by William Wood
holes in the floor with the ends of his fingers. Bright bursts of light hurt
his eyes and caused him to jump.
After the shaking was over, Calvin sat up. He put his hands out
and felt around, the darkness felt heavy and sudden, yet not complete.
Residual noises continued from the city below. Calvin wondered if there
was anything left of it.
“Astra!” Calvin whispered loudly. “Where are you? Are you all
right?”
“Calvin,” he heard her voice from somewhere in the darkness.
“Ost naver. He’lm sevent.”
“OK,” Calvin laughed nervously. “Keep talking, or come to my
voice. Where are you?”
Calvin was terrified to move until he heard Astra’s voice. They
kept talking to each other, and Calvin followed the sound of her voice.
He first found her hands. She gripped his hands, and then grabbed him
with both arms and held on tight. She talked for several minutes. He
knew from her tone and the urgency in her voice that she was trying to
say something very important. He hated that he couldn’t understand a
word she was saying. The only comfort he found was the fact that he wasn’t alone. Being in the dark didn’t feel quite as bad this time; being with her gave him a sense of hope. Even if he were to die now, he would die with her. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? “Stop it! Stop thinking
like that,” he told himself.
It was still pitch black dark, and Calvin was afraid to move. One
step in the wrong direction and they would fall down a lot of stairs or
straight down. They were still holding hands, and Astra pulled him
gently. He resisted at first, but she said something softly, yet firmly. He
trusted her, and followed. They walked across the platform and to the
stairs. How could she see? How did she know where they were going?
Slowly, step by step, they made their way up towards the surface. “There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you,” Calvin said. It
seemed like an odd time to bring it up, but he had to take his mind off of
what could happen. “I wanted to ask sooner; for some reason I’ve been
afraid to. I guess because I’m scared you might say no. You see, I love
you. You already know that. I’ll never forget the moment I first saw you.
You were standing at the top of Azure Frost’s boarding ramp in your
white flight suit. I never really believed in love at first sight before, until
that moment. I never imagined I would feel this way about anyone. All
the time we’ve spent together, and every day I think about you more and
more. I don’t want to lose you. When this mission is over, I’ve been
worried that you would go off with your family and I would never see
you again. I know you said you would go with me, but I still worry about
it. I really worry about it. What I really need to do is ask you to marry
me. I’ve been wondering what you would say. Actually, I can’t stop
thinking about it. I love you. So, will you marry me?”
Silence followed. Of course she didn’t answer, she couldn’t
understand him. She just held his hand. They slowly plodded on. Calvin
felt weak and tired. How far were they from the surface? It couldn’t be
much further, but the climb never seemed to end. He wished he could use
his battle suit’s Helcomp to scan the way ahead.
He felt helpless. He hated that they were totally reliant on
technology. In the blackness, his mind wandered all over the place. He
coughed, and struggled to take the next breath. What was going on? Why
was it getting hard to breathe?
Ten minutes later they stopped.
“Are you OK?” Calvin asked quietly. He thought he could see something in the darkness, but decided his eyes were playing tricks on
him. Astra let go of his hand.
He heard a soft sound, and a gentle banging. There was a
grinding noise; metal on metal, then a loud creak. Suddenly dark red
light enveloped them. Calvin instinctively flinched from the surprise. They walked through a doorway, into a wide open room. A
large, damaged and rusted laser gun stood facing another set of stairs.
Remains of two skeletons lay on the floor behind the gun.
Calvin gasped and gulped for air. Why was it so hard to breathe?
Astra coughed and choked.
“There’s no air in here!” Calvin shouted between coughs.
“We’re suffocating!”
Alarmed, Calvin squeezed Astra’s hand. He pointed to his throat,
and to the air. She looked at him with a blank look. Then he made
motions of trying to breath, trying to emphasize pain and difficulty.
Calvin could see the moment she understood. Her eyes grew wide. She
said something quickly and pointed to the walls. He took that to mean
what he’d already been thinking. They needed to find a way out, fast.
Calvin stood still, confused and lost. His vision became blurry. He
couldn’t see any way out. This was it, they were going to die! He turned
to Astra, but couldn’t speak.
Astra got a firm grip on Calvin’s hand and led him through the
dark towards the other corner. Calvin staggered at first, pain shot up from
his knees and into his hips.
They gasped for air. Weakness and pain filled Calvin from his
feet to his head, but the dizziness in his head was turning into confusion
and disorientation. Astra found the other door, which was still cracked
open. They walked through the door, walked to the bottom of another
long flight of stairs and looked up.
