by Dan Worth
‘Professor, what is the point in this exercise. Shouldn’t we be looking for the priests? Their holy remains are worth far more than those of this, this… artisan,’ even the flat delivery of the translator managed to convey the student’s distaste.
‘Because,’ said Rekkid with exasperated patience. Katherine waited for the insult, and when none came she imagined Rekkid suppressing the urge to add the words ‘you cretin.’ ‘Because it’s important that we understand everything about this site and everyone that was involved in the erecting of the temple. Don’t you want to know how it was built, your most holy monument?’
‘Pah, we already know how it was built.’ Erikitt began to quote. ‘And the light of the triumvirate did fill the minds of the priests, who spake: “A great edifice to our Lord Maran shall be built here, at the point of his visitation to the world. And lo it was so.” Scroll of Kirtatis 45:3:1. See? What is the point? We already have the answers.’
‘Look, I’m not about to insult your beliefs, but that quote of yours tells us nothing concrete. It gives us a motivation as to why this place was built, to glorify your gods, which let’s be honest, was pretty self evident anyway. But it gives us none of the hows and whys of its construction or any details about the lives of the people who laboured here all their lives to build it. Hadn’t it ever occurred to you to wonder, Erikitt?’
‘Maran motivates his believers to perform great feats. I need no other knowledge. I suppose I shouldn’t expect that an off-world heathen like you could understand.’
‘Really, how depressing. Well I’m in charge here so get back to unearthing that forelimb like I showed you.’
‘It is not dignified that I should be grubbing in the dirt like a servant.’
‘You’re a student of archaeology!’
‘Which can be performed equally well with the use of labourers. I am going to complain to Master Kukadis about your attitude, alien.’
Erikitt levered himself out of the shallow pit and after brushing red soil from his robe with some distaste, caterpillared off towards the collection of tents at the edge of the site. Rekkid stood up and called angrily after him without success, then turned to Katherine and shook his head.
‘Having trouble, Rekkid?’
‘Bloody stuck up little…’ he sighed. ‘High born and ignorant, won’t do anything for himself, especially if I ask him. Oh, sod him. I’ve enough on my mind without worrying about some spoiled brat’s tantrums.’
‘No word from the Darwin about Quickchild yet?’
‘Nope, other than that they think he’s still in one piece. Either it returns or it doesn’t. Spiers says his technicians think that interfacing with the ring may have fried its circuitry or something. Damn it, it’s been a week now, I just hope it’s alright. I – we - owe it quite a few favours you know.’
‘I know. Don’t worry, Rekkid. I’m sure everything will turn out alright.’
‘Hmm.’
‘What’s the Darwin up to now?’
‘They’re mapping the geology of the planet, apparently. Spiers said that they’ve got this new array that can penetrate the crust to a depth of one kilometre. It’s not as high-res as the one they used to map this site for us, but he reckons it should be able to give them a decent map of Maranos’s crust. Who knows, maybe it’ll uncover some more mysterious relics for us?’
‘Yeah. That’s another reason we need Quickchild, to tell us about those rings.’
‘Exactly. Spiers has given me all the data they collected, but whatever Quickchild gathered has to be better. If it’s still functioning that is.’
‘When will the Darwin have completed its survey?’
‘A few more days yet, then they have to generate the model using the data. We won’t know if they’ve found anything else till then. How are you getting on anyway?’
‘Fine. Bibarat here is a good student and we’re making excellent progress. We’ve freed the front of the skull and the tail section so far.’
‘Good, well I’ll let you get back to it. Give me a yell if you need a hand.’ Rekkid turned and disappeared below the level of the pit edge. Katherine looked at Bibarat as he brushed gently at the leathery skin of the mason’s tail, his large black eyes fixed intently on his work. He noticed her attention.
‘Katherine. This is good?’
‘Yes Bibarat, that’s very good. You’ve learnt well.’
‘I find this ring on his tail just now while you talk. I record it like you show me.’ Bibarat pointed at a small jewelled ring that encircled the end of the mason’s tail, it was crudely made but quite beautiful. It glinted dully in the twilight. Katherine had seen similar ornamentation on modern Dendratha; the tail ring was often a symbol of marriage, or just good luck.
‘That’s a lovely find Bibarat. Yes, that’s right; you’ve put down the location and depth of the find and soil type as well, very good.’
‘Thank you.’
‘We’ll leave it there until we can move the body I think.’
‘Yes, is too well attached to the skin.’
Katherine took out her camera and photographed the ring in situ. Bibarat regarded the camera with interest.
‘Katherine.’
‘Yes?’
‘Do your people bury their dead?’
Good grief, thought Katherine, the first time any of the students had even remotely shown an interest in the galaxy outside of their own world.
‘Yes sometimes, though many choose cremation or other methods.’
‘So what do you believe happens?’
‘After death?’
‘Yes.’
‘Depends who you ask really. Human culture has many religions. Most believe you’re judged on how you live your life. Some believe you go to some sort of afterlife, one or two believe that you’re reincarnated. Of course not all of us are religious, less than half these days I’d say and that amount varies from world to world.’
