Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (48 page)

              It was a painstaking process.  As the various tubes and probes began to retract themselves and the Arkari systems took over in their stead, the medics closely monitored Ushild’s vital signs for any fluctuation.  Then, when at last he was free of the grip of the ancient machines, the drones moved in to gently cradle his unconscious form with suspension fields that moved him carefully into the womb-like interior of the waiting casket.  Once they had him inside its sterile embrace, the nano-machinery that they had woven about him began to grow and link itself both to the casket’s systems and to Ushild’s implants and nervous system.

              He lay within the casket, his breathing shallow but regular, his ancient and withered form encased within a cocoon of shining silver threads.  Stasis field generators within the casket activated, trapping Ushild in a bubble of frozen space-time like a fly in amber, and then the drones began to escort the casket from the vast underground chamber to begin the long journey back to the surface and the waiting shuttle to the
Shining Glory
.

              Katherine stood amidst the ruins of the dead city and watched the dust swirl about her as the wind howled mournfully about the broken buildings.  It pained her that they had still not got to the bottom of the true mystery about what had happened to this world or its shattered sister planet.  That the Akkal had been torn apart by religious wars as a result of their encounter with a Progenitor AI controlled warship was clear, but what was not clear was why a full half of a sentient species had been so easily inclined to turn against centuries of belief so quickly, why the resulting wars had been so bitter, and how they had managed to destroy one another so utterly in their blind hatred.  Only one being held the rest of the story, and Ushild had remained unconscious since his near fatal heart attack. So far he had shown little sign of waking up, particularly since the Arkari medical team were anxious to keep him under until they could get him aboard the
Glory
and work to reverse the effects of his extreme ageing.

              What could traumatise a civilisation so badly that they could turn to this?  That they would annihilate themselves so freely, that they could plan and execute the destruction of so many of their own species was deeply shocking to Katherine.  She was aware that in the past, humanity had taken fateful steps along a similar road, but had stepped back from the brink of actually carrying out such actions when clearer heads had prevailed.  In the case of the Akkal, they had been blinded by rage, or bigotry, or something else.  Perhaps they had collectively ceased to want to exist, driven by some suicidal mania?  What had they found on the other side of the portal in the centre of the system, and where had a civilisation less technologically advanced than modern humans acquired the ability to utterly obliterate an entire world?

              She turned as she heard Rekkid and Steelscale approach from the direction of the entrance to the ziggurat.

              ‘The shuttle should be here soon to pick us up,’ said Rekkid.  ‘Have you got all your gear?’

              ‘Everything the drones didn’t take for me, yes,’ Katherine replied, indicating the jumble of bags and cases around her feet.  They no longer wore the breathing masks as before. Although dust devils still moved amongst the desolation, they were no longer being battered by storms of grit and the air was quite breathable.  Rekkid noticed the expression on Katherine’s face and could tell something was wrong.

              ‘Are you alright?’ he asked her.

              ‘I think so...’ Then she shook her head.  ‘No, actually, no I’m not.  I can’t believe that we’re packing up and leaving just like that.  We don’t know
anything
about this place!’ she replied and threw up her hands in exasperation.

              ‘We know something of what happened here,’ Rekkid replied. ‘The drones have copied everything that we found down in that library.  It’s just a matter of searching through the archive, and we have Ushild.  Plus, the
Glory’s
technicians might able to get Eonara up and running again eventually.’

              ‘Maybe.’

              ‘Eonara brought us here because of that portal,’ said Steelscale, his translator pendant squawking tinnily in the open air.  ‘We must see where it leads.’

              ‘Must we?’ Katherine replied.  ‘Whatever is on the other side of that portal led these people to destroy themselves.  I wouldn’t be so eager to find out what it was that they found.’

              ‘Nevertheless, War Marshal Mentith has given the order to withdraw everyone from the surface and head for the device.  So either we do as he says, or we find some way to survive for the rest of our lives on this corpse of a world,’ said Rekkid.  ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we can live on radioactive dust, do you?’

              ‘The people who lived here once: it just seems like we’re abandoning them, that’s all,’ said Katherine.  ‘Someone needs to properly record the full story of what happened here.’

