The City that Time forgot

by Patrick McClafferty

  Chiu whispered. “What does it say?” Sensitive mics in her EVA suit picked up her words and transmitted them instantly to Gareth, who heard them as if Chiu was standing at his side, which she was.

  “The note says ‘Forgive Me.’ Nothing else. It looks as though when he was about to lose the fight, he purposely shut off the power and vented the air.” Gareth shook his head. “What could have been so important that you would sacrifice yourself and your men to protect it?” A cold skeletal hand seemed to grip his heart. Shaking his head, he walked across the room to where four large switches protruded from a panel and slowly, working from the bottom to the top, flipped them up. Light flooded the room, and for a minute Gareth considered turning it back off.

  “I have just been in contact with Thomas in Jafelon.” The voice of Shyrrik said abruptly in his ears. “He said that you and your wife are indeed the most EVA qualified people on the planet.” Her voice carried surprise. “He also said to tell you that the continental shifts are becoming more violent, and you should consider the alternative landing site. The ship that brought you to Jafelon has also, at his insistence, departed for home. He said that he is preparing to pull the plug in twenty four hours or perhaps sooner if necessary. Do you know what that means?”

  “Scheiße!” He swore. “It means that the great city of Jafelon will be no more.” He just wanted to sit down and weep for the frustration of it all. Nothing he was doing seemed to be helping anything. “Scheiße!” He swore again.

  The corpse collapsed across the control console had been a middle aged man with short gray hair. The brittle uniform he had been wearing was too old to tell the exact color, but Gareth noted the three sunburst collar pips that probably indicated a general’s rank. He frowned as he noted the heavy golden chain around the man’s neck. The short hair and severe uniform made Gareth believe the chain was intended for something other than ornamentation. Gritting his teeth, he pushed the brittle corpse back into his seat. The head of the body promptly fell off, bouncing across the floor to land in the corner, staring at Gareth with empty accusing eyes. Around the neck of the body was a golden chain, and attached to the chain was a heavy tee shaped metal key. Gareth removed the key as his eyes began to search the walls, and finally the console before him. In the very center of the dusty console was a plain unadorned steel panel, and in the center of the panel was a recessed hole the size of the very key Gareth had in his hand. Inserting the key until it stopped, he turned it very slowly. The lock was stiff, but suddenly the top of the panel lifted. Beneath the panel stenciled into the metal was the name Armageddon Device. There were two recesses for his key, a low tech manual time set with twelve digits, and a single button set flush with the panel top. Gareth laughed. The time setter was identical to the smaller device he’d used as his bicycle lock, and his gym locker in high school. It consisted of three groups of four small numbered thumbwheels. With twelve digits available, he had no idea what to set the number to. Leaning back in his seat, his eyes caught the faintest writing on the inside of the panel lid. In pencil someone, probably the dead general Gareth guessed, had penciled:

  Days Hours Minutes/seconds and then 0000 0018 0000.

  He chuckled. Somebody had left him a cheat sheet, although the letter with ‘Forgive me’ bothered him more than he liked to admit. He hated walking into things blind. He shut his eyes. Care to give me a hand with this? I’m a little out of my depth. He asked Athena, not really expecting much of an answer.

  Sorry. The soft voice replied in his mind. You know I can’t do that.

  He clenched his jaws. You’re aware that if I make an error your champion is going to be so much dust, floating in space.

  You’ll do just fine. Eighteen hours is sufficient time to reach a safe distance from the moon.

  There, you see? It wasn’t that hard. Care to throw a few more tidbits my way?

  There was a sad note in Athena’s voice. I’m quite sure we’ll speak more once you are back on the ground.

