by William Wood
“A blue robot,” Jax said. “Is that the working-class robot?”
“Might be,” Calvin said, pressing a button another twelve floors down. “And what, the black robots are technicians?”
“And the silver one is in charge.” They watched the blue robot clean the floor until the doors closed. When the doors opened again they found a large empty room.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as Calvin hoped. They made four more stops, but none of them led into the city. The doors closed again, and Calvin selected a level much farther down. This time the trip lasted a lot longer.
Suddenly light flooded the elevator. Calvin smiled; they were over the city.
“I still don’t see any people,” Jax said. “The streets are all empty.” Both of them stared out the windows, trying to scan the city quickly, knowing they only had a few minutes until the elevator dropped below the city’s ground level. Calvin couldn’t wait to get down there and walk around. He wanted to go up to the top of the tallest building. When the elevator passed the ground floor, Calvin saw something that looked like an entry point.
“What was that?” Jax asked.
“It looked like a way in,” Calvin said. “Did you see what level it was?”
“That one,” Jax said. When the elevator stopped, Calvin pressed the button Jax had pointed to, and they went back up.
The doors opened, and they stepped out. Calvin looked up at the glass elevator tube that stretched up into the vast heights above until it disappeared into the roof of the dome. They followed a stone sidewalk that led away from the elevator. Buildings lined the path on both sides. The path wasn’t straight; it wound its way between buildings. They couldn’t see anything because of the buildings. It was like walking through a thick forest, but instead of trees, it was concrete and glass. For the most part the path led consistently downward. They passed small shops on both sides. The windows were dark, and the rooms inside were empty except for furniture. The doors were all different colors and were covered with intricate designs. It looked like someone had gone to great pains to put a personal touch on each one.
It was very strange to walk past all the empty buildings and dark windows. The air was still and heavy. It almost felt like Calvin could feel a deep sadness in the air. Even the small saplings that lined the path seemed to droop with despair. Ten minutes later they entered a large courtyard. In the middle was a fountain, surrounded by a circle of white stones. The fountain was off, and the pool was dry. There were brightly painted doors and windows looking over the square. Each window had a small flowerbox under it, but they were all empty.
The path continued on the other side of the square, down and consistently toward the tallest building in the city. The path ended near the shore of a large lake. The surface of the lake was like glass, perfectly reflecting the tall buildings. The path circled the lake.
“Wow,” Jax said. “It’s beautiful.”
“It sure is,” Calvin said. “It almost reminds me of New Arlandia City.”
“You’re right.” The tallest building was across from them, on the other side of the lake. They took the left path, for no particular reason. There was an open grassy area between the path and the lake, and a small sandy beach. The parks were very well kept and clean. There were freshly painted park benches facing the lake and nicely cut grass, and the path looked like it had been scrubbed clean.
Calvin tried to imagine a time when this city wasn’t empty, when the walking path and park were crowded with people out enjoying the fresh air. There could have been people out with their children, buying balloons from vendors on the street, maybe flying kites.
It was a longer walk than he thought it was going to be. When they started walking around the lake Calvin guessed it would take about twenty minutes. They arrived in front of the giant building over an hour later at the bottom of a long, steep stone stairway. It was very wide, and it went right up to the main doors of the building. Calvin and Jax climbed to the top of the stairs, and they turned around. At this level they were just over the lake, and they could see all of it.
The green park wrapped all the way around the lake, and there were several small docks; two had boats tied up to them. Calvin looked up. The top of the building looked like it was hidden in clouds. The doors were unlocked and slid open when Jax touched them. The room inside was clean, just like everywhere else on the ship. There was no dust, and everything looked highly polished. They walked into a huge open room, layered with balconies that seemed to house offices on each level. Tall, dark red, richly carved pillars lined the walls. In the middle of the room was a large fountain, which wasn’t turned on. There were small white tables and chairs around the fountain, and a small café off to the side. On the far right side of the room were several elevators. In the middle of two different sets of elevators was a silent, unmoving escalator that disappeared into the heights above. Calvin walked to the nearest set of elevators, and he pressed the up button. The doors opened instantly, and they both stepped inside. The inside of the elevator was very plush, with deep, soft carpet, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows on three sides.
There was a large control panel that glowed with a soft blue light. There were a lot of buttons, but there was only one place Calvin wanted to go, so he pressed the top button.
The doors closed silently. The elevator moved slowly at first, then picked up speed. Calvin looked out one of the windows. There was nothing to look at until the elevator lifted out into open space. At first he thought the elevator was no longer attached to the building, when in fact it was hanging off the side. The elevator accelerated, climbing the building at an impressive speed. Jax stood in one corner, holding onto the handrails tightly, until his knuckles turned white.
