The Final Battle

by Anna Wu

  Chapter 12: Engineering 101

  Around eight the next morning, Cindy got up out of Jimmy's parents' bed. Sheen, Libby, Carl, Nick, and herself had spent the night in Jimmy's house instead of the lab. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at the sleeping Libby, who had shared the twin-size bed with her. "Get some rest, Libby," she said while fixing the covers around her shoulders.

  Cindy walked downstairs and past Nick, Carl, and Sheen, who were sound asleep in the living room. She walked out the front door, careful not to close it too loudly. She stepped foot out onto the lawn, relishing the sensation of the morning dew tickling her toes. She closed her eyes for a moment and smelled the delicious scent that comes after a brief rain shower.

  "Morning," Jimmy shouted while exiting his lab, his hands full of various inventions. "Sleep well?" he asked her while walking up to the parked hover car in the middle of the street...

  Cindy nodded as she walked across the street. "Give me a minute!" she shouted back to him. She opened her unlocked front door and walked into her house. She changed out of her nightgown into her regular clothes. She then ran into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. She was about to go back outside, but decided to run into the bathroom and fix her hair up a bit first.

  Cindy nonchalantly strolled out of her house and walked up to Jimmy, who was sorting the various machines he had put in the hover car. "What time did you get up?" she asked while taking a bite out of her apple.

  "An hour ago or so. Could you help me with something?" he asked while walking back into his lab. Cindy nodded and followed him inside. "Would you mind carrying these out to the hover car?" he asked her.

  Cindy nodded once again and put the apple in her mouth. She grabbed the array of machinery and blueprint schematics, struggling to keep them all in her hands. Jimmy grabbed an equally large pile and led her out the door. "Thanks, I really needed the help," Jimmy told her while smiling.

  "Irft's ner twablem," she struggled to say through the apple clenched in her jaws. "Rut's all of tis whore?" she asked.

  Jimmy dumped his stuff in the hover car. "Well, we'll obviously be assembling our rockets at Retroland, which is where all our raw material will be. I'll need to set up a command center there."

  Cindy placed the jumble of supplies in the hover car and angrily spit the apple on the ground. "Sounds like a plan," she said while leaning against the hover car and wiping her mouth. Jimmy nodded and stared at her for a moment. "What?" she angrily asked.

  Jimmy continued staring at her. "Did you fix up your hair?" he asked. "It looks nicer."

  Cindy blushed. "Well, I may have combed…"

  "Hey guys!" Sheen shouted while leading Carl and Nick to Jimmy and Cindy. Nick was holding his skateboard under his right arm. "Just about time to get going, right?"

  Jimmy and Cindy groaned as their friends approached. "Um, yeah," Jimmy told Sheen, "the kids will probably start coming in just a minute. Nick, could you go try to wake them up?"

  Nick nodded. "No problem," he said while setting his skateboard down on the ground and rolling down the street.

  Jimmy clapped his hands together and smiled. "Well, I have a few last minute details..." he began before being interrupted by the loud crash! of Nick colliding with a neighbor's trash cans.

  "I'm alright!" the four kids distantly heard him shout from down the street.

  "That need to be done in my lab," Jimmy immediately continued. "Cindy, could you maybe organize that heap of machinery you tossed into the hover car? Ok, bye!" he shouted while running off.

  Carl and Sheen looked to Cindy. "I hate that guy sometimes," she muttered while organizing the heavy machinery that she had so thoughtfully helped him carry.

  Around fifteen minutes later Jimmy finished his work and ejected a floppy disk out of the main computer's disc drive in the lab's main room. He blew the few bits of dust off of it slipped it in his pocket before running outside.

  "Alright, here's what we're going to do!" Jimmy shouted to the crowd of kids that was once again gathered on his lawn. "We're going to walk to Retroland and then we'll begin construction. I'll explain how that will work when we get there. I'll pilot my hover car and get there before you guys and set up my control center there. See you in fifteen minutes!" he shouted while hopping into his hover car and barreling down the street.

  Everyone stared after him for a moment. "Well, you heard the man!" Sheen shouted while stepping in front of the group and starting to walk down the street.

  Cindy quickly fell into stride beside him. "Sheen, where's Libby?"

  Sheen froze and looked behind him. "Oh damn it!" he shouted while running back to Jimmy's house.

  "Guess that's your cue for you to take over," Nick laughed while rolling next to Cindy on his skateboard.

  Jimmy landed his hover car in the middle of Retroland and set up his easel. He placed his blueprints on it and sorted through a few inventions. He laid out his tool boxes and various other supplies. By the time he was done, the crowd was entering the gates to the amusement park.

  Jimmy smiled as everyone stood before him. He was quickly adjusting to public speaking. "Well, here we go then," he whispered to himself. "Ok, everyone. I rummaged through my hard drives and I was able to find the blueprints for the rockets we built two years ago. Let me refresh your memories," he told everyone while pointing to the blueprints on the easel.

  "We start by adding the state of the art propulsion drives to the key points of the rocket. I'll start with the Ferris wheel design. , We attach a propulsion drives to the back of each cart in the Ferris wheel at a forty-five degree angle." He motioned to Goddard. "Goddard, please show rocket demo 3A."

  Goddard's back peeled away so that a hologram could be shot into the air. A Ferris Wheel appeared with a rocket behind each cart. "Now, each cart will give a short burst from its rocket. The cart behind it will then give a short burst, then the cart behind that, etc. This will push the rocket forward and each separate cart downwards, which will create a spinning motion. The pilot will have to control the two stronger propulsion drives located on the bottom of the Ferris wheel. These will prevent the angular propulsion drives from forcing the Ferris wheel into a descent. After every few rotations of the wheel, the pilot will activate these thrusters to give the wheel a boost. There will also be several thrusters mounted on the sides for navigational purposes."

  The hologram did the actions that Jimmy was speaking of. Soon the Ferris wheel was spinning faster and faster while moving forward. The thrusters on the bottom gave the Ferris wheel a boost in altitude whenever it dropped downwards. Thrusters on the side allowed it to steer past the incoming asteroids. "By increasing the thrust of the rockets and decreasing the lengths of the bursts in a related exponential manner, you can safely propel the wheel forward to incredible speeds," he proudly explained.

  The hologram disappeared back inside Goddard. Jimmy smiled for the crowd of confused faces in front of him. "Now, that is how it works, but it's not how it's built. Firstly, we attach the propulsion drivers onto the back of each cart at a forty-five degree angle, as I've said. Then we go over the metal with an impervious alloy for protection. After that we'll seal the carts with an obdurate glass-like substance to shield the pilot, passengers, and supplies from the radioactivity and debris of space. Then we attach the fuel tanks. The rest is just simple maintenance and minor touch-up applications. Any questions?"

  Everyone in front of him looked at him as if he were insane with their jaws dropped, even Cindy. "Well then, on to the bumper car design," he said while switching blueprints.