‘What do you believe?’
‘Me? The rational part of me is atheist, I don’t believe in a God or anything like that. But there’s a part of me that sort of wants there to be something else afterwards, you know?’
‘Mmm, yes I know. We believe that when we die we become one with the world and the heavens, we become a single being. That is Maran. Except…’
‘Except what?’
Bibarat whispered. ‘I do not believe. I secretly am ungodly!’
‘You’re an atheist?’ she whispered back.
‘Yes, that is the word.’
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Marantis offers the best education in world, and status too. I pretend to believe, I learn some, then I can go make my way in the world, yes?’
‘Well I won’t tell anyone.’
‘They not believe you anyway, you’re an alien!’ Bibarat made a sound Katherine guessed was laughter. ‘Maybe one day I come visit your planet and dig up things!’
‘Maybe, I’d like that Bibarat.’
‘Yes I too. I have heard of Earth, you know. Stories mainly. It sounds fascinating. Is it true that it’s made of water and that the lands float on top, and that the sun disappears and makes the world dark?’
‘Not quite ahh… two thirds of Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, like the ones you have at the poles, and we only have one sun instead of two so only one side of the planet is illuminated. Earth spins around as it orbits our sun so we have periods of light and dark, what we call day and night.’
‘I see, and you have cities and fields and roads all over the world, not just at the poles and at holy sites?’
‘Yes, all over the place. In fact you wouldn’t want to go to the poles, they’re covered with ice and snow.’
‘Snow?’
‘Frozen water crystals that fall from the sky to cover the ground’
‘Really? Does it hurt?’
‘No, but at the poles it’s so cold that humans don’t like to live there.’
‘I see. Sorry, I should work instead of a
sking you so many questions.’
‘That’s alright Bibarat, I don’t mind. Why don’t you help me free the rest of the head, then we can get to work on the torso and on finding those arms?’
The interior of the temple was cavernous and gloomy. Steven liked it that way, he could conceal himself in the shadows and observe the comings and goings within the temple as worshippers came and went and priests and monks went about their sacred duties.
Steven believed that whatever the species, people behaved in certain ways when placed in particular surroundings or situations. Though their reactions might be alien to his human eyes, they would at least be fairly consistent. By observing the behavioural patterns of the Dendratha in and around the temple, Steven hoped he could perhaps detect anyone whose manner made him or her seem out of place, perhaps someone who may not, on the inside, be a Dendratha at all.
He needed some sort of backup to the sensor packages he carried that he had reconfigured in a crude attempt to detect any more of those parasitic creatures. They might in fact work, but in truth they served more as a placebo to re-assure Katherine and Rekkid and cure their jitters. Steven trusted his instincts far more than he trusted any box of electronics.
Watching the comings and goings from an alcove Steven began to compose in his head a pattern of behaviour for the various types of people in the building. The worshippers and pilgrims generally displayed what Steven guessed was hushed awe, entering through the main doors between the third and fourth transepts and undulating slowly to and from the central dais where they made offerings, looking about themselves wide-eyed in wonder at the interior of the building. They talked in hushed respectful voices and bobbed their long heads at the various statues dotted about the floor and walls.
He could understand their reaction. Even though he lacked their beliefs he couldn’t help but be impressed by the building. The tapered roofs stood largely unsupported save for five gigantic columns around the base of the central tower, with most of the weight being taken by the massive flying buttresses on the exterior. The walls and columns were richly decorated with friezes, tapestries and statues depicting religious scenes or figures. There was a background murmur of praying and shuffling steps, as well as occasional singing by the choir in the first transept. But Steven stayed well out of sight. The last thing he wanted was for his careful study to be ruined by the goggle eyed attention of the aliens seeing an off-worlder for the first time.
The priests and other ecclesiastical personnel presented less of a problem. They seemed uninterested in his presence, dismissive even, as they glided swiftly about the floor of the temple in their robes, clockwork figures regulated by the daily routines of their calling. Steven watched two arranging fresh flowers about the central dais which depicted three orbs above what looked like a miniature representation of the temple itself.
‘Can I help you, child?’ said an elderly sounding voice at Steven’s elbow, the translation squawking from the device about his neck. Steven turned and saw a monk of great age regarding him with unusual interest. He already had a cover story to explain his movements
‘Umm, I came to admire the architecture. I’m visiting the city as part of the archaeology team. I thought I’d take the time to see this marvellous building.’
The monk looked at him oddly, Steven decided that he was probably wondering where the mechanical Dendratha voice was coming from.
‘Well, we welcome all who wish to visit us. Even those like yourself who do not hail from these parts. Are you enjoying your visit?’
‘Yes, very much so, this place is quite beautiful. Tell me, what does the image on the altar represent?’
‘The three orbs represent our three gods, the largest is Maran. The other two are Irrin and Irrinil. This statue depicts them striking down the beast of evil and driving it back into the underworld, saving us all from its predations.’
‘I see. But, the beast, why is it shaped like the temple we’re standing in?’
