The Lost Pleiad

by Sesh Heri

  “Those are frightening words,” Tesla said.

  “What words?” Marconi asked.

  “The words ‘will be,’” Tesla said. “They may give birth to the words ‘never be.’”

  “I know what I am doing,” Marconi said.

  “And when we locate Amelia Earhart and her recording of the Table of Destiny,” Tesla asked, “will you destroy the Table immediately?”

  “Of course,” Marconi said. “But first we must be sure we have it. That may take some time.”

  Tesla stared at Marconi for a moment, and then turned his eyes to the television screen in front of them. The view of the stars ahead reduced to a shimmering white light by the distortion in the ether on the leading edge of the saucer craft. Marconi’s words “will be” echoed in Tesla’s mind. Will it be? Tesla asked himself. Will the Tablets of Destiny truly be destroyed? Can they ever be destroyed— and can they ever be destroyed by human hands?

  Minutes later Marconi turned off the superluminal engine, applied the breaking engine, and the circle of light on the television screen flashed off to be replaced with the rusty sphere of Mars.

  The saucer craft shot toward the Martian equator. To the north loomed Nix Olympica, the largest volcano in the solar system, now long dormant and the site of the Martian civilization’s royal city built within a network of mammoth lava tubes. Directly ahead of the saucer craft lay three large volcanoes ranged out southwest to northeast across the equator. To the southeast extended a gash in the surface of the planet; it was a scar sustained in an interstellar war millions of years ago.

  Unlike the Moon, Mars still showed signs of life. The great river valleys upon the planet’s surface still offered mute testimony of the time when Mars had a dense atmosphere and flowing water. Time and again throughout its existence, Mars had been struck by natural and intelligent forces that stripped away its atmosphere and destroyed all life upon its surface. Intelligent beings had restored the atmosphere and the surface life of Mars after each of its destructions, only to have its surface repeatedly destroyed again in future calamities. Earth, a cosmic nursery for the seeds of life, had been almost completely spared such cataclysms. Only in the traces of Earth’s crater lakes could the story of its cosmic convulsions be told. But the very face of Mars was disaster.

  As the saucer craft carrying Marconi, Tesla, Kel-Kar, and Alyana neared the surface of Mars, all on board could sense that this was a place of accursedness and lost hope— the planet of war— Khahera, “Body Separated from the Face of God.”

  When the saucer-craft reached within 5,000 feet of the surface of the planet, Kel Kar said: “There— that circular opening. It is an entry to the tunnels that are controlled by my revolutionary forces.”

  Marconi piloted the saucer craft down through the immense black hole. All on board watched the black circle on the surface of Mars enlarge on the television screens until all the screens went black.

  Marconi reached over and turned a dial. The image on the television screen brightened to show a tunnel terminating in a wall.

  “How do we get past that?” Marconi asked.

  “Where is the communicator here?” Kel-Kar asked. “The, uh— radio?”

  Marconi reached over in front of Kel-Kar and closed a switch on the control board. He then pointed to a dial directly below the switch.

  “Short wave hertzian frequencies,” Marconi said. “Can they pick up any of that?”

  “All of it,” Kel-Kar said, turning the dial.

  Marconi opened a sliding compartment, pulled out a radio microphone.

  Kel-Kar took the microphone and spoke into it, using the tongue of Khahera: “Ah nym ley Kel-Kar! (“This is Kel-Kar.”) Ah turk ta urta shen. Muf-kha ahtaper. (“I’m inside this earth ship. Open the airlock.”) Muf-kha te pay. (“Open the door.”) “De sparte audi ya bekar?” (Do you hear me in there?”) Kena muf-ka quen pay! (I say open that door!”) Ordu pe Kel-Kar!” (By order of Kel-Kar!”)

  Kel-Kar gazed at the unmoving wall on the television screen.

  “Muf-ka quen pay!” Kel-Kar commanded.

  On the television screen the wall suddenly moved aside to the right, revealing a brightly lit space beyond.

  “This is the airlock for our City of Revolution,” Kel-Kar said. “You may bring us inside of it.”

  Marconi directed the saucer craft into the airlock opening.

