~
Looking further into the distance my breath was taken away for there was something I had not expected to see. Beyond the lip of the great circular maelstrom in its very centre and stretching out as far as the eye could see and below was a vast city. The whole immense metropolis was laid out in a crisscross pattern, numerous squares of buildings each surrounded by a roadway. Every building made form a silvery grey material, every road the same.
“Behold,” said Tnie with a great pride sounding tone to his voice. “Scienocropolis the sky city of the Pnook.”
My eyes again fell upon the city below in silent awe, never had I seen anything like it, no town I had ever been in compared to the sheer size of the place and the way it looked. But we were now over the outer perimeter the air became perfectly still at last. The sun beat down upon us from on high. The shadows of the grey buildings were short. I then noticed that all the buildings on the outer perimeter of the city were in bad repair, many had no roofs and the walls had collapsed into ruin. The city was impressive but there was something very wrong here, I didn’t know what, but I just got the feeling that everything was not as it should be. I then noticed that those buildings on the very edge of the city had actually toppled over the edge of the land on which the city was built if indeed land it was. This appeared to be a continuing process, for below the edge of the city and lying on the red sands below were many large pieces of the unfortunate buildings that had met with this fate.
This wreckage was quite dense below the edge of the city and it was quite clear as to what it was, as if those buildings had fallen over relatively recently. As I looked out into the desert back towards the maelstrom, the wreckage got less and less I suspected that erosion had taken its toll upon the wreckage. I was reminded of the skeletal remains lying on the desert sands we had passed over before first setting our eyes on the great maelstrom, but surely this city wasn’t so big at one time to have encompassed those remains to. No, that wreckage must have been from some other source surely. I wondered at that moment just how old this city must be and how much bigger it may have been when it was first built, before its edges had started to be eroded away perhaps by the very wind we had passed over. I resolved to ask Tnie about it when I next had the chance. For now though Tnie was busying himself flying our craft and at the same time taking in all he could see below, but although his pride in his race and their achievements was obvious, I was not so sure he was that overjoyed to be home.
I turned to Serinae; she also was looking down at the vista that lay below. "Not a single tree in sight, not any greenery to behold across the whole city.”
I looked back at the cityscape below, I had noticed the same perhaps subconsciously and a dreadful loathing came over me, for I felt a dislike for this place already, how different it was to my T’Iea homeland. I felt a little homesick, this travelling on adventures was not exactly all that I assumed it would be. But I tried to tell myself that all the races were different, individual needs and habits would be also very different. I tried to tell myself that we were destined to come here, we had a task to do and do it we would. Perhaps if we accomplished it quickly we could be on our way back home.
We were gradually reducing our altitude and looking across the city I perceived that the tops of the taller building in the city centre still many kilometres distant appeared to be higher than we now were. Above these towering buildings small dots in the sky could be seen, were they birds? I suspected not as there were no trees for any to roost or shelter and the desert afforded no food or water for them. I suddenly thought that these actually must be flying machines similar to the one in which we now travelled. Most seemed to be going to or from the central part of the city.
A jerk suddenly warned me that we were changing direction and at the same time the pit of my stomach let me know that we were also going down far quicker than we were, we were in fact losing height rapidly. Then I saw not far below an open area between the wrecked buildings. Around the outside of this area several low circular buildings were erected, similar to the one we had left behind in Amentura. I assumed that these buildings or what was left of them, were also for storing flying machines whilst they were on the ground as the nose portion of such a machine could be clearly seen through the open doors in the roof of one of the buildings. On closer inspection though I noticed that the doors were in fact hanging off their hinges, not open as I originally thought, much of the roof had collapsed inwards no doubt rendering the machine inside damaged and probably beyond use. My attention then widened to the general area about the landing site and I was disappointed to note that this whole section of the city was in a terrible state of disrepair and quite obviously uninhabited.
A slowing of our descent followed by a soft bump heralded our landing upon the ground, well at least close to it for the craft was in fact hovering as it had been back in the building in Amentura. I found my thoughts turning to relief and joy that after so many days and nights in the air I would soon feel firm ground again beneath my feet. Glancing around at my fellow travellers confirmed that many of obviously them felt the similarly.
Tnie spoke first, "welcome my friends to Scienocropolis, I hope your stay here will be pleasant and productive.”
We eventually found ourselves gathering our belongings and disembarking the flying ship and we all stood at last within the city of Scienocropolis all be it amongst the sadly derelict looking area around the outer district of the city for complete ruin was all I could see around me. Tnie switched the buttons by the eyelet that I had noticed in Amentura before embarking on our journey. No doubt he wanted to render the air ship immobile so that it couldn’t be blown around and maybe get damaged.
