The Ruins of Arlandia Complete Series

by William Wood

  Calvin’s heart froze. He wanted to scream, unable to believe what he was seeing. There was a bright flash and massive explosion as the ship collided with the moon. The ground shook violently. Everyone was knocked off their feet, onto the floor. The Defender turned away slowly and tried to distance itself from the attackers, but since it was the only Alerian ship left, it was the main target for every ship in the area. Defender didn’t last long. The ship was hidden behind a cloud of laser fire, small explosions and flares from the shields. At first, the main blast was only in the rear of the ship, and seemed to come from the engines.

  Then an explosion, like a supernova. A eye-searing flash filled the dome with white hot light. Instinctively everyone turned away to protect their eyes from the flash. When he looked back up, Defender was gone. The Alerians, including Astra, were trying to work while crying uncontrollably.

  “Ion,” Calvin whispered. Through tears, and dark spots in his eyes caused by the bright light, Calvin stumbled and leaned against a handrail. “My friend. I can’t believe it.”

  Calvin lowered himself down and sat on the hard, cold floor. Desperation threatened to drown him. It was over, there was nothing left to defend them. Three small explosions around the dome signaled the destruction of three defensive laser turrets.

  Only one thing could save them now; the weapon. Calvin looked around to all the scientists scrambling all over the room with Astra in the middle yelling instructions.

  Dark shadows rolled across the floor. At first Calvin thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but when he looked up he saw another chilling sight. Columns of long ugly ships were flying over the dome.

  Nils, who was standing by the window at the top yelled down on what he could see.

  “They’re landing on the surface!” He yelled.

  Calvin scrambled to his feet and ran to the window. All across the white, rocky surface, hundreds of ships were landing. Some were already down. They had massive cargo bay doors open. Columns of battle tanks and an uncountable army of combat robots were assembling on the plain facing the dome, and beyond that was the nearly defenseless moon base.

  The burning wreckage of Aleria’s Hope filled the horizon. Giant flames licked the sky with red and orange flames; clouds of black smoke billowed upwards. Calvin was filled with horror, and yet this felt familiar, like he’d been here before.

  The apocalyptic vision before him looked like a city in flames. This was the nightmare, and it was happening right before his eyes.

  “Oh my gosh!” Calvin exclaimed. “This is my nightmare! My recurring nightmare!”

  “They’re landing tanks and robots on the surface,” Nils gasped. “Look at all of ‘em.”

  “They intend to take this place intact,” Calvin said.

  “They want to capture the weapon,” Nils said.

  In front of the still forming columns of combat robots, hundreds, maybe thousands of Dark Terrors were lining up.

  “I know how this ends,” Calvin muttered. “It won’t end well.”

  Before they were finished assembling, the battle tanks that were ready lurched across the moon’s surface. The myriad of combat robots began to march, but what stabbed him with fear was the uncountable number of Dark Terrors, now racing towards the crater. Calvin cringed and gripped the handrail. Without a miracle, he was certain they were all about to die.

  The last defense cannons on the rim of the crater exploded. Calvin’s thoughts went to Wexton.

  A large Goremog destroyer careened end over end into the crater and smashed into the base. Three smaller domes were vaporized in a bright ball of fire.

  “Our ships are gone!” Astra cried. “All of them.”

  “We’re out of time,” Nils said sadly. “This is where it ends.”

  “Not yet!” Astra said angrily, wiping her eyes. “Calvin, we’re ready!”

  Calvin ran across the room.

  “Father,” Astra said into the intercom. “We’re ready to fire the weapon!”

  The response was immediate and desperate. “Fire it now!”

  “Everyone back off!” Astra screamed. Nils and all of the scientists ran back to the wall of the dome. Dev hesitated. “You too, Dev!” Astra yelled. “We don’t know what will happen when this thing goes off!”

  “What about you?” Dev asked.

  “Back off!” Calvin snapped. “We’ve got this!”

