CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Inside the dome all was in darkness and it took a few seconds for Vincent’s eyes to adjust to the gloom. He felt vulnerable there in the doorway with the light behind him but he didn’t dare move in case there was just a sheer drop down to certain death below. No one rushed at him though and a few seconds later he was able to take his first good look around the place. It was immense and he noticed the area of dome that was visible above ground was only part of it; as he looked down the stairwell he saw to his right he noticed it went down several storeys, maybe a hundred feet or more into the ground. He was standing on the top floor with the curve of the dome rising above him, and what looked like a sort of reception area stretched out in front of him. There were the tattered and weathered remains of seating areas and low tables strewn with dead leaves and broken pieces of whatever it was the dome was made of. A bar went halfway around the circumference of the room and he could still see bottles stacked up on shelves behind it. The labels were still readable on most of them, although he found he couldn’t read the writing on them for it was in some weird language he’d never seen before let alone learned. He wondered if he should try one, after all a beer is a beer. He selected what looked most like a bottle of beer and examined the cap. It wasn’t immediately obvious how to open it but after a bit of fumbling and then resorting to brute strength, he was soon enjoying a remarkably good beer, given that it was his first for nearly six years.
He scouted the room, looked into cupboards and drawers but found nothing of interest so he decided to check out the floor below. He gingerly tried the steps in case they were rotten from years of being open to the weather but they felt as firm as if they were brand new so he slowly descended, blade in hand. It was pretty dark down here and he didn’t have a flashlight so he looked for any obvious signs of lights.
“Where the fuck are the lights in this place?” he asked himself in a whisper as he looked around the walls. He found an almost invisible plate on the wall at shoulder height, so he went over to examine it. As he approached and stood in front of it, the lights suddenly went on of their own accord. He jumped back in alarm, but realised that the plate was probably a motion sensor activated light switch. He looked around and found himself in what looked like offices. Being under the ground, the lower floors of the building weren’t restricted to being set into a circular pattern so the rooms he found himself looking at here were arranged in an ordinary looking corridor. He tried all the doors and found the same set up in all of them, desks and chairs and all manner of weird looking technology. They were obviously some sort of computer devices but he couldn't remember ever seeing anything like them before, and he’d been around. It felt so weird; this place was obviously abandoned hundreds and maybe even thousands of years ago but this technology seemed modern, so modern in fact that he wouldn’t mind betting it was state of the art even now. “What the fuck have I stumbled onto here?” he asked aloud. After finding that all of the rooms were identical, he went down another floor and found himself in another identical corridor as the one above.
The rooms down here were more recognisable as living quarters. Each room was again laid out the same as all the others and contained a bed, a closet, a shelf, another weird looking type of computer monitor thing and a weird looking shower cubicle and toilet. As with the floor above, the corridor had an almost invisible plate on the wall which activated the lights when he approached. He searched each of the rooms but found nothing of any interest to him in any of the closets or shelves, in fact there was nothing at all in any of them; they were completely bare, as though whoever stayed here took everything when they left. Not even a piece of paper was to be found anywhere. He sat down on one of the beds to think about this new discovery and found himself realising how supremely comfortable it seemed after five years of sleeping on a pile of animal hides and brush on the floor of a cave. Almost without thinking he allowed himself to lie back full length and as his body settled, he felt like he was floating on a cloud. Without even realising it, he fell asleep almost immediately.
Syra approached the sleeping Vincent as he lay there on the bed. She looked down at him and smiled and felt so proud of how far he’d come in so short a time. He was so troubled and suffered such pain and turmoil in his life but still here he was putting his life on the line again for others while still believing no one cared whether he lived or died. She was very happy that he was now accepting her presence and listening to her guidance; that he was beginning to understand her role in his life was so very important and there were times when she wondered if she would ever be able to awaken him fully.
