Shackleton's Folly (The Lost Wonder Book 1) (42 page)

High up the Maintenance Citadel structure, the Atlantean Security Force carriers dusted off from the platform. They flew out from the Citadel and into a descent trajectory, setting down at the same spot the Koty had just departed from moments before. One of the carriers hit the field harder than they had intended but suffered only minor damage.

The battleship
Illia
orbited the Maintenance Citadel and was ready to retrieve her Captain and the operationally deployed APCs. The
Illia
turned her open landing bays toward the APCs for retrieval. The four craft landed without further incident as the blast doors of the landing bay lowered again behind them, sealing up the battleship.

Captain K’Dhoplon exited the APC, his foot landing on the hangar bay deck as he contacted the bridge. “The Gods favor the Koty. The Gods favor the One.”

Captain K’Dhoplon barked orders as he made his way to the lift. He was in constant contact with the bridge during his passage there. It was inconceivable that the Koty Union could lose a prize as great as this station. Captain K’Dhoplon considered a number of options, but the best thing he could do was to launch into space and keep a safe distance from any debris that might come their way. The
Illia
’s insignificant size relative to the station made it a distinct possibility that they would be able to maneuver out of the way of these spinning menaces.

Captain K’Dhoplon needed to report in, and he knew it, but there was little chance they would do so until they left this nebula. The volume and density of the nebula had made it impossible for them to contact the home world, especially from inside the sphere. He would receive great honors from The One for discovering this station. The Koty Union’s manifest destiny was powered by the resources and technologies they captured in their expansion. If they failed to make this station theirs and it fell into enemy’s hands, it could be the beginning of the end for the Koty Union.

Even if it were in a thousand pieces, they would recover all the technology available. If sentient beings were still a problem after the station’s separation, they would be neutralized. This place was Koty Union territory. Captain K’Dhoplon arrived at the bridge. He boomed out orders, and the
Illia
turned from the Citadel, its prow toward the single star above; the rest of the blast doors closed as it disappeared into the sky.

*

Alec had Wolfgang Gray across his shoulders as he crossed the building’s threshold. Electra supported a walking-wounded wounded female Atlantean Security Force member she had found during their evacuation. Dancer supported three more of the walking wounded as he exited the Citadel. He sent the recall signal to his minions. They began to appear almost immediately and left with the group.

Commander Astraeus brought up the rear with his burden and second in command. They headed down the flights of stairs at best speed. The two Atlantean Security Force carriers awaited them at the bottom of the stairs; everyone but the pilots left their stations and came up the steps to help the wounded.

Dancer carried heavier equipment over his back and managed to keep his three wounded moving toward the
Quest
. His minions flew and ran ahead, entering the
Quest
as fast as their little tracks, wheels, and propellers could take them.

Alec assessed the situation quickly as the crews from the Atlantean Security Force carriers came toward them. “Get to your ships! We will take these wounded with us.” Alec and his group headed directly to the
Quest
, which was still on the landing pad. The airlock opened to their approach as they reached the ship.

Dancer and his charges arrived and entered the
Quest
first, as they were the most mobile of the group. Dancer took them into the galley and made them as comfortable as he could before he pulled out a medkit from a nearby storage locker.

The woman and Electra were at the airlock when the woman collapsed. “Dancer, I need you!” called Electra into the ship. Dancer appeared with such speed it was almost instantaneous. He gently lifted the woman, who sagged in his arms and took her into the
Quest
, with Electra following him. Alec was the last to step into the airlock, closing it tight. He walked down the passageway and was almost to the Medical Bay when the ground pitched underfoot and knocked everyone standing to the floor. Alec fell to his knees as he almost dropped Gray from his shoulders.

Dancer came from the galley and said, “When there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”

Electra rushed forward and pushed Dancer aside as she took hold of his arm to steady him. She looked hesitantly from Dancer and his strange remark to Alec. Alec mustered up his strength; he stood up straight and lifted Wolfgang again, high on his shoulders.

