Brown, Eric

by Helix [v1. 0] [epub]

  As he watched, the four tall beings were joined by two small, furred creatures that resembled nothing so much as gerekos, the mischievous tree-dwelling creatures that inhabited the forest. They left the golden ship and hurried across to the taller beings.

  Then one of the tall Fallen left the group and, with painful exactitude, stepped towards Pharan.

  He glanced right and left, and only when he was satisfied that the acolytes had arrayed themselves in the symbol of holy munificence—the stylised cup of the Creator—did he step forward and raise a hand.

  He spoke his name, and welcomed the Fallen to Calique.

  The spokesperson of the Fallen spoke his language, though inexpertly. “I am,” an unintelligible sound, “and my friends and I come in peace.”

  Pharan gestured, excitement mounting in his thorax, and then informed the spokesperson that it was his duty to lead the Fallen to the Sleeper.

  The Fallen spokesperson listened, and then inclined its head slowly. It turned and spoke to its fellows in a low, slow language that Pharan found hard to conceive might possibly convey the necessary information.

  Pharan dropped into a squat, which a day ago might have caused him pain; he felt nothing now but exultation.

  The spokesperson sat down, crossing its thick limbs. Slowly, cautiously, the others joined it and sat down to either side. Last of all came the furry creatures, which dropped into squatting positions and stared at him with huge dark eyes.

  The spokesperson said, “You spoke of the Sleeper. Please tell us more.” Its grasp of the language was rudimentary, and hesitant, but by concentrating fully Pharan understood its meaning.

  It was written in the scriptures that the Fallen, when at last they arrived on Calique, might be ignorant of their mission. The scriptures claimed that the Fallen might even be ignorant of the Sleeper, and the grand saga of the Sleeper and the Caliquans.

  It was Pharan’s noble duty to enlighten these strange beings.

  “Many thousands of cycles ago,” he began, “the Sleeper did fall to earth aboard a magnificent jewelled vessel; I say the Sleeper, though of course he was not known as the Sleeper then...”

  Pharan proceeded with the story, as it was laid down in the scriptures.

  The jewelled vessel was seen first by a lone acolyte meditating upon the mountain-top, who reported seeing a fiery coal descend from heaven and come to rest in the forest, three days north of the phrontistery. The Venerable at the time, one esteemed Baraqe, had foreseen the event in the stones, though further casting had failed to impart what future events might lie beyond the fiery coal’s arrival.

  He sent out a caravan consisting of his wisest teachers and a dozen of the finest acolytes, and three days later they reached the place where the coal had landed.

  They were amazed to find not some nub of meteorite but a complex vessel studded with winking jewels, though the vessel had suffered on impact: its skin was dented, many of its jewels lost, and oily smoke issued from within the craft. As they watched, a hatch opened, and a strange beast staggered forth and collapsed upon the ground.

  Their first reaction was revulsion, for the beast was hideous in the extreme; but revulsion was swiftly followed by compassion, for was not the beast one of the Creator’s creatures, and in need of succour?

  The being was injured, bleeding badly, its limbs shattered, and suffering who knew what terrible internal injuries? With much effort, for the creature was twice as tall and three times as heavy as the largest Caliquan, they managed to ease it onto the back of a sharl and made their way back to the phrontistery.

  For the next cycle the teachers and acolytes of the mountain nursed the creature back to almost full health. Through much of its bedridden recuperation, it was attended by an acolyte name Heth, who as well as ministering to its physical needs, undertook to guide its spiritual welfare too.

  To this end, Heth taught himself the creature’s language, and spoke of the scriptures, and the supreme Creator of all that the universe contained.

  It was from Heth that the story of the creature entered the scriptures and came to be passed down the generations.

  There were no terms for many of the creature’s more technical words, for the Caliquans were not a mechanical, tool-wielding race, and therefore much of what the creature told Heth was translated with approximate phrases and words.

  The creature—its true name was too complex for Heth to transliterate—was one of a team of world-menders, that is, beings who moved about the helix with the duty of restoring what was not perfect. There were many worlds on the helix, and over the multiple cycles of their existence, things became worn, mountains lost soil, rivers dried up, food trees died. The team of noble world-menders moved from world to world around the helix, ensuring that all was perfect, harmonious. They also aided the many races of the helix, in many ways. It was a fine profession, which brought much prestige to those who carried it out. However, one day as the world-mender was going about its business, a fault developed in the interior of the creature’s jewelled vessel—perhaps its heart failed, or its brain suffered fever; at any rate, the vessel fell from the skies and crashed upon the soil of Calique.

  According to scripture, the creature, when well enough to regain its feet, returned to the vessel and inspected it, and decreed it dead; he mourned its passing, for he could not leave the planet now, nor could he communicate with his fellow world-menders.

  However, there was hope that one day he might be reunited with his kind.

