by John Zakour
Chapter 37
As Elena and Carol physically and mentally strapped Shara in the psi bed, I had HARV get me through to Ona.
‘‘Zach, I’m kind of busy now,’’ Ona said to me as HARV’s holographic form morphed into hers.
‘‘Yeah, I know. Planning a retaliatory strike against the Moon.’’
Her image stared at me. ‘‘How did you know that?’’ She shook her head. ‘‘Never mind. I should know you’d know that.’’
‘‘Ona, I’m still on the Moon.’’
‘‘Oh, sorry about that,’’ Ona said. ‘‘If you can’t get off soon, I’m afraid you’re going to die.’’
‘‘I’m going to stop that asteroid from hitting Earth.’’
‘‘That would be ideal,’’ Ona said. ‘‘All our people here say we don’t have time to destroy it ourselves. Even if we hit it with a missile, Earth would just be hit with multiple mini-planet killing rocks instead of one big one.’’
‘‘All I ask is that you give me time before you go firing off missiles.’’
Ona moved her wrist to glance at her communicator. ‘‘I’ll talk to my people and see how long I can give you.’’
‘‘Ms. Ona,’’ HARV said. ‘‘Why even launch missiles at the Moon? If Zach and I stop the asteroid there will be no need. Even if we fail, what is gained by destroying the Moon?’’
‘‘That’s just the way the worlds work,’’ Ona said. ‘‘Earth can’t be seen as weak, even in death. We will be evacuating as many people as we can. Those people need to let the other planets know Earth people are not to be taken lightly.’’
‘‘But why punish a million people on the Moon because of the actions of a small handful of people?’’
Ona’s image disappeared.
‘‘I guess she didn’t want to answer,’’ HARV said.
‘‘I’m betting we wouldn’t want to hear the answer,’’ I said.
We had to take Sputnik out for good and assure Earth he would no longer be a threat to them. We had to do it fast, while Earth had time to recall its missiles.
‘‘How much time do we have?’’ I asked HARV.
‘‘To stop the asteroid from hitting Earth or to stop the Earth from launching missiles at the Moon?’’
‘‘Both.’’
No time to waste pondering the folly of each side’s actions. I swear, when it comes to politics and relationships, politicians believe ‘‘might always makes right’’ and even if two wrongs don’t make a right, maybe three or four will.
I turned to my team of Elena, Carol, and HARV. ‘‘Let’s get to the Tracking and Blocking Station and save two worlds.’’
‘‘What about the other psis here?’’ HARV asked. ‘‘Will they side with us?’’
Elena shook her head. ‘‘They are young and scared. They won’t fight for us but they won’t hinder us either. None of the psis still here are Bo’s children.’’
‘‘What about the older psis on the planet not related to or married to Bo?’’
‘‘They won’t help us,’’ Elena said. ‘‘They are too scared of Bo’s women.’’
I scratched my head. I knew we were going to be badly outnumbered. It might help tip the scales if we convinced some of the other psis here to come to our side. The older ones were set in their ways. Years of conditioning by Bo’s family would be hard to overcome in a few minutes. Still, with the younger ones (if I could appeal to their feral nature), I might have a chance.
‘‘Is there a large classroom in the building?’’ I asked.
Elena nodded a yes.
‘‘Tell the students to meet us there, pronto.’’
‘‘What are you going to tell them?’’ Elena asked.
‘‘I have no idea.’’
‘‘I was afraid he was going to say that,’’ HARV said.
Chapter 38
Less than five minutes passed before I was standing at the front of a classroom auditorium looking up at about three hundred seats spread across the room. Each of the seats was filled with young, anxious, blue-haired kids. The kids were mostly young girls ranging from probably ten to seventeen but there were some boys sprinkled in the crowd.
‘‘So none of Sputnik’s kids are here?’’ I thought to Elena.
‘‘No, his are all home trained,’’ she thought back.
‘‘Good,’’ I thought to her and Carol.
I turned to the classroom. ‘‘You’re probably wondering why I called you here,’’ I said, mostly because I always wanted to say that.
A young kid raised her hand. ‘‘You want us to help you stop Mr. Sputnik.’’
