The Engineer Part 2

To Data, it felt as though hours passed by. When the wagon pulled to a sudden stop, droopy and confused, he pushed himself up on the back of the bench. He looked around at his new surroundings and found that the wagon had come to a stop on the dirt road in the middle of what appeared to be a large clearing.

The Major jumped down from the bench and approached two soldiers at the edge of the dirt road and the tall grass, "Is the machine in place?" he questioned the two soldiers.

The soldiers who stood before him were two young private's stationed in the testing field.

The one standing on the left responds loudly, "Yes, Major, Sir!" and saluted Major Morgenstern. The private standing on the right salutes to the Major and says, "We are ready for the test, Sir!".

Major Morgenstern returned the soldier's salute. He then turned to look at Wilson, "Whenever you are ready Wilson," he said.

Wilson turned the final screw on the covering of the remote, smiled and jumped off the wagon to stand alongside Data.

"Yes, sir," Wilson said holding the remote tight in his hand.

First Wilson used the knob to turn the fire launcher to the target board in the middle of the clearing. Then he used the up and down button to aim it down into the clearing. With it in place, he gave a nod to the Major.

While Data was with Wilson and the Major, high up on the peak that surrounded the valley Data stood in, Sophie, Cam and Pierce watched along with the Chief, binoculars in their hands.

"I cannot believe that Data helped this Wilson guy with his weapon," Cameron said.

"At least he found someone, other than Sophie, who he can talk to about this stuff and not freeze up," Pierce told Cam with a smirk.

"Oh stop it both of you. I may not approve of this because this is a weapon that could hurt innocent people if something goes wrong, but Data is smart. He deserves someone who shares his love for engineering," Sophie told the two boys.

The binoculars were at her eyes as she watched Data more than the machine.

Data stood alongside Wilson, walking into the clearing more to get a better view of the launcher. Alongside Data were Wilson and at least an entire troop of the Clan's soldiers. They were monitoring the machine as Wilson used the remote.

"What do they need to monitor on a machine?" Pierce questioned Sophie, standing behind her along with Cam as there were only two binoculars and the Chief held the other ones.

"The Chief said it lights boulders on fire and then launches them. You tell me what could go wrong, Pierce?" Sophie says sarcastically, glaring through the binoculars.

Pierce and Cam went quiet. Both boys took a step back from Sophie and glanced at each other before they let out a big huff of nerves.

Sophie meanwhile kept her eyes on Data. She could just see that despite him holding a large toolbox and arms filled with blueprints, he was happy, relaxed.

A small smile formed on her lips, a little relieved sigh leaving them.

Down in the clearing Data watched the Major give Wilson the all-clear. A smile on his face, lighting up his eyes, Wilson pressed the launch button and Data raised his head to watch the machine.

A boulder was picked up by the machine and placed into the barrel. Then oil poured onto it before a spark lit it and it fired. But something was wrong as instead of going toward the target the machine changed and launched the boulder straight toward where Wilson, Major Morgenster and Data all stood.

"Oh shit!" Data whispered, frozen to his spot.

The boulder came toward them, and while everyone else had the reflex to run, Data stayed put.

Just as the boulder came down from its launch and was going to hit Data, the water from the ocean below the cliff came over the hill and down into the valley, pushing Data away and the boulder to crash into the water. Then just as quickly as it came, the water swept the boulder with it back into the ocean.