Calvin looked up despondently. There was no possible way he
could get all the way up. What were they doing? The Goremog were
waiting for them up there! Astra didn’t give him a chance to rest, or
pause. She pulled him by the hand. Calvin forced himself to move and
push through the pain. There was no choice. As soon as they started up
the stairs, they left the dim red glow of the failing emergency light
behind and it became totally dark again. It took a very long time to work
their way up because they had to feel their way and go inch by inch. Astra held onto him the whole time. But somewhere during the climb, it became easier to breathe. The stairs kept going up; never turning, just
going in one direction the entire way up.
They climbed, slow and steady. Calvin concentrated on one step
at a time. Astra didn’t seem to have any difficulties, but Calvin felt the
pain spreading all the way up his spine, and gasped for air.
As they climbed, higher and higher, he realized he could see.
Were his eyes adjusting to the darkness? Maybe not, there was a red
glow coming from up above them that grew brighter the further they
climbed.
Ten minutes later, they emerged onto the surface through a
massive charred hole in the ground. It looked like it was created by a
massive laser blast, and was a small miracle that the stairs were
undamaged. Once outside, they walked through a stone archway near a
metal door that was lying on the ground. It was night time now, and very
cold. Calvin felt the icy air on his face. The sky was red, and it didn’t
take long to see why. A quick scan revealed a massive inferno, with
flames that climbed high above the ruins.
They were definitely in a different part
of the city. Calvin
struggled to get his bearings. Where were they? Where was the
retractable platform that captured Azure Frost?
Calvin looked up. A thick blanket of stars covered the sky except
for a large area directly over them. A massive Goremog Battleship
hovering over the ruined city, its belly glowed red from the fire directly
underneath it.
Calvin and Astra darted from building to building, trying to stay
hidden as best they could as they made their way through the city. They
weren’t cloaked. How long would it be until they were caught? It had to
be just a matter of time. Surely the Goremog could see them. Astra pointed towards the biggest blaze. Calvin had a sick
feeling in his stomach when he realized that was where Azure Frost was.
His fear over what they would find when they got there dwarfed the pain
he felt, and how exhausted he was.
His worst fears were confirmed when he neared the fire. The
only thing left of the platform was a massive crater. There was nothing
but burning debris. The light was so bright, he could barely see the
bottom. Calvin wanted to believe his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he knew that wasn’t the case. There was a large crack in the bottom of the crater, and he could see the underground city; it was fully engulfed in flames. The air was choked with smoke and toxic fumes. Calvin felt
his head spinning.
Fragments of the metal door were littered all over the area. “What happened?” Calvin whispered. It was a stupid question.
He knew exactly what happened. The Goremog battleship blasted the
entire area to pieces.
“OK,” Calvin said. “Azure Frost has the strongest shields of any
ship in its class, right? This isn’t as bad as it looks, right?”
There was no way the ship was destroyed; Calvin believed that,
even if his eyes were telling him something else. Despite the evidence
that pointed to the fact that Azure Frost was destroyed, Calvin had to
focus on their survival right now.
The Frost was gone, and until Ion found and rescued them,
Calvin would do everything he had to do to survive. There was no way
he wanted to be captured by the Goremog again. The Goremog would
probably kill them on sight, if they were lucky. He didn’t want to think
about what horror they could treat them to; torture maybe.
With a heavy heart, Calvin led Astra out of the city. Again
running from cover to cover until they reached the ruins of a building
that still had a first floor they could hide under. They sat down on the
cold hard floor to rest. Calvin didn’t know what to do. They were lost.
How would he ever get home now? The mission was over. If the Frost
was destroyed, then so were all the pieces of the super weapon. Even if
he could get home, eventually the Goremog and No’Rath war would
consume the entire universe. They would eventually find New Arlandia
and destroy it. He felt almost totally hopeless. If not for Astra there with
him, he would have no hope. There was only one thing to do; go to the
Goremog city and take a ship. They could use it to get to New Arlandia.
He wanted desperately to talk about it with Astra, and it frustrated him
beyond words that he couldn’t. She would most likely have some good
ideas of her own, but he wouldn’t be able to understand. They were
going to have to find a way to communicate. Maybe he could draw in the
dirt. He wondered if she could teach him to speak Alerian.
After a short rest they continued their sprint and stop tactic. At
the edge of the city they found a dark thick forest. Once under the safety of the trees they were able to slow down. Calvin looked at Astra, she looked tired. They walked under a canopy of trees, up a hill until they came to a small stream. The trees were very thick, and it was getting very
cold. Astra was shivering.
