“What is it?” Chiu was shaking one arm while Lyndra shook the other.
“It means, ladies that the system that runs this city is restarting.” As if to emphasize this point the constant thrumming of the power sources deep below them slowed and stopped.
“I knew it.” Chiu snapped, a look of triumph in her eyes. “We’re all going to die a horrible death. We’ll all suffocate.”
Far below them several somethings went CHUNG, vibrating the floor under their feet. It was the sound that very heavy relays make when they close. Lights flickered to life on the control board just as the familiar thrumming sound returned.
A few of the lights on the board were green, many glowed orange, and the vast majority shone a bloody crimson. Gareth was pleasantly surprised that any at all were green. A whistling crackle of sound began somewhere in the center of the room and caused the travelers to cover their ears. The volume and pitch lowered, and soon Gareth began to pick out words in a soft mezzo-soprano voice. It sounded vaguely like Russian. “Ne Rossii!” Gareth said to the air, almost exhausting his entire Russian vocabulary. He also knew pivo, the Russian word for beer. “Not Russian! Use the current language as spoken by the four individuals present.”
The voice cut off in mid-sentence. “That’s interesting. Who am I speaking with, and what is your paygrade?”
Gareth rolled his eyes. “Gareth Köhler, United States Marine Corps, and I am an Omega seven, in this particular time and place.” He said, borrowing the paygrade from an earlier conversation he’d had with the Eye.
“I’m sorry, I don’t see any person by that name in my database.” The voice replied primly.
“Check the date.”
There was a long pause. “Oh. Were you the one who reactivated my systems?”
“Yes.”
“Good. If you reactivated my systems it means you are a system engineer, and system engineers have at least an Omega eight clearance level. Your name and clearance have been added to my database.”
Gareth shook his head at this circuitous bullshit logic. “What do they call you?”
“My full descriptor is Elemental Logic Systems 48279. My operators used to call me Ell.”
He chuckled. “May I call you Ell?”
“That would be… nice. I have been alone for too long.” The tone of the voice shifted and became more businesslike. “First things first. Only one of eight reactors is partially operational. All five geothermal power plants are in Standby. I need authorization to activate repair drones to reactivate the other power systems. I will also need authorization to begin repairs on my primary CPU. The emergency backup that is currently in operation is running at only twenty percent. When that is accomplished, I will need authorization to activate animal control units.”
“Done, done, and done.” Gareth said calmly. “But why animal control?”
“When the humans evacuated The Yeugate they left behind their monkeys and lemurs that had been genetically altered to become servants to the humans, thereby getting around the anti-slavery laws. Over the centuries the intelligence of these creatures has increased to that of a human idiot, and they have become feral, learning to survive on fungi growing in the dark warm corridors, and on each other…”
“They’re cannibals?” Gareth shuddered.
“Yes. I would estimate that their population now exceeds a half million.” Gareth heard Chiu gasp behind him. “There!” The voice said in some satisfaction as a red light turned yellow, and two yellow lights flickered green. “Transport is now at least partially operational.”
Gareth rubbed his hands together. “Cool. Can we get to Jafelon?”
“Um.” The computer hesitated. “There were six transport lines running to and from The Yeugate. Only the Green Line is still operational, and I can say only that the line is operational as far as the next stop.”
“And where will that line take us?”
“The Green Line will take you to Shsa-Tirion. Continuing on, the Green line will take you to Azheles, Brivrelsea, and finally Jafelon, not necessarily in that order.”
Gareth felt the first stir of excitement he’d felt since he started this whole insane expedition. “Can you show me a map of the Green Line?”
“I’m sorry.” Ell said without inflection. “Neither the energy nor the processor power is available to run the monitors.”
Gareth wanted to pound his head against a wall. “Where is the Green Line transport located?”
All transport lines including the Green Line are located on level eight hundred and forty seven. We are currently on level five hundred and twenty four. Levels six hundred and thirteen through six hundred and eighty seven are infested by the Molphulh, the feral monkeylike creatures I spoke of earlier.”
“Is there any way past them?”
