“Only it’s a public spectacle! We were shown one. It’s supposed to be a mystical as well as biological ceremony. I’m struggling to try to figure out their religion now.”
“What about the philosopher-kings?” Kemp wanted to know.
“Evolution at work. Apparently, at some stage in evolution, saurians who were better integrated began to emerge,” Coopersmith continued. “These became the organizers, the leaders, the thinkers. Through intellect, these few began to organize a viable society. Apparently, it’s quite a history. Absolutely incredible. For example, you might have noticed ruins on the way here.”
“Yes, we did,” Kemp said.
“Right. Relics of the civilization before the leaders got together and said, “Hey. Let’s build a wall to keep the bad critters that want to eat us out. Voila. The great wall. Towers. Guards. Systems of defense that include some really marvelous manipulations of symbiosis. I could go on for hours. Specially bred reptiles raised for the sole purpose of being weapons. Then there are the Watch Beasts, a species of carnivores they’ve just recently been developing to patrol the perimeter of the wall!”
“Wait a moment now. You say there’s no family. How are the creatures raised?” Kemp asked.
“That was one of the areas that I explored,” Becky said. “The female lays her eggs in special heat-controlled huts outside the wall, oh, a kilometer or so. Then she goes back to normal life in society. The eggs hatch. The more intelligent hatchlings manage to survive and find their way back to civilization, where they are welcomed with much ritual. A board of review composed of the priest-kings decides exactly what state of being these youngsters are. The warriors are given rigid instruction—almost behaviorally conditioned, as a matter of fact—and then kicked back out into the jungle. The ones judged sufficiently advanced to belong to the workers are trained, and then allowed to join society. Very rarely, a new priest-king candidate arrives, which is the occasion for great joy. The system is by no means smooth, or so well-divided. For example, there are stories of the occasional supposed philosopher who ‘falls asleep’ and commits some dreadful act. And there are those priest-kings whose R-complexes are used to further their own political ends. Apparently, this can be a kind of Machiavellian heaven. There are whole intricate structures of deceit.”
“I can imagine,” said Mikaela. “With no family network to work within, each individual owes allegiance only to the social fabric—and himself.”
“Gaming appears to be a way of life, here,” Becky said.
“To say nothing of ritual. Unbelievable. Incredibly complicated. You know, there’s even a ritual method of smashing a rogue saurian’s head. One of the great jokes you can play on a friend, for example, is to trick him into ‘falling asleep’ outside of a cubicle. If you can get a pair of handcuffs on him so that he can’t do any harm, it’s great sport.”
“And quite embarrassing for the friend when he wakes up, I dare say,” Kemp commented. He licked his lips and studied the two. “It looks like you’ve been enjoying yourselves. I’m sorry to break up the party with my bad news.” He nodded at their dress. “I can imagine that Thesaurus was pretty excited to find that you don’t have a reptilian stage.”
“Yes. He identifies with us, as do his fellows. The curious thing about him is that he seemed to expect us.”
“Something to do with whatever is inside that opening you describe at the temple by the wall. These things may well be a deceitful lot. How do we know we can trust them?” Kemp said, glancing at Thesaurus and his group of priests, still involved in their heated discussion.
“Well, my friend, if you’re correct about the TWC being on their way, let’s hope that you can make friends with them,” Ian Coopersmith said. “We’re going to need all the help we can get. Oh, and Phineas . . .”
Kemp wished the man wouldn’t be so familiar with him. The situation was grating on him.
“The indications I’ve received from Thesaurus and these manuscripts from the temple are that this culture is aware of . . . I guess you would call them beings . . . or gods who ‘created’ their world. The pictographic tapestries show lots of primitive creation-myth scenarios that back this up. They also appear to have a messianic myth that—”
“That says the gods will be coming back someday?” asked Mikaela, cutting him off.
Kemp looked at her, unable to hide his surprise. Coopersmith and Becky smiled lightly.
“That’s right,” said Ian. “And guess who I think they think these god-creators are?”
Kemp shook his head. “This is incredible. Are you sure, Ian?”
“Of course I’m not sure, but there is a lot of evidence which points to this, and I’m no trained archeologist. I think it would be wise to let Doctor Lindstrom have a look at the depositories.”
“I’d love to!”
“Just exactly how well are you able ·to communicate with them?” asked Kemp.
Ian shrugged. “Not much, really. I started out by noticing that their numbering system is based on the number eight—to be expected since they have eight digits on their hands, right?—and I tried to establish some of their letter symbols and number signs by describing some basic mathematical concepts—you know, geometric formulae, good old pi and the circumference of the circle, that sort of thing.”
“And did it work?” asked Kemp.
“Yes, after a lot of trial and error, of course. Thesaurus worked very hard with me. He’s got the personality of a true scientist, Colonel. He’s like a kid playing with a new toy. We seem to get on fairly well communicating, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
“You’re actually making progress?” asked Mikaela.
“Very little, actually, but it’s a start. I think we’re going to need a team of linguists in here to do the job right.”
“That will be some time off, I’m afraid,” said Phineas.
“What about this ‘divine’ status which has been bestowed upon us?”
