by Karl Beecher
He handed it over, and Tyresa scanned the paper. "Okay, good. But this is a trail. Where exactly is the starting point?"
Colin shrugged and thought of the riddle again. "The gods lived at the top of Mount Olympus, if that helps."
"Maybe," she said. "Then perhaps we should follow these starting from the mountain's peak?"
Ade agreed. It seemed the best idea to start with.
Tyresa smiled at Colin. "You want to go check it out?"
She turned back towards the console and began pressing buttons.
"Erm…" Colin demurred. "Do you mean right now?"
"Yeah, why not? We're in the neighbourhood after all."
He hadn't expected her to jump straight onto the opportunity. It never occurred to him that going to Mars might be considered akin to a quick stroll. "How long will it take? And what about the Transhackers?"
"We'll just take a few scans from orbit," she replied. "See if anything jumps out at us."
Colin stood at her shoulder, umming and ahing. A casual jaunt to Mars didn't sound like the sort of thing he should be doing right now. To be honest, he had the feeling that something was seriously wrong with him.
14
Once in Mars orbit, Tyresa matched the coordinates relative to Mount Olympus's peak. Intriguingly, they pointed to a lonely crater in the side of the great mountain, one that appeared oddly artificial.
A sensor scan of the area revealed a faint magnetic field. It was barely detectable and extremely localised, the sort of thing a passing ship could easily overlook. Still, it was there and seemed unusual enough for Tyresa to get excited.
She located an alcove in the crater perfect for hiding the Turtle. That meant, she excitedly announced, they could go down and take a closer look, safe from any prying eyes.
"Me and my big mouth," Colin muttered in reply.
Once the ship landed, Tyresa and Colin argued about leaving the ship. Since he seemed so unwell, she wanted him to stay in sickbay. Colin remained adamant that he was well enough to join her. He didn't honestly believe that, but figured he'd rather not be alone if he suddenly took a turn for the worst. In the end, Tyresa just shrugged, and both donned their survival suits before disembarking onto the surface with Ade.
Colin was surprised by how significant it felt to step out of the ship. This wasn't his first alien planet by now, but—despite their own peculiarities—the other worlds he'd visited had felt quite similar to Earth. Mars was different. Its surface was barren, rusty brown soil as far as the eye could see. Boulders littered the landscape, unmoved for millions of years. The sky was a shade of orange-brown he'd never witnessed before. The negligible atmosphere meant everything was utterly and starkly quiet. This was truly an alien planet.
Tyresa and Ade spent no time taking in the view. For them, this was just another dead rock in space, albeit a refreshingly peaceful one without hurricane winds, lightning storms or, worst of all, rival archaeologists. They set up a digging machine to scoop away at the soil. The machine flung the dirt aside at a furious rate, carving a two-metre tall crevice into a steep slope where Tyresa's scope had earlier identified ‘something' below the surface. Tantalisingly, the scope couldn't identify what it was, just that a small patch behind the soil was far denser than the surrounding rock.
An hour and several cubic metres of soil later, the three of them were standing before something unbelievable. The digger had revealed a perfectly cut square of jet black material, darker than night and set into the bedrock of the mountain. Outwardly, it resembled a kind of smooth igneous rock, like obsidian. However, chemical analysis claimed it to be more metallic than mineral.
Tyresa could barely contain her reaction, whooping and jumping literally eight feet into the air on account of the reduced gravity. After composing herself, she explained her reaction to Colin.
"I've found this substance before," she raved, "but only ever in situ with artifacts left behind by the Predecessors."
Tyresa had told him about the Predecessors before, that mysterious alien race that had inexplicably disappeared long ago.
"It's strange stuff, really hard to analyse because we only ever find it in tiny fragments. But now I've got a whole block of the stuff! If this is Predecessor, it must easily be the most complete find in history."
A little bemused by her overzealous display, it fell to Colin to burst the bubble of the moment.
"So what do we do with it?"
