Ringships

by Peter Claisse

  ‘How can we see anything? How do we know we are seeing the trap clearly?’

  ‘We can never know any more than we know how we see things in any other reality. God gives us the power to see both in the outside world and in the network.’

  ‘Have you ever been in a network before?’ He asked hesitantly.

  ‘Any machine like the ones in the tower or the monastery requires a connection between where the mage can see it and put power in, and the point where the power is needed to do things. I have used them before, but I have never been in a network before where they were all joined together. If there was a network in the tower, I never found it because my old jewel was not strong enough’.

  Paul now sensed even more danger. They were using jewels that had last been used hundreds of years before by the people that made them. They were entering a network that they did not understand beyond knowing that it was dangerous.

  ‘What happens if we get caught in the trap?’

  Lynella paused to think. She did not know. ‘We must go on though. It’s our destiny to rediscover the old ways of the mages. God gave us the means to see so we should look.’

  ‘It didn’t do much good for the old mages.’

  ‘That was because they were too proud. They fought for their pride to show that they were stronger and better than their rivals. We have no rivals.’

  ‘This place is dead. Everybody who has been here before is dead. There will be no life on the other side of the trap. God created us in such a way that we all die but that does not mean that we should die now.’

  Just as he said this they sensed life. They had no idea how they sensed it. A being in the network beyond them.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, assuming she would have no answer.

  ‘Perhaps it is God calling us through.’

  The reply confused him as he tried to dismiss it. What did he know about God? How did his God communicate? Was this a calling?

  ‘What do you want? Who are you?’ He shouted, as much as he could shout in a place where he had no body, no mouth and not even any air.

  A few seconds later they sensed the life again. This time it was clearly a calling. It seemed weak. It was calling from somewhere far away for them to come. Then there was a name. Tiana. Nothing more.

  ‘Will the trap kill us?’ He shouted again. He tried to think through what he knew about God. He knew that people claimed to have communicated with God. If nobody could communicate with Him why bother with Him at all. Here was a presence. Immortal and very powerful and could communicate. His thoughts were interrupted. There was a reply. Distinct but not clear. Another calling. It said the trap was old, ineffective and harmless. But there was an edge to the meaning. A feeling of desperation, a feeling that life was not important.

  ‘Some Gods may need sacrifices.’ He said. ‘Remember that if we die, none of the others can escape.’

  They hesitated. Paul turned.

  When they returned to the ship, they saw at once that things had gone wrong. In place of the busy activity that they had seen before, there were now just groups of people standing around. One mast had been lowered but it lay angled off to one side and nobody was attempting to move it. Angus came to meet them. Adam was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Thank God you’re back’ Angus looked directly at Lynella. ‘They dropped it. It was some of the crew from Atlanta. Adam said he showed them how to fix the rope. I don’t know. Perhaps he did.’

  Paul looked up at the ship. ‘I can’t see any damage. It’s just got to be straightened up. Nobody was hurt, were they?’

  ‘Nobody badly hurt. A few bruises and rope burns. No real damage to the ship either, but it was very close. It almost came down on some of my people and they started shouting at the crew that lost it. Before I could do anything, they were shouting insults and now they are refusing to work together’

  ‘What can I do about it?’ Lynella asked.

  ‘Just talk to them.’ Angus replied. ‘Just talk to them and they’ll do what you ask.’

  Lynella didn’t believe him. She couldn’t accept her position as leader, but she had to try. She knew Paul and Angus would expect her to reason with them, discuss their concerns and help with their fear of the future. But she couldn’t. She threw her power into the lights and marched towards the first group of crew. She said nothing. She didn’t even look at them for longer than a quick glance. The effect was immediate. She was amazed but tried not to show it. The men stood up as she approached. One man offered an excuse for stopping work. Others followed. Soon the mast was neatly secured, and preparations were in progress to lower the second one. She positioned herself on the raised deck at the stern and did no more than to keep the lights on. She even let Paul provide much of the power for that.

  The moment came for the King Solomon to be towed out of the cavern. Lynella went up to the chamber beneath the pylon and soon the cable became taut. The mechanism was silent, but soon they heard the noise of the current rushing past the hull. They passed under the overhanging rock and out into the bright daylight. Ahead they saw the masts of the sunken ships. Very slowly they moved on, level with the masts and then beyond them to the centre of the bay. They looked up to see the pylon glistening in the sunlight.

  Suddenly one of the crew shouted. Paul turned. There was a shuttle. Flying out of the sun close to the surface of the sea. Then they heard the roar of its engines followed by a sharp echo from the rock face. He could see the detail now, two missiles under each wing. One fell away, moving ahead, trailing a cloud of exhaust. The crew around him ran back. He found himself compelled to look at it. The shuttle moved relative to the horizon. But the missile remained in the exact same position. It was flying directly towards him. He threw himself down on the deck.

  It tore into the hull just below him. The ship shuddered back. Huge splinters flew out from the shattered deck beams. Half a second later there was a massive explosion at the bottom of the cliff. Shards of rock flew up smashing into the hull timbers.

