/ Chapter 6 – Travels with a Jetpack in a Small World /

In the span of five minutes, Frank Walker experienced one of the lowest emotional points of his life, and suddenly he was hitting the highest. His mouth hung open as he watched the utterly strange girl walk away. He still vividly felt the touch of her warm hand on his, as he looked down at the pin that she'd placed in his palm. It had a strange logo on it that resembled a "T" and also looked like the top of a building. It was a neat pin, but he wasn't sure what it was for.

All he knew was that a very pretty, very mysterious girl with amazing blue-gray eyes and a British accent had just told him that she was the future and that he was supposed to follow her. In his current state of mind, she could have asked him to walk into a wood chipper machine demonstration and he would have gladly complied.

Suddenly he shook himself, realizing that he was supposed to count to twenty and follow. How long has it been? He thought in a panic. Maybe it's been about 10? I don't know!

Frank forced himself to calm down, and called it ten seconds. He counted off 11 to 20, then got up, slinging his jetpack over his shoulder and walked after her. Soon he spotted her up ahead following closely the group of adults. To his relief, she glanced back and smiled, reassuring him that he was on the right track – and reassuring him that what happened really did happen and he didn't just imagine it.

As he thought back on his encounter with the strange girl, he recalled that the man had called her Athena. He wasn't even sure how he remembered this; the whole thing was a blur.

They moved through the exhibits into another area of the fair that held a number of pavilions. Athena and the group entered a pavilion labeled "It's a Small World, Presented by Walt Disney," which looked like some sort of ride. Suddenly he remembered that Athena had given him a pin, so he pinned it to his shirt in case it was needed to get him in.

Entering the ride area, Frank saw small boats that floated along a water track, moving people into one tunnel, and then out another tunnel in a loop. It looked as though Athena's group was going to ride it, which seemed very strange to Frank. But Athena told him to follow them, so he wasn't about to start asking questions now.

He saw her enter a boat with the group. She glanced back at him, looking worried that he was so far back. This motivated him to push past the line of people, as though he were with someone. And anyway, technically he was. He kept his eye on Athena, but then the ride operator strangely held up the line, letting a few boats go empty after Athena's group.

He saw his chance. Frank hopped over the railing and ran over to some maintenance stairs that led down to the water track. He hopped over a rope across the stairs and moved down toward a maintenance walkway, where he could see Athena sitting in the back of the boat just as she entered the tunnel. She glanced back again and gave him a meaningful look.

Frank didn't need any more invitation than that. He ran down the walkway and hopped into the empty boat behind Athena's, careful not to have his jetpack clunk the boat too loudly. Fortunately, her group was preoccupied and looking forward.

Athena disappeared into the tunnel. Frank ducked low into the boat, trying not to get spotted as she'd warned him as he entered the tunnel as well. Small puppets danced and sang "It's a small world after all!" around him as he realized that Athena's boat was no longer in front of him; there was a gap where the boat should have been. He looked around frantically, wondering if there was something he was supposed to do.

A very narrow beam of red light shot out of the eye of some singing Italian doll that was holding a piece of wood and a tool. He saw the beam touch his pin and then seem to trace the pattern of the odd 'T' symbol. The light disappeared and Frank had just enough time to wonder, what the heck was tha…, when suddenly the water track dropped down at a steep angle. Frank let out a surprised yell as his boat flew down a ramp and splashed down onto a different track. He looked around wildly, just in time to see a trapdoor above and behind him flip back shut.

The new tunnel was very dark, with only the track lit as the boat moved gently along the water. He could barely make out some walls, but otherwise had no idea what was going on. He called out "hello!" several times, but it just echoed in the tunnel, and there was still no sign of Athena or her group.

A few minutes later, a landing dock lit up with a strange blue glow where his boat came to a gentle stop. There was a strange metallic building on the dock which resembled, if anything, some sort of subway car in the shape of a cube with rounded edges. The cube had windows, into which Frank could see lights and various other things. A circle of light surrounded the cube on the dock, and a lighted passageway led from the edge of the dock to a metal-framed glass door.