‘‘Exactly,’’ I said, as the girl smiled then dropped her hand. ‘‘If you don’t help me now, the Moon and the Earth will both be destroyed.’’
‘‘But we can’t go against the Sputnik daughters,’’ one voice cried from the back. ‘‘They are too powerful.’’
The crowd buzzed in agreement.
‘‘Besides, they are fellow psis,’’ another anonymous voice said.
Once again the crowd buzzed their accord.
‘‘I’m not asking you to fight them. I’m just asking you to help me. I will stop them, then I will prevent Earth from launching its missiles at the Moon.’’
‘‘How?’’ another voice asked.
‘‘If you can all cloak us, we can get the drop on Sputnik and his family.’’
There was dead silence and looks of confusion all around.
‘‘He means we can surprise them,’’ Carol said.
A wave of ah swept the room.
‘‘Earth doesn’t treat us well at all,’’ another voice called.
‘‘True, but nobody gains anything from killing everybody. Once this is over, Earth and Moon will be united again.’’
‘‘Will the Moon be free?’’ another voice asked.
‘‘I will do my best to make sure that happens,’’ I said.
There was total silence. I didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. Just then, HARV appeared in the middle of the room. He was dressed in a casual tweed suit, wearing glasses and carrying an old-fashioned wooden pointer.
‘‘May I have you attention please, class?’’
All eyes turned to HARV. HARV pointed at me with the pointer. ‘‘I know this man does not look like much. I know he doesn’t look like he could save a cat from a tree, which by the way, he couldn’t, as he has a fear of heights.’’ HARV adjusted his suit. ‘‘But I digress.’’ He took a deep breath. ‘‘I have known this man for many years now. I can say unequivocally, if he says he can do something, he can do it. DOS! He’s saved the world more times than some of you teens have had dates.’’ He paused for another nano. ‘‘You know who you are.’’ HARV let that sink in. ‘‘Zach is the man who can save you and the Earth.’’
The room maintained its silence for a nano or two. Suddenly, everybody started the same chant, ‘‘Zach, Zach, Zach.’’
I must admit it felt good. I held my hands up to quiet the crowd. ‘‘I just need you all to start sending out mixed thoughts. Cloak us. Confuse them. Make sure none of your relatives join in to help the Sputniks.’’
The room gave me a collective nod. I turned to Carol and Elena and smiled. ‘‘It’s go time,’’ I said.
As I walked out of the room I heard Carol tell Elena, ‘‘He loves talking like that.’’
Chapter 39
Heading over to the Tracking and Blocking Station, we saw that the streets of the Moon had become abandoned. Sputnik apparently didn’t want to deal with any of his less loyal ‘‘subjects,’’ so they were all ‘‘requested’’ to stay at home until after they heard him make a special and very important broadcast. In a way, that was good news for us as it cut down on our chances of somebody spotting us and ratting us out as we rushed through what could only be described as a very shiny, plastic ghost town.
Summing up our assets, I figured on the plus side of the ledger we had a bunch of heavily armed apes, the firepower of GUS
, the considerable mental powers of Elena and Carol, HARV’s seemingly limitless access to information, and my wits. That was more than enough to handle almost any situation.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t almost any situation. We were up against a well-armed contingent of confused apes, at least a hundred very powerful psis, and a madman bent on destroying Earth. To make matters more complicated, we had two ticking clocks to deal with. Earth had missiles heading toward the Moon. The Moon had pushed an asteroid of extinction-level proportions toward the Earth. True, we had programmed the tractor beam to push the asteroid away, but if we didn’t take over the Tracking and Blocking Station or put it out of commission, that would be for naught.
We were outnumbered and didn’t have time on our side but so far we had the element of surprise going for us. Bo Sputnik in all his administrator glory never conceived that something could go wrong with his plan. He apparently hadn’t contemplated the idea that Carol and I would break free, liberate the others and then throw an ape-sized monkey wrench into his scheme.
‘‘How are the other Earthers doing?’’ I asked Priscilla as we drove.
She shook her hairy head. ‘‘They are awake but still not mentally alert. It will be an hour or so until they will be of any assistance.’’
