Newsgroups: gweepnet.yarn
Path: hotblack!android
From: android@hotblack.gweep.net (Andrew J. Petrarca)
Subject: Re: Okay, who put him up to this?
Message-ID: 
Organization: GweepCo Cooperative Network - Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
References:    
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 06:10:56 GMT

In article ,
 Tom Russell  wrote:

>  There was a bright flash from the side of the zeppelin and four rocket men
>shot out and streaked towards their position.
>
>  Joey was going to have to do something.

"Run!" he yelled, warning his friends.  "We've got to get out of here!"
Tubs and Gates just stood and watched in fascination at all the cool stuff
that was going on.  Rocket men swooped down and picked them up; first Gates,
then Tubs, then James Burke.  Joey turned and ran as the last rocket man
dove toward him.  Perhaps fortunately, he was lifted into the air before he
could reach the barbed wire fence.

The four were being carried up to the Zeppelin.  Joey stopped struggling
when he realized that he was too high in the air for it to be to his benefit
to escape.  Just then, James Burke started up his monologue again.

"...with these fusion powered jet packs," the documentarian continued. 
"Pretty good, eh?  Now all you had to do was strap one of these on, and your
airship never had to land again.  Pretty wonderful news if you were the
captain of an air ship.  Pretty dreadful news if you ran an air port."

The rocket men set the four down on the deck of the ship.  Tubs and Gates'
excitement waned slightly when the guards told them gruffly to keep quiet
about how cool everything was.  Only Joey seemed aware of Mr. Burke's
speech, or even of his presence.  Maybe he could take advantage of that. 
James Burke rambled on...

"There was nothing left for the air ports to do but close, right?  Not
quite, because the air ports were about to be saved by the solution to an
age-old problem.  And by this point you should be able to guess where that
solution was going to come from...  That's right, hydrogen.

"The same hydrogen that fills the bags that keep this ship afloat, that
powers the jet packs that ferried us here, and that allowed these men to
reach Mars in the first place was about to allow the captain of this ship to
solve the problem of ballast once and for all.

"...Wait a minute, you say.  What's so difficult about tossing things out of
air ships?  That's all ballast is, right?  Wrong.  In fact, that's one of
the lessons the Montgolfier brothers learned the hard way in their first
flight over Paris..."

As Burke turned to face another direction, he vanished.  Joey blinked, and
then noticed that while he was listening to the monologue, the captain had
arrived.  "Take the prisoners to the brig," he ordered.  "And do it quickly!
I want them secured before we go to commercial."

The world faded out as the three were escorted to an empty cell in a room
filled with caged animals.

-- 
Bitwise, android.                                         &


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