“Uh-huh.”
As they both moved forward for a better look.
“What the hell is this, Delgato? Best guess?”
Ivan shrugged.
The smooth walls of the cave entranceway gradually faded from rock to... what? Support struts and panels and various odds and ends of what looked like metal grew out of the wall until the insides of the cave looked more like a massive machine.
Huge polyhedral shapes filled the walls, all different sizes and colors. Some connected, others standing alone; some had toothlike protrusions as if they functioned like gears while others had sides as smooth as glass.
They were of varying sizes, but all were huge
As the others joined them, everyone were perfectly quiet... awestruck.
And that, Ivan guessed, was a good thing.
“I was hoping you had an idea, Jordan.” He turned to Rodriguez. “You ever see anything like this, Doc?”
Rodriguez shook his head, his eyes wide with wonder ... and curiosity.
Ivan looked back at the gunner, then the rest of their crew.
“I’d say we’re inside some kind of machine.”
“One that no longer works?” Annie offered.
“At least it isn’t working right now.”
Ivan looked to the right where a trio of hexagons, glowing blue like the walls they protruded from, were locked together, engaged and ready to start turning.
“Someone throws a switch somewhere,” he said, “and they’ll move, and...”
A shudder ran though him when he suddenly pictured his brother’s hand on that switch.
“Yeah,” Jordan said. “And do what?”
Annie kept looking around.
Sinjira muttering, “Wow,” as she recorded everything. “Place is getting freakier by the minute.”
“Getting?” Ivan answered.
“What about your brother?” Jordan said.
Ivan felt better, knowing he wasn’t the only one thinking of Kyros.
“This is another trap. Gotta be,” Ruth said, her voice high. “We nearly got killed trying to get down here, and then—”
“He surprises us with whatever the hell this is,” Ivan finished for her.
Annie turned around, looking back at the vast expanse littered with so many dead bodies.
“Maybe we’ll join them,” she said.
Jordan shook his head. “And maybe not, but”—he turned to Ivan—”I say we get out of here pronto.”
Ivan shook his head.
“You think if Kyros set up all these bodies, he’d simply let us walk out?”
He fished his commlink from his pocket and pressed the call button.
“Kyros? You in here? You hear me, brother?”
Nothing.
Not even static.
Sinjira, Rodriguez, and Ruth huddled close, their eyes wide as they waited and—like Ivan—wondered from which direction the surprise would ultimately come.
Ivan smiled reassuringly at Ruth, trying to chase some of the fear from her eyes.
Again, into the commlink: “Kyros?”
Still nothing.
Annie started: “Maybe he’s not—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the speaker in Ivan’s hand came to life. The voice was as clear as if Kyros was standing next to them.
“I’m right here, brother. Just a little bit farther, and we’ll be reunited.”
Ivan hit the mute on the device.
“Do we trust him?” he asked.
“He’s your brother,” Jordan said.
“Not much fucking choice here …”
He restored the link: “Show yourself, Kyros. I have what you want. The data crystal.”
Kyros’s laugh filled the room, sounding as if it wasn’t coming only from the commlink.
Ivan had the brief impression that the vibrating vines overhead were transmitting, amplifying his laugh.
Looking from face to face, bathed in the weird blue light, Ivan and the others waited to hear what was so damned funny.
~ * ~
“You actually think I need you to bring me the crystal? I could have gotten Nahara and that crystal whenever I wanted.”
“He sounds sick,” Annie said quietly. “Deranged.”
But not quietly enough for Kyros not to hear and respond.
“Sick, Captain Scott? Really? Why not come up here and see for yourself?”
Then the commlink went dead.
But the laughter still filled the serpentine chamber, gradually receding.
Because now the laughter wasn’t coming over the commlink.
Now, the voice was coming from somewhere ahead of them.
“It’s you, Ivan. You who I want to see, brother.” He said the last word with such disdain, such venom, that it made Ivan’s skin crawl, and his hands squeezed his rifle.
He turned to the others.
“Maybe you all better stay here, and I’ll go ahead—”
“No chance,” Annie said at the same time Jordan said, “You forget our deal?”
Ivan looked at them, not sure he remembered any “deal.”
“No hero cards.” Jordan looked at the other three passengers. “And no way we’re leaving them behind.”
