A Fowl State of Affairs
6.
Professor Ochanomizu crawled out from under the platform of the machine. Yuko and Cobalt helped him get back on his feet after having laid on his back in an awkward position for almost an hour as he soldered the last of the wires back into place.
"How does it look Hakase?" Yuko asked. "Will you be able to get them back?"
"I don't know yet," the professor said. "I only have a vague idea of where they ended up. The dimensional coordinates were still in the machines memory, but the actual latitude and longitude settings I have are not exact. I could end up within a 100 mile radius of their exact position if I'm lucky. At least the temporal and spacial planes are known."
"What do you mean by that?" Cobalt asked.
"It means I know what position in time and alternate dimensional planes they are in. I will end up on the right planet and the right day, but maybe in the wrong city." Ochanomizu explained.
"Then you're going to need a volunteer to test it?" Cobalt asked.
"No, I'm going to test it myself," the professor insisted.
"No you're not!" Yuko yelled. "If anything happens to you, no one else will be able to figure it out."
"I'm the logical test subject." Cobalt said, opening the door to the machine. "I'll get my brother and sister back!"
"I hate to say it," Ochanomizu sighed, "But you're both absolutely correct. Perhaps you'd better take this two way radio with you, Korbaruto. We should be able to communicate with you, and track your position with it, if I can leave the wormhole open while you're gone. You'll know if you've arrived in the right spot if you are in a community populated by duck people. Just before the machine melted down after transporting Astro and Uran, it sent back a blurry image of the destination. They seem to have been sent to an alternate universe populated by duck people." The professor handed Cobalt a small pocket sized transceiver. Cobalt clipped the unit to his waist band and entered the machine.
"Good luck Korbaruto!" Yuko said as the professor activated the transporter machine. Cobalt saluted as he faded from view.
Minnie and Mickey were having dinner at Mickey's house, this being a Sunday evening. Pluto was under the table, munching on a soup bone that Mickey had given him. "This roast beast is very good!" Minnie said, and the soup was out of this world. I'm so lucky to have a first class chef as a boy friend!" Minnie said.
"Gosh!" Mickey blushed. "I'm not really that good, I mean I don't do this professionally."
"You should!" Minnie said. "Why don't you open a restaurant? It would be the best one in Mouseton!"
"You think so?" Mickey asked.
"If not a restaurant, then a bakery for sure!" Minnie added. "I can't wait to taste tonight's desert. Your devil's food cake is to die for!"
CRASH! Suddenly a loud noise came from the kitchen. The sound of a table collapsing and various items falling to the floor lasted for several seconds, along with the cry of "OUCH!"
"Sounds like someone's broken into my kitchen!" Mickey said with alarm, picking up a large steak knife in his hand and carefully making his way into the kitchen to confront the intruder.
Cobalt materialized in the middle of the kitchen work table. Since two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, the table exploded sending its contents flying about the room. A large seven layer devil's food cake took flight and hit the robot squarely in the back of his head. He reached up and removed some icing from his hair spikes and licked his fingers. "Mmmm" he smiled, it tasted real good!
Mickey opened the door to the kitchen to find Astro's brother, covered with the desert that had taken him hours to bake. "You, You cake murderer!" he yelled. "How dare you break into my house and ruin my desert!"
Cobalt blinked with disbelief at the sight of the mouse. Mickey's ears stood up from the back side of his head, cocked at the same angle from each other as Astro's cowlicks. "Sorry about the mess." Cobalt said sheepishly. "I didn't have any control of how I landed. Have you seen two robots that look a bit like me?" he asked.
"You're the first of your kind I've ever seen." Mikey said wiping a finger over Cobalt's back and coming up with a hand full of chocolate icing.
Cobalt face palmed. "Wait, you're a mouse not a duck. I'm in the wrong country or something."
"Duckburg is the next town over." Mickey replied. "If your friends are there, I can drive you over to look. But I'm going to need some help to explain to Minnie about desert."
Minnie Mouse opened the door to the kitchen to find her boy friend talking to a strange looking robot covered with devil's food cake. Laughing, she grabbed a towel, moistened it in the sink, and started to wipe Cobalt clean with it. "You look harmless enough!" she laughed at Astro's brother. "What a clumsy bugler!"
