A Paradox in Retrograde (34 page)

There for the last hundred feet or so, as they walked the streets
grew ever narrower until the road came to an abrupt end. There
they had come upon an ancient entrance way where a mighty
blast door had once stood. There now appeared only broken jagged stones and rusted half buried sheets of steel. For a moment
the trio looked upon the gaping maw that would again swallow
them in darkness. By some strange convergence, the last rays of
the early evening sun light having filtered down past rows of
abandoned buildings were now perfectly aligned it to the passageway before them. These golden beams cut deep shafts of light
into the darkness. Within this light they could see only the flicker
of unsettling dust cast against the jagged stone. The air was filled
with the constant sound of a groaning wind as cool air bellowed
outward from the underground. It seemed to beckon them to enter. This image seemed to put nothing but fear into young Ibsen's
heart. Ibsen, having been possessed by Amida had kept silent during the majority of their ordeal, now that he was facing this fear
alone and directly he spoke. "I'm scared father. Dowe really have
to go back in there?" As gently as he could, Landaus tried to reassure him. "Ibsen, I'm sorry but there is no other way. We are going to need to trust that Amida will do as he says." This did not
seem to sooth Ibsen's anxiety as much as Landaus had hoped it
would. He thought to himself that he would have to keep a close
watch on him.
So to retrieve their torches Landaus and Grunhuf removed their
packs and laid them on the ground. During this brief distraction
Landaus had taken his eye off Ibsen for a mere moment. When
they stood up again and looked back toward Ibsen, Landaus
was startled to discover that something rather odd was happening with Ibsen. A strange blur aura had seemingly enveloped
him. They did not immediately react for Ibsen did not appear to
be in any immanent danger. They watched as a puzzled look
then came upon Ibsen's face as he stared blankly at the sky. He
seemed then to nod knowingly as if to someone or something
unseen before him.

After all that Landaus had witnessed over these few days he
was not alarmed by what he saw there now. Because he did not
appear to be in any danger, he thought it best he proceed with
caution. He didn't quite know how he should approach this. So
he started in simplest and most direct way, he asked him. "Is
everything alright Ibsen?" Young Ibsen upon hearing the
sound of his father's voice turned toward him. This action sent a
ripple through the static field that surrounded him, breaking the
spell. Then before their eyes as suddenly as it had appeared the
aura dissipated back into the ether.

"Yes father everything's going to be alright;" he said as he
pointed excitedly toward the cavernous entrance. "He's going to
send the robots to help us."

"He told me so, just now. He said that the robots we saw earlier
are now under his control and that they will act asa diversion.
Look Father, there in the cave!"

They turned again towards the opening and what they
saw
there truly startled them. Ambling from the shadows
strode the steel behemoth. With each step it took, a corresponding thud reverberated out from the cavern. They
stepped back in shock as they took in the site ofthe giant
mechanoid filling the opening of the cavern with his body. Somehow the ages of rust and debris that had accumulated upon its surface had not limited its movements. Its visual appendages rotated
as it cleared away the ages of dust. There from behind a set of
grimy lenses a ruby light shined outward. Its head structure rotated from side to side seemingly gazing on them dislodging as it
moved layers of dirt. Its mighty arm rose up slowly and then began to awkwardly mimic what they correctly perceived as a come
hither gesture. Landaus's jaw dropped as he recognized what he
was seeing. "If I did not see it with my own eyes, I think I wouldn't have believed it. It's calling us forward. Amida is showing us
the way, just as Ibsen said he would."

Once the humans had left the throne room Leif ran to the comfort
of his fathers arms. He stood there in his embrace for a good long
moment. For Aaralaat was so relieved to have him there again
safe his mouth could not utter a single harsh word. Aaralaat
stepped back and held his son at an arms distance. "Leif, I am so
happy to see you have returned safely. Have you been injured or
in any way mistreated by these savages?"

