A/N – Wow, I just have to thank everyone out there who has left a review for this story. It's a huge treat to hear from my regular reviewers, and it's really neat to get one from somebody new. And whether you've ever reviewed or not, thanks for reading! As corny as it sounds, I write these stories for two reasons: (1) I enjoy it, and (2) you guys seem to enjoy reading them. So once again, thanks.
Since someone asked: yes, after this story is finished, the next thing on tap is a pretty major trilogy. The second and third stories are already done (plot-wise). I need to finish setting things up in the first story. As some of you have noted, I like to set up plot pieces in advance. But that's all coming in a couple of weeks. For now, sit back, fire up your flux capacitors, and enjoy the final installment of …
Whack to the Future
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Ten – It's All in the Timing
Jenny deployed a large saw blade from her arms, and quickly sliced the giant log in half with one swift cut. The pieces rolled away to either side, freeing Sherman's legs; fortunately, they had been merely pinned, not crushed, and he was able to stand without much difficulty. That was more than could be said for Jenny. She felt a deep, sinking sickness within her pumps and motors as the enormity of what had happened started to sink in. Where the time machine had sat only moments earlier, there was nothing but a circular clearing in the moist forest debris. The only means of getting back home to her friends and family was gone, and now she was …
"Stuck," she mumbled weakly. "I'm … stuck in the past … and there's no way home …"
Sherman brushed a few twigs and leaves from his tee-shirt, staring at the empty clearing in front of them. "Jenny … oh, no … this is all my fault! If I hadn't been so clumsy …"
Her shoulders slumped, and her pigtails drooped with a low, mournful whirr of her servo motors. Her face grew incredibly sad. "I'm never going to see Brad or Tuck or Drew, ever again …"
Sherman snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute! Jenny, we're talking about a time machine here. Look, right now Dr. Mogg is appearing in front of your mom's house, in the year 2074! When they realize you're not there, they'll just use the time machine to whiz back here, pick you up, and then head on back to the future again!"
Jenny slowly shook her head. "No they won't. The machine is nearly busted, remember? It was only good for one more trip." Then she gasped, clasping her hands to her mouth. "And then it's going to collapse and destroy the entire Earth! Oh, no! My mom and my friends and everyone else on Earth are going to get sucked into a black hole!"
Sherman paced back and forth, beating his fists against his temples, trying to think of a solution. Maybe there was some way to build another time machine – no, they didn't have the plans or the technology for that. Maybe they could send a message to the future – possible, but Jenny would still be doomed to live out her years in the past. She could head out into space, and fly really really close to the speed of light to make time go by super-fast – but that would very unpredictable, it would take an awful lot of power, and she might overshoot her own time …
He suddenly stopped pacing, and grasped her metallic arm. "Jenny, I think I might have an idea. I don't know if it'll work or not. I'm going to need your help – and it's going to take a little time to set up."
Jenny planted her fists on her hips with a deep sigh. "I don't think that's going to be a problem. It looks like I have a lot of time on my hands."
The peace and quiet that had settled over the Wakeman home was shattered as an ethereal halo of light grew in intensity around the time machine. Wild flickering shadows filled the laboratory, and a dancing orange-purple aura licked the outside of the machine's barrel-shaped body. Shouts of alarm came from the kitchen, as everyone in the house realized that the time machine was about to begin another leap – an unplanned leap – across the fabric of space-time. The power circuits of the generator whined higher in frequency, and the time machine prepared to make its jump …
Jenny covered the distance between herself and the time machine in two long strides. "Turn it off!"
"It can't be turned off, robot," yelled Mogg. "Now get away before …"
A brilliant donut of white light shot out of the top of the barrel, and expanded over their heads. Then with nerve-rattling speed, it shot towards the floor, engulfing Jenny, Mogg, and the time machine in a cylinder of blinding white. Mrs. Wakeman got back from the kitchen just in time to see her daughter and her colleague engulfed in a curtain of light that shone with the brilliance of a miniature star. Dr. Lee was half a step behind her. They slammed their hands over their ears, as a concussive blast rocked the living room like a shot from a cannon. By the time they blinked the dazzling afterimages from their vision, the Continuum Vortex Generator, Phinneas Mogg, and Jenny had all vanished. All that remained in the center of the lab was a few loose papers twirling in a current of wind.
