Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) (21 page)

The Thexxian officer was beginning to walk down the central aisle towards the altar, when a small, reedy voice punctured the still, almost reverential silence of the temple.

“
Hello there...” The voice came from the shadows behind the altar.

Instantly, the Pharron Landing Trooper was alert, and poised behind the aimed rifle. At the same moment, the Thexxian officer held up his left arm, hand opened, fingers spread, to prevent the Trooper from firing. Down the barrels of the pulsar-rifle, the Trooper could see a small female Ganthoran child in a short, pale-brown homespun sleeveless smock that reached down to her knees. She wore no footwear and carried a crudely carved doll in her arms. With no sign of fear or nervousness, she stood behind the altar and watched the two strangers who had entered the temple.

“Hello,” the Thexxian officer replied to her in a friendly voice, “and what’s your name?”

“
My name is Thrigla,” the child said, “what’s your name?”

The Thexxian officer speculated that the child was probably the daughter of the priestess of the cult. She would be well used to strangers appearing in the temple, and would have no fear of them.

“My name is Sownus.” The Thexxian officer smiled at her. “Thrigla, that’s a very pretty name!”

He had to get information from her quickly in case they were discovered by adult Ganthorans.

“Thank you, Traveller.” The little girl gave a small bow to acknowledge the compliment. “Where do you come from?”

“
From far away, little one,” Sownus said, “we came to pay our respects in your temple. Is your mother the priestess?”

“
Yes.” The little girl became entranced with the doll in her arms. “But she isn’t here right now, old mister Priamus is going to join the goddess soon, and mummy has to be there to help him cross over.”

“
Oh dear, I’m so sorry...What about your father?”

“
He went to join the goddess before I came along.”

“
Oh, that is sad.”

“
My father was a brave warrior, so brave that the goddess herself called upon him to protect her.” She continued to clutch her doll tightly.

“
Well, I’m sure he’s doing a good job keeping the goddess safe. Is this the goddess here?” He pointed to the sculpture on the table.

“
Of course it is! Don’t you know anything, stranger?”

“
Well, you see, where I come from, the goddess appears in a different form. Doesn’t your holy writing tell you that she appears in many forms to different people?

“
Anyways, we call our goddess T’glamra,” Sownus said, being careful to mispronounce the name of the deity while walking slowly towards the altar.

“
Her name is T’glamara actually.”

“
I hope the great goddess will forgive me.” Sownus smirked and bowed with an open arm gesture to the altar as he approached it.

Yes, this was the place all right
, Sownus thought. Anything with a “T” and a “G” in the first syllables had Garmaurian written all over it. Either a Teg or a Tega from one of the Garmaurian military-aristocratic families had, at some point in the distant past, set themselves up as a god or goddess to keep the locals under control. Now, the remains of that cult were sitting in a temple above the huge underground Central Pumping Station.

“
You walk funny.” The little girl smiled innocently, noticing the awkward waddling gait of the traveller. “Did the goddess punish you for being bad?”

“
Yes, I suppose I do walk funny.” Sownus suddenly halted in his tracks. “But that is the way my people walk. So, why are you in the temple so late at night, little one?”

“
I always come here when mummy is away,” Thrigla said, “I’m going to be the priestess some day!”

That was another common thread in a lot of cultures
Sownus considered; the worship of the Ganthoran water goddess, like most nature or fertility cults, was female dominated. The role of priestess, and its secrets, was generally passed from mother to daughter down the generations. The priestess role had probably been held by the women in Thrigla’s family for the thousands of years since the Garmaurians had abandoned Ganthus.

“
Well, I’m sure that the goddess is pleased to know that the daughter of her brave warrior will be serving her in the future.” Sownus stepped up to the altar.

“
No she isn’t,” the little girl said, “my mummy says that I’m stupid and that the goddess doesn’t like stupid people.”

“
Well, sometimes mums aren’t always right. Shall we ask the goddess what she thinks?”

“
How do you mean?”

“
Where I come from, we ask the goddess herself for her help and her advice when we feel sad or we’re in trouble. Sometimes she doesn’t answer us right away, but she lets us know what’s on her mind, in her own way.”

“
So, will you ask the goddess what she thinks of me?” Thrigla nervously looked to Sownus for approval.

“
Of course,” Sownus said.

Unknown to young Thrigla, what the traveller, named Sownus, was about to do was initiate the huge underground Pumping Station that would release the billions of cubic metres of water that had been locked beneath the planet’s surface for thousands of years. To do that, Sownus had to power up the huge proto-star reactor that was buried several hundreds of feet beneath this temple.

Sownus, in a moment of uncharacteristic dramatic flair, raised both his hands into the air, and closed his eyes.

“
Oh, great goddess T’glamara, hear our humble prayers. We beseech you.” Sownus set his hands on the sculpture on the altar.

Far from being a piece of religious sculpture, it was, in fact, a stylised Garmaurian control panel. From hours of painstaking research, Sownus had discovered that the last Garmaurian visitors to Ganthus had installed the mechanism to replace the original electronically operated control unit. The early Ganthorans, being an intelligent species, would quickly recognise that the buttons and flashing lights were not magic or mystical. A piece of abstract sculpture, however, would never cause the Ganthorans to suspect a hidden mechanism.

Anxiously, but with growing excitement and curiosity, Thrigla watched wide-eyed as Sownus called upon the goddess in her name.

“
Great goddess T’glamara, give us a sign that you favour your humble and obedient servant Thrigla.” Sownus began to press on the shapes set into the spherical cage around the central humanoid figure representation.

To unlock the covering mechanism, the operator had to press the shapes and symbols in the correct order. As he continued with his incantation to the water goddess, he pressed the various shapes and symbols on the sculpture.

