Uh…who am I? Oh, yeah! I'm Earth Queen! Jeez…I'm starting to sound like B.E.N., but that's okay. I love him! It's fun to be him! My gosh, I had the hardest time with this one! At first, I couldn't think of just how the food B.E.N. finds can keep him alive for a hundred years. He is supposed to have found it on Treasure Planet, but how would the planet be able to supply it all for that long? I mean, where does it all come from? Something must have happened to that file…

Chapter Eight: One Hundred Years of Solitude

The sting in the back of B.E.N.'s head was extremely disconcerting and uncomfortable. It literally felt as if an important chunk of his very being was getting bitten out of his head.

The poor robot shuddered, grimaced, and spluttered with a metallic voice. "Whoa!" His eyes flashed different colors and patterns such as alien numbers that seemed to make up some sort of computer code. He held his head, feeling the precious data spill out of his mind like a water dam losing all of its water reserves, becoming almost completely empty. His secondary memory circuits immediately activated, serving as back up. But it wouldn't be enough. His eyes changed from their bright, metallic blue color to a blank, green-ish yellow color. Five colored wires now stuck out in a misshapen mess of the gaping hole in his head where his primary memory circuit once was.

B.E.N. blinked and shook his head, spluttering and moaning, dizzy. "Hullo! Wow! My head feels really…strange…" Everything was a blank fuzz in the very reserves of his back up circuits. He was unable to recall much of anything off the top of his head. Memories of his family, his home, his historical and mathematical and scientific knowledge, even his navigational abilities…everything just up and went like a candle being snuffed out.

"This whole place seems…"—he scratched the top of his head in thought—"…very familiar…but I can't remember why. I…I can't remember…? Huh. Why can't I remember?" B.E.N. felt the back of his head. His fingers fell upon the wires sticking out. He froze still. "Ah…" Then…he just laughed. "I must've lost my mind! Literally! I wonder where it could've gone…"

Glancing around, B.E.N. then noticed a hulking figure sitting in a golden throne. He recognized the figure on sight. "C…Captain Flint?" Yes, it was Captain Flint, but…he wasn't breathing. "He's… Is he? He…died?" He swallowed hard. "Oh, boy…not good."

The frightened robot made a hasty retreat, but he stumbled terribly over the ship's bow, landing in a heap in a pile of gold coins and jewels. "Ouch… Ooh, my head." Picking himself back up again, B.E.N. made his way over to the wide platform. Completely unaware, he stepped on a trigger and his spot on the platform was suddenly suspended into the air by a long support beam from the floor. Startled, he held on to the edge, watching the ground shrink before his eyes. Then, he disappeared through an opening in the very high ceiling.

What B.E.N. saw around him in a moment's time was unlike anything he'd ever seen. The colors of the new room itself changed to more of a turquoise color. Miles upon miles of hallways of machinery surrounded him and stretched on and on forever above him, vanishing into a void of the eerie green glow. Lights blinked on and off, electrical energy surging through metal tubes in the walls here and there. A low, humming breeze whistled through the space, billowing and changing volume as it did so.

He turned on his heel multiple times, registering the new environment. "Where…where am I? Hul-looooooo!" his voice echoed with his call, the sound loudly bouncing off the walls. In front of him was a walkway that led down a dark hallway. Curious as to where this hallway ahead would lead him, he followed the pathway.

As B.E.N. walked on, he found that he was stuck in an intricate maze of machinery. Lights and lines of circuitry stretched on as far as the eye could see. In some places, it was almost like an advanced city or civilization that had been abandoned long ago. In the walls, there were more lights and sometimes glass displays that had been implanted into the walls. Various items were contained in these glass displays, but many were empty.

Hours went by…and still, B.E.N. wandered aimlessly through the maze, getting absolutely nowhere fast. Exhausted from so much walking, he slowed to a stop. His weak and tired legs gave way beneath him and he collapsed to the cold, metal floor. "Oh…whew! I must be goin' around in circles or something. I can't remember which way I've gone or which way I haven't." He lay there for a long moment, feeling more trapped than he'd ever felt in all his years.

Just then, as B.E.N. lifted his head, he noticed a dim light emitting from around the corner of the hallway. It felt extremely familiar to him. The feeling reminded him of a powerful energy, and he thought of a kind of go-juice. He knew just what it was now. He could feel it. It was sunlight! With newfound strength, B.E.N. hopped to his feet and dashed down the hallway. "Oh, yes! It's a way out! Oh, this is fantastic!" Sure enough, after coming to a ladder and pushing through an above hatch door—blinded for a brief moment from the rush of warm light—he had finally made it to the surface of the planet!

The sunlight dappled between the canopy of helium trees and the distant sounds of wild animals (mostly birds) met B.E.N.'s ears. The wind was blowing in a gentle breeze until it stopped after a while. The very air itself now felt like it was searing with wet heat.

