Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1)

by Chris Finkelstein

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Hidden Temple

  J

  an was riding his contiss Karot out to the river to do some solitary fishing. She had been awarded to Jan because he had been promoted to LERN’s executive board, much to the consternation of Dr. Kalep and Cush. Cush was not a board

  member, so he had his wife Ushu do his bidding. In spite of this, the other primary members, Ziba, Jasma, along with Drs. Scrib and Hendy, won the vote for Jan. This all happened seven months after New Aletia’s first anniversary.

  When Jan arrived at his special fishing hole, he dismounted the contiss. He gave Karot a couple of tacks he had brought with him, to keep her quiet. He then sat down on the edge of the wide stream to try his luck under a whitish rock that jutted out from the opposite side of the stream, a feeder to the river.

  “C’mon,” he said to himself. “I know you’re under there. I got your cousin last time!” He smiled, thinking about it. That last fish he had caught here had put up an amazing fight.

  It is so nice to get away from the arguing. Jan thought to himself. Dr. Kalep and his supporters had been stopping every effort to produce any kinds of rules or laws. Things were becoming more and more disorganized. People were shirking their workload in the developing mines. They had plenty of hunters, but miners needed training, and they also needed to show up. It was at the point where many people weren’t appearing for work at all.

  The easy yama harvesting was over. They found that they needed to go ever deeper into the ocean to get to it. Winoni was developing different methods, but all were risky. They had been attracting molicks in the water more often, and other big sea creatures could be seen habitually gathering in the distance.

  The people were becoming increasingly negative and complaining. Even Rachel obsessed about renovating a newly found theater on the outskirts of town, and complained to Jan continually about it. He could not understand why people were finding ways to be so unhappy in paradise.

  “They always want more, and it’s as if they need to be angry about something,” he said to himself, sighing, reeling in his line for another cast. He continued talking to himself saying, “It’s not just the complaining. It’s the violence. It’s as if their dragons are always raised, even here.”

  Time passed, and the sky started getting cloudy. Jan looked up behind himself and said, “Well Karot, I think it’s time to go home.”

  “Not quite,” he heard the Guide say. “There is something here that you will want to see.”

  Jan vision was directed to a path that went between two big boulders that had rolled down the nearby hill, and settled a long time ago. He walked over between them.

  “Keep going,” the Guide said.

  “Where am I going?” asked Jan. “What do you want me to see?” He was now walking along the bottom of the hill, towards the river.

  “You are looking for answers, you will find some today. Walk over there, to your right,” the Guide told Jan, “Yes, down there.”

  Jan saw the depression in the ground. It looked like a sinkhole. “Are you sure?” he asked, knowing that the Guide was always sure.

  He made his way into it, looking for whatever he was supposed to be finding, when — Crack! — Jan suddenly fell into — “Water!” he yelled, as he plunged deeply into a rapidly moving underground river. He swam frantically, trying to get his equilibrium as he spun around like a rag doll in the torrent of water. He determined the way up, and came hard against the rock “ceiling” of the water-filled tunnel. No! His mind screamed as his lungs were beginning to ache for air. He continued with the flow for a few moments, bouncing along the top, hoping for an exit, or maybe an air bubble. After a couple of minutes his rational mind gave way to the animal, and Jan found himself clawing at the ceiling kicking frantically, whipping his tail to push forward, when his head finally popped up into an air pocket. There were some big crystals poking out from the rock, and Jan grabbed hold of one, gasping for air. His legs were being pulled by the rapid current, but he was holding on for dear life.

  “What am I going to do?” he called out into the blackness. The Guide did not answer. Jan could never hear the Guide in times of stress. If Jan had any anxiety about a question, he could not hear the Guide’s answer — and it sucked.

  “Well,” Jan said to himself, as he considered his situation, “The Guide didn’t bring me here to die.” That wouldn’t make any sense. “Should I try to swim back?” Jan asked himself, as he was still gasping for air. He tried to pull his legs and feet against the current. “It’s impossible,” he said to himself.

