“It’s a Karavec dagger,” said Sirrow.
“The marks on the knife tell me that this belongs to the Great Savant himself,” said Leila. “What could this mean?”
“Did you see anything else?” Sirrow asked Kuthrow.
“There are tracks leading towards the north-east. They are the tracks of three humanoids who were not wearing any shoes they have four toes on each foot. Two sets of tracks are deeper than the third, indicating that the creatures carried something heavy.”
“Or someone heavy,” added Leila. “Barrow and Elena have been abducted by some hostile creatures from this planet. Sirrow, Kuthrow, we must talk and make some decisions about how we can get them back.”
Leila, Sirrow and Kuthrow were the only ones left with any authority, and they had to make the crucial decisions that would lead to the recovery of the Great Savant, and ultimately the success of their mission on Ziemia. They met in the back room of the ship.
Leila’s face could not betray her concern. “What can we do?” she asked.
“I don’t think we have much choice,” said Sirrow. “You and Kuthrow must go with a contingent of the guard and find the Great Savant. My crew will wait here on the ship to be ready for a speedy departure, should that prove necessary. Perhaps a few of the guard should also remain with me and my crew.”
“How many?” Kuthrow asked.
“I think four should be enough. As long as we stay inside the ship, we are well-protected. Even those inhabitants of Ziemia who have attained the technological age are not nearly as advanced as we are. They will not be able to breach the ship’s defences.”
“Good,” said Leila, “then it’s decided. Kuthrow, thirty of his men, and I will go in search of Barrow and Elena. After we’ve found them, it may be Barrow’s intention for us to go directly to the capital, but we must first await word from Captain Forster.” She turned to address Sirrow. “So, if we do not return quickly, you need not be concerned.”
“The men who remain are well prepared to deal with any eventuality,” added Kuthrow.
They equipped themselves with their protective suits and goggles and their ray guns, and were ready to depart within an hour.
“Some of my men will go ahead to scout for any danger,” said Kuthrow. “The rest will form a protective group surrounding you, doctor.”
They set off walking towards the north-east, following the tracks of the Prehistorics. They began their walk in the semi-arid desert region where the ship had landed. The soft ground meant that they could easily follow the tracks. Vegetation was sparse, and only the rocks gave them an occasional respite from the sun. Although the Karavec wore their goggles to protect their sensitive eyes, they were also unaccustomed to the intense heat. They made slow progress, and stopped frequently to rest in the shade of one of the rocks. They rapidly used up their water supplies, and Leila worried that they would not have enough water to last the crossing of the semi-desert.
When they reached the crown of a ridge and saw a more fertile area of land below them on the far side, Leila let out a sigh of relief. A narrow river wound its way from the north passing through a glade of tree-like plants surrounded by an area of grassland. Their pace quickened when they descended towards the river.
“Be careful,” cautioned Kuthrow. The river tempts us with its water, but the trees might also conceal some hidden dangers. “We must wait for the scouts to return.”
The scouts reported that they had seen nothing suspicious, so the party made its way to the edge of the stream and threw themselves into the shallow waters, gulping up handfuls of the cool liquid. Then they replenished their drinking bottles.
They sat on the bank of the stream, gulping in a sweet aroma from the yellow blossom on the tree-like plants. Bird-like creatures trilled and chirped high up in the branches of the plants. A large insect with vivid purple wings fluttered in front of Leila’s face. A krowy lowed in the distance. For a moment Leila imagined that she was at home on Hikon, and not in an inhospitable world of primitive beings.
“There is only one problem,” said Kuthrow. “From this point onwards the tracks are not so clear. There are also other tracks coming from the north. This is obviously a popular watering-hole for the creatures, and maybe others as well.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The tracks are not all made by bare-footed creatures. There are others that wear some kind of shoe.”
Leila pushed her way forwards in anticipation. “Could they be the tracks of Barrow and Elena?” she asked.
“No, my men cannot identify any Karavec shoeprints. They must belong to some other humanoids from Ziemia.”
“Jesse and his men were wearing boots.”
“They also rode horses. There is no sign of any horse footprints.”
Leila’s excitement turned to despondency. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Can you use your gnaris to scan for any sign of them?” asked the captain.
Leila concentrated her gnaris and scanned for Karavec. “I can pick up only one,” she said, “quite far away towards the east. And he or she does not bear the powerful gnaris of the Great Savant.”
“That will be Lolena,” said Kuthrow.
“What can it mean? What’s happened to Barrow and Elena?” Leila was becoming desperate.
“We must hope that they have been captured, and are being held in a place where their gnaris cannot be detected.”
“So how will we find them?”
“I don’t know,” said Kuthrow, “but our best bet is to find where the creatures live.”
He had hardly finished speaking when they heard a yell, and one of the Prehistorics appeared from behind a boulder. He wore only an animal skin, and his body and face were covered in hair. He had a club raised above his head, and he charged straight for Leila.
Kuthrow did not hesitate to use his ray gun, which he had set to stun mode. He fired the gun straight towards the chest of the assailant, who dropped like a fly in front of the terrified doctor.
