He deployed the fine work hand, one of the suits tools, from the end of his right arm. Slowly he dropped to a knee and then extended that hand to the boy who shrank from it at first, until Barcus made the universal open palm “come here, I won't rip your head off” gesture. With the delicate robot fingers held out to him, the boy placed not one, but both hands in it.
He was easily lifted from the muck and set on clear ground, shaking.
Barcus stood to full height and the boy cringed.
“Barcus. They are all dead. There are just the two survivors. We should go. They have seen too much already.” Em was walking up behind Barcus. The boy’s eyes got wider. Em was also covered in blood, walking easily on six legs. Her two front legs were still held up in an attack ready position, scalps still clinging to them. The utility arms that extended from beneath the front of the Emergency Module were dripping black blood.
They turned in unison and moved away.
“Em, we need to clean up. Is there a lake or river near here?”
They found a waterfall by a mill a few minutes away. It was perfect for cleaning up.
After the suit had most of the blood cleaned, Barcus got out.
“Look, Em. I need to make sure the survivors are okay.”
“They are both together in the courtyard behind the tavern.” A window opened in his HUD. The boy was sobbing uncontrollably as the woman cleaned him with rags and buckets of water from the well.
They didn't see or hear him as he approached from the darkness. The boy was still sobbing as he got dressed. They were both so thin, their skin as thin as paper over bones.
With the fires at his back, he stopped close enough to speak.
“Are you all right? Can I help you?” His hands were open, palms up. He was trying not to frighten them.
They were startled, fear in their eyes.
They fell to their knees and cast their eyes down as if in complete supplication. He was surprised by their reaction.
“My Lord. I know just a little of the high speech. And he none at all,” the woman spoke hesitantly.
“You are safe now. The murderers are all gone,” Barcus said. They remained on their knee with their faces almost on the ground.
“My name is Barcus. You should leave this place. There is another village a day’s ride to the east. They need to be warned of these evil men. There might be more. I have seen many burned villages of late.”
The boy blurted out a series of words Barcus could not understand. When he was done, the woman said, “Olias says there are more, not just men. Horrible monsters. Demons that killed them all. Ate their heads.”
“Olias?” Barcus asked. He stopped babbling.
“Tell him they are gone too. Please, get up.” They were on their knees this whole time.
Em interjected into his head, “We need to go.”
“Will you be able to get there on your own? Or should I take you there?” Barcus asked.
“Barcus. I don't like this.”
“We. Will. Manage.” She was reaching for words.
“Take what you need from here, but be gone by morning.”
“Barcus...” Em insisted.
The barn that was ablaze behind Barcus began to collapse slowly. As it did, the suit stepped out of the inferno. It had been burning off all the organic matter that the waterfall could not remove. It stood and seemed to stay there as if watching Barcus for a few moments. It slowly turned and walked away.
“I must go,” Barcus said. “You will be safe as you travel. But hurry. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
He turned and began to walk away and then turned back.
“What is your name?” Barcus asked.
“Po, my Lord.” The girl replied.
“Goodbye, Po. Goodbye, Olias.”
He walked into the night.
***
Barcus returned to Em with the suit following on remote. He got in the spider and sat in the driver seat. Em’s avatar was in the other one.
“Are you all right, Barcus? You were...lost.”
“I am fine. I need a tactical update,” he said flatly.
The display in the spider filled with annotated maps and status information. The maps were much more detailed than the last time they were up. Twelve hundred BUGs had been busy.
“I want to keep an eye on Po and Olias.” They appeared in two windows and as new annotations on the maps. They had already gotten cleaned up, dressed and saddled up two horses and had begun to rig a third, a pack horse. Olias was running from body to body, checking pockets and collecting purses. He freed all the animals in the stables. They ran in panic as soon as the doors and gates were opened. Olias was almost run down by the cows he freed from a barn on the edge of town. There, he also found the raiding party’s horses in their picket lines. They were all saddled and calm, even as the fires burned closer.
He started going through the saddle bags but stopped. There were about 50 horses here. Trained, calm, beautiful horses with no brands. Olias had obviously seen this kind of picket before. A long rope, secured only at one end, with loops every six feet, and the horses tied by their reins, alternating on each side.
Olias walked to the post where the rope was tied with a beautiful knot that came free with a simple tug at the right spot. As he began to walk, the horses calmly followed, as if they had done this a thousand times before.
“He is a smart one, Barcus. They will be fine,” Em said.
“Em, where is the suit?” An icon appeared on the map. It was just outside the village. “I want to have it shadow them, but not too close. But first, I want it to ask something of Po while she is still alone.”
Olias was walking the horses back to the center of the village. They all remained calm, despite the fact the fires were so big and so close.
The suit walked directly out of the shadows and paused, facing Po. The fires were so loud now with collapsing timbers, she didn’t hear it approach. She almost walked directly into the suit. It was so black, it reflected almost no light. She stumbled back and almost fell but didn't run.
Barcus ordered, “Em, disguise the voice. I don't want her to know it's me.”
