Locum Ignotum Chapter 2
Golden light washed over the bridge, pouring in through the open oculus. It filled the space with a warm radiance, an uplifting sensation of peace and well-being. The light soothed aching hearts and stilled panic, washing away the distress and fear of the mortal serfs. Men went about their duties placidly, as if nothing had ever been wrong and never would again.
Bylan found it strange, only a couple of hours earlier these men had been expecting to die but now they seemed almost happy. It was the light he concluded, there was something more to it, it was affecting people. Thankfully his Hypno-indoctrination seemed enough to ward off the effect, but for the ninth time that hour, he checked that the Gellar field was still activated. All seemed to be in order and he looked up again seeing the view slide by.
The auspex was still picking up absolutely nothing so the only way they could steer was to look with their own eyes. The Navigator had gone silent, refusing all entreaties and pleas for answers. Bylan was most disturbed by that, the last words about the Astronomicon going out still ringing in his ears. He would report that later but right now they needed to focus on their current situation. The Thunderchild was sliding along the strange tunnel, following its course. They had elected to carry on down its odd length at a slow speed; it wasn't like they had many other choices. The walls undulated as they drifted past, shrinking and growing at random. At times it looked like the passage might grow too small for the vast Capital ship but somehow it always slipped past without incident.
Bylan realised he was staring again and returned to his duties, checking the reactor output was nominal. All was well and he looked about, ensuring that the rest of the bridge was in order. Everybody was at their posts, save Captain Toran. He had left Chaplain Wrethan in command as he went below to brief Third Company. He also had to go speak with Honourable Ajax, no matter how busy one was, when a Dreadnought demanded an audience one made the time.
Bylan was distracted by the sound of boots approaching, he glanced back and saw Librarian Arvael drifting closer. He was a strange sight, not just because of his arcane paraphernalia. Arvael had been a scout with Third Company a few years ago, before setting off for his tutelage in the Librarian's order. The years had aged him, far more than they should have and his bearing spoke of being privilege to terrible knowledge. One couldn't believe he was scarcely out of the Scouts, for he looked weathered and hardened. Bylan didn't know what had happened to him in the Librarian's tower and he was absolutely certain that he didn't want to know.
Arvael drifted up to the Enginarium pit and asked casually, "How is the ship?"
Bylan glanced at the serfs then stepped closer saying, "+The Machine Spirits are content, it's the mortals that concern me, this place is affecting them+"
"I know," Arvael said, "There is power out there but not hostile, not malevolent. The Warp is utterly inimical to all that is good and pure but this is the complete opposite. The material of the walls seem to be generating some form of psychic sheath, an energy field to protect and conceal this place from the hostility of the Warp."
Despite the arcane talk, Bylan was curious and he said, "+Do you know that this place is?+"
Arvael looked thoughtful and said, "I have several theories, it seems to resemble Eldar constructs but there are numerous differences. I have read that the Eldar use a series of Warp-tunnels for interstellar flight, but they always open to real-space, we entered from the Immaterium which as far as I know should be impossible. My hypothesis is that we may have stumbled into some long-lost construct of theirs, forgotten in the collapse of their degenerate Empire. We may be the first living things to pass this way for thousands of years."
Bylan gulped at that, not liking the implications and he asked, "+Any sign of an exit yet?+"
Arvael shook his head and said, "I have scryed ahead and found there are smaller tributaries, some barely big enough for a man to pass but they all circle back to the main route. None of them seems to lead anywhere; we seem to be in a closed loop."
Bylan was really worried now but at that moment Captain Toran re-entered the bridge, striding through the hatch with his head held high. He climbed the command dais and said, "Any change?"
Chaplain Wrethan replied, "None, we seem to be locked into this course."
Toran nodded and asked, "How far have we come?"
"Unknown," Wrethan replied, "We dropped a skull-probe as a marker beacon but the distance hasn't increased. According to its signal, we aren't moving."
Toran glanced at the walls which were sliding by and said, "That is impossible."
From the Ordnance pulpit Novak called, "That makes it the fifth impossible thing we've seen today, I've started a list."
Toran rolled his organic eye and said, "Have we tried increasing speed?"
Wrethan nodded and answered, "Sped up and slowed down, didn't make a mote of difference. Our velocity seems fixed no matter how much thrust we apply."
"Impossibility number six," stated Novak.
Bylan suddenly spied a flashing light and saw a pair of Serfs hurriedly tending to the consoles. He bent over their heads and assessed the readings, then called, "+Captain, we're picking up a vox signal from dead ahead. It's a repeated pattern in an ancient Imperial code… it looks like a distress beacon+"
Toran looked over and said, "Imperial, how can that be?"
Arvael said, "It defies belief that another ship wandered in here at the same time."
Novak sighed, "That makes seven impossibilities."
Bylan fixed his eyes on the Oculus and waited long minutes as the ship drifted along. The time seemed to stretch out then suddenly Persion called from the Sensorium, "Contact! We have a return on the Auspex, it's getting a clear reading from ahead."
"What is it," Toran called, "A ship? A station?"
"This can't be right," Persion said looking confused, "We are detecting an atmosphere. The Machine Spirits are reading oxygen, nitrogen, median temperatures and wind currents."
