Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 5
Uninhabited Island /Tunnels near Yard Ship
Galactic Standard Time / 1200
Al ran, hearing the screams of rage from Burt and Racha. He hadn’t expected to find the Rail Skimmers at all, that was something that was beyond him. But he had to keep in the now, not let his mind try and figure this out. The evidence that this island was more than it seemed just kept growing, but he had to keep on track.
Blinking to activate his Augmented Reality nanites, he activated the map he had saved. With a single command, he found the nearest Interface Pad. With another command, he quickly made a route that would lead from it to the bridge. It was going to be a hard run, but he had confidence they could make it.
“Keep moving, another three minutes until we can leave this corridor!” Al cried as blasts started to fly over his head. He looked at the blasts and tried to understand, but he came up with nothing. If the bots were programmed like he thought they would have been, then they would have saved their shots.
“YEAH! You want some of this!? Come on!” Burt roared as he fired behind Al.
Al kept moving, not letting his emotions show. This was beyond anything that he had expected when he had acceded the Interface Pod. There was nothing there that even hinted that such as this was even possible! Like all of his faith, he thrived on logic. And the logic here was lacking!
Finally, after another few minutes of running, they made it to the door.
“There it is! Just give me five seconds!” Al said as he slammed his hand onto the Pad.
As soon as he was in the virtual space, he called up all the commands this Pad could access. As the hundred program lines hovered in the air, his eyes flashed over them. He knew that finding what he was after was a long shot, but it was possible.
He finally found the security command, but when he tried to access it, he saw that he didn’t have the proper authority. His eyes widened as he quickly saw just where he had to go to get it, and he swallowed. A map appeared with the distance from the door to the security room. With that room in the opposite direction of the bridge, it was out. He started to wonder if they should go there when he saw another point where he could turn the robots off. Without wasting a moment more, he opened the door and released himself from the virtual space.
He blinked as he looked around as the door opened and grinned. “There it is, go!”
As he ducked under the rising door, he heard Racha and Burt both fire at the advancing robots.
Looking around the corridor he had come out in, he looked around and found another Interface Pad. He dashed to it and slammed his hand down. He stayed in the ‘real world’ as Racha came through at a lunge, rolling away as Burt followed. Without waiting, he sent a command and as the door moved down, he saw blasts fire at it. One of the bolts sped by him, and he almost winced.
The door slammed shut and he took a deep breath, trying to figure out where the robots had come from.
“What was that!?” Burt demanded as he looked at Al, rage in his eyes. “Was that why we split up?”
Al looked at him, his mouth open in shock and he stared at Burt for a moment before he spoke. “NO! I saw nothing that even hinted that those things were there! There was nothing at all! That never happens!”
“Well, why couldn’t you just turn them off?” Racha asked suddenly. For a moment there was just silence and then Racha spoke again. “Isn’t that what those Pads were for? Accessing ship’s systems?”
Al looked at her and took a deep breath. “Yeah, but doing that here is impossible. The system needed a code that I just don’t have. The only way to turn them off is at either the bridge or the security center!”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“So we keep moving to the bridge, that’s good. We still have a plan to handle them, right?” Racha asked as she looked at him.
Al nodded, but then he looked and saw Burt scowling.
“I just had a thought, a bad one. Those things are being controlled by the computer in this wreck, right?” Burt asked as he looked at the door.
Al followed his gaze, a dark and terrible thought slowly coming up from the depths of his mind. “Yeah, so?”
Burt aimed his weapon at the door and swallowed. “So maybe, just maybe. Could those things open the doors?”
Al went still as he looked at Burt. Without a thought, he lunged for the Interface Pad and slammed his hand onto it. In a moment, he was accessing the virtual space, looking around he found the command for opening the door. But as he released his ‘breathe’, he saw something appear and activate the command. Looking up, he saw a virtual construct shaped like a Rail Skimmer. Without a nanosecond, Al sent a virus missile at the construct and he felt a spark of joy as it dissipated. Looking at the menu, he sent two quick commands and smirked as he saw the result. Within a nanosecond, his mind was back in the real world. He pulled back away from the Interface Pad and roared at the others.
“MOVE! They can open the doors! I set up a command to do a complete system check, we have twenty minutes until this door can be opened again! They can’t see us, we’re thirty minutes from the bridge out here! So run!” Al barked.
He took off running, not waiting for a reply from them. All he could do was hope that other robots weren’t hunting the others.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
As Sk’p walked out the door, he scowled as he looked around the passageway. “So now where are we, did you find a map?”
“Yeah, but the Apes will find their way there soon. We need to run and run fast!” Paige said as she walked out of the room.