“I will not harm you,” the suit said via its external PA system, in a deep rumbling voice like a cinder block being dragged over cement. At the moment she froze he had a good look at her again. She was not as young as he thought at first. She was about 30 years old he decided and far too thin.
She fell to her knees, visibly trembling.
“Who were these evil men?” the thing asked.
“They are from the Citadel. They carry no livery or other signs.” She was choking the words out. “But I have seen them before. These weapons...” She paused again. “It’s death to carry them if you are not from the Citadel.”
“It's death to carry them if you are.” The suit turned to walk back into the shadows.
“Wait. What is your name?” The suit stopped but didn't turn around.
The suit seemed to pause and consider the question. “I have no name.” And it was gone, fading into the deeper black.
A minute later, Olias was there with the horses. They spoke rapidly in a language that sounded familiar, but Barcus could not understand. Po pointed into the darkness where the suit had gone. He understood a single phrase as she talked: “the demon with no face and no name.”
Just then, another barn collapsed, but this time it fell across the road into the buildings on the opposite side. Olias looped the rope over the pommel of the horse Po held for him, and they left the village, Po towing the single pack horse and Olias with two rows of well-disciplined horses. If they rode all night, they would be there by noon the next day.
“What will they tell them?” Em asked.
“The truth,” Barcus replied.
***
Barcus and Em began to move once again into the forest. The tactical display showed them moving away from the ruined village north as Po and Olias moved east.
>
The tactical display showed they were moving to the point they had called The Abbey.
Without prompting, Em said, “I think the BUGs have found a good place to shelter.”
It also showed the village where the survivors were headed.
“By horseback, it would be about seven days from that village to The Abbey. Even then, there are no direct routes.”
“Are we officially calling it 'The Abbey' then?”
“You started it.”
Is she teasing me?
“Real names are easier to remember,” Em said.
Barcus could feel himself crashing. So much adrenaline followed by nothing but burning coals of anger.
“Em, What do we know about this Citadel?” Barcus asked.
“Nothing at this time,” she replied coldly.
“Make it a priority to find out.” His anger was bleeding though.
“What are you planning?” Concern was hinting in her voice.
“I don't know, just do it,” Barcus barked at Em.
The tactical display became transparent as they resumed a stealthy pace toward the point called The Abbey. They walked for almost the entire night in a creek that flowed shallow now but had indications it flowed fast and hard in the spring.
The beast with no name shadowed the survivors a half a kilometer into the forest on the north side the entire night. There was no need to get any closer. BUGs fed info back to Em, who was driving the suit herself via remote.
It wasn't long before the adrenaline crash finally came. Barcus slept deeply for the second night in a row. Em kept the ride smooth. As Barcus slept, Em closed the windows that followed Po and Olias but left their icons on the tactical to show that they had gotten safely to the eastern village. She didn't show how the southern portion of the village eventually burned to the foundations. She didn't show what Po told the elders of that village. She didn't show that Trackers were dispatched that found the story to be true. They also found the tracks of the “Faceless Beast” and followed them back to an overlook above their own village.
Em had the suit turn to climb into the mountains to lose the Trackers. These Trackers were good. It took the beast much longer to evade them than he thought. It eventually required some chasm leaps and waterfall drops and river runs to lose them. They were brave and relentless.
They didn't follow the spider tracks. Em didn't know if they simply didn't recognize them or if their bravery only went so far.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Abbey
“This is where the data shows that Em began to know far more than she conveyed. The hostile environment module has complex higher functions. It sorted and used the data at an amazing rate.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Emergency Module Digital Forensics Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team.
<<<>>>
After Barcus had waked, they stopped by a long, narrow scenic lake.
Barcus decided that he’d had enough power bars and set up a camp kitchen to make some real food. “Real” may have been the wrong term. He still used survival rations but kicked it up a notch. He decided on eggs with onions and cheese with potatoes, toast, fruit, coffee and orange juice.
Em supplied the water, already boiling hot, and soon Barcus was perched on a camp stool eating a hearty breakfast overlooking a beautiful lake.
Em's image had not been in evidence this morning until Barcus asked her, “Did Po and Olias make out okay?”
She seemed to walk from behind a rock as she said, “Yes. They were welcomed and taken in immediately. Po, by the inn keeper’s wife, Olias by the blacksmith. Olias was apparently already a blacksmith apprentice. Bringing the horses was a really good idea.”
“For some reason, neither of them mentioned you. I will keep an eye on them. It will be useful. I have learned several things already.”
“Oh, like what?”
“There is a complex caste system in place here. What you do, how you act, your entire role in society is based on your place in that system. There are many 'ladders' in the system as well. I hope to refine my understanding of it as time passes. This was not evident in that first small, remote, forest village we encountered.”
“Why could she understand me?”
“Standard English is known as the High Tongue here. Only the highest castes use it. Not everyone speaks it, but they all recognize it. The lower castes don't speak it at all. The language they are using is a derivation of English which has become so colloquial and accented that it bears little resemblance to English and is quite difficult to understand.”
Their conversation paused a moment.
