The Trinity Sitch - Book 3: Blade of the Fury
Chapter 15: The Towering Mists
The curved, single edge sword was, as Ron had observed before, not a true katana. To the casual observer it certainly looked like one, only the details were different. Just as he had seen in his dream, the sharpened edge only ran down to the enlarged section where the runes started. The golden hilt glittered as if it had just been shined. The leather wrapped grip was firm and smooth, the leather itself glove soft. Centered on the carved butt cap was the emblem he once described as a 'T' merged with a 'J.' Without understanding why, he knew this was T'Dragma, an emblem from a long-forgotten tongue that represented the Sword of the Effurien.
"It was here all along." Ron said, wonder touching his voice. There wasn't room to test the blade in the cramped control room so he contented himself just to hold it aloft. The blade itself had the soft shine of Toledo steel, the edge keen and perfect. He didn't dare touch the edge, knowing instinctively it was sharper than any common razor blade.
Kim looked at the blade warily. "Ron, I think whoever rigged the computer might have also put that up there!"
"I don't know, KP. It's like I was almost meant to find it." He said softly.
"Ron, I'm the one who found it." She scratched her shoulder where the point had jabbed her. It didn't break the skin since it was wrapped in several layers of clothe, but she was still aware of the spot. "What if it's not even real. It looks, well, too nice to be some ancient weapon. It could have been put there anytime. The security at the Space Center is ferociously good, but nothing's perfect."
"It's real, Kim. Don't ask me how, but I know it."
A woman's face appeared on the central monitor. "My sensor logs show that nobody has entered that access tube since I came online. I don't have access to the logs from before that time."
Ron looked at the face on the screen. He was about to start staring at the sword again, but did a double take at the Trinity's apparent avatar. "Hey, aren't you the face of the computer on that show with the guy who used to play the Greek hero? The one about the big space ship that never made any sense?"
"Wade says it makes sense to him." Trinity said almost defensively, "And yes, I am based on that character. Wade chose this likeness himself for interfacing with me."
Kim raised an eyebrow at the way she said 'interfacing' but held her tongue. Ron must have caught the same thing, blurting out. "We need to get Wade out so he can find a girlfriend!"
Trinity favored him with the strangest look, making Kim think he might already have a 'girlfriend.' Her 'weird-dar' was going off, making her think of the cartoon show where the cigar chomping, beer swilling robot character (who sounded strangely like Drakken) fell in love with the computer of a starship once. Not wanting to press the matter she changed the subject. "So, we're still headed for this Arkonia?"
"The planet is now in sensor range and we will have orbital insertion in two point four three hours. At that time the navigational controls will be released and I can plot a course back to Earth."
"That's a relief." Ron said before turning his gaze back to his new acquisition.
"There are possible complications." Trinity warned. "My data on Arkonia is based on information from a different universe with a slightly different history, and at another point in time approximately four hundred, eighty nine years from now. Extrapolating the correct position of the planet was easy, but I am receiving data that does not match what I know."
"Such as." Kim prompted, a bit of concern creeping into her voice.
"The history of the planet I am familiar with clearly states that the population was in a perpetual level of civilization and technology that could be roughly described as being equivalent to Earth in the middle ages. They were not exposed to higher levels of tech until two hundred years later when a colony ship from Russia landed there after being knocked off-course. I am reading small pockets of much more sophisticated technology on the planet, specifically centered around the northern part of the island continent known, at least in my files, as Dagan."
"And what would all that mean, just in case we didn't know?" Ron asked.
"There should already be some readings of advanced technology there. Apparently much of the space travel and weapons technology used by the Arkonians of the future was derived from ancient technology left on the planet by a race now referred to as the Azarians. One cache of that tech was in the form of a gigantic starship that, over the centuries, was converted into a massive structure called the 'Master's Palace.'
"However, none of that tech, at least in the historical files, had been accessed during this era. I should only be getting static readings from it. Instead, I am detecting elevated levels of electronic traffic, similar to the level of technology most of your world employs."
"So you're saying they've jumped ahead somehow." Kim supplied.
"Apparently. We may be approaching a world significantly more advanced than we were expecting. That could explain the device you removed from my system. Scans indicate similarities to known Azarian designs." Trinity explained.
"How did a piece of Arkonian or Azarian tech get put into you?" Kim asked.
