"2568-17" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 6 - In Harms Way)"IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Seventeen "Impressive," I said, looking about at the "city" before me. The world headquarters of the Priestesses of Lys. Their "Rome". The "style" of the buildings reminded me much of that era too... "We enjoy beautiful things," Tais answered with a smile. "`Shalimar' is all of that," I answered, quite impressed. "It is built completely of fine white marble," she said. I wondered how the Priestesses had transported such materials here? The quality of workmanship left nothing to be desired, I noticed. Perhaps the Lorr had been of "assistance" in the transportation of the building materials. On the other hand perhaps the Priest- esses had done the task themselves. They had just teleported the two of us from my own roof top in Arsana to here in "no time". I wondered just how "powerful" the Priestesses of Lys really were? We had also traveled in time, as it had been sunset in Arsana and here it was apparently still daylight. Nor had there been any of the "fireworks" that Carol and I had experienced in time travel. Apparently short jumps in time like this didn't require a thun- derstorm as a "power supply" to open up a "Gateway" in spacetime. "Where are we?" I ventured, the sun shining down upon us. I had clasped hands with Tais and "zap", we were here in this spot! The small city spreading out before us, with mountains all around and a large lake there in the distance gleaming in the sunlight. "On the border between California and Nevada, a hundred miles from what was Leith, with Talon being over that way," Tais smiled, pointing. I wondered if the nomadic Nevadas ever gave the Priestesses of Lys any "difficulty". I rather "doubted" it! "You ever met a fellow by the name of Robert A. Heinlein?" I asked Tais as she showed me the suits of "powered armor" we would wear in this short journey through time to a point only eleven years in our future. The powered armor reminding me much of the similar devices that he'd used in his book, "STARSHIP TROOPERS". "I don't believe so," Tais answered, not "understanding" me. "These were in a 20th Century science fiction book," I ex- plained. "Along with a `social philosophy' that made a lot of sense," I added, recalling his idea of "earned citizenship" by means of "national service". The book had been "popular" among some of the Vietnam veterans that I'd known back then long ago. "Heinlein, Robert A," Tais spoke, a "far away" look in her eyes. "Noted Twentieth Century author of science fiction novels, died in the year nineteen ninety one. The novel to which you re- ferred relates the `adventures' of a young man who learns the meaning of `citizenship' in fighting in an interstellar war," she spoke in a flat toneless voice. "A somewhat similar social poli- cy was carried out by Janet Rogers in the Twenty First Century." I suspected she was picking up the mental transmissions of anoth- er Priestess somewhere, one sitting before some sort of computer. "What does this `EVIL ONE' look like?" I asked, changing the subject. I knew the old Christian "Devil" had horns and a tail, walked around on "hooves", and was supposed to carry some sort of pitchfork in most of the "illustrations" I'd ever seen of him. "Something like a gigantic spider," Tais answered back. "Ugly bastard then," I smiled back at the Priestess. I took aim with the rifle, squeezed the trigger, the sound of the muzzle blast almost nothing to the sound of the "blast" when the "bullet" hit its target and exploded with a force that nothing could have resisted. The dirt and rock was blasted right up into the air as if a heavy bomb had just been exploded there! "The bullets have an explosive force equal to a ton of TNT," Tais smiled. "The rate of fire on full auto is thirty per sec- ond, the velocity is eleven hundred meters per second, and the magazine holds three hundred such rounds," the Priestess added... "You could sink battleships with this!" I breathed in awe. The magazine was a long cylinder, mounted underneath the barrel. The weapon was a "bullpup", and just about as long as my sword. There were telescopic sights, although with such "ammunition" as this one hardly needed to do any more than just point the thing! "I fear that the EVIL ONE is far more indestructible than that," Tais smiled back. "You are dealing with a `creature' that cannot be destroyed by any means known in the physical universe." "You said though that it was `destroyed'," I protested, the rifle "heavy" there in my hands, "aware" now of something of the true "nature" of the sort of "thing" that we were going after... "At the cost of hundreds of millions of lives and making the Earth itself `uninhabitable' from the geological stresses and the radioactive fallout from the use of a three hundred and fifty thousand gigaton positron bomb," she answered me. "There was also the damage caused by the crash of Deimos as it was used as a `distraction' while the Starfire itself made its approach carry- ing the bomb," Tais added, her eyes glowing straight into mine. No doubt it had been a "suicide mission" for the Starfire anyway. Such an explosion would leave a crater hundreds of miles across. I understood that the Earth itself was rendered almost