Chapter 3-Where Is He
"Where is he?" Clockwork stormed into a giant room filled with ghosts who were working on various things, but most on where 626 was.
"He's still in hyper-space," one of the ghosts at a computer said patiently.
"Where will he exit?" Clockwork asked, walking down the steps.
"Calculating now," another ghost said. "Quadrant 17, Section 005, Area 51. A planet called 'Ee-aar-th," she said, obviously struggling with the word 'Earth.'
"I want an expert on this planet in here NOW!" Clockwork said, looking around. He looked the big screen where an animated recreation of 626's ship was moving towards our blue planet. "What is that?" Clockwork asked, motioning to the blue 626 was moving towards.
"Water," said yet another ghost. "Most of the planet is covered in it,"
"He won't survive in water; his molecular density is too great," Clockwork mumbled to himself, but some of the other ghosts heard and got excited.
As the ghosts watched the animated recreation, a small green island came into view, right below 626's ship. "No..." Clockwork moaned, shaking his head. 626 wasn't going to drown; Hawaii and all its islands were coming into view. 626's ship made contact with the island of Kauai.
An alarm went off, signaling a landing. Luckily this recreation was seeing into the future, and the ghosts were just seeing where 626 was GOING to land, and if he was going to die or not. And as it turned out, he was going to be ok.
"Of course," Clockwork groaned. "How much time do we have?" He asked one of his ghosts. He meant, how much time before 626 REALLY landed.
"We have projected his landing at 3 hours, 42 minutes," the ghost who couldn't pronounce 'Earth' said.
"Ugh, we have to guess the planet," Clockwork said.
"Hold it! Hold everything!" A holographic image of a woman said, running up to Clockwork. She was wearing a blue-green jumpsuit, red goggles, and black gloves. "'Earth' is a protected wildlife reserve. Yeah, we've been using it to rebuild the mosquito population," she said, holding up a picture of a mosquito. "Which, need I remind you, is an ENDANGERED SPECIES!" She said, rolling up the picture and gently hitting Clockwork with it, who in turn flinched in disgust.
"Am I to assume you are the expert?" Clockwork said, not at all in the mood for games. He never was.
"Ohh, I dunno about 'expert'," the woman said, chuckling and pulling at her jumpsuit collar nervously and modestly. Clockwork raised his eyebrows at her. She stopped chuckling. "Agent Maddie at your service," the holographic Maddie said, becoming serious.
"Can we not simply destroy the island?" Clockwork asked, getting back to the matter at hand.
"NO!" Maddie shouted. "Crazy-head!" Clockwork flinched at the name, surprised that someone of such lower class would dare call him that. "The mosquito's food of choice, primitive humanoid life forms, have colonies all over that planet," Maddie said impatiently, pulling out a ViewFinder and putting in a circular disc and clicked the side handle a few times before handing it to Clockwork.
"Are they intelligent?" Clockwork asked, holding the ViewFinder to his eyes.
"No, but they're very delicate. In fact, every time an asteroid strikes their planet, they have to begin life all over," Clockwork sighed as he handed the ViewFinder back to Maddie. "It's fascinating, isn't it? But this, I've been able to study," Maddie said excitedly.
"What if our military forces just landed there?" Clockwork asked, wanting to get 626 back since he couldn't destroy Earth.
"Well, that'd be a BAD IDEA!" Maddie yelled again. "These are extremely simple creatures, Mister. Landing there would create mass mayhem and planet-wide panic,"
"A quiet capture would require an understanding of 626 that we do not possess. Who, then, Miss Maddie, would YOU send for his extraction?"
Maddie thought a moment before asking, "Does he have a brother?" Which made Clockwork roll his eyes in impatience. Maddie asked again, trying to his the right one, "Close grandmother, perhaps?"