by William Wood
On his way to the locker room to change, the door opened and Astra ran in. She ran to him and embraced him.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he said.
“What happened?”
“I hit something,” he admitted. “Some debris.”
“You’re lucky you just lost your cloak and shields, you know? You’re not in the simulator anymore; you have to be more careful out there!” She was visibly upset.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.”
“It’s not a game. You could have been killed out there.”
“But I wasn’t, I’m OK.”
“That’s not the point,” Astra argued. “You could have lost your engines, or your life support!”
“I know, I said I’m sorry.”
“All right,” Astra said, and held him tightly. “Now, let’s go back to the bridge. Will you please get us out of here?”
“Gladly,” Calvin said.
CHAPTER FOURTY-SEVEN:
BROKEN PIECES
An hour later, after everyone had time to get cleaned up, they met in the dining room for dinner. Their unexpected combat situation reminded Calvin that they were vulnerable, and he felt the need to be with the others. It seemed they all felt it too.
Calvin and Astra sat across from each other at the end of the table nearest the food computers. Dev, Wexton and Nils sat further down. They each had their meal of choice, and indulged themselves in a dessert. The conversation was light, sentences were short. The mood was subdued. Calvin looked down the table at the faces of his friends; they all looked as tired as he felt.
He’d hoped that eating something would make them feel better, but the food had done little for the mood in the room. He knew why; there were two empty chairs at the end of the table. It was a grievous thing, to lose Petori and Freks. How many was that since he left home? He sat and tried to remember. Jax, Barouke, Petori and Freks. Four people had died. He didn’t feel as bad for the others, as he did for Jax. Was it because he knew Jax for so long, and the others a short time? Calvin worried he was becoming calloused. No, that couldn’t be it. But he was rather disturbed over the fact that he couldn’t recall Jax’s face. He tried, but couldn’t. A sudden pang of deep depression filled him, so he turned his attention to the people sitting at the table with him. Then he noticed they were all looking at him.
“Calvin,” Dev said. “Are you all right?” “Yeah,” Calvin said. “I was just sitting here, thinking about everyone we’ve lost so far. It’s been really hard for you to deal with, I know. It has been for me too. But I have to say something; you all amaze me. Your homes have been destroyed, and your people were either scattered throughout the stars or exterminated. Yet here we are. Put together by a crazy string of events, and by all accounts, to me, we should have died a dozen times. We would have, except you are the most exceptional people I’ve ever met. If I haven’t told you before, I want you to know that I appreciate you. I’m grateful that we’ve become friends. No, more than friends, we’re family now. I feel like mere words can’t express it well enough, but it means a lot to me that you’re helping Astra and I find the segments of what is, most likely, the last hope the universe has. Thank you.”
Their expressions were soft; they looked tired and worn out, but regarded Calvin kindly.
“Thank you for letting me stay here,” Dev said, “I would’ve died, if you hadn’t found me when you did.”
“The same goes for me,” Wexton said. “I would have died on Doonterria.”
“It goes without saying,” Nils said.
“Say it anyway,” Wexton said quickly, smiling at him.
“I was going to say,” Nils continued. “Thank you.”
After dinner they went to the library. Calvin pulled back the curtains to let the blue light from the hyperspace cloud flood the room. Astra turned on some soft music while Dev had the food computer make trays of meat, cheese and crackers.
“I don’t suppose you have any jazz loaded in your computer database, do you?” Calvin asked.
“Jazz?” Astra said. “What’s jazz?”
Calvin smiled. “Jazz is a bubbly music, with horns and a keyboard; something smooth; deliberate and improvised at the same time.”
She looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“I don’t know,” Calvin said. How do you explain a style of music to someone that’s never heard it before? “Something that swings?” He snapped his fingers and sounded out the notes to one of his favorite songs.
She shook her head and giggled, “I’ll try and find something.”
Dev stood by the window and stared out into the hyperspace cloud. “So, we’re traveling along the borders between the No’Rath and the Goremog?” He asked to no one in particular.
Calvin took a bite of cheese and savored the taste. The moment was so perfect; he wanted to tell Dev to change the subject. Just for a while, could they talk about something else?
“But we’re in hyperspace,” Wexton said. “We’re safe.”
“Until we stop,” Dev said.
The soft music turned off, replaced by something light and bouncy.
“How’s that?” Astra asked. “Better?” The melody was nice, it flowed along like a river, steady and predictable. Close enough.
“I like that,” Calvin said truthfully. “Not quite jazz, but pretty darn close.”
Astra crossed the room and handed Calvin a crystal clear glass goblet with a dark red liquid inside. “Try this,” she said, smiling.
“What is it?” Calvin asked.
“Just try it.”
Calvin took a big sip. It was sweet, and had a deep fruity taste. “That’s really good.” Astra giggled. It was nice to see her so happy.
Astra took a sip from her own glass and led him to a chair near the others.
“Spiders,” Nils said. “Not your common house variety, no; the big ones that like to hide in the engine room. They terrify me.”
“Just kill ‘em,” Wexton said casually.
“Well first of all, we weren’t allowed to walk around with weapons on our ship,” Nils said. “Unless we were landing somewhere. And second, you can’t fire weapons in the engine room. Trust me, I would have shot everything up.”
