“That won’t hold them long,” Aelfwyrd observed.
The entranceway was filled with thick and expensive carpets and paintings. The paintings looked like they might have come from Italy in the Renaissance. The carpets were covered with scenes from the Arabian Nights. There was a small fountain splashing around a black and gold vase illustrated with a picture of a snake wrapped around a naked woman.
There was no time to appreciate any of it. They ran up the stairs.
The next story had a shiny floor of red and black marble squares. A series of maybe twenty golden statues of horses dominated the space. Each statue looked to be at least ten feet in height. For some reason, the over-sized and muscular images of equine perfection made Charlie think of Michelangelo’s David.
“This is ridiculous.” Charlie finally stopped. “This can’t be real.”
“I know these horses. They were with me in the royal palace.”
“Which royal palace?” Charlie asked.
Aelfwyrd smiled. He was still frightened of the monsters, but the idea that anyone wouldn’t know what palace he meant was comical. “The Queen’s Palace on Mars. I spent a lot of time there and in her studios during my first life.”
“An alien queen?” Charlie asked.
“Oh, no. Queen Gloryannana was born on Earth. In my day they called her The Voice of England. You could imagine her as monarch, pop star, and talk show host.”
“She sounds like a nightmare.”
“You know she’s on the crew, right? She’s your first officer.”
“You’re telling me, I outrank the queen?” Charlie laughed.
Aelfwyrd was touching one of the statues. He had one hand on the reins and another tenderly touching the side of the golden animal’s head, as if it were alive. “We had stallions this big, you know. The queen charged me with breeding them. It was the first job I did for her. She named this one Winston. That one over there was Arthur.”
“These aren’t the real animals?” Charlie asked with great skepticism.
“Oh, no. These statues were cast in their honor. But they were famous on both planets during my lifetime. These statues are life-sized.”
Charlie was still holding the thick silver necklace which he had wrenched off of Allambree’s killer. He held it out towards Aelfwyrd. “What do you make of this?”
The doctor took it from Charlie and examined it closely. “It’s very advanced… centuries after my time. I think – I think it generates its power from the kinetic movement of the patient.”
Charlie took a look behind him. He didn’t hear the creatures following, but there was another palatial staircase which led up to the next floor. He was considering whether they should put another level between themselves and the monsters.
“It’s a control- yes. I believe this is a control collar. It would dictate chemical and electrical patterns in the patient. It’s so advanced. I don’t even know what this alloy could be.”
“So, who was controlling those creatures?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We were, Charlie. Those are our work force, and someone has allowed them to rebel.”
4
Charlie and Aelfwyrd climbed to the fifth floor of the building and then out onto a large veranda which overlooked the entire marble city. The sky was continuing its rolling and waving motion. It looked to Charlie like each line of green and purple flowing energy was an electronic river moving above them.
A series of buildings across from the one they were in reminded Charlie of a white and gleaming collection of Taj Mahals. He couldn’t imagine buildings like these could be built without years of planning, designing, imagining. They were high art.
“Is the whole ship like that?” Charlie pointed at the sky.
“I don’t know. My briefing didn’t cover those sorts of details. I suppose Umbra would be the one to ask about that. She’s supposed to understand the propulsion systems.”
At this point Aelfwyrd felt his hand run over the notebook in his back pocket, the one which had been written by the other David Aelfwyrd. He took it out to see what the other him had been doing before he died.
The pages were all blank.
Aelfwyrd held the notebook out to the captain. “You said that I had been writing in this book? The pages are empty.”
Charlie glanced over. He was visibly surprised by what Aelfwyrd was showing him, but he shrugged it off. “There are too many mysteries all at once. We have to prioritize. We’ll worry about why you wanted to kill me once we take care of the things who want to kill us right now.”
“But, when you saw this notebook, it had writing in it? Words in it? You saw the other me writing on these pages?”
Charlie waved the questions off. Far below, among the statues and the white architecture, he could see at least three dozen of the monsters. They were swarming and searching through the gardens and the walkways.
“How do we reactivate their collars?” Charlie asked.
Aelfwyrd slid the empty notebook back into his pocket. “Yes, yes, that would be the best option. But I have no idea. Asking me is like asking Isaac Newton to fix your television. I’m a smart guy for my time, but the technology is centuries beyond me. With the exponential nature of progress, I wouldn’t even attempt it.”
“You compare yourself to Isaac Newton?” Charlie raised an eyebrow and scoffed.
“Certainly,” Aelfwyrd replied with sincerity.
“Whatever.”
“You ever want to make Newton blush? Tell him he’s as smart as Aelfwyrd. When we find the rest of our crew, ask them what history says about me. You have no idea.”
“Alright, then use that direction-of-the-human-race-altering brain and give me your recommendations. There must be hundreds of those things searching the ship for us,” Charlie ordered, suddenly sounding like a commanding officer.
“Yes, sir. I’ll do my best.”
“Isaac Newton isn’t on the crew, is he?”
“No.”
“I could have used his powers of gravity detection. Where’s the command center?” Charlie asked.
“You really don’t remember anything from orientation, do you?”
