The Ruins of Arlandia

Chapter Twelve: Training



Calvin woke up late the next morning. There was no reason to get up early, so he hadn’t set an alarm. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He felt better, but his worries about home and the mission were still dominating his thoughts. They were only two days away from the second segment, which was on an ice planet. Calvin wondered what was waiting for them. The planet was out in the middle of nowhere, light years from the nearest star. They were too far away to get accurate sensor readings, but from what they could tell it was a big ball of ice floating in space, and not much of a planet.

He took his time getting showered and dressed. Clearly this ship was designed to take care of royalty. Not one single function was without luxury. It took care of all of a person’s needs, leaving him or her free to worry about other things. This is how it worked: Each morning Calvin stood in front of his closet door, where a computer would scan him. Once the computer recorded his measurements, he was presented with a program that would allow him to select what he wanted to wear that day. The computer would then make it for him, and it was ready to go. It worked just like the food machine in the dining room, but with clothes instead of food.

Today he decided on a red long-sleeved shirt, with a black pair of pants. Clothes had never fit so well. Even the shoes were a perfect fit. He picked a pair of black shoes that might have been the most comfortable he had ever worn.

After he dressed he walked down to the dining room for breakfast. He ordered eggs and bacon with toast. The computer flashed multicolored lights on the keypad, and the door slid open after five seconds. A wonderfully intoxicating smell caressed his senses.

“This place is great!” Calvin thought, and he sat down to eat. Just then, the door opened, and Astra walked in. Calvin was happy to see she was smiling. There was something else too, in the way she was carrying herself. Her shoulders seemed a little higher, her head a little taller. She got some food and sat across from Calvin.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning,” Calvin said, looking into her soft brown eyes. “How did you sleep?”

“I slept great,” Astra said.

“I did too. I finally made contact with my father last night.”

“Oh, Calvin, that’s great,” Astra exclaimed. Calvin told her about the conversation he had with his father.

“I’m very happy for you, Calvin. I know it’s been on your mind a lot lately. At least now they know you’re OK.”

After days of depression, the dark cloud was gone, and they both felt better.

“So two days till we get to the ice planet?” Calvin said, not knowing what else to call it.

“No,” Astra answered. “We’ll get there tomorrow night.”

“What do you want to do today?”

“I’m going to go down to the lab and study the first segment.”

“OK,” Calvin said, trying to hide his disappointment. He didn’t want to be alone today. “Do you like science? Are you good at it?”

“Oh yes, I love it,” she said smiling. “I practically grew up in a lab, taking things apart and putting them back together. It’s fun. Plus, the only thing that kept my people alive was the few engineers and scientists who kept our ships flying, discovering and improving our technology that gave us an advantage.”

“Oh, I see,” Calvin said. “So what does the super weapon do?”

“It’s a high-powered pulse generator,” Astra said. “The idea is, once we have all the pieces, we take it to the center of the universe and fire it. It sends a massive pulse across space, literally to every corner of the galaxy, and it destroys all electronics, computers, but most importantly, robots.”

“Wait a second, what about planets that don’t have anything to do with the Goremog, like New Arlandia? Won't they be destroyed too?”

“Our scientists have done research on that, and they found that Goremog technology has a unique signature. They said they can program the pulse so that it targets only that signature.”

“That would be great, if it works like that. Seems like a pretty big risk. How can you be sure all the pieces work after all these years?”

“I’m not really sure,” she admitted. “It's old, and the scientists who designed and built it are dead. I have their notes, but they didn’t leave behind a manual. The hard part is going to be identifying the pieces, and figuring out how to put it all together. The programming is a whole other story.”

“So there’s a chance, right?” Calvin asked. “That we find all the pieces, it’ll work and not destroy my home planet?”

“Yes, of course,” Astra said resolutely. “This ship is small, but it has the most advanced laboratory equipment in the universe. I’m going to analyze the first piece, find out what it is and if it works. Don’t worry.” She must have sensed that Calvin was worried about it. She seemed to know exactly what to say to him.

“OK, I’ll leave it to you then.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I want to do some more flight training—how to use the weapons, navigate, and fix basic problems. Ion’s been teaching me.”

“Ok, that’s a really good idea. There’s a flight simulator on deck three that you should check out. It starts with the basics and goes all the way up to advanced combat situations. No offense,” she said smiling. “But you could use a little more practice. That flight off of Arlandia was a bit rough.”

