Asura

by R P L Johnson

  ‘Like Tej said, it’s just a legend,’ he replied eventually. ‘If there were hundreds of those things in there, don’t you think they would have made an appearance before now?’

  ‘Maybe they did. Golden cities, men fighting against demons. Is that any different from what happened here thousands of years ago? The legends have been startlingly close to this new truth, Captain. I wouldn’t be so quick to discount them.’

  They dropped down to the cavern floor. If anything the heat was even more oppressive than higher up. The rocks steamed beneath their feet, the pumice baked to a powdery dry meringue, so soft in some places that their boots crunched through the top crust like soft-packed snow. In some places, the porous rock was piled high like drifted snow banks where subterranean gases had bubbled up through the lava. Rose led the way in the shadow of one of these ridges, hidden to all but the highest spires of the tower. There was still no sign that they had been detected. The huge spire rose ever higher above them, but there were no signs of life.

  They crouched behind a jagged mass of basalt while Rose checked out the entrance to the structure. Up close, the opening was huge. Everything about the massive structure was built on a scale that dwarfed even its huge occupants. An army of Nagas could charge through the opening ten abreast. There didn’t seem to be any door, or any other obstacle. The tunnel wound into the structure on a steep slope. Rose could see about sixty metres along the tunnel before the curve of the near wall blocked his view.

  He scanned the rest of the structure, looking for any other way in. Although there was no sign of an ambush, or any other sign that their presence had even been noticed, every military instinct screamed at him that walking in through the front door was the worst thing he could do.

  But there was no other opening that he could see. The curve of the lowest section of the huge tower continued, unbroken, in both directions around the massive circumference of the structure’s base.

  There was only one way in.

  One by one, the small team ghosted over the threshold into the sleeping structure. Rose half-expected the Asura waiting just beyond the curve to confront them. Either that or a swarm of Nagas to close in on them as soon as they were inside the tunnel, but the passageway was clear and their progress through it unchecked.

  The golden walls were banded by ribs of a transparent material that gave off a faint, diffuse light. The material itself glittered and the gleaming walls gave the impression of an Aladdin’s cave of riches.

  Rose hugged the wall as they crept through the tunnel. They followed an upward spiral and within two minutes they were out of sight of the entrance. The unbreaking regularity of the tunnel made it difficult to judge how far they had travelled, but Rose estimated that they had travelled about three hundred metres, maybe a third of the way around the circumference of the tower, and risen many metres from the cavern floor. Finally the passageway opened onto a large space.

  ‘Good Lord!’ Garrett exclaimed behind him.

  The passageway did not stop, but it emerged clinging to the side of an enormous cylindrical space. Rose could see it continue at the same gradient in a slow spiral that wound around the inner wall of the golden tower. A similar path wound around the space in the opposite direction creating a double helix. Where the paths crossed, the junction was marked by a broadening that cantilevered out into space: sometimes enclosed into blister-like chambers and occasionally leaping across the space to link two opposite nodes with a spider web-thin bridge.

  The interior of the tower continued upwards until its extent was lost in darkness. Beneath them, it continued down into the earth: a bottomless black maw fifty yards across, extending far deeper than the few dozen or so they had climbed up from the cavern floor.

  Rose checked the tracking device for the black box transponder.

  ‘Looks like we’re going up,’ he said.

  They followed the spiral path. There was no sign of the Asura or any other life in the huge structure. The place seemed deserted, dormant: somehow asleep. The spiral continued at its thigh-burning gradient, but they could not stop. Every second took them deeper into the Asura’s territory.

  They reached one of the flat intersections. The path continued its anticlockwise progress up the tower ahead of them. There was also another route, a switchback that would take them onto the opposite spiral climbing clockwise. Rose examined the readings on the tracking device. Another half turn around the tower and some hundred metres above them, the regularity of the spiral path was broken by a network of bridges. Three of the gossamer-thin structures leaped from the walls to converge at a central hub. A thin column hung down from the apex of the tower above to transfix the hub platform like the axle of a three-spoked wheel. The column continued below the hub before tapering to a point hanging suspended over the echoing drop below.