"Good afternoon. Please step into the transport," a woman's recorded voice requested.

Frank exited the boat and walked slowly toward the cube, his head on a swivel looking all around. He couldn't see anything else; wherever Athena and her group went, it must have something to do with the cube.

As he approached, the glass doors slid open invitingly. He entered the cube and noticed there were several signs that said, "World's Fair Special Transport."

"In order to prevent significant injury, please wear your head protection," the recorded voice announced.

Frank blinked, thinking that this was probably important. He noticed there were some protective hard hats on hooks along one wall, but they looked a little high…

Before Frank could worry about the helmets, steel shutters suddenly slammed down over the windows and the voice made another announcement. "Secure yourself and prepare for transport. Commencing in ten… nine… eight…"

Frank dropped his jetpack duffel bag and ran toward the hard hats. "Wait!" he shouted, as the countdown continued. He jumped up but couldn't quite reach the hard hat.

"Six… Five…"

"Wait!" he shouted again.

"Four… Three…"

Finally Frank decided he needed to just secure himself any way he could, so he grabbed hold of a metal post and hung on for precious life. "Two… One… Transport initiating."

The world twisted in some dimension Frank couldn't perceive as the cube started violently shuddering, colors flashing all around him. It seemed to take an eternity and be instantly over at the same time. Frank slammed into the floor, without understanding how he'd gone from his pole into the air.

He lay for several seconds, just waiting to see if everything was going to stay calm. The door to the "subway cube" slid open again and he could see it was now very brightly lit outside. He climbed slowly to his feet, picking up his duffel bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He slowly walked out the door.

He immediately felt a chill, as a blast of cold, foggy air hit him. He was on some sort of platform, with a number of lines and geometric figures on it. He slowly walked forward, trying to make out anything in the fog. But what was going through his mind was that he'd instantly gone somewhere else, and not only that, it definitely felt outdoors now. If this was an issue of Amazing Stories, they would call it teleportation, but this was something that had just happened to him. Maybe he blanked out?

What, blanked out and then the whole box was moved somewhere else? Why? How would that work? He thought, utterly perplexed.

He heard a loud hum, and then a strange curvy vehicle resembling a roundish car flew up out of the fog. Frank squinted and made out the unmistakable smiling face of Athena looking back at him. She waved at him, but was jetting off into the air. Some part of Frank's mind was registering that he was seeing a flying car, but at the moment, he was overwhelmed with everything being weird. And suddenly his biggest problem was being left by himself.

Frank ran after her, hoping they would see him and wait to take him, because he had no clue what to do after this. He ran down the platform, trying to catch up. He ran under a sign that said, "Do Not Enter. Danger. Construction Zone." At that moment, it seemed more important to try and catch a ride, but the car flew away, leaving him behind.

He was just wondering what to do next when he saw some huge construction machine suddenly move out of the fog, straight at him. The machine had several dozen arms, some arms placing large metal beams, while others welded them into place. Frank dodged as the arms whipped around him, by some miracle missing him. But in the dodging, he knocked into one of the metal beams, fell off the side of the platform and landed on another platform below. Looking up, he saw that his duffle bag had fallen as well, but was caught on a bar of metal, hanging by the strap. He watched the bag rip open and his jetpack fell straight toward him. He quickly moved aside as it hit the deck, just missing landing on top of him.

Frank was shaken up, but mostly unharmed as he climbed to his feet. But he hardly noticed his pain from the fall because his jetpack was lying on the platform, broken into many pieces. He picked up one of the nozzles, trying to see if it was fixable. But it was apparent that it would be hopeless to fix, at least without a ton of work and a machine shop. He sadly tossed the part back on the pile.