Mrs. Wakeman clutched her long white hair, aghast at what she'd just seen. "The time machine! What in the name of H.G. Wells is going on in here? Where did Phinneas and XJ-9 …"
But Dr. Sherman Lee wasn't paying attention to his old friend. He stared at his wristwatch with a look of amazement on his face. "Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! Actual temporal departure time was 5:25:00 PM on Saturday, March 17, 2074 – right down to the second! Exactly on schedule!"
Mrs. Wakeman arched a confused eyebrow at him. "Sherman, what in blazes are you …"
"No time!" he shouted. He grasped her by the arm, and ran for the front door as quickly as his old legs would carry him. "We have to move quickly, Nora! I'll explain everything in a few minutes – assuming we live that long!"
They burst through the door, nearly running into Brad, Drew, and Tuck, who were still loitering about in front of the Wakeman house. Brad slid his hands into his pockets. "Hey, what's the big emergency, Mrs. W? Heard the time machine take off. Where's it headed to this …"
Dr. Lee looked up from his wristwatch, and ran a hand through his unruly gray hair. "Boys, I'd take a few steps to the left, if I were you. Looks like it's running a little late – it must be due to the malfunction in the machine's circuitry, or perhaps it's an expression of the uncertainty principle …"
His sentence was interrupted by a blast of light and wind, and they were all blown backwards by a sudden shock wave. A tiny speck of brilliant light exploded into existence a few yards away from them, and instantly grew into a disk, which raced towards the ground to create a glowing cylinder of perfectly white light. They shielded their faces from the blinding glare and the rushing blast of air that screamed outward from the middle of the front lawn. Something seemed different this time. The loud crack of the shock wave was accompanied by a horrific screeching wail, and the air itself seemed to pulse with a nervous vibration. Then the cylinder faded away, and there sat the Continuum Vortex Generator, looking like it been beaten to pieces with a baseball bat. And next to it stood an exasperated Dr. Mogg, clinging to the handrail like a man at the end of a sadistic roller coaster ride.
"Phinneas Mogg!" screamed Mrs. Wakeman, red-faced with fury. "You took a joyride in my time machine!?! What on earth were you thinking!?! This is highly unethical behavior from such a noted scientific … wait a minute. XJ-9 – where is XJ-9!?!"
Dr. Mogg leaned over the barrel of the Vortex Generator, his cheeks a sickly yellow-green. "Blasted fool robot … she's still back there, Nora. She's trapped in the year 2004."
Brad's eyes nearly sprang out of his head. "WHAT!?! She's stuck in the past! Mrs. Wakeman, we gotta go back and …"
They were all tossed to the ground, as a violent earthquake resonated outwards from the body of the time machine. The ground bucked and heaved, and the air was filled with a low staccato rumble, punctuated by the sounds of car alarms and shattering windows. The shaking oscillated in strength, growing and ebbing, but the overall power of the earthquake was increasing, and rapidly approaching a level that would do serious damage to the city.
Dr. Lee scrambled on his hands and knees, joining Mogg next to the time machine. He pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and fought to pry off one of the side panels. "Just as I suspected!" he shouted, loud enough for both Doctors Mogg and Wakeman to hear. "The disturbances were being created by an imbalance in the stabilizer ring controls of the magnetic bottle! Nora, the time machine is going to collapse into a naked singularity in a little over two minutes!"
"You can't let that happen!" shouted Brad. "We've got to fix it, and go get Jenny!"
"That's not going to be possible!" screamed Dr. Lee, shouting to be heard over the sounds of the heaving earth. "The damage is even worse than I feared it would be! When this thing implodes, it'll devour the entire planet!"
Drew managed to get to his feet, as his nanobot body adjusted to absorb the ground vibrations. "Doc, is there anything I can do? Maybe I can just absorb the thing! Let the nanobots eat it before …"
Mrs. Wakeman's face ran pale, and she wrapped an arm around Tuck to shield him from a falling rain gutter. "Andrew, there is an artificial black hole inside of it! It would consume you long before your nanobots could consume it!!! Sidney, are you certain that you cannot repair the damage!?!"
A look of extreme tension gripped Sidney's face, as he struggled with the inside of the time machine under impossible working conditions. "I don't think so!" He gestured wildly towards Brad and Drew, waving them over. "You two! Get over here! Here, here, take this!"
