by William Wood
“Yeah, we have a big problem. The engines are down again, and Dev’s not answering. Meet me in the armory. We’re going to arm up this time. I think we still have a Dark Terror on the ship.”
Calvin checked the internal sensors. There were no red dots; no indication there were any Dark Terrors on the ship, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Suddenly the lights shut off, the computer screens went dark. Once again, the ship was dead, and quiet as a tomb.
“Not again,” Calvin moaned.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE:
BEST LAID PLANS
Calvin jumped to his feet. He was grateful that he still had his flashlight. He turned it on and rushed off the bridge. Hopefully, everyone heard his last order and was on their way to the armory. Calvin didn’t wait to let the seriousness of their situation delay his actions. He forced himself to move, to not think about what could happen, or what was probably lurking in the corridors of the ship, totally unseen. He walked to the stairwell and bounded down the steps; two steps at a time all the way to the bottom.
Calvin slowed down, and stepped cautiously down the corridor, his footsteps muffled by the soft carpet. The darkness wrapped around him like a heavy coat. He shined his light ahead and down. He turned a corner, and for a second, thought he saw a shadow on the floor. He shined his light on it, but it was gone. Calvin shrugged it aside, assuming his eyes were playing tricks on him.
“How much time do we have?” Calvin wondered. “How long before the Goremog scout finds us? Maybe this time it will have a friend or two. That’s all we need; a Goremog destroyer to blast us to pieces, or worse, capture us. OK, stop it! Too many problems, focus, must focus!”
When he got to the armory, the door was open. An icy cold spear of terror briefly filled him, but he pushed himself through the doorway. Wexton was inside. He already had his combat suit on and was selecting a weapon. Calvin didn’t know he was holding his breath, until he felt his head swim and he gasped for air. Feeling dizzy, he sat down on a bench in front of his locker.
“I wonder how strong the hull is,” Wexton said.
“Why?” Calvin asked, opening his locker and pulling out his
combat suit.
“If we do actually have a Dark Terror on the ship, and we start
shooting at it…”
“Oh,” Calvin said, suddenly realizing. He thought about that for a
second while he put his top on. “I hadn’t thought about that.” The top
squeezed him until it made a perfect fit to his body.
“If someone were to miss, it could go right through the hull,”
Wexton said.
“I know, I get it!” Calvin snapped. The dizziness passed, but his
extreme uneasiness didn’t. To him there was no, ‘if’. He firmly believed
there was another Dark Terror on the ship.
“You have to be aware of what’s behind your target,” Calvin heard
Astra’s voice outside in the corridor. “The hull armor is strong, but our
weapons are very powerful. You can blow holes in the side of the ship if
you’re not careful. Anyway, that’s not our biggest problem. We have
other things to worry about, like how are we going to deal with a Dark
Terror on the ship, and how are they invisible.”
“Right,” Wexton said.
“Will you two hurry up in there,” Astra said impatiently. Calvin
grabbed his helmet and selected two pistols from the rack. He didn’t wait for his Helcomp to boot up. Calvin followed
Wexton back out into the corridor, where Astra was waiting for them.
Together they went to the engine room. Calvin was certain they were
going to find a horrible thing waiting for them; he was sure they were
going to find Dev lying on the floor; dead. He tried to push those
thoughts aside, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
When Calvin entered the room, right behind Astra and Wexton,
he was saddened by what he saw, and he saw it in crystal clear optically
enhanced vision.
The engine room wasn’t a place he’d spent much time in. It was
loud and uncomfortable.
The engine core was a large, wide cylindrical object that took up three
decks. It stood separated by a five foot divide, crossed over by a single
bridge on each level. Calvin walked to a railing and was able to look up
and down to the deck above and below. The core had a narrow metal walkway that circled it, accessible by a metal ladder. Computer terminals were built into the core, and ran along it on all levels. Astra tried to explain how the system worked; that the engine core was made up of sixty individual power controllers. Each computer terminal on the core allowed direct control of each one. But a master computer terminal in the middle of the engine room, second deck, allowed control and monitoring of all 60 controllers at once. Computers and large machines lined the walls and filled the room. Normally they were covered with panels and had thousands of lights, which Calvin thought looked cool, along with valves, levers and toggle switches.
But now, all of the control panels were open, and the internal mechanisms were visible. Some looked damaged, entire sections were blackened and burned.
Then a shape stepped out from behind a tall, wall sized engineering computer on the right side of the room. Calvin was startled and reached for a pistol. Then he stopped when he realized who it was. His Helcomp analyzed the object, and Calvin breathed a sigh of relief. “Dev,” Wexton said happily. “It’s you.”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Dev said, brushing dark powder off his arm. Calvin’s Helcomp identified it as metal fragments and debris. “Who were you expecting? Did you think I was a Terror? Look at this, did you see what happened?”
Dev walked out and pointed to the center of the computer terminal. It almost looked normal, but for the massive hole in the center. It looked like a giant fist had punched it, grabbed a handful of metal, circuits, wires and control devices and ripped them out. The damage was severe.
