Forbidden sanctuary, p.4
Forbidden Sanctuary, page 4
part #2 of Star Lawyers Series
“Jazmir’s my guide,” Julieta said. “He commands this unit.”
“Unit of what?” Tyler said.
“The Suryadivan Resistance,” Jazmir said. “We have sworn to end the horror of the Hunts.”
“Meaning no disrespect,” Tyler said, “but why is this religious ritual so important to you, Julieta, that you’d risk all our lives by luring us here.”
Julieta glanced at Jazmir. “Sorry. They don’t know yet.”
“They should meet Father Yajik,” Jazmir said.
“Yes.” Julieta turned to the forest and uttered a high-pitched, warbling song.
The underbrush trembled, and a large creature emerged. It had two trunks like a freakish elephant, but it was too slender and lacked the large ears of a terrestrial pachyderm. Its body resembled an American bison, except the skin was hairless and thick as a rhino’s hide. Four strong legs propelled the beast, and Tyler was certain the fellow could run hard and long even against the heat and heavy gravity of Adao-2. His eyes were clear blue, an odd contrast in an otherwise moose-brown coloration. He deftly pushed saplings and branches aside with his twin trunks, giving this organism the manual dexterity of any species with an opposing thumb.
“I sense your apprehension, dear ones,” he said. “My species are peaceful herbivores. You are predatory omnivores. Shall I fear you?”
“We’re harmless.” Tyler smiled, and then forced his mouth to straighten, worried a show of teeth might send the wrong message.
“Harmless, you say?” The big creature swayed left and right, apparently checking out Rosalie’s handiwork.
“They were bad men,” Tyler said.
“Good or bad, death brings death.”
“You got me there, big fella.” Tyler smiled slightly, hoping the gesture was universal. “We mean you no harm.” He introduced the members of his Recon Team.
“You are family to dear Julieta? You must be compassionate souls,” he said. “My people call me Yajik Kabor. May I bless you?”
Tyler looked at J.B., who shrugged.
Rosalie stepped forward eagerly. “Please!” She dropped to her knees on the dry leaves.
“Bless them all, Father of Life.” Julieta glanced at Tyler. “It’s what his name means in their language.”
Following Rosalie’s lead, Tyler, J.B., and Yumiko knelt before the big twin-trunks, and Yajik patted each of them with a snout. The anointing touch left a thin, wet residue on the top of their heads, which Tyler took as some kind of sacred snot. And he’d often thought eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ was nasty! Catholics weren’t normally supposed to accept spiritual succor from unbelievers, but Yumiko was Buddhist and that invoked the “interfaith fellowship” clause in the rules for Christian worship, so he figured it was okay.
As a young priest had told him, “Nowadays, we do what we want, and call it rediscovered Catholic doctrine.”
As he rose from the dirt, Tyler felt like he’d tossed off a heavy pack, like his body was lighter, the thick air easier to breathe. J.B. flexed his bandaged hand and peeled back the dressing. His thumb was whole and scar free, as if the amputation never happened.
Even Yumiko momentarily lost her composure. She examined at her hands as if seeing them for the first time.
“From childhood, always pain,” she said. “Now, pain gone.”
On Sedalia, Yumiko acknowledged that her hands hurt continuously from a childhood accident. Instead of drug therapy or infusion of painkilling nanites, both ineffectual, she took refuge in the Buddha. Now a daub of mucus and her life-long ache disappeared. How was that possible? Tyler frowned at the undeniable proof, trying to decipher the miracle logically.
“Father Yajik has healing ability,” Julieta answered Tyler’s unspoken question. “Not magic. Organic chemistry.”
“All Zyn-Vorkan have this gift,” Jazmir said. “That is why my people torture them.”
“I don’t understand,” Tyler said. If Yajik can heal—could this be the magic potion Esteban mentioned? Was it the real reason for all the secrecy about the “sacred” hunt?
“We can’t stay here,” Julieta said. “We’ll brief you when we reach shelter.”
With no choice but to accept that a forest full of hostiles and hunters wasn’t the place to find answers to all his questions, Tyler gestured toward Rosalie’s battlefield. “What about the bodies?” He still had difficulty comprehending his sister was responsible for the carnage.
