by William Wood
“Yes, I see it,” Astra answered. “About forty-five decks down, and spread out. I don’t know what they are.”
Calvin was filled with a renewed sense of fear. “Are they Dark Terrors?” He asked, gripping his rifle tightly.
“They could be,” Astra said. “Or maybe just Goremog robots.”
The heavy footfalls that pounded and echoed down the corridor were both comforting and eerie at the same time. It reinforced that he was not alone, but broadcast their presence to anyone or anything that might be around.
Ten minutes later they reached an intersection; corridors led off to the right and left. A strange device was lying on the floor.
“Oh my gosh!” Astra exclaimed. She walked to the object, bent over with great difficulty in her space suit, and picked up the device.
“What is it?” Calvin asked.
“It’s our Sipper,” Astra said. “Well, half of it.”
“What?” Dev asked. “What do you mean?” He walked up next to Astra and examined the metal object for himself.
“This is blast damage,” Astra said. “Sipper was shot by something.”
“Laser fire,” Dev said. “Look at the burn marks.”
Calvin had a good look at the tiny robot, then looked down the corridors in all four directions. Whatever did it could be nearby.
“There’s the rest of it, down there,” Wexton said, pointing down the hallway. Sure enough, in the gloom and very hard to see, was another lump of metal lying on the floor. How did Calvin miss it?
Wexton walked down the hall and stooped over the other half of the robot.
“Yup, that’s what it is.”
“I wonder what happened,” Dev said.
“I think the Sipper was flying down the hall,” Wexton explained. “And was shot by a laser weapon. The back half fell down there, and the rest flew through the air and landed here; obviously.”
“It’s not obvious to me,” Dev said. “The scanner is tracking some strange signals throughout the ship, but nothing that looks like active robots.”
“The scanner could be wrong,” Wexton said. “I’m looking at the evidence with my own eyes.”
“Should we take it with us?” Calvin asked, interrupting Wexton and Dev’s back and forth dialog.
“No,” Astra said simply. “Just leave it. It’s not repairable.”
Sierra One led the way again. Fifteen minutes later they entered a vastly large square room. Long dark glass windows ran along both sides, with doors evenly spaced. There was a staircase on the right side of the room that led to an upper deck. On the far end of the room, the entire ceiling was gone, exposed to space. Tons of debris floated in the air, but only in the upper half of the room. Also at the other end of the room was another set of doors, which were broken and lying flat on the ground. A corridor led away into darkness.
But that’s not what caught Calvin’s eyes as soon as he entered the room. In the center, suspended from the ceiling was a giant confluence of shapes; To Calvin it looked like hundreds of diamond shaped multi-colored crystals had been connected together. There were great bundles of cables that disappeared into holes on all sides of the room. The crystals were dark.
“What is that?” Calvin said, pointing. “Astra, have you ever seen anything like it before?”
Astra had her scanner out and was slowly moving it across strange object from top to bottom. She pointed it at the object’s center for two full minutes.
“It looks like a very large computer processor,” Dev said. “But what does it process? It doesn’t look like a mainframe; strange.”
“Well,” Astra said. “The good news is that the fragment is in this room. The bad news is that it’s up in that mess.”
Calvin couldn’t help himself and pointed out the obvious, “There’s gravity down here yet all that debris is floating above us. Does that mean the gravity field we’re in is restricted to just this area, down here?”
“It would seem so,” Dev said.
Calvin stood and stared. His mind raced. How were they going to do this? It would have been one thing if they could have floated through the room, but now that wasn’t an option. Or was it? Could they simply jump up and get into the zero G area?
Everyone spread out in different directions. Dev and Wexton walked to the windows to look inside. Astra was on her way to look at the massive device in the middle of the room, flanked by two combat robots.
