Astrid Maxxim and Her Amazing Hoverbike

by Wesley Allison

  “He’s new,”said Valerie. “He was in our Art History Class.”

  “I’m sick of Mark McGovern,”said Toby, and picking up his tray, he started across the common area. The others quickly grabbed their food and followed.

  “Excuse me,”Toby told Mark.

  “What?”

  “You’re in my way.”

  When the boy stepped back, Toby sat down next to the new kid. The new kid was a little on the chunky side and had a buzz cut. Christopher, Valerie, Denise, and Astrid filled in the rest of the spaces.

  “I didn’t know this was the loser table,”said Mark.

  “It was,”said Toby. “But then you left and it wasn’t again.”

  The boy balled up his fist and stared at Toby for a moment, but Toby just stared back. Finally, Mark turned and walked away and the gang all turned their attention to their new table mate.

  “Hello,”said Astrid. “What did Mark the mook want?”

  “He’s in my Algebra class and he’s been teasing me all day about my name.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Austin Tretower.”

  “Austin’s not a funny name,”she said.

  “Tretower is a bit funny, you have to admit,”said Toby. “That doesn’t mean people should tease you about it though.”

  “It’s not any funnier than Bundersmith,”said Christopher.

  “Bundersmith isn’t funny,”countered Toby.

  “No, it isn’t,”said Astrid, who had spent more than a few hours pondering the possibility of being Astrid Bundersmith someday.”

  “So, you’re new?”asked Denise.

  “Today is my first day,”said Austin. “I just moved here Saturday from Washington.”

  “State or D.C.?”wondered Toby.

  “State.”

  “Are your parents going to work at Maxxim?”asked Valerie.

  It was a common question to ask, since almost every family in town had at least one member who was a Maxxim employee.

  “No.” Austin stared down at his pasta bowl. “My parents…I…I’m living with my grandma. She’s retired. I was hoping that I’d…I thought this school was really cool…before that kid…”

  “Don’t worry about Mark,”said Toby. “You stick around with us and you’ll be fine. What program are you on?”

  “Um, six.” He pulled a small paper out of his pocket. “The rest of my classes are Comprehensive English, Spanish, and um…Orchestra.”

  “Cool,”said Toby. “You can sit next to me in English.”

  “And you can meet us at the train station after school,”said Astrid. “We usually walk home together.”

  “Okay,”said Austin, brightening up. “I can tell you some of the stories my grandma told me yesterday. She was a secretary back when they built this town. She actually knewsome of the Maxxims.”

  “Yep, that’s pretty cool,”said Christopher, elbowing Astrid.

  “Let’s hurry up and eat,”she said. “Our pasta bowls are getting cold.”

  Chapter Three: Project RG-7

  When the gang assembled at the school monorail station at 4:30, Austin Tretower was there with them. It was program two’s week to clean up the school, so none of them had to stay late.

  “I think I might take a detour over to the lab and check on my battery,”said Astrid.

  “You can’t,”replied Denise. “By the time we get home and finish our homework, it will be dinner time.”

  “Ever since your dad built you that laboratory,”said Toby,“all you want to do is hang out there and do mad science.”

  “I can’t believe you’re one of them,”said Austin.

  “It’s just a name.”

  “No, you’re one of the Maxxims. Wait till I tell you the stories my Grandma told me. She told me all about Professor Maxxim and his boy genius son.”

  “That boy genius would be my dad,”said Astrid.

  “I know!” Austin fairly trembled at the thought. “It’s so cool!”

  “Let’s go home today,”said Valerie. “We’ll all go with you tomorrow. You said your experiment won’t be over until then. We’ll all tell our parents and we’ll all go with you.”

  “Promise?”

  They all agreed. When the next train arrived, they piled into the futuristic interior, along with hundreds of other students and made the short trip back to the Main Street Station in Maxxim City.

  That evening, Astrid’s dad brought up the subject of her experiment again.