Brad and Drew fought back their terror and confusion, and stumbled a few yards to kneel down next to Dr. Lee. The old man fished in his pocket for a second, and then pulled out … a key.
He pointed towards the large steel box that they had unloaded earlier from the university truck. It still sat in the middle of the front lawn, untouched by anyone since Dr. Lee had informed them that it contained dangerous material. "This key unlocks that big silver box! Open it!"
Brad took the key in his hand, looking even more scared. "You mean the box covered with the 'Danger – Lethal Radioactivity' stickers? Are you sure?"
Another violent quake shuddered through the ground, as if a belligerent giant had just punched the earth with a mighty fist. Dr. Lee grabbed Brad by his shirt sleeve. "Get it open, now! It's our only hope!"
As Mogg and Lee scrambled with their tools, trying to stave off impending disaster, Brad and Drew crouched down and ran across the rolling lawn, taking just a moment to marvel at the bizarre sight of dozens of cars bobbing up and down like ducks on a pond. Streetlights waved back and forth like giant jungle ferns. Fire hydrants exploded into hundred-foot-tall water fountains. The teenage boys dropped to their knees in front of the long, rectangular steel case. It looked very sturdy, very durable, and very dangerous; its top was covered with numerous yellow warning labels and HAZMAT information. They exchanged an uneasy glance. "I don't know if this is a good idea," said Drew.
Dr. Lee screamed at the top of his voice. "OPEN IT!"
Brad grasped the padlock and turned the key. The boys gathered their nerves, then simultaneously swung the lid open. It took more effort than they had expected. There was a loud hissing rush of air, and they realized that the big silver box must have been vacuum-sealed.
Lying in the silver box was a metallic silver cocoon, surrounded by custom-fitted foam padding. Drew reached in to touch it, and found that it was made of a thin metal foil, similar to the kind used to package electronics. He would have no trouble getting it open. He lifted a single finger, which briefly warbled a silver-green color, and grew into a long, sharp blade. With one quick, smooth motion, he sliced the cocoon lengthwise, and it split open …
Drew and Brad stared into the steel box, stupefied beyond the ability to think.
Lying in the middle of the shredded metallic foil was a six-and-a-half foot robot girl, painted a familiar white and pale blue, resting in blissful robotic slumber. Her chest plate was split open, and a single video display sat in the middle of her torso, gently beeping and flashing its diagnostic message: "Time Remaining: 00 years, 00 months, 00 days, 00:00:03." The numbers continued clicking down to two, then, one, then the screen blanked out and displayed the message "Sleep Mode Terminated."
The steel container filled with the gentle humming of motors and pumps carefully warming up to speed. The video display folded, and retracted into the chest cavity. Memory circuits activated, and the operating system booted itself up. Then her metallic eyelids fluttered for a moment, and with a soft whirr of her servos, they slowly slid open.
Jenny sat up and stretched her arms high above her head, letting loose a long, drawn out yawn. She blinked a few times, then broke into a broad smile at the sight of Brad and Drew's dumbfounded expressions. The poor guys had no clue what was going on.
She had to grab the edge of the steel container to steady herself, as another vicious series of tremors rocked through the earth. Jenny lifted herself out of her sleeping chamber, and the boys grabbed her arms to help her get to her feet. Dr. Lee waved to get her attention, and gestured towards the critically malfunctioning time machine. He did not need to give her any instructions; they were both aware of what needed to be done. All he shouted was, "Sixty seconds! Maybe less!"
Jenny steadied herself against Brad's shoulder, and rushed to complete her warm-up sequence. Her pigtails rotated to flight mode, and she hovered a few feet above the ground, balanced on twin blue flames. Then she wrapped her arms around the silver barrel of the Vortex Generator. Her power levels hadn't recovered to one hundred percent yet, but she didn't have time to wait.
With a slight creak and a moan, her booster jets unfolded from her back, and she blasted into the skies, leaving six amazed spectators behind her on the front lawn. She could feel the body of the time machine start to contract in her arms, growing smaller and smaller, even as its apparent weight grew heavier and heavier. The exotic bottle that stored the black hole was beginning to fail, and she needed to get it away from town – and the planet – as quickly as possible. Summoning what little reserve power she had, she tripled the thrust from her engines, and shot out of Earth's atmosphere like a missile.
