Nick trailed Tim as he ran up Hiker's canyon rickety steps.
"Hello!" Nick called after. "Viachron demonstration at two, Tim! SpaceNow rep is coming to see the machine? Seriously?"
Tim stomped his foot, the wood step nearly cracking. "I could have taken her."
"Not from where I was standing," Xanthus called back.
Tim grabbed Nick's arm as he passed. "I didn't need your help."
"Whatever, dude," Nick kept moving.
"We made a deal." Tim wiped the caked blood from his nose. "You don't bail me out anymore, and I don't snitch on you about all of your little projects."
"I so don't care right now," Nick snapped back. "How am I supposed to finish setting up for SpaceNow if you're in the ER fighting for your life?"
"Oh," Tim rolled his eyes. "Now I get it. You don't care about me at all. This is about your delusions of winning some plot of land on the moon. Well, I love you too, brother."
"Do you not want to leave or not? I thought we were all in this together?" Nick said as he sped up the steps, making Tim keep up with him. "Remember? Nick and Co Technologies?"
"You still didn't tell me why you were babbling out there?" Tim's tone now investigative. "You went crazy back there. Certifiable. How hard did Rocky hit you? You were going on about turning a key and saving someone."
Nick stopped and sighed, "I—I keep hearing this, I don't know, voice in my head. Something about a key… turning a key—I don't know, ok."
Tim stopped. "I totally called it. You are crazy. Just took a while to go full blown."
Nick stepped through the shed's sliding door. "Just—You can't wander off. We have to finish the machine."
"As your science advisor," an older Japanese boy, leaning on a cane said. "I strongly advise you to not finish this machine. Unless you want to annihilate all animal and plant life in a two mile radius."
Xanthus's half brother, Daniel Kobayashi stood as if guarding Nick from the Viachron, or maybe he was guarding the Viachron from Nick. Unlike his half brother Xanthus, Daniel was full-blooded Japanese.
"My readings are off the charts," Daniel said, waving a small, silver instrument around. Nick recognized it as an energy detection recorder. He had thought about getting one, but then a part of him didn't want to know how much radiation the Viachron was giving off. But Daniel was probably overreacting anyway. Being eighteen years old, and an IQ close to Einstein's, he never supported Nick's attempts at science.
Daniel continued, "I assure you. A large energy source resides deep within your machine, and if accessed could cause significant destruction to Colorado City. The state."
"Where do you get energy detectors from?" Helen scowled. "We literally live in a refugee camp."
"That," Nick waved his finger around, hoping he could steer the conversation away from him. "Is a great question, Helen. You've asked a really good question here.
"I have my sources. Now stop changing the subject. There is enough kinetic power in here to power a city, or blow it up," Daniel pressed, then said slowly. "It has the power of a nuclear bomb, Nick."
"Really?" Nick tried to keep a steady voice. He recalled hours of banging and drilling into the hull of what he now learned was basically a nuclear missile. At any moment he could have vaporized himself, and a part of Colorado City with it.
"This is your grandfather's machine, isn't it?" Daniel's question sounded more like an accusation. "You didn't build this yourself. You've been modifying his machine, haven't you?"
"How do you want me to answer that?"
"I tried to tell him," Tim raised his hands, exasperated. "But has Nick ever listened to his big brother?"
Daniel frowned. He limped around the machine, shaking his head. "Grand told you this was a very powerful machine. I was there."
"He did say those words," Nick nodded slowly. "When I started investigating it, I realized it interacted with sunlight. I unscrewed the top and found a lens. It was one of those rare sunny days and so I took it outside. The sun's ray hit the lens and a bright light immediately shot out. That's when I got the idea of a battery that could store sunlight and, you know, shoot it back out."
"But that doesn't mean you know what it does," Daniel pressed. "I am serious. Do you understand what the machine is for?" His tone doubtful.
An awkward silence filled the room. Helen leaned against the workbench and Xanthus's eyes searched the room, trying to avoid Nick.
"Sure. I know what it does."
"Then tell me about the key?"
"The what?"
Daniel hobbled to the machine and flipped it over. He took one of Nick's magnodrivers and aimed it at four screws on a plate. The screws magnetically spun out and bounced onto the concrete floor. Nick walked to the opening and had to admit to himself he'd never even noticed the plate before. There was a keyhole with words etched in a semicircle:
Insert Key Here
To be Operated Only by the Steward of Huron
"Turn the key?" Nick said to himself, remembering the voice. She told Nick that if he was going to save her, had to turn some key. There was no way this could be the same key.
He said in a reflecting tone, "I wonder… No. That's nuts! There isn't a key, and I'm NOT HEARING VOICES."
Nick realized he said that out loud. Daniel cocked his head. Even Xanthus and Helen, who were usually his biggest supporters, appeared concerned.
"I support our endeavor to leave Earth," Daniel put both hands on his cane. "But I don't want my departure from this planet to be on the front end of a nuclear blast."
Nick felt his watch-phone vibrate. He flipped his wrist up and saw the word, "Grand Lyons."
"Speaking of …" Tim smiled wryly. "He is going to hurt you so bad when he sees what you've done to his machine."
Nick mouthed "shut up".
Nick pulled out a pill sized device from a small hatch in his watch, put it in his ear and said a little too excitedly, "Grand! How are ya? Good to hear from you."