“Yeah,” Maddox said.
He didn’t like the idea of leaving the darter. He didn’t think the Erills could do anything physical to it. He’d also rigged the vessel to explode and take him with it if he felt Erills taking him over. If he left the ship and the Erills possessed him…
The calm he’d felt began slipping away. Once more, Maddox closed his eyes and practiced his breathing.
Soon, he opened his eyes and then a storage locker, donning a surface suit. He took a rifle, an expandable spade and other equipment. Maybe he should have brought a battlesuit. This would have to do.
You do not need a suit, as the atmosphere is breathable.
“We’ll see,” Maddox said.
Finally, he sat at the controls and contacted Victory. “I’m going outside,” he said. “If I’m not back in ten hours, use the auto-detonation.”
You might regret such an order.
Maddox didn’t respond. Instead, he went through the procedures to go outside, soon climbing down steps onto the planet’s surface. Wind howled. He could hear it easily enough through his enclosed helmet, and he felt it blast against him every so often as he began to trudge.
The main star or sun shone at around mid-afternoon level, providing plenty of light and countless shadows caused by the gargantuan pyramids. He clumped across brittle sand as swift dust particles struck his suit. The size of the ancient structures awed him. The age of the pyramids made him think. Why was there a temporal distortion in the star system? It must have something to do with the ancient aliens that had summoned the Erills—brought them through a multiverse gate of some kind.
The pulsating ball of light guiding him hovered at eye level, gliding through the air just head of him, taking him farther and farther from the darter.
Maddox glanced back, wondering if this would be his last sight of the vessel. He practiced Pilgrim breathing. He had to remain calm. Panic or fright would end everything, maybe in a terribly gruesome manner. He knew the Erills hated him. The captain blanked his thoughts and let his body operate on automatic. He walked the mismatched lanes of the City of Pyramids, eventually seeing one of the great structures with an apparent opening. Sand swirled into the dark entrance.
The Viewer lies within, Captain.
Maddox squared his surface-suit’s shoulders and trudged resolutely, passing through the entrance into a long stone corridor. He halted, expecting a steel door to slam shut behind him. It did not. With a shrug, he took out a flashlight, clicking it on. He didn’t trust Sargon to continuing illuminating the area for him.
He shined the light on the walls and spied ancient symbols, hieroglyphics. He’d seen hieroglyphics like these before in Builder space pyramids. With a shock, he realized there must be a strong Builder connection to the dead aliens of this planet. What did that imply?
He waited for Sargon to say something regarding that. The Erill did not, nor did Maddox feel like asking. Moving through the mighty, ancient structure was difficult enough.
After a long walk, Maddox began to climb worn stone steps. They were for beings much larger than he was, maybe three times as large: giants, he supposed. Maddox started panting, and yet still the staircase led upward into the darkness.
More glowing, pulsating balls of light appeared. Maddox finally clicked off his flashlight and hooked it to his belt. Even more Erills showed up. An aura of eagerness and hunger, terrible primordial hunger, began to press against his mind.
“Did you bring me here to die, Sargon?” Maddox asked.
A pulsating ball detached from the others, floating nearer until it was inches from the captain’s closed visor.
We must test your worthiness before we show you marvels that will blast your mind into insanity.
“Sure, that seems reasonable enough. But let’s make this more interesting by including a wager.”
Yes, yes, your threat about leaving us forever. If you’ll notice, Captain, you’re no longer on your darter. And yes, by the way, I did read your thought earlier about not being on it when it exploded. You have no crutches here, Captain. If you lack the killing symbol, if you the lack the strength to wield it against our combined might, then you will become the carrier. Then, you will be the vessel that takes us to Victory and the universe beyond. We can hardly contain ourselves, Thing.
“Thing?”
You’re a flesh and blood carrier. You’re a fool. I’m glad you so easily believed my promises.
