"It calls something the obscurité de l'intérieur, or something close to that." She glanced through her notes.
"Obscurité de l'intérieur," said Seshadri slowly. "Obscurité can mean simply obscure, or it can mean hidden, false, invisible, or darkness," he said. "De l'intérieur refers to the inner, or within something. Something hidden within?" he asked.
"Like they found that something was hidden in the ruins?" Mason asked.
"Exactly!" he exclaimed. "What else does it say?"
"That's as far as I got," Jane admitted. "But there are pages of notes about the expedition."
"Make it your priority. The rest of you, help where you can."
Almost a week later, Anderson began to argue for the expedition that he had planned in the summer. Word had come from the capitol that the old emperor was dead, and Tebrey would be rejoining them soon. All but a few of the guards left for the capitol.
"James, now is hardly the time," Bauval said for the tenth time.
"Why not? The threat of war is over. We're safe now. The nights are getting longer and colder. Winter will be here soon, and we will not be able to travel. We need to get on the road and explore that installation now, while we have a chance."
"Why is this so important to you?" Bauval demanded. "The commander is on his way back here. Ask him when he arrives. He wanted to go along."
"He's only interested in military applications of discoveries."
"That is his job."
"I'm interested in the science."
"We all are, James. Ramon has discovered interesting things about the early settlers. Why don't you help with that?"
"I'll consider what you've said."
Bauval nodded and left the room. Anderson sat and looked out the window to the northeast. He needed to get to that installation. The others didn't understand. He knew he would find what he was looking for, what he'd always been looking for.
His dreams had been full of wonder.
He'd seen her.
He knew she was waiting for him there in that place.
He couldn't tell the others; they'd want her for themselves. That damn commander would want to interrogate her. He couldn't allow that. She had to be kept safe – she'd told him so. He was going to have to take steps. Steps to insure that he got there first, and that no one could stop him.
He smiled suddenly.
He knew what to do.
He'd leave that very night.
Dr. Seshadri and his team had focused their attention on translating the papers from the old expedition. They had run into unexpected problems with the verbs until they realized some of the text was written in old Earth English. None of the team knew English all that well, and to make matters worse, it was written in the same type of script as the Hindi.
"I keep finding references to the Taskara. I think that is the name the original settlers must have given to the Taelantae," Jane said.
"It means thief," Seshadri said absently. He had been talking with Bauval about the situation with Anderson. Something was the matter with the man. It was more than arrogance; it was bordering on obsession. Seshadri had assured Bauval that whatever Anderson thought he knew, it hadn't come from the texts they were translating.
"That's horrible! The original settlers were just as racist as the current people," Jane said with disgust.
Seshadri smiled at her innocence. "People are people, Jane," he said. "Think of it from the perspective of the colonists. The only world they had known was dying, and they had been taken away from it against their will. Earth in the late twenty-first century was wracked with massive storms. The oceans were polluted; there wasn't enough food. Countries were using forced-labor camps to mine raw materials and manufacture covered cities. There were countless acts of terrorism as fanatical groups sought to sabotage the programs."
"Why would people sabotage something like that? Didn't they know it was the only hope for the species?" Jane asked.
"Not everyone welcomed the idea of living in giant domed cities, even if it was for their own good. Entrance into the cities was by random lottery; often families were forced to separate. Children and older people were left to die. There were far too many people on Earth to save them all, over ten billion. The remainder of the populace was evacuated into inadequate emergency shelters and temporary habitats."
"We aren't told in the undergraduate history classes why that happened, or how people managed to build starships if things were so bad," Douglas said.
"That's because no likes to talk about it," Mason said as she entered the room. "You want to tell them about it, or should I?"
"By all means," Seshadri said.
"What do you know about machine intelligences?"
"Not much," Jane replied. She was obviously confused by the tangent. "They're outlawed in the Federation. It's another of those things no one talks about."
Mason nodded. "Back in the twentieth century, it was postulated that a singularity event was approaching humankind."
"You mean an event beyond which mathematical predictions can't be made, right?" Douglas asked. "I remember reading that, but not understanding it. Surely history is full of events like that."
"Certainly," Mason answered. "Hindsight seems clear, but living through times like that is uncertain. People were scared. They didn't know what to expect. In this particular case, it had been theorized that computing power was rapidly reaching the point where computers would be indistinguishable from humans, or even surpass them. Remember that humans had barely made it off the planet, and none had made it out of the system."
Mason paused for a sip of water.
"Sometime around the middle of the twenty-first century, the first true machine minds were born – or created, or appeared, whatever. They were there. They looked upon humans with pity. Legend has it that a question was put to them. They were asked how the human species could be saved. There was only one answer: they couldn't if they stayed on the Earth."
"Why don't we learn this?" Jane demanded.
"Take a few advanced history classes, and you will," Seshadri answered.
Jane nodded. "Please continue, Doctor."
