Blogger's Note: Business first. If you haven't read episodes I and II, then I'd recommend reading those first. Click here for the first installment and follow the links at the bottom to get caught up. Or if you just missed the second installment, click here.
I want to say thanks to everyone that reads my Alanaka stories. I know they're not my most popular, but they're my personal favorites. For me, Alanaka is freedom. I don't have to worry or strain. I can just have fun. And I like that.
My "Flashback" episodes, for example, are very difficult for me to write. They require some TLC. They are about real people and real events, so introducing new characters in a way that doesn't bruise an ego or belittle a person is burdensome. Sometimes, I just want a break.
I like plotting this story. I considered for a while to just quit publishing these stories, but I decided against it. I like going on these adventures with my future granddaughter. So, what I'm going to do is make a compromise.
I'm going to take Alanaka out of a strict rotation. I'm going to use her when I personally need her.
Now, I have just one more thing to say about the subject. I can't help but wonder why some people don't care for Alanaka. One reason may be that she is a work of science fiction in a blog that has thus far been about real people and feelings. Maybe she doesn't belong. Maybe some people just don't care for science fiction. I can't fault people for their tastes.
But, I have another fear. I fear that some people don't care for Alanaka because the story is a little corny. Futuristic technology and prankster children belong in the "Teen" aisle at the local book store. Seriously, she's on a mission to find an old cell phone? Get real, Duane.
Now, if that's the problem, then, I can assure you that I am real. I can't build a story without a foundation. No one could possibly know the melody that I'm trying to play here. Not yet. So please, "regular" readers especially, stick around. After a couple of more Episodes, you will begin to see the picture that I am trying to paint here. Do you trust me? Because, I think you should...
Listening to: The Lumineers "Submarines"
"Oh, geez, I can't believe I'm asking this. Who is Harry Ballsack?" Alanaka wore a disgusted, exasperated grimace as she assessed her brother and his friend.
"Not who. What." Mason postured.
"Ok. So what is a Harry Ballsack?" Alanaka slapped her forehead a moment after the words left her mouth.
Mason didn't hesitate. "He's my RX-47!"
"First off, I thought they quit making the 47 model a hundred years ago! And secondly, what are you doing with an Automatronic?"
"He was my mom's," Mason explained. "When having an Automatronic started becoming unpopular, she stored him in the basement. I was down there playing one day when I saw him. I asked mom about him, and she said that I could have him. He has a bad drive in his neck and a bad initiator module, but once you get him started, he'll run just fine."
"Him? Don't you mean it?" Alanaka prodded.
"Harry's my friend," Mason insisted.
Alanaka rolled her eyes and looked at Boston who appeared neutral in the matter. "Well, go get him," she acceded.
Mason, happy to be of use, sprinted away, slamming the back door closed when he left.
Boston, arms folded, addressed his sister after silence settled on the room. "Do you think this is a good idea?"
"Boston, we could be heroes! As long as we stay together, the Skip Rope should keep our PIB's operational. With an Automatronic pilot, Dad's Corvette should be able to make the trip to Lake New Madrid and back in a few hours. Mom might not even know that we were gone. If she does, then she'll be ok with it once we tell her what we were doing and that we got our PIB's to work," Alanaka insisted.
Boston didn't seem as confident. He didn't object, but he walked away with a seeming air of uncertainty. "I'm going to pack some things. If we're going to do this, I'd suggest you do the same," Boston said to his sister as he walked away.
Alanaka took his advice. She ran upstairs, grabbed her backpack, and started filling it with a spare change of clothes and some various camping tools that might come in handy. She assumed that their PIB's would work once they were free of the inhibiting signal's radius, but she wasn't absolutely certain of that. She decided that she should prepare for the possibility that they would have to rely on the Skip Rope's help. Staying in its proximity could prove tricky, so she would plan for the worst and hope for the best.
After she finished getting everything she needed from her bedroom, she headed to the fold-out ladder that led to the attic. Her head was still invested in those long-ago musings, and she could use some reading material for their journey.
Climbing into the dark loft, she had this unsettling, eerie feeling like something sinister was watching her from the shadowy corners. She had never felt real fear before and didn't know how to identify it. Without her "tripod" of Skip Rope participants, her PIB was inoperative. She couldn't activate its revealing light. She couldn't use it to call for help. It wasn't going to protect her from a bad fall or from bumping her head. The carpet of unrealized dangers was still unrolling; she didn't entirely comprehend the significance of her PIB's malfunction.
