by TS Paul
Tina relayed the message before carefully climbing down herself. Yana was right behind her.
“Time to go, cousin!” Maxim gave a final whack before grabbing his cousin’s arm.
The two boys ran for the opening and quickly locked their boots onto the small, for them, ladder. Back at the door the robots charged again pushing through the barricade and swarming into the room. The lead robots saw the open door and charged straight ahead flying out into the void and dropping into the distant incinerator. Many of the others packed into the small space, accidentally pushing several smaller robots out the door. The exterior door finally closed leaving the hallway filled with beaten and battered robots and parts.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The elevator containing the BMW crew finally stopped its descent, and the doors opened up. William, brandishing his machete, stepped out. “It’s an empty hallway or tunnel thing.” The large man stared up at the ceiling and walls as if remembering something.
“Interesting. The construction resembles that of Earth science fiction television. Could there be aliens living among us?” Marcus stared at the ceiling and walls.
“That’s why this looks familiar! Star Journey! I loved that show as a kid. The sequels sucked.” William poked at the wall with his machete.
Bobcat exited last, and the doors slid shut. “Hey! How are we supposed to get back?”
“There are controls on the wall for it Bobcat. William, look up ahead.” Marcus pointed down the hall. Dark shapes littered the hallway ahead. As the three men drew closer, they could see broken and battered robots. A couple of them still moved just a little.
William picked up what looked like a robot arm and gave it a few practice swings. He then proceeded to finish off the robots.
“Why in the hell do you keep doing that?” Marcus glared at the much larger man.
“To keep these things from calling for help. Something obviously thinks they are dangerous.”
“They might be friendly. It could be an enemy that is smashing them.”
“Marcus do you truly believe that? Better to ask for forgiveness. If they are friendly, I will apologize after the fact.”
Bobcat carefully examined the door and the blinking door controls. “This looks pretty easy. Do you want to go in?”
“Well, the kids might be in there. It’s conceivable that all this damage was caused by them. If we open the door, there might be…” William never had a chance to finish his thought. Bobcat heard the words ‘open the door’ and pressed the button.
An ear-splitting whine was followed by an almost endless stream of large black robots as the door opened. William stared in shock for just a moment before bringing the weapon in his hand to bear.
All three men began pounding on the alien robots. Each of them was much stronger than they appeared. The health benefits of the Queen’s plasma and nanocytes had already been proven. Its effects on these men were of restoration and healing. Their slightly enhanced strength was brought to bear against the robots.
“Why,” he asked as he hit one robot, “are these things,” he swung the opposite direction, “so angry?” He swung his damaged robot arm like a weapon at the attackers.
Marcus, backed up against the wall, was striking out at their eyes and heads. “Maybe they didn’t want to be disturbed?”
William was completely surrounded. For each robot he smashed, two more took their place. He was like a threshing machine swinging a robot arm in each hand. “It’s your fault Bobcat! Maybe we should start calling you Bozo!”
“That’s not fair, and you know it! I just want to find the kids,” he grated out.
“You need to add, before John kills you, to that statement.” The stream of robots started to slow. Marcus was able to push off from the wall and make his way to William's side.
“I think that may be all of them.” William smashed the head of the last robot to come out the door. Piles of broken and blind robots lay all around the big man.
Bobcat began finishing off the few survivors on his side of the hallway. Giving William the benefit of the doubt, Marcus did the same. William carefully climbed over the pile of robots blocking the door and stood up inside the room.
He looked around for a moment and shook his head. “I know why the robots were so angry.”
Marcus and Bobcat leaned into the door. “What did you find?
William pointed around the room, “See for yourself, Marcus. The kids have definitely been here.”
The other men climbed over the robots and stumbled into the room. All around them were robot heads and a pile of parts. Each of the heads was smashed or ripped to pieces.
Marcus nodded his head. “So the robots chased them into this room. The heads were destroyed in the battle?”
“If they were chased in here, where are they now? There were a whole lot of robots in this room!” Bobcat started looking for hidden kids.
“They may have gone out here.” William stood next to a small open door surrounded by large robot parts.
Bobcat ran over and jerked the door open. “Whoa!” William had grabbed the smaller man before he took a header out into nothing.
