Before I could think up a witty rejoinder, the ape captain turned back and began to holler. He was so loud I could clearly hear him from here.
“Moment of truth,” I said, while sighting on the noisy dude.
The scouts shouldered their laser rifles and began down the trail, traveling on all fours again. The rest of the troop took longer. Some of them had sprawled on the ground. The ape captain had to march among them, kicking a few in the side. They must have grumbled. He kicked one several times. Everyone scrambled up after that, following the scouts.
One interesting thing: the last two basilisks no longer had their hands tied behind their backs, and their lenses lacked covers. It would seem the ape captain was trusting Ailuros. Ah. She cradled a laser rifle.
I shook my head.
“What is wrong?” asked Rax.
“Never assume,” I said.
“What is that in reference to? Are you berating me? My plan worked. They are heading for the ziggurat”
“So far, so good,” I said, “unless the ape captain is trying to trick us. Maybe the scouts are even now fading into the jungle to try to sneak up on me.”
“I think not.”
I peered into the distance. Rax was right. I saw the two scouts on a bend, revealing them again. Well, if the flyers were dangerous aliens, this was a great move. If we had gotten frightened and made a tactical error—I heaved a sigh. Whatever the course, I was in for a long morning of marching.
-31-
After a little over two hours of grueling, undergrowth travel, I reached the edge of the jungle and the bottom of the valley floor.
I had beamed a sheep-sized dinosaur earlier, an innocent kind munching on ferns, and I had risked beaming more to cut out my chunk and semi-cook the meat. That meat I had devoured. I now risked crawling on my belly to the crystal-clear stream.
“Any hidden sea monsters waiting to eat me?” I whispered.
“Negative,” Rax said.
On my belly, I gulped water for what seemed like forever. Finally, satisfied, I crawled back to the jungle edge and picked up my rifle.
The ziggurat, the great golden tower, was several hundred yards away. The broad road of cyclopean stones curved around the giant construct, likely coming to its foot. That would be the front of the ziggurat. Now, I could see its real size, maybe fifty stories to the top.
The ape-led party camped at the foot of the first level. That level or terrace was a good seven or eight stories high.
“How long have they been there, I wonder?”
“Do you see all of them?” Rax asked softly.
“No. The ape captain, the scouts and Ailuros are missing. Do you think they went into the ziggurat?”
“That would be the likeliest course.”
“Then we screwed ourselves,” I complained.
“No. Look.”
I saw the ape captain on all fours, his two scouts and Ailuros. They marched around a corner of the ziggurat, coming back to their ape camp and her two basilisks.
“They must have circled the damn thing,” I said.
“Which does not compute,” Rax said. “This is Ailuros’s great temple. Surely, she knows how to enter.”
“Unless Argon burned that knowledge out of her long ago,” I said.
“Or unless someone else did.”
“I have a third theory. Maybe she’s bargaining with the captain. From here, it looks as if she’s talking fast, trying to make a deal.”
Ailuros gestured and I saw her mouth move constantly. The woman loved to talk. She loved to make deals and double-cross.
“No flyers,” I said a moment later.
“Not yet, in any case,” Rax said.
“Okay, genius, do we just wait here? I thought your alien flyers were going to take them out for us.”
“I am open to suggestions.”
“Wait, a minute,” I said. “Something’s finally happening.”
The ape captain grasped the front of Ailuros’s blouse and lifted her off the ground. The two Gigantopithecus scouts unlimbered their laser rifles, scrambling ahead of the chief. Carrying her easily, the captain brought Ailuros to the camp.
The basilisks jumped up, their lenses turning bright.
The scouts must have been waiting for that. They fired, the lasers drilling the scaly mutants, killing them instantly so they toppled onto grass.
The ape captain marched to the camp and threw Ailuros among her dead servitors. The big bastard bellowed—and he could shout. Every Gigantopithecus raced up with his rifle ready. They all aimed at her.
