“And now we wait.” Alice said. “If the thing is working it has a lot of crap to get rid of so it could be a while.”
According to my unfailing Ralex, we waited exactly twenty-two long minutes before we heard the first of many loud noises coming from off to the right. I had thought to see perhaps a sleek, bullet-shaped apparition, clearing the way with disintegrator rays or some such, but it wasn’t that at all. The body was a large box of dull metal with metal arms and flailing blades. It kept going and was soon out of sight.
“You guys really know how to build stuff that lasts,” Harry said to Moses, with genuine admiration in his voice. “When this is over, I think I’ll hire your engineers to take care of Nora.”
As he spoke, a familiar vehicle appeared silently and stopped at the right side of the balcony where there was a gap in the railing. The side panel slid up and we climbed aboard. Moses touched the appropriate spots and we were off in the direction from which our transport had come. Just after we dove into the heavy shrubbery, we saw some trees with a profusion of long, fuzzy gourds hanging side by side from heavy limbs.
“See how they move and brush against each other,” Amy said. “That must be what’s making the music we heard.”
It wasn’t a long ride—just a few miles, but as the trolley went along I noticed that the light was fading. I hoped for a lengthy sunset that would give us time to set up camp at our next stop. The heavy growth thinned out and our chariot slowed some as we entered the outskirts of what had to be the Old City.
“The speed limits must still be in effect,” M2 said, as we moved along.
Like the balcony by the pool, the builders used native stone. The city that grew around us as we rode further into its depths was, by every measure, incredibly ancient, but not a ruin. All the stone had the eroded look of antiquity, but nowhere did we see disintegration or collapse.
“This area must be free of bad storms and earthquakes,” Alice said. “The state of preservation is remarkable and the architecture is simply beautiful. Just imagine what it must have been like when there were people living here.”
“There are a few small trees,” Harry said, “but I don’t see any weeds or wild growth. Very strange.”
The land on which the buildings sat was level, but stepped like a giant size version of the hillside with the stream back at the dome. The ancient builders were very prolific and covered all flat surfaces with their creations. Close by we saw terraced but barren gardens and a variety of dry pools and canals. Grand staircases and many tiered balconies sprinkled the one and two story cliff faces. Each structure was fashioned from intricately carved stone that at a distance looked like lacework. The fanciful stonework filled the spaces above the delicate arches that were everywhere and of every size and configuration.
When we approached what proved to be the main part of the city the stepped land features ended. We started to see slender towers and minarets. Many buildings were taller, but if anything, narrower and less deep. The mysterious builders did not go much for height. Most of what we saw did not exceed four stories. Harry speculated that perhaps the inhabitants failed to invent the elevator.
The many filigreed verandas and balconies reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Ivy-like vines began to appear everywhere, climbing the exteriors of anything vertical. Unlike the ones on the planet Kudzu, they were ornamental and not overwhelming. Someone or something had to be maintaining the buildings, cleaning the streets and trimming the trees and vines.
CHAPTER 38
Moses caused our trolley to stop in the dim and echoing interior of a very ornate station. We walked outside onto a large plaza where we tried to orient ourselves.
“Your people built this?” Alice asked Moses.
“It is my hope that my ancestors built this wonderful city, but those of my class had no access to this planet, nor were we taught its history.”
This glorious place affected us, especially Bob who was almost in a trance. No one spoke for a while. We just soaked up the beauty as the last of the setting sun saturated the scene with a hue of golden bronze.
Then the lights began to turn on.
At first, I thought a small dot of cyan on a nearby arch was just a reflection, created by the last of the twilight, but it remained and grew stronger. On the wall behind the cyan glow a tiny dot of pure magenta slowly bloomed. Then, as though an unseen hand had turned up a master switch, thousands of colored lights came to life in every direction and as far as we could see. The Old City became a multi colored, bejeweled fairyland. The many lights infused the city with a soft theatrical glow. At dark a billion or so stars filled the entire cloudless sky down to the horizon where the white points of light became many-colored gemstones down to the ground.
“Holy shit!” Shan shouted.
“That does it,” Alice said. “Before bedtime, little lady, we are having a little talk.”
“What is this bedtime?” Shan asked.
“M2 will explain it to you later—much later. Maybe he’ll also explain the meaning of what you just said.”
“I recommend we camp here until morning,” Moses said. “The dormant chambers will still be there tomorrow. I would rather approach them in the light of day.”
“I thank you,” Bob said.
Up close, the little cyan dot of color I had seen on the pillar proved to be a snail-like animal. It had a shell about the size of half of a lemon with a nickel-sized hole on the top that exposed the glowing color. Blue sniffed it, sneezed and thereafter ignored them.
“Okay, Amy,” M1 said,” let’s have a name for these things.”
“Well,” she replied, “since they remind me of snails carrying a jewel—how about ‘snewels’?”
“Another good choice, Kiddo,” Harry said, “and another billion dollar opportunity. These little guys are escargold.”
Shan was busy examining one of them. “I wonder what they eat. And why are they here?”
“Dunno,” Alice replied, “but we’ll watch them tonight and see what happens.”