lifeless. "And you are looking for a way to alter this `future'," I said, well aware of the terrible destruction that must have oc- curred. No doubt the Women and the Lorr had evacuated the survi- vors to Mars, leaving Earth a lifeless radioactive frozen ruin as thousands of volcanoes poured smoke and dust into the atmosphere. "It is beautiful here," I said, trying not to think of what laid ahead in the future for us all. The Priestesses themselves were almost like children in some ways, I thought to myself then. Most had been "neutered" at puberty, and while they still had the "bodies" of adults, they did not have the "personalities" of wom- en. Tais had said that the elimination of "sex" was an asset. I did not argue the point with her, feeling that perhaps she was "right" in a way, although such a life was certainly not for me. They use drugs so that the girl develops breasts, although these seem to be smaller in size as a rule than those of normal women. "It will be destroyed by the EVIL ONE on June 14th, in the year 2579," Tais replied. "All you see will be totally vaporized when the bomb is exploded by the Starfire." I understood that the "crew" of the Starfire in this suicide mission consisted of Tais herself as well as Darlanis and her daughter An'na of Mars. Tais using her "powers" to "shield" the Starfire long enough so that it could come close enough to the EVIL ONE to destroy it. "The `Battle of Armageddon'," I answered, seeing her smile. "The ultimate conflict between `good' and `evil'," she said. "Maybe prayer would be more effective than weapons," I said. "Lys will not `interfere' in this matter," Tais answered me. "Doesn't give a `damn' about us then," I snapped back then. I knew everyone "claimed" that God existed, that Lorraine even claimed to have spoken with a "being" she had called "SHE" there on Mars, who supposedly was "GOD", "LYS", or whatever ran things. "I believe Lys cares, but cannot `interfere' in this," Tais answered, the tone of her voice leaving no doubt that she had sensed my thoughts on this subject. "Perhaps there is something similar here like what existed between your United States of America and the `Union of Soviet Social Republics' in your time." "A `limited war' like the `one' in Vietnam?" I smiled back. "Perhaps a `test' of our determination to resist `evil'," Tais said. I wondered about "that". Didn't make much sense... "This is a recording made of our first `confrontation' with the `EVIL ONE'," Tais said to me, putting a disk that looked much like a little CD into a device somewhat like a VCR of my own era. A flat panel that covered the whole wall lighting up there before us. The sharpness and detail far superior to anything I'd seen! "They are `volunteers'," Tais said, the three young women in silvery jumpsuits each carrying some sort of short compact "gun". The "camera operator" obviously a fourth. They looked much like soldiers I'd seen long ago when it was time to strike out into the jungle on patrol, well aware of the fact that death awaited. The sky above them dark, lightning flickering now in the clouds. "This was our first attempt a number of years ago at this," Tais said, the tone of her voice leaving no doubt that she knew "what" was going to happen to these four young women when they went into the future to face the EVIL ONE. "We knew that `something' had happened in our own future, but at the time we didn't know what." "There's you," I said, seeing a bit "younger" Tais talking to the three women in the picture there before us. The hair, the ankh and everything else about her was quite unmistakable there. "I knew all of these Priestesses personally," Tais said, a tear now glistening in her eyes as she sat there. "Their deaths were not something that should have ever `happened' to anyone." "Time jump is complete," Tais said, the three young women standing there looking about, the camerawoman panning the area, the scattered ruins that were left of Shalimar leaving no doubts! THEN SUDDENLY THE `EVIL ONE' WAS THERE! A HORRID LOOKING THING LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN A CRAB AND A SPIDER, A HUNDRED FEET TALL, A GOOD FOOTBALL FIELD ACROSS! GREAT COMPOUND MULTIFACED EYES, A SET OF STINGS LIKE A SPIDER HAS, A DOZEN CLAWED AND MULTIJOINTED LEGS! Even in the picture I could feel the "evil" of the thing!! "Our weapons were useless against it," Tais spoke in a flat toneless voice. I saw the Priestesses firing, saw the blue-white beams of energy strike the creature, having almost no effect on it but seemingly merely to "irritate" it a bit! I heard their voices as they begged to be "transported" back in time, saw the THING reach out with clawed forelimbs, seize these terrified wom- en as they fled in terror, the view now "sideways" as the camera- woman dropped the recorder to flee. I saw a woman torn in half, her body there a few yards away from the still running recorder, I heard screams, sobbing, a woman crying "LYS! SAVE ME!" and then a scream as the THING lifted her a hundred feet in the air and to my horror dropped her right into that great fanged mouth it had! "That's enough," Tais snapped, shutting off the viewscreen. "I recovered the video camera when it left and got back before it came for me," the First Priestess added, her eyes wet with tears. "Were you aware of