“According to W, all systems are go.” Leonard smiled before grabbing himself a meal pack. With the pull of a tab, the breakfast meal heated itself. His overcooked scrambled eggs and sausage were ready in under a minute.
We were ready to leave this world. Magnus and I had done a hike the day before, after the android told us he needed a few hours, and that there was nothing us humans could help him with. The planet was peaceful. It was a classic case of nature taking over what had once belonged to it. Signs of an ancient civilization were everywhere, even miles in the distance, but the only life we saw were some bird-like creatures and small multi-limbed furry animals scurrying around the tall grass.
I made a note to ask W again about the crew that belonged to the ship. When I first broached the subject, he was tight-lipped. W told me he hadn’t had time to access the data yet, but something about the conversation made me think the android knew more than he was letting on.
I wolfed some of the cold eggs down and tossed the container in the trash. My heart sped up, and I moved faster through the ship, working my way toward the compact cockpit that acted as the bridge. Slate stood at the base of the steps and stuck a fist out. I tapped it with mine.
“Let’s go find Mary, boss.”
I pumped my legs up the steps, my stubbed toe a distant memory. Magnus turned to me as I arrived, and Suma said hello without looking behind her.
A viewscreen flickered on, and I laughed at the size of it. I used to watch Yankee games on a bigger screen at home.
“Engines ready. Drive charged. Pressure accurate.” W listed off more necessary functions, and I watched as he handled the controls. He’d told us he could pilot the vessel, getting us to the coordinates we’d provided him. He didn’t need to sleep or eat, so he made the best pilot we could hope for.
The ceiling was still open from the last time we were here, and we didn’t have to contend with exiting the hangar. The thrusters kicked into life, and the whole ship rumbled with power. I stood there, anxiously anticipating the liftoff.
“Hold on, Mary. We’re coming,” I said quietly enough for no one else to hear. W lifted his head from his task and turned to look at me briefly before getting back to the controls.
With a slight lurch, the vessel rose from the ground. Magnus’ jaw was clenched, his eyes staring at the viewscreen with intensity. I found myself watching the others on the bridge rather than the screen. We left the hangar and were over the dilapidated city when I looked out the viewscreen. I realized I was holding my breath when Magnus let out a whooping cheer.
“Dubs, you are a master in class, my friend,” Magnus told the android, using the nickname he’d started for the bot.
“Er, thank you, friend.” W brought us up higher, past the ancient ruins of the locals, into the sky. The android increased the propulsion, and we broke through the atmosphere and into the darkness of space. “Is everyone alive?” it asked. When we all stayed silent, it spoke again. “That’s a joke,” it said mechanically.
“Don’t quit your day job, Dubs. Let’s see what these engines can do,” Magnus suggested.
W tapped instructions into the console. “Inertia field is live. Drive is charged. Activating.”
The hum of the ship picked up speed, and the whole vessel shook enough to feel it carry through my feet and into my knees.
We all stared out the viewscreen as the ship raced away from the world, and when W made one final tap on the console computer, I felt my gut heave. Stars stretched on the screen, and we were off.
After far too long, I’d made it. We were only a few days from getting to the crystal world, where the Iskios had lain in wait after leaving a trail of bread crumbs for us to follow.
____________
The lights were dim on the bridge. W was propped in the pilot’s seat, unmoving. For a moment, I thought he might be deactivated, but when he heard my footsteps, he turned his head toward me.
“Hello, Captain.” His robotic voice was low, as if he was concerned with waking someone.
“Hey, W. I just wanted to say thank you again.”
“You do know I am an android, correct?” he asked.
“Of course I do.”
“Then why do you acknowledge me as if I am one of your own?”
This conversation was getting strange. “Because you helped us, and I do see you one of us, as far as I’m concerned. Where I come from, someone helps you, you say thank you.”
“Intriguing. Then you are different from my crew.” He turned back, silently looking out the viewscreen. I knew he didn’t need to see the streaming stars beyond to know where he was, but it added to my humanizing of the android.
“Tell me about them,” I urged.
“They bought me on Treznar Eight. I worked for an ice mining crew for forty years: a family business. They were killed in a border skirmish that was so common for the region. When things got serious, they conscripted all vessels into battle. They didn’t stand a chance. The AX-3694 vessel was good for one thing only: hauling ice.”
I was surprised by his response. I hadn’t expected this real discussion. The android we called W continued to amaze me.
“That must have been hard,” I said.
“How so?” he asked.
“They were basically your family. You worked with them for forty years, then one day they were gone.”
“I do not understand. I am an android.”
It was easy to forget he didn’t have feelings as we did. “I’m sorry. Go on.”
“The winning government took all debris, and they found me among the wreckage. I was rebuilt, memory intact, and I was sold to a new crew. Of this vessel.”
He stopped, but I didn’t think his story was over. “What did they do? Who were they?”
“They were traders. They went from planet to planet exchanging goods, and transporting people when necessary.”
“Where did they come from?” I asked.
“They were from Mawitakos.” He brought up data on the console and showed me a map. It wasn’t anywhere I’d ever heard of before, but the images were depressing: the planet was gray, with two dim stars in-system, looking on the verge of being snuffed out.