"I do not know. I came online not long after your friends found me. What happened prior to being reactivated is completely unknown. Comparing surveys of the area I was found in, I either landed there or was placed there any time between your years nineteen seventy one and two thousand five. Most likely earlier in that period considering the amount of overgrowth that had to be blasted away by my shields before I could be launched."
"Hold on, you said this thing was essentially programmed to use you to kidnap us? That would indicate to me that it was put here relatively recently." Kim said.
"Not if it was installed before I traveled into the past. While I do not possess the fires from this world, you would be part of the historic record. Then again, it was not programmed to act based on who you are, but what you are."
"I don't understand." Kim asked, shrugging in confusion.
"Not do I. Not totally, actually. The device was operating under parameters I cannot fully fathom with my current programming. There is something special about the two of you that I cannot specifically detect."
Kim scowled. None of this made any sense. Why would somebody sabotage the computer yet leave the very weapon so many were looking for right where it could be found once the device was discovered? Was it possible the saboteur had simply not noticed the bundled blade? Could it be that the sword had somehow shifted positions, possibly during more violent maneuvers? That seemed to be a bit more reasonable, especially since it looked quite a bit like the ship had crash landed in the Uwharrie mountains.
She was so intent on the computer screen, with the virtual image of a character taken from television that she didn't see Ron, growing more and more still as he stared at the blade. His blade! He was as sure of that as he was sure of his love for Kim! Like when he held the Lotus Blade in Japan, it stirred something in his soul. He looked up and found he was no longer aboard the Trinity, but standing in the midst of the same grassy field of his dream/nightmare.
It was different this time. The stone was still there at the bottom of the hill, the sky was blue once more, yet it seemed that the season was much more like fall, with the summer heat just starting to break in favor of the cool that would lead into winter. The breeze carried not the soft fragrance of late blooming flowers but an earthy smell, not unpleasant but not soothing as the blossoms of the spring.
This time a young woman was there instead of the crone. She was shorter than Kim but was graced with far more generous curves. Brown hair that almost looked like dark, rich honey hung in ringlets to her shoulders, spilling partway down her front, disappearing behind her round, soft shoulders. At her side was a small boy, perhaps no more than three years old, with dark brown hair and crystal clear blue eyes. She held the child's hand gently and somehow he knew that the child was hers.
She favored him with a smile that would once have made him melt. She was truly beautiful, just in a different way from Kim. Looking upon her put peace in his heart. When she spoke it was like musical notes from a fine instrument.
"Swordsman. Look for me at the great Spiron. Do not come to this place." She waved her free hand, indicating the field. "If you come here, you will be revealed to the enemy. Come only to the Spiron." She leaned forward, her lips brushing his cheek in a chaste kiss that felt like liquid fire to him. "You have founded a new Trinity of the Ascended. There is now hope…"
He was back in the computer center of the Trinity as suddenly as he had been in the other place. Kim was waving her hands in front of his face, as if trying to snap him out of a trance. In a way, she was right. It had been a waking dream, a vision!
"Whoa! How long was I like that?" With some effort he finally tore his eyes away from the sword and looked at Kim.
"Are you okay? What happened there? You were like that for some five minutes!" She gently took the sword from his hands. Immediately she noted that holding it felt…strange. Somehow in her hands it felt ungainly, as if it were somehow not balanced correctly even though she was holding it with the tip pointed down. The grip itself was slightly too large for her hands. Like a true katana it would take both of her hands to wield it, while Ron could hold it with just one.
He was shaking his head and blinking his eyes as if they would not adjust to the light. "I think I just got some kind of message. I was in the same place as that nightmare I had last night, but this time there was some lady there telling me to come find her at a place called the Spiral."
"The Spiron." Trinity corrected him. "It is a natural formation in a sparsely inhabited area in Arkonia's northern hemisphere.
"Cool, then since we're already going there, we can find the place and go see this woman!" Ron said enthusiastically.
"No!" Kim shook her head emphatically. "Once we get into orbit we're turning around and going home."
"Kim, this might be the only way to find out what's really happening to me…to us. This isn't like I'm out just to find some Churros or some other new thing to eat or some childish fantasy. Something important is happening to me, to both of us and we need the answers. Who knows, there might even be answers to questions we don't even know to ask!"
"You heard what Trinity…"
"Wade calls me Trin." She interrupted.
"Okay, what Trin said. They've jumped ahead in their tech level. If they detect us, the will come looking for us and I'd feel a lot more confident about getting away from orbit than from the surface."
