by Lea Tassie
"Well, I think Buttons is trying to play with us, using toys," Peony said.
"Peony, you are a dear. I think she's right, Simon," Deleray said happily.
The rest of the night was difficult, but by morning, Simon had all his questions answered. Buttons, who seemed very smart, had been on Neo Terra for a long time. Simon finally understood that this small Gray was not lost, but was trying to explain where its home was in relation to where they were now.
What Simon didn't know was that the Gray was nearing the end of its life cycle, only days from death. The Grays were clones, with the ability to travel easily through space. Simon had even worked out that the name of the Gray's home was Betelle. Buttons had used a household object to represent each letter until the name was deciphered, B for bottle, E for eraser, T for toaster, and so on.
The small Gray managed to explain that he was, like all others of his kind, basically the conscious thoughts, or memories, of the first body he had ever inhabited. These thoughts and memories were passed down through time, always being reborn in a new body. Now this Gray's lifespan was over. Nothing in its ship could help it survive, and so it decided to try to communicate.
Peony did most of the translation work and she grew very fond of Buttons. The Gray used its small device to show pictures of its home world, and what might have been friends or family. They all looked alike to Simon.
Buttons lived for only another two weeks. However, before it died, it showed Simon and Peony how to use the small device.
As time passed, Simon discovered how many amazing things the device could do. These discoveries were added to the vast knowledge in the city's computer database, and some citizens made a career of understanding the complex workings of the small device. The greatest breakthrough was learning that it had the ability to heal certain ailments. The people of Neo Terra never experienced diseases; the computer programming saw to that. But the little device could use sonic vibrations to mend an open wound. It also had the ability to heal a deep cut or a burn.
To the Gray, his little device was like the combination of a Swiss army knife and a cell phone would have been in a primitive world. It displayed photos, did math calculations, displayed the Grays' language and was capable of communicating and, not least, providing a cloak of invisibility to the bearer. The device was the key to the Grays' unrecovered spacecraft. It was also the weapon and repulse shield the Grays used. The small device had the most remarkable ability to detect and display its surroundings visually in three dimensions. It was many, many things all contained in one small case, many still waiting to be discovered.
***
Dart speaks to Reader:
Why didn't Buttons 'phone home'? Maybe it tried but the signal didn't reach the Gray's empire. Or maybe the Grays had gone hunting again and nobody was around to hear the signal. Or maybe it just didn't want to.
Would his people just ignore him? I don't know, Reader.
No, I'm not keeping secrets. I really don't know why the little Gray stayed on Neo Terra instead of going home, and I don't know why it didn't manage to get other Grays to come back in their battleships and destroy the planet. I'm flattered that you think I know everything, but there isn't enough room under my magician's hat for a brain that would store that much information.
Yes, little Peony was very sad when Buttons died. For as long as Deleray lived, she and Peony spent time remembering Buttons, talking about him, and imagining what his people and his home were like. Later, Peony told these stories to her own children and to their children, and finally to her great grandchildren.
Yes, we're finished with Deleray's story. Now we're going to leap ahead two hundred years, to 2620, when the Prime and his Taskoids arrive on Neo Terra.
Will the Taskoids be slaves to the humans like the old robots were? That's no longer possible, Reader. The Taskoids have acquired the ability to make decisions, remember. In fact, the reverse situation could happen.
Well, you'll have to wait and see, won't you?
Chapter 16 Finding the god fragment
Dayton was the eldest son of the family Chang, which could trace its ancestry back ten generations to Demm and Deleray. Two hundred and fifty years had passed while the families grew inside the old city, learning the technology left behind by their mysteriously vanished predecessors. The city's population reached ten thousand. Food and knowledge were plentiful, and a heightened society of brilliant minds filled the homes.
But they learned no history; Charger had ensured that knowledge of Earth and the first peoples would forever be lost.
Dayton was working in his office when word came of a strange happening. He rushed to the old city gates with many others. The gates had been opened, something never done since Deleray and her friends had first opened them long ago, and standing before them were three mechanical men. They appeared weak and defenseless, and were trying to communicate.
Head of the city's computer department, Dayton was a programmer working regularly with codes. He surmised that these mechanical beings might be using a simple binary code for, in the computer literature he had studied, there were articles published by the vanished people that spoke of such things. When Dayton realized the possible connection, he activated an old program in his computer.
The clicks and buzzing of the three mechanical men suddenly turned into speech, amazing the crowd. The city's prime minister, a woman named Jana, whose ancestry went back to Chloe and Bosh, asked the three metal men who they were and what they wanted. As the three seemed desperately near to shutting down, the citizens rushed to find the power source they needed and began helping them. No one felt a need to place guards on the new arrivals.
In a few hours, the three metal men seemed more stable. People gathered at the great center, a huge arena once used for sports and now a place of governance, where the three spoke of their plight to a crowd of dignitaries and citizens.
