Dawn Arrives

by Michael Anderle

  Of course, the other problem was the tunnel behind me was already blocked off, and they were between us and the tunnel they’d come through.

  Things were shaking down real fast. In minutes, I figured that tunnel at the back of the cavern was going to be blocked, too. Even if I took out every single one of them, there was still a chance we’d be trapped and end up suffocated under fifty feet of soil.

  So, you might be wondering how we got here? Well, it all started about five days previous.

  Five Days Earlier

  Arlene and I were hot on the trail for some of the most exciting discoveries in archeological history. It was the Codex of Orn—an ancient text that told of all kinds of yummy myths that had originated in the Loop Galaxy over the last what, maybe five thousand Earth years. To translate it into your time, I was rather excited.

  No, I was fucking ecstatic! If we were able to bring that baby home, Uncle Lance would be sooo off my case about the relevancy of my work, and Mom would stop hassling me about publishing and furthering my so-called academic career.

  Arlene: Sorry to interrupt . . .

  Giles: Again.

  Arlene: Again . . . but you told me you just needed an excuse to come investigate this civilization. You know, to walk a mile in their shoes so you could understand them.

  Giles: Well . . . er . . . yes. That was . . . err . . . part of it. But the official line was the codex. But if I tried to sell you on something like that, you’d get all distracted by the potential it had for your Estarian magic thingy, and you’d end up . . . well, let’s just say you tend to be quite reckless when it comes to those things.

  Arlene: You’ve got to be shitting me?! Me? Reckless? Hang on—weren’t you just describing the situation where you’d gatecrashed a deadly religious ceremony with no backup and just a couple of laser blasters, twenty feet underground with no maps and tunnels that were prone to collapsing . . . in order to take on a dozen Oloudes single handedly?

  Giles: Fifty feet, and at least twenty Oloudes. And if I might get back to the story.

  Arlene: (waves her bandaged hand): Carry on. Far be it from me to correct you.

  Giles: So anyway, the theory with this codex was that it actually contains valuable intel that might be useful in controlling the Leath and the Yollins. You see, there are rumors amongst their underground illuminati equivalents that this talisman we found is related to this lost codex. And because the codex has all kinds of references to a bunch of civilizations spanning several thousand years, these underground organizations have various theories about the implications.

  If Uncle Lance had that, then working the back channels to keep the peace would certainly be easier.

  Arlene (dryly): You’re quite the salesman.

  Giles: Well. Erm. Anyway . . . it was important to the Federation, and it gave us a reason for a new adventure. I don’t see the harm in it being a win-win situation.

  So Uncle Lance, aka The General, granted us permission and off we went.

  In orbit around Luna-7, The Oloude system

  “OK, Scamp, take us down if you would,” I instructed.

  “Of course, Giles. We’ll touch down on the surface in around fifteen minutes.”

  “Good,” I replied.

  It was time for me and Arlene to suit up.

  Arlene appeared back in the cockpit several minutes later carrying all kinds of weapons. She even had a knife in her teeth!

  Arlene: That’s not quite true. I was just holding it in my teeth while I did my jacket up, and then I put it in my boots.

  Giles: Right. Well. In any case, I think you assumed that these Oloudes were far more vicious than they actually were.

  Arlene: You’re going to get to the bit about how they slaughter their own children, right?

  Giles: Well, er. (cough, cough). When we landed, there was no sign of that. Only that they were a little nervous about having newcomers in their town.

  Arlene: You’re fucking kidding me, right? They tried to have us arrested. At gunpoint!

  Giles: Yes, but their elders were very reasonable once we told them we were just here as anthropological ambassadors and that we wanted to gain an appreciation for their exquisite culture.

  Arlene: They thought we were salespeople trying to sell them technology. That’s why they let us stay.

  Giles: Oh. OH? And . . .

  Arlene: You’re not the only one who speaks Oloudeese, you know?

  Giles: I guess not. Well, anyway, when they realized we weren’t there as a threat, they put us up in comfortable quarters and allowed us to mix with their schools and in some of their more commercial offices.

  Arlene: They had me attend the meetings at their commercial offices to grill me about our tech. You were shipped off to the schools to keep you out of the way so you couldn’t do any damage.

  Giles: . . .

  Giles: . . .

  Giles: Oh.

  Giles: Well, it’s a good thing, because once I was there, I discovered that something was going on with the children. At recess, there were the normal play dynamics—those running around, the athletic, popular types conducting the games and enforcing the rules, the rejects playing amongst themselves, and the odd one or two who were a little more sullen and left out completely.

  But it wasn’t one or two. It was more like five or six. Now, I’ve had my experience of being an outsider, and children can indeed be incredibly cruel, but for five to be outcast in a cohort of only thirty . . . its statistically improbable and whacks out all the normal social dynamics of group bonding. Something was off. So I started investigating.

  During the next recess, I sidled up to one of the children. She was more gray than the normal children, and her teeth kinda overlapped her lower lip, making her look even more sad. Mind—when these kids smile, they look pretty angry just because of the way their half-formed shark teeth jut out. But this was . . . sad to see.

  “What’s up little one?” I asked her.