“Thank you,” he said dryly. “I’ll check it out. Let me know when you want to take a break for lunch. I’ll meet you here.”

“Ok.”

Before going to the simulator, Calvin went to the bridge. He wanted to look at the long-range sensors to make sure they weren’t being followed. When he got there he found Ion sitting at the computer station. He was just sitting there, staring into a monitor.

“Hi,” Calvin said cheerfully. Ion didn’t answer. Calvin looked closely at Ion and noticed a small cable running from the computer directly into the robot’s chest. Clearly, Ion was very busy. Satisfied the sensors were clear, Calvin went down to check out the space flight simulator.

The lights turned on automatically as he walked through the doorway. There were two white bullet-shaped pods with black glass canopies in the middle of the room. They each were sitting on hydraulic legs. In the back of the room was a computer station.

Calvin walked to the computer and turned it on. It was extremely user-friendly. It asked for his name and took him through the steps of setting up a profile. A menu screen showed him what training was available and suggested he start with the first lesson.

“I don’t have anything else to do,” he thought. When he selected the first training mission, the canopy on the first pod opened with a soft hum. A message on the computer screen read, “Please enter Pod One.” The interior of the pod looked almost like the inside of an Arlandian space fighter, but instead of dozens of analog computers with dials and switches there was one solid piece of glass, and the chair looked a little more comfortable. The layout looked just like the standard configuration that he had seen in every Alerian spaceship. He appreciated that philosophy—learn on one, able to operate all.

Calvin climbed into the pod and sat down. The central monitor in front of him provided step-by step-instructions. He put on his shoulder seatbelt, and the pod’s canopy closed. As soon as it was sealed, all outside sound was completely shut out, and it was dark.

Then suddenly all of the screens around him lit up. He also noticed that the canopy around him, which would have been windows to the outside world in a real spaceship, was actually a series of computer monitors, which displayed stars in all directions. The details on the ultra-definition screens were so clear that it looked real.

“Too perfect!”

The computer began with a simple navigation exercise: fly from point A to point B. Along the way it provided a detailed explanation of the basic ship controls and screen readouts.

The lesson lasted twenty minutes. When it was over, the computer asked if he wanted to begin the next one. Calvin kept going.

The next lesson involved navigating to four different locations, and more in-depth explanation of ship functions. In the third lesson the difficulty increased. He had to navigate through an asteroid field.

During his first run through the asteroid field he thought he was doing well, until a small rock smashed into the side of his ship, disabling him. Unable to control the ship, he floated into a large asteroid and was destroyed. He did much better the second time through, receiving only a small amount of damage after he shot an asteroid that was in his path, and he flew through the debris. He also learned to have a healthy respect for asteroids.

Calvin looked at the clock, and he was surprised to see he had spent four hours in the simulator. It was time for lunch. He turned off the computer, and the canopy opened. His legs felt stiff for a few minutes, but he figured the walk back up to the dining room would stretch them out. He found an intership communications system on the main computer panel.

“Astra, can you hear me?” Calvin’s voice echoed through the ship. There was a brief pause, and Astra’s voice echoed back.

“Yes, what’s up?”

“Are you hungry?” Another pause.

“Sure, I can take a break. I’ll meet you in the dining room.”

“OK, see you there.”

Calvin got there first. He got a plate of food and sat at a table near the food dispenser. Astra arrived only a few minutes later.

“How’s it going?” Calvin asked.

“Slow,” Astra said, putting in her food order. She took her food out of the machine and sat across from Calvin. She had a bowl of salad and a glass of juice.

“No matter what I do, it defies analysis,” Astra said. “First I had the computer scan it, which took over an hour. It couldn’t figure out what it is. I’m not even sure it was able to scan the inside. I’ve been studying it all morning, and about the only thing I know is that it has a massive amount of power in it. It seems dormant, but the energy signature is massive. You know, if I didn’t know better I would say that it is fighting me, trying to keep me from knowing what it is.”

Calvin wanted to laugh, but her expression said that she wasn’t joking.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Normally I would take it apart, at least take off the cover. I think I found a hatch on it, but I’m afraid to open it. There is too much power inside it. I need to understand it better before I do that. For now, I’m going to do a search in the database to see if there is anything that compares to this. That’s going to take a while. How is your training going?”

“Good. It was boring at first, just flying around. But I had to fly through an asteroid field on the last one. That was a little more exciting.”

“Oh, neat,” Astra said. “How did you do?”

“The first time…you don’t want to know.”

