Writer's Note: Hello! Sorry for the wait. The motherboard on my laptop keeps breaking and these repair people take weeks to fix stuff! Enjoy.
Ghost Planet – Chapter 5
Gattaus
There was a winding path leading down to a grey and dilapidated structure. Aside from the fact she was completely without direction, it was almost exciting to see the remains of a lost people. Old pathways whose intricate patterns were worn from storms and large areas of crop that had lost their pristine were now dried out fossils from their prosperous day. It was a stimulating experience she would often share with her data analyzing floating ball. It had become more of a companion than a mere useful instrument.
Despite the many hills in the now partly lit forest, her mobile abilities were still resilient no doubt due to the advanced internal systems of the Tek body. Her wide eyes closed for a moment and opened as she scanned the large manmade wall before her. She gently laid a palm on the surface and pressed an ear beside it. The metal was cold against her but she remained still and listened. The silence was soothing and she relished it.
"Maker punish you! What do you think you are doing trespassing here?"
Tekla gasped and swung around to see a creature on one leg whose skin was a ghostly pale. It was a male judging by his voice. An arm was on his skinny hip and another held a metal rod which appeared to act as his support. His clothes were that of torn rags and his small head was covered with jagged white cones that Tekla suspected was his beard. He had no visible nose or ears but his eyes were big enough to make up for both. He spoke from a hidden mouth, his voice as muffled and ancient as before, "well? Go 'on get you!"
Tekla relaxed her tensed limbs and walked slowly towards him trying to look as unhostile as possible. She gestured with an open palm, "I am sorry to have disturbed you. Please I mean you no harm. If you would just give me a moment to explain—"
"Bah!" He waved out a hand in annoyance, "I don't want your games female. All you apparitions need to get on with your damn petty lives and leave me in peace for Maker's sake!" Hopping on the one leg, the skinny man made his way around the corner of the structure and disappeared without another sound.
"Wait!" Tekla bolted around the corner, but there was no sign of the creature. Oddly enough, there was no sign of a door either. "Hello?"
"Go away!" The old voice boomed from inside the building.
She looked side to side for anything resembling a doorway but it was solid metal all around. "My name is Tekla, what is yours?" She begged trying to keep contact going.
"Tekla? What a strange name! Mine is Rainfall. Okay? Happy? Now go away!"
"Please, I cannot!" She paused to regain her calm. The words "I'm from another planet" were on her tongue but somehow she knew it would make matters only worse. "I have lost a friend. Won't you help me find him or at the very least provide me with information? Then I would gladly leave you in peace." There was silence.
A creature's head suddenly popped out from the metal wall and Tekla jumped back startled. His face appeared saddened as his large eyes drooped heavily, "I'm sorry to hear that dear. Well come inside then." He squinted past her and to the distance as if scanning for followers, "I suppose it's light enough to be safe. Nothing following I assume." An arm appeared through the metal beckoning her, and then he turned and disappeared into the structure once more.
Tekla pushed with both hands on the cold surface, but it was impenetrable. She folded her arms and stood pondering. It was either some form of advanced technology or she had to have the body of an alien to pass through solid objects.
"Well? I may have the rest of eternity lass, but you sure don't if you're just gonna stand out there."
"I cannot pass through."
His head popped out again but this time his eyes were slits gazing at her intensely. "Are you thick lass? Take off that stupid body armor."
Tekla was slightly offended. "This is not body armor. Can you not see I am not of your people?"
A hand stretched out to touch her arm. Tekla remained still and politely smiled to show she was comfortable with the gesture. The hand composed of four fingers all of which were stubby and callused. It was rough on her metallic skin, but he was gentle as an old man would be, feeling her cheeks and her mouth. He took his hand back quickly, "Oh! The Maker shines upon us on this day!" He came from the building completely and knelt to the ground with his fingertips together and eyes shut as he began muttering words.
"Please, what are you doing?"
He rose and disappeared into the structure where she heard the clanging of metal parts. There came a drilling noise that shook the entire structure. Tekla drew back a few steps and was rather afraid the entire thing was going to collapse any second. With a loud bash a piece of metal flew out from the wall revealing an inviting gap that was the hidden door. He stood in the entranceway smiling triumphantly and then bowed as best he could. "Come in!"
