Dissident

by Lisa Beeson

  They stepped into a foul miasma of rot as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Cam found out why when he looked off to his right at the opening to the first tomb. Down the narrow passageway were the skeletal remains of a couple guards pincushioned to the wall by spikes.

  Cam flinched in disgust. “Anyone else feel like we should be running into Indiana Jones or some Nazi’s any minute now,” he mumbled a moment before they heard Tauber scream with rage as a frantic spattering of automatic fire sounded back in the cave.

  “Double time, boys. He can only hold them off for so long,” Kael ordered, and they began jogging further into the Temple of Doom.

  “Stay alert and stay in the center of the walkway,” Johnson warned from the front of the group. “The further we go, the more elaborate the tombs and more dangerous the traps. I can’t stress this enough, do not touch anything.”

  Reid slowed his step and carefully pushed Cam ahead so he wouldn’t be the last in line.

  “What are you doing?” Cam asked, he’d made sure that he was in back on purpose; he wasn’t going to lose anyone else.

  “Get up there, lad,” Reid ordered. “Or I’ll make the other wizard carry your unconscious body through this place.”

  “Pass,” they heard Adam say from up ahead, which caused Cam to grin with mirth.

  “Just go,” Reid said with a firm push on Cam’s back.

  There was no time to argue, any delay would bring the chupacabras that much closer, so Cam checked his pride and pushed on ahead.

  The pathway spiraled downward and then began turning at right angles, but Johnson led them unerringly on.

  The further they went Cam realized that Johnson had been right. With each successive tomb, the entryways became more elaborate and ornate with precious metals, Jewels, and gems of all shapes and sizes. Dark stains littered the floors and walls, reminding him not to touch anything, no matter how tempting.

  They finally slowed when the pathway widened and ended at a massive wall. Amidst the pictographs and rows of strange, ancient writing were seven large niches holding seven statues made completely of precious minerals and metals. Cam couldn’t help feeling that their sparkling jewel-encrusted eyes were looking down on them in the haughtiest, most judgmental way.

  You don’t know me, stupid statues.

  “It’s the humans’ depictions of the seven Higher Races,” Ari rasped through a raw throat as Jean-Baptiste eased her down to her feet. Cam sighed in relief that she was finally conscious, though she was still leaning heavily on the Xjaamin and popping a couple of whatever it was she kept in her pocket into her mouth. He prayed she did not realize who was missing.

  But now that she said it, his eyes went back to each statue, scrutinizing them further and recognizing them for what they were. From Ari’s memories, he figured the one with wings, made of gold and inlaid with tattoos of lapis lazuli must be the Ayan; and the one made of copper with topaz eyes was the Daizan. He also recognized the depictions of a Nahullo giant, and the willowy Taltós. The other three he remembered seeing in Ari’s memories, but he didn’t know their names.

  One was almost as tall as the Nahullo and even more lithe than the Taltós, with a long neck and an elongated, bald cranium, it seemed to be completely made of mother of pearl.

  The one next to it was cut with lean muscles, and made of some pale blue stone Cam didn’t recognize. Its ebony hair was waving away from its head as if he were under water, and its completely black eyes were made of onyx. Its fingers and toes were webbed, and there were some unmistakable gill-like things fanning out from behind its jawbone and down its neck.

  The last one was child-like in its height and stature, clothed in a richly ornate tunic and wearing a large coin-like pendant around its neck. It looked practically elven with its pointed ears and mischievous facial expression. Made of a pale, milky jade, its amethyst eyes seemed to follow Cam with a calculating gaze that gave him the willies.

  “Through many trials and errors,” Johnson said, “we finally figured out the correct symbol for each of the statues to open the doorway.”

  The suspicious holes dotting the wall at approximately waste level and the large dark stain on the stone floor made it obvious what the cost of such knowledge was.

  “Damn Reinholds. Such needless waste of life,” Ari said, her voice full of pain and remorse. “It’s in Common Speech,” she said to Johnson, her eyes meeting Kael’s. “We know this. We can help,” she assured him.

