Back down in the Ferry Room #1 of the Ferry Control Center, the digital display scrolled "The Finger – 265 Miles Away."
From his console, Richard performed a victory dance in his chair while he watched Jake dangle from the asteroid on his monitor. He picked up a CD on from his console and dropped it inside his briefcase.
"I don't need plan B. I'll use plan C," Richard said while he picked up his yellow phone and punched in a number. "Wayne, I don't know why Kurt ignored my orders and sent Jake and Butch. But it worked out for the best, as one of them was bound to screw up. Anyway, I need to get Vadim, and you trained for this mission," Richard discreetly said into his phone.
"Don't you want us to rescue him?" Wayne replied from the phone.
"Earth doesn't have time for that! I need you guys to complete this mission," Richard told Wayne.
"I, ah, I can't," Wayne stuttered nervously from the phone.
"I'll make you Chief Astronaut with your own office with a sexy assistant with big bouncy boobies, and your own parking space!" Richard offered.
"Big bouncy boobies," said Wayne while he thought about them staring him in his face. "Okay!" Wayne immediately accepted when the thoughts of moving up in the NERP with boobies flooded his head.
"Great. I'll fax the operating procedure for the mission," Richard said with a huge grin.
Richard hung up his yellow phone and snapped his fingers.
Nancy ran over to Richard's console. "Yes, sir."
"Fax that procedure to Wayne at the MSS, Nancy."
Nancy saw a two-foot pile of papers on the desk behind Richard. She walked over and picked it up the pile of papers. Her knees buckled with the weight of the papers.
She swayed while she walked away then steadied herself. She struggled while she walked away to the fax machine on the other side of the room.
Richard stood up and performed another victory dance around his console. He stopped the second he spotted Jennifer walk over to her console.
"Hey, baby! How about a movie tonight?" Richard asked her thinking he could win her back into his arms.
Jennifer flipped him off the second she got to his console.
Richard looked hurt while he watched her middle finger being aimed at him while Jennifer walked away.
Inside Parking Garage #1 of the MSS, Vadim, Butch, and Ronnie wore their spacesuits while they floated over to the Magellan Ferry Ship. R1D1 floated behind them.
They quickly floated up and went through the hatch of the Magellan.
Butch and Ronnie floated in the bottom deck by the hatch that led into the Storage Bay while Vadim floated up to the top deck.
R1D1 floated over next to Butch and waited.
Butch heard the whine of the doors that opened up the Magellan's Storage Bay doors.
Butch and Ronnie quickly dressed in their spacesuits and wore their helmets with their visors up.
Butch, Ronnie, and R1D1 floated over and opened the hatch that led into the Storage Bay of the Magellan.
Butch, Ronnie, and R1D1 floated through the hatch into the Storage Bay of the Magellan.
As soon as they got inside the Storage Bay, they floated over to the Mayflower Space Module.
"What are you doing?" Richard's voice was heard yelling from the radio net inside their helmets.
"We're going to save Jake's life. What do you think you moron?" Butch snapped back into the radio net.
"No!" Richard yelled at them from the radio net.
"Bite me!" Butch yelled back at Richard into the radio net.
Ronnie opened up the hatch of the Mayflower.
Butch, Ronnie, and R1D1 quickly floated inside the Mayflower then Ronnie closed the hatch.
The hatch immediately opened, and they rushed out with puffy blue faces. R1D1 stayed inside the Mayflower.
They stood near the Mayflower and sucked in the fresh air. Their color in their faces returned to their peachy color a few seconds later.
"Oops. It's been closed for thirty-five years. We forgot to air it out," Richard said over the radio net with a smart-ass tone then chuckled. "Jake's history, so I'm sending Wayne and Vadim to save the earth," Richard added from the radio net.
Butch and Ronnie looked determined.
"No! We'll save Jake and complete our assigned mission," Butch yelled into the radio net.
"No! You're finished!" Richard yelled back. "Kurt, don't open up that garage door. I repeat. Don't open up that garage door," Richard ordered.
"" Yes sir," Kurt replied from the radio net.
Butch and Ronnie slowly floated down the Storage Bay to the hatch and looked depressed.
Back down in the Ferry Room #1 of the Ferry Control Center, the digital display scrolled "The Finger – 260 Miles Away."
Richard sat at his console and watched Butch and Ronnie inside the parking garage of the MSS on his monitor.
He didn't notice that Jennifer was behind his console talking into her cell phone.
She walked away with a smirk while she disconnected her phone call.
A few seconds later, the purple phone on Richard's console rang.
He looked at it and knew this wouldn't be good news. "Yes, Mister President," he answered.
"I don't know what you're doing, but I want Butch and Ronnie to rescue Jake," President Barnaby ordered from the phone.
"But we don't have time Mister President," Richard pleaded.
