Time and Time Again – Unfortunate Fellow – Destiny x Marathon

The group set off from the transit hall and followed Tycho’s guidance as they descended the tunnels of the planetoid. The icy tunnels seemed at once both familiar and alien to Leela, as though someone had shaken up the surface of the ice but left the layout intact. Leela found it difficult to escape her thoughts, and so she fell behind the others. Tycho and John were still in sight but were metres ahead of her, discussing some aspect of their first visit. Leela was shaken from her thoughts by a sensation, the same eerie sense of being observed that she had felt often on their first time. With one hand on the pistol in her belt she stopped in place and looked around. In one of the side-tunnels, hidden in the shadows, stood a figure. It and Leela looked at each other for a moment in silence, until Leela realised she had seen it before. In the Last City, just before she had seen John. As she thought back to it she realised the shape had been humanoid, but not human. It had had four arms and trunk-like legs, just like the figure watching her now, and she was reminded of the figures from the murals; the Sikhaan that had lived here. But the figure took a step forward into the fading light cast by the others and Leela saw that the being had no trunk, and indeed in the centre of its face was a horrible gash. Its eyes were a milky white and it carried no expression.

“Leela!” A voice cried out and she turned in shock to see Tycho floating towards her. 

“Why did you stop?” Tycho asked and stopped at her side. She looked back at the offshoot, but the Sikhaan was gone, perhaps scared off by the sudden approach of more strangers. 

“There was someone here.” Leela said and ran to the tunnel entrance. “One of the aliens from the murals.” 

“But weren’t they extinct?” Tycho said as he followed her. 

“Each timeline I visit seems to bring some changes from what came before, so perhaps that is not the case in this time.” John said, following at a distance.

But the tunnel beyond the bend was empty and so long and narrow that Leela could not see how anyone could hide there. She wanted to run on to try and find it, but they had more important things to focus on. 

“If it’s important, it’ll just have to follow us.” Leela said and came back out. John turned back to their route without a word but Tycho stayed close to her now. It occurred to Leela how strange it was that she had seen this creature in the City, halfway across the Solar system, and yet now it was here. How had it come from the planetoid to the City? Despite the curious encounter, her thoughts kept returning to the sight of the burning City. She hoped so badly that she could change that fate, and became so absorbed in her thoughts that she only noticed their arrival at the temple when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Wait, Leela, there’s something up ahead.” John said and stepped past her. In his other hand was an unfamiliar revolver. It was enormous and seemed to fit in the man’s grip like it had always been there. 

“He’s right, Leela, the cavern isn’t empty.” Tycho added.

Leela shook herself from her reverie and looked past the two of them into the cavern. At first glance it appeared to be much the same as the first time they had been, the rows and rows of alien homes carved into the cavern wall with the dome-roofed church in the centre, but now there was movement. Shapes were scuttling around at the far wall, moving into and around the homes on the ground floor. They reminded Leela of the murals and the skeletons they had found, and of course the being she had just seen; many-limbed with a trunk where the nose and mouth would be on a human. But even from a distance she could sense that there was no civility about these creatures, no compassion. These were feral beings, the fur that covered their bodies matted with blood and filth. Even as she looked, one of them looked up from whatever it was doing and sighted the group, then gave out an undulating cry that echoed throughout the cavern. Within the blink of an eye a dozen of the feral creatures had emerged throughout the cavern.

“These weren’t here last we went through.” Tycho said. 

“Yeah, I suspect it’s my fault.” John said. With an ease and speed that spoke of experience he flicked open the drum of his revolver, checked it and closed it again. 

“Your fault?” Leela said. She was already backing away. The pack of creatures was approaching them, each member goading the others as they began to form a vague semi-circle in front of the trio.

“Violence seems to follow me wherever I go. It’s what I do best, admittedly, but it’s not like the universe doesn’t encourage it.” John responded. He withdrew a knife from his waist that Leela hadn’t noticed till now. Just how many weapons did the man have?

She drew her own pistol, but it seemed puny next to John’s revolver. Unlike the Guardians of the City, she had never been adept at wielding her Light in combat. It was not instinctive for her, but a slow and clumsy act. She had long since learned to rely on more mundane tools. 

“Can’t say I don’t enjoy it, either.” John added and raised the revolver. 

Leela had no time to ask the man what he meant, for the pack raised a cry and charged. She realised that the approach had hidden their numbers; where she had seen a dozen, there was at least twice that number running at them. John seemed unfazed, and the report of his revolver echoed in the icy chamber. With each shot a creature dropped to the ground and was still, the revolver felling them instantly. Leela tried to follow suit but her pistol’s smaller caliber could not drop them as quickly nor was her aim as good. In a moment the creatures had closed the distance between them and Leela had to dodge backwards, out of the way of a flurry of swipes from one of the creatures. In a mixed blessing, most of them concentrated on John and she quickly lost sight of him in the mass of bodies. 

“John!” She cried out as he disappeared from view; the mysterious man was not immortal like her. She had no idea if his strange powers would protect him from a fatal blow. But before she could consider it further, she had her own problems to deal with. 

