The Remnant

by Paul B Spence

  Tebrey knelt down and grabbed Hunter's head so he could hold the cat's eyes with his. You are so much more than an animal, my brother. Don't you ever think that! You are my blood and my flesh, and I love you very, very much.

  They knelt together that way for a few minutes, until Christopher called out to them. She hated to break things up, but they were needed by the cliff.

  "Commander!"

  Tebrey ran over to Christopher. She was trying to stanch the bleeding from a bad head wound on Janus, one of the anthropology students. He shrugged off his small pack and dug out the medical kit. "I don't much have left," Tebrey said to her, "but there should be some gauze pads."

  Now that the danger was over, most of the students were up and moving about. They all seemed dazed, even the few without serious wounds. Tebrey checked two who weren't moving and realized they were dead: Wren and Upala. They looked too young to be dead and had strange, startled expressions, as if death had snuck up and surprised them. Anderson was still standing by the cliff wall.

  A righteous anger swept over Tebrey. Without thought, he leapt up and swung on the startled scientist. His fist smashed into the man's head, and he dropped, like a puppet with cut strings, unconscious.

  "Tebrey!" Christopher shouted. She was glaring at him. "That doesn't help. We have other wounded."

  "You're right," he said, taking a shuddering breath. "I'll deal with him later. What can I do?"

  "I think Hanna's arm is broken," she replied. "Can you set and splint it?"

  "I can do that," he replied. He saw Hanna sitting on a small rock. Her face was drawn and pale. Valerian was holding her upright. Valerian had a bad bruise on his face but otherwise seemed okay.

  Tebrey carefully examined the arm. The humerus was snapped cleanly; it wasn't fractured through the skin. "Someone is going to have to hold her," he said quietly. Akira stumbled over and gripped her left shoulder, gasping in pain. Valerian held tightly to the other shoulder. "Setting a bone is not a pleasant thing. I'm sorry we don't have anything for the pain. The only good news is that you'll most likely pass out. Right now, unconsciousness will probably be a blessing."

  Valerian looked almost as pale as Hanna did, but he gripped tightly and nodded to him. Tebrey took a tight grip on the girl's arm and gave it a hard jerk to straighten and set the bone. Hanna screamed, struggled for a moment, and then slumped slowly to the ground.

  "I'll need to splint it," Tebrey said. He cut a short length from a nearby sapling and returned. Strips from her shirt finished the splint, and he checked Akira. There was nothing he could do for the boy's broken ribs, so he moved on to help others, with an admonition to the two students to keep Hanna warm.

  Christopher was splinting Pirro's broken leg. The boy was pale and sweating, his face drawn with pain. Tebrey took over from her and let the lieutenant sit down. She looked almost as bad as the students did. They weren't going to be able to make it back to the chateau that night, that much was certain.

  Ana came to him and kissed him, and then broke down crying on his shoulder. Her ordeal had scared her, but her spirit was unbroken. It was no use asking the students what they'd been thinking. They had all been dominated into going along by Anderson, and he was still unconscious from Tebrey's attack. No one except Hanna paid him much attention.

  Janus died that evening. There was nothing they could do. The other four students huddled together near the fire. Ana and Christopher made dinner and kept everyone together, with Hunter standing watch.

  Tebrey, alone, buried the dead.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  "We need to move to a better location," Tebrey said, eyeing the cliff the next morning. It would be easy for the wild Taelantae to throw rocks down on them from above. "We're too exposed here."

  "I agree, sir," Christopher said tiredly. "But some of these people aren't going to be able to walk out of here, and there's no way you're going to get a wagon up here." She was exhausted from her night watch. Her head was still hurting. Her vision blurred sometimes, and she was having trouble with simple tasks. It was extremely frustrating to her, but she was trying not to let anyone know. There were so many of them hurt. The commander didn't need anyone else to worry about.

  Tebrey shook his head. "You're right, but we still need to be someplace less exposed than this cliff. However unlikely it may seem, those Taelantae may come back. Also, the rotting blood is going to start attracting scavengers. Those bodies are only in shallow graves, and we're almost out of ammunition." They had divided up the last of the rounds the evening before. They each only had a few shots left. "We'd be practically helpless if one of those packs of carnivores showed up."

  Christopher swallowed nervously. She could think of very little that frightened her more than the thought of being eaten alive. She'd seen the bodies of the people killed last winter by the sauriods; it had been messy. The thought of packs of such creatures often haunted her sleep. "What about the door?"

  Tebrey glanced at the blank metal. "No one has been able to figure out how to open it," he replied. "And we'd be sealing ourselves in an unknown place. Whatever this was, it is different from the city we found. I can feel it."

  "Have you tried touching the door?" Ana asked.

  "What good would that do?"

  "Well, I remember you telling me that the lights in the tunnels under the city came on when you touched the symbols on the wall. Maybe the door is the same."

  "No," he said shaking his head. "There are no glyphs on this door. There isn't anything, in fact, to suggest that it is actually a door. We only have Anderson's assertion that this was the place on the map. There's something here, but I don't know what it is."