"And—boy, is it hot!" Oh, yeah, he'd forgotten about the humid weather here. B.E.N. even began to leak oil from the creases of his parts. "Well, this isn't very pretty. Whew!" He wiped away the oil from his limbs and head. Robots, being made of metal, did not perspire. But since B.E.N. was made to be human-like, leaking oil was just as natural as was it for carbon-based life forms to sweat whenever it was hot out.

He also figured it was about time he could use a tune-up. Too bad there was no one around. He could probably do with some self-maintenance, but he couldn't recharge his own eye-sockets. He needed someone to help. Captain Flint had just expired, and thus was of no use anymore.

After doing a little more walking and gazing around the green landscape, B.E.N. sat down on a nearby boulder under the shade of a helium tree to relax his weary parts, putting his hands behind his head and exhaling. "Ahhh… It sure is nice out today…well, despite the oil-inducing heat," he admitted. "Other than that...nice and peaceful…"

Ten minutes went by…

It was time to start walking again.

While he walked, B.E.N. turned his head and noticed the shrubs of trumpet plants. His eyes started to play tricks on him and caused him to see one of the trumpet plants transform into a fresh can of pure, black petroleum…just the way he liked it. "Gee…that looks kinda tasty…" He felt like he was in some sort of trance as he stopped and stared at the image, but something was telling him to snap out of it. "Huh?" B.E.N. shook his head, blinked, and looked again. The trumpet plant had returned to its original form. "Oh…" He was almost disappointed that the can of petroleum wasn't real. He starting walking again.

Then, he turned his head in another direction. His eyes continued to play tricks on him. The lumps of fungi on the ground transformed into a bunch of aluminum chippers. A small nearby cagefungus transformed into a familiar plate of tin foil noodles with titanium spheres and a good amount of thick petroleum sauce as the topping. This time, it was a bit more difficult for B.E.N. to resist the temptation to eat what his eyes were seeing, and he lapped his metal tongue ravenously and swallowed, a small dribble of oily drool dripping down the side of his lower jaw. Then, he rubbed his eyes and blinked. Shaking his head and looking again, he found that everything was back to normal. However, all the foodstuffs B.E.N. had been seeing returned to his vision with a vengeance soon after, appearing to him in numbers, crowding around him. Now he knew that he was hallucinating.

"Ah! Come on! Snap out of it!" Spluttering, he had to shake his head again, attempting to ward away the enticing hallucinations. Thankfully, the hallucinations faded away as if they were nothing. "Whew!" he breathed. "That's a relief. Although, those things looked extremely appetizing."

It was true; he felt a strange, empty feeling he hadn't felt in a while, and it was finally catching up to him. A sad, metallic, gargling noise erupted from B.E.N.'s stomach. It almost startled him. Casting a downward glance, he said while patting his middle, "Whoops. Heh-heh-heh. Wonder if there's anything to eat around here."

Besides the obvious fact that he was hungry, the main thing bringing about these hallucinations was the heat. Yet on this planet, the heat didn't last any longer than around mid afternoon and B.E.N. soon became used to it. But finding edible robot food and decent shelter was going to be a real challenge, especially with his empty digestive unit giving him troublesome hunger pangs.

As B.E.N. explored the seemingly endless and dense jungle of tall helium trees, small centipede trees, and giant cagefungi, these plants were all he was coming upon. He found very few animal life forms along the way, such as lunar eels and manta birds. The more he searched the forest, the more he came to realize that there seemed to be no one else around, though he was positive that he would find someone who could provide food, shelter, and a good tune-up for him. But for now, B.E.N. was on his own. And without a memory circuit, his navigational system was completely unusable.

He soon came upon a less dense part of the jungle where the sun seemed to be shining brighter. He was feeling pretty good at this point as he kept on walking, closing his eyes with much confidence. Ironically, closing his eyes meant absolutely no sense of direction, and B.E.N. went tumbling down a steep, rooted hill, landing in a darker part of the jungle where only little sunlight showed down through the canopy. And besides, by now he had become dirty from all this filthy fungi. "Ouch…" he moaned after landing in a muddled heap. But he jumped to his feet and continued on his way, hearing the howling coos of distant animal calls.

In a short time, B.E.N. approached a wall of trumpet plant foliage. Curious, he parted the plants and widened his eyes. Before him was a huge, wide clearing. There was plenty of sunshine here. But the focal point of the clearing was a tall, metal tower that was covered with fungi and green moss and vines. There was an oval opening at the top, facing the outside like a giant window. B.E.N. smiled from ear to ear at the wonderful sight. Finally! Shelter! And he ran hastily up to the tower and climbed up the vines to the opening and landed inside the tower.

Inside was a wide room that struck B.E.N. as vaguely familiar. At the right side was a disarray of junk someone had left behind. Cloth, barrels, you name it. And yet, all of these items were essential and strangely fresh for use. What B.E.N. didn't remember as he quickly built a quaint living space with the found items was that he had been in this tower before with the late Captain Flint and his pirate crew five years ago.

