Dedicated to all the Balto Source members, my friends, and my family.
Just Another
Chapter I: Amaroq
It was noon in late fall and the sky was grey with clouds. Amaroq wasn’t even near his hunting mood, but he had to hunt. Even though his pack consisted of only three wolves, Aleu, Jessica, and himself, one mix, Balto, and one pure bred husky, Jenna, and three humans, Rosy and her parents. Aleu wasn’t going to stay long, but as of right now, she was part of his pack. Winter was coming fast, and they had no food. The caribou population was growing, slightly, but growing, and they still didn’t have enough food. No one else was really in the mood to hunt, either. But they had to. And it was this gloomy day that they had to. They hadn’t done it yet, and tomorrow and for around a week after it would be snowing too hard. And after a week has gone by, all the wolf prey would be somewhere else. They had to hunt now.
“I guess that being a wolf isn’t perfect, but it isn’t bad either,” said Aleu.
“Yes, but we really should get going. If we don’t, we either join another pack or die,” pointed out Amaroq.
“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Jessica.
“Nothing. Let’s go!” he said and Amaroq broke out into a strong run.
Only a few hours went by, and they had enough caribou to last half of the winter. They, obviously, needed enough food to last the whole winter. And they didn’t waste one minute taking caribou back to their food storage area. They would come back to take their food back later. If there was a later to do it in.
Hunters had been abundant this year, even with the new law. Illegal hunters. Hunters shooting wolves for no reason, even though it was against the law. The CWP, or Cold Water Pack, have been cutting back their territory boundaries because of these hunters. There are traps everywhere, and the scent of gunpowder is strong in the air. More and more people are buying aircraft so they can plan aerial attacks on the wolves in the area. And the police aren’t taking it very seriously. Rosy couldn’t stand the fact that the wolves were being killed, and her parents weren’t going to let it happen. They were having a long conversation with the police, and it wasn’t going to end until the police decided to get stricter about the killing of the wolves.
It was almost 8:30 P.M. when the hunting was over. They finally had enough food. They had completed the winter preparation hunting in only a few hours! They wondered if any other pack had done so before, but as far as they knew, no one had. But that didn’t matter now. When they woke up, the trees were going to be white. The rest of their surroundings would be white. All they would be able to see would be white. This was going to be a long winter. And it was almost here.
“My winter is coming fast this year,” said Balto. “But it won’t go by fast this year,”
“That’s for sure,” agreed Amaroq. “If only we were all members of the D-O-G…”
“What’s that?” asked Aleu.
“Nothing. Never mind.”
“No, tell us.”
“Yes!” agreed Balto, and Jenna, and Jessica.
“OK. I mentioned this thing called the D-O-G. Development of Global-Based Technology. It really is the D-O-G-B-T, but it’s a lot easier to say just D-O-G than D-O-G-B-T. It is consisted of only canines, so it makes sense to keep its name D-O-G. Anyways, the D-O-G was founded by DOGworks, but eventually became its own program and now DOGworks is almost extinct. Now, the D-O-G is development, research, info storage, electronic mailing systems, etc. It has grown to a huge size, most of it’s facilities are in Antarctica because of it’s little human activity, and now is, besides in Antarctica, all over the Earth, almost literally. I could go on forever about the D-O-G, but let’s just say that if all of the CWP, other than Rosy and her parents, we would be fine and it would be like summer. The closest facility is right here in
“How advanced is the “D-O-G”?”
“Very. Other than DOGworks, the most. And DOGworks wasn’t really much. It was a bunch of businesses run by canines.”
“Are the any partnerships with the D-O-G?” asked Balto hoping that the G-T-R was one of them.
“Um, well, we’re trying to establish one with the O.O.C. But it isn’t really working out.” By now, Amaroq had changed his mind about “all that you need to know for now.”
The G-T-R is yet another canine business working with technology. G-T-R stands for Global Technology Research. It is a lot like the D-O-G. And Balto is a member of the G-T-R.
“Oh.”
