A Twist of the Sands
Page 32
Chapter 32. The Power Room
They continued to follow Tidbit through the decaying city. Nothing it seemed was spared the ravages of time and whatever the history of this place, it was obvious that no human or any other being had lived here in numbers for countless ages past. It was a desolate place, not unlike the desert above in many ways. The machines ran the place now, automatically undertaking the tasks for which they were designed, still continuing to obey the orders they had received from their long extinct masters. Yet even they seemed to be slowly giving in to the decay and to malfunction. It was a sobering thought.
Suddenly out of the gloom before them they came to another sloping causeway, but this one was sloping upward. They hesitated, but thankfully this one did not have two giant guardians kneeling sentinel at the bottom.
Amndo remarked on this with some relief saying, “hmmm that’s a bit discouraging, no statues to defend this entrance, so presumably there is no exit or entrance to the outside world on this route. No path for an invading army to enter the barracks. And alas no exit back out of the facility.”
Even so, they followed Tidbit up the slope and found themselves standing in front of yet another set of doors similar in design to those they had already encountered. Similarly, these were set into a rock wall at the rear of the wide platform they had reached by climbing up the steep slope of the ramp. As always Tidbit halted and waited, the doors opened and they were all able to step through once more into the unknown reaches of this place.
But this time once inside nothing they had seen so far could have prepared them for the vista that presented itself before them. Low level lighting set on the top of tall pillars already shone in this place, each of the companions stood aghast at the vastness of the room in which they found themselves. They found they looked upon a vista that not only challenged them visually but also pulled at every sense they possessed. Looking up Nar’Allia could not see the ceiling, and looking down the long hall she could not perceive the far end of the cavernous space they found themselves within. She felt the insignificance of her being; she became lost in the vastness of what was presented before her. This space was so big, it forced itself down upon her, a crushing weight, oppressive, overwhelming, in its sheer magnitude. Nar’Allia had looked many times to the stars high above the world and seen the never-ending vastness of the great void in which the earth spun, she had witnessed the great rust desert, no end to be seen in any direction. But this was different. Here the vastness was not an airy, open space. Here the emptiness was filled with a presence, an oppressive, crushing presence, of what she did not know, but it filled her with foreboding.
She felt a hand upon her forearm, she went to jerk her arm away with a gasp, but a gentle pressure was applied lifting her, she suddenly realised she was kneeling on the hard smooth rock of the floor. She looked up and gazed into the eyes of Amndo, a concerned expression upon his face. “Nar’Allia, are you alright? What is wrong?”
She felt silly. What was wrong? She could not put a description to what she felt. “I’m fine, really, it’s just, ummmm, I’m not sure, this place it feels like a heavy weight upon me.”
She stood shakily, relieved that Amndo held and supported her. “Do you not feel it?”
He looked around, moving his eyes from one unseen spot to another as if expecting something. But eventually all he said was, “feel what? We stand in an enormously large cavern, but nothing seems to be amiss here, at least not that I can detect.”
Nar’Allia shook her head, “I sense something here, a presence, a foreboding,” a pounding made itself felt in her temple and she cringed, rubbing her forehead with the fingers of her right hand.
All of a sudden loud reports sounded, they had heard similar before, for as each loud crack echoed around the cavern bright, blinding lights came on illuminating the space they found themselves within. However, unlike the Leviathan chamber, these reports went on for some minutes, getting quieter as they receded into the farther reaches. all the company could do was shield their eyes from the increasing levels of light until the sound stopped and they felt able to remove their hands from in front of their eyes. They looked around them; light shone down from the now visible ceiling which seemed to be fifty, maybe even sixty metres above them. Long walkways spanned the void near to the ceiling, probably for maintenance of the lighting system. over a large area, but still beyond there seemed to be more still invisible space. Nar’Allia’s eyes dropped back down to floor level, then she jumped in shock, for they heard a voice speak from out of the gloom beyond the lights.