The question brought Tyresa back down to Mars. The artifact was, by all accounts, a roughly two-metre square block stuck in the side of a mountain. There seemed no realistic way to move it, certainly not within their slim schedule. Its purpose or function, assuming it had any, remained unknown.
"Well," she grumbled, "I suppose we could take some readings and cover it up again. We'll come back again better prepared."
The minutes went by as Tyresa and Ade performed various tests and analyses. Colin, feeling weak as a kitten, perched himself on a nearby rock and watched them. The two figures grew fuzzier in his vision as a feeling of faintness and nausea overtook him.
The sun slowly rolled around the sky as time passed. Soon enough, the black block, which had lingered in shadow since being revealed, experienced sunlight falling upon its surface for the first time in untold centuries.
As it did, Colin heard a growing, crackling sound.
"What's that?" asked Tyresa.
Colin felt relieved. For a moment, he'd thought it was another symptom.
Tyresa check her scope. "Interference on my helmet speakers coming from somewhere. Can't pinpoint it. Ade?"
"Insufficient data, ma'am," he replied.
As more sunlight covered the block, the intensity of the crackling grew until it became a high-pitched electronic scream. Just as the sound became unbearable, it suddenly ceased. At precisely the same time, the ground around them began to rumble.
Ade was the first to see it.
"Look, ma'am," he said. "It's moving."
He was right. The great block was sinking into the ground, moving aside like a door to reveal a dark tunnel into the mountain behind it. Colin rose to his feet, transfixed by the spectacle. Eventually, the block disappeared, and the rumbling ceased. The tunnel stretched off into the inky black distance
Tyresa stepped gingerly forward and looked into the opening. She scanned it with her scope.
"Well?" said Colin.
Tyresa shook her head. "Nothing. Just a tunnel. I can't detect anything out of the ordinary."
"Nothing out of the ordinary?" he said incredulously. "An automatic sliding door in the side of a mountain on Mars? What would be out of the ordinary, a shopping mall on the other side?"
"Apart from that, obviously. I mean the tunnel is just ordinary rock. The door, however…how did we open it?" She paused and looked around, before finally peering at the sky. "Or maybe we didn't. The opening coincided with the sun shining on it. That might have been the trigger."
"Okay," said Colin. "What now?"
She holstered her scanner and switched on her shoulder-mounted lamps.
"W-wait," he stammered. "You want to go in there?"
"Sure. You coming with us?"
Tyresa didn't wait for an answer. She led on cautiously into the passageway, and Ade dutifully followed. Colin let out a sigh. He was going to regret this; he just knew it.
The three edged further into the mountain, the light from their lamps illuminating the rocky, brown walls. The tunnel appeared to be perfectly square and smooth, as though cut by unnatural means. Colin clung onto the wall for support as he brought up the rear. He glanced backwards longingly at the entrance as it grew smaller and smaller behind them. Ahead still lay the purest darkness. He felt ready to puke. Please not now, inside his helmet.
After about thirty metres or so, the rumbling started again. To his horror, Colin saw the square of light shrinking as the doorway closed. It was happening too fast to get back out in time. He yelled out in horror, but Tyresa obstinately refused to d
o the sensible thing and join in with the panicking.
The doorway shut with an echoing thud.
For a moment, nothing happened. They just stood there in a tiny island of light among an infinity of blackness. But then, a hissing sound broke out. At first, Tyresa cursed the interference on her speakers again, but Ade reported hearing it also. She looked at her scope once more.
"The room is filling up with gas," she said.
"Gas!" exclaimed Colin. He began marching up and down in panic. "They're trying to poison us! What are we going to do?"
"Will you relax?" bellowed Tyresa. "You're wearing a survival suit for shit's sake."
"I know," replied Colin. "But they're still trying to kill us. That means they want us dead. What else will they—"
"It's not poison, you dummy," said Tyresa. She held up the scope towards him, as though he had any hope of discerning the blurred figures on the little screen. "It's good gas. Four parts nitrogen and one part oxygen. Air. The tunnel is being filled with breathable air."
"Oh," said Colin.