Two of the creatures leapt at her, claws and trunk reaching for her and she had to jump backwards. They rolled on the icy floor and came up swinging without giving her a moment to raise her pistol until a trunk swiped it from her hand. She had no idea how they knew that the pistol was dangerous, but there was little time to ponder the question. The other creature swiped at her stomach and she backed away, slamming her back against the cavern wall. She was out of space already. The creature leapt without warning and Leela could not dodge so she was pushed to the ground, doing her best to keep the creature at bay and to retaliate. She scored a hit on its face with her elbow, but it barely flinched and fought back by punching her in the stomach, knocking the wind from her. The trunk came forward in the blink of an eye, wrapping around her throat even as it struck at her with its limbs. The trunk began to choke her and she had no hands to spare to pull it off. There was little consolation in the fact that she would come back even if she died; without her help, surely John would die and they would have to stop the W’rkcacnter on their own. 

Then, just as her vision began to darken, the pressure lifted and she drew a gasping breath. The creature that had been strangling her was lying on its side beneath a fellow with a bleeding wound in its neck. She wondered if some new creature had joined the scrum and looked to her side.

John stood on a pile of bodies, his green-plated suit covered in gore. His chest rose and fell with his breathing and steam was rising from his body. As if in disgust he discarded the broken form of one of the creatures, its head nearly torn from its body. The few surviving creatures were running in a panic and John raised his revolver with a casual air and put one down with a single bullet, the report echoing throug the chamber. In the time Leela had struggled with just two, John Smith had killed at least ten of them; there was so much blood, it was hard to tell the exact number.

“What are you?” Tycho said, his voice low with fear. 

The man seemed to shake himself from his bloodlust and looked at Tycho, his faceplate obscured by a spatter of blood. 

“A combat cyborg,” John said and indicated the pile of corpses with a wave of his hand, “and this is what I do. What I’ve always done.” John Smith said and holstered his revolver. Some function of his armour activated, and the blood slid off and onto the broken bodies at his feet. With a chilling ease he continued into the cavern, stepping on bodies as though they were inconvenient pebbles. 

Leela and Tycho exchanged a glance, then followed him, wondering which creature in the planetoid was the greater threat; the monstrous W’rkcacnter, or John. 

The shadows of the domed temple hid more of the feral creatures, but they scattered at the sight of John. The ice-sphere hung in the middle like it had before, without any sign of their previous visit. It was like they had only just stepped into the structure, even though Leela clearly remembered her last visit. She glanced at John as she recalled his explanation of the time shifts. Despite the brutality he had displayed earlier, she had to trust the man, but his explanation and his supposed powers had been difficult to believe till now. 

“You two have been here before,” John started, “where do you think we should start looking?” 

“When we were here last, we only saw what is here now; the sphere and the writing on the wall over there. There was an icequake before we could explore any further.” Leela said, leaving out the vision she had seen coming from the sphere and realising, as she did, that she had not even told Tycho all of what she had seen. 

John nodded and turned to the red symbols engraved into the inner wall of the church. “Do you understand any of this?” 

Tycho lit up with the green colouration of the translation-beam. “As a matter of fact, we did. Part of the reason we set out on this journey in the first place was because we found some Golden Age tech that included translation software.” 

“I’ll pretend I know what the Golden Age is, but that’s great. I have my own translator, but it needs some input to make heads and tails of it all. What does it say, then?” 

Tycho repeated the words inscribed on the church wall, missing chunks and all. A shiver ran down Leela’s spine when Tycho repeated the translated name of the creature from the depths. 

“The Sikhaan.” John repeated. Leela could not see his face through the faceplate, but his tone indicated something like curiosity, an emotion Leela found it difficult to reconcile with the blood-splattered figure she had seen earlier. 

“Judging by the depictions we have of them, it is likely that the creatures we encountered are descendants of the Sikhaan in some fashion.” Tycho said.

“Poor creatures.” Leela muttered. Her thoughts returned to the figure she had seen in the tunnels. The Sikhaan that had attacked them had looked leaner and wilder, and they had all had trunks. Had the savages attacked her stalker and torn their trunk off? With a shake of her head she forced her focus back to the matter at hand. 

John looked at the engraved letters for a moment longer then turned away from the wall. “Did you see any computer terminals around? I was hoping for terminals.” 

“We didn’t see anything like that, no–” Leela started, but as she looked around the space, a segment of the far wall stood out to her. There was a small structure or dwelling built within the spherical walls of the church. Had this been on Earth, Leela would have assumed it was for the priest to live in. Here on the icy planetoid of the Sikhaan, it was anyone’s guess. A door of blue metal barred their entry, but John removed it with a single kick that shattered the hinges. Leela’s hand went to the pistol at her waist, but the gloom within was empty. Wherever the feral creatures lived, they had not found their way into the alien rectory. 

“It’s just like the dwellings along the walls.” Leela said as her eyes adjusted to the gloom. 

John Smith had not waited; he nearly disappeared in the shadows within the building, and Leela found that she could only hear his footsteps because she knew they were there. 

“There’s a functional device in this residence.” Tycho said and activated his searchlight. 

John’s faceplate reflected the searchlight as he glanced at the Ghost. “Take us there.”

They passed through the entrance, which resembled the workshops that Leela had seen in the other dwellings, and passed by a room with some egg-shaped piece of furniture in the center. The device that Tycho had detected was in a room at the back, in the same space where Leela had found the shimmering-stone shrine in the other dwellings. The alien rectory instead had a spherical device made of something like quartz, half-way sunk into the floor, with wires that connected to something below.

“Ah, terminals,” she heard John mutter, “there’s always terminals.”

Tycho pulsed his scanner at it and the sphere flickered back to life. A protection system came up briefly, but Tycho bypassed it in no time. John stepped up and began to operate the device, poking and prodding it at various places until the alien language began scrolling across the sphere’s surface. 