  Rose checked the tracking device. The signal had been gaining strength steadily for several minutes. They were gaining on the Asura, and it looked like it had stopped at the central hub.

  They approached slowly. The bridge to the hub offered no cover, but there had been no sign that their progress thus far had been observed. The tower was eerily silent.

  ‘Do you think it’s safe?’ Garrett asked with a nod towards the delicate bridge.

  Rose couldn’t stifle a smile. ‘Safe in that it’s structurally sound, yes. Safe in that we’re trying to retrieve an explosive device from a hostile demon. I guess we’ll find out.’

  Rose led the way across the bridge. Despite its slenderness it was as solid as a rock. The deck was about six feet wide, curving gently upwards towards the edges with the same glowing ribs providing a gentle illumination.

  ‘My God!’ Garrett exclaimed. ‘There are thousands of them!’

  Rose looked up. The central column above the hub glowed softly with some inner light. What he had at first taken to be ridges and long extended lobes on its surface were now visible. They were pods – egg-like and ghostly transparent, they studded the surface of the column in neat lines that disappeared upwards into black obscurity. And inside each pod was the skeletal grey shape of a Nagas.

  Rose did a quick calculation. Fifty pods around the circumference of the column meant over three thousand Nagas in the hundred yards or so that was visible in the dim light. And the column was undoubtedly taller than that.

  ‘What kind of city keeps its citizens in cold storage?’ Garrett asked.

  ‘Not a city,’ Rose replied. ‘A ship... A starship.’

  ‘Some of them look empty,’ Khamas said. ‘Perhaps they are around us!’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ the Major replied. ‘There is no way they would have let us penetrate so far into their domain.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Tej agreed. ‘There are about a hundred empty pods. Did we not face that number outside?’

  ‘Well if they woke a hundred, they can wake more,’ said Rose. ‘Lets try and get out of here before that happens.’

  Rose noticed one of the pods at the base of the column, just above the hub platform, was over twice the size of the others. It too was empty. A pattern started to become clear. The structure had an unmistakeable triform symmetry to it. Three bridges leading in, and now that he was looking for it, he could see that the ranks of Nagas were also arranged in rows of three. Three groups of three rows were clearly arranged over the larger empty pod. Rose had a disconcerting thought.

  There was still no sign of the Asura. Rose gestured for the others to wait behind while he checked his theory. Slowly he crept forwards until he was on the hub platform itself, then he started to edge his way around it. The other two bridges joined the hub on the other side of the column. A few more steps and he would be able to see.

  Opposite the other bridge, the curve of the lowest pod rose higher than those of the suspended Nagas above it. Inside was the unmistakable bulk of another Asura!

  Rose sensed movement above him. He dived to the side as a black shape cut through the air where he had been standing. The Asura’s lance
bit deep into the platform. Rose felt the concussion from the blow ripple through the platform as he rolled to his feet. At the same time a clatter of gunfire burst out from the bridge: quick short bursts from the SCAR combines under laid by the deeper roar of the Major’s Minimi machine gun.

  The Asura dropped from an upper platform as bullets tore through the air all around it. It swung its weapon, bladelike, and Rose barely avoided the mono-molecular fine edge as it tore through the tough material of the hub platform. It towered over him. Rose was close enough to smell the stink of its breath as it bellowed in rage. He could see the damage Campbell had done with blade and axe. Now a fusillade of bullets tore into its hide. Lead ricocheted off its armour and span away buzzing like mosquitoes.

  The volley of shots ceased abruptly as another desperate roll took Rose out of the way of the Asura’s blade, but into the line of fire of the others on the bridge. The Asura pressed its advantage. It charged at Rose like a bull, knocking his towards the precipitous edge of the hub platform. Below him, empty space echoed for hundreds of metres. He clung on desperately as the Asura spun and brought its staff crashing down on the bridge where it joined onto the platform. Even the bridge’s alien strength was no match for the mono-molecular edge driven with all the force of the Asura’s powerful frame. The blade sliced through two of the stiffening ribs, cutting through half of the two metre width in one stroke.

