The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  “That’s kind of a big problem,” Wexton said.

  “Then we can’t use them,” Nils said. “What if they turn off when we’re walking past a group of robots?”

  “It’s a risk, yes,” Dev said. “But do we have a better option?” For some strange reason, everyone in the room looked at Calvin. That fact did not go unnoticed by him. He was ready for a decision too, and if they all needed it, he was ready to make it.

  “No,” he answered. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard yet. Let’s get ready. Dev, you have a lot of work to do. Please go make sure ‘Fring’ is ready for his first assignment.”

  “Yes sir,” Dev said, and left the room.

  “And get your cloaking devices ready,” Wexton called after him.

  “OK!” Dev’s voice could be heard from down the corridor.

  “What can I do?” Wexton asked.

  “You can get the weapons and gear ready,” Calvin said. “You know what we’ll need. Just get out a full combat load for us.”

  “And who is, us?” That was a good question, and made Calvin think. He knew what he wanted, but didn’t know how it would be received.

  “I think a small group would be better; just Astra and I. The rest of you can arm up and stay here. If anything bad happens, you can come out and help us.”

  “If something bad happens,” Wexton exclaimed. “What do you mean, if? Something bad always happens. We need to prepare for the worst, the absolute worst. There is no way two people should go into a place like that alone!”

  “I disagree,” Calvin said firmly. “Stealth is the key here! We can slip in and out without them even knowing it. Think about it! If we’re all out there, there’s more of a chance that something will go wrong. Worst case, if it’s just Astra and I, and something bad happens, we might be able to hide easier.”

  “I don’t like it,” Wexton said angrily. “In fact, I hate it. This is a bad idea.”

  “It’s the safest way,” Calvin said.

  Wexton folded his arms and paced the room back and forth. He stopped in front of Calvin and looked at him with stone cold eyes. After a moment, his arms dropped and his expression softened.

  “Yes sir,” Wexton said. “The rest of us will be at the airlock ready to go in, just in case you need us.”

  “Thank you,” Calvin said. “I know you will.”

  Wexton and Nils left to get the gear ready. Calvin walked back up to the bridge. Memories of previous missions played over in his mind. This was the safest plan, Calvin was sure of it. Astra had to go with him, because it took both of them to open the vault door; DNA from an Arlandian and an Alerian. But the others didn’t have to go in. This time they were going into an occupied base, with the power of a living mind overseeing operations there. That mind could have the creativity to cause serious problems; unknown and unpredictable problems. There was an Arlandian military principle Calvin remembered. He’d heard it once in a class at the academy and it seemed to apply perfectly here. Less can be more. It was time to find out if that was true. Calvin sat down in his chair on the bridge.

  “How’s it going, Ion?” Calvin asked.

  “It is going very well, Master Calvin,” Ion said. “I have finished scanning the entire structure.”

  “Good. Did you happen to find a good place for us to dock?”

  “Yes sir. There are several docking ports on the bottom of the station, which should be out of the way of recent shuttle activity.”

  “Good thinking,” Calvin said. He had an image in his mind of a No’Rath shuttle trying to dock at the same docking port as the cloaked Azure Frost.

  They circled the station for three hours while the robot and cloaking devices were prepared. When they were ready, Astra went to the bridge to tell Calvin.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea,” she asked him, quietly. “Just the two of us going in there?”

  “Yes,” Calvin said firmly. “Believe me; I would like to go in, all of us, fully loaded with all the combat robots. The only problem is, Dev’s cloaks are incredibly unstable. They’ll give us a temporary advantage; great. But imagine this, we’re all deep in the station and suddenly the No’Rath can see us. Alarms will go off and he’ll see a big red dot on his internal sensors. Then he’ll turn everything he has against us. I don’t think we’ll be able to handle that many robots. But, if it’s just you and me, there will be a much smaller red dot; in fact, he might not even see us at all.”