“We can’t bury them,” J.B. said. “Pilgrims or pirates, someone will find the fresh graves."
“Well, that kiboshes Little Sister’s plan to feed the scavengers.” Tyler avoided Rosalie’s icy smirk and looked to Yajik. “What would your species do?”
The hairless creature offered a wistful smile. “We wouldn’t have killed them in the first place,” Yajik said. “I shall await you at the citadel.” His elephantine figure faded into dark blue trees. Jazmir and other hooded Suryadivans followed the Father of Life, leaving the humans to their grisly chores. Chanting in the distance filled the silence after Yajik disappeared.
“Hunters are nearby,” Julieta said. “Let’s dispose of the bodies.”
“Cremation,” Rosalie said.
“Won’t the smoke attract more attention?” Tyler said.
“No smoke in the furnace of a star.” Rosalie found the discarded Karvin and charged it for disintegration temperatures.
“Good. Destroy the forensics,” Julieta said.
“Full setting.” J.B. dialed his sidearm past kinetic to max thermal.
“This is so wrong,” Tyler said. “We’re officers of the court.”
“Sweetie, there is no court of law on Adao-2,” Julieta said. “You probably won’t get disbarred.”
“I can’t believe it,” Tyler said. “I’m the voice of morality here?”
“Pile the bastardos on the old campfire,” Rosalie said.
“Do not forget akunin I kill,” Yumiko said.
J.B. accompanied Yumi-san into the woods and returned with a limp form in a bloody robe. Officer Matsuda’s killing blow sliced the hapless bandit, collarbone to sternum, and cleaved the heart asunder. J.B. sprinkled dirt and dry leaves over bloodstains on the soil and foliage. When the last body lay within the circle of stones and old ash, Tyler called for Rosalie to hold her fire for a minute.
“If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right,” Tyler said. “Get their weapons, face masks, and robes. They may come in handy.”
When they had gathered the items, J.B. said it wasn’t right to send them off without prayer.
Tyler threw up his hands. “Make it quick. That predatory Gregorian chorus is getting louder.”
J.B. made the sign of the cross over the pile of bodies. “Into your hands, O Lord, we entrust these—”
Tyler opened fire. Rosalie and Julieta joined him.
J.B. said softly, “Father, forgive us, for we know exactly what we’re doing…” He added his thermal blaster to cremation duties.
The Karvin Eliminator on max thermal was hell on a stick. With hand blasters to supplement Rosalie’s searing heat—hotter than the surface of Adao’s orange sun—they took only a few seconds to reduce seven bodies to gray dust that mingled with the ashes of old campfires. When the blaze cooled, Rosalie and Julieta spit twice on the ash heap and chanted in unison from a language Tyler didn’t recognize. A curse ritual? Brutally honest. It was the funeral they had earned.
“We should go,” Julieta said. “I’m worried for Father Yajik’s safety.”
“Just a second.” Rosalie whistled, and a young golden eagle fell from a nearby treetop to land gracefully at Rosalie’s feet. “Good girl. You were ready to swoop into those bad men, weren’t you? Want to be a kitty, or something else?”
The shape-shifter morphed into a sleek leopard, dark as the night, with a blue-green sheen. Lucy glided over to Julieta, sniffed the back of her hand, and disappeared into the forest.
Julieta smiled. “Your strategic reserves?”
“We have stories to trade,” Rosalie said.
They started down the mountain in the bright afternoon sunlight toward complex of Sacred Hunt temples jutting skyward from the lake below. No refuge awaited under those spires; Yajik’s citadel must lie elsewhere. But Tyler’s body felt refreshed, energized. And he had questions he wanted answered. He hurried after his sister and cousin, who laughed and chatted in alien tongues. J.B. matched his pace.
“So, Prima, you killed the Dengathi mercenaries?” Tyler said when they caught up with the women.
“No,” Julieta said.
Rosalie raised a hand. “That would be me.”
“You were sick in your bunk,” J.B. said. “Dorla saw you.”
Tyler looked into the deep woods. “Wait—Lucy! She became you?”
Rosalie nodded. “Lucy was my decoy, Julieta my lookout.”
J.B. glared at Julieta. “You let her attack those mercenaries alone?”
