by William Wood
“There you are,” Astra said, smiling. Her smile felt like a small flash of sunshine in the middle of a rainstorm.
“I brought you some tea,” she said. “To help you relax.”
“Thank you,” Calvin said, taking the cup from her. Astra sat down on the couch and took a sip of her tea.
They sat in silence for several minutes, just looking out the window and drinking their tea. The black clouds felt lighter, and Calvin realized for the first time that he felt better when he was with Astra. They talked for two hours before Astra decided she was tired. They shut the blast doors over the windows and closed the curtains.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Astra said, giving him a hug. “I know everything will be all right. I feel safe when I’m with you. We’ve been through worse situations, and we got through them. Try to get some sleep and don’t worry too much.”
“Thanks,” Calvin said. “I feel the same way. Things never seem bad when you’re around. I’m happy that I’m here. I know it sounds funny, but I feel lucky to be part of this.”
“Me too,” Astra said warmly. “Good night.”
“Good night.” Calvin felt much better as he walked back to his room. He couldn’t fall asleep right away, but slowly and eventually fell into an uncomfortable, restless sleep.
*
Lightning flashed across the sky. It was followed by a boom that shook Calvin to the core. The last group of people filed into the beam of light and vanished. King Fulton and Lady Tridara walked toward the beam, pulling Astra behind them.
“Wait,” She said, pulling against them, but their grip was too tight. She looked at Calvin, and reached out to him.
“Calvin,” she whispered. “Come with us, hurry.”
King Fulton looked at Calvin. “No, he can’t come!” The King said firmly.
“Father let me stay,” Astra begged. “He needs me.”
“Astra no!” The King shouted. “You can’t stay here! You’ll be killed!”
“So will he!”
“That’s not my concern,” he said sadly. Just as the King and Queen stepped into the beam and vanished, Astra managed to pull free. She fell backwards onto the ground and the beam disappeared. Calvin rushed over to her, and helped her to her feet.
“You stayed for me,” Calvin said.
“I said I wouldn’t leave you,” Astra said, looking into his eyes. “I meant it.”
“Thank you,” Calvin said, and they hugged.
A loud explosion appeared in the sky above them. Hundreds of space ships flying overhead had their laser guns pointed at them. There was a bright flash and a massive black hole ripped open space above them. All of the spaceships were sucked into the black hole and destroyed. Gravity reached out and grabbed them like invisible hands and began to pull them up into the sky. Calvin scrambled to find something to hold onto, but there was nothing.
*
Calvin woke up with a stab of terror, and sat up in bed. It took him a second to realize where he was. He was relieved that it was only a dream but he was still haunted by the images.
He lay back down but couldn’t fall asleep again right away. He couldn’t shake the images from his mind. It felt more real than other dreams. It wasn’t the first time he’d had that dream, but this was the first time the man and woman were the King and Queen. That made the dream even more frightening. What did it mean?
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN:
INTENSE PRESSURE
Calvin was already half awake, hovering between wakefulness and sleep when he heard a soft pop from the intercom.
“Master Calvin,” Ion said. “Please come to the bridge.”
It took a second, but when he realized he wasn’t dreaming, Calvin felt a quick jab of panic and sat up.
He jumped out of bed and dressed quickly. Normally when he didn’t sleep well he was exhausted, but not now; he was wide awake and full of energy. He entered the bridge to find Ion sitting at the main computer.
“What’s going on?” Calvin asked, standing behind Ion. He looked up to the front seats, expecting to see Astra sitting in her chair, but she wasn’t there yet.
“We have a problem,” Ion said, pointing to a monitor above his console. Calvin gasped. An enormous Goremog warship dominated the screen. It looked scary, its hull covered with tiny and medium sized laser cannons and missile launchers. The ship was black, and if not for the visual enhancers on the sensors, it would have been hard to see against the blackness of space. It was bulky and had no structures rising out of the top. The location of the bridge was not obvious. But Calvin’s eyes were drawn to the nine massive laser cannons on the front, six on the back, and twelve on the bottom. Each was larger than Azure Frost. The ultimate warship, Calvin thought, and it was heading directly towards them.
“How far away is it?” Calvin asked. “It will be over Yelsha Four in twenty minutes.”
“It’s huge.” Calvin gasped.
“It’s a battleship, one of the biggest ship classes they have. It can carry fifty space fighters, and ten thousand combat robots. Only their Titan class is bigger.”
“That’s hard to imagine.” This is always how it starts, Calvin thought. We come up with a plan, a very simple plan, and it quickly unravels. He was so fixated on the battleship that he didn’t hear the door open.
“What wrong?” Astra asked nervously, almost as if she didn’t want to ask or she didn’t want to know the answer.
“Look,” Calvin pointed at the monitor.
Astra looked at the screen, but didn’t say anything.
“Do you think they found us?” Calvin asked.
“I don’t think so,” Astra said. “They’re not launching fighters.”
Calvin’s mind raced. “What should we do?” He asked.
“We could hide in a nearby system and wait for them to leave,” Astra said. “I know it could be a while, but at least we would be safe. My father said we needed to avoid a fight, if possible.”
