Luciana

by Erin Teagan

  “Come in, come in.” The guy waved, a handful of green beams in his hand. He was sitting in front of the giant mechanical dinosaur. “I’ve got to deliver this to the museum later today. Hand me that voice box?”

  Johanna pushed past me and went in first. “Is this dinosaur Bluetooth enabled? Does it have …”

  And then I didn’t hear the rest because Meg screamed. I looked behind the door and saw a human-sized robot on a giant wheel with his eyes closed.Charlotte calmed down Meg and they walked inside.

  “That’s just Isaak,” the guy said, pointing to the robot. “Another one of my projects.”

  Looking around the office, I realized we were surrounded by hundreds of projects, piled up on tables, pouring out of baskets, one stuck to the ceiling with suckers, another seemingly suspended in midair. In the corner by the couch that was covered in papers and parts was the robotic unicycle, plugged in and charging.

  “Did you make the unicycle?” I asked, stepping over a pair of robot hands.

  He looked up, taking a screwdriver out of his mouth. “I bought that one. I used it to figure out Isaak’s wheel base.” He motioned to Johanna to hand him a package of screws.

  “Wow,” Charlotte said, touching Isaak’s shoulder with one finger. “I can’t imagine what the programming was like for something like this.”

  “Veronica, what time is it?”

  I looked around for a Veronica, and then I heard from the other side of the room, “Good afternoon, Samuel, it is one thirty-five.” It came from a speaker hanging on the wall.

  I stepped farther into the office. “Mr. Samuel? We are here because—”

  “Quick, give me that washer.” He waved his hand at Johanna, who handed him the part.

  “Uh,” I said, trying again. “We are the Red Rovers and—”

  “Done! Watch this.” He stepped off his stool and backed away, pressing his hands to his ears. We all quickly looked at one another and did the same thing. Which was a good idea because a second later, the dinosaur’s voice box clicked on and released a roar loud enough to rattle the glasses lined up on the windowsill.

  “Veronica. Send message ‘He’s ready’ to Front Desk Lisa.”

  “Message sent,” Veronica the speakerbot said.

  I looked at the rest of my team, all now standing in the office, looking around in awe. This was the kind of place you’d expect a director of artificial intelligence to work for sure. But we were here for a reason. And that was to get a sponsorship.

  “Mr. Samuel, we were wondering if you’d be willing to sponsor a team for the robotics com—”

  “Help me get this on,” he said, fighting to get a giant dinosaur leg onto a rolling platform. “And no, I don’t sponsor anymore.”

  I froze. What? No more sponsorships? “But—”

  “Wait! Wait! Don’t pull!” he said to Johanna and Charlotte, who had moved in to help out.

  Ella stood next to me.

  “Now what?” I said.

  She sighed. “Guess we’ll have to get creative. Think of a different way to help the RoboEngineers.”

  I smiled at her because that was something she never would have said earlier in the week. She patted the glitter L that was rolling off a bit from my flight suit, fixing it back into place.

  One of the dinosaur’s scales had become detached from the rest of the dinosaur and slid to the floor. Johanna lunged to catch it before it shattered on the tile.

  “Good catch!” Samuel said.

  “Mr. Samuel?” Charlotte said, looking at the door behind her. “How are you going to get that dinosaur through the door?”

  Samuel looked up from reattaching the scale. “Hmm. I always forget about that detail.”

  Everyone circled the dinosaur, including Meg, who walked fast past the humanoid behind the door.

  Charlotte poked at one of the arm joints. “Looks like this could pop right off here. And also this one too. In fact, we could also take the head off.”

  Samuel cringed. “The head weighs at least fifty pounds and it took me three nights to build.”

  “That’s it?” Meg said, stepping forward for a better look. “That would take me one thousand nights to build!”

  “ONE THOUSAND NIGHTS TO BUILD,” the robot bird said.

  “Shhh,” Samuel said. “Sleep, Birdy.”

  And the bird snoozed, snoring loudly.