“Welcome my friends, welcome to this Silo. The Silo of the 2nd Armoured Corp. I have been expecting you. It has been a long, long time since anyone has visited here; in fact I am surprised that anyone has been able to find their way into this place. I had long given up on the possibility that anyone still lived, or was still in the world that remembered how to gain entrance.”
There heard a shuffling sound and slowly a figure came from out of the darkness. Before them there appeared a human, a man. The initial threat presented by the suddenness of his spoken voice diminished for now Nar’Allia perceived a diminutive, slightly bent figure, ancient in looks for he was stooped over at an angle, his head held forward and looking up, his thin translucent skin stretched tight across hollow cheeks, eyes deep set and cloudy, she would have thought he was blind had he not seemed to stare at them with such an intensity. Not a single hair was upon his head, his scalp comprised of just mottled skin looking like stained parchment stretched upon a frame in readiness for the words to be written, but then forgotten about and left to the elements. He leant heavily onto a silver staff, actually not a staff for Nar’Allia had seen such before, it was a length of metal tubing the like of which she had seen many times before in this place festooning the walls and ceiling, Jonas called it conduit. Both his hands, the skin the same as that upon his head, held onto the conduit which was obviously supporting him and stopping him from pitching forward onto the ground. The figures tattered clothing hung about him; if it fitted him once then he had obviously diminished greatly in size and stature. The old clothes reminded Nar’Allia of the paper thin walls of a wasp’s nest, both in colour and texture, it looked although the slightest wind would turn the cloth to dust and render the poor man naked. Around his waist was a cord fashioned from coloured wire, he wore nothing upon his feet which were black with the dust and debris of ages past, this staining continued up his legs to just below his knees where it lightened and gave way to more mottled thin skin. His eyes looked even further up as he scrutinised each of them. Nar’Allia took a step back and gasped as suddenly his eyes fell upon her and his gaze stayed there piercing deep into her.
Amndo spoke, “I’m afraid your defences are failing old one, the long years have taken a toll upon your machines it seems.”
The figure nodded in what Nar’Allia assumed to be resigned acceptance. “Yes I have watched the decay for many centuries. The desert presses down and eventually it will claim this space. Soon all evidence of our existence will be buried deep beneath the flowing sands. Perhaps this is not such a bad thing, for our existence was less than noble at the end, not something to be remembered with any fondness, but rather as a lesson to all. A warning perhaps of the results of arrogance and misguided judgements.” He remained looking at Nar’Allia for a long time before he tore his gaze from her, it seemed a hard act to undertake. He looked down, his shoulders shook. Nar’Allia would have guessed he was crying, yet no tears ran from his eyes. Finally, he shook his head then turned and started to shuffle away from them.
Jonas walked forward a couple of steps and asked, “who are you?” His great sword held before him in a defensive pose, a wary look upon his face.
The old man stopped and looked over his shoulder, he looked like he was thinking hard, as if trying to recall something long lost to memory. He nodded his head slowly. “I had a name once. I have not heard it said in many an age. So long in fact I can’t remember.”
> He continued to walk away from them. As he went he said over his shoulder, “fear me not my friend, I mean you no harm. In deed this old body has only the strength to perform the most basic of physical tasks and even most of those with great difficulty; I could not do you any more harm than the smallest fly buzzing around your head.” At this the old man waved a finger in circles above his shoulder before he resumed his slow shuffle.
“Hmmm, perhaps not, but it does not require physical strength to deliver a fatal blow. I have known even flies to harbour a painful sting or bite.”
There sounded a rasping cackling sound, followed by a deep liquid coughing, it was the old figure before them, he coughed once more and spat a glob of green/yellow fluid onto the floor. Tidbit rose to the occasion and clicked his way forward, a small brush and shovel dispatched the glutinous mess from the floor. The old human took no notice of the machine as he wiped his lips with the sleeve of his thin shredded garment and turning smiled at them. Nar’Allia realised the figure had been laughing, as a broad smile upon his features showed an almost completely toothless grin. A white dry looking tongue licked around the figures equally dry looking lips. A bony finger, the finger nail long, yellowed and twisted was pointed towards them, Jonas stepped forward raising his sword ready to strike. The hand was then uplifted, palm out in a gesture of submission.
