Chapter 118

Chapter One Hundred Eighteen

Something about the alien builder made Connor shudder and set his nerves on edge. It wasn’t so much that it was inhuman or hideous but that it seemed so…

Wise? Was it the sensation that he was looking at something so superior that distressed him?

Without interruption, the thing’s croak continued on, and Elise pulled out her pocket computer. “I have to record this. No one’s going to believe—”

The hum grew louder, and she was bathed in the green glow.

She turned to Connor. “Am I—?”

“You’re glowing green.” The staleness of the air took on a different scent, an almost pleasing antiseptic aroma that settled on the tongue like alcohol. The smell was accompanied by a warming sensation. “And I think they’ve turned on an atmospheric recycler.”

“Okay.” She squinted at the holographic form. “It has a mouth and nose slits. Do you get the impression of something reptilian from it?”

“If those are scales on its skin, yeah.”

Her mouth opened, but instead of talking, she looked down at her computer.

It was surrounded by the same green light, and when she turned the display to Connor, he could make out the intermittent flash of static mixed in with images and choppy audio.

Elise shook her head, and her jaw dropped even more. “They’ve detected the computer.”

He’d heard before about the standard protocols used to search for alien signals and devices when a new planet was discovered: broad-spectrum video and radio transmissions aimed at high points; radioactive pulses tracked for replies in kind; bursts of binary data and audio recordings.

It made sense for advanced species to scan along the non-ionizing radiation spectrum for communication signals.

Or maybe even ionizing radiation made sense, assuming the species were immune to cellular damage.

Still, seeing the computer behaving the way it was…

“Is it a good thing?” He pointed to the device. “Are they trying to talk to you?”

“I believe so.”

“Believe sounds too much like faith. What’s the archaeologist in you say? Were you hoping to actually connect with an alien species when you came here?”

“We hoped to, but there was no evidence this might be…” She waved a hand at the wall of glowing technology to answer for her.

Who could have guessed any of this, really?

A gentle heat built against his chest. The amulet!

He pulled the chain until the embedded gem’s red glow was visible.

Toshiko had given him a device, then, not just some sort of jewelry. He should have figured as much. There had been hints about it in his dreams, he thought.

The heat dissipated, and the red light dimmed.

Connor let the amulet drop from sight.

Elise was absorbed in her own computer, and he recalled that she’d given him the broken pocket computer earlier. He’d been too caught up in survival to give the thing a look until now, but—

The green glow around the archaeologist winked out, followed by the holograph.

She blinked, as if waking. “What happened?”

“Maybe it couldn’t figure us out.”

“Our technology is simple, or at least it’s logical. Binary should be a core—”

“Don’t start on that. If they don’t understand us, that’s not so bad. What I’d be worried about is if they do, and they consider us a threat. Mosiah and his pals stole a bunch of their artifacts, after all.”

“Oh.” Elise nodded. “That was probably recorded, wasn’t it?”

“If this place is millennia old, and it powered up just now, sure. They could have had motion sensors, for instance. Trigger the sensor, a camera clicks on, and you’ve recorded your tomb raider.”

“They could see us as violators. That wouldn’t be good.”

Once again, Connor fought the urge to run.

But he couldn’t abandon the Moon boys. Or Selen.

That hesitation between thinking of Tim and Tom before thinking of the woman who’d until recently been a lover took a second to work through.

Things had really fallen apart.

The hum grew louder again, and the green glow brightened. Almost immediately after, the holograph returned.

Now when the alien spoke, the croak was replaced by Vicente’s voice.

“Human species representatives…welcome. We are the K’luuta.”

Elise squinted. “We—is that an imperfect understanding of our language?”

“This planet has been designated as a prison world.” A rotating holographic image of the world appeared over the creature’s shoulder. “You have intruded into a dangerous place.”

Connor bit back a curse. Of course they’d made the absolutely wrong choice.

The alien pointed, and a green map of a city appeared. Structures bristling with weapons emplacements rose from concrete-covered streets. Boxy shapes drove around on tracks, moving from building to building.

“This pit…” Connor pointed to the city. “It all used to be level.”

Elise nodded. “Now we have an idea of why those structures existed.”

“I’d like to get my hands on some of those weapons—”

Beneath that city map, a representation of a another city, this one underground, sprawled under a cutaway of the planet’s crust.

Now the alien pointed again, and this time, the air filled with something black and amorphous. Stars sparkled in the void of this shape, and wisps of the thing whipped out, wrapping around unseen things that were dragged back into the obsidian mass.

“Existence is treasured by the K’luuta. Life sustains. But entities as old as the galaxy see life as something to be corrupted.”

Connor whistled. “That’s what they imprisoned here?”

Elise shushed him.

The alien waved, and the subterranean city grew in detail. “To contain that which would destroy all life required not only technology but trickery.”

Avenues, structures, ramps—things appeared and disappeared.

That explained the avenue showing up out of nowhere, although Connor couldn’t imagine what sort of technology could pull that off.

“Even so—” The alien bowed its bulbous head. “—nothing remains forever. The terror can be held in its prison only so long as our technology lasts, and in our struggles against this threat, we expended ourselves.”

“Expended themselves?” To Connor, that sounded like bad news.

Elise glared at him.

“We leave this record as a warning, for the influence of this destroyer of life is terrible and eternal. It seeks escape and will always seek those weak and easily manipulated to facilitate that escape.”

Not good, Connor thought. Definitely not good.

The alien reptile humanoid pointed, and several delicate items of intricate working—precious gems and metals—hovered around it. “To further diminish its influence, the K’luuta have emplaced their most powerful religious items.”

Once again, Connor’s stomach flipped. “Those religious items—”

Elise groaned. “Mosiah’s alien relics.”

Now the alien bowed. “The K’luuta have done what they might to sustain life in the galaxy. It might be sufficient to save those we share life with. Most likely, they must seek the knowledge we failed to grasp.”

The holograph began to fade. “That which exists forever must be imprisoned, or all life is lost.”