by William Wood
“No, but I felt it,” Calvin said, rubbing his arm. “What was it?”
“That was a No’Rath. He sure is fast.” Calvin wanted to tell her that was an incredibly disturbing experience. He listened quietly and could hear footfalls echo in the distance, fading away until he couldn’t hear it.
“Where’s he going?”
“Since I don’t have a scanner, and I can’t read his mind, I’ll have to guess that he’s trying to escape. He must have a ship docked somewhere on the station.”
“Should we try to stop him?” Calvin asked, feeling panic tugging at him. “If he gets away he’ll tell someone about us.”
“We need to, and trust me I wish we could,” Astra said. “But there’s no way we’re going to chase after him in the dark. Did I mention he was fast?” Calvin shifted uneasily on his feet. There had to be something they could do.
“Wait,” Calvin said. “If the No’Rath has a ship docked here, wouldn’t it have been fried in the EMP like everything else?”
“The EMP is probably why he’s running,” Astra said. “His ship might have been protected.”
“I wish we could contact Ion. Maybe he could do something about it.”
As if on cue, Calvin felt his head buzzing, and a whirring noise break the silence. His Helcomp flashed and glowed. One by one, the systems lit up in his face shield. There was a burst of static, and a familiar voice filled Calvin’s helmet.
“Mistress Astra, Master Calvin, can you hear me?” It was Ion.
“Ion,” Calvin replied. “I can hear you.”
“Master Calvin,” the robot sounded relieved. “I’m glad that you are alright. Is Mistress Astra with you? Is she OK?”
“Yes Ion, I’m OK. “
“I am detecting a new energy source, coming from a small space ship docked at the station.”
“It’s the No’Rath,” Astra said. “He’s trying to escape.”
“Should we stop him?”
“Yes, don’t let him get away!” Several moments passed. “I’m sorry Master Calvin,” Ion said. “The ship is gone.” “He got away?” Calvin asked, confused.
“Yes sir. It went into hyperspace as soon as it left the station, don’t ask me how. Do you want to go after it?”
‘Yes,’ Calvin thought to himself. ‘Go get the little bugger before he alerts all his friends that we’re here.’ He would never forget the way the voice shrieked when it found out there was an Arlandian on board his space station, a race he thought was extinct. The more he thought about it, the more worried Calvin got. They believed the Arlandians were all gone. Now they know otherwise. What had they done?
“No, let’s not get distracted,” Astra said. “We need to get the segment before we do anything else.”
“What if he calls for help?” Calvin heard Dev ask.
“That’s another reason to hurry,” Astra said. “We need to be gone when he comes back with his friends.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Calvin said.
Astra led the way again. Calvin was content to follow her. He had no idea which way the segment was now. It appeared the scanner was still calibrating, and they would have to wait to be able to use that function.
He was still unsettled, and fear was steadily growing in him. The dark and quiet surrounded them, and Calvin felt like he was suffocating. What else was hiding in the darkness, waiting to jump out at them? But that wasn’t it. He was afraid for New Arlandia. Was it his destiny to betray his home to the enemy? It seemed so.
“Master Calvin,” Ion’s loud voice made him nearly jump out of his skin. “I am picking up a communication from the No’Rath ship.”
“What?” Calvin said. The all too familiar stab of terror returned; only stronger. “Already? Can’t we catch a break?” Ion relayed the message over the comm. It was a deep gravelly voice, and it sounded scared.
“I can’t translate it, sir,” Ion said.
“It’s calling for help,” Astra said. “We really need to hurry.” She began to jog. Calvin followed closely behind her.
“Yes, the No’Rath is calling for help,” Ion said. “I’ve translated it, it just took a second.”
“Let me know if there’s an answer,” Astra said.
They ran into a corridor and followed it as it weaved back and forth, through several small rooms. The segment locator was now working, and Calvin was very happy to see they were running straight towards the seventh segment.
Two minutes later their darkness illuminators turned on. The corridors glowed to life with a digitally enhanced view. Suddenly Calvin could see everything, and both of them were able to run faster.
