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

The Galvanaught

"Why is the galvanaught coming? Why is it coming to us? Why did they call it here?"

Pure panic has engulfed all four of us, including Holly, who is now stuck on those three questions. Sola's eyes haven't left the wall, but they're somehow more pale than usual.

"We're the second-most interesting thing that's happened in years," they say, "the first being the fall of Omega Centauri. Of course the galvanaught wants in on it."

"What do we do? What do we do?"

"Start the generator. It's now or never. There's no telling how much time we have until it demolishes the tower."

Holly does as told, fumbling with the power switch and inserting the petrified wood into its slot. The generator groans as loudly as the elevator did, and immediately lets out an ugly puff of black smoke. Did we grab the wrong kind of generator?

Aurora's signature wispy blue tentacles appear, although faintly. For the first time since arriving at Nautilus Tower, and Alpha Centauri in general, a glimmer of hope appears.

"Perfect," Sola says, as the generator's smoke turns to steam. "As long as the elevator holds out to the top, we should be safe to avoid the galvaknights."

The galvanaught bellows another roar, which creates an overwhelming amount of window disintegration. The elevator wiggles uncomfortably, once again reminding us of our deadly height in the oppressive metal box. At last, it stops moving, and the lights inside glow.

"We did it!" Holly yells.

The doors open to a dismal and crumbling floor on the inside of the tower. The few lights that are still functional barely do enough for us.

"No, this is wrong," Sola says, looking back at the navigation buttons for the elevator. "This was supposed to take us to the roof. Then, we'd be locked up top without the galvaknights."

"What? What do you mean? What floor are we on?"

"Forty-eight. Of fifty. There are still two more flights of stairs until we're on the roof."

"Is there another elevator?"

"No, this is it. Unless we can carry this generator to the top, we're screwed."

Nobody moves. How could we? It's over. The generator's not booting up very fast, Aurora's powers are still incredibly faint, the galvanaught is quickly approaching, an army of galvaknights is scaling the tower, and we have to carry a generator two more flights of stairs. It's not happening. It'd take a miracle, of which we're short on.

"Well, let's go, then," Holly says, ending our mournful silence. A hint of conviction stands out in her voice. "It's either we do nothing and die, or try and maybe succeed. We might as well try."

"Good enough for me," Sola says. I wipe tears from my eyes. She's right. Time to get over myself and get this done.

On three, we lift the generator, which is now humming much more consistently, and set off to look for a set of stairs. We move quickly, ignoring the searing pain in our arms from the weight of the machine. Fear and muscle ache are both incredible motivators. Unfortunately, they're working against each other right now.

"There!" Sola says, moving their head in the direction of a staircase. We lock eyes and nod, scooting our bodies that way.

A metallic screech sounds off down the hall, followed by three galvaknights crawling towards us on all fours, malice in their emotionless screens.

"Go! Go! Go!" Holly yells, as we scramble to get into the stairwell. Unsurprisingly, the galvaknights are much quicker than us, and before we're even on the landing, they've reached the entryway.

The one in the middle shrieks and jumps for us, but stops midair, impaled on some wispy tentacle. We look down to see Aurora glowing brightly, with her tentacles slithering for the other two machines. My jaw drops in awe as she impales the other two, disabling the lights in their chests. They crumble to the floor when her tentacles retract, which now glow faintly again.

"What the hell was that?" Sola asks.

"Not sure, but whatever it was, it wore out some of her power," Holly says. "Are you going to have enough to get us out of here, Aurora?"

The rabbit innocently sniffs the air. Not a convincing answer.

We step onto the forty-ninth floor, ready for another fight, but nothing comes to visit, so we continue up the stairwell. When we reach the door to the roof, Sola kicks it down without hesitation. A galvaknight is waiting on the roof, already charging towards us. Thinking quickly, Sola grabs the anti-galvaknight gun and takes their shot.

Well, three shots. The first two miss as the galvaknight draws dangerously close, but with twenty feet between it and us, Sola's third shot takes the machine down. It sputters and clatters to the ground, dead.

"It works! Incredible! Why didn't they make more of these?"

A step from the terrifying galvanaught shakes the whole building as it comes into view. It stands just barely taller than Nautilus Tower, which gives us the perfect view of its head. An array of massive red eyes lines its head in what I assume is a 360-degree view, except for the center of the front of its head, where a large, circular hole dominates the view. It almost looks like a mouth.

"I'm not waiting to see what this thing can do," Holly says, turning to Aurora. "Get us out of here, please."

Aurora just stands there, her glow getting brighter. The generator seems to slow down a little. Or maybe that's just how intense the moment is. The face of kaiju-sized death is staring down at us, and all we have is a timer to escape.

"Any time now, Aurora."

"This is bad news," Sola says. "I'll see if I can buy you two more time."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have anyone, Holly. Nobody here, and nobody in your universe. But you do. And that's what's important right now."

"That's not how this works. Get over here."

Not listening, Sola charges toward the behemoth. In response, its mouth glows light blue. We watch in horror as a solid blue beam of light slices at the building, sending it all rumbling. The ground below us slips sideways, sending Sola rolling back our way and us off our feet.

"Now, Aurora! Now!"

Aurora, also suspended in midair, unleashes her stored power, opening some sort of blue bubble I can only assume is the portal back home. When I land on my feet, I rush for the bubble, not wasting any time to get to safety. Holly runs alongside me, fear plastered on her face, and Sola makes their way over as well, albeit a bit behind us.

Holly makes it through first, disappearing as soon as she touches the sphere. I take one look back at Sola before stepping in. They're close, but I don't know how much longer the portal will—