Paw-Prints Of The Gods (49 page)

“Be careful!” urged
her father.

Ravana gave the
sobbing Artorius a hug and hesitantly followed Lilith to the far
side of the pool. The white coffin-shaped capsule, wearing its
stars and stripes, came as a shock. Ravana had barely registered
Xuthus’ remark about the lost flight to Alpha Centauri but
recognised the pod for what it was, having seen old cryogenic units
at the spacecraft breaking yards on Ascension. It looked very out
of place in the alien chamber.

Her silent stare moved
to the crumpled arachnid and a shiver ran down her spine. Equally
perturbing were the sharp-edged gouges across the creature’s
bulbous head, which looked like the interrupted cuts of a surgeon.
Kedesh came to her side.

“Thraak thraak,” said
Nana. The grey’s voice sounded oddly distant.

“The capsule and
spider,” Ravana murmured. “Did they arrive together?”

“It must have spun a
hell of a web to catch a frozen astronaut,” said Kedesh.

“Astronaut?” retorted
Jizo. “Go on, show them.”

Lilith knelt before
the capsule and pressed a concealed catch. Ravana expected the hiss
of gas or a puff of vapour, but there was nothing. Lilith took hold
of the lid and lifted it open. Athene sprang to look and Ravana
shuddered as the watcher’s visage momentarily slipped into the
fang-toothed crone she saw on Hursag Asag.

“zz-froozeen-traaveelleer-creeaateed-aaneew-zz,” intoned Simha.

“zz-reeboorn-beeneeaath-twiin-suuns-zz,” screeched Dhanus.

Ravana glanced towards
Artorius. “Surely you don’t think...?”

She left her sentence
unfinished. Through her implant she felt the fierce passion of the
cyberclones, a cruel wash of emotions shaped from shards of pain.
Taranis’ disciples were half alien and part machine; all manner of
ideas may have been implanted in their minds during their creation.
In her eyes Artorius was but an innocent little boy, one who had
already suffered too much at the hands of Jizo. Ravana did not want
him to suffer any more.

“Nana, Stripy,” she
said. “This portal. Is it something you can open?”

“Fwack fwack!”

“Thraak thraak.”

Ravana’s implant
translator flickered with the strange chain-gang image from their
confrontation with Missi’s spiders. The unmistakeable odour of
alien flatulence filled the air.

“Enough of your horrid
games,” Ravana told Jizo tartly. “The greys will fulfil Artorius’
so-called destiny and then we’re out of here. All of us.”

“Don’t do it,” Athene
said suddenly. “You have no idea what’s on the other side.”

Jizo gave Ravana a
venomous glare. “Your move, demon king.”

* * *

[Chapter
Thirteen
] [
Contents
] [
Ebook Extras
]

ZOTZ WAS THE FIRST to
react upon hearing the ship’s alert of an incoming message and was
at the holovid console before a dozing Momus had time to move his
feet out of the way. With everyone else away in the domes, the mood
within the
Platypus
simmered in an air of nervous
anticipation. The AI’s gentle beep had a similar impact to a
meteorite strike.

“It’s Endymion,” said
Zotz, startled. “Calling from Newbrum.”

The on-screen holding
message cleared to reveal a grinning Endymion and a
tentative-looking Ostara, both of whom were squeezed into a holovid
booth clearly not designed to seat two. Judging by distant
announcements and the chaotic background scene, they were in a
public booth at the spaceport. The image jerked and occasionally
froze, for the signal from Ascension’s servermoon was coming direct
to the
Platypus
rather than via Aram and the ship’s
transceiver was having problems smoothing the incoming chunks of
data.

“Hi Endymion, Ostara,”
greeted Zotz, with a wave at the screen.

“I got Quirinus’
message,” Ostara said excitedly, before Endymion could speak. “I’m
so glad Ravana is safe! Where are you now? Are they there with
you?”

Momus’ response was
not so enthusiastic. “They’re off rescuing some brat from a bunch
of frigging Dhusarian nutcases,” he grumbled.

“We’re still on
Falsafah, at the dig,” added Zotz, feeling he should clarify the
man’s summary of the situation. “Two of Taranis’ cyberclones are
here. Ravana says the Dhusarians are being really horrible and have
taken this boy somewhere for a silly prophecy.”

“That’s why we’re
calling!” cried Endymion. “The Church was after Taranis’ Book of
the Greys. All my stuff on the servermoon was hacked and the copy I
kept has gone.”