  Astra didn’t argue, at least not at first. Instead, she looked into Calvin’s eyes. Her soft brown eyes pierced right through him, past his eyes and into his brain. He felt vulnerable, but completely at peace and happy. For a moment, it felt like she was looking inside him. Did he really believe his plan was best? Yes, he did, completely. But after looking into her eyes, he began to feel a sense of deeper consequence. What if he was wrong? Then she stepped back and everything returned to normal. It felt like a connection had been severed. She raised her right eyebrow and tilted her head.

  “OK,” she said reluctantly. “If you think its best, I’ll trust you.” She kissed him and left the bridge.

  What just happened? Was that some special ability Alerians had or just Astra? Then, like an ocean wave, the feeling ebbed and returned. He understood; when she looked into his eyes she could see things, and that scared him; terrified him. There was a surface he felt for a brief second, like looking into a mirror, or a perfectly calm pond. If that were true, she would have seen that he was scared to lose her. That he loved her so much he couldn’t bear to leave her behind, or see her go off without him. The only other option was to go with her. They’d come this far, they had to make it the rest of the way. When he dreamed, all those dreams Calvin had were of Astra. He saw their end. They were surrounded by a storm of Dark Terrors, and in every dream it had only been he and Astra facing the storm, alone. That’s the way it had to be. If she saw anything when she looked inside his mind and heart, she saw that.

  Calvin was startled back into reality by the sound of a proximity alarm. A small shuttle had flown close by. He turned it off and turned his attention back to the mission.

  He already had a docking port picked out. He’d kept a close eye on it during the last two hours. To his satisfaction, there was no activity in the area. The cargo ships were all using the upper portions of the station. Calvin had a few concerns about docking. Even though Ion and Astra both assured him the shields would adjust and conceal them, he worried that the No’Rath would detect an object penetrating the base’s shields. When he told the others about his fears, Ion reassured him and told him not to worry; they would not be detected. Astra told him the same thing, but Calvin tried to pull the same trick on her and see if he could see a reaction in her eyes. He thought he saw that she was not completely sure, and she smiled at him, as if she knew what he was doing.

  Since Calvin was the only one who felt a sense of hesitation, at least enough to voice it, he decided to go with the others and dock Azure Frost.

  He took them in slowly. They passed through the base’s shields. Calvin kept a constant eye on the sensors. There seemed to be no change in activity, but because of the problems they’d had with the sensors, with so many things like nebula clouds that could cause disruption, Calvin didn’t trust them. He was still nervous. He was ready, just in case, to turn hard to port and blast out of there. It turned out that he didn’t need to. He carefully and gently pulled alongside the docking port, and linked up. It might have been the smoothest docking he had ever made. There was barely a bump. Astra noticed too.

  “Good job,” she said, and patted him on the shoulder. “You might graduate after all.”

  “Funny,” Calvin said and followed her to the science lab. Dev had the robot on its feet. A soft hum filled the air that reminded him of the noise the monster robots made. The sound made him shiver with an underlying fear he was sure he’d never get over.

  “I programmed Fring to transmit video and sound back to us, and we can watch it from here,” Dev
said, pointing to one of the lab’s large monitors. “And we can control him from this panel.”

  “Good job Dev,” Calvin said. “Let’s get started.”

  “Yes sir,” Dev said. He moved to the control panel, and moved Fring to the main airlock. Wexton followed the robot out of the room. Calvin watched the monitor, which showed exactly what Fring was seeing. When Fring reached the airlock, it stopped. The door opened and the robot stepped out into a dark corridor. Lights came on automatically, giving the corridor a shadow-covered gloom. Wexton returned after the airlock door closed.

  Calvin was impressed with how well Dev controlled the robot. He took it to the end of the corridor, and through the next door. When Fring walked into the next area, they found a large wide open space. Doors stood along the walls on all sides, and there were at least four levels. Suddenly and without warning, Fring stopped in the middle of the room.

  “Now what?” Dev asked. “Where should we start?”