“Woah, how did you know how to operate it?” Tycho exclaimed. He had only just began to scan it when John had stepped forward. 

“I have operated terminals of at least a dozen alien species during my travels,” John said and brushed a hand across the surface, flicking through reams of text, “after a while you pick up some commonalities.” 

Leela looked at the alien scrawl for a moment and gave up. “Better get to work, Tycho.” 

Tycho hovered closer to the screen but John cut him off. “No need.”

“You can read this?” Tycho said in clear surprise.

“The scrawl on the wall was enough for my translator..” John said and seized on a scrap of text from the device before Leela or Tycho could question it.

“Aha, this part talks about the barrier-generator.” John said as he read, eyes flicking through the alien symbols on the screen.

Leela looked at Tycho and gestured at the screen. Her Ghost caught the hint and engaged the translator. As she waited, she wondered why she had not just asked John to elaborate. Did she not trust him, or did she simply want to see for herself? It was hard to say, and she would let the question wait for another time. 

As the green scanner played over the alien language, Tycho displayed the translation on a digital display for Leela’s benefit. John glanced at it but kept reading with his own method.

From:/: Archival Scholar 05, Hib’Snit

To:/: District Heart 05, Lon’Gibba

Subject:/: Inquiry of Examination of The Sacred Gellon

Hib’Snit extends Greetings. 

Hib’Snit is a resident of Residential Level 05 and so reaches out to District Heart 05 Lon’Gibba for permission to be forwarded to Greater Heart Mil’Na to request permission to investigate depths of The Sacred Gellon with the aim of archiving the information in Central Data. Hib’Snit attaches former works as proof of competence.

Hib’Snit Thanks and Wishes Well.

Attachment:/: HibSnitWorkFINAL2.mrt

Reply:/: District Heart 05, Lon’Gibba

Lon’Gibba accepts Greetings. 

Lon’Gibba declines request of Archival Scholar 05 Hib’Snit and will not grant permission to Forward request to Greater Heart Mil’Na on the Grounds that The Sacred Gellon is not to be disturbed if at all possible. The work of It is Sacred, as decreed by Ancient One Arro.

There will be no Deliberation on Further Requests.

Lon’Gibba Thanks and Wishes Well.

:/:End of Log:/: 

“It’s interesting, but it doesn’t tell us much, does it?” Leela said and skimmed the text again.

John grunted by way of reply then worked the terminal, flicking through further communiques but clearly found nothing of interest. 

“The meta-data here is ancient, possibly even older than the Traveller’s arrival in Sol.” Tycho said. The green translator-beam had winked off, casting the alien rectory into shadow.

Leela glanced out the door of the building where the icy sphere in the centre of the temple could be seen. The memory of when she had seen it shatter was still vivid in her mind.

“Tycho, this terminal, was it always here?” She asked and turned to her Ghost.

Tycho returned her look. “The terminal? What do you mean? This is the same temple as last time.” 

Leela wrestled with her thoughts for a moment; she knew what she meant but articulating it was not as clear-cut. “If that is true, why were we not assaulted by the ferals when it was just the two of us? I sincerely doubt it was because we were more threatening, and I also doubt that we would have just missed an entire building with functioning electronics.” 

“Even with the ice-quake.” She added to forestall any sassy replies. 

“You could be right, Leela,” John said and turned away from the now-dormant terminal, “It is possible that this terminal wasn’t here when you first passed through this area.” 

“What do you mean?” Tycho said. 

“I cannot speak for the exact mechanisms behind the differences, but I have observed them often in my shifts. An empty corridor has collapsed in another time. A general makes a different decision, sending their soldiers down another route. An ancient system still has power when they were dead and useless last you saw them.” 

John’s expression was unreadable behind his faceplate but Leela could feel his gaze nonetheless. “What if your Traveller had gone left at Alpha Centauri instead of right and ended up in a different star system? How would your history have gone differently as the result of such a small decision?”

Leela had no way to respond to such a question. 

“I need some air.” she said and turned out of the rectory towards the door. 

“I’ll be out in a moment.” Tycho called back and then returned to interfacing with the terminal. 

Leela walked through the gloom until she was back in the courtyard. Everything here was as she remembered it, but this time she resolved to leave the sphere well alone. There was no need to add another story of recklessness to Tycho’s repertoire. 

But as she stood there looking at nothing in particular, she sensed a presence and the feeling of being observed, and there it was. The trunkless Sikhaan was standing in the entrance to the temple, the one they had come from. Even across the way, its milky eyes were starkly visible. At that moment, it struck Leela that the feral Sikhaan they had encountered earlier had had blue eyes, like the ice that covered their ancestral home, but this one had white eyes. Was it blind as well as trunkless? The thought faded quickly, for she felt a fresh wave of unease, much like when Tycho and she had stepped into the temple for the first time. 

“Hello?” Leela called out and took a step in its direction. With a sigh she remembered that it would not understand her Earth language, and neither Tycho nor John were here to translate for her. 

“Are you hurt?” she ventured and pointed to the gash in its face to illustrate her words, but those milky eyes displayed no understanding. She looked to her right to see if John or Tycho were coming, and when she returned her attention to the figure it was closer, much closer. She did her best to remain calm but still yelped in surprise. Again it stood still, glaring at her with its white eyes, steam rising from the gash in its face. She could count the lines in its face now and see the dirt caked under the claws of two of its upper limbs. It was unclothed, whereas the ferals had at least worn primitive skins.

