That was a close one! I grab my backpack and head down the corridor to my parents’ laboratory. Dad’s waiting for me at the entrance.
The needle on Dad’s hilariosity meter is still stuck down there around zero. He thinks he’s hysterical, though. And, for some strange reason, so do the other kids at Sci-Fi Junior High. He’s become sort of a legend out here in space.
“It, uh, took me a while to catch an elevator. They were really crowded.”
“Don’t I know it. I’ll tell you, though—you get the chance to meet some really interesting folks riding those things.”
Yeah. Interesting. Tell that to my nose hairs.
“So, what’s going on? I thought I wasn’t allowed down here anymore.”
“Oh, you’re not. Not after that stunt you pulled with my robot. But I’m making an exception today. I can’t carry all these boxes myself.”
“But, Dad, we also saved the universe from whoever was piloting your robot!”
“Well… maybe. But you were running pretty low on oxygen when we found you. Who knows what tricks your mind may have been playing on you.”
“Tricks? That robot almost got the Zorb, Dad. Ask Spotch. Or Zot. Or anybody else who was there.”
“Well, you were all low on oxygen.”
“What, that container? Uh… nothing.”
“Then why is it being guarded by robots?”
“Well… er… you see, it’s just that… um… aw, heck with it. It’s the Zorb, Kelvin.”
“WHAT?! It’s here? On the space station? But I thought it turned any living thing that got near it to goo! YIKES—like that poor guy over there!”
“Oh. That’s Stevens. He always looks like that.”
“That vault you’re looking at is made of impenetranium, which blocks the Zorb’s energy. And it’s three feet thick, so nobody is breaking into it. Not even your mother if you tell her it’s filled with chocolate-covered cherries. HAR!”
“And I’m the only one who can get anywhere near it. The robots will scan any intruder that approaches the vault, and unless they exactly match my physical appearance, well… just watch this.”
“Anyway, that should calm any fears you might have about someone stealing the Zorb and using it for no good.”
“Not just for no good, Dad. For conquering the universe! That’s what Zot heard the guy in the robot’s control dome say. That’s why you should just destroy it. It’s too dangerous.”
“But that’s exactly why we can’t destroy it, Kelvin. We need to examine it and study it and learn how to harness its power for the good of everyone in the galaxy. It’s completely safe, Kelvin. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”
Nothing to worry about? Hasn’t he seen those movies where some scientist is working on a formula or something that he swears is safe, and then it turns a ladybug into a giant monster that eats Delaware? Or a scientist is working on a cure for hiccups that he swears is safe, and then he spills it down the drain and into the water supply and everybody turns into two-headed zombies? Why don’t grown-ups get this stuff?
