The twins totally forgot about time, as they were joyfully placing the ions, one after the other. Sister Electra was right. The work proved to be an enjoyable lego play. The kids both enjoyed as the cube was extending in three ways. They were ready very quickly, but neither of them called Sister Electra, just stared at the lithium hydride lattice, and watching the cheerfully vibrating little ones.
"Do you want to call her?" asked Conrad his sister, giving her the hand device.
"No. Let's wait a bit." rejected Valerie.
"Do you want to keep them too?" smiled Conrad, and Valerie nodded.
"They are so cute!"
"Let's call Sister Electra, and ask her, if we could make them into our battery!" smiled Conrad, and pushed the buttons on the device.
"So you want to keep them?" asked the nun, when she arrived. The kids nodded. "It is possible, but you should work a bit more, to cover the expenses." Sister Electra told them, and the kids became excited.
"How much more work do we have to make?" asked Conrad. They were eager to work more for their little ones.
"I will count it soon." She said slowly. "So, take a break and eat lunch while I prepare everything."
"We have been run out of Hydrogen, so it takes time to go back and buy them!"
"There's no need! I will prepare Hydrogens for you." The nun smiled at them. "So go back to your room, and take a break till lunch. I will go and get you, when we are ready."
She gave them chocolate bars, and the kids happily run back to their room.
"Why didn't you tell them?" asked a man from the nun.
"Genie still needs time, and they are kids. There's no mean telling them, before everything would have been settled. Moreover they don't mind to work some more. It seems they like it. Kids and lego bricks is a very good pairing."
"They really do a good work." The man nodded, after he examined the pile of lithium hydride.
"Could you make a battery from this pile?"
"Yes, of course. The quality meets the requirements."
"So, please do that."
"Procrastination does not solve anything, and won't make it easier. Why don't you tell them everything, give them a battery, and let them go home?"
"This won't be easy anyway." sighed the nun. "Let's take it as a personal order. It could be done. It seems, they really like the little ones, so I hardly believe they could be sent home easily. Why would they? Genie said, that their parents were traveled from home, and they would be alone in the other world too. Who would take care of them? They, alone, somehow always get in trouble. If we make them work, they would stay under supervising for a while, and they don't get in trouble."
The man raised his eyebrow.
"I mean bigger trouble, than they are now."
"Where is their grandfather? He has the responsibility for them."
The woman sighed again, and a dark shadow covered her face.
"It is the other serious problem. Bernhard Noble refused them. He said he hadn't sent them tickets, and he already had his grandchild with him, so..."
"But he is also their grandfather!"
"It seems, he doesn't care. I don't really want to tell it to the kids."
"So you want them keeping here for a while. Are you aware, that this place isn't very suitable for kids?"
"I know" she replied impatiently. "But there is no other choice. Genie tried to get contact with their friend. He is working on the fields now, but he agreed to take care of them after finishing work. His harvest isn't over in three days, and it takes one more day to travel back to the Capital of Hydrogens. So we have to take care of them for three more days. This day is good to have fun with building battery, they will take a good sleep, and tomorrow I will send them to the beach for two days. They will have fun, and won't even realize their situation."
The man took a big breath, but the woman was quicker.
"They are kids, Will, don't ruin their holiday. Don't be like their grandfather! Sorry, but I have work to do. I have to prepare the toys for them." She said, and left the man at the lithium hydride pile.
Valerie and Conrad didn't notice about anything that the nun had told to the man. They didn't want to relax, so they were very happy, when Sister Electra had brought them lunch. This time even Valerie wasn't afraid of the mineral oil molecules, and happily ran to the designated cage. They had planned to make a little competition. They wanted to compete whose lattice would be bigger at the end of the day. The twins were cooperating in the morning, but in the afternoon they both wanted to try alone. It was really a big lego bricks game. But doing it alone wasn't too funny, so when Valerie asked her brother to work together again, Conrad agreed. They gave up the race and finished the work together.
They were a bit tired, so they went together to the office of Sister Electra. They barely knocked, and the door opened. Just so, by itself, and the twins were facing with a huge screen on the wall of the office. The screen showed the face of the Prelate of the big temple of Hydrogen.
"...only the money was recovered. Electra!"
Listening to the warning tone, the nun of the temple of Lithium turned back, and saw the twins. Her face was frightened, but the twins didn't notice. They were amazed by the screen.
"COOL!" they cried in unison.
"Where could we buy it?" asked Conrad, still amazed.
"Good evening!" The Prelate greeted them. "I am afraid, you can't buy this technology. Unless you want to build a temple!"
"Why?"Valerie asked in frustration. She also liked the big screen.
"Because it is a military technology." Sister Electra said. "It is forbidden to sell the technology to outsiders."
"Aww!" the children growled in frustration. Neither of them wanted to build a temple here.
"Are all the temples belong to the military?" asked Conrad.
"No, not all of them. But here, in the Kingdom of Lithium, all the temples are military ones."
"Why?"
"Because Lithiums could be used for weapons, and no one wants their Lithiums to fall into the wrong hands."