  “How many of these rolling platforms do you have?” Johanna pointed to the one under the dinosaur foot.

  Samuel disappeared into a closet, coming back with more platforms and rolling them across the floor. “This many.”

  And that’s how we ended up marching across Space Camp caravanning remote-controlled rolling platforms carrying a dismembered dinosaur.

  Even though we were disqualified from the competition, Mallory and Alex still made us go to the robotics lab before dinner since it was our scheduled time. I wasn’t sure exactly why they made us do this; maybe it was part of our punishment.

  Nobody was surprised when the RoboEngineers grabbed their rover tub and went to build somewhere else, leaving us alone in the lab. They didn’t want our help, and without the sponsorship, we had nothing to offer them anyway.

  We were all just sitting there, not even really talking to one another, when Johanna pulled our plastic tub from the shelf. “Want to keep building anyway?” She took out our rover and placed it in the middle of the table.

  “What’s the point?” Ella said.

  Meg reached over and pushed the rover back and forth. “It does look sad only half-finished.”

  “We could make it a really cool robot with lots of different parts,” Charlotte said. “Just for fun.”

  Ella rolled her eyes. “We’re disqualified, remember? Let’s not waste our time.”

  Johanna sat down next to her, nudging her with an elbow. “Stop playing the insulted sausage.”

  I laughed. “Did you just call her a sausage?”

  Johanna was up again, smiling and heading toward the parts wall. “It’s just something we say in Germany, like …”

  “Like, we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves?” I said.

  “Yes! Like that!” Johanna waved us out of our seats. “Come on. We can just build something weird and fun.”

  “Hey, what can we do with these?” Charlotte asked, already in the parts closet, holding up four heavy-duty all-terrain wheels from a box. “They have spikes.”

  “Bring them here,” Johanna said.

  “Can we use this? I just found it in the trash can.” Meg had an antennae-looking thing.

  “Let’s just try to use everything,” Johanna suggested. “What do we have to lose?”

  Charlotte came over and inspected the antennae. “I bet there’s a remote that goes with this, or, oh wait, we could use the tablet to make it run.”

  Ella joined us. “Do both?” And then she looked at me like she was asking me the question.

  I twirled my hair, the purple still vibrant after almost an entire week. “Yes. Both. Good.” It was like Ella was finally treating me like a captain. And also a friend. And a teammate. “If you think so too,” I added.

  “What about these giant claws?” Meg said.

  We started building. No drawings. No instructions. We just tried everything. The claws were too heavy for our motor module, so we took them off. But then Johanna found a set of pinchers that were just small enough.

  And then Meg found an old voice-activated sensor with a giant scratch on the surface. “Think this still works?”

  “Gimme,” Charlotte said from her spot at the computer.

  Meg brought it over and sat down next to Charlotte and then it was just Ella and me standing in the middle of the room while everyone else was busy building and programming.

  “I can’t believe tomorrow is the competition. And graduation is the next day,” I announced. A week at Space Camp had seemed like it would be so long. I was ready to see Raelyn for sure, and I missed my parents, and I was desperate to find
out what was happening with Izzy, but … A lump formed in my throat and I swallowed hard.

  “I know,” Ella said. “Do you think you’ll come again?”

  I shrugged. “I hope so. It took me a long time to win the essay contest, and with Izzy now, I’m just not sure.”

  “Yeah,” Ella said.

  I bit my nail. “Would you ever want to text or something? Like, keep in touch?” Even though Ella and I had a lot of differences, I felt that spark of friendship that you don’t get with everyone.

  “You want to keep in touch with me?” she said like she couldn’t believe it. “I’m a terrible friend. You can ask anyone.”

  I laughed. “Well, I’m a terrible team captain, so we’re even.”

  “Nah,” Ella said, “you have some pretty good ideas.” She tightened her ponytail.

  I watched Charlotte and Johanna trying to connect the pinchers to the robot. “I probably won’t take so many chances anymore. Slow down a little.”

