Sasha’s torch cast dancing orange light on the walls of yet another hallway. He’d been descending down one after the other for what felt like hours. At the intersection of each hallway, a collection of symbols with arrows next to them was inlaid upon the walls.

He didn’t recognize any of the symbols but, the arrows were pretty self explanatory. At the first intersection, he stood and stared stared at the odd shapes, trying to make sense of them.

He’d finally decided on the least exotic of the three symbols, the triple line. Each identical corridor slowly sapped his hopes of finding something, anything. One thing was for sure - he was descending. More troubling though was his torch which was nearing its end. Once it was gone, he’d be trapped in a blanket of absolute darkness, forced to feel his way back.

Contemplating turning around, he nearly ran headlong into a clear wall. His torch was wrenched from his hands as he slammed against the unexpected barrier. The burning wood bounced off the ground with a thunk that echoed down the empty halls.

Sasha cursed and rubbed a quickly rising bump on his forehead. Letting the torch burn on its side for the moment, he turned his attention back to the glass and ran his hands across the smooth surface. It was foggy with layers of calcium and dirt accumulated on the other side. Time had taken a toll on the material.

He squinted but, there was no seeing through the mess. Sasha continued to probe the glass for an opening, handle, break, anything. Grunting in frustration, he reached into his scabbard and withdrew his scimitar. Taking a step back, he aimed for what he hoped was the weakest point.

A hard strike against the glass yielded poor results. His sword bounced off with a thud. It sounded more like metal on metal. Sasha dropped the scimitar and rubbed his right hand. In frustration, he kicked the door. Again, it echoed deeply back with a metallic bellow.

After a few more frustrated kicks and strikes, he leaned against the glass to catch his breath. He could risk a precious shot from his pistol, but ammo was life. Every round was a possible life saver. His curiosity wasn’t worth that much.

As he reached down to pick up the torch, something caught his eye. An impression on the wall. It was much smaller than the ones he had seen and only about a meter off the ground. Sasha kneeled and dusted away years of dust with his hand. It filled the air and sent him into a fit of coughing.

Placing his keffiyeh over his face, he moved in to examine the wall. The impression was about thirty centimeters in height and width. Engraved into the black stone was a shape that was very much like a hand but with much longer fingers. Below it, the familiar three line symbol was etched into the surface.

He’d gone this far. Might as well keep going, he thought. Unsure what to do, he placed his hand in the indentation and pushed.

Nothing.

He pushed again, harder this time. When he received the same result, he tried hitting it, holding his hand on it backwards, even shouting “open!” To hell with this place, he thought. It was yet another frustration in a long line of frustrations.

The room was growing dimmer as the torch started to burn out. Suddenly, he realized how much time he’d spent trying to solve this riddle. Now, he was in danger of trapping himself deep underground in absolute darkness.

Grabbing the panel for stability with one hand, he snatched up the torch with the other to bring it closer to the panel. If he couldn’t find some more writing, something he could understand, he would have to make his way back… quickly.

As he brought the torch up for better lighting, suddenly, the flame leapt off the end of the smouldering wood and was absorbed into the black stone of the panel. In an instant, the hall was pitch black. The darkness was nothing like the darkness of night. Here, it was almost palpable. It was as if an invisible blanket had descended on the room and weighted the air down.

For a moment, panic rose in Sasha’s gut. His heart beat faster and his breathing quickened. He’d never considered himself a sufferer of claustrophobia, but his present situation was certainly helping it along.

At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but no, he was sure he’d seen it. A red glow, only for a moment. He felt along the wall until he found the panel again. Starting into the nothingness, he waited for it.

flash

This time, he knew he wasn’t crazy. A light humming slowly filled the air. It sounded to Sasha like a swarm of bees. His mind began to play tricks on him. He imagined bugs crawling all over his body. He tried to will the illusion away but, the crescendoing sound wasn’t helping.

And then - the noise faded as the room became awash in pale white light. He closed his eyes as the light was more than they could handle after so long in the darkness. A voice echoed through the hallway, “Kola et ama’a efna, ma amal.”

A tingling crawled up his spine and into his head. There was a moment of silence before the mysterious voice spoke again, “Welcome to Archive Nine, awakened warrior.

The door, previously a solid panel, split open to the left and right. A gust of air blasted Sasha in the face. It was stale, old, like an abandoned corner of a library or a long deserted house.

Ahead of him appeared a chamber with more ether cubes that he was aware existed. Thousands of them, all blue, all highly illegal in the possession of a civilian, sat stacked neatly behind ten meter high glass panels.