The hissing noise died away.
"Amazing," she said, looking at the scope. "It's levelling off at exactly one atmosphere of pressure."
She and Ade exchanged glances. Tyresa shrugged at him as though he'd asked a silent question, then she grabbed the lever on her helmet.
"What are you doing?" asked Colin. "Are you mad?"
She pulled back the glass of her visor and breathed in. She didn't turn purple or explode or whatever happens when you try breathing in a vacuum. She just smiled.
After some persuasion, Colin opened his own visor. It was air, all right. Cold, breathable, even slightly sweet-smelling, as though their unseen hosts had thoughtfully let off a little fragrance.
Then, the tunnel grew steadily brighter. From somewhere—nobody could quite work out where—a golden light spread out and covered the tunnel in a warm glow. It revealed that they were standing just a few steps from the entranceway to a large room, which was also bathed in the soothing radiance.
Tyresa led the others into a chamber roughly the size and shape of a large, fancy dining room. Colin followed but then leaned against a wall when his legs threatened to give out.
At the centre of the room stood a most remarkable object. An obelisk-shaped column, about two metres tall and made of the same jet black material as the door. It had no other feature, no discernible function.
Fascinating as it was, it held little interest for Colin. He was debating whether or not to finally confess he needed help. Dark spots appeared in his vision, and he could barely hear anything over the pounding of his own heartbeat.
"Trey-sha," he mumbled, trying to speak her name.
Tyresa didn't hear. She was too busy scanning the artifact.
He let go of the wall and tried shuffling closer to her. She was now a blurry shadow in his rapidly darkening vision.
"Trey-sha," he said again.
The shadow finally turned around. "Colin?" it said. "What's wrong?"
"I…I…"
He couldn't answer. Forming words was no longer in his power. He put all his effort into staying on his feet, trying to reach Tyresa, but his sense of balance failed. As he stumbled forward, he skirted past the dark figure of Tyresa and tumbled towards something much more towering.
"Colin, watch out!"
He crashed headfirst into the monument. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around it, then sank to the ground.
Immediately, something strange happened.
First came a flash of white light. Colin's eyes automatically snapped shut, but it made no difference. Eyes closed or not, his vision was suffused with a bright aura.
Then came an eerie sound, like distorted, high-pitched choral singing. It seemed to be coming from every direction at once.
He panicked. He wanted to move, but his body had gone suddenly and utterly numb. His arms and legs wouldn't answer his commands.
The room was still visible through the shimmying glow. Tyresa and Ade were there but appeared to be moving in extreme slow motion. Tyresa ‘ran' towards him with the velocity of a snail.
Meanwhile, the light around him grew more intense until it obscured everything else around him. Eventually, he saw nothing but white. Then, at its greatest intensity, the choral sounds melted away. A sensation of calmness descended upon him from head to toe. It was wonderful, like a showerhead spraying liquid serenity onto him.
Soon enough, he felt totally peaceful. His heart began beating gently once again, its pace growing slower and slower until the rhythm dissolved away.
Then the light faded. At first, it appeared to leave behind nothing but blackness, but then stars appeared in the distance. In every direction were pinpricks of light, thousands of them, but there was nothing else, not even his own body. He was like some disembodied, floating spirit in space.
The stars began to move, all smoothly in one direction. Slowly at first, then faster and faster as though he were hurtling through space. Soon enough, there were so many streaks of light they filled his vision. The multi-coloured beams fired past quicker than he could register. Still, he felt calm. The beams grew even faster until everything merged into a beautiful collage of every imaginable colour.
Oh my god, thought Colin.
Am I…?
Am I…dying?
In the distance, against the wall of colours, a shape began to take form. The dark outline morphed from a nebulous cloud into a figure. It was a person, hovering towards Colin but still too dark to make out features.
Was it God welcoming him to heaven?
Light cast onto the figure, illuminating its clothing: a plain, khaki-coloured army uniform. Presumably, not God. Perhaps he was instead about to be reunited with a loved one. Colin tried to recall anyone he knew who'd been a soldier. He couldn't.