  "And," Ana added. "Anderson wanted me to touch the door. He seemed convinced I could open it."

  "What could it hurt to try, sir?" Christopher asked.

  "I don't want to go in there unless we don't have any other options."

  A hunting horn sounded from the woods in the distance, followed by others. A lot of others.

  "You were saying, sir?"

  "Right. I guess we don't have a choice after all." He got up and walked to the door. They followed.

  Try thinking about it opening, Hunter suggested.

  Teach your mother to spacewalk, Tebrey replied.

  I didn't have one, Hunter thought in the same bantering tone. I'm beginning to think you didn't, either. You'd have more manners.

  Tebrey growled and reached out to touch the door. Even before his fingers came into contact with it, he knew they had been right. There was the same almost-electric feeling to the door as to the glyphs in the catacombs under Bellejor.

  He felt his hand guided to the right side of the door. He ran his fingers along the transition point between the metal and the stone. There were glyphs there, etched so subtly that he couldn't see them, but he felt them, a textural difference in the metal.

  A seam appeared around the door, and it retracted into the hillside, leaving a dark opening.

  Christopher started forward, readying her hand light.

  "Wait," Tebrey said, holding out his arm to block her. "Wait for the air to freshen. It's been closed for a long time.

  Tebrey cautiously entered the portal. Just inside the door, he found two lines of glyphs. He carefully ran his hand along the ones that looked familiar and was rewarded by faint lights coming on along the corridor. He suspected the second, smaller line of glyphs would close the door.

  He tested it quickly, before he could talk himself out of it.

  The door slid smoothly closed in front of him. He steeled himself and tried the glyphs again. The door opened. He blew out a sigh of relief. He had been worried about trapping himself. The look on Ana's face told he'd better not do anything like that again.

  "Wait here. I'll be right back."

  There was very little dust inside. There was, oddly, a bit of mud around the door, and what might once have been many footprints. He could see sooty scorch marks in some places, as if a flame had been used
in the tunnel at some point. They didn't look like torch marks. It reminded him a little of the residue left by antiquated flamethrowers, but his knowledge of such devices was scanty, just the basic information from his training.

  He carefully explored the length of the corridor. It ended in a small room with three doors leading from it. The room was empty. He could detect the slight thrum of distant machinery. There was also a sense of circulating air, although he couldn't tell where the air was coming from. No question about the installation having power.

  Tebrey retraced his steps to the entrance.

  Ana, Hunter, and Christopher were standing there waiting for him.

  It was just past noon, and the day was cool. It was too bad they wouldn't be able to enjoy it, but those horn calls were getting closer.

  "All clear in the corridor. There's a room beyond that's empty, as well. I think it would be best if we got everyone inside," Tebrey said.

  "Do you think it's safe in there, sir?"

  "No, but I know it isn't safe out here. It's a trade-off. I'm willing to risk it."

  "Yes, sir." She didn't sound happy.

  "Something bothering you, Lieutenant?"

  She injudiciously shook her head, and winced. "I'm worried about those wagons and horses we're leaving. It's a long way across country on foot."

  "I know," he replied. He had been looking at the students and missed her wince. "But we can't leave these people here, and they can't make a forced march to the wagons. Much as I hate it, this may be our only choice."

  "I'll get them moving, sir."

  With everyone safe in the small room at the end of the corridor, Tebrey slid the door shut. It worked as smoothly and silently as it had before. He doubted the Taelantae would think of trying to open it.

  Anderson was still unconscious. He had been difficult to move. Hanna gave Tebrey a reproachful glance that he ignored as he came into the room. She was dabbing water on Anderson's bruised face. Tebrey frowned. He'd have to talk with everyone later about water rationing. They didn't have more than a few days' supply, and the closest water was an hour's walk through the forest with savages in between.

  Akira was examining the walls and glyphs, no doubt trying to take his mind off the pain of his broken ribs. He grinned feebly at Tebrey and waved him over.

  "What can I do for you?" Tebrey had thought of using the man's last name, as he was wont to do, but Etxegarai was a bit of a mouthful.

  "These walls are amazing," Akira said excitedly.

  "Really?" Tebrey said without enthusiasm. The dull grey metal didn't seem all that interesting to him.

  "You noticed the air currents?" Akira asked.

  "I did. Couldn't figure out where they were coming from."

  "It is coming right through the wall! Put your hand here. Feel that? The surface must be molecularly porous." The man was carefully moving around the room, testing the walls. "I wonder if it's selective," he mumbled to himself.

  "Do I need to be here for this conversation?" Tebrey asked.

  "Sorry, Commander," Akira said, embarrassed. "Could you show me how you opened the doors? I tried but couldn't get any of them to open."

  Tebrey frowned again. He didn't like the idea of the man going around trying to open doors with no thought for what might be behind them. However, if they didn't keep busy, morale was going to hit an all-time low.

  "Maybe now isn't a good time," Akira said.

  "No, it's as good as any. I was trying to think of how I opened the doors. It isn't so much what you do as it is what you want to happen."

  "The doors are psychically attuned?"

