Kerba came over the comm. "It's here! The fortress! I have a wall made of that same material you are seeing down there. It's been knocked down and covered up, but it's unmistakably a wall. Looks like it encompasses an area of about five kilometers in circumference. I'm seeing other materials in the fields surrounding it! This has got to be Megiddo!"
We soon had the Jess setting down above a debris field that stretched for kilometers.
Garrett handed me a utility shovel. "I hope you know how to use one of these. Everything looks to be buried. You can use the scanner on your arm pad to located items within ten meters or so of you. If an item piques your interest, dig it up."
My first dig yielded a piece of metal that I could not identify a purpose for. One side had been melted by a high heat, while the other had a smooth, machined edge. A second artifact was far more interesting. The forearm and glove of a battle-suit lay holding what was unmistakably the destroyed remains of a blaster.
"Garrett!" I yelled. "Check this out!"
I gently picked up the combination of a forearm, hand, blaster rifle grip, and partial stock. "This has got to be exactly what Kerba was talking about. I believe this planet is the location of the War of Wars as he thinks. If so, that's a huge archaeological find."
Garrett half smiled as he turned away. "Yeah, but will we find a helmet out here?"
As I looked over the blaster grip, I replied, "I don't know, but—"
Garrett looked back. "What is it?"
I turned the forearm of the battle-suit around so that Garrett could see up into the arm of the suit. "This is an android!"
Garrett gave a confused expression. "What?"
I held up the arm with its exposed circuits, steel bars and obvious hydraulics. "This arm is from an android. They had machines fighting on this field!"
Garrett looked over at the Pockna, parked half a kilometer from our location. "I wouldn't show that to Kerba just yet. Not that he isn't finding pieces just like that, but if it's unique, I'd rather keep it quiet for now."
I carried the mechanical forearm to the Jess and placed it in the cabin, returning to the field for further investigation.
Garrett called out. "Hey, Knog, come over and help me dig this up. I think we might have a full blaster rifle buried here."
Five minutes later the intact rifle was lifted from the hole. The tip was unlike those produced by the Orwallians. Instead of wide and round, two nodules protruded from the end of a shaft. The telltale rings of the amplifiers were nowhere to be found. And the power cell ... the power cell was identical in makeup and configuration to the power cell we possessed with the artifact suit.
Garrett unclipped the dirt-encrusted cell. "I bet if we put the cell from our suit in here, this weapon would still fire. Other than some surface corrosion, there really isn't anything else to fail. Nothing is mechanical, and the rest is made of molded pieces."
I replied, "I don't think we want to use the power in that good cell until we know how to recharge it."
Garrett nodded. "I wasn't saying we should do it, only that we could. Either way, I have to say this whole adventure is about as exciting as it could get. I mean, we all knew that there was a War of Wars. What we didn't know was that there was an actual battlefield that has lain untouched for two thousand years. This is just very exciting stuff."
As I stood looking over the field I began to wonder if what we were doing was right. Aside from being a battlefield, this was a graveyard. According to the archives, millions of lives were lost before the Duke met his end.
As I continued to think about the stories of the War of Wars, a feeling of exhilaration washed over me. I imagined the heroics put forth by the individuals who fought for our cause, defeating the evil Duke and his minions.
I then had a sudden realization that my people, the Grunta, were a big part of the Duke's minions. Up until his defeat, we had fought against the Humans and their allies. Having lived all but the last ten years of my life under the free and fair society that made up the AMP, I was suddenly plagued with guilt. The Duke had lied to and abused my people, along with countless others, but we had fought for him just the same.
After several more hours of digging up battlefield trinkets, Garrett called out. "I think I might have a helmet over here!"
Garrett held up his arm with an image of the local scan. "That is a helmet if I ever saw one. I believe this to be a partial upper torso with one arm and the head intact."
I replied, "I'm feeling like a grave robber."
Garrett shook his head. "These people won't care. The ones who will are the species out there being conscripted: i.e. your family. If I were you, I'd be working over this field with my shovel right now. If that AMP battle-suit does what we think it will with a helmet, it will be our best way of getting back onto that gate structure, and opening that portal."
After a short dig, the remains were unearthed. The helmet was not a match. It instead belonged to a species from the Delta sector. The Hatcha were a small, very private people, whose numbers had fallen to be only in the tens of thousands. Their cultural norm for more than a century was to have only a single child per household. The families all lived in wealth and luxury, but as a species they were dangerously close to corrupting their gene pool. Each year, genetic birth defects became more prevalent.
Garrett pulled the helmet from the upper portion of the battle suit. "Well, at least Kerba can add one to his collection."
I replied, "It has the skull of a fallen warrior in it. I believe we should return it to the hole. I'm beginning to find our efforts a bit distasteful."
Garrett pointed. "That's your family out there! I'd be scouring this field for anything and everything if it was mine."
I frowned. "I have no intention of stopping. I just find it objectionable, that's all. I'm not here to collect trinkets."
The rest of the Megiddo day, along with much of the next, was spent digging up and identifying artifacts from the War of Wars.
