I'm still thinking about Venerable Too Dha's strange words. I have to go to find the golden plates. He doesn't have any idea how, nor do I. Our people haven't travelled on the ships for hundreds of years.
But today, I've seen a ship, and I met the man that keeps it. I showed him to the cave.
Perhaps I can go on his ship to the stars, and then I can find the golden tablets.
He seems a nice man. I'm sure he'll take me. I'll ask him in the morning as he goes to Kalodzuland.
He even speaks the holy language for everyday conversation! He's probably one of the gods.
* * *
Heptosh flicked on his viewer. The whole upper dome of his ship turned transparent from the inside, revealing that it was morning.
The first thing he noticed was the shepherd boy sitting on a nearby rock, gazing at the ship. To the boy, the ship would have looked no different than before, as it was a one way viewer.
Interesting young chap. Knows Nephteshi, though not very fluently.
Heptosh hadn't heard that the Famtizhi understood Nephteshi. The Kalodzu only used Nephteshi as the language of interstellar communication.
Wonder what he wants now?
The look on the boy's face gave no hint. He didn't look as though he were in any hurry. Maybe it was idle curiosity.
Heptosh decided to have his breakfast before emerging. He reached into one of the compartments and got one large corn wafer and a jar of honey. That would do for breakfast.
Corn wafers were ideal for interplanetary trips. Some were made with various fillings, such as meat or vegetable, or perhaps something sweet. For breakfast, Heptosh preferred a plain one with honey.
The boy just sat, perfectly still.
I wonder if I couldn't use a helper for this excursion? Thought Heptosh. The boy looked as though he'd be no trouble. He seemed to have the time for it.
Heptosh had no idea what he'd find on the other side of the divide besides the landscape he had seen from the cliff. He wasn't as young as he used to be. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a companion. Could the boy fight?
He downed the last of his wafer, licked some honey from his fingers, and reached for his flask of coourzt beverage.
Usually, three or four swigs of it did him for the morning, but today, he lingered over it. He wanted to think a while longer over what he had to do.
The coourzt berry was native to one of the Blilkin planets, but had been introduced to most of the populations in the sector -- both human and non. The Nefzedi traditionally drank wine or fresh juice on their own planet, but since settling in Tok, they readily adopted the coourzt beverage as their favourite. Wine was okay for digestion, or getting drunk, but coourzt could be taken more often and in larger quantities without the side effects. They brewed it in a manner similar to wine, often with various herbs blended in, but it was more of a stimulant. A few swigs in the morning made the eyes brighter and made one feel better prepared to face the day. It was also good for adjusting to different day and night schedules by helping one stay awake when one needed to. But too much, too late in the day could lead to a sleepless night.
Heptosh nursed his coourzt and deliberated.
He knew that much of what was to be found in the Kalodzu area was underground. The surface had shown him nothing.
Normally there would be at least a few people on the surface. The fact that he saw none, should mean something. So should the fact that the shepherd boy had never met a Kalodzu, nor, apparently, knew what one looked like. They were not a black-skinned race, like the Nefzedi. He said the Kalodzu used to trade at this market, but had long stopped.
So, what was he to expect? Was it safe to venture underground?
What choice did he have? He'd have to live here for the rest of his life, or until someone got curious as to why he didn't return and came looking for him. That could be a lifetime. This wasn't a high priority mission, or they would have issued him a twin particle communicator. The Human Affairs department of the sector council, administered by humans, wasn't known for its efficiency.
He began to gather various items and put them in a carry bag: a metzig torch, some corn wafers, a water flask, his coourzt flask, a spare loin cloth and toga, bedding, and a few items for personal hygiene. He already had his utility belt strapped on, which had his distance viewer, night goggles, balm, knife and a small dart-gun. Then he twisted the release handle and pushed the door open.
The boy lurched to his feet in surprise, then stood there, indecisively.
