12 THE DARK DORKS
“TROY!” cried Holloway.
Troy closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. He tried to get a feel of his immediate surroundings.
He felt the fresh air and the coolness of the air surrounding him. He felt the cold floor on which he lay. He heard Emilie, Holloway and Kru shouting his name out loud. He felt their despair and pain.
He felt the immediate death waiting to pounce on him. At that instant, something pierced his mind and his body almost simultaneously. He shot up from the ground and struck at the air above him. He hit something very solid. With all his might, he punched at it again and pushed at it. He was hit back again on the face. Troy moved his arms around the floor for support when he felt two pole-like structures on the ground.
Legs….
With one final kick, Troy kicked mightily at what he thought to be legs and made for the elevator. He jumped onto the elevator and Kru closed the doors immediately.
“I bought us ten seconds of uninterrupted service!” said Kru.
“Will we make it within that?” asked Troy, sitting on the elevator floor.
“Yeah! We will!” said Kru.
“Finally!” said Troy, feeling a bit relieved.
The elevator opened onto their level, where Rutgers was waiting for them along with a huge force of droids and security personnel.
“WHERE IN THE BLOODY GALAXY WERE YOU ALL?” hollered Rutgers.
“Can we speak in our cabin?” asked Troy. Rutgers noticed the serious look on his face and nodded.
Once they had entered Troy’s cabin, everyone took their seats. Troy started explaining everything that had happened to Rutgers.
“Good Lord!” exclaimed Rutgers, as he heard all of it.
“Yes!” agreed Troy.
“Things have got more serious,” said Rutgers. “Seventeen members of the Senate are dead!”
“WHAT?” chorused Kru and Holloway together, in horror.
“All of them dead in precisely the same way as Norman, with their aortas split open. That’s why we sounded the red alert,” Rutgers explained, “And that’s why I came for you, after you were all reported missing from your cabins.”
“We don’t know who’s behind this!” said Kru.
“I think we all know whom to point hands at!” said Troy.
“What do you mean, Troy?” asked Rutgers.
“Someone from the aliens has infiltrated the Orion Swift,” stated Troy.
“That’s everyone in the ship are thinking too!” said Rutgers despondently. “They are destroying us from the inside!”
“Whatever it is, they must be stopped!” said Troy, punching his fists together.
“I don’t think sensing dark matter flux is going to be of any use here,” said Kru.
“Why?” asked Troy, looking at him.
“Because while you were fighting him on the level 165, I checked dark matter flux gradient out of doubt and it showed minimal flux difference as one would expect randomly.”
“So what does that suggest?” asked Holloway.
“It means whoever is here, assuming that we’re right, he or she’s too light in weight,” said Kru.
“These alien guys, they are more than geniuses, they are the definition.”
Troy hung his head in thought.
“I don’t think it’s an alien,” said Troy, after a short while.
“We’ve just been arguing for nearly half an hour that it is one!” said Kru.
“I mean it could be a robot!” said Troy. “When I had brawled with it on level 165, I felt more metal and hard material than anything organic.”
“It doesn’t settle anything!” said Kru. “We know nothing of the aliens. After all they could turn out to be a bunch of badass slugs!”
“Kru’s right!” said Rutgers. “You guys be safe in your cabins! I’ll post strong security outside! I’ll meet you later!”
“How’s Lena?” asked Kru, as Rutgers got up from the comfy chair.
“She’s safe and sound with Aunt Mia,” said Rutgers as he patted Kru on his head and went out the door.
“Invisible assassin aboard the Orion Swift, this is getting too unfair!” said Holloway, hugging Troy’s pillow.
“Invisible alien assassin robot with tech, capable of all tricks in the bloody universe,” muttered Troy to himself.
“I think we should give these alien bastards a name,” said Kru. “It’s kind of getting stupid calling them aliens, in that view, we all are aliens to each other, except Holloway and me, of course!”
“We’ll call them Innuendo!” suggested Holloway.
“That sounds more like a third class secret society than a name for these bastards!” said Kru, who was thrashed with the pillow that Holloway had been hugging soon after he had said that.
“Tsokay! Tsokay!” said Kru. “Just give them a name that kind of reflects their nature and also humiliates them in some way!”
“Dark Dorks,” muttered Troy, standing against the wall.
“What did you say?” asked Kru.
“Dark Dorks,” said Troy loudly.
“That’s perfect!” said Holloway.
