Trident's Forge (34 page)

“Quiet,” ze barked. It was only then that Kexx realized just how quiet the caves had become. Kexx's eyes had adjusted fully by then, revealing enormous patches, fields really, of a fullhand of different types of fungus being cultivated and tended by many fullhands of Dwellers. The ceiling here was low, and even more varieties of fungus clung to it. The sharp smell of urine grew with each step deeper into the fields until Kexx balled up zer hands to avoid tasting it on zer fingers. The tenders did not speak aloud. Instead, they used incredibly intricate patterns of skin glow to relay not only emotion and simple commands, but entire complex thoughts, whole sentences, entire conversations.

Kexx immediately understood why. Surrounded by a low rock roof stretching off in every direction, the echoes of a hundred shouted discussions would quickly break down into echoing chaos. They passed through another identical level. Another. Another still. The amount of food being grown down here in the damp, cold darkness rivaled the fields surrounding Kexx's village. Probably exceeded it in terms of edible mass being grown.

“This must seem very strange to you, Benson,” Kexx whispered.

“Actually, you'd be surprised. Mei would feel right at home.”

“Well, it's very strange to me.”

“I said quiet!” their guide shouted, sending an echo through the fields and drawing the attention of every farmer within earshot. “Mind your mushrooms,” ze commanded them. They returned to their work.

Everything changed on the next level. The roughly hewn walls, ceiling, and floors gave way to intricately carved patterning underfoot that mimicked tilework. Columns of rock formed into arms with their fingers arched to connect with their neighbors kept the crushing weight of the stone above at bay.

And it was warm. Heat radiated up from the floor through Kexx's toes. Something was fighting against the cold, and winning. Fires? Kexx couldn't see how. There was nowhere for the smoke to go, and no obvious mechanism delivering fresh air this far down. Yet ze could feel the warmth from the soles of zer feet moving up through zer bloodways. The warmth soon suffused the air, revitalizing zer body and mind.

A ramp, carved into the impression of a flowing river, the crests of the waves shining with the polish of centuries, led down into a new chamber at a steep angle. On either side, a forest of perfectly clear, white crystals each as thick as a tree trunk reached out from the floor at all angles as if they'd been grown specifically for the purpose. A warm, orange glow leaked out from the entrance. It was the glow of torches, although not nearly bright enough to account for the heat.

“Wait here,” their guide instructed. Kexx complied, having no desire to wander off into the maze of tunnels. The guide entered the chamber and a brief, loud conversation followed. Many voices all speaking the same dialect their prisoner had shouted at Kexx in the tunnel.

The conversation died down as their guide reemerged. “You may enter. But do not forget where you are, Cuut spawn. I suggest you make your accusation brief.”

Once inside, Kexx was struck by just how closely the sanctum mimicked the temple to Xis back in zer village. Perhaps theirs was the mimic, for this room felt much, much older. Soot stains streaked the curving wall from each torch mount up to a small central chimney which let the smoke escape to who knew where.

The room wasn't the only unsettlingly familiar thing present. Even in the flickering torchlight, Kexx immediately recognized the warrior sitting to the left, staring at Kexx open-mouthed, as if one of zer long-returned ancestors had just walked through the door. Wrappings around the warrior's leg where Kexx's spear had skewered it just days earlier confirmed zer identity. This was the Dweller who had led the ambush. Ze wasn't alone. A trio of advisors sat sprinkled around the room, while bearers filled in the rest of the circle. Probably the chief's private harem.

“Surprised to see me again so soon?” Kexx asked.

“I don't know you,” ze said flatly, eyes darting around to zer circle of bearers.

“We weren't properly introduced. But I can see your leg remembers my spear. My name is Kexx. What is your name, Chief of the Dwellers?”

An angry chorus of voices rose up from the circle, the skin of the assembled advisors and bearers a swirl of patterns and light. Only one of them, a small bearer two seats down from the warrior kept zer calm. Ze even smiled faintly.