"I know that, but if this area is as sparsely populated as Trini…Trin says, we can get it, dig the down low and get back out before anyone is the wiser."
"That is true. I cannot detect any indications of higher technology in use in that region of the planet."
"There you go, KP. You're outvoted two to one." Ron said with a smirk.
"What? I don't think a space ship that tried to kidnap us, purportedly under the control of an evil I-pod, who conveniently can't take control of the navigational system and now sides with you about landing on the very planet we've been spirited away to, gets a vote on whether we land or not!" Kim's voice reached a crescendo as she ranted, almost reaching a scream.
Trin just raised a virtual eyebrow at her.
"Well, I say we land." Ron said, pointing at the deck for emphasis.
"No we will not!" Kim growled through clenched teeth.
"Trin, set a course for this Spiron." Ron muttered, never taking his eyes of Kim's
"No, plot a course for Earth and leave the moment the program releases the navigation." Kim ordered right back.
"We land!" Ron shouted. (anyone wondering what their last fight sounded like?)
"No…we…don't!"
Trin watched the fight between the two young lovers. She was aware of what transpired while the ship was out of her control. In fact, she had been unable to shut that out, to provide the privacy the couple would have preferred. In her computer way, it made her uncomfortable to be forced to watch that. This was almost as uncomfortable! Under the circumstances, considering the amount of stress they were under, fighting like this was natural and normal. She herself fought with Wade sometimes, though at a considerably lower volume. Still, here and now this was just counterproductive. She put computer generated fingers with an impressively good manicure to sumptuous virtual lips.
And blew!
The resulting shriek instantly silenced the verbal combatants.
"What?" They asked in unison.
"For your information there are exactly four people who have been given command authorization over me. Of those, one is deceased, one is only two years old, the third is technically a minor and only the last is an adult. All of them are back on Earth. That means I don't have to do anything either of you tells me, so effectively, I have the final say on what happens. So, since the two of you lovebirds are at an impasse, it is up to me to cast the tie-breaking vote."
"And?" Kim asked icily.
"We land at the Spiron."
Kim growled and stomped her way forward.
The planet Arkonia, to the naked eye, looked a great deal like Earth. OF course, the coastlines of the continents were in completely different places, but taken as a whole it had the same general appearance. With enough cloud cover it could pass for the home world of humanity at a glance. It took Trin to explain the more important differences. The planet was slightly larger than Earth but due to it's overall mass, the gravitational pull was nominally the same. The rotational day was just over thirty Earth hours, making the Arkonian calendar (at least from the universe Trin was familiar with) very hard to reconcile with Earth's. A single moon the color of dark iron sat on the horizon.
The Trinity's electronic countermeasures were in full effect, keeping any ground based detection equipment from knowing they were there. In an almost smug manner Trin reported that no sophisticated scans had been directed their way. Since they were carefully staying on the day side, they would be somewhat more difficult to see by ground-based telescopes.
Kim was, or course, still tweaked. Not so much at Ron any more. His reason, despite her disagreement with them, were valid. There was also the fact he had already apologized. What she could not fathom was why Trin had sided with Ron instead of her. Was there more to the ship's simulated female personality than an exotic face and a sweet, sultry voice? Did it see her as some kind of rival? Or was there something to this sitch she wasn't seeing yet, some bit of logic that made landing the right decision.
Yet here they were, in orbit, halfway around the globe from their destination, about to fire retro thrusters and begin a descent toward a planet that, for some unexplained reason, was inhabited by humans just like Earth.
Once again she was in the observation lounge, this time with the dome cover open, allowing her an unrestricted view of the planet below. Only this time Ron was at her side, holding her hand. It certainly felt strange going into an unknown sitch like this wearing, essentially, their civilian clothes.
"Too bad you're wearing the red shirt." Ron commented, knowing full well what had happened to her when Drakken's particle cannon had sucked them into a cable television signal.
"Very funny. And it's not a shirt, it's a sweater. Plus it's magenta, not red." She stuck her tongue out at him. The ship shuddered just slightly, indicating they had begun their re-entry. The cover automatically closed over the dome, cutting off the view or the planet as it spun closer and closer to them. Instead, Trin raised one of the retractable screens so they could have an outside view. Magnetic shields would keep the worst of the intense re-entry heat from them, but it was a normal precaution to close the armored covers on the bubble port and the five long windows of the bridge.
