Crystal Venom (48 page)

Marko bellowed with laughter, and everyone joined in, except Tomas, who was enthralled by Glint’s ears and frill and was examining them closely. Glint was happy to let him, totally trusting of the small boy.

Marko walked across to the Chrysops, climbed up into the cockpit and opened the locker with the fruit, food and drinks, which he loaded into a pack and took across to Ant. ‘I know that it is very little, Ant, but I would like you to have this. I can easily survive three days waiting for assistance, and the fruit would have started to spoil by then, anyway.’

Ant took the proffered pack, nodded at Marko and smiled in gratitude. ‘So, fruit and foodstuffs from the famous
Basalt.
You will not be offended if we clone some of the fruit, will you?’

Marko grinned back at him. ‘I am sure Stephine would be honoured for you to do so.’

Ant formally thanked him then gestured for Marko and others to follow, leading them a long way back into the mountain to a magnificent, huge, domed cathedral-sized room carved out of the mountain. Tens of thousands of different creatures of every size, shape, configuration and type were sculpted on the walls and on the dozens of huge arched pillars which lined the space, everything lit from light sources they could not immediately see. Jim immediately flew up into the centre of it and slowly rotated, taking high-resolution images, while Marko and Glint walked around, looking at the walls in awe. Ant and one of his handsome standard human-looking wives, Momo, accompanied them until Marko suddenly halted, riveted to the spot. ‘Not the best day to view the carvings, Marko and Glint. The heavy cloud cover has dulled things a little, reducing the mountain’s translucence.’

Marko did not care because in front of him was a set of magnificent carvings stretching around and up a pillar depicting humankind, male and female, from the earliest hominids to all the extinct varieties. At the top was
Homo sapiens sapiens
and then all of the many varieties of humanity, naked and without representation of cranial or body hair, showing clearly every shape, with individual muscle groups and skin variation perfectly carved right down to the finest surface vein or folded skin crease. On the domed wall above the pillar most of the creatures of Old Earth were represented, all interwoven, in a great segment above the pillar edged with fine straight lines, reaching curving right to the centre of the dome high overhead.

Marko stood staring for some time, entranced to see tiny creatures and insects nestled between the larger carvings and wondering at the huge amount of time it would have taken to finish the millions of carvings, even if the artist and others had used machinery.

‘Ant, have you any idea of how old these carvings are?’ he finally asked.

‘We believe they were done some twenty-nine thousand standard years ago.’

Marko walked to the next pillar, where he recognised the octopoids, in several distinct varieties, at the top of the pillar and above them most of the creatures of Old Earth repeated as per the previous coloum but this time including Homo Sapiens among the creatures. He mused to himself that another confirmation of the library data, which they had gained from the ancient alien artefact many years previously, was now in place.

Glint gently grasped Marko’s right hand and pointed upwards. ‘You see, Marko, the octopoids indeed originated on Old Earth as well as you lot. Interesting. It is my conjecture that each pillar represents the dominant species and above it the planet’s biosphere. Our crew will be excited to see this.’

Marko looked at him. ‘“Interesting” is a bit of an understatement, Glint. And of course Fritz will only be interested if they had music.’

Marko and Glint walked on to the next pillar, then the next and so on. For the next two hours, they failed to recognise any other creature, and slowly walked back to where the larger family group of their hosts were seated in the centre of the room, patiently waiting for them.

‘Ant, Momo. How big an area of the Universe do you think this represents?’

Momo shrugged. ‘We’re sorry, Marko, but of that we have no knowledge. Perhaps the Haulers would have better information. We do speculate about where other of these museums might be, and if we Avians, and the other derivatives of man, are represented in a more recent one maybe. We have not seen any of the creatures found on this moon carved into these walls.’

Marko gave a short swift nod and was about to reply, when Glint made a suggestion. ‘Do it yourself, Momo: I’m sure that it can’t be that difficult. The stone I have seen here is very stable with no cracks or fissures in it. And the mining and carving equipment that would be useful to you is not that difficult to obtain.’

