Sweet Starfire (28 page)

“No. I think that whatever led us to this place of safety had the strength to make the path here safe too.”

“I wonder if it will bother to make the path back safe or if it only works one way.” Severance took a few more paces into the dimly lit room. “All right. We’re here. Now what?”

“This may be all that’s left.” Cidra began moving along the wall, following the curving surface to the far end of the room.

As she walked she trailed a hand along the warm stone surface. It was pleasant to the touch. “But once there was something more here.”

“How do you know so much about this safehold?” he demanded. He was moving behind her, unwilling to let her get too far out of reach, even though he could see nothing that looked dangerous.

“I’m learning about it because I’m willing to listen. I’m open to it. You must be able to listen, too, Severance. After all, you were able to follow the call. Stop being so wary of it. Be still a moment and let yourself absorb it. Do you really feel anything wrong here?”

“Yes and no.”

She swung around, her eyes full of amusement. “Yes and no? Come now, Severance, you’re not usually so ambivalent.”

He shrugged, scowling. His hand was resting on the butt of the pulser. “I can’t explain it. I didn’t feel anything wrong on the way here, although I should have, and part of what I feel now is acceptable, I guess you’d say. Strange but not dangerous. But there’s something else that I don’t like. It’s just a feeling.”

“Perhaps just a sensation of alienness. After all, this is the first complete Ghost structure ever found as far as I know. There are records of hundreds of fragments of their buildings but nothing complete and in good condition like this.”

“Have any of those records of the fragments mentioned this kind of building material?” Severance eyed the gently glowing stone.

“None that I’ve come across,” Cidra admitted. “This is truly unique. Perhaps it’s newer than the others. If so, then it might help us date the Ghost civilization. Severance, this is such an important find. We’re so lucky to have discovered it.”

“We didn’t discover it,” he said flatly. “It discovered us. There’s a difference, Cidra.”

She decided to ignore him. He was obviously going to be difficult. Cidra started walking again, curious to see the far end of the hall that lay in shadow. She was aware of Severance reluctantly following. “I think there’s something back mere.” Excited by the possibility, Cidra hurried forward.

“Cidra, wait. Hell, the floor is changing color!” Severance stared down as the white stone began to shade into a pearlescent pink. “We’re getting out of here.” He grabbed Cidra’s arm, jerking her to halt.

“I want to see what’s at the back of the room.” She tried to pull free, but his hand was clamped around her arm like a manacle. “Severance, please. This is what I’ve been looking for. Don’t you understand? What’s here could be the source of the legends I’m following. This place might hold the key I need to go home.”

“I don’t care if this place holds a lifetime supply of Rose ale. We’re not hanging around any longer.” Roughly he hauled her toward the entrance.

But the floor was changing color quickly now, shimmering from pink to red and then to violet. Other colors were filtering to the surface, and even as Severance watched, the shifting colors bled upward into the walls and ceiling. Then, without any warning, there was something more than colors. There were shapes. Shapes that weren’t restricted to the two-dimensional surface of the walls. They seemed to be stepping out into the room.

“The Laughing Gods, Severance. Look at them. They were real. Just look at them.”

Stunned, Severance came to a halt in the middle of the room, still holding Cidra with one hand. His other hand hovered above the holstered pulser. He heard the wonder and excitement in Cidra’s voice and knew that he felt the same sense of awed anticipation. The feeling of alienness was gone. What filled him now was a magnificently amplified version of the serenity and quiet pleasure he got when he handled his collection of stone carvings. The Laughing Gods were everywhere in the safehold. They surrounded Cidra and Severance, but it was clear that they had no substance. They were an illusion, something like a holotape projection but far more perfectly reproduced. It was like being in the midst of Ghosts.

Mesmerized by the reality of what he was seeing, Severance continued to stand still. Cidra didn’t move beside him. There was no sound, only the shifting images on the ceiling and walls and in midair.

“It’s a record,” Cidra whispered. “I was right. This place is an Archive. These are the Ghosts.”

