by Tom Hoffman
Sophia had a grim expression. “I had the dream again last night. The one about time stopping. It was even scarier this time. It was hard for me to move, as though my own body was slowing down. In the dream I knew there was only one way to prevent time from stopping.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember, and I don’t know who or what was trying to stop time. The only thing I know is we have to hurry.”
Chapter 19
Three Percent
“All our adventures should be like this.” Orville was perched comfortably on the back of the great silver spider, reclining in his stuffed green chair with a plate of tasty cakes balanced on one leg. He flicked his wrist and a tall glass of lemonade appeared. “Mmm, nothing goes better with Proto’s tasty little cakes than fresh lemonade.”
Sophia laughed. “I wish I had a camera so I could have a picture of this for the next Metaphysical Adventurers meeting. You’d probably get a gold medal for the most relaxing adventure of the year.”
Orville gave Sophia an indignant glare. “You seem to have forgotten how I bravely faced a savage horde of malicious mutant purple flowers trying to turn me into their bedtime snack. That was not exactly relaxing. I should get three gold medals for that alone.”
“Don’t get in a dither, Captain Orville. Enjoy your tasty cakes.” Sophia scanned the horizon for any sign of the Great Arch. They had left the city far behind and were crossing a broad rocky plain.
“It looks as though there could have been a forest here at one time. The only sign of it now are those petrified stumps, if that’s what they are. I don’t know how the Anarkkians did it, but they destroyed everything.”
Proto nodded as he deftly guided the spider through a maze of irregular shaped boulders strewn across the plains. “I believe they used cloud bombs, devices which eliminate all life forms over a vast area. I have read it takes over a thousand years for vegetation to return after a cloud bomb attack.”
“That’s dreadful.”
Orville was reaching for a tasty cake when the spider veered sharply, the plate of treats toppling off his leg. “Proto, what are you doing? You knocked over my plate of tasty cakes!”
Proto’s fingers were a blur on the controller. “I’m dreadfully sorry, and I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but I seem to have lost control of the spider. It is currently under the guidance of an unknown entity.”
The spider leaped forward, hurling Sophia back into her chair. “We’re going too fast! Slow us down!” The monstrous spider was racing across the rocky plains, its silver legs flashing wildly in the low afternoon light.
“I’m afraid I have lost all control of both our speed and direction!”
Orville hollered, “Let’s blink off this thing before it kills us!”
Sophia held up her paw. “No! Stay where you are, my inner voice told us we must make no attempt to alter the course of events.”
“That doesn’t make sense! Suppose the spider runs into a wall at fifty miles an hour?”
“Orville, it was my inner voice. It’s never wrong.”
Orville glanced behind them and gave a loud yelp. “Spiders behind us!”
Sophia turned, spotting five mammoth attack spiders a hundred yards behind them. “Keep low! Are they chasing us?”
“More of them on the right! They’re passing us!” Seven of the gigantic silver automatons were thundering across the plains only a hundred feet to the right of them.
Proto cried out, “On the left, more spiders! They’re forming a gigantic herd similar to wild Nirriimian nadwokks.”
“Where are we going?” Orville was gripping the side of the chair so hard his paws ached. “Hold on!” With a flick of his wrist he shaped a set of heavy canvas safety harnesses securing him and Sophia to their seats.
“Thanks! Proto, how fast is the spider moving?”
“Sixty-six miles an hour, an astonishing rate of speed for a biomechanical arachnid.”
“We’re right in the center of the stampede! There must be a hundred spiders. Look at them all! I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“None of them are even looking at us. No force beams to worry about.”
Proto nodded. “They are no longer autonomous. A deeper system is controlling their actions, directing them all to an unknown location.”
The massive herd of gleaming attack spiders continued their frenetic race across the barren terrain for almost an hour. Finally the pace diminished.
“We’re slowing down. Look up ahead, a big bunch of spiders are lying down.”
“There’s a big golden sphere behind them. It could be a scout ship.”
The herd reduced its pace to a brisk trot, then to an easy walk. The entire group moved in unison, forming a gigantic grid, twelve spiders across and twelve deep. As the spiders sank to the ground, their glowing red eyes dimmed to a dull black sheen.
“What is this place, Proto?”
“It appears to be their home base. Perhaps it is a maintenance facility, similar to the Cube where the glowbirds go. More than likely they return here to be repaired, although it is highly unlikely there would be any Anarkkians left to service them.”
“Shhh!” Sophia ducked down and pointed toward the large golden sphere. A panel had slid open and a creature was emerging.
“What is that thing?”
Proto flipped on his sensors and scanned the unknown entity. “It is a biomechanical biped possessing engineered intelligence.”
“It’s walking like a hundred year old mouse, like it needs a cane. It looks old and tired.”
Sophia studied the robotic creature as it approached the grid of spiders. The creature was nearly as tall as Proto but very thin, its arms and legs formed from silver tubing no more than two or three inches in diameter. Its face was a tall golden oval with two fluorescent green eyes.