“You know, I don’t believe that Thesaurus subscribes totally to that. He’s a bit in awe, certainly, but he doesn’t think we’ve come down from Olympus. The others are not so sure about that.”
“And where have they gotten all these myths from that made them expect our arrival? That hole in the wall you mentioned?”
“I believe so, Colonel. But then, we’ll just have to have that checked out when we can get those radiation suits, right?”
“How do you know that the saurians might not be looking forward to the arrival of the TWC representatives as well?” Kemp asked.
“I would imagine, Phineas, that that depends entirely on how the TWC comports itself in the situation.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “But they don’t have a very good reputation of behaving themselves, do they?”
* * *
The pictographs on the bottom level showed, with remarkable clarity, two saurians in sexual congress.
Mikaela Lindstrom took her magnification lens, adjusted its lights, bent over, and examined the picture. Remarkable! Etched into the stone was a fainter ghost image of the couple rising above their copulating physical forms, detached.
That must mean, she thought, that the next level, with its more abstract images, indicates some higher state.
Of mind? That would certainly jive with what Ian Coopersmith had learned. Different states of consciousness!
Behind her, she heard Jakes shuffling about.
“Pacing again, Doctor?” she asked. “How can you be so antsy when there’s this wonderland of new knowledge around you? You’re a scientist, man! Expand your horizons!”
Jakes moped over, took a look at the wall of the temple Mikaela was poring over, then, went back to his pacing. “What I’d like to know is what is keeping the blasted ornithopter with the supply of specially-rigged LS suits that Kemp promised for me and my men. We’ve been waiting two days since we found this temple. Two days
since we determined that yes, there is a dangerous radiation level past that hole. I mean, why couldn’t he have just fixed up one suit, right away? It would have only taken a few hours!”
Mikaela Lindstrom studied the abstract forms. Funny. Some of those shapes could be almost human. God-like, bigger than the ethereal representations of the adrift saurians . . .
“And I can’t possibly guess who that suit would be for, Doctor,” she said sardonically.
“Well, can’t you understand? You’ve got your heaven. You’ve got your dinosaurs and this saurian culture.” Mikaela turned. Jakes’s long thin face was slightly red with emotion. “You’re a paleontologist. I want to see those starship engines.”
“Yes, I know. You’re an engineer. But surely you can’t restrict yourself to one area of inquiry, Doctor. You have to see the universe as a holistic, enterprise, each segment a microcosm of the macrocosm. Believe me, I’ve faced plenty of bio-engineering problems in trying to understand how dinosaurs were structured from the mere evidence of a few bones.”
“You don’t understand at all, Doctor.” Jakes said, mopping his brow with a handkerchief. “We’re talking FTL, my dear. We’re talking impossibility. We’re talking about the dreams of astronomers and astrophysicists and little kids who stare up in the sky and want to go to the stars. How would it work?” He pointed toward the control area. “The answer is just yards away of from me, Lindstrom. And the only thing between me and it is a little radiation.”
“And look what it did to poor Thesaurus over there.” She pointed to the saurian leader taking a nap on a mat. The poor thing had been so tired after all the excitement. She and Thalberg had tried to figure out what kind of medicine or treatment might help it, but so far they were afraid to try anything before they understood more of saurian biology. “Look what the radiation did to him.”
“Over a period of many trips inside! And he accepts that, can’t you see? Besides, he can go only so far, apparently. I’m the one who can figure out how to go all the way through, I know I can.”
“Come on, Jakes. With all the men that Phineas has lost with this business, he doesn’t want to lose anymore. The special LS suits will be here in due time. He wants a lot of them, anyway, so that anyone who wants to can go inside.”
Jakes sighed and sat down against a wall. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. Pardon my unprofessionalism.”
Jakes probably felt left out because he wasn’t with the second expedition to see this Temple. That had occurred later in the afternoon of the big reunion day. During their tour, Ian Coopersmith had pointed out some of the artifacts and records that had led him to his fantastic set of assumptions. She had been surprised at how many of Coopersmith’s notions seemed valid in light of the saurians’ cultural artifacts, and had asked to be allowed to do more research in the next few days, with the help of Thesaurus.
When they returned to the main hall of the temple by the wall, Kemp summoned Zabriski and her crew by radio, guiding them in to their present location with a homing beacon. Then he reported to Captain Marshall a detailed summary of what he had uncovered. Following a discussion with Ian Coopersmith, Kemp decided to send the ornithopter to pick up Doctor Jakes and some of his men to determine the radiation level that might prove to be a barrier to investigation past the portal.
Marshall replied that the scanners on board the Goddard and Heinlein had so far detected nothing within range, and that the outrigger engines would presently begin deceleration of the Dragonstar as it approached the Earth-moon neighborhood. Estimated arrival in L-5 orbit was still two and a half weeks away, but considering the velocity of the alien ship and the time needed to alter its course, gross course corrections and deceleration were already beginning.