  “Well, first of all I think you should keep Fring out of the open, at least as much as possible,” Astra said. “We don’t want to attract too much attention.”

  “OK,” Dev said. “I’ll just pick a door and go through it.” He randomly picked a door and moved the robot towards it. Suddenly Fring stopped again.

  “What are you doing?” Calvin asked. “Why did you stop?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Dev said defensively. “It was Fring. He won’t move!” Dev pressed all the buttons and jammed the controls left and right to make his point.

  Calvin stepped out of the way and watched as Dev and Astra check the controls, computer terminal and transmitter.

  “The problem’s not on this end,” Astra said.

  “Well, that stinks,” Dev said, sinking down into a chair. “I really thought it would work. Now what are we going to do?” That was the big question.

  “I can go in, by myself,” Dev suggested. “Sneak in with a cloaking generator. I can fix him.”

  Calvin didn’t have to think about his suggestion very long. There was no way he was going to let Dev go in by himself, just to fix the robot, but he didn’t get a chance. The screen flashed once and strange symbols scrolled down.

  “What in the world,” Calvin muttered. “What is that?” A better question was, why didn’t his translator decipher it for him?

  “Fring is being scanned,” Dev said.

  “This is very bad,” Astra said. “Dev, did you load anything into the robot that can be traced to us?”

  “No,” Dev answered, his tone sounded uncertain. “Not specifically.”

  The area around the robot grew dark, and Fring’s camera began to shake. Several dark objects moved in and out of the peripheral view. Dev stood up and exclaimed, “They’re moving him!”

  Dev turned the camera from side to side. It didn’t move very far in either direction, but far enough to see that two short, dark colored robots had found Fring, picked him up and were carrying him. They walked through a doorway and down a corridor.

  “Quick! We need to map where they’re taking him,” Wexton exclaimed.

  “Got it,” Astra said, pressing a button on the computer. The robots walked for fifteen minutes along a series of corridors and rooms until finally they ended up in a large room full of machines and robots in various stages of repair. Fring was placed on the floor and several No’Rath robots moved into position and examined him.

  “This is very bad,” Astra said again. “If those robots find out that Fring is being remotely controlled, we’ll be in trouble, and we’ll never get the seventh segment.”

  “Don’t worry,” Dev said. “I’ve got a little surprise. I was afraid this might happen, so I built in a little backup. I didn’t want to use it too early, but now I don’t think I have a choice. Watch this.” Dev pressed a button on the console and a bright flash came out of Fring, followed by a shock wave that spread out of the room. Suddenly all the robots stopped moving.

  “What just happened?” Calvin asked.

  “EMP,” Dev answered. “Just a small one.” “A what?” Wexton asked.

  “Electro-magnetic pulse,” Dev answered. “It destroys all electronic devices within a radius of about a hundred feet in all directions.”

  “Hey,” Astra said. “That was smart.”

  “Now can you get Fring working again?” Wexton asked.

  “Hold on, let me try something. I programmed in a special override.” Dev played with the controls. “And a few backups.”

  “Nice going, Ace,” Wexton said. “It looks like you can do something useful from time to time.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Dev said, either ignoring Wexton’s sarcastic remark or choosing not to respond to it. He was focused on what he was doing. “Not enough power is getting through. Let me increase it a little, there.” Suddenly Fring started moving again. Dev clapped his hands together, “Yes!”

  “Great job,” Calvin said.

  “Yes,” Wexton said. “Now go find the segment before you get into more trouble.” Dev excitedly guided Fring from room to room, passing a lot of robots; so many they lost count. Every room was different, and none of them had a vault door in them, or any signs the seventh segment might be near. After thirty minutes Wexton and Nils left to go eat. They didn’t return. Calvin was the next to leave, and then Astra. Dev linked Fring’s eye camera to the ship’s monitors so they could all watch from wherever they were.

  Calvin eventually found his way to the library where he worked on his journal. He was pleased to have everything written down up to this point. He could envision handing the book to his father for him to read. But, more than likely, he had a feeling he was going to have to talk to Space Command’s intelligence officials. Calvin wasn’t looking forward to that.