And even though the D-O-G is really advanced, it isn’t yet able to share much of its technology with the canine public, or CP for short. The DOGNET is open to CP and G-MAIL was created for the CP. And Amaroq wished that DOGNET and G-MAIL were winter survival somethings, but they weren’t. The DOGNET is the canine Internet, and the G in G-MAIL stands for Global. G-MAIL is really CPG or DG -MAIL. G-MAIL is the email system for the CP. The D-O-G has many more programs but they aren’t for the CP, if you were in the CP and you were lucky enough to have a DC (Dog Computer).
“Even if you guys do become members or agents of the D-O-G, then there won’t be any advantage to anyone other than the fact that you won’t have to worry about winter.”
“What about the D-O-G having more agents against the C-A-T?” asked Balto, who met Boris running over to the other side of
Amaroq looked over his shoulder. “Balto? I thought you’d be on the other side of
Balto sighed. “The G-T-R,” he said slowly.
“The G-T-R? I mean, I know what the G-T-R is, but how do you connect to the G-T-R?”
“I’m a member of the G-T-R.”
“The G-T-what?” asked Jenna.
“The G-T-R,” said Balto. “It stands for Global Technology Research.”
“Yes,” agreed Amaroq. “No one really knows about it anymore, but it was huge once. It was one of the first businesses in DOGworks. I didn’t know it was still around other than in
“That makes sense. The G-T-R was trying to keep secret, but it leaked out. Now we don’t really care, but we’re not advertising.”
“Isn’t there a car that is named the G-T-R?” asked Jessica.
“Umm, Pontiac GTO and the Ford GT-40, but no…wait. Yes. I know of one G-T-R. The Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR,” Mentioned Amaroq.
“Oh.”
“You know your cars pretty well for a dog.”
“Uh, thanks,” said Jenna, blushing. “Yeah, I guess, but you know them better.”
“Not really. Well, at least I wouldn’t have related the G-T-R to a car.”
“Anyways, could you tell us more about the C-A-T? Who are they? How big are…” Jenna was cut off by her sentence by a small helicopter like vehicle landing almost on top of them.
“Well that’s part of them. Quick! Go hide somewhere! Balto, formation-90846!”
“What?”
“Sorry, D-O-G terms. Formation-N.”
“Got it.”
The helicopter’s blades were slowing down, and three Siamese cats started to emerge, wearing dark goggles and holding some kind of laser gun…and Balto and Amaroq had nothing. Other than Amaroq’s wrist communicator, which he could only use to summon a battle crew…Wait! That was it!
“Amaroq to
“You’re read, Amaroq. What? Over.”
“I need a backup crew, here. Over.”
“Okay, you are where exactly? Over.”
“764905. Over.”
The D-O-G has everything numbered. And 764905 is pinpointed where he and Balto were.
“OK. We’ll be there in a few seconds. Over and out.”
“I read. Over and out.”
“But it looks like they’re going to have a little surprise when they get over here. Only some footprints and an H like figure in the snow,” said the cat that was, apparently, the leader of the group, as a lion and five more cats exited the helicopter and herded Balto and Amaroq into it.
A couple minutes later, the helicopter was out of hearing range, and Jenna, Jessica, and Aleu Came out from their hiding places.
“What just happened?” asked Jessica.
“I don’t know, but we’d better ask anyone we know if they know about the D-O-G or know anyone who knows about it,” said Aleu.
“Good point. And we’d better start questioning now,” said Jenna.
About an hour later, they had finally found someone with access to the Nome D-O-G facility.
“OK, you said that a helicopter with at least nine cats in it? And they kidnapped Balto and Amaroq? Who is Balto?” he asked.
“A member of the G-T-R,” said Jessica.
“The G-T-R? I thought that was long gone. Anyways, do you remember which direction the Helicopter flew?” he asked (they were now in his office), sitting down in front of a large screen. He started punching in numbers and letters into the weird keyboard at amazing speed.
“From the south, to the south,” said Aleu.
“OK. I’d guess that’s C-A-T facility #304. Not the most secure, though. We can probably get in there pretty easily. I’ll need about an hour to prepare, though.”
“That’s fine. Just as long as we can get in there safely and get Amaroq and Balto, and us as well, safely.”
“Easy. I’ll need to conduct a small spy crew, and a small rescue crew.”
“Spies? What for?”
“For keeping watch so we don’t end up in a cell.”
“A cell? Like a jail cell?”
“Yes.”
