Enslavement

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  “Looks to me,” said Brodrick, pensively, “that someone or something has tried to encase the teleport in a cage, probably to stop the alien from getting at them. Doesn't look as if it worked though; a lot of heat or extreme force must have been used to cause this mess.” As usual, Ted nodded his assent, adding, “It must have been some time ago, look how these vines and things have grown up around the metalwork.”

  They were in a shallow valley, with hills rolling off into the hazy distance; and this time the sun looked more normal compared to what they had experienced in the past.

  “No sign of life, as we know it,” remarked Brodrick, as they strode out across the grass covered ground. Although the grass wasn't quite like that of Earth.

  As the valley curved round they saw their first sign of habitation. An aesthetically pleasing large construction of stone stood before them, with a chunk blasted out of one corner.

  As they drew nearer, they could see that the stone had been melted, not just knocked out of place. Close to the building was a metal rail, raised up half a metre from the ground and with no sign of corrosion. A short distance past the main building, just over the brow, was a little cluster of smaller buildings, with another group further down the valley.

  “This looks like a monorail,” said Brodrick, decisively, “which means quite an advanced civilisation. I'll bet the main building is the station for the system, serving those little groups of buildings down the valley. I bet if we follow the rail, we'll come to something like a city, or an industrial complex.”

  “That might be one hell of a way away,” Ted commented, not looking forward to a long hike. “Pity the service isn't still running.”

  “OK, OK, point taken,” Brodrick responded. “Let's see if we can get into the main building - maybe we can get some idea of what these people were like, it doesn't look as if they are around now, so it should be quite safe.”

  A door to rear of the station was open, or to be more precise, forlornly hanging off its hinges; so the pair entered. The ground floor was one big room, with pictures of various scenes attached to the walls, a few tables and chairs, and two long benches along one wall. In one corner, after some careful inspection, was what Brodrick supposed to be a token issuing machine, as several tokens were strewn about the floor in the vicinity. There was a row of buttons with undecipherable script opposite each one he thought might have produced a token, but there was no place to put a purchasing coin, which confused him.

  “Hey, come and look at this,” Ted called out. “I've never seen anything like this, or my eyes are playing me up.”

  Brodrick joined him, staring in disbelief at one of the pictures on the wall.

  “I don't know why, but I gave it a little tap and the damned thing came to life.”

  The tree-like structures in the picture seemed to be gently waving about in an invisible breeze, as were some of the taller grasses. The movement was only very slight, but it was undoubtedly there.

  Brodrick went over to another picture, and tapped it, but nothing happened.

  “Seems like you have the magic touch,” he said dryly. “I'll bear that in mind in future.”

  Pressing the buttons on the token issuing machine did little, apart from a soft click - it had either run out of tokens, or something else had to be done first to produce one.

  Ted found the staircase to the upper quarters behind a door, and called Brodrick.

  “May as well see what's up there,” he said, “maybe that's where the station master lived - if there was one.”

  The first room must have been where the occupants prepared food and ate, as there were a table and chairs, a very strange looking cooking device, and a store cupboard of sorts - which was empty, and a quantity of glass-like dishes of different shapes and sizes. The next room contained what they thought was the sleeping quarters, as a soft square mattress lay on the floor, and a rack for hanging clothes was against one wall. The only garment left hanging was a square of finely woven grey cloth which they thought could be a shawl.

  Next to this room was where ablutions took place; it was small, tiled from floor to ceiling with a flared pipe projecting downwards. In one corner was a funnel shaped structure set into the floor.

  The main room, overlooking the valley, they thought was for relaxing after a day's work - it contained two lounging benches, three chairs, a table, and what they took to be a vision screen on one wall.

  Brodrick did his best to bring it to life, but failed.

  “You know, they seem almost human,” said Ted, thoughtfully. “And by the proportions of their furniture, about our size. I wonder if there are any left?”

  “In a way, I hope not,” replied Brodrick. “They may not take kindly to another invasion force - that's how they'll see us.”

  They went down stairs again, and out into the open to explore further, and found a spur line off the main rail leading to one side of the building. A door barred their way in, but Brodrick was not one to be beaten by such, and after a struggle and several profanities, got it open.

  Inside the storage compartment, sitting on the monorail, was a small platform with a seat. A barely audible hum could be heard, and Brodrick put this down to the magnetic field which kept the platform suspended above the rail.

  “I wonder if the power's still on,” he said, giving the platform a gentle push. “It could be our means of transport - it moved a bit then.”

  Ted looked a bit more than apprehensive, and stepped back a pace from the hovering device.

  “Let's get it out into the open,” Brodrick said, eagerly, “it may work, and will save us a lot of leg work.”

  “Where do you intend to go?” asked a hesitant Ted, thinking the worst. “We don't know how far the next station is, or what we'll find there.”

  With the floating platform out of its parking compartment, Brodrick climbed aboard, and eventually coaxed Ted to join him. There was just enough room for two, so Brodrick thought it was only meant for one - in comfort.