Her heart was pounding more than it ever had as she reached into the wooden box and past the enchanting shoes to the velvet-covered book that she had left there. She quickly grabbed it, anxious to be out of the spooky attic and back with other people. Being disconnected from the rest of the world was... lonely. On her way back to the hatch, she grabbed a couple of New Israel daggers from the case they had discovered. Knives had a flurry of uses and might come in handy on their little adventure.
She ran back downstairs to find her brother wearing the Australian hat that he'd gotten while they were on vacation in Sydney. Boston looked quite dashing wearing it. She smiled at him, glad to see that he, too, was becoming enthralled in the spirit of adventure.
A knock at the back door announced Mason's return. Boston opened it wide to allow his friend and the Automatronic entry. Alanaka's eyes rolled when she saw it.
"Harry Ballsack" was about six foot tall. The RX-47 had a humanoid appearance in that it had two arms, two legs, and a head that rotated back and forth, sometimes spinning completely around. A green stripe had been clumsily painted over its cylindrical dome like a mohawk. Alanaka knew what that was about.
"Mason? Seriously? Did you really have to paint it to look like Delfry Bauldron?" she prodded. Delfry Bauldron was a pompous, young pop star that had been topping the charts for the last three years. Half the boys in her school were currently sporting a green mohawk just like Delfry Bauldron's. His current hit, "Starship Lover", was a loathsome techno number that played the same rhythm over and over; she had heard it so many times that the sound of it made her want to throw up. She hated everything about the overblown pop star, but Mason didn't try to hide the fact that he was the singer's biggest fan.
"I'm your Starship Lover; you'd better believe. Take my hand, girl 'cause we're about to leave..." Mason responded by singing a line from the deplorable hit. Alanaka gagged.
"Ok! Ok! That's enough! Why does its head keep spinning back and forth like that?" she asked.
"He's got a bad drive in his neck. Doesn't matter, though. His visual sensors and his databox are located in his chest. He's also got a bad initiator module, like I said. If you shut him down, he's hard to turn back on. But as long as he's running, he's fine. That's why I usually just leave him on."
"Well, if we're gonna do this, let's do it," Boston interjected. He started heading up the stairs to the second story without waiting for a response. Alanaka grabbed her backpack and the Skip Rope before following his lead. "C'mon Harry," Mason instructed his Automatronic as they filed in the rear. A whirring of gears could be seen as Harry's stride revealed vents in its joints. "Affirmative," the RX-47 complied.
Upstairs, Boston entered the door that led to the garage. He punched the button that operated the dome, and it rotated open. The three adventurers, four if Harry counted, stood on the open-air platform.
Stars winked in and out of existence as a few post-Tantrum clouds seasoned the night sky. The smell and feel of the damp air energized Alanaka with vigor and courage. The view of the Seattle skyline from their house was always breathtaking, but tonight it was tinged with uncertainty and danger. Seattle's sky tower loomed monstrously above the city; the Space Needle looked like a dwarf next to it. Zephyrs usually darted this way and that way across the sky; but, tonight, few hovered across the panoramic scene. Many people were asleep at this late hour; others must have decided that staying home would be wise in lieu of the circumstances. For the very, very first time in her life, Alanaka felt alive.
"Alanaka, turn on the Skip Rope," her brother advised her. "If we're going to do this, we need to leave it on and stay together. As long as our force shields are working, we should be ok."
His sister replied by switching it on with her thumb. "Triangulating PIBs. PIBs synchronized."
"Harry, can you pilot this Corvette?" Boston asked the Automatonic as he motioned to his father's sleek, red Zephyr that was parked in front of them. His dad must have just waxed it, because it was shining.
"He's programmed to only respond to me," Mason explained. "Harry, can you pilot this Corvette?"
"Affirmative. I am licensed for speeds up to Mach 1.5," Harry replied. Its face was a black screen that displayed two yellow eyes that periodically "blinked" and a "mouth" formed from pixels. Its deep, robotic voice came from a speaker near its digital mouth that animated movement when the Automatronic spoke.
The three children looked at one another with one last look of mandate. They each held firm; so, Boston the eldest, nodded to Mason.
