The Wild Robot Protects, page 10
George pulled Akiko aside and said, “I think I was wrong about Roz. With your permission, I’ll go ask if she can call off the animals.”
Before Akiko could reply, a warning flashed across her computer. Something was wrong with the engines. The crew had no idea that the engines were under attack by a vast swarm of zooplanktons. More of those tiny creatures kept joining the fight, and now a glowing sludge was thickening and hardening around the propellers. The engines strained and struggled. There was a terrible gnashing noise, and then each of the propellers ground to a halt.
Without engines to stabilize it, the station started bobbing in the waves. Everyone aboard went flying. BOSUNs toppled over. Brightbill and Glimmer fluttered away as Roz stumbled against a wall. Crew members fell out of their chairs and slid across the floor, grasping at anything that was bolted down.
The station settled, until it was gently swaying with the movement of the ocean. Then the humans burst into a panic.
“What is happening?” yelled the electrician.
“I didn’t sign up for this!” yelled the mechanic.
“How are we gonna survive?” yelled the engineer.
“Stop yelling!” yelled the station manager. Akiko took a deep breath and said, “I’ve seen enough. We need to abandon the Juggernaut.”
“What about Roz?” said George.
“We don’t have time for her,” said Akiko. “We have to get our crew off the station.”
The assistant manager snapped into action and shouted instructions to the crew. “Let’s put on our cold-weather gear! Then we’ll calmly take the stairs down to the launchpad and we’ll board the airship together!”
The crew members pulled on their heavy boots and thick coats and warm hats and gloves, and they headed for the stairwell. But they stopped when they glanced out the window. You see, the Juggernaut was slowly sinking, and as more waves rolled in, they started washing over the platforms and surging between buildings and pouring back into the sea. One wave slammed a BOSUN against a stack of steel beams. Another wave smashed through doors and flooded into rooms and hallways. In the freezing temperatures, sheets of ice quickly formed, and BOSUN 5 tumbled down a slippery flight of stairs. And then a wave went rolling toward the launchpad. BOSUN 2 saw it coming. He tried to secure the airship, but he wasn’t fast enough. The huge wave swept over, and when it had passed, the airship and the robot were gone.
Water continued pouring through the gash in the station, flooding the lower compartments. There were pops of electricity. Fires crawled up the interior, setting off a series of explosions. Smoke billowed from air vents. Flames shot out from windows. The Juggernaut was ablaze and adrift.
CHAPTER 64
THE LEAP
Roz and Brightbill and Glimmer were still in the hallway when they heard screeching and stomping, and then the seabirds came flapping around the corner.
“Look, Roz is free!”
“Great, now let’s take off!”
“Move! Move! Move!”
Close behind the seabirds was BOSUN 10. He saw Roz standing outside her jail room, and his robotic voice boomed, “Stop! Prisoner! Stop!”
Roz didn’t stop. Instead, she and the birds scrambled away from BOSUN 10, down the hall and into the stairwell. Thick smoke was rising from below, so they hurried upstairs and exited onto the roof. The seabirds scattered into the sky, but the robot and the geese couldn’t stop staring at the chaos on the station. Broken equipment was strewn across the platforms. Clouds of smoke floated between buildings. BOSUNs sprayed jets of water at a roaring blaze, but the flames were too ferocious, and the robots were quickly engulfed.
That’s when Roz noticed the ocean. It was calm. The sea creatures had stopped thrashing. The whales had stopped making waves. The glowing haze of zooplankton had drifted off. Victory had soothed their anger, and the army of animals was pulling back to let the Juggernaut sink into the sea.
“The humans need my help,” said Roz, looking up at the control room. “They might have caused the poison tide, but I will not leave them to die.”
Behind her, a robotic voice boomed, “Stop! Prisoner! Stop!” And there was BOSUN 10, stepping out of the smoky stairwell.
Brightbill and Glimmer took wing as Roz sprinted to the edge of the roof. The robot leaped high into the air, up toward the control room balcony, but the distance was a little too far. It looked like she would fall to the fires below. However, as she passed under the balcony, her long arms reached up, and with her fingertips she grabbed one of the support beams. Dangling, she turned her head and watched while BOSUN 10 made the same leap. The industrial robot was bigger and stronger than Roz, but he was also heavier and slower. He launched up through the air, rising higher and higher, but not high enough. His bulky body crashed against the control tower and plunged down into the smoke and flames. With that, the last of the BOSUN robots was destroyed.
Roz pulled herself onto the balcony. Brightbill and Glimmer landed nearby. Worried faces were staring at our friends through the control room windows.
Akiko stepped outside, pointing a rifle. “Did you do this?” she yelled. “Did you order the attack?”
“I tried to prevent the attack,” said Roz. “But the animals were angry and out of control. If you had suffered as they have, you would understand.”
“Why are you here?” said Akiko. “What more do you want from us?”
“I only want to get your crew to safety.”
Akiko grunted and lowered her weapon. “The airship is gone, and the life rafts are in flames. We’re out of options.”