“Stop! Stop my friend. I say again I mean you no harm, please lower your weapon. I do not possess the skills that her people have been gifted with.” The old man’s face dropped and a pained expression formed across as he pointed towards Nar’Allia. He whispered almost to himself, “death has shown his ugly face too many times here, he has harvested far too often because of this place”. Looking back at them he said, “then I care not for my own welfare, death may be a welcome friend to me, I have cheated him for so long. But please do not invite his ghastly visage here yet again, it is not a face I wish to behold for his anger would be great.”
“Who are you?” Amndo repeated Jonas’s words, “and of whom do you speak?”
The old man looked at Amndo and scowled, “Don’t ask me that, ask me anything but not that. I have no name, at least not now; if I did then it is long forgotten along with all memory. Long have been the years of my incarceration, my punishment. Long have I dwelt here imprisoned and alone, a pawn of my youthful mistakes and my foolishness. None now live that will remember me, none now live that will remember my sinful deeds.”
“Bah, you talk in riddles old man, perhaps your mind is as befuddled eh?” retorted Jonas.
The old man turned gazing at Jonas for as long as his position allowed, he did not respond, he just turned his head and walked slowly and painfully away from where they stood.
They looked at each other and deciding that there was nothing for it but to follow the old figure, walked after him. Nar’Allia walked faster and when she was just behind the old man she asked, “you know of my people, the teachers?”
But the old man did not acknowledge her, he just carried on walking.
They came up to a metal grill set into the floor. The grill looked strong, certainly strong enough to hold the weight of the assembled company. It ran forward as far as Nar’Allia could see and must have measured some fifty or so metres wide. Across the other side Nar’Allia could see another solid area and beyond that another grating much the same as the one by the side of which they now walked. She tried to see through to beneath the grating, but then wished she hadn’t. There beneath the grill was a chasm, it disappeared downwards as far as her eyes could see, a void, an unfathomable space, she continued to sense it like a constant pressure upon her being. Dim lights shone deep in the vastness below, they moved and twisted about looking like candle light in the pitch black as children make patterns and designs in the night air around them. Then she sensed something else, the presence of immense raw arcane power. Thankfully this power was being kept in check. She felt glad it was, for the power felt immeasurable, infinite, it felt as if it were all released at one time the resulting surge would rip the world apart, destroy everything in a moment, less than a moment, and render every atom of the world’s existence free of its constraints, free to mingle back into whatever it originated from. A total deconstruction of every element, every chemical compound, every organic material. She shivered at the thought. She managed to drag her eyes from the view below her feet.
She almost bumped into the old man who had stopped and turned to look at her. “It is a legacy of evil my pretty young T’Iea. A creation of a brilliant mind.” He then stared at Amndo before saying. “But unfortunately brilliance was not all that mind held, it also held an unimaginable selfish and evil ambition as well.”
Amndo asked. “This person of whom you speak, was he one of my people?”
The old man looked long at Amndo, not because he had to make sure that Amndo was of the same race, but because he wanted to guess what Amndo’s reaction may be to his answer. Eventually he just said, “yes.” He turned and walked away. They followed.
After walking for some time they eventually came upon a wall of the chamber, Tidbit, Nar’Allia noticed had now reversed himself against the wall a little further down where several receptacles hung, but he was the only machine here, if any others used this place then they were out and about elsewhere at this time, but something told Nar’Allia that Tidbit was the only one, perhaps the only one left. He stood unmoving; the lights in his eyes had dimmed to almost nothing. He appeared to be asleep; a lengthy tube similar to the one that had restrained the Startmektoken in the long hall earlier was attached to his abdomen.