But even this wasn't far enough. She poured on the speed, wincing in discomfort as the distorting gravity waves from the black hole grew stronger and stronger. The Vortex Generator, once larger than an oil drum, had collapsed down to the size of a watermelon. In her current weakened state, the best speed that Jenny could manage was three hundred miles per second. It would have to do. She started spinning herself at a fantastic rate, until she transformed into a barely-visible blue-and-white blur, and aimed for a spot in space, up and out of the solar system.
She hurled the Vortex Generator as hard as she could, seconds before it underwent a final implosion, turning into a small but nasty black hole. But there was nothing around for the black hole to eat; no planets, no moons, and no robots. So it would forever stay small, as it traveled through the desolate, interstellar void. It would wander harmlessly through empty space for millions of years.
The flash of energy from the implosion quickly dissolved away, and since a black hole was invisible, there was nothing else left to see. Jenny sighed with relief, and made a large, looping turn back towards the beautiful blue-and-white Earth at a leisurely pace. Even from this far out, her telescoping eyes could make out the city limits of Tremorton, thousands of miles below. Home never looked so good.
Mrs. Wakeman was as amazed as the rest of them, but she responded true to a scientist's nature. She was giving all of Jenny's moving parts and joints a once-over, wearing a ridiculous-looking headpiece with stacks of magnifying lenses locked in place over her eyes. She ran a glowing purple scanning rod back and forth over her daughter's pale blue leg housings, muttering with fascination as she analyzed the data. Normally a full checkout, especially on a Saturday evening, would have Jenny pouting in disgust. But as she flexed her shoulder joint, Jenny had to admit that she could use a tune-up right now.
"Have you ever noticed that when you have a really long sleep, you actually feel more tired when you wake up, not less?" she chuckled.
"Yeah, I hate when that happens," laughed Brad. "It feels like your head is filled with cotton balls …"
Drew had been standing with a frozen expression of bewilderment on his face for a few minutes now. Finally, he shot his arms in the air. "So what the heck just happened here?"
Dr. Sherman Lee eased his hands into the pockets of his white lab smock with a tired smile. "When we realized that Jenny was trapped in the year 2004, we tried to think of another way to send her into the future. Then I realized that I'd been looking at the problem the wrong way. Since Jenny is a robot, and doesn't age, she could travel into the future the easy way … by simply waiting for seventy years."
"Wait wait wait," said Tuck, trying to come to grips with his own confusion. "So you've known Jenny since you were fifteen years old, back in the year 2004?"
"Pretty strange, hmm?" A broad smile brightened the doctor's wrinkled face.
"But why didn't you say anything to her earlier today?" puzzled Tuck. "Didn't you recognize her?"
"Of course I recognized her. I even felt mischievous enough to tell her 'I've been waiting to meet you for a long time!' But that's all I dared to do. After all, she didn't know me – yet. And I could not take even the slightest risk that I might alter future events by my actions; that would create a time paradox. It was of critical importance that Jenny and Mogg took their trip on the time machine, seventy years into the past. Actually, sixty-nine years, nine months, and twenty-three days."
Drew blinked a few more times. "So what the heck just happened here!?!?"
Brad was trying to keep up too. "But how did Jenny get in the steel box? I mean … she was outside with us when we took the box off the truck. How did she get inside?"
"She was already inside," grinned Dr. Lee. "Back in 2004, Jenny helped me construct an airtight container – just big enough for her to go to sleep in. With a little work, we set up a simple alarm clock program in her software. Just before I wrapped her up in the protective foil, we set her alarm clock to wake her up exactly on March 17, 2074 at 5:26 PM. Then I sealed the container, and covered it with warning labels to make sure that nobody would ever open it. I had some friends at the university back then, and we arranged to have the box kept in the Physics Department storage area. Jenny's been sleeping in that box for almost seven decades. And I simply had to remember to have her brought here today. I guess I can take that Post-It Note off the fridge, now." He chuckled at his little joke.
