Space Team: The Time Titan of Tomorrow by Hutchison Barry J

Author:Hutchison, Barry J. [Hutchison, Barry J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Zertex Books
Published: 2018-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

“Are you sure you’re hailing him?” Cal asked.

Mech muttered something quietly, then raised his voice. “Yes. Like I said eight times already, I’m sure I’m hailing him.”

Cal tapped a fingernail on his arm rest and gazed down at the planet below. “Are you hailing on all frequencies?”

Mech turned from the screen. “Say what? What the fonk does that mean?”

“You know. Like, don’t just hail him on one frequency, hail him on all frequencies.”

“I’m hailing him on the motherfonking comms frequency. It’s the only frequency we have.”

Cal blinked in surprise. “We only have one frequency? That can’t be right.” He looked up to the ceiling. Splurt had disappeared up there somewhere an hour or so earlier, shortly after they’d entered warp, but that wasn’t who Cal was looking to talk to. “Kevin?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Quick question. How many frequencies do we have?”

“I’m not sure. Would you like me to check?”

“Please.”

“Very good, sir.”

Cal clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth while he waited.

“I’m telling you, man,” said Mech, but Cal held up a hand for silence.

“Hold on. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

They waited some more.

“Sixteen thousand, eight hundred and twenty-seven, sir,” Kevin announced.

Cal leaned forward in his chair. “Ha!”

“No. Hang on.”

There was another moment of silence.

“One, sir. Sorry, I was looking at the wrong column.”

“God. Seriously?” asked Cal, sinking back in his seat. “Well… can we get more?”

“I told you, man. I told you I knew what I was doing, but you had to keep sticking your damn nose in. You couldn’t just leave it in my hands.”

“Quick question for you this time, Master Mech,” said Kevin. “Did you mean to press the ‘mute’ button?”

Mech’s smug expression froze on his face. His eyes darted to the console in front of him. “What? Uh. Yeah. Yeah, I meant to press the…”

He saw Cal. The grin he wore was almost slicing his whole face in two.

“Fonk you, shizznod!” Mech muttered, then he jabbed the button and went back to hailing on their one and only available frequency.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Loren asked, looking back over her shoulder at Cal. “This guy’s pretty creepy.”

“He’s not creepy. He’s just… eccentric.”

“He made, like, a gajillion clones of himself,” said Miz, not looking up from her fingernails. “That’s pretty creepy.”

“OK, yes, he’s creepy. But he’s also a genius. A creepy weirdo genius with a gajillion clones is still a genius, right? And we need a genius.”

Cal spun in his chair until he faced Tim. The Time Titan was back in his own clothes now, his smock only lightly stained and very faintly smelling of vomit.

“This guy we’re taking you to see, he’s an inventor. He made this ship, actually. He also made Kevin, but don’t let that put you off. He knows his stuff.”

“He also had a whole big room full of weird monster versions of himself,” Mech added.

“But again,” said Cal, smiling. “Don’t let that put you off. If anyone knows how to build a Time Bomb, it’s…”

“Dorid Tarkula,” said a voice from the screen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.