'Can you go with me through the tunnel?' Heptosh asked in as simple Nephteshi as he could.
'I can,' said Eetoo.
'Good. Let's go then. I might need your help.'
Eetoo followed.
Heptosh insisted on going by way of the stone bridge. Eetoo had no objection.
Though Eetoo had tended to walk either in front or directly behind Heptosh, here he began walking beside him. He looked as though he were wanting to say something. He made several attempts, but seemed to give up before he started
'Yes?' said Heptosh, finally. 'What do you want to tell me?'
Eetoo pointed in the direction of the other canyon. 'Boat?'
'Yes?'
'Go to sky? To heaven?'
'I -- er -- travel to the heavens, yes.'
'Planet have golden tablets, where?'
'What again?'
'Er -- ' then without warning, the simple shepherd boy launched into a spiel in a literary form of ancient Nephteshi: '"Noka was the father of three sons, and after the waters subsided, he wrote for them, the words of this account: for his first son, Sim-Hep, he wrote it on golden tablets; for his second, Kham-Hep, he wrote in on stone; and for his youngest, Yap-Phet, he wrote it on an animal hide. The account, according to all three, is complete, but in none of them is it whole. One among the sons of Kham shall one day journey to the sons of Sim and receive from his sons the writings from the tablet of gold. One from among the sons of Sim will one day journey to the sons of Yap Phet, and give to him the message of the golden tablet."'
Heptosh listened in amazement. Obviously, the boy had been taught Nephteshi as a means to read ancient manuscripts in the possession of his tribe. The names sounded familiar. They were associated with a legendary account of a planet that was engulfed in water.
Eetoo went back to his broken Nephteshi: 'I -- son of Kham-Hep. I must travel find golden tablets of Sim-Hep.'
Heptosh noticed he was looking at him, as though hoping for an answer.
'Who told you that?' asked Heptosh.
'Er -- ancient -- er -- old man Too Dha. He keeper of the tablets. He have dream say I go.'
'How do you plan to go?'
'Er -- ' suddenly Eetoo looked perplexed, as though he were surprised that Heptosh didn't already know. 'Er -- you Nephteshi speak -- you god?'
'Oh dear! No! I'm certainly not a god!'
'But -- Nephteshi -- holy tongue! Men not speak to men!'
So, Nephteshi was a holy language to his tribe, for reading their holy writings. The fact the Heptosh spoke it made him a god!
'Nephteshi is spoken by many peoples,' corrected Heptosh. 'On my planet, we speak Nephteshi to people of other nationalities and other planets. On the planet of Nephtesh, they have no other language to speak. They must speak Nephteshi.'
'You not god? But you have boat.'
'My "boat" is broken. I must fix, repair, mend. If I were a god, I could snap my finger and make it better. I cannot. That's why I must go to land of Kalodzu.'
'You carry me to planet of Nephtesh?'
'I don't know where the planet is. I only heard it was the centre of a vast empire once. And, my ship is broken.'
'Can help me find?'
The boy looked as though he'd break into tears if Heptosh refused.
'I'll tell you what. You help me find parts for my ship. I'll think about helping you look for the planet, Nephtesh. But what about your father and mother? What would they say?'
'Father and mother died. Only Uncle
Zhue Paw, and old man Too Dha. I am man now. I can go.'
Suddenly Eetoo was no longer the shy timid shepherd boy of earlier. He was someone with a mission.
By now, they had reached the waterfall. Between the falling stream and the cliff face, the road ended at the cave.
Eetoo looked doubtful.
'You've been in before, haven't you?'
'Yes. Sheep run away, go in. I go in after. It night. I have fire.'
'Did you find your sheep?'
'No. I go and go, I hear sheep ahead, sheep afraid of light and go on. I think road must stop, but go on. I want to go back, I afraid, but I hear sheep. Then I see star light. Sheep gone. I wait for morning, but then, no fire. Also, no sheep. I see Kalodzuland. I afraid to go but I know I must not stay. Fa-tzi-zhi people must not stay. I go in dark -- afraid.'