Kuthrow clicked his fingers and instructed two of his men to tie up the prisoner. Then he turned his anger towards the scouts. “Where did he come from? Why did you not see him coming? Are there others?”
The scouts did a quick reconnaissance of the area and reported back. “There is a hole,” one of them said. “It’s a sort of small cave, and well concealed by the vegetation. The creature must have been hiding in there.”
“Are there others?” Kuthrow repeated.
“No, sir. He is on his own.”
Kuthrow waited for the Prehistoric to regain consciousness. He poured water over his bearded face, and slapped him violently on both cheeks. The creature began to stir, and groaned in pain.
“Where are they?” Kuthrow asked. “Where are our companions?”
The Prehistoric did not answer.
“He does not understand our language,” said Leila. “I doubt he understands any language. Look at him. He is a primitive being a Prehistoric. He probably only communicates with grunts.”
“You’re right. So how can we expect him to tell us where Barrow is?”
“He may not tell us, but he will lead us to them.”
“How?”
“If we untie him and let him go, he will run back to the place where he comes from. He is like a scared beast that does not act rationally, and will make a beeline for his home and his people, who he hopes will help him.”
“You’re right, doctor. You should be a psychologist instead of a physician.”
They did as Leila suggested. Once free of his bonds, the man looked around like a frightened animal, and took off as fast as his legs could carry him towards the north. The Karavec followed.
The man stopped every so often, glancing back over his shoulder at his pursuers. He was a Prehistoric, unsophisticated and wild, but he was not stupid. He knew their intentions and the reason why they followed him. He also knew this part of the country, every element of the terrain that he could use
to his advantage and to mislead his pursuers. So he did not return directly to the home of his people, the cave where Barrow and Elena were imprisoned. Instead he took a circuitous route, intending to lead his pursuers into a trap.
So it happened that Leila’s party did not see Barrow and Elena escape from the cave, the pair taking a more direct route to the stream that the others had just left. Leila did not scan again with her gnaris, being more intent on the pursuit of the Prehistoric. Their paths took them within a few hundred metres, but neither party saw the other.
The Prehistoric led the Karavec up towards a range of hills that looked down on the cave where his people dwelt. He expected to find a group of his men hunting krowy, a buffalo-like creature, in the plains on the far side of the hill. The Prehistoric, who was accustomed to living in these harsh conditions, reached the crest of the hill with very little physical exertion. He could have run even faster, but he did not want his pursuers to lose sight of him. The Karavec, who were unaccustomed to this hostile environment and less fit than the Prehistoric, followed at a slower pace.
The Prehistoric looked down with satisfaction when he saw his tribal mates had created a krowy jump, a trap that employed a hunting technique that forced the krowy to jump to their deaths. At its far end, the plain terminated in a near vertical cliff. His companions had concealed themselves behind rock piles near the top of the cliff, waiting for the krowy.
The Prehistoric who the Karavec were pursuing ran down the slope, waving wildly to his companions and sending them a message of grunts. They hid behind the rock piles and waited for the Karavec.
The Karavec were not quite as stupid as the krowy, and soon realised that the Prehistoric intended to lead them into a trap. Kuthrow instructed his troops to halt on the top of the ridge.
“Why are we stopping?” Leila asked. “Look he’s escaping.”
“It’s a trap,” said Kuthrow. “There are more of those Prehistorics down there just waiting for us to deliver ourselves into their clutches.”
“How do you know?”
“Why else would he be leading us this way? He has persistently waited for us to follow him. He must know his friends are down there. They are waiting for us now to fall into their trap.”
“So, what now? How will we find Barrow?”
“I don’t know. I think we should return to the ship.”
“We cannot let a bunch of Prehistorics get the better of us. Wait, I have a plan.” Leila smiled.
“Yes, what is it?”
“I will go down alone and draw them out of their hiding places; then you and your men can shoot them with your ray guns. Are we within range?”
“Yes, of course; but they might kill you before we have a chance to fell them?”
“That’s a chance I’ll have to take. But I have every faith in your men. However, do not kill them all. We need at least one of them to lead us to Barrow.”
“It would have been so much easier if we’d kept that prisoner in the first place.”
“Yes, my mistake captain. The Prehistoric was not as stupid as I thought.”
“Quite an admission, doctor. Perhaps you’re not a psychologist after all.”
“I’m clearly not able to understand the psyche of these primitives. They are very different from any alien race I have previously studied.”
The operation went without a hitch. Once they saw Leila approaching, the Prehistorics came out from behind their rocks. They raised their spears and aimed them at Leila, but their movements were slow and their weapons primitive. They proved to be sitting targets for the Karavec ray guns. Most of them died instantly, but Kuthrow himself spared one of them by setting his gun to stun mode. When he and his men joined Leila on the plain below, they found the one who had not been killed already beginning to stir. They bound him, just as they had done with the first prisoner.
“Now, what can we do to make him cooperate?” Leila asked.
At that moment, the ground began to shake violently.
“Is it an earthquake?” she asked.
