Chapter 36: Figuring Things Out

Earth Day-Dec. 12,1986 / Island Day-30

JB POV:

Life on the Island seemed to be settling into something resembling a routine.

With the Holidays coming, the Professor suggested we take turns monitoring the prisoners so we could all do some shopping and make other holiday preparations.

That was okay with Darren and me, even though we didn’t really have much ‘preparing’ to do. I opted to take the first shift, since I really wanted to ‘join’ with Annie and could now do that without Brad giving me any weird looks.

I also wanted to check out how those scooters worked!

Since we all took the day off yesterday, I had to back up the timeline to watch.

Chen and Annie had just teleported Tumrik and his three friends back to their ship so they could get the other 6 scooters. Annie and Chen were a bit tentative when Tumrik suggested they each ride one back to the beach.

Tumrik barked a laugh, “There’s nothing to worry about! These things have three modes of operation.

“On ‘beginner’ mode, they’re almost foolproof. You would have to turn the mode switch to normal to even take a chance on crashing. They will automatically avoid all vertical obstructions, even if you try steering into one! They have sensors that will keep you approximately one meter above horizontal obstructions like big rocks or fallen trees. They will even slow down so you don’t get thrown off. So, do you wanna try?”

Chen grinned, “When you put it like that, heck yeah!”

I watched him and Annie carefully climb on then Tumrik showed them how the controls worked.

They were similar to those on a motorcycle. Throttle on the right handgrip, while a twist up or down on the left would cause the scooter to go up to two meters higher to manually avoid things like rocks, a fallen tree or deep ravine. In beginner mode, it would do that automatically, but, Tumrik suggested they do it manually, just to get used to it. The scooter would also still automatically avoid things like low hanging branches, but, the rider needed to duck to the level of the windscreen. That wouldn’t be a problem for Chen or Annie, but the other guys would have to be prepared to duck.

There was a pedal by their right foot to brake and a button just in front of them to park. Also, like a motorcycle, leaning would make it turn gradually, while turning the handlebar would make it turn sharper. When stopped, turning the handlebars would make it pivot in place. They were told it would also climb up to a 70⁰ slope!

Chen chuckled, “Dang! We could drive these right up to our caves! What about if we try to go over water?”

Tumrik shrugged, “No problem. Just don’t try to park there!”

Annie giggled, “Well, no shit! SPLASH!” She said jokingly. Which caused everyone to laugh, too.

I watched as they navigated some very narrow trails back out to the beach. I found myself holding my breath as it seemed they were going awfully fast at times.

When Max and the others saw Chen and Annie riding they let out a collective groan of envy.”

Annie was giggling, “That was amazing! No wonder our friends missed riding these things. That was way more fun than flying!”

I watched for almost three hours.

Everybody wanted to try, even timid, little Lolita!

Then, just as I had resigned myself that this was going to last all day, Max, Blaine, Steve, Lonnie and Tiny said they wanted to race.

All the way around the island!

Tiny chuckled, “I can’t believe my weight isn’t a problem on these little things.”

Tumrik grinned, “Not at all, if there was room, it could carry three of you, Tiny.”

Then, Jasmine and Annie said they wanted to get in on the race, too.

I started getting very nervous.

Then Max asked, “Just how fast will these things go?”

Braitak shrugged, “About 500 mimasters or as you call them, kilometers, per hour, in ‘normal’ mode?”

Max gasped, “Holy shit! That’s like over 300 Miles Per Hour! How fast in ‘beginner’ mode?”

“Only about 300 ... kilometers per hour, but it wouldn’t average that fast because it would automatically slow down for even small obstacles, rises or depressions. You would be fine if you just stayed near the shore, though. Or over water, where the surface is flat and smooth.”

Tumrik added, “In normal mode, you really need to squeeze the left handgrip to manually tell it to just barely clear small obstacles that aren’t more than half a meter high or low. Or you can choose to manually go up to two meters higher by twisting it up. Like if you saw a downed tree, by going up, the automatic avoidance feature wouldn’t then try to rise over it by another meter. That way, you wouldn’t accidentally get thrown off by the sudden rise!”