It was funny, but that made me angry. The alien apes shouldn’t manhandle a woman like that, not even Argon’s scheming wife. It struck me as wrong, despite my former actions and—
From the ground, Ailuros raised her hands as if in abject surrender.
The captain barked at her.
She nodded slowly.
The captain must have given another order. All the Gigantopithecuses lowered their weapons.
Ailuros climbed meekly to her feet.
The ape captain stepped near and roughly put a huge paw behind her back, propelling her toward the ziggurat. She stumbled, finally righting herself, and continued toward the first level.
“Logan. You must take me nearer. This is critical.”
“You know what’s going on?” I asked.
“Hurry, Logan. I am out of fine-tuning range.”
I decided to risk it, because I figured I knew what Rax was thinking. I moved in a crouch across open ground and waded into the stream. It quickly deepened. All the apes were heading to the ziggurat, their backs to us. One looked back, though. Had he sensed me? I could not feel his gaze upon me. I was up to my neck in water and had frozen to stillness. He didn’t act as if he saw me, and finally hurried after the others.
Soon enough, I waded out of the stream on their side and crawled like mad to some ferns.
“Closer?” I asked.
“Silence,” Rax said.
I held him up high to the side of the fern, hoping that would help. Then, I waited, with the rifle down on the ground beside me.
The water had felt refreshing, and I had drunk more. The only problem was a sudden need to whiz. Soon, I squirmed, but I did not leave my post.
Ailuros led the apes to the smooth wall of gold. She did something, because a hidden door moved up, revealing darkness within. The apes looked to their captain. He spoke to Ailuros. She nodded. Then, with the two scouts first, Ailuros next, the captain and finally the rest of the Gigantopithecuses, they all filed through the secret entrance into the ziggurat. Soon after the last one had passed, the door slid down, and it looked smooth again like the rest of the golden wall.
“Tell me you got the code,” I said.
“I did,” Rax said. “But there may be other hidden passageways. Logan, we must enter the ziggurat as fast as possible.”
I was afraid he was going to say that. After my much-needed piss, I shouldered the rifle again. Then, I broke into a sprint, racing to the great golden temple before something showed up to stop me.
-32-
The great ziggurat awed me, a fantastic tower of gold, and according to Rax, holding a piece to a great weapon.
My first introduction to aliens had been the episode with the Starcore. Aliens had kidnapped and taken me to Greenland. There, I’d found a subterranean place full of stasis tubes with frozen Neanderthals, ancient hominids and godlike Polarions. The place had been built when Greenland was free of ice. It had been known as Thule back then.
A great Polarion had given sentience to crystals on Rax Prime, the beginning of Rax’s kind. The Polarion had used those crystals and built the Starcore. It had been a weapon to channel cosmic energy, granting the Polarion vast power. The other Polarions, fearing him, had ganged up and defeated the Starcore builder. The Starcore itself had hidden on Earth afterward, out of phase in Far Butte, Nevada. With Argon’s help, I’d destroyed the great crystal weapon and the aliens who had come to Ea
rth to find and steal it.
My point was, Greenland had once been ice-free. Then, it had been the land of Thule. Some ancient historians had spoken about Thule. Apparently, it had existed when the proto or primeval Egyptians had thrived.
Likely, this fantastic golden ziggurat was from a similar distant era. Maybe the other Polarions had fashioned a counter-weapon to the Starcore. When the danger had vanished back then, perhaps the others had unassembled the great counter-weapon and stored it on various worlds for a future problem. Now, an ambitious and maybe even, the strongest of the Polarions, named Nerelon Brontios, was making a play against Earth and this was the needed weapon to stop him.
If I wanted to save my planet from Nerelon Brontios, I had to get the first piece of an ancient super-science weapon.
Thinking these things, I looked up at the monstrous mountain of shaped gold. The first level was a good eight stories high.
“Wow,” I said.
“Indeed,” Rax agreed. “It is a mighty edifice. Now, bring me closer yet.”
“Do you sense them inside waiting for us?”
“I could not, as the thick gold walls block my sensors.”
That put me on high alert. “Would Ailuros know that about you?”