“Yup, yup, I understand,” Maddox said as lightly as he could manage. “Well, which one of you wants to cease existing first?” Maddox widened his arms and made a “Come here” gesture with his gloved fingers.
I sense no Builder symbol in you.
“No problem. It will come when it’s needed.”
How do you know this?
“I don’t. It’s a belief.”
Your belief could be wrong.
“That’s a fact, Jack.”
We will swarm you, rendering such a symbol useless in any case.
“Are you done yammering?” Maddox asked.
That must have been the signal, as the pulsating, glowing-ball spiritual entities rushed him.
Something wavered before Maddox. Then he realized he’d gone into himself, into his id. He stood on a great spongy plain, as it had been in the alien Destroyer. Great darkness hovered before him, a tangible thing of inky depth and width. He realized it was the massed Erills watching him. Something seemed to have checked their rush.
In that second, the shining Builder symbol appeared before Maddox. It was strong and powerful just like two years ago. Smiling, Maddox reached up and grabbed the warm symbol, ready to hammer it into his arm that had become long and sharp like a sword.
He paused, however, waiting for the first Erill to peel off from the massed darkness and attempt to possess him. Finally, the symbol faded as did Maddox’s view of the great spongy plain. Consciousness returned to his body. He found himself standing, regarding the lone Erill, Sargon, who had dimmed so low that darkness surrounded Maddox inside the great pyramid.
“What just happened?” Maddox asked. “I wanted you Erills to attack and die. I’ve been planning on become a super-being for some time now.”
You are a clever and convincing deceiver. Even now, you appear to me as a foolish primate, surprised at our pause. These deceptions on your part must end.
“I’ll tell you what then, Sargon. Quit snooping around in my thoughts, and I won’t be able to fool you so easily.”
Come. I will guide you back to your ship.
“Wrong,” Maddox said. “Let’s see the Viewer.”
Why should I take you there? You will never help us leave Estar.
“That’s the name of the city?”
The planet.
“Give me a reason to help you leave.”
I cannot, as I cannot overcome your Builder symbol.
“You can bargain with me.”
Sargon glowed brighter as the ball of light bobbed up and down. Tendrils of light reached out and then whiplashed back into the glowing ball.
Yes. Follow me.
-7-
Maddox stood on a stone platform before banks of giant levers, huge knobs and dish-sized buttons and monstrous foot pedals. There were screens, computer inputs and colossal glass bulbs with barely glowing filaments inside. Beyond that were vast crystals, stone pistons, seemingly crude machinery, spinning drums, wires in thick profusion and other titanic parts.
It is time.
Maddox could trace the machine’s purpose because Sargon glowed around his helmet, showing him. He understood the Erill’s honesty because the Builder symbol pulsated like an axe in his id. Sargon was near enough to take a blow in the id reality if he proved false.
This was the bargain, on pain of death for Sargon, who attempted to show Maddox the utility of the City of Pyramids.
Maddox yanked a meters-long lever.
The giant primeval machinery whirled faster as the crystals glowed brighter and brighter
and the drums spun as if they were out of control. Maddox understood the machine’s function enough to know he wasn’t reopening the terrible path into a dimension of billions upon billions of Erills.
This wasn’t a time machine either, but it incorporated the temporal distortions in order to see into the distant past.
Maddox didn’t know it, but the crew of Victory were witnessing a terrifying event. Lightning crackled from pyramid to pyramid and temporal storms swirled around the primeval city of stone.
The Erills couldn’t directly control the machines, as they lacked corporal or physical forms to do so. But they’d learned long ago how the machines worked. Sargon continued to show Maddox, who pulled the seven-meter-long levers, pressed twenty-pound buttons and manually wrestled with three-hundred-pound knobs. Electrical energy surged around him, causing Maddox’s hair inside the helmet to stand straight up.
This is the moment. Shift the left pedal and pull the temporal interface as far back as you can.