"What kind of weapons are they used for?" asked Valerie.
"Bombs."
"Could those bombs harm us?" Conrad voiced his doubts. "We are now in energy form."
"A lot of things could harm us, even in energy form." The nun answered. "Explosions, radiation, poison, etc, so we have to be careful!"
"How did you know, that we wouldn't use Lithiums for making bombs?" asked Valerie.
The two priestess looked at each other. Two adults who were unsure of what they should do.
"I told you, that they are clever ones!" said the Prelate to Sister Electra. "It is high time to tell them everything."
An hour later it was all over. The kids had heard, what they had had to, and their reactions had calmed down. They were in one of the inner gardens of the temple, with Sister Electra. Valerie was sitting on a bench, snuggling tightly to the nun who stroked her shoulder. Her tears were dried up, but her eyes were still swollen and red. Conrad walked restlessly up and down, sometimes kicking the wall in anger.
"Why did he do that?" Valerie said suddenly.
"Money sometimes brings out the worst from people. The more money there is, the worse nature is shown."
"Could we buy back our molecules?" asked Conrad, and took a seat at his sister's side.
"No. You couldn't distinguished them from each other. Cheer up! The Prelate at least got your money back."
The kids fell in silent. Money. They wanted the money to travel back, but somehow it didn't seem so precious.
"How did you know, that there were something suspicious about us?" asked Valerie.
"I told you, that all the temples here were belong to the military. I simply checked you by the temple of Hydrogen. For security reasons."
"How did you found out that the priest stole our money?"
"The Prelate was suspicious at first, and took a look on the priest, who was assigned to you. She found out the crime, and caught the criminals. In time. They were careless, because they didn't expect, that you could enter into a temple so easily."
"Why?"
The nun swallowed a big gulp.
"Because there's no need to build lithium hydride by yourself. You could simply buy any kind of batteries at the train stations, so practically you had been refused by all the temples. Since we are all connected to the military, nobody would allow children roaming in their temples. It would take you a lot of time, and they could escape with the money without any suspicious trait."
"So the priest and the owner of the shop tricked us." noted Conrad in bitter voice.
The nun nodded. It wouldn't have made sense to sugarcoat things. The kids sighed.
"Why did you let us in?" asked Conrad.
"Because you alluded to Auntie Ille. Did you know that she works as a teacher in school time?"
The twins shook their heads.
"In holidays she goes directly to the jungle, to hunt Franciums. It is her hobby." She laughed. "So, I thought she had sent you because of some educational purpose. But I couldn't reach her, so I contacted to the Prelate, and the events followed one another."
"So we shouldn't have to build lithium hydride, should we?" asked Valerie.
"Basically you shouldn't. You could simply buy one, because this temple's main duty is making, and researching batteries for everything. We make ordinary items and special items as well. But our main engineer also like vintage and steampunk things, so he is exited to make a battery for you. Knowing him, I think, that battery won't be a very average one, but it will work very well. He has promised to be ready for tomorrow morning."
"In this case we didn't do too much trouble, did we?" asked Conrad.
"No, nope." The woman shook her head. "You made a really good work in building lithium hydride. We should make them anyway, so you were a great help."
"It is okay then." Valerie said.
They all fell silent for a while, and just watching the sky turning dark.
"You have a lot of money, or energy, as you want to call. What do you want to do in the rest of the holiday?" Sister Electra asked them in the next morning after she had given them the hand device with a new battery.
"What do you want to do?" Conrad asked his sister bluntly.
"I don't know." Valerie shrugged. "Do you want to do something special?"
"No. I also have no idea." answered Conrad.
"Why don't you travel to the beach?" asked Sister Electra. "You said, you were sad, that your parents had traveled to the Maldives without you."
"Is there a beach here, like in the Maldives?" Valerie became exited.
"Not quite, but there are very good camping sites at the beaches of the Kingdom of Francium. It is holiday time, after all, why not enjoying a bit? You could rent a tent there, and enjoy the sea. There is a catalog of the best beach camping sites of that Kingdom at the map in your hand device."
The twins agreed in a minute. They also wanted to see the sea, and it would be easy to travel there, using their student railpass. Most of their money were deposited in the safe of the temple, as Sister Electra recommended, and after breakfast she brought them to the station. With a big quad! The woman gave them helmets. The patterns of those helmets were very cool, red flames on black base.
"Okay, Valerie will sit before me, Conrad, the back seat is yours! Hold tight to my waist!"
And they set off. Sister Electra accelerated, as soon as they left the last houses. She proved to be a real old biker. The wind and the dirt was incredible, but it was a very joyful ride.
They arrived to the first station of the Kingdom, because it was closer to the temple, but the twins suspected, that Sister Electra wanted to get wild, and that's why she had chosen this station. It was interesting anyway. There were stores, and it was exiting to do some shopping. With the nun's help they bought a lot of buttons and applications to their refurbished hand device. They still had time to learn how to use them. It was also funny, but the time had come, when they had to get on the train.