"Harry, pilot us to Lake New Madrid as fast as you're licensed," Mason ordered the RX-47.
"Affirmative."
The cast climbed into the Corvette. Harry took the driver's seat. Mason rode shotgun as he would be the one giving the Automatronic instructions. Boston and Alanaka jumped in the back.
When the Zephyr's engine whirred to life, Harry's head began spinning. "I wish he'd stop that and watch what he's doing!" Alanaka complained.
"Like I said, his visual sensors are in his chest. He is watching what he's doing even if it doesn't seem like it," Mason clarified. Alanaka rolled her eyes before sitting back in her seat. At Mach 1.5, the trip to Lake New Madrid would take about two hours. She might as well relax.
Harry grabbed the steering controls. Its hands had two large "fingers" and one opposing "thumb" that it used to grasp. The Zephyr began climbing into the night sky. The city's lights looked surreal and unusual from here. Once the Corvette attained the needed altitude and was pointed in the right direction, Harry throttled. The acceleration pushed the children into their seats until they reached cruising velocity.
Once the vehicle attained its traveling speed, Alanaka took the velvet-covered book from her backpack and began leafing through its pages.
"PIB, how was Lake New Madrid formed?" she asked her Personal Interface Bracelet.
"Lake New Madrid was formed after a series of earthquakes in the 21st Century destroyed dams and shifted the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Over a large span of time, southern Illinois and western Kentucky began to fill with water. The local population began to relocate to sponsored sister cities. Seattle adopted much of Paducah, KY as the Climate Authority, founded about the same time, made much of the climate in the Northwest similar to the New Madrid region."
"That's what I thought!" Alanaka proclaimed. "The water rose slowly. If the earthquakes didn't destroy it, then the waters wouldn't have carried it away. I believe the train described in the book might still be at the same place!"
"You're crazy about the stories in that book, aren't you?" Boston asked her.
"I like a lot of what he says and how he says it," she confessed. "I feel like we're a lot alike."
"So, if he were to be going on this adventure, what would he do?" her brother continued.
"I don't know. He seemed torn sometimes. He wasn't the most confident person. Sometimes, I felt like he wanted to say something else, something more, but he was afraid to offend. I think he would've spent days and nights wondering if should endeavor on this adventure. Ultimately, I think he would have, because it might be exciting. Chances are we won't find anything. Chances are this whole thing is a big mistake. But, what if? What if we didn't go? What if we just stayed home and never left? We'd never know! No one knows what lies ahead. And no one will until we get there. Maybe we'll find a stupid, old phone that's absolutely worthless. Maybe we'll save the world. I'm not going to blame anybody but myself for our success or failure, but I need to know, Boston. I want to see what's down there."
Boston stared at his sister as if he had never seen her before. He was strangely proud of her right then. He felt the brim of his hat and imagined what they might find at the bottom of this lake.
"What do you think he would've written about you, Alanaka?" Boston asked.
She looked out the Corvette's window thoughtfully. Finally, she replied, "now, that's deep..."
"Alanaka!" Mason called from the front seat. "Give me a word from that book that was used in the old times for 'affirmative.'"
She flipped through the pages as she considered out loud. "Well... there was something in one called 'The Mad Dog Shack' that caught my attention," she paused as she searched through the text for what she was looking for. "Here it is," she announced. "Fuckin' A, bitch. Not sure what that means, but it seems like it's being used in place of affirmative."
"Sounds good to me," Mason shrugged. "Harry, vocal command substitution. Override voice prompt, 'affirmative' with 'fuckin' A, bitch'. Also, wink one eye when you say it."
"Fuckin' A, bitch." Harry's head spun in a complete revolution at the same time that the Automatronic spoke the words, allowing the Zephyr's occupants to see the wink. The three children shared a laugh.
"Tell him to substitute 'negative' with 'hell no'," Boston suggested. Mason was smiling as he edited his robotic friend's vocal prompts.
After they settled down, Boston suggested that his sister turn off the Skip Rope to see if their PIB's were now operational. She did, and after a quick test, they discovered that their PIB's were still not working. A tense silence followed the discovery as the children, fraught with worry, considered the possibilities. Maybe they were just passing through another radius of photonic battery interference. Or, maybe, the problem was more widespread than they had thought. For a burdensome moment, Alanaka considered the possibility that their PIB's might never work again. She nervously pushed the thought away and tried to focus on their task ahead.
