The Ruins of Arlandia

Chapter Eight: Aleria



The next morning, Calvin and Jax worked on the bridge, trying to find a communications terminal. It was slow, exhausting work that yielded very little except frustration. Eventually, Calvin got impatient and went back to exploring the ship, but he was unable to find anything that looked like a way to call home. When he got tired of exploring, Calvin went back to the bridge and helped Jax. Days of agony passed slowly, and they both grew restless and worried. They were completely unable to control what was happening to them, while hurtling through space to some unknown destination.

Finally, on the fifth day, the ship emerged from hyperspace on the edge of a small planetary system. It was early in the morning, and Calvin felt the ship change back to normal space. In fact, that’s what woke him up.

He got out of bed and looked out the window. A small blue-green planet floated way off in the distance. He pressed a button on the side of the window, which brought down a small scope. Calvin had discovered it during his days of boredom. He put the planet in the middle of the view finder and enlarged it. He turned on the wall monitor, and the planet filled the screen. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It had deep blue oceans and land masses with mountains, lakes, rivers, and grassy plains. On one southern continent was a large city. The ship moved slowly, heading straight for the planet.

Calvin jumped when the door chimed. It was a robot with a tray of food and new clothes. He was grateful they were feeding and clothing him, but each day he was feeling more like a prisoner or zoo specimen. As usual, Jax showed up with his tray, and they ate breakfast together.

“It’s nice to see the stars again,” Jax said. “I wonder where we are.”

“This might be their home world. I’ve been dreading this moment.”

“Me too. What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “But we’re at their mercy. Hopefully they’re just curious about us, and they are taking us home to figure out what to do with us. If not, we might be in trouble.”

“Maybe we’ll get to meet the people in charge. I hope so. Then we can find a way to talk to them, and ask them to take us home."

“I love your optimism,” Calvin said. “I hope you’re right.”

“Me too.”

When they finished eating, two black robots showed up and escorted them to the bridge.

The room wasn’t as empty as it normally was. Calvin counted fifteen black robots, all busy working at computer stations.

The silver robot was standing in the middle of the captain’s platform. As soon as Calvin and Jax arrived, it pointed its hand at the planet and spoke. The robot must have known that they were unable to understand because it didn’t wait for an answer. The silver robot walked down the stairs, and it motioned for them to follow it to the elevator. Once in, the door closed, and they descended into the depths of the ship. When it stopped, they all stepped out.

“Wow,” Calvin said. They were in an immense hangar bay full of spaceships. There were bombers, fighters, and shuttles parked close together. They followed the robots through a maze of ships to a small shuttle resting near the hangar door.

The silver robot entered through a rear door and sat in the pilot’s chair. Calvin and Jax sat behind him. Four black robots climbed on board just before the door closed, and they sat in the rear seats. They looked tougher than the other robots; they were black with dark red stripes. They were heavily armed; each one carried a long rifle and a pistol.

“Seat belts,” Calvin said, quickly putting his on. The belt crisscrossed over his chest, holding him in the seat firmly.

The silver robot turned on the flight computer. The buttons and dials lit up with a soft white light. The engines hummed to life. The giant doors slowly opened.

Calvin felt a surge of excitement and fear as the ship slowly lifted up and moved out into space.

The small shuttle accelerated toward the planet. It was remarkably fast. They approached the planet quickly. The sky below was full of clouds. The shuttle entered the atmosphere with a loud hiss, and it was briefly enveloped in fire. They leveled out over a large city. Tall buildings stretched off in all directions.

Descending toward the surface, Calvin saw that the city was heavily damaged. Some buildings were completely destroyed, lying in ruins. Large piles of debris were all that remained of them. Huge craters pitted the city surface.

Almost all of the buildings that were still standing showed signs of damage. Some were more heavily damaged than others, but they all seemed to have gaping holes in them. The city had definitely seen better days. It must have been a very big battle.

On the horizon Calvin saw one building that stood out among all of the others. It was extremely tall. At least three times as tall as the other buildings around it. It was thin, and on the top there was a needlelike spire that reached high into the sky. It was a breathtaking sight. He was completely stunned at what he was seeing. One side of the building was severely damaged, like the facade had been scraped off. There were thousands off holes in it. It was amazing that the building was still standing.