  “Well? Now what?” Ted asked, relieved that the platform just stayed put.

  Brodrick found a small lever down beside his end of the seat, and moved it forward a small amount. The platform silently slid forward, increasing speed as Brodrick edged the lever further.

  “I'll just see if it will go in reverse,” he said, pulling the lever back.

  It did - suddenly, and they were nearly catapulted off with the sudden reversal of direction, the whole platform swivelling around to face the other way.

  “My God, this thing's sensitive,” he proclaimed, turning to Ted. “You want a go?”

  “No thanks, I'll just concentrate on hanging on,” Ted replied, getting a firm grip on the seat with both hands.

  Brodrick edged the lever forward again, and without a sound, the platform sped off down the line, with their hair blowing in the slip stream.

  “How far do you intend going,” shouted Ted, as Brodrick increased speed. “We have no idea where this thing will take us, or if we can get back.”

  “Until we find something interesting,” Brodrick replied. “And as for getting back - we reversed it just now - it seems to work.”

  The platform with its two riders, suddenly banked to one side as they went into a long curve, and then ahead of them was a solid wall of rock with a dark uninviting hole. The monorail disappeared into the darkness, as did the travellers, with a “way-hay” from Brodrick, who was enjoying the journey.

  A faint light appeared ahead, growing in intensity as the platform raced on to suddenly burst out into brilliant sunlight again. Ahead was a deep gorge of some three hundred metres, with the monorail bridging the gap mounted on slender pillars from the ground, below.

  Ted almost fainted when he looked down and let out a yelp, before tightening his grip on the seat; and then they were back on solid ground. The monorail curved around again, and before them was the city - or what was left of it.

  At one time it had been a magnificent place; tall towers gracefully reac
hing for the sky, with domed buildings interspersed between them. A grid-like road network indicated a lot of forward planning, bringing the whole city into one carefully coordinated whole. Now the towers had lost their tops, just jagged edges where some mighty weapon had ripped into them. Some of the smaller buildings still retained some semblance of their former glory, but most had been reduced to rubble.

  “My God,” exclaimed Brodrick, “what the hell could have done that?” Ted just sat, open mouthed.

  The monorail wound down to the outskirts of the ruined city, passing through what they thought had been an industrial area, although there was little left to indicate what had been produced.

  After passing through about two kilometres of devastation, the platform slowly drew into the main station, and stopped. The roof, if there had been one, was missing, along with any walls over five metres tall. The pair dismounted, and left the remains of the transport station to see if any buildings had survived intact.

  They turned down a side street and found a building which seemed to be untouched by the holocaust. Ted tried the door, and to their surprise, it opened.

  “You know, these people can't have been all that different to us,” Brodrick said, looking around the first room. “They are about the same height, have tables and chairs, bookcases, and more or less the same table ware; I'll have a look at some of these books to see if I can find a picture of them.”

  While Brodrick went through some of the books, Ted returned from having visited upstairs.

  “Apart from having their beds on the floor, I'd say they are very like us,” Ted said, “even their clothes aren’t that much different.”

  “I know,” Brodrick replied, “I've just found a picture of a group of them - their heads are a little odd, but apart from that, you could loose one in a crowd without too much trouble. Wonder what happened to them, I've seen no bodies lying around, not even a skeleton.”

  They went through the house looking for clues to the massive attack they had suffered, but there were none.

  Several other small buildings were searched for information, the larger ones having been reduced to rubble.

  “Looks like the people just up and left,” Brodrick commented. “With all this destruction you'd think there'd be a few bones lying about, but there's not one.”

  They wandered on through the ruined city, peering in through the gaping holes which were once windows to huge shopping centres, marvelling at their contents scattered about on the floors.

  Following the main road which ran through the centre of the city, they left the built up area behind them, and were soon out in open country. The road carried on up a slight incline with untended fields on either side, but what the crops had been they were unable to tell, as the plants which had survived may have reverted to their original form, and were unrecognisable anyway.

  At the top of the slope the road ended, and the ground dropped away in a sheer cliff to the valley below.

  “Funny place to put a road,” Ted said. “It leads nowhere, except the cliff edge, and that doesn't seem right somehow.”

  So far, they had only looked out at the distant rolling hills with their forested tops, neither had looked down to see what lay below. And then Brodrick did.

  “Oh my God.” He exclaimed.

  Below lay an enormous heap of round white stones and thick and thin sticks, and even as they watched one of the white balls rolled off the heap to bounce along the green grass, and then lie still.

  “Well, that answers one question,” said Brodrick, after what seemed like several minutes. “How they got there poses another one.”

  They moved along the cliff edge to get a better view of the strange scene below, and seen from a different angle Brodrick concluded what might have happened.

  “Whoever wrecked that city had massive fire power, and I think what might have happened here is that they somehow sheered away part of the hill top making the huge trench below. The inhabitants were then herded up here, maybe using hypnotism or something like it, and the poor sods were sent over the edge. There must be countless thousands of them down there.”