“OR! Just or! I know this place, found it on my exploring of this wreck!” Callahin said as came out behind Paige. He gestured the other way and looked at the two of them. “So I know how to get back to the opening! We can escape, try and fix what they did to those weapons at the ramp! Lead them into the crossfire and dispose of the bodies afterward!”
“Won’t work. If they were smart enough to get in here, they had to have been smart enough to split up. We need to move fast, get something they won’t be able to follow us on!” Paige said, looking right at Sk’p’s eyes.
Sk’p was about to say something when he saw Paige’s eyes. They were locked on Callahin, and he had to admit that something was disturbing in them.
“The door into the hanger is open on the other side, right? But they might have split their numbers. So we have to move fast, to the door,” Sk’p said with a hard tone.
“What!? But why shouldn’t we go the other way!? I mean those things behind us couldn’t know where we’re going, right? I mean once we close the door!” Callahin exclaimed with anger.
Sk’p just shook his head, looking at him with a somber look. He couldn’t understand just what
“Those Apes might have split up. The best thing to do is find a place where we can fight with our backs protected. So make for that door!” Sk’p said with a scowl.
Paige nodded, putting her hand on the Interface Pad and the door closed. Callahin looked at it and then at her before he nodded.
“Okay, so the door’s closed, but do you think they’ll be smart enough to go both ways!?” Callahin asked with desperation in his voice.
Sk’p only nodded. “Without a doubt. This plant seems to have one setting, horrifying. So let’s just choose the side of the worst thing. That way we’ll be surpassed if it isn’t.”
Sk’p then turned and walked away, not bothering to let Callahin keep talking. A moment later Paige was beside him and Callahin called out.
“Fine, fine! But I want to be able to say I told you so!” Callahin said as Sk’p heard him start to walk. “But just in case you’re not wrong, I’ll be on rearguard duty.”
“You do you Callahin. You do you!” Sk’p said as he withdrew his weapon, looking around for anything that might come at them. “And I’ll keep an eye on anything that comes at us from the front!”
“Smart. You know, that reminds me of a horror movie the ship showed a few weeks back, remember it? The one about the ship that broke down in space?” Paige asked as they walked. “You know, the one that they showed on the big screen for free? In the big theater and still broadcast it all over? My girls and I had a great evening watching it! I loved the plot twist!”
Sk;p looked at her, remembering the event she was talking about. “That movie? Yeah, I remember it a bit better than you. And the twist?”
“Yeah! Who knew that the villain was a member of the Scholar’s Way? Leaving those notes that said the ship was attacked by that alien race?” Paige asked brightly.
Sk’p blinked, looking at her, and then was about to say something when he stopped. His eyes went wide and then he slowly looked over his shoulder at Callahin.
For an instant, Sk’p said nothing. All that could go through his mind was suddenly he saw the true picture. And it was one that he didn’t want to see at all. Suddenly things that had made no sense were crystal clear. It took all of Sk’p’s training not to strike back against Callahin right now! For all he knew, this was all going how Callahin wanted it to go!
“But remember what the hero did, I always thought that was the right thing to do!” Paige said absently.
Sk’p looked at her and laughed good naturally. “Yeah, you're right. But we need to move. We might have something coming at us from behind. So let’s run!”
As Sk’p sped up, he tried and failed to keep track of Callahin behind him. There was no way that he could convince Callahin to lead the way, not when he wanted them to turn. It would take some of the Apes coming at them and even……..
Sk’p almost stumbled but he caught himself and kept going.
“You okay? You don’t need anything?” Paige asked.
Sk’p only looked at her and smiled a bit. He had to tell her what he figured out, and now. She had to know, no matter what happened she had to know. If she was right about Callahin, then she couldn’t know where he wanted to kill them!
“Yeah. I just….” Sk’p said and shook his head. “I just remembered something. I think an old movie used this ship class as a setting a few times. Loved those movies, really did. They just never said what Yard-Ship layout they used.
“OH? What movies?” Paige wondered as she looked right at him. She flashed a hand ‘sign’ for ‘Him’ and Sk’p nodded. “What’s the name of your favorite? Maybe I heard of it?”
“Ever see The Terror of the Acolyte-D ?”Sk’p asked.
Paige looked at him and her eyes widened. She almost whipped her head around, but then she caught herself. “That one?
“Something’s back here!” Callahin called out suddenly.
Sk’p looked back, seeing Callahin pointing his weapon down the corridor. He moved his head up and saw robots moving seeming to skim the floor with their two legs. His eyes widened as he recognized what the roots were, and he aimed and fired. “HOVER SKIMMERS! RUN!”