The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  “I think if we are successful, humans are going to come out of hiding all over the place. I just think it’s good to be prepared for everything, because you don’t know when you’ll need it.”

  CHAPTER FOURTY-EIGHT:

  SEYTA-ZUN

  The corridors of Azure Frost were quiet. They were quiet because it was the middle of the night and everyone was asleep. Everyone that is, except Calvin. He couldn’t sleep. At first, he assumed he had too much pent-up energy. So he wandered the corridors for an hour, trying to make himself tired. It worked a little, but not enough, so he went to the bridge and sat down in the pilot’s chair. The sounds of the computers, the soft lights and the view of going through hyperspace helped him relax enough to try and get some sleep. On his way back to his room, he thought about how peaceful the ship was, so quiet. He loved that he could feel the vibration of the hyper-drive engines through the bulkhead floors. He walked down to the repair bay, where Sierra Three and Five were recharging in power stations. He went to the long range sensor array, a room on the front of the ship two decks below the bridge. The deck led to a railing looking down on a large dish, with computer components lining the outside, with lines of highly focused light streaming to the center. Above that was a small computer station that overlooked the entire array and surrounding area. But best of all, was the view through a window straight ahead into the hyperspace cloud. Calvin liked to go sit there occasionally. He sat there for an hour, lost in thought. Finally, he went back to his room and tried to sleep again.

  The next two weeks passed quickly, everyone settled down into their own separate routines, doing what they wanted. Though they worked separately, they made it a point to meet every night for dinner together to discuss their projects.

  It became their tradition. On the night before they were to arrive at the next segment, they met in the dining room and at dinner together. After that, they assembled in the library and Astra showed maps of the space station, and they began to make plans.

  Calvin knew it was going to be a little different this time. They only had four combat robots instead of five, and they were also down two members; Petori and Freks. But in Calvin’s opinion, that may not have been a bad thing. It was one less thing to worry about.

  “I’m sorry, these records are very old,” Astra said, pointing to the wall monitor. The space station image wasn’t a picture, but a schematic. The space station looked familiar to Calvin. It looked like two triangles, pressed back to back, with large engines hanging off one end. It didn’t take him long to remember; it looked exactly like the base on the ice planet where they found the second segment.

  “This is all we have to go by,” Astra said. “But it’s clear to see. The main airlock is here, in the center of the station. Does it look familiar, Calvin?”

  “Yes, it does. We barely escaped from the last space station that looked like this.”

  “It looks like the same layout,” Astra said. “The seventh segment should be in here, in a lab just below the primary flight deck.”

  “So how do we want to do this?” Wexton asked. “Same as before? Only assuming there will be a base this time?”

  “It’s still a good plan,” Astra said. “We’ll analyze the station when we get there. But for now, plan on taking the four combat robots, and the four of us.”

  “And leave Ion on the bridge, keeping an eye on things.”

  “So get in and out real fast?” Dev asked. “No problem.”

  “I won’t say that again,” Astra said. “Get in and out as fast as possible, yes, but be prepared for the worst. The good news is we can wear the advanced combat suits.”

  “If everything goes the way it should,” Dev said.

  “Right,”

  “It rarely does.”

  After the planning session, everyone left the library except for Calvin and Astra. Astra got them each a cup of hot evening tea, with sleep-inducing herbs, and they both went to the couch facing the windows. They sat in the glow of the hyperspace cloud and drank their tea. Astra sat close to Calvin and put her hand on his. He took her hand. It felt soft and warm in his.

  There were few moments in his life that he could define as a ‘perfect moment.’ This was one.

  They finished their tea, kissed goodnight and went to their own rooms. Calvin floated back to his room, thinking to himself, ‘She kissed me! She kissed me! Wow. That was our first kiss.’ It was a moment he would never forget.

  Calvin went to bed early, hoping to get eight hours of rest before the mission. That was his plan, but he should have known better. He couldn’t get comfortable, and he couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong. He drifted in and out of sleep all night long.

