FuturAstrorama
III.
Professor Farnsworth rummaged through his tool bin and came out with an adapter fitting that matched the robot's fueling port with the end of the hose on the tank of deuterium. He opened the valve on the tank and
watched the flow meter.
"Oh my!" he exclaimed "He seems to be a bottomless pit, I've drained this tank of deuterium and I don't think I've quite filled him up. No matter, he has more than enough to power him up."
The professor reached into the tool bin and extracted a pair of very heavy rubber gloves, and a dark welder's helmet. He put these on, along with a heavy rubber apron which he slipped over his head.
"I'm going to need these because of the high voltage." he told Bender.
The professor walked over to a control panel on the wall and operated a switch. A high voltage generator slowly lowered from its storage position high above the room hidden in the tall ceiling. Farnsworth reached up and grabbed two heavy cables from the device and connected the ends of the cables into two points inside of the robot.
"Now please activate that large knife switch on the wall if you will Bender, and then shield your eyes!"
Bender did as he was instructed. The huge Van De Graaff generator started up. Lightning bolts flew between the two metal spheres of a Tesla coil. The high voltage output made the heavy cables in the professor's hands glow with a brilliant blue saint Elmo's fire.
"Holly Frankenstein!" Bender yelled.
The boy robot's body began to glow with an eerie green light and the room was filled with a loud 50 cycle hum. Bender clamped his hands over his ears as the noise ramped up in intensity.
"He's almost fully charged!" the professor said, his hands shaking from the vibration of the power flow through the heavy cables in his gloved hands. "OK, now turn off the juice!"
Bender grabbed the huge knife switch and yanked it into the off position. There was a tremendous arc as the switch opened, and then he could hear the sound of the generator winding down.
As the noise subsided Professor Farnsworth removed the two heavy cables from where he had been holding them inside of the robot.
"Come on, wake up!" he said.
Slowly, the robot opened its eyes. He raised his head and looked around.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"Welcome back!" the Professor said. "You're in New New York City in the year 3014. My name is Professor Farnsworth, and this robot over hear is Bender. He brought you back here from New Tokyo Japan."
"What's you name kid?" Bender asked.
The boy robot slowly steadied himself on the workbench and sat up. He swung his legs over the side of the table.
"My name is Tetsuwan Atom, although people also used to call me Astro Boy, or just Astro." He said. "I guess you can just call me Astro."
"Very well, Astro." Farnsworth said. "What is the last thing that you
remember?"
"I remember running out of energy and shutting down." Astro said. "Most of Japan was flooded from the rising sea, and people were being evacuated to the tops of mountains. Most of the world's major cities were going under water. The Ministry of science was doing everything they could to try and reverse the problems of global warming but it seemed impossible. I had helped to move as much of the archives and equipment as possible to safe locations. We were running out of energy because most of the power plants were now under water and shutting down."
Astro sighed and went on, "Finally, Professor Ochanomizu invented a reverse carbon cycle bomb that he hoped would scrub the atmosphere of green house gases. It had to be detonated high up above the stratosphere in order to work. I used the last of my energy to lift it up and detonate it. The last thing I remember was just barely making it back to the Ministry before my energy ran out. Cobalt, Uran, and Chi-tan were already sealed into air tight containers after the last of their energy had been siphoned into me so I could complete my mission. The professor then put me into airtight storage and I went to sleep. I never knew if the bomb worked."
"You'll be happy to know that your efforts were successful." the professor told Astro. "Several years after the reverse cycle bomb was exploded over the Pacific ocean CO2 and Methane levels in the atmosphere began to drop. It took a few hundred years before the effects accumulated enough to lower global temperatures and for the sea levels to drop back to what they had been. The coastal cities that had been underwater for centuries were rebuilt on top of the ruins of the originals. Along the east coast of the US we now have New Boston, New New York City, New Philadelphia, New New Orleans, New Miami, New Fort Lauderdale, and Washington A.C."
"Are Cobalt, Uran and Chi-tan the other three robots over there?" Bender asked.
Astro turned to look where Bender was pointing.
"Yes! Yes they are." He cried out. "Are they all right?"
"We haven't yet looked at them." Farnsworth said. "In any event, I'm going to have to get some more deuterium. I used up my supply of it getting you powered up,"
Astro opened his chest panel and looked at the gauges on the door.
"I'm about half full." He said. "That will hold me for a few days, but then I'll need more."
"Wow, you're a real gas guzzler!" Bender laughed.
"That's because I have 1,000,000 horse power!" Astro told him.
"Well, that's no problem." the professor said. "I will need some dark matter to fuel my deuterium extractor. Once I make some more we can wake up your brothers and sister."
"I'll go and get some of Nibbler's poop!" Bender said as he went to look for Leela's pet that craped dark matter.
Ministry of Science, New Tokyo Japan
Ochanomizu, Osmau glared up at the heads of Dr. Tenma and his great, great, great, etc, Grandfather. "What the hell happened!" he demanded. "Didn't you guys notice the break in back there?"
"I was half asleep when that obnoxious robot from the US was plundering the robot museum." the head of Professor Ochanomizu the first said. "Dr. Tenma was wide awake. I think he planted the idea for the theft into the robot's head."
"Guilty as charged!" Dr. Tenma said.
"What!" Osmau yelled up at the head of Tenma. "Why the hell would you do that?"
"Because for nearly 1000 years nobody has ever tried to bring those robots back to life." Tenma said. "Tobio gave his all to save the world many times, and then he was just sealed up in suspended animation and forgotten."
"His name was Atom!" the senior Ochanomizu yelled at Tenma.
"Whatever." Tenma said. "At this moment, I suspect that Bender and Professor Farnsworth are working on restoring him back to the land of the living. Atom will soon take his rightful place as king of all robots."