Xanada’s army was fighting with order and courage. However, the Establishment was rapidly reorganizing and strengthening its position.
89.
Duncan was running along a street, trying to avoid any personal engagement. Foxso’l, Erina, and a small group of Zureedaii were with him. Their target: the yellow pyramid a few blocks ahead. Although from the air the edifice dominated the field of vision, this was not the case down in the city streets.
“What’s going on?” Duncan said, looking up at the darkening sky.
“It’s the Prophecy,” asserted one of the Zureedaii.
“What a time for a solar eclipse,” Erina complained, raising her eyes.
“Can you see the target?” Duncan asked.
“What do you mean?” Foxso’l replied. “I’m following you.”
“Don’t worry, Ashuraii, we see it,” Tully said. The Zureedaii were gifted with superb night vision.
Abruptly, enemy fire hit Duncan in one shoulder through a joint in his armor. He fell to the polished marble street. Running to his aid, three Zureedaii carried him behind a pillar, dodging the enemy fire.
“It’s okay,” Duncan stammered, as Erina began to unstrap the armor over his wound.
“It’s not okay. Let me finish removing these plates.”
“The enemy is coming, Ashuraii!” Tully’s brother warned.
“Run to that corner!” Duncan yelled at Erina, who was working on his still-hot armor. “I’ll cover you.”
“You can’t . . .”
“Do as I say, Ensign.”
Erina yielded, moving behind as Duncan opened fire, covering her retreat. Immediately, Duncan realized he was dangerously isolated in his position. The enemy was closing distances very fast. Hastily, Duncan unhitched a hand grenade from his belt and threw it in the direction of the voices.
“Take cover, everybody!” he cried out.
Almost instantly, the device exploded. For a fraction of a second, all the surrounding edifices flashed back with a dazzling white. Duncan had been dangerously close to the detonation. The explosives were not intended as anti-personnel devices: they had been designed to inflict damage to military installations, never to be dropped manually.
Still not recovered from the blast, Duncan had already removed the safety catch of another grenade. He was about to activate it, when Tully began yelling from behind: “The area is clear! The devils are dead. The area is clear!”
Duncan put back the explosive on his belt. Turning on a flashlight, he waved at the group to follow him. As he ran, he sporadically flashed the light on to minimize the chances of detection while trying to catch a glimpse of what was ahead.
Finally, behind a wide tall tower, the silhouette of a large pyramid became visible against the dark sky spangled with the alien “stars.” As the team got closer, Duncan began to notice an almost imperceptible phosphorescence emanating from the pyramid’s walls.
“We’re almost there,” said Erina, turning to Duncan.
The eclipse was making the enemy fleet very discernible, with patterns of lights developing quickly in the sky. Duncan watched it all with anxiety and despair in his expression.
The armada was patently getting ready to repel the Zureedaii incursion.
Duncan and his companions were standing in front of a huge wall. It had a forty-five-degree slope, and its edges met at a point at the top. With their arms hanging and their heads up, all looked stunned at their mission objective.
“So, how do we get inside?” Foxso’l said, his outline barely visible against the glowing wall behind him.
Duncan waved his flashlight. “Let’s go around and check for some door, hatch—any possible access.”
“With your flashlight?” Foxso’l chuckled.
“We Zureedaii can see in the dark,” Tully pointed out.
Duncan hesitated. “All right, we’ll be waiting for you right here.”
“Follow me,” Tully commanded. The Zureedaii vanished in the dark, reappearing quickly on the other side.
“We couldn’t find any entrance to the pyramid, Ashuraii.”
“We’d better think of something fast,” said Erina.
“You must use the toorin, as the Prophecy says,” Tully said, looking at Duncan.
Some muffled voices, not from friendly forces, were becoming louder.
“The what?” asked Duncan, agitated.
Foxso’l nodded. “Hand me Aytana’s contraption.” Duncan passed him the device.
