The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  “I can’t say I’m surprised,” Wexton said. “After all, why should they take care of us? We don’t belong to them. They take care of their own. I’d do the same thing. No, wait, I wouldn’t.”

  Wexton might be right. They were only going to save themselves. He couldn’t just sit there, could he? Was he losing Astra without having a say in it? He got up and followed after Astra and her parents.

  When he caught up to them, he was prepared for a fight, for a fight over Astra, but he wasn’t prepared for what he actually found.

  Astra stood facing her father. She held his hands in her own.

  “Father,” she said. “You told me I could choose to go with you, or stay with him. You told me that you would respect my decision.”

  “I know,” Fulton said, tears falling down his cheeks. “It was easy to say that when the time of decision was still far away. Now that it’s here, it’s not so easy.”

  “I know,” Astra said. “But I made that decision a long time ago. I need you to let me go.”

  They looked at each other, and Fulton nodded without speaking. Then the three of them embraced and cried. Calvin turned and walked away. Let them have their moment, but secretly he was thinking, ‘yes!’

  It took two hours for the Alerian scientists to set up the artificial worm-hole generator. They set it up in the only open space on the ground floor of the dome.

  While they were finishing up their work, Calvin, who had been arguing over in his mind what he should do, decided he would hate himself forever if he didn’t take advantage of the situation. He knew it would never come again. Rather than look back with regret, he decided to act.

  “Sir,” Calvin said to King Fulton. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Something that’s been on my mind.”

  “What is it Calvin?”

  “Well, on my planet we have a tradition of asking for permission, and I would never dream of not asking you but I feel like I’ve missed a few steps, with all the chaos of finding the segments.” Calvin stopped and took a deep breath. Judging by the confused look on the King’s face, he tried to organize his thoughts and stop babbling.

  “Sir, I would like to ask your permission to marry your daughter.” There, he said it; a little choppier than he intended, but he was nervous.

  Then the King did something he did not expect. King Fulton turned away from Calvin and called his wife. “My dear,” he said to Lady Tridara. “Will you please come here?” Lady Tridara walked across the room with a smile on her face.

  “You were right my dear,” Fulton said. “He’s asking the question.” He had a knowing look on his face. There was no surprise there at all.

  “Well, did you answer him?” She asked playfully. Across the room, Astra had been watching, but now she joined the group. She looked confused and a little worried.

  “No, not yet,” Fulton said.

  “Well what are you waiting for?”

  Fulton turned and faced Calvin and Astra. “You have my permission,” Fulton said. Calvin felt a rush of relief and joy. “On one condition; you get married now, and you let me perform the ceremony.”

  Calvin was caught by surprise again. He felt Astra take hold of his arm and squeeze his hand. He could almost feel her elation pass from her to him through her touch.

  “Yes, of course.”

  Even though there was a sense of urgency among the Alerians to evacuate the dead moon, they were more than happy to stop and witness a special moment; the wedding of Calvin and Astra.

  Calvin imagined that during normal times, marrying into the royal family would have been a grand affair; everyone dressed in their best clothes, in a big, grand cathedral with flowers and color; Astra in a big beautiful wedding dress, and everyone he knew would be there, especially his own parents. Weddings after the destruction of all life in the galaxy were much different. Despite that, he was happy, very happy at this moment. The center of attention still was, as it should be, Astra. The moment wasn’t lost on the Alerians either. They lined up on both sides, creating an aisle. The King and Queen stood at the front. King Fulton motioned for Calvin to stand next to him.

  Astra knew what to do. She walked to the back, escorted by two young Alerian girls. They walked her down the center slowly. The Alerians sang a song. Their voices harmonized and mixed together into a perfectly beautiful melody.

  “Perfect love, two loose strands, come together as one, unbreakable; unstoppable.”

  Astra had the biggest smile on her face. Calvin had never seen her look so happy. When they reached the front they stopped in front of the King and Queen. They handed an object to Astra. She took it and wrapped her hands around it tightly. Calvin couldn’t see what it was.

