2. Helping Howl

Arren ran through the corridors when all the lights shut off. The busy crowd froze for two seconds, then became panicked. Arren was pushed every which way by shoulders, arms and legs, as if he were a feather in a whirlwind. Suddenly they did respect his status, by pulling on his sleeve and demanding an explanation.

“We’re turning around,” he said curtly. “Everything shuts down to save fuel and electricity.”

“But … but … we were almost there?”

“Indeed. We were almost dead.”

No time for questions. Father had commanded he turn off AR-BOT completely too. Insane!

“I must,” said AR-BOT in his ear, “insist that I am essential to the functioning of this spaceship.”

“I know that. Father is the one who should hear.”

“I can measure the distance to our pursuer a thousand times a second. And steer the rocket away from danger a thousand times per second. Can your father do that?”

“No.”

He shook himself free. After a lot of effort, he had convinced half the spaceship to wear an AR-GLASS too. Crew members now asked those to take off their glasses and turn them off completely.

“Then I don’t see why you’re in any doubt,” said AR-BOT playfully.

“I’m not doubtful.”

“Your body language matches 84.29% with the average posture of hesitant or doubt—”

“Father forbid it! And that’s that,” he yelled. Fortunately, he was already away from eavesdroppers and back in his workroom.

“But it’s not the most logical choice,” said AR-BOT, confusion in her digital voice. “I hadn’t even told you about how our pursuer tries to confound our rocket by constantly sending electromagnetic signals that—”

Arren closed the doors.

“Hmm. Closing doors with force,” said AR-BOT, “will not protect you from electromagnetic signals.”

Amidst a tangle of cables and buttons stood a large grey cube. Everything fed into this. The cube itself had a cable thick as his arm, which went into to the power socket below the window.

Even the lighting in his room had been turned off, but now the emergency lighting came online. He had to do his work underneath faint yellow light. It wasn’t even enough to differentiate his fingers.

He pushed a new tangle of cables into the cube. Then he replaced the thick cable with an even thicker one. He rotated a round button, which ticked with every movement, until a small green screen displayed “100%”.

“Ah. That’s better,” said AR-BOT.

Arren felt the rocket accelerate, as if he suddenly stood on a treadmill. Despite all their systems to keep the environment within the rocket constant.

Father would thank him, yes. Thanks to AR-BOT’s help they would have a chance of fleeing their pursuer and reaching the safe haven of Nibuwe. He turned off all his other equipment and left the room.

The radio room was crowded. Everyone tried to send out messages from different devices, languages or codes.

None were successful.

Crew members in uniform sat on dozens of rotating chairs, circling the perfectly round room. The floor was flat, but the ceiling was a dome. At the top, an antenna worked hard to beam all their messages into space.

“It’s as if our communication is blocked by the pursuer,” said the captain.

“AR-BOT said something like that—” Arren swallowed his words. “Just before I turned her off, of course.”

He could only think of AR-BOT as a young woman. Even though it was just code. Even though he could’ve given it the voice of an adult, child, man, whatever he wanted.

He’d taken off his AR-GLASS. The earbuds connected to AR-BOT, however, stayed with him, hidden by his hair.

“I can try to break that shield,” she said. Arren nodded his agreement, afraid that whispering would give him away.

“What do we think?” Father stood in the center of the room. All turned around to look at him. “What follows us? What’s the danger?”

“Either it’s capable of hiding planets from us,” said a woman with strained voice, “or it’s capable of destroying entire planets. Whichever of the two it is, it’s a larger threat than humanity ever faced.”

She wiped her sweaty hands on her uniform a million times. She was barely a few years older than Arren, but had managed to attain the rank of Communications Captain, or Comcap.

Why did she get a high-ranking job? And not him? Father was stuck in the past. She was probably … probably a really old soul, or something. Why did he not see that robots were the future? That Arren wanted to take a step forward every day, otherwise they’d just go backward?

Several deep breaths later, the Comcap had calmed herself. “I suggest we involve the interplanetary army.”

“That exists?” asked father. “No time for speculation now, Jannih.”

“Yes,” said Arren. “AR-BOT claimed it exists.”

He should really stop mentioning the robot with every sentence. Especially in front of father. But … but everything he knew was because of that robot!

“Nobody is sure of the origin,” said Jannih. “But more and more human armies are joining. They try to spread soldiers throughout the galaxy, to help as swiftly as possible at the first sign of trouble.”

“They are to be trusted,” said Arren. “They mostly fought those CAJAR terrorists the past years.”

Father circled the room. He tapped people on the shoulder to make them resume work.

“CAJAR. Would they operate this far away from home? As far as I know, we’re the first ever to reach this new solar system.”

“Not true,” whispered AR-BOT in Arren’s ears. “Trevran, looking for the edge of the galaxy, visited too. It’s not unthinkable that the criminals of CAJAR would flee to a place where nobody lives yet.”

“We must assume that it’s CAJAR coming after us,” said Jannih. Her whole body shook by now. “For if it’s something else … if it’s aliens we don’t know or understand …”

“Jannih!”

Father placed his hand on her mouth and took her out of the room. Arren heard them whisper about “no need to sow fear”.

“I’ve made some inquiries, with myself,” said AR-BOT with a voice that sounded like she was smiling. “The interplanetary army is called HERO now. They’re not exactly nearby, but their communication channel is not blocked yet. Shall I sent a message?”

“Yes!” yelled Arren enthusiastically. The entire room looked at him funny. “Yes, good job everyone! Go on! Work it!”

“I’d like to remind you that I can only do this because you finally gave me extra power,” said AR-BOT. “Shall I tell that to dad?”

Arren turned around and whispered. “No! Stay secret. Only talk to me.”

The floor of the radio room shook, suddenly, severe as an earthquake.

All lights turned red; all machines turned on. Messages could not be sent out, but they did arrive, blasting all channels at once.

The recipients translated the messages into an immense roar.

The room filled with the roars of a hundred lions. Everyone put their hands to their ears. Arren stumbled outside, followed by the crew, as the antenna was ripped from the ceiling by the vibrations.

Together they gazed through the corridor windows. After a long patch of emptiness, no planet in sight, they saw something again.

A planet that probably used to be enormous. Now it was just a small rock with big holes.