“Dark Dorks, it is!” said Kru, “Couldn’t have come up with a better name myself!”
“Now back to serious business!” said Troy, walking away from the wall. “How do we bring down the dark dork in our ship?”
“Well the first step is to locate him,” said Holloway. “But our dark matter flux technique isn’t gonna work here!”
“So how else do we locate the DD?” asked Kru, walking around in the room.
“I don’t think it is a living thing,” said Emilie.
“We’ve already had that conversation before,” said Holloway.
“Emilie, you can see through their dark matter tech, right? After all you showed me,” said Troy, looking at Emilie, who looked emotionless. “It’s odd that you couldn’t see through today, unless-”
Troy’s eyes widened as he realized the truth, “Of course!” he whispered. “EVERYBODY TO THE DOOR!” he cried as Emilie started melting away to give rise to a six foot black robot and Sniffles slowly transformed into a huge black gun.
“OH MY GOD!” cried Holloway, as Troy grabbed her and Kru and sprinted towards the door. The robot grabbed the gun and shot at them and missed, hitting the floor, which blasted off, throwing the trio right out of the door.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” cried Kru picking himself up from the debris. There were about ten security droids waiting outside which immediately barged inside Troy’s cabin.
“That’s the assassin robot, we’re after!” said Troy, dragging Kru and Holloway away from his cabin.
“If that’s not Emilie, where is she?” asked Holloway, struggling to keep pace with Troy.
“I guess she must be still in the medical bay!” said Troy.
“So that means that there are two killer robots aboard the ship!” said Kru.
“Yes!” agreed Troy. “We’ve got to go somewhere where we would get an arsenal!”
“To the Security Headquarters then!” said Kru, as they hit the elevators. The heavily built black droid destroyed all the security droids that had come at it in almost no time but one of its dark matter tech panels had been destroyed in the process, leaving its shoulder visible.
The trio meanwhile had made it to the Security Headquarters on level twenty one.
“Security breach on level one hundred and forty five!” said Kru at the reception where there were officers. “It’s a big black robot from the enemy and it’s invisible”
“Then how did you see it?” asked one of the officers.
“Big story!” said Troy. “But we need weapons now!”
“Weapons are not allowed for use by residents,” said another officer.
Kru turned towards Troy and said, “We should’ve never come here!”
At that moment, the black robot appeared at the entrance to the Headquarters office and started firing, invisible except for that small part of its shoulder. Every shot the robot blasted, completely demolished the area, annihilating the ceiling and flooring to reveal the level above and below. Troy pushed Kru and Holloway onto the tiny passage they had taken a few hours ago after landing from Aura.
“GO!” he cried. “They’ve got weapons there!”
“Did you see that?” Holloway asked, as she ran. “There was a part of its shoulder visible!”
“The tech must have been damaged by the droids upstairs!” yelled Troy. “Let’s destroy the rest of it!”
They broke through the door at the end of the passage and rummaged the huge hall for weapons.
Officers who were standing there were taken by surprise and were about to shoot at the trio when the rest of the surviving officers from the reception reached there, shouting about the robot.
“There it is!” said Holloway, pointed to a large shelf on the opposite wall of the hall, about three hundred meters from their location. The three ran for it. The robot meanwhile made it through the passageway, killing and destroying anything in its way.
“Do you get that feeling that it’s after us?” said Holloway, as they ran.
“It is after us!” cried Troy.
“We should’ve never left our cabins in the first place,” said Kru.
“But we probably saved Emilie’s and Sniffles’ life by getting there in the nick of time!” shouted Troy, running as hard as he could, occasionally tugging at Kru and Holloway to make sure they were keeping up with him.
“I KNOW!” yelled back Kru.
“The robot’s broken into the hall! Quick!” cried Holloway, turning back and seeing things blow up.
Troy crashed onto the big shelf built onto the wall and searched for the one offensive weapon, he knew, the Cutie Twins.
“What’re you searching for?” asked Kru, as he crashed onto the shelf beside him.
“I’m looking for the Cutie!” said Troy as he splashed his eyes frantically over the entire armory.
“Take this,” said Kru, handing a large heavy red-painted gun over to Troy. “That’s the Trojan Horse.”
Troy didn’t stop to ask for details, as he quickly aimed with a guess at the piece of shoulder moving around.
“Move!!!” cried Holloway, as she pushed Troy and Kru, clear of the shelf. Not less than a millisecond later, the entire shelf blasted off into nothing, giving out searing heat.