Jenna shuddered. She hated things like that once she had gone to the pound, and it wasn’t really fun in her opinion. And for dogs, the pound is jail. And the cages are the cells.
“How long will it take after everyone is ready?”
“About ten minutes to get there, ten to twenty minutes to complete the rescuing stage, and about ten minutes to get back. Anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes. This is actually an easy job for the D-O-G.”
Jessica was hypnotized by Bob’s (the D-O-G agent they were talking to) typing skill. Well, not only his skill, but the computer itself. She knew humans had something like it, but the screens weren’t this big and they weren’t this fast at processing information. And only scientists had them. And they took up a whole room, while this one took up only about a foot (excluding the screen). But it was built into a transparent wall. And the mouse was funky. And the keyboard was funky. And there were many wires connecting the computer to…somewhere. Also in the room, there was a big 3x3 foot drawer with some kind of pipe running from it. And there were many dials and switches and lights and buttons around the screen. Jessica almost fainted.
Just like Bob said, in an hour and five minutes, they were off. Off on their way towards the C-A-T. C-A-T facility #304.
And Jessica was mystified again. This time by the aircraft. It, as well, had many dials, switches, lights, buttons, and this time small screens and a windshield, in replacement for the huge monitor in Bob’s office.
Bob was typing away at a keyboard, just as strange as the one in his office, and strange characters were appearing on one of the screens. Jessica guessed that either he was disabling the C-A-T alarms, if they had any, that is, or setting coordinates. Whatever Bob was doing, Jessica had no way of knowing, other than asking. But she was so busy watching the weird characters fly across the small screen and looking at all the dials, buttons, switches, lights, and looking out the windshield that she forgot about her question.
It was the perfect temperature in the cabin. Not too cold, but not too warm either. Aleu was watching the ground out the curved windshield when Bob said “Here we are.” There was now a medium sized building crawling into view. Crawling nearer pretty quickly. Bob slowed to a stop and lowered the aircraft down onto the roof of the building. He landed right on the – part of the A in what they thought said C-A-T. It wasn’t the best hand-painting.
“Everyone out. Amaroq and Balto are here,” He pointed to a red dot on a map of the building. “And we are here.” He pointed to the center of the map. “To get in, we go through that huge rectangular pipe. It’s for the air conditioning.” He pointed, not on the map this time, but at a large rectangle popping up out of the building.
“My!” exclaimed Jenna. “That’s huge!”
“Yes. Easiest way to get in. We won’t have to go far to get to the location of Balto and Amaroq. Wait, Amaroq? Norwegian, right?” Aleu shrugged. “I have a brother named Pietronaq. He is Norwegian. And obviously, that makes me Norwegian, too, but I don’t have a Norwegian name.”
“Where does Pietronaq live?” asked Jessica. “I used to have a friend named Pietroaq. He was kidnapped, but a letter was left in the snow. I still have it. Well, not with me, but I have it somewhere.”
“Pietronaq lived on
“That’s where I came from! That’s where I met him! Actually, Lived with him.”
“Could you write the note out after we get back on the C-79?”
“C-79?”
“The thing we came here on.”
“Oh. I’ll try.”
They had gotten into the facility easily, and were looking down at millions of cats bustling around like ants. There were no security cameras that Bob’s scanner detected, now were there motion sensors, laser beams, or anything. So they crawled across the metal walkway, which they guessed was for maintenance to get to the cages.
Balto and Amaroq were the only ones in the cages, but the locks were tricky.
“This isn’t an ordinary C-A-T lock,” said Bob.
“Nope,” agreed Balto.
And they weren’t. They weren’t human locks that used dials or keys, they weren’t digital with a key pad, they didn’t have a retina scanner, paw scanner, only a small box.
“It must be activated by a remote. Maybe I could use my communicator to…” Bob pressed some commands into his cell-phone like paw-held device.
“To what?”
“To create a counterfeit remote to open the door.”
Amaroq thought for a second, and then said “Let me see it.”
Bob passed Amaroq his communicator to Amaroq through the metal bars.
“If I plug in the right number, aim the infrared port at the box, then…” The door opened. He did the same with Balto’s door.
“Good work. We’ve go to get out of here, fast, though. I have a C-79 Sky-Pilot parked on the roof.”
