Chapter 5

"OK, how come we didn't blow up?" Kelly asked.

Tech and Ryan were going over their remote bomb controls.

Tech finally groaned, realizing the problem and stopping Ryan. "I see the problem. The controls were too distant from the main generator for the bomb. We'd have to be right next to it to get it to start going off."

"But I heard the timer starting," said Lexi, "I'd recognize a bomb beeping anywhere."

"Then I guess there must be something wrong with the bomb wiring. Someone's gonna have to go down into that hole and fix everything."

"Why didn't you just say so?" asked Wendy, starting to get up.

"Because the bomb would go off immediately and even Rev wouldn't be able to get back onto the ship before the meteor blew up."

"Oh…" Wendy sat back down.

"We're not leaving anyone behind!" Kelly snapped, "I couldn't bear it if I lost any of you."

"Kelly's right," said Sarah, "It's all of us or nothing."

Ace jumped in. "And Acmetropolis is gonna be nothing is one of us doesn't get down to that bomb and fix it before point zero while the rest of us am-scray back to the tower."

"How long is it until point zero?" asked Nadine.

Tech checked their timer. "15 minutes."

"Good," Kelly said, "Then we can wait and think this through. Before one of us ends up as entrails added to the next meteor shower." She stormed off.

"Ew," Lucy commented.

Tech walked off after Kelly. Before he could get to her, she was gone. He walked off to another little private room and turned on a communication system.

Austin was in the conference room in the tower…banging his head against the table. A computer started beeping. "What was that?" He jumped up. "Man, those kids have gotten me jittery!" He walked over to the computer and answered it. Tech was on the other line. "You know, when I agreed to baby-sit your kids, I didn't think they'd be crying left and right."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how they work. Every time you leave the nursery, one of them starts crying."

"I noticed."

Tech half-smiled. "Look…I need you to promise me something—"

"I know, Kelly told me: if anything happens to her, protect Gabby."

"And besides that…if anything happens to me, you've gotta protect Kelly."

Austin looked at him as if considering. Finally, he half-smiled. "Well, you know, I would say 'with my last breath' but since I don't breathe…"

Tech smiled. "I gotta go. We have a crisis."

"Wait—"

Tech hung up.

"What kind of crisis?" Austin sighed and went back to the table…and went back to banging his head on it.

Kelly and Tech came back into the main room about at the same time.

"How much longer?" asked Michael.

Tech checked the timer. "Less than 10 minutes."

"Boy, does the time fly," Kelly said, sarcastically.

Nadine sighed. "Look, Kelly, I know you don't wanna—"

"We're doing it."

Nadine stared at her. "What?"

"I don't wanna risk losing any of you guys, but…as Spock would say, 'the needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few.'"

"Or the one," Ryan added.

Kelly looked at him.

"Sorry, I just couldn't let you mess up a good sci-fi quotation."

"So who's the one in this case?" asked Lucy.

"Why don't we find out?" asked Daniella.

"What are we gonna do, draw straws?" asked Wendy.

"That's not a bad idea."

"I-I was joking."

"I wasn't." Daniella got out her wand and zapped up 18 sticks, one of them shorter than the others. She picked them up and moved them in her fist to where they all looked the same height, then shuffled them a little so that even she didn't know where the small one was. "Pick a stick, any stick."

Ryan sighed and grabbed one.

Benny followed his example, followed by Michael.

Everybody grabbed one and compared the size.

…Kelly had the short stick (pun intended). She looked at it. "Oh." She dropped it. "Wow." She sighed, thinking this over with her arms crossed.

Sophie looked at her sadly, playing with her own stick.

Kelly finally looked at Tech and Ryan. "What do I do?"

Ryan put down his stick, looking at his sister mournfully, and handed her what looked like the joystick on a game controller. "Just pull this tab up…" He pulled a switch, revealing a button. "…press this…" He demonstrated. "…and hold it down until it goes boom."

She took it. "And what's wrong with the wiring?" She started to walk off.

Tech followed her. "You'll know, trust me." He stopped her as she headed for the door. "Look…" She zapped the ship to let the gas tanks refill so they could get out before the bomb exploded. She faced her father. He looked at her…and punched her, knocking her down.

She grabbed herself where he'd hit her.

He grabbed the controller and raced off.

"I'm OK!" Kelly called out, not noticing what he'd just done. She then heard the door closing. She raced up and went to open it, but Tech had already locked it. "Dad!"

Tech raced to the dig sight at top speed, not stopping for anything.

Kelly raced up to the others. "We've gotta get him back!"

Before anyone could do anything, though, the ship started itself up.

"What's going on?" Kelly asked.

"Your spell had enough to time to charge up this time," Daniella explained, "Tech must be doing the rest."

There was no stopping now. The ship lurched as it started up.

Tech jumped into the hole Slam had dug and landed next to the bomb. He opened the wiring panel and began to fiddle with the wires until there was a spark.

Kelly was constantly fighting on the controls with Ryan, trying to get the ship to stop, but Tech's powers had as much of a hold on it as Ryan's did…and since the ship was 95% metal and only 45% electronic (those are on different scales), Tech kind of had the upper hand. Ergo, they were taking off whether they liked it or not.

Tech grabbed the controller and prepared to activate the bomb.

The ship exited the meteor at top speed.

The exhaust got caught on the dig site, knocking a fleet of rocks towards Tech and creating an even bigger crater.

Kelly finally gave up on the controls and activated the intercom system. "Dad! Come on, speak to me! Please!"

The controller lay on the rocky ground of the meteor next to the bomb.

Tech crawled over to it, his molecular regeneration with a full hold on him, and grabbed the controller. He pulled the tab and pushed the button.

BOOM!

Kelly stared out the window of the cockpit at the explosion. He was gone.