Tracey West
Page 1
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Title Page
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
PRICE STERN SLOAN
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CHAPTER 1
The class full of high school kids yawned in boredom as the lights dimmed. A digital film projected onto a big screen in the front of their classroom.
“The Surface,” began the film’s narrator. “A desolate wasteland populated by warlike tribes of primitive scavengers. It’s survival of the fittest for its unlucky inhabitants.” The image of a gleaming metropolis appeared on the screen. “And there we are, Metro City!” The entire city hovered over the Surface of the planet, held up by some unseen force.
Someone in the class groaned. Not another cheesy film about Metro City!
“The jewel in the crown!” boasted the narrator. “Beautiful, isn’t it? And all thanks to our friends the robots.”
A silver robot wheeled into the scene and began cooking a meal for a family, even reminding the father to call his mom on her birthday.
“That’s right! Whether it’s serving our meals, raising our children, or building our buildings, no job is too big or too small,” the narrator went on. “Including a lot of the things that, frankly, we just don’t want to do anymore.”
A car whizzed by and dropped a cup on the street. A robot appeared and happily swept up the can. Then ... Wham! A truck whizzed by, running right over the robot. A family appeared looking worried.
“Don’t worry! The street will still get cleaned,” the narrator promised, as the broken robot was swept into a garbage truck.
The scene cut to a robot factory. Robot workers were making new robots out of parts that sped by on an assembly line.
“You see, robots are not only expendable, they’re incredibly cheap to make,” the narrator explained. “One robot is created. Then that guy makes himself a new buddy.” Now the screen showed a long line of brand-new robots. They marched out of the factory, ready to begin their new jobs.
“Pretty soon all those robots making robots adds up to a whole bunch of robots, eager and willing to serve you and me,” the narrator went on. “Thousands are created every day.”
“And it’s all thanks to this man, Dr. Tenma of the Ministry of Science, also known as the Father of Modern Robotics.”
Now the screen showed a tall scientist with a long face, an unruly head of dark hair, and a tuft on his chin to match. He wore a rumpled, white lab coat.
There was a low murmur in the classroom.
“Hey, Toby, isn’t that your dad?” a boy asked.
He spoke to the boy sitting next to him. Toby Tenma’s black hair was sculpted into shark fin-like points on the top and sides of his head. He was dressed neatly in a blue and red collared shirt and black pants. Toby rolled his wide, brown eyes.
“It sure is,” he said, trying to sound like he didn’t care. But inside, he was really proud of his father.
Back on the screen, the camera was focused on some children and a robot at a lemonade stand.
“Our friends the robots serve us,” the narrator continued. “Thousands are created every day, and thousands are disposed of in the great unending cycle that sustains life in our city.”
A garbage truck pulled up filled with old and broken robots. Then the screen showed hundreds of robots being pushed off the side of Metro City. They landed on a great heap of junked robots on the Surface below.
“Thanks for everything, guys,” the narrator finished. He chuckled. “May you rust in peace!”
Nobody in the classroom laughed at the joke. The lights in the classroom went on. The teacher, Mr. Moustachio, pressed a button on a remote. The screen went blank. He turned to the room full of kids.
“Okay, students. Pop quiz!” he said cheerfully.
All of the students groaned except for Toby. He actually looked pleased.
Mr. Moustachio passed out the papers. “You have three hours to complete the quiz. Begin.”
“I’m so busted!” moaned a girl next to Toby. The rest of the students muttered complaints as they turned over their papers.
Toby didn’t hesitate. He entered the answers into his desktop computer at lightning speed. Then he raised his hand.
Mr. Moustachio peered over the book he was reading. “Yes, Toby? Is there a problem?”
“There’s no problem,” Toby replied. “I’m just finished and I’d like to leave.”
The other students gasped.
“Finished?” Mr. Moustachio asked. He looked astonished.
Toby shrugged. “For rocket science, it wasn’t exactly rocket science.”
“Well, I don’t suppose there’s much point in you staying—” Mr. Moustachio began, but Toby was already at the door.
He grinned. “Good luck, guys.”
He closed the door behind him as the other kids whispered to each other. How could Toby possibly take the quiz so fast?
“Okay, settle down!” Mr. Moustachio ordered.
He checked Toby’s answers on his computer. The grade popped up on the screen: 100 pe
rcent. The teacher shook his head.
“Just like his father!”
