Sharné was not prepared to see Owens standing before her with a smile on his face. Her mouth opened in astonishment, her face turning white. She whispered, “It cannot be; you are dead. I saw you die.”
The next thing that Owens knew, her knees started to buckle and she began to fall towards the floor. Owens rushed over to her and barely caught her in time. He cradled her tenderly in his arms.
**As a result of being confronted with your unanticipated corporal existence, your companion was rendered temporarily unconscious.**
“If you mean seeing me alive was a total shock, and as a result she fainted. I kind of figured that one out for myself, but thanks anyway.” He looked down at her face and saw that her eyelids were beginning flutter; she was already starting to regain consciousness. Not knowing what else to do, he said in a gentle voice, “Take it easy, Sharné. It’s me, Owens. I’m alive. Just feel my arms around you. I’m real and right here at your side.”
She slowly opened her eyes and looked up intently at his face, her hand reaching to stroke his cheek. A sob escaped her lips. “You are alive,” she said wonderingly. “But how can that be? I saw you, I saw you struck down. You were burnt so badly.... I, I saw you die.” She kept stroking his face as if to assure herself he was really there.
He bent lower and gently kissed her. Her arms went around him in an urgent embrace and the kiss she returned became more passionate. When he finally came up for air, he looked down at her and said with a grin, “Does that prove to you I’m still alive?”
She struck him on the chest with a balled fist. He winced. She smiled sweetly back at him, “We have only kissed a few times. Your reaction just now was for added confirmation.”
“Did I pass?"
“Just one more test,” she reached and pulled his face back again to hers.
The kiss lasted a little longer than the first. They finally broke apart and he pulled her to her feet. They again embraced and she murmured into his chest, “I thought you were lost to me. I do not understand how you are now standing here before me, alive.” She looked up, suddenly remembering what had just happened. “Where are we? One second, I was waiting to board the mutineers’ shuttle and the next thing I am here. How did I get here? Just where are we?”
Owens looked at the glowing sphere of light. “Controller, please explain what happened and where we are right now.”
The controller told her an abbreviated story of what it had told Owens.
When the Controller was finished, Sharné asked, “What is this place?”
**This is the education and manufacturing complex designated as Prime Two.**
“What’s it for?” Owens asked.
**It serves two principle functions. First, it is one of many repositories containing all knowledge accumulated by the last race that inhabited this system before humans. Second, it has the capability to reproduce any material construct based on that knowledge. The race designated themselves as the... ** The Controller then rattled off a series of tongue-twisting syllables.
**For your ease, you may call them Trah-tang, the ‘Enlightened.’**
Owens was intrigued. He asked, “What did the Trah-tang look like? Were they like us physically?”
**No. They were bipedal fur-bearing mammals and were descendants of an extinct branch of carnivores native to the fifth planet of this system. Using your measuring system, when erect, they generally ranged between two to three meters in height and weighed between one-hundred to one-hundred eighty kilograms. Their craniums were approximately thirty percent larger than a human’s. They last actively inhabited this system five thousand of your years ago.**
“Do you have a holograph or picture of them?” Owens asked.
**Yes.**
Owens waited a few seconds then, “Well, may we see it?”
**No.**
“Okay,” He kept the surprise out of his voice. “Then can you at least tell us what happened to them?”
**No.**
Owens looked at Sharné. She appeared equally perplexed. He asked, “Why not?”
**Your request transcends the classification of basic information and becomes part of Prime Two’s educational function. Proper authority must be proven before this function is activated, and the requested information can be disseminated. In addition to education and manufacturing, this complex also performs other important functions but their nature cannot be revealed without proper authority. Activation of any of Prime Two’s functions cannot be initiated without proper access authority.**
“Who has such authority?” Owens asked.
**A confirmed descendant of General Golan Berral Light in combination with the command sequence can access this, or any of the other complexes.**
Owens looked at Sharné questioningly.
“Owens, this is all new to me,” she said earnestly. “I was never made aware of the existence of this… this facility. I do not possess this command sequence. Allow me to ask the Controller some additional questions of my own. Perhaps the Controller can provide information without triggering its educational function.”
He nodded, “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to hog the conversation.”
She smiled, “I know. Asking questions is your business.” She looked at the shining globe, deciding on what to ask. Finally, she asked, “If your functions are restricted by the exercise of a pass code, why did you protect Owens? Without the authority code, how could you act unilaterally?”
**The Compact directs us, in a very specific and limited manner, to circumvent the authority restriction when the safety of…** The Controller abruptly broke off.
Almost immediately, it began to speak again. **The humans that attacked you have departed from the planet and rejoined their ship. Under the Compact, our obligation has been satisfied. You will be transported back to the surface.**
“Wait,” Sharné pleaded, “What is…”
They were back on the planet’s surface. “…the Compact?” she finished lamely.
Owens said, “If it’s any consolation, I already tried asking that question.”
“Well, what was the answer?” she asked.
