The explanation still didn't make any sense to Sky Captain. "What is this whole place, Dex? What's going on?" From his experience, it was easier to foil a villain once he knew the overall plan.
Dex explained what he had learned during his captivity. "Dr. Totenkopf believed the Earth was doomed anyway, that we'd finally developed the technology to destroy ourselves. He didn't want to be around when that happened, so he proposed the unthinkable: to build a ship that would carry the building blocks of a new civilization into space."
"It is an ark," Polly said.
"But he intended to take only the best. He wanted a master race, a perfect order. He used his carefully programmed machines to collect specimens that represented all life on Earth. It would be the seeds of a technological utopia. Totenkopf called it his World of Tomorrow."
"Like the theme of the World's Fair," Polly said.
"Only a lot more sinister," Sky Captain said.
Even without Dex inside the robot controller head, the automated systems could pause only so long. The sorting arms began moving again, lifting clamps and grabbing scrap components.
"Uh-oh," Dex said, then applied his grinding wheel to the manacles. Suddenly, one of the giant sorting machines seized their battered cage. Dex stopped cutting so he could grab hold. He steadied himself just as the cage was unceremoniously dropped onto the main conveyer belt with a bone-jarring crash.
"Well, here we are again," Polly said.
Abruptly, they started moving straight toward the mouth of the gargantuan crushing machine. Compacting hammers battered all scrap into a shapeless mass. The conveyor belt seemed to pick up speed.
"Dex!" Sky Captain yelled, rattling his chains.
"I'm on it." The young man fired up his whirling blade and bent back to Sky Captain's cuffs. Sparks flew everywhere, and sweat streamed down his face.
Polly seemed to ignore their imminent messy death under the gargantuan crushers as she put thoughts and clues together in her mind. "So the few surviving Unit Eleven scientists smuggled those vials off the island. They knew Totenkopf would never leave without his precious genetic samples."
Dex looked at Polly with a dramatic nod. He lifted the whirling blade from Sky Captain's cuffs so she could hear him. "That's right. But now that he's got the test tubes back, there's nothing left to keep him here."
Sky Captain felt exasperated. This didn't sound like a particularly awful situation, as far as maniacal schemes went. "Then let Totenkopf go, and good riddance. He's free to set up shop where he can't harm anyone else."
Dex's expression of deadly concern showed that there was much more to the story, though. "Whatever happens, Cap, we can't let that ship leave this Earth. There's something else — "
The crashing blows of the compactor machine sounded louder, closer. Sky Captain suddenly grimaced, incredulous that Dex had stopped sawing. "Dex! We can talk about this later."
"Sorry, Cap." Dex went back to work, attacking Sky Captain's cuffs with a greater sense of urgency. It didn't seem possible that he would have enough time to free them both.
But Polly still wanted to know the answers. "Why? What haven't you told us, Dex?"
Sky Captain added, "But don't stop cutting while you explain!"
The young man shouted over the buzzing cutter. "The rocket's design is radical. Only Totenkopf really understands it. The engines use a powerful radioactive energy source unlike anything previously invented, though I did read about something similar in Amazing Stories."
Dangling on her chains, Polly brightened with a look of realization. "The uranium from the mine!"
"Atomic fuel. It releases a great deal of energy, enough to take that rocket anywhere. Unfortunately, there are certain… side effects."
"Why? What's going to happen, Dex?"
The young man paused again to emphasize the import of his words. "When the rocket reaches its third stage, the igniting engines will cause an unstoppable chain reaction in our atmosphere. Earth will be incinerated."
32
The End of the World. The Remnants of Unit Eleven. A Deadly Booby Trap
At the moment, though, they had more immediate problems. The conveyor belt pulled them along steadily, closer and closer to the unavoidable gauntlet of hissing hydraulic metal hammers and blades. Sky Captain struggled with his chains as Dex continued to cut.
Polly turned to the young man. Even with their imminent peril, she could not shake the image of the world as a charred ball. "The rocket's countdown is already started. How do we stop it?"
Dex shook his head. "Believe me, Polly, I wish I knew. I've racked my brains, studied the master control systems, but only Totenkopf himself can stop it now — and none of us has been allowed near him. I've never even seen the guy. He's too well guarded."
Before Dex had a chance to finish cutting, Sky Captain twisted one hand free. He flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing again. "So where is he, Dex? I'll go get him myself… as soon as you get me out of here."
Feeling Sky Captain's determination, Dex went to work on his other hand. "I'll bet you will, Cap!"
"Uh… boys?" Polly said. The massive crusher was just ten feet away.
Sky Captain yanked his arm, but a chain still bound his other wrist. Polly struggled, unable to move. Dex spun the grinder, furrowing his brow as if he contemplated how he might make it more efficient, but there was simply no way he could free them from their bonds in time.
The young man looked up, helpless. "Um, Cap? Do you want me to stay here to the end?" It didn't seem polite to cut Sky Captain loose and leave Polly dangling there to be pulverized in the crusher.
The smashers came down with the sound of colliding cement trucks. The conveyor belt drew their cage into the yawning mouth of the compacting machine.
"Joe? I — " Polly called.
Then the conveyor belt ground to a halt. The rollers creaked, fountains of steam hissed out of hot machinery, and the massive hammers froze in midstrike. In a breathless moment, the cage that held Sky Captain, Polly, and Dex teetered at the precipice of the crusher's mouth.
Polly looked up through the torn-away roof of their cage to see three old men standing over them on a walkway. One of the men yanked harder on the lever that had stopped the conveyor belt, locking it into place. The old men all wore stained and patched lab smocks, and their wispy white hair had not been cut in some time. They waved.
Smiling, Dex returned the greeting. "Cap, Polly, I'd like you to meet the talented gentlemen who built this place. They're the only ones left."
A look of realization crossed Polly's face. The men were decades older now, and the intervening years had obviously been hard on them, but she recognized their faces from the old photograph: Dr. Kessler, Dr. Lang, and Dr. Vargas.
"Unit Eleven," she said.
Minutes later, after Sky Captain and Polly were both freed from their chains, they ran with Dex and the three old scientists down a rocky passageway. They knew they didn't have much time until the end of the countdown.
Ahead of them, a large arching doorway opened into a massive gallery that resembled a museum of sorts filled with all manner of natural and scientific artifacts, robotic designs, and specimen tanks.
"Looks like Totenkopf has spent a lot of time collecting trinkets," Polly said.
"And experimenting," Dr. Vargas said, "and torturing others — all in the name of science."
The centerpiece of the enormous room was the towering skeleton of a brontosaurus, much like the creature Polly and Sky Captain had seen emerging from the marshy island lake. The striking aspect of this dinosaur, though, was that it had two heads and two long and sinuous necks branching from its trunk. Polly and Sky Captain exchanged an amazed look, but they had too little time to stand staring at a freak show.