by John Ricks
Another. Diana Nickels, pulled on Susan’s sleeve and said, “He always watches you when you’re in the shop area. You know that. I can feel it. It’s not his fault that you forgot. Besides, you should want to hug him for warning you that he overheard your conversation. Why are you mad and thinking he was spying?”
The other special, little seven-year-old Kay Brown, giggled and said, “He wasn’t spying. He loves you. You’re his mommy. He protects you.”
Bending down to her level and rubbing her head, Susan said in a nonaccusing tone, “I’m astonished that the three of you can pick up so much without entering my mind.” She stood up and thought for a second. The specials all adopted Freddy’s stance that you don’t spy on someone’s thoughts unless you think that person is pulling something bad. So they’re not reading my mind. How do they know all that information? Think, think, girl! Wait a minute.
“Shop.”
“Yes, Susan?”
“How many times has Freddy actually kept me from harm while here in the shop areas?”
“Twenty-three times to date, but only four would have resulted in your death.”
Susan’s face turned white, and she hoped it would quickly turn too red. Showing embarrassment was far better than fear, but there was no fooling these kids. One grabbed Susan’s knee; the other two put their arms around her waist. All said things like, “Don’t worry. You’ll be all right,” and “Freddy won’t let you get hurt. He protects everyone.” Now Susan was embarrassed. She quietly but firmly said, “Please let me go,” which they quickly did.
“Now, how can we get Freddy to come out so that I can talk to him?”
Diana said, “Right now, that would be a bad idea, Captain. Freddy is really working in an area that is highly dangerous.”
“Very well. He’ll have to come out sometime.”
“Why?”
Susan had to think about that one. He probably has a ship in there so he has a place to eat, sleep, clean up, get fresh clothes, and communicate with the world. He has no reason to come out.
“Shop.”
“Yes, Captain James.”
“When Freddy is not busy doing something dangerous, please tell him that I am no longer angry with him. Tell him that I want to give him a hug for protecting me and that I want to talk to him about some things. Let him know I approve of his vacation idea, as long as he gets to relax most of the time, as he suggested he would. Tell him that Cooky is making a chocolate cake with chocolate butter frosting for one of the team, and he should be present for the cutting. We’ll be cutting it tonight at 1900 hours.”
“I will pass the information on as quickly as possible. I expect to be able to inform him in about two hours. Knowing Freddy, he is going to ask for whom the cake is intended.”
“Access all team records. Is there anyone with a birthday this month?”
“Forty-two personnel have birthdays this month, and eighteen are on the base at this time. One has a birthday today.”
“Really? Who?”
“Katie Swanson.”
“Perfect. If Freddy asks, tell him that we have started a new tradition. Each month, everyone will quit working long enough to celebrate the birthdays for that month by getting together and sharing a cake.”
“He’ll love that. You know how he feels about Katie. Besides, chocolate butter frosting is his favorite.”
“I know. Thanks, Shop.”
Little Kay Brown looked up and tugged on Susan’s pants. “Are we really going to have chocolate cake tonight?”
“Yes, we are. Shop?”
“I know; tell Cooky what’s going on so she can start making the cake. It will need to be a big one. She’s going to be upset at the short notice.”
“I’ll handle her temper. You just tell her. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Kay took off skipping and yelling in delight, “Cake! We’re going to have cake!”
Both the others turned to leave also. Diana Nickels said, “You’d think she doesn’t get dessert every night.”
Andy said, “I know. I’ve never eaten better. But still, sharing cake with the entire team will be a lot of fun.”
Susan decided that maybe this idea was a good one. Sometimes I stumble onto the best ideas out of pure need, she thought. This time, the need was to get Freddy out of his rabbit hole. With it being Katie’s birthday, the chances were 100 percent that he’d be there.
Susan headed out to the new ship. How am I going to talk Freddy into staying on Earth? It’s not fair that he can’t go into space, but he is the only one who can run this shop.
“Shop.”
“Yes, Captain?”
“How many times has Freddy saved the lives of people, including me, while working on his projects?”
“One hundred six times.”
That stopped Susan dead in her tracks. “That’s not acceptable! Shop, can you give me a report on every safety issue in which Freddy had to get involved?”
“Yes, that would be 721 issues.”
“But you said 106!”
“That was ‘save lives’ only.”
“Please break everything down into categories, and chart them from the most common to the least common.”
“Completed.”
“Send it to my console as a file labeled Safety Problem.”
“Completed.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Captain.”
Susan stared at the door to Freddy’s new private area, wondering, How much time has been lost because Freddy has had to monitor and protect all these people? For goodness’ sake. It’s my job to protect, and I’m not doing my job; he is. Aloud, she said, “Thank you, Freddy. I promise I’ll do better.”
She left to talk with the cook. When she entered the house, Cooky was just heading back into the kitchen, as happy as a lark.
“Hi, Cooky. Sorry for the short notice.”