Calvin stayed by the wall for a second, shining his light in all directions. Something in the corner caught his eye, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
Calvin started walking after Astra, focused on the thousands of tiny sharp objects floating above them. He stopped suddenly when he saw movement in the corner again and shined his light to see what it was. A small red light pulsed from the darkness; then two. He was about to shout a warning but didn’t get the chance. Sierra One opened fire; bright laser bolts flashed across the room. Sierra Two and Three rushed forward and did the same. There was an explosion; arms and legs flew in all directions. Calvin assumed the worst, that they had stumbled on a couple of Dark Terrors, but he was wrong.
“Goremog robots,” Astra said.
“Yes mistress,” Sierra One reported. “Their power levels were low, but still a possible threat.”
“Did you notice what their signals looked like, just before they were destroyed?” Dev asked.
“Yes, I noticed.” Astra said. “Just like the signals all over the ship.”
“All over the ship now?” Calvin asked calmly. “Have they spread out?”
“Yes,” Astra said. “I’m seeing over one thousand signals now. But we’re only seeing low power levels; no threats yet.”
Petori and Freks ran towards the corner.
“You got them all,” Freks said, angrily.
Calvin shook his head and continued towards Astra. He wasn’t sure what made him more nervous; the potential of Goremog robots attacking them, or Petori and Freks trying to fight them.
The room was a death trap. Calvin couldn’t get it out of his mind. If the gravity field somehow asserted itself, all the sharp metal objects floating above would rain down on them and certainly kill everyone.
Calvin shined his light up into the debris, hoping to see something completely out of place that would be easily identifiable as a fragment of the sixth segment. His light created thousands of tiny shadows and reflections that danced throughout the room.
“Oh, zap!” Dev exclaimed. “Look at that.” Calvin turned to see Dev staring into the dark windows on the right side of the room.
“Wow,” Wexton said. “That’s amazing.”
“Calvin, you have to see this!”
Calvin hurried across the room. He peered into the dark glass. It took a second to realize what he was looking at, but there in the darkness stood rows of Goremog combat robots.
He felt the urge to turn and step back, but he hesitated. The robots weren’t moving.
Calvin finally stepped back and gripped his laser rifle tighter. It was exactly in times like these he felt useless.
“We should hurry,” Calvin said. “Before the main power comes back on.”
“I don’t think that’s likely,” Astra said. “Unless someone is repairing it, this ship is dying.”
“I agree,” Dev said. “But I’m picking up some strange readings, not far from here. Look at your scanner Astra, they’re faint, but could be more combat robots.”
“I see it,” Astra said. “The signal strength is getting stronger.”
An alarm from Astra’s scanner broke the silence. Dev’s alarm went off too, as well as a softer one from each combat robot.
“Signals, active signals!” Dev exclaimed.
“Where?” Calvin asked.
“All over,” Dev said. “Thousands of them.”
“I’m detecting a major power surge!” Astra shouted.
Calvin looked up at the debris above them. Suddenly a wave of energy pulsed through the room. Gravity reasser
ted itself for a second and the debris shifted, then dropped a few inches. Calvin stared in shock, and braced himself for the worst; a ton of rocks and trash was about to crash down on them.
“No, it’s OK,” Astra breathed. “It stopped.” But Calvin could see, the debris continued to slowly drop. One or two large objects fell through and crashed to the floor, fortunately missing everyone.
“They’re getting closer!” Dev exclaimed. “I think they’re coming this way!”
Sierra One directed the other robots to cover the main door on the far end of the room. All four combat robots spread out in a line. Petori and Freks excitedly hurried after them and stood between the robots.
Calvin, Astra, and Dev followed, but stood back ten feet behind the robots. Calvin checked his rifle again, and made sure his two laser pistols were ready. Everyone had their weapons leveled, and ready.
“Ten, fifteen, thirty robots!” Dev said loudly. “Here they come!”
The sound came first; the pounding of footfalls filled Calvin’s ears like the boom of angry drums. Suddenly, dozens of Goremog robots emerged from the doorway and rushed into the room. The combat robots immediately opened fire. The shooting was fast and frantic. Calvin took aim and shot rapidly into the approaching horde of robots. Explosions lit them up, fire and smoke, the robots were blown to pieces and their parts were blasted away in all directions.
