by Guy Antibes
Obsomil went to shelves and pulled out parchment rolls. He unrolled them. “Yes,” Obsomil said proudly, “the best in the world.”
Jan groaned inwardly. These maps had no scale and were not accurate in the least. Obsomil’s royal maps were, of course, hand drawn and had large blank areas. “I’ll make you a good map.” Excitement was rising within him. “In fact I just realized that I already have a map of the whole planet. I just don’t have anything labeled.”
Obsomil’s eyes showed confusion. “My maps are defective?”
“Not necessarily defective, your Highness, shall we say somewhat incomplete?”
“Then make the maps complete. We can find out much of what we need to know from looking at our enemies from the sky.” Obsomil rubbed his hands together and grinned. “A wonderful era is upon us!”
~
“You see, this is where the top of where your planet spins,” Jan said to Obsomil as he showed a holographic image projected from his watch. “We will call this the North Pole. The planet spins on an axis or center point. The South Pole is here on the bottom. I took these pictures with the equipment I have on board. Then I laid out a grid from our coordinates and had it match the coordinate system that the ancient Grethians used to operate the portals. We can now go to any portal we wish.”
“So this is what our world looks like.” Obsomil said. His eyes didn’t leave the image. “We have heard tales of the forbidden land. I sailed to the coast when I was princeling. We had no idea it was so large. Our land is inconsequential. We had outlines of parts of the southern side of the continent and assumed it was the same size as ours, but it’s many times bigger. I want my people to know of this. There is another great land in our world!”
“Don’t get your hopes up, your majesty,” Jan said. “That land is a dead continent. There is very little life. I’ll bet that was where most of the population was centered. The speakers on the tabs warned of an impending doom. It happened.” Jan pointed to areas on the map.
“However, since I recalibrated my sensors, I found that there is still evidence of some power left in the ruins along with the radiation, a poison in the land that can kill. Since it is all concentrated on your northern hemisphere, little of the radiation comes south of the equator to matter.”
“I don’t know how much I understood of what you just said, but I must see this land! Take me there, Jan.”
“I have some spacesuits. They are shielded from radiation. This radiation I am talking about is like a very, bad sunburn you can’t see or feel. When you’ve been burned with this, you are poisoned, however, my suits will block the radiation and keep us safe.”
~~~
Chapter 24
The ship settled down in a broad valley with sparse vegetation growing in small gray-brown clumps. Two figures exited from the resting craft. Rubble made walking uneven. A small instrument held Jan’s attention as he shuffled to keep from stumbling.
“Obsomil, this area is still radioactive. How those bushes can survive in this environment is beyond me.” Spotting a unique tumble of rocks, Jan beckoned the other figure to follow. The two men walked to the grouping of rocks. As they moved them around, the rocks crumbled.
“These really aren’t rocks. They are crumbling ruins. This whole area was subjected to a great deal of heat,” Jan said. He then went back to the ship and returned with two shovels. The men began to dig for a while in the rubble. The rocks weren’t heavy, so their work went relatively fast.
The pile of the removed material grew and grew. Then the shovel of Obsomil struck something hard. Jan hurried over the where Obsomil was and helped him remove the covering rubble.
Fused and corroded, the shape of the object had lost all definition other than being made of metal. “See, there must have been a thermonuclear explosion set off in this city. I was right. This valley was a blast center. Let’s get back up in the ship and find another city.” Jan said. Obsomil nodded.
Drifting over a mountain range, Jan pointed out a gap leading to a plain. A river placidly flowed through the gap, creating a canyon ten or more meters high as it cut through the land. “If I were going to place a city in this area, this is where I’d put it. See the roads?” Jan pointed to a pattern of lines in the jumbled landscape below and then pointed to the map. “There is another city down there.” The ship dropped.
As the two descended, they found more rubble. Certainly, a city once existed here. There was more vegetation. Sickly colored greenery climbed over the ruins here and there. Jan spotted structures that were nearly intact. The two figures again disembarked from the ship and walked to a derelict building with thousands of years of detritus filling the entrance. They found a metal door still intact and forced it open. In the darkness beyond, undefined shapes beckoned to the visitors. Jan turned on his helmet light. There was light gray dust on the floor, thick and even. The floor was the remnant of some formerly resilient material adding to the ever-present dust. Their boots left indentations on the floor as the men walked through a dark hallway. The structure was so old, both men had the feeling that anything would crumble at the slightest touch. Jan opened a door. The hinge resisted his effort, but he opened it enough to allow them access into a large room. There were human remains scattered about the room. The dust had swirled and created mounds around the openings during the millennia. They walked to the other end of the room to something that looked like a reception desk to Jan.
A binder on the surface was open. Arm bones, from a corpse leaning the desk, were sprawled over one half of the book. Jan gingerly moved the bones aside and stood the book on end so that the dust would fall off. He could actually make out some of the words in Galactic Basic. The written version was more understandable than the verbal language on the tapes. This might have been a hotel, not a workplace. He tried to brush off some dust and the pages disintegrated.