Abruptly a huge machine spun around, which was only barely visible in the fog. It was giant, about fifteen feet tall as it moved toward Frank and the pile of parts. It had two large arms ending in claws and two cameras in the center of its body, all mounted on a wheeled platform. Images from his Amazing Stories magazine popped into his head of giant killer robots as he backed away nervously.

But the machine apparently wasn't interested in Frank. It picked up the main body of the jetpack and moved it over to a nearby flat surface.

"Hey!" Frank said, thinking the machine was stealing his jetpack, but as he walked forward, the robot gently pushed him back with its other arm. It slowly turned over his jetpack, seeming to inspect it from all angles. Finally, it came to some sort of decision as it began to disassemble it and grab the other parts off the deck. It began subtly moving and bending various parts, and then welding them back on. The robot reached into a nearby bin and pulled out some new metal rods and plates and welded those on as well.

Frank decided there was nothing to be done, so just watched it do whatever it was doing. About five minutes later, the robot picked up the jetpack and gently handed it to Frank, who took the now reassembled device. He set it on the ground and saw that it was similar to how it was, yet subtly different.

"Did you fix it?" Frank said, blinking at the robot.

The robot turned to him and raised its arm, then a welding tool popped out, resembling nothing less than a thumb's up. Somehow this shocked Frank more than anything he'd seen so far, wondering if the robot had actually understood him.

"Hey! There he is!" someone suddenly yelled. Several workers were running over at him, startling Frank.

Frank picked up his jetpack again, but the harnesses had become tangled in his feet. He fearfully backed up from the men and tripped, tumbling over the edge of the platform, tangled jetpack and all.

He fell through onrushing air, fog all around him. Frank started panicking, knowing that he was falling from a very great height. With the fog around him, he had no idea where the ground was. But suddenly he broke through the cloud layer and he could finally see. But this wasn't much better, because he saw that he was very high above a city, plummeting straight down.

He saw his jetpack flapping around him and he realized a shoulder harness was caught on his leg, which was fortunate because the jetpack was catching the air differently than him and was trying to pull away. Frank realized this was his only chance; he needed to somehow strap it on and possibly slow his descent with it.

He gripped the harness and muscled it off his leg. The wind was trying to tear it out of his hands but he managed to get an arm through it, then an arm through the other harness. If he could just get the belt latched, he might have a chance. He grabbed at it, but it was whipping around in the wind. Frank felt panicky as the ground grew closer, but then the belt whipped around his wrist. He pushed the strap into his hand, then by some luck he got a hand on the other strap. He pushed them together, getting them to finally latch. He grabbed the control sticks and squeezed the ignition and the fuel handles to full power.

The jetpack fired up; the repair robot had apparently done its job. Frank immediately felt himself decelerating, coming to a stop in the air next a large building, but then immediately began accelerating once again straight up.

"Gaaagggh!" Frank said in a panic. At least he wasn't falling, but flying out of control wasn't much better. He forced himself to calm down and slowly released the fuel lever, slowing him and gaining a measure of stability. At last he felt safe enough to focus on exactly where he was. There was an enormous city around him, unlike anything he'd ever seen. The sun was shining off gleaming towers and roads and parks and… yes, flying cars. He now recalled that Athena flew away in a flying car, but it was still hard to wrap his mind around.

He began to get a feel for how the jetpack handled, and was astounded that it was working almost exactly as he envisioned it. He could steer it, control the power, and generally go where he wanted to. He saw an interesting looking square under construction so he headed over there, flying past numerous people walking through the streets. Some he could even see pointing up at him.

Frank circled around, heading back to where he thought he'd come from, where an enormous tower building was being constructed. A worrying thought started to go through his mind, however… he wasn't sure how much fuel was left, so he'd better land the thing – and come to think of it, he wasn't quite sure how to land the thing.

As these disturbing thoughts entered his head, he suddenly saw Athena down far below, walking away with the group of people he'd seen. Excited, he jetted over and managed to hover about fifty feet above her, though his balance felt precarious.