all this happening?" I asked. I saw Tais nod. The tears now rolling unnoticed down her cheeks as she looked at me. I knew then that she and the others had witnessed this entire scene from its beginnings to its awful conclusion... "I gave the orders not to open the `Gateway'," she said. "You did the right thing," I answered, seeing her nod. "I do not believe the blaster rifles will have any more ef- fect upon it than did our energy beams," Tais said to me then. I could fill in the rest of her thoughts for myself. If we went up into the future, we both could suffer the same fate as the four Priestesses had. "And we dare not open a `Gateway' if it is too close to us," she added, her glistening eyes burning into my own. "Can it fly?" I asked, thinking of a helicopter or something of that type. Perhaps a Lorr saucer. They were "armed" and I suspected capable of traveling a lot faster than any airplane... "It is capable of changing its form to something that can," Tais answered. "What you saw is not its true shape in any case. It is also capable of increasing its size to any that it wishes." "Looked solid enough to me," I disagreed. Perhaps one need- ed to use "heavier" weapons. The most powerful fighting craft ever built so far as I knew was the Starfire, which mounted half a dozen heavy laser cannon and could fire anti-matter missiles. On the other hand Tais had already told me that such weapons were of no value against the thing. That it was "indestructible"... "It is also capable of dematerializing itself when confront- ed with atomic weapons," Tais pointed out to me then. "It cannot be `killed' in the sense that only a small `part' of it is actu- ally in our own plane of existence." Tais going on to explain that the EVIL ONE was actually a "supernatural being" similar in its own composition to that of LYS herself, which is the name now used for GOD. The question was here, how do you "kill" a "god"?? The positron bomb had been powerful enough to force it back into its own plane of existence, but "that" wasn't an "answer" here... "Maybe we could close up its `Gateway'," I suggested to her. Cut off the "part" of it here in our own plane of existence from the rest of the THING. Once "that" was done it might be possible to get rid of what remained here in our own world. "We need something `armored', capable of flight, of reaching space if nec- essary," I said to her. I saw Tais nod, give me a smile in turn. "Perhaps we did need a `Warrior'," the First Priestess said. "There is a time to `pray', and a time to `fight'," I said. "And may Lys have `mercy' on our souls," she then smiled. "And `trust' in ourselves," I answered the Priestess. "IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Seventeen "Impressive," I said, looking about at the "city" before me. The world headquarters of the Priestesses of Lys. Their "Rome". The "style" of the buildings reminded me much of that era too... "We enjoy beautiful things," Tais answered with a smile. "`Shalimar' is all of that," I answered, quite impressed. "It is built completely of fine white marble," she said. I wondered how the Priestesses had transported such materials here? The quality of workmanship left nothing to be desired, I noticed. Perhaps the Lorr had been of "assistance" in the transportation of the building materials. On the other hand perhaps the Priest- esses had done the task themselves. They had just teleported the two of us from my own roof top in Arsana to here in "no time". I wondered just how "powerful" the Priestesses of Lys really were? We had also traveled in time, as it had been sunset in Arsana and here it was apparently still daylight. Nor had there been any of the "fireworks" that Carol and I had experienced in time travel. Apparently short jumps in time like this didn't require a thun- derstorm as a "power supply" to open up a "Gateway" in spacetime. "Where are we?" I ventured, the sun shining down upon us. I had clasped hands with Tais and "zap", we were here in this spot! The small city spreading out before us, with mountains all around and a large lake there in the distance gleaming in the sunlight. "On the border between California and Nevada, a hundred miles from what was Leith, with Talon being over that way," Tais smiled, pointing. I wondered if the nomadic Nevadas ever gave the Priestesses of Lys any "difficulty". I rather "doubted" it! "You ever met a fellow by the name of Robert A. Heinlein?" I asked Tais as she showed me the suits of "powered armor" we would wear in this short journey through time to a point only eleven years in our future. The powered armor reminding me much of the similar devices that he'd used in his book, "STARSHIP TROOPERS". "I don't believe so," Tais answered, not "understanding" me. "These were in a 20th Century science fiction book," I ex- plained. "Along with a `social philosophy' that made a lot of sense," I added, recalling his idea of "earned citizenship" by means of "national service". The book had been "popular" among some of the Vietnam veterans that I'd known back then long ago. "Heinlein, Robert A," Tais spoke, a "far away" look in her eyes. "Noted Twentieth Century author of science fiction novels, died in the year nineteen ninety one. The novel to which you re- ferred relates the `adventures' of a young man who learns