The edifice in front of them was surrounded by a ring of small, hollow pyramidal carvings on its walls. Foxso’l took the pyramidal device and put one end in one of the carvings. It matched perfectly.
Like a reflex, a triangular aperture opened right in front of them. The Zureedaii gasped with wonder.
At that moment, shrapnel from a nearby explosion began raining down. A member of the team was hit and fell into the pyramid, and the rest rushed into it for cover. Without leaving any trace, the opening on the wall immediately closed behind them.
Tully knelt down before the motionless Zureeday lying on the floor. There was a deep silence; the team’s spirit had abruptly fallen. Duncan laid a hand on Tully’s right shoulder, but the soldier reacted immediately, overcoming the strong feelings he had now to contend with.
“There is work to do, Ashuraii,” Tully pointed out, as he stood up with determination.
Duncan looked at him, uncertain. The dead soldier lying on the floor was Tully’s brother.
The pyramid harbored another pyramid inside, like a smaller replica of the external one, although its walls were steeper.158 A space, less than ten feet wide, separated the inner and outer walls. A ramp surrounding the internal pyramid led up to the top.
With no further delay, the Realitians and the Zureedaii started to climb the ramp. It was not steep but was very smooth, forcing them to walk carefully and close to the walls to avoid slipping. A dim luminescence was radiating from both the internal and external walls; the phosphorescence, barely noticeable from the outside, was significantly more intense in the inside.
Symbols carved on the walls could be spotted as the incline went up. The symbols, resembling hieroglyphics, shimmered with a gentle gleam that emanated from inside the walls. The ramp grew narrower as the team approached the top, finally reaching a point where it became impossible to advance any further. For a moment, everybody stood idle, looking at each other.
“Here,” Tully said from the rearguard.
Everybody turned back. A hollow pyramidal carving, similar to the one that had let the group inside, marked the end of a long row of hieroglyphics. Right before it, one last sketch of an individual holding a triangular object was carved on the walls. Foxso’l placed Aytana’s device on that mark, and an aperture opened before him.
He stepped in cautiously, followed by the rest of the group. After a few seconds, the wall closed back, leaving the platoon inside a pyramidal chamber that crowned the internal edifice. In its center, there was an elongated slender four-sided colonnade, with long trapezoidal faces. A red hologram of a tetrad crowned its top. The holographic image looked exactly like Aytana’s device, or more precisely, like half of it.
Foxso’l immediately passed the device to Duncan, who was much taller than him. Standing in front of the colonnade, Duncan raised his arms, trying to place the device right where the hologram was, but it was beyond his reach.
“Let Aimeeru and me be the footstool of your victory, Ashury.”
Duncan stared at Tully as he and Aimeeru approached him. Putting their hands together, they invited Duncan to climb on their shoulders.
Foxso’l immediately took the device from Duncan, who started climbing on the hands of the two Zureedaii. Once in position, he looked at the hologram; it was right above his eyes. He turned around, and Foxso’l handed back Aytana’s device. Holding it carefully, Duncan leaned towards the top of the colonnade. He was about to place the object on the spot, when Aimeeru slipped to one side. Both Duncan and Tully
fell to the floor.
The toorin slipped from Duncan’s hands, sliding across the chamber. Very close to the artifact, the grenade Duncan had refrained from using outside the pyramid was spinning loose. The explosive had accidentally unhitched from Duncan’s belt, its safety catch still removed.
Rolling as it spun, the grenade hit Aytana’s device and the explosive was activated. Nothing could now halt the imminent outcome.
“Take cover, everybody!” Duncan yelled desperately, knowing there was no place to find shelter.
Foxso’l ran towards Aytana’s device and picked it up. He quickly applied it to one of the triangular holes carved on one wall, expecting an opening to materialize in response. Nothing happened.
There seemed to be no way out, but Tully found a way. He struggled with the idea for a moment, he hesitated, faltered and even shuddered, but beyond his weakness he found the courage he needed and opened himself to its strength.