"Sumimasen" Cobalt said. "My name is Korbaruto. I didn't break in, I was transported here from another universe by a machine. I really didn't have any control of how, or where I was going to end up. I'm looking for my brother and sister who were also accidentally sent to your world, but apparently to Duckburg. By the way, where am I?"
"You're in Mouseton." Minnie said. "You poor thing, you're a mess!"
"Yeah, I seem to be covered with your desert." Cobalt laughed. "Sorry I ruined your dinner."
"Don't worry, my boyfriend will bake me another cake." Minnie said. "Besides, I'm too full to eat another bite. But I think I'd like some espresso."
Mickey looked behind him and saw that the coffee press was not damaged by the flying debris. "I'll make us some Java, and then we'll drive our new friend over to Duckburg to see Professor Von Drake. Maybe he can make some sense of all this."
Gyro Gearloose looked over the smoking mess that was his transporter machine. "That last surge of power didn't do it much good," he sighed. "It looks like the flux capacitor is burned out."
"You mean you can't transport us back home?" Uran said with a cry in her voice.
"Well, I might be able to fix it."Gyro said, shrugging his shoulders, "But even if the machine was working, I have no idea where you guys came from. Since it appears that you were transported over an inter-dimensional path from an alternate universe, the possible coordinates in the space time continuum higher dimensions are almost limitless."
Uran sobbed. "Gee, you were our only hope." She said looking at the inventor with tear filled eyes.
"Don't give up sis." Astro said, trying to reassure his sister, "I'm sure Hakase will find us."
Mickey, Minnie, and Cobalt got into Mickey's Jeep and drove the few miles from Mouseton to Duckburg. Cobalt sat in the rear of the Jeep facing backwards, as there wasn't a seat in the cargo bed of the vehicle. He held on to the floor straps as the Jeep bounced over the bumpy roads.
"Ludwig Von Drake is one of the smartest guys in the country." Mickey assured Cobalt as he parked the automobile in front of the professor's house. "Your brother and sister would probably have been told to seek him out if they explained their situation to anybody with half a brain."
Mickey rang the doorbell. "Might take him a few minutes to come to the door," he said, "The professor is a bit absent minded and often forgets where his eye glasses are, even when he's wearing them!"
Soon the sound of the lock being undone could be heard, and the door was opened. Professor Von Drake smiled when he saw the two mice. "Hello Mickey!" he said, "what brings you and Minnie over to Duckburg?" He then noticed Cobalt standing behind Minnie and pointed at him.
"You must be Astro's brother, aren't you?"
"You know my brother?" Cobalt asked.
"I met him the other day." The professor said. "He and his sister are visiting with the gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck. They asked for my help in getting back home after transporting here by accident." Von Drake removed his glasses and wiped them clean on his shirt, and then replaced them on his nose. "Come to think of it, how did YOU get here."
"Hakase Ochanomizu fixed the machine and took a guess at the coordinates." Cobalt said. "He seems to have gotten the time and dimensional settings right, but missed on the location and I ended up in Mouseton."
"I know where McDuck lives." Mickey said. "Let's head over there now and you can tell your family the good news."
"I'll follow in my SUV." Von Drake said. "I wonder if Gizmo Duck and Astro ever found Gyro Gearloose and his missing invention."
About 15 minutes later Mickey pulled his Jeep into McDuck's driveway. He slammed on the brakes to miss hitting a taxi cab bumper lying in the middle of the road. The three of them got out of the vehicle and walked over to the front door, which was already opened with Duckworth standing there.
"Hi Mr. Duckworth." Mickey said. "Is Mister McDuck at home?"
"Yes he is." Duckworth said. "Follow me."
Mickey, Minnie, and Cobalt walked into the mansion just as Von Drake's old SUV pulled in behind the Jeep. Ludwig waddled quickly up the walk path and followed the mice into the house. Duckworth then closed the door behind him.
Astro, Uran, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were in the large great room engaged in a video game of motocross racing. McDuck had suggested that the youngsters play together to get Uran's mind off of her troubles. Scrooge and Gearloose were in the other section of the house trying to figure out how to get into the money bin which was now a solid mass of fused coins and bills.
"Hello!" Cobalt cried out as he entered the room. Uran turned to see her brother and dropped the video controller she had in her hands. She launched herself into a flying bear hug and crashed into Cobalt. "Korbaruto!" she cried out, showering him with kisses. "Did Hakase send you?"
"Yes he did." Cobalt said. "Opps, I completely forgot!" He removed the two way radio from his belt and held it to his mouth, pressing the talk button. "Hakase! Do you hear me. I've found them!"
