The Ruins of Arlandia

Chapter Fourteen: The Ice Base



Calvin and Astra approached the doors and examined them. There was a small panel on the right side. Astra opened it, and she found a simple door control.

Amazingly, the doors opened when Astra pressed a large green button.

“It’s an airlock,” she said, walking through cautiously. Calvin followed her. Inside they found a small room with white featureless walls.

“No ice in here,” Calvin noted. Astra closed the outer doors, and a computer screen on the wall lit up. Large unseen fans sucked all of the air out of the room. When that finished, new air rushed back in. Astra examined the computer screen on the wall.

“It replaced the air,” she said. “We should be able to take off our helmets and gloves.”

“Should be able to?” Calvin said. “Are you sure? Do you want to trust this old equipment? What if one of the sensors is out of alignment? What would happen if we breathe methane?”

“Any amount would be very bad for us. Most likely we would die instantly,” Astra said grimly. Then she examined the computer on the arm of her suit. “According to this, the air is completely breathable. There’s no trace of methane.”

Calvin didn’t look convinced. “I still don’t know if I want to trust my life to it.”

“Well, what’s the point of bringing all this equipment if we won’t trust what it tells us? And two different computers are saying the same thing. Fine, then we can leave our gear on, at least until we get inside. But we are going to have to take our gloves off so it can read our DNA.”

“Ok,” Calvin said. “What’s the temperature in here?”

Astra looked at the screen again, and then at her wrist computer.

“Both the vault computer and my suit computer say it is fifty-one degrees in here.”

Calvin pulled off his right glove. The cool air felt good on his skin. Then he took off his left glove. Astra watched him. She waited for a second, and then she took off her own gloves. Astra turned her attention to the inner doors. There was a metal bar that reached across the door, just like in the first vault. They gave each other a glance and walked up to the door.

“Ok, here we go,” Calvin muttered. They both put their hands on the bar. After a second, the handle changed color from dark gray to dark green. There was a loud click, and the door cracked open about an inch. Calvin bent over and looked inside, but it was completely dark on the other side of the door.

“Ready?” Astra asked.

“Let’s go,” Calvin said. They pulled on the handle, but the door was very heavy and wouldn’t open. They had to use all their weight, leaning back and pulling as hard as they could until finally the door inched open. They stopped when they had it open wide enough to fit through.

Calvin went first. His backpack almost came off as he squeezed into the next room. Once through, Astra looked at her wrist computer again, and then she took her helmet off.

“What are you doing?” Calvin asked.

“The air’s fine,” she said. “I’m going to trust my computer.” She pointed at her wrist computer.

Calvin hesitated at first, but he reluctantly decided to trust her. Calvin removed his helmet. The air smelled dusty and old, but otherwise it was ok. Astra moved farther into the room. As she did, overhead lights automatically turned on.

“Whoa,” Calvin muttered, startled. They were in a wide room. Tables lined the walls, and rows of large hooks ran all the way down the wall at different heights. There was another door at the other end of the room, which was closed.

“This must be where they kept their gear,” Astra pointed out.

“Is that a good idea?” Calvin asked.

“I don’t see why not; we’ll be more comfortable, and there’s no telling how big this place is. Do you want to carry it around?”

“Not really.” Calvin didn’t argue with her. They took off their spacesuits and laid them down on the tables, along with their backpacks. Astra took her computer off her suit and put it on her arm.

“Let’s go look around,” she said excitedly. She led the way to the unopened door and opened it without hesitation.

They walked into a much larger open room. In the middle was a large triangular pool with a broken fountain in the center. The small dirty fountain had a large rusted gong suspended over it by a long wire. There was a door in each corner of the triangle. Above them were three other levels. Balconies looked out over the room from each level. The walls were richly decorated and looked like they were made out of marble.

“Which way should we go?” Astra asked.

“Let’s try this one,” Calvin said, walking to one of the doors. The empty marble halls made each footstep echo loudly. Even their voices seemed amplified. Calvin opened the door and walked through. They found a staircase with stairs leading up and down.

“If you were going to hide a super-secret piece of technology that you didn’t want anyone in the universe to find, where would you hide it?” Calvin asked.

Astra thought about it. “Well, I would put it as far away from the main entrance as possible. But would that be upstairs or downstairs?”

“Let’s try downstairs first,” Calvin suggested.

“Ok. Lead the way.”