“I thought these suits were supposed to protect us from the cold,”
he said aloud, mostly to himself. “Well, mine’s not working.” He knew it
was cold, he could feel it on his face. His ears and nose were growing
numb. He was kicking himself for dropping his helmet in the lab. It
would have kept his head warm.
He was exhausted, freezing, and certain that they would not
survive long out in the open. The Frost was destroyed, and their lives
would be over soon. He did not care if they were captured, so he made a
fire. Astra didn’t object.
They huddled close to the fire and warmed themselves. The heat
felt so good, but he could only feel it on his hands and face. The suit
seemed to be effective at blocking out the warm air and keeping the
freezing temperatures inside. The trees glowed in the soft red fire light.
Calvin tried not to think about the pure hopelessness of their situation.
The pleasantness of the fire and the presence of the woman he loved
were not enough to calm his fears. What was he going to do? It was
clearly well below freezing, and it was getting colder. He knew there was
no way they were going to be able to stay there through the night. They
were also going to need rest and food, or they would die. It was a
horrible feeling, staring into the abyss.
Astra brought him back from the brink of darkness. She touched
his arm and spoke gently to him. Her eyes were soft and warm, just like
her touch. She spoke softly. Whatever she was saying, he could almost
understand from her tone. ‘Everything was going to be all right.’ He
shook his head.
“Yes, I understand,” he said quietly. He was so grateful that she
was with him, but he didn’t believe everything was going to be all right. As the temperature dropped lower and lower, the fire became
less effective. His hands were numb, and he could no longer feel the
heat. He suppressed the desire to put his hands closer to the flames, for
fear of burning them and not knowing it.
It was time to make a decision; he couldn’t put it off any longer.
They were freezing cold, hungry, tired and scared. He was afraid to keep the fire going too much longer, for fear they would be discovered. They just weren’t prepared or dressed for extreme cold. He held her hands to try and warm them, but her shivering was getting worse. Calvin wondered how much colder it would get. Any colder and they would freeze to death. He knew they couldn’t stay there; they had to find some shelter. Maybe if they went back to the lab. Even if they could only seek shelter at the top of the stairs, the fires would keep them warm for a while. It would be better than freezing out here. Maybe that would give
him time to think about what to do next.
Calvin looked into her eyes and said, “We have to find shelter,
and fast. We’re walking back to the lab. It’ll be warmer there. Plus,
walking will help warm us a little.” He pointed in the direction of the lab
while he was talking. She shook her head in agreement, as if she
understood what he was saying. He helped her stand up, and the two of
them walked out of the forest, holding each other as they walked. They
staggered along slowly at first, but began to move a little faster when
their legs warmed up. But it wasn’t enough; Calvin felt icy cold through
to his core. When they reached the tree line, Calvin saw, to his dismay,
the monstrous Goremog ship was still hovering ove
r the ruins. What was
it doing? Why was it still there? There was no reason for them to wait
here, unless they thought there was still someone to find. That was a
disturbing thought. The Goremog were still looking for them. Calvin led
Astra as quickly as possible down the hill and across the one spot of open
ground where they had no cover. When they reached the first broken
wall they took cover behind it. Up above, somewhere in the darkness
they heard the sound of a space ship fly over. It was close but he couldn’t
see it. Calvin instinctively dropped to the ground and got as low as he
could. Astra did the same. The run through the city was more painful and
difficult this time. Calvin literally had no energy left, and he could tell
that Astra was in pain just like he was. At each wall they stopped and
hid. Then Calvin would poke his head around to make sure they weren’t
spotted. After a few moments, they would do it again; rush to the next
wall or foundation.
The wind picked up; a bitter cold gust of icy air that cut right
through them. Calvin could feel the cold was starting to affect him. It
was getting harder to move. They stumbled across an open space and at
the next row of broken concrete they fell on the ground and had to crawl up to it to take cover. It’s not that his legs hurt, in fact they didn’t anymore. They were too numb now and wouldn’t move like he needed
them to and no amount of willpower could change it.
The numbness was turning into a warm feeling that was
spreading through his feet and into his legs. That’s when he knew he was
in trouble. He looked at Astra, and she had a serene smile on her face. He
felt it too; a feeling of euphoria.
Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he thought he
heard voices calling his name. He thought it must have been the wind.
Another enemy fighter roared passed, drowning out all other sounds.
After it passed, they ran across the street, hoping desperately that they
were not seen. On the other side of the street they stopped and hid behind
a low wall. Astra whispered something to him. He desperately wished
that he could understand what she was saying. She didn’t look or sound
very good at all. When the sounds died away, Calvin heard a voice. He
turned around quickly, but didn’t see anyone. He heard the voice again.