now I can share
Published on November 4, 2004
By
cyphr
In
Misc
So I've had this sitting on my computer for probably 6 months now. It's the absolute barebones start to a story idea that was floating around in my head back then, and I think I could still remember all the cool little nuances of it if I tried. Let me know if you like it.
They walk together purposefully through the night, unafraid of the darkness. Not a single moon shines, and the desert lights up eerily in the artificial blue glow of the chemical flashlight. The younger one had stumbled on a few rocks when they first set out, but he now marches on confidently and easily keeps pace with the elder. “It is strange,” he thinks, “that I should be so sure-footed in this pitch blackness, and yet I fell more than once in the twilight. Perhaps the setting sun affects my depth perception. Or maybe I am simply more comfortable in the darkness. Why do I recoil from the light?” As he considers this, a chill comes over him, and he shudders. A sudden cough from his companion startles him into reality, and he pulls his cloak tight around his shoulders.
“Come close, Kepp. Your eyes are better than mine at this hour,” says the old man. “What do you see, Father Reln?” asks Kepp as he walks to his teacher’s side. As he approaches the silhouetted figure of the Reverend, a gentle valley comes into view. They have stopped on the crest of a small hill in the cracked desert floor, and Kepp looks down upon a basin which, at its lowest point, is perhaps five meters below his feet. The flashlight illuminates most of the area, and he estimates the valley to be about half a kilometer in diameter and roughly circular in shape. There is, in fact, nothing at all remarkable about it. “Is this area of some importance, Father?” asks Kepp, giving Reln a quizzical look.
Seconds pass, and Reln stares transfixed at the land below. Kepp starts to think that the Father did not hear his question, and is about to enquire again when Reln begins to stride down the embankment, leaving Kepp to puzzle as he hurries to stay at the Reverend’s side. He finds this unusually difficult, as the old man seems to be increasing his speed as he reaches level ground and paces out towards the middle of the basin. By the time Father Reln slows down, Kepp is trotting about ten meters behind and stomps firmly as he slows himself to a walk. He approaches Reln, who by this time has stopped completely and is seemingly entranced with something at his feet. Kepp follows the gaze of his teacher to the ground in front of him, where he sees nothing but a layer of dust over some jagged land.
The Reverend drops to his knees in such a quick motion that Kepp believes for a moment that he has been injured, or has had a heart attack. Kepp drops to his side, but sees no apparent signs of weakness. Reln is still staring, however, at the ground half a meter in front of his knees. The old man reaches out his right hand and brushes the dust away in a sweeping motion. Kepp watches in a kind of stupor as the jaggedness, which he had assumed was just some rock outcroppings, resolves into distinct patterns. The Father continues to remove dust, now brushing with the folds of his robe, and Kepp can now see the patterns quite clearly. It is a circular seal, embedded in the ground, with a rim that protrudes a few inches above the land. It has a diameter of about a meter and appears to be made of a grey metal. In the area inside the rim, there is a symmetrical design of three identical interlocking circles, forming a triangle in the center with convex sides. In the middle of this inner triangle is a handle as long as Kepp’s hand.
Father Reln bends down very close to the rim of the seal, and follows his fingers as they trace around the edge of this strange circle in the middle of a remote desert on a planet twenty light years from Earth, colonized by humans one hundred and fifty years prior. Kepp leans in close, also, and is stunned to see his teacher’s fingers running over what he concludes cannot be anything other than an unknown form of writing, etched into the metal in a mysterious script. Kepp’s mind reels as he tries to comprehend the implications of what he is seeing. He is staring dumbfounded at this inexplicable artifact when Father Reln looks up from the seal and straight into Kepp’s eyes.
“In response to your two questions earlier, my son,” says the Reverend to his young apprentice, “first, I see what I have been seeking for many years now. In fact, I have been seeking it since before you entered the world in your mother’s womb. And second, Kepp.” Reln pauses and composes himself. “Second, yes, this area is of some importance. You might say, in fact, that this area – in particular, this area below the seal, and below us, and below the desert around here in a two hundred kilometer radius – you might say that this area is the most important place mankind has ever been and ever will be in the galaxy. And what we are about to do, my dear Kepp, is the most important thing the human race, as we know it, has ever done in its long and troubled history. I hope you are ready.”
Kepp swallows, and nods unconvincingly. Father Reln grabs the handle firmly with one hand. Summoning all his courage, the young apprentice places his hand next to the teacher’s and grips tightly. The Father turns to him once more. “Have faith, Kepp. Always, have faith.” And together, they pull.