by Angela Timms
The Prince smiled back. “A necessary one. I can’t tell who is a Follower around me at the moment. It is hoped that this artefact will be able to tell me so I not only want to get hold of it, I want to get hold of it without my own people knowing I’ve got it. That is why I’ve asked you to help me. It is something I need as there have already been four assassination attempts and the constant worry is detracting from my real work and using resources that could best be placed elsewhere. That is also why I suspect a trap but I can’t let my well founded paranoia stand between us and retrieving this, if it does do what they claim it does. The information came from a very sound source.”
They finished their coffee and followed the Prince out into the corridor and along to another door. This door led to corridor after corridor which eventually led into a small room where clothing and equipment had been laid out. They got changed in silence into the grey military style outfits and strapped on the side arms. They then followed the Prince out into the hangar which was empty of people. The Prince whispered. “I’ve called a staff meeting to discuss pay and conditions, as you can imagine everyone wanted to attend. I’ve had that Hopper over there prepared by a crew I thoroughly trust but Rennon if you’d like to scan it just to make sure.” Rennon pulled out his hand held scanner and ran it over the vessel from a distance. “All clear on this but I’m picking up a tracking device. Shall I neutralize it?”
The Prince smiled. “I’m thinking no, let’s take it off and install it on this one. It is due to be taken out by a drone on a reconnaissance mission. You haven’t met our drones yet have you? Artificial humanoids who are programmed to undertake a specific missions. Quite creepy really but very useful for saving quite a few lives. They look quite like us. Well exactly like us which is the idea but it is spooky to watch them. They have personalities and when they are not switched off even have social lives.”
Rennon strode over to the Hopper they were taking out and located the beacon. He carefully removed it and carried it to the new vessel and installed it in a similar position. “There, the two vessels are close enough at the moment that they won’t detect it has been moved.”
They climbed aboard the Hopper and the rear hatch closed. Rath and Rennon took the pilot’s seats and the rest of them sat in the back. It as another A Class Hopper with access to the cockpit so they could leave the door open and still communicate.
The Hopper took off and hovered slightly before gliding out of the hanger. The Prince keyed in a code which allowed them to depart safely and they were soon up in the vast expanse of space and jumping into the inter- dimensional corridor.
An hour later they jumped out of the IDC and flew through the blackness of space until they came to a small green and blue planet which was part of a system of seven others and a sun.
The Prince stood behind Rennon and Rath. “That is Elak, home to the Elakians who are best known for their wood sculpture. What we are looking for is in a cave on their sacred mountain so we are going to have to come in cloaked and avoid detection or this could be a major diplomatic incident. They are allies and trading partners and we don’t want to offend or upset them. To ask permission would take days and it may alert them to what they have. I cannot guarantee that some of them haven’t fallen into Follower control so it is less complicated just to make this a covert mission.”
Kel laughed. “You mean steal it.”
The Prince nodded thoughtfully. “I mean borrow it without permission. I have no intention of permanently depriving them of their artefact and when this is all over I will return it.”
Kyla smiled. “The Prince would never be such a rogue as to steal it now would he?”
The Prince looked thoughtful. “So you’ve done your homework or is that from Joniel? Some of my earlier exploits did involve me relocating certain equipment that belonged to my enemies.”
Rennon looked up for a moment from the calculations he was making. “Did you expect anything else? We wanted to know a bit about you.”
The Prince smiled to himself. “Of course. I wouldn’t have expected anything less. Of course you could have just asked. I make no secret of it. I had the good fortune to have a romantic start in life by being orphaned and adopted and then I lived a colourful life before finally reclaiming my true inheritance whereupon my previous transgressions were thankfully expunged. Which roughly translates to me being a street urchin who was adopted by a family who didn’t mind encouraging my less law abiding attributes before my true lineage was discovered. At which point all previous misdemeanors were suitably officially forgotten about.”
Rennon set his scanner aside. “I’ve completed the calculations and I can bring us down directly above the location you gave me. There is a small goat path that runs down to a cave.”
The Prince looked in earnest at Kyla. “When we go into the cave we have to go in alone. Only those with the DNA will be safe which is what I’m counting on to give us the advantage. If you keep the ship on weapons standby just in case we’ll get in and out as quickly as we can.”
The Hopper touched down with precision on rocks in a clearing at the top of the hill. Rath smiled. “Right, well that wasn’t so difficult. If you keep to the rocks and follow Kel’s lead they might not know we’ve even been here.” He clicked the post flight buttons and checked the power up for the cloaking device. “All working well, I think we can go now.” He got up and they exited the hopper.
The goat track was narrow and started pretty much parallel to where the hopper had landed. There were rocks jutting out of the grass and getting down involved climbing over them. The moss on the rocks was slightly slippery and had velvety purple filaments growing from it which wound around ankles as they negotiated the goat track, viewed by several goats who had taken up positions on rocky outcrops above them as they descended and got to the cave. It had a slight natural platform outside and in the dirt there were goat tracks and signs of other animal activity. The Prince had one of Rennon’s scanners and scanned the entrance. “For a cave entrance that looks so natural I have never seen so much technology. We have already been scanned and then the activity stopped. So hopefully that means that it has recognised our bloodline and we are now safe to enter. Please follow me, I think we had better dispense with ladies first.” He stepped over the threshold and into the darkness of the cave beyond. Kyla followed him and stood behind him as he clicked on his torch which illuminated part of the cave.