“Wow”, Max chuckled, “so these things could like fly 3 meters high?”

Tumrik nodded, “Yes, but, they’re not very stable that high. If you shift your weight much ... it could get very exciting!”

I saw some looks going back and forth between Max, Tiny and Lonnie, making me wonder how long before they tried to finding out.

Pretty soon, Mario, Enrico and Stefano asked if they could get in on the race, too, saying they’d never seen the other side of the island before.

Annie asked, “Ugh Guys, what if somebody over there sees us?”

Lonnie laughed, “Flip them the fucking bird!” he snarked.

Chen, who’d gone off somewhere, came back and seemed chagrinned that everyone was still playing with the scooters and laughing like crazy.

“What are you guys doing?” He scowled. “We need to start exploring the mainland, remember? Like we planned?”

Max chuckled, ‘And we will! Right after we have a little race?”

“RACE??? You guys are going to get yourselves killed! Or maimed. I know you guys, and you can’t tell me this might not turn into ‘Death Race 2000’?”

Tiny shook his head, “NO IT WON’T, we just wanna haul ass along the beach where we can really open these babies up! They can go over 300 MPH and, well, I ain’t never driven anything anywhere near that fast before!”

“But, you guys don’t even have helmets? At anything over 60, you won’t even be able to see without a helmet, or goggles, at least.”

Tumrik put his hand up, “I was just about to tell them there are helmets with full face shields under their seats. They also automatically tint for bright sunshine and have a fully functional HUD, or ‘heads up display’, showing their speed and rear facing cameras.”

Chen just sighed, shaking his head, “Okay, but do me a favor. For this first race, please just leave these deathtraps on beginner mode? You’ll STILL be going over 180, and even that’s faster than you’ve ever gone before, right?”

Tiny nodded and everyone donned their helmets while my level of nervousness for Annie skyrocketed.

Then he asked one more question, “Oh, how far will these go before we need to refuel or whatever?”

Tumrik laughed, “They’ll go about 5000 hours on a ‘charge’, or I should say a crystal. No need to worry. When it gets down to 200 hours a warning light comes on right above the mode switch.”

“Holy shit!” Max gasped, “I guess we don’t have to worry about running out of gas then, do we?”

“No”, Braitak chuckled, “They run on the same crystals our ship does, only it’s just a tiny one compared to our ship. And these don’t even have 100 hours on them yet.”

Being in the past meant I couldn’t warn Annie that I had bad vibes about this.

Not that it would have done much good.

Then, two of the dogs came running up, barking like crazy.

It was Zeus and Athena.

Jeezus!

They wanted to go, too! Zeus ran over to Blaine, who scootched back on his seat so he could sit, with his little paws on the middle of the handlebars, his little head well below the windscreen. Athena joined Annie and assumed the same position.

The riders quickly nodded at each other, flipped down their visors, then took off like 10 bats out of hell! There was some hooting and hollering heard as they quickly disappeared from sight, already jockeying for position.

It was difficult telling who was who with those helmets being so dark.

I took off after them, keeping my eyes on Annie and Athena.

At least she and Jasmine were bringing up the rear, seemingly just having fun as they were quickly being left in the lurch. Until ... little Athena turned her head and starting pawing toward the windscreen, urging Annie to go faster!

Annie must have taken the ‘hint’ and began leaving Jasmine behind, only for Jazz to respond by waving her arm, defiantly, then cracking the throttle. I hated that I was in the past and couldn’t ‘hear’ what they might be ‘flashing’ each other.

I could guess, though ... I got really nervous when I saw both Annie and Jasmine turn their control knobs to ‘normal’! Suddenly, they both caught up to the rest, just as the leaders started rounding the north end of the island.

I was amazed at how these things turned!

