Shackleton's Folly (The Lost Wonder Book 1) (39 page)

Electra nodded to him. “Send the go signal.” He rubbed the arm bracelet and sent the go signal. He led Electra and Dancer inside.

The cavernous interior of the Maintenance Citadel was made up of a phosphorescent, pink, marble-like material. The grand entryway and foyer spoke of an Empire at its zenith. Public art was important to all advanced civilizations, and here was no different. Electra led them through the great sculptures that lined the entry. Dancer had let loose his miniature army of bots. The ground units took off quickly and became scouts for the trio. The dirigibles had no difficulty lifting high above and became transmission platforms for the smaller, short-ranged communication bots in advance of the party. The fixed-wing drones were out of the line of sight, in the dimness ahead, in seconds. The only nonfunctioning units were systems that relied on repulsion technology. Dancer tried several times to reboot the units and get them into the air but failed.

Dancer showed Alec and Electra the unit. “One failure or two, but to have all units out tells me a dampening field is in effect. No floating devices.”

Electra said, “Nothing like this has happened before, but then, again, we have never used hover units inside. I will send a burst message to rappel by rope.”

Alec checked his equipment, and all showed ready. He adjusted his wrist bracer and asked, “Dancer, you have anything else on the source of this field?”

“No, but we are in the presence of giants, considering the highly advanced technology we have seen. I would not even know where to start asking questions.”

The corridor opened up to reveal a central chamber that stretched back in the distance. Dancer received telemetry of his bots scouting ahead. Dancer whistled. “This chamber has three million cubic meters of open space.”

Alec looked up high to the dimly lit ceiling. Above, a latticework of crystalline walkways crossed overhead, a few meters below the ceiling.

A series of grand columns ten deep encircled the chamber and reached high above them to the ceiling. The walls had the First Ones’ writing that slowly moved within them. Dancer investigated and signaled to his minions to pay special attention to inscriptions and other sources of information around the chamber. The amount of data being sent to him suddenly jumped by a factor of four. Dancer paused a moment to take in the data and its significance. His translation algorithms were running at 110%.

Dancer’s scanners flashed across the writing as it appeared. “The walls are a history of the Empire. Fascinating. They make sense to me now with the download from Atlantis.”

Alec read the maintenance screen. It showed him the way to a statue at the center of the building complex.

Alec pointed ahead, “This way.”

They followed a path through a sculptured pine forest of Douglas fir trees 20 meters in height cut from pink marble — an Earth forest replicated in stone. The illusion was underscored as the scent of pine came to them on a soft warm breeze. Alec smiled and turned to Electra. “It’s what I imagined it would be.”

Electra grinned. “You think this is wonderful. I will take you on a trip into the real woods, and you can experience the beauty our garden has.”

A rustling sound came from their right. A large black-tailed deer came out of the trees. It was in full color and stood out against the pink marble trees. The deer, made of holo-beams and force fields, sauntered up to them and looked them up and down. A call from an unseen bird above them moved through space as it flew from tree to tree. The forest environment changed to accommodate the visitors. It recognized their species and provided visual stimulus customized for them, and it was just that — a visual representation of the real thing. Alec caught sight of a cougar that appeared out of thin air about 25 meters away and walked through the trees. The concierge system successfully adapted to the visitors, but the holographic projectors seemed to be out of alignment. Wildlife, sights, and sounds filled the forest as they continued to make their way down the path.

The trees became denser the further in they went, making it difficult for two people to walk side by side. Alec and Electra walked together, with Dancer receiving telemetry from his minions.

They could almost see something ahead when they stepped through the last of the trees into a meadow. The forest ended to reveal the statue of the Emperor of the First Ones, the individual who built this monument to the empire he ruled. The statue of the seated Emperor rose from the floor 125 meters. The grand throne of the Empire was sublime in its design. The seated Emperor held a scepter in one hand; the other hand was empty and outstretched before him. The Emperor’s attention was focused on the vacant space above his hand. The area immediately surrounding the statue seemed, surprisingly enough, to be the freshly waxed marble surface found in so many public buildings.

