Time......... (Part 5)

Frank looked at Kevin with annoyance. "Do you know what you just did? You just cut off our last chance of finding Peter!"
"I know! But I thought that maybe that big map would help us. Come, let's go have a look at it. And for goodness sake be quiet! We don't want to announce our coming here publicly."
"No doubt we already have," Frank sighed. He followed Kevin over to the large screen on the wall that still displayed the map. Kevin tried to figure out how to use the map as soon as he reached. Both of them felt an urgency, a need for speed.
"We can't be caught here," Frank said. "Who knows what they'll do to us!"
"Thank you for that encouraging bit of news!" Kevin said in an irritated tone. "What do you think I'm going so fast for?"
Frank shrugged in reply and paced the floor uneasily. He watched Kevin's vain attempts for a moment then broke out impatiently, "Okay, so that won't help us. I think it's time to go."
"Try and leave," Kevin said simply.
"What do you mean?"
"You need a different password to leave by that gate," Kevin replied. "Our only way out of here will involve more quick thinking."
"What!" Frank gasped. "Why can't they use the same password for leaving as for entering?"
"Maybe because they hope to catch intruders like us by stopping us from leaving. Someone would need both passwords in order to complete a job unnoticed. Even then, I'm sure there's some kind of radar or something that shows a guard of some sort we entered. There!"
Kevin sighed with relief. He had found what he was looking for.
"What is it?" Frank wandered over to the screen.
"This setting allows us to see every person in the entire space fort," Kevin replied.
"Space fort?"
"Don't ask. You'll get me confused again. But look at this thing! Everyone has a number and something on them sends a signal to this computer, so if your looking for someone, you'll know where to find them."
Frank looked at the mass of tunnels the map displayed. Hundreds of rooms and passageways made him feel quite dizzy. And there were a lot of red dots, too.
"Do the red dots represent the people?" he asked.
"Yes. See if you run this pointer over it, it shows you the person's number. Or, if you type in someone's number over here, the red dot representing that person will turn green. See?" Kevin typed in his own number to demonstrate.
"So we're right here?" Frank pointed to the chamber in which the green dot appeared.
"Exactly."
"Well, that's useful! Look up Peter."
"Okay, I -" Kevin stopped suddenly. "He doesn't have a number!"
"Great Scott, that's right! And I haven't either!"
"Let me see if I can change the settings a little bit."
"What do you mean?" Frank looked worried.
"I'm going to search for UMO's," Kevin responded, then seeing the puzzled look on Frank's face, said, "That means unidentified moving objects."
"Oh. But we're not objects! We're people!"
"Sometimes I wonder what you are," Kevin rolled his eyes. He made more adjustments to the settings and was rewarded by the appearance of two large, blue dots. "Look there you are, and that must be Peter. My word! I never even knew that chamber existed, and there's other people in there! He must be in trouble!"
"If he is it's all your fault that we can't save him!" Frank cried frantically. Kevin wisely made no reply. He scanned the computer some more.
"Nothing more to see here. We've got to find that password and get out of here!"
"Oh, this is so great!"
"What should we type in?" Kevin asked. He found his way over to the gate, and looked imploringly at Frank.
"How should I know?"
Kevin typed something in. There was a whirr and the gate swung open.
"You did it!" Frank cried with joy.
"No, I didn't. You did! How did you guess all of the passwords?" Kevin looked at him with admiration.
Frank looked puzzled, "you mean you typed in 'howshouldiknow" and it just opened?"
"Yes, but come on! If we're going to get out of here unnoticed, we have to escape now!"
Frank caught the worried tone in Kevin's voice, and glanced behind him. He didn't see anything, but he rememebered that Kevin had sharp ears, and no doubt had heard somehting approaching that made him nervous. He sprange lightly through the gate. To his horror, it automatically closed behind him. He had looked back just in time to see Kevin being surrounded by a swarm of men. Then he was all alone.
He knew better than to stick around the entrance to the forbidden wing, so he raced down the tunnel till he came to a small break in the wall, big enough for him sit in. He slouched out of sight in it, and caught his breath.
"Great," he thought dismally. "Peter needs my help and I have to go find him alone!" Then something other than fear or loneliness touched him; he missed Kevin. He hadn't realized how much he had grown to like him until now, and as he recalled how annoyed he had been towards him, he felt ashamed. "I ran away from danger while he had to stay behind. And I might have been able to help him too!
"I've got to figure out how to rescue them both now. But Great Scott! I don't even know where I am!"
Copyright - 9/17/2008 - Curious Cognitive Content (CCC)
Please do not reproduce without permission from the author(ess).