by Galen Wolf
"I'd rather you read it now," the Count said.
"The light's bad for reading."
"Read it. I want to find a certain room."
Another pause. Gaijann smiled. He raised an eyebrow. "And what room in particular are you looking for?"
The Count hesitated and then said, "The Room of Dissolution."
"I didn't see that one as I flicked through." Gaijann walked on.
The Count stood there, huffing. He looked like he was about to assert the authority that came from the money he was paying them, but then they heard movement somewhere at the other side of the room. They couldn't see its point of origin. It was blocked by the high shelves.
There was an almighty explosion that sent showers of dust falling all around.
The Count stood stock-still. "What's that?"
"Kissag trying heavy weapons to break into the library," Severan turned back to look.
"They won't get through the main door," Gaijann said. "I wouldn't have either if previous treasure hunters hadn't already made a hole."
"As soon as they find the door mechanism," Torina said, "then they'll be able to get in, right?"
"Yep, that sounds right," Gaijann said.
"Then seal it," Severan said.
"Seal it?" The assassin pondered. "How seriously should I seal it?"
"Very seriously. So they can't ever get through."
"Yeah, but..." Atorkh looked worried. Torina frowned.
Gaijann scratched his eyebrow. "If I seal it that good, then we can't ever get back out either."
The giant shrugged. He began walking.
"That's you trusting to Fate again, is it?" Gaijann called after the giant, but Severan kept going and didn't turn round. Gaijann sighed then went to carry out his orders.
Gaijann walked back over the dust and made his way back to stand behind the closed door. The Kissag had given up firing on it now. He guessed that their next move would be to bring in ground troops to get the door open. He considered opening the door and giving the servants a decent burial, but that was just a romantic notion - the rocks were too hard, and he didn't have the time or tools. Anyway, they were just burnt bits now. He ran his hand through his short hair. He thought something should be done to mark the fact they were men, not disposables, but he knew there was nothing he could do. He also knew he couldn't trust the Count. None of them could.
Now his task was to do what his boss had told him. He looked back to see where the rest of the party were. They were out of sight, by now at least the length of the entrance chamber away. Gaijann considered his equipment. The nuclear oscillator was a handy piece of kit. It could scan structures down to the atomic level. It analyzed signals and energy frequencies, and though it wasn't designed for that purpose, it was pretty good at opening locks of all complexities. It functioned like the modern burglar's skeleton key.
Gaijann didn't know how long he had before the first Kissag engineers would arrive at the door. For all he knew they might have an oscillator of their own. He held the tool in his hand, adjusted the settings, and looked up at the door again. Sure, he could fuse the door mechanism so that no one could get in, ever. He weighed the thing in his hand. He looked back to where Severan had gone, shook his head, and sighed. He could fuse the door. That's what Severan wanted. Gaijann adjusted his oscillator so it was ready to do just that.
Then he stopped. Severan might believe in the god of Fate. But then Severan had a death wish. Morah could look after herself, but Atorkh and Torina didn't deserve to die entombed in here. Neither did he. He flicked the settings again.
If he didn't seal the doors, the Kissag would be at their backs, and they would be fighting on two fronts: battling the library's defenses and the lizards, maybe at the same time. It made sense to keep the Kissag out.
But it didn't make sense to seal the party in with no chance of escape. Gaijann shook his head and muttered. It was all about maximizing their chances at living.
And he thought of a third way. He set the oscillator so it broke the door mechanism. With the lock completely jammed that way, the door couldn't be easily opened. Not without great effort, but still openable. By someone like him. Or a good Kissag engineer. If they had one.
It would keep the Kissag out for a time - long enough for the mercenaries to get a good head start, but then when Gaijann came back with his friends, they could get out. Get out and spend some of the money they'd earned.
