by Tom Hoffman
“Creekers, that doesn’t exactly look like a sleeping bag. I guess I won’t try to shape dinner. We can finish the lunches Madam Beasley made for us.”
Sophia, Orville, and Brother Solus were sound asleep before the sun met the horizon. Proto dangled his legs over the edge of an eight thousand foot precipice, his silver body reflecting the golden rays of a setting sun, a gleeful grin on his face. This was going to be fun.
Chapter 26
The Crater’s Secret
“I don’t know what happened. I tried to shape flapcakes and got this.”
“Eww, it looks like a big pot of clam pudding, if there is such a thing. It smells awful. No more shaping food, this could be poisonous.”
“Never fear, it’s Proto to the rescue. I have six boxes of flapcake mix and two jars of snapberry jam in my pack. We mustn’t dally, the sooner we reach the crater the sooner we’ll get to the realm of the Shadow King.”
“You’re in a good mood today.”
“There’s nothing like a thrilling otherworldly adventure to boost the flagging spirits.”
“Right.” Orville’s eyes narrowed slightly.
On step fifty-two thousand and eighteen Orville heard Proto humming a catchy little tune.
“Say, Proto, you haven’t seen any scary creatures, have you? You know, big claws, really hungry? The kind of creatures you like?”
“Not a single one. My nocturnal vigil was calm and peaceful, quite suited for quiet reflection.”
Orville and Sophia looked at each other, eyebrows raised.
On step sixty-eight thousand and twelve Orville stopped, scanning the landscape lying almost three miles below them.
“Whoa, Madam Beasley was right. This is a spectacular view. I can see most of the island. I don’t see any villages though, it’s all jungle except for the sandy beaches.”
“It’s beautiful. I wish I’d brought a camera.”
“Hey, Proto, you don’t have a camera in your pack, do you?”
Proto threw his head back and gave a great staccato laugh. “Ha ha ha ha! That’s a good one, I’ll have to remember that one. You don’t have a camera in your pack, do you? Ha ha ha ha!”
Orville shook his head.
On step seventy-one thousand and six, Orville spotted the rim of the volcano. “We’re almost there! Just another few minutes!”
Sophia was the first to reach the top. She stood silently, staring into the vast crater.
Orville scrambled up next to her. “Creekers! What is that? Is it a building? It must be a mile across. Do you think someone lives down there?”
Sophia shook her head. “No one lives down there. It’s not a building, it’s an Anarkkian interstellar battle cruiser.”
“The Isle of the Silver Ship!”
“Exactly.”
Brother Solus stepped up behind them, peering into the crater. He took one look and collapsed, Proto grabbing him as he fell.
Orville kneeled down, shaking his shoulder. “Brother Solus! Are you all right?”
Proto scanned Brother Solus’ vital signs. “His blood pressure is highly elevated. I believe he fainted at the sight of the Anarkkian battle cruiser.”
Brother Solus’ eyes flickered open.
“Unhh… where is…”
“You fainted, but you’re okay. You saw the big silver ship in the crater and you fainted.”
“Nonsense, I did no such thing. I simply had too much sun climbing those dreadful stairs.” He rose unsteadily to his feet, brushing bits of crushed volcanic rock off his cloak.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Enough.”
“Let’s climb down to the ship.”
Proto set his great pack on the ground. “As I previously mentioned, I have two hundred feet of stout climbing rope, more than adequate for our descent.”
“Perfect, the hull of the ship is less than a hundred feet down.”
“Brother Solus, do you know why we’re here, what we’re looking for?”
“I have not the faintest idea. Clearly I have never been here before, never set eyes on this monolithic silver creation. You say it is some type of war vessel?”
“It’s an Anarkkian interstellar battle cruiser. They were everywhere during the Anarkkian wars, destroying hundreds of planets, billions of lives.”
Brother Solus eyed the titanic ship. “Why would they do that? Why did they take all those lives?”
“Their leaders placed more value on power and wealth than on life.”
“Do you think we could fly this thing?”
Sophia shook her head. “It takes a crew of several hundred to operate a ship like this one. It’s not like flying a Dragonfly or a blinker ship.”
“Hey, maybe they have scout ships on board we could use. We’ve flown a blinker ship before, it can’t be that different.”
“That’s a good thought. Most battle cruisers had scout ships and escape pods. They weren’t as fast as blinker ships, but they were very reliable.”
Proto tied the climbing rope around an outcropping of volcanic rock. “Who would like to go first? We shouldn’t dilly dally, Aislin is waiting for us.”
Orville gave Proto a suspicious look. “You’re in an awfully big hurry to get to the realm of the Shadow King. Is there something you’re not telling us?”
“I’ll go first, just to make certain the rope is strong enough.” Proto slipped over the crater’s edge and slid down the rope, landing on the ship with a resounding thud.
“He’s up to something, I know he is.”
Orville went next, followed by Sophia and Brother Solus.
“This is incredible. How could they make a ship this big? It must be a mile across.”
“They built them in dark space Star Yards. This one must have been damaged in battle and crashed into the volcano.”
