The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  “I’m not detecting any life signs,” Dev said.

  “Of course not, they’re robots.”

  “Right,” Dev said, shaking his head. Streams of data began to scroll alongside the picture of the Frost.

  “Let’s scan for energy signatures first,” Calvin said. “Look for robot life signs.”

  “OK.” Dev manipulated the controls like a pro. It didn’t take long, and it wasn’t what Calvin wanted to hear.

  “It’s dead, just floating in space,” Dev said sadly. “No power at all.”

  Dev zoomed in on the ship until it filled the screen. Azure Frost, the most beautiful and elegant spaceship Calvin had ever seen, was burned and ripped apart. There were gaping holes where power systems overloaded and exploded through the hull in dozens of places. Shredded pieces of metal floated around the ship in a slowly spreading debris field. Calvin felt his heart sink, as if a dark cloud were hovering over him, suffocating him.

  “This isn’t happening,” Calvin muttered, wondering how he was going to explain to the king and queen that he lost the Azure Frost, and that their daughter was severely injured. He desperately wanted to get onto the ship and find Ion. What was he doing up there? Had he and the other robots been destroyed?

  “What do these other computers do?” Dev asked, walking around to the right. He carefully examined the next computer.

  “I have no idea what this one does,” he admitted. “But according to this, there are thousands of computers somewhere under the castle. There is an option here to turn them all on at the same time or individually. Why would we want to turn on that many computers?”

  “Have you seen this kind of technology before?” Calvin asked.

  “I’ve seen something very similar,” Dev said. “I can’t remember where.” Then a menu popped up on the screen. “This is complicated. Each computer can be programmed to perform a specific function. Oh, and they can move wherever we want them. These aren’t computers, they’re robots. We can control thousands of robots from this console.”

  “Really?” Calvin said. “That could come in handy.

  “Very,” Dev said. “And, oh yes, they have weapons. Two heavy lasers on each robot.”

  “Can we program them to defend us?”

  Dev looked through the menu options. “Yes,” he said. “We can. That’s one of their functions. We can tell the robots to move to any location we choose and then select the level of aggression. The highest setting is, basically, shoot anything that moves.”

  Excitedly, Dev went to the next computer. “This one controls heavy weapons. All kinds of vehicles—wow, tanks!” Dev quickly moved to the next one.

  Air vehicles,” he exclaimed. “Look at this! Fighters and bombers. And I have no idea what those are. Or those.”

  “So this is a war room,” Calvin said. “Are you saying all this stuff is out there: robots, tanks, and bombers?”

  “Yes. According to the computers, there are several hangars under the castle, and this hardware is down there, ready to use.”

  “And all controlled from this room?”

  “Yes,” Dev said.

  Calvin walked back around to the sensor computer. He moved the cursor around the castle and around the area. Something caught his eye. On the edges of the screen were several red dots.

  “I wonder what those are,” Calvin said, trying to click on one.

  “Zoom it out a little,” Dev suggested.

  The screen zoomed out, showing masses of red dots all around the castle.

  “I don’t know what those are,” Calvin said. “But usually on a radar or scanner, red is a bad color.”

  “Can you click on one and zoom in? We need to get a closer look.”

  Calvin put one of the red dots in the center of the screen and zoomed in.

  Dev and Calvin stared open mouthed at the screen, terrified. On the screen was a horrible image. At first glance it looked like a robot, but the large mouth with rows of sharp, jagged teeth and the claws on its hands and feet were unmistakable. It was one of the monster robots. They stared at it for several moments, unable to look away.

  “What is it doing?” Calvin asked. “It’s not moving. Is it sleeping?” They both stared for several more minutes. The creature didn’t move. Calvin zoomed the screen out again. He changed the screen from a top view to a side view.

  “Look,” he said. “They’re all underground. These are tunnels.” He traced light-gray lines on the screen with his finger.

  “All of those tunnels go under the castle,” Dev observed grimly. “Those connect to the tunnels we saw earlier, that lead to that door downstairs. How many monsters are there?”

  Calvin checked the screen. The answer felt like a death warrant.

  “Fourteen thousand.”

  “Fourteen thousand?” Dev gasped. “That can’t be right.”

  Calvin zoomed the screen out. Red dots covered the screen. “The sensors say there are fourteen thousand out there. I guess we know what happened to the occupants of this planet.” There was no arguing with that. What else could have happened to them?

  “What are we going to do?” Dev asked.

  “I have an idea,” Calvin said, with a smile. “We can use our army of robots to destroy the monsters.”

  “Hey,” Dev said, getting excited. “That’s a good idea.” Then a thought occurred to him. “Wait, if that’s such a good idea, why didn’t the people who lived here do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Calvin said. “Maybe they didn’t have time. But I’m fairly certain they weren’t here when the monsters attacked.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Look around, this place is clean. If the monsters attacked, I highly doubt they would have cleaned up after.”

  “Maybe they did what we’re planning—escape in spaceships.”

  “That’s possible,” Calvin said. “That would explain a few things. But it’s strange that they ran away without putting up any kind of a fight.”