'I have a light here.' Heptosh brought out his metzig torch. He lit it. Eetoo looked at it in amazement. It lit the cave walls like broad daylight.
'Ah! Not afraid now!'
They stepped into the tunnel.
'But -- Kalodzuland dangerous for Fa-tzi-zhi people.'
'If you are to go in search of the golden tablets, you will certainly pass through places more dangerous than Kalodzuland.'
They walked on and on. It was a straight rectangular passage with no features aside from bare rock, and straight vertical seams every few yards. Now and then, the passage made a slight angle. This prevented any light from showing from either entrance, so it was impossible to see how much further they had to go.
'How much further?' asked Heptosh.
'Three furlongs.'
'Oh -- er, but didn't you say it was three furlongs all the way through?'
'Yes. Three furlongs.'
'I'm sure we've already been three furlongs. How much further?'
'Three furlongs.'
'Then that should be six furlongs.'
'Huh?'
By the time Heptosh saw daylight showing around the corner, he estimated that they had been seven.
He shook his head.
6
the valley stretches before, an ancient city, overgrown
avenues and boulevards draped in shrubs and creeping vines
the mountains that line the city, appear like giant bricks place atop one another
the man-made landscape towers over the city
beyond these, again, giant blocks rise into mountain peaks
forming the geometric mountain range
This is just the way I saw it before. Still don't see any people. It must be okay. The Nephteshi man said it is. I can't believe I'm going to go to the stars and find the golden tablets.
The man is taking out something from his belt, putting it up to his eye, and looking into it. He points it here and there. Maybe it shows him things.
He's looking at the mountain on the other side of the valley. It looks as though it were made of giant bricks. There's a wide hole on the side facing us that looks awfully big -- a lot bigger than this hole we're in. A tree could easily stand up inside, and it looks as wide as the mouth of the Nyu Pee river.
Now, he's looking at the big square thing in middle of the valley, that looks like a giant's house, made of the same giant bricks. I also see normal sized houses here and there. Some are pretty big. There's a road that leads from there, and a fork off to the mountain across from us. There's lots of trees in between, and more houses.
Now, he's trying to see where this path leads -- the one we're standing on.
'Let's go,' he says.
So we start walking.
* * *
It's been a long walk. We're at the bottom of the mountain now, and there's a road that goes off straight ahead. It looks like solid rock. There's ivy growing on it in some places, and big cracks in others where plants are growing through.
There's a herd of cows up ahead going from one side of the road to another. Some are stopping in the middle to eat the plants growing up through the cracks.
There's got to be no one about. Why would cows be wandering about like this by themselves? Further off I see some horses, also loose by themselves.
There's a house, but it looks half fallen down.
The man's looking about too. It looks as though he's as surprised as me at not seeing anyone.
'Let's go in here,' he says.
It has an upper floor. We go to the big gate at the bottom. There's a board missing. He looks in.
He tries to open it, but it's locked.
Then, he steps back a bit and gives it a hard kick. The door gives way.
We go in. It's one big room downstairs.
The back door is open. We could have gone in that way.
There's a big thing in the middle. It has a couple of chairs built in, and some handles and some sort of other funny things in the front, some things with letters and crystal surfaces.
'A (something or other)!' he says. 'I didn't think they were so (something or other)!'
'Huh?' I say.
'Have you seen one of these before?'
'No,' I say.
'It's an (something or other).' He says it again.
Looking at me, he says it again. This time I catch it.
'An air scooter?'
'Yes. It's been a long time since anyone's used it.'
In another corner, there's a wooden cart, but part of it is rotted. There's also some feeding troughs. I'm sure they had horses once, but they escaped out the back door.
The man looks at the ladder leading up to a door in the ceiling. He tries the ladder to make sure it's safe. Then he starts climbing.