“No, kill them with your bare hands,” Wexton said.
“Right,” Nils said dismissively. “It wasn’t a big enough problem. It was an engineering problem. The spiders like to hang around in there because it was warm. They like to hide in dark places. I hated it. When I went to a supply locker to get a spare part the spiders would jump out at me. It still gives me nightmares.”
“What are you talking about?” Astra asked.
“Our fears,” Dev said.
“Yeah, and he’s afraid of just about everything,” Wexton pointed at Dev.
“Yeah, that’s about right,” Dev said without shame. “Gorebots, Dark Terrors; pretty much anything that wants to kill me.”
Everyone laughed. “What about you?” Dev asked. “What are you afraid of?”
Wexton just smiled and shook his head.
“Nothing? Come on!” Dev demanded. “There has to be something you’re afraid of. Dark Terrors!”
“No, I’m not afraid of them,” Wexton said. “You just have to have a big enough gun.”
Calvin looked at Astra. She was shaking her head and smiling. Calvin could see in her eyes that she thought Wexton had just lost his credibility. There wasn’t a gun big enough in Calvin’s opinion. Besides, who in their right mind wasn’t scared of Dark Terrors?
“OK, there is one thing,” Wexton said. “There is a race of giant insects called Wacips. I’ve only seen them once, on the moon of Brom. They’re not evil. They’re just mindless insects that happened to be bigger than me and have armored exoskeletons. They can fly and their stingers are fatal. They build huge hives underground.” Wexton paused, as if trying to sort out his thoughts. “When I was 17, I went to summer training camp. We went to the moon of Brom. We wer
e hiking across a plateau, and I fell into a hole; into a nest. Two people died trying to get me out. The first one, Drill Master Zincz, was stung in the stomach. They say he died quickly, but they lied. I listened to him scream for two hours before he passed out. The other was dragged off deeper into the nest. We never saw him again.”
Everyone was quiet. Calvin took another drink.
“Way to kill the mood,” Dev said.
“No kidding,” Calvin said. He took a bite of a cracker. Nils shifted uneasily in his chair and then stood up.
“I’m gonna go check the engines,” he said. “One of the transformers overloaded and caused several circuits to burn out. I need to finish repairing them.”
“You spend a lot of time down there,” Wexton observed.
“Yeah, well, they’re kind of like my babies, I guess,” Nils said. “I can’t contribute much to this mission, but at least I can make sure the engines get us where we need to go. I feel like I’m doing my part.”
“Do you need help?” Astra asked. “Someone could go with you.”
“No, why? I can handle it,” Nils said and left the room without waiting for an answer.
Astra didn’t say anything, but she looked at Calvin with an expression he thought he could read.
“I don’t think Nils wants anyone looking over his shoulder,” Calvin said. “He thinks we don’t trust him. At least, that’s how I would feel.”
“Oh,” Astra said. “Have I ever made you feel that way?” She seemed genuinely concerned, like she had crossed a line.
“No,” Calvin said honestly “Never.”
The next day, everyone woke up with a refreshed sense of purpose and drive. They went to work early. Ion and Dev examined the alien robot they retrieved from the debris field. Astra went to work in her lab, attempting to analyze the fragments that were the sixth segment. Nils worked in the engine room, and Wexton spent his day calibrating weapons. Calvin tried to stay busy; he bounced back and forth between the bridge and checking on the others to see if they needed help. He was amazed at how focused everyone was. One of the more interesting things to watch were the repairs of Sierra Three. The robot was damaged, but damaged components were replaced by a highly skilled repair robot. One leg was replaced entirely.
Later in the afternoon, Calvin was sitting on the bridge checking the long range sensors for the fifth time that day, when Dev called over the internal intercom.
“Calvin, Astra, can you come to the engineering lab? I have something I want to show you.”
“I’m on my way,” Calvin said. He stood and left the room. He took the stairs down to the third level. He emerged from the stairwell to see Astra walking towards the lab from the other direction. She smiled when she saw him. They met at the door.
“I see you got the call too,” Calvin said.
“Yes, we’ve been summoned,” Astra said. “I wonder what he wants.”
“Let’s find out,” Calvin said. “After you.”
Calvin followed her inside.
“Oh good, you’re here,” Dev said. “We think we’ve figured this out.”
“All right,” Calvin said. “What do you have?”
“This robot was built by the No’Rath.”
“The No’Rath,” Astra repeated. “Not Goremog?”
“No, definitely not,” Ion said. “We’ve been able to recover part of its memory. We’ve learned something interesting about the No’Rath. Unlike the Goremog, who build spaceships much like ours and crew them with thousands of robots, the No’Rath ships are robots. Each ship is a robot unto itself. But, inside, it has smaller robots to conduct repairs. This robot is a repair robot.”
“Like blood through the body, maintaining the ship.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Calvin whispered. “I wonder why they do it that way.”
“I don’t know,” Astra said. “Maybe to conserve resources.”
“Or it’s easier to control one large robot instead of thousands of smaller ones,” Dev suggested. “Are we still in Goremog territory?”