  The bridge lurched and shuddered under the blow. With its support on one side cut away, it began to twist. Rose saw his friends cling desperately to any hand hold they could find. Khamas’s rifle went tumbling into the chasm below.

  The hub platform rang with the impact too, almost sending Rose over the edge. As the others struggled to maintain their purchase on the precarious bridge, the Asura turned back to finish the job it had started on Rose. It raised its staff high above its head and brought it crashing down.

  Rose ripped the black rod from its sheath and braced for the impact. The force of the Asura’s blow rang through him like a gong. He felt dazed by the impact as if he had been hit by a car. His arms were numb: his strength was spent from blocking just one blow. But at least he was alive. He had parried the blow. The strange b lack weapon of the Asuras was as good at taking punishment as it was at dishing it out. Rose just hoped that he was up to the task.

  The Asura seemed surprised that its killing blow had been deflected. It hesitated for a fraction of a second and Rose jabbed the rod upwards. The responsive material sensed the movement and burst upwards in spear mode. Its needle-sharp point split the Asura’s armour and ran it through: bursting out through the creature’s shoulder with a spray of black blood. It screamed.

  Rose heaved on the end of the spear and the point turned to blade as the weapon its way out through the Asura’s flesh. A spray of warm blood spurted across Rose as he rolled across the deck and away from the wounded, but still deadly dangerous creature.

  The Asura clutched at its ruined shoulder with its one good hand. It staff dropped from nerveless fingers as its left arm hung on by the merest scraps of its tough hide.

  Another clatter of gunfire erupted from the swaying bridge and tore into the Asura. Stray rounds crashed through the translucent shells around the Nagas suspension pods releasing a heavy vapour that swirled, knee-deep around the platform before spilling over the sides.

  The Asura lurched away around the curve of the hub’s central spire. Rose chased round in the opposite direction to meet it head on and finish it once and for all.

  On the far side of the hub, the trefoil symmetry was broken by a raised platform. That it was an instrument panel of some kind was obvious. Its function Rose could only guess at, but the Asura’s obvious urgency in reaching it meant that it could only be bad news.

  The console consisted of a grid of holes, each about an inch in diameter reminding Rose of the holes in a bowling ball. But these holes were designed for the Asura’s oversized fingers. It worked the grid of holes like a musical instrument, using different combinations on what Rose came to realise was an alien keyboard. The dull glow from the transparent stiffening ribs around the platform began to pulse and increase in brightness. The hiss of escaping vapour from the shattered pods rose to a whistle with the deeper harmonic of throbbing machinery below.

  Then Rose saw it: the case. The brushed aluminium shape was reassuring familiar in the midst of the alien otherness of its surroundings, despite the horrific power trapped inside. With his goal almost within his grasp, Rose charged.

  The Asura ignored him until the last minute and then lashed out with a kick that would have snapped Rose in two had it landed squarely. Rose twisted to one side, but the Asura’s foot still caught him a glancing blow that knocked the breath from his lungs and sent rivulets of fresh pain through the claw wounds that scarred his gut.

  Rose ignored the pain and slashed down with the rod. It tore through the meat of the Asura’s thigh – severing flesh and bone as easily as it slid through the chitin like layers of the creatures armour. The limb dropped, severed, to the deck as Rose brought the rod around in a figure of eight and plunged it deep into the Asura’s back. The spike transfixed the beast, burying itself deep in the console in front of it. Rose hauled on the end of the lever, working it from side to side. The Asura stiffened, gave a final spasm and fell dead against the console.

  Rose slumped to the deck – exhausted. The ebbing tide of his adrenaline rush could no longer hide the pain of his injuries and he gritted his teeth as his body reminded him of half a dozen different wounds. Vapour billowed from the cracked pods, shrouding him as he knelt against the alien console, chilling him.

