A Pride of Lions

by Mark Iles

  Franks stared at her for a long time, before replying, “Like you said, we need to talk about it. But we’ll come back to you, when we’ve done that.”

  “Okay, one more thing. As an act of good faith on our part, when you get back to your villages you’ll find food and medical supplies already there, waiting for you. We’re also going to need lists of what it is that you need, so that we can make the arrangements.”

  Walking through the open jail door, Franks paused to consider Selena.

  She thought that he was going to say something, but then he turned and continued on his way, followed by the other prisoners. As he reached the end of the corridor and turned out of sight, his voice floated back to her, “You’ll hear from us in a day or so.”

  “Think they’ll go for it?” Kotes asked quietly, from the entrance to the cell as they watched them disappear.

  Selena drained her cup and noted the empty plates on the floor. “What other choice do they have? Besides, it’s an honest offer, a winner for everyone. If you were in their shoes, what would you do?”

  * * * *

  A message arrived early next morning, saying that Franks wanted them to come to a meeting in his village — the one they’d raided a few short days ago. Taking a skimmer, Selena, Bryn and Arthur arrived at the coordinates about ninety minutes later; Kotes remaining behind to supervise the repair of the Magellan.

  Franks waved as they arrived and stepped forward to greet Selena, holding out his hand. He smiled broadly when she shook it. Then he showed them into one of the buildings and they all sat around a table, as a young woman served them iced fruit juice.

  “This is my wife, Amanda. She’s eight months pregnant with our first child, a daughter. The fruit juice is from the stores you gave us, we thought it fitting.”

  “Wow, pregnant? That’s great news,” Selena enthused, her interest piqued. “Have you guys chosen a name yet?”

  Franks looked at her. “We have now; we’ve named her Hope, in honour of the gift you’ve given us.”

  For a moment or two Selena couldn’t speak. “Really?”

  “Yes, let’s face it; before you arrived, we didn’t have any hope at all, but now we do. Amanda’s father is the leader of the next village. She speaks for them and many others too.”

  Selena grinned and held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Amanda.”

  The girl, who was no older than eighteen, smiled and shook hands. “And I you, Commander. Thank you for sparing my husband and the others yesterday. We won’t forget that. You have friends in us now.”

  “Thank you for the supplies, too,” Franks continued, handing over a piece of paper. “Here’s the list of stuff we need quite urgently, as you requested. It’s mainly agricultural items, specific medicines, more food, that sort of thing”.

  Selena folded the paper and put it in the left breast pocket of her jacket, without even glancing at it. “You’ll get whatever you require. We already have several ships on the way here. They’re bringing basic supplies, medicines and planetary defence systems. More will come once we know the situation here better; what you need, what we can do to help and so forth.”

  Franks smiled warmly. “To be honest, I think we’re all getting exactly what we want, aren’t we? The villages are in complete agreement, and Amanda and I now speak for them all. We formally agree to your offer and the conditions. Loreen is now your home too, for all members of the Penal Regiments; and we’ll sign any legally binding agreement to that effect. And as the Federation itself appointed me as governor, I can’t see anyone being able to argue about it. Any person who has served in the regiments, is currently serving or will serve in the future will have automatic citizenship of this world, with the same rights that the colonists have.

  “The episode with the insurgents was unfortunate,” Franks said, sadly. “All of us deeply regret it, despite the circumstances. We offer our sincerest apologies and hope we can move forward from that?” He waited until Selena nodded and then added, “Frankly, we were unsure of the terrorists anyway. But, as you know, we were desperate and people in our situation do what they must. However, because of our concerns we did keep certain things from them that we’d now like to share with you, because you’ve proven yourselves and we’d like to show our commitment to our new agreement. Will you come with me, please?” Pushing back his chair Franks rose and strode out of the door; followed by Amanda, a puzzled Selena and the others.

