A Paradox in Retrograde

by Faherty, John

  Landaus stopped in his tracks and turned toward him. "You should wipe that stupid smile off of your face. We're not out of the woods yet." An obviously aggravated Landaus retorted stubbornly. "I have it on good authority that we may very well be walking into a trap. So you would do well to drop that attitude and maintain an alert surveillance."

  Grunhuf stopped now and turned toward Landaus so torespond. "On whose word have you come to this conclusion? For we have seen neither hide nor hair of those wretched beasts. Tell me then why I should not celebrate?"

  "While we were still within the confines of the royal chamber, somehow Amida communicated this to me without a word being spoken."

  "That's a new one." Grunhuf said incredulously. "Alright then, just what kind of trap has old Aaralaat have in store for us?"

  "According to Amida an attack could happen at any time. However by the rules of combat, as king Aaralaat could not knowingly break a promise made on the field of battle. Logic dictates that if he was planning a trap, he would need to seek out others not specifically bound by his word of honor. And what better place is there to spring a trap than the abandoned space port, out of sight of witnesses. You've seen it. It's a dark labyrinth where people like us could just disappear in the darkness. I would not be surprised if as we speak some well-chosen henchmen were assembling there."

  "Landaus, if this is true why then are we still heading in that direction?" "That my dear friend is easy to answer, for there are two very good reasons. Firstly our ship is there, and I am unaware of any other way off this world. Secondly Amida has promised that he would provide a diversion for anyone waiting in ambush. If all goes as planned the distraction should allow us to slip unnoticed into our ship."

  "Did he give you any details, or are we supposed to just take his word for it and wait for to see what happens to us?

  "No he did not." "Tell me Landaus, who is being stupid now? You putall your faith in some ghost of a man you know nothing about. Did you for one moment question whether he may have his own agenda, one that doesn't include our wellbeing? I don't like that kind of blind deal. It makes me very nervous indeed."

  "Well Grunhuf, all I can say is even if we didn't have a second reason, the first would still be sufficient to makeit our only option. So I'm hopeful that whatever help he can afford us, will improve our chances and therefore can only help us." Grunhuf went silent as he mulled it over. After a moment he begrudgingly spoke, “As is often the case with you, it's hard to argue in the face of such logic. But however much I am made to agree with you, I'm brought back to this question. Can this ghost or yours be trusted? What about the boy? Aren't you at all concerned about your boy's safety? For God's sake, don't you think that he's far too young for all of this?"

  "Certainly I have thought about it. What is the point in asking that question now? When we left Earth it seemed that I had no alternative. To not have come would have meant certain death to all of us and Because of Amida, Ibsen had to come. There were no other options. Now I fear it was all for nothing. For little or nothing was accomplished with this mission. And if it makes you feel better I have asked the question; what kind of father would do such a thing? And the conclusion is that I have put my child in danger for nothing."

  "Landaus, I'm surprised that a military man like you didn't see that this for what it was. This was never a peace mission. No such agreement could ever have been won with these savages. Everything that has happened today has been subtly orchestrated by Amida. He knew he would never leave this planet. His goal all along was for us to escape and in doing so destroythe fleet. His role here as a hostage is merely a foil to buy us the precious time we'll need to get back to the ship and blow this place to hell in the process. You can't see this mission for what it is because your judgment is clouded by concern for Ibsen. I fear however if you don't get your head into this we may not all make it back in one piece. If Ibsen had been back on earth where he belongs we would not be having this conversation."

  "I will admit that you may be right to a degree. Myconcern for Ibsen's safety however has not clouded my judgment. All or some of what you now say of Amida may be true. But for the sake of Ibsen's safety I must believe that Amida will do as he said he would. He has promised he would do all he could for us to escape, and I have little choice but to believe him for there is no alternative." Ibsen looked up to his father a squeezed tightly onto his hand. Landaus in response looked down and said, “Don’t worry my son, Amida would not betray us." To this Ibsen was in agreement.

  For a time their voices went silent as they pondered their chances. Recognizing that they may be walking straight to their undoing a somber mood seemed to a creep over Grunhuf’s expression. For a good while then they walked on, there was however no more conversation. These realizations had hit too close to home and needed time to sink in. In the silence then they finally came upon those same disused streets that they had first discovered only hours before. It had seemed like it had taken an eternity to reach this far. This part of their journey however had reached an end.

  The sun now was low on the horizon and the last of the evening sunlight spared no detail as it illuminated the streets before them in a saturated glow. There now was a sense of otherworldliness to this archaic portion of the city that had gone unappreciated on the first go round. There Landaus began to notice how the new city had appeared to have been grafted onto one far older. In places such as these where the lines between the two worlds met were in stark contrast to one another. Landaus wondered how such a state of affairs could have existed and what had brought these human cousins to that point. "Grunhuf, how do you suppose a no man's land such as this had come into existence?" Before he answered he gave the area another quick look around. He seemed only now to have taken notice for himself. "I don't know, perhaps it was war or disease,take your pick. In a way it's similar to that lost world of our so called forbearers. How many strange and beautiful items have been attributed to them? No one even knows who they were. Never mind how they may have disappeared. All I do know is that this place is spooky. It's like some kind of ghost town."