  Nodding, Johnson instructed them to touch only the stone cylinders – which reminded Cam of Japanese prayer wheels – and the three of them began spinning one under each of the statues to the specific symbols for each race.

  When they finished, the floor began to shake with a rumbling sound, as internal mechanisms started grinding and clicking into place. Then the wall split open and spread apart into a massive doorway.

  “Quickly,” Johnson urged with a frantic wave of his arm. “There isn’t much time before the door closes and resets.”

  They all rushed through into a large octagonal room illuminated by huge glowing orbs settled on sconces at the corners of each wall and hanging from the domed ceiling which was painted to look like a starry night sky.

  “Lucenite,” Ari said in awe, as the doors began closing behind them. “The colonists must have brought it with them.”

  Murals covered each of the eight walls, one for each of the Higher Races – each in a different setting, presumably from their home worlds – and one with a circular emblem surrounded by the same strange writing as the wall from the previous room. Each wall, except for the one with an emblem, had rectangular depressions in the center of its base, like little doorways that had been painted over to blend in with the murals. The actual murals were much more intricate and realistic than Cam thought ancient humans were even capable of creating. The pigments seemed as vivid and unblemished as the day it was painted.

  The floor in the octagonal space was a mosaic in the pattern of a maze that led to the center of the room, where a stone alter stood over a dark pit. Stone benches encircled the outer rim of the maze as if in audience of whoever stood at the altar, which had the same emblem as the mural wall emblazoned on it. The other side of the altar held grooved steps leading up to a platform with a stone slab etched with disconcerting slashes and grooves from a sharp object, and manacles at each end to hold wrists and ankles.

  “We presumed that this is where the last inhabitants made human sacrifices to their gods,” Johnson said.

  Thanks, Captain Obvious…, Cam thought ungraciously.

  “Anu’Kainat sanctioned murdering of humans to feed the kodja, more like it,” Ari said in disgust. “Wait.” She made a quick head count, and Cam winced. “Where’s Obasanjo…,” she asked, panic filling her eyes. “Where’s…Tauber?” she choked out.

  At everyone’s lowered gaze, she realized that her fears were true, causing her knees to give out with a strangled, “No…I…”

  Adam and Jean-Baptiste caught her and held her up, as Kael did what Cam wished he could do, and strode over to cup her face in his hands. “Look at me, child,” he commanded as her wide, wild eyes clouded with grief, guilt, and self-loathing. “Look at me!”

  Cam could see she was spiraling, and it took all he had not to run to her.

  Her teary gaze finally managed to focus on Kael’s. “This is not your fault. You have no control over the transition. The men knew the danger of this mission and they chose to accept it anyway. Tauber made us promise not to let you carry his death on your shoulders. He does not blame you. Do you understand?” he said, his eyes boring into hers. “We’re so close. Don’t fall apart on us now. We can mourn our loss later.”

  Ari nodded as she fell into him and he held her close, resting his head on top of hers and protectively curling around her. It was the most genuine affection Cam had seen Kael give to anyone. It was unnerving to see the Great Unflappable Kael actually have feelings.

  “What’s next?” Roche asked, gro
wing impatient. “Where do we go from here?”

  “This is the farthest we’ve been able to get,” Johnson said, with a helpless shrug. “We gravitated towards that section of the mural, trying to decipher the writing, but it was no use. Everything we tried failed.”

  “Why not just blow it up?” Roche asked, as he held up Obasanjo’s pack.

  “Markus wanted us to keep the place intact and preserve the Progeny’s history,” Johnson answered.

  Ari drew away from Kael, squaring her shoulders and adopting her regal-face as she strode towards the emblem wall. “I feel the pull of the gate behind that wall,” she said, her voice steady and strong.

  Cam’s heart filled with pride for her. That’s my Pipes…

  Kael walked up behind her. “It’s a bunch of propaganda for the Anu’Kainat. And a warning for those without the proper clearance that trespassers will face dire consequences, mixed with a bunch of ancient human gibberish,” he said reading the strange Common Speech writing.

