by William Wood
“No, that’s a bad idea,” he said. “No, there’s no way. I’m sorry, they were unstable when they were alive, and we have no idea what the effect of dying, having their consciences transferred into robots and them having the power drained completely. Now you want to power them up again? That would be putting a totally unstable element into a situation that requires laser eye precision.”
Dev opened his mouth and started to speak, but Calvin cut him off quickly.
“OK, if not totally unstable then unpredictable; way more unpredictable than we can risk.” Calvin took a breath, only now aware that he was beginning to lose control of his emotions.
Astra put her hand on Calvin’s arm.
“OK, relax sweetie. Take a deep breath.” Then she looked around the table. “Let’s agree here and now that until we know for sure what will happen if we try to reactivate Petori and Freks, we’ll do nothing with them. We cannot, and I mean this, we will not risk our mission. It’s too dangerous.”
Dev didn’t seem happy about the answer, but backed down. After the meeting, Calvin wandered back to his room, sat in the chair and closed his eyes. He wanted to clear his mind, but he was unsuccessful. He couldn’t stop thinking about the future.
Assuming they were able to eventually scan the ship, and prove there were no Dark Terrors hiding in the ship, and he could go home without worrying he was taking one of them with him, he had to deal with the future; the aftermath of their mission. Again, assuming their mission was successful, and he could go home.
Something else was weighing heavily on Calvin’s mind. They were on the verge of collecting the eighth segment. The ninth and tenth would follow soon after and their mission was closer than ever to being completed. What would Astra do after that? She had told him that no matter what happened, she would stay with him; return to New Arlandia with him. But he was worried about the moment she would have to tell her parents. It was not going to be easy; at least he didn’t think it would be. In his worst nightmare, he imagined that she would go with her parents; with her people. Which to him meant one thing; he would have to say goodbye to her, probably forever. He loved her. Calvin didn’t know if he could say goodbye to her. He was sure it would devastate him. There was one other option; he could go with her. But that brought up a whole bunch of new questions: would her parents let him come with them? Would he be able to live with the knowledge that he might never see New Arlandia again? Never see his family again? Suddenly, he thought he understood the decision that Astra was facing.
More than anything he wanted to ask Astra to marry him; to spend the rest of his life with her, but where would that be?
Calvin laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. The dark cloud hanging over him was getting larger. Fear of the future threatened to suffocate him.
Calvin fell asleep, dreaming of Astra; the only light that could get through the darkness and give him a glimpse of hope.
*
Morning came early for Calvin. As usual, he couldn’t sleep. He was too excited and nervous. He got up and got ready, and was not surprised to find everyone else was doing the same thing. Hours before Azure Frost was to drop out of hyperspace at Cusendea, they thoroughly checked out their combat suits, helmet computers, weapons, portable shields and cloaking generators.
Calvin and Astra were sitting on the bridge, dressed in their combat suits and watching the clock tick down; ten minutes to go. Calvin learned from experience that it was best to be over-prepared. As soon as they landed, they were ready to exit the ship immediately, hopefully minimizing their time on the ground.
Dev, Wexton and Nils were in the laser turrets; guns warmed up and ready. Azure Frost’s shields and cloak were in stand-by mode, ready to be activated; the weapons were powered and online. Maybe it was paranoia or boredom, but he checked everything a dozen times just to make sure.
“All systems are ready,” Ion reported. “Preparing to exit hyperspace.”
Calvin looked at the clock; three minutes, ten seconds.
“It’s good to have you back, Ion,” Calvin said. “I was worried about you.”
“There was no need to worry about me, Master Calvin,” Ion said warmly. “My processor was undamaged.”
The robot repair facility on Azure Frost really was top notch. He would never have thought that Ion could be repaired, but here he was, looking brand new. Calvin didn’t say it, but Ion was lucky that his main processor hadn’t been destroyed. They were all lucky.
One minute.
“Cloak activated,” Ion stated.
Calvin gripped the controls tightly and felt a surge of barely restrained panic. There was no stopping it now. They were seconds from facing something horrible, he just knew it.
“Shields up, full power.”
Each time they dropped out of hyperspace, it seemed something negative happened. What awful thing was waiting for them this time? According to the Alerian data base, they should find the planet Cusendea, another dead Alerian world destroyed during the war by the Goremog. He expected to find a planet covered with ruins and somewhere hidden in those ruins, the largest laboratory ever built by the Alerians that might hold the secret to the weapon that they hoped would save the universe. He seldom got what he expected.
The clock ran down: Five, four, three, two, one. The moment arrived. The stars changed, the hyperspace cloud dissipated, and Azure Frost returned to normal space.
One second the view was of blurry stars, the next second space ahead was full of space ships. His first thought was, ‘how did the Goremog fleet get here, ahead of us? They must have calculated our trajectory and called in a fleet to meet us here. Or it’s the No’Rath space fleet that cornered them at the SeytaZun Space Station. It didn’t take long to realize the space ships were different. There were clouds of ships in orbit, more than he could count, from small fighters and corvettes, to larger destroyers and battleships. But Calvin’s eyes were drawn to two massive titans. They dominated the view and sent shivers up his spine. Several moon sized shipyards floated in orbit around the planet, and dozens of vessels in the process of construction could be seen in hangars across its surface. Also in orbit was a third titan. Too large for the shipyard, it was floating above the northern hemisphere of the planet. It was half built, with tiny construction vehicles all over it.