“A C-79? Weren’t those all demolished and replaced with the R-90 Lab-Flyers?”
“Not all of them.”
They were back in the C-79 and Jessica was writing out the note given to her pack after Pietronaq was captured. She was done in about twenty minutes. It read:
If you ever want to see Pietronaq again, you'd better get going to Nordbergen.
“I know this font. It’s Wingdings 3. Give me a second. I’ll type it into the computer and translate it.” … “It says “If you ever want to see Pietronaq again, you’d better get moving to Nordbergen.”
“Wait, here’s another note.” Jessica handed Bob another piece of paper. This one said:
Oh, yes. Signed agent 329 of the C-A-T.
“Wingdings. Wingdings 1.” … “It says “Oh, yeah. Signed agent 329 of the C-A-T.” Bob sighed. “He’s probably not around anymore. Agent 329 from the C-A-T is deadly,” he said sadly. “I guess ill be going to Nordbergen with a copy of these notes anyways.”
“Can we help?”
“Not really. I think I’d better do this alone.”
“OK.”
It was around 9:00 PM, Alaska time, when they got back. Bob was already on his way to Nordbergen, and the CWP was going to sleep. It was supposed to snow for 67 hours straight, at least, starting at about 5:00 in the morning. And it was supposed to snow hard. Good thing they had already hunted. Amaroq was drawing an out-of-date model of an atom. It had a nucleus with electrons orbiting it in a constant circular path. The correct ones look more like doughnuts or a bubble type O if you try to draw them in the snow. And it wasn’t even D-O-G model. It was human. The D-O-G doesn’t care much about the structure of atoms. Not DNA much either. The only DNA they studied was the DNA of machines-motors, computers, electricity, etc. (the parts)…not actual deoxyribonucleic acid. That’s one of the reasons why the D-O-G was founded.
The got a whole 12 hours of sleep that night. It was 9:00AM.
“What do you think that C-A-T agent wanted to do with Pietronaq?” asked Jessica.
“I don’t know,” answered Amaroq, “but I think we really should obey Bob and stay out of it.”
“What are the C-90 Skylab and the, the, the other thing?”
“The C-79 Sky-Pilot and the R-90 Lab-Flyer? The C-79 is what we were in. But the D-O-G built the R-90 and put all, uh, almost all of the C-79s into retirement,” was Amaroq’s reply.
“I don’t know what you just said, but okay.”
Chapter II: Bye-Bye Aleu and Jessica
It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it came. It had known no life other than the life of war. It would not approve of anything beating it either. It would accept a few scars to prove it, but it wasn’t at all a friend. And that was apparent to any other wolves that this one was an enemy.
Amaroq knew this, too, for he was, other than the fact that he was number two agent in the D-O-G, just another normal wolf. Well, just another normal leader-of-the-CWP wolf. But this is jumping a little too far ahead.
‘It’ should be Aleu, but this description doesn’t fit her. Let’s try this again.
It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it remembered. The word ‘leader’ was playing over and over again and it had a clear picture of Nava in it’s mind. How was he? Where was he? Was he worried about Aleu not coming? It had to go and see. It was Aleu, and she was who was supposed to be the leader of the ‘WUBNP’, What Used to Be Nava’s Pack. And she had to go soon.
Jessica was chasing a rabbit in the nearby woods, Amaroq was resting on the top of a frost heave, and Aleu was thinking hard. How was she to tell Amaroq and Jessica about what she had to go do? Maybe Balto had already told Jenna about this, but would Aleu also have to tell her mother? Hadn’t Aleu told her dad to tell her mother that ‘she had finally found a home?’ But wasn’t this her home? She’d just have to go talk to Amaroq. And this she did.
“Hi.”
“Hello.”
“Uh, well, I don’t think you know this, maybe you do, but…” She started talking really fast and it sounded like one word. “I’m-supposed-to-be-the-leader-of-a-wolf-pack-that-has-
it’s-territory-on-a-coast-east-of-Saint-Lawrence-Island.”
There was a short pause before Amaroq asked “What?”
She spoke more clearly now. “I’m supposed to be the leader of a wolf pack that has its territory on a coast east of St. Lawrence Island.”
“Okay, this time it made sense…kind of.”
