Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Polly stood on her tiptoes, peering through the same gap. "Maybe they're loading us onto the ship."

  Pulling the chains to their maximum extent, Sky Captain managed to look through another air vent on the other side of the container. Pressing his face close, he caught his breath. "It's not the ship, Polly. No, that would be the good news."

  She shouldered herself up to the view, and her face turned ashen. They were bound inside a steel-walled container that moved along a conveyer belt across the main floor of the impossible complex. Rattling elevators and moving conveyor belts wound through a maze of scaffolding and overhangs. Glowing rivers of molten metal ran in troughs, dumping material into molds. Ingots rolled past giant swinging hammers and busy robot arms.

  But the extraneous material and scrap components were all headed toward one final destination: a gargantuan crushing machine. The container that held Sky Captain and Polly was on the same track.

  With a rattling bump, their cage arrived at a transfer station where several tracks and conveyor belts intersected. Giant sorting machines reached out with mechanical claws to pluck the scrap metal from auxiliary conveyor belts. Controlled by a monstrous central robot head, the hydraulics whirred and pistons pumped with a gust of steam exhaust. With a flurry like a drunken spider trying to walk, articulated arms seized components, swiveled them into place, and released the hooked clamps to drop large chunks onto the main conveyor belt that fed the giant compactor.

  "We're next in line," Sky Captain said.

  Their cage suddenly lurched and swung as a giant metal claw rattled down on a control cable and clamped around the metal walls. Sharp points screeched against the steel, compressing to get a good grip. As the sorting arm lifted them, the controller hesitated, letting them dangle in midair instead of placing them on the main conveyor belt. With a rattle of chains, the cage was lifted even higher. Through the tiny opening in the metal cage, Sky Captain and Polly stared at the cyclopean metal visage. In a feeble display of foolish courage, Polly stuck her tongue out at it.

  A small hatch opened on top of the colossal machine head, dropped with a clang, and a young man climbed out, grinning at them.

  Sky Captain and Polly cried out in unison, "Dex!" Caught up in their exhilaration, the two hugged each other.

  At the sight of Sky Captain and Polly embracing, Dex let out a pleased sigh. "Great! You two made up."

  Polly drew away, embarrassed and self-conscious. "Does he have to say that every time he sees us together?"

  "He's just hoping." Sky Captain turned to the young man, raising his voice over the clamor of sorting machines, industrial stations, and the destructive percussion of the compactor apparatus. "We've been all across the world, Dex. Thank God we found you!"

  "Yes," Polly piped up. "We're here to rescue you."

  Standing atop the mammoth robot head, Dex stared down at the two of them trapped and bound inside the cage. "Rescue me, Cap? Hmm, from what I can see — "

  Sky Captain cut him off. "Just get us out of here, Dex. Okay?"

  "Hold on." Working levers and controls from inside the giant machine head, Dex caused the sorting arm to gently lower them to the ground; then he released the claw clamp. "Wait a second. I think this'll do it." He maneuvered another mechanical hand to grip the cage while a second set of claws tore off the top of the cage like a child removing the cap from a milk bottle.

  Dex scrambled down the side of the giant sorting machine and quickly moved through the opening he'd just made in their container. He dropped beside them. "Well, here we are. Good to see you again Cap… and Polly."

  Sky Captain rattled the chains binding him to the metal wall. "How much time is left on the countdown?"

  Dex pulled out a hand instrument from the pocket of his overalls, pushed a button on the shaft, and a small spinning blade popped out the other end. "We've got about ten minutes before it hits the fan." He lifted the tool toward Sky Captain's metal cuffs. He touched the grinding blade to a chain link and was rewarded with a shower of sparks and a shrill screech.

  "Dex hon, those vials Dr. Jennings gave me. Do you know what they are?" Polly swung aside, trying to give him room to work.

  The young man paused in his cutting. "Adam and Eve. Totenkopf's masterpiece, cast in his own warped image. The result of his cruel experiments… and whatever's born from those vials will no longer be human."

  The explanation still didn't make any sense to Sky Captain. "What is this whole place, Dex? What's going on?" From his experience, it was easier to foil a villain once he knew the overall plan.