Dev was the first to react, “Oh ZAP!” he exclaimed. “Do you see that?”
“It’s hard not to,” Calvin muttered.
“Everyone stay off the comm unless it’s an emergency!” Astra snapped.
“I think this qualifies,” Dev stated quietly, then the comm went quiet.
“Those are Goremog ships,” Astra said. “The Goremog have taken over Cusendea.”
“They are using this planet to rebuild their space fleet,” Ion said. “And it’s very busy.”
“Whoa,” Calvin whispered.
“Those are the biggest ship yards I’ve ever seen,” Astra said. That was significant, coming from her. “With those they could build just about any class of ship.”
“Including titans,” Ion said. “And I am detecting another titan on the other side of the planet. It is over eighty percent complete.”
“Typically, in the past they only built those in one place, the most defended planet they own,” Astra said.
“Their home world,” Ion stated.
“Does that mean Cusendea is their new home world?” Calvin asked.
“That would make sense,” Ion said. “They had to move to a new planet after Gorexpheme Prime was destroyed.”
“When my father finds out the Goremog new home world is an old Alerian core planet, he’ll lose his mind.”
“So the eighth segment is down there, on a planet covered with Goremog?” Calvin asked. Then he had a thought. “Do you think they found the lab?”
“Don’t say that,” Astra said sternly. “Don’t even think it.”
“The Goremog are bathing the entire region of space with a strong electronic suppression field. Our sensors can
’t penetrate it,” Ion said. “We need to fly closer to the planet’s surface.”
Calvin set a course towards the planet, careful to avoid the large shipyards. It was more difficult evading the innumerable number of ships that seemed to be floating around. He knew they were invisible, but he still felt like he had to fly ‘on glass,’ as if the least little thing he did would cause Azure Frost to be visible, instantly raining down death on them. Why did he dwell on such things?
“Take us in slowly, Calvin,” Astra said. “Don’t worry, they can’t see us.” It was as if she could read his mind. Calvin took them in closer to the planet, trying hard to avoid all the space ships flying around. He knew the Frost was cloaked, but he was still nervous. Calvin took them into orbit; a high orbit as far away from other ships as possible.
Astra said, “The whole planet is in ruins. Even from here I can see several cities but they’re barely recognizable. It’s hard to believe they were once beautiful and full of people. This is impossible! How am I supposed to figure out which one was the capital?”
“Still no signal on the segment detector?” Calvin asked.
“No, nothing,” Astra said. “Can you get us closer?”
He knew what the right answer was, even though he did not feel it in his heart. “Yes, I can,” Calvin said. He took them high over a flight of Goremog fighters, then down. He leveled the ship out. They were skimming just a few feet above the atmosphere.
He glanced at the short range scanner, happy to see there were no ships around them now.
“Wait, there,” Astra said. “I think I see something. I can’t quite narrow it down yet, but I think I found the general area. Oh, of course. There’s the city, a pile of ruins right in the middle of a massive Goremog city. Why would they do that? Calvin, can you believe this? They built their new capital city around the ruins of our city!”
“The lab structures are right in the middle of it?”
“In the dead center, like they did it out of spite!
“Somehow I doubt that. Maybe they were afraid to disturb the ruins,” Calvin suggested.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Astra said.
“Maybe they made a monument to their victims. I don’t know.
“There’s no mistaking it now,” Astra said. “I’m reading a strong segment signature in the center of the ruins. Look, there’s a landing platform right there,” she pointed to the screen. “We can land there and walk down the stairs into the ruins, and then search for the vault. I can’t pinpoint the exact location of the lab yet, but it’s within a mile of the platform.”
I wish there was an easier way,” Calvin said. “We have a lot riding on our cloaking devices.”
“Well, maybe once we get on the ground, the signal will be stronger and we’ll be able to walk right to it. Should we take everyone with us this time?”
“I liked the way we did it on the space station. You and I go in on the ground, alone. This time we have better cloaking devices. With the anti-gravity devices, we slip in, get the segment, and get out. Quick and easy. Just like last time.”
“Just like last time? Last time the anti-gravity devices didn’t work, we got lost in the dark when we were detected, we were chased out of the space station by robots and killer Dark Terror dogs.”
“That was because of the EMP, we did that to ourselves. If we hadn’t done that we would’ve been OK.”
“If we hadn’t done that we would’ve been captured,” Astra pointed out.
“Yes, but, other than that, I really think this is the best plan. If we go in with a large force, there are too many moving parts, too many things that can go wrong.”
“You know what, we should discuss this with the others.” Ten minutes later they were together in the library with Dev, Wexton and Nils.
“I think this it’s the best course of action,” Calvin said. “Just like last time. We fly in, completely cloaked, land on the platform, which is right next to the lab. Astra and I go in alone, grab the segment and take it back to the Frost with anti-gravity generators. We take off and get away before the Goremog even know we were here. It will be easy. Especially with the upgraded cloaking generators that Dev built. Easy.” Calvin smiled at everyone, looking at them to gauge their reactions.