“No. Not really. Where is it?”
Aelfwyrd pointed out past the door they had walked out of with Allambree. There was a large white circular building without any decoration just past the Genesis Chamber. It was several stories taller than the building they were currently inside of, and the roof was decorated with a great curved spire, like a seashell. A series of blue circles, which might have been or might not have been windows, rounded the building about half-way up.
“Maybe we’ll find the rest of the crew there?” Aelfwyrd suggested.
As the two men watched, the door of the Genesis Chamber opened. Allambree walked out again, wearing the same long white and gold robe they all woke up wearing. It took just a heartbeat for the monsters to see him and for him to see them. He turned around and ran back inside. They began to follow him, moving more quickly than before. One walked in through the door and a second behind it. Every single one of the monsters seemed aware of Allambree’s presence and they were all shuffling in the direction of the Genesis Chamber.
“He’s as good as dead again,” Aelfwyrd whispered.
“You’re right, and we’d better be careful. If we die, we come back in that room and they get us over and over again.”
Aelfwyrd nodded. “The capital then.”
“Sorry?”
“The, uh, command center – the capital.”
Charlie and Aelfwyrd slowly and quietly made their way back down to the third floor where an exhibit of medieval knights and wizards was interspersed with religious tapestries. Charlie looked around for a few moments and then picked one of the suits. He kicked it over and the various pieces of plate and chainmail rolled and clanged all over the floor.
“What are you doing? They’re going to hear us.”
Charlie smiled. He bent down and picked up a sword. He chuckled as he drew i
t from its scabbard. “Ha ha. I knew they wouldn’t bother with cheap costume stuff. These are real weapons.” He indicated a polearm on the wall for the doctor.
“I don’t know how to use anything like this. And you don’t either.”
“Sure I do. I spent my childhood pretending to sword-fight with my brothers. I even used a crow-bar a couple of times as an adult in real fights.” Charlie swung the sword around, testing its weight.
Aelfwyrd set to work getting the polearm loose from the wall. “I’m not a combatant.”
“You’re whatever I need you to be. Otherwise, I’ll just kill you again and see if the next Doctor David Peter Aelfwyrd is more compliant.”
Aelfwyrd frowned as he hoisted the weapon, but found himself smiling like a little boy when he finally held it up like a real warrior.
“There you go,” Charlie nodded at him.
“It’s just a big scalpel.”
Charlie and Aelfwyrd moved more quickly than quietly down the rest of the stairs. Aelfwyrd banged the end of his polearm against the hard floor a few times. He wasn’t used to the big weapon. The metal scratched against the stone.
They un-barred the front door and carefully stepped back into the street. A couple of the monsters could be seen reasonably nearby, but not so close that there was any immediate danger. Aelfwyrd was becoming noticeably agitated.
“Something’s wrong. This doesn’t really make sense.”
“What’s that?” Charlie asked, keeping an eye on the monsters.
“Some of this technology is god-like. This city is…godlike. It’s incredible. But, where are the robots? Where are the computers? Where is the cloud of defensive quantum love-nanites which should be disassembling any invaders? There’s technology missing.”
“Robots are not a good idea,” Charlie said in a serious voice.
“Yes, I understand. You had your historical problems with them, but that was a long time ago. Maybe a thousand years ago. We’re well past that. Even in my day, we were past that. You and I shouldn’t be holding knives from the Dark Ages. Where are our disintegration tubes? Where’s the crap which wasn’t dreamed up yet in our day?”
“Yeah, okay. You have a point.” One of the creatures was moving closer. Charlie wasn’t sure if it saw them yet. “They’re weird. What kind of a planet would they evolve on?”
“They’re amphibious,” Aelfwyrd explained. “They’re used to less gravity and they’re used to spending most of their time under water. I imagine they would zoom along at terrifying speeds if you submerged them. This is not an ideal environment for them.”
“But you think we brought them here as a work force?”
“We may have had limited options. And it all depends on how badly we needed the labor.”
“That’s another good question: what would we need them to do? Surely the people who built this ship would have given us any resources we needed. And I don’t think we would have needed an army.”
“No. They’re dangerous, but they’re not meant to be soldiers. They would have weapons or augmentations in that case. Maybe they’re just simple servants? No, that seems unlikely. You wouldn’t want one of them making your tea. I think they’re a traditional workforce: labor. Maybe we needed to dig or build or repair, something simple yet strenuous.” Aelfwyrd’s mind was working.
“I would never agree to that.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Not unless the need was serious.”
“Not even then.”
“Charlie, you can’t know what the other Charlie went through. You haven’t lived his life.”
“Yeah, I don’t buy it. I don’t believe any experience would change me that fundamentally. Enslaving those things is the opposite of everything I believe.”
“Well, you’re imagining they’re people just because they walk upright. Do you have a problem with riding horses? How do you feel about zoos? Or dolphin shows? I don’t see any reason to suppose they’re as smart as dolphins. Slavery is just not the right word to describe work animals.”
At that point two of the creatures began moving quickly in the direction of the two men. Charlie pointed so that Aelfwyrd would see. Aelfwyrd almost dropped his polearm turning in the right direction. Charlie steadied himself and got ready to fight.