In the center of the room, a black semicircular panel stuck out. On its surface, the same hand shaped indentation glowed red. To its left and right, two more identical indentations lay dormant. There were no buttons or levers otherwise.

Everything about the room was bizarre. From the strange sounds and chirps to the glowing lights, to the perfectly stacked ether cubes. The room was obviously from a time long before him. Sasha had seen and heard enough of Protectorate technology to know, this was not one of their wonders.

He had two choices. Leave, or press his hand into another strange panel and await what came next. Curious to a fault, he spent little time on inner debate. Feigning confidence to imagined onlookers, he stepped forward and thrust his hand into the indentation.

Then, the world he knew disappeared.

***

“Guardians. Hundreds of them. Maybe five minutes out,” Fredrickson spoke dryly as he viewed a glowing green circle on a console in front of him. On it, expanding circles spread outward every few seconds and disappeared at the edge. On one side of the screen, a blob of tiny white dots positioned themselves slightly closer to the center with each sweep.

“What are we looking at?” Henry asked as he leaned in to watch the strange display.

Fredrickson sighed impatiently, “It’s called sonar. It’s a technology well beyond your… uhh, who the hell is this?” His attention had shifted from the display back to the group. Kalandra slipped in closer to Jim, gripping his arm.

“Her name is Kalandra. She… it’s a long story,” Jim replied.

Fredrickson nodded and replied, “One we will certainly have to discuss if we survive this emergency.” Turning to Henry, he pointed to a ladder near the center of the room. “You, clockwork man, I need you in turret number one. You were brought on this mission because you possess a reaction time far superior to any human. Looks like you’re going to get to utilize it.

Henry let out a sarcastic laugh and rapped his knuckles on the large brass ball that his legs attached to, “this big ol thing and ladders don’t mix. Also, my name is Henry.”

“Listen, Henry,” he emphasized his name with annoyance. “You and I both know, clockwork men possess immense strength. I have no doubts that you can hoist yourself up to the gunner seat.”

Henry huffed. Fredrickson’s bad attitude was beginning to grate on his disposition. He turned and rolled to the ladder. With one arm, he launched himself up three meters and scrambled into the gunner seat. In seconds, he was situated and took hold of the two joysticks on either side of the seat.

Jim shook his head, “Wow, he looks like he knows what he’s doing. You’d never guess it was his first time in one of those.”

“That’s because it isn’t,” Fredrickson replied. The tinge of superiority was back in his voice. He obviously relished in knowing things others didn’t. Anticipating Jim’s response, he raised a hand and continued, “If we come out of this, I’ll be happy to explain.”

He turned back to the artificial green circle. The white blob was nearing with each sweep of the sonar. Fredrickson was sweating more than usual. “You see this collection of white dots?” he asked, pointing. Jim nodded as the ambassador continued, “Each one represents a guardian and, there’s a shitstorm of them converging on our ship.”

“What’s a guardian?” Kalandra asked from behind Jim. He’d almost forgotten she was there.

“Technology far beyond that of the Protectorate,” Fredrickson replied. Jim caught a hint of reverence in the ambassador’s voice. So, that’s what it takes to impress one of these Protectorate nutjobs, Jim thought.

The ambassador continued, “They are small machines that infest this passage. Way more advanced than your typical clockwork man. They come from a time before The Fall.”

Jim stared at him blankly for a moment. Finally, he asked, “The Fall? I’ve heard that term before. What is it?”

Instead of his usual snooty response, Fredrickson was aghast, “Are you...really? You know. The…” He stopped and stared at the pair. Both looked back in confusion. “Unbelievable. It’s no wonder you are all living in such a backward society full of - nevermind. You,” he said, pointing at Kalandra. “What is the date?”

“The 21st of Hulas,” she replied timidly.

“And the year?” he asked impatiently.

“AF9602,” she replied.

“There you go!” Fredrickson exclaimed. “AF, After Fall. I mean, don’t they teach you that in school?”

“School wasn’t much of a priority for me as a kid. Finding my next meal was.,” Jim replied coolly.

The unseen enemy was nearly upon them. The return ping was steadily growing louder. “You two need to strap into compression chairs,” Fredrickson commanded, pointing to two vacant chairs near the rear of the bridge. “This ride is about to get bumpy.” To emphasize his point, he scrambled to his own chair and strapped in.

As an awakened of earth, Jim was completely out of his element under the water. The same went for Kalandra and her fire awakened abilities. Both quickly made their way to their respective chairs.

As his strap clicked, the first “bump” shook the ship. His teeth knocked together and his body pushed against the shoulder harnesses.

The guardians, whatever that meant, were here.

