The Final Countdown
Chapter 10.
Present Date
Atlas was spat out of a dissipating tornado into clear air just tens of feet above the ground. Before he could get his eyes to focus he felt himself crash into the canopy of a tall tree. He rubbed his eyes and saw that he was face to face with an angry squirrel that bit him on the nose.
"Ouch!" he yelled swatting at the rodent with his arm. His movements caused the tree limb he was on to crack and he fell towards the ground. He landed on top of a fire engine red sports car, caving in the roof and setting off the vehicles anti-theft alarm. Two police officers who had been eating at a donut shop across the street ran out of the eatery when they heard the auto alarm, and they arrived just in time to see Atlas getting up and brushing himself off.
"You again!" one of the cops yelled. "Wait till Towashi finds out that you've been trashing cars again!"
Dr. O'Shay had a hard time sleeping. Uran had been weeping all night crying over her brother's disappearance. It was now two in the morning, and she was still sobbing on and off. He got out of bed and walked over to his desk and opened the old cardboard box that sat there. He removed Astro's head from the box and carefully rolled it over in his hands examining it. "Where are you, Astro?" he whispered to himself.
Unlike a human, most robots can still function while missing a head. The body part only serves to house sensory organs that are often duplicated within the robot's body. Astro's electronic brain was inside his chest, along with duplicate positional sensors. O'Shay knew that Astro could make it home headless, although he would be blind, he would still know exactly where he was using his GPS and gyroscopic senses.
The doctor walked over towards the window to look outside. In the distance he could see lighting flashing across the sky, and he could hear the wind picking up. The sky glowed a spooky green color with each flash. Maybe that weird storm was returning, and perhaps Astro might be brought back with it.
The wind and rain increased, and for about 15 minutes it looked like the world was ending outside. Finally the storm subsided, and it was deathly calm outside. O'Shay started to head back to bed when he heard a crash, and the sound of breaking glass coming from the other side of the house. A deadly silence then fell upon the house, only to be broken seconds later by Uran's screams coming from her bedroom.
Dr. O'Shay ran into the hall and headed toward the robot girl's room. Uran was screaming in terror, pointing to a spot on the floor. The windows had been smashed inward where a large object had crashed into the room. Broken glass was everywhere, and underneath the window drapes that had been torn from their rods a shape was moving, trying to free itself from the thick cloth.
The doctor grabbed a curtain rod that had fallen from above the window and used it to lift the cloth from the floor. Uran gasped at the sight of what lay beneath the drapes. "Ani!" she yelled in terror at the sight. Astro's headless form squirmed about, his hands feeling about him in an effort to confirm where he was. The doctor ran out of the room, and returned seconds later with the missing body part, and an armful of tools.
"Relax Astro, I have it!" he said. It took the doctor about ten minutes to reattach Astro's head and mend all of the various connections. The boy robot slowly reached up with his hands to feel for his cranium. He still couldn't speak, and appeared to be blind and deaf as well.
"Just a minute, I sill need to make a few adjustments." The doctor laughed. He opened Astro's chest panel and reached inside with one of the alignment tools he had brought from his desk. After making a few quick readjustments, he closed the panel and looked Astro in the eyes, which now started to sparkle with life.
"Is that you, Hakase?" Astro asked.
"Yes my boy, it is." O'Shay replied.
"How long was I gone?" Astro asked.
"About a day." the doctor replied. "You never made it home from school yesterday."
"That's all?" Astro asked. "It was over a month for me!"
"Go to bed and rest." O'Shay told him. "In the morning we'll take you in to the Ministry so Reno can give you a thorough checkup. Also, I have a guest that would like to meet you."
Uran reached over to Astro to hug him. She dried her eyes with the bed cover and appeared to be herself again. "Can Ani sleep in my bed with me tonight?" she asked.
O'Shay looked at Astro and nodded. Astro shrugged his shoulders and crawled into bed next to his sister and fell asleep an instant later.
Reno strapped Astro down to the examination board and connected him up to the laboratory mainframe computer. "Just close your eyes and relax." he told Astro.