The silver robot took them in low and gently landed the shuttle on a large platform near the ground. There was a soft bump as they touched the ground. The engines shut down, and the sound slowly died down and went silent.

Calvin and Jax took off their seatbelts. The robot turned the computers off and got out of his chair. One of the black robots was already up and moving toward the door.

When the door opened, cold air flooded the shuttle. The air smelled very odd. It was a musty, dirty, moldy, old-metal smell all wrapped in one. By the time Calvin got out of his chair and made his way back to the door, all of the robots were outside and were walking across the wide landing platform. The ground was covered with cracks. Calvin and Jax had to run to catch up to the robots, across the platform toward a large gold and purple archway that marked the entrance to the building. The wind was blowing harder out in the open. It felt like it went right through their clothes and down to their bones. Calvin wished he was wearing more than just a light jacket.

The building towered above them. The sides were silver and smooth, and they reflected brightly in the sun. Thin, wispy white clouds floated in the sky above.

“Where are we?” Calvin asked in awe, staring at his surroundings.

“I don't know,” Jax said. “But it looks like this place has been dead for a long time. If only my dad could see this. I wonder what he would say.”

“He’d say what everyone else would say. ‘I told you so. This is what happens when you don’t mind your own business.’”

“You’re right,” Jax said.

As they neared the entrance, Calvin continued to gaze up in the sky. He couldn’t stop looking at all of the damaged buildings. Then a small dark object caught his eye. He almost missed it, but there was no mistaking what it was. It was a spaceship! It looked like the same one that Calvin had seen a few days ago on the bridge of the mother ship. He stopped, as if frozen, and stared at it. The robots continued walking toward the entrance. Then he saw something that truly alarmed him; it was moving, coming toward them!

“Um, guys, what is that?” Calvin asked, pointing at the approaching spaceship. The silver robot looked up. When it saw the spaceship it made a loud, sharp noise.

“I hope it’s friendly,” Jax said. “Please tell me it’s one of yours.”

The robot replied with a short grating noise, and then it rattled something off quickly to the others in a loud, excited voice. All the robots started running. Calvin got left behind very quickly.

“Wait! Slow down! Wait for me!” Calvin shouted.

“Hurry up!” Jax shouted.

The arch leading into the building was very big and ornately decorated. The robots didn’t bother trying to open the door. One of the black robots threw itself into it. The door didn’t stand a chance. The robot flew through the door, disintegrating it into a thousand pieces. A loud boom echoed off the buildings. The other robots made the hole bigger as they rammed their way through. Calvin and Jax followed, carefully climbing over the debris that was left behind. They were enveloped in darkness as they ran down a long hallway. Powerful beams of light came out of the robots’ eyes, lighting up the whole area. Large puffs of dust and dirt were thrown into the air with every footstep. They followed the main hallway as it led them up and down stairs, down long corridors, and through sections that had lots of turns. Calvin was tired and was having a hard time keeping up with Jax and the robots.

The inside of the building was in an advanced state of decay. Stones were cracked, and debris covered the floor. In many places they had to jump over big chunks of rock that had fallen out of the ceiling, and there were a lot of gaping holes in the floor. The robots went over the obstacles in their path effortlessly, like they weren’t there.

Calvin’s legs were getting tired. Finally they entered a large open room that looked like a stadium. Rows of empty seats wrapped all the way around and stretched from the ground level up into the heights above. There were cracks and holes in the roof above, letting in shafts of sunlight. The robots turned their lights off.

They ran down a main aisle to the middle of the stadium. In the center was a circle of padded chairs. They looked like they had been rotting for a very long time. One of the chairs in the circle looked bigger than the others. Not too far away was a set of stairs that went down into the floor, where there was a row of computers. They were covered with a thick layer of dust and small rocks. One of the black robots plugged himself into it and fed power directly into one of the computers.

The silver robot followed and activated an intercom system. The silver robot spoke into it. His voice seemed to echo throughout the entire city. It spoke for a moment and then stopped.

Suddenly, people appeared, sitting in the circle of chairs. They looked like they were human, a mixture of men and women. They were glowing and occasionally flickered slightly. The person in the biggest chair, an older man with a gray beard, spoke. He talked in the same language that the robots had been speaking. Calvin was unable to understand it, but he was beginning to hear the same words repeated over and over. The man spoke for several minutes, barely pausing between sentences. At first his voice sounded flat, as if he were repeating facts, then he changed, increasing in emotion and intense pleading.