“I thought I could triumphantly return from this new land and instantly claim it for Diltrant.” Obsomil shook his head. “I can’t bring myself to do that. So many people killed.”
Jan opened one of the pamphlets printed on a plastic sheet and spread it open. Both men looked at the contents.
Jan read the titles and explained. “This is the Hotel Azimuth. This is a city, or was a city, called Oerburton. We’re looking for the directions to the city government building. Maybe we can find out where portals were kept.”
“No, let’s leave this place.” Obsomil grabbed Jan’s arm. “I’ve seen enough. I want you to come back with someone else and investigate further. So many people just destroyed! All of this land, useless!” Obsomil abruptly left the room, walking back down the hallway. He did not wait for Jan to catch up.
~
Obsomil summoned Jan for another visit to his personal quarters. Bloodin and another man waited along with the king for Jan to enter. Obsomil’s wife and oldest daughter stood together off to the side of the reception room. Obsomil rushed in carrying a roll of the new maps. He looked at Jan and gave him half a grin. “These aren’t for today.”
The king straightened his tunic. “These will require further investigation. We have progressed to where we should know what our forefathers left us. We need to do two things. One, we need to find the reasons why they gave us these opportunities. Why does the Hand of Grethia exist? Two. We need to beat back the Murgrontian and Alchantian threat and establish a worldwide government.” Obsomil paced and let the occupants think about his words for a moment or two.
The information wasn’t anything new to Jan. On the way back Obsomil discussed the importance of learning more behind the Hand and uniting the governments.
He peered outside of the room and into the garden courtyard of the palace. The day was sunny and warm. There were birds and flying insects in the garden. Green and purple foliage reflected the bright white-yellow light of this planet’s sun. A fountain provided background music for the buzzing of an insect or the chirping of a bird. The peace of this place was an oasis amid the unpleasant things they w
ere about to discuss. Perhaps man needed counterbalances when dealing with the distasteful realities of life that forced necessary actions. He thought back to the white office of his father and wondered if what seemed so stark to him soothed the tensions his father certainly had built up managing his trading empire.
“Jan,” Obsomil chided, “Jan, your attention please. The course of action is set.” Obsomil raised a rolled up letter in his hand. “Wilton has asked to visit us for talks, no army, just his august presence. We will listen to what he has to say, but all he probably wants is some agreement so he can neutralize our ships. I’m sure he suspects that we have the Hand. Ichar and his priests will not succeed in repeating their attack on the Grethian Hall now that we have decommissioned the big portal underneath the hunting lodge and possess the Hand. It’s just as well that Wilton and Ichar don’t know that we have access to all of the portals.”
The Alchantians could have attacked them using the Actobal portal at any time the hall’s doors were open and once Jan explained that to Obsomil, he had the king’s permission to turn that portal off.
“Before leaving this continent, Jan will fly his ship to the farmyard and will set up two of the portals and leave guards. Bloodin and I will lead our troops through the portals to take Actobal. While we wait for Wilton to arrive, Jan, Merinnia, and Fosan will go back to the far lands and look for more clues to the Grethian artifacts.”
Merinnia? Obsomil’s onlydaughter? That’s why the mother and daughter were here.Jan thought.Fosan. He was a Grethian educator at the University and a friend of Bloodin’s. He could see Fosan coming with him, but why Merinnia?
Bloodin and Obsomil’s wife left, leaving four in the room. “You three have only one instruction, find out what happened on the dead continent and verify that what we learned from that reading box in the hall is correct.
“Bloodin and I have made the plans for retaking Mulloy’s city. The atrocity we suffered in Actobal will be avenged. But after that, the largest part of the task will be to rebuild our world. Before we do this, we need more knowledge. We also need to explode the myths perpetuated by the priests of Grethia. It’s up to you three to find out more of what we need to keep the transition from destroying our current civilization.”
Jan still didn’t have the details of why Obsomil’s daughter would accompany them…not that he wouldn’t mind getting to know her better.
~
Jan lifted and headed for the far lands. Merinnia and Fosan stood awkwardly in the forward control cabin even though Jan had offered them seats. Both of them looked scared.
“All of these panels you touch are controls? On our ship engines, everything has levers and gears.” marveled Merinnia. Her face reflected the brightness of exciting new knowledge.
Jan made sure all of the power was recharged on his ship and that his four space suits were all intact. His smallest suit should fit Merinnia adequately.
“I still can’t get over it. The Grethian Hand is not really mystical. For hundreds and hundreds of years, technology was a mystery that only few could behold. The reality for us remained firmly in the miraculous.” Merinnia said as she finally sat down. “My great-grandfather was able to see through all of that. Many men probably could, but he was in a position to do something about it. It coincided with the vision he had of casting off the yoke the Grethian priesthood put around our necks. Only then could he start our University.”
“So what makes up the educational system in Diltrant?” Jan said, looking at Fosan.
“We have schools that teach basic arithmetic, reading and Diltrantian history. In the past, more advanced students could go to a higher level of study to become teachers in their own right,” Fosan began to relax as he talked about a subject he knew intimately.
