The Unearthing (18 page)

“The liquid’s encased my body,” She said, a little uneasily, “It’s—I can’t describe it. It’s like there’s a bubble around my head. I can breathe and see clearly. The liquid’s not interfering with my vision at all; there’s no ripple, no distortion.” She said, “I can’t move very well, but I’m fine. Whoa!”

Control panels materialized in the environment around Bloom. There were two control sheaves, one near each hand and a panel covered in Shiplanguage runes and glyphs between them. Displays around the periphery of her vision were unintelligible in Shiplanguage, but obviously status readouts.

“Tell me this is recording!” Bloom called into her mic.

“We’re getting the images,” Brubaker said, “We’re not believing them but we’re getting them.” The cockpit walls rippled first losing their colour then their opacity. From Bloom’s perspective the entire hangar suddenly became visible around her. There was the barest ghost-image of the Bug around her. Beyond that she could see out into the hangar and at her staff collected around the access to the Bug. She could see her own camera’s POV reflected back on the console screen one of the techies was holding.

“Cool,” Bloom said. She turned her attention back to the control panel before her as well as the control sleeves to either side of her own arms. She recognized the layout though it resembled nothing she’d yet flown.

“I get this,” She said, “These are definitely the flight controls. The sticks must control pitch and attitude, direction…” she felt with her feet. “There are pedals down here. I think I could fly this thing. All we’d need to do is map out the control panel, but I think I could
fly
this thing!”

♦♦♦

Gabriel Ashe stared out at His Congregation. Here were His True Disciples. Here were those whom had chosen to follow Him: those who had understood His revelations, those who understood His importance. And these were the ones He loved most: those who had been with Him since the Beginning or very near to it. Only they and two each that they had chosen from among the Congregation that they trusted. They were here tonight to prepare for war. To prepare for jihad.

“
I am the Promise Kept, I am the Spirit Made Flesh,” Ashe said, “I am the Body Made Whole. And I have gathered you here so that we may do the Lord’s work.” Ashe looked out upon His flock and began the Recitation: “
Before He was taken up to Heaven Jesus said to the faithful: ‘When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power and you all will become witnesses unto Me and preach the Good News to the ends of the earth.’ When the day of Pentecost came all the believers gathered together to pray. Tongues of fire filled the room they had gathered in and rested upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit took possession of them.’
”

He turned to the altar. He had prepared Communion for them earlier and had placed it here on a silver tray. The very tray, the Angel had once told Him, upon which the head of John the Baptist had been presented to King Herod. Three pills each in twenty-five cups: one an extremely high-powered opiate, one a hallucinogen and one stimulant. One set of pills for each Disciple before Him and one set of pills for Him.

“
Here is the Spirit of the Lord made ready to fill us all with the His power. But only the Faithful may receive this Communion, for only the Believers are Holy.” At once and as one His Disciples began reciting the Creed of the Observants:

“
I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ His Only Son who saved the world from sin in death and in dying restored life. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Son of the Son of God, promised to us when the Spirit of Christ descended on his Apostles. I believe in the Divinity of the Son of Christ, in His power to make God whole so that the Lord may return to Earth and in the Everlasting Glory of the United Trinity, Amen.
”

When they had finished they approached, kneeling along the communion rail that surrounded the altar. The pills were designed to be fast acting and dissolved under the tongue. Ashe placed the pills into the waiting mouths of each of His disciples, saying the words “The Spirit of Christ” to each. Seconds later the drugs were taking effect. Ashe heard one of His supplicants moan as though in the throes of pleasure. Another sounded as though he were in agony. Another was laughing. But all had Received the Gift. He took His own dose last, His eyes rolling into His head, His heart trip hammering, His breath turning to fire and ice. When he looked out at His Congregation He saw that they were as He had left them, slumped around the Communion rail or staggering back to the pews. He saw ribbons of color weaving through the room, making the image before Him all the sharper all the clearer. He saw the world as His father meant it to be: pure and under His control.

“And now we are full of the Lord,” He said, His voice a clear hypnotic monotone, “And now you can be open to His Word as I speak it. So say I, so sayeth the Lord.”

“So say you, so sayeth the Lord,” His congregation replied, those having returned to the pews now sitting, but unable to stay still.

Others had paired off indeterminately, lying against one another, fondling, rocking, but paying Ashe rapt attention. Almost all were paying Him full attention. Only a few did not. One was too busy convulsing, his body unable to handle the dose, another one passed out, one hand under her blouse, the other twitching and flopping against the rail, as if both autonomous and spastic. Another appeared to be choking on his own vomit. None of them had taken Communion with a pure heart. Any of these Faithless that survived, Ashe would order killed.

“We must strike out at our enemies,” Ashe said to those remaining, “The time has come for us to act. We are called upon to Soldier for My Father, to Soldier for Christ. We may be called upon even to be Martyred for Him. But if His will is not served the Trinity will not be united and the Devil will rule Heaven and Earth. His will is that we strike out against the Ship and those who serve it. My will is that we strike them. My will is that we smite them in the Name of My Father. My will is the will of the Lord.”

“Your will is the will of the Lord.”

“Lord Jesus My Father let My people be an army unto You. Let them strike in the Name of Your will. Let their every attack bring death and their every death be a sacrifice unto You.”

“So say you, so sayeth the Lord.” They sang
Onward Christian Soldier
, then, with perfect clarity and coherence. He looked out on them, contemplating them: His soldiers, ready to march into war for Him, ready to kill in His name, bearing His Father’s standard before them as they butchered His enemies. The song ended and they turned to Him expectantly. He would not leave them wanting.