  Dex explained what he had learned during his captivity. "Dr. Totenkopf believed the Earth was doomed anyway, that we'd finally developed the technology to destroy ourselves. He didn't want to be around when that happened, so he proposed the unthinkable: to build a ship that would carry the building blocks of a new civilization into space."

  "It is an ark," Polly said.

  "But he intended to take only the best. He wanted a master race, a perfect order. He used his carefully programmed machines to collect specimens that represented all life on Earth. It would be the seeds of a technological utopia. Totenkopf called it his World of Tomorrow."

  "Like the theme of the World's Fair," Polly said.

  "Only a lot more sinister," Sky Captain said.

  Even without Dex inside the robot controller head, the automated systems could pause only so long. The sorting arms began moving again, lifting clamps and grabbing scrap components.

  "Uh-oh," Dex said, then applied his grinding wheel to the manacles. Suddenly, one of the giant sorting machines seized their battered cage. Dex stopped cutting so he could grab hold. He steadied himself just as the cage was unceremoniously dropped onto the main conveyer belt with a bone-jarring crash.

  "Well, here we are again," Polly said.

  Abruptly, they started moving straight toward the mouth of the gargantuan crushing machine. Compacting hammers battered all scrap into a shapeless mass. The conveyor belt seemed to pick up speed.

  "Dex!" Sky Captain yelled, rattling his chains.

  "I'm on it." The young man fired up his whirling blade and bent back to Sky Captain's cuffs. Sparks flew everywhere, and sweat streamed down his face.

  Polly seemed to ignore their imminent messy death under the gargantuan crushers as she put thoughts and clues together in her mind. "So the few surviving Unit Eleven scientists smuggled those vials off the island. They knew Totenkopf would never leave without his precious genetic samples."

  Dex looked at Polly with a dramatic nod. He lifted the whirling blade from Sky Captain's cuffs so she could hear him. "That's right. But now that he's got the test tubes back, there's nothing left to keep him here."

  Sky Captain felt exasperated. This didn't sound like a particularly awful situation, as far as maniacal schemes went. "Then let Totenkopf go, and good riddance. He's free to set up shop where he can't harm anyone else."

  Dex's expression of deadly concern showed that there was much more to the story, though. "Whatever happens, Cap, we can't let that ship leave this Earth. There's something else — "

  The crashing blows of the compactor machine sounded louder, closer. Sky Captain suddenly grimaced, incredulous that Dex had stopped sawing. "Dex! We can talk about this later."

  "Sorry, Cap." Dex went back to work, attacking Sky Captain's cuffs with a greater sense of urgency. It didn't seem possible that he would have enough time to free them both.

  But Polly still wanted to know the answers. "Why? What haven't you told us, Dex?"

  Sky Captain added, "But don't stop cutting while you explain!"

  The young man shouted over the buzzing cutter. "The rocket's design is radical. Only Totenkopf really understands it. The engines use a powerful radioactive energy source unlike anything previously invented, though I did read about something similar in Amazing Stories."

  Dangling on her chains, Polly brightened with a look of realization. "The uranium from the mine!"

  "Atomic fuel. It
releases a great deal of energy, enough to take that rocket anywhere. Unfortunately, there are certain… side effects."

  "Why? What's going to happen, Dex?"

  The young man paused again to emphasize the import of his words. "When the rocket reaches its third stage, the igniting engines will cause an unstoppable chain reaction in our atmosphere. Earth will be incinerated."

  32

  The End of the World. The Remnants of Unit Eleven. A Deadly Booby Trap

  At the moment, though, they had more immediate problems. The conveyor belt pulled them along steadily, closer and closer to the unavoidable gauntlet of hissing hydraulic metal hammers and blades. Sky Captain struggled with his chains as Dex continued to cut.

  Polly turned to the young man. Even with their imminent peril, she could not shake the image of the world as a charred ball. "The rocket's countdown is already started. How do we stop it?"

  Dex shook his head. "Believe me, Polly, I wish I knew. I've racked my brains, studied the master control systems, but only Totenkopf himself can stop it now — and none of us has been allowed near him. I've never even seen the guy. He's too well guarded."

