fountain had a large rusted gong suspended over it by a long wire. There was a door in each corner of the triangle. Above them were three other levels. Balconies looked out over the room from each level. The walls were richly decorated and looked like they were made out of marble.
“Which way should we go?” Astra asked.
“Let’s try this one,” Calvin said, walking to one of the doors. The empty marble halls made each footstep echo loudly. Even their voices seemed amplified. Calvin opened the door and walked through. They found a staircase with stairs leading up and down.
“If you were going to hide a super-secret piece of technology that you didn’t want anyone in the universe to find, where would you hide it?” Calvin asked.
Astra thought about it. “Well, I would put it as far away from the main entrance as possible. But would that be upstairs or downstairs?”
“Let’s try downstairs first,” Calvin suggested.
“Ok. Lead the way.”
Calvin went first. The steps were wide and easy to walk down. Small black pipes snaked up and down the walls. They passed several floors before they reached a metal door at the bottom. Calvin opened it excitedly, expecting to find a laboratory with the next segment in it. Instead, there was a hallway leading off in two directions. They spent the next two hours exploring the bottom floors. It was obvious that this was a base. It might have been a research base or a military station, but whatever it was, it had everything needed to support the living needs of a group of people. They found crew quarters, a mess hall, a kitchen, recreation facilities, a power generator, and an empty shuttle bay.
“I’ve been thinking,” Calvin said, as they climbed back up the stairs. “This base must have been on the surface once, don’t you think?”
“Why do you say that?” Astra asked.
“Well, the shuttle bay doors are blocked. Nothing can get in or out.”
“Maybe they buried it under the ice to hide it.”
Finally, after searching the base for hours, they had gone through every level except one: the top floor. Calvin and Astra were getting discouraged. It was looking like the only thing they would find was disappointment. At the top of the stairs they found two doors. When Calvin opened the door on the right, they both breathed a sigh of relief. They had finally found the laboratory.
It was a small room with workstations and tables. Small pieces of broken equipment lay all over the tables and floor. Calvin had been hoping that this vault would be similar to the vault they found on Arlandia, and he wasn’t disappointed. In the back of the room was another door. It was cracked open.
Through the next door they found a small square room. The only thing in it was a single table, with a strange-looking object sitting on top. It was round on the front, square on the back, and flat on top. There were several round holes on the sides and several round rods protruding from it. Calvin and Astra approached it slowly, almost reverently.
“It’s the second segment,” Astra whispered. They both stood in front of it for several moments.
“All things considered,” Calvin said. “That was easy.”
Astra looked at him with an odd expression.
“You thought it would be harder?” Astra asked. “The location of these vaults is secret, and we are flying around in an invisible spaceship. I don’t think the Goremog know what we are trying to do. Really, what can happen to us?”
“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “But I’ve noticed that the Goremog have constantly been one step behind me, like they are following me. It could just be my imagination, or a coincidence.”
Astra thought about that. “Yes, but Aleria’s Hope didn’t have a cloaking device, and it is a huge ship. The Goremog were obviously able to track it very easily. It leaves a really big hyperspace wake.”
“I suppose,” Calvin said, unconvinced. “I hope you’re right.”
Astra gave a crooked smile. “Me too.”
“Do you want to look around the lab and see if there is anything else we should take with us?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” she said.
They searched the lab—every desk, every table, and every corner. By the end of the search, they had found a handful of computer storage devices and two manuals.
“Let’s get this stuff back up to the surface.”
“Ok,” Calvin agreed. He took his backpack off and pulled out four small white handles. He handed two to Astra, and they attached the handles to