  "I believe so," Tebrey said cautiously. "I don't know how that would work, but it makes sense. I placed my hand on the glyphs and thought about the door being open."

  "Do you have to be a functional psion to make it work?" Akira asked.

  "Only one way to find out." Tebrey gestured to the door they had entered by. "We know this one is safe. Try it."

  Akira placed his hand over the writing, but nothing happened. He tried for several minutes before giving up. "Maybe this one is broken," he said irritably.

  Tebrey walked over and touched the panel. The door closed smoothly.

  He sighed. "Looks like I get to be your tour guide today."

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  James Anderson had been awake for some time, listening to the softly bickering voices of the people around him. He shammed unconsciousness, waiting for the right moment to make his move. Waiting for those fools to forget about him, about why they were there.

  He'd known for some time that he had to come to this place. At first, all he felt was a vague sense of an unfulfilled need. The feeling had grown. He'd begun to have dreams before he left the city, dreams in which he triumphantly announced to the Earth Federation that he had found the true history of humankind. He, and he alone. There could be no one to share in the glory. That, he was certain of. Others would try to steal what he found. He would have to be careful.

  She would only tell him what she knew. He would be rich, powerful, and he would have her. No one else would be able to say that.

  The commander and a small group were going to explore. Let them, he thought. They think they are so clever. Two of the students, Pirro and Valerian, were staying behind. They fell asleep not long after the group left.

  He waited for half an hour after they were gone, although it was an agony to wait. She needed him. Two hand lamps remained in the room, along with other items of their scanty gear. He picked up the lamps; he might need them. His visions didn't tell him if there would be light or not.

  The first thing he did was disable the door to the outside. It was a simple thing to do with the power from one of the lamps, and the knowledge of how to do it had just been there in his head. Anderson then picked his way carefully past the sleepers to the far left-hand door. That was the door leading to where he needed to go. It led into the heart of the mountain complex. It had been deemed inoperable by the other. Fools!

  The door opened as he reached it, as he had known it would.

  Tebrey led the small exploration party deep into the installation. These weren't the ruins they had expected to find. Whatever this underground complex was, it was in good working order. The ventilation system seemed slightly strained but was working to recycle the air. Seshadri suggested that the roof vents had probably been clogged with blown dirt. The lights were dim but adequate to their needs. All the doors they tried, except that first one, still functioned.

  They stuck together as they explored. Even Hunter refrained from wandering off, keeping close to Ana and Tebrey and silently prowling the corridors.

  "Do you have any idea where we're going?" Hanna asked. Christopher had rigged a sling for her before they set out, but her arm was still giving her considerable pain.

  "No," Tebrey replied, "but I do know where we've been, if that helps. My neural computer is plotting our path."

  "So we're wandering pointlessly." Her pain was making Hanna ill-tempered, and she didn't like the commander anyway, but she wasn't normally so irritable.

  "I thought you wanted to explore."

  "I do want to explore, but so far all we've seen are empty rooms. I want to find something interesting."

  "I'm leading us toward the sound of the machinery," Tebrey said, relenting. "I thought that would be a good place to start. If you have a better idea, then let's hear it. If you don't, shut up."

  Hanna kept silent.

  The rooms they moved through showed evidence of having been used for a variety of purposes, mainly workshops and laboratories. There were marks on the floor and walls that showed items had been stripped from the rooms at some time. They had no idea how old the installation might be, but they knew it had to be older than the original human colony. Those colonists hadn't had that kind of technology.

  Akira was still fascinated by the glyphs and the porous walls. He was angry that he wasn't able to engage Hanna in discussions of the possible technologies th
at might have gone into them. She was still brooding over the events of the last few days, and still in shock at having lost three of her friends the day before. Not to mention being angry about what the commander had done to Anderson.

  They came to a stairwell. The sound of machinery was louder from below.

  "At least it isn't those ramps like at the ruins," Christopher said. "I hope that means this place wasn't built by those squid things."

  "I don't think it was," Tebrey replied, "but there are disturbing similarities. It almost has elements of both the cultures we've seen here."

  "Maybe it was an older installation than someone converted over to human use later," Akira suggested. "Hopefully we'll find some bodies at some point."

  "That's morbid," Christopher said.

  Akira shrugged, and then winced at the pain from his sore ribs. "It would help us identify the builders of this place, that's all."

  "Well, we need to decide if we're going down there or not," Tebrey said.

  "You did say you wanted to find the machinery," replied Akira. "I'd love to take a look at it myself. There may be tools or even databases left intact and operable."

  "You're an eternal optimist," Hanna said sourly. "Machinery and tools I can see, but an active database is too much to ask for after all this time. The data loss from quantum uncertainty would leave it gibberish."

  "I wasn't saying it was probable," Akira snapped, "just that I would like to find one."

  "This isn't helping," Tebrey interjected. "I vote we go down; no one else gets a vote. Let's go." He started down the stairs, confident they would follow.

  Anderson didn't stop to think about why he knew what to do, or why the doors opened for him as he reached them. He just knew what he wanted, and that was all that mattered. There had always been a streak of the obsessive-compulsive through his personality. This was no different.