Calvin went first. The steps were wide and easy to walk down. Small black pipes snaked up and down the walls. They passed several floors before they reached a metal door at the bottom. Calvin opened it excitedly, expecting to find a laboratory with the next segment in it. Instead, there was a hallway leading off in two directions. They spent the next two hours exploring the bottom floors. It was obvious that this was a base. It might have been a research base or a military station, but whatever it was, it had everything needed to support the living needs of a group of people. They found crew quarters, a mess hall, a kitchen, recreation facilities, a power generator, and an empty shuttle bay.

“I’ve been thinking,” Calvin said, as they climbed back up the stairs. “This base must have been on the surface once, don’t you think?”

“Why do you say that?” Astra asked.

“Well, the shuttle bay doors are blocked. Nothing can get in or out.”

“Maybe they buried it under the ice to hide it.”

Finally, after searching the base for hours, they had gone through every level except one: the top floor. Calvin and Astra were getting discouraged. It was looking like the only thing they would find was disappointment. At the top of the stairs they found two doors. When Calvin opened the door on the right, they both breathed a sigh of relief. They had finally found the laboratory.

It was a small room with workstations and tables. Small pieces of broken equipment lay all over the tables and floor. Calvin had been hoping that this vault would be similar to the vault they found on Arlandia, and he wasn’t disappointed. In the back of the room was another door. It was cracked open.

Through the next door they found a small square room. The only thing in it was a single table, with a strange-looking object sitting on top. It was round on the front, square on the back, and flat on top. There were several round holes on the sides and several round rods protruding from it. Calvin and Astra approached it slowly, almost reverently.

“It’s the second segment,” Astra whispered. They both stood in front of it for several moments.

“All things considered,” Calvin said. “That was easy.”

Astra looked at him with an odd expression.

“You thought it would be harder?” Astra asked. “The location of these vaults is secret, and we are flying around in an invisible spaceship. I don’t think the Goremog know what we are trying to do. Really, what can happen to us?”

“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “But I’ve noticed that the Goremog have constantly been one step behind me, like they are following me. It could just be my imagination, or a coincidence.”

Astra thought about that. “Yes, but Aleria’s Hope didn’t have a cloaking device, and it is a huge ship. The Goremog were obviously able to track it very easily. It leaves a really big hyperspace wake.”

“I suppose,” Calvin said, unconvinced. “I hope you’re right.”

Astra gave a crooked smile. “Me too.”

“Do you want to look around the lab and see if there is anything else we should take with us?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” she said.

They searched the lab—every desk, every table, and every corner. By the end of the search, they had found a handful of computer storage devices and two manuals.

“Let’s get this stuff back up to the surface.”

“Ok,” Calvin agreed. He took his backpack off and pulled out four small white handles. He handed two to Astra, and they attached the handles to both ends of the second segment. Each handle had a small button on the end of it. Astra walked around and pressed all of the buttons.

“Ready?” Astra asked.

Calvin and Astra picked the segment up by the handles. The handles were antigravity generators. When they picked the device up, it had no weight. They easily moved it out of the room, and down to the main floor where the fountain was. They had to turn it on end to get it through the doors, but since it had no weight it rotated easily.

As they entered the fountain room, a giant earthquake shook the building. Astra and Calvin were knocked off of their feet and thrown to the floor. The segment was sent floating free in the air. The shaking lasted for several minutes. Dust and dirt broke free from the walls and ceiling and drifted down to the floor in billowing clouds. The shaking eased, but a deep rumbling continued long after. Loud crashes could be heard off in the distance; it sounded like something collapsing. Calvin and Astra sat on the floor, listening to the sounds.

“Are you all right?” Calvin asked, helping Astra to her feet.

“Yes, I’m ok,” she said. “That was stronger than before.”

“Yeah it was,” Calvin agreed. “I think we should get out of here.”

After they chased down the segment, they moved it into the entry room and closed the inner door.

They put on their suits as quickly as they could. Boots, suits, gloves, and finally helmets. Then they opened the outer door. They stepped out into the tunnel, taking the second segment with them.

When their lights turned on and illuminated the tunnel ahead, they were met with a big shock. The ceiling of the ice tunnel had collapsed. The tunnel was gone. But the worst part was that the drill car was crushed under the ice.

“Oh no,” Astra whispered. “What’re we going to do now?”

