Dusts of Creation (Confederation Reborn Book 7)

by Bernard Schaffer

  He was careful as he picked up Dr. Kelley's feet precisely where Saris told him to. He listened to Saris' instructions not to twist or turn the doctor's body in any way that might aggravate the spinal injury. "Where I stay is not far from here. I regret it is not much, but your friend can rest there."

  Saris looked over his shoulder at the small cave in the cavern wall that Lugan was directing him toward. He could see the faint glow of a lamp and smell the remains of several opened meals. "I appreciate you allowing us into your home."

  "It's not my home," Lugan said sharply. He grunted with the effort of carrying the doctor and said, "I apologize. It's a…painful subject."

  Saris backed into the cave and shuffled toward the small cot tucked into the corner. He saw multiple books stacked by the bed, and a makeshift work bench with dozens of tool racks stacked next to it. "You are alone in this place?" Saris asked.

  "I have been banished from the others," Lugan said as he helped lower Doctor Kelley onto the bed. He looked up at Saris apprehensively, "I am a criminal."

  Saris looked the man up and down, seeing his slight build and the gentle way he'd tended to the doctor. Saris did not sense any underlying adrenal impulses or maniacal thoughts emanating from him. He folded his arms and said, "What, may I ask, was your crime?"

  "I am…impure," Lugan said. He crossed the cave and lit another lantern. He stopped to gather up several empty cans and removed them from Saris' sight. "I do not have much in the way of food, but you are welcome to whatever you like. You will have to eat it out of the can, though. I do not have anything else."

  "I am not hungry," Saris said.

  "That is for the best then. This was all I was able to take with me, and once it's gone…I do not know where to look for food. I laid out a few traps in the cavern, but I did not have the heart to bait them. I cannot see why something else should die, just because of my crime."

  Saris looked back at Doctor Kelley and saw that he was resting comfortably. The injections were working. He moved away from the cot to inspect Lugan's workbench, seeing the multiple components and disassembled cylinders there. He picked one up and admired the craftsmanship of the piece. It was old technology, but expertly rendered. In the corner of the bench sat a large wooden box, with an old iron lock. Saris ran the tips of his fingers along it, feeling the soft, polished grain of the lid, and the cold metal beneath it. He looked back at Lugan, "Perhaps it would best if you told me how your people came to be in such a place. The surface does not seem a logical choice to inhabit."

  "Not yet," Lugan said, taking the piece from Saris' hand. "But just wait. In twenty years, it will be more beautiful than anything you can dream of. You see, we are terraformers."

  Saris raised an eyebrow, "According to our records, there has never been an effort to terraform in this region. It is too remote to be of any strategic use."

  Lugan looked away, "We chose this place because it is so far away. It was meant to keep us pure."

  There was smoke rising above the treeline, and as they continued further Captain Kirn could see an ornate domed roof standing above a large temple. Fine marble blocks were laid in the grass leading away from the woods, forming a series of steps in the side of the hill that led up to the temple's open door. Minister Aig began up the steps, saying, "Our earliest ancestors came to this place in search of freedom. The people of their home world had become too decadent and intolerant of those who wished to remain pure. Fearing that the corruption would spread to their children, they boarded the New Ark and searched for somewhere to live."

  "New Ark," Kirn whispered to himself with a slight laugh.

  She looked at him sideways, "You find that amusing, Kirn?"

  "Well, it's just that where I come from ships are named after our ideals. Important people, or events from history. Not fairy tales."

  She glared at him, "Prophecy or not, you will not mock the sacred teachings of the mak'rut, Kirn."

  He apologized and kept walking. From the top of the hill, Kirn looked down at the valleys and streams surrounding him and said, "You certainly picked a beautiful place to settle down."

  Aig smiled and said, "The mak'rut chose this place for us. It promised to deliver us from the evils of mankind, and guided us here. Can you see, Captain, why we have so much trouble accepting what you say? Everything you are, everything you represent, is an anathema to our entire faith."