Electra came close, took his hand, and held it tightly, “Are we going to make it?”

Alec looked back into her big, beautiful eyes and said, “I am making this up as we go, Electra. I know what we need to do, and that’s getting off this garden.” He lit up with a big smile. “Come on — let’s get out of here.” Alec had gotten to the Medical Bay when a shriek came from the wounded woman Dancer was within a nearby stateroom. Dancer took a medscanner to her as Alec entered the Medical Bay and laid Wolfgang out on the bed. The scanners went to work immediately, and, just as quickly, alerts lit up with a myriad problems and systems that were failing. Some of the organ failures were beyond the capacity of the medical system.

“Not looking so good, am I?” asked Wolfgang.

Dancer rushed in. “The woman is bleeding out internally from a puncture to her abdomen.”

“Is she young and pretty?” asked Wolfgang wistfully.

Dancer considered the question and the man asking it before he responded solemnly, “Very pretty — and I would say she was young.” Dancer caught Alec’s eye. Alec slightly shook his head.

Wolfgang Gray said, “Bring her in here. She can make better use of this than I.”

Alec put his hand on Wolfgang’s shoulder. “Is this what you want?”

“What a stupid thing to ask. Yes, get the girl in here. You have some place I can rest and wait my turn?”

“We have a nice cabin just a short distance from here,” replied Alec.

“Well, what are you waiting for? You have a ship to pilot, right?” said Wolfgang, his voice labored.

Alec nodded to Electra and Dancer and then left. Electra gave him a shoulder to hold onto and helped Wolfgang sit up and put his feet on the floor. Dancer had gone to retrieve the young woman. Wolfgang had managed to stand and passed through the doorway just as Dancer was carrying the young woman into the Medical Bay. Dancer laid her out gently on the medbed as Wolfgang watched. Dancer started the system. Wolfgang turned to Electra. “I want you to do something for me.”

*

Alec sat in the pilot’s seat to key in commands, quickly going through an abbreviated checklist for takeoff. He flipped an intercom switch. “Brace yourselves — this might be a rough ride.” He leaned over and rubbed the panel on the wall. “Dad, let’s take her back to her people.”

*

The battleship
Illia
made its way back to the debris field between shell and star. The fighters on patrol were kept close for quicker recall and recovery. Asteroids in the field were no longer in a stable orbital disk as they had been. The disruption of the outer shell had loosened its hold on them. The
Illia
had to readjust its course to allow for the rocks’ unpredictability. Cracks in the shell were easily discernible as bands of energy pulsed along gaps. The energy bonding the joints flickered and gave way. Gaps widened as titanic pieces of the outer shell came apart. The gardens had nothing to keep them together, and, like the seed head of a dandelion in a soft wind, they came apart in an expanding cloud of glistening jewels. The outward expansion of the gardens had been slowed by the interaction of the pieces. The garden’s trajectory was nearly linear — it was as if the sphere were enlarging in a calculated manner.

Captain K’Dhoplon sat in his command chair and watched the gardens come apart at the seams on the
Illia
’s main screen. The One would forgive him. It would have been a tribute to her magnificence to have the station whole, but their mighty ship was of such insignificant size in comparison to the station, the battleship could have stopped nothing. He would have to settle for an offering to the One — technology recovery from the isolated components rather than the station as a complete living space under the dominion of the Koty. The One usually had a great understanding of such matters.

Captain K’Dhoplon inquired, “What is the status of the individual environments?”

“Sir, readings are indeterminate. The individual pieces have come apart, but they all have force field enclosures keeping their environments intact.” He continued, “The isolated artificial-gravity systems within each garden would make survival for the inhabitants possible,” came the reply from the science officer.

The
Illia
experienced a collision with one of the many asteroids in the disk. The helmsman cried out, “Sir, the debris field is becoming unstable. Recommend repositioning the
Illia
.”