  “I checked the readings on your battery just after I came back from lunch,”he said. “I think we’re going to be surprised with the results—surprised in a good way, I mean.”

  “I hope so,”replied Astrid. “It’s already performed beyond expectations at room temperature. If we can produce a battery that increases the performance of other batteries tenfold, for the same price, and works at all temperature extremes, but is less toxic as well, the world will beat a path to our door.”

  “Let us hope,”said her mother. “The battery industry will generate $64 billion in sales this year. I would like a share of that.”

  Tuesday at school wasn’t all that different from Monday, with the exception that Astrid had a presentation to make in US History class. Her subject was Robert E. Lee. She was a little miffed that Mr. Hoffman gave her an A-, saying that she could have used more creativity in her PowerPoint.

  “Substance is more important than style,”she said under her breath.

  At lunch, which was Asian lettuce wraps with soy dipping sauce, vegetable stir-fry, steamed rice, and strawberries, Austin joined their table in the quad. There was no trouble from Mark McGovern.

  After school they all stepped into the monorail train traveling deeper into the Maxxim campus, rather than the train the other students took heading home. It wasn’t a straight shot to the R&D section. The track stopped at the Business Offices Complex, before continuing on, following along the shores of Pearl Lake, through the Saguaro Cactus Park, and finally to the Research and Development Department.

  “So, I don’t get it,”said Austin. “If thousands of people are working all the time to make better batteries, how come it takes a fourteen year old girl to do it?”

  “I’ll bet they don’t want to make batteries better,”said Christopher. “You make them last longer and you don’t sell as many.”

  “I have an advantage over anyone else,”said Astrid. “I have Astricite. It’s a relatively inexpensive, superconductive alloy that I developed when I was six. We’re already using it in our microprocessors.”

  They arrived in the lab and Astrid examined the readings on her experiment.

  “I think this might make it till the week-end.”

  “What’s in this box?”asked Toby, from across the room. “What’s Project RG-7, and why is it top secret?”

  “I was going to show you guys next week,”said Astrid, leading the others to where Toby was standing beside the crate. “I guess you can go ahead and take a look now.”

  Reaching up, she flipped open a latch and opened the side of the crate. Inside, packed with straw, was a metallic girl. She had bright silver skin, but was otherwise quite human looking. Her hair was the same metallic material as the rest of her, a solid hair-shaped mass rather than individual fibers, but she was wearing regular clothing. She had on a pink jacket over a blue t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

  “Oh my gosh!”squealed Valerie. “She looks like me!”

  “Yes, she does,”agreed Denise.

  “That’s because I patterned her after you,”said Astrid. “She’s a Robot Girl 7.”

  “What’s she…I mean it, for?”asked Austin.

  “Well, who wouldn’t want a robot?”wondered Astrid. “She could be anything: friend, babysitter, maid.”

  “Why did you make her look like me?”asked Valerie.

  “She’s just a prototype. I thought you would be a good model for her.” Astrid stepped over to a table and pulled back a sheet. “What we’re going to do is hook you up to h
er and we’ll copy all the information from your brain into the robot. It will be much faster than trying to program it with a computer.”

  “I don’t know…” Valerie took a step back.

  “It’s perfectly safe,”Astrid assured her.

  “What if it sends my brain into her body? What if I wake up and you’ve turned me into a robot?”

  “That can’t happen,”said Astrid.

  “That would be way cool!”exclaimed Austin. “Make a boy robot and copy my brain!”

  The rest of the week went by quickly. Astrid spent most of her time after school polishing up the two papers that were due that Friday: one on The Count of Monte Cristofor her Independent Study class, and one on fungus for Biology. She did have one opportunity for fun with her friends in the evening. On Wednesday night her father had a barbecue and invited the Bundersmiths, the Browns, The Diaz’s, and the Harris’s, and two other families. Everyone ate heaps of ribs, chicken, and brisket and the kids spent hours in the pool.