‘‘We don’t have that kind of time,’’ I said.
‘‘I know,’’ Priscilla said, ‘‘I was just making sure you knew that.’’
‘‘I’m not as dense as most of my enemies and many of my friends believe,’’ I told her.
Priscilla gave me a pat on the back. ‘‘I know that, my cute friend. Because if you were, you would have been dead long ago.’’
‘‘Smart ape,’’ I said.
Priscilla lowered her eyes and looked away from me.
‘‘Oh, no. What is it now?’’
‘‘Zach, I hate to pile on . . .’’ she hesitated.
‘‘Don’t worry, I’m used to the universe kneeing me in the groin when I’m down.’’
‘‘My primates and I have no problem taking on Sputnik and his wives and offspring, or bots, but . . .’’ Priscilla ground her teeth.
‘‘But you won’t fire on your fellow apes,’’ I said.
She nodded. ‘‘We figured if we did that we’d be lowering ourselves to human level.’’ She paused. ‘‘Nothing personal, but we apes strive to be more than human.’’
‘‘I can identify,’’ HARV said.
‘‘I can’t blame you.’’
The driver signaled that we were now within a few hundred meters of the Tracking and Blocking Center. We ditched the car and went the rest of the way on foot. We met up with the rest of Priscilla’s apes who were being led by Maurice.
Maurice gave me a polite salute with his feet. ‘‘I’m glad to be fighting on your side, Mr. Johnson,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m glad you’re on my side,’’ I told him. ‘‘What’s the situation?’’
‘‘I have my great apes positioned all around the building,’’ he told me. ‘‘Give us the word and we will fight for our freedom.’’
‘‘Let me take a look at things first,’’ I said.
‘‘Follow me,’’ Maurice said.
‘‘How many apes does Sputnik have backing him?’’ I asked.
‘‘Most of my fellows are staying out of this until they see how it plays out,’’ Maurice said.
‘‘How many?’’ I repeated.
‘‘Maybe three hundred.’’
‘‘Maybe?’’
‘‘Okay, three hundred and twelve.’’
‘‘How many do we have on our side?’’
‘‘Thirty-three.’’
We crawled up behind some bushes and surveyed the situation. The outer rim of the Tracking Dome was surrounded by a small army of apes. Those apes were backed up by about twenty psis. If that wasn’t enough, the psis were supported by three big battlebots. They all looked pretty relaxed, as if they didn’t expect any major trouble.
I smiled. That was going to change really fast. We just needed to hit them hard before they knew what hit them. Of course by hit them hard, I meant take the apes out without really hitting them too hard.
HARV tapped me on the shoulder, expending enough energy so I felt it. It was creepy. ‘‘Ah, Zach, I need to push the asteroid out of the way now. If I wait any longer we run the risk of it grazing Earth.’’
‘‘That would be bad,’’ I said.
HARV gave me a pat on the head, which I also felt. ‘‘Very good, Zach.’’
I looked over at Priscilla and Maurice who were bent over next to me. A couple of their apes were behind us. I could smell the apprehension on them; it wasn’t even close to being a pleasant smell.
‘‘We don’t want our fellow apes hurt,’’ Priscilla reminded me.
‘‘Yeah, I haven’t forgotten.’’
I looked at HARV. ‘‘How long until the big push?’’
‘‘I can give you twenty more seconds.’’
‘‘Gee thanks.’’
‘‘Eighteen seconds.’’
I looked at Priscilla, anxiously looking at me. It’s never comforting to see an ape fidgeting, itching her back with her foot, scratching her head and fiddling with her PIHI-Pod. The PIHI-Pod . . . That was it.
‘‘All you apes wear PIHI-Pods, correct?’’ I said.
‘‘Yes,’’ Priscilla replied.
‘‘Of course,’’ Maurice added.
‘‘Twelve seconds,’’ HARV counted down.
‘‘Push it out of the way now, HARV.’’
HARV’s eyes flashed red for a nano or two. ‘‘Done.’’
‘‘You have the specs to the Pods, right?’’
HARV just stood there fists on hips, head shaking disappointedly back and forth.