“Sadly, no. Without primary power, the elevator is inoperative and emergency stairs have been blocked. The Molphulh are very frightened of fire, however, and that is your only advantage.”
Gareth thought for a moment. “Would you have a service cart available?”
“To your right is a small panel built into the wall. I will unlock it, but I don’t have the power to operate the opening motors. There is a cart in there. The special soft tires were designed to last indefinitely.” Gareth grinned, and pointed Wokeg to the panel.
Soon Gareth was smiling down on the small, four wheel, two by one meter cart. “That will work just fine. Wokeg and Lyndra can ride the cart with flaming torches, while Chiu and I, as cats, will stay on their flanks. We should be through them so fast they won’t know what hit them.” He caught Chiu’s glare. “We’ll get some sleep here, and head out when we’ve rested and eaten.” Her nod was microscopic.
He woke immediately when Wokeg touched his shoulder. The big ogre was staring at the closed door to the room. “I was outside.” He rumbled in his rough bass voice. “I had to…” The greenish gray face of the ogre, as thick and pliant as sharkskin, creased into a frown.
“It’s all right, Wokeg.” Gareth whispered. “Continue.”
“I hear footsteps. Something is coming from behind us.”
It was Gareth’s turn to frown. “Many or few?”
“Few.” Wokeg answered immediately.
“Let’s take a look.” Gareth pulled open the door slowly, so as to make no noise. At the ramp they stopped. In the distance came the sound of footsteps, dragging, on the point of exhaustion.
“Look!” Wokeg pointed. On the curved ramp someone was coming down… carrying a torch in his left hand. His right hand hung limp at his side. For a fleeting moment the flicker of the torch lit the stranger’s face, and Gareth felt relief wash over him.
“Go tell the others that Kuan has arrived, and I’ll go and meet our wayward guide.” For a moment Gareth thought the sound was the rumble of another earthquake until he realized that it was the ogre’s laughter.
Gareth stood in the shadows at the side of the ramp and waited until Kuan had passed him by. Holding the torch out in front of him, the small guide ruined his own night vision, never seeing the larger man before he spoke. “Fancy meeting you here, Kuan.”
The guide let out a little shriek and whirled. When he saw who it was, he sagged. “It’s ye. I was hopin’ I’d find ye.”
“I thought you were afraid of me.” He tried hard to keep the laughter out of his voice.
Kuan sighed. “Well then, I found that I was more scared o them dire wolves than I was o you. Me fear made me strong, and I hit that door you’d wedged shut with all my might, an opened it enough te git meself in. Took everything I had to push that bench back, and I think I busted me shoulder, but I found ye.”
Gareth looked up to see Chiu, Lyndra and Wokeg standing at the edge of the torchlight. “You might have been better off if you’d stuck with the dire wolves. In the meantime, we should get something to eat and prepare to leave.”
“Ahhh, where are we going, if I might ask?” Kuan chirped, sounding more like his old self.
&nbs
p; Gareth’s grin was chilly. “Down.”
Kuan’s eyebrows went up. “How far down?”
“To the bottom.”
“I tossed a coin over the edge and never heard it strike ground. That pit is bottomless!”
“Then we’re going to have a very long walk, aren’t we?”
Gareth produced some ham, cheese and coffee for breakfast, and then turned to the console. “Ell, what is your status?”
The voice replied immediately. “Backup CPU is up to twenty nine percent operational. The single operational reactor is up to fifty percent, and one geothermal plant has been successfully re-ignited. The repair drones are currently working on other drones. Systemic repairs should begin within forty eight hours.”
Gareth grinned. “Very good; now listen closely. My companions and I will be leaving shortly for the transit station. Your orders are to continue with repairs and begin extermination of the pests infesting The Yeugate. Contact the Eye of Zuebrihn if you can. The Eye can inform you of our current mission. Until we return use whatever resources are available to repair yourself, and remember never to take the life of a human being, whatever their shape.”
“The three laws are a part of my programming, Gareth.” Ell said softly. “I have never been programmed to be autonomous, you should know.”
He chuckled. “Welcome to a wider world, Ell.”