  After he caught his breath, Jan decided that he could not just stay there. “I found one air bubble, there must be more,” he said. Then he hyperventilated for another minute or so, and in pitch darkness, let go of the crystal he had held onto, and let the water take him again, swimming for his life.

  Jan swam for another two or three minutes, bouncing along the top looking for air, and found himself in the same state as he just was twenty minutes ago. He was losing it, and he had to fight the impulse to inhale water as his lungs were burning for air. He missed two air bubbles because he couldn’t hold on to anything. The base of his tail was aching from the use of it to propel himself through the water. Thirty more seconds later he was scratching wildly at the water and the ceiling again. His hands kept clawing upwards for the search for a bubble, he felt himself blacking out — and then there was suddenly no ceiling, and no weight to his body.

  Jan was forcibly pissed out into the air of an underground cavern containing a small lake within it. What the hell now — he grabbed what breath he could as he fell twenty feet and smacked the water hard, plunging into it deeply. He immediately swam upwards, gasping for air as he surfaced, his spastic throat making a rasping noise as he choked to bring air in through it. Jan was able to gain some composure after a few breaths, and started swimming for the edge of the water. I have to get out of this water.

  There were two strange glows to the space, one red and the other blue. They were coming from a large open area that was above the water and was dry. Jan swam to the edge and weakly pulled himself out of the water, still gasping and choking. He collapsed on his back on the smooth hard cool floor, seeing a high ceiling above, panting heavily. He closed his eyes and laid there for twenty minutes, breathing, recovering, and feeling as though his exhausted body was so heavy it was sinking through the marble floor on which he was lying.

  While lying there, Jan eventually opened his eyes again. As they adjusted, he saw that the ceiling was covered with ornate designs from what looked like miniature tiles. They formed pictures of D’otians. He recognized the designs of long, gently curving lines that all had a common center. The artwork had the same round things at the end of the lines, pointed at the tips.

  “Platacs!” he said in amazement, as he recognized them by their lighter scale coloring. There were various scenes portrayed of apparent historical events. Jan wondered about the many cryptic symbols. There were other scenes on the ceiling. These ones displayed other kinds of D’otians that did not have the lighter scales of the Platacs. Some were easily recognizable as Aletians, due to their gray coloring and tall crests. The crests on the Aletians were a bit wider, dark gray, and had half-inch peaks along the top of them that were more pointed than the Platacs. The Platac crests had smoothed-out points on their crests, and the equally tall Platac crests had colors — orange, gray, and white.

  There were pictures of other D’otians. Strange wide ones with double crests on their heads and tails, and their whole bodies were orange-red. They looked fierce. Jan also saw others that were short and brown, and they had dark brown wide crests. Those ones looked pretty tough, too.

  “What is this place?” he asked himself, in wonder, forgetting his situation for a moment.

  When he felt ready to move, Jan got up and walked over to the source of the lights. He saw hundreds of containers set and stacked around in a big area that lay between two large dormant iro
n shafts that were about two hundred feet apart. Jan remarked to himself, “I know these shafts!” The shafts continued straight through the ceiling thirty feet above. He always passed that pair of iron shafts on his way to his fishing spot. “I know where I am!” he said with some comfort. “Now I need to figure out how to get out of here.” But first, I need to check out this glow.

  The red glow emanated from the direction of the iron shaft to his right, and the blue came from the shaft on his left. There was no real source to the light, it was just hanging there. There was a webbing made of some type of metal suspended above the container-holding area, forming a ceiling of sorts, about twelve feet high. The same webbing also lined the floor, as well as the wall behind the containers. The webbing stopped when it contacted the iron shafts on both sides of it. There was a large container placed among the others, and Jan went to examine it. He looked through the glass enclosure, and saw a Platac male, dead, laying in it. He had a headdress on, and was adorned in strange clothing made from materials Jan had not seen before. It was a gown, and had beautiful gold thread designs sewn throughout, once again, similar to designs they had on the walls of the hotel, and on the tiled ceiling here. There was a panel on the dead D’otian’s container, which displayed various buttons and lights.

