Outlanders 28 mad gods w.., p.25
Outlanders 28 Mad God's Wrath, page 25
"Not for long," Grant muttered, casting his gaze downward. "DeFore sedated her."
Sensing Grant's discomfort at Lakesh's reaction, Kane interjected, "She was conscious when we left, but DeFore had her confined to the infirmary."
Lakesh smiled, but without humor. "By no means. I'm not trying to downplay how dangerous it is, but it's not quite the doom weapon of Celtic myth, either. If the situation arises, we ought to be prepared to take advantage of its limitations."
Kane stared at Lakesh, more than a little surprised that the man was advocating violent, life-risking action. He demanded, "What's with this 'we' shit, Lakesh? You know you mean me and Grant."
Kane's surprise quadrupled when Lakesh whirled on him, his face suffused with furious blood. "I said 'we' and I meant it, you self-righteous bastard! If you hadn't been off on your foolish mission to California, more than likely we wouldn't even be having this conversation, certainly not in these surroundings. Don't you dare imply I' m delegating all the risks to you while I sit back and criticize from a safe distance!"
Kane didn't interrupt Lakesh's angry tirade. He listened without flickering so much as an eyelash, feeling the prickles of shame and embarrassment warming the back of his neck under the high collar of his shadow suit. Neither Brigid nor Grant offered words of defense, but he knew he didn't deserve them.
"Reprimand accepted," Kane said quietly. "I was way out of line. We were told how you led the defense of Cerberus."
Lakesh rubbed his eyes with the heels of his gloved hands. Hoarsely he declared, "It was my worst nightmare given flesh and form, friend Kane. Forgive my short temper. Whatever Maccan has planned for us—"
Lakesh broke off when Raschid appeared in the doorway. He tossed the Cerberus team their EVA suits. "Put these back on. You'll need them where you're going."
AFTER THEY WERE suited up, they stepped out into the passageway where Raschid thrust their helmets into their hands. "Don't put them on until you're told."
Maccan stood at the end of the corridor, holding a large aluminum-walled carrying case. All of them recognized it as the container for the interphaser and its support systems. It was outfitted with 0-ring seals to make it air and watertight. He nodded to them and turned smartly on his heel, his cloak swirling in a dramatic fashion.
Kane, Grant, Brigid and Lakesh followed Maccan along a stone-floored path through an arched entrance, flanked by Raschid, Shayd and a retinue of transadapts, four in all, David among them. Raschid and Shayd had their helmets tucked under their arms and they fisted firearms in their free hands.
They strode down a circular flight of stairs worn smooth by thousands of years of feet, passed through another arched portal and entered a vault-walled chamber of huge proportions. Brigid, Grant and Kane had been there before, but Lakesh gaped around in goggle-eyed surprise. The chamber was so vast that its nether end was lost in the shadows. Six circular tiers descended to the center of the chamber, surrounding a column like dais raised six feet from the floor. From it, a metal shaft rose straight up to the shadow- shrouded ceiling.
Rising from the base of the dais, extending at ever- increasing angles into the high shadows, was a taut webwork of silver filaments, hundreds, perhaps thousands of them. They were all connected to the series of circular tiers. A dim glow came down from the pointed roof, glittering from the strings.
As before, Kane had the impression of vast energies being drawn down from the metal spire and disseminated through each one of the silvery threads. The mass of stretched-out strings vibrated gently, continuously, producing a bass note, that he felt rather than heard.
Maccan paused by the metal shaft and asked, "Do you know where you are?"
"The tuning chamber of the Danaan broadcast tower," Brigid answered.
Maccan nodded approvingly. "Exactly."
Kane pointed to himself, Grant and Brigid. "We've been here before. The last time we found an old man living here, trying to readjust the frequency."
"Yes," Maccan stated. "Micah Harwin. I was told of him No one knows his fate. You understand the purpose my people put this pyramid to, don't you?"