A thought cloud flashed out of Orville’s ear to Sophia. “How could an Anarkkian interstellar battle cruiser get into Elysian? There were no battles fought in the synthetic worlds.”
“You’re right, it’s not possible. Someone in Elysian must have shaped this, or dreamed it, just like Madam Beasley’s Bed and Breakfast. Do you think she could have done it?”
“She wouldn’t know anything about the Anarkkian wars.”
“That leaves only one other person.”
Orville’s eyes were on Brother Solus.
“He said he’s never seen a ship like this before.”
“I know, but there’s something odd about him, and he doesn’t remember how he got here or where he came from.”
“The red book said millions of Mintarians entered the synthetic worlds. Maybe Brother Solus is a refugee who was left behind.”
“Fourteen hundred years ago?”
“Good point, he doesn’t look a day over nine hundred.”
Sophia snickered. “Don’t be mean.”
Proto and Brother Solus had gone ahead, strolling down the sloping surface of the battle cruiser.
“Proto stopped at that big dome, maybe he found an entrance.”
Orville and Sophia hurried down to the large gleaming structure.
“It’s transparent, like the dome on the MV Bermitar, and has those yellow transport discs on the floor. How do we get in? Didn’t Abacus use some kind of code to unlock it?”
Brother Solus stepped over to a pale blue translucent grid of discs on the dome, gazing at it in silence. He tapped nine of the discs, then stepped back. The dome became a soft wavering field of light. Brother Solus stepped through, motioning for the others to follow.
“How did you do that? How did you know what code to use?”
“The numbers just appeared in my head.”
“From where?”
Brother Solus did not answer.
Proto looked at the three foot wide yellow discs on the floor.
“These are the transport tubes which blink us to the various sections of the ship, but I am unable to decipher the glyphs.”
“We’re looking for a
docking bay that has scout ships or escape pods.”
Brother Solus approached one of the yellow discs, watching curiously as the color changed to violet.
Sophia grabbed his arm. “Wait, don’t step on it, it might not work properly. This ship wasn’t built by the Anarkkians.”
Brother Solus pulled away and stepped onto the disc, vanishing in a flash of blue light.
Chapter 27
Squeaky
“What should we do? Suppose he got transported into dark space or some other weird–”
Orville gave a start when Brother Solus reappeared in a flash of blue light.
“The transport tube system is functioning properly. The disc took me to the third level forward cargo hold.”
“How do you know what section of ship you were in if you’ve never seen one before?”
“Enough of your questions. I simply knew what it was. There is nothing more to say.”
“Sorry, it just seemed…”
“Did you see any escape pods or scout ships in the cargo hold?”
Proto answered, “Such vehicles would not be located on the cargo deck, they would be on the main battle weapons deck or in the hangar bay just beneath the topside flight deck. Massive elevators carried the scout ships from the hangar bay up to the flight deck. Escape pods are on the weapons deck and launched directly from there, exiting from port and starboard launch tubes at over a thousand miles an hour, a suitable arrangement for dark space, but not for the interior of a volcano. Some battle cruisers launched smaller scout ships vertically through exit tubes on the upper hull. Those are the ones we should be looking for.”
“So… we need to find the hangar bay? You said it’s below the flight deck?”
“Correct, but a battle cruiser of this size would have numerous flight decks and numerous hangar bays.”
“How do we find them?”
“We search the outer hull for highly shielded areas, their presence indicated by low blue domes through which defensive energy field screens were projected. Hangar bays would lie beneath these blue energy domes, and the launch centers beneath the hangar bays.”
“I’m getting confused. What are we looking for?”
“A big blue dome on the outside of the ship.”
“Okay, looking for blue domes. Let’s split up and search for them. I’ll check the outer perimeter of the hull.”
Orville exited through the wavering energy field, heading across the expansive hull, weaving his way through a field of immense gleaming gold cylinders.
“I wonder what all this stuff is? Must be weapons or something. These round things have little blinking lights on them. That’s good, it means the ship still has power. We’ll need it to launch a scout ship. I hope Sophia knows how to fly one. Proto can probably fly them since he knows all about Anarkkian technology from those historical glowbird records at the Cube.”
Orville stepped through a maze of spiky structures protruding from the outer hull of the battle cruiser.
“Mirus Mouse would love all this stuff. Maybe I can find a weird device to take back to him. I should find something for Papa. I got those seashells for Mum, but I don’t have anything for Papa.”
Orville froze when he heard the low growling coming from behind a tall black spinning cylinder. He was about to pop up a sphere of defense when he remembered Brother Solus’ stern warning about shaping this close to the realm of the Shadow King.
He silently backed away from whatever was lurking behind the cylinder.
“This can’t be good. I have to warn the others, there might be more of these creatures. Okay, I’m a fast runner, even Sophia says so. On three I’m going to turn and run like lightning. Faster than lightning. One, two, THREE!”
Orville spun around and leaped forward. Unfortunately, in doing so he collided with the large silver cube directly behind him, thumping his head quite severely. He staggered backwards, paws on his forehead.
“Ow! My head!”
The growling instantly transformed into a terrifying roar, the sound of claws scraping wildly against the hull ringing in Orville’s ears. He gave a piercing yelp and took off running, shrieking, “Sophia! Proto! Crazy monster is after me! Help! Proto!”