  Calvin woke up early and got ready. They weren’t due to arrive at the space station for another hour, but Calvin wanted to be early. He ate his breakfast alone in the dining room quickly, and took his coffee with him to the bridge. He thought he was early, but Astra and Ion were already there when he arrived.

  “Good morning,” Calvin said, still holding his cup of coffee.

  “Good morning sweetie,” Astra said smiling. “I won’t ask you how you slept. You look tired, just like how I feel right now.”

  “Yeah, I never sleep the night before a mission,” Calvin admitted.

  “I have the same problem.”

  “Anything on the long range sensors?”

  “No, the sensors are clear.”

  “Well that’s a good sign,” Calvin said.

  “Maybe not,” Ion said. “The nebula could be affecting them.”

  “Of course,” Calvin said. He didn’t say it out loud, but he was thinking it; with all the advanced Alerian technology, why haven’t they come up with a way to make their scanners and sensors function around the most basic of special anomalies, like nebulas and radiation? There were problems even the Alerians couldn’t solve.

  Fifteen days after finding the sixth segment, Azure Frost dropped out of hyperspace. Calvin was nervous, and had no idea of what to expect but he feared the worst. The nebula that contained the space station was between the Goremog and No’Rath empires, and they had been fighting heavily along the border, there was a good chance they might find this space station in the same condition as the last one; totally obliterated.

  “Bridge, this is Wexton. I’m in the rear turret. Weapons are

  charged and ready.”

  “I’m in the bottom turret,” Dev reported. “Also ready.”

  “Nils here, in the top turret,”

  “Thanks guys,” Calvin said. “Keep your eyes open. The scanner is clear for now, but if there are any ships in this area, they won’t be friendly.”

  “We’re ready,” Wexton said.

  Calvin gasped at the beauty of the nebula. It stretched out before them like a blanket. It looked like a giant cloud of every shade of blue. It was so mesmerizing; he didn’t notice the small black space ships around the Frost, all heading towards the nebula. Calvin felt a shock of fear and checked the cloaking device to make sure it was working; it was.

  As he took his eyes off of the brilliant light of the nebula, he saw dozens of small black space ships leaving and entering the blue cloud.

  “What are they?” Calvin asked. A quick scan revealed exactly what they were.

  “Cargo ships,” Astra said. “This is a busy place. Obviously someone found the space station, and is using it.”

  “They are No’Rath ships,” Ion said. “It would seem you are right, they are using the station.” No one spoke for a while, as they approached the nebula. If their scanners couldn’t penetrate the nebula, would their cloak work? Calvin hated that he didn’t know.

  “Ion,” Calvin said. “Will the cloak work in the nebula?”

  “Yes, it should work,” Ion answered. “It can adapt itself to match its environment, and filter out anything like a nebular or plasma clouds. We should have no problems.”

  “Good,” Calvin said, satisfied with his answer. “That will
give us time to go slow, and figure out what we’re doing next.”

  “What are we doing next?” Astra asked.

  “I wanna take a look at the space station,” Calvin said. “Nice and slow.”

  “OK,” Astra said. “You just can’t get enough of this, can you?”

  She was smiling. “Trouble?” He asked. “Oh, no. We don’t have to look for it.”

  Calvin pushed the throttle forward, and the Frost gradually moved to the perimeter of the beautiful cloud. He felt less fear and more focus this time. All he had to do was make sure he did everything right. That’s all he could do.

  Calvin braced himself. He expected there to be a bump when they crossed the threshold, but he was wrong. They crossed into the blue cloud and he didn’t feel anything. Suddenly the scanners all went fuzzy, and static filled the screens. Calvin looked over at Astra.

  “I’ll try to compensate,” she said. After a few minutes, the screens cleared up a little, but not completely. “That’s the best I can do. You should be able to find the base.”

