by William Wood
“Do you think that’s the Dark Terror?”
“I don’t know. It could be.” They stared at it for several minutes,
unable to look away.
It was hard to see details, because everything in the painting was
dark, but after staring at it for a while Calvin noticed the shape of a
mountain behind the man.
“Doesn’t it look like his eyes are real?” Jax said.
Calvin turned away and shivered. “A little too real,” he said, and
walked away. “Let’s get out of here.”
They took the train the rest of the way around the city until they
reached their starting point. As soon as they got back to their rooms, the
robots brought them dinner. Tired, and a little depressed, Calvin said
goodnight to Jax, went back to his own room, and went to bed.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
ALERIA
The next morning, Calvin and Jax worked on the bridge, trying to find a communications terminal. It was slow, exhausting work that yielded very little except frustration. Eventually, Calvin got impatient and went back to exploring the ship, but he was unable to find anything that looked like a way to call home. When he got tired of exploring, Calvin went back to the bridge and helped Jax. Days of agony passed slowly, and they both grew restless and worried. They were completely unable to control what was happening to them, while hurtling through space to some unknown destination.
Finally, on the fifth day, the ship emerged from hyperspace on the edge of a small planetary system. It was early in the morning, and Calvin felt the ship change back to normal space. In fact, that’s what woke him up.
He got out of bed and looked out the window. A small bluegreen planet floated way off in the distance. He pressed a button on the side of the window, which brought down a small scope. Calvin had discovered it during his days of boredom. He put the planet in the middle of the view finder and enlarged it. He turned on the wall monitor, and the planet filled the screen. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It had deep blue oceans and land masses with mountains, lakes, rivers, and grassy plains. On one southern continent was a large city. The ship moved slowly, heading straight for the planet.
Calvin jumped when the door chimed. It was a robot with a tray of food and new clothes. He was grateful they were feeding and clothing him, but each day he was feeling more like a prisoner or zoo specimen.
As usual, Jax showed up with his tray, and they ate breakfast together. “It’s nice to see the stars again,” Jax said. “I wonder where we
are.”
“This might be their home world. I’ve been dreading this
moment.”
“Me too. What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “But we’re at their mercy.
Hopefully they’re just curious about us, and they are taking us home to
figure out what to do with us. If not, we might be in trouble.” “Maybe we’ll get to meet the people in charge. I hope so. Then
we can find a way to talk to them, and ask them to take us home." “I love your optimism,” Calvin said. “I hope you’re right.” “Me too.”
When they finished eating, two black robots showed up and
escorted them to the bridge.
The room wasn’t as empty as it normally was. Calvin counted
fifteen black robots, all busy working at computer stations. The silver robot was standing in the middle of the captain’s
platform. As soon as Calvin and Jax arrived, it pointed its hand at the
planet and spoke. The robot must have known that they were unable to
understand because it didn’t wait for an answer. The silver robot walked
down the stairs, and it motioned for them to follow it to the elevator.
Once in, the door closed, and they descended into the depths of the ship.
When it stopped, they all stepped out.
“Wow,” Calvin said. They were in an immense hangar bay full
of spaceships. There were bombers, fighters, and shuttles parked close
together. They followed the robots through a maze of ships to a small
shuttle resting near the hangar door.
The silver robot entered through a rear door and sat in the pilot’s
chair. Calvin and Jax sat behind him. Four black robots climbed on board
just before the door closed, and they sat in the rear seats. They looked
tougher than the other robots; they were black with dark red stripes. They
were heavily armed; each one carried a long rifle and a pistol. “Seat belts,” Calvin said, quickly putting his on. The belt
crisscrossed over his chest, holding him in the seat firmly.
The silver robot turned on the flight computer. The buttons and
dials lit up with a soft white light. The engines hummed to life. The giant
doors slowly opened.
Calvin felt a surge of excitement and fear as the ship slowly
lifted up and moved out into space.
The small shuttle accelerated toward the planet. It was
remarkably fast. They approached the planet quickly. The sky below was
full of clouds. The shuttle entered the atmosphere with a loud hiss, and it
was briefly enveloped in fire. They leveled out over a large city. Tall
buildings stretched off in all directions.
Descending toward the surface, Calvin saw that the city was
heavily damaged. Some buildings were completely destroyed, lying in
ruins. Large piles of debris were all that remained of them. Huge craters
pitted the city surface.
Almost all of the buildings that were still standing showed signs
of damage. Some were more heavily damaged than others, but they all
seemed to have gaping holes in them. The city had definitely seen better
days. It must have been a very big battle.