  Ella shrugged. “It’s not always bad to take chances. You’re going to be a really great scientist. My dad is an inventor and he always says it’s the person who thinks a little differently from the rest who has the greatest chance of making a difference in this world.”

  “Got it!” Johanna said. “Look! All-terrain walker!”

  It was a walking rover but she had somehow rigged the all-terrain heavy-duty wheels to the end of the walking legs.

  Charlotte squinted her eyes. “How am I supposed to program that? Do you want it to roll or walk?”

  “Both!” Meg said, turning back to the computer. “You can do that, right, Charlotte?”

  Charlotte nodded her head. “Whatever you say, glow sticks.”

  “Hey!” Meg stood up. “That would be so cool if we stuck glow sticks all over the robot. That way if it’s dark, the astronauts could still see it. And, also, it would look awesome.” She thought for a minute. “And some glitter stickers! Luciana, do you have some left?”

  “Yep,” I said. “Great idea, Meg.”

  “Oh, um.” Ella sniffed, inspecting a strap on her flight suit. “Maybe you have some for me too?”

  “Actually, maybe for all of us again?” Charlotte said.

  “Of course!” I said, grinning.

  Johanna stood up, pressing a button on the rover. “Watch.” The rover moved his legs, but when she put it on the table to walk around, it collapsed. She scooped it up. “Okay. We need more thinking on this one obviously. Also, is there any duct tape in the lab?”

  There was a knock on the door and we froze. Leo looked up from the drone he was fixing in the corner of the lab and motioned for me to open the door. I half expected it to be the boss of all of Space Camp coming to tell us our parents had been called and we were going home. But instead, it was James and his team.

  “We’re not here because we want to be,” James said. “We have an emergency.” He held out his robot. “The gyro sensor stopped working and we heard that one of you can fix almost anything.”

  Johanna stood up. “Let me look at it.”

  James hesitated for a second. “Without it we’d have to redesign our entire robot. I think somehow it got damaged during the … uh—”

  She pulled it out of his hands. “Give me a few minutes.”

  James hung onto his robot and looked over his shoulder. His teammates nodded at him, so he let it go.

  Charlotte got to work on the gyro sensor with Johanna, and the rest of us stood around awkwardly, trying not to look at one another.

  “You guys are building again?” James said, looking at our rover on the table.

  “Just a little,” I said. “For fun.”

  It was like we were in a robot hospital, waiting for news, until Johanna made a not-so-great sound and stood up. And from the look on Johanna’s face, the news was not good.

  “Kaputt,” she said.

  “I think she means your sensor is dead,” Charlotte whispered, and James smacked his head. The team moved around, standing up and sitting back down. Noah shook his head at me and I was pretty sure he mouthed it’s your fault. It was okay, though, since he was right.

  “Okay,” I said. “This is what we’re going to do.” I reached over to our robot and grabbed the voice-activated sensor. I held it up and looked at my team and we communicated via eyebrow signals. We all knew it was what we had to do.

  “Here.” I handed it to James. “We found it in a trash bin and fixed it up. It’s probably the only one in the lab and it’s not as great as the gyro sensor but it will make your team stand out.”

  James looked at me incredulously. “What are we supposed to do with this so late? The competition is tomorrow morning, Luciana. Tomorrow. The gyro sensor we paid ten million bolts for is busted and you want us to replace it with this?”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m so sorry. It’s our best part. I just thought—”

  He was steaming mad, pacing the room, half of his team joining him on his back-and-forths. “We’d have to completely reprogram and rebuild a new robot. Impossible.”

  I swung around and looked at my team. “Not if we all help.”

  James didn’t look so sure, so he talked to his team and after a few seconds, he turned to me and gave me a thumbs-up.

  We put aside our not-even-half-built robot and the RoboEngineers and Red Rovers sat at the same table and huddled over the broken robot. We pulled off sensors and arms and built more structure while Charlotte worked on the programming and Johanna messed with the voice-activated sensor. We worked for hours, barely even talking, until Mallory and Alex came into the room with trays full of food from the galley.

