The Cosmic City

by Brian K. Lowe

“Time for what?” I demanded.

  “This!” He thrust the hologram at me, and it immediately adjusted itself to my most advantageous viewpoint. Tofan Res pointed to a small star pattern in one corner. I shrugged. “Watch!” He swiped his hand across the picture, and it set into motion. The stars that he was pointing to were moving, the very phenomenon I had argued against so forcefully.

  “Those are not stars.”

  “No,” he said. “Those are spaceships. And by means of the technologies available here, I’ve been able to identify them. They are different from what we know, but similar enough.”

  I frowned. “Similar to what?”

  “To those who came before,” he said. “The Nuum. They’re coming back.”

  Chapter 39

  Prisoners of the Cave Men

  “I think it’s embarrassing that we got caught and they weren’t even looking for us.”

  Kyle shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You’re not exactly keeping your eye on the ball here.”

  “That, my friend,” I said, “sounds exactly like something Keryl would say. But since we don’t have a ball in here, I’m keeping my eye on the door, instead. Because if they’re going to feed us, that’s where dinner will come from.”

  I thought he was going to protest, but apparently he thought better of it. From what Keryl had told me, gorillas in his age were pretty ferocious, and I guess he didn’t really want to push me to see how far down the evolutionary road I’d walked. Truth was, while I wasn’t going to eat him, if they didn’t feed us soon I might be looking at my shoes to see if anything had stuck to them. I might be embarrassed, and I might be in jail, but I was still hungry.

  I sighed and kept watching the doorway. Aside from my hollow insides, the shame of being taken prisoner pretty much by accident was the hardest thing to bear.

  After the corridor doors closed on us, we followed the only route we had. We briefly considered retreat, but it seemed pointless: Either that direction would also be blocked by our unseen shepherds, or we’d find ourselves back out in the radioactive cave with the water monster and the giant sluggeths and the spiders, facing a long walk home with very little to show for it.

  Even Praja Waluu and his lieutenant Kak Manzin had seemed resigned; they kept their weapons ready and their men, too, but we all knew that there was no use in fighting a last stand against whoever had built this place miles underground. We would be outnumbered, outgunned, and outflanked, and only fools would fight that fight. Alive, we had a chance to return to Jhal and report in; dead, we were sluggeth food.

  We hadn’t walked far when the tunnel ended in a hatch—which opened as we approached and spit out a man, a Thoran, who took one look at us, yelped, and jumped back through the hatch, slamming it shut. We looked at each other in surprise, then tried the hatch, which wasn’t locked.

  We found ourselves on a sizeable ledge overlooking a gentle slope that lead down to a city. An underground city, like Jhal, except that this consisted entirely of low flat-topped buildings laid out in a perfect grid pattern. Every four buildings were clustered close together, wide avenues separating each cluster from its neighbors. Light came from huge glowing sheets set up against the ceiling, bright but not blinding unless you looked straight at them for several seconds. I couldn’t help but think that there was no way these people suffered from the same cave spider problem the klurath had. No self-respecting spider would be caught dead up there.

  And that was about all the observation I had time for before a hundred men surrounded us with weapons and expressions that left no doubt as to their intent. We put our gear down as gently as we could and waited.

  We were still waiting. We’d been marched down into the town, lead into a building that looked like any other building as far as I could see, and locked up. I don’t know what system they used to divide us up, but Kyle, Skull, and I were in one cell, the klurath had been divided into several, and Sanja was by herself. She’d wanted to stay with us, and put up a fuss that Skull and Kyle were all too ready to join in, but I managed to stop them before they got their heads broken—or worse. We’d slept once since then. Skull still wasn’t talking to me.

  The door slid open without sound or warning. Two large rifles of some kind hovered several feet away, supported by unsmiling men who didn’t seem to blink. Ever. And there was something else about them, something I couldn’t focus on because all I could see were the large black apertures pointed straight at my head.

  “You. Ape. Come out.” He pointed at Kyle. “You, too.”

  I wasn’t crazy about his tone of voice, and something about the way he said “ape” made the word curdle on his tongue, but heavy weapons have a way of making you swallow your pride and do what you’re told. I can’t say I followed orders without any trepidation, but the fact that we’d been singled out seemed to argue against mass executions. When I got outside, I saw Sanja. She was also covered by two men, two very big men.

  And that was when I realized what else about these guards had bothered me. They weren’t just big men who towered over Sanja and looked me straight in the eye.

  They were Nuum.

  It took me a moment to realize my mistake, but that only made the situation worse. These were not Nuum—I couldn’t pick up any mental images from them at all. They were like Keryl.

  They were time travelers.

  I was so surprised I actually stopped in my tracks, and got a push for my troubles. It didn’t move me, but it shook me out of my daze. I caught up with Sanja and we allowed ourselves to be herded by the large men with large guns. It seemed the best course of action.

  As things turned out, we may have been wrong.