  "Well if that's the case I think it's going to get a little spookier. Earlier when we had followed this path out of the space port and the city's lower levels and we were just glad to see the light of day. Now however instead of rising from darkness, we will be descending into it. From the looks of things I would be surprised if we didn't see a ghost or two." He turned to steal a glimpse of young Ibsen. Though he tried to show a strong face for father, his father knew him too well not to recognize the expression of fear. He put his arm around and gave him a reassuring wink. "Now don't you worry Ibsen, everything's going to be alright. I didn't mean real ghosts."

  There for the last hundred feet or so, as they walked the streets grew ever narrower until the road came to an abrupt end. There they had come upon an ancient entrance way where a mighty blast door had once stood. There now appeared only broken jagged stones and rusted half buried sheets of steel. For a moment the trio looked upon the gaping maw that would again swallow them in darkness. By some strange convergence, the last rays of the early evening sun light having filtered down past rows of abandoned buildings were now perfectly aligned it to the passageway before them. These golden beams cut deep shafts of light into the darkness. Within this light they could see only the flicker of unsettling dust cast against the jagged stone. The air was filled with the constant sound of a groaning wind as cool air bellowed outward from the underground. It seemed to beckon them to enter. This image seemed to put nothing but fear into young Ibsen's heart. Ibsen, having been possessed by Amida had kept silent during the majority of their ordeal, now that he was facing this fear alone and directly he spoke. "I'm scared father. Dowe really have to go back in there?" As gently as he could, Landaus tried to reassure him. "Ibsen, I'm sorry but there is no other way. We are going to need to trust that Amida will do as he says." This did not seem to sooth Ibsen's anxiety as much as Landaus had hoped it would. He thought to himself th
at he would have to keep a close watch on him.

  So to retrieve their torches Landaus and Grunhuf removed their packs and laid them on the ground. During this brief distraction Landaus had taken his eye off Ibsen for a mere moment. When they stood up again and looked back toward Ibsen, Landaus was startled to discover that something rather odd was happening with Ibsen. A strange blur aura had seemingly enveloped him. They did not immediately react for Ibsen did not appear to be in any immanent danger. They watched as a puzzled look then came upon Ibsen's face as he stared blankly at the sky. He seemed then to nod knowingly as if to someone or something unseen before him.

  After all that Landaus had witnessed over these few days he was not alarmed by what he saw there now. Because he did not appear to be in any danger, he thought it best he proceed with caution. He didn't quite know how he should approach this. So he started in simplest and most direct way, he asked him. "Is everything alright Ibsen?" Young Ibsen upon hearing the sound of his father's voice turned toward him. This action sent a ripple through the static field that surrounded him, breaking the spell. Then before their eyes as suddenly as it had appeared the aura dissipated back into the ether.

  "Yes father everything's going to be alright;" he said as he pointed excitedly toward the cavernous entrance. "He's going to send the robots to help us."

  With a puzzled look of disbelief he looked upon hisyoung son. "Is that so Ibsen, How do you know that?" "He told me so, just now. He said that the robots we saw earlier are now under his control and that they will act asa diversion. Look Father, there in the cave!"

  They turned again towards the opening and what they saw there truly startled them. Ambling from the shadows strode the steel behemoth. With each step it took, a corresponding thud reverberated out from the cavern. They stepped back in shock as they took in the site ofthe giant mechanoid filling the opening of the cavern with his body. Somehow the ages of rust and debris that had accumulated upon its surface had not limited its movements. Its visual appendages rotated as it cleared away the ages of dust. There from behind a set of grimy lenses a ruby light shined outward. Its head structure rotated from side to side seemingly gazing on them dislodging as it moved layers of dirt. Its mighty arm rose up slowly and then began to awkwardly mimic what they correctly perceived as a come hither gesture. Landaus's jaw dropped as he recognized what he was seeing. "If I did not see it with my own eyes, I think I wouldn't have believed it. It's calling us forward. Amida is showing us the way, just as Ibsen said he would."

  Once the humans had left the throne room Leif ran to the comfort of his fathers arms. He stood there in his embrace for a good long moment. For Aaralaat was so relieved to have him there again safe his mouth could not utter a single harsh word. Aaralaat stepped back and held his son at an arms distance. "Leif, I am so happy to see you have returned safely. Have you been injured or in any way mistreated by these savages?"

  "No father, I am uninjured. I was roughed up a bit,but I imagine that was to be expected. I am however sorry, by disobeying you. I have put you through too much. I wanted only to seefor myself firsthand the home of our enemy."