  There were glass cases lining the walls of the temple, containing artifacts that bore brass plates on their front. The first contained a section of an antiquated spaceship's hull, its surface scored by severe damage. At the center of the room stood a large wooden statue of the symbol so many of them wore around their necks. Kirn stopped in front of the object and said, "What does this symbol mean?"

  "This," Aig said reverently, "Is the mak'rut. It is our symbol of purity. Our guidepost. Our salvation. When a baby is born, we leave it beside the mak'rut on its first night." She looked over at him, "The unlucky ones are waiting for their mothers in the morning, and returned home."

  "And the lucky ones?" Kirn said.

  Aig smiled as she stroked the statue, "They receive paradise eternal. We often find many children hiding inside the temple at night, clinging to the mak'rut, praying to be taken as well. I did that myself, until I realized my calling was to minister to the people and ensure they remain pure."

  Kirn looked at the floor by the statue and saw a small crib, the size of a newborn baby. He wondered how many had died there, abandoned by their mothers in the name of paradise. "What of your doctors? I am surprised they allow such a thing."

  "Doctors?" the minister said in confusion.

  "Medicine? Have you no medicine here?"

  Aig laughed and said, "Why would we need such things?"

  "Let me guess," Kirn said. "The mak'rut."

  "Exactly," she said. "We grow our food and tend to our homes, and attend services to worship. That is the way to purity. Everything else is forbidden."

  "And the device I arrived on? Is that also forbidden?"

  Aig's expression soured slightly. "Our scholars have debated that for years. Some claim that its power must be divine, for how else can you explain that it continues to function after all of these years? When I was a young girl, my uncle attempted to dismantle it with an axe. He burst into flames and ran screaming into the woods. We found his body two days later. None have tried since."

  Kirn looked back at the spaceship hull and said, "What of the ship that brought you here? Where are its onboard records? Surely, if you had the technology back then to make your way to this planet, you have something more than just a planet full of peasants who sit around worshipping a statue all day and night."

  His words stung her like hornets, turning her cheeks crimson with repressed anger. She opened her mouth to respond, but stopped, turning instead toward the statues and recalling a lifetime of lessons on how to remain pure. She drew a tight breath and said, "Purged. Just as everything else was that lead to incorrect knowledge."

  Kirn grabbed her by the arm and spun her around, forcing her to stare at him, "This entire planet is going to be devoured in the near future. All of your purity, all of your worshipping, will not stop that. Look at me! Your entire population will die."

  "I know," she said evenly. "It is already written that once we achieve true purity, the mak'rut will end this world and take us to the next one."

  He shook her hard, "The next one is what's going to kill yours! We came to rescue you!"

  "Rescue us?" she said, in surprise. Creases formed along the sides of her tightly-drawn mouth as she sputtered at him, "F-From salvation?"

  Her sharp laughter rang out to the ceiling as he pushed her away and spun to look around the room. Nothing but a few pews and multiple cases of ancient relics bearing brass nameplates. He looked back at Aig, "You were told to bring me here. What now?"

  She shook her head and said, "That was all. I am obligated to do nothing else."

  "There has to be something el
se," Kirn said. "Something you're not telling me."

  She laughed again, "What is wrong, Great Prophet? You do not even know what you're supposed to do now? How pathetic. The people will see the truth of the mak'rut and come back begging for forgiveness."

  He checked the ceiling, seeing nothing but plain bronze sheeting. The walls were bare, and the pews nothing more than simple wooden structures. He ran his fingers over the statue, searching for something, anything that would help him understand. Nothing. "Where are your scriptures? Your holy book?" he asked. "Where is the basis of fact for any of this?"

  "The truth of the mak'rut is imparted from Minister to Minister, and that is how the people receive it," Aig said. "That is how it has always been."

  Kirn shook his head and whispered, "Leaving no room for personal interpretation or gain, I'm sure." He continued searching. He walked past the first glass case containing the section of hull, and another containing a farming implement from their first harvest. He came to a scroll, unravelled inside the case, with multiple names written on it, and stopped to read them, hoping to find some hidden meaning. As he leaned close to the glass, he saw something reflecting on the surface, and stopped.