She reached into his mind with her own. “Sleep Vincent. Stay sleeping and listen. Listen carefully brave one; remember the words you will hear. Sleep and remember.” She stepped back as she saw the image of the girl approach her sleeping charge. She was beautiful and strong, a true warrior and she cared so deeply. Syra knew this girl was the right choice; the ancient ones had been right in their choosing of her. Leon had approached Syra and told her of what transpired and they both felt it would be right for them both to allow this moment between them. Vincent felt so alone for so long and his awareness of his solitude was troubling for him even though he carried the burden well; it would help heal his heart to experience this now. This was the right moment. The girl too, she was beginning to be aware of the strength of the connection that was taking place between them and the need to pass on some comfort to Vincent was becoming distracting in its strength. Her survival and courage to do what is right depends upon her being able to act without emotional burdens right now. Syra held Vincent’s mind with hers, keeping him asleep so the moment could happen between them and she would make sure he remembered.
Vincent descended into sleep without even being aware of being awake just a moment ago. He was so tired, so very tired and it felt so good to be lying on a soft bed again. He heard a familiar voice from far away; Syra was talking to him but it was such a struggle to hear her. He was beginning to understand now that she was there to help him and he wasn’t crazy so he listened for her. He strained his ears but couldn’t hear her voice. Somehow he just knew he must listen so he focussed on listening and waited to hear. Suddenly a woman’s voice; a voice he didn’t recognise was there. Who was this, where was Syra? He listened to the voice, it sounded friendly and he realised he wanted very much to hear what she had to say.
“Vincent, don’t worry. I am fighting for you. You are not forgotten. I am working to free you and bring you home. Don’t be sad Vincent; don’t think you have no one to care. I care. I care very much. Sleep well and wake refreshed my friend. Be safe, and remember I care. Remember that Vincent. I care and I’m fighting for you.” The voice was full of emotion and he knew that the person speaking meant every word, but who is she? Where is she? He didn’t know the answers but as he listened to her soft voice and heard the words he felt his heart expanding. He felt her energy nearby but he couldn’t see her. He looked around but all he could see was the white mist of the hinterland surrounding him.
Her energy felt so warm, like she was wrapping him up in a soft blanket and holding him close. Suddenly her energy became over powering in its intensity and flooded over him in a sudden rush. He felt as though the woman and her emotions were all over him, inside him and taking hold of his heart in her hands. He realised as he lay there bathed in the mystery woman’s energy and words of comfort that she was giving him love so unconditionally he thought his heart would explode. He felt so much all at the same time, shock at the intensity of her feelings and the effect it was having on his own, a longing for it never to end and despair at his own loneliness. Someone was loving him and he wanted so much to feel that love, to be surrounded by it, to return it. He felt the woman’s energy come so close that his whole being was absorbed by it and for a moment it almost felt as if he’d been kissed. He awoke with a start and sat up to find himself still in the room inside the dome.
He looked around the room to get his bearings and sighed as he remembered the dream of the woman’s voice. He realised he was still alone after all; it was just a dream. It was so real though, that voice was really there as much as Syra’s was when she spoke.
“Was it real? Was it real? Please, was it real?” he cried aloud and when he felt the throb in his chest in response, he sighed deeply, fighting to control his emotions.
The next floor down was occupied by three large rooms behind clear doors that opened with a swish as he approached. He entered the first room slowly. He looked for the plate that operated the lights, touched it and watched the room snap into view in front of him. It looked like a clinic of some kind or a hospital operating theatre with a shiny silver table in the centre and all sorts of machines everywhere. He walked around the room and looked at the machines but couldn’t discover what they were or how they might be used. A silver tray lay on a shelf and when he examined it he found what looked like surgical instruments. He’d never been in a hospital and never had any kind of operation so this stuff was completely outside of his experience. He’d taken his military colleagues to hospitals when they were injured but he’d never seen the inside of an operating theatre in his life. From what he was seeing here though, he’d lay money on this being some kind of hospital or clinic. He left and went into the second of the three rooms, to find an identical set up as the previous one. The only difference here was a digital chart readout that he guessed must be from the room’s last patient. As with the beer bottles, he couldn’t read it due to the strange language and symbols it contained. He put it down and went to check the last of the three rooms, expecting it to be exactly the same.
The third room was the same as the other two but this one looked as if it was left in a hurry. So much of a hurry in fact that the doctors must have left in the middle of the procedure, because there was the remains of a body still on the table. It was no more than a skeleton now but still he approached cautiously. He saw that the top of the skull was removed and there was even a small surgical instrument lying within the empty cavity. The bones looked human, if a little small and he guessed this person must’ve been either fairly young and not full grown or a rather short adult, maybe even a short race of people. That’s when the penny dropped and he realised what he was looking at. This skeleton belonged to one of the indigenous humans he was surrounded by back at the cave. A look at the mouth and jaw gave him his final evidence of this; those large fangs were identical to the ones he saw on his neighbours as they ate their enemies!