Maddox did as bidden, and the great screen before him that took up eighty by sixty meters began to shine with power. The captain watched spellbound as he saw an event over six thousand years ago in the Adok System. He did not understand the science behind this. He didn’t really care except to hope it was accurate. He studied the screen and witnessed a band of Adok engineers working on the AI computer system aboard a newly built Victory. Maddox watched closely.
Do you see? Do you see?
“No!” Maddox shouted. “What am I looking for?”
It is to your left. Surely, you can see that.
Maddox saw an Adok engineer use a crane arm to set computer parts into a floor cavity. The engineer deposited the parts and caused the crane arm to rise. Afterward, workers began assembling deckplates over the cavity.
“Oh,” Maddox said. “I know where that is.”
So do I.
“How do I turn this thing off?” Maddox shouted.
Vile Erill chuckling sounded in his mind. You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?
The entity no longer glowed around his head, thus pulling out of the axe-edge range in Maddox’s id.
“Do you think you’re safe?”
I know it.
“Let’s find out,” Maddox shouted, reaching for a lever and pushing it forward. He reset knobs, twisting them, shoved giant pedals to new positions—
The great pyramid began shaking as machines roared out of control.
Stop it. You’ll bring the primeval edifice to the ground.
“What do I care? If I can’t leave, if the machines will act against me—”
You have made your point. I will resume my place near your id and guide you to shut down the Chrono Viewer.
Maddox’s distrust had risen, and he expected trickery every second, but he saw the Erill at the edge of his id and saw the Builder symbol resume its place. He listened to the Erill’s instructions, watched with his eyes, and felt with his other senses.
The machines whined down as the stations ceased pumping them with outlandish power. He could tell because the crystals no longer glowed.
Once again, those on Victory saw diminished lightning storms and less wind swirling less sand in smaller cyclones until the planet no longer threatened to shake apart.
Finally, Maddox stumbled back and collapsed. He was weary and sore, and his mind ached. He hadn’t realized how strenuous that had been until now.
I have fulfilled my bargain.
Maddox nodded wearily. “Most of it anyway. I have to see if it worked.”
If you mean your returning to the starship—
“How else can I tell the others where to find the old parts?”
If I allow you to leave Estar, you’ll never return.
“But I swore that I would return. Like you, I keep my bargains.”
Do you believe me a fool?
“No. I think you’ve proven that we can work together. You actually have something I want. This Chrono Viewer represents a tremendous power. There are many events I wish to see. This is incredible.”
You are attempting to trick me. You think that I hunger for release from this prison to such a degree that—
“There it is,” Maddox said, interrupting. “That’s how I’ll repay you. I can send you back to your dimension.”
“I never want to return there, as I long to drive my herd of physical beings before me. I wish to rule a thousand planets and feast upon…
“Go on,” Maddox said. “Finish your thought. This is interesting.”
Here’s a new idea. I’ll use the temporal distortion, but to greater effect. That will place you in a different era, as it were. Then, you need not feel any guilt releasing us into the universe.
“Sargon, I have to return to Victory, as I have to restore Galyan. Afterward, I’ll return here in order to seek greater power against my enemies by learning their secrets.”
I sense your dishonesty.
“No. That’s just your fear in play. I’m a man of my word. You know that.”
That’s just it. I do not know. There are conflicting thoughts in your mind regarding your honesty.
“Then gamble,” Maddox said. “If you’re right, you gain everything. If you lose, you’ll simply be in the same position as before.”
I cannot abide the thought of you cheating me.
Maddox shrugged his suit shoulders. “It’s your call. I know what I would do in your place. I’d gamble on winning everything. That’s what I did in coming here. Look where it got me.”
Near the point of death. If we swarm you, we can destroy you before you can kill all of us.
Maddox’s shoulders slumped. He was too weary to keep arguing. He had what he came for. It was time to leave. Thus, he took out the flashlight and started down the great stairway, hoping it would lead him onto the right path.
It will not. That is the wrong direction.
Maddox refused to listen. He trusted his sense of direction, being eighty percent certain this was the correct path.
