Trial by Ordeal

by Philip R Benge

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  The excitement in the capital began when Marot Pallas was found to be missing. Patina had assumed that as normal Marot Pallas had risen early that morning, and so she didn`t miss him until breakfast when he failed to show. An old gardener remembered seeing him taking his morning constitutional, but none of the servants had actually seen him return, she had called his brother, then his political adviser and finally the police to report him missing. Later in the morning, a report had come in that a street cleaner had seen a group of men enter the large enclosure that housed the recently discovered ancient site. The cleaner thought that one of the men might be the missing Marot Pallas, although he hadn`t got a good view of him.

  Captain Lysenko of the department of police was there now with his team of detectives interviewing the guardian of the site Professor Lichen, an aged old man who was short and dumpy and looking a little tired.

  “Professor Lichen we are here because Marot Pallas is missing from his home, and we have had a report that he was seen entering the enclosure around the ancient site with a group of men earlier this morning. I understood that the site was closed, due to the fact that none of the people to enter through the portal have ever been seen again?” Lysenko asked.

  Lysenko was thirty-five years of age with dark curly hair and six feet two inches of heavily built body, which intimidated most criminals unfortunate enough to attract his attention. His blue eyes bored into the eyes of Professor Lichen, almost as if he could tell whether the man would be telling him the whole truth or not.

  “That is quite correct Captain, no one is allowed inside until a more comprehensive study is made of the site. The gate in the fence is normally kept locked at all times, and a guard has been placed inside to prevent access by the glory hunters of our world. I believe that to enter through the portal is nothing more than sheer suicide.” Lichen replied sounding just a little perplexed.

  “Where is the guard now Professor?” Lysenko asked.

  “Unfortunately he also appears to be missing.” The professor replied anxiously.

  “Will you please open the door of the security hut so that we can see if the guard is inside Professor?” Lysenko requested of the worried guardian.

  “Of course Captain, immediately.” With that, the professor took out his own set of keys and opened the door of the hut, inside they found the guard bound and gagged and sitting dejectedly against the rear wall.

  “Are you alright Joslyn?” The professor asked of the guard, concerned for his man`s wellbeing.

  “Yes sir, they just tied me up and then they left me here. I think that they all intended to go through the portal, I heard Marot Pallas warning them against going through it, but they wouldn`t listen, they just ignored him.” Joslyn said, grateful to be rescued, and also for the professor`s concern for his wellbeing.

  “How many men entered the portal with Marot Pallas?” Captain Lysenko asked.

  “There were four of them plus Marot Pallas, he didn`t want to go with them but they made him go, oh and there was another guy, he was tied up, I could see him through the window here before they tied me up. I suppose they dragged him through as well, some of those far right extremists if you ask me must be responsible for this, they want Pallas out of the way so that their side will win the contest unopposed.” The security guard ventured.

  “You may be right, but I wouldn`t go around saying such things, it could be unhealthy for you.” Captain Lysenko warned the guard, for other outspoken critics of the far right party had been attacked just lately, and so far they hadn`t been able to put the blame onto anyone.

  Later in the day, the car belonging to Lieutenant Vakas was discovered parked along the street, and on investigating they found that he too was missing. Further investigations brought to light the affair between the young officer and Patina Pallas, for photographs of the young couple had been sent to Captain Lysenko, along with a very explicit video of the couple having sex in the grounds of the Pallas estate on the day before both Marot Pallas and the young officer disappeared. These photographs and video had also been sent to the newspapers.

  While Patina admitted the affair, she refused to believe that Ajmer Vakas could be involved in her husband`s kidnapping, and so far no other evidence came in to link either Patina or her lover to the crime, except for the parked car, which as Captain Lysenko remarked. “It is odd that it should be parked just there, for surely only a very dumb criminal would have left his car there for us to find.”

  On hearing of the kidnapping of Marot Pallas, Trajo had hurried to her father to see if he was going to tell the authorities about the other entrance into the dark domain.

  “No Trajo, the disappearance of Marot Pallas suits our cause just fine, please tell Remick and Prion to stay quiet about the other portal on the moon Galafrey for the moment.” Ares Fortuna ordered.

  “Do I take it that you know more about the disappearance of Marot Pallas than you are admitting to father?” Trajo asked her father, looking aghast at such a thing.

  “Let us just say that it came as no surprise that someone took him out of the running for the presidency Trajo, and leave it at that.” Ares Fortuna replied.

  Trajo looked at her father for a moment before replying. “Of course father, I will speak to Prion and Remick immediately, and ask them to keep quiet about everything to do with our research regarding the dark domain.” Trajo promised, but she did wonder if she were doing the right thing in doing so.

  Trajo and Remick were paid up members of the partisan party and believed in everything that Ares Fortuna preached, including the bit about the Helionians being worth more than the primitives on the other nearby planets are. If keeping quiet about the find would help the cause then so be it, Marot Pallas would just have to find someone else to fight his corner. As for Prion well he was so besotted by Trajo that he would do as he was told.”

  Day 149 Helionia Calendar

  Hanson was now about to lead his party through the second portal and into a very different world, a semi-arid land that resembled New Mexico. Marot Pallas and Lieutenant Vakas were now roped together with their hands tied in front of them to ensure they didn`t try to turn the tables on the thugs.

  “Ok let`s move out.” Hanson ordered.