  “What is this?” Jan asked aloud as he walked among the containers, and he came across a containerized bookcase with scores of books. He pulled on the latch, and saw the electronic panel for the bookcase start blinking. He pulled a book out and opened it. It had Platac writing, which Jan could not read, as all the Platac writings he had read thus far were translations. “Dr. Scrib will know what’s in these,” he muttered, as he thumbed through the pages. “What kind of paper is this?” he asked, and then continued, “It’s — what is it? There’s no agrist, no metal —” Any paper he had ever seen was always made of thin sheets of agrist alloy.

  This amazed him. These pages were light — very light. He pulled on a corner of a page, and it tore. “Wow, I’d better be careful with this.” He kept the book, but closed the bookcase door, and the lights on the panel settled back down.

  Jan started to notice that he felt different when he was standing on the metal webbing under his feet, in the glowing field of light that was within the space that the webbing outlined. He experienced a warm feeling throughout his body. “I feel good!” he exclaimed. He looked over many of the round canisters, all of which had similar electronic buttons and lights. Some had glass tops, and he could see what looked like thousands of very tiny stones inside.

  Then he noticed a large canister that was cubical. When he looked into it, he saw something astonishing through the glass top. Inside were four of the biggest eggs he had ever seen. “What is this?” he repeatedly asked himself.

  Jan looked around, surveying the cavern. “I need to find a way out of here!” He kept the book with him, and started searching for a way out. He peered out across the water, but the wall on that far side was difficult to see, considering the general darkness of the place. Jan kept looking across the water, along every inch of the opposite wall that was above water. “Since the water seems to stay at this level, there must be an exit for it underwater,” he said to himself. He also said, shaking his head after considering it, “I don’t want to do that again.”

  Jan sat down at the edge of the floor near the water. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he was looking into, he could see variations on the opposite wall that may have been shadows.

  “Maybe that wall isn’t so smooth after all,” he said to himself. After much self-talk, Jan decided to swim to the other side, and see what may be over there. He took the book with him.

  When he arrived at the opposite wall, he found a well-constructed ledge along it. He climbed onto the ledge, and went to his right, walking in the direction of the water that was spilling out of the hole he had arrived through. Nothing, Jan thought despairingly.

  The only thing left to do then was to walk in the opposite direction along the wall to the other end of the ledge. As he was walking that way, he saw something coming into view in the darkness at the far end. It was a rectangular hole in the wall. Yes! Jan had to duck a bit to get through the opening, and attempted to see what was in there.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The Resurrection of the Cathaws

  “S tairs!” Jan cried loudly. He started singing, “Stairs, stairs,

  stairs, stairs!” He was sure that this would get him out of here. Peering further up the curved stairway, he saw that it was absolutely black up there.

  “I have to go,” he thought. He looked back at the cavern and the glowing platform across the way, trying to think of anything he may bring as a weapon. Nothing.

  Jan had no choice. He had to go up that narrow, low-ceilinged stonecut stairway in pitch black. He slowly made his way up the stairway. He stopped and listened for any noises ahead, and there were none. That’s a good thing. Step by step he went up. After twenty minutes of climbing, he wanted to stop and catch his breath, but could not.

  “I’ve got to see how this ends,” he said to himself. He continued, and found that the spiral stairway was no longer rock.

  “This smells like iron,” Jan said. It was iron, he realized, as he dragged his weight ever upwards. About ten minutes later, he saw a dim light coming from above him in the staircase. “Light!”

  Jan’s pace quickened and in no time he found himself looking out from an iron shaft, and he was over two hundred feet from the ground.

  “Hello!” he yelled, hoping for the remote chance that someone might be out there. He hollered for a while, and stopped to listen. Do I hear something? My contiss!

