“A lake and Adam’s courage will be enough for now,” he decided. “Let’s start with the dead man’s tabula.”
They connected the battered device to a power source and activated it, using Lavim’s all-purpose password to get as far as the client account. With a little work and a lot of cursing Siladan was able to bypass that account and get into the root, where he could access all the remaining functions of the tabula. There was little there, except some messages on an obscure and encrypted messaging system.
“It’s used by people who want to send very secure messages,” Al Hamra told him when he asked about it, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Olivia. “I don’t think it goes far though, no further than orbit.”
“So he could communicate with someone on Coriolis?” Saqr asked.
“Or a spaceship in orbit, or anyone anywhere on the planet.”
“Like the Monolith,” Dr. Delecta suggested, meaning the enormous Portal builder structure on Kua, which had been repurposed by the Zenithian Hegemony as its capital and castle two centuries ago. The Monolith was a mysterious titanic structure several kilometers in height, towering over the jungle and untouched by time or the elements in all the eons since the Portal builders disappeared. It was the central base of Zenithian power and also the final hiding place of all their darkest secrets.
“Or there,” Al Hamra agreed. “Let’s see who he was talking to.”
Siladan opened the app, revealing a few short exchanges. Everyone crowded round him to watch as he flicked through them.
“Dead guy’s name was Islir Malhum,” Saqr observed. “We can track that, I guess.”
“If we want to,” Siladan agreed. “Here’s his last message. From the fourth of the Merchant, so about the time Lavim says the dig failed.” He enlarged it so everyone behind him could see it, and they all read the simple exchange with baited breath.
IM: Sahib, the frieze has been removed and the chamber uncovered as you expected.
ZK: Good! Is there a find?
IM: Yes sahib, the dig leader is very excited!
ZK: Describe it!
IM: I didn’t see it
ZK: Typical! No matter. You know what to do?
IM: Activate the box. Wait for them to panic and leave.
ZK: Yes, that is right. Do it now!
IM: Sahib, I am concerned. The guard at least is tough. I fear he will not leave just from the effect you promise.
ZK: No matter! I am paying you well. You know what to do if he does not leave?
IM: Yes sahib, but there are many of them. I may not prevail.
ZK: Do not fear. If you fire on even one in the climate of the box they will fear Sarcofagoi. They will flee. Then you take the find and leave once the way is clear.
IM: You are sure this will work? I fear for my safety.
ZK: I am paying you to risk your safety. Do not cross me now or your uncertain economic future will be the least of your concerns.
IM: Understood.
ZK: Have you the talisman?
IM: By my heart! I place my trust in the Icons. I will message you when the job is done!
ZK: Good. May the Icons be with you!
Siladan left the message open on the screen and looked back over his shoulder at the group. “So he was talking to someone called ZK.”
“Was this at the time of the attack, do you think?” Dr. Delecta asked. “Were these the messages he was sending on the video.”
“I think so,” Siladan replied. “The timestamps are about right. And he’s being given orders to act immediately.”
“And he has a talisman,” Al Hamra observed, “Against the effects of the box, I suppose. A shame we didn’t think to check his body. It could be very useful.”
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“No way I was digging in that corpse,” Saqr said with a scowl. “What’s it do anyway, the box?”
“It seems to create an atmosphere that they would think was Sarcofagoi,” Siladan said, pointing to the message. “So some kind of fear or unease. It must be a Mystic device of some kind.”
“Are there other messages?” Al Hamra asked, and Siladan closed the message window to show only two other chat logs, one from a day earlier and one from a week earlier. He opened the first, from the previous day, and a shorter series of messages appeared in the window.
ZK: Has work begun?
IM: Yes, the dig is under way
ZK: How’s the timing?
IM: The frieze should be uncovered within a day. It is fragile in the dry air and crumbles easily
ZK: So you should have confirmation of the find by tomorrow night?
IM: Yes, the Icons willing. Work will be fast with this team.
ZK: You understand the pressures here?
IM: Yes, I will contact you as soon as I have confirmation.
Once they had read this message Siladan opened the third and earliest chat log, which revealed just a single message, sent by ZK, that contained just three symbols.
“These are Portal builder runes,” Siladan told them, after Saqr complained they were nonsense. “They can’t be instructions, because nobody understands the Portal builder language.”
“Unless Islim and this Z guy developed their own private code,” Olivia pointed out.
“Unlikely,” Al Hamra shrugged that off. “They don’t seem that close. I think these runes are on the box. I think it’ s an activation code.” He opened the leather bag and spilled the box onto the table next to the dead man’s tabula, letting it fall flat with a small, sharp sound on the cheap plastic surface. It was not large, perhaps 5cm on each side, and was made of polished wood inlaid with strange symbols and sigils that were obviously of Portal Builder origin. Some parts of some of the faces could be depressed like switches, and some of those faces were embossed with the same runes as those in the message. He pointed to one, but did not touch it.