Astra smiled. “That’s funny. You died, didn’t you.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” Calvin said sheepishly. “But it wasn’t because of my piloting. Well, maybe it was. I didn’t use the perimeter sensors or point laser defense. I didn’t think I needed them. It seemed like cheating.”

“Well, they help, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do,” Calvin admitted. “I hope I never have to go through an asteroid field without them.”

“And you could also try to not run into the rocks.” Astra smiled at him playfully.

“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he said.

“Just wait until you get to the minefield exercise. That’s even more fun.”

“Minefield?” he asked. “Really? That sounds cool.”

“Cool? Just wait, they don’t just crash into you; they explode.”

When Calvin and Astra were done eating, they both left the dining room, anxious to get back to what they were doing. Calvin trained in the simulator the rest of the afternoon. He flew the asteroid-field mission again just to make sure he was comfortable with it before moving on. Astra went back to work on the first segment, trying to unlock its secrets.

Later, after dinner with Astra, Calvin went up to his room to relax. It took only ten minutes to realize that he didn’t want to relax. He couldn’t stop thinking about the simulator. Plus there wasn’t anything to do in his room, so he went back down and climbed inside the simulator.

The canopy closed, and the simulator turned on. “I’m addicted to this,” Calvin thought.

He was getting very comfortable with the controls, and already he had a standard pattern for turning everything on. Turn on engines and shields, charge weapons to minimum levels so they would be ready faster. He had everything just where he wanted it. The next mission was going to be too easy, another simple navigation exercise. He was supposed to fly to a space station and land—piece of cake.

He loved the simulator; it was very realistic. It was just like flying in a real space fighter. He was lost in thought when suddenly the communications system came to life.

“Fighter X Two, Fighter X Two, this is heavy freighter Blue Tundra. We are under attack by several unknown ships. We need immediate assistance. We are carrying emergency supplies to the colony on Cordon Four. Please help us! I don’t know how long we can hold out.”

“This is Fighter X Two,” Calvin announced. “I’m on my way. Coming in hot!” Calvin pushed the throttle full forward. The hydraulic system built into the simulator made it feel like his speed was increasing, as he was pushed gently into the back of his seat.

He checked the navigation computer. Time to interception was two minutes and ten seconds. He used that time to make sure his ship was ready. He channeled some extra power into his shields and weapons. A small holographic image of his ship floated near the edge of his vision. No matter where he looked, it stayed there. It showed the status of all his ship’s systems. A solid blue bubble surrounded the ship, indicating the shields were at full strength.

So much for the simple navigation exercise. He had no idea what was waiting for him. Were those ships more powerful than him, more maneuverable? Calvin didn’t know, but he wanted to make sure he was ready for anything. He looked at his scanner. There were seven small red dots, surrounding a big blue dot. He could see them off in the distance, getting larger. Explosions burst around the big freighter. Much closer now, he could see the smaller ships swarming it. They were fighters! The big ship turned and tried to get away. But it was too slow, and the smaller ships continued to pound on it.

Then suddenly four of the fighters broke away from the freighter and headed directly toward Calvin.

“OK, here we go. They know I’m here,” Calvin said. He adjusted his course and headed straight toward them. A group of laser shots flew past him, missing him by a large margin. A second later, laser hits splashed against his shields. Calvin fired a few shots back, but the computer reported that they were out of range. Calvin suddenly felt vulnerable and outgunned. The laser fire intensified. The blue circle around the ship had changed to yellow. The shields were failing.

Calvin watched the range display anxiously. Something in the back of his mind was telling him he was making a huge mistake, flying directly toward the enemy fighters and absorbing all of their laser fire.

That’s when the ship shook violently. His forward shields were gone! The shield display showed a large gap on the front of the ship. Calvin jerked the controls hard to the right, to get the exposed section of his shields away from the enemy’s reach. If just one shot got through the hole it would hit his ship and cause serious damage.

But he didn’t move fast enough. The screen went dark, and the canopy opened. He had died, again. Calvin sat in the chair and stared at the black screen for five minutes. He was feeling very tired now. He got up out of the simulator and walked back up to his room. As tired as he was, he had a hard time falling asleep. He replayed the last mission over and over in his mind. What happened? It was a good thing that wasn’t real, or he would be dead. He had messed up, badly. He’d waltzed into the battle thinking that he was the most powerful thing flying around. The computer taught him otherwise. He was going to have to adjust his thinking and his strategy.