“Do you understand them yet?”
“I'm getting close. In a few more days, I will have a basic understanding, so if we encounter anyone else, I can translate for you.
Barcus finished his breakfast as Em gave him this update.
“I have had the BUGs exploring The Abbey in great detail. I believe that it will be perfect for our long-term needs. Oh, and I have discovered something new about The Abbey.”
“Anything unusual?” Barcus sipped his coffee, trying to focus.
“Yes, actually. The outer wall is too perfect to be made by hand. I believe it is actually a Colony Redoubt structure. The outer wall is exactly 91.44 meters in diameter and doesn't vary even a centimeter except where the wall was destroyed.”
“What does that mean? I vaguely remember something about Colony Redoubts from elementary school.”
“Early Colony ships were equipped with large machines called Makers - single function AI Bots that built Redoubts. One of the standard Redoubt Designs was 100 yards in diameter. We will know more when we get there. The BUGs can only go so many places.”
“Didn't Makers use local materials, like sand and water and fibers to make foamcrete buildings? That and the volcano were the most popular science fair projects. I made a Maker myself.”
Em's shoulders were shaking as if she were laughing.
“What?” Barcus said over a mouthful of toast.
“Elementary school? You built a Maker?”
“Never mind that. What else did you find out about The Abbey?”
Em shook her head and sat on a rock. A translucent ghost in the full sun.
“It has not been occupied for decades. The road that once led to it was reclaimed by the forest. It's about a week away from the nearest populated town or village, and no one goes there ever. Not even Trackers or hunters.”
“Trackers? Hunters?”
“They are the only ones, as far as I can tell, that wander and use abandoned villages or other places.”
***
Barcus finished his coffee, cleaned up after his meal and headed out. It took them a few more days to reach the ruins because they went slowly so as to leave less of a trail.
The suit had rendezvoused with them the day before they reached the Abbey. It was noticeably cooler there. The elevation was higher. The leaves were in full autumn glory.
They made their initial approach to The Abbey from the side where the wall was destroyed. Then, they circumnavigated the fortress. The walls were bleached white upward for the first ten meters. Above that there was gray cut block for another two meters and then battlements above that. As they continued around, they found there was a huge main gate and tower with a bridge on the north end. There wasn't a moat there, just a deep ditch with a sharp rocky bottom. Water might flow there in the rainy season, but it was currently dry. The portcullis and huge doors were closed. If the gates had been opened, two carts could cross the bridge at the same time, four horses abreast. It quietly amused Barcus that he used that as his mental measurement.
“This bridge seems also to be an aqueduct,” Em said, indicating on the HUD the path the aqueduct followed from the north for just over one kilometer to a mountain river. It was running even now in what Em believed the driest part of the year. “The intake is about 90 meters higher than we are at this point, supplying water to The
Abbey year round. Clever.” She indicated the bridge on the HUD.
“We need to test the wood decking before we use it. The door works have also been destroyed from the inside. They must have been trying to keep someone out.”
“Shitload of good it did them,” Barcus said as they rounded the last turn again to the broken wall and rubble.
The stony ditch had prevented some but not all of the forest from encroaching. It continued almost all the way around. A few small, brave trees tried to find purchase there.
The spider climbed the rubble easily. The wall had been breached about halfway up. Barcus had Em pause at the top so he could have a look. The wall itself was about two and a half meters thick. At the top, where the materials changed, it looked like there had been a square, meter-sized tunnel going in both directions, surrounded by gray block. The one on his left side was dry, but the one on the right side had water running in a steady stream out of it that got lost in the rubble.
“I think that water is coming from the aqueduct. Before the wall was destroyed, this probably held water for the entire Abbey.”
“I estimate that the Abbey itself, in its prime, housed about 300 people, Barcus. There were stables, kitchens, barracks and a hall.”
“What the hell happened?”
From their vantage on the wall, they could see that the main sanctuary of the cathedral had suffered massive damage.
“It looks like an explosion just to the side here.” The HUD rendered a roof where it might have stood, then performed a slow-motion simulation of what Em thought would have caused this amount of destruction.
“The roofs of the perimeter buildings were impacted by flying debris, here, here and here.” The HUD indicated the damage. “The buildings on the southernmost part of The Abbey were least affected.”
“There must have been an assault of some kind after the explosion. All but a few inner doors have been destroyed. The rest are burned or torn from the hinges.”
Em slowly began to descend the ramp of rubble, which continued right to the foundations of the cathedral and down further into the basement and even the crypts below. Water was running here, and a pool filled the lowest part. The floor of half of the cathedral was still there, creating an overhang above rubble and deep shadows. Em walked directly in, her legs neatly straddling the large pool of water. As Barcus was walking into the darkness, his personal HUD automatically used light amplification. The far end of the cathedral was evenly cast with rubble and debris. The flat of the flooring could be sensed below the layer of stone rubble. At the far end, a staircase climbed up into the base of the tower that was still standing straight.
Solstice 31: The Solstice 31 Saga, Books 1,2,3 Page 5