  At first, she was reluctant to speak, but then she told me that her and the others that were sad-looking had been chosen for something special, and that’s why the other children didn’t want to play with them. They were jealous.

  “Jealous? Why?” I asked.

  “Because we get to go and serve the moon gods forever, and they have to stay here and carry on with school and get jobs when they’re older,” she told me.

  Obviously, I was intrigued.

  “Moon gods?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she answered. She would’ve told me more, I’m sure, but the bell rang and the teacher ushered her away as if she wasn’t allowed to talk about it.

  That’s when my spider senses started grindeling.

  Arlene: That’s not even a word. Giles, if you’re not going to take these reports seriously—

  Giles: You’re from Estaria. You know what a grindle is. I was being . . . smart.

  Arlene: Clever.

  Giles: Anyway, seeing the teacher’s reaction to the girl talking to me, naturally I did what any anthropologist worth his salt would do at this point.

  Arlene: You mean you interviewed the teachers? You continued your investigation in a rigorous and professional manner?

  Giles: Hell no! I wanted the truth. So I followed her home.

  (Arlene rolls eyes.)

  Giles: So there I was in the middle of Oloude suburbia, following this girl home after school. The first time, obviously, that was a bust.

  Arlene: Tell them why it was a bust.

  Giles: It’s irrelevant to the story.

  Arlene: It’s not. It provides . . . context.

  Giles: (sighs). OK, well . . . I was . . . intercepted.

  Arlene: By . . .

  Giles: The authorities.

  Arlene: For . . .?

  Giles: Oh, bloody hell, Arlene, I’m glad you find this amusing. But for all we know, the charge of stalking was just one they trumped up so that the people we were investigating could warn me off their scent.

  Arlene (raisi
ng eyebrows): Right. Or maybe their neighborhood watch really was just looking out for the child that you were following home.

  Giles: Fuck. Well. Yes. I suppose on reflection it was a little silly. Seems you have to be so careful these days. Too many perverts and dangerous strangers around . . . so anyway. The second day I followed her, and there were no such interruptions.

  And luckily, it worked out because that was the very day they went to do the ceremony. Some adult men showed up wearing actual ceremonial gear. With an entourage. I mean, if you’re going to take children from their home, one might think that one might go about it more . . . subtly. But no, these monsters show up in red velvet fucking cloaks and staffs with daggers on the end. One even carried a skull. And man, if you thought this species was ugly with their skin on, you wanna see their skeletons.

  Anyway, I digress. There were about five of these clowns, and they took the girl from her home, leaving her parents waving as if they were waving her off to college or something. She was sad, but she seemed to go willingly. I mean, this is what gets me, how these kids are so indoctrinated with this inhumane bullshit that they go along with it.

  I followed, and they led her across this manicured park and into some woodland area in the center of the town! In broad daylight. That’s how brazen!

  ***

  Arlene: You know, there are many civilizations that have their times of sacrifice. Where they kill children, babies . . . maidens, virgins, et cetera. It’s all related to how powerful and pure they think the blood is.

  Giles: Well, I don’t like it. It broke my heart to see them take this young girl. And it’s not happening on my watch. And I mean, these guys weren’t even trying to be secretive about it. Like it was all perfectly acceptable. You’d expect murderers to be . . . well, at least a little stealthier.

  Arlene: Sure. But like I said, this culture had precedents for this. And what about your rule? You said specifically right from our first outing that we shouldn’t get involved. Prime directive. Your words! In fact, I’m sure it was in the agreement you made me sign before you would let me come with you.

  Giles (narrowing his eyes): Well, that may be so, but I’m bending it.

  ***

  So I followed and followed, this time keeping a safe distance, so as not to get nabbed by their overzealous neighborhood watch gang. We eventually arrived at a kind of opening in a rock. Nothing spectacular. And there was so much woodland, I couldn’t tell if it was a wall or a building or what.

  Anyway, they go into this doorway, and then that’s it. No one came out . . . but then this other party with another child appeared and headed in. And then another and another and another. It was like the pied piper of fucking Oloudes.

  I saw about half a dozen children being taken in. That’s when I decided to follow.

  Arlene: Without backup.

  Giles: Without backup, yes.

  Arlene: And without telling anyone where you were going.

  Giles: Well, erm. Yes. Look, we can talk about our protocols later. So anyway, I followed, and it turned out this was just a gateway into the tunnel system, which ran beneath the town.

  I head on down via steps and drops and tunnels and the like, all the while hoping that Scamp would still be able to track my position. Obviously, that was overly optimistic. But anyway . . . eventually I arrived at the center of the tunnel system, following the sounds of movement and their voices.

  And there in the clearing I saw the children being accumulated in this kind of central dirt pit, with these goons all around in their velvet garb and chant-y-ness.

  And, well, it looked bad. Like they were about to kill the kids. Which, had I not been there, I’m sure they would’ve done. I mean, one of them took hold of one little boy by the throat and . . .

  Anyway, that’s where I intervened.

  Arlene: With no backup. No plan.

  Giles: You know how I roll, baby. (he winks at Arlene, suggestively).