  Calvin hurried to the weapon and slid down next to Astra. She pulled out a large silver rod, the key, and slid it into a control panel. Calvin put his hand on glowing handprint. Astra put her hand on a handprint next to his, then grabbed his other hand and squeezed. This was it. If the weapon didn’t fire this time they would never get another chance. Laser fire rained down on the dome. It sounded like hail beating against a window. A door on top of the dome opened.

  Astra leaned forward, kissed Calvin gently then looked deep into his eyes. “I’ll always love you,” she said.

  The lights flickered, the ground shook. Her last words froze in the air, seeped into his brain and filled him with peace.

  The screen lit up, and this time, there was a deep reverberation from the weapon. The handprint vibrated violently as the weapon surged to life. A bright light saturated every inch of his body, through his flesh and bones, deep into his cells. The light was so bright he felt blinded even through his closed lids.

  There was a second when all time seemed to stop. There was no sound, and no sight except white light.

  A beam of pure energy shot out of the end of the weapon, through the force-field and into space.

  In the blink of an eye, Calvin saw his entire life. In the same second, he was in every second of his life at the same time. He saw his birth, growing up, graduation day at the Space Command, the party on the balcony at his home. In the same instant he was looking down into the eyes of his newborn son, then in a command center witnessing a thousand dark spaceships bombard New Arlandia from orbit until all the cities were engulfed in flames. He saw again the ruins of Arlandia, his people’s original home world, and finally the grave of his wife. There was a crimson flash, then cold darkness, followed by warm light. In that second, he was linked to his own mind in every second of his life.

  It was over as soon as it started. The weapon detonated above the base, and a massive shockwave spread outwards in all directions like an expanding bubble.

  The army of approaching tanks and robots were disintegrated as soon as the bubble touched them, and the spaceships in orbit were ripped to shreds. The battleships exploded in bright balls of fire and smoke. The Goremog titans did not explode, but fell out of the space and crashed into the side of the moon. Everyone had to shield their eyes from the bright flashes.

  The first reaction of the Alerians was of sheer relief, and joy. They all cheered, hugged each other, laughed and cried. Astra grabbed Calvin and hugged him tightly.

  “It worked!” She shouted. “We did it!” Calvin felt a surge of jubilation. Sheer terror turned to joy. Calvin held Astra, feeling relief wash over him.

  In the midst of their celebration a black shadow filled the dome. Calvin and Astra turned to look up at the same time. The sun dimmed, and then exploded in the biggest, eye searing fireball Calvin had ever imagined possible. Everyone stood and stared at the unexpected explosion. Alarms blared, lights all over the computer consoles blinked on and off.

  “That was the sun!” Someone shouted.

  “The sun is gone!”

  “Calvin, this is impossible!” Astra said. “Please tell me we didn’t just destroy the sun.”

  Astra let go of Calvin and ran to the computer. Her eyes grew large and she looked terrified.

  “I wonder if that’s why the weapon was dismantled and hidden in separate locations,” Dev said.

  “Father!” Astra shouted into the communicator. “Have Commander Rale divert all power into the shields. Now! Hurry!”

  “He already has,” King Fulton yelled. “You need to get out of there, NOW!”

&nb
sp; “I’m sorry father,” Astra said with a hint of sadness. “It’s too late.”

  Calvin ran to Astra, and the two of them sat on the floor and held onto each other under the computer console. Calvin wished they had a better place to hide, somewhere with less glass, but he could see the wave approaching in the dome above; there was no time.

  The blast hit the moon. There had been several times on the mission where Calvin thought he might die, but now, there was no doubt in his mind. The sound of the wave hitting the moon could not be compared to anything he’d ever seen or heard before. The deafening roar of explosions, crashing, tearing and rocks being torn apart were so loud he felt it crush his body.

  Calvin was flat on his back staring up. Large sections of the moon broke off and shot past.

  It took two full minutes for the sounds to die away. Calvin and Astra relaxed their deathly tight grip they had on each other and stood up.

