by TS Paul
“I could have sworn I heard my name being called. This place has me all confused. It’s not a big deal, don’t worry about it.”
Maxim frowned and stuck his head out into the tube and looked around. He peered over the edge and couldn’t see anything. If only he had waited just a moment longer.
—
“Are you sure this is going to work?” asked Bobcat for the thirtieth time.
“Yes. It should. Go away. Please?” Marcus scowled at his friend for the fifth or sixth time in a row.
William silently laughed over the whole thing. Between the two of them, they were unable to remove the robot head from its body. They were both still moping over it. Marcus proposed after he got up off the floor, that they hot-wire the elevator they knew about and to get back to the surface at least. They might be able to figure out a way to either call for help or get the pod to come down. Either was worth a try.
Bobcat was sulking, and Marcus knew it. “Bobcat quit worrying about John killing you and give us a hand. If we can get this dang elevator working, we will have access to what is above us and possibly below. Then all we have to do is find the kids and leave this place.” Marcus looked up from the panel he was dismantling.
“Marcus keep working, I have him.” William stepped over and patted Bobcat on the back.
“Dude. Leave him alone to work. If he gets it wrong, we could slam into the bottom of the shaft, and all die. Who wants that? I know we didn’t get the big robot’s head, but I seem to remember a whole bunch of small ones over in that room over there.” William pointed to the robot apocalypse room.
—
“It was them, I swear!” Bobcat stammered to his friends.
William crawled back out of the small doorway and shook his head at Marcus. “Tell us again what it is you think you saw.”
“I am not crazy! Most of the robot heads were smashed, so I went over to the door and looked down the tube. I could see what we think is the incinerator at the bottom. So I looked up. Tina or someone that looks like her was all the way at the top of the shaft climbing into the wall. I called her name, but she didn’t stop. That’s when I got you two.” Bobcat pointed at the door.
William looked at Marcus. “If he is telling the truth and he did see them, is it possible to even climb that tube? I mean I can barely fit through the door.”
Marcus looked at both of them and looked out into the tube again. He carefully reached out and touched the small ladder and walls. Back inside he replied, “Maybe. They are smaller than us and could, in theory, use the ladder.”
Staring at his friend William shook his head. “That’s nuts. I’ve done some stupid stuff before but climb a tiny ladder up who knows how far?”
Tapping his fingers on one of the smashed robots Marcus looked up to the ceiling in thought. “They might have discovered how to use the mag-boots. The tube is metallic, and the boots would work better than rubber shoes for climbing. It’s possible. We, however, cannot go that way.”
“Why, the door is right there?” Bobcat practically shouted.
“William cannot fit through the door, and none of us have any practice using the mag-shoes. If one of us falls… Well, you know. The elevator is our best bet. At least we know they are still alive.”
Bobcat looked back at the tube, “If you say so, Marcus. I really want to try to go after them.”
“Do this. Practice walking in the boots here on this floor. Use the walls and the floor outside in the hall.” Marcus pointed.
Bobcat ran out to practice, and William managed to grab him before he fell on his head the very first time.
Bobcat’s mouth pressed together, “OK, I see your point. Elevator it is.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Is this another control room?” Yana looked over the massive console of blinking lights.
“I’m not completely sure, but Nestor and I think it’s the tractor beam control and the EM field.” Ron carefully ran his hands across the panels.
“Look, this section here is the tractor. We are pretty sure because there is a range control as well as automatic.” Tina watched as they pointed out the controls.
“OK, so what about the rest of this stuff?” Yana spread her arms about the room.
“It’s a ship. Like the flying saucers in the comics, I have seen.” Everyone looked at Maxim.
“Think about it, it covers the whole crater. It’s like a ground spider trap. The underside is lit, and both the elevator and the incinerator tube are attached to the ground. This is how the Aliens that we saw down there move about.” Maxim pointed down.
“Whose ship is it? I mean we know it’s not Kurtherians because I’ve been told about TOM’s ship and it looks nothing like this one.” Tina said.
“Tina, are you sure? TOM himself and the Queen have said there are thirteen tribes of Kurtherians. Only seven are bad.” Ron stepped closer to her.
Tina shook her head. “I’m pretty sure. This is something else. If we can get out of here, we will be heroes for finding and stopping an alien ship.”
Yana was listening to her friends argue over what sort of ship this was and who should take credit while she investigated the controls.
Ron and Nestor were the mechanics of the group, but she was quickly gaining some awareness of how the controls on this ship were laid out. The room they were in was round and central to the craft if it was a ship they were inside. The control panels appeared to be set in a circle around the center. The walls contained a couple of indented spaces which might conceal hidden doors. It was the floor that concerned her the most. It looked to be circular and contain something.