“You’re fighting a robot, boys!” said Holloway, sitting on top of Troy and Kru. “Their aims are accurate and they’ll keep shooting till they kill us!”
Immediately, Troy got up and aimed at the only indicator of the robot, the visible part of its shoulder.
It was nowhere to be seen.
“LOOK UP!!!” cried Kru, pointing to what appeared to be a tiny black piece of metal falling towards them.
At once, Troy took aim at that piece of metal and shot. Nothing seemed to happen, the piece of metal continued to fall towards them.
“Wait for it!” said Kru, “Faces to the floor!”
As the robot had neared them, it blasted from the inside and fell on the floor as tiny sparkling embers.
“So that’s why it’s called the Trojan Horse,” said Troy, as he stroked the gun in his hands.
“Enters the target as a million micro sized bullets and reassembles inside to form antimatter explosive,” said Kru.
“I like this Trojan,” said Troy, mesmerizing over the gun while he put it over his shoulders.
“Let’s get going,” said Holloway, who was totally uninterested in guns as the boys were. “We’ve got one more robot to go!”
“We find Emilie first,” said Troy, getting up from the floor.
“I’ll contact Rutgers and tell him of the situation,” said Kru.
“Yeah, do that,” said Holloway. “And it’s time you pull out that badge of yours!”
“I’m a secret spy, Holly! I can’t go flashing my badge letting everyone know!” replied Kru, a little annoyed that no one around him understood the importance of keeping the secret that he was a secret spy.
“Oh yeah?” said Holloway, stopping and putting her hands on her shoulders looking at Kru. “Then deal with those officers yourself!”
“Drop your weapons! Freeze! All of you!” said an officer, leading seven other officers, who had arrived at their location, pointing Bummers at them.
Troy dropped the Trojan and raised his arms and so did Kru as Holloway glared at him as she were going to eat him alive, when he said, “I’m an Albein Intelligence Officer, Chief rank.”
“Yeah! Like you wish!” said an irritating middle-aged officer by the name of Banks.
“Let me show you my badge!” said Kru, as he reached out into his pant pocket.
“I’m warning you, don’t,” said Banks, as Kru continued to move his hand towards his pocket and then suddenly Banks jolted him, dropping him to the floor, at which point , Troy and Holloway got into action. Troy took a quick sprint and jumped onto three of the officers, knocking them out with a fury of punches, while Holloway took on two other officers taking them out with a couple of elegant kicks with use of her long legs.
One of them ran away from the scene while the other two jolted Troy several times, throwing him back.
“TROY!” Holloway cried, in horror.
“I am fine!” replied Troy, trying to pick himself up.
Holloway then launched onto those two officers, somersaulting onto them and making them fall hard onto the ground and picked some of their weapons including two Cuties.
“I’m alright, I’m alright!” mumbled Kru, from where he lay.
Holloway passed right past him, towards Troy and put his arms around her shoulder, helping him to get on his feet.
“Holly!” called Kru, lying on the floor.
“Get up, you big baby!” said Holloway, as she and Troy walked towards him.
Kru struggled and got up on his own and looked sadly at the pair that met his eyes.
“You deserved it,” said Holloway, as she removed Troy’s arm around her shoulder.
“But-but-” Kru stammered, as he continued to look more sadly at her, as she came towards him.
“Bu…but-”
Holloway grabbed him and gave a long wet kiss on his lips.
“Happy now, baby?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
Kru nodded his head like a delighted child, with mouth and hands stuffed full of his favorite candy.
“Let’s keep moving, guys!” said Troy, smiling at them and picking up the Trojan Horse from the floor.
“We’ve got to get to Emilie!”
Kru and Holloway nodded and started moving. They went past the gigantic holes in the floor and walls, made by the robot moments ago and made it to the deserted elevators. They made it to the medical bay, which was deserted too.
“Where is everybody?” asked Holloway, looking around the medical bay.
“Most probably vaporized!” said Kru and got his foot stamped by Holloway for that statement.
“OOOWWW!” cried Kru, clutching his foot as Troy ran off into the darkness, followed by Holloway.
“Wait for me!” cried Kru, as he limped behind them. Shortly, after sometime, Kru reached what had once been Sniffles’ room. He found Holloway and Emilie in a tight embrace inside, while Sniffles and Troy were standing beside them.