***

Damn, I’m good at this, Henry thought as he squeezed the trigger on his right joystick. Twenty meters behind their vessel, a trio of guardians exploded. Each one created a temporary bubble of highly compressed gas that turned the small area around the exploding machines into a superheated pocket of destruction. As the pressure of the water overcame the explosion, the bubble contracted in one more brilliant flash of acrid yellow light.

Of course, it all happened in considerably less than a millisecond. Henry wasn’t sure which disturbed him more; That he knew the anatomy of an underwater explosion or that he operated the advanced tech of the Protectorate with the ease of a long practiced veteran.

Two more guardians came into view of the ship’s brightly glowing lights. The captain, whose name he never did catch, had turned all external lights to maximum illumination to assist the gunners in their deadly work. Sighting between the quad barrels, Henry would have smiled if his metallic face were capable of it.

He squeezed the trigger again. Four barrels unleashed a fury of projectiles at nearly five hundred rounds a minute each. The “sonic bullets” operated much like the underwater explosions he had just witnessed. Each bullet compressed the water around it into a superheated pocket of gas, allowing them to travel nearly as fast as they would through air. Again, he had no idea how he knew these things.

I’m going to have to get some answers out of that pompous ass if we come out of this, he thought.

Straight lines of gas reached out to the guardians from both turrets. The nearest of the squid shaped devices, no more than half a meter long disappeared behind new explosions. A second before the pair exploded, a small pointed metal cylinder, thirty centimeters long, emerged from a hidden hole in its chassis.

The object picked up speed as it arced gracefully toward the aft upper turret. Both gunners tried to shoot it down, but even Henry had his limits. His shots missed by a few centimeters, the other gunner’s by significantly more. Suddenly, the tiny depth charge exploded and rocked him in his seat. He couldn’t see clearly from this distance but, he was sure the gunner in the other turret had either been killed or knocked unconscious. Bubbles escaped near where the man’s seat attached to the hull.

“Breach!” He heard someone shout from below. A new, more foreboding alarm sounded. His fear of water threatened to overcome his senses but, more approaching guardians provided a proper distraction.

He pulled the trigger again, sweeping in the direction of the oncoming machines. The target rich environment earned him a few lucky hits. More brilliant explosions shook the ship. Each flash added to the growing dread of their situation. As another guardian erupted, the millisecond burst of light gave Henry a momentary view of what was coming. Hundreds of the small metal squids popped into view before disappearing into the darkness again.

What was coming would be way more than quad guns, advanced or not, could handle. In seconds, their would be overwhelmed. If one depth charge had caused a breach, a couple hundred would mince them into pieces too small to identify with a magnifying glass. Henry pressed down on a small button below the left trigger.

From a hole near the base of his turret, a metal box emerged. It had no propulsion. No special technology. It simply floated in place. The drag of the water quickly pulled the device behind their speeding submersible and it disappeared into the blackness.

Henry would have held his breath if he had lungs. One second passed, then another. Oh please, please, please, don’t be a dud. It would be my cursed luck to get the one frag mine that-

White light flooded every centimeter of his transparent bubble. The seat beneath him jolted away from the explosion, pushing his considerable weight against the shoulder harnesses. Hundreds of small explosions crackled behind the initial detonation, throwing the ship forward in an even greater velocity.

The other two manned turrets continued to fire into the fray from the underside of the submersible. Henry could feel the ship listing forward, effectively blocking him from whatever was left of the guardian swarm. Then, impact.

***

Jim probably would have vomited if he wasn’t too busy holding on for dear life. The impact against the floor of the lava tube sent everyone against their harnesses, including himself. For a moment, the submersible ground to a halt against the rough surface beneath them.

But, its momentum was too great. With its bow caught, the stern of the ship rose quickly in the rushing water until they were nearly ninety degrees, end over end. Cool water from the slowly leaking topside turret rushed down the hall and instantly soaked him and the other bridge crew.

Alarms blared from the cargo bay. No doubt, the impact had jostled the crates loose. Then, he was upside down. With a groan, the craft continued its roll until - crunch. The submersible lay silently on its roof.

Through it all, the bottom gunners continued to fire. Jim was impressed with their focus in light of the bizarre situation. More vibrations shook the ship as more guardians were extinguished.

Henry’s last chance assault had not done enough to stem the tide of machines. New explosions rocked the flipped ship. More alarms sounded from every corner. “Purge the tanks!” the captain shouted over the bedlam.

One of the crewmembers shuffled up the perescope with both legs wrapped tightly around it. He stretched a soaked arm out to a nearby console. Lifting a protective layer of glass from one of the buttons, the man smashed his hand down.

A loud whine filled the submersible as it shook violently. Jim could feel the floor, which was now the roof, pushing on his legs. They were ascending.