After unearthing another piece of a blaster, I jammed the head of my shovel down into the earth. "I think we are wasting time here. If we fly the Jess low over the fields, can't we create a three dimensional model of every item scanned that is bigger than my thumb? We won't have colors, but we'll be able to easily pick out anything that is even remotely shaped like a helmet."
Garrett nodded. "Not only that, but I can write a quick algorithm that will only return hits that are the size and shape of what we are looking for. Come on, let's get on with it."
Scans of the surrounding plains yielded one hundred thirty-six helmet shaped items. After further discussion, our list was narrowed to eight possible candidates. Four were of a species similar in size to the Igari. One was Hatcha, and the remaining two were unrecognized.
I returned to my seat on the Jess after our final dig. "We are done. While being here is fascinating, it doesn't serve our purpose. I suggest we return to see Mollis. If he has no better leads, we return to Effica and make alternate plans."
Garrett raised Kerba on the comm. "Kerba, we appreciate you bringing us out here. I would suggest you tell no one of this place until you have fully documented all that you can. Once word gets out, the treasure hunters will swarm this place. This is a big piece of all of our histories you have found here today. You should be proud of what you have discovered."
Kerba replied, "I take it that you were unable to find what you were looking for? And thank you for funding this excursion, I will gladly give you credit when the time comes to let everyone know this place actually exists."
Garrett held up his hand. "We would rather not be involved. And if I were you, I would set up the Pockna to give you an alert should any other ships approach. You wouldn't want to get caught out in one of those fields by yourself. There are still plenty of those around who would do you in, if only to steal your ship. And as far as finding what we were looking for, we didn't. If you happen to come across a Human helmet, like you have in your collection, only intact, we would be extreme
ly eager to either purchase it or perhaps lease it from you. For now, we'll be heading back to continue our search elsewhere."
Kerba Skol smiled and waved as we lifted off. The ride back to Novesta would take five days.
Chapter 4
* * *
Garrett looked over the scan of the Tantric object. "I'm not a scientist, but I would have to guess this material would be extremely hard to penetrate. And I ran a few calculations using that aquamarine. It seems it would work wonders toward bleeding off the charge from an ion bolt. This looks like the forward section of a ship's wing. I have to believe this was once armor on a fighting ship."
I replied, "Would we be able to reproduce it? And would it be better than what we have?"
Garrett nodded. "Oh yeah. I have to think this would be far superior to what we have. You probably wouldn't even need the gravity shield riding in front of the ship to protect you from debris strikes. And I would love to have some body armor made from this stuff. As far as reproducing it? I don't know how it was processed to get it in this form, but if somebody figured that out before, someone can do it again."
As we continued our flight back to Novesta I picked up the android forearm and hand. "I'm eager to let Go have a look at this. I have to wonder about how powerful the android was that this belonged to. The mechanisms that make up this arm are intricate in design."
Garrett replied, "Autonomous robots walking around that are far stronger than us doesn't sound like an ideal world to me."
I froze. "Garrett, this forearm has writing on some of the parts."
Garrett edged closer. "And?"
I turned the open end of the forearm toward him. "It's in AMP standard English."
Garrett took the arm for a closer look. "This is one of ours? We had androids? I wonder why there was no mention of that in the history texts?"
I replied, "Would you want to admit to future generations what your biggest mistakes were? What if the Duke was Human made?"
Garrett laughed. "No. Not likely. The texts tell us that he had been running things, or at least around, for nearly a million years. Neither of our species go back that far. You take Human history back ten thousand years and we had barely evolved from using rocks and clubs. We might have manufactured this, but we didn't make the Duke."
I shook my head. "And what if all that history was altered to say what the founders of the AMP wanted it to say? Are we really to believe any of it?"
Garrett winced. "OK, now you are starting to scare me. Getting caught up in any of that is just raw speculation and it doesn't help us in any way."
I laughed.
Garrett looked over. "Were you actually trying to be funny?"
I replied, "I was. And the look on your face was the reward for my attempt."
Garrett sighed. "OK, I guess those speculations were a bit out of character for you. But they do leave you wondering. Why did the founders of the AMP choose to hide away Megiddo? And what of the portals and large ion generators? I would be certain that our scientists could figure out the generators, although there is no real incentive to do that. We have all the cheap power we can use. I can see their misgivings about the portals, but someone will figure that out again one day. Harden Salton has already figured out how to abuse what we have."
We landed on Novesta and made our way back to the home of Mollis Cathos. "Gentlemen, have a seat. I'll see if I can raise my contact who was off world."
Mollis walked into another room for his conversation. I leaned in. "Do you find it odd that he left the room for that comm?"
Garrett looked back over his shoulder toward where Mollis had gone. "Seems harmless enough to me."
I replied, "His prior conversations were in front of us. When people change their behavioral patterns, there is usually a reason behind it. Keep in mind we are wanted fugitives in the New Alliance. The fees we are paying are probably minuscule compared to what the Alliance might offer in the form of credits or favors. I believe we should now be suspicious of Mollis Cathos."
Garrett shrugged. "I guess a little suspicion wouldn't hurt. Let's see what he comes back with."