“Get the hell out of there!” Duncan yelled from behind the elongated colonnade, where he had taken Erina seeking a feeble shelter.
Tully was completely exposed standing in the center of the chamber. He suddenly leaped forward and fell on top of the grenade. Keeping the explosive between his body and the cold glimmering surface below, Tully held onto it tightly and started dragging himself to one corner, far away from everyone else.
“No!” Duncan cried out, but his cry was silenced by a strong detonation.
For a few seconds, there were only coughs and moans. Then, through the thick smoke, Duncan began searching for his Zureeday friend. But he could not find him anymore.
Everybody was dazed and not fully aware of what had just happened. Duncan crawled over to sit where Tully had been lying only a moment before. His head was bowed down, his face, stunned.
He raised his eyes. The elongated pillar was still standing in the center of the chamber. Undisturbed, the red hologram remained shining on top. Lying intact in one corner was Aytana’s device.
Duncan picked it up and dragged himself towards the base of the colonnade. Leaning carefully on it, he began to stretch up his body, with his arms raised. The top of the pillar continued to prove beyond his reach.
With a painful cry (the wound on his right shoulder, though not serious, was very sensitive), Duncan jumped up with all his strength, swinging the device over his head.
This time, he reached the top of the colonnade. The toorin had finally reached its destination.
A dense energy surge flashed from the toorin towards the hollow apex of the roof above. A thunderous sound came along with a searing light, as the top of the pyramid became perfectly translucent. From the colonnade, a narrow beam shot to the transparent apex of the pyramid. A myriad of high-energy vectors instantly shot out towards the sky in all directions, each one of them winding up in a noiseless ball of plasma deep inside the firmament.
As quickly as it had begun, all became extremely quiet in a moment.
Recovering from the grenade blast, Erina looked at the sky through the external walls, which remained translucent. She could make out only a few static stars, whereas mere seconds before, it had been populated by a sheet of small yellowish moving specks—the Establishment fleet.
With a beaming smile on his face, Foxso’l kept his eyes fixed on the sky for a while. Aimeeru was standing by him, looking in the same direction, wondering if something else was still about to happen.
But Erina turned her eyes immediately towards Duncan. He lay still on the floor, exhausted. He seemed all right, but an intense blue luminescence was emanating from him. It was similar to the gleam she had seen in his eyes and around his body after the environmental restoration in Aquaelight, but much more intense.
The sight lasted perhaps five seconds, but it made a profound impression on Erina. She never confided what she saw to anybody else, not even to Duncan. Although the phenomenon could have been attributed to different causes, to Erina it was the confirmation of a long-held intuition.
90.
Duncan was sitting on a cliff, facing the ancient city. It was hard to believe that, that very morning, a battle had taken place in the crystalline streets shining below. As the last rays of the setting sun shone through the walls of the newly translucent pyramid, Duncan took a small charred notebook from one of his pockets. He had found it lying in a corner before leaving the colonnade chamber.
He opened it to its last page. A single sentence was written on top. The native alphabet, though simple and phonetic, was not easy for him, but he could read it with some effort. Flipping through the pages, he noticed that each one had a heading-like motto. There was a connection between headings, like an ethereal link that grew stronger towards the end of the notebook. Slowly, Duncan read one paragraph, “Today: May it be them,” and then another, “Today: Faith,” and another, “Today: Optimism”. The ideas grew ever more definite and concrete.
The last heading on the last page, jotted down at the beginning of a day that was destined to be the last, stood alone with simplicity and completeness.
Duncan rested his eyes on it for a moment. Looking at the sky, he then put the notebook away.
The last thought was something he would always remember. It was written with a few words, by a faithful friend he now regretted having not known well enough.
It was not a vague idea, a lofty wish that was not meant to be. For on that day, on that luminous day, Tully had truly given everything he had with everything he had. And in so doing, he had gone beyond himself—he had overcome death.