“No wonder they left,” I muttered.
“Yes. They often claimed to be glad to be gone from Mawitakos, but occasionally, Yeloik would regale the others with songs about home. The captain would allow it if he was feeling homesick,” W said.
I was genuinely curious. “How did you come to arrive on the world where we found you?”
“Larsk Two. Much nicer than Larsk One. They have insects there the size of your friend Slate,” W said, and I shuddered. I’d seen enough insectoids and giant moths to know I didn’t want to deal with life-sized black widows, with or without guns. “We were bringing some antiquity or another to Larsk One when we were sidelined with a ship malfunction. I had to land before we ran out of oxygen.”
“Why did you never leave?” I asked, resting on the second seat.
“I don’t recall,” W said. “We fixed the ship, and the captain and the others went looking for treasure, they said. The world was empty, buildings everywhere, only they were still standing back then.”
“How long ago was this? Give or take.”
He paused, as if calculating. “From the data Suma provided me, it would equal one thousand four hundred and eleven years and twenty-five days of your Earth time. Give or take.”
My jaw dropped. “You were sitting there for fifteen hundred years? Why didn’t you leave?”
“They never came back from their search of the city. The captain told me to wait, so I did. Eventually, I could not charge any longer. I closed myself into the wall and shut it before powering down.”
My hands went to my face, and I took a deep breath. “Wow. You were there when we came a few weeks ago.”
“I suppose I was.”
“Well, if we ever get into a situation like that, feel free to find a new life. Just come looking for us first if we disappea
r.” I tapped the console with my index finger. “How long?”
“Fourteen hours, Captain,” he answered.
We were almost there.
Fifteen
My hands shook as W cut the FTL drive. The image I saw on the viewscreen didn’t compute.
“W, this isn’t the right place,” I said, my voice betraying my nerves.
“These are the coordinates you provided me with.” The android brought them up on the screen to show me. They indeed matched.
Had Sergo sent me on a damned wild goose chase? I pictured wrapping my hands around his neck, crushing his windpipe with the crunch akin to stepping on a beetle.
“Dubs, zoom in.” Slate had taken to calling the android Magnus’ nickname for him.
“Zooming.” The planet was clear. It sat between us and the system’s star, and I could see dim light through the core of the world. With each percentage of zoom increase, the surface grew more focused.
“Just as I thought. It is the right world,” Slate said, walking forward toward the viewscreen. “Look. Those are crystals. They’ve just lost their pigment.”
I had no idea what this meant. “Let’s go in.” I told W what I knew about the quadrant we’d been in, the one with the blue crystal pyramid. Only now it wouldn’t be blue, apparently. How could the color have been sucked out of the gemstones? I had far too many questions, and no one to answer them.
As the ship lowered into the atmosphere, my breaths came faster and shallower. The bridge suddenly felt too small for us to all be on, as if the walls were closing in on me.
“I’m going to get my suit on,” I mumbled and left.
“Wait up,” Magnus was behind me. “I know it doesn’t look promising, but she might still be here.”
“Maybe. Something feels very off about this. I know it makes no sense, but I somehow feel like I’d know if she were here. My gut’s telling me she isn’t.” I talked as I walked, not trusting my legs to work if I stopped. We were there, and in a short time, I’d possibly find out if Mary was alive.
I opened a storage closet in the cargo bay and started to put my EVA on.
“Dean.” Magnus grabbed me by the shoulders.
I fought the urge to push him off. “What?” I yelled.
“We’re in this together. I know you feel alone without her, but we’re here. Slate, Leonard, Suma, me…”
I held my helmet under my arm and looked up at Magnus. He was right. I needed their help. “I’m sorry. Let’s get suited up and see what we can find.” I stuck my hand out, and he shook it firmly.
“Good.”
The others emerged into the back, as if they were waiting to see how I was going to react.
“Come on in, guys. Slate, did you direct W to the right spot?” I asked.
“I described it as best as I could, and he used the ship’s scanners to lock in on the region. Pretty cool technology.” Slate began to throw his EVA on, as did the others.
“More than cool,” Suma tweeted. “We can use that on Shimmali vessels, moving forward.”
W’s voice carried through in-ship speakers. “Approaching landing location. Set down in eight point oh…”
I cut the feed on the wall. “Everyone ready to go?”
Magnus walked from person to person to alien and made sure their suits were locked and pressurized properly before we turned on the containment field and opened the ramp.
The ship landed on the crystal world and it all became real. Sweat beaded beneath my suit and drops rolled down my spine. What was I going to find when I stepped off this ship and onto the colorless ground?
I stood at the top of the ramp and took a deep breath of recycled air. It was time to find out. Moving one foot before the other, I walked through the containment field, down the steps, and to the hard, clear surface.
My team followed, Magnus and Slate ready with pulse rifles in their grip. Leonard carried Suma’s pack on his back. I left my gun in its holster, as the only person I expected I might cross paths with was my wife. I wouldn’t be shooting her.
The landscape was familiar. Even though it had only been a few weeks since I’d set foot on the same rock, it felt like a lifetime had passed. Slate came to stand beside me as we peered down the ledge of the cliff and toward the now-clear crystal pyramid.
