by Tony Teora
Johnson stood frozen. "It was a game, right?"
"Listen, we don’t have much time. I am deleting this game. Let’s just keep this our secret. I’ll keep your nuclear missile story secret and let’s keep this game secret."
"Six more months and I get my pension Joey, six more months."
Joey deleted files as fast as he could. He sent his last file, an e-mail virus, to a remote server. The e-mail virus contained a message that would spread all over the world. The message would explain in detail, using names and locations, how MicroIntel and the US government spied on anyone using the Internet. The information on the Zoks was not included, to keep the masses from discrediting the information.
Johnson stood up and looked at the missile as it created a trail on the radar screen. "Joey, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play StarShip again."
"Johnson, don’t worry, I won’t say a word if you don’t."
A large burst of light exploded next to the pod. The shock wave rippled through.
"What was that?" asked Robert.
"Seems the US military has the pod lit as a target. I will work to remove the firing system controls."
The pod dropped down like a coaster plunging. Robert now faced directly toward the ground. Hey, I’m rocket man, try to shoot me if you can. Robert nervously laughed.
"How are we doing, Blue?"
"Got it Robert. The system’s shut down and it looks like twelve missiles are on their way to MicroIntel Japan."
"So this is where we blow up our branch office?"
"No Robert, this is where the US blows up MI Japan. Much better for an investigation of the US military plans."
In the distance Robert saw a missile moving across the sky toward the MI Japan campus. An explosion rocked a building. A few more followed, blasting nearby, but away from the Big Blue container.
Robert maneuvered the pod over the crumbling AD 2100 development section and directed a gravity beam onto Big Blue’s holding tank.
"Hope this works," said Robert adjusting the gravity container. The pod shook and wobbled, but the Big Blue container, including a large battery backup system, lifted off the ground.
"Looks like we’re taking the kitchen sink too."
Once raised, Robert adjusted the pod to lock snugly next to Big Blue. "Hey, don’t take this in a sexual way big guy."
"Why would I? I’m asexual."
"Forget it Blue." Robert adjusted for the final connecting and set the codes for the mother ship. The pod moved slower than before, but continuously picked up speed. Within a few minutes the Pod with Big Blue hit the upper atmosphere.
"Hope the gravity shield protects you from those x-rays."
"It should."
"Too bad you can’t see this Blue."
"I can Robert. I can read your eyes though the TeleTrans, and I’ve been looking at space through the Hubble for years. It’s the reason I want to travel."
"Well this is my second time in space and it looks even better this time."
"We’ll be back on the Zok cruiser in five minutes."
"Wonderful." Robert looked at the universe and wondered the meaning.
After unloading in the Zok cruiser’s extra holding section Robert walked through the ship looking for Gill and Frick. Scanning through the ship he found nothing but silence, and one large dog. It was Buddy.
"Buddy, what are you doing on this ship?"
Robert ran over to his dog, who was yelping in a gold-framed cage. He punched in a code and let Buddy out.
"Don’t worry, guy. What they got you up here for? They kidnap you too?"
Buddy licked Robert’s face, and Robert petted Buddy on his favorite back spot. Buddy clumsily lay on his back exposing his fat belly. This too was a favorite spot. Robert rubbed the fat gut. "Enough Buddy, enough. I’ve got to see how we’re doing with Gill and Frick."
Through the TeleTrans Robert picked up Big Blue.
"Robert, a Mr. Sir James Underfield is finishing the removal of an anti-matter explosive. He’s outside in the engine department configuring it for me to upgrade to anti-matter.
"Is that safe? Ah, how is Mr. Sir James?" Ah shit, the metal man is back. I hope he’s not pissed.
"Never tried it before but worked it out over 6,435,234 times, only 2,342 bad computer runs."
"What’s a bad run?"
"Exploding the engines and everything within a million miles."
"Oh, that bad computer run." Robert didn’t care anymore.
"Where’s Gill and Frick?"