Captain K’Dhoplon grimaced. “Make it so, but do not let that happen again.” He watched as the helmsman took the
Illia
out of the plane of the asteroid field.

The
Illia
’s engines fired up and took the ship to a new position above and outside the edge of the asteroid field from the star. Captain K’Dhoplon and the bridge crew continued their duties. He reminded his helmsman, “Keep your distance. We’ll be safe here as the pieces are ejected from the sphere.”

The communications officer said, “Captain, the
Saleen
would like to rendezvous with us as soon as possible.”

“Tell them to meet us here as quickly as they can make it,” replied Captain K’Dhoplon.

*

The command deck was empty but for Alec as the
Quest
rose from the Maintenance Citadel. The
Quest
quickly gained the altitude it needed to put the garden behind it. Dancer came in and took his copilot’s chair. He brought out the maintenance screen. It displayed the gardens expanding, the 1070 pieces no longer connected with each other. They could visually see out the huge gaps in the external shell, but it was all relative.

Alec flipped the
Quest
over and put on the sub-light to near full power, taking the ship across the open gulf now growing fast between the gardens. The
Quest
dashed across more than 250,000 kilometers of open space where there once had been none. Dancer managed the sensors and found the Koty battleship
Illia
parked near the asteroid field and a second Koty battleship outside the sphere making toward the interior through the gaps opening up between the gardens. Optically, to any normal life form, the gaps looked empty but Dancer could see beyond the visible spectrum. The walls of the gardens were alive with inconceivable energies. “Alec, make it faster. We have to get inside a garden now. There’s something happening within the garden walls!”

*

Electra used her field-medic training to make Wolfgang as comfortable as possible. The internal damage from the energy weapons was extensive. The only reason he was still alive was because of the self-cauterizing nature of the energy blast.

“You are really from Atlantis?” asked Wolfgang.

“Asked and answered. Yes, my people are descendants of the original Atlanteans,” she replied.

Wolfgang held up a datapad with the picture of the girl in the medbed. He zoomed in the magnification and touched her face on the datapad with his fingertips. “Is the girl going to make it?” he asked. He winced as he tried to make himself comfortable.

“The medbed stopped her internal bleeding and has her stabilized.”

“Good.” He grimaced as he reached out and took Electra’s hand. “‘Shackleton’s folly’ is no more. You are living proof of that. I wish I could have seen it with my own eyes.” He closed his eyes and squeezed her hand as a wave of painful awareness passed over him.

“You know I can get you something for the pain.”

“Yes, if you would. It will be over for me very soon.” A seizure washed over him. Electra held him down to keep him from falling to the floor.

“I want to speak to Alec,” came the contorted voice from Wolfgang.

It was first just a single, small light on the very first storage rack near the bottom of the first giant robot. Its systems quickly cycled up to a point where the robot awakened, receiving orders. The giant stepped forward out of the rack, turned, and went to its designated position for maintenance grouping. As it left the storage rack, the robot above it lowered into the position the first robot had held. Awake, it received its orders and stepped forward to proceed to the grouping. This process of awakening, programming, and marching onto the marshalling field to take their designated position spread like a network virus across hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of giant robots.

The marshalling field packed quickly. Then the first maintenance teams stepped onto large ovals embedded in the ground. The ovals lit up, and the robots lifted off the ground and headed skyward to their assignment out in the sphere. The oval launching the groupings of robots together into space quickly became a stream, as robots marched forward in an orderly fashion, raising up into the sky in what looked like a school of fish flowing up out of the garden and into space, and breaking up their streaming to locations throughout the gardens.

A rumbling rolled ahead of a dark cloud in the distance. A second marshaling field had started. The cloud was made up of row after row of the gigantic maintenance robots that had also left the maintenance center. Soon, other launching points were busily launching their robotic groups.

*

Alec had the
Quest
over the Atlantean garden and flew low inside the force field. “Alec, he is asking for you,” came the soft voice behind them. Alec saw in Electra’s face the seriousness of the situation.