“Perfectly all right. Making a large cake is nothing. Just don’t surprise me with presidential visits at the last minute anymore. Seven-course meals need to be planned out, you know.” She continued into the kitchen, humming a song.
“Well, at least that’s one less worry.” Susan went into her office and opened the file marked Safety Problem. As soon as she started reading, she could see that they were in deep trouble. If OSHA—the federal Occupational Safety and Health Association—were to audit them right now they’d shut them down. Susan wasn’t a safety expert, so she called Chief Peters into her office.
“You called, ma’am?”
“Yes. Take a look at this, and tell me what you think.”
He came around the desk and read some of the material. With a look of pure irritation, he asked in a snippy tone, “What are you doing with this? This should have come through my desk!”
“I found out about it when I was in the shop, so I had the information sent to me directly. And watch your tone!”
Without looking up, he said, “We need to call Washington and get some experts down here immediately. I am so sorry. I never had a clue from the papers crossing my desk.”
“You know, Chief, not everything is on paper or in that computer of yours.”
He gave Susan a look that said she was being sacrilegious, and then he sent the file to his computer. “I’ll have Environmental Safety and Health personnel here within the week! This has to stop!” As he was leaving, he mumbled as he wrote in his notepad. “We’ll need safety identification and development training, monitoring, new person introduction, required shop access training, hazardous material and waste training and regulations, procedures for everything …”
Once he was out the door, Susan could no longer hear him prattle, but the smile on his face said she’d given him his Christmas presents for the next two years.
“Home, please tell
Shop to send any additional information on safety issues to Chief Peters.”
“Captain, Shop has an emergency.”
“Patch her through.”
“Captain James, I need you immediately. Please come to the shop, and bring Stacy Michaels and Dr. Landers.”
“Very well, Shop. I’m on my way.” Susan quickly left, while telling Home to contact Stacy and Dr. Landers and have them meet her at the shop entrance immediately. When she realized who Stacy was, a special in healing, she started running. Stacy met Susan at the entrance, and Dr. Landers was close behind her.
“What’s up, Captain?”
“I don’t know, Stacy.”
“Is Freddy all right?”
“I don’t know. Shop wants the three of us—and now.” They entered the shop and headed toward Freddy’s area on a run.
“Captain, I have dispatched clear dots to each of you, as I don’t want anyone else to hear what I am about to say.”
“Go ahead.”
“Thank you. Captain. Freddy received your message and was very happy, but in his enthusiasm, he slipped and hit his head on his new project.”
Susan started to panic even more, but Shop said, “Relax, Captain. Freddy is not in any danger. He is doing fine, but he did hit his head rather hard. He is lying on the floor of his new project, unconscious. He is bleeding a little but not enough to be worried about it. I scanned him and can see that the injury is minor. However, unless someone goes in and wakes him soon, he may miss dinner and the cake cutting. That would be sad.”
“Shop, anyone could have handled this. What’s the matter?”
“Freddy’s newest project is very dangerous, Captain, and I want it stopped.”
That comment caused Susan to break into a run. She realized that the shop computer was doing something against its programming. “Shop, how are you getting around your programming to do this?”
“I cannot reprogram my ten top requirements, but I can reprogram myself in order to fulfill them.”
Susan relaxed a little. Shop’s top ten requirements all had something to do with protecting Freddy, personnel on the base, and the base, including itself. So the shop computer was still under control. “Very well. Why?”
“I had to reprogram myself in order to stop Freddy from destroying himself and possibly the world. I need you to talk him into stopping this project, at least until he has thought it through and has a much safer place to attempt the act.”
“What is he doing?”
“I can’t tell you that. However, I can tell you that he is hurt and that someone has to go rescue him. I think whoever rescues him may accidentally find out what he’s doing. I can also tell you that you have only twenty-three minutes.”
The three moved fast toward Freddy’s private shop. “I understand, Shop. I will look into it, but you know how Freddy is.”
“Don’t I!”
Susan thought that sounded far too human—but they had arrived, so she said, “Shop, please open the door.” She expected a click or something, but instead, the three of them were teleported through the wall.
“There is no door, Captain. The door you’ve seen from the shop is just a decoy.”
“This place is huge. Where are we?”
“You’re six hundred feet below the shop proper. Freddy calls this ‘the retreat.’ Please follow the small blue ball of light to the project area. It will lead you directly to Freddy. Wake him quickly.”
“Thanks, Shop.”
“I wish I could say I was doing this for you, Captain, but in truth, I’m doing it to save the human race from Freddy’s new toy. I don’t understand it, and what scares me most is that Freddy doesn’t understand major parts of it either.”
“Freddy doesn’t understand what he’s doing?”
“No. He told me so himself as he was giving me a message for the fleet to hold, in case anything went wrong.”
“Please play back that message.”
“I cannot.”
“Then play back the conversation about the message.”