“Yeah, he did say that,” Calvin said thoughtfully. He moved to the front and sat down. “I don’t think we should fight either.”
“We wouldn’t stand a chance against a battleship,” Ion said.
“Right,” Calvin said. “That’s not even an option.”
“I’m glad we agree on that,” Astra said. “But what about leaving and coming back later?”
“I’m not sure I like that idea either,” Calvin said. “We don’t know how long they’ll be here. If I were them, and I had a few ships to spare, I’d leave one here permanently, as a listening post. That way I’d know if my enemies ever passed through here again.”
“That is a real possibility,” Ion said. “We’ve seen them do that before.”
“Also, what if they send a probe down into the planet’s atmosphere and find the base?” Calvin asked. “We’d lose the fifth segment. Are we willing to take that chance?”
Astra thought for a second. “Do you think they’d do that?”
“You know the Goremog better than I do,” Calvin said. “All I know is they’ve been here for a while, and they keep bringing in more reinforcements. They must suspect something, or they found the base already.”
“I don’t think so,” Ion said. “Their behavior indicates they’re still searching.”
“What, then?” Astra asked.
“We might have to risk detection,” Calvin said.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s too late to use the orbital elevator,” Calvin said. “Unless it’s cloaked. Is it cloaked?”
“No,” Astra said. “I don’t think so.”
“So the Goremog will see it; a nice, visible, slow moving target.”
“I agree sir,” Ion said. “That is not an option at this time.”
“You two are doing very well pointing out what we can’t do,” Astra said. “How about you come up with some ideas of what we can do.”
Calvin thought for a second. He could see in his mind what he wanted to do, but he needed to convey it clearl
y. “We could take the Frost into the atmosphere,” Calvin asked. “Fly down to the base, dock with it, and find the segment. Then we get out of here as fast as we can.”
“Take the ship in?” Astra asked. “I don’t know if that will even work. The pressure is going to be immensely strong down there.”
Astra sat down.
“Even with our enhanced shields?” Calvin asked.
“Yes,” Astra said. “I don’t think you appreciate how much pressure is down there. Let me check something. Ion, can you run a computer model please? Find out how much energy we can divert into the shields, and still have enough for the engines, shields, cloak and life support.”
“That model is already built into the system,” Ion said. “Stand by.”
Calvin shifted uneasily in his chair. His mind urged them to hurry, knowing the battleship was getting closer.
“This is what it will look like if we transfer all nonessential energy to the shields,” Ion said. On the screen was an image of the ship wrapped in layers of energy over rows of scrolling numbers Calvin didn’t try to read.
“That should be sufficient,” Astra said. “With just a little extra. But it’s better to have too much than not enough. Ion, keep a close eye on the shields as we descend. If they start to buckle, we can always get out and try again later. Ok, I’m starting to like this idea. Let’s do it.”
Calvin smiled; the wait was finally over.
“Ion, boost the shields,” she said. “Calvin, take us in.”
“OK, here we go,” Calvin said. He felt a surge of excitement and fear as he pushed the throttle forward and changed course to take them into the atmosphere at a gentle angle.
The ship seemed happy too. It accelerated rapidly, and responded quickly to his course corrections. With Astra’s help, Calvin found a place to enter the atmosphere as far away from enemy ships as possible.
Astra activated the shipwide intercom system. “Good morning everyone, I know it’s early, but a Goremog battleship has arrived in system and is heading our way. We’re taking the Frost down into the atmosphere to try and find the base. Just to warn you, it’s going to get a little bumpy, so secure any lose items, and find something to hold on to.”
Ion displayed the planet on the main monitor. “The atmosphere is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. We’ll encounter severe storms as soon as we cross into the gravity well,” he said. “They’ll get more severe the deeper we go, until we pass into the liquid metallic hydrogen layer; then the storms will ease due to extreme pressure, but temperatures there will increase to twentythousand degrees Celsius.”
“This sounds like one of those times that less information would be better,” Calvin commented. “And you’re sure the shields will be able to handle it?”
“Yes,” Ion said. “I believe so, but there is one other thing I want to warn you about; it will be harder to control the ship the deeper we descend. Response time will be exaggerated and the engines will require additional power.”
“You believe the shields will be able to handle it?” Calvin said.
“Sorry sir,” Ion said. “There are too many variables to be more certain.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Calvin said, and gripped the control sticks firmly. They were now gliding over the planet, just above the outer atmosphere. Silver high speed clouds sped beneath them at frightening speed.
“I should mention one other detail,” Astra added. “The Goremog will detect us as soon as we enter the atmosphere. They’ll converge very quickly and began a search for us at that location. I highly suggest you change course as soon as you can. It doesn’t matter what direction, just don’t fly in a straight line or they’ll be able to find us very quickly.”
“Got it,” Calvin said. “Do you think they’ll go in after us?”
“What do you think?” Astra asked.
“Yeah,” Calvin had a feeling they would. He gently angled Azure Frost downward. The ship touched the atmosphere and sped up. There was a firm bump as the ship touched the atmosphere and slowly descended into it. Calvin was surprised. He expected the impact to be more noticeable.