“
Give us a sign that you appreciate your loyal and faithful young servant Thrigla, who is a good girl and says her prayers every day.” Sownus opened one eye and looked quizzically, and sternly, at Thrigla as he pressed the small rectangular symbol. “To you, great goddess, who knows when naughty young girls are not telling the truth.” He gave another mock-stern one-eyed look at Thrigla.

Wide-eyed with anxiety, Thrigla, clutching her doll tightly and biting her lower lip, nodded her head vigorously to indicate that she did indeed pray every day to the goddess. The rectangle symbol began to glow red as Sownus pressed the yellow circle again, which turned blue, and the “V” symbol which began to glow yellow. With only one more symbol left to press, Sownus went for the big finish.

“Show us, great goddess, that your beloved daughter Thrigla pleases you, and that you do not think she is as stupid as her mother says she is.” Sownus opened his eyes and pressed the leaf symbol again, which changed from green to orange.

The blue circle symbol turned red, as did the rectangle and finally the “V” symbol. The mechanism had been correctly accessed and activated.

Standing back from the altar, Sownus, the Trooper, and Thrigla watched the spherical cage around the sculpture begin to radiate with a red glow. With a faint hum, it began to rotate. Slowly, the cage-sphere span around the immobile humanoid central figure. As it spun, rays of beautiful, gentle light began to spark from the humanoid figure like tiny fireworks to fade and disappear as quickly as they had arisen.

Beside him, Thrigla screamed in terror and darted over to the benches by the side of the room. There, she crouched into a corner, trying desperately to press her small, frail body through the wall and away from what she saw as the anger of the goddess.

“It’s all right, Thrigla.” Sownus smiled down at her. “Look at the beautiful lights. The goddess is pleased with you.”

Nervously, Thrigla watched in wonderment at the little light flashes that zipped and darted within one metre of what she had been told had been the representation of the great water goddess. It had been a still and silent article of her faith for all the days of her, so far, short young life. And yet, here it was, spinning and flashing its lights, the likes of which she had never seen before. The flashes of lightning on the Lightning Fields were deep, brooding and dangerous, and these lights were so small, clear and beautiful in comparison.

In that moment, Thrigla convinced herself that the goddess did indeed favour her and that she would no longer be afraid. Which was just as well, because at that moment, the light show ceased, and the mechanism blew an accumulated several thousand years worth of dust and sand from the four vents beneath the cylinder supporting the sculpture. Stepping forward, once again, to the altar, Sownus waited for the dust to clear before proceeding with the next stage of the activation. With the dust clearing, Sownus reached beneath the homespun robe and into the breast pocket of his uniform. From the uniform pocket, he produced a narrow, pale-blue triangular key attached to a “T” bar at the top, along with a narrow rectangular object.

Setting the objects down next to the spinning cage of the sculpture, Sownus waited for the next stage of the activation to begin. Slowly, the cage-sculpture was elevated on the telescopically-deploying cylindrical supports until it was thirty centimetres above the level of the altar. When it had reached the appointed height, three of the cylindrical supports disconnected. The fourth support, the one located at the back right hand corner, allowed the whole structure to pivot clear of the control panel that was emerging from beneath the cage of the sculpture.

Looking down at the Garmaurian control panel, Sownus saw the expected three silver metallic rings; one inside the other, embedded into the body of the panel. In the middle of the rings, a smaller embedded cylinder formed the centre of the mechanism.

The cylinder in the centre housed a narrow rectangular slot that would accept the key that Sownus had brought with him. Around the outside edge of the control panel, a circle of lights; red, blue, and yellow, formed a pattern. To the right of the embedded rings was a narrow rectangular piece of metal that protruded from the face of the control panel. The protruding piece of rectangular metal was a small proto-star power pack that drove the initiation sequence of the Pumping Station.

Being a cautious creature and considering most eventualities for this mission, Karap Sownus had brought a replacement proto-star power pack for the Garmaurian control panel. It had been several thousand years since the panel had been activated, and Sownus didn’t want to take any chances. He had evaded the Ganthoran Defence Scanners once, he didn’t want to have to do it again because of a worn out proto-star power pack.

“
A little offering for the goddess.” Sownus winked conspiratorially to Thrigla, who stood wide-eyed in astonishment, staring at this new aspect to the goddess that she and her mother had never seen before.

Deftly, Sownus removed the old power pack and replaced it with the new one he had brought for the occasion. The control panel, despite being re-charged with a new power pack, remained silent. For a brief moment, Sownus considered that, perhaps, the control panel was non-functional. After all, it had been over three thousand years since the Garmaurians had last visited Ganthus, and the self-repair systems could have malfunctioned in the intervening time.
Well, there’s only one way to find out
, he considered.

Taking a deep breath, Sownus lifted the narrow triangular key and slotted it onto the aperture in the centre of the rings. Then, with a prayer to any deity that happened to be listening, he gave the “T” bar a half turn to the right. His faith in whichever power had been listening was boosted when the blue lights around the edge of circular the panel immediately began to glow brightly, and with a loud CLUNK, the three rings and the central cylinder sprang up from the control panel by a few centimetres.

Well, so far so good
, Sownus thought, and with another deep breath he turned the “T” bar through a three quarter turn to the left. The blue lights immediately extinguished, and the yellow lights illuminated around the edge of the panel. Whilst, at that same moment, the largest and outer of the metallic rings fell back flush with the face of the control panel with a resounding CLUNK.

That’s one
; Sownus took another deep breath, and turned the “T” bar a quarter turn to the right. Almost immediately, the yellow lights on the edge of the panel extinguished whilst the red lights illuminated. With another CLUNK, the middle ring of the three fell back flush with the panel surface.