As Dayton was the first to understand how to communicate with these beings, the council appointed him as the liaison between the new arrivals and the city. Intelligent and logical, Dayton thought it prudent to deny power for their spaceship until he had all the answers and sureties the government needed. The three mechanical men were quite willing to comply and a mutual understanding quickly formed. The people of Neo Terra believed that compassion, rather than suspicion, was the logical attitude. They were, after all, intelligent beings.
Dayton was excited when he learned that the missing histories of the city's original inhabitants and the agricultural peoples were part of the knowledge the Taskoids possessed. The long lost missing history of Neo Terra, once called Mahoud, or Alcazaba, slowly became known.
The council sent different parts of the history to different departments for analysis. The idea was to gradually bring to the inhabitants of Neo Terra the lost history in a digestible form, to prevent fear and chaos.
***
Two years passed. It was now commonplace to see the Taskoids, biomechanical hominoids, walking the streets of the city, interacting and working with the citizens, and also out in the countryside with the agricultural people. Jana retained her position as prime minister, for she had done a fantastic job of reuniting distant families, teaching, and finding acceptance for the new arrivals.
All of ancient Mahoud was thus united save one area, the Valley of Shadows. Repeatedly, envoys were sent to this distant land, never to return. The Council decided to adopt a more proactive stance, and send a team to the Valley of Shadows, not only to find the missing delegates, but to explore this hidden realm. The job of leader fell on Dayton's shoulders and he chose to take some Taskoids. Though they weren't designed for it, they looked as if they could be militant.
Early one morning, Dayton and five Taskoids, with two other humans, one from the city, and one from the agricultural section, set out. They had transport vehicles now, thanks to technology recovered from the old knowledge of Earth, and travel to Valley of Shadows took only a couple of days.
"When we reach
the ridge of shadow and leave the vehicle, we will travel in a delta formation with you three in the center." said Quat I. It was the lead Taskoid of the five, heavily armored and well equipped with heavy weapons.
"I'm still having a problem with using your assigned names, even though I can read them on your armor," Jillian said to the Taskoids. She was the representative from the agricultural guild of the combined areas of Hamerca, Canda, and Mexca.
Jillian was a slightly built girl, thin and frail-looking, with long flowing red hair, and large, striking light blue eyes. Though her hair and eyes were unusual, her complexion was light brown, like that of almost everyone else. Jillian's counterpart from the old city was Genga, imposing because he was heads taller than every member of the group. He wore the typical city clothing of gray and blue, but because of his size, the sleeves and pants seemed too short and made him look awkward.
"Just do what I do; give them nicknames," Genga said in his deep, bellowing voice. "The leader is Quat and that's short, so he doesn't need one, but others are Centum VII, Centum XI, Centum LIV and Centum LXVII. I call the first two 'Seven' and 'Eleven,' since those numbers were part of a game I played as a kid." Genga laughed, enjoying his adult game. "Then Centum LIV, I call Livy. And the last one I call 'Vee,' for the last three numbers of his name."
Dayton carried himself like the leader he was. His city clothing fit him perfectly and his well-styled hair and smooth complexion made him very handsome. "We should be at the ridge in a few minutes," he said. "Remember this is a diplomatic mission, not a military one." Dayton spoke most directly to Quat.
"I only suggest the formation as a logical precaution, not as a defensive formation," Quat responded.
Dayton wasn't sure if he liked or disliked Quat. There was something a bit unsettling about this particular Taskoid. Its thoughts were always logical but sometimes it did seem prone to managing everybody.
After securing the transport, the group set off down the ridge into the Valley of Shadows. It didn't take long to discover that, beyond the ridge, Shadows was a dark place. Trees that had once grown from the reddish dirt were dead and bare. There were no animal sounds, and the air smelled foul, as well as leaving the skin feeling sticky. They soon found human remains. Some were possibly from the previous delegates, others were different and perhaps local.
The group felt more than a little nervous and Dayton thought it best if they tried announcing their presence, so as not to alarm the people they hoped to meet. Calling out as they walked along, they spoke of peaceful intentions and a willingness to talk.
Multiform gold eyes looked out from hidden places, stalking the group as they walked farther into the Valley of Shadows. These beings knew enough to fear the humans, for they shared a bloody past. Black and difficult to see, they shifted around the dead trees, keeping out of sight but were detected by the Taskoids on their scanners.
Dayton and Quat decided to set up a camp. The group built a perimeter with a single entrance to the camp, placed a table and chairs outside the tents and waited for whatever was in the trees to make itself known. They tried not to make the camp appear military, but did set out obvious markers delineating a border not to be crossed.
A week passed with no results. Jillian convinced the group that they needed a change of strategy. She would take a chair out of the camp, just beyond the entrance, and every day sit in hopes that one of the inhabitants might approach. The Taskoids objected, but Jillian said, "I tell you this will work, you must all trust in me."
"I have to agree with Quat in this regard," Dayton said firmly. "Seven and Eleven will accompany you, but remain well back from where you set your chair so as to give you the space you feel you need. This point I will not debate!"
"Their presence may greatly offend and deter the ones we hope to meet," Jillian said. Then she added, reluctantly, "I will comply."