  The singing continued, “Two hearts, two minds, become one, perfect and divine.”

  The King and Queen embraced their daughter, crying.

  “Let nothing separate, let nothing divide. The cords cannot be broken.” After a moment, Astra broke the embrace and walked to Calvin. She held her hands out to him. In her hands was a small, red crystal heart. It sparkled, even though the lights were dim. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

  “This is my heart,” Astra said. “I give it to you freely, and wholly. It’s yours; I promise I will hold none of it back for myself.” At first, Calvin didn’t move.

  “Take my heart,” Astra said softly. Slowly and gently, Calvin reached out to take the crystal. Astra stared into his eyes as he took it. Astra put her hands down, turned and faced the King and Queen. Calvin followed her lead and did the same.

  Nobody moved for several seconds. It looked like Fulton regained his composure. Finally he said, “Today, Astra Corel has left her parents, and given her heart to you, Calvin Range. Though not represented here today, you are doing the same thing. You now must cling to your wife. Both of you must take care of each other. Put the other’s needs above your own. It must be a choice, apart from how you feel. Feelings come and go, but love can last forever if you choose it. Whether sick or healthy, in good times and in bad, until death separates you. Will you take Astra as your wife?”

  Calvin felt all eyes on him. This ceremony was similar to Arlandian custom, so he said what was in his heart. “I do,” he said simply, his eyes locked on Astra’s.

  “My daughter, will you take Calvin as your husband?”

  “I do,” Astra said. “For all time.”

  “I join you together. You were separate.” Fulton stepped forward, took Astra’s hand and put it in Calvin’s. “Now you are one.”

  Astra jumped into Calvin’s arms, and they kissed. The audience went crazy yelling and cheering. All of the 93 surviving Alerians lined up and congratulated them. When they got to the end, Wexton and Dev shook their hands then hugged them both.

  “Congratulations!” Wexton said smiling.

  “Yes,” Dev added. “I’m happy for you guys. Astra, make sure you take care of him. He needs a lot of attention.”

  “And food,” Wexton laughed. “Constantly.”

  Work on the worm-hole generator went very fast. In just under fifteen minutes the Alerians were ready to activate it.

  When they were ready, four projectors, all aimed at the same spot, turned on. Thin lines of white light joined together until a tiny dark spot began to form. It grew slowly and steadily until it was seven feet wide and seven feet tall. The swirling blue cloud of an artificial wormhole had been established. One by one, the Alerians stepped into the cloud. Until, at last, everyone was gone except for the King and Queen. It was time to say goodbye.

  “I don’t know if your planet survived or not,” Fulton said to Calvin. “I’m not going to guess. But I will tell you this, when you leave, seal the base and the wormhole generator. I’ll leave the coordinates for you if you want to follow us someday. It will take a while, but I also left instructions on how to calibrate it to Arlandian DNA. You’ll always have a family in Tradaun.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Calvin said; his voice shaky. He didn’t know what else to
say.

  They hugged one last time and said good bye. King Fulton and Lady Tridara stepped into the cloud and disappeared. Astra held Calvin and cried.

  Calvin led her away from the wormhole, wondering if it would shut off by itself. Everyone walked back, except Nils. He stood staring at the wormhole, unmoving. Calvin was about to say something to him, but Nils jumped forward and ran towards the wormhole.

  “Nils, no!” Wexton shouted. But it was too late. Nils ran into the wormhole and disappeared.

  “Oh, zap,” Dev exclaimed. “I thought only the Alerians could go through it.”

  “That’s what the king said,” Wexton said.

  “Is he dead?” Dev asked. Calvin shook his head and walked away.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO:

  GOING HOME

  Astra stared at the spot where the artificial worm-hole had been. Complete darkness and a tomb-like silence now filled the dome. Calvin’s footsteps echoed loudly though the expansive space as he shined a flashlight up into the blackness above. He could barely make out the outline of the platform above. Absolutely no light came through the glass dome. All he wanted to do was get out of there.