  Vistas took the lead with the two captives following him, with Hanson, Mottos and Rhoads bringing up the rear. The going was tiring especially for Marot Pallas who was unused to quite so much physical exercise, but at least the day wasn`t too hot. They were travelling through the highlands of this domain, along a much longer route than that travelled by the robotic device sent by Ares Fortuna to scan the area at the large cavern where the footprints of the first party of archaeologists were discovered. The robotic devices had travelled by the shorter route meant for the maintenance teams to use, and not the longer one meant for visitors, for the longer one showed much more of the countryside. Marot Pallas could now see far below them a land that was a lush green tropical landscape; it was fed by fast flowing rivers and filled with animals from a fantasy world. They travelled along the high ridge until finally the land began to fall down towards the distance plains he had seen, and it was now that Vistas came to a halt in front of a cave, which had an entrance resembling an American Wild West prison cell. Hanson came up to Marot Pallas.

  “Ok Pallas, this is where you get off, this will be your new luxury home for a while. There is a water supply coming in through the rear wall, a cot for you to sleep on, and a supply of dried food that will last you for a month, if you don`t invite any guests around for a dinner party that is.” Hanson said in what he considered a humorous vein. Marot Pallas was then pushed inside the cave, the rope tying the two captives was severed, and Vakas led away at the end of the rope, much like a slave. The binding about Pallas`s two hands was then cut to allow him a little more freedom. Blood immediately began to flow freely in his veins, he knew this as he now had to endure the agony of pins and needles for at least a minute, but even so, Marot Pallas was thankful
to have his limbs free. The thugs now moved away along the trail taking a baffled Vakas with them, for he had fully expected to be left with Pallas. So did Marot Pallas who shouted after the disappearing group.

  “Where are you taking the young officer, why don`t you leave him here with me?”

  Hanson turned round to stare at Marot Pallas before maliciously replying to Marot Pallas.

  “We cannot, for we have already arranged for company to call on you Marot, an alien will be calling by soon, he will be here to kill you Pallas, sleep well tonight for you won`t enjoy too many more nights in this lifetime.” Hanson then turned away from Pallas and walked after the others, and they were soon too far away for Pallas to see or to hear them.

  Marot looked out from his cell at the barren landscape around him and almost cried. He knew that they wouldn`t kill him, no they would just leave him here to spend the rest of eternity by himself. Marot thought feeling sorry for himself. Or until the alien the thug spoke of put him out of his misery for whatever reason he may have, although he couldn`t think just why an alien should want to kill him. As he sat down on the cot that they had provided, he reflected on what had happened. It was obvious to him that Trajo Fortuna must have found a safe way into the portal, and she had obviously informed her father and no one else, but then Trajo wouldn`t help the enemy of her father by telling anyone about it, would she? No, he was doomed to die here, forgotten by all except for his gaoler when he made his occasional visits to supply him with fresh supplies to keep him alive, either that or he was doomed to be killed by some alien for whatever strange reason that he may have.

  Hanson and the others were walking between steep cliffs that soared up to the heavens, and just a few hundred feet before them they could make out the portal set in the side of the foothills of a giant mountain. Here they would be taken away from the series of wild life domains.

  Five large animals came around the corner just behind them, they looked similar to the dangerous Deinoychus that had once roamed the middle cretaceous period of ancient Earth, and the noise of their approach warned the five men of their presence. The creatures were smaller than the ones that had once lived on Earth, for they were only nine feet long and weighed about one hundred and forty pounds. Even so, they were still dangerous, and for such very dangerous creatures, Hanson and his three cronies seemed very unconcerned about them as they turned to look upon them. They each pulled out their Phaser weapon and fired at the beasts, unfortunately this time nothing at all happened, the Phasers failed to fire bolts of energy at the dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs were not very impressed by the things in their chosen meals hands. The four thugs looked at each other bewildered and very scared, they then tried their weapons again, but the result was just the same, and by now, the five dinosaurs were almost amongst them.

  “Pallas was right we are in the dark nebula, the gods are punishing us for our blasphemy.” Hanson cried as he turned away from the attacking monsters.

  Hanson had turned away first and ran, while Rhoads, who was the most stunned of the thugs turned last, so he was the first to go down beneath the devouring jaw of the large beast that charged him down. His cries of agony were heard by the young Ajmer Vakas who had simply stood and waited for death, he knew he couldn`t escape his fate within the forbidden zone. Vistas was pulled down from the cliff by another of the charging carnivores, which leapt up the hill in pursuit of him and pulled him back down to the floor, he also died a terrible death as his screams echoed around the hot rocks of the canyon. Mottos had only run a few feet away when he felt the heavy weight of the dinosaur upon his back, and he crashed to the floor beneath the merciless beast. Hanson might have got away if there had not been one dinosaur for each person. He saw the dark portal in front of him, this was the maintenance exit and he had even entered by it days before. However, he didn`t have time to move far enough along it before he too was charged down, the screams of the men didn`t last long before silence fell upon the land. The dinosaur that had devoured Hanson moved further along the portal that would have taken the four thugs to safety, it hoped to find more of this easy prey along it, but something about the portal scared the dinosaur, and so it turned around and re-joined the group. The young officer was to have been incarcerated within a dungeon on one of the more primitive worlds that Ares Fortuna sought to plunder, and he would have spent all his remaining days there, so at least his death had ended his suffering.