Chapter 15

Garth and Red sat alone in the room bound to their chairs. Fletcher had gone into another part of his 'ship' for some reason.

"Well, Red what do you think we should do now? Ol' Mr. Fletcher clearly has something wonderful planned for us and everyone else in the Orbit Stations as well."

Red struggled fiercely against her restraints. "Arrrgh!" she growled, "I can't stand this much longer. If I get out of this and get my hands on him..."

"You'll what? What are you going to do to him? You know I could be on my way back to Folden with the kids by now if you hadn't done this to us." Garth was getting annoyed in his own right as his thoughts ruminated about where they were and where he could have been.

"Listen, Bus Driver."

Garth shot her a look.

"Yeah, that's right. I said Bus Driver. You were just as interested in coming here, as I was when we saw this thing. Why can't you just think of it as an adventure to tell your grandkids?" Red was trying to placate him to no avail.

"Because right know it doesn't look like I'll live to have any grandkids to tell! And I don't want adventure. I want to be safe, back on Folden, walking through Mountain Park or having drinks at The Peru Station House Cafe. I want my kids to be back home with their parents, in their beds. I fly a bus because it's safe, it's predictable, and I like that. Adventures are for people without responsibilities. You have them!" Garth was angry and breathing hard. He closed his eyes and straightened in his chair trying to get a hold on his emotions.

Red winced and shook her head. "It's the kids, isn't it? Not any of that other stuff," she looked at him and found the part of her soul that gave her remorse. "Your right, Garth. I'm sorry. I was only thinking of myself. Don't worry. I'll make sure you get yourself and the kids back to Folden. Besides, the worst that'll happen is that the K-P will come looking for us."

Garth opened his eyes and looked at her, smiling. "Thank you, Red. This is the part of you I like. But I gotta tell you, after what Fletcher told us about the K-P I'm not so sure I trust them either."

"Well, you have a point there. I never liked em'. But that's just me. Now I got a reason not to like them more."

At the opposite end of the room was an airtight door, which Fletcher had previously exited through.

The door suddenly swung open.

Clang!

It slammed against the bulkhead with echoing reverberation. Red and Garth flinched as Fletcher walked through the portal and toward them.

"The time has come, my compatriots," Fletcher began, "for me to take my leave of you and perform the mission for which I have longed."

"And just what would that mission be?" asked Red.

"Why Mizz Fargo, I'd have thought you would have figured it out by now."

"Well, she hasn't. So why don't you just tell us, Fletcher," Garth responded annoyed.

Fletcher walked toward them and then passed their chairs toward the suit rack. "Very well then. I plan to take Mizz Fargo's little work ship and destroy the Gravity Lasso's. Then man's own junk will be his down fall."

This really set Red off as she gritted her teeth and struggled harder to escape from the chair. She pulled her wrists so hard against the restraints that they dug into her skin. A small trickle of blood snaked across down her palm. "Fletcher, don't you dare touch my ship! Besides you'll never figure out how to operate it. And if you do you'll probably kill yourself."

"Oh come now, Mizz Fargo, it is just another piece of machinery and all machinery is the same." Fletcher reached for Garth's suit and removed it from the wall.

"Fortunately, Mr. Holloway was kind enough to bring an emergency suit since your ship was not equipped with a suitable docking entrance." He carried the suit over to the chair he had sat in when reading. "The Kohlner Patrol was very smart to provide me with what I needed to remain alive as long as I stayed inside these quarters."

"Listen, Fletcher, none of the people out there had anything to do with the reason you're here now. You are going kill hundreds of millions of innocent people and do untold damage. For what?" Garth knew he most likely would have no impact.

"Why... simply for revenge, Mr. Holloway." He said quite matter-of-factly pulling on the last bit of the suit. He looked at the front where the sealing mechanism was that closed the suit and sealed it to the body. The gears turning in his brain could almost be seen as he searched for the key and within a few seconds he had figured out how to make it work. "Do I need a better reason for having been kept a prisoner without committing a crime?"

"Fletcher... Ellsworth, your best revenge would be to let us take you back and reveal yourself to the world. Can you imagine what would happen?" Garth was trying the only way he knew by playing to his ego. "Think of the headlines. 'The genius Fletcher back among us. Kohlner Patrol implicated in widespread conspiracy.' What better press could you ask for?"

Fletcher stopped for a moment and looked up toward the ceiling contemplating what Garth had said.

"Well done, Mr. Holloway. Unfortunately, I know that's far from the way the world would see it. You see the Kohlner Patrol have not kept me so isolated. They were kind enough to give me a radio receiver." He walked over to Red and Garth again getting close to their faces to make his point. "I have been able to listen to how the world despises me, blames me for their own stupidity! Well, that day has come to an end." He pushed himself off the chair and quickly scurried to the door at the other end of the module. "Do you want to know what's behind here?" The expressions on his face changed rapidly. "In these agro-domes lies the secret of the Bio-mechanisms. The cure to the destructive forces that the evil nations of the Earth perpetrated upon themselves."

"What a better reason not to do this," said Red, "It'll be all the more reason for you to do it the right way."

"Your wrong, Mizz Fargo," he ran to the middle of the room, screaming. "My way is the right way!"

Garth and Red looked at each other.

He is one hundred percent certified nuts, they both thought.

Fletcher walked to where the helmet sat on the shelf and pulled it down. "The cure to the world's ills will die here along with you when the gravity which holds everything so securely in place is removed and rains its junk terror upon this island of loneliness and everything else Earthers hold dear."