“My children…My Soldiers, we must now plan for these attacks. We must now prepare ourselves to fight, to die, in My Father’s name,” He said, “And I will give you a war to fight, a cause to die for. I will give you the salvation not just of Mankind, but of Heaven. I will give you the war against the Devil, the war for the Ship, the war against those who serve it. If you will not fight for Heaven, what will you fight for? If you will not die for God, then who will you die for?”

“We will die for the Lord our Living God,” His congregation responded, even as they were lost in thrall to the drugs: hallucinating, convulsing, engaged with themselves or others, still they knew the words:

“We will die for Our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ and for His Only Son.”

“Then let us begin making our plans.”

♦♦♦

The transports rolled their way across the ramp, pulling up in front of the slope down to the Pyramid. Even after the dust settled from halting the vehicles the members of the Ship Survey Expedition took a moment before deciding to step out towards the Pyramid. The Shipsong seemed a little louder today, the sun’s reflection off the gold of the Pyramid and the Ship just a little brighter. But finally the Shipsong became less haunting and more taunting and one by one starting with Andrews, they stepped from the vehicles. Echohawk began giving instructions to the subordinate members of the Ship Survey Expedition. They quickly began setting up a small base camp. The support vehicles were turned around facing back the way they’d come, in case a quick getaway became necessary. Doctor Cole shouldered her medical kit and the two EMTs that were to accompany the SSE did likewise. Aiziz and Andrews had their equipment packed and ready, as did Doctor Kodo and Professor Scott. James and Peter stood ready, both wearing headsets equipped with cameras and viewers. James panned his camera over the expedition as the base camp’s toilet facilities mess tent and medical center were set up, speaking lowly into the microphone cradled against his cheek. Peter scanned the Pyramid, standing a short distance away from the rest of the expedition. Echohawk looked over his team members one last time, ensuring everyone was ready.

“Well all right,” he called, “Let’s go see if we can get inside!” They approached the Pyramid, the sound of Shipsong wrapping itself around their footfalls. Andrews stepped up to the panels of runic script and numeric glyphs and pulled out his console, switching the device on with the pressure of his thumb. Andrews and Aiziz had determined that there was a hidden recurring pattern in the blocks: seven runes and five glyphs were scattered repeatedly throughout the message. Andrews moved to the keypads to the left of the door, studying his display.

“Well, here goes nothing,” He said. He found the runes and glyphs that made up the pattern and keyed them in, sequentially. Each rune yielded after the slightest pressure and slid effortlessly into the back of the keypads. Andrews repeated the sequence on the bottom keypad. When he reached the last rune he paused looking into James’ camera with a grim smile.

“Let’s see what happens now,” He said, pressing in the last glyph. From somewhere in the Pyramid before them there was a loud, echoing thud. Everyone stepped back from the door, almost unaware they were doing so. The door itself began rumbling; another thud sounded from the mechanism behind it. The door cracked away from the rest of the surface of the Pyramid and began sinking into the ground on a diagonal drop that matched the angle of the Pyramid. A gust of old, stale air escaped the Pyramid, blowing past the members of the SSE as they stepped cautiously back towards the opening doorway. The door dropped fully into its recess, stopping with another loud thud. The members of the SSE crossed this threshold into the Pyramid.

The ceiling of the chamber ended a little less than five meters overhead. The interior was black, bare and devoid of any marking or design other than a large golden circular dais, raised up in the center of the room. A meter in through the door this ring rose from the ground wide enough to step onto before dropping back down to the floor on the inside. The expanse of floor inside the ring filled the Pyramid’s cavernous interior and was grey in color, not the same rich black of the rest of the walls and ceiling. As they stared at this new phenomenon a small black dot appeared dead center on the grey floor inside the golden ring.

“What do you make of that?” Echohawk asked Scott, as the engineer bent to examine it. A breeze was blowing; it took Scott a moment to realize that the dot was in fact a tiny hole Before he could report this to the others the hole suddenly opened a little further and the floor inside the ring dropped slightly towards the opening. The breeze seemed stronger. As they watched the hole in the floor got wider from pockmark to pothole to pit; it collapsed back a bit and then get wider still.

“What are we looking at?” Echohawk asked, mystified.

“It’s behaving almost like,” Kodo stammered, stepping forward for a better look, “Like an arterial valve.” As he finished speaking the hole opened completely, the grey floor disappearing entirely. They knelt around the edge of a precipice looking down a long, black pit. The wind gusted violently and they were forced to back from the dais The wind peaked and then levelled off as a weak gale. Echohawk stepped cautiously back towards the opening, squinting against the wind. Scott, Kodo and Aiziz all wanted a better look at what was going on and joined him. As they reached the lip of the hole, a rushing whine could be heard. Echohawk peered down the hole, which was blacker than he could gauge. He caught movement somewhere below then lost it in the shadows and wind. When he caught it again he realized it was much closer and still coming.

“Get back!” he yelled. A half-second longer to react and he’d have been too late. Kodo, Aiziz, Scott and Echohawk fell backwards, barely in time to get out of the way. A massive golden ovoid rushed out of the opening, halting as it crested the dais. The peak of the thing stood nearly as high as the ceiling, and it was twice as wide as it was tall. The object was hollow; though it was ringed with large bands of the same golden alloy that made the Ship, its walls and floor were crystalline, transparent. The wall of the thing split open seamlessly where the SSE stood facing it.

“Now what?” James asked.

“I think that would seem obvious,” Echohawk said, “We call in to base camp and then climb aboard.”

“Are we certain that it will be able to bear our weight?” Andrews asked, “Presumably it hasn’t had passengers since it was buried here.”

“Based on everything we’ve seen so far,” Scott replied, “I think we’ll have to make a leap of faith and assume that it does. This Ship was meant to cross interstellar distances. We can assume that it was built with longevity in mind. Just because ninety per cent of our consumer goods are designed with built-in obsolescence doesn’t mean the Ship will be as well.”