Calvin stared in shock, realizing they were trapped under two miles of solid ice.

There were three short static bursts, and then Ion’s voice filled Calvin’s helmet.

“Master Calvin. Are you OK?”

“Yes. There was a big quake,” Calvin said. “The tunnel caved in. We’re trapped down here.”

“What about the drill? The signal stopped transmitting.”

“It was crushed under the ice.”

“I can come down and dig you out,” Ion offered. “Unless you think you can get out of there somehow by yourself.”

“No,” Calvin said. “There’s no way we can get through this wall of ice. We’ll wait here.”

“Ion, hurry,” Astra said. “It’s getting worse down here.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Ion answered. The communication ended.

“What do you want to do while we wait?” Astra asked.

“Let’s go back inside,” Calvin said. “It’s going to be a while before he gets down here. I’m guessing it will be at least two hours, maybe more.”

“Ok. We can look around inside some more.”

Calvin and Astra went back inside and took their gear off. This time they left it all inside the fountain room.

“I want to go back up to the lab and the vault,” Calvin said. “There was a room up there we didn’t look in.”

“Oh yeah,” Astra said, remembering. “The other door at the top of the stairs. Let’s go.”

Calvin led the way up the stairs to the top of the base. When he opened the door, he found a short set of stairs with a door at the top.

Up to this point, they hadn’t found anything dangerous in the base, so Calvin felt no fear in opening the door. A tiny quake shook the base.

Inside they found a room full of computers, which were all off. There were monitors all over the walls, and the ceiling looked like it was made of glass. There was a chair sitting in the center of the room, which was surrounded by four computer workstations.

“It’s a control room,” Calvin said.

“I was hoping we’d find one,” Astra said, following him into the room.

Calvin sat in the chair without hesitation. Nothing happened.

“Where’s the on button?” he said, half jokingly.

Astra was already ahead of him. She found a power terminal on the wall and pulled the power switch until it locked into place. Suddenly all of the monitors came to life, all of the computer panels lit up, and the keyboards glowed.

“There we go,” Astra said, looking at information scroll across the monitors. She moved from monitor to monitor, examining each screen carefully.

“These are status screens,” she said. “Do you recognize the configurations?”

“They look Alerian,” Calvin said. “Like the standard controls in a spaceship. These look like flight controls.”

“This is life support.” Astra pointed to one monitor. “That one is engine status, and that one is navigation. This isn’t just a base. This is a spaceship!”

“And this is the bridge,” Calvin said. “Can it be that easy? Can we fly out of here?”

“I don’t see how. We’re still trapped under two miles of ice.”

Another quake rattled the base. This time Calvin held onto the sides of the chair, and Astra grabbed onto one of the computer terminals. The shaking stopped after a few seconds.

“They’re getting stronger,” Calvin said. “Yes, we’re stuck down here. But I think somebody buried this ship down here intentionally. They must’ve made a way to get it out.”

Astra thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, you would think that with something as important as this piece of the weapon, they would have had a way to get it out of here. But first they would have needed a way to get back in. I wonder how they planned to do that.”

“That’s a good question,” Calvin said. “We need to look around some more and see if we can find something. The answer has to be here,” he said, pointing to the computers. “Do you want to sit here? You’re the computer expert. And it’s in your language.”

“OK. Move it!” Astra said smiling. Calvin stood up and stepped back.

Astra sat in the chair.

“Master Calvin, Lady Astra,” Ion said. “I’m ready to fly down to the surface.”

“Ion, wait,” Calvin said. “We just found out this base is a spaceship. We’re going to see if we can fly it off of the planet.”

“That’s good news, Sir,” Ion said, sounding surprised. “Is it operational?”

“We’re about to find out,” Calvin said. “Can you remotely pilot our shuttle, and fly it back to the ship?”

“Yes, I can. But there’s something you should know. My sensors indicate the ice around your location is shifting, becoming highly unstable. You might encounter more quakes.”

“We already have been,” Calvin replied. “Hurry and get the shuttle outta here. We don’t want to lose it. Wish us luck.”

“Good luck, Sir.”

Another quake jolted them. This one lasted even longer. Loud bangs could be heard, some close and some far away, echoing throughout the base.

“I found the shields,” Astra said happily, “And this is the sensors. Oh, look at this.” She pointed at the screen. “There are small objects in the ice all around the ship.” She worked the computer. “They’re explosive devices. According to this, we can detonate them and shatter the ice. This is amazing. Now I see how they planned to fly the base out. OK, let’s get us out of here.”

