Aun'shi

by Braden Campbell

  ‘Only returns here to Twenty-Three a few times a year,’ the third archivist said. He was blind in one eye and had lost most of his teeth. ‘Gathers supplies, has some equipment repaired, finds a few apprentices foolish and young enough join him and then goes back out into the wild.’

  ‘And why should my arrival make him happy?’ Aun’shi asked.

  All three of the water caste tau laughed.

  ‘Because,’ said the toothless one, ‘he’ll finally have someone to talk to who hasn’t heard all his stories.’

  The next morning, Aun’shi procured a transport and sped off across the frozen wastes. The feeble sun was setting as he approached the excavation site. He stopped the skimmer just outside the perimeter of the archaeologist’s camp, gathered his pack and began to walk. The fabric of his travelling robes retained most of his body heat, but even so he hunched his shoulders against the increasing wind. Tiny ice crystals stung his eyes.

  Dark and threatening shapes began to loom around him. The tau buildings were tiny, cream-coloured domes huddled against enormous, curving, alien structures and vertical glacier walls. He stopped when he noticed someone loping towards him. It was a tau, presumably of the earth caste, whose stoutness was comically exaggerated by the thick layers of thermal clothing he wore. He carried a portable glowglobe that bathed everything in the immediate area in pale yellow hues.

  Aun’shi raised his right hand in formal greeting. ‘Tau’monat,’ he shouted over the wind.

  ‘Tau’monat’la!’ the other replied. He ran within arm’s length and then stopped panting heavily. His wore a wide and excited grin, and looked around with childlike expectation. ‘You’ve come at last. Where are the spare parts?’ he asked.

  Aun’shi shook his head. ‘I’m not here to deliver anything, if that’s what you think.’

  ‘You’re not?’ The young tau’s face fell.

  ‘Did no one at Colony Twenty-Three inform you that I was coming? The esteemed gentlemen in the Hall of Records, perhaps?’

  The youth shook his head. ‘We have no communications array. The overseer says that isolation sharpens one’s observation skills. We requested additional equipment some time ago, and when the perimeter sensors picked up your vehicle, I assumed…’ he trailed off in bitter disappointment. Then he frowned. ‘Who are you then?’

  For a moment, Aun’shi considered lying. Whenever other tau knew that there was an ethereal in their midst, they felt compelled to put on great shows of hospitality and compliance. All he wanted was to be left alone to explore these ruins and delve into Farsight’s mind.

  ‘My name is Aun’shi,’ he sighed at last. Personal preferences, he reminded himself, rarely served the Greater Good.

  The apprentice’s eyes grew wide, and he bowed deeply. ‘Aun,’ he breathed. ‘It is an honour to receive you, unworthy as I am.’

  ‘Perhaps we could go inside?’

  ‘Certainly!’ The young tau stretched out his arms, and waited. Aun’shi sighed again, then shrugged off his pack and gave to the apprentice. Together, they walked through the gathering dusk towards the nearest building.

  ‘What shall I call you?’ Aun’shi asked.

  ‘I have yet to choose a name, Aun.’

  ‘Well, you are only at the beginning of your life’s journey,’ Aun’shi said, as paternally as he could. ‘There will yet be time.’

  ‘Overseer Gue’run has, for the meantime, christened me as Fio’la Cha’la. You may call me that, if it pleases you.’

  Aun’shi thought the name spoke more about the one who had given it than the one who bore it. Cha’la literally meant ‘action creature’, or in the tongues of other species, ‘go-to man’.

  They came in out of the wind and cold into a dome-shaped room filled with crates and equipment. Enough space had been cleared to accommodate two computer workstations. A connective tunnel led off into spartan sleeping quarters. A ceiling-mounted heating unit struggled to make the room tolerable. Huddled over one of the workstations was a burly earth caste tau. A black visor covered his eyes. Cables ran from it to a glove on his right hand. He made a flicking motion in the air, leafing through a stack of papers that only he could see.

  ‘Did that courier bring us a new baryonic imaging scanner, Cha’la?’ he said absently.

  ‘Regrettably, no,’ Aun’shi replied.

  At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, the visored tau looked up. ‘And why not?’