The light from the lamps far, far above was not as strong here and Nar’Allia perceived a soft glow about the old man, as if his skin was giving off a soft light. As he moved, she noticed that the light took a second or so to follow his passage, it was almost as if a second being had the job of constantly illuminating the old man and could not help but have a slight delay in following the old man’s movements. They eventually came across an open doorway and the old man stepped through. They followed. Nar’Allia looked around; they were now in small room in fact it was tiny in comparison to anything else they had so far seen here in this place. There was nothing in here except a table, some chairs and a metal cot that hinged down from one wall, supported by two rusting chains. The mattress and bed sheets were thread bare and falling apart. An unusual aroma emanated from the bed and filled the room, a mixture of fetid water and decaying vegetable matter. She wrinkled her nose.
As if reading her thoughts the old man chortled to himself and said, “don’t worry my beautiful T’Iea that is not used, I have no use for sleep these days.” Turning to the gathered company the old man offered them all a seat if they could find one. The old man remained standing leaning on his metal pipe. He scrutinised each in turn for some minutes before sighing and saying, “I have awaited your coming with some interest, for as I said you are the first to come here in many long ages.”
Jonas said, “how did you know we were here?”
The old man sighed; he shifted his weight, what there was of it, into another position. “I detected you my young friend. Well not you exactly, but I detected the power shift in facility that told me various power drains were occurring deeper in the facility. In the halls of the battle cruisers was the first time I detected such.” He laughed, “don’t look so surprised my friends, do you not think that the makers of this place would put detection devices into it to ensure they, or the facility knew of any breach of its defences?” He laughed again then coughed some more, “you are lucky. I rendered the automatic infiltration defences of the facility inoperative many years ago now. I felt that protection of the facility was fruitless, without any point; after all there was no one to protect. Also I hoped that someone would come, someone close to me would perhaps return, but all thoughts of me had obviously been forgotten. Then as the years passed and she didn’t…. no one came, there was just no point, in fact the power started to fail, I was forced to decide which components of
the facility I should keep maintained and which I should leave to decay. I have been forced to progressively shut things down so as to keep other things working.” He turned and gazed through the windows of the room. “It is now only myself and that maintainer that remain alive here now.”
Nar’Allia guessed that by maintainer he was referring to Tidbit.
But then he said, “my guess is that you await an explanation, well are you ready for a tale of such sorrow? Do you really want to hear the ills of such a story?” He sighed, he did not seem to wait for a response, he just leant more heavily on his metal pipe and began.
“I am of the once race of men. We were known as the A’kath. Possibly I am the last for I survived where my companions did not. I have not had any contact with my people in a long, long time. I don’t even remember a time when I did speak to others of my race. I do remember one thing though; we were a proud race, a race of many skills, a race of great science and learning. A race at the pinnacle of its evolutionary era. A’kath society was proud and rich and had reached a point where its knowledge knew no bounds.” Here he waved his hand shakily about as if to point out some feature or make a physical point. “Only we were not satisfied with even that. A hunger remained within us, some desire to know more. But that was the problem you see, for we knew not what that ‘more’ was. We had conquered the sciences, we knew in great details the workings of the world, we knew in great detail about ourselves. There was no illness, no disability, each person was perfect, for all ‘imperfections’ had been eradicated thousands of years in the past. Life was not left to the unpredictable natural chaotic order of things. We had learnt to control every aspect of our life. How we were conceived, how we were born, how we grew up and how we lived.
He continued after a few minutes. “Many generation of the A’kath were satisfied with the life we led, to most, it was the life that had always been, for generations uncountable we had lived in this way. But one day whilst searching within the halls of the Palisade of Learning, within the great library, one of our scholars came across documents hidden in an unused section that gave great detail of the history of our race. We rediscovered our ancestral beginnings, the race of men from which we had originated. I curse that day, that discovery, for it was a blessing but also a doom upon us. Our scholars however praised the knowledge now available to them, studied the history in great detail for it taught us much. We discovered how our ancestral race lived out in the open under the skies and beneath the sun. How we once shared the world with other creatures and how much of the globe was covered in the great seas and oceans that teamed with a myriad of life forms. For we had re-discovered the natural world, the world of uncounted ages past. We discovered our origins within that world, how we fitted into it, how we were part of the overall makeup. We discovered our original identity once more.