  “Our provisional council of elders govern here,” Kel-Kar said. “It is the most secure place for us on the planet. None of my father’s soldiers would dare come near here.”

  “How about S.S. storm troopers?” Marconi asked.

  “If they were foolish enough to come here,” Kel-Kar said, “they would never come a step further.”

  Marconi had now brought the saucer craft completely inside the airlock. The wall behind them slid shut. A distant sound of whirring machines reached the interior of the saucer craft. After several seconds the wall directly in front of them slid aside. Again Marconi moved the saucer craft forward, this time into an immense cavern with a flat floor. Two hundred feet away a Martian airship sat with the loading door on its stern wide open. Marconi brought the saucer craft to a stop and then landed it upon the floor of the cavern.

  Kel-Kar said: “It is best that everyone on board remains in here while I speak to those who await outside.”

  “Very well,” Marconi said. He rose and threw the switch for the door and boarding ramp.

  The door slid open and Kel-Kar went through it.

  Marconi and Tesla stood at the door watching as Kel-Kar walked down the ramp and stopped before a group of Martians. Kel-Kar spoke for only a few moments before turning and walking back up the ramp.

  “Our revolutionaries are launching a major assault on the Royal City,” Kel Kar said. “This is very bad news, for the Royal City is precisely where we need to go.”

  “Why?” Marconi asked.

  Kel-Kar looked over his shoulder and then turned back to Marconi and said, “I’ll tell you inside.”

  Kel-Kar came through the door and closed it behind him.

  “I have been thinking about Mr. Tesla’s magnifying receiver,” Kel-Kar said.

  “What about it?” Marconi asked.

  “Its configuration and size,” Kel-Kar said. “I now realize that I’ve seen another object exactly like it here on Mars.”

  “A giant coil?” Marconi asked.

  “Yes,” Kel-Kar said. “I believe what I once saw was a magnifying receiver just like what Mr. Tesla has designed. Perhaps what I saw was the same type of device in a more completely developed, fully realized form.”

  “Where have you seen such a thing?” Tesla asked.

  “In the ancient sacred City of Helu,” Kel-Kar said. “In the sculpture of Helu itself.”

  “The giant face?” Tesla asked.

  “Yes,” Kel-Kar said, “the mile-long sculpture of Helu on the edge of the sacred city. The giant coil is there inside the forehead of the sculpture, a great coil of metal just as in Mr. Tesla’s design.”

  “When did you see this?” Tesla asked.

  “When I was a boy,” Kel-Kar said. “I was taken there on a tour of the planet with my father and his advisors.”

  “This coil,” Tesla asked, “did it look to be intact— was it functioning? Could it still operate?”

  “If it cannot,” Kel-Kar said, “I would think that it would be easier to repair it than to build an entirely new system.”

  “There’s good strategy in that,” Marconi said.

  “Can you get us to the sculpture?” Tesla asked.

  “We can get to the sacred city,” Kel-Kar said, “but we might have a great deal of difficulty getting inside the sculpture of Helu. The entrance to it is sealed. Any attempt to get inside without the key will trigger a collapse of the entrance.”

  “How do we get the key?” Marconi asked.

  “My father has it,” Kel-Kar said. “And only I know where it is kept.”

  “Where?” Marconi asked.


  “In the Royal City,” Kel-Kar said. “A place in my father’s bedchamber.”

  “Can you get in there?” Marconi asked.

  “Possibly,” Kel-Kar said.

  “Why only possibly?” Marconi asked.

  “Two reasons,” Kel-Kar said. “One, I have sworn to kill my father. Two, he has sworn to kill me.”

  “That does complicate things,” Marconi said. “Are you prepared to do what you have sworn?”

  “I am,” Kel-Kar said.

  “That does simplify things,” Marconi said. “Then take us to your Royal City and we will get the key.”

  “I should go alone,” Kel-Kar said.

  “We will go together,” Marconi said. “All of us— you, Alayna, Mr. Tesla and I. All of us.”

  “All of us,” Tesla repeated. “We will all go.”

  “Very well,” Kel-Kar said. “As far as the Royal City. Beyond that— to the Palace— to my father’s bedchamber— only I will go there.”