“My god, what the fuck?” he said aloud as the realisation of what he was seeing hit home. From his five years at the cave he never once saw any of his neighbours do anything that made him think they had access to this type of medical care and he was never aware of any other humans visiting the planet. “But this place has obviously been abandoned for centuries,” he said aloud as he tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and failed. The place was beginning to give him the creeps!
He descended to what turned out to be the lowest level and found one large door in front of him. It was solid and ornately carved and covered in strange designs and symbols he couldn’t understand except for what looked like stylised depictions of planets and solar systems. There was a sign over the door which again he couldn’t read, but he guessed it told him what the room was or was used for. He knew the only way to find out was to go in, so he gave the door a shove. The huge room looked like it could hold several hundred people all at the same time and he was just about to wonder how it seemed so much bigger than the ones above, when he remembered that he was deep underground and this room was obviously cut out of the bedrock much bigger on purpose. At one end was a raised area with two steps leading up to a large ornately carved chair that looked like a throne. His boot steps echoed softly as he walked around the perimeter of the room examining the intricate paintings on the walls depicting what looked to him like triumphant battle scenes, bodies scattered on the ground and large black cloaked figures standing over them. As he looked at the black figures with their cloaks billowing in the wind, he remembered the imagery of the day he was born and that evil black figure who killed him and his people. He was stunned by this realisation and started to back away from the paintings in shock.
“Vincent.” A voice from behind made him turn and spring into defensive mode, blade in hand. Syra was standing across the room from him and it was the first time she’d appeared in solid form to him while he was fully awake. “Vincent. The cycle of time is almost complete. All moments have led to this one in which we now stand. The waiting is almost over and the time of your destiny approaches fast. The ones who you see on these walls are the ones who sent our people to the land of the dead, who sent you to the land of the dead moments after your birth that had been prophesied to the ancients so long ago. Many worlds mourn those lost at the hands of these evil ones you see on these walls. You have suffered so much Vincent but you have become a fine man and a brave warrior and we are so proud of you. All of the lost ones love you so much and are with you always.” She approached and reached for his hands.
“There is only me. How can I fix this? I’m just one man,” he asked her.
“You are the only one to bring this evil to an end Vincent. There is no other in the land of the living to whom destiny has given this burden. Only you have been deemed worthy of this mighty task that has brought you so much pain.” Her eyes never left his as she spoke.
“But what do I do? How can I?” He was desperate for answers.
“The evil ones are coming Vincent, they are coming for you. I have kept your presence from their sight until now, until the moment prophesied arrived. They see you now and they come for you. You are not fighting alone dear one, others have your back. Know this and believe it. The answer lies in the trees Vincent, the answer lies in the trees.” As she faded away Vincent knew immediately what she meant. The answer lies in the trees and in the poison he worked so hard to acquire from them.
Over the next few hours he explored the other domes and found that with the exception of one, the others were all identical to the first. The odd one was very interesting and gave him the answer to the question he’d been so desperate for Syra to answer. The last dome was given over completely to the production, care and distribution of a water supply to the other domes. The whole of the depth of this dome was filled with one vast tank and the walls were lined with machinery, digital monitoring devices and quality control consoles. He was able to work out what it all was due to seeing similar stuff during his military career. When he was sent to worlds that were pretty inhospitable, the army had to provide basic facilities such as water and they had a mobile water collection and treatment facility that they would set up for the soldiers to use. From what he could see here this one worked in pretty much a similar way and this was the obvious choice for him to use to attack the enemy when they arrived. If he could find one of the uptake valves that led into the tank, he would be able to put the poison into the whole supply so that all who drank or washed themselves in it would be affected. Then it would just be a case of surviving for a couple of days until it did its job.
