Relics of War Outline
The story opens with aven xenologist Vexan Asterian on an expedition to the planet Polganos as part of a research team to investigate a ruined city there. The native Polganite species once had a civilization with technology similar to late-twentieth-century Terra, but destroyed it in a global thermonuclear war seven centuries ago. Though the system has since been connected to the Starweb, most of the inhabitants eschew advanced technology and live in isolationist primitivism.
The research mission, led by Quassep professor Helia, is investigating a ruined city in a desert near the equator, partially destroyed by a nuclear weapon during the war. It has remained untouched ever since, after industrial carbon dioxide emissions caused so much global warming the equator was rendered lethally hot. (The team must wear suits with reflective coating and refrigeration units to remain cool.) Excavating an ancient storefront, Vexan and lupen graduate scholar Lenka Rogers discover the entrance to an underground subway system when the former falls through a hole in the ground. Exploring the tunnels, they find a well-preserved train station with a mysterious red light glowing over a ladder hatch in a maintenance hallway--puzzling since the Polganite Forerunners derived virtually all their energy from fossil fuels and had no long-term power sources.
Artym Bondarenko, who studies the nation which once ruled the city, conducts a scan and finds a second subway system buried beneath the first. Likely a secret network meant to evacuate government officials in the event of a war, it features two tunnels running between state buildings and the ruined airport, as well as a large subterranean void which the team suspects is a hidden bunker. Accessing the tunnels through the shaft, Artym, Vexan, and Lenka find a gallery with an old subway train and blast door to the bunker. Disassembling the locking mechanism and wrenching the door open, the three of them enter the bunker to find a large open atrium with upper floors lining both sides, as well as a hydroelectric generator drawing water from a pump--still running after 700 years and providing power to the light they saw before.
Investigating further, they make a grisly discovery: numerous Polganites, apparently killed by gunfire in massacres. It becomes evident this was not a military intelligence site or a shelter for government VIPs, but something else entirely. The truth is revealed when they find a room full of chemistry equipment and vials of blue liquid marked as "Substance 63". A biological weapon of some kind, it was the intended product of the hidden bunker. Artym is exposed to it when he falls and cuts his suit on broken glass. Contacting Professor Helia about their disturbing find, Vexan and Lenka evacuate the facility with Artym, who begins to show signs of illness. Helia notifies the Star Patrol to dispatch a rescue mission from a ground base on the other side of the planet, but Artym grows sicker and Vexan and Lenka realize it will be difficult to get him out of the tunnels. Furthermore, since the pathogen was able to jump the biosphere barrier and infect Artym, they realize they may be vulnerable as well--avens were engineered from humans, and lupens are uplifts using some human DNA.
Vexan proposes using the ancient subway train by the bunker door to reach the airport at the other end of the tunnel. Lenka is incredulous but Artym suggests it may work, the generator is also powering the tracks. They climb aboard, Vexan powers up the train and finds it still works. He takes the controls and accelerates down the tunnel, calling Helia and telling her to have the rescue team meet them at the airport. While the subway successfully propels them there, the brakes fail at the intended stop and they are forced to jump from the train before it crashes into a wall. Power armored Star Patrol marines and medics meet them and whisk Artym to a waiting dropship. Vexan concludes by remarking he wants to do something with more hope in it than digging through the ruins of a destroyed civilization.
Relations
Protagonists
- Vexan Asterian: Narrator, an undergraduate aven xenologist.
- Lenka Rogers: A lupen from the American world Gadsden. Displays some knowledge of medicine and xenobiology when they encounter the Polganite bioweapon.
- Artym Bondarenko: Human graduate scholar studying the Polganite Sun Empire, which once ruled the ruined city they investigate.
- Professor Helia: Quassep professor for a university on Queen Elizabeth's World, she leads the expedition to Polganos.
SPOILERS
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the short story "Relics of War"!
Plot type
Short Story
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