“It’s talking to one of the spiders.” The gangly creature had hobbled over to one of the silver arachnids and was resting its hand on the creature’s side.
Sophia unlatched her safety harness. “I’m going to talk to it.” Without waiting for a reply she slid down the side of the spider and headed toward the elderly silver automaton. Orville and Proto hopped down from the spider and followed her.
When the creature saw Sophia it gazed at her without expression. Sophia approached the gaunt figure slowly, not wishing to startle it. When she was six feet away the creature said, “You are here to take us home?” It pointed its long arm skyward.
“You are trying to get home?”
“I am three percent. Many of the spiders are gone and I am unable to revive them.”
“Who are you?”
“I am the last mechanic. The others are gone, zero percent, all of them.”
“You are three percent? What does that mean?”
“My power level is three percent. My time is almost over. I must take the spiders home before I am zero percent.”
“You take care of the spiders? You repair them?”
“I am the last mechanic. The others are gone. All zero percent.”
Orville stepped closer to the mechanic. “Where is your home?”
“It is up there. When I awoke I was here. I was a mechanic at one hundred percent. It is my duty to maintain the spiders, to keep them at one hundred percent, but I have failed. Forty-two are at zero percent. Many are less than ten percent. I will be gone and there will be no mechanic to watch over them.”
Sophia felt a terrible sadness creep through her. “You did the best you could. That is all anyone can do.”
“You will not take us home?”
“I don’t know how to take you home.”
The mechanic pointed to the gold spherical building. “I will show you.” The mechanic limped painfully toward the structure.
“What happened to your leg?”
“I am three percent.”
The mechanic stepped into the sphere. “There. I touch the tabs in the correct order but the light does not
shine. They will not take us home if the light does not shine.”
Proto stepped over to the large curved control panel, studying it closely. He tapped several tabs. “No power. When is the last time these lights were on?”
The mechanic closed its eyes, deep in thought. “I was fifty-nine percent when the lights stopped. It was long ago. The spiders were all over fifty percent.”
Proto squatted down, peering beneath the panel. “There must be a power source somewhere. Do you know where it is?”
“I used to know. I have forgotten.”
Sophia put her paw on the mechanic’s arm. “We’ll find it, don’t worry.” Sophia closed her eyes and held both paws out in front of her.
Proto whispered to Orville, “What is she doing?”
“She’s letting her inner self guide her. She’s asking where the power source is and feeling the subtle pull of her inner self. It’s a little like the blue marble when it was drawn to my mum’s necklace.”
Sophia turned and stepped purposefully through the doorway. She paused for a moment, then turned again, heading toward a massive boulder. She circled around it, winding her way through the maze of jagged rocks.
“Where is she going? Shouldn’t the power source be inside the building?”
Ten minutes later Sophia stopped at the edge of a deep gully and opened her eyes. “It’s down there.”
Orville looked doubtful but clambered down, scanning the chasm. “You’re right! There’s a six foot blue cube here with big cables that go straight into the gully wall. They must carry power to the mechanic’s sphere.”
Proto hopped down and eyed the gleaming cube. “This was built by the Anarkkians. I have seen similar cubes many times on the glowbird records. There should be a grid on the side panel.” Proto looked up at the mechanic, who was standing on the ledge next to Sophia. “Was there a number? You said you pressed the tabs in a particular order.”
The mechanic nodded. “I will show you, but you must help me down. I am three percent.”
Proto gingerly lifted the mechanic down into the gully. He hobbled across the broken rocks to the cube. “I remember this. This is where the power came from. There was a number... let me think.” He tapped the grid on the side of the cube then paused and tapped again. After the eighth tap a large panel on the front of the cube whirred open.
“That is where the power came from. It is dark now. Zero percent.”
Proto looked inside the cube. “The CDETS portal has collapsed.”
The mechanic nodded. “Yes, the Cross Dimensional Energy Transfer Sphere. I remember now, I asked many times for replacements but they never sent us any.”
A look of dismay was on Sophia’s face. “I don’t know how to shape a CDETS. I don’t even know how the portal dilator is controlled.”
“I can help you with that.” A flickering holo image appeared in front of Proto. He flipped the image, spinning it rapidly until a complex diagram appeared. “That’s the schematic of a CDETS. They are essentially a small portal to the tenth dimension, a dimension of pure energy. The CDETS transfers the energy from the tenth dimension into this world. As long as the portal dilator is open they provide a virtually infinite supply of energy. They are by no means infallible, however, and are prone to collapse like this one.”
Sophia studied the diagram. “Hmm... this looks a lot like the power sources I studied in my science classes on Quintari. I think I can do this.” Sophia paused, then simultaneously flicked both her wrists. A brilliant golden light appeared, floating several feet above the ground. Orville had to shade his eyes. Sophia waved her paws again and the ball of light began to shrink, it’s brightness diminishing. There was a sudden blast of green light and a six inch silver glowing sphere appeared on the ground. “Try that.”