  Gareth sighed. Peachy. He chewed his lip for a moment as he stared at the control panel, and looked up at a very nervous Chiu. “I am about to arm and set the device.” He said aloud, more to calm himself than her. “If everything goes right, we should have eighteen hours to evacuate the moon and reach a safe distance.” He gave her a long look. “If it doesn’t, I just want to say I love you.” Her sapphire eyes widened and he forced himself to look down at the simple manual controls. Taking the key, he inserted it in the left hand hole. The key refused to go more than half way in. Swallowing, he removed the key and put it in the right hole. The key seated firmly, and he began to slowly turn the key. It clicked once. He tried to remove the key but it was locked in place. With shaking hands he turned the key again. Again it clicked… and continued to click as long as he continued to turn. Finally, when he could turn no more, he found the key slid right out. As the cheat sheet recommended, he then set the timer for eighteen hours. He hoped to hell it wasn’t eighteen seconds. Putting the key back in the left hole, he was unsurprised when the key went all the way in. It clicked once when he turned it, stopped and locked in place. He looked up at a pale Chiu.

  “What is it?” Her voice trembled.

  His voice was dry, and came out in a dusty croak. “The timer is set and armed.” He said more calmly than he felt. Reaching out he put his finger on the button just as Chiu rested her hand on his shoulder. Pushing gently, the button sank, clicked, and remained depressed.

  Something in the wide console snapped, and the two jumped as a holographic face of a young woman appeared in the air above the control console. The language was strange, but thanks to Athena’s modifications, Gareth was able to understand. “You now have eighteen hours to evacuate the moon and reach a safe distance of three hundred and eighty five thousand kilometers.” The face smiled. “Have a nice day.”

  “It’s nice to see that in the distant future someone still had a sense of humor.” He growled, taking Chiu’s hand. “Shall we go?”

  The walk back was much quicker than the walk out, and Gareth and Chiu soon found themselves back in Luna Control, their small transport waiting just as they had left it in the adjoining bay. Gareth had never been so glad to see anything in his life. He stopped in front of a dusty console. “We have eighteen hours to evacuate the moon.” He said without preamble. “I advise that you consider evacuating yourself, Shyrrik.”

  “I’m sorry to report that there are no operational vehicles to evacuate in.” The voice said from inside his suit.

  “I see one sitting right in front of me. You’re welcome to hitch a ride, as long as we can all fit.”

  “You would do that for me?” The AI actually sounded surprised.

  “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t.”

  “Standby… standby.” The voice went flat. There was a dull thunk that reverberated through their feet, and a shining chrome sphere the size of a basketball floated up through a panel that had suddenly opened in the floor. “My entire personality matrix, as well as all records of the Lunar Base from its inception are contained here.” There was a pause. “Thank you.”

  Chiu touched his arm. “We should go now.”

  “Lead on, my lady.” He waved to the transport pod. Once inside, his pistol belt on the seat beside him, he glared at his EVA belt. “Now how do I shut this damn thing off?”

  The neutral voice of the pod came out of the air. “EVA suits turn themselves off when in a breathable atmosphere.”

  “Cool!” He muttered as the silver sphere settled to the floor of the pod. “Would you please take us to The Yeugate?”

  “As you wish Sir. All systems in the pod are now balanced.” The pod rose up through the ceiling of Luna Base, and into the starry blackness of space, where it accelerated rapidly for Earth.

  Gareth moved both EVA belt and the other belt holding the Colt and the unknown pistol to a small luggage compartment, and leaned back, kicking off his boots. Beside him Chiu was doing the same, including unzipping her utility j
umpsuit down to her navel. She gave her husband a forthright look. “It seems,” She said in a sultry voice. “that we have seventeen hours to kill until the fireworks. What shall we do?” Gareth grinned.

  “We are rapidly approaching the time for detonation.” The voice of Shyrrik was tinny, coming as it did from the metal ball on the floor. “Our distance from the lunar surface is over four hundred thousand kilometers, so we should be quite safe. We have just over a million kilometers to go to reach Earth.”

  “Will the explosives planted on the moon be suitable to reduce it to an appropriate shield for Earth?” Gareth asked, his arm about Chiu.

