by William Wood
“No,” Calvin said. “There’s no way we can get through this wall of ice. We’ll wait here.”
“Ion, hurry,” Astra said. “It’s getting worse down here.”
“Yes, Mistress,” Ion answered. The communication ended.
“What do you want to do while we wait?” Astra asked.
“Let’s go back inside,” Calvin said. “It’s going to be a while before he gets down here. I’m guessing it will be at least two hours, maybe more.”
“OK. We can look around inside some more.”
Calvin and Astra went back inside and took their gear off. This time they left it all inside the fountain room.
“I want to go back up to the lab and the vault,” Calvin said. “There was a room up there we didn’t look in.”
“Oh yeah,” Astra said, remembering. “The other door at the top of the stairs. Let’s go.”
Calvin led the way up the stairs to the top of the base. When he opened the door, he found a short set of stairs with a door at the top.
Up to this point, they hadn’t found anything dangerous in the base, so Calvin felt no fear in opening the door. A tiny quake shook the base.
Inside they found a room full of computers, which were all off. There were monitors all over the walls, and the ceiling looked like it was made of glass. There was a chair sitting in the center of the room, which was surrounded by four computer workstations.
“It’s a control room,” Calvin said.
“I was hoping we’d find one,” Astra said, following him into the room.
Calvin sat in the chair without hesitation. Nothing happened.
“Where’s the on button?” he said, half-jokingly.
Astra was already ahead of him. She found a power terminal on the wall and pulled the power switch until it locked into place. Suddenly all of the monitors came to life, all of the computer panels lit up, and the keyboards glowed.
“There we go,” Astra said, looking at information scroll across the monitors. She moved from monitor to monitor, examining each screen carefully.
“These are status screens,” she said. “Do you recognize the configurations?”
“They look Alerian,” Calvin said. “Like the standard controls in a spaceship. These look like flight controls.”
“This is life support.” Astra pointed to one monitor. “That one is engine status, and that one is navigation. This isn’t just a base. This is a spaceship!”
“And this is the bridge,” Calvin said. “Can it be that easy? Can we fly out of here?”
“I don’t see how. We’re still trapped under two miles of ice.”
Another quake rattled the base. This time Calvin held onto the sides of the chair, and Astra grabbed onto one of the computer terminals. The shaking stopped after a few seconds.
“They’re getting stronger,” Calvin said. “Yes, we’re stuck down here. But I think somebody buried this ship down here intentionally. They must’ve made a way to get it out.”
Astra thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, you would think that with something as important as this piece of the weapon, they would have had a way to get it out of here. But first they would have needed a way to get back in. I wonder how they planned to do that.”
“That’s a good question,” Calvin said. “We need to look around some more and see if we can find something. The answer has to be here,” he said, pointing to the computers. “Do you want to sit here? You’re the computer expert. And it’s in your language.”
“OK. Move it!” Astra said smiling. Calvin stood up and stepped back.
Astra sat in the chair.
“Master Calvin, Lady Astra,” Ion said. “I’m ready to fly down to the surface.”
“Ion, wait,” Calvin said. “We just found out this base is a spaceship. We’re going to see if we can fly it off of the planet.”
“That’s good news, Sir,” Ion said, sounding surprised. “Is it operational?”
“We’re about to find out,” Calvin said. “Can you remotely pilot our shuttle, and fly it back to the ship?”
“Yes, I can. But there’s something you should know. My sensors indicate the ice around your location is shifting, becoming highly unstable. You might encounter more quakes.”
“We already have been,” Calvin replied. “Hurry and get the shuttle outta here. We don’t want to lose it. Wish us luck.”
“Good luck, Sir.”
Another quake jolted them. This one lasted even longer. Loud bangs could be heard, some close and some far away, echoing throughout the base.
“I found the shields,” Astra said happily, “And this is the sensors. Oh, look at this.” She pointed at the screen. “There are small objects in the ice all around the ship.” She worked the computer. “They’re explosive devices. According to this, we can detonate them and shatter the ice. This is amazing. Now I see how they planned to fly the base out. OK, let’s get us out of here.”
“Just out of curiosity, how much power is left in this old thing?” Calvin asked. “It’s been sitting here a long time.”
Astra checked the computers.
“Calvin, I think this is it. These are the power levels. Oh, this could be bad. It says power is down to 45 percent. I don’t know if we have enough to get off of the planet and into orbit.”
“It’ll have to be,” Calvin insisted. ”We don’t have another option. We definitely can’t stay here.”
“I agree, but if we launch and don’t have enough power to reach escape velocity, we’ll fall back onto the surface and crash.” “Is there any way to be certain?”
“No,” Astra admitted. “If any of the power conduits or transfer generators are damaged, we could have even less power than the computer says.”
“There are no guarantees,” Calvin stated.
“No, there aren’t.”
“So we can sit here and let the power drain a little more, or we can go for it.”
“I’m guessing you want to go for it.”
“Yes!” Calvin said enthusiastically. “Let’s go. At least if we launch, we have a chance of surviving. If we stay here…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“OK, fine. Will you fly us out of here then?” Astra asked.