The cave opened out into a large expanse about thirty feet across. The air was chilled and smelt of vegetation and damp. The floor was slightly damp and the rock was coated with centuries of debris which had rotted down into soil. Although fairly smoothly hollowed out rocky outcrops stuck out into the room. The walls of the cave were decorated with ideograms. These were mostly stick men who danced around camp fires. Bears and wolves leapt across the landscape and a bird rose above them. It was a simplistic representation of a bird with a zig zag base, body rising from this and flowing into two outstretched wings and the beak pointing to the left as they looked at it. Kyla walked over to it and was about to touch it when the Prince caught her arm gently.
He smiled at her, his face mere inches from hers. “It is safe but we don’t want to leave any residue of our being here. Scanners could pick up our presence so it’s best not to touch anything. There’s just that one tunnel so I suppose that is the one we take.”
A tunnel led off from the cave and the two followed it. It opened into an alcove on the right hand side which contained a stone coffin which almost filled it. The alcove was made of a different stone which had been inlaid into the natural rock. It was sandy coloured and carved to look like smooth stone blocks. The floor had also been covered with the same stonework as had the ceiling. The coffin itself was made of the same stone, carved smooth. The coffin lid was shut and it took both of their combined strength to rotate it open. Inside there was a body wrapped neatly in bandages. The bandages looked clean and showed no sign of decay.
The Prince frowned an
d scanned the area. “I’m picking up residual EMP on the coffin but nothing on the body.” As he stepped closer a hologram of a robed figure appeared in the corridor. Its hood was pulled up over its head but as they stepped around the coffin to get a closer look its hood fell back to reveal the head of a bird with a long hooked and pointed beak. The figure moved and became more solid. The Prince pushed Kyla behind him and took a step forwards to stand in front of the figure. In its hand it had a large black metal ankh which it offered to the Prince.
The Prince scanned it again and again, each time the figure was becoming more solid until it was fully in the room. The figure bowed and spoke in a language they didn’t understand. The Prince activated the scanner and words appeared on the screen which read. “Welcome to the tomb of Thoth, Architect of the Universes. Within our walls you will find what you desire or you will find death.” The figure then placed the ankh on the body.
The Prince swung round and began scanning the body. “I’m picking up life signs. Kyla watch out, that thing is coming to life.”
The body sat up slowly and raised its hands to pull the bandages away from its eyes. It then climbed out of the coffin and headed straight for Kyla. The Prince got in the way and it stopped and looked at him. Beneath the bandages there were watery brown eyes that darted about. It stepped to the left, it was blocked. To the right, it was blocked. Then with lightning speed it grabbed the Prince and threw him across the room. He hit the wall, his head contacting the rock and slumped to the floor. Kyla was backing away and had pulled out her blaster. The mummy was still advancing as she pointed the blaster at it and fired making a huge hole in its chest. It looked down mystified and fell over backwards and was still.
The bird headed creature looked on in amusement and spoke in its own language.
Kyla ran to the Prince who was just coming around and rubbing his head. She checked him over for signs of concussion but as he seemed to be alright she helped him up. He dusted himself off and scanned the body on the floor. “Well Kyla, that was a bit unexpected. Come on, better get this done and get out of here.” He then noticed the words on his scanner. “Your fear brings haste and rash actions.”
The figure bowed and faded back into the wall. The mummy lay on the floor, blood flowing from the chest wound.
Kyla went over to it. The Prince tried to stop her but his hand missed her arm. She knelt down beside the body and felt for a pulse. There was one, it was weak. She rolled him over and she could see now that the bandages were wrapped over the man’s clothes. She pulled out her own bandages, sprayed the injured area with disinfectant and marveled as the wound began to close. As it closed she caught sight of something silver inside and wires. Tiny lights flickered red, green and blue before they were obscured by the skin which was growing over them. She scanned again, there was definitely life there but there was also something else, there was an electromagnetic pulse.
The creature sat up and clasped its chest and rubbed it slightly as it was almost healed. It then spoke in a similar language to the bird headed man. The scanner translated. “Thank you for your assistance guests to the Temple of Thoth. Please speak a few words so that I may place your language.”
The Prince stepped up next to Kyla. “We are travelers.”
The creature thought for a moment. “You are welcome in the Temple as the Keeper has already sanctioned your passing. I will accompany you.” The creature rubbed its chest and looked slightly hurt. His eyes were sad and he looked from one to the other slightly quizzically.
Kyla looked at the Prince who shrugged. “Well I suppose if you wanted to kill us you would try again now. What is your name?”