This knowledge had a dramatic effect upon us. Many would not believe it, discarded it as stories, they hid from the knowledge, content with what they had known for millennia past, not able to believe that the A’kath lived in other ways before this present life. But others of the A’kath found themselves longing for this long lost paradise as they saw it. An alternative to the regimented, predictable lives they now led. Some found it an attractive alternative, they called it there ‘right’ they regarded it as the ‘true life’, they called our way of life ‘false’ a travesty of the true way. So the society of the True Believers was born and for the first time in countless ages, disagreement split the A’kath and we became a divided people.”
The old man shuffled on his feet, he repositioned the pipe on which he lent before continuing. “At first the True Believers were a benign group, but they actively sort to increase their numbers, but none who did not believe in their ways had any cause for concern. However, as the years past, the True Believers become increasingly discontent with the world in which they lived. They grew irritated by the lack of interest being shown by the majority of the people, frustrated at the way most still discarded their teachings. They began to withdraw, to meet in secret. They became insular and inward looking and each fed upon the disillusionment of the others. So it was they began to believe that man should again live on the surface of the world. That this vast city should once again be opened up to the natural world of the outside. Man should be allowed to regain what they, the True Believers perceived as having been lost.” He sighed and drawing himself up as high upon his staff as he could, he continued, “then one day the unthinkable happened. The leader of the True Believers ordered his followers to release into the atmosphere of the city what they called ‘true air’, the air of our ancestors, the atmosphere of the outside. Where and how they got this atmosphere I don’t know, but they said it was the first step in going back to the true life, the way that nature had intended. But the air within the city had been cleaned and processed for millennia; any harmful matter had been filtered out by the great machines that sustained the city long before it was released into the city proper. We were so used to breathing this processed air and living in such a pure environment that our bodies no longer had the ability to protect themselves against any form of foreign matter or biological microbe. This ‘true air’ was contaminated with many such things. Within a matter of days of its release many thousands of people had died of many causes. But death was not discriminate; he touched all, even the True Believers as well as those who held no such view or opinion perished whilst this true air was within the city.
Eventually after extreme emergency measures were taken the air was purified again, at least in many major areas of the city. All the True Believers and any that the authorities thought had the slightest connection with or those suspected of supporting the True Believers in some way were taken into custody. Thousands of people were taken in this way, rounded up and removed to somewhere. They were never seen again. It is said that a vast area of the world wide city was cordoned off and the ocean that lay below the city was allowed to fill the space around the sectioned off city practically dividing it in half. All the True Believers along with those who were ill or infected in some way were banished to the place now beyond the ocean and eventually long forgotten, for the original part of city of the A’kath went back to its old ways and the population again flourished.
But unknown to the A’kath, so also did the society of the True Believers survive in their exile. I think the A’kath believed that they would die out, eventually succumbing to the poisons and biological ills they had allowed once more into our world. But for many hundreds of years, unknown, hidden to the A’kath, the numbers of the True Believers grew upon the exiled continent. Such is the resilience of our race it seems. Then one day many deaths were reported within the A’kath city, and a great fear came over us for it seemed that once more it was not safe to leave our homes and walk the boulevards and public areas of the city. We found out that the True Believers had again managed to infiltrate the city and in their madness had again brought death and destruction with them. They had become knowledgeable in other arts, in the arts of destruction. They had designed many mechanical devices specifically used to seek out and capture or even to kill. In fact increasingly our borders were infiltrated and machines of war had started to appear above the city raining death down upon us. Machines that traversed the ocean, machines that flew in the air above or marched across the ground below. We, the A’kath, were forced to use our knowledge to build similar machines, even capture and copy those that attacked us. This was necessary to defend ourselves against attack. But alas those amongst us who controlled our machines started to use them offensively, they would be sent in increasing numbers over the great ocean to attack the continent of the exiles. After untold millennia of ages open war had again appeared upon the world after millions of years of peace.