  ‘Because I am not a courier.’

  Gue’run removed his visor and let it clatter to the desk. He glowered at Cha’la for letting an apparent stranger waltz into his research site, and then demanded, ‘Well, who are you, then?’

  Aun’shi bowed his head. Even though he himself was of a far higher social standing, he was a visitor here. It was right for him to show deference to the head of the household. ‘I am Aun’el Viora’la Shi.’

  Gue’run’s face went slack for a moment before he charged around his desk to greet Aun’shi. In his haste, he forgot to remove his interface glove, and the visor, still attached, dragged across his workstation. Pieces of white stone and electronic scraps scattered across the floor. ‘It is a great honour,’ he gasped. ‘A great honour. I am Fio’re Gue’run. Welcome, Aun’la, to my humble research outpost.’

  ‘Aun’shi, please.’

  The Overseer paused at the invitation to address one so high above him as a familiar. ‘As you prefer,’ he said slowly. ‘To what do we owe the visit?’

  Again Aun’shi hesitated, wondering exactly how he should answer. His assignment to find and repatriate Commander Farsight was not technically a secret, but neither did he want the whole Empire to be aware of it. There was a very real possibility that it would come to nought, and he hated to raise up the people’s hopes only to dash them further. ‘I am on a fact-finding mission,’ he said carefully. ‘My search for insight has apparently led me here.’

  Gue’run’s face lit up, just as the three old archivists had predicted it would. ‘If it is facts that you seek, then I would be only too happy to provide them.’ He began pulling at the fingers of the interface glove. ‘Cha’la here will prepare a meal while I take you on a tour. You will doubtless wish to see the structures I have excavated firsthand.’

  Before anyone could even reply, Gue’run had grabbed a heavy coat from next to the door and charged off into the arctic night. Cha’la smiled weakly, bobbed his head, and excused himself. Aun’shi took a deep breath, and went back outside.

  ‘I have been told, Gue’run,’ Aun’shi said as he jogged to catch up to the rotund scientist, ‘that this planet has played host to a wide and varied number of alien species over the centuries.’

  Gue’run gave a look of pleasant surprise. He sealed up his coat and pulled a pair of thermal gloves from out of the pockets. ‘The Aun has been told correctly. Arthas Moloch contains ruins from at least twelve different races. It seems everyone stopped here to visit at one time or another. Most fortuitous.’

  ‘How so?’

  The sun had vanished now, and the two of them walked beside a string of tiny glowglobes. The lighted path led away from the habitat domes and down beneath the glacier. The biting wind was stifled.

  ‘Well,’ Gue’run answered, ‘we get to study the peoples of the galaxy without leaving the comfort of the Empire. Perhaps the Aun is unaware that I have spent half my life on this world. Fifteen local years. I’ve put names to several of this world’s visitors.’

  They came around a corner and entered a spacious chamber hollowed out of the ice. Large glowglobes made it as bright as noon. In the middle of the space sat an ornate machine crowned with sensors and blinking lights. Part of its side had been pulled way, and an earth caste tau sat before it, prodding it with tools. Aun’shi was more taken with what lay beyond however. The wall of ice was not a typical pale blue or white. It was red. From top to bottom, it seemed as if the glacier had
been coated with melted, crimson wax. Jutting out from this was a single, curving structure the colour of pale bone. A large platform, made of the same material, emerged at the bottom. The immediate impression was that he had stumbled across the rent flesh and exposed rib of some ancient and titanic beast.

  Gue’run noted Aun’shi’s shock. ‘Ah, yes,’ he chuckled, ‘the Blood Wall can be disturbing when first seen.’

  Aun’shi licked his chapped lips and recovered himself. ‘The Blood Wall?’

  ‘That’s what Cha’la called it when we first discovered it. The name has regrettably stuck, even with me. Although it appears the ice is made of frozen blood, I can assure the Aun that it is not. The discolouration is natural and actually caused by iron oxides and hypersaline water flow.’ He crossed his arms and looked quite pleased with himself.

  Aun’shi was unable to shake a sudden and powerful sense of foreboding. He gestured up at the alien structure that emerged from the ice. ‘Natural or not, who would choose such a site to build?’