“All for one?” Ivan said.
“And one for all,” Jordan responded.
“And I thought you said you didn’t read.”
But any amusement was quickly cut off when Kyros’s voice reverberated through the cavern with metal walls.
“I’m waiting, brother. You are so close.”
Ivan nodded, accepting the inevitable.
He accepted that he didn’t have any more cards to play. All he had was the trust in Jordan and Annie, and the solid weight of the pulse rifle in his hands.
Then he cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted as loud as he could, “Kyros, I’m coming!”
Silence ... except for the vines, which were still humming.
A steady chorus in the quiet chamber.
Stating the obvious, Jordan said: “Guns ready?”
And Ivan led them forward, around the wide curve of the entrance and farther into what he now thought of as “the machine.”
~ * ~
The long, winding corridor, like an umbilical cord, opened up into an enormous arena-sized room.
Even more astounding than the size of the open space was the huge object—if, indeed, it was a single object—that it housed.
It consisted of towering stacks of the mammoth polyhedral blocks stacked side by side and atop one another. Many had sharp edges and spiky projections that resembled blue ice spears darting out in a dozen different directions.
Above it all, bizarre, intricate clockwork machinery was turning ... thousands of Mobius strip-like shapes turning and twisting. The walls all around were arrayed with blinking and flashing lights, and moving machinery that made low, arrhythmic sounds that shook the walls and air.
“This is—” Ivan started to say, but Ruth cut him off.
“The Builders ...” Her voice was hushed with awe, and Ivan looked at the expression of awe and reverence on her face ... the glow in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you this,” Ivan said as he started moving along. “My brother isn’t any Builder.”
As they moved cautiously out into the wide expanse of the arena, Ivan looked up at one wall and saw an opening. And inside that gap—a stone chair, more like a throne that all but engulfed the person sprawled on it.
And behind that person, a confusing and elaborate display of machinery, and in front, a control panel floated, suspended in the air.
The man in the chair—even at this distance—easy to recognize.
Kyros.
With a wave, Kyros moved the control panel aside, and standing up, began to clap his hands in a slow, steady cadence that was more mocking than laudatory.
“Well done, my brother. We’ll done.”
“I was surprised you survived all of the little safeguards.”
Ivan stopped walking, thinking his brother looked too relaxed.
No tension. No alarm. Not even a weapon in hand.
Ivan wasn’t fooled and didn’t have to remind himself of the death and destruction Kyros had unleashed on the Road stations.
He’s insane, Ivan thought. Don’t ever forget that.
Then, moving forward, Kyros held out his hand. “I’ll relieve you of that crystal now.”
“I thought you wanted me?”
Even at this distance, Ivan detected a tight smile.
“Oh, I have you. Some of our people, the old-time Runners, are still loyal to you. But when they see you, they’ll think that you betrayed them”—his voice rose—”when they understand that you are a goddamn traitor to the cause. They will see …”
Kyros’s body appeared to be suddenly much larger, inflating like a balloon.
“That you betrayed the Runners. You betrayed our cause—the cause so many of us gave our lives for, they will know, and they will demand that you pay for what you’ve done!”
Kyros appeared to hover like a phantom above the stone floor.
Jordan kept moving off to one side.
“Steady,” Ivan whispered.
Kyros clenched his fist and pointed it directly at Ivan, but his voice became quiet... steady ... even sounding reasonable.
“Give me the crystal, Ivan, and I’ll let them all live.”
“How can I trust you?”
“You’ll have to take my word for it.”
“Doesn’t sound like a bargain I’m willing to make.” Ivan’s grip tightened on his pulse rifle, but he sensed—no, he knew—Kyros had to have some kind of defensive shielding.
He was brave enough in battle, but he wouldn’t risk such a confrontation ... not without protection.
“I will have the crystal.” The high note of insanity was back. “One way or another.”
Ivan inched forward, a few steps closer.
Kyros didn’t react.
Ivan sensed Jordan moving farther to the right. Not wanting to betray him, Ivan didn’t glance at the gunner. He knew he could trust him to size up the situation and do what he had to do.
Then more movement. Annie. Shifting to the left.
The others—Ruth, Sinjira, and Rodriguez—remained perfectly still. This was their battle, too, but what could they do, unarmed?