I zipped ahead of the girls to watch up close.

I noticed how the very bottom stayed oriented straight down and the rest pivoted in whichever direction the driver leaned. There were ‘jets’ of some kind that increased output, opposite of the way it was leaning, that made it turn.

I really want to talk to Tumrik, at some point, to find out more about how they really worked.

But right now, there was another matter to consider and it was coming up fast.

Elmer’s four goons were all out fishing!

Two were about 15’ out in the water and the other two were sitting on a log near the shoreline, waiting their turns.

Since these things made very little noise, about like a swarm of angry bumble bees, they were completely unaware of the ‘swarm’ of racers bearing down on them. The five leaders began taking evasive maneuvers, like going up to max height, or swerving, just as the fishermen looked over, saw them, and freaked out!

They were all screaming in terror and bumbling into each other, trying to get out of the way, as the first five zoomed around and over them.

They were watching them disappear in the distance and didn’t even see the next five who REALLY had to take evasive action, in some cases missing running into them by mere inches! This caused them to scream even louder and spin around in circles, which made them dizzy, causing them to fall down, gasping for breath.

As Annie’s group disappeared to the south, I decided to ‘listen in’ to the goons’ reactions to getting ‘buzzed’.

Hugo’s head was still spinning when he gasped, “What the hell WAS that!???”

“UFO’s?” Otis asked, breathing hard.

“Are we being invaded by ALIENS now?” Fredo questioned.

Lugo was shaking his head, “I don’t know ... but, I think one of them flipped me off!?”

“Maybe that was just their way of saying hello?” Fredo answered, nervously.

Otis huffed, “Don’t be an idiot, Fredo, if they wanted to say ‘hello’, the fuckers would have stopped and talked to us! I’ve never seen anything like those things before, I’ll tell you that! Except maybe in that movie, ‘Star Wars’?”

Hugo got excited, “Yeah! I wonder if those things have ray guns on them?”

Otis huffed again, “I also thought I heard some giggling! If they had ray guns, the fuckers would have shot us with ‘em! No, I think ... SOMEHOW, Blaine and his guys were riding them? I thought I saw one of those little dogs on a couple of them, too. I couldn’t be sure since they were wearing those dark helmets, but, I don’t think aliens would be wearing shorts and sandals?”

Lugo was deep in thought, “I saw that too. The thing is ... where the hell would they have gotten them from? I know they got better stuff than we did, but, I’m sure they didn’t get NOTHING that they could have made THOSE out of?”

Otis nodded, then grinned widely, “Hey, I just got an idea! Let’s gather up all the bottles we found and mosey on over to Blaine’s area? If they get mad or ask why we’re there we can say we wanted to warn them about UFO’s. Maybe we can tell by their answer if they were on them, then we can see about getting some more beer ... or booze?”

He got some backslaps, then Hugo grumped, “But, we’ll have to go around that damned cliff ... and you guys know I can’t swim?”

Otis smirked, “Hugo, dammit, we went that way with Marcy and with the exception of one small area, the water was only shoulder deep. I think between the three of us, we can get you across.”

Fredo had a guilty look on his face when he said, “Ummm, Hugo, fess up. The ONLY reason you don’t like going in the water is you don’t want to take your shoes off!”

Hugo started blushing and biting his lip, “Fredo, you do know what happens to stool pigeons, don’t you!?”

Otis and Lugo started chuffing, then Otis smirked, “Hugo, do you mean to tell me you really DO know how to swim?”

“Well ... maybe ... a little?” He said, sheepishly.

Fredo started laughing, “He’s no ‘Mark Spitz’, but, he has figured out that ‘shit floats’! He just doesn’t want to take his friggin’ shoes off and is afraid he’ll ruin them.”

Now Hugo was red-faced and looked guilty. Fredo added, “AND, when I asked why he just didn’t put on those nice sandals Ibera gave us ... you ain’t gonna believe what he said!”

Otis smirked, “H u g o...?”

