Part III
"Well, this is some sort of religious book, written apparently from the point of
view of a worshipper of a false God called Yelmalio. It seems to be some sort
of Sun cult, judging from the name and the religious views expressed here."
"Night is falling, somewhat," said Matobolus, "let us sup, and sleep. Watchmen,
keep your watches tonight especially carefully -- I have a foreboding sense of
danger." Several crew members nodded. It was obvious that they, too, felt
something wrong in the world even more than the cataclysm that was shaking it.
"Let Flatius and the good priest study this document, if they will, after
dinner. They are relieved from watch. On the morrow they can tell us what they
found."
Matobolus' sleep this night was easier than it had been amidst Chaos, but still it was not peaceful. He dreamt continuously of great things coming to destroy him and his people. In the morning, to his dismay, he learned that his dreams held Truth about the past, and mayhap, about his future.
Flatius told the tale. He was weary from staying up all night, and even more dismayed than he had been by the dangers of the trip so far. For what he told now was not a tale of puny seeping fear for his own safety, but the tale of Fear caused by the destruction of everything he had known.
"It is not exactly clear WHEN we are, but this is indeed Glorantha, and, judging
by the great event above, this is probably at least two Ages past our own time,
certainly more than five hundred years. The writer here knows little of our own
civilization, but the EWF which ruled this area of Genertela was destroyed by
the dragons, the true Dragons, like the two which we saw yesterday."
"What happened to our people seems to have been even worse, if less detailed.
According to this book, written, of course, from a prejudiced viewpoint, our
Heroquesters changed the nature of the universe in a way that attracted the
attention of the "Gods" and endangered the universe. The Godplane itself was
rendered unstable, and then changed in such a fashion as to render the secrets
which we operate under nonfunctional. Worse, they sent things called "the Gift
Carriers of the Sending Gods" to destroy everyone who knew the God Learner
Secret. If this description is accurate -- doubtful as it may be -- our very
existence on this plane is attracting these killers to us."
"There is worse yet -- the Gods destroyed Jrustela, smashed Slontos and
Seshnela, and may have climaxed their task by "closing" the Sea. All this took
place more than half a millenium ago. You will note that this description
corresponds with the physical changes we saw as we came down here."
"Apparently there is no way to cross the sea except for the ceremonies of
someone named Dormal, who 'opened' the Sea relatively recently. There was
something called "the closing" which prevented travel over sea for hundreds of
years, and still remains today, except for those who know the correct spells,
which we certainly do not know."
"There seems to be something called the "Hero Wars" going on today, which
somehow pits the Southern barbarians against this Empire, which seems to be Dara
Happan. It would have seem to be a standard Orlanth against Yelm conflict,
except for this strange Red orb, which appears to be some sort of chaotic
creation called the Red Moon."
"The destruction of that Moon must have marked the moment in which one Age
succeeds another. What happens now I do not know."
One of the crew members, Matobolus did not notice which, cried, "We have to get away, somehow."
Matobolus quieted the disturbed group. "We who have seen Gods in their own Time, survived Chaos, seen a servant of Wakboth and True Dragons, must not panic now," he said icily. "Logic rules, and it had better rule our own behavior."
"Since we cannot move until we fix the ship, that must be the priority of the
day. If anything is searching for us, certainly the -- disorder -- of these
times must be slowing them down. Let us fix the ship, and I will consider any
suggestions as to what we should do once it is fixed."
After hours of hard work, using sorcery to acquire materials and all their technical skills to adapt them to repairing the ship, it appeared that the project was successful. Night had returned outside, when Matobolus detailed the crew to supper.
Then it was that an already strange voyage became even stranger. The message mouth on the generator's console opened creakily and began to spout gibberish. It didn't sound much better than Tamathus' ravings of the other day. Upon replay, it sounded no better.
Who could be messaging them from this destroyed world? Who had the technology they had, something far beyond anything they yet had seen in this decayed time? Where did the message come from?
Luckily, the skills of the mechanicians and magicians aboard soon brought an answer. The message was coming from the white orb far above!
"We are in danger here, it is obvious." concluded Matobolus. "We have only one
choice, I think, and that is to climb to what we can only call the White Moon,
and see what there is to see. How this Moon appeared so suddenly is uncertain,
but perhaps it has been hidden from the watch of the Gift Carriers for the last
Age. The fact that someone there has the technology to communicate with us might
be a good sign, or at worst it could be an attractant from the Carriers to bring
us to our own destruction. I am made wary by the fact that this language is
unintelligible even to the Language spell of our priest. But if our ship is
repaired, we can climb above the roling clouds of destruction and see what is on
the surface of the Moon. At the worst it is a vantage point."
"No," grumbled Jasandus, "At the worst we will be a target for our enemies."
"In that case, although we are tired, it might be best to rise in the middle of
the night, for although this Moon is bright, it is not near as bright as the
Sun."
So it was that, after supper, a two-hour rest break, and some final repairs, Setondal pushed the levers of his machine while two of the spellcasters chanted. With surprising ease, the little ship took to the Air. It was a matter of minutes to rise above the roiling clouds and Storm that afflicted so much of the area. Above, the White Moon shown clearly and calmly, as though it had been there for centuries, rather than days.
Flavius' machine was used to examine the surface closely. What the source of the communication to them was became quickly obvious. Another of the Outer Atomic explorer ships was on the surface of the White Moon! Matobolus knew of at least six sister ships that had been built and launched, and knew that three of them had not returned at the time of his own departure. And, of course, he had no idea of how many others had been built in the time between his own departure and the destruction of his people.
What to do? Well, why not message the ship and see if it responded? But might it not be an illusion? Well, Matobolus thought, let's take the chance, for surely we have already put ourselves in the power of Chance. He thought ruefully, now I understand why Law is better than Chance!
He issued orders, and the message machine was activated. The mouth mumbled to itself as it sent the directed spell to the orb before them. But there was no response.
"We had better be cautious," said Flavius the Greater, and Matobolus nodded.
Rather than descending abruptly upon the orb, he gave orders to circumnavigate
it and observe it.
The observations only increased the mystery. This was no wild place, but clearly something that had been settled for centuries. But not a sign of life did he see, not even of the two great Dragons that had settled on this orb less than 100 hours before. The structures on the Moon were of all sorts, and it was obvious that many of them were of a style of architecture nothing like any he had seen before. Some of them, indeed, were never designed for humans at all, although others looked as though they would suit them quite well. But the overriding feeling of looking at all was a sense of great antiquity, mixed with one of abandonment. Whomever had lived here once lived here no more.
"Well, " the captain said. "It is time to land." "Where should we go?" said
Setondal. " Let us land next to the ship of ours that is already on the Moon,"
replied Matobolus. Setondal nodded and made the necessary adjustments.
As they began their descent, the ship which was their target suddenly rose from the Moon! Within a few seconds, it became obvious that it was taking a course directly towards them! It was a collision course! "Avoid them," screamed Matobolus
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