by Ryan Kinzy
The girls crossed their arms, staring at him in offended disbelief.
Their dad walked over to a covered vestibule, said, “One chaperone,” and put his finger inside a nook by the window.
After a second, a cylindrically shaped machine with a domed top rolled forward out of the vestibule. The dome rose from the body, revealing a robot face that looked cartoonish, with big eyes, broad lips, and a rounded nose. It said, “How can I help you today? My name is Arnold. You can call me Arnie.”
The bot had a faint oval outline of where its arms would be and other than that, not a single feature on the outside of its shell. It looked like one solid piece of polished metal.
Their dad said, “Arnie, this is Lauren and Julia. Escort them through the theme park and then take them back to the hotel when they’re done.”
The chaperone robot said, “Nice to meet you, Lauren and Julia.” Its arms popped out of the shell, then extended to shake each of their hands.
Lauren reached out and shook the robot’s hand. Julia did the same.
“Dad, you can’t leave us here with this thing! We’re old enough to watch out for ourselves!” Lauren objected.
“I beg your pardon. I come from the most advanced line of automated chaperones on the market today! I’m equipped with the latest safety technology and even a personality module guaranteed to make this the most memorable theme park experience you have ever had!” the offended robot retorted. Its mechanical lips pointed downward on the sides, and its mechanical eyebrows lowered, too.
“Hmph! I still don’t like the idea. We can take care of ourselves,” Lauren grumbled.
“Lauren, this is a new station and you don’t know your way around. This is the way it is going to be. Do you understand?” their dad directed.
“Yes,” Lauren agreed, with her eyes rolled upward and her hands in fists at her sides.
“Julia?” he turned to her sister.
Julia wasn’t paying attention. She was looking at the rides right in front of them. She batted her eyes and looked up at their dad. “Sure.”
“OK, I’m going to head to my meetings now. Arnie will give me updates every 15 minutes and tell me if anything is wrong. If something does happen, it’s equipped to protect you and take you immediately to park security, where I will come pick you up. Clear?” he asked.
“Yep,” they both said.
The kids immediately bolted for the first ride they saw. Luckily, since it was a school day, the park wasn’t very crowded and they could go straight up to the front of almost all the lines. Arnie hovered after them. The front of the ride had a hologram of an ancient-style cannon floating above the entrance with the giant name “The Monster!” shooting out of the barrel.
“Come on, Lauren!” Julia screamed, putting her hands to her face and laughing. She took a short skip and ran off to the front of the line.
Shortly after, the roller coaster cars came to a stop. The two quickly boarded. Arnie assured them, “I’ll wait for you at the exit when you’re done.”
Barely acknowledging the robot, the girls said, “OK,” and buckled in.
The coaster took off like a rocket, twisting and turning in a series of spine-chilling maneuvers that had the girls too terrified to scream. One short break later, eyes wide, they caught their breath enough to let out some slight whimpers. The cars were just slowing down for the finale. The cars paused for a second then with a jolt shot up to the very center of the station. For a few moments, the girls and cars floated effortlessly in space, encased in a glass tube like a centipede suspended in water. Then it ripped them back down in a horrifying plunge to the surface.
At the end of the ride, the restraints let go, and the girls plopped out wobbly and disoriented, barely able to stand, as if they had just spun around in a hundred dizzying circles.
Arnie waited for them as they stepped out, helping steady them as they walked.
“Whoa,” Julia giggled, trying to walk. “That was cool!”
Lauren grabbed a rail to stabilize herself, gingerly staggering down the exit ramp, “I think I’m going to be sick!” she said, holding her stomach.
Lauren leaned over the rail and lost her breakfast on the pavement. It splattered on Julia’s feet, and Julia jumped backward trying to avoid getting splashed with more.
A small worker bot meandered in, blinking. With a whoosh and a slurping sound, the vomit was gone just as quickly as Lauren had deposited it there. Apparently, that wasn’t the first time this had happened!
“Much better,” Lauren said, wiping her mouth with her arm
That was just the beginning. The two stormed the theme park with energy that only a couple of kids could muster, moving from ride to ride, always with the chaperone bot in tow.
After too many rides to count and a pause for a breath of air, the two settled down to eat lunch.
“Wow!” Julia said. “This is one of the most fun days I’ve had in my life!”
“No kidding, this is awesome!” Lauren agreed.
While munching on a bite of sandwich, Julia spotted a sign above a door across the food court that said, “Spacewalk.” It immediately intrigued her.
“Lauren, look!” she said, pointing to the sign.
“What? What is it?” Lauren turned to look.
“A spacewalk! That’d be so cool!” Julia said hopping up and running toward the door without finishing her sandwich. The line wasn’t too long when she opened the door. There were only a few dozen people in the room.
“Come on, Lauren, let’s go!” she yelled.
Lauren ran after her sister with Arnie the chaperone close behind.
Inside, the group waiting was a mixture of young adults, all older than Lauren and Julia. There was a checkin booth where an older, college-age kid sat. An instructor stood at the side of the room, tapping on her phone.