She laughed playfully. “Barry, calm down. Rosie wanted to whack them personally.”
Rosalie scooped up a stone, tossed it downhill. “Only a dozen Frogs. They weren’t trained.”
“So, Cousin Julieta disables all but one surveillance camera,” Tyler said. “Sends a message in Mindorian, intended for us.”
“Very good,” Julieta said.
Tyler heard a touch of admiration in his cousin’s voice, a feeling he didn’t share about either of them. He scowled at his sister. “Why didn’t you tell us everything back on Suryadivan Prime?”
“Don’t judge me until you hear the whole story,” Rosalie said.
“I’m a lawyer, not a judge,” he said stiffly.
“Good for you,” Rosalie sneered. “Julieta and I clean up the mess when the bandidos are beating the law.”
“Social herbivores need a few predators on call,” Julieta added.
“But—”
“Not now, sweetie.” Julieta patted his shoulder. “We’ll talk tonight.”
Rosalie and Julieta resumed chatting in yet another unrecognizable language, so Tyler slowed his pace and allowed the two lovely dispatchers to distance themselves from the pack. J.B. shrugged, and the brothers ambled downslope in silence. Yumiko—her clean, unsheathed katana in hand—brought up the rear once more.
Tyler leaned to J.B. “What is it with the women in our lives? Our little lady samurai is another killing machine.”
He grunted. “Speaking of women in our lives… I’m sure you’re faithful as Joseph was to Mary, but you better think twice about running around on Suzie.”
Tyler agreed. “I’m a risk-taker, but I ain’t suicidal, Bro.”
With Rosalie’s information about the existence of a Beta Site, Tyler’s view of their mission had changed radically. Now, the brothers were expected to put on a great, loud show in court. Delay the outcome until the backup site came online. They didn’t have to win. They just needed to keep the hunters occupied.
Something about playing decoy duck infuriated him. He wanted the duck to strike first. To show Dad what he could do when turned loose.
Bite, not quack.
Finding Julieta checked a box on his to-do list, but it was only the beginning of their Adaon reconnaissance. They still had to find Lox Aspi in order to have a shot at freeing Esteban. Otherwise, he would have ordered everyone back to the Sioux City and hurried home to Suzie. Somewhere among the trees, Suryadivan hunting patrols were killing a list of birds and ground creatures for tonight’s holy feasts.
Despite Yajik’s reverence for life, Tyler suspected the last blood had not yet spilled. Not if the peaceful Zyn-Vorkans really held the key to health and immortality.
Four
Tyler pictured a high-tech cave awaiting them, or perhaps a fortified building with sophisticated concealment technology, but Julieta led them to an opening in the thick blue trees halfway down the mountain. Under a ring of dark leaves, a half-dozen broken marble columns and a weather-beaten marble platform of a small, ruined temple dominated the clearing. From the look of the smooth edges of steps leading from forest floor to stone porch, no habitable structures had stood on that base for centuries. In the middle was yet another knee-high, spiked pillar.
Julieta climbed the steps and headed for the twirled post. Tyler looked up through the leafy skylight and wondered what the ceremonial center looked like when it boasted a marble dome and religious servants to attend the needs of worshipers.
Tyler’s cousin tapped the spiked pillar with her toe and hopped backward. He was about to ask what was going on when the Cosmos dissolved and he dropped through an event horizon.
Damn. Like falling through a Jump Gate without a ship.
When his eyes and ears cleared, he found himself beside a large replica of the spiked pillar in a plaza surrounded by adobe buildings. Two dark yellow suns dominated the sky, both smaller than Earth’s stellar parent. Hairless humanoids with café au lait complexions ambled across the plaza. About twenty had gathered in an outdoor discussion group, all in sleeveless tunics of assorted colors. These aliens had smaller noses than humans, more chimp-like, with eyes and ears like any terrestrial primate. No four-legged creatures with twin-trunks appeared anywhere.