All the Goremog robots were quickly destroyed, except for two. The last two turned and ran back the way they had come.
“Cease fire!” Sierra One commanded loudly. All weapons fire stopped. Calvin lowered his weapon and took a deep breath.
“We did it!” Dev exclaimed.
Petori and Freks stood and ran forward.
“Petori! Freks! Stop!” Wexton shouted. But they didn’t; both of them ran forward into the corridor, chasing after the two Goremog robots that had escaped.
“Get back here!” Wexton shouted again. Then he ran after them.
“Sierra One,” Astra said. “Get them back!”
“Yes mistress,” Sierra One said. “Two, Three, follow me. Four, stay here.” Sierra One, Two and Three ran off down the corridor after Wexton, Petori and Freks. Calvin stared in shock.
“I knew it,” Dev said grimly. “They’re going to get us all killed.”
Calvin knew it too, and was very angry for not listening to himself.
“Calvin, we need to get the fragment and get out of here,” Astra reminded him. “Help me, please.” Calvin followed Astra back towards the stairs, eyeing the dark windows suspiciously. He wanted to look inside again and make sure the Goremog robots in that room were not moving.
They walked to the stairs. “Here’s my plan. We’ll go up the stairs into the zero gravity field. Once we get up there, we can start searching for the fragment. My scanner should get us close, if not take us right to it. Let’s go.”
Astra went first up the stairs, Calvin followed close behind. Ten feet up the stairs, Calvin felt his head swim and dizziness took over for a brief second. Ahead of him, Astra pushed off carefully into the zero G field and floated above him. Calvin continued to take each step one at a time. He tried to push off into the zero gravity area when the line was around his chest, but it was too early and he didn’t actually jump. He kept going. Finally when the field was around his waist he jumped, and went into the air. It took a second to get his bearings. It felt very strange, floating above the rest of the room, where the others were walking around. He looked down to see where Dev was, but Dev was no longer in the room. He could see one of the combat robots looking up at him. Calvin didn’t realize how high the stairs were. It didn’t look that high from down below. But now, looking down, he was beginning to feel slightly disoriented.
Using his jets, he followed Astra. The air was clogged with debris. He pushed pieces out of the way; several large pieces with very sharp edges. Twice, Calvin’s panic levels went through the roof when he thought he punctured his gloves.
Astra was directly ahead of him, following her scanner, moving aside pieces that were not what she was looking for.
“It’s right here,” Astra said. “We’re so close.” Then she picked up a tiny piece and held it in front of her visor. “Oh, this is bad, very, very bad.”
“What is it?”
“This is part of it,” She said. “Look,” She held it out so Calvin could see it. It was tiny, about the size of a small coin. “This is really bad.”
“You said that,” Calvin said, fearing the worst.
“Yes, but I don’t think you realize how bad.”
She put the tiny piece in one of the pockets of her space suit, then continued to search. Calvin moved up a little so he could see what she was doing. Several large pieces were moving towards them. He stopped them from colliding into her and moved them out of the way.
Astra grabbed pieces around her and held them in front of the scanner. Most of them she threw away, but several she stuck in her pocket. It was a long and painful search.
Then, she grabbed a larger piece. “This is the main part of the fragment,” she said. Then she waved her scanner around. “I think I got everything, but I’ll scan the room again.”
The radio went off in Calvin’s helmet, and made him jump.
“Calvin,” It was Wexton’s voice. “We have a big problem.”
Wexton’s tone immediately filled Calvin with an icy cold fear. What is it?”
“It’s Petori and Freks. You might want to come down here.”
“I’m on my way,” Calvin said. “Astra,”
“Go, I’m almost done here.”
Calvin carefully made his way back down, but nearly fell down the stairs when he re-entered the gravity field again. The big combat robot made no attempt to follow him, staying instead to guard Astra. He walked through the bodies of destroyed Goremog robots and hurried down the corridor; his lights lit up the way ahead; fear grew in him with each step. He was afraid of what he was going to find. His worst fears were confirmed when he reached a cross corridor, and found Wexton and Dev standing over Petori and Freks, who were lying on the floor. His first thought was that they were injured and they were going to need to get them back to Azure Frost as quickly as possible. It was a very good thing Astra was finished, and they could leave now.