"Sounds to me that you're bucking to be permanent latrine queen!" President Barnaby barked out from the phone.
"Yes sir," Richard replied with a whipped tone, then he slammed his purple phone down.
Inside the Storage Bay of the Magellan, Butch and Ronnie were just about to enter the hatch to go back inside the bottom deck of the Magellan.
"Okay, guys. You can rescue Jake," Richard painfully said from the radio net. "Kurt, you can open the garage door after they get inside the space module," he added.
"Yes sir," Kurt replied from the radio net.
Butch and Ronnie quickly floated back to the Mayflower.
They held their breaths while they floated inside the Mayflower's opened hatch.
The hatch to the Mayflower slammed shut.
The garage door opened, and the vastness of outer space was visible.
The Mayflower's engine started up with a whirl, and it slowly lifted upward out of the Storage Bay with the Space Buggy on its trailer. The NERP technicians altered the Mayflower and installed some smaller thruster engines for maneuvers like this one.
The Mayflower and the Space Buggy turned around over the Storage Bay of the Magellan. The engines on the Mayflower stalled, and it slowly dropped back into Magellan's Storage Bay.
Inside the Mayflower, Butch looked a little pissed with Ronnie while he turned the key and all they heard was crank, crank, and crank.
"You flooded it," Butch scolded Ronnie.
"Did not!" Ronnie snapped back.
"Wait, I have an idea. Hey Vadim," Butch said into the radio net microphone.
"Yah," Vadim replied from the speaker.
"We need a push with one of the BLAHs," Butch said into the radio net.
"No problem," Vadim replied from the radio net.
Inside Parking Garage #1 of the MSS, the left BLAH came out of the Storage Bay of the Magellan and the mechanical hand opened up. The BLAH moved and pushed against the rear of the Space Buggy.
The BLAH pushed the Mayflower and Space Buggy toward the opened garage door.
A crank, crank sound was heard while Ronnie tried to start the Mayflower. The engines of the Mayflower started, and puffs of black smoke poured out of the thruster engine nozzles.
Then gears shifting were heard while Ronnie stuck the Mayflower into drive.
It slowly putt putted toward the opened garage door and putt putted out into outer space.
Down in the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby paced upset in front of the wall of TVs.
"I can't believe one of those old-timers got stuck to the asteroid," Canadian President Morin said from his TV indicating he started to change his tune against President Barnaby.
"Our robot is being flown to South America to our HariAnne launch pad. We launch in a couple of days," French President Beaumont said with a confident grin from his TV.
"I'm now thinking the HariAnne is our only hope," Australian Prime Minister Walker said from his TV.
On their TVs, South Korean President Doko, Canadian Prime Minister Morin, Italian President Conti, Spanish President Vargas, German Chancellor Kiel, and Japanese President Kato all nodded in agreement with using the HariAnne rocket.
"It's not too late to use missiles!" Chinese President Wang yelled from his TV.
Russian President Ivanov and North Korean President Chul-Moo all nodded in agreement with China with the use of missiles.
Barnaby looked depressed while he stared at the TVs.
"Come on, guys. Barnaby's plan will work," England's Prime Minister Goodrich yelled out from his TV.
"Yeah, a rescue mission's in work as we speak," President Barnaby pleaded to the TVs. "Everything will be fine!" he added with an air of confidence.
All the TVs went blank when the world leaders turned off their cameras.
President Barnaby then heard the commotion from outside his Oval Office.
He walked over and peeked out the window curtains behind his desk.
Outside he saw a large group of protesters out by the street.
One woman held up a "Barnaby Sucks!" sign.
Another man that was at the Space Beach when the astronauts drove to the pad in the Astro Bus held up a "Don't Re-Elect Barnaby" and a "Help - My Assteroids Are Getting Bigger!" signs.
President Barnaby sat down at his desk, depressed and hated these moments as President.
Out in outer space, it was like a NASCAR race while the slow-moving Mayflower with the towed Space Buggy zoomed around various pieces of stationary space junk.
But then numerous pieces of other space junk zoomed faster over, under and by the side of the Mayflower.
Inside the Mayflower, Butch and Ronnie looked out their windows at all the space junk that zoomed past them.
"Man, we'll never make it to that asteroid. Even the junk's faster than us," Butch said the second piece of an old satellite zoomed over the top of the Mayflower.
Ronnie thought for a second while he watched three pieces of space junk zoom past their spacecraft. He looked at the side view mirror that was outside his window. "I know what to do!" he said while he eyed some approaching space junk.
Butch looked curious with Ronnie's comment.
In outer space, the Mayflower with towed Space Buggy putt putted along.
A large piece of space junk zoomed up along the side of the Mayflower.
The Mayflower and Space Buggy quickly maneuvered inches behind that large piece of space junk.