“Love to.”
Astra got up and sat at one of the computer terminals, and Calvin sat in the control chair.
“Put on your seatbelt,” Astra said. “I’m raising the shields and powering up the engines.”
Calvin quickly put on his seatbelt as the ship vibrated and shook. The engines roared to life; the sound started out as a soft hum at first but quickly got louder.
“The shields are at full power,” Astra reported. “I can’t believe this stuff still works. Calvin, we have to hurry, or we won’t have enough power to get into orbit.”
Calvin checked the power levels.
“We’re almost down to 20 percent,” Calvin said.
“Something’s wrong,” Astra said loudly. “We shouldn’t be losing power that fast.”
“Are we going to make it into orbit?”
“I don’t know,” Astra said, but in her mind she was afraid they wouldn’t.
“Get ready!” she shouted; the noise from the engines was getting louder. “I’m detonating the bombs now!”
There was a series of huge explosions that rocked the ship violently. Calvin and Astra both looked up through the glass ceiling. There was a bright flash of light, which caused them both to cover their eyes. Calvin peeked through a small slit between his fingers and saw an amazing sight. The ice above them shattered into a billion pieces. Tiny ice particles rained down on them, bouncing harmlessly off the shields.
There was now a long ice tunnel stretching out all the way to the surface. Calvin could see stars. It was a beautiful sight.
Calvin pushed the throttle forward. The ship vibrated and jerked violently from side to side. A horrific cacophony of loud scraping noises and tearing metal permeated the air as the ship slowly climbed up through the ice tun
nel.
Calvin did his best to keep the ship centered in the tunnel, but he realized with horror that the sides of the ship were being scraped along the ice walls on all sides. He could feel the ship slowing, struggling to claw its way toward the surface. Finally the ship cleared the tunnel and slowly began the ascent into space. Calvin urged the ship to climb higher into the atmosphere, forcing it with his will.
Suddenly a red light flooded the bridge, and an alarm, the most annoying sound Calvin had ever heard, rang out. Before he had a chance to ask her, Astra shouted.
“We’ve got hull fractures all over the ship!” The roar of the engines, the sound of the alarm, and the sound of small explosions were all going on at the same time. Calvin could barely hear her even though she was screaming. “A power generator in the engine room has failed, I think it exploded! There is explosive decompression, but I can’t tell where it is. Some of the internal sensors aren’t working, but it looks like automatic force fields are turning on. Oh no, power is so low I don’t know how long they’ll hold!” A few more seconds passed.
“The shields have failed!” Astra screamed. “The ship is coming apart! Automatic force fields are failing all over the ship!”
Then Calvin felt it; they were losing momentum.
“We’re slowing down!” Calvin screamed. “We don’t have enough altitude yet.”
“Every system is failing!” Astra screamed back. “I can’t do anything.”
“Transfer all power to the engines, even life support! Transfer everything except power to the emergency force fields!”
Astra worked as fast as she could. “That’s everything,” she yelled.
Now the only thing they could do was wait and hope. They were both very scared and held onto their chairs for dear life. Explosions continued throughout the ship. The vibration got much worse. Calvin felt like he was being shaken to death, and he felt dizzy.
Gradually the ship sped up as it climbed higher into the atmosphere and finally out into space.
“We did it!” Calvin shouted just as the engines died. “We’re in a low orbit, but at least we’re in orbit.”
“But it’s not stable,” Astra said.
“As long as we can get two or three orbits, we can get out of here.”
“We don’t have that long,” Astra said. “Structural integrity is about to collapse, and life support is gone. We need to get off of this ship right now.”
Calvin turned on his communicator. “Ion, this is Calvin, are you there?”
“What is your status, Master Calvin?” Ion asked, without delay.
“It worked!” Calvin announced. “We’re off the planet and in a low orbit, but we have a few problems. Our orbit is very unstable. Life support is gone, structural integrity is gone, and the ship is falling apart. We’re going to fall back into the atmosphere in two orbits, probably less. We really need you to come over and get us with a shuttle.”
“I’ll be there as quickly as I can,” Ion said. “Once I maneuver the Frost behind you, I’ll bring the shuttle over and dock. Can you meet me at the airlock?”
“We’ll be there,” Calvin said. “Don’t take too long.”
“I won’t.”
Calvin took off his seatbelt and got up.
“We really need to hurry,” Astra said. “We have less time than you think.”
They got up and went to the door. Calvin reached out to open the door, but Astra stopped him.
“Wait, I don’t think we should go out there.” She pointed at the door. “I don’t know what’s keeping this mess together at this point, but I know for a fact that several areas of the ship are open to space. A couple of the explosions I heard were explosive decompression, areas of the ship being exposed to the vacuum of space. If we rush to get to the airlock, we’ll open a door into one of those rooms and get blown out into space. We’ll die.”
Calvin was about to walk past her and open the door, but he stopped.
“Then what are we going to do?” Calvin asked. “If we stay here we will run out of air. You said the life-support system is down. And if that doesn’t get us, our orbit is decaying. We have to get to the airlock.”
