Chapter 39
“Whoa! That could have been us under all that rubble!”
“As long as whoever is in that robot thinks it was, we should be okay for now.”
“Are you okay, Lightyear? It looked like you were having a little trouble spitting out that Grimnee look-alike.”
“Yeah, I think he’ll be fine. But I can’t believe he ate that much rock in that short of a time.”
We were lucky to get out of that mess, but now we have even bigger problems. No one back at the space station knows where we are. Our oxygen supply won’t last forever. And then there’s still that little issue of a maniac in a giant robot who wants to rule the universe.
“It’s great that we disabled the thruster and all,” Rand-El says, “but that robot can still walk over and grab that energy thingy without it. As a matter of fact, look over there!”
We all look in the direction Rand-El is pointing. Then we all squint in the direction Rand-El is pointing. Gil finally says what we’re all thinking.
“I don’t see anything.”
None of us do. But none of us have the long-distance vision of Rand-El’s top set of eyes, either.
“Well, I can see him. He’s about ten miles away and he’s running toward that plateau.”
“Just keep watching,” says Brian, “and let us know what happens. Kelvin and I left him a little surprise.”
Rand-El climbs onto a nearby rock to get a better view. “Okay,” he says, “the robot has reached the plateau. Now it’s climbing up the side. It’s on top now, and I can see a glow coming from the ground in front of him.”
“It must be that Zorp thing, or whatever it’s called.”
“Keep watching.”
“What the heck? The robot just blasted off into space! Without the Zork!”
“Excellent,” Brian says. “Before we fled from the robot, Kelvin had me set the propulsion system in the right leg to turn on after a brief period, run for thirty minutes, and then shut down. Forever.”
“Wait a minute,” says Zot. “If you could control the leg thruster, why didn’t you just fly us back to the space station?”
“All I could do from the boot was set the thruster to turn on and off at specific intervals. There weren’t any controls. And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. With only one thruster operational, there is no way to control the robot’s flight from the command dome, either. Our would-be universe conqueror will spend the rest of his days drifting aimlessly through space in a busted-up robot.”
Busted up?
“Without having nothin’ to do or anything.”
What’s going on here?
“I like pancakes.”
Oh, right. Grimnee stopped singing a little while ago, so Brian must be stressing out again. Not that it really matters. Even brilliant Brian wouldn’t be able to help us now.
“What’s the point? Unless his brain suddenly sprouts thrusters, there’s nothing he can do to get us back home. Let’s face it—we’re stuck here!”
“Stuck here? We can’t be stuck here! I have homework corrections to turn in to Ms. Gassias tomorrow or I lose half a point. A WHOLE HALF A POINT!”
“Don’t worry about it, Gil. You’ll have an excuse.”
“I will? What?”
“You’ll be dead.”
“Hey, guys, cheer up! We DID save the universe, you know. And quintillions of living beings. Kelvin, you might not be a genius, but you sure came through under pressure.”
Yeah, I guess so. But it wasn’t just me.
“Thanks, but everybody did their part to help out. Even Lightyear. I might not be a Mighty Mega Supergenius—yet—but together I think we proved we’re even better. I mean, Zot’s right—we just saved the universe!”
“Yeah, that’s great and all. But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re still stuck on this planetoid! And running out of oxygen! And no one even knows we’re here!”
Leave it to Rand-El to bring us back to reality. But he’s right. I can’t believe this is happening. I travel halfway across the galaxy to start a new life, make a bunch of new friends, and don’t even make it to my second week? And what about all that effort I wasted pretending to be something I’m not? Why? What does it matter now? And then there’s Mom and Dad. I lied to them, too, and let them believe I was a genius. And now I’m never going to see them again. They’ll never know the truth. Jeez, I miss them already. I’d even be happy to see Bula right now.
Zot screams. “What the heck is THAT?!”
Spotch stumbles backward, away from the creature’s shadow. “I don’t know, but I don’t think oxygen is our biggest problem right now!”
Grimnee, who was sitting against one of the smaller rocks, leaps to her feet. She slides in front of us and stands her ground. She’s making the same growling sound she did just before mashing Dorn into that wad of desks in Ms. Gassias’s class. Grimnee hates bullies.
“What the…?” I say, dumbfounded. “Bula?! How did you get here?!”
“DAD!” I yell as I run over to give him the biggest hug of my life.
“But… how did you even know we were here?” I ask.
Dad points to Mippitt. “He told me.”
“Mippitt?” I say. “But… how? He doesn’t even talk.”
“Heck, he’s not even really a HE. Mippitt is a robot. I built him to keep an eye on you while you got used to your new school. Once you landed on this planetoid, Mippitt contacted us to report your situation. He actually has quite a sophisticated communication system. Strictly nonverbal, though. Don’t tell your mother, or she’ll want to install the same thing on me. HAR! Anyway, as soon as he relayed your coordinates, Bula and I jumped in a shuttle and hurried right on over. Boy, a few miles closer to that Zorb and you guys would all be puddles of goo right now.”
Brian looks excited. “I like goo!”
“Sorry for keeping Mippitt a secret, Kelvin, but we thought it was for your own good. We just wanted to help keep you safe.”
Safe? Wait until he hears the whole story of our group’s little excursion to his lab. But first I have something more important to get off my chest.
“Since we’re giving away secrets, I’ve got one for you. And I’m really sorry about it. I’m a phony, Dad. I’ve been pretending to be a Mighty Mega Supergenius, but I’m really only about average, intelligence-wise.”
“If that,” chirps Rand-El.
“But everyone expects me to be more than that because you and Mom are so smart. Sometimes I think that’s the only reason other kids even like me. And I didn’t want to let anyone down, you know? Especially you guys. I just wanted you to be proud of me.”
“Proud of you?” Dad says. “Kelvin, your mom and I are super proud of you. And it has nothing to do with how smart you are—although I think you might be selling yourself short there. You never know when geniusness might kick in.”
“That’s exactly what I keep telling myself!”
Dad leans in closer. “You want to hear another secret? We knew you weren’t a Mighty Mega Supergenius.”
“You did? How?”
“Well, son, the D+ in geometry last year was a pretty big clue. HAR! But we were happy to go along with it if that’s what you wanted. In fact, I even programmed Mippitt to help you keep up the illusion until you finally decided to come clean.”
The rest of the gang has been hooting and hollering and dancing around in circles since Dad showed up. But now they’re getting impatient. Spotch points to his helmet and says, “My low-oxygen-level warning is starting to flash. Do you think we could make our way to the shuttle?”
“Yeah,” Rand-El adds, “we’re all real proud of you, Kelvin. And if we’re still breathing in five minutes, we’ll be even prouder.”
We head over to the shuttle and everyone hops in. And on the way back home we tell Dad the story of how we saved the universe.