"It transmitted ultrasonic frequency fatal to the Archons, the First Folk," replied Kane. "To keep them from establishing an outpost here."
"And to keep them from absconding with the pyramid itself." Maccan smiled when he said it, so no one knew if he was joking or simply as mad as Domi had suggested.
After a lengthy pause Kane inquired, "You were afraid Balam would steal this monument?"
"Yes," Maccan answered matter-of-factly. "The power it once possessed cut a path like a scythe through the Earth. Millions died by incineration so swift they never knew it."
"Are we talking about the protoplanic force Balam and his people used against your settlement on the Moon?" asked Brigid. "The one which caused a blow- back effect?"
"And nearly destroyed the Earth," Maccan declared with a small smile.
"Is that what you're planning to do again?" Brigid's tone was studiedly neutral. "Is that what you need the interphaser for?"
Maccan surprised them all by laughing, softly and bitterly. "By no means. I need the interphaser to go through the looking glass."
He walked quickly and deliberately across the chamber and through another arched portal. The people from Cerberus were pushed ahead by Raschid and Shayd at gunpoint. Only shadows waited ahead and Lakesh stopped moving. "Where are you taking us?" he demanded, his tone harsh and hard with impatience.
Maccan laughed again. "Do you find this place so strange, my friends?"
"No stranger than many other places we've seen," retorted Brigid stiffly.
"I promise to show you a place stranger than anywhere you have ever been before," Maccan declared. None of them doubted his words.
A muted bell sounded and lights flickered, illuminating the murk. They stood in front of a square cubicle, like a three-sided box. They saw it was a lift, with silver fretwork like that of a giant birdcage. Maccan made a sweeping gesture with one arm, indicating they should enter.
The four people didn't move, despite Raschid pressing the bore of his Uzi against Lakesh's back. "Where will this take us?" he asked suspiciously.
"Down. Far, far down," Maccan answered. "To the seat of the broadcast tower. There is insufficient oxygen for you down there, so you may wish to put on your helmets now."
Reluctantly the Cerberus team stepped into the lift and did as Maccan said, slipping the helmets on over their heads and helping one another secure them to the collars of the EVA suits. Raschid and Shayd donned their own headpieces. They weren't surprised that the transadapts took no precautions, since they were bred to function in rarified atmospheres, but they wondered at Maccan.
He seemed to sense their mystification and he gave them a sly smile. "I will find such environmental conditions invigorating, as long as I don't overstay."
The lift began its descent, dropping smoothly down a vertical shaft. As it did so, they felt the lessening of gravity on their bodies. The open side of the elevator afforded them tantalizing glimpses of the other levels of the pyramid—they saw walls tiled in Celtic patterns with blues and reds and ancient knotwork designs, received impressions of huge tables and chairs carved from oak, brilliant-colored tapestries.
On another level, they saw a collection of curving harps, the brass frames gleaming. They passed chambers furnished in a bizarre blend of the traditionally ancient and the technologically advanced, with computer consoles and view screens side by side with flowing tapestries.
They glimpsed displays of broadswords, maces, suits of medieval armor, halberds, poleaxes and battle standards from thousand-year-old military campaigns. There was too much to absorb, much less easily identify.
The elevator continued to sink downward, through the relics of a lost world, of a distant past humanity knew only from legends, folklore and mythology. Kane glanced over at Maccan. His black eyes held a vacant sheen, as if he gazed mournfully down the long track of time. He recalled what the Danaan had said to him on the Moon: "A man is born in one world and there he belongs. But my world is dead. Age and death came at last to everything there. I cannot live with the dreams of my world haunting me at every step."
Maccan suddenly stiffened, his gaze sliding over to Kane, who didn't look away. Maccan stared at him intently, but his eyes didn't change color. "Do not pity me, human," he said.
Kane nodded within his helmet and flicked his gaze to one side. "So noted, prince."