The ornithopter had departed, leaving Kemp, Mikaela, and the two other astronauts with Ian and Rebecca. Later that evening, they were treated to the equivalent of a ‘state dinner,’ which many members of the ruling caste of saurians attended. A fine time was had by all, with Ian’s and Thesaurus’s amusing attempts at communication the showcase.
Mikaela could not help but notice the coolness between Phineas and Becky Thalberg, Indeed, it had interested her tremendously. She could imagine that Thalberg and Coopersmith hadn’t exactly been playing tiddlywinks for amusement in the wild, while they were alone. How long-lasting would the romance be, though?
Oh well, she had thought. Only time would tell. And if there was one quality a paleontologist had to cultivate, it was patience.
The next two days passed quickly as the ornithopter made several flights from the barrier to the base camp and back. The radiation level was quickly ascertained, and adjustments to some space suits were begun. Ian Coopersmith continued to establish a more meaningful system of communication with Thesaurus and his comrades, while Jakes cooled his heels waiting for his suits. Theoretically, normal spacesuits could have been used but not with nearly the protection Kemp desired, or with the optimum degree of maneuverability. No, old uptight Colonel Kemp wanted to make sure that there was no rushing anymore, without absolutely stringent preparation.
The walled-in civilization had been established quite a few centuries back, Mikaela Lindstrom surmised, since it was the only way the saurians’ ancestors could cope with the savage realities of the Mesozoic world. The system of guard towers and maintenance crews which were constantly patrolling the great wall was a revered tradition. Well it should be, since it represented the very survival of their society. This society was largely agrarian, stemming from the obvious habits of their ancestors. There were urban centers evenly spaced about the interior circumference, serving as places of economic and cultural exchange.
Jakes looked around the hall for a moment, then chuckled to himself. “I guess I am champing at the bit, aren’t I? Part of it, I suppose, is that this place, this culture, gives me the creeps.”
Mikaela turned to him, honestly surprised. “Why is that, Doctor?”
“I don’t know. Ancient mammalian response. Somehow I don’t quite trust these fellows. Behind the respect they’re giving us might just be fear, and that’s when you have to be a little nervous, for safety’s sake if nothing else.
“Also, you have to realize that I come from a fundamentalist family.”
“Pardon?”
“Back in my church in South Carolina, they used to teach the Bible as literal truth.”
“You were a creationist?”
“That’s right. Even through much of my college prep for my Ph.D. It took God six days to create the universe and the Earth, and on the seventh day he rested. Amen. No argument, son, or you’ll go to hell. Well, not that bad, I suppose. Still, there was that existential threat inherent in the whole schematic of belief.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Maybe I didn’t change my mind, Doctor Lindstrom.” He laughed at Mikaela’s double-take. “No. Just kidding. I think the change was gradual starting when I understood that the whole universe, including myself, was a process. And when I understood, as a physicist, the tricky nature of time itself. My mind just opened up, and I’ve kept it opened stubbornly. Still, old fears seep up occasionally. Like now.”
“Everyone has to have some kind of religious system to hang his head on, Doctor. Whether they call it science or politics or whatever, people settle on systems of thought around which they structure their universe. Take these saurians, for example. Thesaurus is not the only saurian leader to have wandered past the portal. Each generation, as far as I can tell, selects one member of their number from a large group of volunteers. They call him the ‘Messenger from the Gods.’ As far as I can tell, a lot of what they do, what they believe, hinges on what these Messengers find behind that wall.”
Doctor Jakes smacked his fist into his hand. “And all I need is that suit!”
“Suits, my friend. Others are coming with you. Including yours truly.”
“Coopers
mith says that Thesaurus doesn’t have much knowledge of any control section. I just hope that we can get through all the way.”
“I’m sure that you’ll find a way, Doctor Jakes.”
“You have such faith in me, my dear.” The engineer’s eyes twinkled, and he sat down. “Okay. So tell me a little more about our saurian benefactors.”
“Well, as this picture here seems to show”—she pointed up at what she had been examining— “explicit in the belief system—or religion, if you will—is the concept of something beyond this world. An outside. The saurians believe that when they are in their R-complex stage of sleep, they somehow mystically drift into this state of being. They don’t remember this—save for abstract dreams, represented here. Quite often, during these trips . . . into levels as well labeled as any Hindu pantheon, I assure you . . . insights will occur to the creatures. Personality shifts.”
“Do they believe in an afterlife?”
“I’m not sure. There’s a hint, though, that they think they get a glimpse of their afterlife during these somnolent periods.”
“The universe in a grain of sand, huh? Eternity in a day.”
“I don’t really think we can begin to totally understand, but it’s something like that. As more biologically aware creatures, they sense their place in the gene-flow of things.”
“I think Thesaurus over there senses we’re talking about him,” commented Jakes. “He’s rousing from his visit to the afterlife.” Jakes stepped over and helped the struggling saurian up from his nap. “Up you go, my friend.”
Thesaurus began to chatter, but Jakes shook his head. “I’m sorry, pal, but we don’t understand that lingo yet.”
Thesaurus pointed down the corridor. “Go? Go?”
“Not yet. We need radiation suits . . . Lindstrom, you think you can make Thesaurus understand?”
Day of the Dragonstar Page 25