“Just out of curiosity, how much power is left in this old thing?” Calvin asked. “It’s been sitting here a long time.”

Astra checked the computers.

“Calvin, I think this is it. These are the power levels. Oh, this could be bad. It says power is down to 45 percent. I don’t know if we have enough to get off of the planet and into orbit.”

“It’ll have to be,” Calvin insisted. ”We don’t have another option. We definitely can’t stay here.”

“I agree, but if we launch and don’t have enough power to reach escape velocity, we’ll fall back onto the surface and crash.”

“Is there any way to be certain?”

“No,” Astra admitted. “If any of the power conduits or transfer generators are damaged, we could have even less power than the computer says.”

“There are no guarantees,” Calvin stated.

“No, there aren’t.”

“So we can sit here and let the power drain a little more, or we can go for it.”

“I’m guessing you want to go for it.”

“Yes!” Calvin said enthusiastically. “Let’s go. At least if we launch, we have a chance of surviving. If we stay here…” He didn’t finish the sentence.

“OK, fine. Will you fly us out of here then?” Astra asked.

“Love to.”

Astra got up and sat at one of the computer terminals, and Calvin sat in the control chair.

“Put on your seatbelt,” Astra said. “I’m raising the shields and powering up the engines.”

Calvin quickly put on his seatbelt as the ship vibrated and shook. The engines roared to life; the sound started out as a soft hum at first but quickly got louder.

“The shields are at full power,” Astra reported. “I can’t believe this stuff still works. Calvin, we have to hurry, or we won’t have enough power to get into orbit.”

Calvin checked the power levels.

“We’re almost down to 20 percent,” Calvin said.

“Something’s wrong,” Astra said loudly. “We shouldn’t be losing power that fast.”

“Are we going to make it into orbit?”

“I don’t know,” Astra said, but in her mind she was afraid they wouldn’t.

“Get ready!” she shouted; the noise from the engines was getting louder. “I’m detonating the bombs now!”

There was a series of huge explosions that rocked the ship violently. Calvin and Astra both looked up through the glass ceiling. There was a bright flash of light, which caused them both to cover their eyes. Calvin peeked through a small slit between his fingers and saw an amazing sight. The ice above them shattered into a billion pieces. Tiny ice particles rained down on them, bouncing harmlessly off the shields.

There was now a long ice tunnel stretching out all the way to the surface. Calvin could see stars. It was a beautiful sight.

Calvin pushed the throttle forward. The ship vibrated and jerked violently from side to side. A horrific cacophony of loud scraping noises and tearing metal permeated the air as the ship slowly climbed up through the ice tunnel.

Calvin did his best to keep the ship centered in the tunnel, but he realized with horror that the sides of the ship were being scraped along the ice walls on all sides. He could feel the ship slowing, struggling to claw its way toward the surface. Finally the ship cleared the tunnel and slowly began the ascent into space. Calvin urged the ship to climb higher into the atmosphere, forcing it with his will.

Suddenly a red light flooded the bridge, and an alarm, the most annoying sound Calvin had ever heard, rang out. Before he had a chance to ask her, Astra shouted.

“We’ve got hull fractures all over the ship!” The roar of the engines, the sound of the alarm, and the sound of small explosions were all going on at the same time. Calvin could barely hear her even though she was screaming. “A power generator in the engine room has failed, I think it exploded! There is explosive decompression, but I can’t tell where it is. Some of the internal sensors aren’t working, but it looks like automatic force fields are turning on. Oh no, power is so low I don’t know how long they’ll hold!” A few more seconds passed.

“The shields have failed!” Astra screamed. “The ship is coming apart! Automatic force fields are failing all over the ship!”

Then Calvin felt it; they were losing momentum.

“We’re slowing down!” Calvin screamed. “We don’t have enough altitude yet.”

“Every system is failing!” Astra screamed back. “I can’t do anything.”

“Transfer all power to the engines, even life support! Transfer everything except power to the emergency force fields!”

Astra worked as fast as she could. “That’s everything,” she yelled.

Now the only thing they could do was wait and hope. They were both very scared and held onto their chairs for dear life. Explosions continued throughout the ship. The vibration got much worse. Calvin felt like he was being shaken to death, and he felt dizzy.

