Falling Ark

by Leigh Snelson

Tony cut him off.

  “Yeah, I know, I was going to call my next restaurant that as a play on words, you know, the food is out of this world. Cheesy I know!” Tony explained.

  “That’s where I recognise you from! You’re that chef that makes awesome food!” Derek chirped into the conversation. “I proposed to my wife in your restaurant a few years ago, the food was awesome, but it cost a small fortune, luckily I wasn’t paying.”

  “No, I was!” Hank said. “And the portions were tiny.”

  “No, the portions were fine, they just didn’t contain the usual ten thousand calories that Hank needs.” Derek added.

  “Well, I can always cook you something up, as a thank you for saving my life.” Tony suggested.

  “That would be nice, but we are a bit short on supplies.” Ava spoke up for the first time in a while. “Someone forgot to load the ship before we left.”

  She cast a glance at Derek, clearly it was his job.

  “Don’t complain, I remembered the rocket launcher that saved their lives!” Derek argued back.

  “Where did you get a rocket launcher from?” I asked. Everyone turned to face Sam and I caught on. “You know what! I don’t want to know!”

  “Where do we go now?” Ava asked me.

  “I have an idea. That ship that we came from, it was full of stuff that we could use to finish this place off. Material, robots, weapons. We only scratched the surface of what was on there.” I pointed to the blip on the holotable that represented the VisionTech container ship.

  By this time everyone was gathered around the table and could see where I was pointing.

  “Hey look! The table, it’s working for more than six people.” Ava pointed out to Sam.

  Sam started to count the people stood around.

  He was the mastermind behind this ship. Derek who knew everything about security. Hank, whose presence made the rest of us look like children when stood next to him. Ava, the best hacker I had ever known. Tony, one of the best cooks and doctors in the world. Julie, an awesome biologist with some impressive survival skills and finally me, the person who had united everyone by nearly dying at the hands of Frank and Lara, repeatedly.

  “Okay, if we go back to the ship there are plenty of resources there, but also a crew to deal with. We don’t know how they will react. What does everyone think? Those in favour?” Sam asked the group.

  To my surprise everyone thought it was a good idea, or rather, we had no other options. Who knows when the next wave of planes would arrive and that ship had weapons, lots of weapons.

  Sam tapped on one of the display panels nearby and this flying fortress started to float towards the ship in the middle of the sea.

  I wandered over to a window and gazed out. The ship was too far away to see but it would soon come into view. Ava joined me and together we stared out over the sea, a slight breeze crept in from a gap in the panels and blew her hair gently around.

  “It’s good to have you back.” She whispered without taking her eyes off the horizon.

  “Thanks.” I replied. “You’ve done a great job with the ship.”

  “Thanks.” She let out a little laugh as she replied this time. “I’ve got some big plans for it, but for now, at least it’s somewhere to call home.”

  I looked at her and she turned to face me, our eyes met briefly, I could see she was happy. We couldn’t share the moment for long though, as Sam shouted across the room.

  “The ship should be in visible range and they are hailing us. I’ll put it on the screens.” He yelled.

  I looked around the room, Julie and Tony were also standing together, having a private moment, staring out of a window on the other side, while Derek and Hank were busy setting up a new desk, trying to understand the instructions.

  There were several large TV screens around the room, many of them had dangling cables and I wasn’t even sure they were powered on, but they all eventually flickered into life.

  The ships captain appeared on them. He was a middle-aged English man with a crisp uniform and medals worn proudly on his chest.

  “We mean you know harm; we notice you are heading our way, what are your intentions?” He asked in a polite, calm voice.

  Clearly he had witnessed recent events, seen what we were capable of and knew not to provoke us. He was as unsure of us, as we were of him.

  Sam looked at me, and I back to him, I gestured for him to talk, after all, this was his ship which made him the captain.

  “We need supplies, we are on a mission to bring down VisionTech CEO Lara Smith, stop her monopoly on technology and hold her accountable for her crimes against humanity. If you could help our cause, to make the world a better place we would be honoured.” Sam explained.

  I hadn’t stopped to think about what we were trying to do, but Sam had wrapped it up quite neatly in that sentence.

  “We understand your mission.” The captain replied. “We have shipped cargo for this woman before, she treats her staff as disposable and she hoards inventions that could save people’s lives, to hear that someone is finally making a stand is good news. If you do not mind, however, I would like to speak to my crew before I allow you to land.”

  “Of course.” Sam replied.

  We all glanced around at each other. Were they trying to earn more time to set up a weapon, what was going to be their next move? It wasn’t long before the captain came back.

  “There are two lifeboats containing eleven members of the crew. They would like to disembark for their own personal reasons. If they are allowed free passage, then the rest of the seventeen crew would be honoured to serve in your cause.”

  Elated smiles grew across everyone’s faces. This was unexpected. Not only had we just acquired a supply ship but a crew also.

  “Thank you, captain.” Sam said a few moments later after he had composed himself. “We agree to your terms.”

  “That is good news.” The captain replied. “You may land your vessel on the cleared area in the amidship. Welcome aboard.” The connection was terminated.