  Before Dex had a chance to finish cutting, Sky Captain twisted one hand free. He flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing again. "So where is he, Dex? I'll go get him myself… as soon as you get me out of here."

  Feeling Sky Captain's determination, Dex went to work on his other hand. "I'll bet you will, Cap!"

  "Uh… boys?" Polly said. The massive crusher was just ten feet away.

  Sky Captain yanked his arm, but a chain still bound his other wrist. Polly struggled, unable to move. Dex spun the grinder, furrowing his brow as if he contemplated how he might make it more efficient, but there was simply no way he could free them from their bonds in time.

  The young man looked up, helpless. "Um, Cap? Do you want me to stay here to the end?" It didn't seem polite to cut Sky Captain loose and leave Polly dangling there to be pulverized in the crusher.

  The smashers came down with the sound of colliding cement trucks. The conveyor belt drew their cage into the yawning mouth of the compacting machine.

  "Joe? I — " Polly called.

  Then the conveyor belt ground to a halt. The rollers creaked, fountains of steam hissed out of hot machinery, and the massive hammers froze in midstrike. In a breathless moment, the cage that held Sky Captain, Polly, and Dex teetered at the precipice of the crusher's mouth.

  Polly looked up through the torn-away roof of their cage to see three old men standing over them on a walkway. One of the men yanked harder on the lever that had stopped the conveyor belt, locking it into place. The old men all wore stained and patched lab smocks, and their wispy white hair had not been cut in some time. They waved.

  Smiling, Dex returned the greeting. "Cap, Polly, I'd like you to meet the talented gentlemen who built this place. They're the only ones left."

  A look of realization crossed Polly's face. The men were decades older now, and the intervening years had obviously been hard on them, but she recognized their faces from the old photograph: Dr. Kessler, Dr. Lang, and Dr. Vargas.

  "Unit Eleven," she said.

  * * *

  Minutes later, after Sky Captain and Polly were both freed from their chains, they ran with Dex and the three old scientists down a rocky passageway. They knew they didn't have much time until the end of the countdown.

  Ahead of them, a large arching doorway opened into a massive gallery that resembled a museum of sorts filled with all manner of natural and scientific artifacts, robotic designs, and specimen tanks.

  "Looks like Totenkopf has spent a lot of time collecting trinkets," Polly said.

  "And experimenting," Dr. Vargas said, "and torturing others — all in the name of science."

  The centerpiece of the enormous room was the towering skeleton of a brontosaurus, much like the creature Polly and Sky Captain had seen emerging from the marshy island lake. The striking aspect of this dinosaur, though, was that it had two heads and two long and sinuous necks branching from its trunk. Polly and Sky Captain exchanged an amazed look, but they had too little time to stand staring at a freak show.

  The three Unit Eleven scientists briskly led them to the far end of the gallery. Obviously frightened, they crept against the wall until they rounded a diorama display case. Dr. Vargas took Polly's wrist to get her attention and pointed to the entrance of a primary laboratory. Huge iron doors sported the winged-skull emblem of their nemesis.

  Two menacing robots twice the height of a man guarded the forbidding doorway. Next to the machine sentinels, conical and exotic transformers rose like sculptures, resembling giant Tesla coils on either side of the doorway.

  "Through there," Dex said. "Totenkopf's inside, hiding and protected. That's the only way in."

  "No matter how hard we might try, there is no way past them," Dr. Vargas said.

  Throughout the cavernous industrial facility, loudspeakers continued to boom out the countdown in German. Polly turned to Sky Captain, anxious. "Only five minutes left, Joe."

  Sky Captain surveyed the area briefly, then turned to the group beside him. "Wait here." He cracked his knuckles, then rounded the corner of the display case. "Sometimes you have to meet a problem head-on."

  "I don't think his head's got anything to do with this," Polly muttered.

  Dr. Vargas called after him. "What are you doing, man? You'll be killed!"

  Sky Captain strode boldly ahead, and the long-dormant sentinel machines suddenly came to life. Heavy gears clicked and whirred as they straightened, swiveled, and turned their blazing optical sensors toward the intruder. In unison, the sentinel robots took two plodding steps to block his way.