Gradually the ship sped up as it climbed higher into the atmosphere and finally out into space.

“We did it!” Calvin shouted just as the engines died. “We’re in a low orbit, but at least we’re in orbit.”

“But it’s not stable,” Astra said.

“As long as we can get two or three orbits, we can get out of here.”

“We don’t have that long,” Astra said. “Structural integrity is about to collapse, and life support is gone. We need to get off of this ship right now.”

Calvin turned on his communicator. “Ion, this is Calvin, are you there?”

“What is your status, Master Calvin?” Ion asked, without delay.

“It worked!” Calvin announced. “We’re off the planet and in a low orbit, but we have a few problems. Our orbit is very unstable. Life support is gone, structural integrity is gone, and the ship is falling apart. We’re going to fall back into the atmosphere in two orbits, probably less. We really need you to come over and get us with a shuttle.”

“I’ll be there as quickly as I can,” Ion said. “Once I maneuver the Frost behind you, I’ll bring the shuttle over and dock. Can you meet me at the airlock?”

“We’ll be there,” Calvin said. “Don’t take too long.”

“I won’t.”

Calvin took off his seatbelt and got up.

“We really need to hurry,” Astra said. “We have less time than you think.”

They got up and went to the door. Calvin reached out to open the door, but Astra stopped him.

“Wait, I don’t think we should go out there.” She pointed at the door. “I don’t know what’s keeping this mess together at this point, but I know for a fact that several areas of the ship are open to space. A couple of the explosions I heard were explosive decompression, areas of the ship being exposed to the vacuum of space. If we rush to get to the airlock, we’ll open a door into one of those rooms and get blown out into space. We’ll die.”

Calvin was about to walk past her and open the door, but he stopped.

“Then what are we going to do?” Calvin asked. “If we stay here we will run out of air. You said the life-support system is down. And if that doesn’t get us, our orbit is decaying. We have to get to the airlock.”

“I know,” Astra said.

“How’re we going to know which doors are safe to open?”

“I don’t know. The internal sensors are down. I can’t even see what’s waiting for us on the other side of that door.” She pointed at the door again.

Calvin stepped back. The room was feeling smaller. It could have been his imagination, but the air was feeling thin. Astra didn’t say anything. She walked up to the door and waved her wrist scanner over the door.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this,” she muttered, almost to herself. “Well, I do know why; the oxygen level in this room is getting dangerously low. That’s why I’m feeling dizzy. How are you feeling?”

“I feel a little lightheaded. I thought it was just me.”

“No, it’s not. It looks like there’s air on the other side, unless I’m reading this wrong. Here goes.” Astra opened the door.

Calvin and Astra walked out of the control room and back to the main stairwell. Calvin followed her down the stairs. The devastation was terrifying. The pipes that ran along the walls were ruptured in a dozen places and were spewing steam into the air, making it hard to see. Even more disturbing were the noises the floor made when they walked—loud cracks and creaks with every footstep. It was even worse on the stairs. If they walked too fast, the floor shook.

“Wow, we really need to get out of here,” Astra said nervously.

“Don’t stop, keep going.” Calvin said.

They made it to the main level but found their way blocked by several large beams that had collapsed and filled the hallway with debris. Calvin could see the door that led to the fountain room, but there was no way to get to it.

“This way,” Calvin said, leading her back up the stairs. Astra followed him, holding his hand and anxiously looking at the walls and ceiling. They cautiously walked back up the stairs to the next level.

“We can cross over on the second level, and take the stairs on the other side,” Calvin said.

Astra let go of Calvin’s hand and waved her scanner over the door.

“There’s air on the other side,” she said.

Calvin opened the door, and Astra led the way. They found themselves in a long, narrow hallway. The floor made loud cracking noises with each step.

“The floor feels strange,” Astra said. “Do you feel it? It feels brittle.”

“Yes, I can feel it,” Calvin said. The air was full of smoke and dust. The ground shook, causing dust to rain down from somewhere above. They made it halfway down the hallway, when they felt a wave of power pulse through the room. Calvin could feel it in his hair. He looked up at Astra and saw strands of her long brown hair sticking out in all directions. Before he had a chance to ask her what was going on, a bright flash of light split the room between them. Astra felt it too, and she spun around. It only took her a second to realize what it was.