  “As far as the Royal City we will go with you,” Marconi said. “And once you have the key, we will all depart for the City of Helu.”

  “So be it,” Kel-Kar said.

  Marconi opened the door of the saucer craft. Kel-Kar went out, followed by Alayna, Tesla, and finally Marconi. At the end of the ramp the Martians waited. Kel-Kar spoke a word to them, raised his hand, and the assemblage parted to let Kel-Kar pass.

  The white capsule rapidly carried Marconi, Tesla, Kel-Kar and Alayna along the single rail of the transport tube to the Royal City. The operator of the capsule sat in front, peering out of a circular window at the tube ahead. They had traveled a number of miles when the sound of a Martian voice reverberated through the interior of the speeding capsule. As soon as the voice stopped speaking, Kel-Kar translated for the others:

  “They are warning us of explosions up ahead along the tube. The battle in the Royal City has begun. The royal army is fighting the revolutionaries with everything they have— bullets and force-rays both. The royals are trying to collapse all the transport tubes controlled by the revolutionaries.”

  Minutes later all those inside the capsule felt and heard the first explosion in the battle of the Royal City. A Martian voice speaking rapidly sounded on the communicator and then cut off.

  “We’re all right,” Kel-Kar said. “Those explosions were in another tube. I think we will make it into the city.”

  A few moments later the capsule slowed down and came to a stop and its door slid open.

  “The Royal City,” Kel-Kar said, standing.

  Alayna, Tesla, and Marconi all stood and followed Kel-Kar out of the capsule. They came out upon the platform of a monorail station.

  Now only a few revolutionary soldiers stood at attention near the main entrance. Kel-Kar spoke sharply and one of the soldiers reached for a control panel on the wall. The great door of the main entrance slid apart, releasing the sound of the battle in the city beyond. Thunderous booms and cracks echoed back and forth across the walls. Kel-Kar waved his hand toward the entrance and strode forward. Alayna , Tesla, and Marconi followed.

  Beyond the entrance they all came out upon a plaza opening up to a central boulevard that extended through the length of the underground city. The ceiling of the cavern loomed overhead, three quarters of a mile above the city streets. The place was lit in a twilight of purple phosphorescence from the overarching cavern walls above. At the far end of the boulevard, a quarter of a mile away, rose the terraces of the King’s Palace, a great stone outcropping of arches and pillars built up against the distant cavern wall. Between the monorail station and the King’s Palace lay the Royal City, rising up from the cavern floor as domes, towers, and sharp gables— an underground city of open terraces and arched doorways. Now this city convulsed with fires and explosions. Billows of smoke were being drawn up into mammoth vacuuming machines ten stories tall. These giant vacuuming machines walked upon stilts, drawing the smoke of the city into their mechanical mouths. The vacuums now moved quickly across the rooftops, operated by Martians who were desperate to preserve the breathable air of the city.

  Directly in front of Kel-Kar stood a line of revolutionary soldiers firing ray-guns over a hastily constructed wall. Their commander turned about and Kel-Kar spoke to him. As Kel-Kar spoke the commander’s glance moved over Marconi and Tesla who stood off to the side. Finally the commander turned and barked an order to a soldier. The soldier bent down, opened a case, took out two force-ray pistols, and handed one to Marconi and the other to Tesla.

  “Use them if you have to,” Kel-Kar said. “Otherwise, just stay behind this wall. If I can not make it back…then stay with these soldiers.”

  Kel-Kar started off with a pistol in his hand. Alayna stepped in front of him. They looked into each other’s eyes a moment, and then Kel-Kar handed Alayna his pistol. He went over to the ammunition case, bent down, took out another pistol for himself, and then stood up and nodded to Alayna. He and she suddenly leapt over the wall out of sight of Tesla and Marconi.

  Kel-Kar and Alayna ran down the empty boulevard for nearly a hundred yards before suddenly darting into a building. Now they were amid the ruins of the Royal City. The scent of smoke was everywhere; it soon filled their lungs until they panted for air— panting as they went— running across courtyards, climbing over walls, wiggling through crevices, passing through rooms blackened with fire, stepping over corpses, Martians who had been overcome by the smoke and had suffocated and then had been burned. And then they passed figures of smoke dust clinging to the walls. These were Martians who had been flashed into vapor by the power of force-rays.