  Outside, they boarded an open-topped tracked transport, one that ran on locally produced diesel, and strapped themselves in. The engine chugged into life and, issuing thick black smoke, the vehicle surged forward and began to bump noisily through the forest. So loud was the engine that they couldn’t hear each other speak and had to continue the rest of the journey in silence. After some fifteen miles or so, with the vehicle weaving in and out of the trees and the passengers constantly ducking to avoid low branches, they stopped. As the engine shuddered and died, they disembarked, stopping to stare up in puzzlement at the extremely tall hill in front of them surrounded by the forest and with the ocean barely visible through the trees a short distance away.

  “Where are we?” Selena enquired.

  “You’ll see in a moment. Some of our people have an adventurous streak and decided it would be a challenge to climb this hill, but during their efforts they found something else of far more interest. Follow me.”

  Franks led the way up the steep grassy, tree-strewn hillside, until they reached a flat stony area with a small entrance that opened out into a very large and extremely dark cave. He gestured to them and they followed him inside. Selena and Bryn moved to the right of the entrance, and knelt down, eyes scanning the darkness, hands on their side arms; while Arthur slipped into the darkness on the left and followed suit. Franks simply stopped while Amanda walked over to the wall on their right and flipped a hidden switch just inside the entrance, as Selena and the team peered into the murk.

  Suddenly, the area was flooded with light, causing them to shield their eyes.

  “It’s okay, guys,” Franks said to Bryn and Arthur. “It’s safe, come on in. Halfway up the hill our explorers decided to take a break, found the cave and then this.”

  Franks walked forward and stopped after a couple of hundred feet in front of a large metal surface that disappeared into the walls, floor and ceiling — completely blocking off the rest of the cave. “Our engineers put the lights in, but we couldn’t get past this door. We’ve tried everything we can think of to open it, and even tried drilling in an attempt to go around it — as you can see over there…” He gestured at fresh caves on either side. “But this metal barrier is made of something that doesn’t show up on any of the sensors we have, and judging from our test drills, it goes at least a mile in either direction, probably a lot more. Our tools can’t even scratch it.”

  “What have you tried?” asked Arthur, an eager but puzzled look on his face, as he ran his hands over the cool smooth surface.

  “The most advanced thermal lances we have available, lasers and drills. Even hammers and chisels. Nothing touches it.”

  “Did you try explosives?” Selena asked.

  “No, we were too worried that we might bring the whole place down if we tried that.”

  Arthur was frowning now, sucking at his lips as he ran his fingers along the top of the barrier in front of them, down the sides and along the bottom. Stepping away, he then began to look around the sides of the cave, before noticing a pile of rocks in one corner. He climbed them and stopped a few feet up, calling for the others to join him. In moments they were standing beside him, looking at what he had discovered.

  “What is it?” Selena asked, staring at a flat whitish square, built into what might have been a pedestal.

  “No idea,” Arthur replied, taking photos of it and then scanning it with his hand-held. Again he traced around the sides with his fingers. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” He placed a palm against it to see if it too was cool, but instead fou
nd it was warm and when he placed both palms against it in a diamond formation there was an instant grating noise. A hole appeared in the centre of the barrier, growing quickly and spiralling away until there was a doorway, revealing a brilliantly lit downward sloping passage that led directly into the hillside.

  “Wow,” Bryn said, taking a deep breath. “Arthur, how did you do that?”

  “I’ve no idea, although this does appear to be an extremely advanced scanner of some kind. My handheld suggests that it not only checks DNA but also the destiny lines in your hand, fingerprints and blood pressure.”

  “I didn’t know we had the technology to do all that,” Bryn replied.

  Arthur glanced at him. “We don’t.”

  Bryn cast a puzzled look at Selena. “I’m confused. Is it me, or am I completely missing something here?”

  Selena followed Arthur as he climbed down and moved towards the newly revealed entrance. She gave Bryn a playfully sad smile. “How can someone be so bright and yet so dim? Think about it, Bryn. This place allowed us in because we’re human, and yet we don’t currently have this technology. What does that tell you?”

  “ForeRunners?”