  "There is no need for you to apologize, for you are a prince among men. This spirit of yours will one day serve you well. However you must remember that you have a responsibility beyond yourself. Your life is far more valuable to the survival of our kind than that of a mere soldier. You will learn as you become king that you will send many a warrior to their deaths. To do these things you must first survive in order tosucceed me as king. Do you promise me that you will remember these things?" "Yes father, I promise."

  "Good now go to your mother's chamber and greet her, she is waiting. I am sure there you will find that she may have harsh words for you." The prince did as he was told and his father slapped him on his back as he passed. As Aaralaat was so engaged his son It did not take long for certain less scrupulous members of his court to begin making subtle passes in reference to what they had characterized as the, "Human presence" in their midst.

  Within Aaralaat's chamber, as a hostage Amida was by his honor bound to abide by their agreements. For his part he would do no more than to stand silently and observe the unfolding turmoil. Aaralaat for his part could not knowingly participate in any action that would go against his publicly made promises. There were others among them however who were not constrained by oaths and would act in secret. It was to these voices that Amida's ears would strain to hear. It did not take long for Amida's patience to pay off for soon there he began to hear devious whisperings of deceit. He knew he would have to act soon.

  The king looked on in wonderment as Amida's impregnable object began accumulating about its surface an azure glow. Emanating from it, tendrils of static lightning licked about the room as if desperately searching for something. Finding the lowest point in the room there it found the drainage system and a direct link to the rest of the city. Deeper intoits very tissues it probed until it found what it was searching for, the ancient control systems. Further down within the darkened recesses below the city, other systems frozen for untold centuries suddenly and inexplicably came back from the brink of oblivion. There within these shadows the mechanoid service robots, whose hulks had littered the sprawling underground, had begun like Lazarus to quite literally rise from the dead. Seemingly there within the cores of their metal bodies resided a region of complexity made somehow immune to the ravages of time and entropy. Drawing power directly from the atmosphere only their oxidized joints resisted the call to alert status, though only temporarily. Along miles of internal wiring energy once again flowed where it had not done so in ages. Subjected to this new surge of power, the contents of their temporary active memory cells having long since degraded automatically triggered a system restart. The air around them seemed to seethe with a static charge as a cascade of crackling switches and wires signaled their rebirth. As each one came back online a fresh set of recently inserted commands were waiting for them. One by one, over an ultra broad band wireless neural network their instruction sets streamed at nearly the speed of light. Soon thereafter these metallic creatures had come back on line, throughout the underground complex the once darkened alley ways were now alight in the diffused glow of their light emitting diodes.

  Before the ink had had a chance to dry on their agreement, Aaralaat by his indirect actions had nullified it. Though he could not do so publicly he had indeed planned to do just what Amida had said he would do. From their hiding places the party of those he had dispatched to kill or capture Landaus now observed in amazement at the transformation that was taking place before their eyes. This new wrinkle in their plan could not have been accounted for. There within the tight spaces of the underground, the element of surprise had been taken from them. Emboldened by the challenge the warriors rose from the shadows to face this new enemy head on.

  Aboard the ship Xora and Lex had grown nervous awaiting news of their remaining crew members. Through their observation panel high above the spaceport floor, they kept a vigil for the return. This did little to dispel their anxiety, but there was little else they could do. They had taken turns with this somber duty. Now as Xora lay resting it was Lex's turn on watch. He had the platform to himself as he stared out into the darkness beyond. Suddenly there appeared below a halo of light emanating from a cluster of moving mechanical objects. He called out to Xora, "Lady Xora, come quickly. Something odd is going on out there. You really need to see this." Climbing up the ladder, it took her seconds to reach the platform.

  "What are you seeing?" She asked excitedly. The perplexed corporal answered hesitantly, "I don't quite know; I've never seen anything quite like this." Her eyes taking a moment to adjust, did not initially appreciate what was forming there before her. From the darkness massive illuminated forms were moving about in a quite deliberate fashion. Soon the image sharpened and what she recognized astonished her. "Those appear to be automatons, like those from the ancient stories. I never imagined that these things ever actually existed, but here they
are as plain as day."

  "What are they doing and what do they want?" asked a nervous Lex. "In the stories of which I am familiar they are merely machine slaves and bear little consequence to the stories. Until now I had believed them to be no more than fantastic musings of long dead poets. Look there!" She pointed toward the dark shadows and noted there some movement. There standing up into the dim light to face the slow moving mechanoid advance were several Nibaru warriors. Drawing their bladed weapons they were determined to stand their ground. As the mechanoid advance drew closer they began to emit a wall of noise that was designed to disorient and disable any kind of threat. Holding their ears in an attempt to protect them from an auditory assault many of the warriors were initially forced to flee from the onslaught. Some however began to engage the behemoths the only way they could, with pistol and saber.