He filled his own empty water carrier that he made out of the bladder of an animal he’d killed for a meal and tied the top securely. If he was frugal with it, it would last him a couple of days, long enough to maybe get away into the forest to find more anyway. It was all he had so he’d just have to be careful with it and hope luck smiled on him. Once he secured his own supply, he focussed on finding an uptake valve through which he could upload his deadly cargo. It took an hour of following pipe work until he found it tucked away in a dusty corner amid a maze of pipes and tubes. There was a bank of valves, twenty four of them in total in two rows of twelve and he knew by the configuration of the connectors which ones were uptake and which were outlets. He checked the row of valves one last time to make sure all of them led to the same mai
n intake pipe and when he was satisfied, he gently unscrewed one of the valve connectors. He rummaged in his backpack and gingerly removed the precious bundle wrapped in leather. He didn’t want to rush and end up killing himself at the eleventh hour so he forced himself to slow down and take care. He carefully unwrapped the bundle and poured the glossy brown liquid into the valve before securely replacing the connector. For a moment nothing happened and he was about to curse out loud when all of a sudden the poison rushed out of the valve with a whoosh and into the main supply. Before long Vincent knew that the whole supply would be contaminated, he just hoped there was enough poison in the water to work properly. He’d just have to hope so, it was all he had and he knew there wasn’t time to go and get some more, not with it probably taking him over an hour just to get up the tree and down again. He picked up his backpack and started the long climb back up to ground level.
As he reached ground level he became aware of a vibration coming to him through the floor he was standing on. It was gentle at first but soon became so distinct he couldn’t ignore it and he paused in the doorway of the dome as the vibration became a rumble and then a roar as dust and debris from the forest began to swirl madly around in the air. A sudden sharp pain in the centre of his chest confirmed what he was already starting to suspect; that rumbling could only be caused by one thing, a space ship was landing nearby. For a moment he was not sure what he should do. Should he hide somewhere in the dome or should he run into the forest? If he hid inside the dome he would be trapped, possibly with no way out and a dwindling water supply but if he was outside, in an environment he felt surer of, he’d have more chance of remaining unseen. The choice was made. He took a deep breath and bolted out of the door as fast as his legs would carry him. A big man built for endurance rather than speed but his powerful body propelled itself toward the tree line very fast and within a couple of agonisingly long minutes he was deep in the cover of the trees and vegetation. He ran for five minutes before finding some deep brush to hide in to regain his breath and his bearings. He hoped that he hadn’t been seen as he ran from the dome but then he remembered that he had to force his way into the place and the sight of the totally destroyed doors would let the enemy know that someone had been snooping around.
He allowed himself a minute to regain his breath before rummaging in his backpack for his scope. He had to move a couple of hundred yards to the right before he could get a decent view of the dome complex, but when he could see what was happening he was shocked. The most enormous space ship he ever saw sat several miles away, crushing and destroying the forest and vegetation under it and for several hundred yards all around. Within the few minutes it had been since landing, there were already hundreds of black clad enemies emerging from the large exit on one side. Like a tide of ants they began to slowly swarm through the forest and Vincent realised that they’d be on top of him within twenty minutes or so.
“Shit,” he thought to himself as he realised how overwhelmed he was by their sheer numbers. He had to think quickly and he forced his mind to focus. He knew he must buy himself some distance and time, so he carried on running. He knew he couldn’t just go back up the mountain though; he’d stick out like a sore thumb on that barren rocky scree. No, he’d have to move sideways and put some distance between himself and them that way. He settled into his natural easy rhythm as he ran through the forest and he knew that with a twenty minute head start and his capability for endurance, he could put a healthy distance between them. As he rounded a stand of large brush, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as a very strong and uncomfortable feeling pervaded his mind. He was being observed. By what or by whom, he didn’t know but the feeling was so strong he could almost feel himself being scanned. He felt surrounded and he felt vulnerable for the first time in a long while and he remembered feeling certain that something was following him as he made his way through this forest earlier. Another sharp pain in his chest brought his awareness back and he carried on running. With enemies behind and something unknown around him, he felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place but it was Hobson’s choice, so he chose the forest and its unknowns rather than face the black clad evils that had murdered him the day he was born.