  ‘What happened’ Angus shouted.

  ‘Went straight through. Not enough here to detonate it.’

  Paul grabbed the rail and stood up. Many of the crew were in the water were shouting at him. The shuttle had flown past now and was circling round again. He looked back at the island. High above him the great ring at the top of the pylon was turning. Below it a port had opened, and an ancient mechanism extended from it.

  The shuttle was diving again, lined up on the bay. Soon it was skimming across the sea straight toward them. Paul looked up at the pylon. The ring glowed, a blinding flash. He turned back. The shuttle was a fireball. A vast plume of smoke rose as fragments fell into the sea.

  10

  The Mission Director was well trained to focus on objectives that would please his superiors. Realising that chasing after Lynella and the defectors would gain him little but the personal satisfaction he gave little further thought to the idea. When the loss of the second shuttle was reported to him, he called the pursuers back to productive work and tried to forget about the incident.

  His plans for the local population were pursued with his characteristic attention to detail, and he was very pleased to find that they had the full support of the Abbot. Packed into Atlanta there was a large amount of pre-fabricated accommodation which had been intended for use by the mine operators. With the ship landed the miners preferred to remain in it, so the Director had the buildings assembled for the natives. The orderly lines of huts were soon set up with water and electricity supplies and delegations were sent out to the kingdoms to explain how much better they were than the existing villages around the castles. Those who disagreed were discretely shot so the move was soon completed and the villages demolished to finish the job. He was reluctantly persuaded to leave the castles, but went to some lengths to block all access to them and make them uninhabitable. In this way some five thousand people found themselves living in the encampment with token health and education provided. They knew that they were w
ell outnumbered by those on the ship, but had no opportunity to see how these others lived because of the fence and guards which had appeared around them ‘for their security’. The Director now had his forced labour in place.

  The survey had shown some particularly rich deposits which were too deep for strip mining, and the miners from the hills beyond the Eastern Kingdom had experience of working in tunnels. Just a mile from the roar of the colossal bucket wheel excavators working the open faces, a shaft was sunk, and traditional wooden pit-head gear assembled over it. The ore from it was only a trickle in the flow, but the Director felt satisfied that the price was being paid for the loss of the shuttles.

  While he felt that Lynella was out of sight and should be out of mind; he did worry that she might return, and he devised what he thought was a fine plan to stop her. He knew that she had gone in the direction of the tower by the river, so he persuaded Christian to send for some people from his village to keep watch from it. They were at first reluctant to get involved with machinery built by the hated mages, but one of his more enterprising technicians went with them to help them and show them that they were actually very similar to some of the machines on the Atlanta.

  11

  The wind came steadily from the west, and the King Solomon made excellent speed. They had drifted back into the cave after the attack and had decided that they had no choice but to stay there while they made the repairs. The driftwood and broken furniture that they had for the work was far from ideal, but the old ship was seaworthy again.

  Blowing against the current, the breeze brought up a nasty chop of short steep waves which made most of those on the small brigantine feel unwell. Standing on the high deck at the stern, however, Adam felt nothing from the motion, and little of the remaining pain of his injuries. He held the wheel and steered for the next pylon. High above him the square topsail had been set and above it again a trusted crewman scanned the horizon for shuttles. Lynella remained in the cabin below, ready to come out immediately if one was sighted.

  Nobody from his fishing village had ever been beyond the island before, the main reason being that the fish kept close to the shore. They also feared the currents. The incessant flow that had trapped the ship in the island was getting stronger, forcing Adam to set the helm further and further across to keep them on a heading that would take them to the next pylon.

  Captain Turner, Paul, and several others from Atlanta had been involved in the original mapping of the planet. They had been able to tell him that he was crossing large bay two to three hundred miles across with the entrance so far away to the west that it almost formed a separate sea in its own right. Since the current was flowing out from the bay close to the South shore, where he now was, it made sense that it must flow in along the North shore. They had no idea what lay in the centre.

  ‘The current is being driven by two sources which are both far away.’ Paul had explained. ‘It is caused by the conflict between them. It flows around in a circle in the middle of the bay.’

  ‘Why should it do that?’ Captain Turner asked. ‘They don’t do things like that on earth.’

  ‘I think it’s my magnetic anomalies again. That’s why it gets stronger near the centre.’

  Sailing on past the pylon they made little progress because they had to steer almost directly into the current.

  ‘Why don’t you follow the current a bit? It will surely take us around to the far side of the bay’. Lynella asked Adam as he struggled with the wheel.

  Adam looked up startled. ‘Because you said to follow the line of pylons’.

  She quickly consulted the others and told Adam in person that he could follow the current. The ship rapidly gathered speed. Adam was able to use the power of the sails to steer them northwards to some extent while being swept well to the West of the pylons. Slowly the direction of the current changed, turning to the north and helping them in the direction they wanted to go.