“They look different than they do in the carvings.”

“I don’t think so. It’s only their clothing that’s different. That would make sense if these are images of them at a later period in their development.”

The drive to get out of the safehold was gone. Severance felt relaxed again. Cidra stopped struggling to free herself when she realized that she wasn’t going to be hauled forcibly out of the room. They stood quietly, watching the shifting images that filled the room. The Ghosts had been a handsome people. The vaguely feline features expressed a deep intelligence and an awareness that was obvious even to people whose ancestors had come from another solar system. They moved with a lithe grace, walking on two legs. Their clothing was more simply styled in these images than the clothing worn by the statues. The portions of the body not shielded by the simple robes were furred.

As Cidra watched, the crowded figures began to fade.

Unhappily she watched the swirling images disappear. “Severance, they’re going.”

“The picture is just fading. They were never really here to begin with.”

“But I need answers!”

“There’s no reason to expect any,” he said gently.

He was right. She knew that, but a part of her wanted to cry out in protest. There was so much to learn, so many questions she wanted to ask. Above all there was the mystery of how she and Severance had been led here in the first place. “Damn it. I wanted to know.”

“We’ve already seen more than any Harmonic archaeologist has ever seen.”

“I realize that, but it’s not enough. I need to find the key.’ She stopped talking as she realized that not all the graceful images had disappeared. Five Ghosts remained, shimmering between her and the doorway. “Look, Severance. There’s more.”

He said nothing, watching as the five robed figures coalesced in midair. In addition to the simple white garments, these Ghosts appeared to have a golden band around their furred wrists. Long, delicate fingers tipped with curving nails reached out.

For a wild moment Cidra thought that the creatures were gesturing toward her, and then she realized that the gentle, slanting eyes were not really seeing her. This was still only a projected image. But there seemed to be a purpose to the gestures. When all five Ghosts pointed toward the wall to their right, she automatically followed the tapering hands.

A new series of pictures sprang into existence on the curving wall and began flowing out from it. More Ghosts appeared, moving through a wild jungle setting that could only have been Renaissance. But the hands of these Ghosts were tipped with long, dangerous-looking claws, not well-trimmed nails. There were crude weapons worn on leather belts. Very little clothing was evident, but there were quite a few pieces of primitively ornate decorative items on furred throats, wrists, and ankles.

“The Ghosts’ ancestors?” Cidra asked.

“Could be. I get the feeling there’s a lot of distance between those cats with the claws and the five guys standing in the middle of the room.”

Even as Severance spoke, it became obvious that the scene evolving around them was a hunt. The handful of Ghosts were prowling. There was no doubt about it. They moved with a menacing care, and it wasn’t long before the object of the hunt came into sight. A horned animal stood on six legs nibbling leaves off a tree. Severance thought the creature resembled a modern-day Renaissance mannator.1

Cidra swallowed as the Ghosts attacked. The six-legged animal went down amid a flurry of thrown knives and scrabbling claws. As it struggled, its throat was ripped out. The fine quality of the illusion made the blood look very real. She was sure that what was happening was a simple and necessary hunting operation, but the violence of it was sickening. It brought back memories of feeding dracons. When she glanced briefly at her companion, she saw that he wasn’t particularly affected by the gory scene.

The lifelike mural continued, showing the Ghosts engaged in other activities besides the hunt. Cidra became interested in what was apparently a religious ceremony. Five Ghosts conducted the proceedings from behind an altar made of stone. The observers were seated cross-legged on the ground, swaying to an unheard beat. The fact that there were five leaders was interesting because that was how many Ghosts had appeared a few minutes ago in the room. Cidra tried to see if there were gold bands on their wrists but got distracted when a large, scaled animal was thrown down onto the altar. Too late she realized what was about to happen. She didn’t manage to look away in time to avoid seeing the knife dragged across the belly of the sacrifice. Again she felt nausea welling up, threatening to choke her for a moment.