He began work. It took about two minutes to wreck the opening mechanism. He figured it would take the Kissag several hours to blast their way in. That was okay. It should be enough so the team could go about their business without the Kissag shooting them up. The smell of melted metal and carbon sizzled in the air. Job done. Gaijann put the tool back in his utility belt and ran to catch up with the party.
CHAPTER FIVE: Vicious statues
Torina stopped dead. "What's that ahead?"
Morah examined her long nails. "Your imagination?"
Atorkh shook his head. "No, she's right. There's something moving up there. It's not just explosions from the other side of the door."
Severan flipped his visor down. He nodded. "Large objects, 2-3 of them. But definitely moving."
"Will they attack?" Mehefin asked.
Severan flipped up his visor. He shook his head impatiently. "This is slowing us down."
Then they heard the noise again.
Morah turned to face the darkness. "Something big's moving"
Severan sighed and dropped, cocking his kinetic rifle and facing the darkness.
Gaijann flicked on his stealth cloak. "Any idea what they are?"
"Something bad and big," Atorkh said. "Coming up fast,"
Severan flipped his safety off. "Weapons ready. Wait for my word."
Atorkh and Gaijann dropped into support positions behind their leader. Mehefin moved closer to her father. The two aristocrats stood with their backs against the bookshelves. The Count had unsheathed his pistol.
Torina readied her healing fields. First flicking them on, she turned and set out syringes of analgesia and stem cell drivers ready to repair whatever damage was going to be done. Gaijann could hear her breathing close by him. He watched the darkness ahead apprehensively, then heard the sound of huge pistons. He thought at first that it was the noise of some ancient engine - a machine to pump the darkness out of the place - but then realized that it was the limbs of some great creature, pounding the ground as it approached.
"Nearly on us." Atorkh had a bee drone up, giving him an unsurpassed field of vision. His screens showed two huge targets moving fast towards them. His finger curled round the trigger of his energy pistol.
"Hold your fire," Severan said. "Until my mark."
The creatures emerged from the darkness. As the screens had foretold, there were two of them, but what the screens hadn't discerned was that they heads of huge birds, beaks sharp as shears, with the quadruped bodies of enormous lions. Each of their four feet had five claws as long as swords.
"Now!" Severan let rip a hail of bullets into the charging monsters. It did very little.
Atorkh opened fire with his rifle and sent beams of white energy bouncing off their stone hides. Even the Count fired from his position behind Severan, his bullets knocked chips off the monsters but didn't slow them. Severan threw down his rifle and focused on them with his alien red eye. A glowing line roamed over their rock-like skin but the stuff they were made from did not burn and the creatures came on, not even slowed. They made no vocal sound as they attacked, only the eerie rumbling of their limbs as they broke over the mercenaries like a wave of stone. The party scattered for safety away from their onslaught. Gaijann rolled out of their path and watched his party run. Atorkh was caught by a creature's beak and thrown against a shelf. The blow knocked the wind out of him and he collapsed in a limp heap. Torina stumbled and scrabbled across the floor, stretching to get him. She made it safe across the few yards and kneeled by his prone body, switching on her fields and start
ing healing.
Realizing his gun was no use, Gaijann holstered his pistol while the creature turned to come at him. The assassin rolled forward and ducked beneath the monster's slashing claws as it reared up. Once behind it, he turned, moved his hand to his vorpal dagger, and switched on his stealth cloak. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other beast was going for Mehefin. He also saw Severan stand, firing from the hip, and roaring defiance to catch its attention. The thing turned its head, registering Severan as the greater threat and twisted its body. It went to charge Severan but instead of moving, the big man stood up to it. There was the enormous slam of the impact and the sound of rock against solid flesh. The two of them smashed together and locked like wrestlers. Severan's massive augmented strength pitched against the thing's mineral body. It was bigger than Severan, but he almost matched it for sheer power.