“What is your point, Logan?”
I thought about it and shrugged. We were taking a risk in order to win it all. “Can you open the way?”
“I must be closer. Ailuros—there, do you see?”
I studied the golden wall.
“Oh. Of course,” Rax said. “You do not see into the ultraviolet. You must listen precisely and touch parts of the wall as I instruct.”
“Is that what Ailuros did?”
“Of course,” Rax said.
“She can see ultraviolet wavelengths?”
“She is a Polarion. Now, Logan, attend me. This could be delicate work.”
I stepped closer yet and listened to Rax’s instructions. Feeling foolish, I reached to spots, for buttons I couldn’t see, and pressed them at Rax’s command.
It was weird feeling the spots depress. Rax had told the truth. Abruptly, a golden door revealed itself by sliding upward.
I jumped back and unlimbered my rifle. Then, I slowly stepped near and peered into a lit steel corridor.
“It was dark last time,” I said.
“Their passage has obviously triggered the lighting system. Hurry, now, the door will close soon.”
“Yeah,” I said, stepping into the ziggurat as I entered the steel corridor.
After passing through, the door soundlessly closed behind me. I looked back and shrugged again. Risks, we had to accept them if we wanted to win.
I began down a long steel corridor, and it felt as if I was aboard a space station again. The place was so clean, and the recycled air had a metallic taint. The dinosaur-era fern jungle, the pterodactyl-like flying aliens—just like that, it felt as if I’d never walked on the alien world or seen the strange sights.
“Rax, are there hidden rays beaming us?”
“None that I can detect,” he said. “What makes you ask?”
“The unreality of these corridors.”
“That is nonsensical. They are very real.”
“That’s not what I mean—oh, forget it. Do you have a schematic of the place?”
“We will proceed logically. Take a right here.”
We trekked the steel corridors for at least two hours. We found two ramps, taking them, and two places with oversized stairs, taking them up, as well. Lastly, Rax found an access way—a long steel ladder. I began climbing, and it felt like my time with Lord Beran when we descended from the destroyed underground CAU facility in Utah to Sand’s subterranean realm with the Great Machine.
My shoulders were shaking, and my hands throbbed by the time I stepped off the ladder onto a steel landing.
“How far up do you think we are?” I asked.
“Please, Logan, use a softer voice. I detect life forms nearby.”
“That’s just great,” I whispered.
“Proceed to the hatch.”
I did, and it opened on its own accord.
“Did you do that?” I asked nervously.
“If you mean causing the hatch to open, the answer is yes. Now, tiptoe if you would. I detect Ailuros ahead.”
I gripped my rifle more tightly and moved soundlessly down a narrower steel corridor. The overhead lights were bright enough. Did that indicate—?
A side hatch opened ahead, and Ailuros stepped forth. “Greetings, Logan,” she said, holding her hands upward to indicate she was unarmed.
That alerted me. If she didn’t bear arms—I spun around, aiming behind me, spying a big old Gigantopithecus creeping around a corner—
“Ugh,” I said, arching my back. A numbing force had struck me. It made me cold all over and weakened my limbs. The image of the hurrying Gigantopithecus swam before me, going in and out of focus. I tried to activate my rifle but failed to do so.
“Logan, Logan, Logan,” someone chided as if I were a fool.
“Rax?” I whispered.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I tried to turn around and see who it was. I failed in that, too. I was toppling, and then everything went blank.
-33-
Reality began impinging upon me in a strange fashion. I felt myself bob up and down. Even after opening my eyes, I didn’t understand what was taking place. Finally, I realized I was wrapped up like a mummy—although with my head exposed. Someone had placed me in a pack, and one of the Gigantopithecuses was wearing the pack. I was a prisoner of the ape captain’s troop.
Rax hadn’t spoken, and I didn’t know if he was still on my belt or not. The troop marched through a large steel corridor, indicating that we were still in the golden ziggurat.