  ‘The original occupants left few records behind. This archway, and several other similar buildings, formed an outpost of sorts, I think.’

  ‘You think?’ Aun’shi knew as soon as he spoke that his voice carried too much of an edge.

  Gue’run shrank back slightly. ‘It’s a guess, Aun, but a very educated one. I assure you. Core samples taken from the surrounding ice indicate they abandoned this place more than thirty-five thousand local years ago. Over time, this chamber froze solid, but I have been using coherent particle beams to melt the ice and map the internal circuitry of the arch. In fact,’ Gue’run frowned, ‘we should be doing so now. Please excuse me, Aun.’

  Gue’run stormed off towards the machine, and began a hushed but furious conversation with the other earth caste tau. Aun’shi followed behind slowly. Perhaps it was the stifled atmosphere inside the ice chamber, or the disturbing wall of blood, but he felt as if he were moving through a dream. He craned his neck and looked up at the arch. The surface wasn’t smooth he saw, but finely pitted. It wasn’t just the colour of bone. It was bone. Or something very much like it. There were species in the galaxy that utilised such biotechnology, he knew; peoples ancient and unknowable. Contact between them and the tau was infrequent to say the least, but Aun’shi had spent a lifetime in study. His brain was filled to bursting with obscure reports and references.

  Gue’run was still interrogating his fellow scientist. ‘Bentu, you are supposed by running a spectrographic scan of the crystals imbedded in the platform section,’ he hissed. ‘Why is this not being done? Can’t you see we have an important visitor?’

  The seated tau struggled to his feet. His environmental suit was rimed with frost that flaked off as he bowed. ‘Forgive me, Fio’vre. I was performing the scan. Everything was going well. Then the feedback pulse hit.’

  ‘Feedback? What feedback?’

  ‘I don’t know. An energy signature from the arch itself. It overloaded the scanner, and I’ve been trying to repair it ever since.’

  ‘Why didn’t you inform me of this earlier?’

  ‘You said not to bother you unless it was important.’

  The light from the glowglobes dipped for a moment.

  ‘What was that?’ Gue’run sounded more annoyed than concerned.

  Bentu seemed embarrassed. ‘There have also been increasing power drains. I don’t know why.’

  ‘Gue’run,’ Aun’shi said, ‘This archway, this entire structure, was completely encased in ice until you began thawing it.’

  ‘Yes, Aun.’

  ‘So, all of this was inaccessible during Farsight’s time?’

  ‘Farsight?’ Gue’run gaped. ‘Well, uh, yes. Completely cut off. If you’d like to visit the surface ruins, the same as he would have, I’d be only too happy to…’

  The glowglobes went out again, and this time they did not return. For a moment, the only illumination came from the blinking error message on the scanner’s display screen. Then, the Blood Wall seemed to radiate a flickering blue light that turned everything in the ice chamber a sickly purple. The three of them turned just in time to see a swirling vortex of energy appear. It stretched from the apex of the bone arch down to the flat platform, and looked like a pool of quicksilver turned on its side.

  Creatures were now standing on the platform. Aun’shi did not know how it was possible, but they had simply appeared. They were silhouetted by the flowing energy field behind them. Four of them looked like oversized canines whose skins had been removed. The other three were whip-thin, bipedal humanoids. In their hands they held a variety of nets and barbed spears. What clothing they wore was skin tight and adorned with blades and spikes. A flock of bird-like creatures broke through the silver pool, making sounds like screaming babies. They circled around the top of the chamber, pecking at one another.

  Aun’shi had dedicated entire decades to the study of the races that dwelt in the dark places out beyond the Empire. These had to be the Var Sin’da, the ‘dark raiding ones’: piratical monsters who struck from the shadows, took what they wanted, and vanished back from whence they came. To his knowledge, they had never been seen in tau space until now.

  The hounds snarled as the three lanky figures surveyed their surroundings, and noticed the tau simultaneously. They said something in their native language, and smiled wickedly.