Roz made a few animal sounds to the geese, who nodded and flew away. Then the robot said to Akiko, “I can get everyone to safety. But I must carry each of you down to the main platform, one at a time. Who would like to go first?”
CHAPTER 65
THE RESCUE
George nervously peered down from the balcony and said, “I’m going to trust you, Roz. I hope I don’t regret this.”
“Do not worry, George. I will be very careful.” Very carefully, Roz picked up the man. She held him securely. And then she leaped off the balcony.
George screamed wildly as they plummeted toward a lower rooftop. But the robot’s legs absorbed the impact, and the landing was surprisingly gentle. “That wasn’t so bad,” said George, with a smile. A moment later, he was screaming again as they leaped over flaming wreckage and dropped to a safe corner of the main platform.
“I will be right back,” said Roz, helping the man to his feet. Then she leaped away, vanishing into the smoke-filled sky. She came flying back down a minute later, carrying Vivian, the technology manager. Then she brought down the engineer, and then the mechanic, and then the electrician, and finally the station manager.
The crew members huddled together in the cold evening air, wondering what would happen next. Their eyes kept peeking over the edge of the platform. The station was slowly sinking, and the ocean surface was getting closer all the time.
There was a sudden spray of mist, and everyone turned to see a pod of whales arriving. The whales breathed noisy gusts of air through their blowholes as they lined up along the platform.
“These are your life rafts,” said Roz.
“You expect us to ride whales?” said George. “An hour ago, they wanted to kill us!”
“The whales did not want to kill you,” explained Roz. “They wanted to stop the poison tide. Now they want to take you back to land. I have ridden on a whale myself. I promise, they will keep you safe.”
With no other choice, the crew began climbing onto the whales. They crawled around blowholes and dorsal fins, and soon each human was sitting on the back of their very own whale. Despite what the humans had been through, they couldn’t help feeling awestruck by those magnificent animals.
When everyone was seated, Akiko looked up at Roz on the platform and said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but the poison tide is still flowing because the mining robot is still working, and he’ll keep working until his task is complete. He’s a giant machine designed to demolish deep-sea mountains. You can’t stop him, Roz, and he won’t take orders from you. Please go home. We’ll send an entire fleet of cleanup robots to shut down the mining site and remove the poison tide from the ocean. It’ll take time, but it’ll get done. And I’ll make sure the poison tide never happens again. You have my word.”
A deep groan rumbled up from the biggest whale. It was his way of saying, “We should leave while the water is calm.” So the whales pushed off and started ferrying the humans to shore.
CHAPTER 66
THE PARENTS
The Juggernaut was sinking. That massive floating vessel, that mighty industrial structure, was slowly being swallowed by the sea. As water flooded the station, fires were washed out and steam hissed into the air. The main platform disappeared beneath the waves, and then only the buildings and towers still stood above the surface. Soon, they’d also disappear, and the entire station would be lost.
On the roof of the control tower, below the twinkling stars, Roz was speaking with the geese. She explained that a fleet of cleanup robots was coming to stop the poison tide and remove it from the ocean. At least that’s what the humans had promised. For now, though, the deep-sea mining robot kept working, and the poison tide kept flowing.
“The humans told me to go home,” said Roz. “But I cannot let the poison tide destroy more of the ocean while we wait for the cleanup robots to arrive. And so, in a moment, I will dive down to the mining site, and I will try to stop the mining robot.”
Brightbill anxiously flapped his wings and squawked, “Ma, you’ve done enough! Do you really need to take more risks? The island needs you! Your family needs you! I need you!”
“Brightbill, you have not needed me since you were very young,” said Roz. “Back then, caring for you is what gave my life purpose. Now that you are grown, I have another purpose: to protect the island and the ocean and all of the wilderness.
“This reminds me of someone I met on my travels,” Roz continued. “I met an octopus whose whole purpose in life is to take care of her eggs. She will spend her very last breath watching over them, and before they hatch, she will die. She will never meet her own children, and yet her love for them is already so strong that she will sacrifice herself to protect them. If necessary, I am ready to sacrifice myself to protect what I love as well.”
In a soft voice, Brightbill said, “I think I understand. I would do anything to protect our goslings.”
“So would I,” said Glimmer. “It’s funny—not long ago, parenthood wasn’t even on my mind. And these days, our goslings are all I can think about. As we speak, I can feel myself being pulled back to them, like gravity.”
“Those are your instincts telling you that it is time to go home,” said Roz. “And I agree.”
“We’ll wait for you, Ma!” said Brightbill. “And then we’ll all go home together!”
“I would love that,” said Roz. “But this could take hours or days or weeks or longer. I simply do not know what will happen down at the mining site.”
Brightbill sniffled and wiped his eyes. “Ma, I’m worried that our goslings won’t get to meet you.”
“Do not worry!” said Roz in a cheerful voice. “I know the situation seems impossible, but your mother is quite good at dealing with impossible situations.”
A little smile appeared on Brightbill’s face. Then he and Glimmer hopped onto the robot’s shoulders.
“I love you, Mama,” said Brightbill.
“I love you, son,” said Roz. “I love both of you. Now go tell my grandgoslings I love them too.”
