Brian Saves the World, Maybe

Chapter 19 - The Traveling Salon

The next evening, Brian got a text from Dale:

"Come take a look at this."

Brian texted back:

"Huh?"

"Come outside."

Brian looked out the window. Dale's van was in his driveway.

* * *

Dale opened the back doors to his van, revealing what appeared to be some kind of salon chair. It was the type with a dryer dome that comes down over one's head.

"Okay, thanks for the show and tell, Dale. You opening a traveling salon or something?"

Visions of a sort of ice cream truck for women came to mind. He quickly forced the image away.

"Get in and try it out," Dale said.

"Uh, you want me to get in your van and sit in that chair?"

"Yep."

"Nah."

"Brian, I put the can opener in it."

"What?"

"I put the phone in it!" Dale was back to his strained whispering, from the day before.

"Right, I remember your lovely code word." Brian hadn't noticed the red phone, attached to the inside of the head dome. He frowned. "I was expecting something more... mobile." 

"It's in the back of my van. So, it's mobile."

Brian thought about challenging Dale's logic, but decided it was a waste of time. "Whatever." He climbed in and sat in the salon chair.

Dale lowered the dome over Brian's head, adjusting the position of the phone until it was just right.

"Well, what do you think?" Dale asked, a self-satisfied grin on his face.

Brian sighed. He had to admit it was comfortable, and there was no extra weight on his head this way. "I guess this will work. But I'm not doing this in the back of your van."

* * *

"Welcome back," Zed said.

Brian once again stood in the Gateway room. Zed had changed his clothing since their last meeting. Rather than a robe, he now wore a tight New York Yankees T-shirt and baggy Bermuda shorts.

"Where can I travel?" Brian asked.

"Available locations include: Harvest Simulation, Observatory, Elevator."

"Let's try the Observatory."

Nothing happened. Then Brian remembered the correct command sequence. "Travel Observatory, Enter."

"If you would like to travel to the Observatory, simply go through the appropriate door."

The middle door began to glow faintly.

He took a deep breath and opened the door.

* * *

Brian found himself in a room with a giant hologram of Earth in the center.

"What is this?"

"This is Earth," Zed said.

"I know it's Earth. What is this room for?"

"This is the Observatory. From here, you can monitor Observer activities."

"Really? How?"

Red spots suddenly lit up all over the globe. It reminded Brian of the screens he had seen in the bunker. "Whoa. How many Observers are there?"

"There are currently seven million, three hundred forty-five thousand, six hundred thirty-five."

Brian's head swam. That many? He couldn't see any hope of keeping the Borae from doing whatever they wanted.

"How am I supposed to monitor Observers from here?"

Zed handed Brian a joystick. It was a square, retro-style one with a single red button on it.

"Um..." Brian started playing with the joystick. A slight tilt to the left sent the Earth spinning in that direction rapidly. At first, he couldn't figure out what the button did, but eventually, he discovered that holding the button down while tilting the joystick controlled the zoom function. But it was way too sensitive. With slight motions, the Earth was shrinking, blowing up, then shrinking again, all while spinning wildly in various directions. If he were controlling real Earth everyone on the planet would have died horrible deaths. He could hear their imaginary screams.

"Zed, are you able to control this?

"If you name a location on the planet, I can hone in on that area for you."

"Great," Brian said, wondering what the point of the joystick was. He gave Zed the location of Talon Industries.

"Now displaying a 5-mile radius of the requested location," Zed intoned.

The hologram quickly adjusted.

There was only one red dot in the view field. Brian found that he could select the red dot with his joystick. He zoomed in.

He began to see the complex of Talon buildings. Zooming in a bit more, he could see that the red dot was in one of the Talon parking lots, and it was moving. He started to zoom in closer.

Something strange began to happen. The holographic image became distorted, and the lights in the room began to fade in and out.

"What's going on?"

Zed attempted to reply, but his voice was garbled.

The hologram disappeared, and then, the lights went out completely.