“Was there an explosion?” Calvin asked, knowing his question was naïve. He had a very bad feeling he knew what the answer was, but he was hoping it was an overload, or something that had gone wrong with the engine.
“This damage could only have been caused by one thing,” Astra said. “And you know full well what it is. The pattern of carnage looks the same as earlier. I didn’t want to admit it earlier, but now I have to. Only a Dark Terror could have caused this.”
Calvin felt sick. “How could they have gotten on board? I don’t understand,” he said, slowly scanning the room. Then he saw a shape on the floor, and he recognized it instantly.
“Ion,” Calvin said running to him. He knelt down on the floor and looked at his friend. His Helcomp was very good at what it did; analyze objects and give him the details with perfect quality. This was one of the times he wished it didn’t. Ion was broken in half, and his head had been torn off and was lying on the floor five feet away. Astra picked it up gingerly.
“What?” Calvin asked. “Why? He was already down. Why did they go out of their way to tear him up a little more?”
Astra didn’t seem fazed by it; or the fact that she was holding Ion’s head.
“This proves a theory of mine,” she said. “The Dark Terrors have only been attacking our power systems, engines, and robots. They’ve been leaving us alone. I don’t know why, but it seems like they were programmed to stop the ship, and destroy the robots inside to prevent repairs.”
“Yes,” Dev said. “I have a theory too, that fits yours. Ion was right. The Goremog weaponized Dark Terrors in missiles and launched them at targets. In this case, they were programmed to attack No’Rath ships. When we were in the debris field, getting the last segment, a missile attached itself to our hull. Some Dark Terrors got on board, and because they were only attacking No’Rath ships, they destroyed our engines an
d robots. They had no orders to attack life forms because No’Rath ships don’t have any. It would be a wasted program.” “Yes,” Astra said. She gently placed Ion’s head on the floor and began pacing the room. “That makes sense. It must have gone dormant after the battle. We attracted it when we entered the debris field.” “Then why didn’t our sensors detect it?” Calvin asked. “I don’t know,” Astra said. “There was a lot of debris, the sensors were overwhelmed. They must have missed it. I hope it’s that; the alternative is that the Goremog have discovered a superior form of cloaking their ships, and that is really, very bad.”
“Beyond words,” Dev agreed. Calvin walked back to the railing and looked down. Pieces of destroyed robots were strewn across the floor. What a mess! He felt a wave of hopelessness descend upon him. If they couldn’t see the Terrors, would he ever feel safe on Azure Frost again? Even worse, what would stop the Terrors from hiding permanently? What if that’s what they were doing; hiding and transmitting their location to nearby Goremog ships?
Calvin desperately wished that he could get off Azure Frost; get far away from the hidden evil. Then the most horrific thought occurred to him; what if one followed him all the way home to New Arlandia? Suddenly his need to get away from the ship turned into realizing he couldn’t go home now. He couldn’t risk that, right? It would be the end of all life on New Arlandia; the end of Arlandian civilization. The thought crushed him into the deepest darkness, where no light of hope
could reach him. It changed everything.
“So how bad is it?” Calvin asked, trying to wrap his mind around
the problem.
“They didn’t trash everything,” Dev said. “Just the central computer
and half a dozen other systems. It’s like all they wanted to do was take us
out of hyperspace, that’s it.”
“It was a very precise and controlled attack,” Astra muttered. Growing impatient, Calvin asked, “How long will it take to repair?” Dev started to answer, but before he could, Calvin continued.
“Because I have to remind everyone, we are dangerously close to being
pinned down by the Goremog. We were just spotted by a scout. It’s just a
matter of time until it finds us again. Next time though, it’s going to have
friends with it. We need to get back into hyperspace, well, an hour ago.” “No, wait,” Astra said. “We can’t do that. As soon as we repair
anything, the Terror will destroy it again. There’s no point!” “Then we have to kill it first,” Wexton said, holding up his riffle.
“That should be our first priority.”
“I agree,” Dev said. “But I hate to tell you this, big guy, that’s
impossible. There’s no way we’re gonna be able to find any Dark
Terrors, let alone kill them. You seem to have forgotten, they’re
invisible!”
“Invisible,” Calvin repeated. “And even if they weren’t, they’re
very hard to kill. What would you do once you found it, or them?”
Calvin asked. There were at least two that had boarded the ship, how
many more were there? Three? Four?
“No, wait,” Astra said again. Calvin looked at her; he could see
that she was thinking. Her brow was wrinkled and her eyes narrowed
slightly. “I have an idea.” She paced back and forth, as if the idea was still forming in her mind.
“If we work off the premise that they are destroying a critical system as soon as we repair it, we could create a trap. Yes! That’s what we can do.”
“Create a trap?” Wexton asked skeptically.
“We have a portable barrier system,” Astra said. Everyone looked at her with blank expressions. “Oh, you know, when there’s a hull breach and the ship can’t compensate, we use this to seal the breach
while we repair the damage. “
“Oh, right,” Dev said.