I had an excruciating headache and my back where Ailuros must have shot me with a numbing agent now burned and itched abominably. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. My mouth was dry. Did that indicate a long passage of time or a byproduct of what Ailuros had done to me?
There was a heavy-sounding grunt, and my bearer halted. Soon, I heard Ailuros and the ape captain conferring in low whispers. They were ahead of me where I could not see. I did not know if they whispered for my benefit or if they had a different reason for caution.
I strained to look around, and I spied one of the great apes watching me. He hefted my Polarion rifle. When he saw me looking at him, he raised his lips to reveal his yellow, simian teeth.
The ape captain spoke harshly. I had come to recognize his deep voice. My bearer and the mocker, after slinging the rifle over a massive shoulder, went to all fours, and the troop moved faster down the corridor.
Finally, my bearer slowed his pace, becoming the last creature in the troop, as I saw no others behind him. A huge door must have opened ahead, for blazing sunlight shone into our corridor. My bearer passed a huge hatch and ambled onto the second highest level of the ziggurat. He turned, and I became dizzy at the fantastic height.
I didn’t know about the others, but my bearer, on all fours, climbed onto a great golden stairway. The angle of the ascent was shockingly steep. If my ape slipped and tumbled down, I would be helpless and likely crushed to death. The steep, broad, golden stairs went all the way to the ground. The way passed two block gatehouses down there and then came to the edge of the cyclopean-block highway.
My bearer climbed the stairs swiftly, soon reaching the highest level and presumably looking at the last golden housing. In there, according to Rax—
“Hey!” I shouted. “Look at the sky!”
No one paid me any heed.
“The sky, you idiots,” I shouted. “Alien flyers are coming in at two o’clock.”
I must have noticed them as dots first, mere pterodactyls or primitive birds, I thought. As my ape bearer had climbed, the dots had turned into great flapping creatures. Then, I got a good look at them. They had python-like tails, a huge spread of leathery wings and crocodile-like snouts. They also
appeared scaly or reptilian, wearing purple garments and wielding glowing weapons in their hands.
A crack like thunder sounded, and a bolt of purple lighting flashed from one of the alien weapons. The bolt flashed past me, crackling in passage. I heard a sizzling sound, and a horrific ape scream. Then, a fried and smoking Gigantopithecus tumbled past my bearer on the stairs. I had the perfect location to watch his dead body bounce and flop from one great step to the next.
My bearer was presumably racing for cover. The flyers swooped toward the troop as booms of thunder and cracks of lightning sent purple bolts at the great apes. Then, my bearer passed from the golden ledge into an opening. He panted as he raced, and I wondered if he would drop his pack—me—so he could flee faster.
He did not, and barriers—steel doors—clanged into place behind him.
I would have shouted for them to cut me loose, to let me help them fight—if it came to that—but no one seemed to be watching me. No doubt, the ape captain had captured me for Nerelon Brontios. I was bound and secured. Thus, I was no longer any concern for them on this planet.
Even as I thought that, everything changed. The ape captain barked loud commands.
My bearer halted, standing upright as he panted. I twisted my head to look around, but I could not see what was happening ahead.
Finally, Ailuros sauntered behind my bearer. She looked like a child compared to him. Her skin glistened and she smiled with that hideous cat mouth of hers.
“So…Logan,” she purred.
The ape captain barked louder.
Ailuros produced a long blade. She spoke gibberish.
My bearer loosened his pack straps, jerked me several times and then slammed me sideways onto the polished floor. That hurt.
“Don’t say a word,” Ailuros purred, as she loosened the pack restraints and dragged me free of it. She was stronger than I’d realized, as I was a solid 250. My muscles were denser than they used to be, the reason for my greater weight. She used the blade, sawing through the tough mummy cloth that imprisoned me. Finally, as the ape captain spoke rapidly in the ape tongue to his troop, the last cloth parted.
I heaved a sigh of relief and only then understood how hot I’d been. I’d been sweating, and now shivered at the relative cold.
Invaders: Dreadnought Ocelot (Invaders Series Book 4) Page 15