"Hey!" he yelled, waving his hand with the ignition control stick, though he wasn't sure if it was his shout or the noise of his jetpack that caught her attention. Either way, Athena looked up and waved back. Frank knew it was no time to show off, but he couldn't help hoping she was impressed, because he felt like pretty much the coolest kid that had ever lived in human history.

The jetpack sputtered for a split second, then went back to full power. Frank dropped in the air. Uh oh, he thought. The fuel was running out. He needed to land now.

He let off on the power to let himself fall, but then would start dropping too fast, causing himself to panic by hitting the gas too hard and overcompensating. He jerked up, down and to the side almost completely uncontrolled. He was at some kind of dock and ran into a pile of large cans, knocking them over. He finally managed to jerk up and down only about five feet above the ground. Figuring that was about as good as it was going to get, he cut the engine.

By some miracle, Frank landed on his feet near Athena and Nix. Athena looked convinced he'd been about to die. Nix looked a combination of shocked and angry, both locked in a titanic battle to see which would win.

Frank looked at Nix, feeling like he should probably be worried, but what had just happened was so miraculously amazing that his mouth started working before his brain had a chance to think.

"It works now!" he said to Nix with a smug grin, probably provoking Nix more than was wise. But he was a kid with a jetpack. Whatever else Nix could say, he couldn't argue with that.

Nix huffed out a breath and stalked away. Frank watched his retreating back, feeling like this wasn't over yet. But then he turned to Athena, who he caught casting a glare at Nix's back, and suddenly Nix mattered a whole less. She turned to him and her face lit up with a smile.

Frank grinned back. "So… what is this place?"

Athena's smile grew wider. She took his hand and led him over to the edge of the landing platform where they could get a great view. Frank had never seen anything like the city before him, not even in his science fiction magazines. Gleaming towers lived side by side with beautiful parks, seeming to strike a balance between human architecture and natural surroundings.

"I can't believe this place," Frank said. "It's like some kind of dream."

"Yes, many people have that reaction," Athena said.

Frank couldn't help gasping and pointing at various buildings and sites, as he described what he was seeing to Athena who nodded and smiled along with him. A rocket suddenly launched off in the distance, causing Frank to emit an audible gasp. "Was… was that a rocket taking off?"

"Yes," Athena said. "Apparently they had a launch today."

Frank shook his head. "But where are we exactly?"

Before Athena could answer, Nix came up with a small woman in tow. "...clearly disobeyed me," he was saying with irritation. "Somehow she smuggled the boy in when I specifically told her not to."

The woman frowned, then walked over and turned her attention to Athena. "Athena, is it true you brought someone when Dr. Nix told you not to?"

"Yes," Athena said calmly.

"Why did you do this?" the woman asked, her expression unreadable.

"I liked him," Athena said simply.

This gave Frank a warm feeling, though he couldn't help but be amused how the woman waited for more, but Athena stayed clammed up, just smiling pleasantly.

"All right," the woman finally said with a sigh. She turned to Nix. "I'll look into it more when I get us back to the lab." Frank noted she had a matching British accent and matching eyes to Athena's.

Nix huffed. "We can't have things like this happen. Things are difficult enough without security breaches like this. What are we supposed to do with the boy?"

"Now, David, I wouldn't call this a 'security breach.' But I'll figure out what happened. Since Athena brought him, I'll take charge of him and figure out what should be done."

"His name is Frank," Athena supplied.

Nix glared at Athena, before giving a curt nod to the woman and stalking off. As he left, Frank saw her wink at Athena.

The woman turned to him. "Well, hello, Frank," she said kindly. "My name is Caroline."

"Hi," Frank said shyly.

"Why don't we head over to my office and we can figure out what's going on."

They took a glass-enclosed lift down to ground level from the landing platform and started walking along a white, gleaming sidewalk. Frank's head swiveled about as he took in the sweeping spires and various buildings that seemed from the future.