  “Information about the Armageddon Device was classified well above my pay grade Gareth. In all honesty, I don’t know.” Gareth looked in the monitor at the dwindling moon and swallowed. “Detonation in four… three… two… one…” There was an eye searing flash, and the moon was gone. “Radiation is rising.” The voice said as Gareth tried to blink the spots out of his eyes. “There, it peaked and is falling, well within the tolerance of this pod, but still significantly higher than I expected.” Shyrrik said softly.

  He shut his eyes. His job was done. He and Chiu had activated the Armageddon Device, reducing the moon to a slowly expanding cloud of dust, and yet so many questions remained unanswered. Chief among these was; who or what is Athena, the being that delivered Gareth to Eldenworld in the first place, and healed his wounds? And how, his mind added almost immediately, does she have the ability to play with time, like he would play with modeling clay. She had tossed him thirty-eight thousand years into his future easily enough, and then brought him back to his own time on odd occasions, just to have a quiet chat. She surely looked like a woman, a beautiful one at that, and acted like a woman, but under the skin who knew what she was. With no answers forthcoming, Gareth let his musings dwindle as sleep claimed him. The lights in the pod remained lit for several more minutes, and then slowly faded to a low night-light setting when the cabin sensors recorded that the last occupant was now asleep.

  “Gareth.” A slightly tinny female voice said from the basketball sized silver sphere sitting in the middle of the pod floor. “We are making our final orbit about the Earth, and will be landing at The Yeugate shortly.”

  Gareth blinked, and raised his seat from the reclined position. The air in the small transportation pod was beginning to smell like it had been recycled one time too many, and he wrinkled his nose. Beside him Chiu was making small noises of protest. “Final orbit, you said? I thought that it would be another three days before we got to Earth.”

  “I inserted delta wave sonics into the air to keep you asleep.” Shyrrik said in a matter-of-fact voice. “The both of you have been on the road for several years, and could use the rest.”

  Gareth, who had been dealing with overbearing entities for the past few years just sighed. “Thank you for the consideration, Shyrrik, but before you do something like that would you please just ask first?”

  “As you wish.” The voice of the AI sounded flat. “The Artificial Intelligence in The Yeugate has informed me that all is in readiness in the Arrival and Departure Lounge. She wanted me to convey her congratulations on a job well done.”

  “Ell would say that.” Gareth muttered.

  “She also said something I don’t understand. She said to tell you that her house is finally in order.”

  He laughed aloud, the sound waking Chiu, who opened her eyes and stretched luxuriously. “Ell had an infestation in The Yeugate similar to your problem on Luna with the rats, and she solved it in a similar manner.”

  “Oh?” Shyrrik sounded interested. “I’ll have to speak to her about it. If you would like to enjoy the approach, I can make the exterior of the pod transparent again.”

  Gareth glanced at his wife, who bit her lip before giving him a short nod. “That would be fine.”

  The exterior of the ten meter bubble that had, except for four viewports, been a solid looking industrial gray hull, shimmered for a moment, and disappeared. Gareth, wisely, had his eyes shut and he heard a little squeak of fear from Chiu, who held his arm firmly. He opened an eye and almost wished he hadn’t. A slight shimmer in the walls was the only thing that informed Gareth he was within a conveyance, and not standing… or sitting in open space. Ten thousand meters below their feet, snow-capped mountain peaks rushed up at them.

  “I see The Yeugate down there.” He pointed, and suddenly realized that his wife had her eyes firmly shut. “It’s okay, Chiu. We’re lower now. You can look.”

  One blue eye squinted open, and she sighed in relief. “Thank goodness.” She opened her eyes fully. “Is it my imagination, or does The Yeugate look like it has been picked up? The fallen pillars are gone, and the rubble has been cleaned up.”

  As the bubble dropped lower Gareth grinned. “There are drones out painting the smaller domes.” He shook his head in wonder at the riot of color below them. The pod slowed its descent, swinging around the cluster of smaller domes as it made its way toward a glassed section of the huge, six hundred meter wide, three hundred meter tall dome. Passing smoothly and soundlessly through the transparent wall of the dome, the pod came to a rest in a wide blue marble-floored boarding area, sitting below the clear curved glass walls of the dome.