The second beast turned away from Gaijann as soon as he vanished and was going for Torina as she kneeled over the recovering Atorkh. Gaijann saw it and changed his grip on his plasma dagger; he knew the vorpal edge could cut through anything — even the asbestos type mineral these things were made of. He did a rapid forward roll to get up speed and then leaped like an acrobat onto the back of the thing. Though it couldn't see him, the creature felt his weight, suddenly reared, and tried to hurl him off. Gaijann dug his dagger into its broad stone back, using the blades as an anchors to hold on.
To the right, Severan grappled with his creature. His hands gripped its thighs and his shoulders pushed against it. He stood teetering, forcing every sinew but its great weight bore him down, and his legs slowly buckled. His red cyborg eye flamed incarnadine and its gaze dug into the creature but still its asbestos hide would not burn. Then with the grip of his green cyborg hand, he froze the creature's rock flesh to a thousand degrees below zero. The limb contracted and cracked as an ice age passed through it, but it still didn't give. Severan intensified the cold and concentrated his grip; breaking down the minerals, freezing the carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen where his hand touched. The creature roared with pain but did not yield.
Nearby, Gaijann hacked into his monster's back with his knife. He stabbed and dug into its stony flesh. He raked his blade through the rough mineral skin. The blade went deeper; whatever sinews and muscles, whatever veins and organs it had inside, he would find them. He would dig deep into its body. He would gut it. The assassin stabbed again and again with all his strength. Then he hit whatever the thing used for nerves. The creature jerked wildly as he severed them like a knife through power cords, and the monster went into a frenzy, trying desperately to throw him.
Locked in combat with his own monster, Severan broke off one of the creature's frozen forelimbs with his massive strength. The frigid flesh cracked in his cyborg fingers as he dragged off parts of the leg. Losing its balance, the thing stumbled, and Severan hurled his shoulder against it, throwing it off kilter. It stumbled down onto its knees and the giant pushed it down further and over onto its side. Now he had the advantage, he applied his cyborg hand to its face, pushing his fingers into the sockets of the gems that were its eyes. The thing screamed in pain.
Hearing his leader getting close to victory, Gaijann redoubled his own fight and digging with his knife, found one of the organs of life that powered the thing. He sliced it with his crackling blade and burst the bladder that he found. Maybe it was its heart or its spleen or some other organ not known to Earth born life, but the thing shrieked in agony. Gaijann cut open the bladder and found inside something that appeared to be liquid gold. The fluid spurted in a fountain of cold yellow metal that splashed and ran like a river onto the dusty floor. Gaijann had hurt the creature badly. It reared, then stumbled, then fell. The thing suddenly lost its strength and slumped onto its stone knees. Knowing it was finished, Gaijann ran up its back to its head. With a flourish, he stuck his twin blade decoratively into its eye socket. The monster gave its final groan and stopped moving. Before it crashed to the ground, Gaijann vaulted off the stricken beast with an athletic twist and landed lightly on his feet.
Still panting, the assassin moved over to help Severan. But the giant needed no help. He had his green hand around his monster's throat, ice solidified from the abrasion like white blood. The thing had no need of oxygen and because he couldn't choke it, with a huge effort and a jerk of his massive forearms, Severan snapped off the thing's head. Gaijann heard a huge crack and a then a heavy rumble as its head rolled away into the dust. The monster was finally dead. Severan stood there sweating and gasping for breath.
Next to him, doubled over, hands on thighs, Gaijann grinned. "I got mine first..."
Severan couldn't speak. Instead, he thumped the assassin on his back.
Atorkh was on his feet. "There are more of them up here."
"Then we're all going to die," Torina said.
Gaijann stopped panting and smiled at her. "Don't be such a gloomy boots. Of course we're not."
The healer stood there, tight lipped.
"At least not right now," the assassin added.
Severan wiped the sweat from his brow. "Let's get going."
"Which way?" Atorkh said.
Severan patted Gaijann's armored shoulder. "Why don't you check that map, Gaijann?"
"Good idea." Gaijann took the book out of his pack.
"Which way then?" Severan stood straight again.