“Hey! Hey! Hey!” said Kru, as he hopped inside the ravaged room. “Is that really Emilie?”
Emilie and Holloway broke the embrace and looked at him.
“Yes, it is,” said Troy mildly.
“Well, prove yourself!” challenged Kru.
Emilie looked at Kru,
“Well! Come on!” said Kru nervously. “We haven’t got all day!”
“Then you should probably stop thinking about Holloway’s hips now and start figuring out a plan to stop the other robot,” said Emilie, with a smile.
Kru gasped.
“By Molly’s beard!” he exclaimed, clutching his throat.
“Bad boy!” said Holloway, squinting at him and making Sniffles let out a giggle.
“Emilie!” said Troy darkly, dissolving the humor in their midst. “Where is the other one?”
Emilie closed her eyes and opened them again.
“It’s somewhere near the top, above our cabins!”
“Kru!” said Troy. “What’s up there?”
Kru looked dismayed as he said, “Higher ranking members of the Senate and the Command Bridge above it!”
“QUICK!” cried Troy, “TO THE ELEVATORS!”
Sniffles cried, “Bua!” and ran towards Emilie, who lifted him and ran out of the medical bay with the others. They got to the elevators. Holloway handed a Cutie over to Kru and to Troy, who handed over the Trojan to her, as Cutie Twins were supposedly long range weapons and to be used with suitable protection, due to the antimatter bullets being used.
“What about you?” asked Emilie, holding the heavy Trojan, in one hand Sniffles in another.
“I’ll use my hands!” said Holloway, displaying her fists.
“Does Sniffles need to be a part of this?” asked Kru.
“He has nowhere else to be safe,” said Troy and looked at the rest. “The plan is simple, we get onto the floor where the invisible robot, Emilie locates and fires and we fire at what she fires.”
The elevator opened onto scorching heat and a heavy downpour of white snowflake like material.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” cried Troy, running through the fire trying to lick them from the walls.
“Holly, get the baby!” said Kru and Holloway picked up Sniffles and kept at the tail of the party.
“Lead us!” Troy told Emilie and she went ahead of him.
“He’s in Jedias’ room!” she cried, making way through the heavy snow like conditions and fire that lashed at them now and then from unpredictable places.
Emilie broke into Jedias’ room and immediately backed out, crashing onto the rest of the party.
“I’m sorry!” she cried as she got off Troy’s chest.
“What happened?” asked Troy, getting off Kru. Holloway just caught up with them then.
“The robot was pointing the guns at me when I went in,” said Emilie, turning behind, crouching near the entrance to the room.
“Of course, it knew, it’s a walking sensor!” muttered Kru.
“Move away from the walls!” cried Holloway excitedly, as if she knew what exactly was going to happen next.
“Why?” asked Emilie.
“JUST MOVE!” she shouted and as the three moved away the wall behind them blasted into nothing, putting them off balance.
“EMILIE! NOW!” cried Holloway, holding Sniffles tight and stepping back from the site of action.
Emilie turned behind to see a six foot, black droid that looked more like a piece of art than a real robot, with its smooth surface and smooth curves. Emilie took a quick aim and blasted the Trojan at the weapon the robot was holding and as soon as she had pulled the trigger, she pulled it a second time this time aiming at the body. The robot and its weapon blasted into nothingness, shattering into a million pieces of sparkling ember, showering over them in addition to the anti-fire snow flaky material.
“I’ll go check if Jedias is alright!” said Troy, jumping out of his cramped position, running into the room.
He found Jedias, lying in a corner, almost not breathing.
“Sir!” said Troy and shook him. “Are you alright?”
Jedias seemed unresponsive to him.
“Help here!” Troy shouted and the others came running over there.
“Leave him to me!” said Emilie, as she put her hand over his face and closed her eyes.
She opened them again after a moment and said, “He’s alright! He’s just fainted from the shock!”
“Thank goodness!” Holloway exclaimed collapsing on the floor, with Sniffles on her lap, “We’ve destroyed them both!”
“This isn’t over yet,” said Kru darkly.
“Oh! Come on! What’s with all that pessimism?” said Holloway disapprovingly.
“This is just the beginning,” stated Troy.
“You too?” said Holloway. “We don’t need all your pessimism now! At least be joyful for some time!”
“Holloway,” said Troy, looking at her. “Sometimes it’s just necessary evil!”
Holloway just stared at him, with a vacant expression. He made absolutely no sense.