  “Exactly,” she agreed. “How old this place is I have no idea, but it must be tens of thousands of years old at least, and it simply has to be ForeRunner technology.”

  “Okay, I give in,” said Franks, as they moved down the smooth silvery metal corridor, “what’s a ForeRunner, some kind of bird?”

  Selena glanced at the others before answering. “This is classified, but given the circumstances, I can’t see it being a problem. Mankind had a space-going civilisation once before, a very long time ago. There was a war with the Manta then too, and it appears we lost. The theory is that the ForeRunners seeded a distant planet or two with our race and that’s how mankind survived. This facility has to be something that belonged to them. The big question is what?”

  “There’s another door, or whatever,” Bryn said, as they came upon a second barrier. They watched silently as Arthur looked about. Not seeing anything else, he placed both palms against the slippery metal wall, but nothing happened.

  “We’ve missed something,” he said, looking around.

  They began searching the corridor.

  Several feet away, Selena paused and looked closely at the wall, then said, “Here!”

  In a previously unnoticed recess lay another of the white squares. This time Selena put both hands up in a diamond shape and laid them against the device. The barrier irised open immediately. Turning to see what the gasps were about, and what the others were looking at, Selena stopped and stared in complete disbelief.

  The doorway opened into a forest, a stunningly beautiful carpet of green grass and trees that melted away into the far distance on all sides. Overhead lay a clear blue, cloudless sky and a warm pleasantly fragrant breeze wafted in, bringing with it a cacophony of birdsong. The passageway emptied from the bole of a huge tree, whose heavy leaved canopy stretched far overhead.

  Selena walked around to the far side of the tree, only to see even more forest. Their entrance simply appeared out of the bark and led onto the grass.

  “What the hell?” Bryn gasped. “How can this be, it doesn’t make sense!”

  “Always the poet,” Arthur replied, shaking his head; “must be the pilot in you.”

  “Are those apples?” Bryn asked, striding forward. He reached up into a tree and pulled down a fruit. He took one look at it and then took a bite.

  “Bryn,” Selena gasped. “Are you mad? That could be poisonous!”

  “Yup, it’s some king of apple all right,” he replied, around a mouthful of fruit, “and it tastes bloody lovely. It’s years since I had one of these. Look, there’re plums and pears, too. What is this place, Eden?”

  “If it was, you’d have been thrown out of it by now,” Selena snapped, glaring at him. “But that’s as good a name as any, I suppose.” She turned away and tried her communicator but was unable to get through to either the base or their ship. Biting back her anger, she told Bryn to return to the surface to ask Kotes to send more people and supplies, not to mention tents and skimmers; and to inform him that she intended exploring this place, while they had the chance and while the ship was being repaired.

  “How far does this go on?” Franks asked, staring out at the forest. “It must be hundreds of miles, literally. Is that snow on the top of those mountains?”

  “No idea,” Selena replied. “But it sure looks like it to me. Arthur, come on, you’re the genius. Do you have any ideas?

  “Sorry, Commander, I’m a bit baffled, to put it mildly. I considered that we might be under the sea, but we haven’t travelled down far enough, despite the sloping tunnel. So, perhaps we went through some kind of transportation device without knowing it; which is unlikely, I know. A man could quite happily spend his entire lifetime researching this place. Given the chance, I’d love to do that myself, after we get back from our next port of call. It’s fascinating how the tunnels were so brilliantly lit but there’s no overhead lights, it simply shone from the tunnel itself — most odd. Can you imagine a power-source that’s still working after all these thousands of years? The benefits to mankind from that alone would be staggering.

  “It also occurs to me,” Arthur added, “that this planet’s an ideal place to hide out in, as it’s unlikely to draw the enemy’s attention. There’s not much land on the surface of this world and very few native life forms; which is probably exactly why the builders chose it.”

  Selena immediately realised that he was being careful around Franks and avoiding mentioning the mission and, while she sympathised with the local, she had to agree with Arthur’s assessment. This was a “need to know” mission, and quite simply Franks didn’t need to know.