Averting her eyes from the bloody scene, Cidra glanced back toward the middle of the room. The five Ghosts in white robes continued to stand pointing toward the moving illusion. Reluctantly she looked back.

“This is getting awfully gory, Severance. I don’t understand. It isn’t how I imagined the Ghosts would be.”

“You don’t think it was easy surviving on Renaissance, do you? Nothing that becomes dominant on this planet is going to be sweet-natured.”

“But the carvings show a gentler nature. And those five standing over there, they couldnt have been like this.”

“Wait and see.”

The images continued to shift, fading in and out of the walls. They moved more swiftly now, slowing only to show the details of a scene of weaving, the preparation of a meal or the carving of stone. It became clear that there was an element of time and progress involved. Clothing changed, becoming more elaborate. The design of structures altered. The early images showed the Ghosts sheltering in huge, wide-limbed trees. As the scenes progressed, however, shelters were created out of rocks and vines.

“It’s moving too quickly.” Cidra wanted to slow the images and savor each nuance of information contained in them. “There’s too much to see.”

“Maybe the Ghosts weren’t sure how long a visitor’s attention span was going to be.”

“How can you make a joke out of it? This is the most important find of the century. Perhaps the most significant discovery since the First Families arrived and found the first Ghost relics.”

Severance thought for a moment. “There’s another possible reason why the scenes are moving too swiftly.”

“What reason?”

“It could be because there’s a great deal of history to be conveyed. We could be dealing with several thousand years, here. Or a million, for all we know.”

“The rise and fall of a whole species?” Cidra watched as a scene of a village being built between the jungle and the sea took shape. “It looks like an alien version of Port Try Again. Right down to the walls built to hold out the jungle.”

It was clear that every inch of progress was a struggle. The Ghosts of Renaissance paid a high price for their growing civilization. Images of Ghosts being attacked by huge, fanged snakes and other horrendous forms of wildlife flickered on and off the walls. Pictures of tiny villages being trampled by lumbering, armor-plated animals were common.

“Zalons,” Severance told her. “Or at least an earlier version of them. The horns look slightly different, and the ears are smaller.”

“You said they were vegetarians.”

“They are. But that doesn’t make much difference to something smaller than they are that happens to get in their way. Zalons are a little clumsy.”

There were other kinds of difficulties. Volcanic eruptions, flooding rivers, intense storms. Then came the even more unsettling pictures of waning tribes. Cidra couldn’t watch the battle scenes. Such violence between Ghosts didn’t fit the mental image she’d always had. Severance watched with intent interest.

Regardless of the setbacks, natural disasters, and war, the Ghosts continued to expand as a species. They grew in numbers. In fact, Cidra noticed at one point that there were a great many images of children in the mural. Scenes of them playing, practicing with weapons, and going about their daily lives were frequent.

It was clear that the Ghosts were holding their own and beginning to thrive in the jungles of Renaissance. Small mechanical devices appeared. Technology began on a small scale. After that the little villages grew into towns. Gradually the jungle was tamed. It was never wiped out, but in the regions where Ghosts lived, it was under control.

Scenes shifted more and more rapidly, showing towns growing into cities. And then came the leap into space. The colonization of Lovelady was easy for a people who had tamed a jungle world.
QED
and Frozen Assets were also featured briefly, although it was obvious that they had never been fully colonized. The spaceships never left the Stanza Nine system as far as Cidra and Severance could tell. It was as if the explorers ran out of interest or energy.

Eons passed. How much time, Cidra had no way of knowing. But gradually things began changing again. The technological trappings of civilization began to fade in the scenes. They were replaced with pictures of translucent structures such as the one in which Cidra stood. The jungle was controlled now without obvious technology. Quiet, serene clearings were common, and in them, quiet, serene Ghosts went about their daily business. These people no longer had the undeniably aggressive element that had been so common in their ancestors. “They’re changing,” Severance said.

“Evolving. They’re developing mentally now instead of technologically.” Cidra was sure of her analysis.

“There’s something different about these pictures.”

She frowned. “What do you mean. ”