“I’m detecting another signal,” Ion said “I believe it’s a reply to the first message. I still can’t translate it, but it’s coming from sub- space.”
“What?” Calvin said. “This is happening too fast!”
“A fleet of ships just came out of hyperspace,” Ion said. “They are on the edge of the system, now coming this way. You need to hurry.”
“I know,” Astra exclaimed. “We still need to find the segment,”
“Hurry!” Calvin and Astra ran at full speed now. Full panic and terror saturated him as they ran through a wide open space that was full of equipment. They had to dodge several large crates and jump over disabled robots.
“Five ships now,” Ion said. “All Corvette sized. Two more. These are larger, frigate sized.” Calvin and Astra made it to the end of a long hallway and turned left. “Fifteen ships now.”
“Wow, that one is big; it looks like a battleship,” Dev said.
“The ships are approaching the cloud,” Ion reported.
At the end of the room, they ran down another long hallway. At the end of it, they found the door to the lab. Calvin and Astra crashed into the door and frantically put their hands on the long thin bar across the middle. Nothing happened.
“Seventy ships now,” Ion said. “Five battleships and one very large mother ship class. It’s huge, comparable in size to Aleria’s Hope.”
“Wow,” Dev gasped. “Look at the size of that ship.” Fighting the urge to panic completely, both Calvin and Astra held onto the handle until it turned from purple to green and clicked open. “Is it a Titan?”
“No,” Ion said. “It’s not a Titan. I don’t recognize that ship class.”
“What are those dark spots all over the ship?” Dev asked.
“Those are laser cannons.”
“Really? There must be a thousand of them. Oh, zap, look at that, at least six more battleships.”
“One hundred and seventy-two space ships now,” Ion said. “It’s an armada!”
Calvin, for some reason thought the segment would be sitting in plain view; it wasn’t. Calvin stood in the doorway, scanning the room from side to side. Astra wasted no time; she raced into the room, searching wildly in every direction. Calvin slowly moved into the center of the room, carefully following the detector as he walked. The segment was in the room, the signal was radiating all around him.
Time, time, time! They were completely out of time! The pressure was becoming unbearable. If they didn’t get the segment now they would never be able to. If the No’Rath didn’t destroy the station, they would occupy it with a massive army of robots. Calvin would never trust the cloaking generators enough to try to get in again. It would be impossible.
“Dev, what happened to the cloaks?” Calvin complained. “They only worked for nine and a half minutes!”
“Uh, I don’t know,” Dev said. “They should have lasted for fifteen at least. I’m sorry, I’ll have to check them out when you get back.”
Suddenly a loud blast shook the station. “What was that?” Calvin asked.
“The No’Rath fleet just blasted the station and surrounding area with a sensor pulse,” Ion said. “It may have been strong enough to detect cloaked ships.”
Calvin’s blood froze. “Did they see us?”
“It’s impossible to say for certain,” Ion said. “But it is poss
ible.”
“That means yes,” Calvin heard Wexton say.
“I found it,” Astra shouted. “Calvin, over here!” Calvin hurried over to her. She already had two anti-gravity units out and was attaching them to the seventh segment, a long skinny object that looked like a missile. She pressed the buttons to turn them on, but nothing happened. She checked them once, and then again. They still didn’t work.
“Ion, we have a big problem down here,” Astra said. “The EMP must have damaged the antigravity units. They aren’t working. What are we going to do? We can’t carry this thing out of here.”
There was barely a pause. “Standby, Mistress,” Ion said. “I am sending two combat robots to assist you.”
“OK,” Astra said nervously. “Do I need to remind you to hurry? What’s going on out there?”
“Several No’Rath Corvettes have cleared the nebula and are slowly approaching the station. At this time they are only running scans.” The next few minutes felt like hours. Calvin paced back and forth, unable to rein in his excessive energy or steadily building stress. Astra stood in the doorway, peering down the corridor. Calvin looked around the room some more. Finally, after what felt like forever, two combat robots arrived.
