The Artifact Competition (Approaching Infinity Book 1) Read online

  • • •

  They had been traveling for the better part of seven hours when the jump ship finally slowed and a soft alarm began to chime. Everyone had dozed off and the sound startled Jav out of his chair. He rubbed his eyes and walked towards the controls where Mai was just waking up, stretching her arms high above her head. He turned off the alarm and looked at the main viewer. The stable ride didn’t seem to mesh with the sound of the wind against the hull or the gunshot flares of lightning. High above the ground, a layer of dust throbbed and swirled with myriad currents like a dry sea endowed with some unholy life. From that seething blanket, innumerable static charges were born and lashed out like neon whips.

  “I guess we’re here,” he said.

  Mai nodded and took control of the ship. She directed them to the fringe of the ancient, ruined city, and they made a leisurely circuit.

  Mao was curled up like a cat in one of the seats. Sessa shook her gently awake. “Mao, we’re here.”

  The girl stared vacantly and yawned, awareness slowly creeping in.

  “Come on,” Sessa said. “Let’s take a look.” Sessa took Mao by the hand and led her to the front of the ship where the view was best.

  They all looked out over what was left of the vast city. It was difficult to separate general decay from what might have been destruction resulting directly from the Vine—this far away, it was unlikely that the city ever had a chance to mount a defense against the invading force of Shades.

  Wind howled through the streets and urged debris of all shapes and sorts along treacherous paths at breakneck speeds. Lightning came in bursts, giving them a more complete view if only fleetingly, and struck in what was beginning to look like a pattern, touching down on apparently favorite spots throughout the city. There were occasional, more random flashes and Jav thought that these might cause them some trouble once they left the safety of the jump ship.

  “What did Lili say it was called?” Jav said to anyone who’d answer.

  “Karkosa,” Sessa said.

  “I wonder what it was like on a summer day, filled with people,” he said somberly.

  No one felt like venturing a guess.

  “Where do you think we should put down?” Mai asked.

  “How about over there,” Mao said, pointing. “It looks like a public square.”

  “Eyes as sharp as ever, Mouse. What do you say, everyone?”

  They all agreed.

  • • •

  Once landed, they activated the ship’s optical beacon, a powerful holographic flare a thousand meters directly above, that would serve as their main light source. Harsh, blue-white light lit the city now like a full moon. They exited the ship, each wearing a wine-colored, fur-lined greatcoat. With thick collars drawn up over most of their faces, they proceeded through the square into the city proper. All of them carried a number of powered spike flares and a small amount of food.

  The wind was incessant and at times caught their coats, causing them to misstep, but nothing short of eleven times normal gravity would begin to really hinder even the least accomplished of them. Occasionally, fragments of concrete or twisted chunks of metal would come whipping at them, testing their agility. Simply dodging soon gave way to a contest of sorts to see who could more artfully strike down the oncoming missiles. That, too, lost its appeal, though, and they set about to explore the city.

  Lightning, both the predictable and unpredictable sorts, struck several times, giving them some close calls. In one particular instance, Jav’s coat came away with a nice new char mark and left a smoking trail for ten minutes. Knowing the pattern proved useful, but the random strikes kept everyone’s adrenalin levels fairly high.

  As they made their way into the heart of the city—what would have been the downtown area—the streets gave way more and more to an intricate system of narrow canals. Mao thought these were very interesting and ran along the bank of the nearest one until she came across a staircase leading three meters down to the dry bed. Without hesitating she descended to investigate. When she squatted down to take a closer look at something, remaining silent for over a minute, everyone became curious and went down to join her.

  “What did you find, Mao?” Jav shouted over the wind.

  “It’s a hole. There’re lots of them. They go all along down the middle.” She looked up and pointed down the length of the canal.

  They all crowded around Mao and looked down at the hole. She returned her attention to it as well and shouted, “Hello!” Her voice began to echo back at them impressively, and seemed to fill the whole of the area below them for kilometers.

  “There must be caverns below the city,” Sessa said.

  “But if all the canals are like this—and they are canals, there are smashed boats all over—then the caverns would have been filled with water, too, wouldn’t they?” Mai said, scratching her head.

  “Must have been,” Jav said. He twisted the end of one of the spike flares, activating it, and brought it down nearer the hole. Finding the best angle to navigate the narrow opening, he shone its light into the depths.

  Shadows of what looked like colossal spiderwebs crisscrossed as far as the light would reach. Beyond that, no one could see much of anything, but all were left with the impression that the caverns were just as vast as Mao’s echoing voice had made them sound.

  “I bet there’s something down there,” Jav said.

  “Like what? Like the remains of giant aquatic spiders?” Mai said sarcastically.

  Jav was a little confused by Mai’s tone. “Uh, yeah, that might be reasonable.”

  “I think Jav might be right,” Sessa said.

  Mao leaned in conspiratorially towards Jav, shaking her head and mouthing silently, “She doesn’t like spiders.”

  Mai rolled her eyes.