Outside the school, a cheerful house robot waited to greet Toby. Orrin was an early model robot with a fairly simple shape. His head was a round, metal ball with two expressive eyes and a blue laser light for a mouth. His barrel-shaped metal torso was attached to the lower half of his body at the waist by a ball joint, so he could pivot in all directions. Orrin had two arms, but no legs; he rolled around on a single wheel.
Orrin paced back and forth in front of the Tenma limousine. He nervously practiced greeting his master.
“Hello, Master Toby,” he began. But that didn’t sound right. “No, no, no, no.”
He tried again. He had to get it just right. Master Toby could be difficult to please.
“Hello, young sir ... not young sir, that’s ... Hello! Hello! Hello! Young—how was. How. Hmm ... ”
Toby emerged from the entrance of the school wearing a baseball cap and carrying his schoolbag. Orrin panicked.
“Oh. Oh gosh. Oh my goodness!”
He quickly held the door of the limo open for Toby. “Hello, Master Toby. Uh, good—uh, did you have a good—”
Toby tossed his bag into the air.
“Think fast, Orrin!”
Orrin dove to catch the bag. He grabbed it just before it hit the sidewalk.
“Thank you, Master Toby,” Orrin said obediently. “Very good throw, by the way.”
Orrin stashed Toby’s bag in the limo and took his place in the driver’s seat. Toby sat in the backseat. A hologram of his father appeared on the seat next to him.
Dr. Tenma wore his white lab coat, just like in the movie Toby had just seen. His hologram sat stiffly in the seat, and both he and Toby stared straight ahead as they talked.
“Hello, son,” Dr. Tenma said.
“Hello, sir,” Toby replied.
“How was school?” his father asked.
Toby rolled his eyes. “Oh, great. Moustachio sprung a pop quiz on us, but I’m pretty sure I got a hundred.”
“That’s good, son. Very good, but I don’t want you to become complacent,” Dr. Tenma advised. “It’s very important to keep studying. Onward and upward, Toby.”
“Sure, Dad,” Toby said.
Dr. Tenma and Toby cleared their throats at the same time, in exactly the same way. It was easy to see that they were father and son.
“I’m aware that I promised to take you to that symposium on Quantum Mechanics, but I’m afraid I have to take a rain check again,” he said.
“I guessed as much,” Toby replied. He was disappointed, but he’d never show it.
“I’m sorry, Toby, but it’s unavoidable,” his father explained. “President Stone has brought forth the unveiling of the Peacekeeper.”
“The Peacekeeper? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Toby cried. He practically bounced in his seat. The Peacekeeper was the largest military robot ever created. He had heard his father talk about it, and he really wanted to see it up close.
“I never kid,” Dr. Tenma said seriously. “Good-bye, son.”
The hologram disappeared.
“The Peacekeeper, huh?” Toby mused. “Hey, Orrin, change of plan. Take me to the Ministry of Science.”
The robot shook his head. “I’m sorry, Master Toby, but your father gave me strict instructions to ... stop that! Wh-what are you doing back there? Hey! Hey!”
Toby leaned across the seat and quickly worked to rewire Orrin via the control panel on the robot’s back. Reprogramming Orrin’s orders was child’s play.
Orrin stopped protesting. He stepped on the gas.
“Next stop, Ministry of Science.”
CHAPTER 2
The sound of marching boots echoed down the gleaming halls of the Ministry of Science. The boots belonged to dozens of soldiers in black uniforms who marched in perfect formation. President Stone, a tall, stern-looking man in black, led the group. He was flanked by Dr. Tenma and his Secretary of Defense, General Heckler.
“Ready to blow me away today, Tenma?” President Stone asked. “To make my hair stand up, to knock my socks off?”
“Er, yes, metaphorically speaking,” Dr. Tenma replied. He looked slightly uncomfortable. A man of science, Dr. Tenma preferred calculations and machines to actual people, and President Stone had enough personality for ten men.
“That’s the spirit!” Stone said, slapping Dr. Tenma on the back.
“Dr. Elefun is an esteemed colleague of mine, Mr. President,” Dr. Tenma began cautiously. “He may be resistant to having his discovery used for military purposes.”
“Leave Dr. Elefun to me,” President Stone replied darkly.
“Dad!”
Dr. Tenma turned to see Toby running toward them. Orrin followed him, but he was still confused from Toby’s rewiring job. The robot kept slamming into the wall.
“Hold that kid! Get him!” one of the soldiers yelled.