On the horizon Calvin saw one building that stood out among all
of the others. It was extremely tall. At least three times as tall as the other
buildings around it. It was thin, and on the top there was a needlelike
spire that reached high into the sky. It was a breathtaking sight. He was
completely stunned at what he was seeing. One side of the building was
severely damaged, like the facade had been scraped off. There were
thousands of holes in it. It was amazing that the building was still
standing.
The silver robot took them in low and gently landed the shuttle
on a large platform near the ground. There was a soft bump as they
touched the ground. The engines shut down, and the sound slowly died
down and went silent.
Calvin and Jax took off their seatbelts. The robot turned the
computers off and got out of his chair. One of the black robots was
already up and moving toward the door.
When the door opened, cold air flooded the shuttle. The air
smelled very odd. It was a musty, dirty, moldy, old-metal smell all
wrapped in one. By the time Calvin got out of his chair and made his
way back to the door, all of the robots were outside and were walking
across the wide landing platform. The ground was covered with cracks.
Calvin and Jax had to run to catch up to the robots, across the platform toward a large gold and purple archway that marked the entrance to the building. The wind was blowing harder out in the open. It felt like it went right through their clothes and down to their bones. Calvin wished he
was wearing more than just a light jacket.
The building towered above them. The sides were silver and
smooth, and they reflected brightly in the sun. Thin, wispy white clouds
floated in the sky above.
“Where are we?” Calvin asked in awe, staring at his
surroundings.
“I don't know,” Jax said. “But it looks like this place has been
dead for a long time. If only my dad could see this. I wonder what he
would say.”
“He’d say what everyone else would say. ‘I told you so. This is
what happens when you don’t mind your own business.’”
“You’re right,” Jax said.
As they neared the entrance, Calvin continued to gaze up in the
sky. He couldn’t stop looking at all of the damaged buildings. Then a
small dark object caught his eye. He almost missed it, but there was no
mistaking what it was. It was a spaceship! It looked like the same one
that Calvin had seen a few days ago on the bridge of the mother ship. He
stopped, as if frozen, and stared at it. The robots continued walking
toward the entrance. Then he saw something that truly alarmed him; it
was moving, coming toward them!
“Um, guys, what is that?” Calvin asked, pointing at the
approaching spaceship. The silver robot looked up. When it saw the
spaceship it made a loud, sharp noise.
“I hope it’s friendly,” Jax said. “Please tell me it’s one of yours.” The robot replied with a short grating noise, and then it rattled
something off quickly to the others in a loud, excited voice. All the
robots started running. Calvin got left behind very quickly.
“Wait! Slow down! Wait for me!” Calvin shouted.
“Hurry up!” Jax shouted.
The arch leading into the building was very big and ornately
decorated. The robots didn’t bother trying to open the door. One of the
black robots threw itself into it. The door didn’t stand a chance. The
robot flew through the door, disintegrating it into a thousand pieces. A
loud boom echoed off the buildings. The other robots made the hole bigger as they rammed their way through. Calvin and Jax followed, carefully climbing over the debris that was left behind. They were enveloped in darkness as they ran down a long hallway. Powerful beams of light came out of the robots’ eyes, lighting up the whole area. Large puffs of dust and dirt were thrown into the air with every footstep. They followed the main hallway as it led them up and down stairs, down long corridors, and through sections that had lots of turns. Calvin was tired
and was having a hard time keeping up with Jax and the robots. The inside of the building was in an advanced state of decay.
Stones were cracked, and debris covered the floor. In many places they
had to jump over big chunks of rock that had fallen out of the ceiling,
and there were a lot of gaping holes in the floor. The robots went over
the obstacles in their path effortlessly, like they weren’t there. Calvin’s legs were getting tired. Finally they entered a large
open room that looked like a stadium. Rows of empty seats wrapped all
the way around and stretched from the ground level up into the heights
above. There were cracks and holes in the roof above, letting in shafts of
sunlight. The robots turned their lights off.
They ran down a main aisle to the middle of the stadium. In the
center was a circle of padded chairs. They looked like they had been
rotting for a very long time. One of the chairs in the circle looked bigger
than the others. Not too far away was a set of stairs that went down into
the floor, where there was a row of computers. They were covered with a
thick layer of dust and small rocks. One of the black robots plugged
himself into it and fed power directly into one of the computers. The silver robot followed and activated an intercom system. The
silver robot spoke into it. His voice seemed to echo throughout the entire
city. It spoke for a moment and then stopped.
Suddenly, people appeared, sitting in the circle of chairs. They
looked like they were human, a mixture of men and women. They were
glowing and occasionally flickered slightly. The person in the biggest
chair, an older man with a gray beard, spoke. He talked in the same
language that the robots had been speaking. Calvin was unable to
understand it, but he was beginning to hear the same words repeated over
and over. The man spoke for several minutes, barely pausing between
sentences. At first his voice sounded flat, as if he were repeating facts,
then he changed, increasing in emotion and intense pleading. Calvin was fascinated as he listened to the man. Who was he?