She smiled. ‘Perhaps you are right, sentient Glint. Perhaps that is indeed a good plan for some time in our future.’

Marko nodded in agreement. ‘Are the Haulers aware of this place?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Marko,’ Ant replied. ‘They have all sent proxys down to study it, with some spending weeks going over every tiny detail. Surely they must have passed the information on to the general population. Although come to think of it, we have never seen anything about it, even though whenever a Hauler uplifts their cargos of teas and herbs they leave us with many months of audiovisual shows to enjoy. This I shall have to ponder.’

Marko grimaced. ‘Don’t do anything about it, Ant. There are things happening in the background that we are only now becoming aware of. The Games Board and the Administration don’t want the public knowing of this. Keep it to yourselves or I can see an iron meteorite suddenly obliterating this place and you with it.’

The family’s adults all nodded sombrely.

‘Yes, sadly, you may be right,’ Momo said. ‘But we wanted you in particular to see it, Marko. Come, you look tired. We have prepared quarters for you. At least you can rest out of your combat suit. Please, follow us.’

His head still racing with thoughts of the other dominant species he had seen, Marko followed Ant and the others out through another door and then up long, gently curving staircases carved from the flawless honey-coloured stone. There were dozens of archways, landings and doorways leading off the staircases. They finally found themselves in a small suite of rooms after passing through a series of doors which had closed after them silently. From alcoves inside the final door, the Avians took compact units which looked as if they were made of polished deep red-coloured wood. The Avians placed the units on their shoulders and the units then conformed to each individual; tendrils grew from them, sliding up onto their faces and then into their nostrils.

Sounding slightly more nasal then previously, Ant turned to them to explain what was happening. ‘This room and its ancillaries are oxygen-deficient for us, but will be good for you, Marko. We have prepared a late lunch and would like to join you, or would you prefer to dine alone?’

Marko smiled. ‘My thanks. No, I would very much like to speak further with you all anyway and over lunch would be grand. There are a great many rooms here but I have only seen you people. Are there others?’

Ant looked at Marko with a bemused expression. ‘Yes, of course, but we are among the senior families and it is our duty to place ourselves at possible risk from visitors. In your case, we do this very gladly and hope that the rest of your most esteemed crew will be able to visit as well. Your room, with ablutions, is through that door. The Jim monitor can stay here and interview us if it wishes?’

Marko continued looking around the room. ‘Yeah. I know that the Games Board will be interested. Jim? Like the idea? Good. Thanks, I shall see you again shortly.’

Marko, with Glint at his heels, walked to the door of his room, which opened to reveal a bed, a panoramic window with views down the mountain towards the valley, and beside it an en suite. Marko lifted Spike off his shoulder and placed him on Glint’s head. The spider immediately jacked himself into Glint as Marko sped himself up and linked to the ACE.

‘Well? Tell me,’ Marko demanded.

Glint shrugged as the message flashed across. ‘No doubt your suit is giving you the same message, Marko. These people seem to be on the level. No pathogens that we know of, bacterial counts within normal boundaries, same with the virus numbers and type, as per everything we have seen so far on this planet. The air in here is just about perfect for you as well. The usual electronic signatures and we can’t recognise any hostile viral software anywhere. I’ve seen some very sophisticated visual tracking and lots of hidden weapon systems, so we could have easily been knocked over at any time. They do strike me as almost monk-like in their demeanour and actually very kind. I have detected several attempts by their hardware to intercept our crew comms, so they know about it, but it’s your call.’

Marko nodded, looking serious. ‘Spike, do you still have comms with the Chrysops?’

The little spider gave a sharp nod. ‘Yes. I think that they are tapping into the feeds but there is no attempt to block anything so far.’

Marko looked at his ACE friends. ‘OK. Test the water, please, guys. I need to think.’

