Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 458

He never got the chance to finish his sentence. He was already in space.
It wasn’t as frightening as he’d imagined, but it was close. The AIBot was grabbing them when a new
problem dawned on them.
“Fuel level, two percent. Fuel level, two percent…” The AIBot announced.
“Darn Enzen, gets nothing right!” he growled. “AIBot! Launch the net towards us!”
“Commencing net launch,” it replied. “West Net launched.” A huge net quickly arrived their way and
the group speedily latched on and climbed.
“Southwest Net launched.” The group latched onto another net.
“South Net launched…” The group climbed all the way to the Southeast Net, going to the tip, where
they had their newest problem.
“It’s not long enough,” Zach said, cursing Enzentime. He quickly brainstormed a new plan, which he
announced.
“Team, I need two of you to grab ahold of the net with one hand. At the tip.” Two people quickly did
so. “The rest of us, we are going to make a ladder.” He gave both members one of his feet. The other crew
members climbed and made the ladder longer and longer. There were six members remaining when they were
finally next to the first Marscraft crew member. They continued the process and all members were quickly placed
onto the ship.
“Fuel levels one percent. Fuel levels…” the robot warned. Once everyone was onto the rope, the robot
went as far as it could go, about five meters from the opened secondary hatch. The same thing was done again,
the front one grabbing the hatch, unlocking the door, and pulling the crew. The AIBot was left outside, too
heavy to be carried back.
“The thing saved our lives and we can’t return the favor,” a Marscraft crew member said.
“What happened out there?” Zach demanded.
“Blasted Enzentime sent us up there without checking the Main Air Tank,” a member growled. “Some
sort of malfunction happened. I think the ground crew was trying to warn us, but we didn’t get the memo until
it was too late.”
“Do you know what happened?” Zach asked.
“No, and I don’t want to find out,” he replied. “I’m suing Enzen.”
“That’s going to be a challenge,” Zach remarked. “He’s one of the richest men alive.”
“I know,” he said. “But I’m going to try.” Zach was silent for the rest of the journey.
*****
The next day, Zach was summoned to Henry Enzen’s office.
“I wanted to thank you for your service. This could have been a disaster for my company. Of course, I expect
that no one involved say anything to the press. The company will handle this. But, as a senior member of the