  “We have arrived.” Shyrrik murmured, stating the obvious. “Welcome to The Yeugate.”

  Gareth stepped through the clear side of the transport pod and stood staring at the wide spacious arrival area. He heard Chiu’s footstep beside him. “I am in awe.” He said quietly. “Ell has done a hell-of-a job here.” His eyes narrowed. “But what’s THAT?” He asked, staring at the other side of the room.

  “That,” A mellow female voice said from the air about them. “is a military surface to orbit combat shuttle. I thought that you might want something a bit more familiar to your background to travel in.”

  Gareth laughed. “Thank you Ell, and you are right. How have you been?”

  “Well. Things are going along as they should, with only a few glitches.”

  “Anything I can help with?” He asked to be polite, knowing that there wasn’t much Ell couldn’t handle herself.

  “Unless you know something about seventh generation holographic emitters, no.” The voice sounded frustrated, as before their eyes a sparkling form tried to appear, faded, reappeared and finally disappeared in a burst of purple sparkles. The features on the holographic face had looked disgusted. “I’m supposed to be able to project my image throughout The Yeugate, and this is the best I can do.”

  “Perhaps I can help.” The voice of Shyrrik said from the silver sphere floating at Gareth’s elbow. “The holographic systems at Luna Base had been upgraded to eighth generation units just before everything fell apart, and I have full troubleshooting trees for both generations.”

  “That would be very nice, Shyrrik. Thank you.” Ell purred, then continued to Gareth. “I retrieved the military shuttle from an orbital museum. Floating airless in space, the shuttle suffered almost no deterioration despite the fact that is nearly thirty millennia old… almost as old as you, Gareth.”

  “Thanks for pointing that out.” Gareth replied dryly.

  “No problem.” The AI paused for a few moments. “The results from the moon blast will still take several days to compile, so you might as well relax here. The Hotel has several rooms operational, and the pool opened last week.”

  Chiu’s eyes widened. “You have a swimming pool?” She asked in a hushed voice. “I have only ever seen one, and that was in a palace.”

  “We do.” Ell confirmed. “The current water temperature is twenty seven degrees Celsius, if that is acceptable.”

  Chiu smiled beatifically. “That would be marvelous.”

  “I will have a transport pick you up in two minutes and take you and your luggage to your room.”

  Gareth reached back in to the pod, and removed his weapons and the EVA suit belts. “This is it.” He said with a crooked grin.

  Ell made the
sound of her clearing her throat, to be polite. “I’ll send up a tailor drone to take your measurements, for some new clothes. I’d assumed you at least had a shaving kit with you.”

  “Our clothes and accessories are still on the SS Spray, and will get here when they get here.” Gareth rubbed his smooth chin, and blinked in surprise. “It looks like Athena made a few unexpected changes the last time she modified me.” He grumbled. Chiu just smiled as she stroked his smooth cheek.

  When it arrived, the transport looked like a small five-meter long transparent sausage, with open sides, two seats and a large storage bin behind the seats for luggage. Gareth shook his head as he tossed the equipment and weapons in the waiting container. The sphere that was Shyrrik took up position just behind the second seat as the transport lifted smoothly from the marble floor to a height of thirty centimeters, and soundlessly exited the terminal.

  “Welcome to The Yeugate Hilton, Mr. and Mrs. Köhler.” The pleasant baritone voice said as they entered the lobby of the hotel. Gareth couldn’t suppress his laugh. He could have been entering a five star hotel anywhere in the world… his world. After thirty-eight thousand years he would have expected something—different. “Your porter will be here shortly to take you to your room, and if there is anything that I can…”

  “Show me the pool.” Chiu demanded without preamble.

  An impeccably dressed young man stepped from behind the reception desk. “I would be happy to take you to the pool.” Smiling, he gave Chiu a brief nod. “This way.” He turned and strode off down a long, well-lit corridor. Gareth noticed that the edges of the young man’s face were faintly transparent.

  “His hologram seems to be working just fine.” Gareth said to the air.