  Calvin glanced at the scanner; the screen flickered, but somewhere in the flashes and static, he thought he could see the outline of a large structure. It could be the base, or part of it. At least he had enough to go by, as far as a general direction. It was quiet on the bridge for several minutes. It seemed to last forever. Calvin kept his eyes ahead. The cloud was thick, and visibility was almost zero. But he kept going where the computer told him to go. When they finally found it, it wasn’t at all what Calvin thought it would look like. It was a monstrous metal thing that was covered with strange shapes. It had no discernible shape to speak of. It looked like a big mess, like someone had haphazardly added rooms and corridors all over it with no logic to the pattern. There did seem to be a central area that everything came out of, and a large glass area on top that could have been the command post. If Calvin had built it, that’s where he would have put the command post.

  “What in the world,” Astra said. “What did they do to the station?”

  “It looks like the No’Rath modified it,” Ion said. “Heavily.”

  “Seyta-Zun is still in there,” Astra said. “Look, you can see parts of it there and there,” she pointed. “Are they trying to convert it into a robot ship?”

  “Well, those look like reactor pods,” Calvin said. “On the bottom, look.”

  “You’re right,” Astra said. “And those must be charging ports. They dock with the station and recharge. This must be a supply and power depot.”

  “That would be my guess as well,” Ion said. Calvin took it all in. Once again, the situation was totally different than what he expected. They would have to come up with a new plan.

  Three small cargo ships were docked with the station, attached to the central area, which was oddly shaped. It had numerous squares and spheres with long tall antennas sticking out of it. One box-shaped shuttle was leaving the station, and disappeared into the cloud.

  “OK, we’re here,” Calvin said. “Now what?”

  Astra stared out the window ahead. “That is an excellent question. I don’t know.”

  “We can’t just go in and get it, can we?” Calvin asked, almost jokingly.

  “Obviously not,” Astra answered, as if he’d asked her to go out in space without a suit.

  “Master Calvin,” Ion said. “Because of the cloud, our sensors are having a difficult time reading the entire station. I recommend that we orbit the station until we can acquire detailed scans. That might help us plan what to do next.”

  “My friend,” Calvin said thankfully. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard so far.” He didn’t say it, but they were going to need more time and information to be able to decide what to do next. Calvin set a wide course around the station, while Ion began systematically scanning every inch of the base. There was more silence, for a long time. Calvin thought hard, but their next plan of action wasn’t clear to him. Suit and go in, that’s all he could think of. No more sneaking around. It was time to fight the enemy face to face. When they worked together, with their combat robots, they were extremely dangerous. Calvin had seen it, in the Goremog battleship. The enemy was good, and it would be a mistake to underestimate them. But the biggest difference, Calvin knew, the biggest advantage humans had over robots was their ability to think, to adapt, and most of all, to be creative. The robots didn’t have any of that, and that was why they couldn’t win.

  “Ion, any sign of the segment?” Astra asked, breaking Calvin’s thought process.

  “No mistress,” was the answer. “But I am detecting over fifty robots, and an elaborate security system. I am also reading one life sign.”

  “A life sign?” Astra asked. “What is it, can you tell?”

  “I believe it is a No’Rath,” Ion answered.

  “Just the one?”

  “Yes, so far. But there are at least five areas that are shielded from our scanners.” Ion said.

  “This is going to be a problem,” Astra said. “Lots of robots, powerful security system and areas we can’t see. This isn’t a good time for surprises.”

  “It never is,” Calvin said. “And I hate surprises.”

  Calvin was irritated; this couldn’t be an unsolvable problem. There was no such thing, right? They had come this far, there had to be a solution. One thing he’d learned before, the more input into a problem made it easier to solve. When he looked over at Astra, she was looking at him with a concerned look on her face.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Let’s bring Dev and Wexton into this. Dev has a unique way of working with computers and robots, and Wexton has an ability to see situations in a tactical way that makes the rest of us look like amateurs.”

