Enslavement

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  They were about to enter another tower to see if it was any different, when Ted said, “I've got a sort of tingling sensation - as though I've been in the sun for too long.”

  “So have I, come to mention it,” Brodrick replied. “I don't like the sound of that. May be it's got something to do with the lack of population, in which case we'd better get the hell out of it.” They both turned to retrace their steps back to the teleport, Ted reading out directions from his notes as they went along.

  “Just had a thought,” said Brodrick, “could be the aliens upset another race superior to them, and they got a dose of their own medicine back, or they're using broadcast power - and it's gone wrong. Something odd is going on. I noticed a sort of humming sound when we arrived - put it down to insects, but I haven't seen any - have you?”

  “Nope,” Ted replied, “and that sunburn feeling is getting stronger.”

  “That could be psychological,” Brodrick replied, “because you feel under threat - anyway, we're not hanging around to find out - it's time we left.”

  As they passed the tower where the alien had fallen down, they noticed its body was no longer present.

  Hurrying between the buildings which ringed the grassy area on which the teleport stood, a voice rang out - loud and clear - but unintelligible. They both turned around to see where it came from, and there stood a two and a half metre tall figure dressed in deep purple, and wearing goggles, pointing in their direction. As they stood transfixed to the spot, the figure raised a silver coloured rod, and pointed it at them. A pulse of brilliant light left the rod and blasted a piece of the stone work out of the building behind them. In one swift seamless motion Brodrick un-slung his rifle and brought it up to the aiming position. A sharp crack, and a fraction of a second later the purple clad figure fell backwards, a neat hole through its head, just above the goggles.

  They both broke into a sprint across the grassy patch, and into the teleport. As soon as the door had slid to, Brodrick hit the knob - the mist came and went - and they were back on the desert world, and it was night.

  “That was about as close as I want to get to one of those bloody aliens,” Brodrick said at last, “it didn't even give us a chance to explain ourselves.”

  They both sat, trembling slightly, for some minutes before either spoke again.

  “I think we should wait until it's light before we go outside,” Ted said.

  “Why do you want to go outside?” Brodrick asked. “We've done this place - nothing to see but desert - it's time we headed home. There's only one symbol left we haven't tried, and that is the one we thought was where the alien went, and it certainly wasn't its home planet. I reckon it went back to Earth for some reason, anyway, it's all we have left - want to try it?”

  “As you say, it's the only option we have.” Ted was getting nervous.

  Brodrick clicked the pointer on to the next position, took a deep breath, and hit the knob.

  CHAPTER 8

  WHEN THE MIST had cleared and the door opened - there was the old familiar stone work of the Maya temple, and they both heaved a big sigh of relief.

  “Looks like dawn's just broken,” said Brodrick. “I know it was exciting, but God, it's good to be back.”

  They both went out into the welcoming light of the rising sun - their sun.

  “Don't know about you,” said Ted, “but I'm bloody starving, let's get a fire going and have a hot meal.” Brodrick nodded and smiled.

  “I reckon that alien is here somewhere,” said Brodrick, as they supped their thick concentrate soup. “And I think we should have a look for it. The setting on the dial says so, anyway.”

  “You just don't give up, do you?” Ted replied, glad to be home, and willing to leave it at that. “I would have thought you would have had enough by now - anyway, after all this time all we'll find is some mouldy old bones - and that's if we're lucky.”

  “OK, I get your point, but this is the only part of the mystery still missing. Think about it, the alien came back, and after giving the Maya a hard time, they weren’t going to be too welcoming. I reckon they bagged it somehow, did it in, and put the body somewhere secure, so it could never get out. Remember, the Maya always keep records of all their doings, so if we study their glyphs and what bit of their script we can decipher, we might find it.” Ted knew when he was beaten, nodding his head in agreement.

  Ted lay out in the warming sun, and drifted off into a well earned sleep Meanwhile Brodrick pored over the old man's book, looking for clues now that he knew what to look for.

  By midday, Ted was refreshed, and Brodrick was eager to begin the search; he reasoned the main temple was the best place to begin. With their torches fully charged, they entered the gloom of the temple's main room.

  “Look out for any glyphs or script which look sharp or new - we can't check everything, it would take a lifetime. It's likely it will be one of the last additions they made, because the whole civilisation went down the pan just after that - according to the records.”

  As the sun clipped the horizon, they were no nearer solving the problem of where the alien lay, and so they retired to the teleport for a night's rest. Next morning it was raining, so they stayed inside the teleport going through the notes they had made from the old man's writings, looking for anything alluding to the alien.

  “There's something here,” said Ted. “The old boy refers to the seven pillars in the main temple - and one interested him more than the others. Something about the top or high eagle, not seen on the other pillars.”

  “They all looked the same when I checked them out,” Brodrick replied, “maybe I missed something. We'll check it out again when this rain stops.”

  By midday, the clouds had cleared, and the sun soon dried the paving around the temple complex. Armed with their notes, the old man's book, and torches fully charged, they entered the temple.