So it was. All our technology and science was redirected to the design and construction of great machines of war. Machines, the only purpose of which was to destroy. Many, many years this lasted and after many hundreds of generations, this beca
me the way of life of both peoples, those within the great city – the A’kath, and those without, the True Believers.”
Here Jonas stood, he was going to say something, there was an urgent look upon his face, but Amndo took his arm and bid him sit once more.
The old man looked at Jonas, if he suspected anything at all he did not show or say anything. Instead he continued with his tale. “War became all we knew, it was exciting, a new diversion for what was otherwise a dull existence in many ways. It became the great game, the way of the world. But this took a great toll on our race; both sides were becoming increasingly less in numbers. Then one day we realised, a critical point had been reached, for human reproduction even the artificial methods we employed could not keep up with the death dealt by the continual battles that raged across the world.
Eventually the machines of war outnumbered their human masters to the extent that we did the unthinkable. We could no longer keep up with the advances needed in technology, or build the vast quantity of machines required to continue the fight, so we granted the machines themselves the power to design, to build. We gave them all the intelligence of mankind, all the knowledge we had accumulated. We even gave them the ability to decide on battle strategies and they became the sole tools of war, able to direct and to be directed, totally independently of any human intervention.
Almost immediately and to our great horror battles increased in both frequency and size, each became more ferocious. Soon the conflict became continuous and raged across the surface of the world in its entirety. The remaining human populations were squeezed into ever smaller areas of the world, all heavily fortified and most hidden. Places in fact like this one here in which we stand. For now human kind greatly feared the machines we had created. The machines had learned how to repair, even replicate themselves, they even started to improve upon our design, new weapons were created, weapons beyond human comprehension, yes, even beyond the understanding of the A’kath. It was now totally impossible for any of us, westerners or easterners to stop the onslaught, but try we did. We became a common enemy for the machines and to our horror the machines decided that the true enemy was the race of men. So it was in that darkest of all hours, that time of utter despairing, all the machines set loose upon the world joined forces and directed their energies to one task. The task of eliminating the race of men completely from the world.
The machines were now far beyond our control, all we could do, the few pockets of humanity that remained, was to hide far from the detection of the machines and this we did down here. The last vestiges of humanity existed only deep in the earth in heavily protected places like this, Silo’s we called them. Eventually even the machines believed that the race of men was in fact extinct. All of a sudden they had no purpose to exist, so in their misguided intelligence they decided to battle themselves into oblivion to see who would eventually remain and be the chosen master. We, the last remaining vestiges of humanity hidden away, waiting to be found and destroyed, or to wait for a time when the machines were no longer in control.”
He looked each of them in the eyes and said, “then the Combined Races came.” He turned and looked at them. “One among them saved me, whilst the rest of my family and my friends died in the Silo, attacked by the machines of war. The machines then knew, they had discovered the Silo’s where we hid and systematically hunted them out and destroyed them; this is the last one left. It was hidden from the machines. Hidden by you!”
He pointed at Nar’Allia. She looked aghast, “me?”
The old man lowered his eyes. “She saved me. One of your kind took pity, rescued me from the machines of death and showed me the power of your people and the others within your alliances. She broke her vows in saving me, went against her own people. That was to be her downfall and her people paid a heavy price.”
“Who, what was her name?”
The man frowned. “Do not ask me that! I will not say her name, never will I say her name, I am not able to do so. I loved her with all my being, yet I gave that love away and it has cost me dearly since.”