"No father, I am uninjured. I was roughed up a bit,but I imagine
that was to be expected. I am however sorry, by disobeying you. I
have put you through too much. I wanted only to seefor myself
firsthand the home of our enemy."

"There is no need for you to apologize, for you are a prince
among men. This spirit of yours will one day serve you well.
However you must remember that you have a responsibility beyond yourself. Your life is far more valuable to the survival of
our kind than that of a mere soldier. You will learn as you become king that you will send many a warrior to their deaths. To
do these things you must first survive in order tosucceed me as
king. Do you promise me that you will remember these things?"
"Yes father, I promise."

"Good now go to your mother's chamber and greet her, she is
waiting. I am sure there you will find that she may have harsh
words for you." The prince did as he was told and his father
slapped him on his back as he passed. As Aaralaat was so engaged his son It did not take long for certain less scrupulous
members of his court to begin making subtle passes in reference
to what they had characterized as the, "Human presence" in
their midst.

Within Aaralaat's chamber, as a hostage Amida was by his honor bound to abide by their agreements. For his part he would do
no more than to stand silently and observe the unfolding turmoil. Aaralaat for his part could not knowingly participate in
any action that would go against his publicly made promises.
There were others among them however who were not constrained by oaths and would act in secret. It was to these voices
that Amida's ears would strain to hear. It did not take long for
Amida's patience to pay off for soon there he began to hear devious whisperings of deceit. He knew he would have to act
soon.

The king looked on in wonderment as Amida's impregnable
object began accumulating about its surface an azure glow. Emanating from it, tendrils of static lightning licked about the
room as if desperately searching for something. Finding the
lowest point in the room there it found the drainage system and
a direct link to the rest of the city. Deeper intoits very tissues it
probed until it found what it was searching for, the ancient control systems. Further down within the darkened recesses below
the city, other systems frozen for untold centuries suddenly and
inexplicably came back from the brink of oblivion. There within these shadows the mechanoid service robots, whose hulks
had littered the sprawling underground, had begun like Lazarus
to quite literally rise from the dead. Seemingly there within the
cores of their metal bodies resided a region of complexity made
somehow immune to the ravages of time and entropy. Drawing
power directly from the atmosphere only their oxidized joints resisted the call to alert status, though only temporarily. Along
miles of internal wiring energy once again flowed where it had
not done so in ages. Subjected to this new surge of power, the
contents of their temporary active memory cells having long since
degraded automatically triggered a system restart. The air around
them seemed to seethe with a static charge as a cascade of crackling switches and wires signaled their rebirth. As each one came
back online a fresh set of recently inserted commands were waiting for them. One by one, over an ultra broad band wireless neural network their instruction sets streamed at nearly the speed of
light. Soon thereafter these metallic creatures had come back on
line, throughout the underground complex the once darkened alley ways were now alight in the diffused glow of their light emitting diodes.

Before the ink had had a chance to dry on their agreement, Aaralaat by his indirect actions had nullified it. Though he could not
do so publicly he had indeed planned to do just what Amida had
said he would do. From their hiding places the party of those he
had dispatched to kill or capture Landaus now observed in
amazement at the transformation that was taking place before
their eyes. This new wrinkle in their plan could not have been accounted for. There within the tight spaces of the underground, the
element of surprise had been taken from them. Emboldened by
the challenge the warriors rose from the shadows to face this new
enemy head on.

Aboard the ship Xora and Lex had grown nervous awaiting news
of their remaining crew members. Through their observation panel high above the spaceport floor, they kept a vigil for the return.
This did little to dispel their anxiety, but there was little else they
could do. They had taken turns with this somber duty. Now as
Xora lay resting it was Lex's turn on watch. He had the platform
to himself as he stared out into the darkness beyond. Suddenly
there appeared below a halo of light emanating from a cluster of
moving mechanical objects. He called out to Xora, "Lady Xora,
come quickly. Something odd is going on out there. You really
need to see this." Climbing up the ladder, it took her seconds to
reach the platform.