  We all let out excited woops and cheers.

  “Hold on.” Sam said, interrupting the occasion. “What is an ‘amidship’?”

  “The middle of the boat.” Tony informed him and pointed to the clear area where we had originally stolen the plane from.

  “It’ll be a tight fit around those containers, but she should fit.” Hank added.

  “You know all about tight fits! Am I right big guy!” Derek joked.

  Hank took one look at him, he shut up and looked back down at the instructions for the desk they were building. A smile crept over Hanks face, happy that he could still silence Derek with a single look.

  Over the next few minutes the ship got closer and we watched as the two lifeboats descended into the sea, just as the captain had advised.

  “Why would they choose to leave?” Ava asked in her soft voice. She sounded genuinely upset that they weren’t all going to stay and fight with us.

  “People have families, commitments, they can’t always put their lives on hold and join a gang of mercenaries.” Tony informed her.

  “Is that what we are now? Mercenaries?” Julie jumped into the conversation, standing between Tony and Ava.

  “I don’t know, are we?” Tony asked, looking at me.

  “Some of us already are!” Hank shouted from across the room. “Welcome to the club!”

  Sam flew the Armillary over the cargo ship and pressed a button on his control panel. The holotable displayed three legs, retracting out of the bottom of the ball. Around me I heard pumps forcing hydraulic liquid around pipes and out of the window I could see a metal foot stick out underneath us.

  We touched down onto the concrete deck of the ship, the giant “H” directly underneath us. A perfect landing.

  Chapter 19

  We made our way down the staircases from the control room, through the hanger bay and into the living spaces where there was a lot to do. The kitchen units were still covered i
n carboard, chairs were stacked on top of a table waiting to be unpacked but at least there was a sofa.

  “Well this place is cosy.” Julie commented, picking up on the sarcastic nature of the group.

  “There is still a lot to do, we were lucky that all this arrived before we set off.” Sam explained.

  “Didn’t you promise us a snooker table and games consoles?” I jested with him.

  “Stop picking on him.” Ava said, leaping to Sam’s defence. “He is upset because he didn’t have time to organise a walk-in freezer!”

  “A walk in freezer?” Tony asked curiously.

  “Sam is obsessed with them!” Derek explained. Everything is usually built around a walk-in freezer!”

  “As a professional chef I can appreciate that. Now I’m also upset we don’t have one!” Tony said as he exaggerated a sobbing motion.

  “See! It’s not unusual!” Sam argued.

  “Alright Tom Jones, give me a hand with this door.” Hank insisted.

  Together, Hank, Derek and Sam lifted the door away from the wall leaving a hole in the side of the ship.

  “Don’t comment!” Sam ordered. “It’s on our to-do-list.”

  One of the landing legs made its way up to the edge of the door and built into the long steel support were steps that led down onto the ship. I led the way, climbing down, back onto the cargo ship.

  The crew were standing there, waiting for us. Sixteen in a grid, four by four, and the captain in front of them, all stood to alert.

  Sam had a quizzical look on his face as we approached.

  “You’re not the captain I spoke to earlier.” Sam questioned.

  “No Sir. Captain Martin had personal reasons why he couldn’t stay but he sends his best regards for the mission. I am Captain Webber at your service.” The captain raised his hand and saluted.

  “Thank you, captain.” Sam said boldly. “Can your crew show my team around please. We are very interested to know what you are hauling and how we can use it.”

  “Sir! Yes Sir!” The captain shouted.

  The captain had a twang of German in his otherwise excellent English and clearly, he had not expected this recent promotion however, he took his new role very seriously, saluting and standing to attention while we stood around in jeans, t-shirts and stolen VisionTech jackets from this very ship. His uniform was impeccable, all be it slightly to big, obviously he had raided the previous captains’ quarters before we arrived to find something suitable to wear.

  “Well I would like to check out the containers at the front of the ship. You know, the ones that contained ‘experimental fauna’.” Julie said.

  “I’ll go with you then.” Tony insisted.

  “No problem.” The captain agreed, issuing the first four crew members to escort them through the ship.

  “Well I want to check out the refrigeration unit.” Hank added.

  “I don’t think it’s that kind of fridge.” Derek joked. “I doubt there will be anything to eat.”

  “It’s usually where the military keep the most volatile ammunitions.” Hank corrected him.

  “Then I will join you, there might also be some supercooled tech down there.” Ava explained.

  “Hey, I wanted to go too.” Sam argued.

  “Don’t worry, there will be time for you to see the giant fridge later.” Ava shot back. “I’ll go with you Hank.”

  The captain issued the command and four more of the guards escorted Hank and Ava down the staircase and into the bowels of the ship.

  “If you two don’t mind, I’ll check out the containers in the cargo hold.” Derek suggested.

  “In the cargo hold?” I asked, unsure where he meant.

  “Yeah, underneath all the containers at the front of the ship there another area, inside, I imagine there are more containers in there, secret ones VisionTech don’t want to be seen.” Derek explained.

  “Wow, I didn’t know about them, sure go ahead, I look forward to hearing what’s down there.” I replied.