Calvin was fascinated as he listened to the man. Who was he? He was obviously the man in charge, but what was going on? Was this a recorded message, or was he speaking live from somewhere else? Was he a hologram? When the man was done speaking, he ended his message with what sounded like an emotional plea. Suddenly the images of all of the people disappeared. They were left in silence again. The robots talked briefly to each other and then indicated it was time to leave. The silver robot pointed his hand at the exit and said something.

The robots began running again, back the way they had come, leaving Calvin and Jax behind.

“We weren’t supposed to do this much running,” Jax said between gasps. Calvin was relieved when the robots stopped suddenly. When he caught up to them he discovered why they had stopped. Calvin stepped out in front to get a better look. He had to strain to see them, but way off down the hallway was a group of shadowy figures. The corridor was dark, lit only by the robots’ eye lights, and there was a lot of dust and dirt floating in the air. It was very hard to see, but judging by the way they were moving, it looked they like were running. They were all carrying long, thin black objects, which could have only been one thing: guns. Suddenly the figures all stopped, leveled their guns, and opened fire on Calvin, Ace and the robots.

Everything happened very quickly. Simultaneously, small doors on all of the robots’ arms opened, and laser guns snapped out. Two robots moved in front and shielded Calvin and Jax from the laser fire. They took several hits but seemed unaffected. They pointed their arms down the hallway and fired several shots at the attackers. The silver robot grabbed Calvin’s arm and pulled him back. The robots turned and ran back toward the stadium. Calvin ran alongside the silver robot. Jax did his best to keep up, but it was clear he was getting tired too. The robots fired their lasers as they ran. Calvin wondered if their shots were hitting anything. He looked back, but he couldn’t see anything.

They ran as fast as they could, barely keeping up with the robots. The sound of laser fire echoed throughout the hallway. Explosions hit the ceiling and walls all around them. Blood-chilling screams and shouts could be heard coming from the darkness. It was a frantic, running firefight all the way back into the stadium.

When they entered the stadium, they all ran in different directions. The silver robot stayed with Calvin and Jax. For a brief moment they were out of sight, and they knew it. But the enemy soldiers were right behind them. Calvin ran as fast as he could across the center of the stadium and up a sloped ramp on the other side. Laser shots lanced through the air above his head. The silver robot took a direct hit on its back while trying to shield Calvin. Suddenly a barrage of laser fire sprayed the area. Calvin fell to the ground and crawled behind a row of seats. A loud explosion shook the floor, and a wave of fire passed over the seats. After it passed, Calvin sat up, half blinded by the flashes and confused by the noise of shooting, screaming, and explosions. Jax was lying on the ground near him, but he wasn’t moving.

“Jax, get up,” Calvin shouted. But he didn’t move. Calvin crawled to Jax. Laser shots flew overhead; Calvin kept his head down. When he finally reached Jax, the first thing he noticed was the large wound in the center of his chest.

“Jax,” Calvin cried. “No!”

The silver robot grabbed Calvin and pulled him up to his feet. A black robot picked Jax up and carried him.

“Wait, be careful with him!” Calvin yelled. “He’s hurt!”

The silver robot shouted at Calvin and pulled him up. Calvin stumbled up the ramp while being dragged along by the robot. Explosions erupted all around them, and entire rows of decaying seats were engulfed in fire. They ran through a small tunnel near the top of the stadium. Calvin wiped tears from his eyes, crushed with panic and fear.

At the end of the hallway they plowed down a flight of stairs. It was dark, and Calvin couldn’t see. The robots’ lights were on, but there was too much dust and dirt choking the air.

“Wait,” Calvin screamed. “I can’t keep up!” The robots were leaving him behind again. After he yelled, one of the black robots turned and positioned itself behind Calvin. The robots pressed on. It seemed to Calvin that they were running faster than before. Calvin fought to breathe, desperately pushing harder to keep up. His legs and back ached badly. Each step took more effort than the one before. Fear and adrenalin were pumping through him, giving him energy he didn’t really have. Just when it seemed they lost their pursuers, the figures would appear suddenly without warning, blasting the air with uncontrolled swarms of laser fire.

