After the medium optimistic Roberta had said that a trip to Earth, with
Darren, was possible to make, all the travelers started to prepare for
the trip. Darren by drinking even more water, since the two barrows of
'Darren produced rocket fuel' wasn't enough.
Roberta realized that the space-craft would be extremely hard to
man[tex2html_wrap1079]vre, since the new fuel was much more powerful than the fuel
the machine was built for. So, all accelerations must be done really
carefully. Furthermore, the placing of Darren outside the space-craft
was bad since the torque that this meant could make the whole
space-craft to rotate if it wasn't perfectly balanced by a skillful
pilot. So, Roberta visited a few of her constructors to suggest to
them that they should install a new data chip in her back.
An 'expert pilot'-chip that would, as the name of the chip might
indicate, make her an expert pilot. After some nagging, using a
technique that she learned from Olivia, Roberta's constructors agreed to
install the chip. There was though a small problem as the following
discussion between the two constructors revealed, as they took off
Roberta's back plate:
" Wow, just look at this. I can't remember that I have seen a robot
with this many chips."
"Well, as you might remember 'the ultimate reward' has the maximum
number of chips that it is possible to install in this model. Unlike
'the affordable reward' and 'the improved but still affordable reward',
which has a lot of empty extensions to put the chip on."
"So, if we put in the new chip, we must take an old one away?"
"Correct."
"What about this one? Can we take that away?"
"I don't think so.... They really expect her to be able to
orkididork.
But on second thought, it is not
very likely that a situation will occur when she must orkididork.
OK, let's take out that chip and replace it with the 'expert
pilot'-chip."
Jesper had gone away to visit some rocket builders, to ask them if
they could fix a huge net to put Darren in, and some powerful cement
that could make an airtight tightening between Darren's neck and the
air gate. To fix the net, caused no problems, but concerning the
cement, the rocket builders had to discuss.
" Something strong enough to separate vacuum from air... Do you
know anything?"
"No. Well, except 'armor-cement'."
"Yeah, that would definitely be strong enough. But I wouldn't like to
be there when it is time to remove the dragon from the cement."
"You are not going to be there."
"So, armor-cement it is then!"
Finally it was time for the launch. Darren had filled his barrows, and
the fuel was now in the tanks of the space-craft. Jesper, Olivia and
Roberta was now inside the space-craft, as well as Darren's head. The
armor-cement around Darren's neck was dry, the huge net was mounted
and the count down completed.
Much more silent and with much less smoke then normally the machine
lifted from the ground. To the surprise of everybody, the takeoff went
according to the plans.
If all the details concerning what happened inside the space-craft
during the trip to Earth are accounted, you would now be holding a
great thick novel in your hand. But since this is suppose to be a
short story, and we can't wait to know what's going to happen after
they have landed on Earth, let's just establish that 17 incidents
during the trip made poor
Jesper's pulse exceed 200 beats/minute. During 13 of those incidents he
was convinced that they all were going to die, and the other four
high pulses was caused by molestations from Olivia.
However, let's instead focus on the fact that after 5 hours of flying
it was time to land.
Since Jesper was unable to leave things (things like the steering
box) alone, the trip had contained several detours which had cost a
lot of fuel. This meant that when they reached the earth the fuel tanks
was almost empty. Darren made a desperate attempt to increase the
amount of fuel by 'precision shooting' into the fuel tank,
but he failed. So, due to the lack of fuel, there was no chance to
circle around the earth to find the best place to land. Instead they
had to land on the side of the Earth that was facing them.
By using the last drips, Roberta manage to land in a valley, close to
a huge mountain. After they stood still and the engine was turned off,
Jesper said:
"Darren, you can get off now. We have landed."
"OK, can someone take off the net first?"
"I can do that. Where is the other exit?", Olivia volunteered.
"There is no other exit than the one around Darren's neck.", Roberta
explained.
"So, we have to start by removing the cement around Darren's neck, so
he can take out his head and we can go out.", Jesper said looking
worried.
Roberta examined the cement for a short while, then she said:
"Oh, it is armor-cement!"
"Does that mean that it is hard to remove?", Jesper asked looking
even more worried.
"No, not if you have a medium size atomic bomb! But if you don't have
that, I'm afraid it is impossible.
For the 18:th time in less than 5 hours, Jesper pulse was well above
200 beats/minute. He said:
"When you say 'impossible', do you mean that it is impossible to remove
right away, but if we work on it for an hour or so it can be done?"
"No, it is just impossible."
"Turn your 'O'-wheel to maximum, and answer me again!!", Jesper
screamed hystericly.
After turning into a hyper optimistic robot Roberta answered again:
"Someone probably accidently misplaced an atomic bomb under one of
the seats. And I think we have a small chance to survive the
explosion, even if we are less then 10 meters away it."
"And if there is no bomb under the seats?"
"Then it is impossible!"
Jesper sat down on the floor thinking:
"Oh, no. Not again. The only way out is through Darren. It feels like
I am in the sequence of a bad horror movie. But this time I am not
going to mention that it is possible to go through Darren."
Jesper's thoughts were interrupted by Olivia who said:
"This reminds me of when we were trapped in the cave, and Jesper was a
big hero and took his way through Darren."
Before Jesper had formulated a statement where he made it absolutely
clear that there were no way that he would enter the dragon again,
Darren interrupted with some good news:
"That's it. I have saw my way through the net and my feet are now on
the ground."
"Do you think that you can walk with the machine around your neck?",
Roberta wondered.
"I think so, but I can't see anything."
"What's the use? Why do we care? It is still impossible to remove the
cement.", Jesper said in despair.
"That's true. We can't remove the cement, but if we could find someone
with a welding set, that someone could weld a hole through the body
of the space-craft."
Even though Jesper realized that it wasn't all days you ran into
someone with a welding set in the middle of nowhere, he had a feeling
that the odds for that at least were better that finding an atomic
bomb, and survive the explosion. So, this were indeed good news, which
made them all feel better.