“According to the sensors,” Calvin said. “We’re moving along the border between Goremog and No’Rath territory. We’ve been passing smaller debris fields, all with the same hull types and power signatures.”
“Hmmm,” Astra muttered. “Small battles all along their border. They’re in an all-out war again.”
“It makes me glad we’re cloaked.” Dev said. “Are we on our way to the next segment?”
“Yes, but the segment detection program can’t see the seventh segment,” Calvin explained. “We set a course for where the old records say it should be. We’ll just have to hope it’s there.”
“I hope that doesn’t mean it’s damaged like the last one,” Astra said. “I’ve got my hands full trying to repair this one. I’m not even sure it’s possible at this point. But, if I don’t work on it, it will never get done. So, I’ll see you later. Meet for dinner, Calvin?”
“Yes, I’ll see you there.” She left the room.
“What are you two going to be up to?” Calvin asked.
“I’m going back to the bridge,” Ion said.
“I’m going to work on this robot, and see if I can repair it,” Dev said. “We can always use an extra robot. Who knows, maybe I can get some more intelligence information out of it. I might be able to get access to its brain.”
“Good luck with that,” Calvin said. “I’ll see you later.”
It was a quiet afternoon. Calvin contacted his father and gave him an update. He also worked on his journal. After that, he spent time in the simulator. Astra spent the afternoon working on the sixth segment. Dev worked on the No’Rath robot. Wexton and Nils spent time in the gym. Wexton taught him advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques.
Later that evening, when Calvin was finished in the simulator, he wandered down to the lab to see what everyone was up to. He found Ion back in the lab with Dev. They had the robot up on a platform; most of its panels were off, wires hanging out. Seeing how busy they were, he moved on. He found Astra in the other lab. She was happy to see him. The computer was scanning another piece of the latest segment, which had been broken into four pieces. The other two pieces were lying on a nearby workbench. They looked every bit the mess they were before, maybe worse under the overhead light.
“Is it as bad as it looks?” Calvin asked.
“It’s worse,” Astra said. “Look at this. It’s clear to me what happened. This segment was inside the base. When the base was blown to pieces, so was the segment. The problem is I don’t think it’s all here. I think some of its still out there floating around in that debris field.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“That’s the worst part. It’s the main core of the weapon.”
Calvin took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, this is the heart of the weapon, and look at it.”
“Can you fix it?”
“I don’t know,” Astra admitted. “It’s definitely the most complicated piece we’ve found so far. That’s compared to the most advanced technology I’ve ever seen. This blows them away. It’s going to take time. Also, I’ve grossly underestimated the power of this weapon. It’s incredible. And so far only one of the pieces we have is a power supply. I hope one of the other segments is a power supply or it won’t have enough power to work.”
“I understand,” Calvin said. “It’s almost time for dinner. Wanna take a break?”
“Yes, I do,” Astra said. “Now that you mention it, I’m pretty hungry.”
“Let’s go,” Calvin said.
Calvin was very pleased to see everyone was already in the dining room, waiting. They weren’t eating yet, just waiting for Calvin and Astra to get there.
They all had a nice dinner. It felt like another family gettogether. After dinner, Calvin asked the one question that had been on his mind all day.
“Has anyone dealt with the No’Rath before?” Everyone looked at Calvin.
Wexton decided to be the first to answer.
“The No’Rath are an evil, aggressive, and ruthless race. I remember hearing stories from the Great War. Anytime they invade a planet, they annihilate the population and burn the cities. They adapt it to their own purposes and then move on to the next planet. They’re worse than a virus.”
“More like a plague,” Dev said. “I’ve heard those stories too. But I thought the No’Rath were wiped out. They were so ruthless, that they were the first to be targeted by the Alliance, weren’t they?”
“Yeah,” Wexton said. “They were first. There has never been a race as feared as the No’Rath. The fact that they’re back is a very horrible thing. It scares me, way more than the Goremog do.”
“Then I have something that might scare you even more,” Astra said. “Calvin was scanned the last time he was out. The Goremog know we’re out here, and will be looking for us, and there’s a good chance the No’Rath know too.”
Calvin wanted to say it wouldn’t matter. They were safe on Azure Frost, on the move in hyperspace. There was no way they could be tracked that he knew of. But then he realized something.
“They’ll wonder why we broke off from the main Alerian fleet,” Calvin said. “They’ll want to know what we’re doing.”
“So, where is the next segment?” Dev asked, changing the subject.
“The records say it’s in a remote space station,” Astra answered. “Deep inside a nebula.”
“How long till we get there?” Nils asked.
“Two weeks,” Astra said.
“So plenty of time,” Dev said dryly.
“Hey, more time to work out,” Wexton said happily. “I’ll have you puffballs ready for hand-tohand combat soon.”
“Hand-tohand with what?” Dev laughed. “With Gorebots, or Dark Terrors? Just out of curiosity, Wex, can you go hand-to-hand with a giant metal robot?”
“What if you find yourself face-to-face with other humans and can’t defend yourself? If you do, and they’re semi-organized, my guess is they’ll be desperate, and dangerous.”
“Do you think there are any left?” Dev asked, seriously.