“So,” Siladan concluded, “this man Islim was at this dig, and activated the box on the orders of this ‘ZK’. The box was probably supposed to create fear in everyone present, and if they didn’t leave then Islim was to attack the guard, which would kill his only real opponent and make everyone think he’d been possessed by a Sarcofagoi. Then he was supposed to loot the dig site, presumably to take these artifacts back to Z. But when he activated the box he conjured the Sentinel, which killed him and everyone else.”
“Or, the Sentinel was activated by taking the statuette out of the alcove, which we saw Lavim do,” Al Hamra suggested. “It took a few minutes to manifest, and killed him and everyone else before he could run away with the artifacts.”
“So maybe if he hadn’t wasted time arguing with his boss he could have got everyone to run away and then escaped with the gear himself,” Dr. Delecta said. “But he was too slow.”
“Or,” Olivia mused, “This Z knew that the Sentinel would be activated by the box, and the talisman he gave Islim was supposed to protect him from the Sentinel, which would kill everyone and make it easy for Islim to just walk out with the gear. Except the talisman didn’t work.”
“I don’t think so,” Al Hamra countered. “Z told Islim that it would make them think he’d been possessed by Sarcofagoi. I think he expected them to run away and then for Islim to make his own way out somehow. Once the guard was dead, he could shoot other people pretty easily. It seems like only one other person had a gun.”
“He could get on a vehicle and head to the logging camp,” Olivia said.
“Or straight to the Monument,” Dr. Delecta added, “If he had the right vehicle. What else is in the case?”
They dragged the case over to the table and opened it to look at the spectacles and the two pieces of stone. In the clearer, steadier light of the tent they looked less sinister, just a strange and archaic pair of glasses and two polished, flat stones.
“Those stones are perfectly identical,” Saqr said finally, after they spent a few seconds looking at the contents. “Look, exactly the same shape. Like they came from the same mold. But different runes.”
“Also Portal builder runes,” Siladan added. “I think they might be causality stones.” Seeing blank looks all around, he explained, “Quantum entangled messaging devices. If you have one, you can send simple messages to anywhere else in the universe pretty much instantaneously. They’re very rare, and quite unstable.”
“Unstable?” Saqr took a step back.
“Not like that, Saqr! They just stop working quickly, so you never know if you’ve been left on read, or if the battery died, so to speak.” He shrugged. “It seems even the Portal builders had their limits, which were somewhere down in the basement of quantum chromodynamics. Sending information through the stones damages the entanglement, and once it decays you lose contact.”
“And the glasses?” Al Hamra asked.
“Don’t know,” Siladan replied. “The Portal Builders and the Firstcome both had technology for processing non-visible light. They could do anything, really.”
“You know, if you think about it …” Dr. Delecta said slowly, as if she were thinking aloud. Seeing everyone looking at her encouragingly, she stumbled into her idea. “There’s a map that’s maybe of a different Horizon, with a statuette that maybe contains the memories of how to get there, and a pair of quantum entangled stones that someone could use to communicate with the Third Horizon if they followed the map. No matter how far away it is. If they had a code for when they arrive, like, I don’t know, Saqr you’re the expert here, but like say, ‘where is this star in the sky right now,’ then they’d be able to send some sort of information about where they were. Physically. In space. Is that possible?”
Saqr frowned, nodded. “Maybe. If they had some idea roughly the sphere of where they were looking.” She thought for a moment longer, and then said, “Algol, the Demon Star. It’s in the name, isn’t it? And there are stories that the Firstcome arrived there. So it’s probably visible from the First and the Second Horizon. And it’s a variable star, so it’s easy to identify if you’re not an expert. You could program a computer to do a visual sweep of the sky from any star system and find it within a few weeks. Then you send your stellar coordinates back through the stone.”
“So you would know where the First Horizon was,” Dr. Delecta concluded. “That’s dangerous knowledge.”
“Not anymore,” Olivia pointed out. “The map’s been destroyed, and the Draconites have the statuette.”
“There is one person still alive who saw the map,” Dr. Delecta reminded them all. “He could at least sketch what he remembers of it. He worked on it for a week!”
“Great!” Olivia clapped her hands. “Lavim draws us a map, then we just need to figure out how to use the ancient quantum stones, guess what those glasses are for, and get the statuette back from the Draconites!”
“I think Al Hamra can find out how to use everything,” Dr. Delecta said. When Al Hamra looked at her quizzically, she said simply, “These things are all connected to the Dark Between the Stars. We could research them back at the Foundation in Coriolis, or you could …” She waved her hands. “Think about them, or something.”
Al Hamra looked around at them, seeing their expectant faces and Olivia’s wry smile. It was Olivia who spoke first, when she sensed Al Hamra’s obvious reluctance.
“You are the Accursed one, after all, captain. Who better to read the secrets of the Dark Between the Stars?”