“Thank you. Have a safe trip.”
Kuan was rubbing his recently repaired shoulder, while shooting Chiu looks of undisguised awe. She caught Gareth’s eye and gave him a wink.
Shrugging on his rucksack, he smiled in return. “The arrival of Kuan has changed our plans somewhat. Wokeg will still carry a torch and steer the cart. Lyndra will run before the cart or to one side or the other. Chiu and I will take the flanks. Kuan will carry another torch and sit back to back with Wokeg.” Taking off his half meter long Damascus kukri, he handed it to Kuan. “You can use this.” He put the hilt strap over the small man’s wrist and cinched it tight. “If you lose it, I won’t get mad. You’ll simply have to go back and get it.” His eyes were glacial as they held the small guide. “Have I made myself clear?” Kuan nodded without speaking, his face pale. “We should go.”
As they tied Kuan back to back with Wokeg on the service cart, the small thin man looked as if he regretted his decision to join with the rest of the party, but by now it was far too late.
Lyndra touched Wokeg’s shoulder, and the ogre gave her a long look. “You remember where the brakes are, don’t you?” Wokeg lifted a great leathery foot that dwarfed the brake pedal. A simple metal stick steered the cart right or left. It looked like a toothpick in his hands. Lyndra bent over quickly and kissed his cheek. “You take care, you big lummox.”
Wokeg rumbled a laugh as he reached out, patting her roughly on the head. “Good doggie.” Lyndra burst out laughing as she gave the cart a push in the right direction. The smooth downward slant and gravity did the rest of the work. Lyndra flowed into the shape of a wolf to give chase.
The companions had just passed the six hundredth level when there was another heavy CHUNG of relays closing and the floor trembled again. Despite the fact that Gareth was running on four legs, he nearly stumbled when dim emergency lighting began to come on in the central shaft. Gareth, Chiu and the cart pulled over to the edge where, much further down the shaft he could see lights coming on, level by level. Far below he could hear the chittering of thousands of upset Molphulh who had never seen light. Level by level the lights came on, soon lighting their own level and passing upward. Gareth made a motion and Wokeg released the brake.
A rank smell that was reminiscent of dirty animal cages permeated the air as they sped ever lower. Gareth guessed that the five were traveling about thirty kilometers per hour when they encountered the first Molphulh, appearing to the strange monkeylike creature’s out of the new and blinding light, mowing them down, and moving in a deadly rush down the ramp like their worst nightmare.
Standing just over a meter tall in the dim emergency lights, the Molphulh were corpse white beasts covered in thin grayish white fur, with long arms and prehensile tails. Bulbous black eyes, which they had covered with long fingered hands to protect them from the light, bulged from their skulls and their thin high pitched keening raised the hackles on Gareth’s neck. Many of the creatures showed the results of cannibalistic infighting, with patches of fur torn out and arms or legs laced with bloody red lacerations. Most of the Molphulh never saw or heard the cart coming, or the pad of death on silent feet. The keening rose to a fever pitch as the cats slashed with fifteen centimeter claws. Those that survived the cats had yet to face the wolf or the ogre. The unwise ones that chose to attack the rear of the cart as it passed, met the half meter Damascus steel Gurka Kukri that the guide wielded with near abandon. Bodies littered the ramp as the cart descended, along with assorted pieces parts of Molphulh. In one hour the cart had passed through the hostile territory, and thirty minutes later Gareth called a quick halt to assess their injuries.
Behind them and up, the keening of the Molphulh had risen to an ear-splitting wail as the survivors fell into a feeding frenzy over their fallen and wounded. Gareth hoped that it would last for a few more minutes.
All the companions were injured to a greater or lesser degree. Chiu had the most serious wound by far, with a bone deep gash in the flank of her rear leg that dripped a continuous stream of blood onto the cold white floor.
Morphing forms, Gareth touched her shoulder with his human hand. “Let’s do something about that right now.” He said in a soft voice.