The greatness of the Emperor and the Empire would be the impression any sentient being would have carried away from the emotional appeal of the experience. The metaphorical intent of the setting was evident: The individual lost in the woods moving forward, not seeing the future or the forest because of the trees. Then came the reveal of the Emperor in his stately pose, far above the world and looking ahead. The scale of the statue made the impression of the Emperor powerful. Any viewer would be made to feel insignificant contrasted with the might of the Emperor and his Empire.

Alec and Electra walked a little closer together, as they contemplated what it was to be an Emperor of an Empire that could produce art on this scale.

The statue had a dedication plaque that ran across a 10 by 25 meter flat slab of the same pink marble material as the throne. It had a missing lower right corner. An inscription was cut into the material’s face and filled the plaque from top to bottom and edge to edge. Alec’s interest focused on the missing corner that should have contained the ends of the last few lines.

*

The battleship
Illia
honed in on the
Quest
at the Maintenance Citadel. The battleship flew above the storage racks of giant robots. The Citadel was ahead of them in the distance. Fighter squadrons capable of trans-space-atmospheric flight launched from the battleship. They flew in formation for escort duties and waited.

Four large armored personnel carriers sat wide open on the flight deck of the
Illia
. A voice from the speakers commanded, “To the carriers, double time,
march
!” A contingent of four Koty companies in full tactical gear jumped to a synchronized jog. On arrival at their designated APC, each company member entered, found a seat, and pulled down the body-forming restraint from above them. The military precision of the troops was the product of campaign experience — they had been on the tip of the spear on many occasions.

Ground-assault, mechanized, light-wheeled guns were loaded in the side storage systems. Service personnel completed the storage of equipment and closed compartments for flight. Checklists were completed, and confirmation was given as to the readiness status of the APCs.

The last to arrive on the flight deck was Wolfgang Gray, who walked behind Captain K’Dhoplon. The Captain strode up to the lead APC and entered the airlock. Gray stopped just outside the carrier. He looked back at the Koty crewmen as they completed their functions and stepped away from the vehicles ready for takeoff. The Koty were conquerors. But their time, too, would pass, as the territories, planets, and peoples they took control of figured out that they were not the all-inspiring lords they wanted everyone to believe they were. Gray stepped into the airlock, and it closed swiftly behind him.

The
Illia
launched the four APCs, which headed toward the Citadel. The patrol squadrons formed up around the carriers, escorting the larger, slower vehicles to their destination. The assault troops passed over row upon row of the metal colossus as they closed in on their objective.

The landing pad the
Quest
had sat down on could not support any of their APCs. The Koty craft flew in formation over the wide, open area at the base of the stairs. The armored carriers landed in a pattern allowing for rapid deployment of both personnel and equipment.

The ramps fell open with a clang of metal upon a solid surface as they hit the ground. Hundreds of Koty troopers deployed themselves in a perimeter around the ships. A contingent of 200 troopers moved from the APCs toward the Citadel, led by Captain K’Dhoplon and Wolfgang Gray.

*

Alec inspected the statue with the aid of his pad and half of Dancer’s minions he had redirected to the task. They scanned the statue with the same attention to detail they had when they had scanned the artwork in the black pyramid. A complete 3D model would be available for analysis soon revealing any internal compartments concealed within the structure. Alec’s experience had been that the larger the artifact, the more likely it was that there was a lot more to it than what met the eye. “We want them to bring the piece, so we’ll leave everything as is for now,” Alex emphasized to Electra.

“If you say so,” replied Electra.

Dancer and Electra stood in front of the dedication plaque only a few meters from the missing corner. Dancer studied the dedication. The inscription was written in the First Empire script. Dancer had half a dozen mini-dirigibles scan the full text of the dedication for processing. It was a tedious task, and these units were the best for assignments requiring work on vertical surfaces.