  “Karot!” he yelled, “Karot!” He definitely heard contiss footsteps down below coming his way.

  “Jan!” he heard from the other side of the iron shaft.

  It’s Buz! What’s he doing here? “Buz!” Jan shouted, “I’m up here!”

  Buz came riding around the corner of the iron shaft, and Jan started laughing. “He has no idea! Nobody ever looks up,” Jan chuckled to himself. He looked and found little loose pieces of the shaft sitting beside him. He picked one up and threw it towards Buz. It was a great shot, beaning Karot on the back of her hind end, and Karot reared up, throwing Buz off her.

  Himself startled, Jan yelled out, “Hey, I didn’t mean to do that buddy.”

  Buz got up, and looked around again. He was OK.

  Jan laughed some more. “Buz, I’m up here!”

  Buz finally started looking upwards, and after a moment spotted Jan’s arm waving out of the iron shaft above.

  “What the hell are you doing up there?” Buz hollered. Then Buz followed with, “How the hell did you get up there?”

  “I came up from inside it! Listen, I’ll tell you later,” Jan yelled back. “Go ask Winoni to come here. He’s got a big ladder to build!” Then he remembered the book he had been carrying. It had become wet, and when he opened it now, the pages were much more fragile, and tore easily. “Wait!”

  Buz stopped his actions to mount the contiss, and looked up.

  Jan hollered, “Be careful with this! Give it to Dr. Scrib, and tell him and Jasma to come down here. Bring Ziba, too!” Jan tossed the book down to Buz, and it bounced hard off the ground. The cover and a few pages came off, but it was otherwise intact.

  Buz mounted the contiss, and he heard, “Wait!” once again from above. He looked up. “What?” he yelled.

  “Bring flashlights and be ready to swim!” Jan shouted.

  Buz thought about asking why, but he wanted to get up there and see this himself. He couldn’t do it without Winoni. “OK,” he yelled back, and left in a hurry.

  Buz rode Karot back to town, and found Winoni and the others. He showed the book to Dr. Scrib, who declared that the book was an exceedingly ancient treasure.

  Since Dr. Kalep was with him at the time, he came along, too. They both appeared to be very excited.

  After Buz described the lean of the shaft a
nd how high Jan was in the shaft, Winoni gathered his main crew, and loaded up a wagon with the equipment and supplies they would need to build a ladder of sorts. Rebecca and Jasma came along too. Martha was out helping with the developing mines, and did not know what was happening. Rachel stayed home with Jo.

  It took a couple of hours to fabricate the ladder on site. It required braces because of its height. When completed, they all climbed it to the entry in which Jan was waiting.

  They followed Jan down the staircase, but this time they were carrying lights.

  On the way down, Jan asked Buz, “Why were you out here in the first place?”

  Buz answered, “Karot came to town without you, and when I asked Rachel, she said you went fishing. I know you fish out this way, but Karot pretty much led the way.”

  Jan smiled to himself, “Good old Karot, she’s a keeper.”

  As they continued down the staircase, Jan described the cavern and the containers. The people with him could not contain their excitement.

  “A well-preserved Platac!” Dr. Kalep exclaimed with glee, “This is wonderful!”

  Dr. Scrib almost fell down the stairs a number of times because he was trying to read the book Buz had delivered.

  Once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, those with Jan quickly realized that Jan was not kidding about the swim. Nothing was going to stop any of them now, and they all went into the water to swim across to the dry area.

  Rebecca froze. She just stood there on the ledge, looking. She had become silent as they descended the stairs, and now, seemed to be in some kind of shock.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Jan, as he stood there with her, watching the others swim across.

  “I don’t — I don’t know,” Rebecca stammered. She had a look of fear on her face. “This place makes me feel so sad.” She looked at Jan and asked, “Why?” with a searching look on her face. “Why do I feel this way? It’s so weird. It’s the way I felt when we first entered the city.”