Despite her desire to help, she put a hand on the pistol on her waist. “What do you want?” 

For a moment it appeared to understand, for it opened its mouth as if to speak, but then reared its head back, mouth yawning open. Leela expected a roar or a cry, but the ice beneath her feet began to shake, growing in strength till it was nearly a quake. Still the enigmatic creature stood still with its mouth open, milky-white eyes staring at her. 

She had no idea why it was following her or what it wanted, but there was no time for that now. She turned away from it and raced to the door of the rectory. “John, Tycho, hurry out here, it’s a quake!” 

She turned back to the creature where it still stood. It closed its mouth and stared at her before raising an arm towards her. She could not know what it wanted, but she had seen enough. 

“Back away, I’m warning you.” she called out and drew her pistol, and when there was no immediate reaction she flicked the safety and fired a warning shot. The creature responded for the first time, recoiling from the noise of the gunshot. As it reared back it extended an arm towards her and she looked in horror as the arm split into a multitude of strands that shot out towards her. She had seen them before; a bundle of strands coiled within the broken sphere in the temple, uncoiling towards her. She snapped out when she felt a sting of pain on her hand; the strands had whipped the pistol from her hand and the firearm skidded away through the pews. She turned back towards the rectory and ran, but a strand wrapped around her ankle and pulled her off her feet, dropping her onto the hard ice. 

“Leela!” Tycho cried out and flew to her side.

“Tycho, watch out!” she cried to warn him of the creature. 

Tycho stopped beside her. “Watch out for what?” The confusion was clear in his tone.

Leela rolled onto her back and was about to point at the creature attacking her, but the temple courtyard was deserted, occupied only by the two of them and John, standing at the door to the rectory. 

“We felt a quake and heard you fire your pistol, so we hurried out here.” Tycho said with worry. 

Leela rose to her feet and looked about the space, thinking the creature must have heard Tycho and John coming and hid, but where? There were precious few places to hide in the courtyard, and it had been there up until the very moment Tycho arrived. 

“One of the aliens was here, just a moment ago,” she said and turned to Tycho, “it attacked me and I fired a warning shot at it.”

John picked up her pistol from among the alien pews and held it thoughtfully for a moment. 

Tycho looked at her for a moment then fired off a scanning pulse. “Leela, there’s nothing here.” 

“It was just here, I swear it,” Leela said and held up her right hand where the Solar suit was ripped from the strands, “look!” 

“We need to get that repaired.” John said as he handed her the pistol. The barrel was still smoking from the warning shot. 

Leela sat in silence as John and Tycho worked together to heal her hand and repair the tear in the suit. She thought back to their first time visiting the temple, of how the ice sphere had broken to reveal the strands that she had seen again just now. Back then, too, only she had seen see it. Tycho had mentioned nothing of the sort. Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her, her exhaustion expressing itself in hallucinations. 

“I was so sure.” she sat and held her face in her hands, feeling the heat suffuse her body again now that John had repaired the tear in her suit. 

“Sometimes our mind plays tricks on us,” John said and stood up, “don’t let it get to you.” 

Leela wondered if she had heard pity in John’s voice or if that was just another hallucination. With a sigh she rose from the pew and joined the others.

Lost in Translation

The terminal, though interesting, was a dead end. The information contained in the message they had read contained no clues to further information and the terminal contained nothing else of interest. But John had an idea; the message must have come from somewhere and so it stood to reason that the terminal was connected to a network. Tycho searched deep inside the terminal and found just such a network, but it was badly damaged, frayed by time and neglect. There were other terminals still connected but they were scattered far and wide throughout the planetoid. At the end of the network was a node that Tycho could only describe as ‘shiny and dangerous’. It was tagged Gellon-01. There was no method of remote interaction with the Gellon-01 node.

At John’s suggestion they travelled to the nearest functional terminal, a couple levels down. Leela’s mind wandered as they walked through the icy tunnels. The sight of the Last City under attack by the W’rkcacnter weighed on her mind and she wondered about the fates of her friends in the aftermath, even if, as John had said, they had left that timeline behind. Was she a stranger to this world, now that she came from somewhen else? She had a sense that she was the Leela of this time, that there was no doppelganger of her out there, but even so she would not be able to account for the differences between herself and that Leela. If she had gone left instead of right, she had no knowledge of what that had entailed for herself.

“You’ve been quiet.” Tycho said by her side. Their companion was ahead of them, in sight but perhaps out of earshot. 

“I’ve just been thinking.” Leela replied, then admonished herself for being so short with her friend.

“I’ve been thinking about what John said back in the alien rectory,” Leela continued, “about the differences between this time and our time.” 

“The Traveller still went right at Alpha Centauri in this time.” Tycho said with a wink.

Leela smiled. “Ha ha, very funny. I was thinking about us. How were we different here? What have we done? Did we go into that submarine in this time? Was I a Guardian here?”

In the silence that descended, Leela was aware of every grain of ice she crushed with her boots, every sound that echoed down the winding tunnels. 

When Tycho did reply, he spoke slowly, taking great care wth each word. “I don’t know the answer, Leela, but I know one thing for sure. In this time, in any time, you are still my Lightbearer. Nothing will change that.” 

Leela caressed Tycho’s shell. “Thank you, Tycho.” 