Then he rushed forward, past the doctor and right up to the first of the two beings. It began to slowly swing its arm at him. As it did so, the flesh reached out beyond the normal shape of the body towards Charlie.
He struck his opponent in the head with the handle of his sword.
It staggered and bent down.
He hit it again and the monster lost consciousness.
Aelfwyrd had cautiously followed his captain forward and was about to face the second of the creatures. He held up his weapon and was waiting for his opponent to get close enough for him to strike.
Which meant that the creature was not facing Charlie.
Charlie ran towards it and then leapt into the air. He came down crashing the pommel of his sword into the being’s skull.
It spat blood, then white fluid, and crashed to the floor senseless.
At just that same moment, Aelfwyrd had found his courage and was striking out at the creature. The polearm was above Charlie’s head and racing down. He had to quickly strike up at the heavier weapon with all of his power to deflect it. As it was, he took a softened whack to the side of his shoulder, which was sure to leave a bruise.
“What are you doing?” Aelfwyrd shouted as he dropped the polearm.
Charlie grabbed his shoulder in pain, “It occurred to me that, if I wasn’t going to be a complete hypocrite, I should try to avoid slaughtering them if at all possible.”
Aelfwyrd started spastically shaking his head. “No, you’re crazy. No. No one could really be that ….idealistic.”
Charlie smiled smugly, and then winced from the pain.
January 2168
Doctor David Aelfwyrd found himself spending hours every day in the Martian stables with the Queen’s horses. He didn’t feel like they were hers. He had raised them. More than that, he had designed them. He had raised their parents, and designed them as well. The project was funded by the crown and it was all at Her Majesty’s request, but he had a hard time really feeling like the horses belonged to anyone but him. The animals themselves certainly viewed Aelfwyrd as their father. He knew that much for sure.
The beasts had been featured on two HY-NUS Balls. Everyone on Earth knew about them. Everyone on Mars did as well, but that officially represented barely a thousand people. Bowie City was a small place, as beautiful as it was. Even with the best of modern technology, you could only make the domes so big. You could only fabricate so much air and potable water.
He often found himself brushing Winston’s hair as he worked on the calculations in his head. His horses calmed him. They allowed him to concentrate in a way which he found very difficult to do in his office.
The Queen’s horses could breathe the Martian atmosphere. Their skin had been designed to protect them from the radiation and strange rays which made the naked surface of Mars deadly to unaltered Earthlings. The dust was the only problem which persisted for them. When the horses went outside for more than a half hour they developed problems breathing, and their eyes swelled up.
Edris came and found Aelfwyrd in the stables. He knew by now where he would be. Normally, Edris did not have the right to enter the royal stables, but the guards understood why he was there and let the assistant through.
“Doctor Aelfwyrd, we need to leave. The shuttle to Albion is waiting.”
Aelfwyrd took a few seconds to come down and become aware of his surroundings again. “Yes, thank you, Edris. Have you packed my personal bags?”
“It’s all on the shuttle already. I have a change of clothes for you here.” Edris held out a folded suit which he carried on his arm for the doctor.
It took about two hours for the shuttle to move Doctor Aelfwyrd and his office from Bowie City to Albion. Albion was the se
cond functional city on Mars. Unlike Bowie, it was not public. It could not be seen from Earth or from any angle in space. It had been built under complete shadow inside of one of the larger Martian canyons.
No one could know about the work being done in Albion until it was finished. When it was complete, Doctor Aelfwyrd would be known as one of the greatest heroes in the history of humanity, but if anyone learned about his project before it was done, they would condemn him as a criminal. The Queen would disavow him. She had told him so when she approved of the project. They knew his name on Earth. He was already a celebrity because of the horses. His animals’ faces appeared on fanatical teenagers’ shirts. They were carved into their young bodies with necro-tats. He was risking everything.
In the shuttle lounge, Aelfwyrd sat with Edris, Susan, Michael, and Fae. They drank a very old vintage of whiskey and dined on goose, which had been harvested on Earth less than a month prior. Huge picture windows allowed the scientists to see the alien planet rushing past them in real time, but Aelfwyrd chose to use the slow-motion option to re-play the landscape at 1/10th speed. They wouldn’t get to see the entire length of the journey, but it allowed everyone to really look at the strange world they had immigrated to.
There was native life on Mars. It was sparse, but hardy. A grey and orange fungal moss grew in patches here and there where the shade was thick enough to protect it from the sun. And the orgal weed, as they called it, tumbled back and forth like an American tumble weed, never rooting in the soil, but subsisting entirely on the dust and cosmic rays which buffeted the planet. Edris played a game with the other scientists, each taking a drink when they could spot a patch of moss, and two if they spied the orgal weed. Doctor Aelfwyrd didn’t play. He believed it was inappropriate for him to participate. The doctor simply watched. He had vast samples of the rare Martian life forms already gathered and waiting for him in Albion. They were going to continue to be very important in the course of the continued work.
The Secrets of the Universe (Farther Than We Dreamed Book 1) Page 4