  Four familiar shaped pounded out of the rising mist.

  ‘Is it dead?’ Garrett asked.

  Tej levelled his combine at the base of the creature’s skull and slotted it for good measure. It didn’t even twitch as the bullet tore through it.

  ‘Scratch one Asura,’ Rose confirmed.

  ‘What do you think it was doing?’

  Rose looked at the beast. The fingers of one hand were still jammed into the console. He wrenched the alien rod from its back and the creature slumped to its knees. It hung from the arm like a drunk clinging to a bar rail. The other arm hung useless at its side.

  ‘I don’t know. And I’m not hanging around to find out.’

  Quickly he opened the case and reconnected the receiver that linked the bomb to the transmitter he had taken from Carver’s corpse.

  The hissing stopped.

  The clouds of vapour that had shrouded the platform melted away, spilling over the edge of the platform and evaporating into nothingness.

  ‘This is not good,’ Rose said.

  With the slither of a thousand blades being drawn from a thousand scabbards, the glass pods began to open.

  CHAPTER 33

  The noise was unbelievable. Rose looked up at a writhing tower of ghostly-grey Nagas. He got the feeling he was looking at a gothic cathedral where the gargoyles had spontaneously screeched to life.

  ‘Back away slowly,’ he said.

  The Nagas had obviously seen them. A thousand pairs of black eyes gazed down on them with undisguised malevolence, but so far they made no move to attack. A plan began to form in Rose’s mind. If they could just make it to the bridge, maybe they still had a chance.

  A huge shape lifted itself from the lowest pod. Another Asura! Rose remembered Tej's ancient tales of three demon brothers falling from the heavens.

  ‘Go!’ Rose hissed. ‘Go now!’

  Khamas and Garrett raced towards the bridge. The movement caught the second Asura’s eye and it turned its great head towards them. Rose stood with the black rod in one hand and the case in the other, right in front of its slain brother. Its roar seemed to shake the entire platform.

  The first of the Nagas dropped to the platform in front of Tej. It lunged at him, clawed fingers reaching for his throat. Tej fired from the hip; at close range the effect of the Remington shotgun was devastating. Nine tungsten al
loy pellets slammed into the beast with the stopping power of a Mac truck, blowing one arm clean off at the shoulder and pitching the beast backwards. Tej quickly pumped another cartridge into the breech and the second blast tore the Nagas’ head to bloody ribbons of flesh.

  Suddenly it was raining demons.

  They dropped from the tower by the score. The first to land were trampled by the shear weight of their brothers as they swarmed down from the upper reaches of the tower.

  Rose sprinted towards the bridge. Garrett and Khamas were already across. The deck lurched sickeningly under his feet where the Asura had torn through one of the primary supports. It bucked and rolled underfoot like the deck of a ship at sea. Just a few more metres, Rose thought. He could hear the Nagas behind him; he could hear the twin bellows of two of the huge Asuras as they directed their minions after the felling enemy.

  He was halfway across – only a few more metres. The bridge sagged and twisted, threatening to pitch him off into the void. He risked a glance over his shoulder – the narrow bridge was covered with a swarm of the alien monsters. They raced along the deck and crawled over the outer structure of the bridge like rats. Every square metre of the structure writhed with life.

  Tej and the Major reached the end of the bridge and turned to give covering fire as Rose sprinted the last few metres. Nagas fell screaming into the void, but for every one that dropped, a dozen took its place.

  Rose tossed the case to Garrett and raised the black rod high above his head. He swung two-handed with all his strength; the blade bit deep into the support, but the tough structure refused to collapse. The Nagas charged forwards as Rose swung again. This time the overloaded bridge, weakened at both ends, started to twist. Rose could feel the tortured material quivering through the black rod as the structure rolled and tore out its last supports by the roots. The slender bridge twisted and buckled, folding in on itself under the weight of the hundred or so Nagas that it took with it on its final plunge.