"That's easy for you to say, Dr. Frankenstein." Astro grumbled. "You know this examination bed gives me the creeps."
"Yeah, I know." Reno replied, "But this won't take very long."
Reno darkened the room lights and started the procedure. Astro's body twitched, sometimes violently, as the computer probed all of his systems. The exam took about seven minutes, but for Astro it seemed like hours. Finally the lights came back on and Reno released Astro from the restraints. Dr. O'Shay entered the lab and looked at the two boys.
"How his he?" the doctor inquired.
"Not too bad considering his head was in cold storage in the DOD's Warehouse #13 for over thirty years." Reno replied. "We really should open it up, clean it, and replace some of the more sensitive parts. Still, everything did pass my diagnostics."
"Ah there you are!" Yuko smiled as she wheeled retired Admiral Yelland into the lab. Astro turned toward the door. Even though the Admiral had aged almost 35 years since Astro had last seen him just a day ago, he recognized him at once.
"Captain Yelland,", Astro said. "How are you sir?"
"Well as you can see, I'm not quite as spry as I used to be," Yelland replied. "I was also promoted up to Admiral before I retired. I'm so glad that you're OK."
"Yeah, Dr. O'Shay put me back together again." he replied. "That was one freaky storm!"
"Indeed it was." The Admiral said. "You know, it's kinda strange how that storm showed up just as we were about to change history by stopping the Japanese attack force in their tracks. It's almost like somebody up there was teasing us, tempting us and then saying, no you don't!"
"I guess history wasn't meant to change." Astro replied.
"Well actually, a few things did change, almost as if they were meant to." Yelland laughed. "Commander Owens was lost somewhere in the pacific when the helicopter he was on crashed. He didn't make it back to 1980 with the Nimitz. He changed his name to Tideman to hide his identity. Richard knew everything that would happen between 1941 and 1980, he used that knowledge to amass a large fortune. His company developed much of the technology that built the Nimitz, and most of the military equipment since the end of the second world war."
"Wow, a circular logic time loop!" Astro gasped.
"If you and Mr. Einstein say so." Yelland said.
"It looks like you two have a bit of catching up to do." Yuko replied.
"I'd love to show you around Japan, if you can stay for a while as a tourist." Astro said.
"Yes, I'd like that very much." Yelland replied. "I'll see about extending my trip."
Mr. Mustasheo noticed the empty seat in the last row where Astro usually sat. He'd waited for five minutes after the bell had rang, but now decided to start class without his star pupil. At that moment the door opened and Astro entered, accompanied by Dr. O'Shay and a man in a wheelchair.
"Sorry, I'm late sir." Astro said. "I had a rough night."
"Would you mind if we audited your class?" Dr. O'Shay added.
"Certainly not!" Mustasheo smiled. "I think there are some empty chairs in the back of the room."
"We left off our history lesson last session talking about our countries attack on Pearl Harbor," Mustasheo started. "Has anybody here read the chapter in the textbook on this and can describe the task force for us?"
Astro raised his hand.
"Yes, Astro?"
"I must confess I didn't have a chance to read the assignment, but I can describe the crossing of the pacific by the fleet." Astro replied. "You see, I was there."
Atlas morphed into the Diachi form and walked slowly up to the palace gate. The guard looked at him, scanning his eyes up and down. "Name."
"Just tell his highness that Diachi is here." Atlas said. "Tell him it's been over 70 years since we last met."
"What do you want with the Emperor?" the guard asked.
"Just ask Akihito if he'd like a game of Shogi?" Atlas smiled.
The guard buzzed his intercom and picked up the phone. He spoke briefly with someone upstairs and put the intercom down. "You should leave." He said.
"I'll just wait a while and see what happens." Atlas said pleasantly.
About 10 minutes passed and the palace door opened slowly. Emperor Akihito stood in the doorway, accompanied by two servants. He looked at the boy robot standing in the reception area. "I'd love a Shogi match with you."
The End