The diminutive bearer held up a hand and the room settled. “I'm sure the truth-digger meant no insult. Our ways are doubtless very peculiar to zer. Isn't that right, Kexx, was it?”

“Yes…” Kexx confirmed, unsettled by the change of direction. Something was wrong. The others in the circle were showing a lowly harem bearer enormous deference. Had zer mind gotten that cold already?

“I'm sorry, bearer. What is your name?”

“Ryj is the name given to me by my parents, but you may address me as under chief.”

B
enson stood back
near to the entrance of the circular chamber. It looked remarkably like the twin temples back in Kexx's village, minus the dome for their rover or the sacrificial altar in the basement one. Instead, the low chairs favored by the Atlantians circled the room. Kexx stood in the very center and exchanged heated words with several of the others, including one particularly nasty-looking character with an even nastier-looking leg wound.

However, it was one of the smaller ones, a bearer, Benson was almost certain of it, who seemed to be giving Kexx the most trouble. Benson couldn't understand more than the very occasional word of the conversation, but he could see Kexx suppressing frustration, even anger, as ze talked to the smaller Atlantian. Whoever ze was, whenever ze spoke, everyone else shut the hell up and listened. Zer body was unadorned by the sorts of jewelry and colorful dress Benson had come to associate with chiefs during the gathering back in the village. But then, this was zer house. Maybe ze just didn't feel like dressing up for the barbarians from the plains. Maybe it was a deliberate insult. Maybes were all Benson was going to have until he could speak with Kexx again. Damn the idiots who'd tried to kill him for burning out his plant. He could be eavesdropping even now if only his translation software was active.

Instead, he tried to focus on other things, like their body language, which he barely understood, or their skin glow patterns, which he didn't understand at all. He tried to keep his ears open for any slippage that might show contamination from Shambhala or the Ark, English or Mandarin words where they didn't belong, but heard none. He'd kept his eyes open as best he could on the trip down, scanning for human artifacts, an intact or even wrecked rover or drone, but the corridors and chambers were dimly lit and seemingly endless. They could've hidden the contents of the entire museum down here without Benson seeing anything.

The conversation paused as Kexx swept zer hand in Benson's direction. He recognized his name spoken, then all of the assembled Atlantians turned to look at him, their shining alien eyes made all the more discomforting by the flickering torches. Benson couldn't help but think of the night the calebs attacked their camp. The glowing eyes just tripped something deep down in his brainstem. Something very old that remembered eyes in the dark, reflecting firelight.

Kexx motioned for him to join zer in the center of the room. Benson made a small show of adjusting the rifle slung over his shoulder and straightening his mended shirt, then joined the truth-digger.

“It's time for you to lay your accusation.”

“But I can't speak the language.”

“Speak yours, clearly and with confidence. I will translate for their… ahem, chief.”

Benson noticed the odd pause. “Something wrong with the chief?”

“We will talk later. Now, lay your accusation. They are waiting.” Kexx took a large step back, leaving Benson to face down the eyes of the room alone. He cleared his throat and decided the beginning was the best place to start.

“Um, hi.” Benson waved his hand, feeling like a kid talking in front of class for the first time as his did so. Kexx translated something that sounded a little longer, and a little more dignified. “I accuse… members of this village of attacking the village of G'tel while my, er, tribe was trying to establish peaceful, friendly relations.” Kexx spoke behind him, firm and even, allowing Benson's emotions to carry through on their own. “And that during that attack, several of my tribe were murdered, I mean, killed without provocation or cause. Including one of our bravest warriors, Atwood, and our, um, chief, Valmassoi.” Benson took a deep breath and looked right at their chief. “Oh, and some jerk who says ze's your cousin or something set these big ass dog-looking things on us while we were walking here that damned near ate my face and I'm still a little sore about it.”

Kexx struggled through to the end of that one, then fell silent and stepped up to Benson's side. The chief leaned back and let the voices of zer advisors rise and fill the chamber, washing over zer. Zer eyes closed. Benson thought ze looked old and exhausted. After several minutes of listening to zer advisors bicker, or perhaps just gathering zer own thoughts, the chief leaned forward again as the chamber went silent in anticipation.