  “Can’t Adam or Jean-Baptiste just portal us through?” Roche asked

  “No,” Kael said with a quick shake of his head. “The sensors on the other side will see our passage without proper clearance as a breach and set off security measures.”

  “Wait,” Ari said, moving closer to the right side of the mural. “Can you see the ancient signature paths congregating over here,” she asked, looking back at Kael.

  His eyes went to where she was looking and nodded that he could, and Cam felt a flare of jealousy that he could not.

  “Look,” she said skimming her hand over an area at the height of her shoulder. “This bit right here was plastered and painted over. The difference in the texture is minute, but you can feel it.”

  She backed away as Kael placed his hand where hers was. Then with a blur of movement, his fist pounded the wall and the old plaster crumbled and fell away to reveal a square made of a material Cam did not recognize.

  “Hold up,” Cam said, putting the pieces together of the ancients’ warning. “If you don’t have the proper clearance or whatever, I think the dire consequences are the kodja,” he said gesturing to the doorways. “That’s why the humans plastered that over. None of them had clearance and that thing only brought them death.”

  “My clearance is my Ayan DNA,” Kael said as he placed his hand on the square, pressing into the material, which seemed to be gelatinous, until it was completely covered.

  “Ugh,” Cam said with a face of disgust. “Is that even going to work after all this time?” he asked, looking nervously at the doorways, checking for any cracks opening up.

  In answer, the gelatinous square illuminated with symbols and circular patterns, accompanied by a low, three-toned hum. The gel released his hand, which was surprisingly clean and dry, before the whole emblem wall depressed back with a puff of dust and slid away to the side.

  “As I told you back in Chicago,” Kael said. “The engineers built the gates to last.”

  “Well, fine,” Cam mumbled, while giving him a sour face.

  *****

  A thrumming wave of energy buffeted Ari as the doorway opened up to the metal walkway leading out to a large platform built in the middle of a cavernous space. The potential energy coming from the ancient tech was more powerful than anything she had ever felt. The magnitude of it seemed to dull all her other senses, but awakened her weakening cells with a jolt of vitality. The burgeoning power in her body welcomed the familiar conductive sensation.

  More lucenite orbs illuminated the walkway and the perimeter of the platform that was holding the massive circular frame of the gate. Glowing glass cylinders of nano-particle accelerators, framed the ancient tech-console that would power the gate and connect it to its Esharet counterpart.

  Anxiety and anticipation spiked beneath her skin. Just a few more steps and she’d be back in Anu.

  Almost home…, she thought to Kael.

  He brought her into his side with a quick hug before they strode down the metal walkway.

  “How is there not a spec of rust on this thing after all this time?” Adam asked.

  “Our alloys don’t oxidize,” Kael answered as he went straight towards console.

  “You know how to work that thing?” Cam asked.

  “It’s old tech, but it seems simple enough,” Kael said absently, while taking the bag of stones from his pocket.

  Moving over to the gold plated control panel, he began placing each stone in the grid of twelve corresponding slots.

  With only the middle slot left, he handed Ari the blue stone and motioned for her to place the last one. The stones flared to life as her hand neared the empty slot, and as soon the last stone was in place, the frame for the gate hummed with renewed power.

  Activating the coordinate catalog, Kael selected the planet Nibiru then picked a station on the outskirts of the Esharet where he was confident he still had contacts and it was known to have lax security measures. Ari prayed that neither of those things had changed in the past seven cycles.

  With the coordinates set and the relay connected, photonic rings appeared within the circular frame, creating a gyroscope of energy, which flattened out to a dark plane within the frame.

  The loud clap of a gunshot echoed through the cavern. Ari whipped toward the sound just as Kael started to sift. Petra and Paul froze everyone on the platform, stopping Kael just an inch or so shy of Mara, his hand about to encircle her neck and his face fixed in a menacing glare. Mara sidestepped away from Kael’s gripping fingers, the gun in her hand still smoking from shooting Johnson in the back of the head. Gregory aimed the blood soaked assault rifle at Adam and Jean-Baptiste, eyeing them warily.