"They left the ship. They’re on the Zok planet reconfiguring their engines to fly the Zok planet into the sun."
"Very noble of Gill. I never knew him to be such a self sacrificing philanthropist."
"He’s not. They will fly him and Frick off with a recharged shuttle ship when they pass Earth. We’ll pick them up on the way out."
Wonderful. Back with the man who started all this trouble in the first place. "Sure, they must want to go back home."
"They’re also fugitives."
"Yeah, I should imagine so."
Gill looked at Big Red and pleaded. "Now dear Mr. Red, a deal is a deal. Frick and I have done everything that you asked. We plugged in your missiles. The nice Zok general has all the information. We’ve even given you a blood sample for your Zok regeneration project. May we please go back now?"
Big Red had his holding container put in the same room with the Zok Zord. Five minutes earlier Zord had guzzled three gallons of Slok after agreeing to share power in return for saving the planet. He was peacefully sleeping in the corner resting under the starry sky. The Zoks named Big Red "Titus"; friend and fixer of Zok. Around the building stood Zok guards with gold Roman type pylons. The pylons had special cameras and voice boxes for vision and speech. Big Red was content. There was so much to fix on the Zok planet. The engines were set to blast the planet directly into the sun.
"Mammals, you’ve done well. From now on I am Titus, Fixer of Zok," spoke Big Red.
"Yeah…sure Big…ah Titus, yeah, sure. But what about getting off this planet?"
"First the general must use the anti-matter engines to put us on a faster course into the sun. Once we’re in range of Earth, we’ll send you off in a shuttle."
What little hope Gill had that Big Red might have all his circuits working correctly was quickly vaporized by Big Red’s comments. "I er…understand. Yes, make sure you send us off in a shuttle before you fly the planet into the sun, good point Titus."
"Prepare yourselves. I shall start the engines!"
Frick and Gill tried to relax not really knowing the meaning of preparation and not wanting to talk to Big Red for any more time than was absolutely necessary.
After waiting in the main room for a few minutes, Gill started to understand the meaning of preparation.
"Feels like an earthquake, and I feel lighter" said Gill. "Strange earthquake."
"Sure is, but I wonder," said Frick, who’d studied Earth physics, "I wonder if the reason we’re lighter is because they’re accelerating the planet in the other direction and that’s counteracting some of the gravity."
Gill lacked physics knowledge but pretended to know. "Yeah, sure…must be the reason."
Both Gill and Frick lifted off the ground a few feet. Things in the room started to float.
Frick continued. "But when they stop the engines to come to their maximum speed we’ll…"
At that moment Gill, Frick, and everything in the room crashed hard onto the floor. Gill fell on top of Frick.
"Fall!" said Frick completing his sentence.
Gill checked his gas mask. He did not want it to fall off sitting next to Frick. "Now let’s see about that shuttle," said Gill dusting himself off.
As agreed, Titus put Frick and Gill into a space pod near Earth. As a present (and just in case the ride into the sun did not go well) Titus sent over one Zok named ZipNok. ZipNok was a Zok who’d had his vocal chords rewired for speech. ZipNok had poor telepathy powers and was
considered useless on the Zok world. Another Zok clone with a problem.
Gill did not like the idea of being in a small shuttle with Frick, let alone the pale faced ZipNok. "Dear Titus, do we have to take this Zok with us? I mean, wouldn’t he be better with his friends?"
"Yeah" said Frick, "take the trip with you guys into the sun."
Gill looked at Frick and whispered. "Will you shut up! Stay off the sun thing will you?"
"Men, if you prefer, we can keep him, and you two, here on this ship."
"On second thought, ZipNok looks mostly harmless and hey, there’s an extra seat, looks like he’ll fit fine. Right, Frick?"
"Yeah, and since you’re the president Gill, you can sit in the middle," said Frick looking at ZipNok.
"But Frick, you should sit in the middle, it’s safer" said Gill.
Titus’s tank started to bubble. "Stop! You have one minute to get out of here or the launch window will expire."