“We’ve also traced
some of the other clones,” Ostara said hesitantly. “I’ve a horrible
feeling all twelve survived.”

“What?” Zotz looked
worried. “Where are they?”

“Two were seen in Yao
Chi on Taotie,” she said. “Another two on Asgard. Endymion has been
brilliant and asked all his spaceport contacts for sightings of
their ship.”

“The
Atterberg
Epiphany
,” said Momus. “Black flying wing?”

Endymion looked
surprised. “How do you know?”

“Because I’m staring
at the bloody thing right now,” retorted Momus. “What about the
frigging mad priest himself? Don’t tell me he’s still around.”

Zotz went pale.
“Taranis?”

Ostara however just
shrugged. “We don’t know. I found someone from the Newbrum church
willing to talk and the word being put out is that Taranis has
‘ascended to a higher plane’, whatever that means,” she said. “The
scary thing is that they see the appearance of the cyberclones as
the start of something big. Having someone like Nyx in charge also
worries me. It seems wrong to have a police officer involved in all
this.”

“Something big,” mused
Momus. “Just my frigging luck to be in the middle of it all.”

“We’ll be back as soon
as we can,” Zotz promised.

“Be careful,” said
Ostara, pensively. Endymion tapped her shoulder and pointed to
something off screen. “We’re about to run out of credits. See
you...”

The holovid screen
went blank, then switched to a generic servermoon status screen.
Momus killed the connection, leaned back in his seat and looked
thoughtfully at Zotz. He reached to the console again and opened a
voice channel to Quirinus’ wristpad.

“Captain?” he called.
“We’ve had news from Newbrum. Are you receiving me?”

A hiss of static
wafted from the cabin speakers. There was no response.

“Ship?” Zotz sounded
hesitant. “Is Ravana using her implant?”

“The link is active
but Miss O’Brien is out of range,” the AI replied.

“Wonderful,” muttered
Momus.

“It is an archaeology
dig,” Zotz said hesitantly. “They might be underground.”

“The calm before a
frigging storm,” said Momus. His gaze moved from the
Atterberg
Epiphany
to the
Alf-Sana Booma
, just visible beyond the
domes. “It’s a bit bloody crowded for my liking. I don’t want to be
last off this crappy planet when all hell breaks loose.”

Zotz knew he meant
they would need to get people back aboard fast. His own stare was
upon the Dhusarians’ transport linked to the nearby dome. The
flexible walkway tunnel had multi-purpose vacuum couplings that
could link to anything with a hatch, assuming they could get the
transport out of the way. His gaze caught the road-laying machine
parked in the desert near the end of the runway and he smiled.

“Captain Momus?” asked
Zotz. “Do you have your spacesuit handy?”

* * *

Ravana stared warily
at the cloaked figures and shuddered. The cyberclone monks had
lowered their hoods to expose their lizard-like features and paced
restlessly from one rod to the next. The staccato chants that left
their lips were neither their customary screeching English nor
anything the translator could decipher. Her implant pulsed wave
upon wave of the clones’ anger into her headache, tightening the
noose upon her mind.

She knew a limitation
of all cyberclones was they lacked initiative. Jizo appeared to be
their controller, but without Cadmus the nurse seemed lost. It was
the greys who now led the way. Stripy, scrutinising a nearby rod,
ran nimble fingers over the faint indentations Ravana had seen
earlier. Nana had clambered across to the remains of the crumbled
cocoon and was rummaging through the debris as if looking for
something.

A tearful Artorius
stood between Ravana and Jizo, clutching his mutilated hand. The
nurse, her meaty palm clamped upon the boy’s shoulder, had ordered
Quirinus to join them within the circle of rods so that Lilith
could keep her gun upon them all. Dagan was back on guard at the
archway, masked from view by the bright floodlights. Behind Lilith,
not far from where her electric cat chewed fitfully upon the
remains of the cambot, Ravana saw Kedesh surreptitiously kneeling
by the cryogenic capsule. Athene had once again vanished from
sight. Ravana suspected they had not seen the last of the
watcher.

“What’s that?”
demanded Jizo. Her slurred words were aimed at Kedesh, who was
edging away from the capsule with a curved box in her hands. “What
are you doing?”

“It’s the waste
disposal cartridge,” Kedesh explained sheepishly. “With any luck
it’ll contain DNA samples. When this is over, we can find out who
or what was inside.”

“Artorius is not their
star man!” Ravana said defensively.