Jondris said, "thank you Tnie for getting us here safely, I doubt we would have made the journey without you and your flying machine, we certainly would not have made it across the desert and then been presented with the impenetrable wall of the maelstrom. Your knowledge and kindness have been invaluable.”
At this Tnie bowed low towards Jondris.
But Jon however then asked, “but why have we landed here in such an uninhabited place? Why not go further into the city, for surely what we seek is to be found there, surely not amongst such dereliction as this.”
I must admit I found myself agreeing with these words. Tnie looked a little sheepish at this but suddenly brightened up and said, “I thought it best to land here so that I could answer any questions you may have about city before you went on into the main central area.”
I considered and thought this a good idea as none of us save Tnie had been here before. At this Serinae turned to Tnie and said, “You? Is it not your intention to go with us master Pnook?”
Tnie shuffled about on his feet, he looked away from Serinae’s questioning glare. “I …. I cannot. Don’t ask me why, just believe it when I say I must wait for you here.”
Here he trailed off looking beyond where we stood his expression one of fright. We all turned slowly to see what he was looking at and before anyone could say a further word several Pnook strode into the area. I gasped for each Pnook stood higher than me, I would only stand with the top of my head to their waists, for each was strapped inside a metal construction that extended his limbs so that every movement he made whether walking or gesturing, even moving a single finger was replicated by the metal construction surrounding him. I later was to discover that these metal contraptions were a military invention called exoskeleton armour the main purpose was to increase the size and strength of the Pnook soldier within many, many times. I could see the Pnook in front of us carried an overly large weapon of some kind in one hand and in the other a tube like device connected to tanks upon their backs, I was to later discover these were a terrifying weapon that discharged liquid flame that engulfed the target instantly. All these weapons were trained upon us currently in a menacing manner. Even Serinae was taken by surprise for she looked as shocked as everyone else at the sight of the heavily armed soldiers now surrounding us look
ing menacing and as if they were just waiting for us to give the slightest excuse so that they might open fire upon us.
Then through the ring of Pnook soldiers in exoskeleton armour came others some thirty in number this time walking upon their own feet. In the centre of this group stepped a Pnook with no weapons in his hands. He approached us without the look of suspicion that appeared on the face of his fellows for he was obviously in command of the group. He glanced at each of us in turn with a frown. Then he stepped to one side looking around Jondris. Jondris looked behind him and stepped to one side, there stood Tnie no longer hiding behind the broad back of my human friend.
The eyes of the Pnook officer met with Tnie’s. A wry smile appeared on his lips as he said, “well, well look who's here, if it’s not Tnie. You have a nerve showing up here again Tnie, you are either very brave or very foolish. But you know that I must place you under arrest along with your companions here for I assume they are accomplices of yours.”
At this startling revelation he then gestured at the gnomes around him that were on foot. Ten of them slung their weapons over their shoulders and approached us removing what was obviously some kind of restraint mechanism from their belts. With a soft whirring sound each of the gnomes in exoskeleton armour took up position surrounding us and looking down upon us, took careful aim with their projectile weapons and I just knew they would not need a lot of encouragement to fire upon us.
All of a sudden Łĩnwéé cried out and shouted, “ye’ll nay place those things on my arms, ye little swabs.”
He struck out at the nearest Pnook with an iron gauntleted fist, the unfortunate little man caught the full force of the blow to his chest and was flung backward clear off his feet and fell heavily against a low broken wall a few metres away. I was afraid that the little man may have been killed, but a groan issued from his lips and I was relieved that in fact he was still alive all be it with a number cracked ribs. Just then all hell broke loose and the Pnook that were on foot retreated out of reach of Łĩnwéé. I thought about shouting for everything to stop but it was too late for that, two of the Pnook had pulled out some kind of device from a holster and each were pointing these at Łĩnwéé, I didn’t like the look of this, but before any of us could restrain him, Łĩnwéé uttering a growl started to rush at the nearest Pnook. One of the soldiers in exoskeleton armour leapt forward and grasped Łĩnwéé by the shoulders and pushed him to the ground. Poor Łĩnwéé was struggling, but it was obvious that even his strength could not overcome that exerted by the exoskeleton armour. Łĩnwéé was grunting with his exertions, the exoskeleton armour was whirring in response. Suddenly there was a sound, a crackling noise accompanied by a red jerking line of energy that looked just like a lightning bolt striking the ground from far above, but this bolt struck Łĩnwéé square in the chest and he stopped struggling and collapsed unmoving to the ground. The Pnook that had fired the weapon was waiving the tube thing in his hand around menacingly. I wanted to go to Łĩnwéé but I did not want to find out what had happened to him by inviting the same fate. So I had no choice but to stand my ground and offer my outstretched palms in front of me in a gesture of submission. Any reasoning we could put forward to not being restrained in any manner had just been thrown away to the wind. The Pnook officer gestured at his soldiers, the ones with the restraints looking suspiciously at us, but they moved forward and pulling our hands behind our backs placed the restraint mechanism on each of us. Suddenly my hands were immobilised behind me, but not only that I found none of my muscles would respond to my will. I couldn’t move, every muscle in my body became rigid and immobile. To my relief though the muscles that remained active where those of my heart and diaphragm. The rest of my companions also had the same problem I could tell, each had a surprised look, mixed with horror on their faces, at least those I could see for I could not turn my head in any direction to look at those beyond my field of vision.