Benson listened passively, still not understanding a damned thing, still wishing his plant was functional, which was perhaps only the second time in his whole life he'd really appreciated having it. Suddenly, the chief stopped speaking and everyone rose, then started sweeping for the door.

“Ah, Kexx?”

“We are to follow.”

“OK, I got that, but to where?”

“I gather we are returning to the surface to consult with someone they call, um, I don't know your word for it. One who sees over the horizon?”

“What, like an oracle?”

“Oar-a-coal,” Kexx sounded, trying to expand zer grasp of English even now.

“Close enough.”

They swept back up the ramp and into the labyrinth of excavated corridors, natural tunnels, and mushroom fields. Benson was relieved he was being led back out again. Even if his rifle had been functional, the thought of having to fight his way out gave him chills. Just finding his way would have been damned near impossible. Coupled with the dark, the echoing walls, cutbacks, dead ends, blind spots, and a nearly infinite number of ambush points and you had a recipe for a defender's wet dream, and an invader's tomb.

Still, Benson couldn't help but appreciate the place. It was, after all, an Atlantian version of the Ark, only stationary. They'd lived down here in the dark and chill for generations at a time, eating only what they could grow on bare rock and their own waste. The fields of mushrooms, the chill, and the smell of ammonia was the Unbound's tiny hideaway in the bowels of the Ark writ large. Mei really would feel at home down here.

This time, there didn't seem to be any prohibition against talking aloud. Indeed, it appeared likely that the under chief's advisors never shut up. Benson decided to take advantage of it.

“So, what's the deal with the chief?”

“Ze is a bearer,” Kexx said simply, as if that was an explanation in and of itself.

“Yeah, I knew that. But you seemed, I don't know, upset by zer.”

“Ze is a
bearer
,” Kexx repeated. “It isn't zer place to lead. It's not the way of things.”

Benson's eyes widened at the admission. “Ze seems to be doing fine down here.”

“That's not the point.”

“Then what
is
the point, Kexx?”

“I don't expect you to understand. Bearers are precious and rare. They grow up separate, protected. They are too important to risk in hunts, or battles, or working the fields. They understand these things because we educate them, but they don't
experience
them. That's why they shouldn't lead. Chiefs prove themselves by doing. The Dwellers disrespect their bearers by making them work, even fight.”

Benson couldn't help but smirk. “Don't let Mei hear you talk like that.”

“Why would Mei care? Ze is not a bearer.”

“
She
bore a child.”

“Yes… but, your people are different.”

“Trust me, we aren't. Everything you just said was said about human women a few centuries ago. Hell, a handful of idiots
still
say it. Not that anyone listens anymore.”

Kexx considered this in silence for a moment. “What changed?”

“People changed, Kexx. They stopped ‘protecting' women and just let them go out and live their lives how they saw fit. Women became some of our greatest leaders, warriors, everything.”

“So they changed to meet the new challenges?”

“No, Kexx. That's my point. Women didn't change. They had always been capable of being leaders, warriors. In fact, they had been throughout history. But those examples were forgotten or hidden on purpose. What finally changed wasn't women, but men. We finally recognized what women had always been.”

“But our bearers are smaller, weaker. They have to be protected if there is to be a next generation.”

“Have you seen how much smaller Mei is than me? Did that stop her from fighting in your village?” Benson shook his head. “Kexx, I don't know how to explain this, and maybe it's not fair to say at all, but your race is going to have to mature really quickly. You're going to have to stop thinking one of your genders is fundamentally different. You're going to have to stop looking at other villages like they're a different kind of people, even the Dwellers. And you're going to have to realize that humans aren't just a different tribe. You're all going to have to unify and find your common goals. You're already doing that with your road network, but it's going to have to be all of you, the Dwellers, the nomads, the raiders, everybody.”

“That is easy to say.” Kexx shrugged. “Hard to do.”

“It has to start somewhere.”

“Or your humans will divide us, is that what you're trying to warn me about?”