He was obviously the man in charge, but what was going on? Was this a
recorded message, or was he speaking live from somewhere else? Was
he a hologram? When the man was done speaking, he ended his message
with what sounded like an emotional plea. Suddenly the images of all of
the people disappeared. They were left in silence again. The robots
talked briefly to each other and then indicated it was time to leave. The
silver robot pointed his hand at the exit and said something. The robots began running again, back the way they had come,
leaving Calvin and Jax behind.
“We weren’t supposed to do this much running,” Jax said
between gasps. Calvin was relieved when the robots stopped suddenly.
When he caught up to them he discovered why they had stopped. Calvin
stepped out in front to get a better look. He had to strain to see them, but
way off down the hallway was a group of shadowy figures. The corridor
was dark, lit only by the robots’ eye lights, and there was a lot of dust
and dirt floating in the air. It was very hard to see, but judging by the
way they were moving, it looked they like were running. They were all
carrying long, thin black objects, which could have only been one thing:
guns. Suddenly the figures all stopped, leveled their guns, and opened
fire on Calvin, Jax and the robots.
Everything happened very quickly. Simultaneously, small doors
on all of the robots’ arms opened, and laser guns snapped out. Two
robots moved in front and shielded Calvin and Jax from the laser fire.
They took several hits but seemed unaffected. They pointed their arms
down the hallway and fired several shots at the attackers. The silver
robot grabbed Calvin’s arm and pulled him back. The robots turned and
ran back toward the stadium. Calvin ran alongside the silver robot. Jax
did his best to keep up, but it was clear he was getting tired too. The
robots fired their lasers as they ran. Calvin wondered if their shots were
hitting anything. He looked back, but he couldn’t see anything. They ran as fast as they could, barely keeping up with the robots.
The sound of laser fire echoed throughout the hallway. Explosions hit the
ceiling and walls all around them. Blood-chilling screams and shouts
could be heard coming from the darkness. It was a frantic, running
firefight all the way back into the stadium.
When they entered the stadium, they all ran in different directions. The silver robot stayed with Calvin and Jax. For a brief moment they were out of sight, and they knew it. But the enemy soldiers were right behind them. Calvin ran as fast as he could across the center of the stadium and up a sloped ramp on the other side. Laser shots lanced through the air above his head. The silver robot took a direct hit on its back while trying to shield Calvin. Suddenly a barrage of laser fire sprayed the area. Calvin fell to the ground and crawled behind a row of seats. A loud explosion shook the floor, an
d a wave of fire passed over the seats. After it passed, Calvin sat up, half blinded by the flashes and confused by the noise of shooting, screaming, and explosions. Jax was
lying on the ground near him, but he wasn’t moving.
“Jax, get up,” Calvin shouted. But he didn’t move. Calvin
crawled to Jax. Laser shots flew overhead; Calvin kept his head down.
When he finally reached Jax, the first thing he noticed was the large
wound in the center of his chest.
“Jax,” Calvin cried. “No!”
The silver robot grabbed Calvin and pulled him up to his feet. A
black robot picked Jax up and carried him.
“Wait, be careful with him!” Calvin yelled. “He’s hurt!” The silver robot shouted at Calvin and pulled him up. Calvin
stumbled up the ramp while being dragged along by the robot.
Explosions erupted all around them, and entire rows of decaying seats
were engulfed in fire. They ran through a small tunnel near the top of the
stadium. Calvin wiped tears from his eyes, crushed with panic and fear. At the end of the hallway they plowed down a flight of stairs. It
was dark, and Calvin couldn’t see. The robots’ lights were on, but there
was too much dust and dirt choking the air.
“Wait,” Calvin screamed. “I can’t keep up!” The robots were
leaving him behind again. After he yelled, one of the black robots turned
and positioned itself behind Calvin. The robots pressed on. It seemed to
Calvin that they were running faster than before. Calvin fought to
breathe, desperately pushing harder to keep up. His legs and back ached
badly. Each step took more effort than the one before. Fear and
adrenaline were pumping through him, giving him energy he didn’t
really have. Just when it seemed they lost their pursuers, the figures
would appear suddenly without warning, blasting the air with
uncontrolled swarms of laser fire.
“Hey!” Calvin yelled at the black robot carrying Jax. “Is he all
right?” The robot didn’t answer. “Jax, can you hear me?” They rounded a
corner and entered a huge open room. They were at the top of a steep
stairway. There was a row of doors at the bottom. Calvin stopped at the