  “We survived to the end,” Wexton’s voice echoed. “Now what?” “I can’t believe Nils jumped into the wormhole!” Dev complained. “Why did he throw his life away like that?”

  “Maybe he didn’t want to face the new reality,” Wexton said. “You heard the King. The weapon destroyed every planet in the galaxy.”

  “He was guessing,” Dev said angrily.

  “I know, buddy,” Wexton said. “I didn’t say I agreed with what he did.”

  Astra was still in a daze, staring at nothing and not moving. Calvin gently took her hand and pulled her away. “Come on,” he said quietly.

  Then Calvin realized he’d been so caught up with the battle, the wedding, and the departure of the Alerians that he hadn’t thought about how they were going to get home. Maybe he should have asked that question earlier.

  Astra snapped out of her daze, looked at Calvin and smiled. “Let’s go to the hangar, sweetie” she said, as if reading his thoughts. “I have a surprise for you.”

  Astra led them to a stairwell at the back of the room. They plunged into the darkness, with only their small flashlights to see by. Six flights down; their footfalls on the metal stairs was very loud. When they reached a platform, they stopped at a railing and looked down into a large open space. A series of portable lights had been set up around a space ship. The wreck of Azure Frost was barely recognizable.

  “There’s no way we’re getting that thing to fly again,” Dev said.

  “No,” Astra said simply. “But that’s not the surprise. Look over there.” She pointed to the far corner of the hangar bay. There, under the glare of another set of portable lights were two more spaceships sitting side by side. The first one looked like an airplane.

  “The Sorenia!” Calvin exclaimed. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Surprise,” Astra said, smiling.

  “This is the best wedding gift ever! I can’t believe you found her!”

  “Three months ago, I asked my father to repair it. They had to find it in the junk pile first.”

  “They repaired it?” Calvin asked, thoroughly surprised.

  “Yup,” Astra said proudly. “Our scientists removed all the ancient equipment and replaced it with the latest and greatest; new engines, new computers, new hull plating; everything.”

  “Wow,” was all he could say. He bounced down the stairs two at a time without waiting for anyone. When he got to the bottom, he fast walked toward the Sorenia. Wexton and Dev ran to catch up.

  “Calvin,” Wexton said. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. You mean to go home, right? To New Arlandia?”

  “Yes, of course,” Calvin said, but detected something in Wexton’s tone. “Obviously you don’t have to go with us. I guess I assumed you would. What are your plans?”

  “Well, I don’t have anywhere to go,” Wexton said. “But Dev wants to go find his people, and he doesn’t want to go alone. I’m going with him.”

  “If that’s all right with you,” Dev added.

  “Of course,” Calvin said. “You’re free to do whatever you want.”

  “You can take that ship,” Astra said, pointing to the ship sitting next to Sorenia. It was an Alerian Corvette.

  “Thank you.”

  They didn’t have much to do to prepare at all. The only thing Calvin wanted to do was go aboard Azure Frost and get his journal. Astra didn’t want to leave Scribbles, so she took the robot to Sorenia and placed her in their new quarters; the captain’s quarters close to the bridge.

  On their last walkthrough of Azure Frost, Calvin made a discovery; the robot bodies of Petori and Freks.

  “What should we do with them?” Calvin asked. “Take them with us?”

  Astra considered for a moment. “No,” she said. “Petori and Freks are dead, these are just powerless hunks of metal. Leave ‘em.”

  Calvin shrugged his shoulders and followed Astra back outside, where they met Dev and Wexton to say goodbye. They shook hands, and then hugged.

  “Thank you,” Calvin said. “For all your help. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Thank you for letting us go with you,” Dev said. “I would have died if you hadn’t saved me when you did.”

  “The same goes for me,” Wexton said.

  “I hope you find your people,” Astra said.

  “And you, Calvin,” Dev said.

  “You’ll find them,” Calvin said. “And you’ll find a nice planet to settle down on. But when you get tired of being a farmer, you’re always welcome on New Arlandia. Just call first.” They shared a laugh, another group hug, and then they parted. Calvin and Astra boarded the Sorenia and closed the main airlock door. Dev and Wexton boarded the corvette.