I held my clicker close to one and gave it a snap, but nothing happened.
“How about we explore a bit,” Alice said. “I see a very interesting building behind the station.”
“Suits me,” Harry said. “I don’t care where we go here. I want to see it all.”
It was a long building of four stories but with parts of the front jutting out. It had the look of row houses with balconies and exterior staircases. Everywhere the snewels cast their magic glow.
We passed through the main entrance and climbed a wide, railed staircase to the second floor. There we turned right, down a long central hallway. Everything was in deep shadow.
“Let’s go to the roof,” M2 said. “I’d like to check out the view and take a few pictures.”
We found a doorway in the front that led us to a balcony and there we found a set of staircases that took us all the way up.
“My, oh my,” Alice said, as she looked out over the splendor, “I have the feeling I get from a nighttime visit to a penthouse in downtown Manhattan.”
While I was listening to all of this, Shan quietly appeared in front of me. “James,” she said, “in my talks with Amy, she has told me the story—how this began. If not for you and your hunt for this cough drop thing, none of this would ever have happened. You and your friends would never have come and sure, I would now be dead or at least hobbling about on one leg and tied forever to the farm. I have this to say to you. When we travel to Earth, I would like to eat one of those cough drops that so changed everything.”
“Thank you for that, Shan,” I said. “I really do appreciate your words.”
“Another person obligated to you, James?” Alice asked.
“Just wait until she meets Carl,” I replied. “They can have a contest.”
The conversation dwindled and we resumed our viewing of the city lights.
YDRII caused a rapid mood shift. “There are many thousands of very small flying obj
ects moving toward the city from the surrounding countryside.”
“Are they heading in our direction?” M1 asked.
“Some are,” he replied, “but their flight paths are haphazard and will take them everywhere within the city. I don’t think we are the cause of the migration.”
Every snewel in the city began to pulse, giving off bright flashes of intense color. The flashes were random and they lit up the city like flash cameras at a rock concert.
“I got it!” M2 cried out. “The girls are coming.”
“You know,” Alice said, “I think das Schwein is right.”
Before long, a deep buzzing noise filled the air. We all ducked when one of the buzzers swooped in just over our heads, followed by several more. There were a good number of pulsing snewels scattered over the roof, giving off enough light for us to see what was descending on them. They were lightless winged snewels. The same size and shape except for the eight-inch long wings that sprouted from somewhere underneath their bodies.
A flying snewel landed on top of a pulsing snewel and clamped on. The bottom snewel then sprouted its own pair of wings and the two of them took off like a miniature biplane. The undercarriage of the bottom snewel was pulsing with the same bright color as the couple spiraled high up in the air. The wings of the male snewels shed an astonishing amount of iridescent sparkles that swirled with each wing beat and then fell in a rainbow cascade. All around us and throughout the city the bright sparks ascended. At a certain altitude the lights, still pulsing, stopped climbing and began to flow out from the city. The iridescent sparkles fell in great drifts of color that reminded me of the northern lights back home.
Just beyond the city, where every light was but a tiny spark, we began to see each intensify like a miniature sun going nova, then wink out. Soon there was an eruption of tiny novae and in moments, the sky was empty of everything, but stars.
“Tell me if I’m wrong,” Alice murmured, “but were we just witness to a gigantic sex orgy?”
“I worry about the guy on the bottom,” M2 said. “Did she just dump him when he winked out? Did he survive the encounter? Will he live to flash again?”
“This must be Saturday night,” Harry mused.
“I have a name for the females,” Amy said. “Since they are girl snewels, we should call them ‘snirls’.”
‘They’re also rather aggressive tarts,” Alice said. “I thought maybe of naming them snarts, but the name isn’t very feminine so I think snirls is best.”
Amy wasn’t finished. “I also thought of a name for this wonderful, but awesomely mysterious planet.”
“Okay,” M1 said, “Do your thing and make it official.”
She raised both arms and said to the sky, “Enigma, I name this planet Enigma.”
We gave her an enthusiastic round of cheers.
“What say we go below and set up camp?” M1 said. “We can eat, make a few plans and grab a few hours’ sleep before we move on to the dormant chambers.”
After exploring a bit, we settled on a room on the second floor front, near the grand staircase. We went first to the balcony and dropped our packs against the back wall. Later, I felt comfortable enough to voice a concern: “I’ve been thinking about our return to Earth and the reaction of our people to the Primes. I don’t worry so much about Shan or Bob or Abraham, but Moses is another matter. More to the point, Moses, it’s you and YDRII. Considering his capabilities, some people will consider YDRII a potential threat. Moses with YDRII could be, in a physical sense, the most powerful individual in our world.
“This thinking leads me to consider again the dormant chambers, filled with many Primes. If these people also have their own extensions, like YDRII, the potential threat blossoms to alarming proportions. If inclined, a small army of Primes like Moses could pretty much take over the galaxy.”