The Pnook officer produced some kind of small box from a pouch hung on his belt, and said to us, “you will follow me.”
I would have laughed, if I could, because I knew that following him without control over any of my muscles would be impossible, but then I heard a click emanate from the box the Pnook officer held and all of a sudden my legs started to move involuntarily. I started to walk jerkily in the most ungainly manner and follow the officer as did my companions. I tried to talk but found this muscle activity was impossible, I felt helpless and somehow violated. I noticed that Łĩnwéé was also now wearing the hand restraints and even though he was still stunned unconscious he made to get up and start to follow the captain his head lolled forward and his body bent at the waist, his arms hung limply at each side but still he walked. This was bizarre, we had no control over our own movements and the feeling of helplessness was loathsome.
In this helpless manner we were herded along like sheep, the Pnook oblivious to us most of the time just controlling us with their infernal gadgetry. I could not move my head from side to side so could not see any of my companions apart from those in front of me, I wondered what Łĩnwéé or even Serinae would do once these bonds had been removed, although I didn’t really think her an avenging monster, but never the less I thought she must be seething beneath her normally cool, collected exterior. As we walked I heard a humming above our heads. The noise passed over us heading in the same direction as we were. I was unable to see directly but straining to glance out from the extremities of my vision I could see the airship we had travelled in. I assumed this was also captured and was being flown to wherever we were headed.
We walked this way for some hours through deserted streets. Not deserted because the population remained inside these buildings, but really deserted, no one lived in these outer districts of the city. All the houses were in a terrible state of disrepair, even though some of them lining the streets were large and obviously villas where the rich would once have enjoyed an affluent lifestyle. But no longer, for some of the buildings were completely demolished, others stood with roofless walls. On several occasions slight tremors ran through the ground beneath my feet, sometimes brickwork was dislodged and came tumbling down to hit the ground. All this just reinforced my suspicions that there was something very wrong here.
Sometime later we turned down a wide avenue and as all I could look at was whatever was in front of my vision I was able to make out an abrupt end to the avenue along which we now walked and also an abrupt end to the crumbling buildings that ran alongside. There was a kind of clearing, an open area at the end of the avenue in front of us. It looked like we were coming upon a wide river flowing through the city, the river bank cutting across the road on which we travelled, but I couldn’t see any kind of bridge, at least not from where we were walking perhaps it also had been demolished, or we would turn left or right and follow the river bank or whatever it was that cut across in front of us. I was expecting to see the answer to my thoughts at any moment, but as we got nearer and eventually got to a point that was very close to the end of the buildings I stood aghast. It was not a river that cut right across our path but a vast empty chasm.
The buildings on our side looked to have fallen or partly fallen into this chasm, it looked as if some massive giant had taken a pickaxe and systematically chopped through the buildings and cut a deep channel into the ground. Across this channel on the other side I could see other buildings on the far side that had shared a similar fate. Through my limited peripheral vision I could just make out the chasm itself curving around either side of us into the distance. In front of us across the other side, we could just see a vertical cliff extending downwards below the foundations of the buildings as far as the eye could see, for we were not positioned close enough to the edge so as to get a glimpse of the bottom of the chasm, if indeed such could be seen anyway.