  Saturday morning, Astrid was back in her lab looking over the results of her battery experiment. It had gone far better than expected. She gave a quick call to Mr. Brown, Denise’s father, who was in charge of model-making at Maxxim Industries, and asked him to create a line of mock-up batteries in all the popular sizes for her presentation the next week. No sooner had she hung up the phone than Denise walked in the door, followed by Valerie.

  Toby and Christopher weren’t with them, but Astrid knew right where they were. They were two of only a four freshmen at school who had their pilot’s licenses, so they spent every other Saturday at the Maxxim Industries airfield, trying to get enough hours to qualify on the newest aircraft models.

  “Hey Guys,”said Astrid. “Right on time.”

  “I’m still not sure about this,”said Valerie.

  “Don’t worry. We’re just programming the robot to be able to follow some basic input. We want to be able to tell it to go here, or pick that up, or bring me that test tube. Programming it by hand would take weeks. This way, we can map out the entire command structure by copying the way your brain works. I thought you would enjoy this, being a part of history.”

  “I guess it’s alright,”said Valerie. “You’re not going to fry my brain or anything?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Don’t worry,”said Denise. “I won’t let her do any mad science stuff to you.”

  “What do I have to do?”

  “Just sit down here on the table by Robot Girl 7,”Astrid instructed. “I’ll just put these sensors on your temples.”

  She stuck a white circular sticky pad with a wire extending from it onto each side of Valerie’s head.

  “Now I just throw the switch.” She flipped a switch on a nearby panel. “Feel anything?”

  “No,”answered Valerie, a little shakily.

  “See? Now just sit tight for about five minutes.”

  Valerie sat, with Denise holding her hand. After what seemed to her like far longer than five minutes, Astrid flipped the switch and then began removing the sensor pads.

  “That’s it?”asked Valerie.

  “Yes,”replied Astrid. “You weren’t turned into a robot and your brain wasn’t fried.”

  “The robot isn’t moving,”observed Denise.

  “It’ll take hours and hours for its processors to map out all that data. There’s a lot of information in a human brain.”

  Valerie and Denise spent an hour texting each other, while Astrid compiled the final results of her experiment. Then the three of them had fun running and then sliding down the slick floor of the hallway outside in their stocking feet. They took the monorail home, stopping at the Malt Shop, run by Mr. Richards, Denise’s other dad. They each ordered a chocolate malt and then drank them as they walked home. Denise and Astrid dropped Valerie off at her home, and then they split at the corner near Denise’s house, Astrid walking the last bit by herself.

  Astrid was asleep when her phone rang. She wiped her eyes and looked at the clock. It was almost eleven. Picking the device up off its charger, she pressed the answer button.

  “Hello?”

  “Astrid, help me!”

  “Valerie?”

  “Yes, it’s me. Something has happened.”

  “What? What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m in your lab.”

  “My lab? What are you doing there?”

  “I don’t know, but you’ve got to help me, Astrid. You’re the only one that can.”

  “Hang on, Valerie. I’ll be right there.”

  Chapter Four: Robot Valerie

  Astrid hurried from the monorail station to the R&D building. She could see from the outside that the lights in her lab were on. Just as she stepped up to the front door, she was bathed in the headlights of a security patrol car. She stood blinking as the red lights on the car’s rooftop began flashing and the driver’s side door opened. Out stepped Captain Sergio Diaz, Maxxim’s head of security and Valerie’s dad.

  “What’s going on here, Astrid?”he asked.

  “I don’t know,”replied the girl inventor. “I got a call from Valerie, saying she was in my lab.”

  “I got a similar call, but I checked and Valerie is asleep in her bed. I might think this was an attempt to kidnap you, but then why call me?”

  “I think I might know what this is about,”said Astrid. “Come with me up to my lab.”

  “Perhaps I should go investigate while you wait in the car. It might be dangerous.”

  “You can protect me better if we say together,”she pointed out.

  They entered the building and took the glass elevator up to the fourteenth floor. As they unlocked the door and stepped inside, something came flying across the room, grasping Mr. Diaz around his waist.

