path behind the factory.
The factory quickly turned out to be longer than it looked. Calvin and Hobbes ended up jogging almost four blocks past rusty back doors, odd-smelling vents and noisy machinery. His eager attitude began to dampen a bit.
Finally the pair sighted an open area just beyond where the factory ended. Recessed into the corner of the building was something resembling an oversized telephone booth with a weatherbeaten sign - "Public Net Access".
"Finally!" Calvin ran up to the door, an old-fashioned one that opened with a handle instead of automatically.
"Ah, this looks promising! Shall we?"
Calvin grinned and pulled open the door. "Let's shall!"
Inside, the booth was brightly lit by a white light the size of a credit card. It had been painted beige at one time, but faded over countless years. A bench provided the only sitting space.
But the main feature of the booth was an ivory-toned cabinet about four feet high, with a decent-sized screen tilted upward at a sharp angle. It reminded Calvin of a kind of arcade game he'd seen- something grown-ups called 'cabarets'.
"Wow. So this must be a futuristic computer!"
Hobbes looked skeptical. "Maybe. Look at this." He pointed to a squarish keypad. It had the numbers 1-9, the and the # keys in fancy lettering. Except for lacking letters on the inividual keys it resembled a telephone keypad in every way.
"You mean this is a telephone booth?"
"Only with video and sound both instead of just sound. Is it really so surprising? Just look at this place from the outside."
Calvin scowled. "One way to find out!" With that he reached up and pressed a button at random.
In response the screen brightened up to a light grey.
"Hmm! I think it's on screensaver!"
Calvin hit another button and suddenly the machine displayed green text on a black background.
Indicate Node Usage
1---Livefeed® Communication
2---Data access
The young boy stopped in his tracks. "Uhh…Hobbes? What now?"
"Let me see." Hobbes thought for a moment. "I think it wants you to pick which way to use it - as a telephone or as a computer. I think."
"Then we want number 2." Without delay Calvin reached up and pushed 2.
A soft 'chirp' sounded , and the screen changed again.
Insert access card, enter login, or choose '1' for Guest usage.
"I guess we'll be guests." Cha-reep.
Once again the screen changed - but this time it displayed a pretty blue banner. On a previously blank part of the console a keyboard appeared, seemingly drawn in a crisp red beam.
"Welcome to Unionopolis Network...Logged into CLWAN-A1-C102. Whatever that means."
"Probably the name of the computer we're on."
"Eh. Some name. Here, help me figure out this big thingy."
On the top of the screen was a blank grey bar. There was one along the bottom with a few strange pictures running from left to right. In the center of the screen was displayed a large hexagonal something-or-other labeled 'Hexecute', with brilliantly colored groups of icons along each of the sides. Hobbes studied them intently.
"There - that one. The icon under 'Connect!'."
"Which? The pair of talking yellow smiley faces?"
"Nonono. See that thing that looks like a pouncing dog? It's labeled 'NetSurf - Lupine Browser'."
"That's not a dog, that's a fox."
"Ehh, all canines look alike to me. Try that one."
Calvin looked about for a mouse. Nothing. But a blue panel along the holographic keyboard seemed much like the 'touchpad' on his dad's laptop. As he touched it, the panel lit up around his finger - and sure enough, the little diamond-shaped cursor started moving!
"Cool! Here we go!"
"Found the 'mouse'? "
"Yeah! Hey buddy, we just figured out something about the future!" An elated Calvin moved the cursor over to the icon and thumped his finger.
Chak!
The six-sided figure vanished and was replaced by a rectangular box with a logo of a stylized vixen chasing her own tail. After a few moments another screen appeared, this one looking somewhat like a website in Calvin's own time.
"Whoa! Now what?"
"Just wait a minute and let it finish. Maybe something will happen."
They waited. Sure enough - a cute but incredibly detailed robot appeared out of nowhere.
"Hello there! Welcome to the Lupine network browser!"
"Wow!"
"It talks!"
"Would you my help?" A green check and a red X appeared over his head.
Without hesitation Calvin clicked the check. "Darn right I do."
The robot smiled excitedly and clapped it's metallic hands. "I will try my best to be helpful to you. Now then - what take would you like to accomplish?"
Multiple 'thought balloons' popped into existence and hovered near the robot. One of them said 'find something', and Hobbes pointed a furry finger at it. "That one. We want to find something."
Cheep!
"Okay. What would you like to find?" More thought balloons; labeled everything from 'business' to 'information' to 'maps.' Maps? Bingo!
A blue cloud enveloped the robot. He reappeared wearing the regalia of Sherlock Holmes and smoking a pipe in his mouth. Both time travelers laughed at the comical sight.
"Very well then sir. Please enter what sort of map you're hoping to find, please."
"Good grief, what a corny accent."
Calvin reached for the keyboard, but his hands stopped in midair. "Hey! What's going on? All they keys are switched around!" It was true. The layout was nothing like the one on his parents' computer.
Hobbes looked. "Odd. Wonder why they did that? At least there's still English in the future."
It took the young boy several minutes to hunt and peck out 'a map of where we are'.
The onscreen helper raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking for a map of your current location?" Again the check and the X.
When Calvin selected 'yes', the robot pulled a piece of paper out of thin air and began reading it. "Just a moment please."
