The Cartographer

by Craig Gaydas

  “Gard, I am going to retrieve some vials that fell down over here,” I shouted. “Any sign of anything?”

  “I am not receiving any life signs in the immediate vicinity,” he replied. “However, be sure to exercise caution.”

  The bottom of the ravine was about fifteen feet from the top making it more of a large ditch than a ravine. Luckily the sides angled in such a way to allow me to slide to the bottom safely. The sides of the ditch were grassy and Gard assured me that the flora in the ditch was nontoxic and similar to grass on Earth. My problem, however, would be trying to climb back out and suddenly the rock hammer came to mind. I pulled off my rucksack and looked inside. All of the action caused the contents to become a jumbled mess but I found the hammer tangled within a bundle of rope. Figuring the rope would come in handy I tied it around the hammer before plunging the sharp end of the tool into the firm earth. I tested it twice—I didn't need to fall down the hill and break my neck. The grass was slick and tough to get a foothold, but I kept a firm grip on the rope as I slid down the hill on my stomach. The hammer held my weight, but my confidence was shaky when it came loose slightly. It would only last one trip up the hill so I needed to make it count.

  Movement caught the corner of my eye and I turned to face it. There was a lone tree in the ditch, but the trunk wasn't thick enough to hide anything. I looked toward the pink leaves and they glistened, reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. After they adjusted from the glare, I saw nothing out of the ordinary (as if there was anything ordinary on an alien world).

  “Hold yourself together,” I muttered and picked up the six vials scattered along the ground. Fortunately they fit inside the pockets that came equipped on my intergalactic wetsuit (a creative name I came up for my outfit in my downtime).

  I grabbed the rope but before I could lift myself up I was hit with such force that the wind exploded from my lungs like air from bellows. I slammed to the ground like I had been hit by a bus. Looking back I saw a figure, cloaked in black, with a black hood covering half his face. He clutched a staff, approximately four feet in length with one end carved in the shape of a cobra head. With the stranger's cloak swaying in the breeze, I was able to catch a glimpse of a blue glowing circle embedded in his chest and surrounded by an armored plating. The eyes of the staff crackled with electrical energy, similar to my stun knuckles, and I realized that it was this particular weapon that struck me. The stranger lifted the staff with both hands and pointed the head toward me, moving in for a final strike. My bruised ribs made it painful to breathe so I was unable to call out for help. The stranger stopped before he could issue the killing blow.

  “What it can't be…you are human!” The stranger exclaimed and lowered the weapon. His voice was deep but seemed mechanical and as soon as he brushed the hood aside I understood why. “This has to be some kind of trick.”

  He stared at me through a monocle embedded in his left eye. Looking into it was like looking through the wrong end of a rifle scope. A metallic disk covered his throat which attached to a frame extending around the back of his head. This object made his voice mechanical in nature.

  “What are you?” he demanded.

  The question caught me by surprise—what instead of who. I managed to regain enough of my breath to choke out an answer. “My name is Nathan Chambers.”

  He clenched the staff and crouched over me. His good eye burned with malice. “I didn't ask who you are, I want to know WHAT you are?”

  I swallowed hard, fearful of his reaction to any answer I would give. “Um, I'm human,” I grunted.

  “No,” he whispered. “It can't be true. All humans were destroyed centuries ago.”

  I swallowed and regained my composure. “How do you know about us?”

  Tiny images flashed inside the monocle but they were too small for me to comprehend. He paused and seemed to be analyzing them, like some sort of digital projector. His good eye locked on me for a second and I wondered if he would attack, but instead he relaxed and leaned against the hill.

  “I know about you,” he said, not taking his eye off of me. “Because I was once human.”

  “What, that's impossible!”

  He waved his hand impatiently. “Let me explain. My name is Kedge Mal'Dineen and I am a Martian survivor.”

  “You lie!” I cried. “The Lumagom destroyed Mars centuries ago. Even if you did survive, you couldn't possibly still be alive.”

  “Keep your voice down human,” Kedge whispered menacingly and gripped the staff. “Would you prefer death over knowledge?”

  “No,” I muttered.

  “Good, time is short so I will have to make this quick,” he stood up, jammed the staff into the ground and leaned against it. “I did survive the Lumagom attack. I was found under the rubble of my own house by their leader. He went by the name of Ales Banda, and was the most frightening thing I had ever seen.” He stared into the distance, his face twisted from painful recollection.

  Kedge stopped briefly and looked up the hill, as if he heard something. I followed his gaze but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied there was nothing, he returned to his story.

  “Ales was a Reptilian from the planet Tyr. When he came upon the remains of my house he had a murderous look in his eyes. He discovered me hiding in the remains of my bedroom, not much older than you are now, hiding near the remains of my parents. Before he readied his killing blow he stopped when he saw what I held in my hands.”

  “What did you have?” I asked, genuinely interested in his firsthand account of the attack.

  “My mother's necklace,” he replied. “It was old and basically worthless, but Ales focused his interest in the symbol that hung from it.”