A soldier grabbed Toby by his ankle, leaving him dangling upside down. “What are you doing here?” Dr. Tenma said angrily. “I gave Orrin instructions to—”
Orrin slammed into the wall again. “Ow, ow, ow, ow ... ”
“I wanted to see the demonstration,” Toby said eagerly. “You’re always talking about the Peacekeeper.”
“Really, Toby,” Dr. Tenma said, annoyed.
President Stone nodded at Toby. “Your boy?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” Dr. Tenma replied.
“Well, let him tag along,” President Stone said pleasantly. “It’ll be good for him. Educational.”
The soldier let go of Toby’s leg. “Releasing potential threat,” he said.
“So you’re interested in robots, son?” President Stone asked. “Robot weapons?”
“Absolutely,” Toby answered. “Although I’m sure you’ll agree, the latest D-Class Interceptor underlying deployment-to-target systems is quite old-fashioned.”
President Stone frowned. “Nobody likes a smarty- pants, kid.” He nodded to the soldier. “Take this boy to a safe place and keep him there.”
The soldier grabbed Toby again.
“But you said I could see the Peacekeeper!” Toby protested.
“You still can,” the president said. “On tonight’s news with everybody else.”
The soldier dragged Toby away. President Stone and the others marched down the hall and entered a large lecture hall. Rows of metal desks and seats filled with spectators surrounded a round platform. A small, round man in a white lab coat stood on the platform. He had a big, round nose in the center of his pleasant face. He was mostly bald, with a cloud of white hair ringing his head.
“Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Blue Core energy,” Dr. Elefun said.
A hologram appeared on the stage with him—a giant, glowing sphere of blue light. The crowd gasped in wonder. The light looked soothing and peaceful.
“Blue Core energy,” the scientist explained. He stepped closer to the audience. “A new self-sustaining power source much stronger than nuclear energy, and infinitely cleaner.”
The hologram changed. A 3-D image of a blue star appeared. The star exploded, breaking into pieces.
“The raw materials came from space,” Dr. Elefun went on. “A fragment of a star millions of light years away that no longer even exists. This is now all that’s left of it.”
The hologram faded, and a light shone on a pillar on the stage. A small, blue globe encased in a glass box sat on top of the pillar.
“Properly harnessed, this small sphere could transform not only Metro City, but life for those on the Surface as well,” Dr. Elefun said, smiling hopefully.
Then he caught sight of President Stone and the soldiers in the balcony. His smile faded.
“Imagine cleaning up the earth’s water,” Dr. Elefun continued. “Imagine bringing back the forests, imagine overcoming the effects of centuries of pollution ...”
Next to President Stone, Dr. Tenma watched his friend in admiration.
“I know h
e’s a bit of a dreamer, but he’s a brilliant scientist,” he assured the president.
“He’s a dangerous idiot who happens to have a high IQ,” President Stone snapped.
Onstage, a panel opened up on the floor and another pillar rose up. This one held a glowing red globe in a glass box.
“Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Dr. Elefun said. “When we extracted the positive blue energy from the fragment, we were left with this highly unstable byproduct. Red energy.”
A larger hologram of the red ball of light was projected next to Dr. Elefun. While the blue energy looked peaceful, the red energy looked unstable and angry.
“I like that one,” President Stone remarked. “Women voters are very partial to the color red, you know.”
Down below, Dr. Elefun continued his presentation. “Until we discover how to safely dispose of it ... ”
Suddenly, soldiers stormed the stage. They grabbed Dr. Elefun and then picked up the cases holding the red and blue globes.
“What are you doing? Stop!” Dr. Elefun yelled. “Keep the cores apart or you’ll kill us all!”
President Stone stepped onto the stage. “Do as he says!” he warned his soldiers.
The soldiers stepped apart, keeping the cores separate.
Dr. Elefun’s face was red with anger. “This is outrageous! Unprecedented! What are you intending to do with them?”
“Ha. I’m going to give the people of this city a reason to reelect me,” President Stone said, smiling like a snake.
“How?” Dr. Elefun asked.
“The only way I can, Doctor. I’m gonna kick some butt!”
CHAPTER 3
Toby struggled to escape the soldier’s grip, but his captor was too strong. The soldier stopped in front of a blank, white door. With one free hand, the soldier took a card key from his pocket and slid it into a card reader on the side of the door. The door slid open.
“This is so unfair!” Toby protested.
The soldier pushed Toby through the door into a small holding cell. It was bare except for a single white stool.
“Now cool off, hotshot,” the soldier warned.