“Uh, excuse me?” The others continued to argue over who was right.
“Tina! Would you and Ron stop for a moment? Something isn’t right.” Yana was on her hands and knees touching a groove in the floor.
The others looked in her direction and stopped arguing. “What is it Yana?”
“This groove is a complete circle, and it’s vibrating.”
Maxim stepped over to Yana and touched the groove. “Just the circle or the whole floor?”
Yana shook her head. “Just the circle I think. It comes and goes, but it is almost stuttering like an engine trying to turn over.”
Both Ron and Nestor joined them in touching the circle. Tina noticed a new panel that had begun to blink. “Ron come look at this. Is that the elevator?”
Staring at the panel Ron could see each floor of the base highlighted and a small light moving up and down the column erratically. “It might be. I think the robots are using it to search for us.”
“Why is it only moving between floors then?” Tina traced the movement of the light with her finger. At the moment her finger touched the panel, another light lit up. The back and forth motion of the elevator stopped, it was now going straight up.
“Tina, take your hand off the panel! It’s touch sensitive.” Ron stared in horror at the panel.
“Yana! That circle is the elevator, and it’s on its way up! They’ve found us!” Tina yelled at the others.
“Who found us? The robots?” Maxim stood up and looked at his friends.
“I touched a panel, and the elevator changed direction. It is coming here!” Tina pointed to the light.
“Everyone, grab your weapons and get ready. We will smash the robots as soon as they exit.” Maxim and Nestor grabbed their clubs and stood ready.
—
“This thing is making me sick!” William held his stomach.
Marcus had managed to get the elevator open again. He dismantled the controls and put it in motion at long last. Unfortunately, his command of the alien technology wasn’t perfect. The elevator was being erratic moving swiftly in one direction before reversing. It was similar to a yo-yo or carpenters bubble.
“I’m trying to stabilize the gyroscopic controls, but they keep being overridden by something.” Marcus continued to poke and prod at the blinking lights and the attached wires. Then he wiggled the conduits h
anging from the control panel causing the elevator to jerk.
“Dude, you need to work faster. If he yacks, it will get both of us in here. What about this one?” Bobcat touched a blinking light, and the elevator juddered to a stop.
Marcus grabbed his friend's hand and pulled him away. “Stop touching things! You are only making it worse.”
“How is this worse. We are at least stopped.” He glanced at William. “Does that help buddy?”
William nodded and clutched his stomach. Suddenly the elevator lurched upward.
“Marcus, stop it! William needs to rest a minute.” Bobcat glared at the scientist.
“This is not me. I haven’t touched a thing here.” He pointed to the blinking cables which were all blinking in unison now.
“Could it be robots?” Bobcat picked up Williams club.
“It’s possible,” Marcus agreed.
Bobcat looked to his friend, “William, are you in any shape to fight?”
William snatched his robot arm from Bobcat’s grasp and gave it a few practice swings. “I think I can handle myself.”
“What am I supposed to use?” Bobcat looked around the mostly empty elevator.
Marcus pointed to his feet. “You could throw a robot head at them?”
“Nope. These are going on the wall of the bar as trophies. I’ll just hide this trophy back behind William.” He laid the head behind William and turned around to prepare for any possible attack.
The control panel lights began to dim their blinking as the elevator slowed to a stop. The door opened to a mostly dark room. William could see a dark shape approach the door, and he gave a yell and swung his makeshift club!
Nestor ducked to avoid the club aimed at his head and yelled at his attacker. “Stop! It’s us!”
William pulled his back swing and ordered the ‘voice’ to step into the light. “You almost lost a head there, kid!”
“It’s you! Are the rest of the kids with you?” Bobcat stepped around William and confronted Nestor.
“We’re here.” Tina and the others crowded around the entrance.
“Great. Let us get out of here before it decides to take off on its own again.” Marcus pointed to the glowing spaghetti factory hanging from the wall.
“Sir, it shouldn’t do that. We have the master control for it over there.” Ron hooked a finger over his shoulder.
Marcus looked at the confident young man. “Do you really? What else have you discovered?” The two of them separated from the group and began to examine the control panels.
Yana looked at Bobcat and tried to sound like she wasn’t worried. “Mr. Bobcat, Sir? Are we in trouble?”
Bobcat chuckled. “Well, you did find an Alien base and did not die. John Grimes won’t need to kill me for his cousin’s daughter, and all of you of course. So all's right with that world.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “We found the robots you left us down there.”
Nestor grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that. They were chasing us.”