  “Whoa, what the hell are they?” Franks asked, stepping backwards, as a line of large metallic insects marched towards them across the grass, trooping one behind the other.

  Za’an immediately pulled his side arm and took aim, holding the weapon in both hands; but Selena placed her hand over his and pushed his arms downward, “No, don’t,” she said, quietly. “These have to be something to do with whoever built this place; and as everything’s has been cool so far, let them come.”

  The knee high machines, looking like a cross between shiny silver spiders and scarab beetles, marched up to them and peered up into their faces, from one person to the other.

  Then Za’an gave a sudden oath and rubbed his leg. “One of those things just bit me!”

  “I expect it was taking samples,” Arthur said, with a smirk. “See, it only did it the once and none of the others had to do the same thing. Besides, that’s what you get for pointing guns at things.”

  Selena noted the quickly hidden look of fury that had crossed Za’an face, and she could almost see him visibly fighting the urge to shoot the machines no matter what she said.

  Then beams of light shot from the robots and ran up and down each of the humans. Without further ado, the beams shut off and the creatures about-faced and marched off, back into the forest.

  “What the hell was that about?” Franks asked, with a sigh of relief.

  “Perhaps they’re some kind of guardians or caretakers of the forest,” Selena replied. “Whatever they are, we seem to have passed their test.”

  They followed the machines for a while at a safe distance, watching as they harvested fruit and placed it carefully into baskets woven from grass on similar but much larger machines. Once the baskets were full, the gatherers marched off and disappeared down holes in the ground, through which they only just fitted and the humans stood no chance of following.

  “Where do you think they’re going?” Franks asked.

  “No idea,” Selena replied. “But I do wonder what these crops are for, or what exactly they’re feeding them to…”

  * * * *

  Four hours later, Bryn was back with reinforcements and supplies. The villagers were exceedingly friendly
and quickly set up a base-camp, before many began to venture further afield. While several of the newcomers set about testing the soil and looking at the wide and diverse variety of plant and insects, Selena and the others took a skimmer and decided to take a look around. Later in the day, they found a river that flowed swiftly onwards for a great many miles, before finally tumbling over a vast waterfall and falling several hundred feet into a mist- shrouded expanse.

  “My God,” Bryn said. “Look at that, it reminds me of Victoria Falls back on Old Earth.”

  Arthur looked at him oddly. “Not like you to remember stuff like that, fly boy.”

  Bryn looked offended. “For your information I took a trip there once; flew some pilgrims to see the birthplace of mankind. It was a bit of a dump over all, if you ask me, and I don’t know what the fuss was all about, but the falls were nice; even if the ancient ruins surrounding the place did kind of spoil it.”

  “What ruins?” Franks replied, a baffled look on his face.

  “Those left by the Chemo War, the one that devastated Africa and lots of Europe; when terrorists finally got hold of chemical and biological weapons, used them and the world went mad,” Arthur replied. “Thank heavens we’d already expanded into the solar system and the first starships were being built. If that hadn’t happened, mankind would have been finished, whereas in reality that war was the push we really needed to venture out into deep space.”

  “And this place looks like that?” Amanda asked, rubbing her stomach and looking a bit green. “Is that a good thing?”

  “Yeah, but like I said, there’s no ruins and this place is much prettier.”

  Bryn banked the flyer to the right and shot out over the ocean. He accelerated and before long they were skimming low over forested islands with long stunning golden beaches, upon which waves gently broke. At length, he slowed and swung the craft around, settling it onto the sand of an island in a long chain that made up a broken half circle. One by one, they jumped from the skimmer and stood looking about. The warm breeze, fragrant with the scent of wild flowers, ruffled Franks’ hair as he and the others walked a short distance up the beach to explore. They stopped for a while, to watch the surf shushing against the shore. Amanda put her arm around Franks and laid her head on his shoulder, while Bryn bent to pick up a handful of golden sand and let it run through his fingers.