Looking down he saw flames at the bottom of a long shaft. “It’s an incinerator tube.”
William pulled him back inside and peered in himself. “There is a small ladder leading down the shaft. I think they went down there.”
—
Maxim brought up the rear in their escape from the robot horde. Using his boots he carefully climbed down the tiny ladder to the floor below. Initially, several of the robots followed him out and nearly hit him on their way down.
“Stupid.” He was still muttering the word as he climbed in the small doorway to join his team.
“Why has there been no communica…” Maxim’s voice trailed off he was so stunned. The room he entered was only semi-lit. Huge tanks of some form of fluid hung from the ceiling. Each contained what appeared to be a scientific experiment. His four teammates were in front of the last tank.
“Nestor what is happening?” He laid a hand on his cousin's shoulder.
Yana turned to him with tears in her eyes. “We’ve found him. He never escaped.”
She ran to him and buried her face in his chest. Maxim could only stare at his friends as he held Yana in his arms, “What does she mean?”
“It’s Andrei Mikoyan. We think he’s dead in there.” Ron hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the tanks.
Carefully, Maxim moved the now weeping older girl and passed her to his cousin. “Show me.”
The tanks were at least ten feet high. Inside the first was what appeared to be a tabby cat. Around its neck was a striped collar that read ‘Flamengo’ beside it was a tiny flag for the country of Brazil. A human floated in the second tank. He was still dressed in spacesuit undergarments from the last century. His features were obscured by damage to his upper body. The third and fourth tanks also contained humans.
“Which one is he?” Ron pointed to the last tank.
The man inside was of medium build with dark hair. His hands bore many wounds, some appeared to be defensive in nature. Maxim could only imagine going up against those robots alone without aid. On his upper shoulder were the letters VDV and a laurel surrounding a torch with wings. It was the symbol of the Russian airborne forces. His grandfather had the same symbol on his shoulder. Unlike the other bodies, this man was definitely Russian.
Not a very religious man, Maxim bowed his head anyway and said a small prayer.
“Is this all there is in here?” He looked at the others.
“No. We found the spacesuits and other gear over there.” Tina pointed to the rear of the room. “The other men were US astronauts. The suits say Apollo 20 on them. The guy missing most of his head was a Nazi. He has a swastika on his shoulder and a number on the underside of his left arm. Ron says that is his blood group. He was in the SS.” She handed him a patch depicting a lander lifting what looked like an alien spaceship and
the words Apollo 20.
“Ron?”
“It shouldn’t exist Maxim. There was a video once about Apollo 20, but is was proven to be a hoax.”
“Has anyone checked the door yet?” Maxim pointed to the front of the room.
Ron answered, “We have. It leads to more halls. I told them I wanted to wait for you. If we are attacked again, I can’t fight them alone.”
Maxim smiled at his friend, “You don’t want the glory?”
“No. I wish to survive this. Ending up in a tank like that would be a disgrace to both the training and our team. We will escape this. We will live to tell the world of this man’s bravery.”
“Would you really do that Ron? Tell the world, no matter the consequences?” Yana looked up from Nestor's shoulder.
“I would. The Queen respects bravery and sacrifice. Didn’t this man sacrifice it all for his country? History makes a mockery of his name. He should be remembered.”
Maxim looked down at Ron and smiled. “When we escape, we will shout his name to the heavens. Now let’s get out of here first. Do we have weapons?” He hefted the broken robot arm, “My club is a bit worn out.”
“The astronauts had some tools with them as well as… Well, it’s a pry bar of some sort.” Ron held up what looked like a pry bar from any hardware store on the planet. Only this one was all shiny and had the word NASA on the side of it.
“Handy to have. Is there more?” Maxim asked.
Ron shrugged, “No. Not that I can find.”
Maxim thought about it a moment while everyone leaned against something. “Give that to Nestor, Ron. I will use my arm here. It is a tried and true weapon. Give the tools to the girls and stay loose. If I find a gun, I will provide it for you.” He looked around after a couple of minutes, “Time to go. Everyone had a chance to eat if you are hungry? Drink too?” They all nodded. “Good let’s move on. Much to see and a way out to find. Someone built all of this. It cannot just be robots.”