When PIB's were first implemented centuries ago, one of the first things that people did was explore. Safe from danger, they jumped into the oceans and explored places and depths that they never could before. Even if someone got trapped, the PIB's communications made distress calls easy. Spelunkers exploring caves; divers exploring sunken treasures; and, expeditions across the Antarctic were all common. As Alanaka was nodding off to sleep, she wondered what would be under the lake where this city called Paducah had once existed. Her eyes grew heavy as she stared out the window at a sky tower looming in the distance.
"We're here!" Mason called. Alanaka's eyes jerked open; and, based on the way that Boston jumped at the exclamation, he, too, must have dozed off.
The Zephyr was flying just above the water. The sun began to peak over the horizon and splashed some color onto the lake's surface. A flock of geese took flight as they approached; their wings flapping excitedly. Small islands dotted the marshy water, and Alanaka spotted a crane stretching on a muddy bank. A few high points around the area had been spared from the flooding, but not many.
Alanaka tested her PIB again only to discover that it still wasn't working. She reactivated it by turning the Skip Rope back on and used it to give Harry precise coordinates to the train's location. The Automatronic steered east into the sun; and, although the light hurt her eyes, Alanaka enjoyed the life-giving warmth of its glow.
When at last Harry tugged on the steering controls and came to a stop, the trio of children began to chatter excitedly. "Harry, hover us just above the water," Mason directed. "Fuckin' A, bitch," the RX-47 winked. The red Corvette fell steadily; the sudden descent tickled Alanaka's stomach. The doors opened as soon as they reached their holding position.
"We have to stay together!" Boston shouted above the roar of the engine as he tossed his hat in the back seat. The water underneath rippled outwardly as the anti-gravity turbines gently feathered the air in their vicinity. "Alanaka, keep the Skip Rope on at all times! Don't try to talk; we need the PIB's force shield to keep us safe and since they're still not working like they should then other functions, such as communications, may disable our shields. Best not chance it."
"What about light? How are we gonna see down there?" Mason asked.
Alanaka answered by pulling her dad's spotlight out of her backpack and turning it on. Its light was so bright, that it nearly blinded them. Boston waved at her to point it away from them. "That'll work! Remember, stay together. At best, we'll just get soak and wet. At worst, well..." He didn't finish the sentence. Everyone knew what that could mean.
"Ok! On the count of three.. 1,2,... 3!!!" The three adventurers jumped together into the water. Something about the splash their synchronized jump produced made Alanaka giddy. She was loving this.
As soon as they got underwater, she turned on the spotlight and pointed it downward. They swam toward its cone of illumination. Small schools of fish swam past them, and a catfish, as big as Alanaka's leg, glided away from the perceived danger that these strangers represented. A PIB's force shield surrounds its possessor just a hair's width above the skin; therefore, underwater movement is no different than it would be without a PIB's oxygenated bubble.
Deeper they dove until, at last, the lake's bed appeared. At first, they thought that nothing significant was going to be down there. Aquatic plants that looked like seaweed seemed to cover everything, and the murky water limited visibility. Boston waved to his right, so Alanaka pointed the spotlight in that direction.
Despite being covered by algae, a large, brick building could be discerned on the lake floor. The sight of it took Alanaka by surprise. She didn't expect to see such a large structure; the realization that she was in the middle of an ancient city dawned on her.
As they began to swim toward the ruins, Alanaka noticed that they were swimming next to a large, concrete wall. Although it was mostly covered by years of algae growth, she thought she could make out artwork on the face of it. Realizing that the train probably wouldn't have been sitting inside a structure, she motioned her companions away from the brick rubble and toward the wall. Hand-in-hand, the three swam in unison.
Another wall to their left enclosed them into a channel. While Boston and Mason busied themselves by studying the colorful drawings that hid in crevices of the marine plant life, Alanaka turned to study the other wall. Her eyes grew a size larger when she realized what she was looking at.
It was no wall. It was the rusted remains of a locomotive. She tugged on Boston's hand and pointed at it. He pulled Mason around to join them; and, the three adventurers, their hair floating about chaotically, paused to stare at their destination.
Alanaka rolled her hand as if to say, ok, c'mon. let's get this show on the road. The two boys complied. They began searching for a canister about the size of an antique, cellular phone. This wasn't going to be easy.