Dr. Wakeman's head perked up. "Sherman, I'm flabbergasted! All these years, you've kept this a secret – you're a credit to scientists everywhere. Unlike that miscreant Phinneas." Dr. Mogg had made his escape shortly after Jenny had flown into space with the Vortex Generator. "Ooooh, when the board at the university hears about this on Monday …"
Drew's arms were tracing timeline patterns in the air, as if that would help him understand the amazing story. "So all this time that we've known Jenny, there's been another Jenny sleeping in a metal container in the basement of the university …"
Dr. Lee nodded, and Drew continued. "… and when I carried the box off of the truck, Jenny was inside, but she was standing right next to me too … and this means that Jenny is seventy-five years old now." His eyes started to spin in their sockets. "Oh, man, I think I just broke my brain."
"All right, I think that's enough," announced Mrs. Wakeman, feeling the need to reassert authority over her laboratory. "Everybody out … shoo, shoo, shoo. I need to replace all of XJ-9's fluids, gaskets and filters, and the last thing I need is a crowd of rubbernecking spectators. You can all come back tomorrow. Shoo, now! Go!"
The boys shuffled towards the front door. "All right, Mrs. W, see you later," grinned Brad. Then he waved to Jenny. "See you later, old timer."
"Ha, ha," she sneered, shooting him a sarcastic look.
"Hey, next time we go to the movies, you can get the senior discount."
"BRAD!!!"
And with that, the boys ducked outside, still shaking their heads in disbelief. It had proven to be a very unusual hour out of their lives. To Jenny, of course, the adventure had seemed to last almost a week. But most amazingly of all … to Sherman … it had lasted most of his life.
Jenny reached over and took old Sherman's hand, his skin creased with fine wrinkles. The last time she had seen him, his face had been speckled with pimples; now, in what seemed to be only minutes later, those pimples had been replaced by liver spots. But there was still a twinkle of boyish energy in his dark, smiling eyes. And it didn't take too much imagination to see the clumsy teenager with jet-black hair drooping over his forehead.
She gave him a warm smile. "I don't think I can ever thank you enough, Sherman … er, Dr. Lee."
"Oh, please … it'll always be Sherman for you," he chuckled. "And besides, I really haven't done that much for the past sixty-nine years – except wait. Now, I'd best be heading along, too."
"You must come back tomorrow morning, Sherman," said Mrs. Wakeman. "We really must document our experiences, for scientific posterity. Plus, I know you can't resist a freshly baked batch of tea biscuits with blackberry marmalade."
"And we'll even warm up a can of Coke for you," laughed Jenny.
Dr. Lee had to laugh at that. "Yes to the biscuits, no to the warm Coke. I haven't been able to handle stuff like that for quite a while, I'm afraid." He waved a final farewell, and closed the door behind him.
Leaving Mrs. Wakeman and her robot daughter alone together, for what was sure to be a long, tedious night of very thorough maintenance. The doctor picked out a power screwdriver, and opened up an access panel on Jenny's right leg. "I have to admit, XJ-9, you and Sherman did a spectacular job protecting your body from the elements in that steel enclosure. There's no corrosion, no wear or tear … you've been kept in pristine condition. All quite remarkable, when you consider what you've been through."
"I guess so …" Jenny pondered her amazing experience. "Wow, the freaky thing is that it didn't feel like anything special to me. I went to sleep, and I woke up. No biggie."
"Well, you'll have to tell me about it tomorrow," said Mrs. Wakeman, as she removed a rubber seal from Jenny's leg. "Perhaps when Dr. Lee comes over in the morning."
"Oh, there's plenty to talk about before tomorrow," said Jenny.
Her mother raised a suspicious eyebrow. "There is?"
Jenny gave her mother a wicked grin. "For starters, you can tell me all about what you and Sidney did at the Spring Formal. After all, you two made quite the romantic couple at the Robot Roundup."
Now her mother had a perplexed expression on her face. "Eh … wha? Spring Formal …"
Then Dr. Wakeman nearly jumped out of her shoes. "Gadzooks! But that was … but how would … but I was only … er, now, now, XJ-9, let's try and stay focused on your repairs if we can …"
Jenny's grin grew wider. "And tell me who that 'Christina Aguilera' person was on your bedroom wall poster. She sure didn't look like a scientist to me!"
"Christina … ulp!" Now the doctor was starting to sweat a little. "Well … er … you see, things were a little different back when …"
"Did you really want to spend your prize money on a nose job?" giggled Jenny.
Dr. Wakeman slumped down in a chair, her face a brilliant crimson, and tugged at the collar of her black turtleneck. Her daughter was rolling with laughter. This might prove to be a very long night, indeed.
THE END