“Only recently in our history, has our higher level of education created more than teachers. With our new university, we now study mechanics and materials. I have plans to further expand the curriculum.” He sat down in one of the seats. The tension that both of them had brought on board his ship began to dissipate.
“Perhaps what we discover will cause some adjustments.” Jan said, smiling.
“The university is sort of like my father’s pet experiment with minds. Our world has been throttled by the Grethian priesthood and we have made momentous discoveries every since.”
Jan laughed. “The best discovery was a smokeless fuel. Am I right Fosan?”
Fosan’s eye crinkled as he replied, “You are a bright one, Jan. Of course, we couldn’t keep our methods a secret if we had smoke pouring out of our masts. When we found a way to burn the black liquid without smoke, we knew we could use it to our advantage. So we found a way to refine the fuel and use electrical sparks burn it off in a chamber. The heat from that boils water, and then we use the steam to propel a shaft.”
Later, with Fosan taking a nap back in Jan’s cabin, Jan asked,” What do you expect to accomplish on this far continent, Princess?”
Merinnia looked back at Jan, broken from her fascination of watching the ocean pass beneath her. Her auburn hair cascaded down her shoulders. The light from the porthole illuminated an excited face with awe still filling her eyes from the sights below.
“All my life, I wanted to break out of the royal child mold. My life has been very protected. You don’t know how many tantrums I had to pull to get to become friends with Fosan. It is still not a woman’s place to discuss things of the mind. There are no guards now, no disapproving courtiers. I can go somewhere, learn something no one else has learned. I go as an equal among us. I don’t feel the condescension with you I have felt with the other men of Diltrant.” She looked back where Fosan would be lying down. “Fosan is much better than most. If we don’t find anything, I’ll still have felt I have done something that I always wanted to do. We are going to find some answers, aren’t we, Jan?”
Fosan returned some time later and reinforced what the girl had been saying. “The Princess has been my most prominent scholar. Not because of her breeding, which is without peer, of course. But she is highly intelligent and highly motivated. We have not been permitted to examine the Grethian Hall in great detail yet. In fact, I think you have been the only one permitted in the hall for any great length of time. So now, because of the King’s trip to the Far Land in your special suits, I am most anxious to learn what is over there. To think, after all of these years there are still intact artifacts.”
The autopilot rang and Jan had to break from the conversation. In the nick of time, he thought, realizing that Merinnia and Fosan were expecting him to say something. “Ahem, I’ll get to the controls. We will be arriving at the place King Obsomil and I explored and do a bit more searching in other areas. It is a rather large continent.”
~
Clouds circled the gray crumbling towers of the city in the mountains. A cold piercing wind whistled through the ruins and splashed its sound and force upon the three figures. The sun broke through the roiling clouds as some raindrops began to pepper the ground with darkening spots. The three of them, in their white suits, hustled through the debris and into a large low building.
“I wanted to take some reconnaissance pictures, but these clouds obscured most of the city. The other images taken by the ship don’t provide the detail we need. Now we have to climb through these ruins to see things for ourselves,” said Jan. He was breathing hard, but the other two were breathing harder.
“This building is in better shape than many. The writing on the front may still be readable.” Fosan suggested.
“I can’t make out much of the sign. It says some kind of center. Beyond that I can’t say. Let’s hope it’s an information center. The structure King Obsomil and I explored was definitely a hotel of some kind.” Jan responded.
They had to dig down about six feet to an opening that was stuck but still recognizable as a doorframe. Dust and debris littered the floor. At one time dust might have blown in from empty windows, but now like everything else thousands of years old, ground
floor openings were below grade. Like the other buildings, it had some kind of flooring that now cracked and burst to powder when walked on. All of the colors had faded or been coated over with the nearly uniform gray dust. Dingy was the word to describe the interior. They were in a lobby again—somewhat larger that the other buildings. Again, a large counter was across from the doors. Chairs and tables made up the furnishings. Some had collapsed with age. Some had the ever-present centuries old remains of the inhabitants on them.
“These are people. Dead people,” said Merinnia.
“Outside the remains have totally decomposed. Inside the ruins we have been seeing, the remains have looked like debris. But here you get to see them more like they were. The remnants of your forefathers lie all around us, silent sentinels to the horrors of war.” Jan tried to say as gently as possible. “The whole continent is like this. There were millions, perhaps billions of people living here. They all died in an awful war. The Hall provides some information, but as we discussed, it’s a very watered down explanation. If it wasn’t so watered down, maybe the Grethian priesthood wouldn’t have become so mystical about the relics.”
“Yes,” Fosan said, “The Grethian doctrine explains that man became wicked and the Grethian Hand covered the sun and most men died of an awful incurable disease. The darkness created a frozen world. The faithful, led by the Hand, were saved from the disaster, being saved by supplies sequestered below the ground. They stayed, hidden from the surface, for years before they emerged to repopulate the land utilizing the great powers of the Hand. We “enlightened” men thought the disease was all nonsense. We had no inkling of this radiation sickness.”