"Good point! Any seat will be fine with me," said Frick.
"Me too," said Gill, "Don’t want to anything to expire."
Gill and Frick ran to the pod’s opened door and quickly entered. ZipNok came last, getting a window seat. All took their seats, with Gill putting on a TeleTrans to make sure the launch was set. The shuttle’s engines fired and the pod blasted out of the hatch. Once safely into space Gill spoke to Frick. "Fucking crazy bastard, must have gotten the wrong Big Blue plans. He’s going to burn all those motherfuckers into the sun." Gill looked over to ZipNok, "You’re one lucky bastard."
"I do not consider leaving my home lucky. I’d rather have burned in the sun, but our Emperor knows best. We respect our Emperor."
Gill almost felt pain for such a loyal fool. "Yeah, well I’m sorry, we want to go home too."
The three-man pod automatically entered the Zok War Command and control cruiser. The pod looked like the size of an ant entering a watermelon. The cruiser was designed for a hundred thousand Zok warriors. It resembled the space shuttle, but was a thousand times larger, with over five hundred Missile cannons instead of wings. What passed for real wings on the Zok cruiser were small and only used to hold thrusters for movement in space. Actual wings had no other use in the airless vacuum other than looks, and the Zoks did not much care for aesthetics.
Once the pod landed and opened, Big Blue directed the three to the commander’s floor. Robert sat watching a WebTele link.
"Hi guys, welcome back."
"What are you doing Robert?" asked Gill.
"Trying to talk to my son; trying to get something to fix Big Red."
"You mean Titus," said Frick.
"Titus?" asked Robert.
"Yeah," said Gill. "Looks like they got the plans wrong on this one. The computer has flipped. He thinks he’s some Zok Emperor Titus and he’s flying the whole planet into the Sun."
Big Blue spoke from a ceiling voice synthesizer. "Titus will not burn up in the planet."
"Who’s that?" asked Gill.
"It’s Big Blue, he’s running this ship," said Robert.
Gill grimaced. "Guess MicroIntel really is taking over the world, huh?"
"I have to thank you and Robert, I am enjoying my existence," said Big Blue.
"Well at least someone is enjoying life. Now back to this Titus computer, I thought you said they were going into the sun, Blue, what’s the deal here?" asked Robert.
"Robert, I said they were going into the Sun but I did not say they will burn up in the sun."
"Seems the same to me," said Robert. Gill and Frick shook their heads in agreement. The Zok clone stood in the corner, ignored. He didn’t care; his emotions were weakened by years of cloning.
"It’s not," said Blue. "Big Red, or should I say Titus, will energize the Zok planet as they approach the sun. They will use teletransportation to send them back home. I discovered from their computers that this is how they entered our Galaxy. They will be going home."
"Well, at least they’re leaving this place," said Robert.
"Thank God," said Frick wiping his forehead. "I want to go home and take a shower."
"Some bad news guys," said Robert.
"What do you mean?" asked Gill
"Well, things back home are pretty fucked. I’m not going to point fingers because we’re all part of this problem, but some crazy General tried using Big Blue to take over the US. Meanwhile the NSA and CIA have been bugging everyone in the US through MicroIntel, well, what was MicroIntel."
Gill put his hands over this face and took a deep breath. "I knew those bastards would screw me, I knew it!" Gill shook his head, "What do you mean ‘was MicroIntel’ Robert? Did the lousy government finally just go in and take it over?"
"No, worse. They blew it up," said Robert.
"What?" asked Gill.
"They sent cruise missiles to the Seattle office and Japan Branch Office. The main world headquarters are destroyed. Only branch sales offices survived, and there is a warrant out to kill all of us if we return."
"Are you sure?" asked Gill.
Big Blue spoke. "Gill, I’ve been alive for the last three years. I’ve monitored your e-mail and everyone’s in the world. I have access and copies of everything. Robert speaks the truth. Should I print some of the correspondence between you and Schwartz to refresh your memory on certain deals?"