“Fascinating,” said Dancer. “Knowing what the ‘real’ history of the Empire is from the First Ones’ internal documents, I find it interesting reading text like this dedication plaque, written to awe and inspire the masses.” Dancer nodded to the statue, “This, by the way, is Emperor D’along. His advisors and the best minds in his dominion knew the Empire was in decline even then.”

Electra turned from the plaque and faced the trees. “They have arrived.” She brought up her weapon and stared out at the Koty troops, who had stopped their advance at the tree line. Soon it was hard to find a gap between the trees without a Koty presence, weapons menacingly pointed at them. They held back until two figures stepped from the path Alec and his group had come in on. Captain K’Dhoplon and Wolfgang Gray left the tree line behind.

Alec turned to see Gray, who remained a few steps behind a Koty of Captain rank.

Captain K’Dhoplon spoke in Standard as he approached the statue, “The Koty claim this world!”

Alec said loudly, “Think for a moment, Wolfgang. Don’t you understand?” He passed the maintenance screen to Dancer as if it were just an ordinary tablet.

Gray walked behind Captain K’Dhoplon at first and then separated himself from the Captain. Gray could hardly mistake where he was and what was going on — this was the figure of the Emperor above him, looking out over his domain. Gray felt a tightening in his chest. Sounds of wildlife became more noticeable, as did the first scent of pine wafting to him from his left.

The roar of a big cat came from their left. The Koty troops turned quickly and fired their weapons into the trees at approximately where the sound had come from. The Koty closest to the trees fanned out, surrounding the area. They moved in, ready to fire on the creature. Out of the woods came a large, predatory cat, with a tawny coat and lighter patches on its underbelly, jaws, and chin. Gray estimated the big cat at 135 kilos and nearly three meters long from nose to tail. The cougar looked from Koty trooper to trooper, as if it were evaluating its prey. It padded through the troopers, totally unafraid of them.

It sauntered by Captain K’Dhoplon and Gray, and it walked up to Electra. She’d had experience with the big cats of her world, so she gave the cougar the respect it demanded. Electra reached down to pet the beast and stopped imperceptibly short of the cougar’s back. The cougar looked up at her with large feline eyes. Its panting grew louder as it turned to Captain K’Dhoplon. The cat started toward the Captain, walking at first and then breaking into a trot. The Captain pulled out his sidearm.

The creature’s muscles rippled as it leapt toward Captain K’Dhoplon, its roar echoing. Trooper weapon fire caught the cougar at least three times as it closed in on the Captain, who had raised his own weapon to fire point blank into the cat’s face. He fired a quick succession of shots into the cat’s head. None of them seemed to have any effect. The body of the cat smashed into the Captain and took him down to the ground. After smacking down the Captain, the big cat continued in that same direction. It walked slowly toward the woods, ignoring the weapons fire coming from the horror-struck Koty troops. Their guns had no effect on the cat.

Alec glanced over at Dancer, who said nothing and shrugged his shoulders. He turned to Electra, who only smiled back at him and winked. She obviously knew more about what had just happened than any of the rest of them. Captain K’Dhoplon managed to shake himself free of the troopers who had tried to assist him. He snarled at all of them, frightening one to the point of visibly trembling.

The trooper’s cowardliness was noted by Captain K’Dhoplon, who picked up his gun and fired. An explosion of brain matter and bone exploded from the back of the trooper’s skull, killing him instantly. The Captain got up off the ground and looked with deadly intent at Wolfgang Gray and the rest of the humans. His troopers had their attention split between the three in front of them and the woods behind. The cougar’s roar came from the other side of the clearing. This caused the Koty there to back away from the tree line; they turned their guns to the woods as well as on the humans. An owl’s loud call came from high in the trees.

Wolfgang gestured first to the Captain and then to the troops surrounding them at the tree line. “Shackleton, it makes no difference now if I do or not. The Koty are not going to let humans live in peace anywhere.”

The rest of the Koty troopers came slowly from the forest, weapons at the ready. They trained their weapons on the three standing before the dedication plaque, encircling the trio and cutting off their means of escape.