Orville dashed across a flight deck embedded with long rows of blinking red lights. The beast’s roar was growing louder with each step.
“It’s getting closer! Proto! Sophia! Help, monster attacking me!”
He tore around two spinning orange panels, streaking across a sloping forty foot wide glimmering blue dome.
“Hey, it’s one of those blue domes! Proto! Sophia! Where are you?”
As luck would have it, just as Proto and Sophia darted around a towering silver dish, Orville tripped on a section of black metal conduit, careening across the deck, sliding to a stop at Proto’s feet.
“What is it? What are you hollering about?”
“Monster chasing me! Growling! Big claws!”
Proto’s eyes lit up. “A monster with big claws? Oh, dear!” He stepped forward just as the roaring creature slid around the orange panels, skittering into view.
Sophia looked at the growling red-eyed creature, then at Proto, then at Orville.
“This is your monster?”
“Good heavens, it’s a RoboPup! I haven’t seen one of these since I lived with my family of Elders. We had a RoboPup named Squeaky, such a lovable little fellow.”
Sophia snorted. “Whoa, Orville, I can see why you were so scared, that little fellow is terrifying! I’ll probably have nightmares for months, look how he’s wagging his tail, so scary!”
The gleaming silver RoboPup sat down in front of Proto, his eyes on Orville.
Proto rubbed the puppy’s head. “Hello, little fellow, I’m going to call you Squeaky.”
Squeaky lay down, resting his head on Proto’s foot, his tail still wagging.
“That’s not what was chasing me! It was growling and roaring and had huge claws! It’s still out there!”
Proto grinned at Sophia. “Squeaky, intruder alert!”
Squeaky let out an ear-splitting roar, jumping to his feet, growling and snarling, his claws raking wildly against the Morsennium deck.
Orville took a step back, his eyes wide. “What is that thing?”
“It’s a RoboPup, quite ubiquitous among the Elder households in the days of my youth. RoboPups performed a wide variety of home security functions, but of course would never harm family members. Little Squeaky was a beloved member of our family.”
“I was only scared for a minute, and that was because I didn’t see him, All that growling and roaring would have scared anyone. Anyone.”
Sophia smiled pleasantly.
“Is that a smirk? Are you smirking? You would have been just as scared as I was if you’d heard him.”
“I guess so.” Sophia was still smiling.
“Anyway, I found a blue dome back that way. Is that RoboPup thing coming with us? It seems like it might be a nuisance, getting underfoot, kind of bothersome. Does it bite?”
“Oh, good heavens, no. Little Squeaky would never do anything like that.” Proto gave a low chuckle.
Orville’s eyes narrowed, wary of Proto’s peculiar sense of humor.
The party of adventurers made their way back to the blue dome.
“This is where they project the defensive energy shields?”
“Correct, but only when the ship is under imminent threat of attack.”
“How do we get in? I don’t see any hatches.”
“Perhaps our new friend Squeaky will be able to help us.”
“He’s going to sniff around and find a secret trapdoor?”
Proto pointed to the blue dome. “Squeaky, attack!”
A blinding blast of purple light exploded out from Squeaky’s eyes, a six foot wide hole appearing in the blue dome.
Orville’s jaw dropped. “Creekers! What was that?”
“That was his heavy particle destructor beam. Quite a useful feature.”
Squeaky put his paw on Sophia’s knee, then cautiously curled up on her lap.
“I guess he’s a little cute. He seems pretty friendly. He won’t blast us with that destructor beam will he?”
“Certainly not. He is autonomous, but when I give him a verbal command I am also transmitting a 32 digit security code accessing his defense program and authorizing its use. I have added all of us to his authorized family member list.”
“So if I told him to attack he wouldn’t do anything?”
“Correct, but he would attack if he thought you were in danger.”
“I guess that’s not so bad. It’s not like he just goes around vaporizing stuff whenever he feels like it.”
Brother Solus’s voice rang out. “This endless chatter is bringing us no closer to the realm of the Shadow King. Proto, the climbing rope, if you would?”
Proto pulled the rope from his pack and looped it around a black cube, dropping the other end into the ship’s interior.
Orville peered into the darkness below. “It doesn’t look too scary. At least there won’t be weird creatures down there.” He slid down the rope into the ship.
Chapter 28
Time for Launch
“What is all this stuff? Proto, aim your ear lights over here.”
“It appears to be a command and communications center, either for the flight deck or the energy shields. That door looks promising.”
Sophia pressed a glowing violet tab and the silver door slid open. She stepped into a cavernous hangar, dozens of bright overhead lights blinking on.
Orville gave a shriek, skittering backwards, crashing into Proto. The hangar was filled with dozens of silver Anarkkian attack spiders.
Proto scanned the rows of gleaming eight legged automatons.
“Nothing to worry about, they have been deactivated for interstellar travel. The Anarkkians didn’t activate them until the ship was in attack mode. Once they were armed, the hangar door dropped and the spiders would rain down on the hapless city, destroying everything in sight with their deadly force beams.”