  “Well, there's the seven pillars, and they all look the same to me,” Brodrick stated. “So where's the one with the eagle on it?”

  “Perhaps if we shine our torches at an angle, something might show up,” suggested Ted. “The difference might be quite subtle.”

  They went around the pillars again, but nothing unusual was revealed, until Ted came up with the idea of each shining their torch from either side of the column.

  “Hey - we've got something here,” Brodrick said, excitedly. “Look at the top of the column, as I move my torch, there's the outline of a bird's head among the other designs. This must be it! What do the notes say?”

  “Not a lot, really,” said Ted, “just a list of symbols and what they might mean, but there are several words for each symbol. Try moving our torches down the column, something else might be hidden there.”

  After several frustrating minutes, they had found more hazy symbols, and began comparing them to the notes in the old book. They made a list of all the meanings of each symbol discovered vertically down the column, and then began the task of choosing words which made sense when put together.

  “I think this might make sense,” said Brodrick. “Reading down from the top we have ‘bird, eagle’ - then ‘under and below’, followed by ‘God, spirit or king’, and then ‘sleeps, rests and safe’. So, below this column ‘rests the God’. Makes sense to me.”

  The column was about three metres high and about one metre wide, and made of solid stone.

  “It must weigh a ton or so,” Ted said, disappointedly, “how the hell can we shift that?”

  “It's up against the wall, but there's a tiny gap there,” said Brodrick, “and if we can get a wedge into the gap, we might be able to prise it away from the wall - and then it's just a matter of levering it clear.”

  Armed with his machete, Brodrick went down the steps of the temple and into the jungle below. He cut several wedges from the hardest wood he could find, some flat strips to help the wedges drive home, and two long thick poles for levering the column to one side - once they had made enough room to get the poles in.


  “Right, we're ready to have a go,” Brodrick said, out of breath after his long climb up the steps carrying the timbers. “See if you can find a large stone to use as a hammer.”

  They had to whittle the first wedge down to a wafer thin edge to get it between the column and the wall, and then the hammering began. With the first wedge nearly home, the two flat pieces of wood were placed in the gap, and the next wedge slipped in between them. After taking it in turns to hammer, the second wedge was in as far as they could get it, with just enough room to get the levering poles in place. Then they had to repeat the whole process on the other side of the column, so that they could get the poles in there to.

  “This is going to take some muscle,” Brodrick said, surveying the scene, “so let's take a little rest and some grub - we're going to need it.”

  Ten minutes later, the pair rammed the poles into the gap they had created, and heaved for all they were worth. The poles bent, almost to the point of snapping, and then the column grudgingly moved a few centimetres. Ramming a piece of rock into the gap they had made, the poles were inserted into the other side of the column, and the whole action was repeated.

  They stood back to survey their handiwork, when Brodrick spotted something.

  “I think we've found what we're looking for,” he said excitedly. “There's an opening behind the column - black as pitch, and not very wide, but I reckon we could just about squeeze in.”

  Having got the column away from the wall, they now had to move it off to one side, and by the time they had achieved this, they were both exhausted.

  “OK, I reckon that was a good day's work,” Brodrick announced, straightening his back. “And I think it may be wise to wait until tomorrow before we go into that hole, there's no telling what's down there.” Ted agreed, with the usual nod.

  With a fire cheerily blazing away just outside the teleport entrance, the pair sat down on their backpacks eating their concentrate soup, followed by the apple-like fruit they had collected earlier, and discussed the day's happenings.

  Sleep was long coming that night, what with the anticipation of what might happen tomorrow, and the howls, grunts and screams of the jungle's night life, going about its nocturnal business.

  They were up and about just as dawn broke - the usual meal plus a cup of hot black coffee set the pair up for the day's excursion into the hidden entrails of the Mayan temple - and the final piece of the alien puzzle.

  Taking their packs with them, they entered the gloom of the temple and stood staring for some minutes at the black hole before them.

  “I think proceed with extreme caution,” Brodrick said. “Obviously this place has been constructed with security in mind, so there might be some booby traps installed - don't want to permanently join the alien.” He added, with a chuckle.

  With Brodrick leading the way, the pair squeezed into the hole, along a short passage, and then down some steps. At the bottom, the passage had widened out to form a square room of some twelve metres. The walls were covered with glyphs and symbols, but different to any they had found in the old man's book, or up in the temple.

  “Not much point in trying to decipher this lot,” said Brodrick, looking around the chamber, “we've got nothing to go on, but we'd better look just in case.”

  They walked slowly around the walls, scrutinising the strange markings for anything they could decipher, but there was nothing which made any sense. But there was one carving a little different to the rest, and Brodrick ran his hand over it to see if anything moved - and it did; a long thin carved face moved back into the wall a couple of centimetres, followed by a distinct click. As nothing else happened, Brodrick stepped back to get an overall view of the wall, when the section of floor he was standing on dropped three centimetres or so, and he froze.

  “I think you'd better get off that,” said Ted, nervously, “the bloody thing might go down to God knows where.”