  He took Heth, accompanied by Heth’s teacher, into the jewelled vessel and showed them a long object, very much like a passing box in which acolytes and teachers alike were placed before burial. The creature explained that he would place himself within the box, and sleep for many cycles, and tell the box to wake him only when another craft fell from the skies to the soil of Calique. He instructed Heth to tell his people to watch the skies, and, when a vessel fell to earth, to be on hand to guide the Fallen to where he slept. Then he would awake and be returned to his people, via the craft of the Fallen.

  That was the story according to Heth, which was recorded in the scriptures, and which brought great merit to the people of Calique, for to aid a strange creature in its hour of need, without thought of gain or benefit to oneself, was the finest act a being could accomplish.

  Pharan recounted the story to the strange, longhaired spokesperson of the Fallen, who leaned forward and listened intently, from time to time turning slightly to relay the account to its fellows, who evidently did not understand the language of Calique.

  “And so, now, it is my duty to lead you to the Sleeper,” Pharan finished triumphantly.

  The spokesperson made a gesture with its head, which Pharan found unusual. It spoke to its fellows, two pinky-brown creatures and one as black as a gourd, and they all spoke together, with what might have been called animation if the term could be applied to creatures who moved with great lethargy.

  The spokesperson faced Pharan, and asked, “I take it that the Sleeper was of the race that was responsible for the building of the helix.”

  Pharan listened well, and worked out the clumsy words, and said, “We do not know whether the Sleeper belonged to the beings known as the Constructors. This was not recorded by Heth.”

  The spokesperson moved its head again, and said, “If the Constructors sent out world-menders, then did the Constructors themselves dwell on a world that was part of the helix?”

  Pharan thought through the question and replied, “The scriptures surmise that this is so, but which world exactly is a secret known to none.”

  The spokesperson spoke to its fellows, and its words caused much excitement among the slow-moving creatures. Each one of them had something to say, even the small furry creature, though in a language faster than the honey-flow tongue of the tall ones.

  At length the spokesperson turned to Pharan and said, “We would be honoured to be taken to the Sleeper. With good fortune we might be able to assist in his return to his ow
n people.”

  The very idea sent a shiver of excitement through Pharan. He said, “Then all is agreed. If it is convenient, we shall leave immediately.”

  The spokesperson conferred with its people, and again much debate was entered into. At last it spoke to Pharan, “We have decided that two of us shall accompany you. The others must remain and work upon various repairs to our ship.”

  Pharan gestured, and spoke to his acolytes, relaying the joyous information that their mission was to continue to the shrine of the jewelled vessel.

  But first, said the spokesperson, its people must eat.

  Pharan, curious as to the feeding habits of these strange people, stood beside his sharl and watched as one of the Fallen stepped into the rainforest and returned some minutes later bearing fruit in its arms. This bounty it placed before the spokesperson, evidently in some form of ritual. While all the Fallen looked on intently, the spokesperson tasted first the greer fruit, then a shod-berry, followed by a kurl. It ate slowly, very deliberately, speaking to its fellows as if discussing the merits or taste of each fruit.

  Then they waited, staring at the uneaten fruit on the ground, and Pharan wondered at their strange rituals.

  Perhaps five minutes later the spokesperson turned to the others, and moved its head again, and stretched the lengths of skin that surrounded its mouthpiece, and the others made odd low repetitive noises and fell upon the fruit and devoured it quickly, or as quickly as these slow-movers were able.

  Pharan watched it all, for soon he would make his observations known to Venerable Kham, and then write up his experiences, and perhaps with luck the events of his final days might find their way into the inviolable texts of the sacred scriptures.

  Five minutes later the spokesperson announced that the chosen two were ready to leave the clearing. These two included the spokesperson itself and a Fallen not unlike the spokesperson, in that it was the same shape and shade and had the same dark substance growing long upon its head.

  As they mounted the sharl, the spokesperson— after exchanging words with the black Fallen—asked Pharan if they might encounter any dangerous animals while on the trek north, to which Pharan replied that Calique was not a world of danger.

  They set off, though not before the second Fallen who would make the pilgrimage first embraced— and joined mouthpieces—with one of the Fallen who was to remain behind.

  Then Pharan mounted his sharl, and gave the order for the trek to resume, and as they left the clearing and plodded north through the forest, he gave thanks to the Creator for the wonder he was experiencing.

  * * * *

  3

  Hendry watched the strange procession leave the clearing. Sissy and Carrelli rode upon the first animal, while the alien who had introduced himself as Watcher Pharan rode upon the second. Two further animals, each bearing six insectile lizards, brought up the rear.

  There had been a heated debate as to who should accompany Carrelli to the tomb of the Sleeper. The medic had suggested first that Hendry join her, but Sissy had objected to that, stating in no uncertain terms that she had no desire to be left behind with a couple of aliens and Olembe. At that, Olembe had volunteered to accompany Carrelli himself, which Carrelli vetoed on the grounds that they needed someone to remain behind to work on the ship. By a process of elimination, Sissy had found herself dragooned into making the trek.