His shoulders slumped, “Fredo, I’m gonna get you for this! Guys, it’s because ... well, aargh ... I have really ugly feet. My huge toes make me look like Fred fucking Flintstone!”

All three guys fell on the ground, holding their sides. Otis pointed at his sandaled feet, still laughing, “Are you shitting me? Do these look any better than yours???”

Hugo sported a goofy, crooked grin, “Hell no? But, you ain’t got no pride!”

Still laughing, Otis scoffed, “Well, either get over yourself or ruin yur damn ‘Gucci’s’ ... just don’t give us anymore crap about having to swim! We ALL really need to go over there, together.”

I wanted to check out more of what they were planning, but ... I ‘more’ wanted to see if my Annie survived their little race! SO, I flew over the mountain, knowing they were either back home, or soon would be.

I hated that I was nearly two days in the past and couldn’t talk to her. When I arrived back at their beach the ‘swarm’ of racers were all going flat-out, hauling ass toward the finish line.

AND, my sweet daredevil, with little Athena hunkered down right in front of her, was leading! Jasmine was right behind them with the rest of the pack, like a swarm of angry, ‘buzzing’ hornets, desperately chasing them.

It took a few minutes for everyone to slow down, turn around and reassemble back at the beach.

Then, the smack talking began in earnest!

Max and Lonnie, who tied for third place, ran over to check Annie and Jasmine’s ‘scooters’. Little Zeus jumped up on Annie’s scooter and began ‘barking’, (talking, but, damned if I could hear him?) then pointing at the mode selector switch!

Max grabbed Annie and started ruffling her hair, “You CHEATED! We were all on ‘beginner’ and you were on normal! No wonder you won!?”

Jasmine was being playfully assaulted by Lonnie and Tiny after Lonnie saw where her selector switch was set.

Tiny smirked, “No wonder Chen loves you, Jazzy Babes, you’re even sneakier than HE is!”

Chen was watching all this and smirking himself, “I’m just glad we didn’t need any body bags for you guys! Tumrik said you crazy fuckers averaged over 175 MPH!”

Lonnie chuckled, “Yeah? So I guess we didn’t lose much time when we buzzed Elmer’s goons?”

Jasmine’s face turned red, “I damn near ran one of those fools over. He jumped out of Annie’s way and landed right in front of me. You should have heard him scream!”

“Aw SHIT.” Chen exclaimed, “Do you think they recognized you guys?”

Now Lonnie was blushing, but, grinned, “Dunno, but, I did flip one of them off!?”

Chen was squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head, “Well, so much for passing you off as aliens? They’d have to be incredibly stupid to believe that now.”

I really wanted to add to their conversation, but, aaargh, I was still in the past! It was driving me crazy so I went back and advanced the portal to the present.

I immediately went to Annie, who was now sitting in their ‘house’, next to Max.

Jasmine, Tiny, Chen, George, Naomi, Meredith and Steve were with them and they were all ‘Spirit Walking’.

Aaargh, since I didn’t start with them, I STILL couldn’t talk to her! I waited for over an hour before Annie and Max ‘returned’ and started talking out loud.

“I’m glad Captain Jack is going to be back home in a couple more days,” Max said, “it looks like his crew is working well together.”

Annie giggled, “Yeah, and it seems like our friends have been telling all kinds of stories about how much fun they had with your boat and how beautiful all we girls are!”

Max chuckled, then hugged Annie, “Yeah, and how big all of us guys are! I’ve never been called a giant before. I think we’re going to have to figure out how to help them build some kind of a stove so they can cook onboard their ship. It has to get old eating everything cold and just salted, like smoked, dried fish and jerky. I also need to tell Jack about bringing citrus fruits with them, so his guys don’t get scurvy. The English didn’t figure that out until the 1700’s when some doctor began studying the effects of scurvy on their sailors. That’s why many other country’s sailors started calling them ‘Limeys’, because they were always sucking on limes!”

