Newsgroups: gweepnet.yarn
Path: hotblack!lightnin
From: lightnin@hotblack.gweep.net (TOOZDAY)
Subject: Re: Okay, who put him up to this?
Message-ID: 
Organization: Midnight Bombers Anonymous
References:    
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 05:20:45 GMT

In article ,
Uncle Don  wrote:
>
>When the lights came back up, the ship was floating serenely in the sky over
>the Galapagos islands.

Meanwhile, down in the brig, Joey was sitting glumly in the corner of his
cage.  In the cages to either side of him, Tubs and Gates were playing with
the animals in the cages next to theirs.  Next to Tubs was a stack of small
cages, each holding a baby merecat, while the cage next to Gates held a
small monkey.  Joey heaved a sigh.

Gates turned away from the monkey for a moment, "What's up, Joey? Why are
you so glum?"

"Yeah," Tubs piped up, "you're bring me down.  Cheer up, will ya?"

"Sorry, guys," Joey said, "but I can't help but mope when I realize what a
horrible situation we're in."

"What are you talking about?" Tubs asked.  "this is totally cool.  We're on
an airship, we've got all these cool animals to play with.  This is
awesome."

"Yeah," Gates agreed, "we're having an adventure, just like the Goonies."

"Well," Joey said, "I don't know if you realize this, but being locked up
with the animals means we've most likely been reclassified as ballast."

"So?" the other two asked.

"So, if the Captain decides he needs altitude in a hurry, we just get tossed
out the side."

"And we escape!" they cheered.

"To plummet to our deaths." Joey finished.

"Oh."

They sat around contemplating that for a moment.  Finally, Tubs asked, "so,
what do we do?"

"I wish I knew," Joey said.  "Maybe if I'd heard the rest of what James
Burke was saying, I'd have some idea."

"Saying about what?" Gates asked.

"About Hydrogen.  He said that hydrogen would not only solve the captain's
ballast problems, but keep the airports in business.  Now, what kind of
solution could that be."

"Oh," Gates said, "that's easy.  Hydrogen is flammable.  Not a very good
substance to put in your dirigible.  One loose spark, that balloon explodes
in a ball of flame.  The airship crashes, people die fiery deaths, bad scene
all over."

"I get it," Tubs said, "airports stay in business because airships become
unreliable.  They have a nasty tendency to explode, especially if you tend
to jump out of them with fusion powered jetpacks strapped to your back.  No
airships, no ballast problem.  Both difficulties solved."

"Oh," Joey said, "well, no solution there.  I really wish I'd paid more
attention to Gramp's stories."

And this of course, is the crux of the matter.  History goes on in circles
like this because the young are always too busy to listen to the wisdom of
their elders.  It doesn't help matters any if their elders are boring old
farts like Joey's grandfather, but that doesn't help Joey out of the spot
he's in now.  Still, Joey need not worry about being trapped in the Ballast
Holding Chamber of the Martian Nazi Airship for very much longer, because
several hundred feet below them, the Galapagos Island Defense Network is
swinging into action.

-two

-- 
ONCE: (adv.) Enough.    
				- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_


110.html
Go back to the previous chapter

Children: 

112.html


Mail your comments or continuations to Jer.