Shadows of the Keepers: Chapter 30
The Iron Mountain
The Rogue’s Galley flew over a sea of desert dunes, part of a vast expanse north of the Arztillan Empire where Meridian’s climate dynamics and ocean coverage conspired to create a dry zone. On its other side was the Iron Mountain, hidden away from the prying eyes of Keeper test subjects. Selva told Captain Prex to keep his ship low, lest some ancient defense system spot them above the horizon.
“Anything more you can tell me about what’s keeping people out?” asked Selva.
Prex shook his head. “It is one of those things where few who find out live to tell.” He squinted, peering out the bow windows. “There! The wreck of Old Man Tertius’ ship! He led a voyage here, which never returned!”
Sure enough, up ahead lay the skeleton of a vacuum airship half-buried by sand.
“All stop!” Selva shouted. The helmsman heeded her word after a nod from Prex. “Clearly the defense system begins its range around here, we should not proceed further without a way around it.”
“How? Starman weapons?”
“These airships were built by the Keepers,” Felden said. “Stands to reason they’ve got some kind of identification system, a way to turn it off.”
“My thinking exactly,” replied Selva. “We just have to hope there’s still one on this ship, or down in that wreck.”
“The main computer is under here.” Felden walked over to the control console beside the steering wheel, prodded a cover below it with his foot.
“May I?” Selva looked to Prex, who nodded again. She connected a computer tablet with cables and began accessing systems. “This confirms my suspicions—at some point during their fall, the Keepers sent out a signal which put all their technology in a restricted mode, likely a measure to hamper your using it against them.”
Eric asked, “Then why does the volor still work?”
“A lot of it doesn’t: navigation, radio, cabin pressurization. This way a Keeper in need could still use it, but to the natives it remained opaque. Probably took your ancestors years to learn how to fly them.”
“Aye.” Prex nodded. “My family comes from a long line of air-sailors, before I left Arztillan service after Caesar declared the Panarchy.”
“I’d been wondering how you got this ship. Alright, I think I’ve found the identifier system. There’s an access code, I’ve set it to broadcast. Take us ahead, slowly.”
Windswept sand dunes crept past below, until giving way to a mountain range on the horizon. In the middle a silver structure, clearly artificial, rose to a point. Eric looked as they approached—it was a giant pyramid of metal and diamondoid windows. A landing platform protruded from the side about halfway up, the volor swung around and set down with a thump. The stern had a wooden ramp below the great cabin, they disembarked on a circular pad at the end of a weathered causeway.
“Looks like this place was an arcology, or an industrial facility,” Zandra said.
“Probably both,” Selva added. The causeway, thankfully flanked by high railings, ended in a set of large double-doors, closed tight. Selva opened them with her tablet, a wave of stale air rushed out.
“All right, lads!” the first mate shouted. “Get in there and grab your pickings, it ain't gonna loot itself!”
A throng of pirates scrambled inside, swords and burlap loot sacks in hand. Eric lamented the disturbance of such a historic site, Zandra uttered an aven word that probably translated to “Barbarians.”
Selva said, “Come on. Let’s at least try to find a working computer.”
The hallways inside were high, metal walls indicating this place was built before Meridian had much of an ecology from which to get wood. Portions of the hallways featured floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on interior parks and common areas, the plants inside dead. Cobb paused at one. “There were children here.”
Through the window, Eric saw a playground with brightly-colored toys, and a room further beyond that might be part of a school. With the lights off and the building sealed against weathering, it was as if the occupants had just stepped out for a break.
“Any ideas?” Selva said to Kadelius. “Myths that mention the Keepers creating your ancestors somewhere else before bringing them to your homelands?”
He pondered. “Perhaps this is where they first taught our ancestors to serve them, before Arztillus freed us?”
On one wall was a touchscreen panel which still seemed to work. Selva examined it. “The facility’s in low-power mode, running off solar collectors only.” She brought up a cutaway diagram of the pyramidal structure.
“Let’s try there, the Forge level.” Zandra pointed to a large open space in the lower section.
An elevator took them down to a vast workspace with sunlight shining through the slits of multi-story windows. The air smelled warm and stale. A causeway ran the length of the atrium-like space, an industrial area with various pieces of automated machinery lying dormant on the factory floor below. Tucked away in a corner, Eric spotted a volor as big as the Rogue’s Galley. Somewhere in the distance sounded a crash and a bang, Eric gripped his stunner until he saw it was a group of pirates filling their bags.
Further down the causeway, up on a raised platform, sat a semicircular computer console. Its sloping black surface bore a thin layer of dust, green text glowing beneath:
MERIDIAN PROJECT – HEILBRONER STATION
T+ 12038641112.579
The figure rolled upwards by one full number each second. Selva brushed with her sleeve, the screen lit up and displayed a desktop with open windows. Zandra rolled out a chair, tapped another screen.
“See what you can find.” Selva took out a tablet and cable. “I’ll try interfacing my cybernetic systems.”
“Lots of Keeper documents.” Zandra tapped at a touchscreen keyboard. “Papers about ‘Geologically Stable Civilizations’.”
Selva seemed to enter a trance, holding the tablet now plugged into the computer. “I can see the replicator ships. It’s a backup plan to keep people out, in case interstellar civilization didn’t collapse like the Keepers expected. The stargate’s been destroyed.”
Eric’s gut churned. Did all the ships in Meridian’s solar system make it out in time? How long would he be stuck here on this awful planet?
Cobb asked, “When do you think they’ll open another one?”
Felden shrugged. “Might take a few months to get a tender ship in position on the other end, then more time in our reference frame for the wormhole to reach us. They’ll hurry, though—don’t want to leave a nest alone to replicate for long.”
The screens went blank. Around the computer platform, a wireframe of blue hexagons formed and a glassy black dome of smart matter began to flow up. Sir Wotoc drew his katana, Selva put out a hand to hold him back. The dome’s inside and the floor now became display surfaces, initializing with a brilliant white light which surrounded the occupants. A scene began to render.
Eric blinked and found himself standing on a stony path with a railing, beside a river. Across it was an old industrial city: glass-and-concrete-clad skyscrapers, ground-cars passing by on roads. A haze of smog hung over the whole scene.
“I’ve been expecting you.” A voice said from behind. Eric turned and saw the old crone from Caesar’s platform in the Bellodrome—the one Selva had tagged as a Keeper. She’d been right.
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