The ship began to right itself, rolling lazily as it rose from the lava tube floor. Henry emerged from the gunner’s couch, soaking wet, and a moment too soon. As he gingerly hoisted himself onto the ceiling, the submersible flipped. His metallic body crashed to the floor. Loud cursing followed.

They were ascending… fast. Through the vast darkness of the water, he couldn’t see the roof of the lava tube yet but, he knew soon, they would be getting up close and personal.

“Hey, you!” Fredrickson called. “You’re about to put those powers of yours to good use.”

More explosions shook the ship but, they were lessening in intensity. The submersible was rising faster than the guardians could give chase. “What do you mean?” Jim shouted back.

Fredrickson pointed up, “There’s about thirty meters of solid rock between the top of this tube and the surface. I need you to clear us a spot or we’re going to shatter on impact. Emphasizing his point, new streams of pressurized water broke through unseen breaches behind one of the ship’s consoles.

The water in their small space was sloshing back and forth and certainly rising. Jim spotted Henry clinging to a nearby console. Jim had spent enough time with his clockwork friend to interpret his emotions. Even though the clockwork man could not display them through facial expressions, Jim could see, he was miserable.

Turning back to Fredrickson, Jim shook his head, “That’s a hundred metric tons of rock. I’ve never moved anywhere near that much.”

Despite the critical situation, Fredrickson smiled. It was his usual arrogant smile. Again, he knew something nobody else knew and, even on the brink of death, it brought him comfort. Nodding toward a nearby black crystal bulkhead, he replied, “Then it’s a good thing we’re sitting inside a giant awakened amplifier.”

Of course! Jim thought. Just like the Phoenix. This thing is one giant black crystal tube. He recalled being introduced to the Phoenix a few months earlier. The fighter, made of high grade black crystal composite and metals, was a natural conductor of awakened power. Alia had put it to good use in the last stand of the Federation.

Then again, we lost that battle, he thought.

The explosions were far enough away that he could chance finding his footing. Unbuckling the harness, he dropped from the raised seat to his feet. His legs instantly folded beneath him. The constant rush of adrenaline had left him weakened and wobbly.

Trying again, he stood and stumbled to a nearby bulkhead. “What the hell do I do?” he called back.

Fredrickson shrugged, “You’re the awakened. I figured you knew.”

Jim sighed. Placing both palms against the cool crystal wall, he closed his eyes and opened his mind to his second sight. The tunnel took form around him. The submersible disappeared, and all that remained were the shining life forces of each crew member.

Below, the guardians continued their upward scramble toward their rising ship but, to Jim, they were voids against a black backdrop. Whatever they were, they weren’t alive. He focused his second sight on the approaching cavern roof. They were coming up on it quickly. If he was going to act, it had to be now.

In his mind, he began to peel layers from the cavern roof. He imagined himself digging at a large patch of sand and tossing its contents aside, much as a child in a sandbox would. Chunks as big as their submersible jostled themselves loose and were tossed sideways into the dark water.

Layer after layer was removed. He did his best to direct the largest pieces away from their vessel. Some of the smaller bits made it through, their loud bangs ringing throughout the ship. The submersible was only a few dozen meters from the ceiling now. They were too close. He couldn’t risk pulling down any more layers without one of those layers colliding with their crippled vessel.

Taking a deep breath, he poured his will into one final upward thrust.

***

The western drylands was baking under the summer sun, as they had been every day for thousands of years. This far west, the only creatures strong enough to survive knew to burrow deep underground to avoid the punishing daylight. The afternoon winds whistled across the barren landscape. Wisps of sand and dust occasionally swirled in and out of existence.

Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate. The unusual sound of water bubbling, unheard in these parts for over one hundred centuries, drowned out the tepid afternoon calm of the far desert.

A small patch of sand began to depress as if collapsing into an unseen hole. The patch was tiny at first, measuring a few centimeters. The hole continued to grow as more sand fell into the abyss.

The sound abruptly stopped. For a moment, the quiet of the desert returned. Then -

A geyser thirty meters wide exploded into the air in a white foamed tower of water and sand. Suddenly, the battered submersible erupted out of the enormous opening. With a hiss, it jolted forward, bow first and beached itself partially on the sand.

***

On the bridge, the warning klaxons were silenced by still staggering crew members. Jim sagged back into his shock chair. Their submersible was damaged, possibly beyond repair. Worse yet, they were hundreds of kilometers from civilization.

Danger, adventure, risk. Jim had had enough of it all. He closed his eyes and thought of the one person who always brought him comfort. At least he could find some peace in knowing she was safe, far away from this mess.