“I didn’t get one either. The Controller wouldn’t answer me. Damn,” Owens muttered. “That thing was exasperating. First, it saves my life, practices a little mind control and then finally stubbornly refuses to answer simple questions.”
Sharné asked, “Mind control?”
Owens shrugged, “Yeah, I think it was a form of mind control the Controller used on me, at least that’s what it felt like.” He went to explain about the Controller’s use of subliminal frequencies and radiation as a type of tranquilizer.
He paused and then said, “This assignment keeps getting more confusing and I’m having a hard time keeping track of everything that’s happened.”
She smiled at him and said, “If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same as you.”
He cocked his head and scratched his chin. He grinned at her, “Nope, doesn’t help at all.” He ducked her swinging punch then looked around briefly at their immediate surroundings. “Where did the Controller drop us? I don’t recognize this area.”
Sharné now sighed. She looked past him, at the familiar wall. “We were deposited where I was held captive.” She directed her gaze towards the gate and saw it was now closed. It had taken on the same shimmer as the rest of the wall. The force-field had reasserted itself and extended its protection to the gate, resuming its full umbrella of protection.
Owens looked at where Sharné was looking and raised his eyebrows.
“Yes,” she nodded. “It is a wall.” She led him over to the deserted campsite. They found a couple of discarded chairs among the empty shelters and sat down. She then described some of what happened since the mutineers had apparently killed Owens. He listened closely, without interrupting.
After she was done, he asked, “So, after my body disappeared, you say they searched for it?”
“Yes, they searched well into the night. They assume
d some animal had dragged you off for a secluded meal somewhere beyond this clearing, but they wanted to be absolutely sure. Their failure to find your remains seemed to support their theory.”
Owens grinned, “Wouldn’t they be surprised to discover I’m still alive?”
She smiled, “From what I was able to overhear, your repeated success at surviving the previous attacks had already taken on almost supernatural proportions. I overheard one of the mutineers actually mutter that you were the Messenger of Darkness incarnate, that you could not be killed unless you were cast directly into the sun.”
He chuckled, “So I’m the big bad bogeyman. I guess they can’t accept my escapes were due to their own ineptitude, inferior equipment and more than a little luck on my part, huh? It seems they’d rather chalk up their failures to some sort of mystical intervention.”
Another thought struck him and he sobered, “You know, I hadn’t realized I was gone for so long. The Controller must have kept me knocked out a lot longer than I thought.”
She nodded, “It was almost a day, long enough for the mutineers to give up looking for you. The ringleader said the rescue ships were getting too close, and they had to leave soon. He was still quite agitated when his men failed to locate your body. They delayed as long as they could, but in the end, his concern of being captured won out. They had just broken camp. I was being led to the shuttle that would take us back to the main ship when the Controller intervened. I can only imagine their reaction when I also disappeared.”
“Given what you said earlier about my growing reputation, we can assume your disappearance only added to their fears.” He didn’t try to clarify the Controller's role in her rescue was due solely to his intervention. She remained safe, on the planet instead of being held captive aboard the mutineers’ ship, because of his direct request of the Controller. He was convinced the Controller would not have intervened on its own, but he saw no reason to mention this to her. Still, it added one more question to his growing list.
“I have told you what happened after you were shot. Now I believe that it is your turn.” Sharné asked, “What happened when you awoke?”
Owens frowned, “Not much more than you already know.” He then gave her a quick synopsis of his conversation with the Controller and expanded on his experience with the tranquilizing sound.
When he had finished, she remained silent, thinking about what he had described. Then, “Do you think the Controller was using subsonics in an attempt to manipulate your thinking?”
“Well, the Controller described it a little differently… more like the electronic equivalent of a mild sedative. It made a reference that it wasn’t the first time it was used on a human. Whatever its purpose, I didn’t like what it did to me. But at least it didn’t hesitate to switch it off when I asked.”
She absorbed this, and then asked. “Owens, right before you were shot, do you remember what you were doing?”
“What I was doing?” He looked at her blankly, searching his memory. “Oh yeah,” he said slowly, “pretty hard to forget. You’re talking about my weird behavior just before the attack, aren’t you… about that strange feeling that came over me? I was convinced someone was watching and pulling me towards… somewhere.” He smacked his forehead. “It looks like I forgot to tell you about something else that the Controller told me.”
“What?”
“Only that it admitted it was responsible for placing that compulsion in my head. Sorry, it slipped my mind.”
“I understand, Owens. After the trauma of being shot and resurrected, I am not at all surprised. But why did the Controller seek you out? What was its purpose in placing such a compulsion?”
“It said it was for my protection.” He remembered the Controller’s presumption of his relationship with the Founder and decided not to mention it right then to Sharné. He might have misunderstood. The Controller had just shut down the sound emitter and he may have been a little fuzzy from its effects. He figured he already had enough things on his mind without having to weigh what he might have heard spoken by an ancient alien intelligence thousands of years old. He rubbed his jaw, “Right after that, you arrived and I forgot to question it any more about that.”