Astra watched the Goremog ships on the scanner intently. As she feared, the three scanner ships turned, increased speed headed directly towards the spot they entered into the atmosphere. The Battleship was only ten minutes away. It, too, changed course.
“They can see us!” Astra said. Calvin pushed down further on the stick, increasing their rate of descent. Visibility out the front windows was gone. All he could see were swirling silver and blue clouds. Remembering Astra’s warnings, after they had descended into the atmosphere a few hundred feet, Calvin set them on a zig zag course.
“With the information the science division gave me, I should be able to plot the orbit of the base. Just give me a minute,” Astra said.
Suddenly a massive jolt hit the ship. Calvin instinctively gripped onto the controls tighter. When he did he caused the ship to shudder again.
“Sorry,” he said. A wave of light turbulence became constant.
“Inertia dampeners are at maximum,” Astra said.
“Master Calvin,” Ion said. “I’ve configured the sensors to detect the patterns of the storm. I’ll put it up on one of your monitors.”
“OK.” Calvin said
“I can integrate it into your forward viewing area, if you’d like.”
“Sure,” Calvin said. The plain glass window changed to show the way ahead like currents in a river. Thousands of vivid multi-colored lines indicated the direction and intensity of the wind. He quickly learned that the brighter colors represented severe turbulence.
“Very cool,” he whispered. He banked the Frost hard right to avoid colliding with a torrent of fast moving air.
“I think I found the base,” Astra said. “I’m sending the coordinates to the navigation computer.”
A small green arrow appeared on the window in front of him. There were numbers above and below the arrow, telling him the direction he needed to go. Calvin followed the arrow.
At first he thought it would be easy to navigate, since he could see the variations in the storms. And initially it was, but as they went deeper and the atmosphere became thicker and heavier, the changes came faster, and it was harder to see everything. When the streams were individual they were easier to see, but several times four or five streams intersected, causing huge areas of instability.
He was able to dodge two of them, but when the third stream popped up in front of the ship it was impossible to avoid and they hit it dead on. The ship slammed into the mass of fast moving storm currents, lurching them forward into their harnesses. The noise of protesting metal from the hull was so loud that Calvin thought the ship was going to break in half. When the ship was fully enveloped in the current, it accelerated to match its speed in two seconds. Calvin and Astra were pressed into the seat; gravity crushed them like an invisible hand. There were several moments of severe turbulence, and then they were out of it. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. They descended deeper and deeper into the planet’s atmosphere. Astra kept a close eye on the pressure that the shields were being subjected to.
“The shields are holding,” Astra commented. “The pressure out there is incredible.”
The controls shuddered in Calvin’s hands, violently at times, even though the computer absorbed most of it through the dampening system. But that didn’t stop him from holding on so tightly his knuckles turned white.
“Sir,” Ion reported. “I’m detecting a large energy disruption above us. It’s possible one of the Goremog ships has entered the atmosphere.”
“One of the frigates?” Calvin asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ion stated. “There is too much interference to detect something that small. It must be something much larger.”
Calvin and Astra shared a glance.
“The Battleship,” Calvin said what they both were thinking. “I can’t believe it! Why would they bring something that big
into the atmosphere of a planet?”
“This is bad,” Astra said. “Really bad. They’re crazy to risk a battleship just to catch us. But its shields are stronger, and it has more powerful engines. It could get around in this mess easier. That’s the only reason I can think of.” She worked the controls of the scanner rapidly. “Ion, try to narrow the scanner beam. Maybe we can find the battleship.”
“The scanners are useless mistress,” Ion said. “There is just too much radiation and noise out there.” Astra growled.
“Another power surge,” Ion said. “Very close to us.”
“What?” Calvin said. “They found us already?”
“No wait,” Ion said. “It passed us.”
“That wasn’t a ship,” Astra said. “It was weapons fire. Ion, I don’t think they sent a ship in here after us. They’re shooting into the atmosphere from orbit; taking blind shots.”
“Hoping they get lucky?”
“I think so.”
“I wish we could know for sure,” Calvin said.
“Me too,” Astra said. “Let’s get this over with so we can get out of here.” Calvin quickly returned his gaze to the front. A laser bolt shot by the front of the ship. Calvin jumped.
“Zap, that was close,” he said.
“You don’t want to know how close,” Astra said.
“We’re on the same orbit of the base now,” Calvin said. “We should run into it if we follow this course.”
A red flashing light on the navigation system warned him they were getting close to the base. Calvin stared intently out the window; one hand on the throttle and one on the steering control. He was afraid to blink, worried that he wouldn’t have enough time to either slow down or turn before colliding with the base.
“You were right, Calvin,” Astra said. “The base has descended over two hundred miles towards the core. I’m not sure how much time we have until it’s crushed by the intense pressure. The good news is the Goremog sensors aren’t working any better than ours in this mess. The only reason we know where we’re going is because we have the codes and orbital path of the base. The planet is massive. If they do send a ship to look for us, they could search for months in this soup and never find us. They’d have to get awfully lucky.”