The elevator passed another level and it was the most uninteresting by far, seeming to be little more than a converted warehouse. It looked to be nothing but a dimly lit space filled with stacked crates and boxes, most of which were stenciled with the legend NASA. Others read Parallax Red/Cydonia Compound.
He also spied a number of the air-sleds, a couple of which were filled with boxes. He realized the craft were actually more like dollies or forklifts, rather than actual vehicles, which explained their altitude limitations.
The elevator bumped to a stop. A long passageway stretched before them, made of rough-hewn ancient stones set in huge blocks without mortar. Kane exchanged glances with Brigid, who nodded knowingly. They were at the lowermost level of the pyramid, within a foundation buttress of the enormous structure above. It was dark except for a feeble light glowing ahead, down the throat of the corridor.
Maccan stepped into the passageway and marched deliberately toward the glimmer of light, his cloak streaming out behind him. David pushed against the backs of Kane's thighs with the curved ends of his hooks, saying, "Go."
The transadapt's voice sounded far away. The thin atmosphere at the bottom of the pyramid couldn't transmit sounds very effectively. Kane, Lakesh, Brigid and Grant entered the corridor, followed and bracketed by Shayd, Raschid and the transadapts. Stout stone columns rose from the floor, and red dust puffed up around their feet, the residue of many centuries.
The passageway ended after a few dozen yards at an arcaded opening. They walked through it into a cavernous gallery, which reminded Kane of a stupendously huge well. It was at least a thousand feet in diameter.
The people stood on a wide ledge that circled the well. The walls were formed of a gray, molded substance, which looked like sponge, undulating in curving waves and involutions.
Extending down from far, far above glittered the metal shaft of the Danaan resonator. The shaft terminated in a huge crystal cluster that reminded them all of a huge chandelier. Kane, Grant and Brigid knew the universal power source of the Tuatha de Danaan derived from sculpted crystals.
The cluster hung about a dozen feet above a circular platform made of a highly polished alloy. A wide walkway of the same kind of material extended from the ledge and joined with it.
From the exact center of the platform, directly beneath the crystalline point, rose a slender dais. It wasn't more than five feet tall and terminated in a flat, perfectly square top. Kane couldn't help but think it was the perfect size and shape to hold the interphaser.
A man stood on the platform dressed in an EVA suit much like Lakesh's. The face they saw through the visor bore ugly bruises and flakes of dried blood. When he saw Kane, Grant and Brigid, George Neukirk's eyes flashed with shocked recognition, but he reacted to Maccan's presence by dropping instantly to his knees, bowing his head, evidently awaiting either deliverance or death.
Chapter 22
Maccan swept majestically out onto the walkway, taking long-legged strides, the aluminum carrying case swinging jauntily at the end of his left arm. Everyone else hung back on the lip of the ledge, looking around nervously. The transadapts gave the distinct impression they had never visited the cavernous chamber before.
Halfway out on the walkway suspended above the pit, Maccan glanced over his shoulder and stabbed four fingers at Lakesh, Kane, Grant and Brigid in an unmistakable gesture for them to join him. They didn't move. David pushed against Kane's leg, shouting, "Get out there!"
The crystalline cluster at the tip of the shaft shivered slightly, emitting a bell-like tone that climbed into an almost painfully high whine they felt vibrating against their eardrums, even through their helmets. The vibrations corresponded exactly with each one of David's words.
"What the hell?" Grant blurted, reflexively touching the side of his headpiece.
Lakesh murmured, "This chamber is like a gigantic ear canal. The acoustics can amplify or modulate the resonances created by any sounds."
With a gloved finger he pointed to the spongy substance on the walls. "That paneling keeps the sounds from escaping or dissipating. It bounces the noise back to the crystal."
Maccan, on the platform, gestured impatiently toward them again. Kane stepped gingerly onto the walkway, glancing over the side. There were no handrails, only an edge that seemed to plunge straight down into darkness. After a couple of steps he realized the substance beneath his feet didn't yield or sag so he marched across it self-confidently.