“We figured that out after seeing the smashed ones. Good work, by-the-way for surviving.” William, Maxim, and Nestor looked at each other’s robot arm clubs and smiled.
“What else did you find down there?” Bobcat directed his question at Yana.
“Did you see Andrei and the other humans in the tanks?” she asked.
“You found humans?” Marcus spoke from outside the group. He had been listening as Ron showed him the consoles.
“Yes, sir. They were like science experiments in big clear tubes. Russian, American, and what looked like a Nazi were there.”
Tina spoke up. “Don’t forget the cat, Yana.”
“Sorry, yes there was a tabby cat in the tubes too.” She smiled at Tina.
“Strange. I don’t think NASA ever used cats for space launches. You said you found a Nazi? From World War Two, those Nazi’s?” Marcus stepped away from Ron and approached the group.
“Yes, Marcus. Ron and I found a Nazi rocket down in the junkyard as well as a lot of other things. Did you see the Russian LK lander? We read the pilot’s diary.”
“Be sure you write down what you remember when we return. The Queen will want a full report on all of this. We will have to explain how you ended up here outside of commands, but I don’t think you will be in too much trouble.” Bobcat tapped a finger. “Did you see any Aliens or just robots?”
“There is a whole room full of them somewhere down there,” Maxim looked at Bobcat. “We could see them but couldn’t tell where they were.”
“You know they could be up here with us. This is a ship.” Ron pointed to the walls around them.
“Should we look? I mean there are more of us now.” Yana pointed to the voids that just had to be doors to more rooms.
Marcus looked at what she was indicating. He shook his head. “Let’s try to find a way out of here first. If that search leads us to them so be it. But first use the resources here at hand.”
Breaking up into groups the students and adults began to examine each control station and define its use.
The elevator was the only thing that went outside the room but only down to the junkyard.
“If we can get to the surface, do you think our Moon rover has enough juice to get us to safety?” Maxim, Nestor, and William played with the elevator controls.
“Why do we need the LRV?” William touched the screen again bringing the elevator up. It wouldn’t go past the second level or up past where they stood.
“To get home. We already souped it up and extended the battery life. We owe those engineers who rebuilt them.”
“No Maxim. You’re missing my point. Why do we need one? We left an extra five passenger Pod in stationary orbit above us. All we have to do it shut down the EM field and get out of here for a pickup.” William pointed up.
“Is that why you haven’t called it down yet? Should we expect the Queen’s Marines or Guard too?” Tina looked up at the ceiling.
Both Bobcat and William winced. “Uh, this is sort of an off the books rescue. We didn’t tell anyone we were coming down here after you. Our LRV was sucked into the EM field just as yours was.”
“So no one is coming for us?” Yana looked up from the controls she was staring at.
William shook his head. “No. Not yet. They will notice we haven’t checked in soon, though. Let’s just get out of here for now.”
“I can’t find anything. Let’s look in these rooms.” Yana stepped up to the void on the wall and began feeling for a control.
“Yana, we aren’t ready to…” Marcus called.
Yana must have touched something because a door whooshed open suddenly. Without entering, they could all see it was another small room with even more control panels.
No robots or Aliens were hidden in it.
Marcus shook his head. “Yana, stop using Bobcat as an example. Wait before leaping. Carefully open the other door and get this out of the way.”
Tina and Ron were closest to the door and began to feel for a lock. Suddenly a door opened almost knocking them down as the pressure equalized.
Clubs at the ready Nestor and Maxim peeked into the room. It, like the other, was empty. It did, however, have what appeared to be an airlock in the wall.
“This looks promising Marcus,” Nestor called out from the doorway.
Marcus examined the airlock on the wall and smiled. “This looks to be an escape hatch. We won’t know until it opens, but it may be a way out.”
“Are you sure?” Bobcat stared at the obviously Alien portal.
“It’s the best option we’ve found so far.” Marcus examined the door switch.
“What about this control panel Marcus?” Tina looked over at the smiling rocket scientist.
“It could be anything. Ignore it for now. When we return, we will examine everything. Get the others. It’s time to go.”
Tina ran to get the others together.
Bobcat dropped the trio of robot heads he was dragging around on the deck of
the ship. “Let’s get this show on the road. I have a dinner date to make and a girl to woo.”
William nudged his friend and laughed. “A date? Woo hoo! Fancy. Where are you taking her?”
Bobcat blushed. “Not sure yet. Australia maybe? I need to ask some of the girls for advice.”
“Well, you could take her to that little place we went to in Melbourne. It was nice.” Bobcat nodded his head in agreement.
“Not to intrude upon your discussion, but it’s time to go.” Marcus gave his two friends a hard stare.