They took a right turn into a large park surrounded by buildings. The park was filled with planters containing various flowers, many of which looked very unusual to Frank. He wasn't sure where they were, but the plants sure looked like they were from far away from New York.

Finally they reached a large complex, with a sign across the middle that said, "Robotics and Audio-Animatronics Research Laboratory." The front of the complex was made of glass in a hemispherical shape, coming up out of the ground and arcing up to meet the edge of the building. But more interesting than that was a very odd sculpture in front of the glass doors. There were two ten-foot figures; each had one side look human and the other side was a robot, smoothly transitioning from one to the other. Frank thought this was very cool effect; one side of their body was clearly gleaming metal and the other side looked convincingly like a skin-like material and somehow the middle looked like a combination of both. The figures were standing with back straight, but one knee bent, reaching down with their hands on handles connected to the glass hemisphere. As the three of them approached, the figures moved and pulled the hemisphere apart, opening the glass and allowing them entry. One thing Frank noted was that on one side, it was the human arm pulling, and on the other side, the machine arm pulled, which he thought was interesting symbolism.

They entered the glass hemisphere, which led into an entry lobby with several hallways branching off. Caroline moved to the rightmost one, and they continued down the hall, passing a number of doors before coming to one marked "Caroline Chaumers, Ph.D." Caroline pressed a button and a voice said, "Welcome back, Dr. Chaumers," startling Frank. Clearly the door sensed who it was, but he was even more surprised when the door slid up into the frame. As Frank walked through, he looked up to see where the door would go, since presumably there was a floor above the one they were on. Maybe the door rolls up inside?

"Okay," Caroline said. "Let's all have a seat and get this figured out."

They walked over to a conference table in the corner of her large office and sat down. "Well, Frank, let me get caught up. You showed that rocket pack to Dr. Nix?"

"Yes," Frank said. "He didn't like it, though. Then Athena gave me a pin and I came here."

"Hmm," Caroline said. "I suspect there's a bit more to the story, but let's set that aside for now. I suppose the most important question is whether there's anyone worried about you. Were your parents at the fair?"

"No," Frank answered. "My father is back on our farm in upstate New York. My mother passed away a few years ago. I came on the bus by myself. My father isn't expecting me back for a couple of days. I was supposed to stay at the World's Fair Hotel."

Caroline raised her eyebrows. "You came by yourself with that rocket device? How old are you?"

"I'm eleven," Frank answered.

"Hmm," Caroline said, glancing at Athena, who looked back at her with some kind of meaningful look.

"All right, well that certainly simplifies things until we can figure out what to do with you," Caroline said.

"But what is this place? Where is it? What was that box that brought me here? Did I teleport or something? What the heck is going on?" Frank asked in one breath, unable to hold himself back any further.

Caroline chuckled. "I'm certain you have even more questions than that, but I'm afraid I can't answer most of them, Frank. The fact is, you aren't technically supposed to be here or know about this place. Now, don't be worried," she quickly followed. "That doesn't mean you're in trouble or anything bad will happen to you."

"Can you at least tell me the name of this place?" Frank asked.

"I suppose I can, since you're already here and most likely will hear it at some point. We call this place Tomorrowland," Caroline said.

"Tomorrowland," Frank repeated, running the word around in his head. "It's sort of named that because you have things here that will be everywhere in the future?"

"Very insightful," Caroline said with a grin. "Unfortunately, you're too perceptive. I have to watch what I say before we send you home."

"But I saw a lot of people here," Frank persisted. "And I even saw a lot of other kids and families. So other people live here?"

"Yes, many people live here in the city," Caroline said. "But we normally only invite people under very specific conditions."

"So I might be able to stay?" Frank burst out. He wasn't even sure where that came from, but there was something about this place that felt exactly like the place he was meant to be.

Caroline hesitated at that. "That's a complicated question. You say your father has a farm, so I'm sure it would be difficult for him to live here, assuming that could even work out."