The large piece of space junk zoomed away and the Mayflower and towed Space Buggy drafted behind it and zoomed along faster.
Inside the Mayflower, Butch looked at the console and saw that the speedometer increased in speed. He seemed proud of Ronnie while he patted his shoulder.
"Old NASCAR trick called drafting," Ronnie responded with a huge grin.
Butch and Ronnie stared out their windows while the Mayflower zoomed through space behind that massive piece of space junk.
Later that day in outer space, The Finger asteroid orbited and slowly dropped closer to earth.
The Mayflower with Space Buggy raced up to the asteroid behind that piece of space junk.
The Mayflower and towed Space Buggy broke away from the rear of the space junk.
They headed to the bottom of the asteroid.
Underneath the asteroid, Jake still dangled by his left arm and he looked scared to death while he saw earth down below his space boots. He held a picture of June in his right glove and stared at the love of his life. He brought the picture to his helmet visor and kissed the inside of the visor.
The Mayflower with the Space Buggy flew underneath Jake.
Ronnie positioned the Mayflower so that the seats to the Space Buggy were underneath Jake's space boots.
After Jake finished kissing the inside of his visor, he noticed the Space Buggy below him. "Finally!" he cried out while he shoved June's picture back into the pocket of his spacesuit.
"Get your arm free and drop to the seats of the buggy," Butch instructed from the radio net.
Jake removed his Ginsu knife from another pocket on his spacesuit. He started to cut away at the piece of space debris that held his left arm prisoner.
While Jake cut away at the debris, there was a loud bang, and the asteroid shook after being smacked by space junk. Jake swayed by his left arm for a few seconds until the asteroid settled down.
Back down in the Ferry Room #1 of the Ferry Control Center, the digital display scrolled "The Finger – 255 Miles Away."
Richard sat excited at his console while he ate popcorn and watched Jake's rescue on his monitor.
"Fall down to earth you buffoon. Fall down to earth," Richard called out with a mouth of popcorn and sprayed some kernels at the monitor.
While he watched his monitor, Richard's eyes widened with hope when he saw Jake fall from the bottom of the asteroid. He got disappointed when he saw Jake safely land in the driver's seat of the Space Buggy.
"Rats!" he cursed at the monitor.
It was all cheers and claps in the entire Ferry Room when everybody saw Jake being rescued from the asteroid.
"Back to plan B," Richard quietly said with an evil smirk when he reached down and removed a CD from his briefcase. He shoved the CD into a slot on his console.
Jennifer stood behind Richard's console and saw everything.
She stormed away, furious with Richard.
Richard suddenly felt paranoid, and he quickly stood up and scanned the area over. He looked around, and nobody was in sight, so he sat down and typed on his keyboard.
In the Oval Office of the White House, President Barnaby did a victory dance around his office after he saw Jake being rescued.
He danced over and flipped the finger to the blank wall of TVs. "I'm back in business!" he yelled at the TVs then he victory danced back over to his desk and sat down.
In outer space, Ronnie flew the Mayflower with Jake inside the Space Buggy to the top of the asteroid.
Ronnie flew the Mayflower to the front of the asteroid.
Inside the Mayflower, Ronnie and Butch wore their space helmets.
"Okay, Jake, you can now enter the Mayflower," Butch told him on the radio net.
"I'm on my way," Jake replied on the radio net.
There was a knock on the hatch a few minutes later.
Ronnie opened up the hatch, and Jake floated inside.
Ronnie closed and locked the hatch.
Jake, Butch, and Ronnie removed their space helmets.
Jake gave Butch a warm smile, and it was his first one since they've known each other. "Thanks for rescuing me!"
Butch gave Jake a warm smile, and it was his first one since they've known each other. "It's time we bury the hatchet about what happened in Uranus. After all, we have a world to save," Butch said.
Jake thought about his suggestion, then he smiled in agreement.
They shook hands to seal the deal.
Ronnie looked proud and discreetly wiped away a tear.
Butch's iPhone rang from inside one of his spacesuit pockets. He removed it and smiled when he looked at the viewfinder. "Hey lovey dumpling," he answered the call.
"Hey, puddin! Listen, Richard is still up to his sneaky tricks. I don't know what this time so, please watch your back," Jennifer replied from Butch's iPhone.
"Okay, we'll be careful," Butch replied then he blew a kiss into the viewfinder and shoved his iPhone back into this spacesuit pocket. "Richard's out to stop us again," he told Jake and Ronnie.
"First, Buzz and Neil, now what?" Jake replied, curiously.
Butch looked curious. "I wonder what happened to them?"
Jake and Ronnie wondered about Neil and Buzz's fate.
Down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the escape pod floated in the water without land in sight.
Inside the escape pod, Buzz and Neil were still passed out while their bodies swayed to the motion of the ocean waves.