Inscribed on the floor of the platform in highly polished silver was an intricate, symmetrical pattern of looping, interlaced and interlinking curves. Kane, Brigid and Grant had all seen the design before and knew it was called a Celtic wheel or knot. The various loops and links were arranged in accordance with the compass points, representing the facets and pathways of life. The square-topped dais rose from the center of it.
Maccan laid the case atop the dais and stepped to one side, pushing Neukirk out of the way and saying, "Lakesh, please make your mechanism operational."
Lakesh hesitated a moment, then stepped forward and undid the latches on the case, lifting the lid. He removed the little metal pyramid and its support systems from their hollowed-out foam cushions. Deftly he attached the small power unit and then pressed a seam on its alloyed skin. A small keypad slid out from the base. A faint low-pitched whine emanated from the interphaser, just at the edges of audibility. Maccan watched him, as though he found his activity of only vague interest.
While he worked, Kane stared intently at Neukirk, who affected not to notice. At length he asked, "Who smacked you around like that, George? Somebody else you betrayed?"
Neukirk's eyes flicked toward him "I didn't betray anybody. I was always in league with Maccan. I wasn't a traitor."
Maccan glanced toward him, almost as if he were surprised to see him there. "You've run a thorough check on the power conduit, George?"
Neukirk ducked his head. "Yes, my prince. It functions perfectly."
"Good. Then I have no further use for a traitor."
Without altering his expression of mild interest, Maccan planted his gauntleted hand against George Neukirk's chest. The man instantly flew backward as though he were performing a reverse broad jump. He hurtled over the edge of the platform and into the darkness below. He uttered one single shriek before he disappeared into the black pit.
Maccan returned his attention to the interphaser, idly scratching at his cheek with his beringed left hand. Kane, Brigid and Grant stared at him, nonplussed by the swift and casual way he had murdered the man. Lakesh seemed to be unaware of what had happened. He completed setting up the pyramid and stepped back from the dais It emitted a steady hum, like an engine on idle.
Maccan eyed it critically, then nodded graciously to Lakesh. "Thank you. Now for your efforts, the least I can do supply is an explanation." The pitch and timbre of his voice seemed to have no effect on the crystal mass hanging above them.
Maccan said, "Kane, Brigid, I know you have some knowledge of my people's history on Earth. Do you know why they left?"
Kane recollected the information imparted to him by Fand during their encounters and he answered softly, "Most of the Tuatha de Danaan left Earth around 453 A.D., by the old calendar. The Irish clanspeople had outgrown you. Christianity had come in. Your science was condemned as sorcery and even you mentioned persecutions."
"And before we lived on Earth?" Maccan asked in a gentle voice.
Kane shrugged. "I always assumed your race came from another planet, like the Annunaki."
"We did," Maccan agreed with surprising geniality. "That planet was this one. Mars."
"Mars?" Brigid echoed incredulously. "That's impossible. Mars hasn't been able to support even bacterial life for millions of years."
Maccan smiled patronizingly. "This particular Mars, the Mars of this reflection, has been barren for a very, very long time. But it was not so in my universe."
Grant's eyebrows dropped down, shadowing his eyes. "Are we back to parallel casements again?"
Lakesh took it upon himself to answer. "Not precisely, friend Grant. We're talking about a mirror Mars, aren't we?"
"We are," confirmed Maccan. "Your own primitive scientists undertook mathematical investigations of the theories dealing with the plurality of universes."
"It sounds like the sidereal space routine to me," Grant remarked gruffly.
"The theories are connected," Lakesh said slowly, as if he were finding his way around what to say next. "But there are important differences." He held up four fingers. "There are four known fundamental forces in nature—gravity, electromagnetism and weak and strong nuclear forces. Gravity is quite familiar to most of us. It keeps our feet on the ground, it keeps our planet and all the other planets in our solar system in orbit around the Sun and keeps the Sun in orbit around the center of our galaxy.