  Mao stood up suddenly. “Well, let’s go somewhere, huh?” she said, pushing through them and moving forward.

  They collectively shrugged and followed after their new, makeshift leader. The canal led to a huge octagonal complex that was partially collapsed. It looked like it may have been a main junction for a number of canals, and now that they were checking, they saw more of the same structures dotting the battered skyline all around them.

  Climbing out of the canal they were in, they skirted the ruined complex and approached a sprawling arcade to its left. Jav raised the lit spike flare as they passed under the roof and into otherwise pitch-darkness. The ground here was ornately tiled and they were faced on either side by countless shop fronts, some of them intact some crumbling. Shards of glass and crumbled mortar were everywhere. Fountains that could pump only dust now stood at intervals.

  “Why don’t we split up and see what we can find here?” Mai said.

  “Good idea,” Sessa agreed.

  “Okay, let’s meet back here in an hour or two,” Jav said. He took his lit flare and jammed it down the throat of a stone fish that was balancing on its tail in the bowl of the nearest fountain.

  Everyone lit a flare and went in a different direction. Sometimes they met up again with one or another, but they all took their time, seeking out and investigating whatever interested them. Each of them was responsible for finding a souvenir for one of the girls back at the school. All were supposed to keep an eye out for something for their teacher. Jav had demanded that he get Lili and no one had argued with him. He found a bookshop soon enough, but couldn’t make sense out of most of what he found. Many of the books crumbled in his gloved fingers, but some of the hardier volumes looked like they might be to her taste, comprehensible or not.

  In the end, Mao and Sessa had decided to collaborate and the two came back with a pile of characteristic, antiquated firearms collected for the twins. Among the weapons was one elaborately etched blade about fifty centimeters long that was in fairly good shape. Probably part of a soldier’s dress uniform, Sessa thought.

  “Find anything for Mei?” Mao inquired.

  Mai shook her head. “You guys find anything for yo
urselves?”

  “Nah, not so far.”

  “I’m hungry,” Mao said.

  “Yeah, me, too,” Sessa nodded.

  “Well,” Mai said, sighing, “in spite of our little nap, we’ve had kind of a busy day. Why don’t we head back to the ship, get something more than a snack to eat, and get a good night’s sleep? We’ll be fresh and ready to tackle the city all over again.”

  Everyone agreed and headed back.

  10685.091

  The next day, Sessa awoke early. From the ship’s main viewer and under the glow of the optical beacon, she watched the lightning dance across and ravage the city. The others started to wake up so she got some food ready for their breakfast. Once finished they started getting everything ready for the day’s excursion.

  Sessa rooted around in the equipment locker, shouting out to those behind her as she did so. “I’m a little worried about that lightning. It didn’t give us too much trouble yesterday,” she cleared her throat, “right, Jav? But better not to take chances, don’t you think?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “A simple power sensor will let us know with enough warning when it’s coming.” She turned around holding one in her hand.

  “Okay, but you have to carry it,” Mai said.

  “Fine, fine.”

  • • •

  They set out again, outfitted the same as the day before except for some extra spike flares and Sessa’s power sensor, which she had slung over one shoulder. It wasn’t long before the sensor proved its value, saving them twice in twenty minutes from the crackling strikes.

  Sessa smirked, self-satisfied. “See? Not even a singed coat.”

  They had taken a different direction into the city today, but found themselves once again falling into step along a canal. The buildings loomed tall and angular on either side of them for some time, and then the skyline opened into a clearing. As they came closer they saw immediately that the open space was not what the city-planners had had in mind. Before them was a great, yawning pit that spanned what would have been at least four of this city’s blocks.

  All stared with varying degrees of awe. The pale light of the optical beacon reached about a hundred meters down the hole, revealing more of the weblike formations they’d seen the day before, but even as the light thinned to black, those formations seemed to stretch down interminably.

  Treading carefully and avoiding the deep cracks, they made their way around the hole. They came across the open mouths of no less than six other canals, which most likely once converged on the hole’s center or somewhere close to it.

  “This was one of those junctions,” Mao thought out loud.

  “I think you’re right, Mouse.”

  “Hey,” Sessa shouted, “look over there! There’s a way down.”

  They all gathered around a jagged slope of rubble that led down into darkness.

  “Do you think it’s safe?” Jav said.

  “Are you afraid?” Mai smiled wryly.

  “You mean of the ghosts of giant, aquatic spiders? Or loose, unstable ground that could plunge us blindly to our deaths?”

  She sighed. “Come on. You were the one who said there was something down there.”

  “Yeah, don’t be afraid, Jav,” Mao said, tugging at his sleeve. “Even if you fall, we have plenty of light.”

  Jav laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m not afraid, just a little concerned.”

  “I say we give it a try,” Sessa said.

  “All right, then it’s decided,” Jav said, taking the lead.

  Mai snorted and stepped into line behind him.