  They were now moving at great speed. On the eastern horizon they saw pylons sweep by. The water was becoming rough and they found themselves surfing down the face of enormous waves that seemed to be standing still in their path.

  Lynella asked Adam if he knew what was happening. ‘The water must be shallow.’ He said. ‘These waves are result of a strong current flowing, like in a shallow river.’

  The waves became steeper and started breaking over the main deck. All but the crew were ordered to go below. The hatches were secured. Lynella remained on the raised stern deck. It was dry, but still had to hold onto the rail at the front of it with all her strength. A cascade of foaming water poured across below her, breaking against the bulkhead and streaming out of the scuppers. The hardened experienced crew from Adam’s village clung to the rigging as the waves flowed past them.

  By now the current had turned in towards the line of pylons. Adam was setting a course away from the centre of the whirlpool; but the wind had dropped, and the sails were having little effect. The ship was being drawn in.

  ‘What will there be at the centre of this lot?’ Captain Turner asked, looking nervously ahead.

  ‘That pylon.’ Adam replied, his face as expressionless as always.

  A pylon now stood about two miles away, it was just possible to see the current curving around it, but they could not see what lay at its base.

  ‘The current will have formed a sand bar around it.’ He continued. ‘Lynella will have to rescue us because the ship will break up on it in these waves.’

  Everybody turned to look at her. For an instant, she closed her eyes, as if this would somehow help her to find a field that was not there.

  ‘Your power always obeys you in time of need, my Lady.’ Adam almost showed sympathy beneath the respect and awe as he said this.

  Lynella realised what he was saying. ‘My power is within my control.’ She replied. ‘But there is no field for me to use.’

  For the first time ever, he saw an expression approaching fear pass across Adam’s face, but it soon passed. ‘God will help us.’ He said. ‘Men have been here before when the tower was built, and god will help us to go where they went.’

  The waves were now beginning to break right up onto the stern deck. Riding down the face of one they had passed they crashed into the next. Wiping the water from his eyes Adam felt sand. He knew that they could not go much further. Suddenly there was a sickening lurch. They were falling sideways over a waterfall.

  They saw sand below them. Lynella clung to the rail. The ship leaned further and further over. In desperation she tried to visualise the ring in the base of the ship and drive power into it. But there was no field to work on. They seemed to be moving in slow motion. They spun around the pylon, driven into the steep face of water that encircled it. She heard screams from below. People trapped in fear and darkness. Slowly, inevitably, they fell towards the sand. The crash came, timbers bent. The burst of noise from the hull itself drowned out the shouts from inside it.

  Suddenly there was quiet. The ship seemed to sit motionless. Then it started to move very slowly, righting itself and settling into the sand. Adam looked across the deck and saw that it was still intact. He rushed to the rail and looked down at the hull. He saw the surface of the sand had yielded to let the hull sink in and soften the impact. It appeared undamaged. The sand was continuously boiling up from below to form small volcanoes that then spread out across the surface. These were relentlessly pushing the ship towards the pylon.

  Soon the deck was crowded with people staring at the wall of water continuously revolving around them, and the sand moving below them. A gust of wind made the rigging strain against the trapped hull and the sails were quickly lowered. The wall of water now lay 100 yards behind them with the pylon the same distance in front. A dock with mooring bollards could be seen around its base. Adam looked at these with relief, not because they needed to moor the ship, but because their presence seemed to show that it was a safe mooring and the sand would not crush them against it.

  12

/>   The ship turned itself to come alongside the dock, as if driven by some secret mechanism rather than the natural movement of the sand. Then, just as it came alongside, it stopped exactly as Adam had expected. By this time the crowd on the deck was quite calm, enjoying the spectacle without concern about how they would get out. They formed a pathway and stood to either side waiting for Lynella to walk through and step onto the dock. She found herself walking, wanting to shout out to them that they were fools to trust her to rescue them again, but finding she was unable to do so. She walked in regal silence even pausing to acknowledge glances from some of them as she went through. Now she stepped onto the dock. A murmur went through the crowd. Somebody must have told them that she did not like being watched when she used her power. They all moved away, trying to look as if they had something else to do. With her new jewel, however, she had no difficulty in opening the door and working the lift inside it.

  They glided up. There were no intermediate levels, she could sense the continuous featureless metal walls around them. The room at the top had virtually no decoration. Everything in it was clearly functional and showed that this was not a place to stay. It was just one part of a large machine and the only reason anybody would be expected to be in it would be to build it or maintain it. Nevertheless, the table and chairs which surrounded the central mast were elegant in themselves, and the runes on the table were beautiful to see as well as frightening to those who knew the power that they controlled. A spiral staircase led up from the room to a flat roof platform with a rail around it and the inevitable ring held high above them. Looking along its axis, they saw the pylons to either side but apart from that the horizon was unbroken sea.

  Lynella looked down at the ship in silence. From so high up its masts looked as if they hardly came above the deck. Paul stood behind her not knowing what to say.