  A roar of unmitigated rage built in Ari’s chest, but it caught in her throat when a skittering movement on the cavern walls and ceiling caught her eye. The place was swarming with kodja. The scent of Johnson’s blood would send them into a frenzy. They had no time.

  “You ruined EVERYTHING!” Mara raised her arm and placed the barrel of the gun against Kael’s forehead, digging into his skin, her hand shaking with rage.

  “Don’t,” Ari demanded, her voice strangled by fear, anger, and barely contained control. She hated Mara to the depths of her soul, but looking into her eyes she saw a woman haunted by her own demons of pain, grief, guilt, and a lost sense of self. She saw a part of herself mirrored in Mara’s eyes. “Listen to me, I understand. You don’t have to do this-”

  Mara cut her off with a sharp bark of laughter. “Oh really, child, you understand? I don’t have to do this?” she asked with an unsettling, patronizing sneer. She trailed the hot end of the barrel down Kael’s face and neck to aim it straight at his heart, and Ari’s stomach clenched in a knot of fear.

  “No, little girl, you’re right, I don’t have to do this. This is something that I want to do. What I had to do was be the strong one – the one that was made of stone. I had to be the one that did the hard things, the ugly things, the things that rip a soul to shreds. All so the squeamish, softhearted ones could sleep at night, and so they’d stick to the path of ascendance my enlightened and prophetic father had laid out for us. I did everything I had to do with my mouth shut and my head held high knowing that it was for a greater purpose, for a noble Cause. Only to find out that it was all just an elaborate charade to get you here, to this moment. My family… my life’s work to improve humanity… reduced to cinders and ash… all for an insolent, ungrateful child who doesn’t even want to stay on this world!” All the light had dimmed from her eyes, leaving only the dark pit of a broken mind bent on violence and revenge. “So you will all die one by one.” Her eyes flit to each of them until they settled back on Ari. “…Leaving you for last. So that you can see me take everything from you, just as you have done to me.”

  Ari had tried to give Mara one last chance at redemption, but the woman had refused to take it. There was no more mercy left in Ari’s heart.

  I will not lose anyone else.

  Gaining control of her m
uscles at the same time as Adam and Jean-Baptiste, Ari sifted before they could stop her from grabbing Mother Am’s pouch from her pocket and downing the rest of the manna cubes. With a surge of strength blazing through her body, Ari connected to Jean-Baptiste. Protect them. Adam and I will follow. Then using her heightened power, she telekinetically forced everyone but Adam and Mara’s crew through the active gateway.

  “NO!” Mara wailed. “Shoot them!” she commanded, “Shoot it all!” She and Gregory opened fire.

  Ari threw up a protective field over her and Adam just in time to save them from the barrage of bullets. But the console and the portal were not so lucky. Emptying their clips in a fit of rage, sparks erupted from the ancient tech while the instruments and circuitry were broken beyond repair. The gateway closed with a WHUMP of imploded energy, as the frame sizzled and smoked.

  Ari fell to her knees. The gateway was gone; the way back to Absolem stolen from her. There was no time to find another. She was doomed.

  The children screamed as kodja began climbing over the railing of the platform and walkway, cackling and clicking in triumph. Gregory brought up his shield as the four of them began running back towards the other room.

  A dark coldness enveloped Ari’s heart.

  They will not escape this. They will pay.

  With a numb detachment, Ari froze them all in place. Focusing first on Petra and then on Paul, she tapped into their DNA and deactivated the sequence giving them their abilities, then she opened a small portal to Paradise Glades and forced them through.

  She had promised Asa she would save his children, but nothing would protect Mara and Gregory from her wrath. Dissipating Gregory’s shield, she kept them frozen in place and let the kodja have them.

  Turning away from the carnage and blocking out their screams, Ari looked back at the broken gateway with a heavy heart as the swarming kodja began throwing themselves at her protective field trying to get to them.