“Boss, wasn’t there a moon in the sky last time?” he asked, a note of concern carrying through.
I looked up to the bright sky. “Maybe it’s on the other side of the planet right now.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t there. I wasn’t even thinking about it then, but there was no moon out.” He pointed up.
What did that mean? Were we even at the right place?
“God knows what the Iskios have done. We just came from a planet that appeared to have aged a century in a few weeks, and now this…” I didn’t even know how to describe the changes.
“Something serious has gone down. Come on, we’re not going to get answers up here, boss.” Slate started the descent down the smooth angled surface, and the others followed. I waited for a moment, staring out toward the looming fortress. Grave. That was what the Iskios had called it. I’d thought it was a throne room, but he’d called it a grave. They’d been dead, according to Sarlun’s information: second-hand details, passed down over generations and through races across the galaxy. Who knew what was true and what was just a bedtime story?
The symbol was still cut into the ground, visible from here only by the now-murky water sitting in it. Before, it had been a vibrant blue; now it looked dirty on the otherwise pristine, crystal-clear scenery.
“Dean, you coming?” Magnus’ voice asked through my earpiece.
“On my way,” I said and saw them down a half mile away. I hadn’t realized just how long I’d been staring into the empty distance. I caught up with them in a few minutes after jogging, careful to not twist my ankle on the protruding crystal ends.
We reached the symbol, the one we’d thought was to indicate the Theos. I didn’t even know if that symbol was for the real Theos, and the Iskios had just used it to trick us, or if it really meant anything at all. It might have been made up by them, purely for the purpose of finding this worthy vessel. Mary.
Suma captured images of it, but I kept walking ever forward, toward the magnificent pyramid I was nearing. It had started raining last time we’d walked this path, and among the lightning, we’d seen the Padlog ship coming down. This time, the sky was empty of both ships and clouds.
The world felt cold now, sterile.
No one spoke as we solemnly approached the entrance we’d used last time. The large-eyed tiny creature had guided us then. Now we saw no sign of the little guy. Was it still lingering on the world? Was it placed there only to act as a guide, should a potential vessel finally arrive?
“Leonard, Suma, stay outside,” I commanded, and before I got an argument from the Shimmali girl, Slate shook his head at her, telling her it wasn’t the time. “If something happens to us, get out of here. Get W to bring you back to Larsk Two. Go home from there. Use the portal. Got it?” I asked forcefully.
Leonard nodded, but Suma stayed still, withholding a reply.
I walked over to her. “Suma, whatever you’re thinking, forget it. I don’t like the look in your eye. Your father needs you to come home to him, so no heroic stuff today, okay?”
This time, she did answer. “I can’t promise anything.”
It was as good a response as I was going to get. “Leonard, you understand, right?”
“Yes, Dean. I do.” He stood straight-backed and looked like he was about to salute me. He caught himself and relaxed his arm.
“Good. Let’s go, gentlemen.” I stuck my leg through the opening, and before I knew it, I was back inside the pyramid where Mary had been possessed.
The halls once again lit with the LEDs shining forward off of my suit, but this time, there was no blue tinge to it. The crystals were all clear, the pigment sucked from every ounce of the stone. What could
do that?
“Which way?” Magnus asked, and Slate pushed past me, leading the charge.
“Follow me.” Slate took us down the corridors, toward the throne room. In a few fuzzy minutes, we were approaching the large open cavern. I didn’t recall walking to the room, so distracted were my thoughts. I ran the last remaining steps and into the room with its immense vaulted ceiling. It was dark inside, save for the light beams tracing our movements. Gone were the glowing blue stones, as was Mary.
“Mary!” I yelled. I clicked my suit’s exterior speaker on and continued to call her name as I rushed to the empty crystal seat in the center of the room. Piles of broken crystal stalactites lay nearby, where Mary had been covered by them after the Padlog had shot the ceiling. The only color remaining was a few blotches of red. Mary’s blood.
I fell to my knees, moving chunks of rock, hoping she was there, that we could save her, but Slate and I had both seen her rise. We’d seen her use her new gifts to send us home before the startled mist took over once again.
“Boss, you’re okay. We knew this might happen. We’ll find her.” Slate was beside me, crouched low to the ground.
I’d wasted so much time coming here. To what end? She was long gone, the world free of the Iskios once and for all. Had the Unwinding already started? That might explain the missing moon.
Not only did I need to find my wife, I needed to stop what she was wielding – carrying. I’d have plenty of time to feel sorry for myself, but now, Mary needed me. Everyone needed me.
I choked back the sorrow and felt resolve firm in my gut. The Iskios would pay. They didn’t stand a chance, not against me. Not when I found the Theos and brought justice back to them.
I noticed the floor; the whole pyramid, in its entirety, had lost the vibration effect from before. The energy stored there had dissipated, or had left with the Iskios and Mary.
My earpiece chimed. “Captain,” W’s robotic voice said.
“Go ahead,” I said, clearing my tight throat first.
“I’ve found an anomaly. It’s four hundred twenty-seven point eight kilometers from our position.”
The Survivors Box Set Page 95