  As he stepped off the sunken square, it slowly moved up again - level with the rest of the floor, with no sign it had ever moved.

  “Take my hand, and be ready to yank me back if it drops more than before,” Brodrick said, “something should have happened, so I'll try again.”

  He stepped onto the square, and it went down to the same level as before, but nothing else happened.

  “I think it might be a weight thing,” he said, “pass the backpacks over.”

  One pack added to Brodrick's weight did nothing, but the second one caused the square to drop just a fraction, and a section of the opposite wall swung back revealing another chamber beyond. He got off the square, retrieved the backpacks, and stood, smiling at Ted - and as the floor returned to its former position, the wall swung back into place, cutting off their view to the chamber. Brodrick swore.

  “We'll have to bring down some of the heavy stones from above to simulate our weight,” he said. “What a bloody chore.”

  With the stones piled up on the floor section, it dropped to its former level, and the chamber door opened again.

  “We need something to jam that door open before we go in, just in case anything goes wrong” he said, “don't want to get locked in there for ever. Pop up and bring those poles down please.”

  With the poles in place holding the door open, they both entered the inner chamber, and there before them was a large stone sarcophagus, raised on six short stone legs.

  “There's a sun symbol on the lid,” said Ted, “that's their most powerful sign, so there must be something of value inside.”

  It took them both to get the lid unstuck, but once they had done so, it moved quite easily, and they were surprised how light it was, lifting it off the long box-like shape beneath. Two torches shone their bright beams onto the contents of the sarcophagus, the light bouncing back from thousands of copper coloured nodules.

  “This can't be right,” said a disappointed Brodrick, “I know copper was valuable to the Maya, but not to go to this length to keep it safe.”

  “Are you sure it's copper?” Ted asked.

  “Yes, I recognise it. Sometimes you can find nodules of pure copper - it's fairly rare these days, but it does exist. All this bloody trouble for a load of copper - it doesn't add up.”

  Brodrick ran his hand through the surface layer of the nodules when a finger caught on something. He scraped the lumps of glistening copper away to reveal a long hooked parchment covered nose - and beneath that the mummified face of the alien. Brodrick jumped back, nearly knocking Ted off his feet.

  “Well, we've found it,” Ted's voice trembled just a little. “Now what do we do?”

  They stood in shocked silence for some minutes, until finally Brodrick stepped forward and began moving the copper nodules away from the alien's head.

  “My God, it's an ugly sod,” he said at last, “no wonder the Mays were terrified of it, even without it's super powers, it must have been something to behold.”

  Ted leaned forward nervously to look at the Maya's nemesis, while Brodrick was furiously clearing the nodules away from the mummified corpse to expose the now familiar deep purple robe.

  “Hey look,” Ted said in a hushed tone, “there's something silvery sticking up from its chest.”

  The end of a blade, the tip bent slightly from probably hitting a bone, glinted in the light from their torches.

  “Some brave soul must have rammed that knife home from behind,” Brodrick stated. “They must have been desperate, and brave.”

  “Why the copper nodules?” Ted asked. “I don't see the significance of that.”

  “Raw copper isn't all that common, and I suppose the Maya put a high value on it - probably one of their most treasured possessions, apart from gold, so they may have thought it might hold the alien's spirit in the sarcophagus, so that it didn't get out and cause them more trouble.”

  “So what do we do now?” Ted asked. “Do we tell the world what we've found?”

  “Don't see why not, it'll shake up a few academics - and maybe advance our sciences s
omewhat, that's if they can figure out how all this stuff works - looking forward to it though.”

  After carefully photographing everything for the records, and for no other reason than they thought it the right thing to do, they replaced the disturbed copper nodules around the supine alien, and closed the lid of the sarcophagus before leaving the burial chamber. As the stones holding the floor down were removed and piled up in a corner for future use, the chamber door shut.

  As they reached the main temple, it was debated as to whether they would lever the pillar back into position, concealing the entrance to the burial chamber below; but recalling the amount of effort needed to move it in the first place, Brodrick decided to leave it where it was.

  Back at the teleport building, they prepared and ate a meal to celebrate a successful expedition, and when Ted announced that there were not many concentrate bars left, it was decided to return to civilisation with their findings.

  “You know,” said Brodrick, “I still find it incredible that the aliens could hold so much power over all those worlds, and make the population do their bidding - but why go mad and destroy the very civilizations which supplied them with what they wanted?”

  “Perhaps they became mentally unstable themselves,” Ted suggested, “they did some dreadful things - maybe they just flipped and got really vengeful. It all happened a long time ago, and we only saw a token one or two of them left on their home planet when we left it; there may have been others, but I reckon their civilization was on its last legs too.”

  After the meal, the backpacks were checked to make sure nothing was left behind, and they set off down the mighty steps of the temple to the jungle below.

  At the base of the steps, on each side, was a large square block, on top of which stood a massive carving of some mythical creature. In one of the blocks, a dark hole took their attention, and Ted went over to it.