  “I agree, but right now the monsters are leaving us alone. They don’t seem to know we’re here. We could surprise them.”

  “All right, how many robots do we have?”

  Calvin checked, “Six hundred.”

  “Six hundred against fourteen thousand?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Calvin said. “But remember, the fighting would all happen underground. The robots would have an advantage down there. The monsters would be bottled up and wouldn’t be allowed to move around very well. Our robots could pick them off one by one.”

  “That could also be used against us,” Dev pointed out. “And we wouldn’t be able to use the tanks or aircraft at all.”

  “You’re right, not underground.”

  “Well, then,” Dev said. “Maybe we should leave them alone. Look at them, they aren’t moving. Maybe they will stay that way.”

  “Maybe, but what if they don’t? What if the storm wakes them up?”

  Dev didn’t have an answer for that.

  “At the very least, we can put some robots at the bottom of the tower, to protect us.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  They walked around to the robot control panel. Calvin was expecting it to be a very difficult process. The computers he used at home were hard to use and required a lot of time to learn.

  But this one, he found to be amazingly easy to learn and use.

  There were dozens of large hangars and rooms under the castle. Calvin selected the nearest one, directly under the tower. The computer told him there were twenty in that room, and they were all ready to use. With a simple click of a button, the robot was activated. A small monitor lit up; a view from the robot’s eyes. It was dark, but the outline of a door could clearly be seen.

  Another click of the device told the robot where he wanted it to go. A small menu gave him the option of selecting the robot’s mission and target priorities. Calvin selected guard mode and told it to open fire on anything that wasn’t human. In fact, there was a target profil
e for the monsters already loaded.

  “Here’s proof,” Calvin said. “They did fight the monsters, or they were at least prepared to.”

  “Yeah, but what happened?”

  Calvin clicked “execute” on the screen, and the robot moved forward. It opened the door and moved out into the castle. Calvin and Dev watched in amazement as the robot walked to the bottom of the tower and took up a position facing the way down.

  “This is incredible,” Calvin said. “Now we can see what’s coming.”

  “We can all sleep tonight, and not have to worry about keeping someone on watch.”

  “Yes,” Dev agreed. “But, I don’t think one robot is going to be enough.”

  “You’re right,” Calvin said. “I’ll put some on the stairs, and a couple right outside the door here.”

  Calvin activated the rest of the robots in that room. He commanded two to take up a position near the level they were on. He put two more on the stairs halfway down to the main floor. The rest he put down at the bottom of the stairs. Now they had twenty robots guarding them.

  Outside, they could hear pounding rain, blasts of wind, and thunder that boomed intensely. Calvin walked back down to check on Astra. She was sleeping peacefully.

  “I know the robots are down there,” Calvin said. “But I want to see one up close, just to make sure.”

  Dev started to say something but stopped after Calvin walked down the stairs. Dev followed him.

  “You have it set to defend, right?” Dev said, “What if they shoot us?”

  “They are only supposed to shoot the monsters,” Calvin answered.

  “Right,” Dev said. “And you trust them with your life, because computers never make mistakes. Especially the ones you’ve never seen before.”

  That made Calvin stop. He turned and looked at Dev. “You have a point,” he said. “So you think we should stay away from them, just in case?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Dev said. “You can go down there if you want to. I’ll wait here.”

  Calvin was very curious and wanted to see one. He believed they were there. The computer said they were. And he saw the view from the robot’s eyes as it walked up the stairs and stopped just below the level they were sleeping on. But he wanted to see with his own eyes that they were there. He didn’t just want to take the computer’s word for it.

  He walked down the stairs slowly, taking it one step at a time. When he looked back up briefly, he saw that Dev was not moving but watching him go down the stairs. Calvin stayed close to the inside wall. Finally, he saw the outline of one of the robots on the stairs. He got a little bit closer. He could hear a soft hum coming from the robots. He realized that it was the sound of their scanners.

  Calvin still did not have a good view of them and decided to take another step down. When he did, one of the robots turned its head and looked at him. Calvin froze. For a brief second, he was scared that he had made a very bad decision. But, after a second, the robot looked back down the stairs.

  Calvin took a deep breath. He turned and walked back up to where Dev was and told him what happened.

  “I feel much better now,” Calvin told Dev. “Safer.”

  Calvin and Dev walked back up to the bedroom level. When they passed the security desk at the top of the stairs, Calvin stopped and looked at it. The desk had a computer monitor built into the surface, with a glass keypad. There was also a long black switch off to the side. Calvin didn’t know why he did it, but he reached out and pulled the handle down without thinking. When he did, a large metal wall slid down out of the ceiling, blocking off the stairs completely.

  “Nice,” Calvin said, knocking on the steel wall. “That’s solid. I’ll definitely sleep better tonight.”

  “No kidding,” Dev agreed.

  Calvin yawned. “I can’t keep my eyes open anymore,” he said. “I’m going to get some sleep.”

  “Me too,” Dev said. “Here, take some food with you.” He handed Calvin a food pack. Calvin took it gratefully and headed off to his room.