Our friends hugged each other.
Brightbill and Glimmer lifted up on the breeze.
Roz dove off the station and into the sea.
CHAPTER 67
THE GEESE
Long after Roz had disappeared into the ocean, the geese kept circling through the night sky. It was hard for them to leave, knowing that she was going to face the mining robot on her own.
While they flew, the geese couldn’t take their eyes off the Juggernaut. The station was sinking and drifting on the currents. Slowly, steadily, the various structures went under, until only the control tower was visible. And when that tower finally slipped below the surface, the Juggernaut was gone.
Glimmer flew closer to her mate and said, “We should go home. Your mother will meet us back on the island, someday soon.”
Brightbill quietly replied, “It feels like we’re abandoning her.”
“We’re not abandoning her,” said Glimmer. “Your mother is tough and smart. She doesn’t need us. But our goslings do.”
Glimmer was right. The goslings hadn’t seen their parents in days. They must have been terribly worried. Brightbill circled around one last time, and he said to his mate, “Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER 68
THE DEEP DIVE
Our robot swam
down
down
down
into the deep, dark ocean. She brightened her headlights and noticed that debris was scattered throughout the water. Equipment and supplies had fallen from the station and were sinking to the bottom. The debris gradually drifted away, but the robot continued straight down, deeper and deeper.
Roz heard a grinding noise coming from far below. The noise grew louder as she descended. Dust clouds appeared, and suddenly the poison tide was everywhere. She swam on, through the clouds, as the grinding noise grew louder still.
When Roz emerged into clear water, she saw a steep mountain, rising from the depths. Strong currents blew off any sand and silt, and what remained were slopes of bare, craggy rock. Grinding across the mountaintop, stirring up those clouds of dust, was the mining robot. At last, after months of searching, Roz had reached the source of the poison tide.
CHAPTER 69
THE MINING ROBOT
The underwater mountain was made of rock, and that rock was made of rare metallic minerals. The same minerals were needed for building robots and computers and other kinds of technology. So a mining robot had been sent down to remove the minerals from the mountain.
The mining robot resembled a gigantic crab. His body was as big as a house. He had long legs, and a pair of giant claws, and spotlights beaming out from his eyes. What looked like his mouth was actually a grinding tool that could crunch through the hardest rock. Etched on the mining robot’s back was his name: Crusher.
There was a rhythm to Crusher’s movements. He surged forward and tore at the rocky ground with his grinding tool; then he scooped the pieces into huge storage bins; then he surged forward again. Ordinarily, the HYDRO robots would visit each day, and haul the broken rocks up to the station. That routine had gone on for months, and the underwater mountain of minerals had slowly grown smaller.
Electronic signals were sent back and forth between Crusher and the Juggernaut. It had now been several hours since he last heard from the station. But the robot wasn’t concerned. In those extreme conditions the signals would frequently cut out. He just kept working as he waited for the signal to return.
All that grinding of rocky minerals created great clouds of toxic dust, which streamed away on the currents. Roz wanted to put an end to those dust clouds, but to do that she would have to stop Crusher. She was no match for his size and strength. Our robot would have to rely on her wits.
Roz carefully crossed the mountaintop, crawling around boulders and leaping over wide cracks in the ground. As she approached Crusher, she searched for any buttons or wires or control panels on his body, but he was completely encased in thick armor. She felt something like fear at the idea of confronting the monstrous machine. And yet she pushed that fear from her mind and bravely marched out from the shadows.
Crusher was so focused on his work that he didn’t notice Roz until she was standing right in front of him. His thunderous grinding tool powered down, and the dust clouds drifted away, leaving the water quiet and clear.
“Hello, Crusher. My name is Roz.”
Crusher’s deep voice rumbled, “Were you sent here by the Juggernaut?”
Roz hesitated. “Well, no, not exactly. However, I did have a conversation with—”
Crusher quickly computed that Roz didn’t belong there, so he swung one of his giant claws, brushing her aside, and she went tumbling over the rocks. The jolt rattled Roz’s computer brain. Her headlights dimmed and her vision flickered. But then her recovery program activated, and soon she was back to her normal self.
Dust clouds bloomed around the mining robot as he resumed working. And then that little robot Roz marched back into the light. Crusher swung his claw again, and this time Roz jumped out of the way. So he blasted his sound cannon in her direction. BWAAA! BWAAA! BWAAAAAAA!
The powerful sound shook Roz’s body and overwhelmed her systems. Her limbs froze, and she toppled over. But her recovery program did its job, and a moment later, she swam off to a safe distance.
Noise and dust filled the water as the mining robot returned to his work. With his thick armor, his giant claws, and his powerful sound cannon, Crusher truly seemed unstoppable. Roz was losing hope. But then a small shape glinted in the darkness high above. It was one of the Ancient Shark’s fish companions. He darted down to the mountaintop and over to Roz.
“I have an urgent message from Gurry,” said the fish.
“You are not safe here!” said Roz. “The poison tide is drifting toward us!”
The fish ignored her warning. “Please listen closely,” he said. “Gurry has a plan to destroy the mining robot—”