  The lights were out, and it was very dark except for a red glow that seemed to come from everywhere.

  One by one, small handheld flashlights turned on and swept the room. A scientist rushed up and handed Astra and Calvin a flashlight and oxygen mask with a small bottle.

  “Oh, no,” a voice cried. “No! This isn’t happening!” Calvin and Astra followed the voice, up the ramp.

  They ran up to the glass, and found one scientist looking outside. Calvin looked outside to see what he was looking at, and got the shock of his life. At first he saw thousands of rocks floating above the moon, some were very large. Then he saw the moon was broken in half. The other half was spinning away, surrounded by pulverized remains of rocks and spaceships. He looked down at the surface. It was cracked and broken off not far from the dome. The wreckage of Aleria’s Hope tumbled away on a massive moon fragment.

  Calvin was about to ask Astra what happened, when her communicator crackled and popped with static.

  “Astra, are you all right?” The voice was unmistakably King Futon’s.

  “Yes, father,” she said. “I think so. What happened?”

  “Bring everyone to the main dome,” Fulton said. “And hurry.”

  “Is it the power failure?” Astra asked.

  “Just get everyone back here as quick as you can.”

  “Yes sir,”

  Calvin looked up again. Rocks and debris were floating everywhere in space. Then he saw two stars flash and then blink out. Somehow he knew, the nightmare wasn’t over yet.

  Across the room, people were climbing to their feet, brushing themselves off.

  “Everyone, listen up!” Astra announced loudly. “We’ve been ordered back to the main dome. Drop everything and move to the elevator now!”

  One of the scientists started picking some things up off the ground.

  “No,” Astra said. “Leave everything! We have to go, now!”

  The crowd of scientists scrambled like a herd of blind, confused animals towards the elevator. When they realized it had no power, Nils led them down the stairs.

  They slowly and steadily made their way down; their steps lit only by weak, white emergency lights. Calvin stumbled down the stairs, struggling to comprehend what he’d just seen. How could he see his life pass before his eyes like that?

  Twenty minutes later they reached the bottom, and ran down a long glass corridor towards an eerie yellow glow. Calvin ran until pain filled his right shoulder and his legs ached, but there was no way he was going to stop or slow down. At the end of corridor he could see several people, standing in the light, waving their arms and shouting. As they got closer, Calvin could hear what they were yelling, “Hurry up! Run!”

  Calvin ignored the pain in his legs, and pushed himself on. Once they were all through the doorway, into the main dome, people who were standing by the door pulled it closed.

  Calvin felt an electrical charge in the air, and heard the faint ‘zap’ sound as a force-field covered the closed door.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE:

  DARKNESS AND LIGHT

  Instinctively, everyone gathered around King Fulton and Lady Tridara. “Stay calm,” the King urged. “We need to focus on getting power restored, and then we’ll assess our situation.”

  Several Alerians ran off. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for the power to come back on. All they had to do was switch on the backup generator, which was located under the dome.

  “What just happened?” Calvin asked Astra after everyone else had scattered.

  “Life support across the base failed,” Commander Rale said. “This is the only building that can support life now.”

  “Let’s see what we’re facing,” Fulton said. “Activate the space sensor network.”

  Commander Rale quickly climbed up to the elevated platform and manned the computer. Several minutes passed. “Well,” the King said. “Is there a problem?”

  “I’ve activated the system,” Rale said from up above. “We’re not receiving any signals from the network.”

  “What does that mean?” Calvin asked.

  “This is impossible,” Rale said. “According to this, the network has been destroyed.”

  “That’s impossible,” Astra said.

  “I know, but the sensors provide independent signals, and I’m not detecting a signal from any of them.”

  “What does that mean?” Calvin asked again.

  “Commander, can you replay the seconds after the weapon fired?”

  “Yes sir, stand by.”

  The inside of the dome glowed to life, showing the star system the way it looked like before the weapon fired.