  • • •

  The rubble was in fact quite firmly set, and there was very little shifting as they made their way down. What they saw was fascinating. The hole opened into the vast system of caverns they had imagined the day before. That all of this would have been underwater led Sessa to think that the webs were really fossilized lengths of some prodigious algae, and Jav to think that, contrary to Lili’s opinion, Sessa was in fact rather well-read. These strands radiated out from knots, joining together again in other knots hundreds of meters away, slightly clogging the voluminous hollows that characterized the layer of rock supporting the city. As they went further and further down, everyone with one of their own spike flares alight, they emerged into one contiguous vault of indescribable size. Columns of raw and ancient stone, kilometers apart, rose up to support the hole-shot ceiling. One of these had most likely cracked and faltered under the debris of the junction, and this, in sections, provided the rest of their way down. Exposed root clusters of the Vine were now visible before them. The chill had not gone away, but the wind had grown to nothing more than an incessant, mournful howl as it whistled through the pipes of the stone above them.

  Their path had leveled off now onto solid ground and looking skyward revealed only the faintest crescents of blue light immediately overhead. Sessa ran back up the rocky slope some ways and drove her spike flare into a crevasse there. She lit another and rejoined everyone. “We don’t want to go getting ourselves lost, now, do we?”

  “No. Good idea,” Jav said.

  They moved over the bottom of that dead, underground seabed, setting spike flares just far enough apart to remain visible, which was roughly five hundred meters at a stretch. No one knew if they would find anything, but everyone was willing to go at least as far as light allowed if only to see if they could reach the chamber’s limit. They had left with a total of fourteen spike flares between them and they were now down to three, which meant they had gone almost six kilometers. Suddenly Mao stopped, giving everyone a start. Mesmerized, she stood there for a second, oblivious to everyone’s eyes upon her, and then let out a long and respectful, “Whoa.”

  “What is it Mouse?”

  She just pointed out ahead of them into the murky darkness. Everyone peered through the shadows but could make nothing out. Mao took one step forward then broke into a run.

  “Mao!”

  They all took off after her, but she had a head start and was able to draw them close enough to see what she saw. Jav noticed first and stopped, his mouth wide open in shock. Mai continued to chase after her little sister, thinking of nothing else, but Sessa, too, now saw what loomed ahead of them. She turned to Jav and they shared a look to confirm the reality of what they were both seeing. She waited for him and then the two proceeded slowly ahead together.

  “Look, Mai! Look!” Mao shouted over her shoulder as she ran. “Can you see it?”

  And now she finally could. A mountainous ridge jutted from the ground like a mammoth wall, stretching endlessly to either side, but what was set within was the cause for surprise. It was a pyramid. Pristine white marble blocks, now stark against the uneven, black cliff face, climbed seven magnificent steps in perfect symmetry into the dark crags. Jagged curls of rock clutched at and at times overwhelmed the otherwise clean lines, making the pyramid look as if it had been overgrown with or partially consumed by the hungry cliff face.

  A wide stairway set within the larger tiers stretched up almost to the top. Once everyone had gathered at the pyramid’s base, they just looked at each other, all eyes wild with excitement and words unnecessary. Their hearts had already gotten started chasing after Mao, but now they had something before them that would most likely define this trip.

  They mounted the stairs and made their way up slowly. Outcroppings of rock on either side kept the shadows alive and moving, and as they rose higher, a black but perceivable and humbling vista opened up behind them. Stopping at the top of the stairs, they turned to survey the span laid out below them. Dim points of progressively weaker light formed a lone constellation, an articulated snake that pointed back the way they had come. The ridge embracing the pyramid continued above them for another fifteen or twenty meters but was still far below the rocky sky. Chill winds, born of muted flute notes, reached down and licked their faces in short, gelid gusts.

  At the top of the pyramid was a structure faced with six columns, three on either side with a
wide entryway between. Jav stepped through first and noticed that the columns were covered with symbols from some ancient and incomprehensible script. Without a light of her own, Sessa kept close behind him, looking at everything, attempting to absorb every detail. When he cast his light to the left wall Sessa gasped. She grabbed his spike flare and ran to the wall where she began tracing the fingers of her free hand over its surface.

  She turned back to him with crazed eyes, “Do you know what these are?”

  “Um. . . uh. . .” He shrugged.

  Etched in exquisite detail were diagrams of this and the next three nearest solar systems: three planets around a double sun, five planets, twelve planets, seven planets.

  “They’re solar systems. This, this temple or whatever it is, was sunk under water when the Empire came. At that time the technology here was maybe on par with Planet 1397 and you remember what that was like, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “Well, they could barely see the limits of their own solar system, let alone any others. And this place was built. . . way before that city up above was ever settled.”

  Mai had come over now. “What does that mean, Sessa?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “It could be that who or whatever built this place came from one of those other systems. Or it could be that the Empire arrived at a low point in the cyclic rise and fall that some civilizations get stuck in.” She shook her head and said again, “I don’t know, but Lili’s going to kill us when she finds out about this.”

  “Hey, everyone should be careful over here,” Mao said. She was bent over something in the middle of the room that turned out to be a square hole, about a meter on each side.