A few seconds later it looked back up. "Your location has been detected as Manufacturing Zone, Level A, Section 1 . If you want I can: 1- upload a local map to your personal data drive. I can also: 2- give you a hardcopy version at no cost, courtesy of The Finder Corporation."
"Oh boy." Calvin looked to his friend. "What do we do?"
"We obviously don't have a 'personal data drive' - whatever that is. Option number two sounds like getting a printed map, which would be a very good thing."
Calvin typed the number two on the keyboard...but there was no response.
"Try the keypad."
Calvin pressed two. This produced a message on the top grey bar and a soft whining noise from somewhere within the computer.
" 'Hardcopy generator activating.' What the heck is that?"
On cue, whirring sounds suddenly emanated from the left side of the cabinet. Suddenly a panel slid open to reveal several sheets of paper. Calvin grabbed them, and once his hand was clear the panel slid shut again.
"Rather convenient."
"I'll say. Hey, this paper is weird."
" 'Weird' how?"
Calvin ruffled a few of the pages. "It feels like…money!"
"Let me see." Hobbes plucked a page from Calvin's hand. The paper was colored a faint blue instead of bleached white. And it did indeed feel like paper money in their time: flexible, easily folded and creased, but with that certain subtle feeling of cloth to it.
"Odd. Looks like money. Feels like money." Hobbes sniffed it. "Doesn't smell like money. Isn't printed like money, either. I wonder why paper is printed like this in the future?"
Calvin shrugged. "Who cares? Now we have a map, let's find out where we are." He read the title of the first page in his hand. "The computer said we were in the manu-fact-uring Zone. So what's that?"
"It sounds like another name for a part of a city where the big smokey factories are. Not a nice place to stay; there's a lot of racket and pollution."
"Okay. But where do we go?"
Hobbes thought. "You want to find something new that wasn't invented in our own time. Am I correct?"
"Right."
"Well, to do that we need information on how to make one of that something."
Calvin blinked. "What? Information?! Dad once said someone needs to a 'working model' of something to claim they invented it. All we need to do is swipe something already made and bring it back."
"You obviously weren't listening to your dad very carefully. So what if you found some super kind of gadget and did take it home? Could you explain to anybody how it worked?"
"Uh…well…I...er..." Calvin looked at the floor. "Drat. I guess not."
"Getting a thing is only half of the battle. We need to know how it works! Otherwise you can't tell how you 'invented' it."
"I guess you're right. Thanks Hobbes. So where do we find information? A lot of information."
"If you were at home, what places would you go to learn about something?"
Calvin wrinkled his nose. "School? We have to go to future school?"
"Hardly. Think of it this way - you like dinosaurs, right?"
"You bet!"
"Allright then, what places would you go to learn about dinosaurs?"
The young boy looked upwards and thought out loud. "Well…I guess at a museum…or maybe…" Suddenly his face lit up. "The library!"
"Givvve the man a silver dollar! The library has tons of books and more information than we could ever need or read. Plus it's quiet and hopefully not very busy."
"If there still is a library." A doubtful Calvin began shuffling through the sheaf of papers. "I kinda think that by now everyone's reading everything on computers."
Now it was Hobbes' turn to pause and reflect. "Ooh. Good point."
"We could ask the computer again." Calvin indicated the terminal, its screen again a blank grey.
"I don't see why not. As long as we ask for directions to get there and back."
"Here, lemme at it!" Calvin shoved an armful of papers into his tiger friend's paws and reached up to the keyboard.
Before he touched a single key, Hobbes suddenly stiffened. "Wait!"
Calvin froze. Off in the distance he could just hear the sound of some kind of engine. "Hey - that sounds kinda like a jet!"
Hobbes nodded. The noise was much like a jet engine, but lower pitched and not nearly so loud. "Sounds like a couple engines now…no. Three. Maybe more."
The sounds began growing louder. Soon Hobbes could distinguish four separate engines. A nervous Calvin bounded away from the machine and stood on the bench. Both of them began watching.
In a moment four black-and-silver vehicles appeared from around a tall building.
Calvin gulped. "C-c-cop cars!"
Hobbes' tail frizzed. They did look much like police cars in their own time, minus any wheels and with far sleeker bodies.
"Oh bad. They're coming this way."
The foursome veered off to their right and headed for the open space.
"Where are they going, Hobbes? What're they doing?"
"Landing," the tiger replied grimly. "See those lighted panels over there? Watch. A dollar says they land right on top of them."
His prediction was dead on. Flying in perfect formation, the flying cars slowed to a stop over four of the six illuminated landing spots. As a single unit they lowered themselves to hover only a couple feet above the ground.
"Impressive flying," Hobbes mused.
Before their engines even finished winding down, doors began opening, folding over the top of the roofs in a complex and impressive manner. Heavyset figures clad in black-and-silver body armor disembarked from the vehicles - eight of them in all.
Calvin and Hobbes watched as the group of futuristic police began conferring amongst themselves. One finally stepped back and indicated the others two at a time. At each stab of the fingers two stern-faced policemen split off and began running. Three groups ran down the opposite side of the building…but the fourth group began heading down the back path.
Right towards them.
"Hobbes, I think we're in trouble!"