Here he went quiet, a great sadness spreading across his features. “I thought I had forgotten, now you come and remind me of my pain and her pain.” His shoulders shook, once again he appeared to be crying yet no tears came. Then all of a sudden he seemed to shift himself upwards, he lifted the conduit fifty centimetres or so from the ground and brought it back down. The sound rang around the room. His face had a look of great anger. “But the evil one came, the great deceiver. He promised safety, power. He spoke of retribution, spoke of saving my people. I believed him and he betrayed me and the one I loved, her people came and attacked the silo, they wanted to rescue her and I was left for dead. Her father was there, he took her away. So the deceiver found me, he healed me, he thought it would be a great joke, he left me here, gave me this living death.” He laughed once again, a dry cackling sound. “As you can see I am old beyond the normal span of human life. The irony is that the power generated within in this facility, the same power that the mad evil one created, keeps me alive, although it can no longer replicate the cells in my body so efficiently and age has overtaken me. This is my curse, what I must endure, for I am trapped, I cannot leave the confines of this place for I have lost the means and even the will to do so.”
Nar’Allia felt a great sadness overcome her for the old man. He had spent his entire existence down here, never knowing that the world above had recovered and was now thriving again as it once did. “The world has changed much since you knew it, in fact it is nothing like you describe, I don’t even know where to start for I’m not sure that you would grasp the concept of which I speak. But tell me I must know, what of the one you loved and her father you say. Who were they?”
The old man leant heavily upon his staff his eyes downcast to the floor. “I saw it once you know. The new world. The Combined Races had saved many facets of the world as was, they kept many things alive that we had destroyed. I had a glimpse of the world as it probably is now. But that was long ago. She took me to the city of your ancestors where and they used their great skills to heal me after the machine attacked. There I fell in love and there I plotted, in the end it was our downfall.” His shoulders slumped.
They all remained silent, not knowing what to say. Eventually the old man seemed to cheer and he looked at Nar’Allia. “Your name T’Iea. Please? What is your name?”
“Narny. Well my full name is Nar’Allia.”
The old man seemed disappointed somehow; he nodded slowly, his thoughts elsewhere. “It is alas true what you say, the world I know is gone, it is enough for me to know that a newer, better world exists now, one which I cannot hope to enjoy. But tell me, does it reside in peace?”
“For the most part yes.” said Nar’Allia. “Some races still harbour misguided dreams and foster great ambition directed wrongly. It is partly because of this that we are here.”
The old man looked at her, looked at each of them long and hard, a realisation seemed to dawn on his features, he said, “if it is the technology, the weapons of war, the mechanised army you seek from here, that is long gone. Many years ago some came and took one of the battle cruisers after loading it up with many of the robotic force that lay in this facility. I tried to stop them, I sent a mechanised defence force to the hanger, I tried to destroy the hangers that the battle cruisers where housed in, I wish I had thought to do this long ago, but I did not. I was partially successful in that I prevented them from taking a full force with them, but they escaped with one battle cruiser and a large complement of soldiers anyway.”
“Yes, we know, they fired upon the human nomad tribes that now live in the desert above and escaped with the leviathan machine, we know not where.” Amndo went on to say, “we gained entrance into the city through a vast cistern that still remains in the desert to this day.”
The old man looked at him and said, “yes the cooling conduit. This place, this room is the central power generation point for the facility, the ci
stern as you call it stores water that is used to cool the pumps and generator machines; the water becomes contaminated after a while and less efficient at cooling. So after a regular period the machines that provide the power must be placed on standby and the coolant water cleansed of impurities.”
“But then you are vulnerable to attack if you have no power?”
“Yes, this is true, but many such facilities existed in the past, each one shut down at a different time and so the others would protect it for they formed a matrix of defence across the surface of our world. But the enemies of old are now gone. This place is redundant, it protects no one now. All it holds an evil power and evil memories.” He turned away from them leaning upon his staff. Eventually he said, “I suggest you leave here quickly, I must undertake some work, some work I should have undertaken many years ago, if I had the sense to do so. If I had the courage to do so.”
Nar’Allia spoke, “but could you tell us more? You said the combined races were here. They built the leviathan machines. What were they doing here?”
