Robo and the Lost Planet, Part 4: The City in the Clouds

Robo and the Lost Planet, Part 4: The City in the Clouds

The Story Begins

As the city beneath their feet woke to another day, Robo, Ami, and Pip already sensed that something unusual awaited them. In one corner of the research station laboratory, a faint signal flickered on a small display. It was not new. It had simply been lost in the noise of other data, as if it did not want to reveal itself too soon. But this time, it strengthened for a moment and pointed toward the upper levels of the futuristic city.

Robo leaned over the screen and clenched his fists. “That’s it! Let’s go after it now!”

Ami adjusted her small augmented-reality glasses and shook her head. She spoke calmly, but when she noticed something, she trusted her judgment. “Wait. The signal changes with the height of the buildings. First, we need to find out what affects it.”

Pip spun in the air, and his LED eyes flashed blue. “Confirmed. The signal has two layers. The first is known from an earlier detection. The second is… older. Very old. Fascinating!”

“Older than you?” Robo asked with a smile.

“Technically, yes,” Pip replied seriously. “But that is not a joke. It is a data point.”

Robo laughed, and soon they were hurrying outside. The elevator carried them to the upper levels of the city, where everything felt lighter and airier. Narrow walkways stretched between the tall towers. Small gardens of sparkling plants grew on the rooftops, while holographic advertisements drifted silently above the streets.

The signal led them along rooftop paths, past water tanks, and across glass terraces. The higher they climbed, the clearer it became. At times it disappeared, then appeared again. It was as if it was not only calling them, but testing them too.

At the edge of one tower, they saw something that looked almost sad among all the modern technology. An old service drone hovered just above the roof. Its body was battered, and its paint had faded in many places. It did not look like a machine still at work. It seemed more like someone holding on out of habit.

And yet it was active. Fragments of an image formed in the air from its projector, then fell apart again. They looked like pieces of an old game: coloured blocks, symbols, lines, and map markers spinning above the roof.

“That’s the source,” Robo whispered.

Pip floated closer and recorded the data. “This drone belongs to an older service category. The records about it are incomplete. But wait… here are fragments of navigation markers. And this? This looks like an educational game.”

Ami looked up and narrowed her eyes. “Not just a game. Look at the order of the symbols. They are simple. Simple enough for children to read.”

Robo frowned. “Children? Up here?”

“Maybe long ago,” Ami said softly.

Suddenly, the drone turned and projected another section. Among the game pieces, a symbol resembling a star map flashed into view. Then came another, similar to an old school symbol. Pip gave a short beep.

“I’m comparing it with public archives,” he announced. “Aha. The signal does not belong only to Niva-7. It is also linked to a school database for space education.”

Robo opened his mouth. “A school database? Like the one where children learn about planets?”

“Exactly,” Pip replied. “It was designed to assemble logical clues. Not through chance, not through cheating, but through observation.”

Ami smiled, as if everything were falling into place. “That’s why the symbols are so simple. Someone wanted them to be understood step by step.”

When Things Start to Change

Robo folded his arms. “That’s strange. A game, a school, and a secret signal. All connected?”

“Someone linked them long ago,” Ami said. “But we still don’t know who.”

The drone suddenly glowed more brightly and began projecting symbols into several holographic layers at once. One symbol appeared on the tower’s glass, another in a window reflection, and a third on a panel near the roof. Everything moved like a puzzle in mirrors. It was hard to tell what belonged where.

Robo drew a breath. “I’ll try it quickly. Maybe the panel will open if I press this combination.”

“Robo, wait—” Ami began.

But Robo had already stepped toward the control point. The panel sparked, the symbols trembled, and for a moment the image broke into chaotic lines.

Pip beeped at once. “Warning: incorrect order. The signal has weakened by seventeen percent.”

Robo stopped and blushed a little. “All right, I guess I was too quick.”

Ami came over without reproaching him. “Nothing happened. We just need to do it differently. Look at the reflections in the glass.”

Robo gazed at the tower’s glass walls. The city lights broke into long bands of colour. When one group of lights moved through the arched passage between the buildings, the same symbols appeared again for a moment. Then they appeared once more, in the same order.

Ami pointed. “See? The symbols return every time the light passes through that arch. It isn’t random. It has a rhythm.”

Pip spun quickly and projected a small time display. “Confirmed. The repetition is exact. Every four seconds.”

Robo watched the arch, the reflections, and the drone carefully. This time, he did not rush. “So we need to remember what appears exactly when the light goes through the arch.”

“Yes,” Ami nodded. “And then combine it with the school sequence.”

They began working together. Robo watched the colours change on the glass. Ami compared the symbols with the map Pip was projecting. Pip recorded the data and repeated it aloud so they would be less likely to mix it up.

“The first symbol is a star,” Pip said.

“Then a circle with a dot,” Ami added.

“And then this split arch,” Robo said. “I noticed that one in the reflection on the other side.”

Ami looked at him approvingly. “Excellent. Now we’ll check it.”

“Checking is always better than guessing,” Pip remarked.

Robo grinned. “That sounds like something Captain Lyra would say.”

“Exactly,” Pip agreed. “And it is correct.”

Together, they repeated the sequence. First, the rooftop panel vibrated. Then three symbols lit up on its surface. Next, a thin holographic layer opened, revealing a hidden archive space inside the tower.

They entered carefully. There was nothing dangerous inside, only silence, cold light, and rows of old data panels. A large holographic map lit up on the wall. On it appeared a name that no one had seen in full before.

“Milky Gate…? No,” Robo murmured, leaning closer.

Ami read the words slowly. “That isn’t just the name of a map. It is an old designation for a sector.”

Pip displayed another record. “Confirmed. This sector is connected to Niva-7.”

Robo straightened up. “So this is another clue!”

One more record appeared on a nearby panel. It was short but important. The old service drone had once helped archive data on an orbital tower. When some of the data were in danger of being lost, it transferred them to the school database so children could use them while learning about space.

Ami folded her arms. “So that is why they were linked. It was completely deliberate.”

An Important Moment

“But who linked it to the signal from Niva-7?” Robo asked.

No one answered him. Only the system’s soft hum filled the room.

Pip moved closer to the final terminal. “Wait. The signal hasn’t stopped yet. Something else is loading.”

A new fragment of text glowed on the wall. It was not a complete message, only a few words. They seemed to be hidden in the map and appeared for just a fraction of a second.

Ami read them aloud: “If you find the cloud, you will find the path to the voice that remembers.”

Robo blinked. “The voice that remembers?”

“That is a new clue,” Pip said. “But it is incomplete.”

Ami looked once more at the old map name. Then at the drone, which had calmed down again. Finally, she looked at Robo. “We have a direction. We just need to go on carefully.”

Robo nodded. This time, without impatience. “All right. I know now that speed isn’t everything.”

Pip spun gently in the air. “That is a very advanced discovery.”

Robo laughed. “Thank you, Pip. I think.”

When they returned to the rooftop above the city, clouds slowly gathered over the towers, and the holographic signs blurred within them like trails of light. The city below shone calmly, high above the ground, as if it knew that nothing was ever completely lost. It was simply waiting for someone to connect the right pieces.

Robo saved all the data to his wrist device. Ami memorised the order of the symbols. Pip recorded the new fragment of the message and every archive record.

“We’ll check the next step together,” Ami said.

“No cheating,” Pip added.

“And no rushing,” Robo said with a smile.

Above them, the final reflection of the map text flashed once more. Then it vanished. But the new sector name remained in their memories, along with the question that would follow them onward: who linked the school database to the mysterious signal from Niva-7?

And that was a clue worth following.