"My father wouldn't come under any circumstances," Frank said, a little bitterly. "I meant, I want to live here by myself – permanently."

Caroline leaned forward. "Sweetie, wouldn't you miss your family? That's an awfully big step you're talking about."

"Let's just say my father understands farming. He doesn't understand me and my projects," Frank said.

He paused, wanting to somehow make her understand. He started again hesitantly, the words coming with difficulty. "Did you know Isaac Newton was sent to a farm? He eventually escaped back to an academy. This place – this place feels like a place Newton would have gone. Where I want to go. Where I need to go."

Caroline smiled compassionately, then looked at Frank's jetpack, sitting next to him. She was lost in thought, as she reached over and ran her fingers along the fuel tank.

Athena had been very quiet, but offered, "Frank made it himself. There were problems with the control system, but I see some modifications have been made. From the welds, it looks like one of the service robots made some improvements." She turned to Frank. "Did they?"

Frank's eyes popped at Athena's accurate assessment, but nodded. "Yeah, it broke when I got here, but then a robot put it back together and suddenly I could control it."

"The service robots are limited, but sometimes they are smart enough to fix something the way they think it should be, rather than the way it used to be," Athena said.

"I can't wait to take it apart and see how they fixed it!" Frank exclaimed, temporarily forgetting the question of whether he was staying or not. "Control systems are really hard and the books that I found used advanced math, and I've only learned part of first year calculus. But I'm working on it really hard!"

Caroline laughed. "I'm sure you are, Frank. I'm going to tell you that it's remarkable what you accomplished here. It's absolutely brilliant and I can see why Athena liked you. In fact, it reminds me a bit of some projects I worked on as a little girl in England."

Athena beamed at him and Frank deeply blushed, barely able to squeak out, "Thanks."

Frank looked at Caroline curiously. "Are you an engineer?"

"Yes, I'm an audio-animatronics and robotics engineer," she said. "I run the robotics research lab."

Frank looked at her like she was some kind of god-like figure. "Did you build that robot that fixed my jetpack?"

"Yes, that was one of my projects," she said. "Though, keep in mind that there are many team members that contribute to a project like that. We were especially proud of its ability to analyze machines in order to fix them. They can't fix all machines, but they're particularly good with things that have clear classical physics involved."

"Wow," Frank said, feeling overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information he was absorbing.

"And you've managed to wheedle more information out of me that I shouldn't have told you, but my projects are my weak spot," Caroline said, smiling. "Well, let's get you somewhat settled and we'll see what falls out. Frank, I will seriously consider your request, though of course I make no promises. What we'll do is put you up in the Tomorrowland Hotel and we can talk more tomorrow. Athena will escort you and I'll call ahead to set things up. You'll have an account there so you can eat in the restaurant. You can just leave your jetpack here in my office."

"Okay," Frank said. "Thanks for, um, saving me from Dr. Nix."

Caroline laughed at this. "He's a bit intimidating, isn't he? But don't worry, his bark is worse than his bite. He just gets tetchy when unplanned things occur."

"Ready to go?" Athena asked Frank, smiling.

"Sure," Frank replied, standing up.

He turned to Caroline and paused, trying to think of what he wanted to say. "And thank you for thinking about whether I can stay. I just… feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life. I know it probably sounds crazy. It does to me, too. But when I made the jetpack and entered that contest, it was sort of making the decision that somehow that would be my future, and the farm wouldn't be. You know? I'm probably making no sense."

Caroline smiled, a little sadly. "Speaking as a woman whose father didn't understand in any way the idea of women scientists and engineers, especially being fifteen years old when I left home nearly thirty years ago, I might understand better than you think."

Author's Note: When you think about it, reviews are a lot like repair robots. So be sure and do your part to keep Tomorrowland in good repair.

The official story site is at www. frankandathena .com for discussions of the story! - T.K.