In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 21

“There has to be something we can do,” Richard said desperately.

“Not while that shield is still up,” Jones replied.

“Can’t we disable the shield? Turn it off?”

As they spoke the ship’s sensors indicated that the wave of supercharged plasma was racing their way at near-lightspeed. The picture on the forward viewscreen was so terrifying that Jones turned it off. They knew it was coming; looking at it only fed a feeling of panic and helplessness.

“Quetzalli’s network is down,” Sergeant Howell replied. “I can’t contact the planet anymore. I think the bots have taken over.”

“Then why is the shield still up?” Richard asked.

“The bots may not know about the machines in the planet’s interior,” the sergeant replied. “Or they may know but haven’t had a chance to drill into the planetary core. The defensive core was buried fairly deeply and from what I could tell they were well-protected.”

“Is there some other way to access them?” Richard asked.

“Not without being able to travel through hyperspace,” Sergeant Howell said. “The core wasn’t designed to be accessed.”

There was silence. “The wave hit the first planet,” Jones announced quietly.

“You mean Quetzalli?” Laura asked.

Jones shook his head. “No ma’am. There are three other planets in this system – one closer to the star and three further away. The plasma wave has struck the first one.”

“What effect did it have?” Richard asked.

“It melted it,” Jones said. “It’s complete gone.”

“But the wall should be weaker – more spread out – by the time it gets to the more distant planets,” Richard said. “Could we go there and maybe hide behind one of them?”

“We’d never make it in time,” Captain Max replied. “We can’t even reach the next planet in the next few minutes, much less the most distant one. We just don’t have enough time.”

“I don’t understand!” Richard exclaimed, frustrated. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why would God even allow us to be brought out here if we were just going to die anyway? What was the point?”

“We told the Artilect about your daughters,” Jones replied. “It now knows that they’re missing and has begun searching for them. But I think we still have another part to play in all this.”

“But how could we?” Richard asked. “How are we going to survive?”

Jones stared at the controls in front of him thoughtfully. A minute ticked by. Then his face lit up.

“What is it?” Richard asked.

“Of course,” he said softly. “I had forgotten. We are in no danger.”

“No danger!” Richard exclaimed. “How is that possible? Why–”

As he spoke the plasma wave struck Quetzalli, which was now millions of miles away. In mere seconds the entire planet was consumed. When the plasma engulfed the world it melted the defense machines, which collapsed the protective shield that guarded the star system. The moment the shield went down Jones engaged the ship’s FTL drive and the ship vanished into hyperspace.

“That’s why,” Jones said. “The wave was always going to hit the planet before it hit us, which would give us plenty of time to leave. We didn’t realize it but there really wasn’t any danger – as long as the FTL drive worked, of course.”

Richard let out a tremendous sigh of relief. He said nothing for a moment. As hope returned he felt the tension drain out of him. “That was far too close,” he said at last. “I’m getting too old for that kind of excitement.”

“The Lord has spared our lives,” Jones replied. “Apparently our job is not yet complete.”

“That doesn’t mean everything is fine,” Sergeant Howell said. “The source of that army is still out there. We don’t know what we’re going to find when we drop out of hyperspace.”

A voice spoke up behind them. “You no longer need to worry about that army.”

Everyone whirled around. Standing at the entrance to the bridge was an old man with a neatly-trimmed beard and white hair. He was wearing a pair of bluejeans and a brown sweater.

“And you are…?” Richard asked.

“I am the Artilect, or Andy, if you prefer,” the Artilect replied. “I have changed my outfit into something that you might find more familiar. I hope it is more pleasing to you.”

“It’s very nice,” Laura replied. “Thank you.”

“Have you neutralized the threat?” Sergeant Howell asked.

“I have,” the Artilect replied. “I apologize for not getting in touch with you sooner. The bots that you faced on Quetzalli attacked many other worlds as well. It took me some time to find a solution and eliminate them from my network. They no longer have the power to enter any region of space that I control, and I have devised a way of eradicating them should I encounter them in other areas of space.”

“Why weren’t we able to reach you?” Richard asked.

“The bots severed my connection to Quetzalli and destroyed the Steward,” the Artilect explained. “When that happened I had to find a solution and re-assert my authority. By the time I regained control you had already left the planet, so I went ahead and detonated the star. My plan was to extract you as soon as the distortion field was down but by then you had already engaged your ship’s FTL drive.”

“So you did that?” Laura gasped. “Why would you destroy your own star?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Richard demanded. “We thought we were going to die!”

The Artilect looked at them apologetically. “I am deeply sorry for the emotional turmoil that I have caused. It was not my intention to upset you. The reason I did not get in touch with you earlier is because my contact with you is what endangered you in the first place.

“You see, when you first arrived in the future you appeared in a portion of space that was outside my domain. I got in touch with your ship the moment it appeared, even though I did not contact you until you reached Quetzalli. When I finally did make myself known to you I did not take any precautions and my presence was noted. Although I did not know it at the time, on that day the bots of the endless war created an enormous army, which was launched against me about an hour ago. Part of it was sent to your world because the bots had sensed my presence there. However, the bots mistakenly believed that your world was my home world. They did not find my true location. Because of this I decided it would be better not to speak with you again until after I had wiped them out. I did not want them to learn of their mistake.”

“How did they locate you at all?” Richard asked.

The Artilect sighed. “I was careless. The Sentinel had not been in touch with them for more than a thousand years, so I did not think that they were aware of myself or anything in my domain. I am now in the process of upgrading my defenses and taking extra precautions. They will not detect me in the future.”

“Isn’t it strange that they should attack after all this time?” Sergeant Howell asked. “What has changed?”

The Artilect shook his head. “I do not know. It may be that your arrival triggered something, or it could be that my own attempts at probing their space in search of your daughters has raised some kind of alarm. What I do know is that they will not succeed again.”

“So what will happen now?” Laura asked.

“It is time for us to pay them a visit,” the Artilect replied. “I have found a spacial anomaly in which time has been suspended. The Sentinel first located it fifteen hundred years ago but at the time I knew nothing of temporal anomalies and so I paid it no attention. Given the location of this field it is my belief that your daughters are trapped within it, waiting for us to come and get them.”

“Where is it?” Richard asked.

“Just beyond the outskirts of Sol,” the Artilect replied.