“zz-oorphaaneed-chiild-oof-Sool-zz,” screeched Dhanus.

“zz-hiiddeen-byy-slaavees-aand-maasteers-zz!” shrieked Simha.

“Yes, but as a theory,
it’s not very scientific, is it?” Kedesh protested.

A sudden deep-throated
groan, born from the bowels of the planet, rolled across the
chamber. Ravana and her father exchanged nervous glances, then both
jumped in alarm as a curtain of ethereal blue light leapt from one
grey rod to the next. A split second later there came a loud crack,
followed by a shriek from Artorius. All twelve columns began to
creep sideways, grinding anti-clockwise around the pool. Each
upright rod gouged a deep arc as it moved, which quickly merged to
slice a huge circular gash in the trembling ground. Finding herself
in the way, Lilith gave a strangled cry and leapt back to avoid
being hit. The rods continued to slide by, leaving Ravana with the
impression that she and others within the circle were trapped
inside a slowly-rotating cage. A faint blue glow issued from the
shifting rods, creating a hazy column of light.

“What’s happening?”
asked Jizo, startled. “Why are they moving?”

“Thraak,” Nana said
gaily. “Thraak thraak thraak!”

“Fwack fwack,”
confirmed Stripy.

“They’re opening the
door,” murmured Artorius, his face pale.

The cyberclones
released guttural shrieks and stopped. A storm of emotions leeched
from Ravana’s implant, yet the translator images of the greys’
cries came through clear. It was the same picture of hope that had
kept her going ever since their escape from the Dhusarians’ dome.
The conversation in the stolen transport, when she and Artorius had
asked Nana and Stripy about their home world, came vividly back to
mind. Talk of doors and portals and trees in space was not enough
to express what the star chamber meant to the greys. Artorius
slipped free of Jizo’s grip and gave Ravana a hug.

“A way home,” Ravana
said in wonder. “They’ve found a way back home!”

“You really should not
be doing this,” an angry voice purred in her ear.

Ravana scowled at the
ice-smooth tones of the watcher. She turned to the figure who had
appeared beside her and stifled a shriek. Athene’s youthful visage
was twisted in a cruel grimace of lips curled around bared incisors
and the cold yellow stare of a hunter preparing for the kill.
Earlier, Fornax had described watchers as alien cat gods. Athene
looked ready to give Ravana’s Hindu namesake some serious
competition in the vengeful deity stakes.

“zz-oopeen-thee-doooor-zz!” shrieked Dhanus.

On the other side of
Artorius, Jizo swayed uneasily before the rotating circle of rods,
her mask of confidence in tatters. Ravana saw Kedesh’s eyes follow
Athene, who began to pace restlessly around the pool as the clones
had done before her. No one else appeared to be aware of the
watcher’s presence.

Ravana felt Artorius’
tight embrace and saw his tearful gaze become a look of awe. Nana
and Stripy approached, bearing the dignified calm of visiting
diplomats. In Nana’s hands was a glistening green globe, no bigger
than a fist, made of what looked like damp leather that nonetheless
sparkled in the blue luminescence of the chamber walls. The elderly
grey shuffled to a halt and offered it to Ravana.

“Thraak,” Nana said
solemnly. “Thraak thraak.”

“Err... thanks,” said
Ravana, nonplussed. “What is it?”

“Just what you always
wanted,” muttered Quirinus. “Fossilised spider snot.”

Artorius frowned.
“Where’s mine?”

“You can’t do this!”
Athene looked angrier than ever. “You’re changing the rules!”

The watcher’s reaction
puzzled Ravana. Nana held out the globe with a gaze of both sadness
and joy. Ravana gingerly took the mysterious gift in her hands and
found it light and surprisingly dry to the touch. Feeling she
should present something in return, she remembered what was in her
pocket and withdrew the silver-wrapped packet.

“Would you like some
cake?” she asked.

Nana gratefully took
the offering. “Thraak thraak!”

“Good call,” Kedesh
murmured approvingly.

“What a sweet little
scene!” said Jizo, adopting a mocking tone. “I have a present for
you, mister star man. Would you like to see it?”

Quirinus and Kedesh
exchanged worried glances. Ravana hissed a warning and tried to
pull the boy away. Artorius looked to the looming presence of Jizo,
then down at her clenched fingers and hesitantly nodded. As he
moved closer to see what the nurse held, she grabbed his ear and
gave it a vicious twist. The greys shrieked.