A moment later they joined John Smith standing by the edge of an icy cliff. Below the sheer drop was another cavern like the one with the sphere-temple, but this one was in a terrible state. Stress-fractures on the cliff edge, along with the piles of ice-boulders along the bottom, implied that the cavern had sunk at some point in the past, the ice breaking and falling for twenty metres before coming to a standstill. The impact had destroyed the rows and rows of houses that had been built along the edges of the cavern, spilling their contents onto the ground below. A central structure still stood, but barely. A domed roof concealed the interior despite the crack that had split it in two. Lit torches were scattered amongst the piles of rubble, illuminating the cavern floor and reflecting on the cracks and stalagtites in the roof. Leela wondered for a moment who had lit the torches when she saw them; shapes were moving between the rubble-piles. With four arms, stump-like legs and a trunk extending from their face, they resembled the murals and skeletons they had found before venturing into the depths of the planetoid. The mutilated face of the Sikhaan that she had thought attacked her in the temple rose to her mind, but she shook it away. 

“The Sikhaan. They still exist.” Leela said, surprise clear in her voice. Even with the ferals and her stalker, she had been sure they had gone extinct long before her and Tycho’s arrival and that the supplicant crowd of bodies they had found at the generator was the last of them. But here they were, living amongst the ruins of their civilisation. But perhaps they had been truly extinct in that timeline; in this timeline that John Smith had taken them to, the Sikhaan had avoided their fate. 

Tycho spun and whirred with excitement. “Maybe with the translation software we can  convert our speech to their language and talk to them.” 

“Then they can tell us about the generator and this Sacred Gellon,” Leela exclaimed and turned to John, “they can tell us how to contain the creature.” 

It was clear that John did not share their excitement. “That assumes they even know how. Let’s not get too excited before we talk to them.”

“You’re not a very optimistic person, are you, John?” Leela said.

“I am not sure I ever was, no.” As John spoke, Leela had the same sense of incredible age that she had felt in the Last City and she wondered just how old John Smith was. 

The ice cliff was treacherous but the patterns of the break had enough handholds, kept pristine by the frigid temperatures, that they could use for their descent. The way down was uneventful, and at times Leela would pause and look at the ground below them where some of the Sikhaan were gathering to observe the strangers. When they set foot on the cavern floor they found themselves surrounded by the alien creatures who were looking at them with what Leela hoped was curiosity rather than menace. They looked just like the skeleton they had found in the tunnels of their first visit; four arms arranged in pairs, ungainly legs and a trunk in the middle of a four-eyed face. Thinking back to that skeleton, they were bulkier than she had imagined and fur covered their bodies where their ragged clothes did not. Amongst the crowd were smaller members, presumably children, that the adults huddled around against the strange visitors. Some of the aliens held rocks but they were kept apathetically by their side and seemed more like tools than weapons. Their language sounded surprisingly simple; a series of barks at different pitches, tones and volumes and every Sikhaan in sight was calling out to the others, resulting in a cacophony of noise filling the cavern.

“Hello, sorry to intrude.” Leela said without thinking, her human language incomprehensible to the aliens. 

“It will take me a little longer to configure the translator.” Tycho chipped in, floating at Leela’s side. 

“That’s fine, they don’t appear hostile, just curious.” Leela said.

From the bottom of the cavern, the domed structure loomed over them, dominating the horizon and it seemed to Leela that the menace that she had felt so often throughout the planetoid was lessened here under the shadow of the damaged structure. Perhaps that was why the aliens had congregated here, seeking shelter from the ice-quakes to a place where they felt safe. With a rush of excitement, Leela thought that this was perhaps the first encounter between a human and an alien race that was not hostile. Since the arrival of the Traveller, humanity had met other forms of intelligent life, but they had invariably been hostile to humanity, if not all life. The Fallen, the Vex, the Cabal and the Hive. None cared for humanity and most cared for no one. She hoped the Sikhaan would be different, even if they clearly would never be as much of a factor in Sol as the invading races. 

One of the closest Sikhaan, a long-limbed creature with a colourful string around its trunk, barked louder than its fellows and they ceased their own barking in turn. Discarding its rock, the Sikhaan locked eyes with Leela and approached her, its claws clasped in front of it and the cupped limbs at its side in a gesture that seemed perfectly benign to Leela.

“Hello, how do you do.” Leela said and held out her hand as if to shake, to which the Sikhaan reached forwards with its cups to examine her hands, the cup-like limb gently probing the skin of her suit. Leela fought off her impulse to pull away and let the alien continue, though she privately wondered how far she would let it.

As the lanky Sikhaan examined her with no immediate protest, other Sikhaan picked up their courage and approached as well, until Leela was surrounded by inquisitive aliens. Tycho too was approached, though they quickly lost interest as the Ghost floated above and out of their reach, keeping a watchful eye in case any of the aliens did something openly aggressive. 

“Any progress on that translator, Tycho?” Leela asked as she batted away a roving cup as gently as she could; there were limits to her tolerance. 

“It’s throwing up some errors, but I should have it any moment now.” Tycho said and ascended a foot to escape the hands of one of the Sikhaan.

But the attention of the aliens shifted as a shrill bark rang out behind Leela and the Sikhaan around her barked in response before moving away. The reason was immediately obvious. A Sikhaan, half a head taller than any other she had seen, had approached John Smith just like its fellows had approached Leela, but where Leela had allowed them, John had attacked the creature. It was still alive but rolling on the ground cradling one of its limbs. Before Leela could respond, more of the Sikhaan approached John and their stricken fellow. The man retaliated with force and in moments there were several more Sikhaan on the ground, some unconscious or possibly dead, their blood spattered on John’s arms and faceplate. The barks of the remaining Sikhaan filled the cavern as they fled, running away from the danger that had invaded their home, abandoning their fellows where they lay. 