But as he got closer, he saw Petori’s and Frek’s space suits were soaked in blood. When he arrived, it was confirmed.
“They’re both dead,” Wexton said, standing up. “I’m sorry sir; we didn’t get here in time.”
CHAPTER FOURTY-SIX:
FOUND
“What happened?” Calvin aske d. His tone was calm and firm, but inside he was holding back a wave of anger.
“These two knuckle-heads chased the retreating Goremog robots,” Wexton said angrily. "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen, no matter how loud I screamed at them to stop. But at first I wasn't that worried. Petori and Freks were causing all kinds of chaos. It's like they were in some kind of crazed frenzy. They ran so fast that Dev and I had a hard time keeping up; if we got lost, all we had to do was follow the trail of robot parts. Sir, I tried to stop them, I really did, but they wouldn't listen.”
“It’s not your fault,” Calvin said, but the statement had little conviction behind it.
“I really thought everything was gonna be fine,” Wexton continued. “They had a lot of pent up energy and anger. I thought it was the best time to let them release it. What damage could they do, right? Let them blast everything in sight. But I was wrong. Right about here, our guys ran headlong into a group of twenty Gorebots. I don’t think they were retreating when they ran away, but attempting to regroup. Petori and Freks fought hard. You can see the results."
He was right. There were pieces of robots everywhere. The final result was, unfortunately, also right in front of them; the mangled bodies of Petori and Freks. No matter how good they fought, there were just too many Goremog robots for them to handle.
"I’m sorry sir,” Wexton apologized agai
n. “It happened too fast. There was nothing Dev or I could do.”
Calvin looked up at the ceiling. He felt several emotions at the same time; shock and sadness, but mostly anger.
“You don't need to keep apologizing,” Calvin said. “It wasn’t your fault.” Calvin looked down at the broken bodies of Petori and Freks. Calvin wasn’t surprised that this happened. If anything, he was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. It was just a matter of time. But that didn’t help. It could have been worse, right? At least only Petori and Freks were killed. Calvin was deeply ashamed for feeling that way.
“I would like to believe they died quickly,” Dev said, standing. Wexton bent down and took their weapons and ammo. The ammo he put into pockets on his waist. He divided the weapons amongst those standing around.
“What do you want to do with their bodies?” Wexton asked.
“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “Does anyone know if their culture
has any death rituals?”
Calvin looked at everyone in turn, but nobody said a word. Calvin didn’t even know what culture they came from. Yet another thing to feel ashamed over. “No? Should we take their bodies with us? Attempt to find their people after this is all over?”
Calvin thought for a second. Would it be disrespectful to leave them here, where they were killed? He didn’t think so, but he didn’t want to tread on anyone’s feelings. There was no practical reason to take their bodies. One thing was for sure, they didn’t have time to deal with it. He translated the fact that nobody said a word meant he was free to make a decision.
“No?” He said finally. “We don’t have time or resources to deal with this.” Calvin saw approval in Wexton’s expression. “There’s no good reason to take them with us. So if there’s no objections, we’ll leave them here.”
“Yes sir,” Wexton said firmly. “Let’s head back to the ship. Sierra One, please take the lead.”
Sierra One went first, everyone else plodded behind him. Calvin was depressed. He didn’t like Petori or Freks very much, but he didn’t hate them either. It was such a senseless waste of life. Calvin didn’t want to be angry, but that was the feeling that grew steadily in him. Petori and Freks were good fighters, if only they could’ve learned self-control, they might have been valuable team members. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? Not only were they unteachable, they were wild and undisciplined. That made them dangerous. Still, it was a waste. They needed all the help they could get. He was certain he would always wonder if there was something he could have done; mentored them? Anything that would have avoided the outcome. But he knew there wasn’t. Wexton had been trying to do that. In the end, you can’t control the actions of others.