"This is the mother of all blackmailing machines?" said Gill looking up toward the ceiling.
"I did not create the system, you humans did."
"Why don’t you just call us mammals like your crazy brother Titus?" said Gill.
"If that’s what you prefer."
Robert interrupted. "Look guys, this ship was reconfigured with everything. It has robot staff, showers, food, and I’m not talking Kripits!"
ZipNok heard the magic word and spoke. "You mean we don’t have Kripits?"
Robert had ignored the Zok clone since he looked almost frozen by the door. "Ah, who are you?"
"I’m ZipNok. I am told to join you by the Emperor Titus. I was wondering about the Kripits."
"Yes, well, we have them too," said Robert.
"Fine, thank you," said ZipNok returning back to his original position.
A door opened and hissing sounds could be heard. In through the door walked Sir James.
Gill and Frick ran into a corner of the room.
"Don’t worry guys, Sir James has found himself," said Robert.
"Yes, seems like the old man upstairs really likes me," said Sir James as he turned around and stood in the corner. This glass-encased brain shot small electrical pulses inside his helmet. On a new video screen on the belly of Sir James was a hazy picture of a humanoid person smiling.
"You are OK now?" asked Gill.
"Good as they get. Glad to be of service," said Sir James. The picture of the head talking made Sir James look unusual, but less threatening.
"I’m hungry and could use a shower," said Frick.
"Guys, please rest and get some food. I have something to tell you later, but I think it’d be better if you rested and ate first.
"Not Kripits?" asked Frick.
"No, regular Earth food. Big Blue generated it with a synthesizer. You can’t tell the difference."
ZipNok looked over and spoke, "I would like a Kripit."
"I know. Like I said, we have those too."
Everyone left and Robert sat in the control room writing. He sent an e-mail to his wife and then son. The Zok planet was on its way home, the US military plans for world control squashed, and Robert could now finally relax on the Zok Star-Cruiser. He looked at the Moon and Earth, thinking of how beautiful and precious they were together.
On a console in front Robert looked at a screen magnification of Titus burning a trail toward the Sun. The planet created a pulse of electricity that shot into space. The planet became hazy and then disappeared in a flash.
Big Blue turned the Cruiser toward a blue-green star-filled section of the Milk Way and pushed up the newly modified anti-matter thrusters. The gr
avity dampers kept the acceleration unnoticed, but Robert saw the Moon pull away.
"Where are we going Big Blue?"
"The Zoks did not keep such good records, and the races they met they either exterminated or fired missiles upon. I want to stay away from those areas in case a few still remember the ship."
"That’s a good idea Big Blue, but you did not answer my question: where are we going?"
"We’re going to find some fun Robert."
Fun had a nice ring to it.
Robert sat back on Zok cabin chair and opened up his WebTele. Time to check out the last e-mail and Michigan weather report with Bob Norton.
The e-mail was from Joey Milano, sent to every mail server on the planet. It outlined what the US, Russians and European Union were doing on the NET. It attached a file with names, dates, everything. Big trouble. At the beginning of the message he wrote:
Knowledge and education is the only way for the masses to break the chains of slavery and become free. Please read and become free.
Robert laughed. What a crock of shit that Joey boy. Always trying to impress the girls. Robert went to the Michigan Weather.
From the studio Amanda spoke, "How’s the weather outside Bob?" The weather forecast for Michigan predicted buckets of rain. Norton stood outside holding a TV mike dressed in a complete scuba outfit; including yellow duck feet shaped flippers. He had a large duckbill attached to his head and held a yellow umbrella painted with a large smiley face that said Have a Nice DayJ. He’d received the umbrella from Amanda earlier in the day as a birthday present.
It had a gaping hole.
Rain poured through the umbrella onto Norton’s head. "The weather here looks like rain Amanda, but don’t worry boys and girls, it’s great for ducks."
Norton blew into a duck horn: "Quack, Quack…Quack, Quack."
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