The old man sighed. “It was because of me. Your kind saved me, they took me to the city in the stars. They broke the rules.” He looked long and hard at Nar’Allia who waited for more. He then spoke again. “I broke the rules, I know that now, I had loved her with all my heart, yet then that was not enough. I was selfish, I harboured only my own interests. I turned my back on her and your people, I caused them all great harm.” He shook his head and reached out to hold Nar’Allia’s hand, she gave it to him. He caressed her fingers gently and his shoulders shook. Nar’Allia knelt down and she could see that wet tears stained his dry, paper-thin skin. He felt the wetness with his other and seemed surprised. “Your people are not deserving of such ill treachery, they showed nothing but kindness to all, yet I aided a great evil that caused them great harm.” He bent down and kissed her hand, then he dropped it and turned away from her and whispered, “please forgive me.”
Nar’Allia looked at him, pity was in her mind. She wanted to know more, wanted to hear his story. But he wouldn’t say more. All he would say was, “If I had the courage, all of this could have been avoided.” Then he waived them away. “Go! Go now. I will program the maintainer to escort you out of the facility.”
At this he left the small room and shuffled across to Tidbit, the caretaker machine was still reversed against a receptacle on the wall of the chamber and now lay there humming gently to itself. The old man walked over to where Tidbit lay and opened a small flap in the top of his head. He took out something small and square and reaching into his filthy robes took out a small leather pouch which he opened several times. He placed whatever he had retrieved from Tidbit's head into a small pocket within the pouch and ran his finger down a line of similar pockets until he selected a similar small device which he placed into Tidbit’s head.
The old man closed the flap and stood back. “When I was first left here I reprogrammed this chip, it was going to be my escape plan. But I waited here too long, waited for her to return. Then the years took hold and my waiting was forgotten and I became too old to use the chip.” He gestured towards Tidbit. “It will finish recharging itself soon, follow the machine when it wakes, it will take you to an exit to the world above. But I warn you, follow the machine quickly, do not linger. Do you understand?” The old man looked at them, they stood there in surprise. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” He shouted at them. Nar’Allia nodded, he then turned and walked away down the hall where he stopped at a panel of buttons and moving lights. He continued to push buttons and moved levers until he was satisfied he then went on to another similar panel and repeated much the same actions here. This he repeated at many such panels along the hall. Eventually he then went back to his room and closed the door. Nar’Allia heard a click as if a lock had been turned, she went across to the window that looked into the old man’s room, she brushed years of grime from the glass and could see that the old man had laid down on the cot. She wondered at this for hadn’t he told them that he had no use for sleep or rest?
Nar’Allia wandered back to where her companions sat around waiting. She sat also mulling over what the old man had told them. She wondered at the familiarity towards the T’Iea that the old man exhibited. He had obviously had dealings with her race before he had said that one of them had saved him, broken her vows? Then JDC suspected that the Pnook people had helped to create the control rooms and most probably more, their imprint was all over the technology housed within this facility. The old man had chips, Pnook biplextor devices he placed into TidBit, she had seen him do so.
Jonas had been deep in thought throughout this conversation. But suddenly he said, “the old man. do you think that the people he called the combined races were trying to take control somehow?”
Amndo shook his head, “I don’t know, something happened here though, something lost in the past. I think it was the evil one that he spoke of, the manipulative being that placed the arcane energy that this place holds. The power generated within this place is far more than what is required to run a city of this size. There must have been a reason behind this.”
They waited in silence. Suddenly something occurred to Nar’Allia. The oppressiveness she felt on entering this vast chamber. It was gone. She tried to remember when this first happened, the feeling had been supressed whilst her mind was set on other things, talking to the old A’kath, mulling over what he had told them. But try as she might she could not pinpoint a time when the feeling had left her. It was only now when they were quiet that she had suddenly realised it had gone. She shrugged.
Before she could think any longer on the subject, she was aware of a movement close by. Sure enough Tidbit had awoken and disengaged himself from the recharge receptacle and started to make his way from the room. The company were brought back from their thoughts and followed. Nar’Allia glanced in the direction of the old man’s room, she could see him through the glass panel, he was still lying down on the metal cot, his conduit staff lay across his chest, held there tightly in both of his hands.