  “Hey,” Calvin said “We don’t have a crew. Can we fly this thing without a crew?”

  “It’s your ship,” Astra said. “Can we?” Her tone was playful, and it seemed like she was feeling better.

  “Just kidding,” Astra said. “When they installed the new systems, they automated most of them. We should be able to fly the ship entirely from the bridge. However, we’re still going to have to activate the engines and let them warm for a while before we can use them. While you’re doing that, I’m going to go lock the base down. We don’t want anyone stealing the artificial wormhole generator now, do we?”

  “No, are you sure you can do that by yourself?”

  “Of course. That’s what anti-gravity generators are for.” “Of course.”

  “I’ll be back shortly.”

  After Astra left, Calvin made his way to the engine room, convinced that there was no way he was going to be able to start the engines by himself. But when he got there, he found it was as easy as Astra said it would be. The main computer terminal offered all the options he needed, the first was, initiate engine startup. The computer did the rest. When he was sure he did everything he could in the engine room, he headed up to the bridge. It felt very strange to be back on Sorenia, walking the corridors.

  He sat down in the pilot’s chair and turned on the computer. The first thing it did was link itself to the computer in engineering so he could manage the engines and pilot the ship at the same time.

  Before long, Astra joined him and sat down at the console next to him; the weapons officer’s station.

  She looked at him with a soft, warm expression. The one that made him feel that everything was going to be all right.

  The communication system came to life with a crackle from the speakers, “Hello, Sorenia?” It was Dev. “We’re ready to depart. Can we open the hangar bay doors?”

  “Yes, go ahead,” Astra said. “Take care of yourselves.”

  “You too, Sorenia. Goodbye.”

  “Good-bye,” Calvin said sadly.

  They watched in silence as the hangar bay doors opened. Calvin felt sad, and some
how it felt wrong to watch Dev and Wexton leave. The Corvette lifted off the deck and floated gracefully out into space.

  “Our turn,” Astra said. “Take us out, Captain.” Calvin loved it when she called him that. The Alerians really had done a lot of work on Sorenia. They had replaced the flight controls with standard Alerian systems, of which he was fully familiar. He increased power and lifted the ship gently up in the air, then slowly and gently took them out into space.

  Calvin remembered when they arrived in the system. The sun was far away but it lit up the moon nicely. Now, the sun was gone, and it was dark. The computer gave him excellent light enhancement, but flying out of the system was eerie and a little scary. It took fifteen minutes to navigate away from the debris that used to be the moon.

  “I have the coordinates for New Arlandia,” Astra said. “I’m transferring them to the navigation system.”

  It only took a second, and the computer had the course locked in. He accepted the coordinates, and the ship turned automatically. Normally, they would now enter hyperspace. But, King Fulton said the fabric of space was so damaged, no ship could enter hyperspace. But, never one to simply accept someone’s word without giving it a try, he set the hyperdrive engines and activated them; nothing happened.

  “You didn’t believe him, did you?” Astra asked. Calvin shrugged. “I don’t blame you. At least now we know for sure.”

  Astra enlarged an image of the Corvette on the screen. It had just cleared the moon’s debris field and was heading away from them.

  “I never thought I would ever see this ship again,” Calvin said. “Let alone fly home in it.”

  “Home,” Astra repeated. “That sounds nice. Do you think I’ll like it on New Arlandia?”

  “Like it? You’re going to love it. I just wish there was a way to know how long it will take to get there.”

  “I didn’t want to argue with my father. He was having a hard time accepting that I was leaving. In that moment, he would’ve said anything to make me stay. But, I suspect the damage to space is restricted to the area around the moon. Well, we already know the damage extends for two-hundred light years, but I think the worst of the damage will be near the epicenter. I think, I hope, that we’ll be able to go into hyperspace soon. I just have no idea how soon. It could be a matter of days, or months. I don’t want to guess.”