Vikram S. Tomar's Blog

Neither of them aboard the delivery ship URF45 was trained for a prolonged stay on unknown planets. URF45’s activities were limited to atmospheric entry, payload drop, and exit. The huge delivery vessel made a slow descent and touched down on the dry rocky terrain. Adir put on his suit and went out of the cargo door in the faint light on the surface. He switched on the lights in his suit to get a clearer view. He walked a few steps away from the ship but there was no artificial structure in sight.
Adir slightly tilted his head with a confused look on his face. “Are you sure we have the right coordinates?”
Inside URF45, Girik widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows. “These are the coordinates we received.”
Adir turned back to face the vessel’s camera and raised his hands in the air “Look at this place. Who are we dropping it for? The rocks? Isn’t something wrong?”
Girik checked multiple screens with unrecognizable symbols. “It’s verified, this is the drop spot for the cargo. Start unloading and make it quick. I don’t like this place too much.”
“Fine” Adir pressed a button on top of his arm and gestured with his hand. A metallic ball almost the size of the door rolled outside from the ship. Adir gestured and the ball rolled to a spot and stopped. The ball changed its shape and a box with engravings on it was left on the ground. The ball rolled back inside the ship.
“Done” Adir started moving towards the ship. He glanced at the box but noticed something that made him stop.
“Girik, you might want to look at the cargo.”
Girik tuned to the screen displaying the cargo. The tiny rocks around the box were vibrating. He turned on the sound. There was a loud cracking noise coming from the box.
“Get back inside,” Girik replied with an urgency in his voice.
Adir ran inside the ship’s door as it closed and reached Girik. They started preparing for liftoff. The camera feed displaying the box showed the vibrations around the box were getting more and more intense. All of a sudden the rocks around the box began to crack.
As URF45 lifted off the surface, numerous spider-web-like growth emerged from the ground all around the box. The dense long structures completely covered the box and started pulling it inside the ground. The box along with the web-like structures vanished into the ground leaving behind a small crater.
Girik faced Adir “Glad we made it in time. I am never coming back here.”
“So what about the other box ?” Adir froze.

The wires were neatly tucked into the board. Although much of the components of the room-filling board were organized, it still showed signs of repair. How many hours it had been, what day it was or when did he last make human contact, were questions Charan was unaware of. He was still trying to solve something about the circuit diagram on his desk when Rita walked in. She ignored the wire setup and stood next to him, looking at his scribbles.

After a minute of observing she spoke slowly and softly "That is too risky."
Charan looked at her and pulled his lips inside his mouth "This is…"
"It will cook the pilot." She raised her eyebrows.
"I have found three solutions to this and none of them can be done without risk to the pilot. I don't think I can find another one." He gently tossed the pen on the desk.

"We need a better solution unless you want to be the pilot." She crossed her arms.
"If you want me to, I will be" Charan shrugged.
A disk-shaped object raised on his desk and started hovering in the air. Charan gestured and a sphere of display screen appeared all around it. On the screen was Xiti.
"I saw the design, it's too dangerous for a human, we need to send a robot." He looked at Rita.
"Fine, let's send a robot. We are running out of time." Rita glanced at Charan.

Mechanical arms pulled the board and took it outside the room. Outside the building, a small plane took off from the ground and zoomed towards the charge clouds. People on the space village lyvil, looked at the plane from their transparent roofs. Charan’s board lowered from the plane as it reached the barely visible charge cloud.
The charge cloud had melted every structure in its vicinity. It wasn’t moving but no one knew for how long. As the board touched the charge cloud’s boundary a few arcs were visible from far off.

Slowly and steadily the charge cloud got sucked into the board. As the board went back inside the plane, the plane sealed shut. Just a little further, after careful maneuvering, the board was lowered into a container.
Charan’s screen showed the danger alert had retracted and the pilot had landed the plane back into the building.
“That was some great maneuvering, which of your robots have a military clearance?” Charan asked Rita.
“None of them.” Rita kept staring at the screen.