"When you'll get bored with the sea, come back to the temple for your money, and you could go home!" The nun told them, and she waved at them from the platform as the train rolled out of the station. The kids waved back. They really liked the nun, so this farewell was a bit bittersweet.
"Traveling by train is much more convenient than a quad." stated Valerie, as she collapsed into the soft seat of the the train.
"Yes, but less interesting! Show me the pictures!" He stretched his hand for the hand device. Valerie gave him. "We look like quite cool on the quad!"
"It was a very good idea to buy this button!" agreed Valerie, as she looked herself posing on the vehicle with the flamed helmet.
They were chatting, searching for the right camping place in the device's catalog, discussing about which one to visit, and where to get off. The selection was wide. There were camping sites, where were nothing, but the sea, and there were beaches with a lot of slides, boats and tents to rent. It was very hard to choose, but one was chosen in the end. One with tents for rent, and a big slide. The location was a bit in the outskirt, but it seemed peaceful. After the previous day's events, they both wanted to be alone in a quiet place.
The travel was also peaceful. The twins were watching the passing various landscapes, trying to learn how to read the roadsigns. It wasn't too difficult, since they were traveling along the I.A line. Passing the border of the second to third and to the fourth circle was becoming interesting. The Kingdoms of Sodium and Potassium were obviously rich ones. There were normal roads, skyscrapers, and cars, motorbikes. The train stations were also similar to the Paddington Station in London. These kingdoms seemed rather crowded, there weren't too much greenery in them. The mass of the greenery was slowly growing in the next two kingdoms, and when they had reached the Kingdom of Francium, the green areas came together into a vast primeval forest. It looked like this rainforest was full of animals, because there were blinking eyes among the leaves. These animals were proved to be little ones, as the kids used the hand device on them. Some of them were alone, some of them were among their friends.
"How many different little ones are here!" Valerie was amazed.
"They are not too little!" Conrad added, and he pointed to a very big one, which was bouncing on a huge leaf up and down. The hand device identified it as Radium atom. "Have we missed the train station?" asked Conrad in panic.
"No, I don't think so." pointed Valerie to the screen on the train, which showed them the stations. "We are between the second and the third stations of the Francium Kingdom. We should get off at the sixth station."
"I feel frightened for a minute. Why are there foreign atoms in this Kingdom? We didn't see any of them in the first two Kingdoms!"
"Maybe they also wanted to relax in the beach!" said Valerie, and both of them burst out in laugh. "But there were Heliums in the Hydrogen Kingdom, and Sister Electra told us about wild Lithiums with friends in the Lithium Kingdom. So it seems, the little ones like to travel too."
They were having fun for a while, catching little ones with the device, but soon they got bored. So both of them was hardly wait for their stop. The train began to empty as they approached the last station, but plenty of people remained on the train. So they got off with the twins. It was a huge crowd, and when they had reached the beach, Valerie and Conrad were horrified to notice that the beach was already full of people. As the crowd that got off the train joined in, there was no room left for a blade of grass on the shore.
"Would you mind going to another beach?" asked Conrad his sister.
"The next beach is abandoned. At least the device's map says so." replied Valerie.
"A beach is a beach. We could take a dip there, and come back in the evening to this place to sleep. Maybe this crowd goes home, and not stay for the night."
Valerie agreed, so they walked away from the crowd. The next beach were far from the train stop, and they became tired when they had reached their destination. It was sure an abandoned beach, with some ghostly old, tattered buildings, but the sand and the water was excellent, and empty. The sides of the beach were natural stonewalls, with a lot of greenery on the top of them. Valerie and Conrad didn't care if there were dangerous wild little ones, just run to the water.
"We have forgotten to buy swimsuits!" cried Valerie, when they had reached a waterline.
"Don't mind!" consoled Conrad. "It is not real water, it is energy, like in the shower. We won't get wet!"
They took off their shoes, and socks, and waded into the water. The water was very pleasant: it stroked their feet lukewarmly.
"Look Valerie!" Conrad pointed toward a point in the stonewall, where the material of the wall started to cracking.
"What's that?"
"Let's take a closer look!" he suggested, and headed for the strange phenomenon.
The material of the wall crumbled and two huge spheres rolled out of it. Both of them was as big as the kids, peacefully blinking at them, and they held out their only hands to the twins.
Meanwhile Sister Electra was busy with her work with the other engineers. The chirping of her hand device yanked her out of her peaceful work. She didn't expect getting pictures so soon from the Bond twins, but she opened cheerfully the attached pictures. She would like to see the children's joy at the beach, but when she watched the pictures, she almost throw away her hand device. She quickly replied to the twins, and wanted to run in thousand ways in once.
"Will, you will be the leader!" She shouted. " I must go!"
"What's the matter? Where are you going so suddenly?" asked the surprised man.
"To the beach." answered the nun shortly, put the pictures to the big screen, and stormed out or the room.
The people in the room were a bit surprised, but thoroughly examined the pictures.
"These kids are lucky ones." said a woman.
"I told you that they are trouble makers." nodded Will.