Proto picked up the CDETS and approached the cube. He removed the old CDETS from inside a translucent orange cylinder, then held the new CDETS over the heavy glass tube and dropped it in. It glowed brightly, floating in the center of the cylinder.
The mechanic nodded rapidly. “Yes, that’s it. That’s what it should look like. I must go now, I must initiate the light sequence.”
Proto lifted the mechanic out of the gully.
“I must go. I must touch the tabs in the proper order.”
The three adventurers followed the mechanic as he lurched back toward the golden sphere.
The mechanic stumbled through the doorway. “The lights are on, as they should be.” He took a seat in front of the curved panel, his long silver fingers pushing the rows of glowing green tabs. When he was done an overhead violet light began flashing.
Orville’s ears perked up. “Do you hear that? That humming?”
The mechanic staggered to his feet, his hands shaking. “They are here. They are here to take us home.” He hurried outside, the three adventurers behind him.
Orville looked up and nearly fell over. Half the sky was covered by an impossibly large golden disc. Sophia’s jaw dropped. “It must be a mile across!”
Proto studied the great gleaming leviathan. “I believe it has been there all along, concealed by a cloaking device. When the mechanic entered the correct code it disabled the cloak and reactivated the ship.”
Orville gave a yelp and jumped back. A brilliant beam of light had shot down from the golden disc, hitting one of the spiders. The spider blurred, traveling up the beam of light into the craft. Orville watched in astonishment as dozens of light beams flashed downward, carrying the spiders up to the great golden vessel.
The mechanic took Sophia’s paw in his slender metallic hand. “My creators sent you to bring me home. I knew it the moment I saw you.” He stepped away from the adventurers, taking his place next to the last spider. He waved to Proto and Orville. “Soon we will all be one hundred percent. Soon I shall be home.”
With two blasts of light the spider and the mechanic were gone, raised up into the ship.
The adventurers’ eyes were locked on the monolithic golden disc, waiting to see what it would do. There was no great blast of fire, no blinding light, no roaring pounding monstrous engines, no astonishing pulsating energy fields. The ship and its cargo simply vanished. It was there, and then it was not there.
Sophia made a small choking noise. “He reminded me of my gramps.”
“Soon we will all be one hundred percent.” The mechanic’s words were echoing in Orville’s ears and there was a lump in his throat. “We need to go back inside. There’s something here. I don’t know what it is, but it’s important.”
The adventurers stepped back into the last mechanic’s sphere, scouring the interior for almost an hour. They found nothing of any significance. “We can’t give up. It’s here. I know it is.”
It was Sophia who found it underneath the curved console, lodged near the wall in a dark corner beneath a small metal beam. She plucked it out with a triumphant grin, hiding it in her paw. “Orville, do you think this might be why we’re here?”
Orville looked down at Sophia’s paw. When she opened it his heart lurched. It was a sparkling translucent blue marble identical to the one his papa had given him.
“Creekers!”
Chapter 20
The Wreck
“Proto, do you know where we are? We were heading southwest, but I think the herd of spiders turned west and they were moving over sixty miles an hour.”
“The spider stampede was not traveling in a straight line, but made a long slow curve carrying us fifty miles closer to the crash site of the MV Montrosian.”
“So we just keep our eyes open for the Great Arch?”
Proto nodded. “When we find that we will have found the crash site. We must continue traveling to the southwest.” Proto strode off toward the distant ruins of a small city.
Orville look down at the cracks in the ancient road, jumping over a narrow crevasse. “It was a lot easier when we were riding on the spider. They could just step over all these gaps and fissures. I’d hate to fall into one of these.”
<
br /> It was Proto who spotted the distant glint of sunlight reflecting off metal when the afternoon sun made a rare appearance through the gloomy brown clouds. He held up his hand for them to stop.
“The sun is reflecting off something a mile to the west of us.” Proto switched his optical sensors to full spectrum and scanned the distance object. “It appears to be the wreckage of a large vessel. Perhaps I miscalculated the location of the crash site and this is where the MV Montrosian went down. We must verify the identity of the ship.”
Sophia looked puzzled. “We saw the captain walking near the arch, and that’s where he picked up the blue stone. There’s no Great Arch here.”
“Perhaps it is currently hidden from view. It may become visible once we reach the wreck.”
It took less than an hour for the three adventurers to reach the crash site. Orville stared at the twisted jumble of debris. “There couldn’t have been any survivors. Even the outer hull is destroyed.”
“It fell fifteen miles or more, if this is the MV Montrosian. Let’s try over there. That section is still intact.” Proto turned toward a massive oval shaped portion of the ship standing over a hundred feet tall. “The internal framework of that section must have been fabricated from solid Morsennium. Nothing else would hold up to such an impact.”
Orville spotted a wide gash in the side of the ship and scrambled through it into the wreckage, Sophia and Proto trailing behind him. “Creekers, these ships were enormous.”
Proto studied the ship’s interior. “I believe we are on the bridge. Look at the chairs and the large control panels. The bridge is the most heavily reinforced section of the ship, which would explain why it was relatively undamaged. If the bridge is destroyed the ship is lost.”