  “Can’t you go by yourself, Gina?” Sissy had asked.

  Olembe laughed. “Lovesick already?”

  Carrelli intervened. “It makes sense to go in pairs. These people seem friendly enough, but all the same they are aliens. Joe, you work on the ship with Friday, okay?”

  Hendry would rather have made the trek himself, but for the sake of diplomacy he acceded to Carrelli’s wishes.

  As the last of the animals disappeared through the forest, Olembe returned to the ship, attended by the alien called Ehrin, and inspected the open hatch in its flank.

  Hendry was still coming to terms with what he had shared with Sissy back in the forest, viewing his memory of the unexpected passion as if it was an episode in a dream. It was the culmination of days of increasing affection for the quiet, yet occasionally outspoken, Inuit woman. He was amazed that it had come to a head so soon, and with such rapidity. He had been alone, and then through some mysterious and wonderful fusion, like alchemy, he was no longer alone. At least, that was how it felt. His future had been uncertain, haunted by the absence of someone he had assumed would always be there. It seemed now that Sissy had in some odd way replaced Chrissie, and while euphoric at the turn of events, at the same time he could not help but feel guilty that he was beginning to enjoy life again while Chrissie was dead.

  Tears stung like acid in his eyes as it came to him that Chrissie would surely approve of his liaison with Sissy.

  Olembe pulled his head from the recess in the side of the ship. “I need a hand here, Joe.”

  He indicated a mass of fused circuitry and a fifteen-centimetre column of blackened steel, which looked as though it had exploded. “Our lemur friend here told Carrelli that this was the problem. Don’t ask me what the hell it is. I’m fucked if I know.”

  “But we need to replace it, right?”

  “Yeah, but with what? I’m a nuclear engineer, not a mechanic. Anyway, I need to get it out first. Hold this while I work it free, okay?”

  Hendry grasped a hank of charred wires while Olembe struggled to free the burst cylinder with something that resembled a monkey wrench. While they worked, Ehrin climbed nimbly up the sloping side of the ship and perched on a golden fin, watching them work. From time to time it gestured and chattered to itself.

  Hendry caught its glance and winked, not expecting a response and not getting one. He was aware of the creature’s rank animal smell, its quick respiration.

  He said to Olembe, “Supposing we do get the ship running again, we need to find an uninhabited Earthlike world before we go back for the colonists.”

  Olembe nodded. “Pity the lizards turned up. This place pretty much fits the bill, little of it we’ve seen.”

  “I wonder how different the neighbouring worlds might be? Think about it—how many hundreds of worlds are crammed onto each tier? They can’t all be occupied.”

  Olembe, head thrust into the hatch, paused in his work to shoot a glance at him. “No? What if the Builders populated each one when they built this place? What if we aren’t welcome here? We gatecrashed, remember.”

  “You’re one pessimistic bastard, Friday.”

  The African laughed. “Just pointing out how it looks to me.”

  Hendry looked up through the treetops. The great arc of the helix’s next tier curved through the clear blue sky, so vast that its extremity was lost to sight. He considered its enormity; not only its physical construction, but the notion behind it. What the hell had the Builders intended—a zoo, a haven? He said as much to Olembe.

  “How about,” Olembe said, grimacing with the effort of loosening the cylinder, “a lab experiment? They gather specimens of alien races from around the galaxy, build this Petri dish and populate it, and watch the extraterrestrials fight it out.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Hendry said.

  “Why not?”

  He smiled. “Maybe I’m just a bleeding-heart liberal romantic, but I like to think that a race advanced enough scientifically would be pretty morally and ethically advanced too.”

  Olembe snorted. “Wishful thinking. Who says altruism is a universal constant?”

  “Who says evil is?”

  Olembe shook his head. “We’re talking aliens here. Who can guess their motivations? What might appear evil to us might be intended as something else entirely by the aliens themselves.”

  “Granted. But I still think that they didn’t build the helix in order to watch a bunch of aliens fight it out.”

  “And I’ll expect the worst-case scenario until I’m proved wrong.”

  Hendry glanced at Ehrin and said, “What do you think, f
riend? Why were you brought here?”

  Ehrin just blinked giant eyes at him and opened its muzzle in what might have been a snarl.

  Olembe stopped work and glanced at the lemur creature. “I wonder if they know? I mean, do they have creation stories, myths, about great ships that came from the skies and took their people to another land?”

  “Maybe we should get Carrelli to ask it when she gets back.”

  Olembe smiled. “Maybe by then she’ll be a lot closer to solving this damned riddle, if she’s managed to wake this Sleeper. Maybe we’ll know whether the Builders are benevolent zoo-keepers or sadistic voyeurs.” He swore and yanked the cylinder free. He held it up to Ehrin and said, “You know where we can find something just like this, a kind of replacement, yeah? To fit in here? Go fetch, boy.”