  Derek made his exit with four more of the crew to help him.

  This left Sam and me with the captain and four of the crew, to plan out our next moves.

  We climbed up through the large, white tower at the rear of the ship, through the crew quarters and the mess area until we found the bridge.

  “You know she won’t stop.” Sam said as we entered the control room that overlooked the whole of the ship.

  I looked out of the window and saw Tony and Julie climbing on top of the containers looking for the one they wanted.

  “What do you think we should do then? Just sail away?” I asked.

  “No good, she can track us with her satellites, there is no where we can go that she can’t follow us.” Sam reminded me.

  “We need to block the satellites, is that something that Ava could do? Spoof our location or something?” I asked.

  “Not really.” Sam answered. “The only way to beat the satellites is to go up high. They are designed to track ground-based objects, that’s how their sensors are configured. The higher we go and the faster we move, the harder it is to track us visually.”

  “Pardon me.” The captain interrupted. “You know that this ship is being tracked right?” He said in his slight German accent.

  “Was being tracked.” Sam corrected. “We jammed all communication in and out of the ship as soon as we landed. That was the easy bit.”

  “If we go high, we need to seal up the Armillary if want to keep breathing, and stock it with everything we need from this ship.” I started to check things off in my head, food, water, toilet paper, just the essentials.

  “No, your thinking too small.” Sam interrupted. “We can’t take all the contents of this ship with us, but we could take this whole ship.”

  “You mean…” I started.

  “Yep.” Sam interrupted.

  “Your mad!”

  “I know, but if we seal it up and attach some of your orbs to the bulk of the ship we could lift the whole thing out of the water.” Sam stood next to me, looking out of the window and I could see the cogs turning as he thought it through.

  “That could work. The ship is already sturdy, it’s designed for some intense forces on the sea, so a nice gentle float in the atmosphere could work.” I replied.

  “Didn’t you say you found containers of robots too. If we unpack them, they can start work welding everything up, making it airtight.” Sam suggested.

  “We have a few robot containers at the bottom the stacks.” The captain interrupted.

  “Can we use the cranes to move the containers around?” I asked as I turned to face the captain.

  “Yes. No problem, we just have to make sure we keep the balance correct.” The captain replied, happy that he was being useful. He turned to the crew and yelled something in German, then they all ran out of the room, down the stairs and towards the cranes that flanked the edge of the ship.

  “What have you got in mind?” Sam asked, he could tell my head was racing with ideas again.

  “Well, we could move the containers around the edge of the Armillary, then stack them over the top, weld them up and create a huge room, that way we could get to the Armillary without stepping outside.” I suggested.

  “I like it. We need to make sure that the entire ship is accessible from airtight passageways, this might require a lot of re-arranging of containers so we can get into them.” Sam added.

  “Robots can seal containers together to create corridors and walkways. Then we just need to link it to the existing ship which should only need a few patches to seal it up.” I replied.

  “Yes, and the robots can take apart some of the containers and the metal sheeting to help patch the ship.” Sam said excitedly.

  “And if we pressurise the ship it will help the robots find leaks before we lift off.”

  It was all coming together. The robots were capable of working very quickly with projects like this so we estimated we could get the ship airborne soon.
r />   I reached into my pocket and retrieved my phone. I loaded up an application that allowed me to design work instructions for the robots and started tapping away.

  This was second nature to me. Too many hours had been spent controlling these machines, trying to get them to work how I wanted over the years and I had learnt all the little skills that made a good instruction even better.

  I knew exactly what I wanted to order these robots to do and by the time we had them out of the containers I would have the perfect set of instructions to turn this entire ship into an airtight aircraft.

  “Excuse me for interrupting.” The captain said, breaking my concentration. “Why is it so important to make the ship airtight?”

  Obviously he had been listening but hadn’t understood the reason why.

  “It is going to get a bit hard to breath and very cold outside.” Sam explained.

  “But the weather guide suggests easy sailing.” The captain objected.

  “That might be the situation down here.” Sam added.

  “Down… here…” The captain stuttered and then realised what we were proposing, his face went white.

  I continued to prepare a program for the robots and eventually Ava and Hank returned from their adventure. They had been down in the refrigeration unit and they both looked very cold.

  “Well there is enough food down there to feed everyone for quite some time, even enough to keep Hank fed.” Ava informed us during her debrief. “There is also a lot of other stuff, strange metals that seem to shimmer as you get closer, weird test tubes full of strange liquids and plants that, even though they are frozen, just don’t look right. Perhaps one the biologists should take a look?”

  “Tony or Julie?” I reminded her as she had clearly forgot their names.

  “Yep, it’s more their department.” She shot me a grin for helping her out. “I am much more interested in the supercomputer down there though.”

  She reached into her backpack and pulled out a laptop.

  “Supercomputer?” Sam and I asked.

  “Yeah. It makes sense, computers have to be kept cool so keep it in the refrigeration unit.” Ava replied like it was an obvious comment. “It looks super expensive so I want to know what it can do. If that’s fine with you I am going to pop down and try and talk to it?” Ava said as she lifted her laptop in the air.