At his mention of the Controller Sharné’s thoughts turned again to her lack of foreknowledge. She had been confronted by the unexpected discovery of the alien presence on Selane. How was it she did not know of this? She held a very high position within the government and a special place in her father’s heart. Yet vital information had been withheld and the questions as to why had returned to gnaw at her.
Why had she not been informed about the true importance of Selane? She should have been told long ago, certainly after she had assumed the office of Keeper of the Way. Arguably, the Founder’s Shrine concealed the most important discovery ever made by mankind. The Grand Patriarch’s seal, her father’s seal, protected it as a state secret, but a secret to which she should have been privy. Instead, it was kept from her. What else had she not been told? She endeavored to maintain her outward composure as she wondered if other, equally important secrets had been withheld from her.
She put aside these thoughts and asked, “Are you still experiencing that compulsion?”
He shook his head, “No, not that I can tell.” He closed his eyes then opened them again. “Nothing, I don’t sense anything.” He looked at Sharné and saw an expression of relief. “I guess it served its purpose. Now that we are safe, no more intervention by the Controller is necessary. Still, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. For a while there, I really thought I was losing it.” He smiled, “You did too; I saw it in your face.”
She shook her head, “No, I have read your dossier and now coming to know you better, you seem to be extraordinarily grounded, and given our recent experiences, not someone who would be prone to flights of fantasy. So I believed you were experiencing some genuine anomaly. It was concern you saw on my face. I was worried about your reaction, your apparent confusion. And right before you were fired upon, you looked to be in some degree of pain and I felt helpless. ”
He paused, remembering. “It wasn’t pain exactly, it was more like the feeling you get when you come out of a darkened room and into bright sunlight. The dazzling intensity of the light is acutely uncomfortable and causes you to wince in reaction. You could say I reacted to the sudden glare of a strong mental force, pulling at me.”
“You were being pulled, Owens, drawn to this very location, the Founder's Shrine.”
“The Founders Shrine?” he asked. “Okay, what are you talking about? You didn’t mention anything about a Founder’s Shrine.”
“It’s my turn to say I am sorry, I meant to.” She stood up and pointed to the shimmering stone wall. “There is a monument located just behind that wall dedicated to the memory of the Founder. It was quite a surprise. I was unaware one existed on Selane and I admit, at first sight, I found it a little odd. You see its construction is that of a moving, articulated sculpture. All the major monuments to the Founder are normally rendered in the classical forms, full body sculptures, busts and plaques. This is the first abstract, kinetic monument I ever have encountered. Still, it is quite striking.”
“Sharné, from your description, I’m afraid the original purpose of the artifact was not to commemorate your Founder.”
“You are mistaken Owens; there is a plaque, inset into a stone that dedicates the monument to the Founder.”
“The plaque must have been placed after its discovery. The Controller described it as an artifact, one that matches your description of the monument, but it referred to it as the Messenger.” He said sheepishly, “It’s one more thing that I haven’t yet told you. The Controller characterized the Messenger as some sort of universal communicator. I believe it’s the mechanism the Controller used to draw me here.”
Sharné put her hands on her hips in mock anger, “Is there anything else that you forgot to tell me?”
Relieved that she hadn’t taken
offense, he laughed and shook his head. “No, I think that’s all. That mind control sphere must have some lingering side-effects.”
She thought a moment and then said, “Well, that at least makes more sense. This Messenger must have been annexed as a monument to the Founder, a dedication to his unique discovery.”
“That sounds logical.”
“But what I was leading up to say, is that what you kept asserting all along the way, has been confirmed.”
He scratched his head. “I seem to remember saying a lot of things.”
“Well then, do you remember what you said to me about there being a core that the trees formed the spokes that converged onto a hub?”
He nodded.
“Owens, look around you. See the way the trees are formed in a wide arc? If you were to walk around the edge you would see the arc is merely a section of a much larger circle. Each tree that forms the circle is the beginning of a line of trees or spoke, leading out from this, the central hub. This is where you were being drawn, straight to this location. The Founder’s Shrine… the Messenger… resides at the center of the hub of the wheel formed by the trees.”
He looked around, his eyes widening. He had missed it. Now that he looked, he could see the lines of trees forming the spokes did point inward to the circular wall. He wished he could have seen the Messenger in person, but the strange mechanism that Sharné had described was behind the stone wall and force-field.
“I’ll be damned. The trees must form some sort of signpost. It’s so obvious; the spoke pattern is designed to draw the eye from the air. It’s one more visual signal to entice intelligent beings to investigate the area where the trees converge.”
She nodded, “It seems like a reasonable hypothesis. If the Controller is to be believed, the complex is directly below the Messenger and is linked to it.”
Owens arched an eyebrow, “The Messenger does sound intriguing. I wonder at its message. Come one come all; witness and share in the glorious wonders of the Trah-tang ?”
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