“It’s a force field,” she exclaimed. Calvin looked at her. He could see a look of resignation on her face. It scared him.

“Now what do we do?” Calvin asked her, trying to get her to focus on their problem and how to solve it. “How can we turn the force field off?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” she muttered, looking around the room. “Why did this force field turn on, in the middle of the room?”

Calvin watched her face. He watched her expression change from confusion to alarm. She started to say something, but was interrupted. All of a sudden, the room exploded.

Calvin would never forget what he saw at that moment. It would haunt him the rest of his life. The wall behind Astra disintegrated, and the fragments were sucked out into space. Astra’s eyes got wide, and she looked at Calvin, pleading for help. Calvin was powerless to do anything. He watched as Astra was violently ripped out into space. She vanished before his eyes.

“Astra!” he screamed. “No!”

Calvin stared out into the blackness of space, in shock and devastated. It felt like his heart was just ripped out of his chest.

“Astra, you can’t leave me too,” he whispered. “What am I going to do now?” There was a loud crackling noise, and an electric feeling swept over him. Suddenly the force field disappeared.

Calvin was sucked into the vacuum of space so fast he was outside and spinning out of control before he knew what was happening. He closed his eyes and held his breath, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough. Being out in space without a suit on was an instant death sentence. He knew he was floating in space. He assumed he was dying, or maybe he was dead already. He didn’t feel any pain. He must be dead. But if he was dead, why was he still holding his breath? He held it as long as he could, but eventually, he was forced to let it out. He let the air out and gulped in a deep breath of air!

Calvin opened his eyes. He was still alive! It seemed completely impossible. But where was Astra? He looked around, and he found her floating not very far away. She was alive too! She was very close, but too far to reach. He stretched out his arms, and she did the same. Calvin tried leaning forward, and he tried to push himself, but there was nothing to push against. He tried waving his arms and legs to move closer to her, like he was swimming. Nothing worked.

He strained desperately to get to her, to touch her. Calvin looked into her eyes. He called to her. He could hear his own voice, but it sounded very strange. Astra’s lips moved in response to him, but he couldn’t hear her.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” he said. “But how are we alive? We’re floating in space without suits on.” She said something again, but he heard nothing.

Calvin and Astra both strained to touch each other, and this time they touched, barely. There was a soft purple electrical flash when they touched. It was a force field! There was a thin force field surrounding each of them. That’s why they were still alive. It was protecting them from the cold and airless environment.

They touched fingers again, and this time they managed to hook their index fingers together.

Calvin pulled her toward himself. When they were close enough, they embraced and held each other. Their force fields flickered with small electric currents that coalesced into purple clouds. On the edges, lightning bolts flew off in all directions where their force fields touched.

“Are you all right?” he asked her. She didn’t answer. It was a very strange and exciting experience. He felt the urge to shiver, but he wasn’t cold. Adrenalin rushed through his body, and he was hyperaware of his surroundings. He had been on pure oxygen once during deep-space training. He remembered how it made him feel, like he was super awake. That’s how he felt now.

It was one thing to see space on a monitor or through a window from the inside of a spaceship. It was quite another to be outside floating around in it. The blackness of space was a deeper black than he had ever seen before. The stars were the most brilliant colors. He could see red, blue, green, yellow, and white stars. It was like he was seeing color for the first time in his life. It was also very quiet. He was so entranced by what he was seeing that he almost forgot that he was floating in space. There was no way to know how much time they had left. He had a bad feeling that their force fields weren’t going to last very long. When they failed, they would die. At least now he wasn’t going to die alone. There was no way of knowing how long they floated in space, holding each other and looking into one another’s eyes. It was as if they had both resigned themselves to the fact that there was nothing they could do. Calvin was drawn to her light brown eyes. Her expression was soft, and she had a smile on her face. Was she trying to tell him something? Calvin thought she was, and she seemed to be saying that everything was going to be ok. Focusing on her eyes, in the middle of the blackness of space, he felt peace, and he knew everything was going to be all right.

Calvin relaxed and stopped worrying. What was going to happen was going to happen, and there wasn’t a thing they could do about it. So they drifted in space, unmoving.

Then suddenly a large white shape appeared behind Astra. It was the shuttle. The rear hatch was open, and the ship slowly moved backward until they were inside the ship. They were saved. Once inside, the door closed. There was a loud rush of air as oxygen filled the room. Slowly gravity returned, and their force fields blinked out. Calvin and Astra looked at each other again, trying to understand what had just happened to them. Astra hugged Calvin, and she held him tightly.