Leela wanted to say something, to reproach him, but she could not find the words. So she stared at the bloody scene in silent horror as he walked past her towards the domed structure in the distance without a word. 

“What happened?” Tycho said finally. During John’s outburst, the Ghost had darted to Leela’s side, just as much for Leela’s reassurance as his own. 

“I don’t think he meant ill, he’s just,” Leela said, not knowing where it came from nor where it was going, “we have to tell them, then see if we can help somehow.”

Tycho flashed green for a moment. “The translator is ready. Let’s.”

Leela looked at John in the distance for a moment before turning to look for the Sikhaan. The alien survivors were nowhere to be seen, but she could hear them. Here and there the frigid silence of the cavern was broken by the barks of their language and she made for the closest of such gatherings. The piles of rubble filled the cavern floor but as she moved further from the cliff edge, she began to notice a difference. Scraps of fabric stretched over poles and fallen rubble made for rough dwellings for the Sikhaan survivors, and in some places they had managed to stack the rubble in such a way that it supported itself. A crater crushed into the ice had been covered with an ancient tarp and was a crude storage, containing tool-rocks both rough and hewn. When she found a group of the aliens they cowered away from her, clustering in the corners of their shelter, the larger ones sheltering their younglings with their bodies. Tool-rocks lay on the ground, but none of the Sikhaan even considered using them for defence. 

Leela took a step back and knelt down so that she would appear as non-threatening as possible. “Please, I mean you no harm.” 

Green light shone from Tycho’s shell as the revised translator repeated her words in the language of the Sikhaan. But the words did not sound like the barks of the survivors. It was elegant and succint, communicating Leela’s entreaty in only a few syllables. Leela looked at Tycho.

Tycho clearly shared Leela’s doubts. “I was sure I configured it correctly.”

The Sikhaan remained huddled, fear evident in their expressions as clearly as if she was talking to fellow humans. 

“My friend was just startled, but he’s gone now, there’s no danger,” Leela said as she searched their faces for any recognition or understanding, “It’s safe to come out. Please, I want to help you.” 

Tycho repeated the phrase, but the creatures she had considered the Sikhaan showed no understanding. They cowered from her and clung to each other, barking at them in their way that the software failed to translate. As the Sikhaan language flowed from Tycho and echoed through the cavern, Leela felt a deep sadness. The creatures before her could never construct the beautiful transit hall, the palace in the depths nor the domed temples. Their bodies might have survived, evolved to suit the harsh conditions of their own post-Collapse, but the Sikhaan as a culture and a people were gone. 

She nudged Tycho and motioned for him to follow before going after John. Far behind her, a gaggle of the Sikhaan descendants were picking up the bodies of their fallen. It struck her that perhaps more of the rubble-piles were being utilised than she thought and served as gravesites for their dead. A final act of civilization from a fallen race.

She found John Smith standing by the double-doors leading into the domed structure. As she watched, the cyborg pushed on one of the doors. It resisted for a moment until the ice covering the hinge shattered and it opened with creaks of protest. A clattering followed as a Sikhaan-skeleton tumbled out of the interior to land at John’s feet. Leela fought a bout of déjà-vu.

“You didn’t need to hurt them.” Leela said, but the realisation of the Sikhaan’s decline had hit her hard, and she could not summon any real reproach. 

“In my travels,” John started after a moment, “I have been alone. I was not always without allies but when a timeline outran its usefulness, in the next attempt those same allies could just as well be enemies. I was constantly on guard, never truly knowing who I could trust, if anyone. It wears on you.”

Leela kept her silence, wondering if he was after her sympathy or simply thinking out loud. 

John knelt and picked up the skull of the Sikhaan skeleton. “In the moment, my reflexes took over. I couldn’t stop myself.”
“Killing is all I know.” he said and put the skull back before walking through the doors and into the structure. 

Leela and Tycho exchanged a glance and followed him, careful not to disturb the skeleton. Maybe once they left, the survivors would come for the skeleton and hopefully recognise it as one of their own. 

Past the doors they found a space lit only through the crack in the domed ceiling and by the lights they had brought. Rows of seats, much like the ones in the transit hall, were visible in the gloom and arranged in a semi-circle around a raised podium that held some form of pedestal that had been broken by fragments from the domed ceiling. 

“The terminal should be here somewhere.” Tycho said, keeping close to Leela’s side and away from John. His searchlight was painfully bright in the gloomy space.

Behind the podium was a structure built of some blue material that Leela had initially mistaken for more ice. It reminded her of the alien rectory they had found earlier, but this one was larger and more official in appearance. How she had come to that conclusion about an alien building style, she could not say. They entered through a set of doors on one side of the podium while keeping alert for any ambushes. John had stowed his revolver, but Leela found that she gripped her pistol tightly, either anxious about the possibility of ambush or the presence of John. It was only with effort that she released her grip. Even if Tycho could bring her back from the dead, she could not help but wonder if John could be a threat even to a Ghost.

“Could you talk to them?” 

It took Leela a moment to realise it was John that had spoken, so focused had she been on her thoughts. Maybe it was her nervousness and the gloom around them, but he sounded sorrowful. 

“We tried, but,” Leela said and forced herself to look John in the eye, “I don’t think they understood. They’re not the same Sikhaan that built these structures, nor the same Sikhaan that maintained the barrier generator down in the depths.”