The elevator ride was very smooth, but Calvin held onto the handrail too. The ride up was short. They were so entranced by the view that they barely noticed when the elevator slowed and gently came to a stop. Calvin and Jax left the elevator and walked into a large round room with tall windows all the way around. In the center of the room was a staircase. Calvin ignored the view and went straight for the staircase, intent on finding the highest point of the building he could reach. Jax followed close behind. There was a glass door at the top of the stairs. He pushed it open, and a blast of cold air hit him. There were four more steps to walk up, and then they were out onto an open roof. Calvin was struck with awe and fear at the same time. He slowly approached a metal railing and looked out over the city below.
“Oh, wow,” Jax whispered. “This is amazing.” Thousands of buildings, green parks, and small lakes filled the city. But one structure got Calvin’s attention. It was on the edge of the city, a dark gray building with long, thin windows running down all sides. A gold-colored dome was on top.
“That's an interesting building,” Calvin said. “Do you see the dome, right over there?”
“The gold one?”
“I wonder what's in it,” Calvin said. “It’s the only building that has gold on it.”
“That must mean it’s important. On New Arlandia only very special buildings have gold on them. We should check it out.”
“Good idea,” Calvin said. “We can go there next. What's that?” He pointed to a long, thin line that wound its way around the city, circling like a ring about halfway inside.
“It looks like an elevated train.”
“How did we miss that? We must have walked right under it.” Calvin looked up. From this high up he could see the top of the glass dome, and the darkness of space above him. It was breathtaking, and the cold air blowing in his face felt good. He didn’t want to leave. He could have stayed there all day, but he wanted to keep exploring the city. They spent thirty more minutes at the top, admiring the view. When they were done, they headed back down to the street level.
“I think the gold dome is that way,” Jax said. Calvin agreed, and they marched off. They hiked for several hours, but they couldn’t find the dome. They walked until they were completely lost an
d wandered around the city aimlessly for several more hours. They passed an uncountable number of shops, restaurants, and office buildings, and they crossed dozens of wide streets that looked like the ones at home that hover cars drove on. They never saw a single person or animal the entire time. The silence that smothered them was eerie and emotionally draining. Several times they went to the top of a building, in the hopes of getting a bearing on where they were, or at least to see the dome; they had no such luck.
They were both tired and hungry, and even though they were together, they felt lonely. Calvin was getting very worried. He hated being lost. He was on the verge of losing hope, when finally they reached the edge of the city and stumbled on a way out. A waiting elevator took them back to the bridge. On the way up, they caught a glimpse of the gold dome.
“We were way off,” Jax said.
“And again, we didn’t see the elevated train.”
They made it back to their rooms without seeing any robots on the bridge.
When Calvin came out of the bathroom he found a covered tray on the table. He lifted the cover to find dinner. He was so happy when steam rose into the air, and the smell filled the room. It was exactly what he needed—a nice hot dinner. He sat and ate. When he was finished he put his tray out in the hallway and went to bed.
Calvin lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. His mind refused to shut off. He couldn’t stop thinking about his family. Did they think he was dead? Were they looking for him? He desperately wanted to contact them and let them know he was all right. He also wanted to tell them where he was, but the problem was he didn’t know where he was. He needed to keep looking for a communications center. But the ship was so huge, and everything looked strange to him. Everything was written in a strange alien language. The robots couldn’t understand him, and he couldn’t understand them. Whenever he asked them if he could contact New Arlandia, they replied, but he had no idea what they were saying. He was losing hope of ever contacting home.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
THE GOLD DOME
Calvin awoke the next morning and climbed out of bed. He was anxious to get back out, determined to find a way to contact New Arlandia. Just like the day before, when he got out of the shower he found clean clothes and breakfast waiting for him. He had to admit that even though it was difficult to be away from his family and not know how or if he was going to get home, he was living very comfortably, and all his needs were being met. This was the life. However, there were two questions nagging him. Where were the robots taking them, and what were they going to do with them when they got there? He consoled himself with the thought that if they planned on harming them, they would have done it already, and if they were destined for a prison cell they would be in one now and not be waited on hand and foot. Calvin and Jax ate breakfast together.
“It looks like we’re free to go wherever we want on the ship,” Jax said.
“They don’t seem to be very worried about what we’re doing,”
Calvin said. “At least we have that going for us.”
“Do you really think we’re going to find a way to contact Space
Command?” Jax asked. “Because I’m having serious doubts. Even if we
could find a terminal, we don’t know how to use their computers. I bet
there’s a dozen communications terminals on the bridge, but we can’t ask
the robots to help us, because they can’t understand us.”
“I don’t know what else to do,” Calvin said. “We might have to
start playing with the computers on the bridge. Between the two of us we
might figure them out.”