  Facing them like a gunfighter in the Old West, Sky Captain reached inside his flight jacket and produced Dex's new Buck Rogers ray gun. He pointed the nozzle, sighted along the guide fin, and pushed the red firing button. Shimmering rays blasted the first machine's body core, melting a hole through the armored torso. The robot slumped in half, its jointed legs folding outward like a chicken's; then it slumped to the floor.

  Undaunted, the second sentinel robot lurched toward Sky Captain, who swiveled his body and pointed the nozzle, but the futuristic gun failed to work. The metal sentinel plodded closer, stretching out powerful arms that ended in clamping claws.

  "Dex? I'd appreciate any advice you might have." Sky Captain sounded cool, but his voice cracked a little.

  Dex peeked out from behind the display. "Try shaking it. Sometimes that works."

  Sky Captain scuttled backward to stay away from the looming sentinel robot. He rattled the gun in his hand, raised it, and pushed the red button repeatedly, but only a small burst sputtered out. The beam did melt a hole in part of the robot's spindly leg shaft, and it wobbled slightly. Seeing the machine's momentary unbalance, Sky Captain lunged for it, throwing all his weight until he succeeded in pushing the sentinel over. Like a turtle on its back, the heavy overturned robot writhed and kicked.

  The loudspeaker overhead continued the droning countdown. Another minute had elapsed.

  Now that the guardians had been removed from the sealed door to Totenkopf's inner sanctum, Dr. Kessler jumped to his feet. "Quickly! We must hurry. Listen to the time!" Spry for an old man, he bounded between the massive transformers that stood on either side of the sealed door.

  Sky Captain sensed something at the last moment and shouted, "Doctor, stop!"

  Kessler stepped on a metal floor plate between the transformers, and the rings and wires instantly crackled to life. Giant forks of electricity lashed out, pinning the old scientist like an insect in amber. Static and sparks tore through his body. For a mercifully brief instant, he screamed as he was consumed in flames. Through sheer momentum, his blackened skeleton staggered one step farther before it fell to the ground in pieces.

  Lightning continued to arc back and forth between the paired transformers, weaving a web of electricity that seemed alive with dazzling bluish currents.
Shadows and a more solid shape began to congeal inside the dense electrical field: a giant holographic image of a man's sunken, gaunt, and impassioned face. The projection sharpened to crystal clarity, a visage sure to cause nightmares.

  Trembling, Vargas looked up at the giant display. "That's him. Dr. Totenkopf."

  33

  The Face of Totenkopf. An Inner Sanctum. The Ghost of a Genius

  The shimmering hologram looked down on them, its shadowy eyes cavernous. The mouth opened and closed, uttering German words in a thunderous, menacing voice: "Was begonnen wurde kahn nicht gehaltet werden. Verlasse den Platz oder sterbe. Sie sind gewarnen."

  Polly turned to Dr. Vargas. "I can't understand it all. What exactly is he — "

  The old scientist translated. "He says, 'What has begun cannot be stopped. Leave this place or die. You are warned.' Totenkopf always talked like that, even when it wasn't about anything important."

  "Yeah, the usual warnings." Sky Captain looked at the shimmering, ominous projection and frowned. He turned to Polly. "Did you see that new movie The Wizard of Oz?"

  "Not all of it."

  The booming ultimatum began to repeat, when the hologram suddenly fizzled away. The twinned transformers sparked, hummed, and died.

  Dex stood by the insulated base of the nearest transformer, holding a tangle of wires he had yanked from the control panel like a gardener uprooting particularly noxious weeds. "I think we've heard enough of his babbling. That disables the whole defensive system."

  Knowing how little time remained, a determined Sky Captain marched toward the transformers. He took one step, hesitating at the point where Dr. Kessler had been incinerated. "You sure it doesn't have any juice left, Dex?"

  The young man shrugged. "There's only one way to find out. You want me to — "

  "No, Dex. It'll be us." With a grim but confident expression, Polly reached out and seized Sky Captain's hand. She pulled him with her, and the two of them stepped over the threshold between the transformers. Both of them showed relief on their faces as they emerged safely on the other side.