“Not again,” Wexton said, shaking his head. “You can’t go by yourself, look what happened last time. Everything went wrong and you were alone. You needed us, and we were too far away to help.”
“Yeah,” Dev added. “And if something goes wrong this time, you’ll need us. You know better than anyone that bad things happen. What if the antigravity generators don’t work? What if the cloaks fail again? What if you run into a Goremog patrol? Think of the consequences! If something bad happens, and we lose either one of you, the entire mission will be over. Lost!”
“It’s a stupid risk to take,” Wexton said. “Why is it, after everything we’ve been through together, you don’t seem to understand that we all have a stake in this mess. We have skills that could be very useful to you. Think about it; Nils is an engineer, Dev is a scientist, Astra’s a pilot, engineer and scientist, and you Calvin, are an expert pilot and natural leader. Me, I’m a soldier. Do you have any idea how valuable I can be to you out there? I’m an expert at fighting robots. I’m not trying to be boastful, but please tell me why won’t you let me go with you? Why should you two get to have all the fun?”
“He’s got a point,” Astra said. “There are times to keep a low profile, and only go in with a few, but there are also times when you should take a larger group with you. To have every skill set available and on hand. Don’t you think?”
“Yes,” Calvin said. “I think part of it is King Fulton told me to avoid fighting the enemy at all costs. And you three are here by accident. I don’t feel it’s my right to risk your lives for our mission.”
“You’re here by accident too, Calvin,” Nils pointed out. “And our lives are already in danger, every minute of every day. What I can’t understand is why you would want to risk the entire mission by not taking us with you.”
Calvin sighed and looked at his friends; from Wexton’s determined expression, to Astra’s calm, expectant gaze. They were waiting for him to make a decision. Maybe they were right, but part of him didn’t want to be questioned. Was that his officer side? He knew he had to decide, and he knew Wexton was right, no matter how much he didn’t like it.
“OK, you’re right,” Calvin said. “We’ll all go in this time, fully armed.”
“Yes,” Astra said, smiling. “Good choice. We’ll leave Ion to guard the ship.” Calvin already felt better about the decision. “Then let’s get going. I’ll take us down and land on the platform.”
“Good, fine,” Dev said, “But I’ve got something I want to send out first.”
“Oh, no, not Fring again,” Wexton complained. “He’s a No’Rath robot. You can’t send him down to a Goremog planet.”
“No, not Fring,” Dev said. “I want to introduce you to the new Sipper.” Dev pressed a button on the computer and the screen changed to show the workshop, with a shiny new computer probe sitting on a work bench. “Ion and I finished it last night. We were even able to integrate a cloaking device into his power supply. Now we have an invisible probe we can send first.” Calvin and Astra stared at the screen with admiration.
“That’s ingenious Dev,” Astra said. “You really have outdone yourself this time. I love it. Send it down to the surface now and see if we can narrow down where the lab is.”
“It’s perfect,” Calvin said. He didn’t say it out loud, he didn’t want to change the mood of optimism in the room, but he had doubts about it performing up to the expectations. Instead he said. “So when are you going to launch it?”
“Ion thinks it would be best to wait until we land,” Dev said. “He didn’t want to send it through the atmosphere remotely. We risk losing control of it and giving our presence away too early. Once we land, I’ll launch it and have it scan the ruins.”
<
br /> “So we don’t have to search the ruins on foot,” Calvin said. “Dev, you’re a genius!”
“Thank you,” Dev said. “We can discuss my pay raise later.”
Astra turned the computer off and sat back with a sad smile on her face. Calvin understood how she felt. There was a high level of tension in the room. What was it, nervous anticipation?
At the beginning of the mission Calvin felt eager to find the segments. He had fear, yes, but he was able to suppress that fear more easily and plow ahead with what he knew had to be done. But now, he felt mounting fear and trepidation. They were so close now to finding the last three segments and completing the weapon. He did not look forward to leaving the safety of the ship.
He could see it in the faces of his friends; they felt the same way. He also knew from officer training that fear was normal, but too much of it was detrimental. The best thing to do was to get to work; focus their attention on things they could control.
“That’s it then,” Calvin said firmly. He stood and moved towards the door. “Let’s go. I want the new Sipper in the air as soon as possible. The instant we land on the platform, I want to be able to open the airlock door and leave the ship; fully armed and ready. The key is speed. The moment Sipper finds the lab, get the segment and get out of here.”
“Yes, captain,” Wexton said, saluting Calvin.
“Yes, sir,” Dev and Nils said. They left the room to start getting ready.
Astra touched Calvin’s arm and pulled, gently urging
him to stop before he walked away. “Are you all right?” She
asked softly.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Calvin said. “I just don’t like being this close to a Goremog planet. The sooner we get out of here the better.”
“If you think you feel vulnerable now, wait till we get on the surface and leave the ship.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t think to include the others on the mission,” Calvin explained. “I guess I was just trying to keep them safe.”
“You don’t have to explain it to me,” Astra said. “You were just doing what you thought was right.”
