"Hmm… It doesn't look like a command room, does it?" Lexus commented after looking around the mostly empty room. Boxes filled the corners, but that was it. The children knew that those boxes might be computers. Shingo had something similar in his house. He had seen what a server room looked like.
"Dunno. The starcruiser server room should look like this. Maybe?" Shingo turned to Laurel, and she nodded.
"Yes. I have seen the server room. Well, the starcruiser was a bit more cluttered, I guess."
"But I don't see any buttons… Auscella, do you think you could turn on the computers?" Lazarus said. Even after all the technological advances the USF had made, nothing could beat a button or a switch for turning on a device. Even their smartboxes still had one. That was why they thought this was an empty room instead of a server room.
"Hmm?" Auscella turned to the boxes, inspecting them. She tilted her head in confusion.
For a moment, the children feared the worst: that there were no switches and the computers were simply broken with no chance of repair. But after she caressed a ball at the corner, a familiar hum of machinery whirring lifted their spirits. The boxes on the…
"It turned on!" The children cheered.
"What about the torpedo? Can we control it?" Xiaolang asked.
"Yes! We can! Also, go inside!" Auscella nodded. "Ride it! It's a ship."
"Eh? So it's not a torpedo?" Lexus asked.
"So it's a submarine." Shingo nodded.
The children then walked toward the launchpad and saw the torpedo open up like a subway train turned on its side. They expected chairs, but it was empty.
"Well… I guess aliens don't use chairs, huh?"
"It's probably for goods instead of people. There are chairs in this building. Or maybe it's their culture here." Laurel shrugged. It wasn't just the door or chairs that made the submarine uncanny. There were no windows either.
It was unbelievable for a vehicle not to have windows. Was this ship fully automated? Remote-controlled? Or did they use a hidden camera for visuals somewhere?
"Auscella, does this submarine have any weapons?"
"No. No weapons." Auscella pouted.
"Ugh… Well, let's have a test drive." Lexus said.
"And how are we going to do that? The door is blocked." Xiaolang said.
"We have to dig through it. I think we can do it by tomorrow if we work hard." Bob said.
"That's not the problem. There are monsters there. That's the problem." Xiaolang wasn't whining because of the extra work like Lexus. He was worried about whether the crystal rockhead whale would attack them.
"Hmm… Can't we just let the crystal rockhead whale destroy the dirt covering the entrance?" Lazarus pondered. It couldn't destroy the ruins, and its head was too big to fit into the corridor of the launchpad.
"Eh…? Won't that flood the corridor?" Anna asked.
"I think this corridor was designed to be flooded and drained later." Lazarus said.
"Hmm… But if it damages the door, we might not be able to prevent water from leaking in. That would make the launchpad flooded forever." Laurel pondered. There was so much stuff in here. Some unknown machinery was also in here. She wanted to inspect them.
But they had thought they would be out of here by dinner and therefore hadn't prepared many provisions. They couldn't stay here forever.
"Huh? Why should we care?" Lexus said.
"We should. Even if the monster couldn't destroy the ruins, the same couldn't be said for the submarine." Laurel said. "How are we going to escape from the ruins?"
"Arghh! Aren't there any other exits?" Lexus groaned. "Were the alien lifeforms aquatic animals?"
"No…" Auscella pouted.
"Auscella, let me scout ahead. Could you open the door?" Xiaolang said.
Auscella nodded. The children then walked from the control room toward the door. Laurel's eyes glanced at the things they passed along the way, especially the things inside the storerooms. When Auscella opened the door, a deluge of water flooded the corridor.
"Agh!!!" The children screamed before Auscella closed the door again. Within seconds, the water had risen to their ankles before the door closed.
"Damn it! The dirt covering the gate had been scraped off by the whale." Xiaolang said. He wanted to sneak out of the ruins. Without the whale, there would only be the cliff. But reality wasn't so sweet. The dirt hole the children had used to sneak inside had been widened to almost the entire width of the door.
"What should we do…" Anna muttered. The water that had risen to their ankles slowly decreased.
"Let's go inside the submarine, then open the gate again. Once the corridor is flooded, we will let Auscella steer the submarine to our lifepod." Laurel said.
"..." The children went silent. They knew this was the best chance they had, but they couldn't help noticing several dangers. What if the monster chased them?
"It seems wider once you are inside, doesn't it? We could fit three people side by side just across the width." Lexus said once they were inside the submarine.
"Good. Maybe we could bring the AMS and our EVA gear with us once we leave this island." Laurel was pleased. They now had a fully functioning vehicle.