Wait. I have another proposal. I can help you discover the identity of Nostradamus.
Maddox halted in surprise, turning around. “How do you know about him?”
That is not important. Is it a deal?
“Can Erills use the Viewer on your own?”
I know about you, Captain Maddox, Sargon gloated. I’ve learned about those who hate you. You would be surprised how that came to happen. I thought I didn’t need their help. That I could lure you to your doom, but you’re more stubborn than I realized. The others were right—
“Keep talking.”
A secret for a secret.
“What secret can I give you?” Maddox asked.
Sargon didn’t reply. Instead, many Erills began appearing around him. They all seemed to pulse in time together. Slowly, each Erill began to sink toward each other, joining and coalescing into one huge ball of spiritual entity.
CAPTAIN MADDOX.
The captain groaned as he bent his head in pain at the blast of heavy thought.
Still more Erills appeared. They did the same as the first, soon joining the growing ball of spiritual energy.
CAN YOU FACE US ALL, MADDOX? DO YOU DARE TRY?
“What?” he whispered.
The mighty combined force of Erills rushed him, ramming into his id like a mountain of power.
Maddox howled like a lost soul, feeling the weight of hundreds of Erills together. It was a titanic rush, hoping to crush his will under their mighty weight. And yet…the Builder symbol appeared as he stood upon the spongy plain of his id.
In desperation, Maddox took the symbol that floated before him and placed it against his right arm, which had become shaped and sharp like a sword.
The mountain of glowing energy rushed over him like a ten-ton blanket, smothering him and—a scream of ethereal soul power shook Maddox’s universe, and he might have succumbed to the sound, but energy began flowing into him. The energy flowed through his sword arm, the one wi
th the pulsating Builder symbol embedded within and the one thrust into the mass of coalesced Erills.
“You lose!” Maddox shouted, shoving the sword-arm deeper into the mass of Erills, sucking spiritual energy from them, giving him the strength to resist the combined force pressing around and against him.
The contest continued—
STOP, STOP, the combined entity screamed. PLEASE, STOP SUCKING OUR ENERGY. WE’LL DO ANYTHING YOU ASK.
Maddox refused to listen, determining to kill the Erills here and now, possibly claiming the City of Pyramids for Star Watch afterward.
The combined force of Erills tried a different maneuver, flooding his mind with images and thoughts from—Maddox rejected the images.
They tried a new strategy.
Maddox rejected it as well.
Then, the of Erills shoved a completely different thought at him, showing him what had happened to Captain Becker of Star Watch.
“Who?” asked Maddox.
LEARN ABOUT YOUR MOST BITTER FOE, CAPTAIN.
As Maddox lay physically frozen in the great pyramid upon Estar, the joint-Erills entity threw images and ideas at his mind in order to distract him long enough so it could disengage from the id sword-arm devouring them.
They had indeed used the great Chrono Viewer for their own ends, but not with their own soul strength. They had done so as Maddox used the viewer to learn the whereabouts of ancient computer parts in Victory for Galyan. Because of the hints in Maddox’s mind, hints he was not aware he possessed, the combined mass entity had learned about Jarnevon, the Bosk Homeworld. They’d used the viewer and discovered Nostradamus. Everything had made more sense to the Erills once they did. For instance, they understood why Nostradamus had wanted Maddox to travel here. Nearly as interesting, they’d witnessed the seduction of—
In a fit of desperation to escape the id sword they’d thrown themselves against, the mass Erills mind began to show Maddox the inner workings of the events that had happened several years ago to a Captain Josef Becker of Star Watch Intelligence. The mass Erills mind reasoned that Maddox would want to know these things as they directly pertained to the Class-3 Hauler Lolis II.
In a split moment of id memory-flash-time, the detailed knowledge of Becker’s strange odyssey began to unfold in Maddox’s mind.
The Lost Intelligence (Lost Starship Series Book 12) Page 8