“Hey!” Calvin yelled at the black robot carrying Jax. “Is he all right?” The robot didn’t answer. “Jax, can you hear me?” They rounded a corner and entered a huge open room. They were at the top of a steep stairway. There was a row of doors at the bottom. Calvin stopped at the top and looked down. It was a long way down. He felt a moment of dizziness, and he had to steady himself. The robots didn’t stop, but continued down the stairs, leaving him behind again.

Calvin ran down the stairs as fast as he could, although it felt more like he was in a controlled fall. Halfway down, he saw several small objects flying through the air over his head. He knew what they were, but there was nothing he could do.

A dozen eye-searing flashes caused him to flinch. He turned his head away from the light and closed his eyes. That was all it took to throw off his balance and miss a step. Calvin’s feet slid out from under him, and he fell hard, landing on his side. Pain shot all over his body as he tumbled down the stairs. Ear-deafening explosions burst above him, followed by a wave of fire that seemed to suck oxygen out of the air. Calvin continued to tumble down the stairs, unable to stop himself. He screamed. Suddenly a heavy hand clamped onto his leg, and he stopped. The silver robot picked him up and put him back on his feet.

“Thanks.” Calvin said, disoriented. It took him a second to realize which way was up, but the robot didn’t give him the time. It issued a few sharp words and pulled him down the stairs. Calvin tried to ignore the pain as he ran alongside the big robot. Bombs continued to explode all around them. They reached the bottom and ran through the doorway. Calvin had to cover his eyes as they ran out into the sunlight.

Calvin followed the robots on a broad walkway around the building. They ran the entire way around the building to the shuttle. When they arrived, they found it lightly guarded by enemy robots. Calvin got his first good look at them, now that he could see them in daylight. They were dark gray, almost black. Each of them carried a long rifle. The big problem was that now there were enemies both in front and behind them. Calvin was terrified. They were trapped!

Then the most amazing thing happened. The silver robot looked at Calvin, and in Calvin’s language he said, “Wait.”

Three of the black robots moved like lightning and disappeared in a blur toward the shuttle. The silver robot stayed next to Calvin to protect him. The enemy robots were caught off guard. They didn’t last long against the black robots. The battle only lasted a few seconds.

With the enemy soldiers bearing down on them from behind, the silver robot grabbed Calvin by the arm and pulled him toward the shuttle. After Calvin started running, the robot let go of his arm, and the two of them ran across the open space at full speed. The black robots had spread out in a circle to protect Calvin and the other robot as they raced to safety. When they reached the shuttle, they scrambled inside. The black robot carrying Jax gently laid him down on a seat in the back. Calvin sat next to him, gasping for air.

The silver robot wasted no time. The engines roared to life, and the ship shook violently before the black robots had a chance to get in and sit down. The back door was still sliding shut when the ship jumped into the air with a force that pressed Calvin into his chair. Laser shots flew past the ship on all sides.

Calvin checked Jax for a pulse, but he couldn’t feel one.

The trip back to the mother ship was much shorter than the trip to the planet. The silver robot pushed the engines hard. The gauges on the computer panels were flashing red. The engines were screaming loudly, as if crying from the strain. Unlike the flight down, which was very smooth, the trip back was very rough. There was an extreme amount of turbulence as the ship left the atmosphere. Once they were back in space, they headed directly for the mother ship.

The landing was rough. The ship slammed into the floor of the hanger bay with a hard jolt. It was so hard that Calvin thought they had crashed. The impact caused Calvin to tense all of his muscles, and the shockwave hit him hard. The robots were completely unfazed. When Calvin took his hands off of the armrests, he had to flex his fingers because they were completely stiff. The door opened up, and by the time Calvin had taken off his seatbelt and gotten out of the shuttle, the silver robot and all but one of the black robots were already gone. The black robot gently picked Jax up and carried him off of the shuttle. Calvin followed him down the main corridor, and he watched him lay Jax’s lifeless body on a bed in the ship's hospital. Calvin walked to the bridge, and he stood behind the silver robot.

Calvin looked outside and saw another spaceship off in the distance, in orbit over the planet. A small shuttle flying from the surface of the planet entered an open hanger bay.

“Look,” Calvin said, pointing.

The silver robot issued a command in its own language. Suddenly the alien ship entered hyperspace, and it was gone. Calvin stared, trying to process everything that had just happened.

“What am I going to do now?” Calvin asked the silver robot. “My best friend is dead.”

To his shock, the robot looked at him and said, “I’m going to take you home.”