Godeena: SF Novel

by Stjepan Cobets

  The boy watched frantically as his creation melted and became a pulsating mass. Then he uttered an inhuman shriek and, swaying his hands, said, “You’ll pay for this!!!”

  “You can only hope,” the figure responded in an icy voice. “Be assured that you’ll feel the same fear as your victims did. I’ll personally take it upon myself.”

  “The people who wanted my planet weren’t victims. Nobody made them come here. If you think about my former lords who ruled this planet, they were parasites here.”

  “Maybe it’s your deranged and lunatic brain.”

  “My father told me that too before I killed him. He didn’t know how mighty I became thanks to him. I loved him, but he hated me, and that made me terribly angry. None of them loved me, or wanted to get to know me or understand my needs…”

  “That’s no reason to kill somebody.” He was interrupted by the apparition under the cape.

  “What do you know about my emotions and reasons?” He grinned at her. “So you think you may find out something about me? Be off with you! I killed them because I liked it. I enjoyed their suffering. I hated them!”

  “It’s time to pay for all the innocent victims you killed.”

  “Many have tried to kill me, but I’m still here!”

  “Yes, but so far you haven’t had a decent enemy before you.”

  The boy bowed forward and pointed with his finger. “And are you?”

  “You’ll discover that soon,” said the apparition and disappeared.

  “Just come. I’m awaiting you!!!” he shouted viciously and disappeared himself.

  Kir was still sitting in a trance, her eyes closed and her hands are leaning on her knees. Her face was pale, and she looked like a lethargic goddess. Henry had a feeling that she had read his thoughts, for when she opened her eyes, she smiled and looked straight at him and smile. She got up and slowly held her balance.

  “May I help you?” I asked her.

  She raised a hand and stopped him with a strict voice. “No, it’s all right.”

  “How did you…?”

  She looked at him with her black eyes and concluded, “You’ll have to ask God because he has given me this power.”

  Henry smiled and concluded, “Talking to him I hope to postpone for a while if it would be possible, but yours show thrilled me.”

  She laughed and gave up; waving with her hand as if it wasn’t important, and then she changed the topic. “As Diana told me once, the Being is below us. I followed him underground for a while, but I lost him.”

  “So we have to go down.”

  “Yes, that is only options. We’ll need Diana’s help in those tunnels.”

  Diana came closer and asked Henry with a worried expression on her face, “What happened just now?” He pointed to Kir. “How did you…?”

  “Not important…” Kir said, casually waving her hand. “We have to go down underground as soon as possible, and you might help us as well.”

  Diana was watching her. Her nonchalance confused her. What she had made so little of wasn’t a normal thing, and she ardently wished to ask her how she did it. But seeing the black shimmer in her black eyes, she had to give up. Kir was exhausted, that could be seen on her pale face, and Diana had heard from the others that it wouldn’t be safe to annoy her. “If the Being is in the place with the radiation, then I know the way, but if he is anywhere else, it might cause us some problems. I hoped to find the rest of the thermal satellite photos of the underground here, but the Being has destroyed the equipment.”

  “Kir says he is below us, and we’ll find him,” Henry said. He turned towards Colburn, who was talking to Mark, and shouted, “Sergeant!”

  He came closer at a quick pace. “Yes, Commander?”

  “Get Flan Kerr, Berry Flint, John Stronghill and E.T. Washington to stay and guard the aircraft. Leave them ten of the Hydras in case those huge machines reappear, and enough hand grenades and ammunition for their rifles. All the others have to come into the tunnel. Let Endy bring a mortar with him, and Vandor his Khak cannon in case we have to clear away.”

  Colburn smiles satisfied, “Then we have to prepare ourselves.”

  “Let Major Vallery join me to agree on some of the details.”

  “I’ll inform her immediately.”

  “When you have organized the men and the equipment, come back to my fighter. We have to carefully work out everything before we go in.”

  “See you in a couple of minutes.”

  Henry nodded and took from the aircraft his leather bag, in which he had all the plates with the maps they had got at Astasan. He put the largest one on the wing of the fighter, which served him instead of a desk. Henry gave a sign to Kir and Diana. “These are all the maps we have of Absolute. Unfortunately, we can’t see any tunnels under the ground. We’re somewhere here, at this position, directly by this colossal building. Diana, can you tell me what is awaiting us under it?”

  She only briefly looked at the map and asked, “Can you enlarge the picture?”

  He pressed at the edge of the map, and it began zooming until they could see the whole building on its own. “Is that enough?”

  She pointed to the right side of the building. “Here is the entrance to the underground.”

  At that moment Vallery joined them. Henry nodded to her and continued asking questions. “How wide is the entrance?”

  “I think it is wide about twenty by twenty meters. The tunnel descends at a forty-five-degree slope and finishes at a large hall some fifty meters under the ground. It’s simple to reach it, but after that, it splits into ten lesser passages. They all lead in different directions under this huge building.”

  “What direction leads to the place with radiation?”