  Aun’shi shrugged off this thermal robe and walked a few steps forward. From his belt, he unclipped a heavy cylinder. With a flick of his wrist, it telescoped outwards from either end, forming a long, bladed staff. He twirled it like a windmill, and then spread his arms wide. Over his shoulder, he called out to Gue’run. ‘Take my skimmer. You and your men get back to Colony Twenty-Three. Tell them what’s happened.’

  ‘What about you?’ Gue’run cried.

  Aun’shi squared his shoulders. ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said, more to himself than in reply.

  Gue’run and Bentu scrambled back towards the tunnel entrance. Two of the Var Sin’da moved as if to go after them, but Aun’shi matched their steps. He shook his head, sure that his posture spoke clearly across any cultural gulf.

  At some unspoken command, the skinless hounds charged forwards. Aun’shi flipped himself backwards to land on top of the bulky scanning machine where he couldn’t be surrounded. The monsters yelped and swiped at him. He beat their claws away with his staff. They tried to leap at him. Again he stopped them from so much as touching him. His weapon was a blur, moving left and right, blocking and sweeping. One of them launched towards him, its jaws gaping. Aun’shi stepped back, swung his staff in a wide arc, and decapitated it. The remaining three beasts paused to re-evaluate their target. He let them regroup and jumped down, putting the scanner between himself and the monsters.

  One of the Var Sin’da made a piercing whistle, and the flock of birds responded. They rocketed towards the tunnel, intent on catching up with Gue’run. Aun’shi hurled his staff at them like a javelin, then broke into a sprint. The blade pierced one of the birds clean through, and dropped into Aun’shi’s waiting hand. The rest raced back up to the ceiling, crying in protest.

  The grins had vanished from the faces of the Var Sin’da. Instead they looked perplexed. The one standing in the middle barked out an order, and the other two charged forwards. The hounds and birds did likewise.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Aun’shi reminded himself.

  They hit him all at once with an avalanche of claws, beaks and blades. Nothing could find purchase. Aun’shi gripped his staff loosely, tucking it in close to stop a spear, sweeping it high to strike a bird, jabbing it straight forwards to knock a hound away. He was the eye in a storm of violence. Their inability to hit him, let alone hurt him, made the two Var Sin’da boil with anger. They screamed obscenities at him. The birds wailed. The hounds roared.

  Aun’shi said nothing. His face was impassive. Even when a serrated blade at last slipped p
ast him and gouged a deep hole in his arm, he stayed silent and focused. There were too many, he realised. He was only holding them off, instead of inflicting casualties. He tried to back up into the tunnel. In the closer confines, he thought, he might be able to focus on killing his foes, rather than simply stalling them.

  One of the hound creatures snapped at his ankle. He reflexively kicked it in the face. His knuckles were scratched and bleeding, torn up by the birds. The wound in his arm began to burn terribly. His vision blurred. The spear, he thought. Something on the spear. Toxin. Very underhanded.

  He was nearly to the tunnel when he lost all feeling in his right arm. The agony was spreading across his chest now. His skin felt like it was on fire. He tried to compensate, but his defence crumbled and he dropped to one knee. Something slammed into the side of his face, twisting his head. Blood sprayed from between clenched teeth. The world swam, and he went down. They kicked him in the spine, and something was chewing on his legs, but these were distant, secondary things. The knife wound consumed his thoughts. He had never felt such agony. The ice did nothing to soothe his skin.

  After a few moments, he realised dimly that he was still alive. Cold, smooth hands were holding his head, rolling it from side to side. He fought to stay awake.

  ‘Thenalus nen ithyn?’ a voice asked. The words had a disturbing vibrato to them. After a moment, he was slapped across the face. ‘Chith’nai! Yinare theniben marj mol quaryon?’

  One of his attackers was leaning over him. Aun’shi focused his vision with all his might, and noted pointed ears, pale skin, and high cheekbones.

  ‘I don’t… I don’t understand you,’ he muttered.

  ‘Tyathe,’ the Var Sin’da replied. His fellows laughed at the shared joke.

  Aun’shi was dimly aware that they were binding his hands and feet with barbed chains. They felt sharp and cold. Then he was being dragged roughly across the ground. ‘What are you doing?’ he slurred. ‘Where are you taking me?’