The kid in the booth looked at them and asked, “Did you two want to do the spacewalk?”
“Yes, definitely,” Julia said.
“There are a couple of spots left,” he said, opening the gate. “Go sit in there and listen to the instructor.”
The instructor addressed the group. She was also a college-age kid, with an athletic build. She had more piercings than most people—one in her nose and a few in her ears—with a complement of colorful tattoos on her neck and right arm.
“OK, most of you probably haven’t done this before. Has anyone floated freely in space?”
The people in the group looked at each other blankly. Nobody had been up there before.
“OK, it’s a completely new experience. You’ve all been on a ferry, right?”
They all nodded.
“Here are the suits you’ll wear. Each suit has two joysticks on it—one on each hand. You can turn around with your right hand and move up and down with your left hand,” she explained.
Many different sizes of suits were situated along the wall in the order of smallest to largest. On the side of the room was a small chamber that had a platform with seats and buckles inside it.
The girls walked over to appropriately-sized suits and slipped them on. It was simple enough. The fabric seemed too thin to protect them out in space, but as soon as they put it on, it pressurized and got stiffer. Their helmets had clear visors, and when they put them on, they could clearly hear all the other people in the group through the helmets’ speakers.
“OK, come over and get strapped in,” the instructor said, motioning to the chamber.
The girls complied, walking straight-legged over to the platform. As they sat down, overhead bars fell over their suits, locking them in.
The instructor continued, “Thrusters are in the feet. To go, kick your feet down a little. To go fast, kick them all the way down.”
As soon as everyone was ready, the platform sped up the tube into the center of the station. As they climbed, they felt gravity losing its grip.
At the center, they could see the station rotating around them, making them dizzy. The platform stopp
ed inside a massive area bordered by thick nets so they couldn’t just fly off into space.
Julia started fumbling with her controls. The jets on the suit fired, sending her spinning off uncontrollably away from the group.
Lauren moved to try and catch her, but she too went off in a different direction. The instructor smoothly coasted over to Julia, righting her.
“Let’s try this again. What is your name?” she asked, looking calmly through the visor at Julia. Julia was clearly frightened, gasping rapidly for air.
“Julia,” she stammered, gulping.
“Julia, calm down,” the instructor said. “Now, let’s try this.” The instructor put Julia’s feet on top of hers and clasped her hands. “Now pull your right joystick to the right.”
Julia did as she was told, and the suit gently swiveled to the right.
“Now, to the left,” the instructor said. Julia did, and the suit again responded.
“All right, now kick your feet down a little,” the instructor said. Julia complied and the suit thrust her quickly toward the net. “A little less,” the instructor cautioned. “There, are you getting the hang of it?”
Julia nodded. “Yes.” With that, the instructor kicked her feet, zipping up, arching her back, and doing a complete circle, gliding back toward the platform.
Julia felt much better about it and gained control. Now that she had calmed down, she realized how intuitive the controls were. In no time at all, she was floating around with ease.
In the meantime, Lauren had powered her way through learning the controls and now had a good handle on the suit. The two flew back and forth, springing from side to side of the net for what seemed like an hour.
Bringing their enthusiasm to a halt, the instructor said, “15 minutes.”
The last few minutes went by much too fast for the girls. Along with everyone else, they softly landed on the platform and the seats responded, strapping them in. The platform dropped back to the surface, reengaging gravity.
They exited the platform room, hobbling over to the racks to take off the suits. Julia pressed the release button and her suit decompressed, allowing her to unhook the straps. She unzipped the front and stepped out. The suit was surprisingly light, given that it protected them from the vacuum in space and had to withstand the normal air pressure that humans were used to.
The girls hung up their suits, said thank you to the instructor, and walked out the building. Their chaperone bot sat waiting with its arms, head, and rollers rescinded into its small package, making the bot almost indistinguishable from the trashcan it sat by.
“Wow, that’s it. Let’s end it with that. That was the most incredible thing—ever!” Julia said to her sister.
“Good idea,” Lauren agreed and turned to their bot, Arnie. “Can you show us the way to the hotel now?”
Arnie’s head popped out, and its arms, too. “Greetings, girls, did you have fun?”
“Yes, we did. It was a blast!” Julia said.
“It’s this way to the exit,” Arnie said, rolling past the food court.
Julia eyed the cupcake stand as they went by, almost stopping.
“Julia, come on!” Lauren said, tugging at her arm.
The group left the amusement park and boarded the train.
Chapter 15
Discovered
The hotel wasn’t too far from the amusement park. The two sat engrossed in thought the whole way there. They got off the train, and it was a short walk to the hotel. They walked into the elaborate hotel, which had ornate arches and columns throughout the lobby, with luxurious fabric drapes adorning the walls.
“You’re in room 321. This way,” their chaperone robot said, rolling in the direction of the elevators.
The excitement still hadn’t worn off yet as the girls arrived at the room. They parted ways with Arnie at the door. The robot collapsed its domed head into its body, and its arms retreated as well, making it look like a hovering trash can as it rolled away.
“Wow. That spacewalk was incredible!” Julia said clapping her hands.