“Over here,” Astra shouted when they ran into the room. “Here, quick, take this back to the Frost,” One of the robots picked up the segment effortlessly, and stood waiting for orders.
“Don’t wait for us, run!” She shouted. Both robots turned and ran out of the room. Calvin followed Astra to the door. Once into the corridor they ran, and did their best to keep up with the robots.
“A No’Rath Corvette has docked with the station,” Ion said, a little too casually for Calvin’s taste. If he had said it, he would have used a little more emotion. The robots were now out of sight.
“There are now five No’Rath ships docked with the station,” Ion said. “They are in upper cargo holds above you. Master Calvin, there are fifty combat robots entering the station. But there’s another group of signals.” Ion paused. “Their signature matches….”
“Ion,” Dev said. “I don’t think you should tell them that. You’re just going to scare them.”
“They need to know.”
“No,” Dev said. “It’s not gonna help. Calvin, listen to me. Get back here as fast as you can; hurry!”
“Hey,” Calvin shouted. “We’re not children you know. We can handle it.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
He was almost out of breath, irritated that Ion wasn’t allowed to finish what he was trying to say. Calvin didn’t have time to dwell on it. He had to focus all of his energy on keeping up with Astra, who didn’t seem to be tiring. Calvin was terrified as they ran down one corridor, through a series of rooms and down another corridor. He thought he heard noises around him, but there was no way he was going to stop and look. He didn’t know what was worse; hearing Ion call off how many ships in were in the system and how many robots were boarding the station, or silence.
It was a terrifying ten minute run, but he was relieved when they turned a corner and saw Wexton in the distance. He was kneeling on the floor with a laser rifle pointed down the corridor, just outside Azure Frost’s airlock.
Wexton raised his hand and waved. Calvin raced ahead with fresh hope; they were going to make it. He let Astra go first again, preferring to let her get to the ship first.
But something strange happened. Wexton stood up and began firing his weapon down the corridor in the direction of Calvin and Astra. If he had to use his eyes only, Calvin would have hit the ground, but his Helcomp computed the trajectory of his shots, which showed they were hitting something behind them.
“Run faster!” Astra screamed. Calvin pushed himself on, faster and faster until he was sprinting. Astra’s scream did little to assure him that they were going to be OK. In fact, it did the opposite. She only screamed like that when their lives were in danger. He didn’t stop to find what upset her; he pushed himself as hard as he could. Several red dots appeared on the short range scanner, behind them, and getting closer.
Suddenly, something clasped onto Calvin’s right leg, hard. He screamed, stumbled and fell. He hit the ground hard, and let out a loud cry. Frantically, he rolled over and looked at his leg just as a laser shot flew past his head, barely missing his head and hitting a dark object that looked like it was crawling up his back. Whatever it was it exploded before his Helcomp could analyze it. A shower of metal and blood spattered against the wall. His mind struggled to interpret what just happened. Metal and blood? Was that a Dark Terror?
The next thing he knew, Astra was on her knees examining his leg. Then she was in his face.
“You’re fine. Get up!” She screamed. With her help he got back up on his feet. A wave of dizziness hit him and he slowly staggered after her. Astra grabbed him by the hand and pulled him.
“Come on!” She screamed. “Run!” She started running, with
Calvin struggling to keep up. His leg felt strange; hot and tingly, like it was burning.
Wexton was still firing, but now two combat robots were pouring out a heavy stream of laser fire down both sides of the corridor. Calvin and Astra ran down the center. Calvin’s Helcomp was going crazy with targets rapidly approaching from behind him. He was still dizzy and disoriented, he was at the epicenter of the chaos; strange screams and roars, mixed with explosions and weapons fire. He kept his eyes focused on Astra’s back and tried to ignore the rest.
When they neared the ship, Wexton waved them in.
“Light it up!” Wexton shouted, and ran inside the ship, followed by the two combat robots. “Blow it! Now!”