“I think Nava can explain it to you better.”
“Nava?”
“Follow me.”
Aleu led Amaroq across a small field and into some trees. Fortunately, Jessica was in their path, so Amaroq didn’t have to worry about her not knowing where he was. Jessica, too, followed.
After some strenuous sniffing, they eventually found Nava. He was standing on a piece of land that shot out into the water of the
“So you made it? I was worried about you. I was afraid that you wouldn’t come,” said Nava.
Then came the session of questions and answers. This went on for some time, and Nava answered all of Amaroq and Jessica’s questions. And after that, the farewells. Bye-Bye Aleu.
This is where the original ‘it’ comes in.
It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it came. It had known no life other than the life of war.… blah, blah, blah. Amaroq and Jessica were talking together when its scent filled the air. Amaroq’s hair bristled, but Jessica was a little slow on recognizing it. Why was it here? For the thrill of killing and obtaining more land to call its own. It was another true wolf.
He wasn’t exactly sure who these other two wolves were that had this land claimed as theirs, but Fang knew that he could meet them in a fight. Amaroq wasn’t hoping to meet him at all, sensing that Fang was an enemy. Amaroq knew that Fang had come for land and that any enemy wolf would kill if he wanted to. Fang would take down the weaker first, and come back a few days later to take down the stronger.
In this case, Jessica was the weaker. Amaroq was considering what will happen when Fang approached. It was obvious to Fang that Jessica was the weaker, and so the fight began. Amaroq did the best he could to save Jessica, but Fang was stronger. What Fang lacked was wisdom. Amaroq did not lack strength, but Fang was overflowing with it. Amaroq was thrown off into a tree, bleeding from his muzzle, back, and hindquarters, but luckily not his throat where life bubbled, only protected by fur and a thin layer of skin.
Fang leaped for Jessica’s throat, but missed. He tried again, and again missed. For a third time, he strove in to rip Jessica’s throat and missed. Fang was bewildered. He had never missed three times in a row. He stopped for a split second. In this split second, Amaroq would have leaped in to help Jessica if he had not been too weak to do so. Jessica was bleeding badly from her chest, muzzle, and forelegs. When the split second had finished, Fang was once again upon Jessica. Amaroq could only watch from where he had fallen.
And soon Jessica was on the ground, too, but unlike Amaroq, lifeless. Fang bounded back out of Amaroq and Jessica’s territory. If today was Thursday, he would come back on Sunday. The days went by slow for Fang and Amaroq. Fang almost left for Amaroq on Saturday, but held himself back. For Amaroq it went h because he had, at the time, no one to talk to. No one to do anything with. His mate had passed away.
Chapter III: The Death of Amaroq
It wasn’t at all sunny when Sunday arrived. Amaroq wasn’t at all surprised because the past few Sundays were ignoring their name. Amaroq started to call it Cloudyday. Amaroq had dreaded this day, not because of the clouds, but of his imminent death. Fang had warned him that Thursday when Jessica was pulled down. Fang came around 10:30 AM Alaska time. Amaroq was well fed and ready to fight, but knew that there was only a 10% chance he would survive. To achieve survival, he would have to resort completely to the wisdom that Fang did not have.
Fang waited a while after he had arrived. He and Amaroq were thinking. Amaroq was thinking about how to evade Fangs attacks, while Fang was thinking about when and how to attack. Amaroq’s nose scrunched up when Fang came near. Partly because of the smell of enemy and also because he was snarling. Fang did not hear Amaroq’s snarling, for it had become too familiar a noise to him to notice.
Suddenly Fang went stiff legged and Amaroq’s heart pounded faster than ever. Amaroq didn’t wait the tiniest fraction of a second to strike in defense. He didn’t grab a hold of what he wanted to, but he became curious. His teeth were holding on to some kind of cloth. Fang wasn’t fast enough to do anything in the period of time that was passing. Amaroq ripped through the cloth and a collar landed with a jingle on the ground. Amaroq only glanced at it but was able to read some of it. After being and agent in the D-O-G for so long, Amaroq was able to read some English, French, and Italian. One of the words that was engraved into the metal tag was his name.
“Your name is Amaroq?” Amaroq asked Fang.