  “Some fresh ideas? All right,” she said. “It can’t hurt.” She turned on the shipwide communication system. “Dev, Wexton, Nils, please meet Calvin and me in the computer science lab.” She stood up and walked to the door. “Ion, continue to orbit the station and run continuous scans. Send the results down to the science lab.”

  “Yes mistress,” Ion answered. Calvin followed her down the corridor, down the stairs and to the science lab. The three guys were already there.

  Astra quickly brought them up to speed. “The seventh segment is somewhere on the station,” Astra said. She turned on a computer which showed an image of the station, it slowly got bigger as more of it was scanned. “We still don’t know where the segment is. For some reason we can’t find it. The interior of the station is still dark to us. In fact, we are not entirely sure it’s in there. I’m worried that it could be in there, but damaged like the last one.”

  “So let me understand,” Wexton said. “The space station has been taken over by the No’Rath. We need to get inside and find the seventh segment. Are there any robots in there? Any life forms?”

  “There are a lot of robots in there, but we are only detecting one life sign. We think it might be a No’Rath.”

  “A No’Rath, a real live No’Rath?” Dev asked.

  “Yes, but there is only one.”

  “I only see one option,” Wexton said. “Let’s arm up, and go inside the base. We can destroy all of the robots, hunt down the lone No’Rath, and then take our time to find your next segment. It won’t be easy, but we can surprise them.”

  “What if they have a security system?” Dev asked. “There could be force fields, or hidden laser turrets, or any number of traps. Are you sure we could get through all that?”

  “We don’t have a choice,” Wexton said. “If there’s a live No’Rath in there we have to get it. Do you know what that would mean? A live one?”

  “We don’t know how many robots are on that station,” Nils added.

  “Yes,” Calvin said. “We don’t know. That’s why we need to find a way to sneak onto the station, and get around without being seen.”

  “What if we destroyed the power grid from the outside,” Nils suggested. “Use the Frost to disable it first.”

  “Tha
t won’t work,” Astra said. “The limited sensor readings we have show that it has very powerful shields. And what if the No’Rath calls for help?”

  Problem after problem; it felt hopeless, but Calvin did enjoy the back and forth. When no one spoke, it seemed like all ideas had been brought up and shot down. Was that it? Calvin looked from face to face. Everyone looked deep in thought. Wexton looked up, as if he wanted to say something, but his shoulders sunk down and he looked away.

  “I have an idea,” Dev said, breaking the silence. “We can use the No’Rath robot that we found floating in the debris field.”

  “And do what with it?” Wexton asked.

  “Oh, this is perfect,” Dev said. “And easy. I repaired Fring, mostly.”

  “What’s Fring?” Wexton asked.

  “The robot,” Dev answered. “I fixed it.”

  “You named it,” Wexton said.

  “Of course,” Dev said. “I needed to call him something.

  “Why Fring?”

  “I had a pet Fring once,” Dev answered.

  “And you called it Fring?” Wexton asked.

  “Yes, that was its name. Anyway, listen; I can make it so we can control him remotely. We send Fring in for us, use him to look around. He can walk through the whole station for us and find the segment. Since he’s a No’Rath robot, he should be able to go everywhere without raising suspicion. Once we find the segment, we can use another surprise that I have. These.” He held a small device up for them to see. “It’s a personal cloaking field. I finished them, and made them more stable. They’ll work. We can use them to walk unseen into the base, get the seventh segment and walk back to the Frost without the No’Rath even knowing we were there.”

  “The last time we talked, Dev, you said the cloaking fields flickered a lot,” Astra said. “Were you able to fix the problem?”

  “Yes, mostly,” Dev answered. “They aren’t perfect; they still flicker occasionally. Also, they’ve been unpredictable.”

  “Unpredictable, how?” Wexton asked.

  “I haven’t figured out why yet,” Dev said uncomfortably. “But they have a tendency to fail suddenly, without warning.”