What if the Earth was the other way...?

32. last days

Tony

"The way all the submarines are taken to the waters," I said while I and Nate walked towards the archives where her transporter was.

"I can go the same way out."

"No Nate, your transporter lacks buoyancy because it is just a big lump of metal. "

"Well, it floated, in the first place."

"It didn't. You were submerged in the water."

"Fine! Now, what do I do? The gates to those ports are so small! Wait, I can make the transporter thinner till it could pass through."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Hmm... Me neither. Hey! If I could accelerate through the submarine pathway and then maintain the same speed, I could just drift upwards and Tada! I'm out."

"Sounds good. But what if your calculations go wrong?"

"Fear?"

"No. It's concern, Nate."

She stared at me for a while. I stared back. We really did this staring thing a lot these days. Anyway, I couldn't possibly win this stare contest so I asked, "Ok, Nate what are you up to?"

"First I am going to repair my transporter and at about 12 pm, oh sorry, 18th hour, I'll take off."

"Today?"

"No no. The day I finish repairing."

"Then, it must be today as it is repaired."

"When did---"

"The day we found you."

"Ok. That makes it easy. Just need fuel."

"You know, we might not get the fuel you used in this ship here."

"The ship used jet fuel and I am pretty sure I have a backup fuel to retrace back." To prove it, she started rampaging inside the ship looking for something, maybe like a can. She looked at me grinning awkwardly.

"Okay the canister might have been the thing which went Boom! When I hit the invisible something when I crash landed."

"Pardon me?"

"Before I lost my conscience, I heard the back window, which is used to reach the engines for refuelling open and something flying off as I got hit by a sort of wall, which I reckon is the dome, and I was knocked unconscious because of the sudden turbulence, as something went Boom! Behind me."

"Okay... your fuel canister burst into flames. That explains why the rear end of your ship was damaged and smoking."

"Maybe mine went out. I am sure Professor might have carried an additional fuel, right?"

" Well dad was about to stock the supplies that evening, so when I got in, the ship's existing fuel was the only thing in the ship. And as you might know, I was not actually prepared for an accidental space expedition. So, no fuel." Her excitement wore off. That is good. But then she asked what kind of fuel we used.

"Yes. We use hydrogen gas and maybe electromagnetic levitators." She seemed to be calculating something. Her eyebrows knit together like she was concentrating and trying to come up with a brilliant idea.

"Why don't you help me fix my ship with a hydrogen gas driven engine?"

Okay. First off, I am trying to convince her to stay put in Engame and she is trying to escape. Why would she even remotely assume I would help her? I calmly declined, "I won't help you."

"Why won't you? Please help me." She pulled out the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.

Look I want to help her but I also know how that could turn out into a complete disaster. She was so adamant. I was so helpless. That stare... How could someone resist it? I gave up at last.

"Yes!" She yelped.

Just then, I heard a creak and saw a huge shelf with lots of artifacts swinging. I was frozen for a moment before I realized that it was about to break and fall right on top of Nate. I finally found my voice as I screamed

"Nate watch out!"

That thing was about to break and I grabbed her towards me but the shelf snapped and one huge round thing knocked her unconscious. I took her to the hospital wing immediately. After an hour she opened her eyes. she looked around and then our eyes met.

" I'm fine." she gave a soft tilt to her lips almost like a small smile.

I smiled and nodded my head. "You know I ... I was worried for a moment."

"You? Worried?"

"Believe it or not, yeah. But now, you alright?"

"I told you I'm fine."

"Right."

"About the hydrogen engine ---"

"Oh! Why didn't that idea just knock out of you?"

"So, you wanted that thing to knock that idea out of me! You were behind it, weren't you?"

"No! Don't jump to conclusions! Yeah, I wished you could stop thinking about going back." She gave out a small chuckle and then held my hands that were resting on the bed. She looked at me suddenly turning serious.

"You don't understand. My mom and dad... They must be super worried. And----"

"You must have thought that before coming here." I couldn't control how she kept on mentioning them! If she really didn't want them to worry, she should have stayed put.

"I know. But I must go back."

" But---"

"You just promised me you'll help. Remember?"

"Fine. We'll start fixing it after you get discharged." I let out a wicked smile.

Just then Blake showed up announcing the bad news, "She can go." My face wrinkled.

"So, let's get back to the Kliptoran Research centre!" she almost shot up from the bed.

"Yeah. Let's go." I groaned.

It took us days to figure out the suitable design for the engine that fitted the ship. Then, fitting it into the transporter took us around a month. At last, it was ready. We took it to zone II. The test was whether it could pass through the tiny gate without even scratching the tiny gate.

First round. It scarred the gate a bit. Nothing to worry. No leakage. Second round. It passed well! Third round. A smashing success! I was astonished. But they didn't approve. Their argument was that there was a seventy three percent chance of it breaking the dome. Technically it was correct. I was relieved that they didn't approve of it. They took the transporter away from her and for the first time, in Kliptoran history, they installed a gate to the archives and locked the door. They even designed a lock and key to keep it away from Nathalia. The most impressive part was that they did it within a day.

She now had two problems: She needed to retrieve the keys from Switch and find a way to make sure her escape could work. I felt like locking her up in a room would have been better than locking the transporter inside the archive.

"This isn't the last.I will go home no matter what. I am heading to the stay room." She sprintedoutside, her face red and her hands clenched into a fist. I made a mental noteto stay back and be in the planetarium for the rest of the day.