‘Ah, you see the builders of this place believed that we could help our gods to keep evil from the world if we built the temple in the shape of their enemy and then worshipped them within it. Thus we bind the image of the accursed one with the bonds of the light of the Three. So far it has proven successful, yes?’
‘Indeed. So how did the Three defeat evil?’
‘When the beast rose from the underworld, Maran and his two companions summoned a host of…’ the translator paused whilst it substituted a suitable word, ‘…angels. With their aid they drove the abomination back whence it came.’
‘I see.’
‘Maran manifested himself here to the Prophet Qizila, in a cave over which this temple was constructed.’
‘May I see the cave?’
‘Alas no, it is a most holy place but its location is lost to us. All we know is that it lies beneath our feet somewhere. Maran will reveal it to us when the time comes.’
Steven made an effort to look crestfallen. He was only mildly interested in the alien’s religion, but he had to keep up the pretence.
‘But here, look here at this tapestry,’ the monk indicated towards a faded and obviously ancient cloth hanging on the wall a few metres away. ‘See here, we have the light of the Three here at the top, shining on the angels as they drive evil away.’
Steven looked, and did a double take. The tapestry showed an army of stylised figures driving away a great monster with their swords and lances; the figures were slim and rendered in silver and gold thread, and they were humanoid.
‘That’s fascinating, I… ahh, would you mind if I stayed a while longer and looked at this?’
‘Not at all, linger as long you want.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Glad to be of assistance, enjoy your stay,’ said the monk and shuffled off to pay his respects at the altar.
Distracted by the image on the tapestry Steven looked at it a while longer, then wandered the rest of the temple looking for similar images. He found them; depictions of the Angels of Maran were everywhere. On works both new and ancient, the same slender humanoid figures were present, wreathed in light, driving the creatures of the underworld before them. Steven made a mental note to show this to Katherine and Rekkid. No doubt they’d be as fascinated as he was. What had possessed the Dendratha to depict figures so utterly alien to their own?
Steven chided himself. He was losing focus, becoming distracted from his real purpose for being here. He was also beginning to attract too much attention to himself from the worshippers. He decided to return to his people-watching later. He would go ahead with the other task he had planned. For that he needed to climb the central tower.
A short search and he found what he was looking for: the entrance to the spiral ramp that led around the circumference of the central tower right up to a balcony near its tip, a dizzying two hundred metres above the ground. The balcony was occasionally used to make offerings to the two sun gods, but it was also a tourist attraction, being the top of the highest structure on Maranos.
Steven had his own reasons for wanting to admire the view. Firstly, to get a good look at the site from above, and secondly, to see if he couldn’t use it as a good vantage point to place a few tiny surveillance devices. Maybe there were a few nooks and crannies he could use.
It was a long climb. The ramp had a shallow gradient and had ridges cut into its surface to provide grip, but the ascent was arduous. The spiral tunnel it formed was dark too. A small amount of light was provided by slit windows cut at regular intervals and Steven had been given a small oil lamp by an attendant at the foot of the tower, but it was still hard for him to see where he was putting his feet. He hung onto the broad handrail for guidance. As he climbed he passed a few Dendratha coming down the spiral who regarded him with some curiosity, but after twenty minutes or so he arrived, breathless and slightly dizzy, at the top.
The viewing balcony was actually more of a cupola, creating by placing a flat capstone at the top of the tower, with the cone shaped
tip of the tower supported on four sturdy columns above. These columns also formed part of the low wall that acted as a safety barrier of dubious effectiveness around the circumference. They were decorated with a number of carvings and hideous gargoyles that leered out over the city.
The view from this lofty place was quite spectacular. The whole of the city of Marantis was visible in the fiery glow of the two sunsets. It was a semi-chaotic sprawl of tightly packed low buildings dotted with spires and domes, with the temple and its barren, walled grounds roughly at the centre. The Monastic University was visible as a taller huddle of squat buildings to the west. The two suns hung low in the sky on either side and the rust coloured desert surrounded the city, broken only by the system of gorges to the west that provided the city’s supply of fresh water. The railway was just visible as a silvery line snaking in from the east. The scene was only obscured by the tops of the five transepts that curved graspingly inwards towards the central tower, terminating some twenty five metres below where Steven was standing.
Steven admired the scene for a moment before looking down over the lip of the parapet. The smooth curved walls of the tower fell away below him. He was glad that he had no fear of heights. Below he could just make out the dig site, a line of regular pits about the end of the fourth transept. The other as yet un-dug graves had been marked with flags and tape, forming a faint, vaguely star shaped pattern about the base of the building. Tiny ant like figures could be made out around the dig, as well as moving along the main road from the gates to the grounds to the temple’s main doors.
This was an excellent vantage point. All he had to do now was to place the devices. They were small, about the same size as his thumb and contained sophisticated imaging and recording equipment as well as a transmitter to relay the data they gathered back to a remote location. From here, Steven could use them to cover the temple grounds almost entirely, as well as much of the city and surrounding desert. He had pre-programmed them to particularly look for anything unusual such as ships, other humanoids, unusual radiation signatures, but they would see and record all.