He looked out the ellipse-shaped window onto the valley floor, which was still being hit by occasional lightning bolts. The rain had eased off and the sun could be seen through the clouds of the mid-afternoon sky. He stared upwards, missing the counsel of his friends, and then almost without thinking brought up the suit controls in his head and told it to open the helmet. The visor slid up and he sniffed cautiously, detecting air that smelt as if it was from a high forest — it was quite delicious to his ancient human senses.

He allowed himself an optimistic smile as Glint flashed another message across. ‘Water is perfect, Marko, so clean it is frightening. Spike is attaching himself to the shower head to test it for you, anyway. There is even soap ... as in a cake of soap. I tasted it, seems fine to me if you are into eating soap.’

Marko barked out a short laugh and patted Glint on his head. ‘Ta. A shower sounds like a good idea.’

He instructed the suit to strip itself from his body and as the last of the shunts popped out, Marko walked into the shower. Glint had turned it on for him and Spike had taken up a position looking down from above. He luxuriated under it for a few minutes, then stepped out and took a long woven cloth towel from Glint.

‘You have a problem,’ Glint told him.

‘What!’

The dragon smiled mischievously. ‘No clothes to wear and it might be rude to walk out in the suit again.’

‘Bugger! Spare clothes are not the sort of thing you pack in a combat flier, eh? Go out and ask, will you, please? No, before you do that, how about you open that wardrobe?’

Glint looked and laughed and Flint joined in with a tiny chuckle. ‘Yup! Like I thought, a monk’s outfit. And sandals! Funny. And no underwear! Now that is even funnier. We can call you Friar Marko!’

~ * ~

Five

As Marko towelled himself off, Glint walked in on his two rear legs carrying a burnt-orange-coloured
soutane
of a very fine weave. Marko shrugged and put it on, finding the cloth beautifully soft against his skin, and started buttoning it from the top with its stiff collar, eventually reaching the hem. Glint gave him a thumbs up as Spike climbed up to perch on his shoulder. Marko looked down at his cobalt-blue hand, which seemed totally out of keeping, but decided against altering its colour, and walked out into the main area. There were smiles and nods exchanged between the family members, and Tomas came across to lead him to his backless seat.

There was a sudden flurry of activity as no one had expected Glint to sit with them, let alone want to eat the same food, so another seat and setting was found. The ACE cheerfully announced that he would say grace, and that he wanted to sample everything as it all looked delicious.

Marko inwardly groaned, wondering what would come next as Glint spoke: ‘We gather in this place of peace to eat this food lovingly prepared by our friends. We give thanks to one and all for this and for the pleasure of their company. Amen. Let’s eat!’

Everyone smiled broadly, and Tomas patted Glint’s head from his vantage point of a high chair. As they took what they wanted from the bowls, Glint would take a small mouthful then bounce an ‘OK’ laser message off whatever piece of crockery he could use straight into Marko’s eyes. Marko judged the entire meal to be derived from vegetable mass with no animal protein used. Most of the tastes were familiar, although there were some exotic ones that he knew, recognising them as frighteningly expensive spices and he flashed a message to Glint querying a few of them. Glint answered that he was one hundred per cent certain they were grown locally.

It was the wine that startled him the most. He likened it to a semi-sweet rosé, but with a complexity that he had never experienced before. His mind spent several minutes carefully working through the structures, but there were still fragments of the taste he could not fathom.

~ * ~

The remainder of the afternoon and evening were spent with the family, taking a tour of what Marko could only think of as a township living in and around a luminous mountain. Marko had discovered that the soutane was considerably higher tech than he previously thought. As they were about to leave his rooms, the cowl unfurled up over his head and a lower face mask sealed across his nose and mouth. He touched the mask and found that it was the same soft, finely woven cloth as the rest of the garment. He breathed normally, the oxygen levels in the air being adjusted for him by the cloth, and he altered his bioware back to normal. When he later commented on it, everyone just nodded and smiled.