The nightmare ended just as it had began. It had begun cold, unforgiving, and confusing. Suddenly, and with little reality to it, he watched the fogged door to his freezing tube slide aside. His world was replaced by the inside of the Jupiter 2 with the operational astronavigator, the crane series rambler standing in the center of the room. His family gathered at the center of the room with the major walking away from the front half of the ship.
"Hello, I am Rambler Crane Series Model 0-9. You may call me Rambler." Rambler said. "I am here to help you with the colonization of Alpha Prime A and the construction of the Hypergate."
"Good to meet you, Rambler," John said. "Major, be our lead."
"Wait, what?" Don asked. "I was under the impression that you were the team leader of the mission. I am just the monkey."
"No. . . You're not just the monkey that presses the buttons, Major." John was taken back at first as he replied. "General Goddard was supposed to tell you that you were part of the defense of the planet while I take care of the matters on the planet."
"I took care of the Global Sedition problem up there," Don said. "Damaged some of the hulls."
"Thankfully, we can leave it the way it is," John said. "Never going to up there again. Long as there isn't a chance of the hull leaking during a rain storm."
"I can assure you of that," Don said. "There won't be."
"Thanksgiving is going to be pretty neat," John said. "Let's get that required beds mapped put before we set up shop."
"Mom, is it going to be different this time?" Will asked.
"I think it will be," Maureen said, looking down toward him with a smile.
"Cool." Will said. "Then he will get to see my inventions."
"He will appreciate it just as I told you," Maureen said. "But don't try to make a time machine that your science project was supposed to be."
"Everything is okay, mom," Will said. "I won't be making one anytime soon. Won't have to do it this time."
"Had a bad dream?" She rubbed his head.
"Nasty one," Will said. "Doctor Smith was in it. He got stung by a spider and became a hybrid of it."
"That is a really nasty nightmare," Maureen said with a smile. "Let's go get the colonizing gear out."
Time passed and the outside of the ship began to look like home. The home that was inconvenient and unforeseen. A home that he didn't anticipate of having at all. It was nothing like how he had seen it in his nightmare. It was nothing the way that he had recalled it. It was the way that he had seen on the way to boarding the craft. She was massive in size and roomy to the touch.
He watched as the large ugly bus came down the platform to the craft down the landing platform that gave him a double take. It was tacky and full of military that it reminded him of the nightmare complete with camouflage paint. It was large in size to the men. Big enough to carry Rambler. Will watched the men vanish over the hill and into the future that was certain to be written in stone. They returned; alive, unharmed, but cheerful and excited about the beds they had found.
And it became quickly apparent as time went by.
All too apparent that his father had a new focus of attention.
Will had lost his father when he was accepted into the Family Program.
And it became quick to learn that what else he could do; explore. For long periods of time. Away from home.
Will was twenty years old with dark hair when the Jupiters came flying through the morning sky. Seas of them. He waited at the area designated for Mission Control staff members who had been part of putting the mission together in the first place. He watched as the ships landed in number all around the landscape being all shiny and new to his eyes. He watched all the Rambler Crane Models parked alongside the crafts waiting for each of their families to descend down the stairs. There was only enough space that could be partaken and each of the space was taken. There was not enough room for another one but a smaller Jupiter came flying down and took the space that matched it. The landing gear came down and the door to the residential deck opened a second later.
One of the first came down a old man in skin tight dark gray space uniform come down the platform with a different model of the Rambler Crane Model that was three parts. It had a large chassis stacked on the waist half addition that matched in size connected to the tank half fit in neatly together. It was a odd arrangement with a glass bobbed helm instead of the one that he was largely familiar to. He was scared looking around but largely familiar. Will squinted at the man then looked up observing that model he had in his possession was largely smaller than everyone else. A small model in comparison that had to be forty-eight feet. He was approached by the older man.
"Hello. Where am I?"
"This is Alpha Prime A," Will greeted the older man.
"Alpha Prime A?" the older man asked. "Is it, truly? Really? 2078?"
