The Orphaned Worlds (57 page)

Rosa leaped ahead, taking the steps two, sometimes three at a time. Robert tried to keep up and was gasping for breath by the time he reached the bottom. Dark ichor splattered the floor around the smashed Achorga corpse – he spared it the briefest of glances before dashing after Rosa, who had ducked through a wide exit. Beyond it he almost stumbled when he saw what awaited there.

There was some light, faint glows coming from strange narrow panels that looked vaguely like stained glass. There were columns of similar panels all around the walls, which went up at least two hundred metres. This huge hall had straight sides and semicircular ends and was perhaps three hundred metres in length. But what caught his attention from the moment he entered were the big circular platforms, one at either end. He recalled the chamber under Giant’s Shoulder, back on Darien.

‘Forerunners,’ he said. ‘Are these … warpwells?’

THESE ARE TRANSFER PLATFORMS
WARPWELLS UNDERTAKE TRANSFER FUNCTIONS IN ADDITION TO THEIR OWN VERY SPECIAL NATURE

‘I suspected as much,’ Rosa said. ‘Which one?’

TO THE RIGHT

‘And naturally I’m the last one to know,’ Robert said, running after her. ‘I think I can guess how we’re getting out.’

Drawing near he could see the same swirling, interlocking patterns he had noticed at Giant’s Shoulder, except that this platform was at least twice as big. Also, it had a tenuous yet perceptible aura about it, as if energies slumbered within, waiting to be awakened. By contrast, the other looked grey, dusty and lifeless.

PLACE ME UPON THE CONTROL PEDESTAL