  Kirn turned around slowly to face the final object encased in glass. His heart pounded in his chest as came upon a perfectly preserved Confederation standard-issue portable scanner. He gripped the edges of the glass case and tried to lift it, but it was sealed tight.

  "How do I get this open?" Kirn said.

  "You cannot," Aig snapped. "It is one of the sacred objects."

  Kirn ignored her and removed his pistol, changing the dials to try and find a beam that was strong enough to shatter the case, not damage the scanner. He heard Aig scream, "He's trying to destroy the temple! Stop him!"

  The guards came running up the steps, their heavy weapons in tow, and Kirn spun, firing a low-level blast at the first man who came around the statue. He screamed as the energy blast crackled throughout his skin and dropped him to the floor. The others simply leapt over their fallen comrade and kept charging, their stone maces and axes raised high over their heads. Kirn blasted the next, and the one after that, but as he aimed toward the one coming on his right, another swooped in from his left and tackled him hard enough to send the pistol flying from his hands.

  Kirn scrambled to get out from under the guard, clutching the man around the neck and chopping him on the side of the head until his eyes rolled back. Kirn pushed him away and darted backwards as another guard reared back with a long pole, ready to swing. He timed his leap perfectly and felt the pole swish past the bottom of his boots. He landed ready to pounce, and took two running steps that gave him enough room to jump into the air and kick the man square in the stomach, sending him rearing backwards headfirst into the statue of mak'rut.

  Kirn got up and wiped his mouth, seeing the back of his hand was smeared with blood. He trudged past the groaning guards and found his pistol underneath a pew and quickly snapped it into place. He wrenched one of the clubs from a fallen guard's hands and lined up his swing at the glass case, thinking just how much he was going to enjoy smashing something in that place.

  5.

  Saris checked the doctor with the medical scanner and noticed Lugan had pressed up beside him, staring down in wonder at the device. "What is that? I've never seen anything like it." He watched as Saris flicked through the various spectrums of light to reveal Kelley's anatomy, pausing when the doctor groaned and suddenly contorted in pain. Saris set the scanner down beside his head, turning it to aim the lower portion at him. The device hummed softly as it pulsated waves of varying frequencies at the doctor, until Kelley settled and began breathing comfortably again. "That will keep him in a state of rest until I can find a way to return us to our ship," Saris said.

  Lugan looked down at the scanner, "But how long will it last?"

  Saris shrugged and said, "Two weeks, at the least. The scanner continuously charges itself. There are lower settings that will let it run longer."

  Lugan shook his head, "If only I could show my people such magnificent wonders, surely it would save them."

  "Save them from what?"

  Lugan sighed and made his way toward the stool in front of his workbench, sweeping his hair back over his ear. "Back home, people did not understand our faith. They chastised us for following the path of mak'rut, and our elders decided it would be best for us to leave. They planned for years, forcing all of the children in our church to study terraforming, with the idea that we would someday find a planet of our own. Somewhere we could worship in peace, and private." He paused, looking down at the ground, and began wringing his hands nervously. "During our journey, the people on board the ship were struck with illness. At first, red rings began appearing on their skin. The blisters were maddening. I can't forget the screams from the infected. Our healers could not cure it. No one could explain it. It was…awful. People grew sick, but it was the children who died."

  "There are many precautions that must be taken for long-term space travel," Saris said softly. "Whole areas of medical science are devoted to their prevention."

  "We are primitive people, compared to you. One of our elders claimed to receive a vision that told him why we were dying. Brother Kenham claimed it was because some of us were impure. He spoke very finely. Oh, so very finely," Lugan said bitterly. "Many listened. They were scared. You mustn't blame them, Saris. They were scared, and their children were dying."

  "It was Brother Kenham who brought us here to Sirvat," Lugan continued. "He said he had another vision that it would someday be paradise for those who believed. After we settled down here, measures were taken to protect the colony. Measure were taken to remove anyone who was impure."