The face was familiar but the voice had changed over the last two decades and it was noticeable but it blended in with the wearer of the face. A old man, who by all appearances appeared harmless, even to his normally alert senses forged by being surprised by non-verbal aliens and strange lifeforms that called Alpha Prime A home.
"Yes," Will said. "That is the year. And it's a Tuesday."
"Good heavens. We went the right way!" The older man cheered as his dark blue eyes light up with excitement and happiness. "We went the right way! We went the right way, thiiis time!" he was on the verge of tears quite visibly before the younger man's eyes. "We went the right way, booby! I did it! I did it!"
"No, I did it!"
"I did it!"
"I did it!"
"No, I did it!"
"The nerve you have saying this on Alpha Prime A!" the machine replied.
"Nerve?" The older man said. "Your nerve---"
"You two, can you please cool off the missiles?" Will got in between them. "It is really a waste of your time being angry with each other on the happiest time of your lives."
"Never," The machine shot back.
"I can when he admits I am the one responsible for getting back here!" The older man said.
"You stole me, you lugnut, and went the wrong way for twenty years!" Booby lashed out. "I am NEVER going to admit! Over my untimely destruction will I admit that. It was my part that we got to Earth and took the hypergate to Alpha Centauri!"
"It was a accident!" The older man protested. "I didn't mean to launch off Earth. How dearly I miss it. . . And I can never step foot on it again. God rest her soul."
"Bah hum bug!" Booby turned his helm and upper chassis away folding his arms.
"I was touring the ship," the older man explained turning toward Will. "Someone put in a virus in the systems while I was admiring it. Don't blame me. Blame the hacker from Global Sedition!"
"You delayed construction by a few months!" Booby shouted. "You were the hacker! You over stayed your welcome! You got drunk, on camera, announcing your part in it and they had to let you go. You sent the ship flying away intentionally to save YOUR skin!"
"If it had been delayed then why are there so many ships landing?" Will asked.
"That is beyond my understanding," Robot said. "Unless they started mass producing these at once after the construction of the Jupiter 2 and employed millions of workers."
"It was only a anomaly, nothing more." The older man dismissed. "You worrisome noodle."
"I am not a noodle!" Booby said. "I am a piano set in size, correctly, after your trouble got my original model destroyed!"
"How many times do I have to say sorry for sacrificing your chassis to save my life?" the older man asked.
"You can never apologize enough. I am hideous! Horrendous!" He twirled. His long black arms stretched out of the chassis. "MY ARMS ARE ACCORDIONS IN THESE CHASSIS! I am not supposed to wave arms like these! I was not designed in mind with having to yank them into my chest until you came along."
"Well, I like it, you ninny. And it looks good on you." The older man replied. "I think this young man would agree, don't you, my dear?"
Their attention shifted toward Will. It had been a long time since anyone had put him in the center of attention. A long time since his principal made his mother's attention be focused on him and talk about him. It was strange to be noticed by someone else. And something for that matter. He found himself embracing so he noticed them.
"Yes," Will said. "Not bad, actually. Could have been worse."
"Hmm, see?" the older man asked turning toward the machine with a smile. "Someone thinks you look not bad."
"I look horrible, Doctor Smith." Robot said. "You are a bad designer."
"Still winning at it by the sounds of his approval." Smith grinned.
A memory flickered in his mind. A memory from long ago that came to life and shined. In a moment, the older man was young again. His hair changed from a graying brown to dark brown. Then that memory turned into recognition. He had more than aged by twenty years to his eyes but he was familiar to Will. His frame had changed as time had gone on. Muscular and visible skin that was sagging. He was less of a young man standing out like a sore grumpy thumb that personified it. No wonder he was part of his nightmare then, Will fondly looked back. And he could still give a mean but otherwise intimidating and frightening look. The name echoed in his mind as Will began to smile.
Doctor Zachary Smith. Someone his father once referred to as Colonel Smith when reading the file of who Mission Control had assigned to his family. His once prominent facial features had become subtle being replaced by old age. Youth had made his facial features stand out. Will could still remember the glare of the older man as he checked his mental well being for handling stresses in artificial reality trials, quizzes, and neural scans. His hair had grayed and his goatee had remained but had thinned out as time had gone on. The goatee had lost its thickness over time.