“You can read human languages?” Fang asked Amaroq.
Neither one replied, but Amaroq remembered what might be his doom. He ducked under “Fang’s” head and ripped at Fangs throat, then leaped back. “Fang” tried to copy Amaroq’s move, but closed his teeth on air. As “Fang” was doing this, he felt pain from his hind left leg and heard a crunching sound at the same time. “Fang” fell to the ground and turned his head around, but Amaroq wasn’t there. Amaroq once again ripped “Fang’s” throat, and “Fang” tried to get up once more, but fell back down and never rose again.
Chapter IV: The D-O-G’s Plan
Amaroq turned around and ran toward
“Have you heard about the lost dog Fang?” Balto asked Amaroq without greetings. “Rumor has it that a wolf killed him. It’s going around with the humans. There was also a telegram sent out warning people about wolf attacks. I heard the description of the wolf that attacked Fang and it sounded like an exaggerated version of you.”
Amaroq sighed. “Yes it was me, but Fang wasn’t the kind of dog that a human that knows who he is like should care about loosing.”
“So you did attack Fang? The humans are saying that you killed him too.”
“Yes…but Fang was a Steele type dog. I’m not sure he was a “dog”.”
“A dog being Canis Familiaris, right?”
“Yes. It think he was either a hybrid or was all wolf.”
“Hmm.”
There was a loud crashing and banging noise behind them. They turned around and saw Steele carrying a t-bone steak. He dropped it and asked if either one have seen Jenna. Noticing he was facing Balto, Steele started to growl and advance towards Balto. Amaroq slipped behind Steele, grabbed the T-bone steak, and ran in the opposite direction Steele was slowly walking foreword. Balto had watched this and burst out laughing. Steele looked around to see what had happened and saw Amaroq who was now prancing backwards with the steak hanging out of his mouth. Steele forgot all about Balto and ran after Amaroq. Amaroq let Steele catch up to within about six inches and turned around and ran again. Steele couldn’t gain on Amaroq in a million years though. Amaroq slowed down to a jog while Steele was running as fast as he could. Amaroq looked back and started laughing too.
Steele was furious. A few years ago on the first race of the sledding season Balto outran him. Now Amaroq was outrunning him. Rosy was standing next to Jenna and they both watched Amaroq jog by Steele while he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Steele was mad at Amaroq, but not mad enough to not notice Jenna. Amaroq noticed Rosy and Jenna standing there, too, but he didn’t feel like doing anything about it at the time.
Steele talked to Jenna for a minute, trying to convince her to help him, but Jenna joined Balto and Amaroq, who had stopped jogging, in laughing. Rosy was staring at Steele with a half disgusted, half annoyed face. Steele decided that maybe Jenna would stop laughing at him if he got the steak back. Amaroq tossed it to Balto right as Steele had started to run, and Steele skidded to a halt, turned around, and started running towards Balto. Balto tossed it back to Amaroq. Amaroq dropped it and walked away a few steps and let Steele take it, only to start chasing Steele. Balto and Amaroq thought this was a great game, and Jenna joined in chasing Steele, too. Rosy lost her disgusted and annoyed look and started laughing.
Jenna whispered to Balto and Amaroq to stop chasing Steele. Steele dropped the steak in front of Jenna, trying to please her. Jenna picked it up and tossed it back over to Balto and Amaroq. Jenna was called back by Rosy, and they had to go home. Balto and Amaroq continued the game for a while until Amaroq was called to the D-O-G facility there in
Amaroq wasn’t able to get any rest. The D-O-G had called him to a meeting that lasted most of the night. It was about the D-O-G’s plan to create a device that lowered air pollution, and produced their electricity for a while. During this time, they wanted to shut down their solar panels, using their planned device, which they were going to make one for each facility (or more for a facility if they needed it). Doing this would cause them to have to power down some things in everyone’s office, though. They couldn’t figure out a way to make something that would give them complete power after shutting off the electric flow from their solar panels.
Amaroq looked over the blueprints for it and looked at a few of the files on the computers. He shook his head.
“I seriously don’t think this will work out. We can’t rely completely on air pollution to generate electricity.”