The door to the forward part of the ship opened, and Ion stood in the doorway.

“Master Calvin, Lady Astra. Are you all right?” Ion asked.

“We are now,” Astra said. “Thank you for rescuing us.”

Calvin looked out of the front window and got his first look at the base ship. It was not as big as he thought it was, maybe twice the size of the Frost. It was shaped like two pyramids, base to base, with large square engines on one end. It wasn’t a very elegant design.

“What happened? Why didn’t we die out there?” Calvin asked.

“The device I gave to each of you earlier today,” Ion explained. “It contained a personal force field and oxygen supply. You could have survived out there for an hour. It also contains a location beacon, so I was able to find you quickly.”

Calvin and Astra sat in the crew section behind the pilot’s chair. Astra covered her face with her hands. Calvin sat back and closed his eyes.

“We need to get the second segment!” he said suddenly. “We left it onboard the ship!”

“It’s all right sir,” Ion said soothingly. “I took the base ship in tow with a tractor beam. I’ll go retrieve your gear and the segment after I take you back to the Frost.”

“OK,” Calvin said, closing his eyes again. “Well then, wake me up when we get there.”

Ion looked at Astra, about to ask her a question, but she was already asleep. Calvin wasn’t far behind her. He fell asleep before Ion returned to the pilot’s chair and connected his seatbelt.

Calvin woke up and looked out the front window. He expected to see stars, but instead he saw the inside of the shuttle bay. They were back aboard the Frost. Astra was still asleep in the seat behind him. Ion walked past them to the back of the shuttle, and he opened the door to the rear compartment. Calvin put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“Are we there yet?” Astra asked, and she slowly opened her eyes.

“We’re on the Frost,” Calvin said.

“I didn’t realize how tired I was,” Astra said, smiling at Calvin. They both stood and followed Ion out, both yawning.

“Yeah, I guess the sheer terror of being sucked out into space without a suit on kind of wears you out.” They both laughed.

“Ion,” Calvin said. “Why don’t we use the personal force fields instead of spacesuits more often? It would be faster and a lot more comfortable.”

“They’re very good for what they were designed for,” Ion said. “Emergency backup. However, I don’t recommend you use them for primary protection, in any environment.”

“Don’t you trust them?” Calvin asked.

“They are still fairly new and are not entirely reliable,” Ion said. “That’s why they should only be used as a backup, if everything else fails.”

“Well,” Calvin said. “I’m glad you gave them to us. We would have died without them. What’re we going to do with the base ship?” Calvin asked.

“We shouldn’t leave it out here for someone else to find,” Ion said. “We should destroy it.”

“That’s sad,” Calvin commented. Astra looked at him sympathetically, understanding how he felt.

“We’ll take everything of value with us,” Ion said.

“I know, but it’s a piece of our history,” Calvin pointed out. “There might be something in there that could teach us about our history.”

Calvin and Astra went to the bridge while Ion went to the base ship in the shuttle to collect everything that was left behind. When he returned to the Frost, Ion took the second segment and everything that was recovered from the base ship to the lab.

On the bridge, Astra programmed the computer with the coordinates for the next segment.

Calvin suddenly felt very tired, and he had a feeling that destroying the Alerian base ship was wrong. “How long will it take to get to the next segment?” he asked.

“Ten days,” Astra answered. She looked tired to him.

“The weapons are charged, Sir, ready at your command,” Ion said.

“Now you get a chance to practice firing the ship’s weapons,” Astra said.

“Yup,” Calvin said. He turned on a computer in the middle of the console. A monitor displayed the status of all the ship’s weapons. “I’m locking onto the base ship.” If he hadn’t been so tired, he might have been more excited. In fact he was so tired he didn’t realize this was his first time firing spaceship weapons.

It took some effort to raise his head to look out the window. The base ship was directly in front of them, hanging over the ice planet. Something inside him was screaming that it was a bad idea to destroy the base ship, even though he understood the need for doing it. He decided not to listen, and he hoped it wouldn’t come back to haunt him later.

When he activated the weapons computer, small triggers slid out of the ends of the control wheel on both side, perfectly placed under his index fingers. Two small panels on the top of the control slid open, and two red buttons popped out.