Mollis entered the room. "Good news! My contact believes he might have the artifact you are interested in. He was partners with the trader I originally purchased the suit from. It seems one kept the suit while the other kept the helmet. He has come on hard times and I believe he would be willing to part with it for the right price. I've set up a meeting for tomorrow in Bogwa. If you would like to stay here this evening, my chef is an excellent cook and we would enjoy the company."
Garrett nodded.
I held out my hand. "I apologize, Mr. Cathos, but my partner and I have some important items to discuss. If you would provide me with a location for tomorrow's showing, we would be happy to meet you there."
Mollis slowly nodded. "The chef will be disappointed, as he enjoys wowing other species with what he calls his ability to please every palette. We will meet you in Bogwa at the Occur Company warehouse. It is in the local listings and is easily spotted; the whole building is painted a bright red. As I said, I believe the owner of the artifact to be financially motivated, although he may still not have a desire to part with it. By the way, did you bring the rest of the suit with you? It would be interesting to see the two pieces together."
I shook my head. "We only brought a mock-up collar. The rest of the suit is in a secure location elsewhere."
We left the house of Mollis Cathos in an air taxi. After a quick checkout through the local customs inspection, we boarded the Jess and lifted off.
Garrett turned his chair toward me. "We had the dock paid for already. Where is it that we are going exactly?"
I replied, "We are parking the Jess in orbit for the night where we can keep an eye out for other ships. Anything that looks like New Alliance coming in our direction would be a sure sign that Mr. Cathos sold us out."
Garrett sat back and crossed his arms. "I guess I can't disagree with that logic. I'm sure there aren't many, if any, New Alliance people out here. I'll set up an alert to monitor all traffic coming into this system. If a destroyer shows up we know we've been made."
The Novesta night passed without incident. We landed back at the spaceport in Bogwa and made our way to the warehouse. The air taxi set us down on a pad near the front doors. Mollis Cathos was standing with his hands clasped behind his back.
As I stood to go for the door, Garrett said, "Hold on. That tracker I placed under your arm is still active. I can pull it up on my holo-display. Give me a second and I'll have one up under my arm as well. If for some reason we get separated, we can follow what's happening to the other using these."
I replied, "Who's the suspicious one now?"
Garrett laughed. "You're the suspicious one. I prefer to be called the cautious one. Either way, we can now follow each other in silence if need be."
Mollis was all smiles. "Gentlemen, please follow me. The owner of the artifact is inside."
The lobby of the Occur Company was well outfitted for entertaining clients. Dual fountains battled each other as a display of lights flickered on and off in a pattern that matched the soft music that could be heard in the background.
Mollis stopped beside the fountains. "I've always found this display to be soothing. I would someday like to have something similar, albeit smaller, in my home. I could sit and watch it for hours."
A massively overweight Human emerged from a back hallway with a breadstick in his hand. "Mollis, good to see you."
Mollis bowed and gestured toward us. "Mr. Rugus, these are my clients, Mr. Williams and Mr. Bogg. They are very interested in seeing the helmet you have in your possession."
Clevel Rugus looked down. "I see you both have blasters. While I can accept that we sometimes live in a dangerous world, I'm afraid I am not comfortable with you bringing those into my building. You can either return when you don't have them, or I can have one of my guardsmen watch them while we talk."
An Igari walked up behind the H
uman. "Mr. Fritz, would you please take possession of their weapons for safe keeping. These gentlemen were unaware of our policy."
We each drew our blasters and placed them in the outstretched hand of the guard. He turned quickly away, walking at a hurried pace, back into the hallway from which he had come.
Clevel Rugus said, "Now, Mr. Williams, Mr. Bogg, you do understand that this artifact is my prized possession. I wouldn't part with it for any amount of money. Mr. Cathos tells me you two have the other parts of the suit. Is that true?"
I replied, "We do. And we would very much appreciate it you would show us the helmet. We are collectors ourselves, and I am certain we would find it fascinating."
The large Human expelled gas in a very unprofessional manner. "Sure. Follow me. I keep it in a secure location back here."
Mollis gestured for us to proceed, falling in behind as we walked forward with disgusted faces through the horrid smell. After a short walk down the hall we were led into a room with a large desk, a single chair, and no windows.
Clevel Rugus sat at his desk, pulled a breadstick from a jar on top, and began to talk as he spat out crumbs. "Gentlemen, as I said before, I have no interest in selling the helmet at this time. I would however, like to make you a generous offer for the suit."
I looked over at Mollis, who shrugged his shoulders.
Garrett crossed his arms. "Can we at least see the helmet so we know it's a match."
Clevel smiled as he chomped on the hard breadstick. "Oh, it's a match. You see, my former partner and I came into possession of the suit some time ago. The pieces became separated due to a personal dispute, with each of us holding a part until we could come to an equitable means of joining the pieces together. Mr. Rorch, however, fell on hard times and decided to sell the suit and gloves to an outside bidder through Mr. Cathos. The problem was, the item did not belong to Mr. Rorch. It belonged to both of us."
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