  Kedge rolled up the sleeve of his cloak, revealing human skin that had been tanned over time by centuries of alien suns and a tattoo of something I had seen before. It was an ankh, the ancient Egyptian symbol for life for there was no mistaking the looped cross.

  “I lost the necklace long ago, but I received this tattoo to remind me of that fateful day which changed my life forever,” he continued. “Ales abducted me and brought me aboard his ship and I watched helplessly while the Lumagom decimated my planet.”

  “Why did he take you?” I asked. “I mean…what made you so special?”

  “The ankh represented everything the Lumagom believed in at the time. When they found me they believed that I was some sort of religious messenger,” Kedge replied, his good eye staring off into the distance. “I came to learn that Tyr had been destroyed by a supernova years prior to the attack. Before his people evacuated the planet they reported seeing a symbol of the ankh burned into the surface of the sun before it exploded. The Tyrrians were a religious people and they believed it had been a message of divinity, a sign that the gods had been angered at life itself, and they were making the proclamation that life was an affront to nature. The survivors of Tyr made a pact to do their will in exchange for their protection. Not many survived the destruction of Tyr, so Ales had been forced to recruit more to his cause. In return, he made a vow to destroy life and regain favor with the gods. In a fit of insanity he believed that the gods gave him the power of a deity and he took it upon himself with the responsibility of restoring the Tyrrian civilization.”

  “Jesus Christ!” My horror heightened with each word. “That's crazy.”

  Kedge hesitated and studied my reaction, mindlessly running his hand over the tattoo on his arm. “What is your name?” he asked suddenly.

  “Nathan Chambers,” I mumbled.

  “That doesn't sound very Martian.”

  His statement struck me as comical, even though I knew it to be serious. I had to stifle a chuckle. “That's because it isn't. I'm from Earth, not Mars.”

  “Earth?” Kedge regarded me suspiciously. “That's not possible, I read in the archives of the time we explored Earth prior to the attacks we determined that nothing lived there beyond primitive life. We found nothing more than giant beasts and overabundant flor
a.”

  “It's a long story,” I sighed. “But the Consortium managed to rescue Martian survivors and relocate them to Earth.”

  Kedge's face darkened and he stood up. “The Consortium!” he growled without looking at me. “They rescued some of my people, yet left me behind? All of their `superior' technology, yet they couldn't rescue us all.” His voice dripped with venom.

  His face became dark so I attempted to diffuse a potentially volatile situation. “But I guess since you survived for so long, it worked out for you, right?”

  Kedge chuckled but it wasn't one of humor. It was dark and full of malice. “Oh yes it worked out for me, indeed.” He turned and looked over his shoulder at me. “If that is what you call sitting back and watching a madman slaughter billions over the centuries in the name of a false god. The Consortium is responsible for Ales' behavior and for what I have had to do since his passing!”

  I felt an ancient anger boiling under the surface and the tone in which he spoke caused me to stiffen, but I was naturally curious. “How have you survived for so long?”

  Kedge turned to me slowly, the folds of his cloak blowing in the wind to once again reveal the armored carapace underneath. He tapped the glowing blue ring in the center of his chest. “The Lumagom were kind enough to give me this.”

  “What is it?” The ring pulsated each time he drew in a breath and somehow I understood it kept him alive, although I didn't know how or why it worked.

  “About ten years after I was captured by the Lumagom, Ales was mortally wounded during a battle with the Consortium. Most of our fleet had been destroyed and very few of us remained.”

  He paused and I started to wonder what the answer had to do with my question but he continued after a few moments. “First, I should explain that the Tyrrians have a very long lifespan; up to 300 years. Ales regarded humans as a primitive species because of their short life span, however, I was younger and still in my prime and that was what he coveted most to continue his legacy. We had one crewmember from some godforsaken remote planet in a lost corner of the universe who happened to be a bioorganic engineer. Well this guy designed something he called `synthetic life' which, when implanted near the host's heart, has the ability to prolong their life for hundreds of years. It was too early in development to test earlier but too late for Ales to be the test subject, since he was already dying. They chose me instead.”

  I found myself mesmerized by the pulsing ring and amazed that the technology to prolong life existed. I could only imagine what the scientists on Earth would do if they got their hands on it. But one lingering question remained.

  “You mentioned that this technology,” I said and pointed to his chest, “could prolong your life for hundreds of years. The attack on Mars happened hundreds of thousands of years ago, during the age of dinosaurs.”

  Kedge chuckled mechanically, this one had a bit more humor than the previous, and my tension level dropped from DEFCON 1.

  “Well as I mentioned, the device went untested and had unintentional consequences.”

  I started to ask another question when a pebble fell on my head. I looked up and saw Satou looking down at us with an expression of shock.

  “Nathan?” Gard appeared by his side, his blue eyes doing their strobe-like dance.

  “What!” Kedge turned to me with such ferocity that I backed up a step. “You are one of them?”

  “I-I…well y-yes, but wait a minute,” I stuttered.

  “You are a traitor!” he sneered and embraced himself with his cloak, vanishing right in front of me.