“I know,” Astra said.
“How’re we going to know which doors are safe to open?”
“I don’t know. The internal sensors are down. I can’t even see what’s waiting for us on the other side of that door.” She pointed at the door again.
Calvin stepped back. The room was feeling smaller. It could have been his imagination, but the air was feeling thin. Astra didn’t say anything. She walked up to the door and waved her wrist scanner over the door.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this,” she muttered, almost to herself. “Well, I do know why; the oxygen level in this room is getting dangerously low. That’s why I’m feeling dizzy. How are you feeling?”
“I feel a little lightheaded. I thought it was just me.”
“No, it’s not. It looks like there’s air on the other side, unless I’m reading this wrong. Here goes.” Astra opened the door.
Calvin and Astra walked out of the control room and back to the main stairwell. Calvin followed her down the stairs. The devastation was terrifying. The pipes that ran along the walls were ruptured in a dozen places and were spewing steam into the air, making it hard to see. Even more disturbing were the noises the floor made when they walked—loud cracks and creaks with every footstep. It was even worse on the stairs. If they walked too fast, the floor shook.
“Wow, we really need to get out of here,” Astra said nervously.
“Don’t stop, keep going.” Calvin said.
They made it to the main level but found their way blocked by several large beams that had collapsed and filled the hallway with debris. Calvin could see the door that led to the fountain room, but there was no way to get to it.
“This way,” Calvin said, leading her back up the stairs. Astra followed him, holding his hand and anxiously looking at the walls and ceiling. They cautiously walked back up the stairs to the next level.
“We can cross over on the second level, and take the stairs on the other side,” Calvin said.
Astra let go of Calvin’s hand and waved her scanner over the door.
“There’s air on the other side,” she said.
Calvin opened the door, and Astra led the way. They found themselves in a long, narrow hallway. The floor made loud cracking noises with each step.
“The floor feels strange,” Astra said. “Do you feel it? It feels brittle.”
“Yes, I can feel it,” Calvin said. The air was full of smoke and dust. The ground shook, causing dust to rain down from somewhere above. They made it halfway down the hallway, when they felt a wave of power pulse through the room. Calvin could feel it in his hair. He looked up at Astra and saw strands of her long brown hair sticking out in all directions. Before he had a chance to ask her what was going on, a bright flash of light split the room between them. Astra felt it too, and she spun around. It only took her a second to realize what it was.
“It’s a force field,” she exclaimed. Calvin looked at her. He could see a look of resignation on her face. It scared him.
“Now what do we do?” Calvin asked her, trying to get her to focus on their problem and how to solve it. “How can we turn the force field off?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” she muttered, looking around the room. “Why did this force field turn on, in the middle of the room?”
Calvin watched her face. He watched her expression change from confusion to alarm. She started to say something, but was interrupted. All of a sudden, the room exploded.
Calvin would never forget what he saw at that moment. It would haunt him the rest of his life. The wall behind Astra disintegrated, and the fragments were sucked out into space. Astra’s eyes got wide, and she looked at Calvin, pleading for help. Calvin was powerless to do anything. He watched as Astra was violently ripped out into space. She vanished before his eyes.
“Ast
ra!” he screamed. “No!”
Calvin stared out into the blackness of space, in shock and devastated. It felt like his heart was just ripped out of his chest.
“Astra, you can’t leave me too,” he whispered. “What am I going to do now?” There was a loud crackling noise, and an electric feeling swept over him. Suddenly the force field disappeared.
Calvin was sucked into the vacuum of space so fast he was outside and spinning out of control before he knew what was happening. He closed his eyes and held his breath, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough. Being out in space without a suit on was an instant death sentence. He knew he was floating in space. He assumed he was dying, or maybe he was dead already. He didn’t feel any pain. He must be dead. But if he was dead, why was he still holding his breath? He held it as long as he could, but eventually, he was forced to let it out. He let the air out and gulped in a deep breath of air!
Calvin opened his eyes. He was still alive! It seemed completely impossible. But where was Astra? He looked around, and he found her floating not very far away. She was alive too! She was very close, but too far to reach. He stretched out his arms, and she did the same. Calvin tried leaning forward, and he tried to push himself, but there was nothing to push against. He tried waving his arms and legs to move closer to her, like he was swimming. Nothing worked.
He strained desperately to get to her, to touch her. Calvin looked into her eyes. He called to her. He could hear his own voice, but it sounded very strange. Astra’s lips moved in response to him, but he couldn’t hear her.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” he said. “But how are we alive? We’re floating in space without suits on.” She said something again, but he heard nothing.
Calvin and Astra both strained to touch each other, and this time they touched, barely. There was a soft purple electrical flash when they touched. It was a force field! There was a thin force field surrounding each of them. That’s why they were still alive. It was protecting them from the cold and airless environment.
They touched fingers again, and this time they managed to hook their index fingers together.
Calvin pulled her toward himself. When they were close enough, they embraced and held each other. Their force fields flickered with small electric currents that coalesced into purple clouds. On the edges, lightning bolts flew off in all directions where their force fields touched.