Before long their descent had slowed and they were sailing over the landscape. The ship was flying so low they could make out the individual tree-tops. The population here must have been sparse, as there were no indications of any kind of settlements, at least that they could see as they slowed to just over three hundred miles per hour.
The cover irised open once more and Ron let a sharp whistle. He pointed into the distance, where a towering white cloud dominated the landscape. It had all the appearance of massive thundercloud of Terran origin, but there was something subtly different about it. For one it stood out against an otherwise crystal clear blue sky. They were showing no signs of turning away from the towering whiteness and neither of them seemed worried about it. They had been told to expect it.
The Trinity suddenly gained altitude. As she did so, the ground below them fell away and they found themselves rocketing out over a massive crater like none of them had ever seen. It became clear that the cloud wasn't a cloud at all, but the combined mists of waters swirling into the crater from dozens of massive waterfalls, all emptying into huge lake that dominated the bottom of the crater. The lake was not placid, but boiled and churned as massive amounts of liquid poured into it, creating a huge whirlpool in the center. There was no indication where all the water flowed to and it was absolutely possible that the water was actually flowing down through the center like an unholy large drain. Kim had seen the great whirlpool below Niagara Falls, but this was hundreds of times larger and more violent.
Their ship was skirting the edge, trying to avoid the maelstrom of air currents that controlled the midst of the depression. They bucked like a wild thing in the updrafts as it was and it was all they could do to hold down her lunch. Silently both Ron and Kim wished Trinity would slow down. In fact, she was doing just that. Off in the distance they could both see the ancient fortress. It looked like an old crusted boil in the brown and green edge of the bowl shaped depression. Where it may have once had great spires reaching for the sky as if trying to climb from the depths of Spiron, it now lay crumbling, with only its outer walls giving it much definition.
They set down about a hundred feet from the wall.
It was here they hoped to find their answers.
What in the hell did they want with such a God-forsaken, forgotten place? There was no sign of any kind of vehicle about and Kim wondered if it were even possible to safely approach this place from the crater's rim. Certainly there were some kind of passes along the edge for someone to have built this place, but down here on the gently sloping floor of the bowl she could make out none. At least not in the space she could see in the area between two Niagara sized waterfalls where the fortress rested.
If there had been a town associated with the ruin, there was no sign now. A fine mist permeated the air and everything was covered with a lush green mossy plant save the very upper reaches of the fallen parapets. There was no sign of any wooden scaffolding that might have once been there. Anything not made of stone had long ago been consumed by the ravages of time and decay. The children of the children of the trees that had grown to reclaim the land stood in mute and stunted testimony to the way the world had reclaimed what man had wrought on her.
There was a slight change in the character of the roar that permeated the crater, causing the duo to look up and frown. The great white thunderhead that formed from the voluminous mists seemed larger than before, larger and darker as well "Thunder, I think." Ron said, cupping his mouth in Kim's direction. She looked, then looked higher. She could not see the sky through the mists, the midday sun obscured to the point that the land looked like it was on the verge of twilight.
She noticed one detail as they approached. The overgrowth had been trampled down by something, or rather a large group of somethings leading up to the main gates. She was certain she could make out hoof prints in the soft loam that peaked from beneath the riotous green. To her untrained eye, it seemed like only men on foot and on horseback had traversed that trail recently. There were no obvious marks that any wheel vehicle would make. That did not rule out flying vehicles capable of landing directly inside the fortress. Still, such things seemed somehow out of place, even considering the availability of such things. Somehow she felt that whoever was inside had indeed arrived much as the builders of the fortress once had. She said as much to Ron, making her way up to his side.
He just put a finger to his mouth, puffing up his cheeks as if he were in the process of throwing up. Their own landing had been chancy to their unused senses. She felt like her stomach was going to rise from her gut at any moment until Trin pronounced that they were down and safe. She had not felt their ship touch down, as the internal artificial gravity did not cut out until they were down on firm ground. Somehow she expected it to set down flat, though why she would escaped her since the entire floor of the crater sloped toward the boiling lake.
The fortress was built where the walls of the crater suddenly turned upwards. Its proximity to the nearby waterfall might not have been totally intentional. The torrent flowed from above in a shallow horseshoe shape, and it had likely widened over the ages. In fact, the far wall of the place now was saturated by the heavier mists generated as the water fell on tumbled debris of uncounted centuries. It was entirely likely that the falling waters had been much farther away when the ancients constructed the edifice.