I follow him.
I've never seen so many cobwebs. The dust is as thick as my finger in some places. I'm sure no one's been here in years. The room has chairs and tables. There are some things lying about. He takes a stick and pulls the cobwebs off, and dusts off some of the things. Some things, he puts into his bag. One looks like a light, like the one he already has. He's trying it out, and shining it on the rest of the room.
He picks up a small flat box and opens it. There's no room to put anything. It's just solid silvery stuff. There's a stick attached to the lid, and he takes that and pushes it into the silvery stuff. He waits for something to happen, but it doesn't. Then, he turns off the shiny thing, opens it up and sticks the end into the back end of the box. Suddenly the stuff starts moving, and little bits of it stick up. I see they're all little tiny pins all stuck together. He pushes some down to make letters, and other ones pop up, so he can read it. I can tell they're pictographic letters in Nephteshi. It must be magic.
He turns about and sees me.
'This is a (something-or-other).'
'Huh?'
'A computer.'
He shuts the lid and puts it in his bag.
'I'll read it later. It may tell us a lot.'
He opens a door to another room, but suddenly he shuts it again. He looks at me, looking a bit pale.
'You'd better stay out here, Eetoo.'
He goes in.
What does he see?
I go to the door and open it a bit and peep in.
There's a bed. It's hard to see what's there because of the cobwebs.
Oh! The gods! It's someone's bones -- two people's! They're lying side by side on the bed.
My friend looks about and sees me. He tells me to go ahead and come in.
He probably thought I'd be spooked.
He's pulling the cobwebs off with a stick.
The bones are a bit funny though. Some of it's not completely rotted. One arm still looks it's still together, but it doesn't look like a real arm. The man looks at me and says, 'Have you seen this before?' He's pointing to the arm.
I shake my head.
'It's (something-or-other).'
'It's -- what?'
'Bionic. It's not real skin and flesh. It's human flesh that started to turn into machinery. This is what I feared had happened. This also happened on my own planet, and many families there also killed themselves w
hen they knew what they had done.'
Humans turning into machinery?
'Let's go,' he says.
We go down the ladder again.
Now, he's looking at the big contraption downstairs. He opens the gates on both sides of the room so we can see it better.
He turns some handles on it, and pushes on something, and waits. Nothing happens. Now he's looking about the room. There's stuff all over the place. He picks up this and that. It looks as though he's found what he's looking for. It's a small box. He brings it to the thing, gets down and opens a little door. He takes out a box that looks like the one he found, and puts the other one in. He tries turning the handles again. Something seems to be doing what he wanted. At least he's happy about that. Then, he opens something else and does something to another part of the contraption.
Then, he dusts off the seat in front, and sits on it. He pulls a handle, and suddenly there's a noise, sort of like a waterfall. Then, the whole contraption lifts up into the air, about one hand's breadth high.
'Get on,' he says.
I don't know about this. It flies!
'It's okay. It won't hurt you.'
I get in the seat behind him -- very carefully. The thing starts to tip when I step on it, as though it were a boat.
I'm sitting down. It's a nice chair.
Suddenly we're going out the gate and back onto the road.
Wow! We're going fast! Is it safe to go this fast? He said it would be okay.
We're going past more houses. Some cows run to get out of our way.
I'm starting to enjoy this!
* * *
Heptosh kept his apprehensions to himself. The boy had no idea of the danger that might lurk behind any corner.
Up ahead were the remains of another air scooter. Bones were scattered about.
This time, there were whole bodies that looked bionic. One lacked a head, and another had a hole in it's chest. The cavity looked burnt about the edges. One of them looked as though its head had been burned off.
Heptosh stopped the scooter, dismounted and walked over to the bionics.
What could have caused this much damage to bionic bodies?
He stepped to the wreckage. The bones looked as though they had been undisturbed throughout the 12 year restriction. They were completely dry, lacked any smell, one of the hands was bionic.
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