Ochanomizu's voice came crackling out of the transceiver's tiny speaker. "I hear you Korbaruto! I can track you, and I see the exact coordinates now! The machine has to recharge a bit more, and then I can transport all of you back home, but you'll have to hold hands to make sure that I get all of you locked in!"
"OK, Hakase!" Cobalt replied back. "Call me when you're ready!"
"I'll do that." Ochanomizu radioed back. "Looks like it will be about an hour at least, so just relax until then."
"See, I told you Hakase would find us!" Astro told Uran.
Astro stood at the door to McDuck's money bin. "OMG," he laughed, "What a wad of cash!"
"That's not funny!" McDuck said. "How am I going to be able to spend that?"
"You could melt it all down." Gyro suggested. "Most of the coinage is gold."
"Yeah but there's lots of paper money in there too!" McDuck said.
"I could cut though the walls with my lasers and lift up the roof." Astro said.
"But you'd need a fleet of dump trucks to carry it all away!" Gyro pointed out.
"I'll call Launchpad." Scrooge said. "He has a cousin that works for a construction company. They have a bunch of trucks!"
With a half an hour several dozen dump trucks rumbled over the back entrance to the McDuck property and backed up to the rear of the estate. Astro used his lasers to cut through the walls of the building and then lifted the roof off of the building. He broke the huge wad of coins apart with his fists, and started to carry the load out of the building. He made several trips into the massive pile of money, and carried it all out of the building to load up the convoy of trucks.
Launchpad McQuack got into the truck at the front of the line and leaned his head out of the window.
"Don't worry about a think Mr. McD, We'll have your money back in the bank in no time!"
Scrooge waved back at McQuack as the truck convoy headed out. "I hope he doesn't get lost." McDuck sighed.
"Or in an accident!" Louie said.
"Well, at least he's driving a big truck." McDuck said. "Even Launchpad would have a hard time damaging that!"
Astro's heads up display popped into his field of vision to show his brother calling him.
"Astro!" Cobalt said, "I just heard from Hakase Ochanomizu. He's ready to transport us back home!"
"OK Korbaruto!" Astro radioed back. "I'll be right there!"
It took Astro, and Uran a few minutes to say their goodbyes to everyone.
"You've got to come back and visit us!" Huey sobbed.
"Promise?" Louie added.
"Please!" Dewey quacked.
"Sure thing." Uran said, "If Hakase forgives us for using his machine without his permission!"
Minnie asked Astro to pose for a picture with her and Mickey before leaving with his siblings. She handed Uran her cellphone and Uran took their picture. Astro then took Cobalt's hand, and Uran took Astro's other hand. Cobalt then triggered the PTT switch on the hand held transceiver as a signal to Ochanomizu to activate the machine.
The world around them spun up in a field of colored lights. Scrooge McDuck's mansion and all of Duckburg vanished from their eyes and they felt themselves falling though time and space in a dizzying blur. Slowly the strange feeling disappeared and they found themselves back in the laboratory at the Ministry of Science.
"Welcome home!" the professor smiled.
"You're not mad at me Hakase, are you?" Uran asked.
Ochanomizu put on his sternest looking face and glared at Uran. "Young lady, I'm very upset at what you did! I thought I'd lost you and Astro forever! You're very lucky that I was able to repair the machine and that Korbaruto was brave enough to go looking for you!"
Uran started to sob, and almost burst out in tears. The professor's face softened at the sight, and the robot girl saw though his subterfuge. She launched herself into his arms and gave him a bear hug.
"You know I love you too much to say mad!" Ochanomizu laughed.
"Well you know, I still want to go to Disney World!" Uran said, batting her eyes at the professor.
Astro and Cobalt face palmed. Ochanomizu sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "You'll just have to settle for Tokyo Disneyland young lady. A trip to Florida, USA isn't in my budget right now."
"That will be fine!" Uran said, giving her guardian another hug.
A few day's later the four of them were walking though the theme park, Uran was as happy as a clam and on cloud nine. A number of the Disney characters, actors in costumes of course, came up to them and said hello. Among them were Mickey and Minnie mouse.
Uran laughed as the actors walked past. "Do you think we should tell Hakase the whole story, Ani?" she asked Astro.
"Probably not," her brother laughed. "He'd never believe us anyway!"
The End