“Firing,” Calvin said sadly. He pulled both triggers. Red beams of light lanced out through space and sliced cleanly through the base ship. It was instantly engulfed in a massive fireball. Debris and fragments shot off in all directions. Some burned up in the atmosphere, and some drifted out into space, but hidden behind the explosion, several large pieces of the station landed on the surface of the ice planet, intact. Calvin and Astra sat in silence for several moments.

Finally, Astra said, “Calvin, the coordinates for the next segment are locked into the navigation computer. You can take us to hyperspace anytime you want.”

Calvin pushed the throttle forward and turned the ship away from the ice planet. The Azure Frost picked up speed and jumped into hyperspace.

Calvin stared out the front window, mesmerized by the display of lights that flying though hyperspace caused. It was beautiful, and he was so tired he didn’t want to move.

“Are you hungry?” Astra asked, shaking him out of his daze.

“I’m trying to decide if I’m hungry or tired,” Calvin answered.

“You’re probably both,” Astra said. “Come eat with me? Please? It will help you sleep.”

“That sounds good,” Calvin said.

Calvin and Astra stumbled to the dining room like a pair of zombies. Calvin was in the mood for breakfast food, so he ordered eggs, bacon, and toast. Astra got a bowl of soup with crackers. When Astra sat, she sat next to Calvin, not across from him like she normally did. They didn’t talk for a little while. They ate in silence. Calvin was trying to process everything that had happened, but his mind couldn’t work through it. He couldn’t get the image of Astra, being sucked out of the ship right in front of him, out of his mind. Finally he had to say something.

“I thought I’d lost you,” he said, with tears filling his eyes. “That was the most horrible thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know.”

“I know. It’s all right,” Astra said calmly. She put her head on his shoulder and held his hand. “I was scared too. But its ok now. We’re ok.” She wiped tears from her eyes. Astra put her hand on Calvin’s chin, and she gently turned his head toward hers. They looked into each other’s eyes.

“It’s going to be all right,” she said. “You must be feeling overwhelmed right now, I know. It’s dangerous out here.”

“This is how you grew up, out here in this nightmare?” Calvin asked.

“Yes,” Astra answered. “I’ve been running from the Goremog my whole life, running from one place to another, from one disaster to another. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to go off on my own. My father had to send me out before, with a squad of robots to protect me. Actually I can’t count how many times, but Alpha Seven, I mean Ion, was always there to take care of me. But this time was different. I was scared, yes, but I was afraid of losing you too. Listen, I have to warn you, what happened to us today is nothing compared to what’s out there. There are things that will terrify you, things you haven’t even imagined, that truly will give you nightmares. You know, after the Great War, all the races of the universe had to rebuild their armies with robots, because all the people were gone. But that wasn’t enough for the Goremog. They wanted something more. So they created a monster. They took the most powerful and aggressive robot they had, and they combined it with a living creature. I don’t know what it was, but it was at the top of the food chain on whatever planet they got it from. It had long claws and teeth, and it devoured every creature that crossed its path. The result of combining the two was horrific. They wanted to create an army of them, but they lost control of them. Now they’re out there, thousands of them, maybe more, devouring everything in their way. I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard the sounds they make. When they scream, your blood freezes, and you know you’re being hunted. I still have nightmares.”

“Well, thanks,” Calvin said. “I should have no problems going to sleep now.”

“I’m sorry,” Astra said, rubbing her temples. “It’s just that, when we were on the base ship, I heard a sound that reminded me of the scream of one of those monsters. It was when the whole place was coming apart, right before we were thrown out into space. It must have been my imagination. It was very noisy in there.” She shook her head.

“I think I’ll go to bed now,” Calvin said. “I can’t keep my eyes open.”

“OK, goodnight,” Astra said. “I hope you can sleep.” She smiled at him. Her smile made him feel better.

“You too. Goodnight.”

Calvin walked back to his room and got ready for bed. The silence in his room felt heavy, and he felt very much alone. He was so tired that he was shivering as he got under his covers and turned out the light. His thoughts drifted to New Arlandia. He fell asleep, hoping for a dreamless night.



To be continued in Part Two: The Dark Terror





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


William F. F. Wood grew up in Northern Idaho. He served twenty-four years in the United States Air Force as a logistician, and he continues to serve as a civil servant. He lives with his wife and daughters in Illinois. This is his debut novel.