Suddenly, Boston's PIB began flashing a slow, deep blue. Boston and Alanaka stared at each other, horrified. Their mother was trying to call them!
"Boston?" Mrs. Montgomery's voice was clear at first; but, a moment later, as their force shield quickly filled with water, her remaining message was muffled by the water that surrounded them.
Desperately trying to hold her breath, Alanaka struggled to not panic. The weight and pressure of the water was a new and disturbing threat that she had never before encountered. Mason began frantically pointing toward the surface. Boston was just about to join him in a frantic attempt to ascend when the girl started waving for them to stop. She pulled out her Skip Rope, turned it off, and then on again.
"Triangulating PIBs. PIBs synchronized."
Resetting the Skip Rope had done the trick. Boston's PIB was no longer flashing blue; and, more importantly, Alanaka could feel the force shield ejecting the water from the surface of their skin. The perimeter it formed was, of course, invisible; so, aside from their wet hair and frenzied expressions, they looked no different.
Mason was still pointing to the surface, trying with hand gestures to persuade them to end this crazy venture. Alanaka help up one finger dramatically. She must have been saying, just a second, because she certainly wouldn't be saying, just one more time.
"PIB, locate the nearest magnet," she said. Aghast, Boston and Mason stared at her. A ray of light pointed from Alanaka's bracelet to somewhere within the locomotive's innards. Water, again, began to flood their protective shells. The two boys scrambled for salvation. Before they could go far, Alanaka reset her Skip Rope.
"Triangulating PIBs. PIBs synchronized."
The ray of light disappeared; and, once again, their force shield activated, making breathing possible. Boston was angrily shaking his fist at his sister, but he and Mason realized that they couldn't leave her. The three had to stay within a five foot perimeter or the Skip Rope wouldn't triangulate their PIB's, so she ignored him. She swam to where her PIB had been pointing. She wasn't able to take the time to find the precise location that it had been directing her, so she had to feel around for something in the general area that it was supposed to be.
At last, just above a stack of leaf springs, she felt a metallic box that could be about the right size. She tugged on it; and, although rust had nearly bonded it to the engine's belly, she pulled it free. She dare not open it underwater, so she motioned to her two companions to swim to the surface. They obliged without incident.
"What was you thinking!?!" Boston shouted at his sister as soon as they surfaced. Mason's creased brow and angry glower established that he, too, shared his friend's sentiment.
"It was just for a second," Alanaka predicated. "We would have never found it without the help of our PIB's and we already found out that resetting the Skip Rope would work. We're fine..."
Boston began climbing out of the water and onto the side rail of the hovering Corvette. He was shivering; but, apparently, he wasn't cold enough for his PIB to adjust his body temperature. Either that, or it was busy doing something else. With singular functions, who knew what the PIB would determine to be a primary task?
"I guess we're going to have to get the seats wet," Boston surmised once Alanaka and Mason joined him on the side rail. Alanaka wasn't paying much attention; she was busy trying to pry open the box they had found. She climbed inside after the boys had found their places.
"Mason, see if your robot can open it," she said as she handed the box to the front seat where Mason was sitting.
Still shivering, he took it from her begrudgingly. "His name is Harry. Harry, can you open this?" he asked the Automatronic.
"Fuckin' A, bitch." The RX-47 held the rusty, metallic box with one "hand" and used the other to wrest the lid open. With a protesting screech, the hinges broke free. Inside, some trinkets like a rubber ball, a plastic spider, and a key chain covered the item that Alanaka had hoped would be there. An old-fashioned, cellular phone with a keypad and a small screen was laying in the bottom. She carefully picked it up, so she could feel it for herself. After a pause, she spoke distantly. "Ok. Let's go home."
"Harry, set a course for home," Mason instructed his Automatronic.
"Fuckin' A, bitch." It responded with a wink and a tug of the steering handles. The Zephyr ascended, turned west, and flew into the sky.
Now the only lingering question was where were they going to take this little artifact?
(to be continued...)
If you enjoyed a trip to the future, try a trip to the past. Check out a Flashback episode like "Brookport" for a little taste of 1986. And thanks for tuning in!
-- and continue Alanaka's adventure in "Alanaka Episode IV - Sky Tower Trouble"
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