At the center of the plaza, Jazmir beckoned them to follow him. Lucy the leopard snarled, but Rosalie cooed at her, and the big cat shrank to kitty size. They walked leisurely among buildings not unlike the sun baked mud structures Tyler had seen at historical preservation sites of the American Southwest and Mexico. The roofs were brown tile, and the aroma of sweet wood smoke, like Mesquite, filled the air, even though no chimneys or public ovens were evident anywhere. Round windows and arched doorways broke up smooth surfaces; trimmed green weeds separated clumps of buildings; gold, crimson, and orange flowers dangled from conical hanging baskets and sprouted beside the brick pathways. A light wind stirred, and Tyler caught more scents from the nodding flowers —peppermint and hyacinth? Some tree branches drooped with crystalline fruit that tinkled in the breeze. The place was a sensory delight.
“This way, please.” Jazmir led them to an arched passageway in an adobe wall. They emerged from shade tunnel to a sunny, unpaved courtyard dotted with magenta trees and clumps of greenery. At the far side of the square, a circle of young primates and a few fan-headed Suryadivans sat before the first Zyn-Vorkan Tyler had seen in this place.
Yajik Kabor curled on a thatched mat under a puffy magenta tree. Beside him a spiked fountain splashed clear water into a wading pool. The students—disciples?—listened intently as the Father of Life chanted in the melodic speech of his species.
Tyler leaned toward Jazmir. “Bartender, this ain’t Adao-2.”
“I’ll let Father Yajik explain.”
The four-legged alien parted twin trunks and bowed to his students, who stood and stretched and dispersed into the buildings around the courtyard. Yajik meditated for a moment, then beckoned them to join him under the puffy magenta.
Yajik raised his trunks slightly. “Welcome to our sanctuary.”
“Where are we?” Tyler sat on a close-cropped carpet of dark blue vegetation.
“Location is irrelevant. Metaphysically, all consciousness is One.”
J.B. and Ty exchanged bewildered glances, but Yumiko bowed deeply. Sure, Yumi-san gets it, Tyler thought. She’s Buddhist.
“Metaphysics aside,” Tyler said, “where are we, physically?”
“Our colony has used technology to move away from technology,” Yajik said. “The first generation who migrated here designed this network and buried its hardware deep beneath Sacred Adao.”
“We’re inside the planet?” J.B. said.
“Yes and no. Processing hardware for a commodious cyber network resides in a natural cavern about two kilometers below the planetary surface. We are inside that cyber-net.”
Tyler raised a hand. “Okay, how can flesh-and-blood humanoids be inside—” Oh, shit. “Did you convert us to coded energy? Have we been uploaded?”
“Nothing to fear. Your organic existence is safely stored in Memory and will be reconstituted when you return to the surface.”
“We’re holograms?” J.B. said. “How is that possible?”
“Not holograms. Energy beings. All consciousness—”
“Yeah, yeah—metaphysically, all is one,” Tyler said. “Let’s pretend we’re not cosmic monists for a second. What does that mean, scientifically?”
Yajik’s right trunk gestured toward J.B. “You know the answer.”
J.B. nodded slowly. “Since Albert Einstein, human science has known that energy and matter are the same at the quantum level. Like steam and ice are both water. It’s how we generate tangible holographics.”
“Yes,” Yajik said. “Long ago my species learned how to change physical bodies into energetic form and move freely within a computer network. We adapted happily, but our continued dual existence depends on the ability to replenish ourselves in both places.”
“You must spend part of your lives in here, part out there in the physical universe?” J.B. said.
“Correct. Every fifty-one Terran hours, I must return from the physical world to this network—which you call cyberspace—and replenish my energetic side.”
“And if you don’t?” Tyler felt a warm breeze brush his face, but he could not shake the cold feeling of unease about getting sucked into a cyber reality, even an idyllic utopia under candy-golden suns.
“After fifty-one hours, my physical form reasserts itself, and I can no longer return to this energetic state. I grow old and die as a purely physical creature.” Yajik’s mouth widened in what Tyler took to be a smile. “Not so bad, really, but the option for a much longer life is appealing.”
“And how long can you stay in here without losing contact with the physical world?” Tyler said.
“Longer, but not indefinitely.”
“How old are you?” Rosalie said.
“I was born six hundred Terran centuries ago.”
She breathed sharply. “You are sixty thousand years old?”
“Yes, dear Rosalie.”
“All your people are so old?” Yumiko said.