              ‘One day, perhaps,’ said Steelscale.  ‘For now, however, our survival, and our ability to return home is a more pressing matter.  Perhaps Ushild can be revived and we can speak more with him aboard the ship and find out what occurred here ten thousand years ago?’

              Above them, the slender shape of one of the
Glory’s
shuttles broke through the grey cloud cover and began to spiral down towards them.             

‘Perhaps, assuming he lives long enough.  I just think that we’re rushing into things before we have all the facts, that’s all,’ said Katherine.

‘Maybe the ship trusts Eonara more than we do,’ Rekkid offered.  ‘After all, I doubt that she would intentionally mean us any harm.’

‘You do?  What about the other Progenitor AI, the one that the Akkal found?  Maybe it didn’t mean any harm either, and look what happened.’

‘You have a point...’ said Rekkid as the shuttle touched down a short distance away and opened a portion of its hull to form an access ramp.  ‘Nevertheless, it’s time to go.  Come on, Katherine.  Let me help you with those things.’

In some ways it was good to be aboard the
Shining Glory
again.  Katherine and Rekkid found their spacious suite of rooms on board as they had left it and it felt good to get properly clean for the first time in weeks and wash the dust and dirt out of their clothes, but Katherine still couldn’t escape the feeling that they had left too soon.  Wearing a fresh change of clothes she watched the planet turn slowly beneath them in the section of the wall that Rekkid had turned into a screen showing the view outside the ship. The planet’s dead surface was wrapped in a shroud of cloud and Katherine compared it in her mind with the images of the lush green world that she had seen in the buried archives of the Akkal.

Steelscale had returned to his concubines, who had been patiently awaiting his return.  There had been much growling and roaring in the K’Soth language upon his arrival, and Katherine tried not to think too much about what might be happening in his cabin.

She was roused from her contemplation of the dead planet by the soft chime of the door.  Mentith entered, the old Arkari looking a little less weary than the last time she had seen him.  He seemed, like the ship, to be rejuvenated.  She guessed that once his crew had got the ship’s orbit stabilised and the repairs well under way, he had had time to take stock of the situation and recuperate.

‘War Marshal, you’re looking well.  Was there something you needed?’ said Katherine.

‘I came to thank you both in person for all your hard work down on the planet,’ said Mentith.  ‘You have made some fascinating discoveries, not least of all our newly arrived guest.  For that, I congratulate you and you have my gratitude.  I am aware that you raised some concerns about our rather rushed departure for the Progenitor portal in this system, but I would like to stress that we will approach it with the utmost caution.’

‘I just think that we should be prepared for every eventuality, War Marshal,’ Katherine replied.  ‘We still don’t know fully what happened here, or what might await us if we pass through that portal, or where it might take us.’

‘Well... there are a number of possibilities,’ Mentith said, cryptically.

‘You don’t say,’ said Rekkid, drily.

‘Hmm, indeed.  We have not been idle during your absence.  You will be pleased to know that soon after the ship’s AI and navigation systems came back online, we were able to get an accurate fix on our current position. We have also been comparing the scant records from Eonara’s memories that the ship has copies of with the galactic map that Professor Cor so helpfully provided us with.  We have found a number of references to a Progenitor wormhole gate network that extended right across this galaxy at one time and which formed the transport backbone for their galaxy spanning empire.  Over such distances, even the use of jump drives becomes impractical, a predicament that we are currently experiencing for ourselves.  The ship has theorised that the Progenitors used the wormholes to travel tens of thousands of light years instantaneously.  These devices appear to have been less complex than the one found in the Maranos system, designed to merely keep fixed wormholes open rather than generate their own at will, hence the smaller size of the one in the centre of this system.’

‘All empires need good communications to hold them together,’ said Katherine.