  “Why any race would do that to another beats the crap out of me,” said a stunned Ted. “What's the point of it? Why kill everyone? I think these aliens were more barbaric than we ever gave them credit for.”

  They left the scene of carnage and returned down the road to the ruined city, Ted shaking his head every now and again in disbelief of what he had seen.

  “I don't think there's anything else for us here,” Brodrick said, “so we may as well see what's at the other end of the line - if that's OK with you.” Ted nodded.

  They found the monorail station after a while, as the destruction around them made navigating somewhat difficult, and then Brodrick had an idea.

  “Let's see if we can find one of their proper transport machines - we could then travel in comfort.”

  An exploration of the ruined station found a long slim cigar-like carriage still hovering on its rail in a two storey building, the top which had been sheared off.

  “I know we have very strong magnets, based on niobium,” said Brodrick, “but God knows what they use here - it must be immensely powerful - we've got nothing like it. Wonder if we can get it going?”

  They entered the long carriage, found the driver's cabin at the front, and gingerly touched the controls. The two hundred or so seat transport remained motionless, much to Ted's relief, and Brodrick's annoyance.

  “Nothing for it, we'll have to use the good old platform again,” Brodrick said, with a sigh, “at least that works - but I wish I knew how.”

  Huddled together on the seat of the floating maintenance platform, Brodrick eased the lever backwards, the whole device turned around to face the way they had come, and then accelerated away through the city ruins, what they thought was the industrial area, and out into open country.

  As they approached the deep gorge with the monorail perched on its slender pillars, Ted closed his eyes and firmly gripped the seat with both hands - and silently prayed.

  Soon they reached the station where they had first embarked, flew past it, and silently, apart from the wind rushing past their ears, sped off towards their next destination.

  One long dark tunnel, which seemed to go on for ages, had them both worried, and then they were out in bright sunlight again.

  “It's certainly a beautiful world,” commented Ted, as they raced through a thick forest of giant trees. “It seems more than a sin to have destroyed the place - I wouldn't mind living here.”

  They passed several small stations, with their scattered little cluster of dwellings around them, like the first one they had found; Brodrick slowed the platform down as they approached each one, but there was no sign of life.

  Eventually, another city could be seen on the horizon, but the shattered remains of tall towers dampened their spirits as the platform entered the ruins, slowing down and then stopping at the terminus.

  “It looks as if this rail system only joins these two cities together,” said Brodrick. “I wonder why it doesn't go anywhere else - unless there's nowhere else to go - or they had some other form of transport.”

  They left the station, and as before, looked for a dwelling which hadn't been flattened. In amongst the ruins they spotted a medium sized domed building in a small park, seemingly untouched by the attackers. Brodrick eased the main doors open and entered.

  “Come on in,” he called out, “this place is interesting - must be a sort of archive, there are books and charts all over the place.”

  Although the scripts meant nothing to them, there were pictures aplenty, giving some indication of what life must have been like before the alien(s) decided to destroy everything.

  “Hey, look at this,” Ted exclaimed, excitedly, “it looks like a map of their world.”

  A circular map showed a long narrow island surrounded by water, with the two cities clearly shown at each end. There was no indication of other islands, just w
ater with a few small peaks poking up here and there, so they assumed the whole planet was a water world, apart from the main island depicted.

  “I can't find any reference to weapons of any kind - no guns, or means of attacking anything,” Brodrick said. “I think they must have been a peaceful race, so why destroy them all? It doesn't make sense - the aliens must have got something they needed from these people, so why not just persuade them to produce it - it's stupid and barbaric to wipe the whole bloody lot out.”

  “Perhaps they don't think like us,” Ted answered. “Or maybe they did it as an example of what happens if you don't comply.”

  “That doesn't make any sense either,” Brodrick countered. “They have now effectively cut off their supply of whatever it was they needed, and as there is no one left, just who were they trying to persuade or impress?”

  They gleaned a lot from the pictures and charts found in the old archive, but there was no mention of the alien visitor or what it had demanded. It seemed they were a peaceful and intelligent race, without crime or greed - everything seemed to be going well, with population control, full employment for those who desired it - in short - paradise, as far as Ted and Brodrick were concerned.

  “If I'd been here,” Brodrick announced, “I'd have filled the teleport with explosives and a time delay, and a mechanical gadget to manually push that knob in when the last person had left - and blown the teleport at the aliens end to smithereens - but that's just me. Not being a violent race, they just built a cage around the teleport so that it couldn't be used - and what a price they paid for that.”

  “I don't suppose there's any point in taking a few tools and gadgets back with us?” Ted asked. “We might be able to learn a thing or two from them.”

  “Good idea,” replied Brodrick, “but first let's see if we can understand what they do and how they are powered.”

  It took a while to find an industrial looking building not too badly damaged, but at last they did, and went inside to see what they could find which made any sense.