“Won’t that piss off those Trilok assholes?” Annie asked, innocently.

Max chortled, “Probably, but, on this planet and in this timeline, who is to say Captain Jack didn’t come up with that idea all by himself? Hmmm? We just have to make sure he takes all the credit for any of our ‘ideas’.”

At this point, I announced my presence to Annie. I was shocked when Max said, “Hi JB, how’s it going? Did you see where we just ‘Spirit Walked’ to?”

I chuckled, “No, but, how is it YOU heard me, Max?”

Annie giggled, “He’s joined with me, Babe. Why don’t all three of us get joined up so you can come with us? We’re going to go to the mine next, to see what’s going on there, then we’re going to wander around to find some interesting places we can teleport to.”

“Would you mind, Max?”

He chuckled, “Heck no. Annie’s just been wondering what you were up to. Did you happen to see our little race we had the other day?”

I laughed, “Oh yeah. I was glad you guys didn’t ALL get killed! I was watching in the past, so I couldn’t talk to Annie. As soon as you guys ended, I moved to the present. Have you guys heard anything from the goons y’all terrorized?”

Max chuckled, “No, Chen’s hoping they just think they saw some UFOs and don’t think it was us?”

“Well, I listened in after you left and, while they don’t know for sure it was you, they did see little Zeus and Athena on Annie’s and Blaine’s bikes! They commented on that and wondered about whether or not aliens would be wearing shorts and sandals? I also heard them saying they were going to come over here with all their empty bottles, using that as an excuse to see if it was really you or not.”

“Damn, I guess maybe we should check on them before we do anything else. That was a couple days ago, so, they could well be on their way here right now?”

I chuckled, “Unless three of them couldn’t convince Hugo that his feet weren’t so ugly he couldn’t wear sandals! Hugo had them convinced he couldn’t swim, but Fredo spilled the beans that it was really just because he didn’t want his Gucci loafers to get wet! Otis sounded like they were really getting fed up with Elmer and his bullshit. I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked you to take them into your ‘group’, as they call you. It didn’t sound to me like they were going to come here looking for trouble.”

“That’s good to know, JB. Since you couldn’t hear, I’ll bet you didn’t know Chen and a bunch of us were wondering if you might want to come here and spend some ‘quality’ time with us?”

“OH??? Like for how long?”

Annie giggled, “Like ... for as long as you wanted? Chen really likes you, for some reason, and hopes that maybe you’d be one of his main guys as far as all of our hopeful ‘enterprises’ are concerned? And ... I would love having you here with me...”

Okay, now I’m totally blown away. I love Linda, but, I’m really, head over heels in love with Annie! I have been since the day we rescued her and Lolita. Now, the way she’s looking at me, even if it’s only in her head, I think she’s in love with me too. I still need to be sure, but, my soul is screaming for me to pursue this!

“Annie, Max, I just might be willing to do that. Does everyone in your ‘Family’ feel like Chen does, too?”

Max chuckled, “I can’t speak for everyone, but, ... I know Tiny, Blaine, Steve, Wayne, George and most of the girls sure do! We need as many trustworthy guys as possible to work with us. We have many projects we want to do that our new ‘powers’ will be needed to accomplish. Having you here, with us, would help tremendously.”

“And I would love to have the father of my baby here to sleep with me at night!” Annie giggled cutely.

“You don’t know how much I want to be here ... with everybody. Let me think this over tonight. If I do come, and I AM leaning that way, I need to take care of some things and pack some bags with stuff that I and, well, all of us may need. I’d like to talk to Chen, too. If I do come, I’m gonna be planning on staying, more or less permanently. How much longer do you think the rest of our friends are going to be gone on their Spirit Walks?”

Max snorted, “They all just got started when Annie and I went to check on Captain Jack. I’m betting they’re all going to be gone for a while yet. So, either come with us to see what our ‘West Coast’ adversaries are up to or head home and get ready to come here and join us!?”