The Ruins of Arlandia

Chapter Seven: The Gold Dome



Calvin awoke the next morning and climbed out of bed. He was anxious to get back out, determined to find a way to contact New Arlandia. Just like the day before, when he got out of the shower he found clean clothes and breakfast waiting for him. He had to admit that even though it was difficult to be away from his family and not know how or if he was going to get home, he was living very comfortably, and all his needs were being met. This was the life. However, there were two questions nagging him. Where were the robots taking them, and what were they going to do with them when they got there? He consoled himself with the thought that if they planned on harming them, they would have done it already, and if they were destined for a prison cell they would be in one now and not be waited on hand and foot. Calvin and Jax ate breakfast together.

“It looks like we’re free to go wherever we want on the ship,” Jax said.

“They don’t seem to be very worried about what we’re doing,” Calvin said. “At least we have that going for us.”

“Do you really think we’re going to find a way to contact Space Command?” Jax asked. “Because I’m having serious doubts. Even if we could find a terminal, we don’t know how to use their computers. I bet there’s a dozen communications terminals on the bridge, but we can’t ask the robots to help us, because they can’t understand us.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” Calvin said. “We might have to start playing with the computers on the bridge. Between the two of us we might figure them out.”

“I wonder how long the robots will let us do that.”

“We’ll never know until we try.”

“Ok,” Jax said. “But if we can’t, then what?”

“Jax, I have no idea. I still want to find the gold dome. I have a feeling there’s something important in it.”

“Let’s do that next then. If I know you, you won’t think about anything else until we get into it. I’m curious myself.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Then let’s get going,” Jax said. “If we get lost again we’re going to need a lot of time.”

“Time is something we have a lot of,” Calvin said.

They finished eating, and they walked upstairs to the bridge. Calvin was relieved when they walked around the bridge and the robots didn’t seem to care.

When the door closed, Jax said, “And now we know for sure. They don’t care what we’re doing.”

They took the elevator directly to the city and searched for the gold dome.

“It feels really good to be in the city again,” Calvin said as they walked down the walkway toward the lake. “It feels like we’re on an alien planet, not on a spaceship.”

“We’re in an alien city,” Jax said. “Have you seen the size of this ship? We might as well be on an alien planet.”

They followed the sidewalk for thirty minutes to the first fountain. There, they found another path leading out of it. They followed that to the side of a wide street.

“It’s nice down here, even if we’re the only ones.”

“Not quite,” Jax said pointing. As they crossed a street, they saw four blue robots cleaning the sidewalks. So that was why the city was so clean.

Calvin and Jax followed a sidewalk for about an hour, until they passed under an elevated rail track.

“Finally,” Jax said. It was at least fifty feet above them and passed between buildings on both sides of the street.

“Excellent, now we just need to follow it. Hopefully we can find a train station.”

“It’ll be better than walking.” There was a path under the tracks that Calvin and Jax followed. It was a very pleasant path, like walking through a garden full of plants, flowers, small fountains, and ponds. They followed the trail for a few blocks and found what they were looking for. Hidden in between two buildings and under several large trees was a platform. Calvin led the way up the stairs to the top.

“Oh, yeah!” Calvin shouted when they reached the top. “What were the chances?” Sitting at the station was a train. It was white with bright red stripes, and it had four cars; the front and back were bullet shaped. They walked to the front of the train, and the door opened automatically. Jax seemed reluctant to go in, but Calvin led the way. They walked past rows of leather seats to the front. Calvin sat down at the controls. Jax sat right behind him. The controls were simple. A large lever sat in the middle of a console. Even though he couldn’t read the words on the console, it seemed simple enough. Calvin didn’t honestly expect anything to happen when he pushed the lever forward gently. He was extremely happy when all of the doors closed and the train moved forward.

Calvin and Jax both shouted. Calvin pushed the throttle a little more, and the train surged forward. It was a very smooth ride between the buildings and over the tops of the trees. Every ten blocks the train glided through a station. When the train turned a corner, a large building loomed in front of them, and it had a golden dome on top. At the next station, Calvin brought the train to a stop, and the doors opened. Across the station, on another set of tracks, was a second train. Its doors were open, and three orange robots were working inside one of the cars. It looked like they were performing maintenance.

“Hey, look at that, orange robots,” Jax pointed out. “That must be the maintenance class.”

“I wonder how many other classes there are,” Calvin said.

Tall trees surrounded the station. Thick branches hung over rows of benches, where passengers could sit and wait. A faint scent of lilac filled the air. Calvin and Jax took the stairs down to the street. It was a short walk to the dome, which sparkled beautifully in the simulated sunlight. They walked up the stairs and entered through two doors.

Shafts of light streamed through windows, down on rows and rows of bookshelves.

“It looks like a library,” Calvin said, disappointed.

“I really don’t know what you expected to find in here. Did you think we were going to find a communications center, with signs on the wall saying, ‘Come this way if you want to call home?’”

“Yeah, I guess I was,” Calvin said. He shrugged and walked toward the nearest rack of books.

“Wait,” Jax said. “Where are you going?”

“After everything it took to find this place, I want to look around.”

Calvin wandered around, taking down books at random and looking in them. The books were all in an alien language. In the center of the room was a large glass elevator that looked like a big bubble. Calvin took it to several floors, but the only thing he found were books and more books. He even went to the top floor. There was nothing there except more books.

Sad and disappointed, Calvin went back to the main level, near the entrance.

“You were right,” Calvin said. “There’s nothing here.”

“I found some interesting art,” Jax said. “Come take a look.”

Jax led Calvin to the back, where there was a row of paintings hanging on a wall. They all looked fairly ordinary, except for the first one. It was very dark. A large dark face filled most of the picture.

“That looks scary,” Calvin said.

“Do you think that’s the Dark Terror?”

“I don’t know. It could be.” They stared at it for several minutes, unable to look away.

It was hard to see details, because everything in the painting was dark, but after staring at it for a while Calvin noticed the shape of a mountain behind the man.

“Doesn’t it look like his eyes are real?” Jax said.

Calvin turned away and shivered. “A little too real,” he said, and walked away. “Let’s get out of here.”

They took the train the rest of the way around the city until they reached their starting point. As soon as they got back to their rooms, the robots brought them dinner. Tired, and a little depressed, Calvin said goodnight to Jax, went back to his own room, and went to bed.