He ran and kept as straight a course as he could parallel with the mountain range and into a seemingly unending forest. He ran for two hours at a comfortable pace before stopping for a drink and to get his breath back and to try to relax his muscles and think. He swallowed several large mouthfuls of the water before sitting down behind a tree to think and rest his legs. As he was starting to devise a plan of action for himself, he became aware of a noise that didn’t belong in the forest. It sounded like a high pitched whine, like an insect but far too loud and as he listened, it got louder. All at once something came down out of the tree tops at him and he found himself staring into what looked like a glittering, glowing sphere of icy blue light. For long seconds he stared at it, knowing neither what it was nor what he should do. Then another sharp pain from his chest spurred him into action and he rose from where he’d been sitting, all the while expecting it to start shooting at him or something. It didn’t shoot at him; it simply sat there in mid air three feet away. He allowed his right hand to very slowly and subtly fumble for the blade on his hip before suddenly bringing it up and around in an alarmingly fast sideways arc and striking the ball dead centre. The light went out and it fell at his feet in two pieces and he could see that it was a ball of some kind of crystal. There were no moving parts from which it could get its power of flight or manoeuvre; it was just a solid lump of crystal. He was more than a little intrigued and picked a piece of it up to examine it further but before he could do so he felt the barrel of a weapon press itself against his temple.
Instantly he ducked as an ear splitting explosion roared over his head. Within a fraction of a second he brought his right arm, still holding his blade, across his body to his left before swinging it back with all his Lilean strength and as he regained his full height, the blade sank into the man’s heart so far that his body would have a bruise in the shape of Vincent’s fist around the entry point. The man made a curious gurgling noise before sinking slowly to the ground. Vincent bent and picked up the man’s weapon before checking all around for more of these invaders. He donned his backpack ready to set off running but before he could take his first step, he heard the sound of a twig snapping behind him. He may not be the fastest runner in the galaxy but his reactions were always razor sharp and he spun around to find himself staring at another black cloaked figure like the one he just killed. Within a second he raised the weapon he took from the dead man and fired. Nothing happened, not even a click. The black cloaked figure grinned.
“It will only work for its owner, evil one. Now you are our prisoner and must face the Pzolgon. Come.” Vincent’s captor nodded his head in the direction of the domes, indicating that he expected him to just obey and march back to whatever peril awaited him there. Who or what was a Pzolgon he had no idea but he was damn sure he didn’t intend to find out until he was good and ready. He took a step forward as if to acquiesce but what his captor didn’t notice was the lightening fast way he flipped his blade around in his hand so that he was now holding it by the blade tip. The captor again indicated for him to walk and as he began to make his way around behind him, Vincent spun around to his left. Bringing his right arm up and back he let the blade fly at just the right moment and watched it sink into the man’s throat. The captor dropped his weapon and frantically grasped at his throat as he tried to breathe. As the black gloved arms turned red from his own blood, he slumped to the ground at Vincent’s feet.
He went to retrieve his blade and pulled it out of his would be captor’s throat with a sickening squish. After wiping it clean on the man’s cloak, he started running. He came upon a grove of tall trees with yellow leaves that carpeted the ground below and as he ran through them, from behind a tree stepped another bla
ck cloaked figure just in time to catch him squarely on the temple with the butt end of his weapon. Vincent was aware only of a sudden dull ache in his head and the realisation that all of a sudden his legs were like jelly and his feet seemed to weigh a ton apiece. As he sprawled onto his face in the leaves he discovered that he was finding it very hard to focus his eyes and ears and everything seemed to be going inwards. Time began to slow for him as he heaved himself onto his side before rolling over onto his back, the pack on his back acting as a pillow. As he forced his eyes to focus, he saw another black cloaked figure approach and crouch by his side before helping himself to the blade on his hip. As the figure readied his weapon and aimed it at him, Vincent saw it.
The creature suddenly launched itself at Vincent’s would be killer sending him sprawling fifteen feet away across the little woodland glade. As the man screamed and tried to shield his face with his arms, the creature looked over at Vincent. It was basically cat like, about the size of a bear with grey fur and a tail with bristles that vibrated and made a unique sound all its own. As both creature and Vincent looked at each other, a moment passed between them. Recognition passed across the creature’s face as it gave Vincent a slow blink, before raising its head and giving vent to an almighty roar and sinking its teeth into the man’s face. As Vincent descended into darkness he knew it was the same female to whom he’d given his last portion of food for her infants. Before his eyes closed completely, her message rang loud and clear through his mind.
“Thank you brother.”
*****