  “Looks like you kids will be having what we call a working dinner,” Alex said. “Reminds me of group projects in college. We had a lot of late nights.”

  Charlotte rushed over to the table, the programmed brick in her hand. “I think we got it.” She clicked it into place and everyone stopped and waited, the room getting quiet.

  “Can I do it?” Meg said.

  Charlotte nodded. “Go for it.”

  “Rainbow Rover Roll.”

  The robot lit up, turning on and making a revving engine sound.

  “Why Rainbow Rover?” James asked, standing up.

  The voice activation sensor blinked alive, pulsing the color of the rainbow.

  “Cool. Never mind. This is so cool.”

  Charlotte’s face reddened and Meg did a half-turn twisty jump in the air because it looked like they’d got it. Rainbow Rover rolled.

  “Rainbow Rover Drill.”

  Rainbow Rover pulled out one arm where a small drill was attached. The drill turned on, spinning as the robot rolled across the table.

  “Rainbow Rover Stop,” Charlotte said, and the robot stopped. She turned to everyone, like no big deal and she didn’t just save the entire robot competition. “Okay, we can eat now.”

  And it was like the entire room had been holding their breath up until that point. Everyone grabbed some food from the trays and collapsed into chairs, even some of the boys smiling, everyone feeling a huge relief.

  But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy on a robotic unicycle zipping up the hall toward the lab with a plastic bird on his shoulder. He poked his head in the door. “Pssst …”

  Mallory and Alex waved to him. “Hey, Sammy. Hey, Birdy.”

  The bird on his shoulder said, “TWEET. I AM BIRDY, Y’ALL.”

  “Oh, a southern bird, I see.” Mallory smiled and Orion woke up. “BARK.”

  I dropped my sandwich and walked over.

  “Thanks for your team’s help earlier,” he said. “The dinosaur is safely installed in the museum now. I’d like to show you my appreciation by—” He pushed me aside and rolled into the room, directly over to our robot. “Did you make a robot out of broken parts?” He inspected the antenna that was being held together by duct tape.

  “We kind of had to,” Johanna said with her mouth full of mac and cheese. She pointed to the scoreboard where we
were still at zero. The RoboEngineers were at three million after buying a few new parts to make up for some of their broken ones. The MarsBots were way ahead of everyone else, and the Wizards were close behind them.

  “I love this idea. Whose idea was this?” Samuel asked, looking around and picking up our robot’s pincher at the same time. “Recycled robot. Genius.”

  My entire team was pointing at me and my heart throbbed. “Johanna did all the fixing and Ella did a lot of the building. Charlotte and Meg were the programmers.”

  “And you,” he said, pointing at me, “were the idea generator.”

  “Well, I don’t always have the best ideas.”

  The boys were all out of their chairs by now, hovering around, looking at Samuel’s unicycle.

  Samuel handed me a ticket. “I haven’t sponsored a team in a long time, you know.”

  The rest of my team crowded in to see. The ticket was for ten million bolts. More than any sponsorship we had seen all week. I glanced up at Mallory. She gave me a thumbs-up.

  “Oh, but—” I started to say, also looking at the rest of my team. “We didn’t want the bolts for ourselves.”

  Samuel glanced up from our robot. “What?”

  “We were hoping you’d sponsor a different team.” I nodded toward James and his team. “One that really deserves it. Plus, we’re disqualified, so the bolts would only go to waste.”

  Samuel was surprised.

  James stood up. “Luciana, wait …”

  “We owe the RoboEngineers big-time for messing things up for them,” I said.

  “Like bigger than big-time,” Charlotte said.

  Johanna nodded and so did Ella, even though her eyes were fixated on the ten-million-bolt ticket like she would snatch it back if things were different.

  “Like the biggest of the big-times ever,” Meg added.

  “You want to give your ten million bolts to another team?” Samuel said, rocking back and forth on his unicycle.

  “Yes,” I said, and Ella handed the ticket over to James, who only just stared at it.

  “Guys …” James said. “It’s okay. We’re okay now. You helped us.”