It was quiet for a time then Moses spoke. “Your concerns about me are valid, but my plan is to stay in the background and limit the exposure of YDRII’s capabilities. As for the others in the dormant chambers, they no longer have their extensions. They may never have had extensions. I just do not know. As you can imagine, an extension like YDRII must be difficult and expensive to create. I believe that when anyone entered the dormant chambers, those in charge deactivated the extension and assigned it to another in the upper class.”
“Did everyone in the upper class have an extension?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “In fact, no one that I knew had one, but their existence was common knowledge. If we should find a viable population and are able to revive them, they will still be capable and valuable, but without their extensions. I do not know where on my home worlds we might find the manufacturing facilities. My own people may have destroyed them to keep them out of the enemy’s hands. We will not know until we find them.
“It’s beginning to look like we’ll report back to Earth, then our guys can just walk in and take over, ” Harry said. “Someone should ask if this is a good thing. Me, I don’t want any involvement. I’d wind up in the brig for kicking a carpet bagger in the ass.”
“I think we all feel about the same,” Alice said. “When the time comes, we should gather up Carl Manheim, his sister and Amisi if she wants to and take a grand tour of the available planets.”
“We have the information we need, except for the fate of the ghostly gang of Nazis,” M1 said. “Now it’s just a matter of finding Mary and then we go home.”
Our paper cups were empty and our cigars were down to the last inch.
“What’s on the menu?” Harry inquired of Alice who, without applying for the job, seemed to have become our Mess Sergeant.
“The usual cold cuts,” she said, “all replicated, but guaranteed sterile.”
After dinner, Alice put some sandwich wrappers on the balcony railing. “I’d like to see if there are janitors at work here.”
We rolled out our sleeping bags in the same place on the balcony, which gave us a narrow slice of star filled sky to look at before we dozed off.
I awoke to the sounds of my companions moving about. The smell of YDRII’s Columbian coffee permeated the air so after I rolled my sleeping bag I requested and received a large cup. Alice went over to the railing to recover her sandwich wrappers.
“Maybe they only get trash pickup once a week,” she said.
Our balcony had a staircase to the ground so we didn’t have to go back through the building. The trolley was waiting for us, but as we were loading our gear, blue trotted up with an interesting find. It was a black boot, minus its heal. Amy told him to show us where he found it. He trotted to an angle in a nearby wall and sat. There we found the missing heal.
“Looks like they came through here,” Harry said. “Maybe they were going to the Dormant Chambers.”
“Or maybe it’s another red herring,” M2 said, while examining both objects. “It looks to me as though this heal was deliberately pried off. See here what looks like the marks of a screw driver or a knife.”
Well,” Alice said, “at least we have proof that they were here. This was not so smart on their part.”
We could do no more so we got in and got comfortable to enjoy the ride to the Dormant Chambers. Our floating tube moved through the terminal and took us slowly away from the city’s center. The outer districts on this side looked much the same as what we had seen on the ride in except that the terrain continued to be flat. About twelve blocks out, we had our first sighting of the janitors.
“Look over there,” Alice said, pointing to our left. “It’s the cleanup crew and they look like miniature versions of the trolley track cleaner.”
Harry added them to his list of billion dollar enterprises. As the city dwindled to a scattering of structures, our speed increased and soon we were once again zipping through semi-tropical forest. After just a few miles, like exiting a tunnel, we broke out of the woods into more open country, at least on the right side. We couldn’t see the landscape on the left because the thirty-foot, forev
er-material wall of a monster building blocked our view. There was nothing but blank wall for well over a half mile. Just as we began to speculate that perhaps this big white thing was a barrier wall and not a building, our vehicle entered a small terminal made from forever-stuff. There we stopped.
CHAPTER 39
This was the end of the line. The blue tube ended and the only door was the side exit. It lead via a short, open walkway to a large double door.
“Must be automatic,” M2 said, as we drew near. “No handles in sight—just that wall panel on the left.”
The panel was similar in size and configuration to the one we found on the building at Seuss province.
“There is a power source located deep below the building,” YDRII said, “and it is functioning properly. Although I cannot determine the status of the internal operations, the energy patterns appear to be normal. Everything I sense seems to be pre-programmed.”
“Okay, Moses. Can you get us inside?” M1 asked.
“All I have is the release code for Mary’s chamber,” he said. “Had I arrived here as originally intended, there would have been personnel to guide me through the process. I do not know what to do.”
“Sounds like a job for Super-James,” Alice said.
M1 stepped aside and waved me in, “Have at it pal.”
I poked the call button, but got no response. It looked as though this house computer was out of action. I asked Moses if the code he had was numeric. He said it was, so I had him punch in the numbers. Still no response so with my reputation at stake it was time for desperate measures. I took out my clicker and held it near the speaker.
Alice said, “I’d scoff at that if I had a better idea, or any idea at all.”
I clicked once then jumped back in surprise as the doors slid smoothly open.
Alice threw up her hands. “Jeez… I’m glad I didn’t scoff. I won’t have to eat a plate of replicated crow.”
“Whatever works,” M1 said, “but it does make sense when you think about it. All the people who used this place carried clickers and they are a handy shortcut. I think security was not all that high a priority.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 27