  Saris nodded slowly and said, "You were removed for one of the so-called impurities?"

  Lugan looked away. "The worst kind. They wanted to send me up through the hatch to fend for myself. My father," he began, tears filling his eyes as his voice faded away. "My father offered to lock it behind me." He looked around his cave and said, "Instead, they banished me out here. I will be killed if I return to them. They left the hatch unlocked so that when I decided to end my life, I could simply go up the ladder and get it over with."

  "That is most fortunate for us," Saris said. "If that hatch had not been open, we would not have been able to escape."

  Lugan laughed bitterly and said, "I'm glad it was of some use to someone."

  Saris pointed at the bench and said, "Tell me of your work. What are you building?"

  "I was trained as an experimental technologist. Developing newer, faster ways to terraform. The settlement is not capable of sustaining the entire colony for more than a few years. If we do not convert the surface of this planet, they will all die."

  "But that does not explain what you are working on now."

  Lugan looked at him, "They're still my family and friends. I won't let them perish."

  "I see," Saris said. "Allow me to assist you then. It is the least I can do for the hospitality you've shown Doctor Kelley."

  "I can't," Lugan muttered. "All I've done is produce a complete failure."

  "Perhaps what you require is an independent analysis. Show me your failure."

  Lugan turned around in his stool and undid the iron lock on the wooden box, opening the lid slowly, reverently. He reached inside the box and grasped the item within with both hands. "What you're about to see is a completely useless object. I designed it based on teleporter technology, as a way to move solid matter from one place to another. Unfortunately, I can't find anything powerful enough to turn it on. It's useless without a power source."

  He raised a glass orb from the box and turned around to show it to Saris.

  The Valkar looked down at the orb and allowed himself the slightest smile, a serious breach by Valkar standards, but given the circumstances, an exception that was warranted. "I have seen this object before."

  "When?" Lugan said. "It's my design. No one else has even heard of it
."

  "I saw it," Saris said, "when it brought me to this place. Come with me."

  Lugan followed him out into the cavern, looking up as Saris pointed at the walls and said, "These metals provide an unknown supply of power. Even the records from my time do not reveal what it is capable of." Saris aimed his scanner at it and said, "Look. Can you tell what these readings are?"

  Lugan looked down at the screen and began to read off the various metal compositions and energy readings emanating from the walls. "How is that possible?"

  "If we can harness the power of this cavern, it will not only provide your device with sufficient energy to move solid matter. It will allow it to do something far greater."

  Lugan's eyes grew wide as Saris said, "It will allow the ability to move through time."

  They followed the tunnels through twists and turns, passing through endless stretches of black rock on the walls and forming into sharp-pointed stalactites high above them. They could hear a man's voice booming from further down the corridor, saying, "That is the way of mak'rut! That is how the righteous cleanse themselves of all impurity in order to receive the bounty of this world and the next. Only then, will the dust above us turn to green grass, and the sand storms above us turn to a gentle breeze that revivifies and soothes the tired body!"

  Scattered around the corridors were cobweb-ridden tools and crates of unused materials. Lugan eyed the roof as they approached and said, "I do not understand this."

  Saris looked up, "What do you not understand?"

  "They have hardly tunnelled anything new since I've left." He looked around at the unused tools and said, "Where are the seeding machines? They were scheduled to be implanted on the surface last month. They haven't even been assembled yet."

  They came upon a group of dozens of colonists sitting around an abandoned worksite, using crates as seats and overturned mining helmets as arm rests. At the center of the group stood a tall, silver-haired man with pockmarked skin, wearing the same plain jumpsuit as the others. He stood over them, waving his arms dramatically and speaking so forcefully spittle flew from his mouth as he bellowed, "Only if mak'rut's law is followed, can we thrive! Only if mak'rut's will is served, can we be fulfilled. Now, I look out among you and I see the impure. I see you as surely as if you were glowing white hot. Come forward, serpent! Come forward and be known to the rest of us so that you may be cut away."