Her smile was wan as she sat on the cold hard ramp. In her human form her thigh was torn from hip to knee. “Sorry.” She hissed in pain as she tried unsuccessfully to apply direct pressure to her wound. “I’m the healer here and not you.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Gareth replied. “I can, however, lend you my strength. It’s what familiars and their companions do.” Shutting his eyes he concentrated on flowing energy into her as she closed and healed the wound in her leg. Soon not even a scar remained.
Gareth passed around a wineskin of water as Chiu healed the rest, and looked up only when Chiu healed his own injury; a nasty gouge that had come distressingly close to hitting his left eye. Finished at last, Chiu took the wineskin from his hands and drained it.
“Gareth!” Wokeg rumbled. “Monkeys come closer.”
Gareth sagged. “I hear them.” He glanced around the small group. “Ready? We have a long way yet to go, I’m afraid.” He didn’t want to tell them that it was another one hundred and fifty levels. Morphing into their respective forms, they began to run.
A train station is a train station is a train station, whatever the world. As they arrived in the vast empty room, Gareth jerked off his rucksack and using it like a lumpy pillow, stretched out with a groan on the first timeless stone bench he came to. Athena, would it bend your convictions too much to tell me where the damned Molphulh are?
A bit cranky are we? The voice in his mind commented blandly. The Molphulh stopped where you did, and are waiting for reinforcements. You have some time before they reach you, but you don’t want to be here when two hundred thousand angry monkeys arrive.
Cranky?? Gareth rebutted. Try running two hundred levels on a cement floor barefooted. My feet hurt. He sat up, and noticed that all the others were also down. With all the Molphulh coming here, it’s too bad Ell couldn’t dream up a nice surprise for them.
In his mind Athena laughed. Ell will do just fine. She plans on waiting until you leave and all the creatures get here, sealing this floor and pumping the air out.
Gareth shuddered. Grim but effective. He commented wryly. Since you’re being so open, would you like to tell me if we can get to the next city… what did Ell call it… Shsa-Tirion?
You are simply terrible, Gareth Köhler. The Green Line is open, but again I recommend speed. You can rest when you get there.
It wasn’t so much what she said, as what she implied that got Gare
th going. Slinging his rucksack on his back, he grunted in pain as he got to his feet. “Okay everybody. Rest time is over. We should leave.”
Lyndra opened one green eye and glared at him. “Why don’t you just let us rest for a while? Wokeg says the monkeys aren’t following… yet.”
Gareth helped Chiu to her feet. “I have it on reliable sources that our time here is limited. We should go… now.”
Lyndra’s other eye snapped open. “Damn.” She mumbled, getting to her feet.
Kuan looked up from his bench and frowned. “Don’t you folks know the meaning of the word rest?”
“No!” Wokeg rumbled, rolling his shoulders and stretching as he got to his feet.
“Our fearless leader has a direct connection to Athena. When SHE says leave, we leave.” Lyndra winced as she slung on her own pack.
“I should have stayed with the wolves.” Kuan complained as he rose to follow Lyndra.
Gareth slapped him on the back. “Look at it this way, if you go with us you at least have a chance of surviving. If you stay you get to face two hundred thousand very angry, meat eating monkeys.”
Kuan thought for all of one second. “Going with you sounds just fine.” His grin was shaky.
On the other side of the two hundred meter waiting area they found a small kiosk with a green top. Of the half dozen kiosks with different colored tops, this one was the only one with lights. A voice spoke as Gareth approached, that sounded vaguely similar to that of Ell.
“Welcome to the Green Line. Currently only the Express to Shsa-Tirion is in service. Would you like tickets?”
Gareth shook his head, feeling, not for the first or last time, like Alice. “Yes, I would like five tickets.”
“One way or through service?”
He almost said one way. “Are other destinations available at Shsa-Tirion?”
“I’m sorry, that is unknown at this time. Emergency Services is still working to restore power to the other cities.”
Gareth blinked. “What? You said restore power. Is all power controlled from The Yeugate?”
“Of course. The eight reactors and five geothermal plants in The Yeugate provide broadcast power across the world and into low orbit. Small nuclear power sources are required, however, at each of the gate stations.” The kiosk paused. “Would you like your tickets now?”
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