  “Poppy, Poppy, thank heavens you’re here!”

  “What…” The security chief peeled the form off of him and pushed it away. “What is this?”

  “It’s me, Poppy!” It was Robot Girl 7, only she was awake and very, very animated. “It’s me. Astrid turned me into a robot, just like I was afraid she would.”

  “Just what have you done?”demanded Mr. Diaz, frowning down at Astrid.

  An hour later they were all in the living room of the Diaz home. Astrid and Mr. Diaz stood on one side of the room while Mrs. Diaz stood at the other side of the room with her arms around the robot.

  “How could you do this to our little girl, Astrid,”she said.

  “I didn’t do anything to her. Look, she’s sitting right there on the couch.”

  “I’m fine, Mama,”said Valerie, who was indeed sitting right there on the couch.

  “Look at her,”continued Mrs. Diaz. “She’s trembling, she’s so frightened.”

  “That’s probably one of her servos readjusting,”said Astrid. “It will go away in a little while.”

  Just then there was a knock at the door, which Mr. Diaz went to answer. He returned a minute later with Dr. and Mrs. Maxxim. The latter looked none too happy. The former mostly just looked sleepy.

  “Astrid, what is going on?”demanded her mother.

  “Look at what your daughter has done to my little girl,”demanded Mrs. Diaz, clutching Robot Girl 7 closer.

  “Sofia, our daughter is right over there,”said Mr. Diaz. “She’s fine.”

  “Yes Mama, I’m over here.”

  “Is that RG-7?”asked Dr. Maxxim, catching sight of the silver girl. “Amazing, Astrid. Oh, you have really done it this time.”

  “Roger!”barked Mrs. Maxxim.

  “Astrid, you have really done it this time,”he said, in an entirely different and much sterner way than before. “But, we should still get it back to the lab to run some tests.”

  “Mama, don’t let them take me!”cried the robot.

  “You will not touch a hair on my daughter’s head!”hissed Mrs. Diaz.

  “Mama, I’m over here,”s
aid Valerie again. “And she doesn’t have any hair.”

  “You will not touch a hair on either of my daughters’heads,”finished Mrs. Diaz.

  “Astrid, Roger, go wait in the car,”demanded Mrs. Maxxim. “Sergio, you and I will discuss this. Cooler heads must prevail.”

  Dr. Maxxim took his daughter by the hand and led her outside and to the car, into which they climbed. Astrid took the back seat. They sat without speaking for ten minutes until Mrs. Maxxim joined them. She gave a nod to her husband, which he took as a signal to start the drive home.

  “What about my robot?”asked Astrid.

  “For the time being, the robot will remain in the custody of Mrs. Diaz, with the understanding that it embodies the intellectual property of Maxxim Industries, with all the rights and privileges inclusively thereby associated.”

  “What does all that mean?”asked Astrid.

  “She’s keeping it.”

  Astrid was required to stay home all day Sunday, and even though her parents had never used the term“grounded,”she had a feeling that she knew just what that felt like. She did her chores, finished her homework for the next two weeks, and practiced her oboe. About every five minutes, she answered a text from Denise, but she heard nothing from Valerie.

  On Monday, she shot out the door after downing seven bites of oatmeal and found Toby, as always, waiting for her at the edge of the yard. He leaned casually against the last poplar tree and laughed when she bounded up to him.

  “Have an eventful weekend?”he asked.

  “You know?”

  “The whole town knows, Astrid,”he replied. “I just wish I could have seen it. Where is it, anyway?”

  “What? You mean…”

  “Yes, the robot girl. Where is it?”

  “I’m not really sure,”replied Astrid. “That’s one reason I really want to see Valerie this morning.”

  They found both Denise and Christopher waiting for them at the corner of Acacia and Fourth, but Valerie was not at the usual spot in front of her home and she didn’t show up when they waited for her. Finally Toby went to the door of the Diaz home and rang the bell, but no one answered. They continued on their way, reaching the monorail station and taking the train to school.