"Doctor Smith?" Will said. The word was alien to him at first and unfamiliar. "Colonel Smith?"
The older man turned his attention upon him then finally noticed him at great length.
"Yes?" Smith squinted at the younger man. "Have we met before?"
"No, but, maybe, I--" Will stopped. "I don't know, really. We never really knew each other personally. You checked us up for the mission. You gave us the okay for colonization."
"Oh right, I did--" Smith stopped then his eyes widened and recognition flickered in his eyes. "William Robinson. . ."
"Doctor Smith, please, call me Will," Will reminded with a laugh. "I go by Will."
"Nonsense, it's always going to be William to me," Then Smith covered his mouth briefly taken by tears and admiration. A smile curled on his lips as he squeezed on the younger man's cheeks. "My Lord, you look so young."
"I was in stasis for ten years," Then Will reminded. "You haven't." He frowned. ". . . Doctor Smith, why have you been in space for twenty years?"
"He got caught and had to run," Booby said.
"Farce!" Smith said. "Conjecture! Assumptions! Theories! Speculation!"
"I doubt anyone would have forgotten when evidence is still around on the database," Booby said.
Smith's rage was replaced by a calm smile as a thought struck him.
"Oh, if there is, haven't you thought what is going to happen to you?" Smith asked.
"Being assigned to a family for starters," Booby said. "And you finally getting to explain yourself to your superiors."
Smith nodded.
"Here, here, I hear you," Smith said. "But you are forgetting about someone. Someone you keep disregarding about yourself."
"I am not," Booby said.
"You are still classified as a machine that isn't human." Smith said.
"I am not in the---"
"Thaaat is in space, you nincompoop." Smith interrupted.
"It does not apply here, Doctor Smith." Booby said.
Smith slowly turned toward Will as did Booby waiting to hear if the young man had anything to say; but, he only had a apologetic look.
"Actually . . . You are still considered property of Mission Control."
"Taken apart, your neural net wiped clean, and what hasn't been removed would be studied. If I were held in custody and sent back to Earth, you would be DEAD. And you would have no one to speak up for you in regarding what happens to you and convinces people to send you to a better fate." Smith pointed toward the lower chassis. "Just like me back on Earth. We got no one on Earth. Just you and me." Smith pointed toward himself then toward the seven foot tall machine. "So, I do not believe it is in your favor making anyone remember about leaving Earth by accident. And don't even think about dragging that young man into OUR mess."
Smith pointed toward Will.
"He doesn't even know us yet," Smith said.
"I did not make the mess," Booby said. "You made it!"
"I did not!" Smith shot back.
"I am the victim here." Robot said.
"No, I am!" Smith said. "Spending my forties, fifties, all in space running to get home! Woe is me. Woe is me. And it was all YOUR fault it took so long!"
"If anything, it would be a fresh start." Booby laughed.
"Not so fresh for men like us," Smith said.
"For me, it would be a release from being allowed to retain all the memories of hell that I have been put through because of you." Booby said. "Otherwise, it is your fault that we took so long just getting to Earth!"
"If they want to dismantle you then let them do that," Smith said, his ego wounded as he turned away from Booby walking on past him and his voice became softer. "Because that is what you want."
"Won't happen after the treasure trove I give them." Booby said.
Smith sighed.
"Alright then, if that is what you want, then you will get it. Consider our alliance over. And he is your problem, my dear boy." Smith jabbed a finger at the young Robinson's chest then Smith looked up toward the sky that had two suns reflecting on the long journey that brought him here. "Oh. The pain. The pain."
Booby turned toward Will as the man walked toward the gathering crowd of community.
"What are the steps to being reassigned?" Booby asked.
"Well, geeze, I don't know," Will shrugged. "I just--I--um--ah, I am just the kid."
"You are twenty," Booby said.
"I don't know! I am not really part of it! I kept myself out of it. . . Intentionally." Will turned away from Booby. "Hey, um, Booby. . . is that really your designated name?"