The airlock door closed with a whoosh, then a huge explosion shook the ship.
“Ion,” Wexton shouted. “Go!”
Astra didn’t stop. She headed straight for the stairs.
“What was that thing?” Calvin asked, following Astra to the stairs. “Do I need to go to medical?”
“You’re fine,” Astra said, turning to look at him. “My Helcomp examined your leg. It showed some distress due to pressure, but no damage. You were lucky, your shields were on.”
Fine? Calvin wondered how that could be true when he couldn’t feel parts of his right leg.
“Thanks, Wexton!” Calvin called out. “Get everyone in the turrets!”
“They’re already there!”
Astra ran up the stairs two at a time. Calvin gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the pain that was spreading into his back. They rushed the rest of the way to the bridge and took their seats. Calvin’s hands shook as he quickly put on his seat harness.
“What’s going on?” Calvin asked.
Calvin took off his helmet and gloves and set them on the floor beside him. His hands were still shaking and he was breathing in rapid, shallow breaths.
Astra reached over and held his hand. “Hey, you’re OK. Slow your breathing or you’re going to hyperventilate.”
“We are almost out of the cloud,” Ion said. “As soon as you were on board I took us to full power.”
“Thank you,” Calvin said, looking into Astra’s soft brown eyes. “I’ll be alright.” He took a deep breath and turned his focus back to the front.
Just then, Azure Frost cleared the cloud. Calvin and Astra both gasped when they saw the space fleet that was waiting just outside. More ships than they could count; swarms of fighters and bombers, and ships of all sizes. But the one ship that dwarfed all others dominated Calvin’s attention. It was the mother ship, as big as Aleria’s Hope if not bigger, but it had an evil, dangerous look. Calvin was mesmerized by its size and the thousands of laser cannons all over its dark black hull.
Calvin jammed the throttle full forward and turned hard to port. He wanted to go back into the cloud, to use it to hide from the No’Rath armada. But he didn’t. Instead he skirted along the edge. Clouds of enemy fighters poured out of the bigger ships and flew in swarms at high speed to all sides of the nebula.
“Just a little bit of over-kill?” Calvin asked.
“They’re scared of the Arlandian,” Astra said with a smile. “Careful, I think they’re trying to cut off all escape routes.”
“This might not end well.”
“Don’t worry,” Astra said. “The cloak is working. They can’t see us.”
Calvin was about to object, but several destroyers moved to the spot Azure Frost exited from the nebula. Maybe Astra was right. What was he thinking? She usually was.
“Course set,” Astra said. “Get us out of here any time you’re ready.” Calvin banked hard suddenly to avoid four bombers.
“Thanks, I thought I’d get some more distance away from the big ship first.”
“Oh,” Astra said sadly. “I was hoping to see it up close.”
“What?” Calvin said. “That’s crazy, you know that.”
“Just get us out of here.”
“With pleasure,” Calvin said. “Standby,” The only problem was the thousands of No’Rath spaceships that were between them and open space. He gritted his teeth and steered the ship away from the nebula and picked a course he hoped had fewer starships in their way. But that was almost impossible. Space was choked with ships. He weaved in and out of ship formations and twice reversed course to avoid small bomber and fast-moving fighter formations. They were almost out; Calvin could see open space not far away, but just as they were nearing the edge of the fleet, three fighters, flying in formation, smashed into the aft end of Azure Frost. The ship shook for a few seconds; the impact barely registered on the shields.
“No damage,” Ion reported. Suddenly space around them lit up with laser fire. Laser bolts flashed past the front of the ship, lighting up the bridge with an evil red light. The ship shook harder as the attackers hit their target.
“They’ve got us!” Astra yelled.
“How did they see us?” Calvin asked.
“They saw the explosion!” Astra shouted. “Go Calvin, get us out of here!”
“Working on it!”
Calvin pushed the hyper-drive engines to full. Azure Frost jumped forward until the stars became blurry. A tiny blue laser focus of blue light turned into a cloud that wrapped itself around the ship.