  “When they told me we had captured a group of lizard-men, I wasn’t terribly surprised; they warned me that might happen when I came down here. But when they told me that the lizard-men were accompanied by a Nuum, several Thorans, and a gorilla, I couldn’t believe my luck. And here you are!” For a man who couldn’t believe his luck, Farren didn’t look very happy. “I have to admit, I was hoping for Maire por Foret,” he said to Sanja. “And you, my old cellmate, aren’t Keryl Clee. What are you doing here?”

  Kyle didn’t answer him. By mutual unspoken consent, we weren’t going to make things any easier for him. The last time we met, he’d tried to have Sanja and me killed, and since it didn’t seem likely he was going to be any friendlier this time, why help him out?

  Scoring a point in the “small victories” column, our plan worked. The longer we stood there staring at him without saying anything, the more Farren looked like a fool in front of his men. I hadn’t had much to do with him after Keryl disappeared and I was helping Maire try to run Dure, but he was co-regent, so our paths had crossed more frequently than I’d liked, and I remembered him as a man who didn’t like looking foolish.

  I suddenly realized that was one of the things that separated Farren from Keryl. Farren had been born to govern, but he was really bad at it. Keryl had had to learn to lead, and he was really good at it. The difference was that Keryl could look foolish without looking like a fool. If I ever got out of here alive, Keryl would find that amusing.

  “Never mind!” Farren snapped, like he was acting out of impatience instead of embarrassment. “It doesn’t matter. Keryl Clee doesn’t know where we are, and even if he did, I’ve made all the necessary arrangements already.” I pricked my ears at that, but he wasn’t being helpful. “Take them back. Then shoot them. I don’t have time for them.”

  The guns were in our faces before we could even think of rushing him.

  “He’s going to come looking for us.”

  “No, he isn’t. I know where he is, and he’s not coming.”

  I bared my teeth in a smile that more than one human has told me is unnerving. “Are you sure? They call him the Ghost for a reason.”

  Farren met my smile with one of his own. “That’s true.” He nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll tell you what: If he doesn’t show up by the time I’m ready to leave, I’ll ha
ve you and your friends executed.”

  “And what if he does show up?”

  The smile widened. “Then I’ll execute you all together. But I’ll do the job myself.”

  Chapter 40

  Infiltration

  Maire took the news of her people’s return more equably than I had expected. Mostly, she thought Dr. Res was lying to us.

  “He told us he brought us 300 years into the past, he told us the Thorans had this great civilization that we destroyed, and now he tells us it’s time for the Return?” She grabbed one of the pillows off of the bed that she had only recently vacated and gave the poor thing an undeserved thrashing. “I wouldn’t believe that man if he told me the sky was blue.”

  Nor should you. On the Moon, the sky is black. But I was careful not to say it; Maire was not in the mood for jokes.

  “But why would he lie? What good does it do him?”

  She let the defeated pillow drop to the floor. “How would I know? Why did he say any of it? He told me everything my father taught me was wrong!” And she kicked the pillow again. “He wanted something from you and he was willing to hurt me to get it. Why aren’t you furious with him?”

  When she put it that way, I was furious with him. Were there no larger issues at stake, I would cheerfully have done for him what he wanted me to do to Farren. And then I would do it to Farren, too, for good measure.

  “We have no time to be angry. I have managed to persuade Tofan Res that the Librarian may have valuable information that can help him perfect his time travel device, and that I am the only person who can retrieve it. If I can get the Librarian to convince him his experiments are dangerous, maybe we can find a way to reverse them before it is too late.”

  Maire’s shoulders slumped and she moved into my arms. “It’s always about time with you, isn’t it, Keryl? I just wish we could have some time.”

  “After this is over, we will. One way or another.”

  She pulled back. “After this is over,” she said, “we have to stop Farren’s army from taking over the world. Then we can relax.”

  “Ah. So it is that simple, is it?”

  “Of course it is. There are two of us, and only one of him.”

  But it never is that simple. Nor would it be this time.

  Dr. Res sent Vanu’A to fetch me to the matter transporter. Maire kept her thoughts at seeing the telepath again private from me, and judging from Vanu’A’s expression, I was just as happy that way.

  The transporter itself was a circular room much like the ruined building through which we had entered it the first time, albeit far smaller. Dr. Res directed me to the center, and both Maire and Vanu’A stepped forward with me.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” they asked each other simultaneously. All of a sudden, I was wishing the doctor would use the machine to send me anywhere, as long as it was away from here.

  “I’m going with him,” Vanu’A announced.

  “Over my dead body. That’s my ship; I know it better than anybody—certainly better than you.”

  Vanu’A gave a small smile that made Maire growl. “I know it as well as you do.” And then she leaned back quickly to avoid the hand that she knew was coming.

  Against my better judgment, I tried to separate them gently, and to my surprise, Maire acquiesced. I could feel her anger in my mind, but she stood down.

  “I’m sorry, Lady Maire,” Tofan Res said, and his regret seemed sincere. “But Vanu’A must go with him. You will understand that I cannot let the two of you out of my sight. And Vanu’A can protect your husband even better than you could. It is important to me that he return.”

  She might not like the idea of me going anywhere with the beautiful telepath, but Maire knew when to retire from the field. Giving me a kiss, she walked over to where Tofan Res stood near a small pedestal without a word.