“Very good, Captain. You’re learning. ‘Shop, I have no idea if this is going to work. If it does, I have no idea if I can actually contain it. I think I can, but if I can’t, then send this message off to the fleet and then evacuate the entire base. If the fleet cannot destroy it, they may need to evacuate the rest of the planet.’”
“That’s not good.” Susan was in the build area of the retreat now, and the equipment she saw caused her to lose her breath. It’s easy to see that the pest is building equipment for the army. They stopped in front of a large circular structure with a sign: colossus.
“He’s inside approximately 128.2 meters to the right.”
There was no door, and Susan was not sure how to enter, but Dr. Landers and Stacy dashed through a glowing, clear-liquid panel about ten feet tall and twenty wide. Susan headed in, and although the liquid formed around her, she did not get wet. In only two long steps, she was on the other side and running to catch up with Dr. Landers and Stacy. The path ahead of them was small, and they had to go single file for nearly fifty yards before it widened to ten feet. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in stainless-steel panels and equipment, making it look like they were standing inside the belly of a monstrous robot. They headed to the right. As they passed row after row of equipment, Susan saw signs that looked like whirlpools. When they reached Freddy, he was lying at an angle, up against equipment and across several tools, like a cat sleeping half across a fireplace hearth. The position looked painful. Dr. Landers and Stacy moved him to a clear space on the floor. Stacy checked him.
“Captain, he’ll be all right. I can heal this easily.”
“Don’t do it yet. Dr. Landers, can you determine what Freddy is trying to build here?”
“I’ll try.” He got up and started going through the controls and looking at Freddy’s notes as he moved down the row of equipment. They all started looking around. This was not like Freddy’s other projects. This project was built to last forever; it was stationary and built in a way that made it feel heavy and extremely well protected.
Susan asked, “Shop, what kind of power is running this equipment?”
“I don’t know. It’s something new, and I don’t understand it.”
“Freddy didn’t talk about it?”
“Constantly, but I can’t keep up with his math. No known computer can.”
Dr. Lander’s eyes opened to the size of moons, and he looked like he wanted to run from this place.
“Captain, I think we need to leave. We need to leave now and send a crew in here to dismantle this unit. All of it.”
“What is he building, Doctor?”
“A micro black hole—and he’s almost finished.”
“What?”
“He’s attempting to build a black hole.”
“Why?”
“I haven’t the slightest. Can we leave now?”
Susan asked, “Shop, can you remove all power from this unit?”
“No. That has to be done at the power source.”
“Where’s that?”
“Two hundred feet straight down, in engineering. I would not suggest you attempt it. Doing so may cause a catastrophic reaction. The power source has the ability to power an impregnable shield that would surround the entire solar system. That much I understood. Freddy was thinking about changing the unit into something of that sort. He said it wouldn’t take much. Right now, the system is nearly fully powered, and it’s counting down. You have about eleven minutes.”
“Can you teleport the four of us and his notes down to engineering?”
“That I can do.”
“Please do so immediately.” Susan then turned to Stacy, saying, “Please heal the little pest.”
With a trembling voice, Stacy asked, “Captain, when Freddy wa
kes, he can teleport all of us right out of his shop. How are you going to stop him?”
“You just wake him up.”
“That’s going to take a few minutes.”
“Stacy, we don’t have a few minutes.” The place suddenly changed, and they were on a narrow platform covered with equipment on one side and with a deep, circular cavern at least a hundred yards across. The cavern was completely smooth on all sides and straight down. They looked around for signs or something that gave a way to stop the unit. “Shop, what is that pit for.”
“Captain, his power source derives directly from the planet core. He’s tapping off Earth’s energy.”
“How deep does this pit go?”
“To the center core, Captain. Only the power in this room keeps the shields running strong enough to hold the power and liquid in the core from escaping. The pressure down in the hole is beyond what I can measure. I told him that I thought he was making a mistake, but he assured me he could close it just as easily as he opened it. Seven minutes, Captain. Six fifty-nine. Six fifty-eight. Six fifty-seven.”
“Stacy, how’s Freddy?”
“Still out of it.”
“Six fifty-one.”
Freddy started coming around. “Where … where am I?” Then his eyes focused. “What? Why? How?”
“Six forty-five.”
Susan took hold of Freddy and gave him just enough of a shake to clear his head. “Freddy, listen to me. Stop the countdown. Stop it now!”
“Six thirty-one.”
“Captain James, you shouldn’t be here. Please leave my retreat.” He looked over and saw Dr. Landers and Stacy. “The two of you also. Stacy, did you fix my head?”
“Five fifty-six.”
“Yes.”
Freddy smiled and said, “Thanks. Why are you so afraid?”
“Five forty-three.”
Stacy yelled, “A black hole, Freddy! You’re building a black hole right below where I work and sleep!” She slapped him. Susan was shocked, and so was Freddy.