In about an hour, B.E.N. completed the living space and stepped back to admire his work. He used a huge sheet of cloth to create a wall, behind which there was a cluttered arrangement of the crates, pots, pans, and nick-knacks he'd found, including a makeshift hammock that he would use as a bed. It wasn't perfect, but it could prove useful to him.

Well, he had shelter. What about food?

(ZZZZZ! The file containing information on the root origin of the hundred-year's supply of food for robots has been deemed inaccessible. ZZZZZ!)

Luckily, B.E.N. was able to find a supply of his favorite petroleum and a heaping amount of newly discovered items for him to eat, such as what he called exploding astro nuts, snarling bite-back bananas, and flying pop rockets. As he came to learn—the hard way—the flying pop rockets seemed to escape his grasp and he exerted his energy through chasing them until he was able to catch and eat them.

During the construction of the campsite, B.E.N. had found an old chess board with all of the pieces in tact, amazingly.

Just then, B.E.N. came to realize that he desperately needed a tune-up when he noticed that his metal needed buffing. In addition, his vision was just beginning to falter. Perhaps all he needed to do was to find someone that could give him that much-needed tune-up. So, he ventured out into the wilderness. Wandering between the helium trees and over small centipede tree underbrush, B.E.N. searched left and right for ages, calling out, "Hul-looooooo! Anybody out there? I could kinda use a good tune-up! Anybody?" A few times, he bumped painfully into a couple of trees because he was slightly lacking in vision. "Ohh…now I've got a headache."

As if answering B.E.N.'s call, a bunch of space animals showed themselves from their hiding places around the forest. Purple lunar eels with multiple tongues that could snatch prey were curved around the trunks of the trees and a scattered flock of manta birds popped up from between trumpet plants. The robot was overcome with fascination at the sight of these creatures and smiled.

"Hi there!" B.E.N. happily greeted. "Say, think you might help me? I kinda need a few repairs." The creatures stared at him, confused. Perhaps he wasn't using the right dialect? He tried something a bit simpler. "Uh…you…help me?" He pointed to himself. "Me need repairs." But the creatures slowly crept back into hiding, unable to understand. "Oh, wait!" The creatures stopped and looked back at B.E.N. "Um…Would you all be so kind as to help me with my repairs?" This time, the creatures seemed to understand, strangely enough.

It was tough trying to talk a few wild animals into doing what he so nicely asked them to do. Eventually, though, B.E.N. was able to persuade two manta birds into buffing his metal with their rough wings and three lunar eels into charging his eye sockets with their many tongues pulling at a few wires and using their electrical energy to get the job done. The animals had made it so easy for him; he kicked back and relaxed while the animals gave him his tune-up. In no time at all, he was smooth and shiny and his vision was in perfect shape. He rewarded them with heartfelt thanks.

After his tune-up, the space creatures followed B.E.N. back to his newfound bachelor pad in the tower and watched him put together a thick sandwich that consisted of his favored snacks. Though it wasn't his idea of a family picnic, he grew accustomed to it.

And this was only the beginning.

Over a great number of years, B.E.N. made do with whatever he was able to find and create based on what he had found. Every morning, he started the day with a few bite-back bananas and a can of his favorite petroleum straight up. In his spare time—which was most of the time—B.E.N. invented checkers games with the chessboard and pieces. Galaxy checkers, space checkers, gravity checkers…each game he invented was distinct as far as how to play each game.

But when B.E.N. played one of the checkers games he'd invented, he discovered something very crucial… He needed someone else to play with. Therein lay a problem: there really was no one else. B.E.N. was completely all by his lonesome. Besides the creatures he'd become friends with, he was the only living soul on this whole entire planet.

And despite this reality he was now facing, B.E.N. picked up a hat he'd found in the mess of junk, put it on his head, and declared himself Captain B.E.N. He figured that since there was no one else around he was the one in charge. So, life here wasn't as bad as many people would think,, because B.E.N. made the most of it. Then again, B.E.N. was also without a memory circuit to help him recall all the things that had happened before and the things he had missed.

And yet…over the decades…living here without anyone else also became quite lonely. He knew that there was something else other than this planet. What he lacked was the knowledge and the resources to finally get off of this miserable rock.

Well, at one time, he experimented at building a giant transportation system out of cagefungi and helium trees. Despite that once he would finish the thing and was to call it the Mambo Queen, his experiment ended to no avail.

With each passing year, B.E.N. lost his sanity bit by bit. And unfortunately, he was forced to endure one hundred years of total and complete solitude…

In the end, he had become his own best friend. His only friend.

To be continued…

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I hope it wasn't two short. So, anyway, please let me know how I'm doing. I greatly appreciate the reviews. As I said before in the past…I am working my butt off!