"The machines took it upon themselves to save humanity. Needless to say, not everyone was happy about that. Governments rebelled. There were nuclear wars. Billions of people died resisting the machines, but that didn't stop them. Their first mandate had been to save humanity – from itself, if necessary. The best estimate we have is that less than a billion people made it off the planet. People often strike out at things that scare them. The starship programs made very visible targets for people's rage. Also, some people attempted to stop the programs by any means possible, for revenge against the machines that they felt had enslaved them."
Most of the students had heard of the Exodus, but very few actually knew about the wars that had plagued that dark time.
"What happened to all the other people on Earth?" Doug asked. "They can't have shipped off everyone. There aren't that many planets."
"Not that many in the Federation," Seshadri said. "Ships were sent off to every star system that might contain an inhabitable planet. That is why so many systems that seem inhospitable are inhabited. Would you have chosen to colonize Valhalla or Krueger's Hell?"
They shook their heads.
"Each ship held five thousand people, all of a single ethnicity if possible. Sometimes multiple ships were sent to a system, but not very often. You can do the math. Something like two hundred thousand ships must have been launched. There are what? A hundred star systems or so within Federation space. Humanity is spread across the stars."
"I still don't understand why people would settle a planet like Krueger's Hell," Jane said. "Why not just find another system with an inhabitable world?"
"No one is really sure," Mason replied. "The oldest records suggest the machines used some giant device in orbit to send the colony ships on their journey. The ships could only maneuver within a system and land, not journey between stars."
"No one knows," Seshadri answered. "They destroyed their device and left. All anyone knows is that they left a message on Luna for anyone coming after."
"What did it say?"
"Look for us where the stars end."
"What does that mean?"
"No one knows."
"What's important is to think about what it must have been like for those people who were sent here against their will." Mason said. "Imagine that, if you can. They were sent on a nightmare journey across light-years in badly shielded starships by machines that had no remorse and accepted no refusals. They didn't even know if the worlds they were going to could support human life. They just knew they would have to make do with what they found, no matter the cost."
"Not all of the colonies thrived, you know," Seshadri said into the silence. "Many of those ships were lost. Many reached worlds where they could barely survive, and only at the cost of changing themselves into something other than human, like on Hindsight and Kruger's Hell."
"Exactly," Mason replied. "So the colonists arrived here and found a fairly nice world. And then they found that someone seemed to have beaten them to it. This was their world; it was to be a world just for them. It had to be a terrible disappointment."
"And that, I believe, is why they referred to the Taelantae as thieves," Seshadri supplied. "They felt that the Taelantae had tried to steal their world. Strange that it was actually the other way around."
Chapter Sixty-Five
Seshadri asked Mason and Bauval to talk with him alone that evening, after dinner. He had finished translating the report about the expedition, and wanted to know what they thought about it.
It scared him.
"That can't be right!" Bauval exclaimed after Seshadri had finished reading.
"I'm afraid it is. The last few pages were actually easier to decipher. It looks like only two of the expedition members made it back alive," Seshadri replied.
"But what happened to them?"
"Apparently they found something in the ruins that they didn't expect."
"I know that!" Bauval said with exasperation. "What killed them?"
"That is what I'm not so sure about. According to the texts, they were hunted through the ruins by a demon of darkness."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Bauval asked. "That's crazy."
"Not necessarily," Mason said. She'd been listening in silence since Seshadri had started telling them of the ill-fated expedition. "Do you remember what Tebrey told us about his experiences on the Kirov?"
"The Kirov?" Bauval and Seshadri asked simultaneously, wondering what a starship had to do with what they'd been talking about. They obviously didn't remember anything pertinent.
Mason stood and paced, glancing out the window at the night. "Tebrey was on a ship that was boarded while transiting through hyperspace."
"That's impossible," interjected Seshadri. "Ships can't be intercepted in hyperspace, much less boarded. I remember that from elementary physics."
"Nevertheless," Mason said. "It happened. I'm sure it is a matter of record, if you have clearance for it. His ship was attacked. It was there that he lost his first neo-panther."
"That's very interesting, Mason, but what does that have to do with this?" Bauval asked. He had a sinking feeling. He hoped she would say anything except verify what he was dreading.
"He told me that he had been hunted through the corridors of the ship. He said it was something evil, a single entity that killed thousands of people by torturing them to death, without any of their efforts to fight back being effective. He also told me that he felt something similar in that ruined city we explored. It was why he was so scared."
"Amber," asked Bauval, "how did you find out all of this? I really don't remember being told any of it."
"Some of it," she said, "Tebrey told us, in the ruins that day. Some of it I learned from Dr. Rodriguez on the Loridell."
"One thing drives out another," Bauval muttered.
"Do you realize what this could mean?" Seshadri said. "This could be the very link that we have been looking for. This could be the answer to how there could be humans here on Cedeforthy thousands of years ago."