  Now Kel-Kar and Alayna reached a narrow alley with walls of stone thirty feet high on both sides. They began moving along the alley when suddenly an explosion went off at the top of the wall on their right. They lunged back, just in time to escape the crushing fall of stonework. They retraced their steps, went through a hole in the wall, crawled through darkness, and emerged out into open space. They stood up, dusted the ash from off their clothes, looked up, and saw that they had reached the plaza leading up to the steps of the King’s Palace.

  Kel-Kar and Alayna ran across the deserted plaza and reached the entrance steps. They stopped behind a massive carving in basalt of a Martian beast of prey— a giant cat— and stood there, peering around its sides. The steps of the Palace were empty. The plaza before them was empty.

  Kel-Kar leapt forward from around the sculpture, gesturing for Alayna to follow him. She leapt out into the open and the two of them ran rapidly up the first flight of steps, and reached the first landing, a wide stone platform. They continued up the second flight of steps, the city ablaze at their backs, and then the third flight and to its top where the reached the portico with its great columns— and beyond the columns the Palace doors.

  Kel-Kar walked across the deserted portico with Alayna following behind him. He reached the entrance doors, and grasped one of their ornate handles, turned it, and pulled the door open. He stood upon the threshold, looking into the Great Hall. Kel-Kar’s body trembled with a flood of memories. Then Kel-Kar realized that Alayna had come up behind him; he could sense her presence there, small and tense— Alayna who had come through so much with him already.

  Kel-Kar stepped through the door and entered the Great Hall. Alayna came in behind him and closed the door, muffling the sounds of explosions outside. Together, the two of them crossed the Great Hall in silence. They reached the staircase and ascended it side by side. At the top of the stairs the hall beyond was empty and silent. Kel-Kar led the way to his father’s bedchamber. He stopped at the door of the bedchamber, looked at Alayna, and then turned the knob and pushed the door open.

  Inside, a dim light glowed in one corner, casting a pall over the room. Kel-Kar entered slowly with Alayna behind him. He saw the footboard of the King’s Bed and the massive headboard beyond with its bas-relief that contained the key to the inner chambers of the sculpture of Helu. He took another step forward and glimpsed a heap of b
edcovers between the footboard and headboard— and the covers were shaking.

  Kel-Kar stepped forward yet again, approached the side of the bed, and looked down.

  Near the headboard, sunken into the folds of a pillow, lay a quivering, white object, a thing like a wrinkled, emaciated face. Kel-Kar loomed over this object and looked directly down upon it. The thing opened its eyes. Something in the glittering pink irises was recognizable to Kel-Kar; it was a quality he associated with extreme cruelty become madness, but not the madness itself. It was the thing that had made the madness possible: a spiritual vacuum, a personal nothingness. He had known this quality, seen it long ago, felt it in another, and in the instant of remembering the quality and feeling, he knew that he was looking into the eyes of his father, the King of Khahera.

  Kel-Kar’s father opened his mouth, but was unable to speak.

  Now is my chance, thought Kel-Kar.

  In reply to himself, Kel-Kar thought, he is already dead.

  Kel-Kar knew that his father had been abandoned by his guards and servants, abandoned to die by smoke or fire or the weapons of his enemies. Someone else now ruled Khahera. Looking at his father, Kel-Kar realized that someone else had ruled Khahera for a very long time.

  Kel-Kar turned and glanced up at the bas-relief, a representation of the sun, an image that was meaningless to the teeming masses of Khahera, the masses who knew nothing of sun and planets and astronomical bodies, who were taught from childhood the Doctrine of Infinite Stone. But to the royals of Khahera, the image of the sun was a secret symbol of power and hegemony. Now, at the center of the headboard, Kel-Kar reached out to the circle representing the sun and pressed it with his fingertips. Immediately a rod projected from the surface of the bas-relief. Kel-Kar grasped the rod and pulled it out; it was the handle of a large metal key— the key to the door of the inner sanctum of Helu— the sun god.

  Kel-Kar gazed down at the key in his hand, then at his father. His father’s mouth moved again.