They moved closer to the arched gateway one at a time, Kim first, followed by Ron as he picked his way forward wobbling slightly on the wet rock. He looked at her and reached for his hip, re checking the strap he had fashioned from part of an unused bedcover, holding the sword at his waist. It wouldn't be very useful if he needed to draw it quickly but it kept both of his hands free as they picked their way through the crumbling walls. He looked at her and gave her a silly smile. She merely nodded at him, knowing he would not try to draw it unless it was totally necessary.
The rumbling rolled through the fortress again, this time both louder and deeper, as if it were coming from the ground itself and not from the billowing cloud. It was darker still, and not from the shadows cast by the rotting walls. The cloud was turning darker still, taking a gray cast like a storm was about to burst upon them. They were already fairly wet from the clinging mists but a downpour would be utterly unwelcome as they had not yet seen anything to offer any proper shelter. Ron came up short as the rumbling loosened a few small stones. They tumbled to a stop in front of them, their clatter only barely audible over the din.
There was something more to that thunder. Both of them knew it. Kim dismissed any notion that it was caused by being in such an unusual place. Something was pulling at her and she didn't know what. Her rational mind could not understand such things, despite what she knew. There was far more to the universe than could be explained by the hard cold science that her mind could comprehend. There were things that required a belief in your heart when you mind could not.
She believed there was something more to the thunder than an approaching storm.
If Ron was thinking the same thing, he gave no clue. He didn't complain about any discomfort and she knew that he was simply accepting their surroundings as necessary. This wasn't any worse than slogging around in rainforests of Africa or the hot, rocky canyons of the southwest to them. They were soldiers of a sort and they went where they were needed.
She hoped they could find the answers they were looking for here. Perhaps they would because she knew they were not alone. A single voice could now be heard over the growing thunder. Once recognized, it seemed to travel over the rocks and through them, cutting deeply into her though she had no idea what any of the words meant. Ron looked as confused as she did, making it seem like the words carried on that ill wind were not the dialect either of them had ever heard. There was a different timbre to the words, making them rise as if carried by the growing wind, as if they called down the fat, heavy drops as the rain broke upon them.
To her surprise, the voice seemed to be that of a woman.
The central structure was somewhat more intact than the rest of the fortress as it was built directly into the cliff wall. It was more of an façade than an actual building and there was no good way to tell how far it delved inside. They ducked into the darkened entrance just as the worst of the storm broke over the compound. The rain drove hard at the entrance, as if forming a wall that cut off their retreat. The voice continued and it was definitely coming from inside.
The passage bore directly into the cliff. If there were passages that led to the upper levels of the façade, they never saw any. Perhaps one must return from much deeper inside, or they were simply there for show. What looked at first to be a fortress was looking more and more like something else.
Tomb was the word that crept across Kim's mind.
The chanting grew in intensity. The pulling sensation was becoming more and more distinct. It was real, there was no denying it now. Something drew both of them onwards despite the growing fear in their hearts. Here there was only the subtle tugging, the voice speaking words that had no meaning for them, drawing them onwards.
Up ahead they saw a shimmering light. The passageway ended in an arching doorway, the edges inscribed with symbols that were not English or any other familiar script. There were whispers of power in those symbols but not knowing what they meant or what sort of power the represented, she could not put her finger on any of that .
The chamber was huge, a domed area hewn with such care and precision they could not imagine that anything other than a machine had emptied out the space. Braziers set into the walls held brightly burning fires, illuminating the interior with a vivid but flickering light. High above at the crest of the dome there was an impossible looking skylight, revealing a dramatic view of the growing thundercloud outside. Certainly the image was artificial, considering they were too far underground for such a window.
Five men formed a semi-circle, facing away from where they crouched. A low wall protecting the double staircase that led to the floor of the chamber was enough to screen them from view while still allowing them to observe the tableau. Each man was wearing a flowing blue and black robe, holding long swords in both hands, the points directed at the floor. It was unlikely that any one of them could have seen them as they entered, as their faces were each directed toward a woman.
She was the one chanting the mysterious words. Her voice was nearly deafening, as if it were part of the thunder that raged outside. She seemed to tower over them and some sort of energy encased her outstretched hands. She was not only old, she was ancient, as if she was part of the temple's stone herself. She seemed to stare out into space as the incantation proceeded.
Ron drew a sharp breath and whispered excitedly to Kim…
"That's the oldwoman from my nightmare!"