  “We’ll go to the east. One spiral passage leads us further underground to other lesser halls. My crew and I didn’t go far from that place, and we lost lots of time exploring the passages on the upper floor. We intended to go down further the following day, but we were prevented by the Being.”

  “Did you have any problems there?”

  “No. Going down that spiral corridor we went somewhat slower. We were enjoying looking at the floor, which was drawing while we walked across it. I have to confess that I have never seen anything like that.”

  Henry looked at her in surprise, “Drawing, I don’t understand?”

  “Well, it was changing and flickering while we crossed it.”

  “How did it change? So we couldn’t walk across it?”

  “No, not in that sense, the colors were changing on the ground. You’ll have to see it yourself. We didn’t go farther than that.”

  Henry pointed to the map and concluded, “This part is unknown to us!”

  Diana looked at the place, Henry showed. “I know the way, but I’m not sure what we might encounter along it.”

  Henry with a serious face patted his rifle next to the map and determined, “If we come across something that could try to stop us we’ll destroy it.” Then he turned to Vallery. “We’re going in two groups. I’m leading the first one, you the second. You will follow a few hundred feet behind us.”

  “Who’s going with me?”

  “With you going: Karl, Lara, Beny, Mark, Miura and Wilburn. The rest of them will go ahead with me.”

  “That means a walk along the tunnels is awaiting us!”

  “I hope so!” He exclaimed, putting the map back into his bag. Then he seized the rifle and checked it was loaded. “Let’s get some additional supplies, and then we leave immediately.”

  *

  Half an hour later they were standing before the huge entrance inside the dome-shaped building, which descended at a sharp angle deeply under the ground. The tunnel was entirely lit up with dazzling white light from the high ceiling, and at this end, they could see a part of the hall Diana had talked about. Without incident, they descended into the hall. Henry felt insignificant when he entered that huge empty
space. He was surprised that there weren’t any supporting pillars anywhere; the architects who had worked on it had made a genuine miracle. Above our heads there was a ceiling in the form of a beehive, through which daylight illuminated all of them and started pulsated like a living thing, flickering and floating like water.

  ¸Henry turned to Diana, who was watching the ceiling in admiration. “Diana in what direction we must go now?”

  He had the feeling she was in a trance. She twitched and looked at him, confused. “There…” She stopped for a moment, pointed to the opposite side of the hall and turned to him to say in a stern voice, “...but I must warn you of one thing.”

  “What now?”

  “We shouldn’t talk through any communication facilities in our helmets for I’m sure that the Being is able to pick up on that signal.”

  Henry nodded and commanded the others loudly, “Turn off the communication systems.” Then he waved a hand and shouted, “Let’s go!”

  It took them five minutes to get to the spiral passage which descended to the lower levels. The passage was in darkness, so Henry had to light it up with the light on his rifle. With a hand signal, he stopped the group and raised the rifle. As soon as the passage was lit up, he stopped for a moment. The floor was illuminated in a bright red color, and Henry thought he had activated some alarm signal, but soon the floor began flashing in different colors. Some combinations were so irritable that they hurt his eyes. Henry had the feeling that it was the work of a lunatic artist.

  Though he felt somewhat dizzy, they descended without any problem into the next hall. There Henry enjoyed the bright white light which shone from the tall ceiling. Diana pointed to the opposite side of the hall, but when they arrived there, they found them before a wall, on which there was a large, transparent board which lit up when Henry approached it. It was cut into square fields and vividly illuminated in ten different colors. He pressed one of the squares with the butt of his rifle; above the board appeared a circle divided into eight equal parts. Two fields turned blue, and a second later the lights flickered, and the circle extinguished. Henry waved to Wilburn Mann to come closer and asked him, “Can you decipher the code?”

  “I’ll try.”

  For a moment or two he watched the board, and then he threw his rifle on his back and rubbed his hands. He came closer with a light in his eyes like a child who has got the dearest toy. He gently touched the board with his fingers and started to try some combinations. Henry wasn’t sure how many combinations he tried because his fingers were flying everywhere across the board. Five minutes later the hidden door opened slowly and, rubbing his hands; he concluded, “Child’s play, this is easy.”

  “I haven’t doubted you.”

  “It’s too simple. These color…”

  “Not now, Wilburn!”

  He raised his hands, apologizing, and stepped aside, showing Henry that he could go into a long corridor behind the door. The corridor was distinct from the former one only in that it was completely white. When Henry stepped into it, red, blue, violet and green lights alternately flamed on the right wall and along its whole length. The corridor wound towards the opposite end, to other corridors that forked off left and right. Soon he comprehended that these lights were guidelines, for the violet and red illuminated the left corridor and the green and blued the right one. Henry looked at Diana, who was watching the wall in fascination. “Diana?”

  “We have to go right.” She touched the wall with a hand. “This civilization was obsessed with colors.”

  Henry has had enough of this multi-colored paint and nervously concluded, “I’ve noticed that.”