“That’s not quite it. The machine will gather air pollutants which it will break down into individual molecules and send them into another chamber which will…”
“Basically taking air pollutants and distorting them into energy. I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Given our new…”
“New anything won’t work. Most air pollutants don’t have the right elements to make electricity. It won’t work.”
“The top agent in engineering says it will work.”
Amaroq murmured, “If the air pollutants were the suns rays.”
“Look, Amaroq. Do you want to help the environment?”
“This won’t work!” he said and left the room.
Now where was Balto? Amaroq was going to ask for his opinion about this, uh, miracle machine. Amaroq was positive that it wouldn’t work. The way he knows? He drew out the blueprints for the main element to building this machine, at first secretly. He, again secretly, built a device, the same as this one that they are talking about which he knew because there were drawings of it up on a “mobile-board” (a chalk board on wheels, basically), along with some short sentences about it, using the “main element” as a foundation. And the final product wouldn’t work, if his didn’t work. (Apparently someone had been spying on him to get the design for this.) Why would an exact copy work?
Balto, not surprisingly, was over at Jenna’s.
“I don’t think it will work either,” said Balto without Amaroq even asking the question.
“You heard about it, too?”
“I still get G-Mail.”
“Oh. Makes sense.”
Jenna decided to keep quiet. She didn’t have a clue what Balto and Amaroq were talking about.
“I know when it will work, though.”
“Huh? When?”
“When pigs fly.”
“Too late. They were sent up in airplanes.”
“You know what I mean.”
At this point Jenna decided to ask the question. “What is this ‘it’?”
“A machine that will supposedly change air pollutants into electricity.”
“That idea is crazy.”
“Yup,” said Amaroq and Balto in unison.
Chapter V: Click To Add Title
Again, the D-O-G was interrupting Amaroq’s life with something unimportant. This time it was a new computer software: PowerPaws. It is the D-O-G’s version of PowerPoint.
Amaroq was hoping for something a little shorter than it probably was. He was already familiar with PowerPoint, and how could PowerPaws be different?
The meeting started with introductions. PowerPaws had it’s own team, but everyone on that team was new to the D-O-G. Then the lights dimmed and a huge computer screen on the wall flickered on.
Now people realized what this meeting was about. You, Amaroq, and I already know what it is about, but they are just now learning that it is about a new computer software. There were groans throughout the room.
But soon the room was silent again.
But then the room was filled with a low rumbling sound and the screen flickered off and fell to the ground.
“Earthquake!” someone shouted.
Then there was a bright flash of light, and Amaroq was gone.
Chapter VI: Mars
Amaroq wandered about the XVI-1 SpaceBus looking for Kodi. But before Amaroq could find him, an alarm went off and the artificial gravity failed. Then it re-activated and out the porthole was Mars.
Okay, so the artificial gravity just shut off early….
Wait a second… MARS!?! Yes, MARS!!! But this flight was to go to Venus!!!
Oh, wait. Duh. Call Kodi on his wrist-com.
“Why are we at Mars?”
“I don’t know I was at some boring meeting and there was an earthquake and a bright light and well…here I am!”
“But we are supposed t…ktchssssssssssssssss…”
Static. Static! But the XVI-1 was known for having excellent “Home-Away-from-Home” radio capabilities! Ugh.
…
Wire-in set… “Kodi?”
“…”
“Hello?”
“…”
Oh, yeah, dummy! Kodi doesn’t have wire-in capabilities. And with the radio out, then Amaroq’s UPS (Universal Positioning System, not United Postal Service) wouldn’t be able to help him find Kodi.
Okay, that’s it! Portal open…
…
Chapter VII: San Ramon
Amaroq walked around outside the
His train took him to the
He looked at Iron Horse Middle School, where he went from 8:10 to 2:45 Monday through Friday, and there were two seventh graders playing basketball on the blacktop. If he was at his school, it meant only a mile or so home.
Amaroq’s human house was a lot less stressful than aboard the XVI-1. Also, there would be nobody home at the time of day it was. When nobody is home, he could play Guitar Hero as loud as he wanted.
But anyways, that was his secret. Amaroq was part human, part wolf.
To be continued in book III: Technological Wolf
About the Author
I have been into the Balto movies ever since I had ever watched one, which was when I was five years old. Now I’m not only into the movies, but the real Balto and the epidemic in