“It sure was. I wish we could do that on Cielo Prime,” Lauren added.
Lauren waved her hand beside the door, where there was a small panel recessed in the wall. The panel glowed a pale blue and the door opened.
A voice overhead soothingly said, “Welcome to the Intergalactic on New Cielo.” As the girls entered, they kept chatting, ignoring the voice as it continued. “We at Intergalactic Hotels strive to make your stay as enjoyable as possible. If there is anything we can do to make your visit better, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
The girls glanced around the room. The small room didn’t have much to offer, having just a couple mid-sized beds and a bathroom. The girls would share one bed and their dad would sleep in the other.
Julia plopped down on one of the beds and called to the screen on the opposite wall, “Screen on.” The screen flashed on. “Show my program list.” The screen promptly displayed a list of shows and other things Julia liked to watch. “Scroll down. Stop. There, play Space Girls.” The show started playing.
There was a large bay window on the far wall, hidden behind a curtain. Lauren walked over to the wall, saying, “Open curtain.” The curtain gradually opened, revealing a magnificent view of the unfinished portion of the station.
“Incredible. Julia, look at this.”
Julia joined Lauren at the window. “Oh, that’s amazing.”
The concave circumference of the station looming on the horizon looked deceptively flat. The structure mirrored the tubular shape of the finished station, but the unfinished piece was simply a steel skeleton. The construction zone looked like a fireworks display, with sparks of all colors flying off the steel structure, from brilliant white almost as bright as the sun to cool blue. Worker bots flew around the structure with definite purpose, welding and fastening. Huge plates of steel floated in the middle of the station, waiting for worker bots to retrieve them and bolt them in place.
A couple minutes into Julia’s show, a hologram of a lady appeared behind them beside the screen. The Space Girls show faded to all grey tones and paused. The hologram got bigger while talking, “Looking for dinner tonight? Why don’t you try Saturn Burgers? We’ve got the best burgers on the station. Or looking for pizza? Try Mandola’s, just upstairs from where you are.”
Julia turned to look at the hologram. “I am getting hungry. Where do you think Dad is?”
“He said he’d be late, but let’s try to call him anyway to see if he’d like to go to dinner,” Lauren said.
Lauren picked up her phone. “Call Dad,” she spoke into it.
The phone displayed “Not available” on the screen.
Then she said, “Locate Dad,” and the phone displayed a map of the station with a blinking light where their dad was.
Not reading too much into it, Lauren said, “Hmm. Wonder why he didn’t pick up? He must be busy.”
She paused, “Well, if he’s going to be a while, you know we still have some unfinished business here … we need to track down the source of where that intrusion on your blog came from,” Lauren said, setting her phone on the table with the screen side up.
“Are you sure we should do that?” Julia asked. “What if it’s dangerous?”
“Well, let’s just go find it. We don’t have to go in or anything,” Lauren said, trying to alleviate her sister’s fears.
She then spoke to her phone, “Show tracer map of New Cielo.” The phone projected a hologram view of the station above it almost the size of the table. The image was a perfect replica of the station, including the construction zone. A path illuminated from their hotel room to where the tracer had been tracked. The location was in a remote corner close to the unfinished structure.
“Oh, look,” Lauren said. “I think it’s just right up there.” She walked to the window and pointed across to the other side of the station.
Then she turned, thinking, “Wait a second. I think that’s close to wh
ere Dad was … phone, overlay with Dad’s location.”
The phone displayed their father’s location pretty close to the source of the intruder’s trace.
Julia looked at Lauren. “I don’t know Lauren. I don’t like this.”
“Julia, we have to go. We don’t have a choice now. Dad might be in trouble, too. And this is the only way to find out who is doing this to us,” Lauren insisted. “I’m leaving now. If you don’t want to come, fine, you can stay here.” Lauren headed out the door.
Julia hesitated a moment, shook her head, growling, then grabbed her fanny pack and followed her sister.
The girls followed the path down to where the tracer came from and into the construction zone. The construction zone was a maze of empty, unfinished halls. The space looked as if it was almost ready for people to move in, but there were only a handful of people around. Wires still hung from the ceiling, walls had gaping spots that revealed supports, and many spots in the ceiling were open so they could see all the air ducts and wires.
The tracer path took them down a newly constructed hall and then turned left down a dimly lit narrower hall.
The two peeked down the narrow hall.
“I don’t know about this, Lauren.” Julia stepped back into the bigger hall.
“No, this is it. Let’s go,” Lauren said.
At the end of the narrow hall, there was a generic door that looked like all the other doors.
“That is where it is coming from. Come on, there’s no one around,” she said as she slunk down the hall.
Suddenly, the door opened and the girls came face to face with a larger-than-normal Zeb coming out the door.
The Zeb stared at them, not moving. He cautiously reached his hand behind his back and motioned inside the door to another Zeb.
Lauren and Julia stood frozen, wanting to move but not able to. The Zeb motioned with his hands in a calming motion, not making any sudden movements. The two didn’t know if he knew they could see through his guise, so they decided to feign ignorance.