“Well, we could repair the main engine core computer, then place
the barrier around it. When a Dark Terror tries to destroy it, we’ll
activate the system and trap it. Problem solved.” She stood up straight
and smiled. “This will work,” she tried to assure them.
Calvin thought hard about. He stared at the ceiling. The fear
hadn’t gone away. They had a plan, and at the moment it was their only
plan.
“Do you have a better idea?” Astra asked Dev. Dev shifted
uneasily on his feet.
“No,” he admitted. “I can’t think of one.”
“What do you think, Calvin?” she asked, turning to face him. He
wanted to say no, it sounded too dangerous. But was that true? It
couldn’t have been more dangerous than having a Terror roam free,
right? That meant there was only one answer.
“I think it’s worth a try,” Calvin said slowly. “I assume we’ll be
hidden, maybe have weapons ready, just in case?”
“No maybe about it, sir,” Wexton said, more confidently than
Calvin thought was warranted. “If we all stay back in the corners, with
heavy weapons pointed towards the trap, we’ll blow the Terror apart
before it can escape.”
“But we won’t be able to see it,” Dev murmured. “But we will
blast the main engine apart.”
“Again,” Wexton said strongly. “Do you have a better idea?” “Actually, I do,” Dev said happily. “The Terror’s didn’t only
attack repaired computers, they attacked robots too. Look at Ion. I think
instead, we should repair a robot and put it in the hangar bay, right in
front of the doors. Surround it with the trap. If it fails, we can always open the doors so it gets sucked out into space.”
“That’s not a half bad idea Dev,” Astra said.
“Well if we’re going to do that,” Wexton said. “Why bother with the traps? Just open the doors and let it get sucked out!”
“No,” Astra said. “We need to capture it. Think about what we could learn from a live one. We need to find out how it’s invisible to our sensors.”
“No, no, no,” Calvin said, alarms ringing inside his head. “Now you’re talking crazy. This is crazy! Capture a live one and try to study it?”
“Yes, don’t you see?” Astra asked. “If we can find out how it’s invisible to our most advanced sensors, we can also find out if there’s any more hiding on the ship.”
“But we already have one, remember?” Calvin said. “There’s a
dead one lying in a bucket in the science lab. You can study that one.” “No, it won’t be the same!” Astra said. “It’s dead! The Dark Terror
is a living creature. If whatever was causing it to be invisible was a living
part of it, then it will have broken down when the monster died. If it was
mechanical it could have been damaged when Ion killed it. Either way, it
would be better to study a live specimen. Come on! We never get an
opportunity like this! We have to do it.”
That made perfect sense to Calvin. He didn’t like it, but there was
hope. Hope that if it was successful, he wouldn’t have to worry about
going home. Yes, that sold him completely. Astra always seemed to
know exactly what to say.
“OK,” he said reluctantly. “Let’s do it.”
“Excellent,” Astra said. “I’ll set it up. Dev, help me please.” “What are we going to use for power?” Dev asked. “The barrier
can’t power itself, can it?”
“No,” Astra said. “We’ll use a portable power generator; more
power to lure our monster into our trap.”
Astra and Dev headed towards the door; Wexton followed them. Calvin went to the bridge and looked out the window. He was
convinced he would see a G
oremog scout ship approaching, or maybe
something bigger. But, he didn’t. There was nothing there. The sensors
in his suit had good range built into them. He tried to use the Helcomp to
scan around the ship, but it was only so good. One hundred miles was a long way on the surface of a planet, but in space, it was nothing. Well, nothing within a hundred miles, but that could change very quickly. The bad part was he knew a ship could cross a hundred miles in a few seconds.
Two hours later, in the main hangar bay, everything was ready. A large, square portable power generator was plugged into the barrier’s shields, which were now in place around one of the repair robots, which was laying on the floor and ready to be powered up. The robot, a yellow and black striped maintenance model, was lying flat on its back. It wasn’t a large robot like Ion. It had a flat chest with a panel, which was open. It had a control panel with a red button on top. It had special arms with attachments made for various types of repair.
Under Wexton’s direction, each of them had withdrawn two assault rifles from the armory, each with a plasma grenade launcher
attached.
“Are you ready?” Astra asked.
“It’s not going to get up and walk away is it?” Calvin asked. “Or
worse, walk over to one of us and ask for orders and give our hiding
place away. I can just see it.”
“No, I’ve thought of that,” Astra said. “I programmed it to stay
on the floor and wait for direct input.”
“OK,” Calvin said. He didn’t say it, but he doubted the whole
plan would work. There was no way they were going to be able to trap an
invisible monster. How would they know if they caught it?
“Let’s do it,” Wexton said with enthusiasm.
Astra reached down to press the red button, hesitated for a second.
Calvin could see her hand shaking. Then with one determined motion,
she pressed the red button and moved back. There was a soft hum, and
the robot came to life.
Calvin, Astra, Dev and Wexton scurried into different corners of the
room. Calvin ran back near the locker room and crouched behind a stack