  Arlene (rolls eyes): So anyway, there you were, having revealed your position and had your bluff called, and all of a sudden, something is vibrating the tunnels so that they start collapsing in.

  Giles: (cough cough). Right. So I shoot a message up to Scamp. And it doesn’t go through. Now what I didn’t realize is that when it got to fifteen minutes and Scamp was unable to locate me, he’d already called Uncle Lance to let him know.

  Turns out the vibration was the cavalry coming in. When the General had a scan done of the planet and ADAM found the tunnel systems, they figured that the antigrav devices all around were there to hold the tunnels in place and to hold the people to the ceilings.

  So all they did was send a team of those flying scout balls that the rangers have been using—tracking my nanocytes of all things. As soon as they had eyes on me, they overloaded the antigrav devices all around us, saving me and the kids, and basically blocking off all the tunnels.

  Arlene: So how is it you managed to get out in the end?

  Giles: Well, there was this central chimney that they’d used in the first place in order to get the equipment in and build the tunnels. I’d already clocked it as a possible escape, but of course it would’ve been a ridiculous climb. But with the tunnels disrupted and the antigrav things dislodged, the answer became obvious.

  Arlene (frowning): So explain it to those of us who are too stupid to understand.

  Giles (chuckling): I got one of the kids to crawl through the dirt and find one, and then I did a light repair job on it. Took several hours, but we got there in the end.

  But when we did, it turned the chimney into a downward tunnel instead, which we all just slid down, ending back up on the surface. It was quite surreal. And quite genius, even if I do say so myself.

  And of course, that was when you showed up. Though . . . I am sorry you ended up having to fight your way out of your very important technology meetings.

  Arlene: Sure. And what of the team that rescued you?

  Giles: No idea. By the time I got out, he or she or whoever it was, had already recalled the scouts and was taking off. I think they made sure they had a lock on my vital signs from the nanoctyes or something and then reported back that I was OK, and that was it. Could’ve helped get me out of the tunnels, at least. But still. Guess those guys aren’t really ones for socializing. But . . . you know, something odd did show up on my holo right after.

  Arlene: What was that?

  Giles: A number seven. And the words, you’re welcome.

  Arlene (chuckling): Well, I think I know exactly who that might’ve been. At least by reputation. But of course, those guys aren’t technically Rangers, nor are they technically under the General’s control.

  Giles: Well, so much the better. Because if the Oloudes got wind that the Federation was involved in anything like what went down there, there would likely be hell to pay . . . and I think Uncle Lance is done with that kind of shit for a while.

  Arlene: I guess so. Well, lucky for you, your Uncle Lance is still around to pull you out of trouble . . . because otherwise, you and those poor kids would all have been goners.

  Giles: This is very true. But hey—we saved those kids, and if this next meeting goes well, these morons that were responsible will be put in prison for a very long time.

  Arlene: So where are we with the codex?

  Giles: Authorities are denying all knowledge of it. As far as I can tell, the most likely people to know anything about that kind of ancient text are ironically the ones that we want to lock up for good.

  Arlene: So no plans?

  Giles: Well . . .

  Transcript: Arlene Bailey

  Ok, so you heard about how when we landed we separated off into different tasks. Giles went to the schools and I was taken into some offices to talk with their politicians and scientists about the kinds of technology we might be able to supply.

  Now, my Oloudeese isn’t great. but it’s probably better than his. (Arlene brings index finger to her lips and winks at the camera.) So whether it was t
hat, or whether it was something else, they made the decision to have the grownup conversations with Yours Truly.

  Turns out, we were the first small vessel to pitch up here. They’ve had a few in the past. Not a huge number . . . but enough to figure out that the outside world is much bigger than just their planet. And enough to have harnessed certain amounts of tech that will allow them to do things like supply their cities with more efficient power, computer technology, and of course, blasters. Of course, any civilization will want more effective ways of killing people.

  And that was pretty much where our conversations started. They had me give them a few demonstrations of what my sidearms could do. And we talked a little about what we carried on the ship. Not much, coz only a moron would give that kind of detail away. But enough to whet their appetite. Anyway, by day two we’d got to talking turkey. You know . . . about what they wanted us to supply them with and how much. Now ordinarily I would’ve just shut the negotiations down, but we want the codex. So of course, I went along with it for a little while.

  We’d just got to the point where they were sending for some other people who might know more about the ancient texts, when they must’ve had a report about the disturbance over where Giles was playing silly buggers in the tunnels. Whether it was that other ship coming into orbit, or whatever Giles had done set off their alarm, I dunno. Either way, they turned on me like I was suddenly their enemy!

  I mean, after all this time where we’d been pally, pally, and then—boom—in a heartbeat they just turned.

  So anyway, I was taken away by the guards. I could’ve run there and then, but it wasn’t worth it until I knew what was going on. I let them take me back to my chambers where I think they planned on containing me there, all the while listening in on their walkies. Oh yeah, I’d totally hacked their channel and had it tuned to my ear piece within an hour of getting into their offices. Was fairly straightforward. They have practically no security. Only challenge was the Oloudeese, really. Anyhooo . . . once I had the intel I needed, I made a break.