Just then I heard a loud crash and the sound of falling masonry to my left. Also suddenly I felt a jolt in my body as if someone had thrown me to the ground and indeed I found myself on the ground, all my musc
les ached terribly as if I’d been running with a heavy weight for miles upon miles. Then just when I thought things couldn’t get worse my whole body seemed to spasm and be wracked in pins and needles, something like that pain combined with a numbness that you get if you have sat on your calf muscles for too long and try to stand up, but this was all over my body. After a while this pain subsided a little and I found that all my muscles had indeed returned to my control, but I felt very weary and fatigued. Lifting my head slightly I could look around and see that all my companions were in the same sorry state. Jondris was closest to me and he was groaning and trying to rub his leg muscles in an attempt to get some life back into them I suspect. But this looked difficult as his hands were still trapped behind his back in the infernal manacles that the soldiers had placed upon us.
Our Pnook guards were standing in a circle around us, some were smiling wickedly. The officer walked forward, the little control box still on its strap around his neck, he raised this and gestured at us, I winced as I thought that the wretched machine was about to be switched back on and I would lose all control over my body again. But no, he said, “I see you have experienced the after effects of our detainee control mechanisms. To show that we gnomes are not completely without sympathy I am willing to allow you to walk without my ‘assistance’. At this a sneer bent his mouth out of shape and he continued, “that is as long as I have your word that you will neither try to escape or attack us.”
At this Serinae stood forward and said, “that was never our intention right from the start, we came in peace and friendship to talk with your leaders about a grave matter, yet you treat us like enemies, even like animals, this is not how I expected Pnook hospitality to be extended.”
The officer looked at Serinae, “yet you come to our city with a criminal, one who has a price on his head.”
At this Serinae looked stunned and I must have looked the same as she said. “Who? Who has a price, I know of nobody in our company that would warrant such fowl behaviour.”
At this the Pnook captain looked at Tnie who by this time had tried to make his way behind Jondris once again, as I looked at him a very sheepish look came across his face.
The captain still pointing at Tnie said, “there has been a warrant out for his arrest for some time now.”
Obviously we were all shocked to hear this news, and I recalled how I had felt when Seri first told us we were to travel to Scienocropolis and the thought I had that Tnie was keeping something back from us, well now I knew what. But before any of us could utter a response the officer turned and gesturing to his men to keep an eye on us he walked towards the chasm and reaching inside his tunic brought out a small cylindrical device. This he held out in front of him and depressing a hidden button there was a whooshing sound as something shot out from the tube leaving a trail of smoke behind. It climbed high into the air above the chasm and then exploded with a loud report and started to fall back down leaving a glowing bright orange smoke trail. He then sat on the ground as if resigned to await something.
Before long I could see a movement across the other side of the chasm, as I squinted in the sunlight I eventually could make out a similar craft to the one on which we had recently travelled and had lost, but this one was much smaller and had no room for more than the obvious deck that was in the open air. It was gliding horizontally across the chasm heading straight for us. At this the officer stood and beckoned, our guards also stood and started to indicate that we should move further towards the edge of the chasm directly to where the craft gliding towards us would presumably reach this side.
As we got closer I could see over the edge of the chasm, I was astounded to be able to see more and more of the cliff on the other side, it extended down for a vast distance. I would guess at least a kilometre. It appeared to be made of solid rock, indeed as my eyes became accustomed to the view I could plainly see strata in the rock wall. Every now and again there appeared a black spot on the wall, it occurred to me that this must be a cave, or a tunnel, the surprising thing was that each of these tunnels was perfectly circular, not the sort of thing that occurred in nature so I began to think that these tunnels, if that was what they were may have been crafted somehow by the Pnook for I remembered the tale Tnie told of how this enormous rock platform was built.
But then the wall ended and nothing could be seen below this lower extremity until my eyes fell on the red sands of the desert far below. My head swam with a strong feeling of vertigo for we must have been many kilometres high up above the desert. But by this time the craft I had seen was now docking against the cliff on this side, and the officer beckoned for us to move forward, for we were quite plainly going to board the craft for the purpose I supposed of crossing the vast chasm to the other side.
As he beckoned the officer said, “come. Whatever happens the city will decide your guilt or your innocence, and therefore your fate amongst us.”
At this he ordered the restraints to be removed from our hands so that we could freely embark upon the craft. So we walked forward and one by one stepped aboard.
As we each stepped down onto the deck of the craft it moved slightly taking a little dip down which was most disconcerting as it felt like it would drop, but some automated feature in the control of the thing readjusted the height of the craft automatically compensating for the increases in weight aboard. When all of us were on board and sitting along the benches that ran along either side; the officer and several guards embarked upon the craft. The captain had a discussion with another Pnook officer that had come across the chasm in the craft and had stepped out and now remained on the edge of the avenue along with what remained of the guards on foot and all of the Pnook soldiers in exoskeleton armour. Once they had finished talking the Pnook gnomes that were obviously staying on this side of the chasm moved off and went back down the avenue the we had come up. Obviously the Pnook maintained a security force on this side of the chasm, I wondered why for no one lived here at least not permanently and there was mothing of any great value to protect.