Then Sinjira started moving away, slowly ... distancing herself from the other two.
Kyros glared at them, his smile broad and toadlike.
When he moved, though, he didn’t bring up a weapon.
Instead, his hand brushed something on the hovering control panel. Ribbons of arcing blue light glowed above the machine.
“Why do you want the crystal?” Ivan said.
“Why?” Kyros laughed to himself.
His hand now pointing straight up. The writing blue energy, looking incredibly like shimmering water, surrounded his hand like a glove. The energy rose toward the ceiling, snapping, twisting.
A sizzling hiss filled the area.
“Because of this, Ivan! This is what you and I and all of us have always dreamed of.”
Ivan looked up and said as casually as he could, “And what would that be?”
Truth was, he was both amazed and confused by the weird energy that Kyros seemed—somehow—to control.
Or did it control him?
But as the blue plasma continued to rise, Ivan—never taking his eyes off his brother—-got a first wave of understanding.
Intuition.
The amazing truth of what Kyros was pointing at...
He held his breath as Kyros laughed softly and then spoke.
~ * ~
41
THE ENDLESS ROAD
You have no idea what I’m capable of,” Kyros said.
Ivan looked up at him.
Overhead, more of those subtly waving vines.
Humming louder now, and gradually lengthening as Kyros stood beneath them. Was he also getting larger? Or was it an illusion?
He stared at his brother.
“What is this place, Kyros?”
Ivan was aware that Annie and Jordan had each moved even farther to the right and left.
Had Kyros noticed as well?
So far, Kyros appeared to be unaware anyone was moving.
Even when Ivan started walking up the wide, stone steps toward him. Gun in hand.
His brother took another step away from the chair and the floating console and came down a step toward him.
He nodded to the dazzling array above them.
“The Road, Ivan. This entire thing. Right there. It’s what we always—”
He moved even closer to Ivan.
“It’s what we always dreamed of, brother. What we fought and died for! The open Road. And we have it now. We have a map they left behind.”
“A map?”
“Here. Floating above us.”
Ivan shook his head and heard someone—Sinjira, he thought—gasp.
His brother had lost his mind. Drunk with power.
What would the Runners become, with that map, with the entire universe at their control, under the leadership of Kyros?
For a moment, though, Ivan had to agree. Yes. This is what we always wanted.
The open Road.
Freedom to go anywhere in the universe.
Escaping the crushing control of the World Council. Opportunity for everyone to succeed—or fail—using their own initiative.
But Ivan had rejected that.
He had accepted the World Council’s offer.
And for him, his word—to Runners, to friends, to strangers, and even to the plutocrats on the World Council—was as solid as the ground he stood on.
“They offered amnesty, Kyros,” he said. “We can stop the violence. We can stop running. We can bring them peace, and we can stop being chased and hunted.”
Kyros stopped moving forward. Energy streamed around him like a gigantic cloak.
“Just as I thought,” he said. “A traitor and a coward! That’s why I had you come here, so the Runners could see what you have become!”
Kyros swiveled his head, looking left and right, and saw—or finally acknowledged—Annie and Jordan’s flanking maneuver. He smiled, unworried.
Then he glared at the passengers standing behind Ivan, at Sinjira, slowly edging closer to the console, the Road map display, floating above it like an amorphous jelly.
“These people with you ... They’re proof you work for the World Council.” His eyes flashed as he regarded Ivan. “You’re a traitor. And you more than anyone else know what we do with traitors!”
He’s insane, Ivan thought.
Whatever humanity Kyros might have had was gone. Something had happened. Something right here, in this place, with this machine.
But the window for doing something about it had long since closed, Ivan realized.
Kyros clearly had no interest in any amnesty or anyone’s survival but his own.
“I’ll take the data crystal now,” Kyros said.
Of course.
The alien device that allowed new, undiscovered sections of the Star Road to be accessed and traveled—a map of new Star Roads—would be useless without the full Star Road operating system.
Many, probably most people on Earth, if they thought about it, believed that the Road Authority had already discovered the full extent of the Star Road system.
The Seekers, like Ruth, were an embarrassment to sane society, asking their deep questions and looking for the original Star Road Builders.
Star Road Page 34