Maxim waved the rest forward as they exited the room, he paused to give Andrei a final wave.
—
“Are you sure they went down there?” Marcus looked down the tube a second time.
“It’s the only logical way, Marcus. Why am I the one telling you this anyway? Aren’t you the brain here?” William stared in amazement at his friend.
“Just playing devil’s advocate. How far down do you think they went and how did they open the door to get in?”
William answered, “Does it look like I know the answer to any of that? I was just going to climb down and try picking the door.”
“Why don’t you take a look at this door first and see if you understand it before charging away down there. OK, William?”
William nodded and sat on the floor just inside the doorway. Sitting like this made it easy to see the door lock and not fall off the edge at the same time.
“Marcus, can you come here a moment?” Bobcat stood next to what looked like a repair station he was examining the heads that seemed to decorate the room.
“These things are all linked.” Bobcat pulled a head off of the stand, and it made a clicking noise as it separated. The base was like a charging station.
“When the kids came in here, the heads must have told the others where they were. It might be an explanation of how they were all smashed. I think they were all AIs or computer controlled. We need to find the central computer or system command and shut it down.”
“That makes sense, which is kind of strange coming from you, Bobcat. I have William figuring out the locking system of the tube. We think the kids went down.”
“Why are we going out that way? We didn’t see any other robots out in the hall so we can go that way. There has to be another way down beside the elevator. We even know how to open that too.”
Marcus almost popped himself in the head. He wasn’t thinking logically, again. “William! We will try another way down.”
“But I think I understand how it works!” he called back.
“Save it. We might need it another time. We’ll go out the front.” Bobcat opened the front door and looked out. The coast looked clear. “Come on.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The hallway outside what the kids were calling the ‘room of horrors’ was different than the one above.
“Did anyone notice the way the hall appears here?” Ron looked up and then down the corridor. “The colors are different, and the pattern on the wall is strange.”
Nestor looked up and shook his head. “Not much of one. It might just be from construction. Let’s check out the other rooms.”
The cousins took the lead for opening doors. Nestor held his club at the ready while Maxim tried the lock. Pressing multiple combinations didn’t work like before, but the NASA crowbar they found worked just fine.
“Why does this feel wrong to me?” Tina watched down the hall as Maxim pried the door open.
Yana was watching the opposite hall, “Too many episodes of Cops and Robbers on that idiot box you Americans call television.”
Tina thought about that, “That may be true. My little brother Todd likes all those shows. What do you think is in there?” Tina nodded her head toward the room.
“I am hoping there are no more glass tubes. I… I am not over seeing the body of Andrei. No one should be displayed as such. His last words in the log will scar me for life. My father has tried to get me to see what you call the ‘Big Picture.’ I see now what he was trying to tell me. The Queen is right in many things. Injustice must be fought.”
Tina laughed. “Philosophical discussions while running from killer alien robots. You are truly the best of friends.” She gave Yana a quick hug.
There was a loud crunch, and the sound of tearing metal, and the door finally opened. “I did it!” Maxim smiled at his cousin.
Both cousins threw their weight at it, and the door opened with a bang! Everyone rushed into the room with weapons held high. The automatic lights came up revealing a room filled with blinking lights and monitors.
“No robots!” Nestor put his club down in disgust.
“Did you want more trouble?” Maxim gave his cousin a little push.
“Sort of? Just wanted to get my mad out on something. What is this place?” Nestor peered at a blinking machine.
“Looks like a control room of some kind.” Ron started pressing buttons and watching the screens for results.
“Ron, be careful you don’t blow us all up!” Yana stepped over and peered at the monitors with him.
Ron looked at her with an almost maniacal grin. “What is the worst that could happen? More robots?”
“Or a self-destruct device. Be careful.”
Ron put his hand over his heart, “OK. I promise not to blow us up.” Yana snorted and moved to examine another piece of equipment.
Suddenly a three-dimensional image appeared in the center of the room. It showed a hallway and then changed to a different one.
“Ron? Is that the security system?” Maxim stared at the flashing images.
“It might be. This panel is broken up into five sections. These might be floors or different base divisions. Without signs or descriptions, I can’t tell. It sort of looks like the holo-pad from the Battle Stars movie series. Remember when the Darth is talking to the Emperor?”