‘‘I’ll take that as a, yes of course I do.’’
I turned to Priscilla, ‘‘Tell your people to remove their PIHI-Pods.’’
Priscilla scratched her head and smiled.
‘‘You heard the man,’’ she said to Maurice.
Maurice signed to the apes. Each relayed the sign to another.
‘‘HARV, apes have more sensitive ears than humans, correct?’’
HARV nodded, then smiled. ‘‘You want me to broadcast a high frequency pitch over the PIHI-Pods.’’
I touched my nose. ‘‘Vingo.’’
‘‘I can generate and broadcast a tone over the PIHI-PODS that will put apes out of commission but it’s going to hurt all the neutral apes too.’’
‘‘Serves them right for standing on the sidelines,’’ I said.
I looked at Priscilla who nodded in agreement.
HARV smiled. ‘‘I can do you two better,’’ he said with a wink that was, frankly, a little disturbing. ‘‘I can also make it so the tone really upsets the psis and scrambles the battlebots’ logic circuits.’’
Now it was my turn to pat HARV on the shoulder, ‘‘Who says supercomputers can’t be useful?’’
‘‘Surely no one with even a quarter of a brain.’’
I turned to Carol. ‘‘Remove your PIHI-Pod,’’ I said.
Carol opened her hand to show that she had already removed hers from her ear lobe. ‘‘One step ahead of you, Tió.’’
‘‘As always,’’ HARV and I both said.
I centered my attention on HARV. ‘‘Zap ’em.’’
Outside of a barely noticeable increase in HARV’s smile I didn’t see any other changes.
‘‘Did you do it?’’
HARV pointed to the apes ringing the complex. They were all rolling on the ground clutching their ears. The psis behind the apes were frantically pulling at their ears. I took that as a yes. The three battlebots were spinning on their wheels, doing 360s, waving their tentacles and loudly humming ‘‘Three Blind Lab Mice.’’ Yep, they were zonkers.
I pointed forward. ‘‘Let’s take out the psis and grab the building.’’
I looked at Maurice. He shook his head no. ‘‘Sorry, Zach, I’m a behind-t
he-scenes kind of ape. Actual fighting is so not my style.’’
I patted him on the shoulder. ‘‘I understand.’’
Maurice gave me a toothy grin. ‘‘Don’t worry though. I will make sure all my kin stay out of the fray.’’
We stormed the building, Carol, Elena, HARV, a squad of apes, and me. The opposition apes were in too much pain to put up any opposition at all, so we glided past them. A couple of the psis tried to put up a fight but HARV’s tone really tossed their brains for a loop and tied them into knots. They were all easy pickings to be taken out by stun blasts.
The bots were so entertaining, dancing and jiving that I was tempted to just leave them alone. Priscilla though, being smarter than I am, destroyed them each with a heavy blaster.
‘‘It’s been my experience that battlebots can be dancing one minute and trying to dissect you a minute later,’’ she said.
Smart great ape.
We reached the door to the complex without losing anybody. Of course that was the easy part. Elena and Carol had both noted the initial psis were all young and still low level. I felt something. A vine had grabbed my arm, pulling on me.
Looking around, I saw a couple of the apes backing me up. Carol and Elena also were getting entwined in vines. I noticed that the entryway to the building had been lined with grapevines.
‘‘Ah, I see Randy’s and Melda’s defensive grapes have been put into practice,’’ HARV said.
‘‘Defensive grapes?’’ Carol asked.
‘‘It was my aunt’s idea,’’ Elena told her, pushing a vine off of her. ‘‘They are an organic defense mechanism designed to stop intruders.’’
‘‘You’re joking,’’ Carol said, as another vine started wrapping itself around her legs.
Elena shook her head no.
The apes were easily pulling their vines off themselves. The plants clearly weren’t intended to stop gorillas.
I pointed GUS at the base of the vine that was holding me.
‘‘I know how to deal with these,’’ I said.
‘‘So do I,’’ Elena said.
Elena clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Waves of energy rippled out from her body. The vine encased around Carol’s legs loosened then dropped to the ground. It shriveled up and wilted. All the other vines in the area did the same.
