The Ruins of Alpha Centauri (The Tes Simms Anthology, Book 2)

The Fusion

We're awoken by a loud smashing noise. I bolt upright, removing Holly's hand draped over me.

"What was that?" she whispers.

I get up to check on the noise, but right as I reach the door, a gas pours in from the crack underneath. A moment later, my vision blurs, and I hit the floor.

"Careful with connecting those two wires there," I hear a voice say. My vision and brain are both fogged, but it sounds like one of the scientists.

"Oh, please. Don't lecture me about how to set this up. I was the world's leading nuclear scientist before the galvaknights came in."

Nuclear?

I blink desperately, trying to clear my brain. I need to see what's happening.

"Just get this thing over with," I hear a voice say. It's unfamiliar. "I think one of them is waking up."

When my vision finally returns to me, I immediately recognize where we are: the underground science lab. The two scientists are messing with an enormous machine in the center, with Aurora chained in the middle.

I try to move my arms, but they don't go anywhere. I look and find myself bound as well. To my right, Holly, still unconscious, is slumped over a table, similarly restrained. A key is laying in front of her, barely out of reach.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the mute one. You know, I think you're the instigator here. Quiet, scheming, maniacal. You're the one who didn't want us testing out your robot's powers."

"Please stop taunting the kid and get to work," the mysterious voice says again. It belongs to an elder, one who hadn't spoken when we'd met them on first arrival.

Holly stirs a little next to me. She seems as disoriented as I was.

"It wasn't easy figuring out how to power your little rabbit friend," one scientist says. "There are a lot of viable power sources over the history of mankind, and neither of us were well-versed in technological progression over a five-thousand-year period."

"What's going on?" Holly asks. "Why are we chained to the wall?"

"We couldn't risk the two of you trying to stop this process," the other scientist says. "It's selfish to keep this sort of potential to yourself, you know."

"You're about to witness the first intentional time travel in this universe," the first says, flipping a switch. "Around the time you came from, there was one key development in nuclear energy. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Aurora, the first and only automaton powered by nuclear fusion."

The scientist flips a switch, and the room lights up.

"What?" Holly asks. "We didn't have nuclear fusion. We were still running on steam."

"Come again?"

The machine starts to shake and bounce erratically, threatening to bring a portion of the cave system down.

"Why is it doing that?" the elder asks.

"We picked the wrong energy source."

"Well, turn it off, then."

Lightning arcs across the top of the cavern, unnaturally illuminating the place.

"It's already self-sustaining!" one scientist yells. "If we turned it off now, it could cause a ton of damage."

Another bolt of lightning strikes, this time cracking a hole in the machine. I can see a large ball of light, like the sun, peaking through.

"That can't be good," Holly comments.

Alarms sound off in the room. The scientists and the elder dive behind a blast shield, and a few seconds later, the machine explodes.

Now that the ball of energy is in full view, its blinding light forces me to close my eyes.

And then the room goes dark. I slowly open one eye and look in the center of the room where Aurora is. She is glowing brightly, and her dark blue tentacles have reappeared, now the same orangish-yellow as the ball of energy was.

"Did it work?" the elder asks.

"It must have still absorbed the energy. This is good news. That means we can—"

Aurora sends out a blinding burst of energy, which seems to ripple the air and nearby objects. An array of machines turn on, and Aurora returns to her normal, tentacle-less self.

Sola appears in the doorway, having just come downstairs. A look of shock and confusion is on their face, which turns to anger and confusion when they see Holly and I bound to the wall.

"What was that? What's going on here?"

The scientists look at each other with dropped jaws and fear.

"We have to get out of here."

"What?"

"There's no way the galvaknights wouldn't have detected an energy wave like that. They're going to come this way. They're going to destroy Omega Centauri."

On cue, we hear the scream of a galvaknight from all the way on the first level of Omega Centauri. Two more follow it. Sola looks back up the stairs and freezes.

"It's coming."

The world crumbles. Entire tables scoot along the floor haphazardly, throwing things off in the process. A deep, long growl fills the air. Those standing on the ground lose their footing a little.

"We've got bigger problems than the galvaknights," one of the scientists says. "We've attracted the attention of the galvanaught."