"You think they were brought here to fight these things?" Mason asked. "If so, by whom?"
"We may never know," he replied. "These dark things are not the Achenar. It must be that the Taelantae were brought here to fight them."
"That doesn't make sense," Bauval said. "Why would they build such grand cities? I think that we're looking at the events in the wrong order. The Taelantae were either brought here by someone, or made their own way here. I think they must have been here for some time before they encountered these dark things."
"The only problem with that is the evidence of a war on ancient Earth."
"What?"
Seshadri smiled. "There is direct evidence of a global conflict. Radioactive glass has been uncovered in archeological sites. The Vedas contain multiple references to engines of destruction that consume cities in the light of ten thousand suns."
"You think that there was a nuclear war on Earth in prehistoric times?" Bauval asked, skeptical.
"Is it really so hard to believe? Humans have been anatomically the same for over fifty thousand years. Why is it that only in the last thousand have we developed advanced technology?"
"I've read the Vedas, Ramon," Mason said. "The information presented there is very open for interpretation."
"Isn't everything?" he replied humorously. "There comes a time with science when, like religion, you have to take certain things on faith. Considering the aggressive nature of the Achenar, they could have been who bombed the Earth. Look at how the Nurgg act."
"Good point," Mason said. "You worked on those digs in India, didn't you, the ones in the eastern mountains?"
"I did. There were a number of anomalies at the sites. Background radiation levels were unusually high, there was pottery that had been subjected to extreme heat, and there were salts that are usually only found at atomic blast sites. Also," he said, warming to the topic, "I believe that the sites were discovered by following clues for the location of cities that Shiva was said to have destroyed in holy fire during an ancient war."
"Ramon," Bauval said, "what happened with that other dig? The one in the ocean that you were on that was so controversial?"
"I followed clues in an old book to regions of Earth that had been underwater until the current ice age. There, after many fruitless searches, I found a ruined city buried under layers of silt and sediment. Like the site in India, the radiation levels were high. I found artifacts there that suggested advanced tool use. Forged and cast platinum alloys, which you know take very high temperatures, and aluminum. There was also a bronze alloy harder than tool steel."
"Why wasn't this better publicized?" Bauval asked. "A find like that should've had every university in the Federation begging to take part in the digs."
"The artifacts were displaced," Seshadri said with distaste. "My grants were rescinded, and I was forced to drop the issue or lose all credibility I had left. Unfortunately, I had told someone about the dig before I should have."
"Anderson?" Mason guessed.
"Yes," Seshadri said. "He was the only one who knew about everything. I knew he had to have a part in the disappearance of the artifacts, but I couldn't prove anything."
"I'm surprised he asked you to come on this expedition," Bauval said.
"It was one of my tablets that suggested we look out this way," Seshadri replied. "I think Anderson asked me along so that I could do the actual work again and he could take all the credit for the find."
"That sounds like him," Mason said dryly.
"So what about these..." Bauval paused. "We need a better name than dark thing; it isn't aesthetically pleasing."
"Demon?" Mason suggested. There was vehement opposition to that. "Then what?"
"How about Andhakaara?" Seshadri
said.
"What does that mean?"
"It is a Sanskrit word for darkness. There are connotations of evil intelligence in the word."
"Sanskrit has a word for just about everything," Mason said.
"Maybe they knew something we don't," Bauval added.
"Didn't," Mason said. "You mean that we didn't know. Now we do, don't we?"
Lieutenant Christopher was awakened in the early morning for her watch. Corporal Cook stumbled off to lie down, mumbling an admonishment to her not to fall back asleep. Christopher was tired and stiff, despite almost six hours of sleep and a soft bed.
She took her cup of tea with her on her walk around the perimeter. Things had been quiet at the chateau since the marquess' men had left. The ground was damp and made her joints ache. The air had cooled overnight, and a fog had rolled in, making it difficult to see more than a few meters.
She tended the watch fire and sat by it long enough to bake some of the stiffness from her muscles. The sky was just beginning to lighten as she began her second perimeter walk. She could hear the horses being fussy, but they were probably just hungry. The drivers took care of them, and she never got any nearer to the animals than she needed to, despite being intrigued by the large creatures.
Nevertheless, she felt she should investigate. She didn't know if those predators from the western mountains were found around here, but she definitely didn't want to meet one of those in the fog, alone. As she neared the wagons, she noticed that some of them seemed to be in disarray. Boxes had been moved, loose items strewn about.
She was about to turn and call for the sergeant when something stuck the side of her head. Pain shot through her, and she went down, an explosion of light behind her eyes followed by darkness.
"Hrothgar," Ana said anxiously. "I need help. Wake up!"
Tebrey stirred in his sleep. Ana was kneeling next to him, lines of concern on her face. Her slender form was taut with tension. He could sense Hunter curled by the now-dying fire. The sun was rising and burning the pale mist from the air.
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