“It is very possible that the translator was configured incorrectly.” Tycho said, but it was clear that he did not believe it himself.

John nodded and looked away, focusing on some machine only half-visible in the gloom. “Still, they did not deserve what I did to them. I would apologise, but it seems that would be impossible.”

“I tried to analyse the barks,” Tycho said after a long silence, “but the software didn’t take.”

“If it’s not a language, there’s nothing to translate.” Leela said, thinking out loud but accepting it as truth. 

The interior of the blue-stone structure reminded Leela of the abandoned office buildings she had seen in her explorations on Earth, with obvious differences due to the difference in builders. In a corner she even found a device that had stored water in a tank above a spout, but in the frigid temperatures of the abandoned planetoid the water-tank was frozen solid. Terminals, presumably for work, were scattered about the alien office but all of them refused to turn on, even the ones connected to the network that Tycho had found. Behind a tattered drape Leela found a secluded office that contained a working table, a shrine like the ones in the dwelling and a spherical terminal embedded into the wall. This one surrendered to Tycho’s touch and as the terminal’s screen lit up, the lights overhead turned one with an audible click that continued out into the rest of the office and the space beyond. Artificial light flooded them until they could readjust and assess the contents of the terminal.

From:/: Greater Heart, Mil’Na

To:/: Archival Scholars

Subject:/: Ra’Sikhaan Cult Information Aggregation

Greater Heart extends Greetings.

Mil’Na wishes to Commission the Services of the Archival Scholars for a Matter that puts the Greater Heart at unease. 

Greater Heart is aware of Activities of a Cult in Veneration of the Ra’Sikhaan, and Greater Heart wishes for the Archival Scholars to Compile all Information contained in the Archives that pertains to any Activities related to the Ra’Sikhaan Cult.

Reply:/: Archival Scholar 05, Hib’Snit

Archival Scholat 05, Hib’Snit, returns Greetings.

Here is the Information Compilation as requested by Greater Heart.

Attachment:/: Ra’Si%#¤anCultCo/#¤d.%”==

:/:End of Log:/:

“No dice,” Tycho said with frustration, “the attached file is horribly corrupted.”

“Ra’Sikhaan?,” Leela said “was that like a second race or something?” 

“I can’t speak for Tycho,” John said and pointed at the symbol for Ra’Sikhaan, “but my translator calls that ‘trunkless’.” 

She remembered the mutilated features of her stalker, but Leela did not know what to do with that information for the moment.

“Hold on,” Tycho said and interfaced with the terminal again, “there’s another message from this Mil’Na character.”

From:/: Greater Heart, Mil’Na

To:/: Central Administration

Subject:/: Inquiry into the Status and Relocation of Stellar Sling Device

The Greater Heart extends Greetings.

Mil’Na wishes to inquire about the status of the Stellar Sling device and its storage conditions. Movements in the Depths have caused great worry to Scholars of the Palace and Mil’Na Wishes to ensure that the device can be Utilised as the Sikhaan were instructed to carry out by the Great Arro.

Reply:/: Central Administration

Central Administration, Lonhub’Ard, returns Greetings.

First of Topics, Central Administration requests that Greater Heart Mil’Na observes the name Rallot for the Stellar Sling Device, as laid down in Described History. 

Second of Topics, Central Administration 03 retains 10 Maintenance Experts to ensure Rallot (Stellar Sling Device) integrity and cleaning of Rallot Storage Facility is a Mandatory Duty on rotation in Level 03. 4 Cyclic Generators supply Rallot with Power around the cycle. Level 03 has ensured that Rallot is ready to be deployed as laid down by the Great Arro and Described History.

Reply:/: Greater Heart Mil’Na

Greater Heart, Mil’Na, returns Greetings.

The Palace is glad to hear of Level 03’s efforts to maintain Stellar Sling Device integrity. The Palace made a wise decision to entrust the Task to Level 03. 

In 2 cycles a Transport Sled will arrive at Level 03 to Relocate the Stellar Sling Device to a new Storage Facility in Level 02B. Inquire of the 10 Maintenance Experts if any wish to Continue their work on Maintenance of Stellar Sling Device integrity and return to Greater Heart with the Information so that Burden of Relocation can be lessened. 

Attachment:/: LevelO2Brallot.gpsd

Reply:/: Central Administration

Central Administration, Lonhub’Ard

Central Administration 03 finds this decision greatly frustrating.

:/:End of Log:/: 

Leela chuckled at the final reply. She found the Sikhaan style of communication quite stiff and repetitive, but the final message felt almost human. 

“The Stellar Sling Device. What is that?” Tycho said and began scanning the terminal.

“Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it,” Leela said and turned to John when inspiration struck, “John, did you not say that the first of these creatures you encountered had been contained within a star?“ She avoided using the name of the creature that she had loosed from the depths; even saying the name felt risky, like it might draw its attention to her.

John’s faceplate obscured his expression, but his interest was clear just from his bearing. “Just so, Leela. We had no concrete evidence of how it was placed there, but it escaped when the star was destroyed.” 

“How do you destroy a star?” Tycho asked.

“An alien fleet had a missile that forced it to go nova.” John replied, then turned back to Leela.

“I would be very interested in finding this Device that they speak of.” John said while Tycho reeled with the answer he had been given.

Leela pointed at a part of the log without touching the screen. “According to this, it was stored here before it was transferred. Perhaps we can find some information about the device or its new location there?” 