The perplexed corporal answered hesitantly, "I don't quite
know; I've never seen anything quite like this." Her eyes taking
a moment to adjust, did not initially appreciate what was forming there before her. From the darkness massive illuminated
forms were moving about in a quite deliberate fashion. Soon the
image sharpened and what she recognized astonished her.
"Those appear to be automatons, like those from the ancient
stories. I never imagined that these things ever actually existed,
but here they are as plain as day."

"In the stories of which I am familiar they are merely machine
slaves and bear little consequence to the stories. Until now I
had believed them to be no more than fantastic musings of long
dead poets. Look there!" She pointed toward the dark shadows
and noted there some movement. There standing up into the
dim light to face the slow moving mechanoid advance were
several Nibaru warriors. Drawing their bladed weapons they
were determined to stand their ground. As the mechanoid advance drew closer they began to emit a wall of noise that was
designed to disorient and disable any kind of threat. Holding
their ears in an attempt to protect them from an auditory assault
many of the warriors were initially forced to flee from the onslaught. Some however began to engage the behemoths the only
way they could, with pistol and saber.

Enduring the sonic onslaught the leader among the warriors rallied his men to stand firm and to even advance. Though these
beasts were not their human foe, this after all was what was to
be expected from a warrior in the rite of combat. Rallying their
courage he called them out. "Come now warriors of Nibaru; let us
not betray our sacred duty. We shall fight or die trying!" He lifted up his pistol and then leveled it out again toward the mechanoid that stood directly before him. His aim now squarely targeted the head like appendage atop what appeared to be its shoulders. He pulled the trigger. A flash of light momentarily blinded
the mechanoid. It was followed closely behind by a crash of thunder and a plume of smoke. This sound and fury repeated a dozen
more times in quick succession, filling the adjacent air with a
shroud of smoke. Emerging through the smoke the mechanoids
lumbered forward. It was immediately plain that some of the projectiles had found there marks while others did not. Though the
mechanoids that were severely damaged were stopped literally
dead in their tracks, the others not programmed for fear were as
determined as ever. The leader called out, "Fall back, reform a
line at ten paces and reload your weapons."

Meanwhile Landaus, Grunhuf and Ibsen through the darkness
descended. As they moved Landaus would periodically turn
around watching their backs for signs of any unwanted guests. In
his vision he watched the silhouette of the sky shrink away in the
distance. Then it was gone and there was no light at all. Luckily
the mechanoid that led them had no need for lights.The map of
the spaceport complex was incorporated as part of his basic programming. They found themselves then following blindly behind
a set flashing red lights. Amida had seen fit to program the mechanoid, who though unable to speak, with a set of directional cues
by means of its signal lights to communicate. On its rear access
panel a set of light emitting diodes formed into simple symbols.
As they roved the sounds of the pitched battle, seemingly emanating from every direction echoed through the narrow corridors.
The mechanoid it would seem was in direct wireless connection
with the others who were now engaging the warriors. On several
occasions the directional beacon had flashed a signal to halt as it
recalculated a change in direction. By using its internal mapping
routines it was able to forge a course around the action.
Though this was disconcerting, they knew it did so with good
reason. So they followed without question.

Though the adults among them saw this, they seemed to have
confidence in this method, Ibsen did not. In fear, Ibsen held
tightly onto his fathers arm, wishing that they were again within
the safety of the ship. "Father, why can't we move faster?"

"I doubt that our metal friend here has more than one speed setting. But don't worry It seems to me as if we are being led
around the action. We should be safe for now."

Grunhuf though committed to the plan gave credence to Ibsen's
point. "Landaus, does it not seem as if this has taken us an awfully long time to get here, and we have no idea where that is in
relation to the ship? We could be miles out of our way. It seems
to me as if we should be moving toward the noise not away
from it. Isn't that what you said earlier? Would it not make
more sense the warriors wait in ambush in the vicinity of the
ship?"