One of Kuthrow’s men pointed towards the north. The others followed his gaze, where they saw a cloud of dust.
“No, it’s not an earthquake,” Kuthrow said. “It’s a large group of creatures, stampeding and they’re coming straight at us.”
The krowy charged with their heads down at full speed towards the valley where the Karavec were still deliberating about what to do with their prisoner. The Karavec had never seen such a spectacle before, and had no idea what the unpredictable animals would do.
“Quick, behind those rocks,” shouted Kuthrow to his men and Leila.
They raced to conceal themselves behind the same rocks that the Prehistorics had been hiding behind just a few minutes earlier. Most of the soldiers and the doctor reached the rocks just in time, but four of them were too late. Realising that they didn’t have enough time to escape, the four warriors stood their ground, petrified, and raised their ray guns. Some of the beasts fell in a heap, but there were too many of them, and they kept charging towards the unfortunate soldiers. The soldiers fired their ray guns again, but this proved useless. All the sophistication of a highly advanced race proved to be fruitless against an unknown breed of wild creature that was not even their enemy.
Leila watched in horror from the safety of the rocks while the manic beasts thundered past, and tried to cover her ears from the screams of the four Karavec and the Prehistoric who, being tied up, could not escape. After the animals had passed, the only sign of the four Karavec soldiers were green stains on the hard rock surface. These were intermingled with puddles of red blood from the Prehistorics, the one who had just been killed and the others who had died earlier, all trampled under the hooves of the krowy.
Not being constrained by the funnel trap that the Prehistorics had prepared that led to the krowy jump, the herd passed on and raced instead down a narrow track that led to the foot of the valley.
When she was convinced that the herd would not return, Leila came out from her hiding place behind a rock, and ambled in a daze towards the place where the fallen Karavec had stood. She wept when she saw that there was nothing to show for the four brave warriors except pools of green blood.
“We came to Ziemia in search of the murderers of our Karavec embryos, but now yet more Karavec blood has been spilled today on this forsaken planet; and it’s all my fault.”
By this time, Kuthrow stood by her side. “It’s not just your fault, doctor,” he said. “The three of us made the decision to look for the Great Savant.”
“And all for nothing. What are we to do now? All the Prehistorics are dead ”
“Not all of them, there will be others. We must continue to search. Can you try your gnaris again?”
Leila concentrated her mind, and scanned once more for Karavec.
“I can still pick up Lolena far away to the east,” she said, “but wait, I’ve picked up something else towards the south-west. Yes, there are two of them. The gnaris is strong. It must be Barrow and Elena.” Her voice rose in excitement.
“How far away?” asked Kuthrow.
‘Not too far, but they’re moving away from us.”
“Let’s go,” he said.
“What about the dead?”
“Look, there’s nothing left to bury. We must go at once if we are to catch up with our people.”
“You are right; but we must farewell them. We must say a prayer to the gods.”
“Make it quick,” said Kuthrow. “We cannot afford to lose the track we have on Barrow.”
“Oh, mighty gods,” she said, “hear us from across the great darkness. You dwell far away in another galaxy, which is our home. We are waiting for the day you come to claim the Milky Way. Our main purpose, our only purpose is to establish an empire in the Milky Way ready for your arrival. Today four of your loyal warriors have fallen. We pray that you will accept their souls, and that they will eternally abide in your presence.”
Chapter 12 – Washingt
on
“Sacrifice is a necessary ritual for the appeasement of the gods, but murder and annihilation are abominations.”
The Book of Karavec (32, 16)
Forster and Lolena, together with Jesse’s party, arrived at the top of a ridge. They looked down on a river that meandered its way from the north. Beyond the river, which widened at this point, Forster observed a strange sight; one he had not expected to see.
“That there is the city we call Washington,” said Jesse.
Forster stared in disbelief. “Why did these people of such an advanced civilization build a city in the midst of a vast area of undeveloped bush land?” he asked.
“Beats me,” said Jesse. “But I know where I prefer to live.”
Forster was amazed to see what appeared to be a planned metropolis, a low sprawling city with wide streets and avenues, and with large open spaces and parks. It had been divided into four quadrants radiating out from a grand white building standing on a low-lying hill at its centre.
“What’s that tall obelisk just over the other side of the river?” he asked. “It looks like a giant needle.”
“That there’s the Washington Monument. It’s the tallest structure in the city.”
“Who is Washington?”
“George Washington was the first president of the United States. There are many buildings and roads in the city named after presidents. There’s Lincoln Memorial, Madison Drive, Jefferson Drive ”
“The United States? I don’t understand. The United States was a country on Earth, the planet in the Milky Way where I come from. But the United States and its capital, Washington, no longer exist. They were destroyed many centuries ago. This is Ziemia; how can this city exist on this planet in a different part of the galaxy?”
Jesse’s craggy brow furrowed. “You’ll have to ask them that,” he said, pointing towards the city.
“Them?”
“The Technocrats who live in the city; they that control Ziemia; them in the White House.”
The Power of Gnaris Page 10