Several days passed without a single sighting. The group was preparing to retire for another night, when the Taskoid Vee alerted Jillian to something approaching. A single life form slowly and cautiously approached Jillian in her chair. It was small, the size of a four- or five-year-old child, very thin and white as snow in color. It wore gold-colored goggles, which reflected the dim light oppressing the valley. Vee whispered, as best as a Taskoid could, that the approaching life form seemed similar to a Dinosauroid, or possibly a Gray, but much smaller.
Then Vee recognized the small being. Though once a mining Tasker, Vee now held the combined memories and information from all the generations of Taskers built before its activation date. It saw that the small being was, in fact, a descendant of the survivors of Mahoud, the same life forms that had attacked Earth, those aliens in encounter suits that shifted with a blurring movement which looked like solid objects passing through liquid. They were originally humans from Earth who had adapted long, long ago to survive the conditions here in the black hollow world.
"Miss Jillian," Vee said. "This is a Mahoud survivor, a distant ancestor of yours, one of the first enlightened inhabitants of old."
Jillian was shocked. She had learned the early history of her world only a year before, from the Taskoids. She was now stunned to be facing a descendant of Mahoud. She quietly asked Vee, "Are you certain?"
"Yes Miss Jillian, I scanned the life form once it was close enough. It holds human DNA, and the only logical conclusion is that this must be a descendant of Mahoud."
Jillian stood up, stepped forward, then knelt down and silently offered her hand to the life form. It stopped, apparently unsure of what to do next, then looked back over its shoulder into the dry, dead trees in the darkening distance. Then it too stepped forward, reached out, and lightly touched the fingertips of Jillian's hand.
They stayed that way for a few minutes, then the Mahoud slowly retreated into the dark mist. Jillian returned to the camp, giddy as a child, and recounted the details of her encounter to the others. Vee pointed out that the Taskoids also had a connection to these life forms. Their ancestry went back to the first robots of Mahoud, once protectors of the great city. The group debated for most of the night how best to proceed.
After three weeks of finger touching, but nothing more, Jillian was frustrated. Vee had determined that the Mahoud individual who returned every day at the same time was indeed a female, and this was the only reassurance Jillian had. "If I could just get her to stay a bit longer," Jillian said to Genga.
"Well, tomorrow, why don't I try sitting out there. Maybe a male will appear."
"What good would that do? You think a male will be better than a female?" Jillian was feeling the strain.
"Just trying to help," Genga replied cautiously.
The next day found Jillian sitting outside the camp with Vee behind her, some distance away, when the small female returned at the usual time for a finger touching. Afterward, as the small female began retreating into the blackness of the forest, Jillian said, "Enough of this!" She stood up and, with her hand outstretched, started following the little female into the forest. The female did not run. She waited for Jillian to catch up and, with her small arm outstretched, led Jillian into the forest.
The rest of the group immediately started after Jillian, who motioned for them to stay back and follow at a distance. Using flashlights, the team followed deep into uncharted land. Finally, the darkness dissipated a little as they followed the small female into a dimly lit town. To their surprise, this town was not primitive but highly ordered, polished clean and full of small, robed Mahoud descendants moving about. They stared at the strangers, but did not flee in fear. The small female, with her arm still outstretched, led the group through the town to its center.
Other small beings in brown robes waited to greet the newcomers as they gathered in the town square. The small person in the center of the group began speaking and the Taskoid Seven stepped up to translate.
"They are using a primitive, ancient form of Sumerian, a very old Earth language from what was called the Middle East. He says it is good to see that we
come in peace. He says others, before, came in violence. He says that many of the people of Shay – that appears to be the name of this place – have perished at the hands of what sound like crazy giants. He says his name is Sasha, a descendant of Visha, one of the Nine of Nines."
Seven went on translating. "Sasha says the people of Shay have been watching us for some time, unsure of how to approach. They are especially afraid of the big four-legged dogs we ride. I think they mean horses. They have waited a great long time to show us the object they possess and are now asking if we are the leaders of our tribes."
Dayton stepped forward as the group's leader and asked Seven to translate his words.
"We are the representatives of all of our world. We are a lost people who are just now learning about our ancestors. With the help of our metal friends here, we have learned that we are your descendants. We have also learned that we came from a planet far away, but we still don't know how that happened. We are exploring this world, hoping to find the answer. We hope that you can tell us how we got here."
This excited the small people, and the talk was too fast for Seven to translate, so the group just waited for someone to continue speaking to them.
"We are being asked to follow the leader, it seems," relayed Seven, "but they just want the girl and me to go. They mean you, Miss Jillian."
Jillian, ever confident, agreed to go. Dayton asked her to be careful and Genga offered to follow, but was refused. The building they entered was small even for Jillian, who was quite short. Seven had a trick of ratcheting itself inward, creating a smaller frame which could move unimpeded with the group. Jillian struggled with low doors until they entered a larger room, obviously designed as a great hall.
There, in the center of the room, was a small, black object, shaped rather like half an apple, though three times that size, in a clear glass-like container. Lights shone down on it and everywhere were decorations and brightly colored objects which seemed related to the centerpiece in some way. Seven explained that this must be a place of worship.