Finally, the light reached the figure's head, revealing a moustachioed face. For a moment, he didn't recognise the man, but that was because he was searching the wrong part of his memory.
Then it hit him.
Was that…?
No, it couldn't be.
Actually, yes it was.
It was…
It was…
Alec Guinness?!
"Hello there," said Alec Guinness with a kindly smile.
Colin was at a loss over how to react. It was quite unmistakeably Alec Guinness wearing the costume of one of his most famous roles: Colonel Nicholson from Bridge on the River Kwai. Colin absorbed the spectacle of the long-dead thespian floating inside an interstellar star show and tried to think of a suitable response.
"Oh, hello," he quavered. "Erm…fancy meeting you here."
"Don't be afraid, Colin Douglass," continued Alec Guinness. "You're quite safe."
"You know my name?"
"Yes. At this very moment, I can see into your mind. Your knowledge, your memories, your personality are all laid bare to me."
"Is this heaven?" asked Colin. "Am I dead?"
"Oh, you're not dead," said Alec Guinness. "In reality, your body remains alive and well where it was. We have simply joined with your mind. This figure you see before you is merely an avatar, chosen from your own memories as a comforting interface during our dialogue."
Alec Guinness? Why on earth had they—whoever they were—chosen Alec Guinness of all people?
"Who are you?" he asked.
"All will become clear," the avatar replied. "We wish only to—"
He stopped. The pleasant expression dropped from Alec Guinness's face. He looked around, as though a far off sound were irritating him.
"Oh, dear," he said. "Something appears to have gone wrong."
"Gone wrong?"
The avatar looked troubled. "Hmm," he said as a shadow fell upon his face. "I'm afraid we are losing our connection."
Losing their connection? What was this, a phone call?
The darkening figure began to retreat and lose its form. The shimmering wall of colours that encapsulated them both began to dim.
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"What do you mean?" asked Colin. "What connection? I don't even know who you are. Or what you want from me. Tell me!"
But Alec Guinness was transforming back into a formless black shadow. "Our apologies, Colin Douglass," he said in a fading, distorted voice.
"Have you driven into a tunnel, perhaps?" yelled Colin. "Shall I wait? Shall we try restarting the call?"
"Don't fret," came the weakening voice. "We think we see an alternative. We shall endeavour to—"
But the voice trailed off as the shadow finally dissolved into nothingness. All around, the fading lights evaporated, leaving nothing but blackness.
Colin's perception faded until he could feel no more.
15
Colin woke with a start.
"Alec Guinness!" he blurted out. "Alec?"
He sat up, but a pair of hands took firm hold of his shoulders and rolled him onto his back. The hands were pale. They were Ade's.
Colin looked into the android's dark eyes, confused. "Where's Alec Guinness?"
"Alec Guinness, sir?" replied Ade. "Who might that be?"
Colin hesitated. Gradually, the feeling of reality dawned on him. This was no longer some psychedelic starfield. It wasn't even a rocky tomb anymore. He was surrounded by the sterile walls and sleek machinery of the Turtle's sickbay.
"Oh, nobody," he muttered, still bewildered by the vividness of his dream. "We're back on the ship?"
"Nothing gets past you, huh?" came a voice from beside him.
He knew that sarcastic voice. He might even have been glad to hear it for once.
He turned towards Tyresa. "How did I get here? I don't remember leaving that cave."
"You don't?" Tyresa paused before asking her next question. "Do you…remember your name?"
"My name? What a silly question. Colin Douglass, obviously."
"You're sure?"
"Well, I could check my driving license, but I left it on Earth two thousand years ago I'm afraid."
"Just checking," she said. "You seem very alert. Very responsive. How do you feel?"
Colin shrugged. "I've never felt bet—" He stopped. His memory of the last few days came back to him: the sickness, the fainting, the serious lapses of memory. The contrast to now was stark. "I've never felt better. Fancy that! I suppose the after-effects of surgery have finally worn off, right?"