  “Good night,” Calvin said. His room was right next to Astra’s. He slowly walked into his room and closed the door. He took a deep breath and sat down at the table. He ate his meal in silence, happy to be alone. After he finished eating, he lay down on the bed and fell right to sleep.

  The sound of the storm woke him up a few hours later. Calvin walked out into the hall and looked around. Dev was still asleep in his room, and Astra was still asleep in hers. Calvin walked into her room and ran the scanner over her. He was encouraged by the results. It seemed the medicine she had been taking was helping. Her vital signs were more stable.

  Calvin walked to a window that had a large flat sill. He sat on it and looked outside, watching the storm. It was impressive. Lightning flashed across the dark sky. Rain continued to pound heavily. He was glad that he was inside, safe and dry for now.

  After a little while, he started to get a little antsy, so he got up and walked back up to the computer level. He sat down at the terminal that controlled the ground vehicles, intending at first to just look around.

  Two miles away, in a large underground garage, sat rows and rows of battle tanks. They looked as if they had never been used. Calvin selected one. The computer gave him the option to start its engine, which he did. Then the tank revved up, the sounds floating over the speaker. The tank’s status showed up. All lines were green.

  The interface was the same as the one for the robots. He told the tank to move outside and wait. A large door opened at the top of a ramp, and the tank obeyed his command. It moved up the ramp and outside into the rain. The door closed, and the tank waited for its next order.

  Calvin checked its status. The main laser cannon was charged and ready. He told it to stand guard and shoot any monsters it saw. While playing around with the mission settings, he found that he could tell it to patrol any area he wanted. He selected a patrol pattern one mile long, and the tank moved off to obey its new orders.

  Amazing, Calvin thought. The best part was, there were more tanks ready to protect them.

  He got up and sat down at the sensor’s computer, to see what all of the sleeping monsters were up to. When he looked at the screen, all of the red dots were gone. He decided that the settings were probably changed, so he tried to reset them.

  There were still no red dots on the screen. An icy ball of fear formed in the pit of his stomach. Where did they all go? The screen flickered, and then all of the red dots were back. That was weird, he thought. Then he looked at the screen again. It looked a little different than it did before. It looked like they were all a little closer to the castle. It might be his imagination, too. What if it wasn’t?

  He wanted to make sure, so he picked one of the red dots and zoomed in on it. The same ghastly image appeared on the screen. It was one of the monsters. Calvin shivered. But then he noticed something was different. The monster was standing up, and it was moving back and forth slowly. Calvin’s eyes grew wide. Calvin zoomed back a little. He stared at the monster for a long time. He had no idea how long he had been watching it before Dev walked into the room.

  “What’s going on?” Dev asked, looking at the screen. “It’s standing?”

  “Yes, they all are,” Calvin said. “I have no idea why. It doesn’t look like they’ve moved. They’re just standing there.”

  It was hard to look away. The image was so scary and amazing at the same time.

  “I was thinking about activating the rest of the robots.” Calvin said. “I can put them all around the castle, near the tower, and in the basement.”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Dev said.

  “I’ll do it now,” Calvin said.

  Calvin got up and sat down at the robot control computer. He began activating all the rest of the robots. It didn’t take very long. Calvin was able to select groups of them at a time and program them. Within thirty minutes all six hundred robots were activated, and strategically placed around the castle. They were all close enou
gh to the tower to provide protection. Calvin sat back, pleased.

  Only one big question remained: How effective would the robots actually be? Each one of the robots was equipped with an energy shield to protect it from attack, two heavy lasers, and a dozen or so rockets.

  “They should prove to be a formidable defense,” Calvin told Dev.

  “There is something else we could do,” Dev said. “We could blow up the stairs and make it impossible for the monsters to get up here.”

  “There is only one problem with that,” Calvin said. “We would be trapped up here. What if the monsters climb up on the outside?”

  “Good point,” Dev said, slightly deflated.

  “We might want to consider it though, as a last resort, if we become overwhelmed. But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Right,” Dev agreed.

  “I have another idea,” Calvin said. “We still have all those tanks. I want to place them around the castle, outside of course, near the base of the tower. They are packing some heavy firepower. Also, look at this map.” Calvin took Dev back to the sensor computer. “Look at these tunnels. They all connect at these locations, around the castle.” Calvin pointed to several locations on the screen. “There’s four of them, two miles away from here on different sides of the castle. If it looks like the robots can’t handle things underground, fighting the monsters, we can use the bombers to destroy the tunnels. When the Terrors realize they can’t get to us from underground, they will go to the surface.”

  Calvin looked at Dev. He had a confused look on his face.

  “If we force them to the surface, they will have to get through the tanks to get to us,” Calvin explained. “And the bombers will be able to see them, too.”

  “Oh, I see,” Dev said, understanding. “Then you should get all of the tanks out there now, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, I do. In fact, they’re all warming up right now. As soon as they’re ready, I’ll get them out there on the grounds around the castle.” Within twenty minutes, all ground vehicles were deployed around the castle. There were one hundred heavy laser tanks and fifty lighter missile tanks. If it weren’t for the fact that there were fourteen thousand monster robots, Calvin would feel completely safe.