"Give me time." Gaijann made them wait until he looked up into the dark and pointed. "That way,"
"Is that true?" Torina brushed her hair from her forehead. "Or are you just making it up?"
Gaijann grinned. "What is truth, my little healer?"
She groaned. "True is true. The rest is bullshit."
Gaijann looked at the party and shrugged.
She shrugged sulkily. "I still think that way."
He saw how tired and dusty his companions were. So much opposition for such little progress. Gaijann looked at his companions, wondered about their various motivations, and guessed they were mostly simple: money, but also adventure. Certainly, that was it for him. Torina because she'd follow Severan anywhere. And for himself, Gaijann couldn't remember a time when he wasn't at the side of the blond giant. He remembered joking that he was like a remora with a shark - only there to pick up the scraps. Severan had laughed and said, "If you're only here for the good times, how come you stick around through all the shit?"
Love. Love and loyalty. He owed the big guy. Not that he'd let anyone know it.
And then Atorkh. Atorkh came because he was a boy and wanted to prove he was a man.
Gaijann guessed the Count and his elfin daughter had their own mysterious reasons for coming into the depths, but Morah? Who knew what Morah wanted? And then Gaijann realized she hadn't been there during the fight. He was about to comment when she reappeared, as if his thought was her cue. He was sure they the others hadn't noticed she was gone.
As if in answer to his unspoken question she said, "I've been back to the door while you were busy." She ran her hand through her lustrous hair, smoothing it back in shape. "The Kissag are making headway. They've brought energy drills."
"How are they doing?" asked Torina nervously.
Morah shrugged. "They'll be through soon."
Severan frowned. "That shows preparation. This isn't a random hunting party."
"I thought you said they would never get through." Mehefin was looking at Severan. Gaijann had noticed that her rainbow eyes were fixed on him most of the time. Gaijann answered. "They will get through. It'll take them a little while, but they will get in."
Severan looked at the assassin. "I thought I told you to seal it so no one could get in?" Severan said.
"Yeah well. That would mean no one could get out."
"We discussed this. I told you what to do."
Gaijann nodded. "You did."
Mehefin said, "We don't want to die in here. We need to be able to get out."
"Things will be different when we come back," Severan said.
Torin
a muttered, "If we come back..."
Atorkh looked puzzled. "What does that mean... things will be different?"
Severan' s expression was unreadable. "Let's get moving people."
Then, as if to emphasize Morah's point, there was an enormous rumbling sound from behind. The stone bookshelves rocked and showers of dust fell all around them.
Gaijann ran his hand through his short black hair.
"They're getting through," Torina said.
Morah grinned at Gaijann. "Feeling guilty you didn't seal the door properly? Didn't do what daddy told you to?"
Gaijann scowled. Severan ignored her. "Gaijann, the book. Did it say this way?" He pointed ahead into the dark.
"Sure, sure," Gaijann said, glad to be distracted. "Come on."
Then the neural net died.
"Oh," Atorkh said. "That's weird. It just cut out."
CHAPTER SIX: The way down
Atorkh could find no explanation why the net died.
"Doesn't matter," Severan said. "Keep going."
They had only walked a couple of hundred yards when the bookshelves ended. The library came to a full stop in a wall of black volcanic rock. At first, they didn't see it, but when they took time to look deep shaft plunged vertically down in front of their feet. A zigzagging stair cut into the far rock wall of the shaft led below. It disappeared into darkness that was deep beyond sight. Standing at the edge, the party gazed down in silence. It abyss almost seemed to command awe.
"Drop me a flare down, Gaijann?" Severan said finally.
Gaijann complied. He took a magnesium flare, lit it and let it drop, sailing down the shaft. The falling flare illuminated the sheer depth of the hole they would have to descend into. The white fire boiled and shimmered as it floated bottomward for minute after minute and then, just before it died, it kindled reflections in a silver pool deep down below.
"What's that?" Torina said. "Looked like a liquid."