_______________
136 Nereida was a space station of the Fouchè Principality. Its planetary systems had not been involved in the war so far, though their sympathy for the Realdom was palpable. This space station was a huge deep-space complex of about one cubic mile in size.
137 Bioxyn: B2.
138 The green color was produced by a chlorophyll-type substance present in the skin of mature female tilians.
139 Space Operations Command.
140 Analogous to 1.3 light years of our universe. The units, which dated back to the first days of interstellar travel in Foxso’l’s world, and which had at one point become popular in many worlds, were rarely used in those days.
141 The wise warriors.
142 Essray was the native word for God.
143 Gureezai is the plural of gureez and/or gureeza, the latter being equivalent to boy and girl, respectively, among the native inhabitants.
144 Nixy conveyed the idea of nice, pretty, and bright, all together. Only applied to females, it was a trendy term in many worlds of the Realdom at that time, especially among young adults. Although that was not the case with Foxso’l anymore, the term had first surfaced on his home planet during his adolescent years.
145 They hung on poles also deployed from the sides of the saddles, perpendicular to the bodies of the animals and at a small angle with respect to a horizontal plane.
146 The planet had one satellite, relatively large compared to the planet.
147 Through a dynamical process that involves weak magnetic links, zungais incorporate atoms of chrysossetherion in their own molecular structure, even when chrysossetherion is largely an inert gas. The process has a connection to the extreme longevity of these trees, which can live up to more than one hundred thousand years.
148 Most (not all) of the chrysossetherion present in zungai wood is released shortly after a tree dies. Dry zungai timber usually adopts a brown tone, with a peculiar brilliance due to the residual chrysossetherion left in the wood.
149 A courteous title commonly used when referring to prestigious elderly females.
150 Although it looked bigger than our Moon, the dense atmosphere dimmed its luminescence. Still, it was brighter than our satellite.
151 Duncan managed easily to find his way back to encampment, after his intense experience.
152 The ships were stationary above the city, maintaining their positions with their engines in quasi-orbital planes normal to the axis of
rotation of the planet. Such planes did not include the center of the planet, and therefore were not coincident with the equatorial plane, far from that place, since the city was located at a latitude equivalent to about thirty-five degrees latitude on Earth.
153 Native beverage with intoxicating powers when taken in excess.
154 It is not easy to translate this phrase into English. In a more colloquial form (wordier and still restricted in meaning), it could be rendered as Today: all that you’ve got with all that you’ve got. Nevertheless, Today: All things with everything, is not a mere literal rendition; in its original language, it strongly conveys this meaning.
155 Native name given to the polar wind, which after crossing the desert, becomes warm and dry, strengthening in speed.
156 Even when annays had some armor protection, their shields left wide areas of their bodies exposed.
157 The suits were not battle suits, but uniforms with functional environmental features.
158 As a consequence, the top of the internal pyramid did not end in a point since its walls intersected the outer pyramid before they could meet at a peak.
CHAPTER 14
One Last Day’s Run
91.
“Up there,” Foxso’l said, pointing at a small speck in the hazy, yet cloudless, sky.
The small speck soon acquired a flattened ovoid shape. It was unmistakably a Realitian shuttlecraft, and it was approaching rapidly.
The vessel halted very close to where Foxso’l and the others stood, hovering quietly above the surface. Crowds of natives gathered to watch the event, although at a prudent distance.
A sense of regret was soon replacing the initial excitement, since the hour for the Ashuraii to leave the world had finally come. But that was the way things ought to be. “The Ashuraii would fly into the sky, in a white bright star-carousel,” the Prophecy foretold.
After a few seconds of hovering in its position, the shuttle landed. A woman, with tori features, stepped forward from an open doorway on the gleaming hull, followed by two crewmembers. Their willingness to cope with the planet’s ten atmospheres without wearing environmental suits caught Duncan’s attention. However, what most surprised him was seeing Clara again, standing on the top of the shuttle’s ramp, her blond hair wafting gently in the morning wind.
Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence Page 29