“I wonder how long the robots will let us do that.”
“We’ll never know until we try.”
“OK,” Jax said. “But if we can’t, then what?”
“Jax, I have no idea. I still want to find the gold dome. I have a
feeling there’s something important in it.”
“Let’s do that next then. If I know you, you won’t think about
anything else until we get into it. I’m curious myself.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Then let’s get going,” Jax said. “If we get lost again we’re
going to need a lot of time.”
“Time is something we have a lot of,” Calvin said.
They finished eating, and they walked upstairs to the bridge.
Calvin was relieved when they walked around the bridge and the robots
didn’t seem to care.
When the door closed, Jax said, “And now we know for sure.
They don’t care what we’re doing.”
They took the elevator directly to the city and searched for the
gold dome.
“It feels really good to be in the city again,” Calvin said as they
walked down the walkway toward the lake. “It feels like we’re on an
alien planet, not on a spaceship.”
“We’re in an alien city,” Jax said. “Have you seen the size of this
ship? We might as well be on an alien planet.”
They followed the sidewalk for thirty minutes to the first
fountain. There, they found another path leading out of it. They followed
that to the side of a wide street.
“It’s nice down here, even if we’re the only ones.”
“Not quite,” Jax said pointing. As they crossed a street, they saw
four blue robots cleaning the sidewalks. So that was why the city was so
clean.
Calvin and Jax followed a sidewalk for about an hour, until they
passed under an elevated rail track.
“Finally,” Jax said. It was at least fifty feet above them and
passed between buildings on both sides of the street.
“Excellent, now we just need to follow it. Hopefully we can find
a train station.”
“It’ll be better than walking.” There was a path under the tracks that Calvin and Jax followed. It was a very pleasant path, like walking through a garden full of plants, flowers, small fountains, and ponds. They followed the trail for a few blocks and found what they were looking for. Hidden in between two buildings and under several large trees was a
platform. Calvin led the way up the stairs to the top.
“Oh, yeah!” Calvin shouted when they reached the top. “What
were the chances?” Sitting at the station was a train. It was white with
bright red stripes, and it had four cars; the front and back were bullet
shaped. They walked to the front of the train, and the door opened
automatically. Jax seemed reluctant to go in, but Calvin led the way.
They walked past rows of leather seats to the front. Calvin sat down at
the controls. Jax sat right behind him. The controls were simple. A large
lever sat in the middle of a console. Even though he couldn’t read the
words on the console, it seemed simple enough. Calvin didn’t honestly
expect anything to happen when he pushed the lever forward gently. He
was extremely happy when all of the doors closed and the train moved
forward.
Calvin and Jax both shouted. Calvin pushed the throttle a little
more, and the train surged forward. It was a very smooth ride between
the buildings and over the tops of the trees. Every ten blocks the train
glided through a station. When the train turned a corner, a large building
loomed in front of them, and it had a golden dome on top. At the next
station, Calvin brought the train to a stop, and the doors opened. Across
the station, on another set of tracks, was a second train. Its doors were
open, and three orange robots were working inside one of the cars. It
looked like they were performing maintenance.
“Hey, look
at that, orange robots,” Jax pointed out. “That must
be the maintenance class.”
“I wonder how many other classes there are,” Calvin said. Tall trees surrounded the station. Thick branches hung over rows
of benches, where passengers could sit and wait. A faint scent of lilac
filled the air. Calvin and Jax took the stairs down to the street. It was a
short walk to the dome, which sparkled beautifully in the simulated
sunlight. They walked up the stairs and entered through two doors. Shafts of light streamed through windows, down on rows and
rows of bookshelves.
“It looks like a library,” Calvin said, disappointed.
“I really don’t know what you expected to find in here. Did you
think we were going to find a communications center, with signs on the
wall saying, ‘Come this way if you want to call home?’”
“Yeah, I guess I was,” Calvin said. He shrugged and walked
toward the nearest rack of books.
“Wait,” Jax said. “Where are you going?”
“After everything it took to find this place, I want to look
around.”
Calvin wandered around, taking down books at random and
looking in them. The books were all in an alien language. In the center of
the room was a large glass elevator that looked like a big bubble. Calvin
took it to several floors, but the only thing he found were books and
more books. He even went to the top floor. There was nothing there
except more books.
Sad and disappointed, Calvin went back to the main level, near
the entrance.
“You were right,” Calvin said. “There’s nothing here.” “I found some interesting art,” Jax said. “Come take a look.” Jax led Calvin to the back, where there was a row of paintings
hanging on a wall. They all looked fairly ordinary, except for the first
one. It was very dark. A large dark face filled most of the picture. “That looks scary,” Calvin said.