The creature looked at the Prince, his bandages almost completely fallen from his face. His watery brown eyes still looked a little sad. His face was humanoid in design, long dark hair apparently hung down his back but that was still wrapped in bandages. His hair was flattened to his face where it had recently been wrapped. He pulled at the bandages and removed some of them. His skin was slightly tanned and flawless. “I have no name but I am referred to as Intendi.”
The Prince smiled. “Well Intendi if you would like to join us you would be welcome and I’m sorry about shooting you earlier.”
Intendi looked at the Prince blankly. “It was what you chose to do out of the choices you were given. All choices were perfectly valid.”
The corridor went on for another thirty feet and turned right. There were many cobwebs and spider webs along the ceiling and the floor was littered with debris from them. The Prince went first and kept Kyla close behind him. Intendi followed on behind, pulling off more bandages as he went. Kyla and the Prince had torches attached to their guns and they pointed them up and down the corridor, stopping occasionally to listen.
It was quiet, there was the sound of dripping water in the distance and however carefully they walked the sound still echoed up and down the corridor and it was almost impossible to avoid the debris on the floor.
The corridor went on for about a mile and they soon realised that the floor was gently sloping downwards. It was hardly detectable until the scanner started giving depth readings. The slabs on the floor were becoming more distinct and then quite abruptly the tunnel ended in a steep stairway dipping downwards into the darkness. They both came to the top of the stairs and they looked down with both torches. The stairs were swept or at least there was no dust on them. They were also cut from a different stone, a dark grey with a vein of black running through it.
The Prince pulled out his scanner and pointed it down the stairs. “This is illogical and completely wrong. Why build a tunnel that slopes down to end abruptly in a staircase. Intendi, do you know anything about this place?” Intendi thought for a moment. “Please define know.”
The Prince considered his words. “Have you been along this corridor before?”
Intendi looked at the corridor. “No.”
The Prince waited as the readout appeared on the screen and then he showed Kyla. “Well, it looks clear. No mechanisms detected, no explosives, according to the scanner it is just a staircase. There are no apparent hidden passageways or rooms that the scanner can detect. This is a corridor ending in stairs going down. It has to be a trap but I can’t work out what. There’s not a lot more we can do than to walk down there as carefully as we can. Are you alright with that?”
Kyla looked at the stairway and smelt the musty air. “It looks like the only thing we can do.”
The Prince put a foot on the first step, nothing happened so he started off down the stairs. He was careful, keeping one hand on the wall and taking it slowly, step by step. Kyla stayed close behind him and followed him down. Intendi wandered along behind.
The stairs descended for a quarter of a mile until it opened into a cavern. The Prince stopped at the entrance and let Kyla step beside him so that she could see the cavern as well. It was a huge and roughhewn from the rock to form a space about a couple of hundred feet across. On the far side of the cavern there was a stairway up to a raised level. On the raised level there were two thrones. In front of them the room was huge and in each quarter of the room a pyramid rose up out of the floor. The Prince looked at Kyla and she shrugged. He held out the scanner and lights began to flash and figures and words started flashing across the screen.
Kyla pulled out her scanner too and began to point it around the room and viewed the scanner in surprise. “I’m getting a lot of readings from this room. There is an immense amount of energy being generated from here and it seems to be centered on those pyramids. The one on the left has a particular energy signature.” She pointed to the pyramid closest to the raised platform on the left hand side. “It is pulsing with Eion energy and moving in and out of phase or dimension. Intendi. What is this place is for? What does it do?”
Intendi’s face showed no emotion. “At last you ask a valid question. This place generates energy which maintains the energy field around this planet which protects it from those who would harm it. The pyramids a
re transformers which protect the planet from the many sun storms which occur here. The sun’s energy would destroy any technology so such precautions had to be set in place in order to allow the machine to continue its function.”
The Prince looked surprised. “So why isn’t this place better guarded?” Intendi bowed. “Thank you. The structure itself was built by an ancient race who believed that it was better to keep your enemies out than to defend once they are within their walls. If you had been travelling to this planet with the intent of destroying it or harming its people you would have been dealt with. As there was no need to defend against you the defenses were shut down. Had you not carried the DNA the situation would have been very different.”
Kyla looked puzzled. “Why would the DNA ensure that we didn’t mean harm to this planet?”
Intendi bowed to her. “It doesn’t but your radio communication and discussion in your shuttle informed us that you were travelling here seeking help to define your enemies. As that was your mission there was no need to. Your enemies are the enemies of this planet.”
The Prince looked thoughtful. “Alright Intendi, would you tell us where we can find the artefact that we seek if you already know our intent and have heard our discussion.”
Intendi bowed. “I have not personally heard your discussion but yes I would tell you.”
The Prince looked a little annoyed. “I said would you tell me.” Intendi bowed. “And I replied, yes I would tell you.”
The Prince looked at his shoes and smiled. “Alright Intendi, before I get annoyed. Where is the artefact?”
Intendi bowed. “Right here.”
The Prince took a step forward and then calmed himself. “Alright Intendi. What question should I ask so that I can get the artefact to take back to my people?”