"Did you . . . kick the door open?" Tekla asked walking past him and into the building.
"Goodness no lass."
The room was small compared to the grandness of how it looked on the outside. Pots of plants littered the floor; large ones at the corners stretched as high as the ceiling which conveniently was made into a sunroof. Bright blues and yellows decorated the green stems as plump flowers or perhaps fruit as they bore no pedals but were no burden for the plants themselves. The air was sweet like that of the flower's nectar. A device resembling a computer screen lay against the wall but appeared to be powered off.
"They're called Midnight Blossoms," the alien said, "as the name suggests, they don't need sunlight to grow. You'll see the flowers start to lose their colors after the next Revealing. Pretty aren't they?" He gently plucked a blue flower from the plant beside him and handed it to the metallic woman.
"They are wonderful." Tekla accepted the gift and studied it with much adoration. "Why do you let the light in if they require none?"
"Goodness lass! How would you like to be cooped up in a shack without the ray of morning? It's brief enough as it is."
"I suppose you are right – Rainfall is it?" The pale man nodded. "What do you mean by the Revealing?"
Rainfall sighed. He sat on a cushion on the floor and invited Tekla to join him on another. "I suppose it's best that I start from the beginning. After all that is why you are here. To restore our planet, make things the way they were?" His eyes were full of happiness but quivered with sorrow.
Tekla let the flower rest on her lap. She looked into his eyes and then slowly to the ground."
"Are you not the ones who built Virra's great engine?" His voice was filled with desperation.
Tekla looked up with wide eyes, "Virra, is that the name of your planet?"
"As far as I know!"
"Then you speak of the world engines! A powerful machine capable of moving your entire planet across space!"
"Yes well," Rainfall crossed his arms and looked towards the windowed roof, "that was the whole plan until they were destroyed."
"Destroyed? Destroyed how?"
"Creatures we call the Gattaus Demon. Most believed they came down from the moon called Gattaus, but that's all nonsense. The meteor that they crashed down in was dated older than our planet, probably our solar system. How does a great Divine not know these things?"
"Because I am not this person you speak of. I come from a planet called Tek and I am here with others from different worlds. We came here to study the planet and its world engines. But, we had no idea it was still habited."
"It isn't. Not in the intelligent life form sense." He saw the confusion on Tekla's face. "When the Gattaus came down, they were only little things the size of . . . that flower. We were foolish, foolish people. We deemed them one of the most exciting scientific finds of the century!" He paused to shake his head, "the Science and Agriculture sector did experiments on them; nothing cruel of course. Then they began to grow. It didn't take long for culturists to realize they were feeding off of the sun.
"We kept finding dead instruments throughout the facility. Lights, batteries, crop equipment, all were being drained of power. In the mean time the bastards were getting bigger, and uglier. It all looked like harmless animal behavior at first but I knew – I knew something bad would come from them. No one wanted to listen to a culturist in training. They said I was being ignorant and threatened to revoke my scholarship unless I kept my mouth shut.
"They got loose one night. Drained the whole Maker damned facility, dozens on them. Soon they were in people's backyards draining crop converters. People were terrified."
"Did no one do anything to stop them?"
"They tried. You see, the Gattaus never harmed a single person and the Agriculture sector wanted them alive to use them as some sort of renewable energy source. A replacement for crop energy."
"Crop energy?"
"We grow crops that absorb the sun's energy in a special way. With crop converters we can absorb this energy and use it for our daily lives. Well we used to anyway. These Gattaus were found to absorb a thousand times more energy from the sun than a simple plant patch. No more backbreaking labor in the fields, we would just sit back and let these monsters power everything. It sounded like a great idea at first, but they couldn't control them."
"Did these . . . Gattaus destroy the world engines?"
His eyes glared, "want to see for yourself?"
...
They came to a clearing in the forest. At the center was a circle of runes and beside it appeared to be a gaping hole in the ground.
"The teleport pad," Tekla whispered under her breath.
"The Gattaus drained its energy before we could even study it fully. We had to drill a hole—well more like a tunnel system just to reach the engine room."
"How long did it take your people?"
"Too long and at the cost of too many lives lass."
"The Gattaus . . . you were going to use the engines somehow to stop them."
Rainfall beckoned her, "follow me lass and stay close you don't want to get lost down here."