‘Exactly, and as I believe the human expression runs “All roads lead to Rome.”  It is possible that Eonara found a way to get us home, but given her previous statements about her intent to bring down the Shapers, we had considered the possibility that she intended to return to the Progenitor home system.  From Eonara’s previous utterances and the records we found relating to that system, it appears that a gate capable of creating wormholes to any destination in the galaxy may exist there. She may have intended to use it to attack them somehow.  The Shaper home-world never did lie on the gate network, we have specific references to this, but we could also use the device to return home if it still exists, theoretically.’

‘Do we have a map of this network?’ said Rekkid.

‘We do indeed, but we have no way of knowing how much of it still exists.  Furthermore, although we now know which system we are currently in, once we pass through the gate in this system it would appear to bring us out five hundred light years away at a junction of several such pathways.  Quite how we would know which one to take once we got there is not clear, nor do we know what would happen were we to venture down a wormhole that no longer led to a functioning device.’

‘I strongly suspect that it would not be pleasant,’ Rekkid commented, and winced.  ‘Do we even know how to activate these devices anyway?’

‘No, we do not.  We must investigate the device in this system first of all.  The one found in the Fulan system contained resident AIs.  Perhaps we may need to communicate with one here, although so far it has not responded to the efforts of our smaller craft to do so,’ said Mentith.

‘Hmm, you know Maran did try to kill us all,’ said Rekkid.  ‘Are you sure that this is wise?’

‘What choice do we have?’ Mentith replied.  ‘It will take us years to return to our home systems otherwise, if we make it at all.’

‘How is Ushild?’ said Katherine.  ‘If we could speak to him again, perhaps he could help us.  He may know how the Akkal passed through before.’

‘He is still unconscious, I’m afraid,’ said Mentith.  ‘Chief Medical Adept Okanno informs me that although they have removed him from stasis after his journey, he remains in a greatly weakened condition.  In any case, we may have a long period of investigation ahead of us before we are able to pass through the portal in this system, though if Ushild awakes, all the better.’

‘And if he doesn’t, then the secrets of his race die with him,’ said Katherine, gloomily.

‘How’s the ship?’ said Rekkid, changing the subject.  ‘Has she been fully repaired?’

‘Fortunately, almost.  There are still some minor areas of damage to deal with, but we managed to fully re-manufacture those key systems that we could not repair.  My crew have worked tirelessly to get the
Glory
back to her peak operating capacity.’

‘Ship shape and Bristol fashion?’ said Katherine.

‘I’m afraid I have no idea what that means, but if you are referring to this ship of war being ready for service, then yes, she is.  We shall be breaking orbit soon to journey to the portal.  Perhaps you’d care to join me on the bridge? You may be able to offer some insights, given your previous experiences.’

Rekkid shot Katherine a sideways look.

‘Yes of course, War Marshal, thank you,’ Katherine replied.

‘Excellent.  I shall now proceed to Lord Steelscale’s cabin and ask him to join us also,’ said Mentith, a little stiffly, and made to leave

‘Yes... I’d knock before you walk in if I were you,’ said Rekkid.  ‘We heard... noises.’

A few minutes later, they saw the grey-white cloud-tops of the dead planet slide away from view on the main bridge display as the
Shining Glory
turned and broke orbit, heading for the centre of the system and the Progenitor portal.  As the starfield wheeled with the ship’s motion, Katherine caught a glimpse of the brilliant whirling stars of the galactic core, visible edge on as a vast swathe of light, before the ship entered its jump and the spectacular scene was replaced by the rushing dark of hyperspace.

They emerged, moments later, into the brilliant light of the twin suns.  Ahead of the ship, the two closely orbiting G class stars dominated the scene, blazing yellow white against the blackness of space.  As the
Glory
headed between them, other lights became discernible in the darkness.  The destroyer’s fleet of smaller craft were clustered about the Progenitor device, as yet invisible to the naked eye against the void.  Views from the ship’s other sensors showed a slender ring floating free between the two stars, balanced by their opposing gravities, but which neither emitted nor reflected any signals of any kind.  It was a perfect black body object composed, the ship had theorised, of compacted dark matter.  Smaller rings had also been detected floating in the photosphere of the two stars, similar to those found in the Fulan system. Presumably - like those other, larger, devices, - their purpose was to feed the portal with plumes of directed energy.