  He lost track of time, but Dev’s loud announcement brought him out of deep thoughts.

  “I found it!”

  Calvin looked up at the monitor and saw a wonderful sight; a pair of vault doors; time to get back to work. Calvin got up and by the time he got back to the lab, everyone was already there.

  “Are you sure you want to do this,” Wexton asked. “Just you and Astra?”

  “Yes,” Calvin said. “But I like the idea you had of being ready to back us up, and keeping Ion on the bridge just in case we need to get out of here in a hurry.”

  “I would like to just go on record again as saying this is a very bad idea,” Wexton said.

  “Don’t you have any faith in my cloak generators?”

  “It’s not that,” Wexton said. “It’s just too risky. I’d rather be out there with them. The more guns the better.”

  “If it comes to that, it won’t matter how many guns we have,” Calvin said. “We could never get through all the robots and security in there. No, our best bet is for the two of us to go in, we can sneak in quietly and get out. Dev gave us an extra cloak generator for the segment. This will be simple. Astra and I will go in, put the cloak and antigravity generator on the segment and carry it out. No problem.”

  “I thought we weren’t going to say that anymore,” Astra said.

  “Sorry,” Calvin said. “I’m just trying to be positive.”

  “All right,” Wexton said. “Fine, but we’ll be ready just in case something goes wrong.”

  Calvin and Astra put their gear on and went to the airlock door. Everyone followed them.

  “Oh, I should probably mention something,” Dev said, visibly nervous. The portable cloaking devices only work for fifteen minutes at a time.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Twenty seconds of uncomfortable silence followed.

  “What?” Calvin asked, shocked.

  “That’s kind of important,” Astra said. “You’re just now remembering that?”

  “Well, it was five minutes,” Dev said defensively. “I’ve tripled the time.”

  “I don’t know if we can get in and out in fifteen minutes,” Astra said. “We’re going to need more time than that.” Several thoughts went through Ca
lvin’s mind all at once. Did they need to change the plan, and if so, what should they do instead? Sending in more would only complicate the problem. Maybe they should just back off and blast the station to pieces. They could find the segment in the debris. No, that’s crazy.

  “Hold on, no,” Dev said. “They’ll recharge in about two minutes. Just find a place to hide until they’re ready.”

  “And during that time their internal sensors will see us,” Calvin said.

  “Our shield generators should be able to block their sensors,” Astra said.

  “I’m hearing the word ‘should’ a lot,” Calvin said. “Should I be worried?”

  Astra smiled at him and touched his arm. “It’ll be all right,” she said. “Besides, this was your idea.” Her smile had a way of calming him. But this time it wasn’t enough to lessen his ultimate fear of having to protect her and keep her safe once they left the ship. It reminded him of escort missions in the simulator. He hated the way it made him feel vulnerable. He had to feel that way, because he loved her. Even though he knew full well that more often than not, she was the one who rescued him. But, like she said; this was his idea.

  CHAPTER FOURTY-NINE:

  UNSEEN

  Calvin led the way to the locker rooms. Astra held his hand as they walked down the corridor and down the stairs. He opened the door on deck four, turned and looked at her. She was smiling at him, as if to say it was going to be OK. How could she possibly know that? He didn’t question her confidence, or her uncanny ability to know exactly what he was thinking. No, he questioned his decision. Was it really wise to go into an unknown hostile environment without the combat robots? Was it a good idea to go without Wexton, the expert on small arms and combat tactics? Calvin tried to suppress his anxiety, but was not very successful.

  “See you on the other side,” Astra said as they reached the locker rooms. She smiled and went into the women’s locker room. Calvin went into the men’s side and walked to his locker. He opened it and found his advanced combat gear hanging inside. Calvin smiled and took out the coat. Someone had modified it. He thought he knew who; Astra. She added an Alerian Lieutenant rank insignia to the shoulders. It looked good.