  There was a bright flash on the surface of the moon, and an energy wave spread out from the center evenly. There were enough sensors around to record and report exactly what happened. They caught the moment the moon split in half. When the wave reached the nearest stars, they immediately went supernova, destroying all the planets in their star systems. The wave spread out, destroying everything it touched. Eventually the image went dark.

  “The weapon,” Rale gasped. “It destroyed everything! Not just enemy robots and space ships, everything, every planet, every star; everything.”

  “How did we survive?” Calvin said, louder than he intended.

  “Our shields,” a voice said.

  “No, not our shields,” another voice said. “Didn’t you see the epicenter? Everything spread out from here, we were at the center. There was a small bubble in the middle; that was us!”

  Calvin felt a stab of fear, and a wave of nausea sweep over him. “How far did it go? How far?” He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Astra looking at him sympathetically.

  “The range was nearly unlimited,” Astra said. “It was designed to grow stronger every time it hit a star. It was supposed to gain energy from each star until it reached every planet in the galaxy.”

  “Yeah, but it wasn’t supposed to destroy every star?”

  “How could this happen?” Dev asked. He looked scared.

  “I, I don’t know,” Astra stumbled over her words. “The weapon was damaged, especially the power cores.”

  “But we fixed that,” Dev protested.

  “I know,” Astra said. “I don’t know.”

  “Astra, what about New Arlandia?”

  She didn’t answer. But her expression told him everything; confirmed his worst fears. “What about New Arlandia?” he repeated, louder. He felt tears running down his cheeks.

  “I don’t know,” Astra whispered.

  Calvin felt his head swim, and a dark abyss of despair overwhelm him. He closed his eyes and cried uncontrollably. He was unaware of Astra holding on to him, and several others guiding him out of the dome and to a place where he could sit down.

  He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He had obviously fallen asleep. When he woke up and opened his eyes, he looked around. Dev was sitting in a chair next to him. The room was full of people. King Fulton was at the front of the room surrounded by his people. Wexton and Nils were next to him. Astra was standing ne
xt to the King.

  “The time has come for us to leave,” King Fulton said.

  “What do you mean?” Wexton asked. “Where can we go?”

  “We’ve prepared a backup plan,” Commander Rale said. “Our scientists have been working on a stable worm hole, and they succeeded. We’ll initiate a wormhole to the Tradaun system, the ancient homeland of the Alerian people.”

  “We’re going home,” Lady Tridara said.

  “There’s nothing left here,” Astra said. “So Calvin and his friends can come with us, right?”

  “My dear,” King Fulton said. “I’m sorry. The machine has been calibrated for Alerian DNA only. I’m sorry Calvin, you cannot come with us.”

  “What?” Calvin asked. “I don’t understand. We risked our lives to find the segments of the weapon. How can you turn your backs on us?”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be. There is no way to make the system safe for you.”

  “We will leave immediately,” Fulton stated, taking Astra’s hand in his. “The wormhole is being prepared.”

  “No father,” Astra said, pulling away from the King. “I’m going with Calvin.”

  “You can’t stay here!” Fulton boomed. “There’s nothing left. This galaxy is dead.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “Yes, I do!” Fulton insisted. “Commander Rale showed me the scans. The fabric of space has been damaged, no, shredded. No ship can enter hyperspace. Long range communications and sensors won’t work either.”

  “What?”

  “So that means it’ll take more than one hundred years to get to Arlandia, and you won’t be able to see anything or talk to anyone. A hundred years of complete isolation.”

  “I’m sorry,” Astra said. “But I’m staying with him.”

  Before he could say anything, Lady Tridara took Astra by the hand and led her out of the room, Fulton followed closely behind. Calvin watched them leave the room, and felt his strength drain from his body. Every Alerian left, leaving Calvin, Dev, Wexton and Nils alone in the room.

  “I feel loved,” Dev said. Then to Wexton he said, “Can you believe it?”