Excerpt: Day of the Ancestor
Chapter 4: A Wanted Man
Dr. Morris Thaddeus shut off his hoverbike’s engine and listened. He hoped to hear nothing. He hoped the machine had carried him so far away they would never find him. He knew where he needed to hide—a place he knew well. He had never been here but had studied it and dreamed of it for ages. They might never think to look for him here.
He would need to leave the bike. He took the canvas bag with his rations and water purifier and walked. The trees grew too thick, and he couldn’t see anything in front of him. The only light came from a cloudy night sky filtered through black treetops. Unsettling moans, croaks, and the twittering of unseen creatures filled the forest air, interrupted occasionally by a distant shriek. Low branches and vines scraped his skin, and sometimes blocked his way. He carried a little drone that could fly above him and illuminate the area, but he couldn’t risk any light right now. His pursuers would see it. He knew if he followed the sound of gurgling water nearby and the slope of the ground, he would find the stream and the stream would lead to the temple.
Rotting earth and fetid water assaulted his nose. Only a few days before he’d been smelling the cheap coffee and lavender-scented disinfectants of the Galactic Intelligence Agency’s headquarters where he worked as the Senior Consultant on Alien Religion and Culture. His knowledge of alien beliefs and mythologies assisted in intelligence strategy.
Then he came that day with all his questions about the Vul and their beliefs. At first Thaddeus felt happy someone had finally taken an interest in his work, but then he made an odd request. It struck him as insincere and gave him such a strange feeling. Then the visions started again. This man, agent Scorpio, with his bleach-white beard and his wild eyes, appeared in the vision and he sensed his dark purpose. Sometimes the visions were wrong, but he could not shake this one. So, he ran. Then the men came asking for him, threatening the other scientists, then torturing them, then… he didn’t know what else. He didn’t know for sure, did he? Now he found himself running again, to save his life and theirs.
His shaking hands felt for the next branch or vine but grabbed only darkness. The trees in front of him had given way. The ground slid beneath him, and the sound of burbling water splashed much closer. The dim light from the sky showed him the edges of a deep, narrow canyon. The small forest stream poured into it. The water tumbled down rocks in a series of short waterfalls. He sat on the edge and then lowered his trembling legs to the first landing where the water pooled, then followed the falls down the natural terraces. At the bottom, he crept along the rocky banks of the noisy stream. The deep striations eroded into the walls of the canyon were hung with moss and vines. Now he could see the pale night sky reflected in a black pool where the stream emptied.
A high-pitched whine increased in volume. He realized what it must be. The men had come in their sub-light gunships searching for him. He pressed himself against the cold canyon wall, holding his breath just as the shape of the gunship blotted out the clouds, and its searchlight flooded the forest above.
If they found him, they would do the same things to him as they did to the other scientists. They would find him eventually, wouldn’t they? They weren’t stupid. They knew he would be somewhere on this planet, and they would find him. He thought of his friend Astra. If he had her training, he would feel confident—not like a skittish old book worm. Now something else lit up the sky. A swarm of drones flew over the canyon. He needed to find cover, fast. More would come.
He felt along the rough canyon walls, then they became smooth. He decided to risk a little light now. The tiny drone from his pocket flew off the palm of his hand and hovered. It illuminated a set of massive teeth. These canyon walls had been sculpted by intelligent hands. Relief carvings showed worn and crumbling remnants of beasts twisting around each other, baring their teeth. Weird faces stared wide-eyed—a warning to anyone who entered this place. These watchful figures covered every inch of the walls, and even a few boulders resting by the pool. A net of twisting roots from the forest above enshrouded the facade like the tails of a thousand black snakes. A great alien face had been carved into the dark stone. Its gaping mouth stretched to form the doorway. He could see nothing but a black void inside its jaws.
He took the canvas bag off his shoulder and reached in with a trembling hand for the Tartugian grivlock. He held up a grey hunk of rock, roughly hewn with twelve sides. Each side had an alien hieroglyph chiseled into it. The extinct Tartugians were known for creating objects that could bestow supernatural powers on their owners. Grivlocks were supposed to bring clairvoyance. He’d found it a year ago and became plagued by strange visions of the Vul and other frightening events.
The visions he had were so frustrating and disruptive that when he discovered the hidden grivlock had been causing them, he swore he’d give it to a museum. He couldn’t keep it anymore. He’d need all his faculties to perform at his job at the GIA and he couldn’t have random visions clouding his mind. But after Director Orion warned him about the Vul’s bounty on his head, he couldn’t let go of it. The visions that came from exposure to it were unpredictable, cloudy, and sometimes had no truth to them, but they were better than nothing. He could live with the frustration and disruption just to have some sense, however unreal, about the future.
He put the grivlock back in his bag. He knew it would do no good. The grivlock never showed him anything in the immediate future, and its predictive visions were always cryptic.
He took a lungful of air, inhaling the scent of decaying organic matter wafting from the temple’s entrance. What would he find in there? His friend Brecht, who led the archaeological expedition to this site, had warned him about something living here, but he hadn’t given him many details.
The whir of the gunship returned, and its search light burned against the treetops. He knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He stepped into the darkness.