Benson didn't want to be so direct, but essentially yes, that is exactly what he was trying to warn zer about. For all the evil Kimura and da Silva had wrought, they hadn't exactly been wrong about human nature. Here they were, less than three years on a new planet, and Benson was already neck deep into what he was increasingly convinced was a conspiracy among the powerful to swoop in and steal resources from the natives, consequences be damned.

As if they'd learned nothing from the colonization of the Americas, Australia, the African slave trade, and a thousand other sins of the past threatening to blossom again in the present.

“I don't want to see that happen. I'd rather our people become allies. We can do more through cooperation than conflict.”

Kexx looked at him for a long time before answering. “You really do mean that. Don't you? I've watched how you handled Kuul. Ze was looking for any excuse to kill you when you first arrived. Now… But what do we have to offer you as allies?”

“We can learn from each other.”

“Really?” Kexx said, exasperated. “You walk among the stars themselves. What could we possibly teach you?”

“We're not as invulnerable as we look. We're one asteroid, one power failure away from starving. We're growing almost all of our food up there.” Benson pointed at the ceiling, toward the Ark up in the sky. “If we lose that, we die. Your crops, your livestock, we need them. You can teach us how to live down here. And in return, we can teach you how to live out there.” Benson let his arm wave to encompass the sky on the other side of the hundreds of meters of rock.

“We will never be one people, but we can be siblings, er, brood mates. We will argue, we will fight, we may even hate each other now and then. But what we do now, here, can mark the start of a family coming together. And we'd better come together pretty quick, because whatever killed Earth is still out there gunning for us. We won't be able to stay hidden forever, and when that day comes, all of us here on this planet better be ready to either run, or stand and fight.”

“And you believe we will be stronger together?”

“Damned right we will.”

Kexx smiled. “You have big ideas, Kemosabe.”

Benson snorted. “Yeah, I guess I do. It would sure shock the hell out of my primary school teachers.”

“How do you think I'm doing with the Dwellers?” Kexx's voice carried a hint of worry and self-doubt.

“Well, we're still alive, so that's good.”

“You didn't expect to be?”

“I wouldn't have bet heavily on it, no.”

“Why not? If you're wrong, you'd never have to pay up.”

Benson laughed again. One of the advisors shot him a withering look, which Benson was only too happy to shoot right back. Ze and Kexx had a small exchange before ze looked away.

“What was that about?” Benson asked.

“Ze doesn't think this is a time for laughing.”

“Those are usually the best times,” Benson said. “Did the chief say anything else about this oracle?”

“Ze was… vague. But I get the sense even ze is wary.”

“And we have to go back to the surface to speak to zer?”

“Yes. Ze apparently prefers the daylight.”

A knot suddenly tied itself in Benson's stomach. He had a strong suspicion who, or more specifically, what the oracle would turn out to be. And if he was right, they would need to be ready to run, and run fast.

“Don't let your legs get cold,” Benson said. They reemerged from the caverns into the valley minutes later. Kuul, Mei, and the rest of the caravan hung back from the entrance, spears in hand, but not pointed at anyone in particular. Their captive sat at the center of the group, now gagged, which was a nice change of pace from the last two days. But as soon as they emerged, ze sprang to zer feet and started trying to yell through the cloth in zer mouth while zer skin patterns flickered and flowed like a torrent.

The under chief stepped up to the edge of the caravan's circle and motioned everyone out of the way. Much to Benson's surprise, they complied, even Kuul. The little bearer chief had gravitas, that much was sure. Ze and Devorah would probably get along swimmingly. Ze inspected zer brood mate like a buyer inspecting livestock for quality, touching zer arm and running a finger over the fabric of the gag in zer mouth, then inspected the dressing on zer leg wound. Benson was glad their prisoner had been well treated, mostly. Less for the chief to blame on them.

Seemingly satisfied with zer condition, the chief spoke some hushed words to their captive, then started back along the track ze'd been on. Benson motioned to Mei and Kuul for everyone to follow, including their prisoner. If what he thought was about to happen actually happened, they would need to stay close together.