"But it's rather dark, isn't it?" Anna smiled wryly. It was only because of Bob's flashlight that they were able to see anything at all once Auscella closed the door.
"Let's go!" Lazarus pumped her fist.
"Au!" Auscella mimicked her. "Fuel!"
She took one of the magazines and slotted it into the submarine. Laurel and Shingo looked at her, fascinated.
"So that also fuels the submarine. These magazines might be more important than we thought."
"It's basically a power cell. You know, the civilization that lived here might be more advanced than ours. I don't think we could make batteries as compact as these." Shingo took the magazine from one of his own guns.
"Huh? Then why didn't they invent space cruisers or the gates?" Lexus asked. If they had interstellar gates, they would have come out from there when they arrived in this system.
"There must be reasons why they didn't do it." Laurel pondered.
"They probably preferred to live underwater." Lazarus said.
"That's it! These creatures must have been an advanced aquatic civilization!" Shingo nodded.
"Really? Can they truly live inside the ocean with those leviathans crawling beside their homes? I wouldn't be able to sleep if I knew those leviathans could crash into my home anytime they wanted." Lexus frowned.
"Besides, if they truly were aquatic, do they need to build those ruins aboveground? Why do they need pumps to dry the launchpad?" Anna asked.
"Well…"
"Unless we meet them, this discussion won't end." Xiaolang said.
The submarine whirred to life. The children felt bumps, but without any windows inside the submarine, they didn't know what was happening. Before they knew it, they had arrived.
"Lifepod, near!" Auscella opened the lifepod, and seawater rushed in. But it only reached their waists. When they came out of the submarine, the sky was already dark.
"Argh!! This planet sucks. Was Earth like this before? Thank goodness we left that stinking mudball five hundred years ago!" Lexus complained.
"That was quick. Moreover, we didn't get attacked." Shingo looked at the shore. The submarine had stranded near the lifepod.
"We returned!" Anna cheered. She then skipped toward their familiar lifepod, which already felt like her new home.
"It's already dark. Should we sleep, or should we cook dinner?" Laurel sighed. She was hungry, but she was also tired. Instead of deciding, she left the decision to the group.
"You guys can rest. I will cook." Bob said.
"Eh? But that wouldn't be fair." Laurel argued.
"It's fine. It would be nice if you could wake up to a fulfilling meal, wouldn't it? I will help you as well, Bob." Anna said.
"Alright! Let's sleep! I am wiped out. We had a fun adventure today!" Lexus skipped to the lifepod.
"Hah…" Laurel glanced toward Bob and Anna, who happily prepared dinner. They must have been exhausted as well. One day equaled 48 hours on this planet. Since they started exploring the ruins after dawn, that meant they had been awake for more than 24 hours without sleep.
"Anna!" Bob's shout shook her from her stupor.
"Ah. I'm sorry. My legs felt weak." Anna said.
"Let's have Mistral check us all for diseases. There might be some unknown virus inside that ruin," Xiaolang said. "Then we all need to sleep. We have been awake for a long time. We need to rest."
Thankfully, it was only fatigue. There were no diseases infecting Anna or the other children.
When their bodies sank into the plastic chairs of the lifepod, they all fell unconscious as sleep took hold of them. They even forgot to close the lifepod's hatch.
After they woke up, they prepared dinner.
"Ugh… I think I messed up my sleeping schedule. Four more hours and it will be dawn again." Shingo sighed. If his parents knew, they would blow a fuse.
"What are you talking about? We are on an alien island. There are no parents here to scold us, except Laurel, maybe." Lexus smirked.
"Rules are important. But so is reason. If everyone used reason, we wouldn't need unnecessary rules and punishments." Laurel said.
"So, what next? When will we leave this island?" Xiaolang asked. Yes, the question was no longer how, but when. They already had a functioning submarine from the ruins. They could leave this island now.
"Hmm… We need supplies." She turned to Lazarus.
"Hmm… Food, AMS, EVA suits, solar panels. We need to carry a lot of stuff. I don't think we could carry it all." Lazarus frowned.
"We must bring solar panels! Without them, we can't charge Mistral!" Shingo almost shouted.
"But so are the AMS and EVA suits." Xiaolang argued.
The discussion then stretched on until dawn. They were about to leave the island. The question now was what they could bring.
Thank you, Lord, for You have given us a light of hope. With the submarine we found, we can finally leave this island. May there be hope, and I pray that we will forever be under Your blessing. ~Lazarus