“Hold on,” Tycho said and hovered close to the screen, “there’s a file attached to the message. It looks like positional data, like a GPS.”

“Is it enough for a transmat?” Leela asked with more hope than expectation. 

“Hard to say, it’s formatted unlike anything else I’ve seen in Sol. Let me take a look.” With that, Tycho began scanning the terminal, working over the data in the message as quickly as he dared.

As she looked away from her Ghost, Leela saw John standing by a door in the back of the alien office space. A glint of Tycho’s scanner-light played on his faceplate, but he did not seem to notice, absorbed in something only he could see. With the briefest of glances at Leela he stepped through the door. She looked at Tycho to see him absorbed in the data, then followed John. Ahead of her she could see John push a curtain aside and step past, eliciting a cacophony from the room beyond. As Leela followed, she realised that they were barks, the primitive language of the Sikhaan descendants. Beyond the curtain was a space that could have held several Cabal tanks and left room to spare, with a ramp both below her and in the far wall. Leela had no evidence for her suspicion, but it seemed to her that this was the storage area mentioned in the message, the one the Level had been maintaining to keep the mysterious device. Whatever purpose the hall had had in the past, it was now a shelter for the Sikhaan. They lived in piles of scavenged padding and fur, erecting crude tents out of salvaged fabric. Why some lived in here and some lived out in the cavern, she could not say. At John’s appearance the denizens of the hall had panicked and were now scrambling to get to the back of the room, though they stayed away from the ramp. Hundreds of Sikhaan rushed to get as much distance from the dangerous cyborg as they could, their barking filling the space. John continued walking without a word, fists at his side. 

“John, let’s leave them be.” Leela said as calmly as she could, but she could feel her anxiety growing. She did not want a repeat of what had happened at the cliff-edge.

John kept walking regardless and was now descending the stairs towards the floor. The barking of the Sikhaan was deafening and they were clambering over each other to stay away. Even so, the ramp into the depths was avoided. 

“John, they’re no danger to us or to anyone,” Leela continued and put her hands over her ears against the cacophony, “let’s leave them be.” 

John glanced at her but kept walking. Should she stop him? If so, how? Her hand went to the pistol on her hip, but the thought of fighting John scared her more than any Hive or Cabal. The man was clearly dangerous, especially with his mysterious powers. 

The Sikhaan barked and stumbled away from him and his approach parted the crowd, leaving a bare stretch of floor from the man to a plinth that stood raised from the floor. The crowd of aliens had been so dense that Leela had not seen it at first. John strode past the Sikhaan and raised an object from the plinth, ignoring the aliens that pushed away from him, desperate to be away. Leela approached, mindful to keep her hand away from her pistol. The object was a tablet on which symbols had been inscribed that were not Sikhaan in origin. Leela could not tell what they were, but they were clearly and fundamentally different from the symbols they had found around the icy planetoid. 

“What is it?” Leela asked and walked to John’s side, curiosity winning over anxiety for the moment. 

John held the tablet like it was a holy relic, with such care as she could never have expected from him. He was silent for a long moment before replying, and when he did speak his voice was subdued. “I do not know what it says, but I recognise the language of the symbols.”

John looked from the tablet to Leela, and even through the faceplate she could see the awe on his features. “It’s Jjaro. The tablet is from Jjaro.” 

“I’m sorry John, I don’t know what that is.” Leela said.

John seemed to compose himself as he placed the tablet back onto the plinth. “Among other things, the Jjaro are enemies of the W’rkcacnter, the only ones that have had any success in fighting them.”

“Wherever I found W’rkcacnter, the only solutions I found to their presence were tied to the Jjaro, without exception.” he said. “I would imagine that the barrier generator that contained the W’rkcacnter in the first place was of Jjaro origin as well.” 

Leela looked at the tablet. The symbols on it were meaningless to her, but if they could help them stop that awful creature and save the City, then they needed to know what it said. “I’ll call Tycho.” 

There was a barking sound and Leela felt a rush of air as a Sikhaan ran past her. With its four arms it pushed at John and reached for the tablet on the plinth. Leela gasped and reached for her pistol. 

The alien was pushing with all its strength but John had not moved an inch. The Sikhaan barked at him and made to run away with the tablet in hand, but before it could take a step, John gripped it by the shoulder and wrenched, keeping the alien in place. It barked in pain, but did not drop the tablet. It tried again to push at John, but it made no difference. 

“John, there’s no need to hurt it.” Leela said, hoping to de-escalate the situation. She had drawn her pistol without truly knowing how she meant to use it. Was it to protect herself?

John glanced at her then back to the alien. With remorseless strength he forced the Sikhaan to its knees until he could pluck the tablet from its hands like candy from a baby. The alien barked with pain and frustration, but nothing it did could phase the cyborg. With a final shove John forced the alien away and it tumbled to the floor. It glared at him with pain and frustration before scrambling to its feet and running to rejoin the other Sikhaan huddling in the corners of the room. John held the tablet in his hands until Tycho floated into the chamber. By that point the Sikhaan had fallen into a frightened silence, nursing the brave one that had charged John and escaped with its life. 

“Tycho, we need that tablet translated.” Leela said and pointed at the tablet in John’s hand, aware that John could have killed that Sikhaan several times and must have chosen not to. 

“Not here,” John interjected and held up the tablet for Tycho’s scanner, “Just scan what you need and we’ll do it away from here.” 

Leela and Tycho exchanged a look until she nodded in the direction of the tablet. “Let’s get out of here, Tycho.”