  “Listen carefully, Keryl. Because of the nature of this apparatus, I can only retrieve you from the same relative spot where you are set down. It’s too hard to explain, but essentially the beam leaves a sub-atomic residue which this machine can track. That means that if I put you inside your ship, I can pull you out again wherever you are, so long as you are in the same place on the ship. As soon as you have the Library and return to your entry point, Vanu’A will activate a beacon on her wrist and you will be brought back here. But don’t take too long; the particles have a very short half-life. If they disappear, I can’t find you to bring you back.”

  With those comforting words, and without so much as a countdown, Tofan Res made a motion and the world shimmered away.

  The idea behind sending Vanu’A and me onto the Procyon was that neither of us could be detected telepathically. As good as she was at shielding herself, Maire might still not be able to cover her presence completely, whereas no one could sense me, and Vanu’A could manipulate any mental impressions so that one only saw what she meant him to see. In other words, we were as capable of stealth as anyone in this world, completely safe from telepathic alarms of any kind.

  None of which was any help at all if you materialized right in front of someone.

  I had time to recognize the technician I had inadvertently bullied when I left the Library here, his mouth an “O” of shock, before my right hand shot up and rendered him senseless. He bounced like he had been hit by a car and fell noiselessly to the floor. Vanu’A nodded approvingly.

  “There’s something to be said for a primitive approach. I didn’t even have to block any calls for help.”

  I was already casting about for the Library. It wasn’t on the stand where I had left it, which was hardly surprising, since I had left it here quite some time ago. But where was it? Although the Library was small, the lab was clean, and I was rapidly running out of places to look.

  Vanu’A knelt over the form of the technician. “It’s not here,” she announced. “They thought they’d repaired it, and they turned it over to the captain.”

  “That would do them no good,” I told her. “The Library will only activate for me, or Maire, or Timash. They can try as long as they want, and get nowhere.”

  “Which is exactly where we are if we don’t get your Library back,” she reminded me. “Give me a moment.” She stood still for several seconds, while I considered what to do with the fallen technician He showed no signs of revival, but I had no doubt that he would awaken at exactly the worst time.

  “The captain has the Library in the command center,” Vanu’A said. “He hasn’t managed to get it to work. He was supposed to hand it over to Tofan Res himself, but he doesn’t want to give it up until he knows what’s in it.”

  I shook my head. “Tofan Res has the time machine, but Lobok has the Procyon. And Farren has the army. None of them wants to give up any advantage to the others. Nothing ever changes.”

  “I can take us to it, but you’ll have to do exactly what I tell you. I can keep us invisible to them, but if you bump into anyone, I can’t do anything about that. So stay close to me.”

  The way Vanu’A grabbed my arm made me wonder just how much she was hiding us, and how much she was using the situation for her own ends. Either way, I was certain that Maire would not approve, and equally certain that I would never tell her about it—at least not as long as Vanu’A was within range.

  “What about him?” I indicated the still-unconscious technician.

  Vanu’A barely spared the man a glance. “He’ll wake up after we’re gone, and he won’t remember a thing. Don’t worry about him.”

  Over the years, I have had dreams wherein I was back walking the trenches of France, surrounded by wet, cold miserable soldiers, but no matter what I might try, I could not help them by word or deed. I drifted along, unseen and unknown, helpless to alleviate their anguish. The dream ends when I awake in a cold sweat, blankets thrown to the floor.

  The journey to the Procyon’s control center was more akin to that dream than I want to think. The crewmen we passed were not suffering as were those in my dream, but they we
re fully as oblivious to my passage. Vanu’A clung close, steering us around everyone as we came upon them. Although I knew they could not detect my mind, and Vanu’A had assured me she could adjust the visual cues to their brains so that they could not perceive us, I still shrank back from each potential encounter, binding me even more tightly with my companion, a closeness to which she never objected. And even through all of this, I began to sense something from the ship’s personnel.

  Like the men in the trenches in my dream, they were frightened.

  I squeezed Vanu’A’s arm and backed up against the wall. She must have sensed what I did, but had evidently ignored it in light of our goal. I, on the other hand, had more on my mind than simply seizing the Library. If the crew of the Procyon was on our side, they would be an invaluable weapon. Should we succeed, and the Librarian convince Tofan Res of his errors, and should Tofan Res somehow be able to reverse the damage, we would still have to contend with Farren and Lobok.

  Except that “we” would not. Regardless of whether we averted the timeline disaster, Res Tofan still wanted to revolt against the Nuum—and he still wanted me to kill Farren in order that he might be in charge when the Returners came to Earth.

  I was immune to Vanu’A’s telepathy, but no one else was. How could I defeat an army when its general could predict every move my followers would make before they could even make it? And since I was the only person whom Vanu’A could not read, that meant there was a target on my back…

  Chapter 41

  Exfiltration

  Using the advantage of total stealth, I was able to scan the minds of those we passed with an unaccustomed strength and clarity. People who believe they are alone put less effort into their mental shields than otherwise, although they never let them down completely. I was unable to “read” minds as I supposed Vanu’A was capable to doing, but their outermost impressions and states of mind were quite plain.