  Diana ignored his curt answer because she enjoyed discovering the secrets of the underworld Absolute. He pointed his hand right in front of her and stated, “The sixth foot on there is another large room, but I don’t know what is in it.”

  Henry picked up the gun to eye level and looking at the space in front of them through sight, waved the others to follow him and slowly move forward. He then replied to Diana, “Soon we’ll see.”

  At the end of the right corridor they again ran up against a wall, but Wilburn opened it quickly. By contrast, this hall was in total darkness. Henry lit it up with the light on my energy rifle. The immense room was filled with round boards which were floating a meter and a half above the floor. As there was nobody there, he stepped in. The ceiling illuminated and Henry had to cover his eyes against the bright, dazzling light.

  When he was accustomed to the bright light, Henry moved to one of the floating desks. A couple of inch above it a hologram picture appeared and the outline of a humanoid being flickered in it. He was speaking an unknown language in a calm voice. Diana approached another desk, above which flickered another hologram, but this one showed an odd wooden vehicle. Soon the picture disappeared, and a new one appeared showing a comparable vehicle, but this time it was improved. Diana was watching the picture with undisguised curiosity when it dissolved, and a new one appeared. “My God, we’re in their museum. Nothing like this has been discovered anywhere,” she said.

  Henry watched the impressive hall and concluded, “We do not have time for their museum. I’m much more interested in the Being.” he turned to Kir, who was standing at a desk beside him, watching pictures. “Are you feeling him? Where has he hidden?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve got a feeling that he’s waiting.” Watching the holograms, she added, “I’m sure that he’ll attack us soon when we least expect him.”

  *

  Lying on top of his transporter Berry was watching the surrounding area through optic binoculars, but nothing moved. He turned to E.T. Washington and said, “Knife, I have never asked you why you were sent to Hades.”

  E.T. looked back at him and asked in a cold voice, “Why are you interested in that?”

  “This is my sheer curiosity, nothing else.”

  E.T. closed his eyes and answered in a voice full of cynicism, “I killed some scum.”

  “That’s obvious. You wouldn’t be detained in prison without any reason. Who were the men you killed?”

  E.T. raised his visor and spat on the ground. He didn’t respond at once; he wanted to forget his past. Then he lowered the visor. “The ones who I killed can’t be called men.”

  “That means that they deserved to be killed,” Berry added carefully, watching their surroundings.

  “Yes twice over! If I were able, I would revive them and kill them anew.”

  Berry looked meaningfully at him, and when E.T. glared at him he asked more subtly, “They killed your relatives?”

  “They kill my family.”

  “Then they really deserved it!”

  E.T. stood up, stared into the distance and said with resignation, “They did, but it didn’t return my family.”

  “Sorry for asking you, I didn’t want to open your old wounds.”

  “It’s all right. When I saw their dead bodies on the floor in our house, a wound opened which never will be healed.” Though Berry didn’t ask him anything more, he continued with his story. “Berry, did you know that I was a cop before I went to Had?”

  Berry stood up and gazed at him with surprise. “You were a cop?!”

  “Yes and a very good one…” He stopped for a moment and then added cynically, “For that job my wife and son were killed.”

  “You were in somebody’s way?”

  “Yes on gang The Machetes. I discovered their connection with Tantras Hamal.”

  Berry looked at him with surprise expression on his face. “You mean on The Machetes from the planet Nera I?”

  “Yes, I was a police commander there.”

  Berry whistled and determined without thinking, “When Tantras discovered that all the main leaders of his Machete gang had been killed, he went mad, literally.”

  When Berry had said this E.T. at once aimed his rifle at his head. “How did you know Tantras Hamal?”

  Berry looked the ope
ning of the energy rifle’s barrel before his nose and then comprehended what was happening. He responded, “I was one of his drivers.”

  “Did he send you to knock me into shape?”

  Berry looked at him quizzically and uncomfortably in his voice asked, “What are you talking about?”

  Without taking his eyes off him and clutching a rifle in his hands, aimed at Berry’s head, he asserts, “I’ve already killed ten of his men who tried to kill me!”

  Berry began to laugh and then said reluctantly, “I had killed nobody in my life if we don’t count the two hundred people what I killed by accident when I collided with a passenger ship. I’m convinced that Tantras Hamal arranged for that ship to be at that empty pier, which hadn’t been used for years. We used that circuit for races. While I was driving my test round, the ship flew onto the trail, and I couldn’t avoid it. Tantras wanted me dead as well as you. I avoided death by a hair and, believe me; he is not my friend.”

  E.T. watched Berry, through gritted his eyes because he is not believed him, and asked, “And what did you do to him?”

  Berry sighed loudly and looked at the surrounding buildings which are like huge massive spirits surrounded the central square. “I had an affair with his daughter.”

  E.T he loosened his grip on the trigger. “That wasn’t the smartest thing to do.”

  Berry looked at him and made a foolish grin on his face, said, “I know. I’ve always liked to take a risk.”

  E.T. put the rifle down and smiled. Then he suddenly grabbed it again and shouted, “Get on the ground!”