  “Hold on, Nathan,” Satou cried and slid down the hill on his back before falling to the ground hard. He rebounded with the neutralizer in his hand.

  Although Kedge disappeared I heard footfalls near the grove. I turned toward the sound and the soft earth betrayed his location, revealing footprints that tapered off into the woods.

  “Kedge wait!” I called but it was too late. He was gone.

  Satou was by my side in an instant, placing his hand on my shoulder to stop me from going into the woods. “Stop, Nathan, you do not want to go in there.”

  I turned toward Satou and I felt a knot of fiery anger rising from my stomach. Everything at that moment was red, and it wasn't caused by the colorful leaves of the grove. “Calypso lied to me!” I roared. “Both of you lied to me about the Lumagom!”

  Satou let out a heavy sigh and sorrow flashed in his eyes. “No Nathan, we did not lie to you, we tried to protect you.”

  “That's a load of crap,” I cried. “Protect me from what, knowing the truth?”

  Satou looked around frantically and grabbed my hand. His grip was like iron and I couldn't pull away. He leaned in and we locked eyes.

  “We do not have time for this, Nathan,” he bellowed. “We need to get back to the shuttle, but I promise to explain further once we are away from danger.”

  Without saying another word he gave the dangling rope a firm tug and it came tumbling to the ground. “Hold on to my back tightly, Nathan,” he said and handed me my hammer.

  I did as asked and flung my arms around his neck. He used his strength and dug divots into the earth as he climbed to the top of the hill with ease. Once we passed over the ridge I dropped to the ground at Gard's feet.

  “We must hurry,” he urged. “I sense many life forms just beyond the reach of the grove that are closing in on our position at great speed.”

  “Let's go,” Satou ordered.

  We ascended the ramp and entered the shuttle. Satou took the controls and Gard latched himself in place. I moved to strap myself in and noticed the bodies of Madoc and Crag lying on the floor near the cockpit. I slumped into a nearby seat, staring at their lifeless eyes and bloodied corpses. The antenna on Madoc's head no longer shone and a wave of despair overcame me. Their bodies reminded me of the dangers that came with the job. I thought about the last Cartographer and realized that it could have just as easily been me laying on the floor.

  “Where's Wraith?” I asked.

  “Behind you,” a voice called out weakly. I swung around in my seat and stared at Wraith, who I could barely see.

  “Sorry, I didn't see you,” I explained. My words rang of irony because he was only partially there. At best, I would describe him as dim.

  He winced and slid his hand away from his chest. It was covered in a luminescent white substance and he winced when he looked at it.

  “Well I have seen better days,” he croaked. “Satou you think you can get us out of here?”

  Satou finished securing their bodies to the passenger seats. He performed both tasks with grim determination, as if he had done it all before. I found myself thinking of my predecessor and wondered if, after he was killed, Satou had to do the same thing.

  “Yeah I can get us out of here, as long as their attack didn't damage anything of importance.” He flipped several switches and the engines started up, to the relief of everyone on board.

  “Argus, this is the Navetta, we have come under attack and are preparing to leave the planet,” Satou flipped several more switches and the rockets came to life. “Please have a medical team standing by. I have one wounded and two deceased.”

  “Acknowledged, Navetta. You are cleared for docking bay number four.”

  The Doorway To Heaven

  Several hours have passed—more than enough time to allow my anger to fester. The medical team removed the bodies of Crag'Dughai and Madoc and prepared them for the funeral. There would be some sort of ritual, reserved for the Explorer's League, that involved jettisoning the bodies into space or something like that but I chose to return to my room instead of hanging around to learn the details. Over time my anger faded, leaving me with a hollow sensation that I tried to fill with multiple Cokes but a knock at the door interrupted my inevitable lapse into a sugar coma.

  “Come in,” I said, not looking at the digital viewport.

  Gard rolled into the room and parked himself next to the bed. Even though I looked at the
ceiling, I felt his eyes on me.

  “Are you ill, Nathan?” he asked.

  I turned my head to look at him. Every muscle in my neck creaking like a rusty door hinge.

  “No I'm fine,” I replied stoically. “Why?”

  “You missed the services for Madoc and Crag'Dughai. I just wanted to know if you were you, OK?”

  “I didn't feel like going,” I replied curtly.

  Gard remained silent, studying me with those unblinking eyes of his. I understood he was just a machine, a complex marvel of modern science, but a machine nonetheless. It was impossible for him to show emotion or empathize with someone (it just wasn't in his programming), but at that moment it seemed he attempted to understand my pain and my anger. He rolled away from the bed and parked in the corner, where he remained silent. His silence burned at me more than his eyes and I felt I owed him more of an explanation because he was the closest thing I had for a friend now.

  “I didn't want to go because I needed to sort through my emotions,” I grumbled. “Calypso and Satou betrayed me and I thought they were my friends.”

  “Betrayed? I am afraid I do not understand.”

  I propped myself on my elbows and looked at him. “They lied to me. They told me that the Lumagom were destroyed.” I hesitated before adding, “And neither of them told me about Kedge.”