"I am called often times by ninny." He slid his silver claw out then shook the man's hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"What model are you?" Will asked as he shook the model's hand.
"The ninth model in working my way up to my previous model." They stopped shaking hands then Will put his hand on his hips.
"How about Booby-9?"
"Rejected."
"B-9?"
"I am ready to be disassembled and my tapes uploaded to a mainframe computer and valuable lessons regarding the galaxy to be gathered."
"Okay, B-9, but if your tapes are taken . . . Then that is all your memories."
"I have had enough memories of watching that annoying human get old! Please, let me have a new slate and be assigned to my humans. Ones that I am assigned to protect. Pretty please? With a cherry on top."
He sounded so human that it took Will off guard at first to be asked this way. As if he had the awesome power of God in his hands capable of changing the machine. Will scanned the machine seeking for a part that he could potentially adjust. He found a console on the top on the third piece of his frame that were odd, colorful, but strange, and the lower grill had a dark green light.
"Uh, I don't know." Will rubbed the back of his neck stepping back. "You do seem pretty advanced to me." He scanned the machine. "Looks like you're stuck with them."
"This is living hell." His helm twirled. "Do you have any friends?"
"No. Not on this planet." Will said.
"Not even your rambler crane model?" B-9 asked.
"No. . ." Will said. "When I was a kid, I had a dream about my rambler crane series model being destroyed and got a replacement helm that looked like yours. We called him Robot. We had two of them in my dream but it was complicated and they were both of my friends."
"I can assume that." B-9 replied. "Life is complicated, Will."
"Would you like to see the rapids?" Will asked. "I have a ton of fun places that I have been meaning to show."
His small helm bobbed up as he caught the last part.
"You haven't had fun in over ten years with someone capable of speaking?"
"Yes."
"One moment."
B-9 went inside then moments later returned with a giant yellow machine above his helm.
"Take me there. WE ARE GOING ON A TRIP AND HAVING FUN!"
"We are not---"
"Yes, yes, yes we are!"
"Oh no."
"Will, steer me there!"
Will looked at the animated but quite unusual bright and happy character.
"Rob---B-9, I don't know how that can be done when you're. . . your special equipment," Will pointed toward him.
"It is water proof." B-9 said.
"Okay, there is no convincing you otherwise," Will said earning a "Affirmative" from B-9. "it's this way."
"Have you seen a black hole before?"
"No."
"It's a cat's eye."
"You're kidding me!"
"I do not kid when it pertains to scientific discoveries. Doctor Smith---I have made a great deal of them."
"Tell me about them."
And the tall rambler crane did as they left the scene of the sea of Jupiters and Will listened to the tales as it took awhile to get where they needed to go. Will paused every so often in his tracks then laughed at the tales of the troubles that they had landed in. The tales were amusing to the young man. It was less worse than his nightmare. Doctor Smith was alive and well happy without a agonizing infection and B-9 looked better if not improved than how he had dreamed. They arrived to the area that Will had set out for raft riding with his family. B-9 set the raft up with his claw out then Will jumped in. B-9 allowed it to go then wheeled after it and flew over the cliff and crashed into the raft.
"B-9!"
"Yes?" B-9 grasped a stick.
"Did Doctor Smith teach you to do that?" Will asked.
"I taught myself," B-9 said proudly as he yanked the stick out and turned around and Will buckled in. "He dislikes it."
"Wohoo!" Will said as they went over a bump. Robot used the stick as his paddle then yanked out another stick and handed it over toward Will who grinned in returned. "Thanks, pal!"
"I have activated my magnetic lock to the bottom half of this vessel," B-9 said as he twirled toward Will. "It can float."
"Good by me!" Will cheered. "Woohoo!"
"Woooohoooo!" B-9 cheered twirling toward the front half. "This is more fun with a willing participant!"
"It sure is, Robot!"
"B-9."
"Yeah, it sure is B-9!"
"Ha ha haha!"
"Where is the exit?"
"Don't worry, it's a beach. The drop isn't very high,"
"Good,"
And for the first time since arriving to the Alpha Centauri system, Will was really happy and felt that he had a new friend. And maybe more than just one new friend.
The End.