"What is that thing?" Wooley asked pointing to the blue prints.
"It looks like a vacuum pump?" Veggie answered.
"Why would the Aliens need a vacuum pump in their rocket silo?" Wooley asked.
"Maybe to create an outer space like environment?" Steve asked.
"Maybe," Veggie answered, "but I'm thinking they're planning to remove all the air from the silo to speed up the launch of their space ship."
"No air, no friction," Wooley said.
"Exactly," Veggie said.
"Well if they do that then they'll probably come out of the silo at faster than the speed of sound," Steve said, "causing a sonic boom at ground level."
"Wouldn't that be just like an earth quake?" Wooley asked.
"It would topple every building for miles around," Veggie said.
"So if that's a vacuum pump then it has to blow out somewhere, right?" Steve asked.
"That's right," Veggie said pointing to the prints, "and it looks to me as if that pipe right there is the exhaust."
"So where does that pipe go?" Wooley asked.
"Somewhere under the streets, into the storm drains maybe," Steve answered, "it's beyond the end of the blueprints."
"So does that vacuum pump run all the time?" Wooley asked.
"They'll probably never run it until right before they're ready to launch the rocket?" Veggie answered. "There's no need to run it any other time except for perhaps a short test."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Wooley asked.
"We need to find the other end of that pipe," Steve nodded.
_____
The girls, Katei, Carole and Bobbie, were at the historic Carolina Theatre enjoying a performance by the Pure Prairie League. The band's heyday was before the girls were born but former Mayor Keith Holiday, who now managed the theater, had given them free passes in the hopes of getting more young people to support Greensboro's oldest and most treasured performing arts center. Besides, with Katei running for City Council it wouldn't hurt to be on her good side should she win.
You see, Mayor Holiday was the last known human to run our city. Others might be human but we couldn't be sure. Still others were known to be aliens. The Carolina Theatre was funded by the Greensboro City Council so Keith had to walk a very fine line, often pretending to like the Aliens plans even when he really didn't. Many in Greensboro didn't understand but I knew even though Keith never really told me himself. Like it or not, when you depend on public funding your business is politics even if you never run for office. And if you think politics in most cities is tough, try doing politics with Aliens who would just as soon eat you as talk to you.
____
I was beginning to hate that mountain. I'd been shoveling a path from my campsite to the nearest road for weeks but the snow seemed to fall faster than I could keep it moved. I cranked the Veggiecycle daily to keep the battery charged using the kick starter instead of the electric starter to reduce wear on the battery and kept hot rocks from the campfire under it to keep the oil in the crankcase warm. Older motorcycles use heavier oils than more modern machines and if allowed to get too cold for too long those heavy oil become so thick they won't pump through the engine. Besides, what else was I going to do with my time besides shovel snow? "Why am I idling?" the motorcycle asked.
"To take care of you," I answered.
"But you should be riding me," he replied. Then he started reciting another of his many poems.
It wears internal parts,
hurts my oil's viscosity
and makes for harder starts,
leaves deposits on my pistons...
For days and days an old song had been playing over and over in my head. Somehow I had to get off this mountain and find out what had happened to my brother and the others I left behind. Otherwise that talking motorcycle was going to drive me insane.
Continue to Mutant Measures.