Once the officer was satisfied he gave the order for one of the crew to cast off and we drifted slowly away from the mooring. As we did so I chanced to look down, there far below was the red sand of the desert. I saw the unbroken redness that I had been used to but like the edge of the city the desert here too was littered with objects, mostly black and silvery-grey wreckage of varying sizes, some very large. It was obvious that the buildings that were originally here before the chasm, the streets and the buildings that was originally here, had all fallen to the desert below and that is what had caused the chasm to come into being. But here unlike the city’s edge, this had not been happening for an extended period of time as most of the rubble and wreckage below looked quite fresh as it was quite clean and not yet covered or discoloured by the fine red dust or eroded by the wind and blasted by the sand until it became the dust itself.
I couldn’t imagine what had caused this, what catastrophic event had resulted in such vast damage to this area of the city. As if to substantiate my thoughts I then heard a loud cracking noise from the place where we had been moored, and looking around quickly I saw a massive steel girder that had been part of one of the buildings overhanging the edge close to us slowly tip on end and slide out from the brickwork that once held it in place. As it slid it gathered momentum and like others on the craft I realised that it was going to slide out and drop perilously close to us or even hit us. I watched in fascinated horror, aware that people were shouting orders or warnings or perhaps both. The gnome that was piloting the craft was adjusting the position of the wheels whilst looking up at the sliding girder. Then with a sudden thundering crash and screeching of stressed metal the girder finally broke free of the brickwork scattering dust and debris in every direction. Once free of its restraints of course it fell and came careering down towards were we hovered.
The pilot of the craft had also anticipated this and we were slowly moving out of the path of the falling girder, but
it was now falling faster and faster, the pilot saw this and made a heroic attempt to swing the rear of the craft round and well out of the danger. I closed my eyes and prayed that we would not be hit, but I felt and heard a sickening crunch and a judder as the girder gave our little craft a glancing blow to one side.
The automatic levelling ability of the craft came into play immediately, the motors that kept us aloft whined as they fought to readjust and level our position, but it was obvious that something was not quite right because they over compensated and the deck started to tilt the other way at an increasingly alarming rate. Again shouts could be heard and people started to move from the dipping side of the craft to the opposite side, the side on which I sat. The effect then was to rock the craft back the other way, this was enough to tilt the deck so far that things started to slide down, I lifted my legs up onto the bench to avoid being hit by loose objects sliding about. Then one of the Pnook was struck in the back of the legs by a sliding box, he lost his footing and came careering towards my side of the vessel, he screamed and slid down the tilting deck and unable to stop himself hit the side of the craft and seemed to bounce right over the edge just along from where I sat. I was transfixed with fear as the poor little man was thrown into space. But just then an arm was flung over the side and a strong hand grabbed at the Pnook managing to grab hold of him by one leg just below the knee. It was Jondris, his speed had allowed him to grab the Pnook who now dangled precariously over the edge of the craft, the only thing stopping him from falling to certain death was the precarious hold that Jondris had on his leg. Jondris could not move or even begin to attempt to pull the gnome back on board because the craft was still pitching wildly.
We faced an impossible situation, something had to be done quickly or the hapless Pnook and perhaps even Jondris could be pitched overboard to fall to a certain death. Tnie was on his feet and making his way as swiftly as possible to the centre of the vessel where I could see a hatch, no one tried to stop him through fear that they too would lose their footing and be pitched over the side. Tnie made it to the hatch and eventually managed to slide it open, he reached inside and with sweat beading on his brow managed to adjust something, because after a few seconds the pitching of the vessel slowed and eventually we were stable again. This then allowed Jondris with the help of Teouso to pull the poor unfortunate Pnook back onto the deck and to safety. The pilot slowly manoeuvred us away from the edge of the chasm for fear of more falling debris and we resumed a steady pace, heading towards the far side.
Chapter 15 A Tale of Destruction.
Extract from ‘Scienocropolis the City of the Pnook’ by Solin De’Teinde.
A technological marvel, the pride of the Pnook race, built as a unique bastion safe from any known form of attack, but also a haven for the fleeing Pnook who out of all the races suffered so badly under the Ognod invasion. A city quite literally built from the remains of another. A Phoenix, its silvery wings spread wide against a backdrop of red.