Bylan frowned and said, "+A whole planet, in here?+"
Persion shook his head and said, "No, not a planet. A landscape, we're reading geography ahead."
"Do not be foolish," Wrethan declared, "That is ridiculous."
Novak muttered, "Impossibility number eight."
Bylan was peering ahead and he saw the tunnel suddenly widen up before them. The light changed from golden to a beautiful blue flecked with clouds. It resembled a fine sky on a beautiful day, a perfect image of tranquility. The blue concealed the contours of the tunnel but they were just visible if one focussed, creating a vast dome overhead. All that was missing was a sun but the horizon was lit by a golden aura, creating the impression of rich warmth. Below them, just visible around the bulk of the Thunderchild's prow was a rich green carpet, a landscape spread out before them. It extended outwards, running away in all directions. Bylan could see forests and rivers down there, rolling hills and snow-capped mountains. There were wide grasslands and small seas, ringed by sandy beaches. Impossibly it looked as if the Thunderchild was hanging a few miles over the surface of a green and pleasant world.
Everybody gaped and Bylan said, "+How is this possible?+"
Arvael was equally wide-eyed and said, "I have no theories, none at all."
Toran blinked and snapped, "Don't stand there gawping, get me some answers. What are we seeing, is there a threat here, give me facts to work with."
Everybody snapped back to their duties and Persion said, "Nothing capable of threatening the ship but auspex is reading a landscape, the Machine Spirits calculate that it is over twenty-five million square miles in size. Air is breathable, temperatures acceptable for life, there's water and plants down there too."
Bylan peered at a reading and said, "+We're inside a gravity field, 1.03G, it's holding everything down+"
"What?!" Wrethan barked, "Our anti-gravs aren't engaged, we should be crashing down in a flaming wreck!"
Bylan shook his head and said, "+I can't explain it, there's definitely gravity down there but it's not affecting us up here+"
Persion glanced at Novak and said, "How many impossible things is that now?"
Novak replied dumbfounded, "I've lost count."
Toran blinked and said, "Facts people, stick to the facts. Are we still picking up that distress beacon?"
Bylan checked and said, "+Yes, it's coming from seventy-five degrees off the starboard bow+"
Toran nodded and said, "Take us to it; it's the only lead we have."
Slowly the Thunderchild came about and passed over the impossible country, the land sliding by far below. Bylan was amazed at this, by the way that the physical laws were being defied before his eyes. Persion was observing everything in the auspex and called, "I'm seeing infrastructure, down there. Roads, farms, bridges, some odd towers and even a town. They scan as primitive but look human-scaled."
"There are people down there?" Wrethan said, "We should send down a gunship to investigate."
"One mystery at a time," Toran answered, "Let us concentrate on finding the source of that signal."
Bylan looked at Arvael and said, "+If there are people here does that mean there's another way in and out ?+"
Arvael looked grim and said, "Not necessarily, it may well mean they got pulled in like we did… and couldn't get out again."
Bylan gulped but Persion called, "There it is, it's in visual range."
Bylan looked out and saw a strange sight, even by the standards of this impossible place. Dead ahead was a vast crater, a yawning pit several miles wide. It dropped away into darkness, a pit of blackness in this sunny world. Around that pit were a dozen black towers, each one thick and broad. They seemed to be made from some dense stone-like material and looked like elongated pyramids, each one a mile high. At the top of one was a small craft resting idly in a docking position, sitting impossibly in the clear air.
Persion checked the Sensorium and said, "That's the source of the signal, it's an Imperial craft. No registration but it reads as a Hermes class fast-clipper."
"Hermes class," Wrethan said, "They haven't made those in ten millennia, that ship is ancient."
Bylan felt a shiver at the implications of that at that moment but felt a tremor run through the deck. He checked the Enginarium displays and called, "+Captain, we've been snagged by a grav-beam, it's drawing us down to one of the towers. We're being brought in gently; it looks like some form of automated docking assist+"
"Don't fight it," Toran said, "We have no idea what we're dealing with."
Sure enough the Thunderchild was brought down until it hung over the dark pit; slowly it drifted closer to an empty tower and then gently bumped its flank up against it. Stillness settled and Bylan reported, "+We have a hard seal on one of the port flank airlocks, we appear to have docked+"
Toran declared, "Time to get some answers, everybody with me, we are going to go investigate this."
Bylan leapt to follow but before they could leave Chaplain Wrethan barred Toran's path. He looked at him and said, "Captain, that is not fitting, you should remain with the ship."
Toran scowled and said, "I will not ask any man to undertake any task I would not perform myself."
"Very noble but inappropriate," Wrethan replied, "This is simple recon; you need to remain with the Company. A Captain should trust his men to know what they are doing; trying to do everything yourself strays into micromanaging."
Toran grimaced and Bylan knew his struggle, it was hard to send another to fight in one's place and the Captain did love to lead from the front. It was very admirable but not always suitable and Toran knew it. Finally Toran swallowed and said, "Very well, Father Wrethan you shall lead the recon. Get us some answers, find out what this place is, who built it, who sent the signal and most importantly how we get out of here."
Wrethan nodded and said, "Persion, Jediah, Novak, Furion, Bylan and Arvael you are with me. Let's go find out what the hell's going on around here."