the meaning of `citizenship' in fighting in an interstellar war," she spoke in a flat toneless voice. "A somewhat similar social poli- cy was carried out by Janet Rogers in the Twenty First Century." I suspected she was picking up the mental transmissions of anoth- er Priestess somewhere, one sitting before some sort of computer. "What does this `EVIL ONE' look like?" I asked, changing the subject. I knew the old Christian "Devil" had horns and a tail, walked around on "hooves", and was supposed to carry some sort of pitchfork in most of the "illustrations" I'd ever seen of him. "Something like a gigantic spider," Tais answered back. "Ugly bastard then," I smiled back at the Priestess. I took aim with the rifle, squeezed the trigger, the sound of the muzzle blast almost nothing to the sound of the "blast" when the "bullet" hit its target and exploded with a force that nothing could have resisted. The dirt and rock was blasted right up into the air as if a heavy bomb had just been exploded there! "The bullets have an explosive force equal to a ton of TNT," Tais smiled. "The rate of fire on full auto is thirty per sec- ond, the velocity is eleven hundred meters per second, and the magazine holds three hundred such rounds," the Priestess added... "You could sink battleships with this!" I breathed in awe. The magazine was a long cylinder, mounted underneath the barrel. The weapon was a "bullpup", and just about as long as my sword. There were telescopic sights, although with such "ammunition" as this one hardly needed to do any more than just point the thing! "I fear that the EVIL ONE is far more indestructible than that," Tais smiled back. "You are dealing with a `creature' that cannot be destroyed by any means known in the physical universe." "You said though that it was `destroyed'," I protested, the rifle "heavy" there in my hands, "aware" now of something of the true "nature" of the sort of "thing" that we were going after... "At the cost of hundreds of millions of lives and making the Earth itself `uninhabitable' from the geological stresses and the radioactive fallout from the use of a three hundred and fifty thousand gigaton positron bomb," she answered me. "There was also the damage caused by the crash of Deimos as it was used as a `distraction' while the Starfire itself made its approach carry- ing the bomb," Tais added, her eyes glowing straight into mine. No doubt it had been a "suicide mission" for the Starfire anyway. Such an explosion would leave a crater hundreds of miles across. I understood that the Earth itself was rendered almost lifeless. "And you are looking for a way to alter this `future'," I said, well aware of the terrible destruction that must have oc- curred. No doubt the Women and the Lorr had evacuated the survi- vors to Mars, leaving Earth a lifeless radioactive frozen ruin as thousands of volcanoes poured smoke and dust into the atmosphere. "It is beautiful here," I said, trying not to think of what laid ahead in the future for us all. The Priestesses themselves were almost like children in some ways, I thought to myself then. Most had been "neutered" at puberty, and while they still had the "bodies" of adults, they did not have the "personalities" of wom- en. Tais had said that the elimination of "sex" was an asset. I did not argue the point with her, feeling that perhaps she was "right" in a way, although such a life was certainly not for me. They use drugs so that the girl develops breasts, although these seem to be smaller in size as a rule than those of normal women. "It will be destroyed by the EVIL ONE on June 14th, in the year 2579," Tais replied. "All you see will be totally vaporized when the bomb is exploded by the Starfire." I understood that the "crew" of the Starfire in this suicide mission consisted of Tais herself as well as Darlanis and her daughter An'na of Mars. Tais using her "powers" to "shield" the Starfire long enough so that it could come close enough to the EVIL ONE to destroy it. "The `Battle of Armageddon'," I answered, seeing her smile. "The ultimate conflict between `good' and `evil'," she said. "Maybe prayer would be more effective than weapons," I said. "Lys will not `interfere' in this matter," Tais answered me. "Doesn't give a `damn' about us then," I snapped back then. I knew everyone "claimed" that God existed, that Lorraine even claimed to have spoken with a "being" she had called "SHE" there on Mars, who supposedly was "GOD", "LYS", or whatever ran things. "I believe Lys cares, but cannot `interfere' in this," Tais answered, the tone of her voice leaving no doubt that she had sensed my thoughts on this subject. "Perhaps there is something similar here like what existed between your United States of America and the `Union of Soviet Social Republics' in your time." "A `limited war' like the `one' in Vietnam?" I smiled back. "Perhaps a `test' of our determination to resist `evil'," Tais said. I wondered about "that". Didn't make much sense... "This is a recording made of our first `confrontation' with the `EVIL ONE'," Tais said to me, putting a disk that looked much like a little CD into a device somewhat like a VCR of my own era. A flat panel that covered the whole wall lighting up there before us. The sharpness and detail far superior to anything I'd seen! "They are `volunteers'," Tais said, the three young women in silvery jumpsuits each carrying some sort of short compact "gun". The "camera operator" obviously a fourth. They looked much like soldiers I'd seen long ago when it was time to strike out into the jungle on patrol, well aware of the fact that death awaited. The sky above them dark, lightning flickering now in the clouds. "This was our first attempt a number of years ago at this," Tais said, the tone of her voice leaving no doubt that she knew "what" was going to happen to these four young women when they went into the future to face the EVIL ONE. "We knew that `something' had happened in our own future, but at the time we didn't know what." "There's you," I said, seeing a bit "younger" Tais talking to the three women in the picture there before us. The hair, the ankh and everything else about her was quite unmistakable there. "I knew all of these Priestesses personally," Tais said, a tear now glistening in her eyes as she sat there. "Their deaths were not something that should have ever `happened' to anyone." "Time jump is complete," Tais said, the three young women standing there looking about, the camerawoman panning the area, the scattered ruins that were left of Shalimar leaving no doubts! THEN SUDDENLY THE `EVIL ONE' WAS THERE! A HORRID LOOKING THING LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN A CRAB AND A SPIDER, A HUNDRED FEET TALL, A GOOD FOOTBALL FIELD ACROSS! GREAT COMPOUND MULTIFACED EYES, A SET OF STINGS LIKE A SPIDER HAS, A DOZEN CLAWED AND MULTIJOINTED LEGS! Even in the picture I could feel the "evil" of the thing!! "Our weapons were useless against it," Tais spoke in a flat toneless voice. I saw the Priestesses firing, saw the blue-white beams of energy strike the creature, having almost no effect on it but seemingly merely to "irritate" it a bit! I heard their voices as they begged to be "transported" back in time, saw the THING reach out with clawed forelimbs, seize these terrified wom- en as they fled in terror, the view now "sideways" as the camera- woman dropped the recorder to flee. I saw a woman torn in half, her body there a few yards away from the still running recorder, I heard screams, sobbing, a woman crying "LYS! SAVE ME!" and then a scream as the THING lifted her a hundred feet in the air and to my horror dropped her right into that great fanged mouth it had! "That's enough," Tais snapped, shutting off the viewscreen. "I recovered the video camera when it left and got back before it came for me," the First Priestess added, her eyes wet with tears. "Were you aware of all this happening?" I asked. I saw Tais nod. The tears now rolling unnoticed down her cheeks as she looked at me. I knew then that she and the others had witnessed this entire scene from its beginnings to its awful conclusion... "I gave the orders not to open the `Gateway'," she said. "You did the right thing," I answered, seeing her nod. "I do not believe the blaster rifles will have any more ef- fect upon it than did our energy beams," Tais said to me then. I could fill in the rest of her thoughts for myself. If we went up into the future, we both could suffer the same fate as the four Priestesses had. "And we dare not open a `Gateway' if it is too close to us," she added, her glistening eyes burning into my own. "Can it fly?" I asked, thinking of a helicopter or something of that type. Perhaps a Lorr saucer. They were "armed" and I suspected capable of traveling a lot faster than any airplane... "It is capable of changing its form to something that can," Tais answered. "What you saw is not its true shape in any case. It is also capable of increasing its size to any that it wishes." "Looked solid enough to me," I disagreed. Perhaps one need- ed to use "heavier" weapons. The most powerful fighting craft ever built so far as I knew was the Starfire, which mounted half a dozen heavy laser cannon and could fire anti-matter missiles. On the other hand Tais had already told me that such weapons were of no value against the thing. That it was "indestructible"... "It is also capable of dematerializing itself when confront- ed with atomic weapons," Tais pointed out to me then. "It cannot be `killed' in the sense that only a small `part' of it is actu- ally in our own plane of existence." Tais going on to explain that the EVIL ONE was actually a "supernatural being" similar in its own composition to that of LYS herself, which is the name now used for GOD. The question was here, how do you "kill" a "god"?? The positron bomb had been powerful enough to force it back into its own plane of existence, but "that" wasn't an "answer" here... "Maybe we could close up its `Gateway'," I suggested to her. Cut off the "part" of it here in our own plane of existence from the rest of the THING. Once "that" was done it might be possible to get rid of what remained here in our own world. "We need something `armored', capable of flight, of reaching space if nec- essary," I said to her. I saw Tais nod, give me a smile in turn. "Perhaps we did need a `Warrior'," the First Priestess said. "There is a time to `pray', and a time to `fight'," I said. "And may Lys have `mercy' on our souls," she then smiled. "And `trust' in ourselves," I answered the Priestess. |
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