Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection/Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/marslife.zip/CHAPTER8.TXT

Text File | 1994-07-23 | 12KB | 228 lines

                              CHAPTER 8: THE PYRAMID


          The group kept its distance from the disc as it led them
     down the corridor.  Rick had a taser at the ready in case they
     ran into any more of the strange creatures which had attacked
     Robert and Steve a few minutes before.

          Somewhere close behind, a shadow loomed out of the darkness
     and laboriously shuffled along a corridor.

          Soon they had reached the end of the long corridor to meet a
     blank wall.  The disc uttered another grating electronic twitter
     and the wall slid away to reveal a bright, glowing passage
     running at a right angle to the one they were standing in.  The
     disc went through the doorway and waited for them to do the same.
     Rick led the way cautiously into the passage, the rest of the
     group following when he was sure there was no danger.  The disc
     shot down the passage at lightning speed and left them waiting by
     the door.

          "What do we do now?" Vicki asked.
          "I guess we should go down there," said Rick.

          They started to walk down the passage when a door opened in
     the wall beside them.  Rick aimed his taser at the opening as an
     alien appeared before them, half hidden in shadow.  It studied
     the group with its faceted silver eyes from the doorway, then
     stepped out into the light.  It looked part reptile and part
     insect, with humanoid features as well.  Its elongated, egg-
     shaped head had two bent antennae sprouting from the top of its
     large, flattened ears.  Its skin was smooth and scaly like a
     lizard's and it had four long legs with camel-like feet.
     Covering its chest was a glassy, ribbed exoskeleton.

          "Greetings, you have been expected," the creature said in
     perfect english, "I am Kryll.  Follow me, I shall take you to the
     pyramid, the Overseer wishes to speak to you."

          "My God!" said Captain Freeman, "they're speaking with an
     alien!"

          The pictures on the screens would soon be unintelligible,
     Will had already enhanced the scratchy images to their fullest.

          "You speak english!" Rick said.
          "Our race speaks all of your people's languages, we have
     been waiting for your arrival for centuries."

          Just as the alien finished speaking, the creature that had
     been stalking them lunged through the door and bore down on them.

          "Get down!" yelled Kryll.

          The scientists hit the floor and Rick turned and fired his
     taser.  Simultaneously, their martian ally shot a burst of energy
     from a compact device held in its hand.  The giant hit the wall
     and slumped to the floor as it caught the barrage fully in the
     chest.  The team righted themselves and the martian dragged the
     creature with ease through the door to the cryogenic chamber
     gallery.  It touched something on the wall and the door slid back
     into place.

          "What was that thing?" Rick enquired, "is it dead?"
          "No, it is only stunned," said Kryll, "It is what we call a
     degenerate, they are rejects created during the period of genetic
     experimentation.  They live primitively in the labyrinth of
     corridors beneath the face.  Now let us move on, I shall take you
     to the main pyramid of our city to meet our ruler, he has been
     waiting for you."

          "Rick, are you and the team alright down there?" Captain
     Freeman's voice, barely intelligible, burst over the intercom.
          "We're fine," Rick replied.
          "The static's getting bad up here, are your recorders still
     going?"
          "Yes sir, we've got everything our cameras have seen."
          "Okay.  Will, Grey, keep watching the screens and when their
     images get too bad turn them off," Captain Freeman was saying.
     "But make sure you don't loose track of them, boost the tracking
     systems to full power."

          The group followed Kryll down the passage.

          "What about the other creatures in there, the ones in the
     chambers?" asked Dan.
          "They are of the martian race, they were, as are we,
     genetically engineered to improve life expectancy and
     intelligence.  We once looked like yourselves, that was before
     the time of the meteor..."
          "The meteor?" interrupted Vicki.
          "Xanthir, the Overseer will answer your questions," Kryll
     continued.  "Millions of years ago our race started genetic
     experimentation on themselves, cloning cells and mixing genes, to
     try to create a better race."

          They stopped at the corner, where the passage led off in
     another direction.  There was an opening in the side wall through
     which a large, cylindrical vehicle, hovering about a foot off the
     ground within a round tunnel could be seen.  Kryll stood on a
     platform leading to a door in the side of the cylinder and
     motioned for the scientists to board.  Rick entered first and was
     greeted by another martian.  This one was different, it was a
     reptilian creature, but looked almost human in form.  Adorning
     its greenish skull were three backward swept spikes, one at the
     top and one at each side.  It had a row of blunt spinal plates
     running down its back, three clawed fingers on each hand and a
     pair of large reptilian eyes.  It remained silent until everyone
     was aboard and seated.

          "I am Betl," it said, "Welcome to Mars."

          He closed the transparent door which slid down to cover the
     opening in the side and stood by it while Kryll worked the
     globular control at the front of the vehicle.  The front, and
     four areas on the sides, were transparent.  Through the front
     could be seen the interior of the seemingly endless glowing
     tunnel.  The tube shuttle started on its way, carrying them
     toward the city.  It reached a tremendous speed almost instantly
     but the passengers felt absolutely motionless.  Betl opened a
     cabinet in the wall and brought out a long metal box, in it were
     a row of clear, globular, glass-like objects.  He walked over to
     the scientists and handed the box to Rick.

          "Attach these to your belts, they are gravity converters.
     They will adjust your weight to adapt to our gravity."

          Rick held one of the glassy objects in his hand and examined
     it, inside was a delicate arrangement of interlocking crystal
     fragments and alien circuitry.  He clipped one on to his belt and
     passed the rest around to his team members who did the same.

          Grey, while trying to make out the pictures on the wall
     screens, glanced at the tracking map.  The signal was getting
     dim, but something else got his attention.

          "Sir!  They've left the face!" he said to Captain Freeman,
     who was studying a map of the interior of the face that had been
     made up by the ship's computer.
          "What?!"
          "That alien is taking the team towards the D&M pyramid."
          "That's ten miles away!"

          He looked for himself, the scientific team were over half
     way to the huge D&M pyramid and were moving at an amazing speed.

          "How could they get that far so quick?  You'd better take
     the ship over there, I'll take care of the tracking station."
          "Yes sir."

          Grey and Will rose from their seats and made for the bridge.
     Captain Freeman sat in Grey's place and continued watching the
     tracking map.

          "Amazing." he said to himself.

          In a matter of seconds the shuttle reached the end of the
     tunnel.  Betl opened the door and they stepped out into a huge
     cavern spanned by a network of metal walkways and huge structures
     bustling with machinery being operated by teams of martians.
     They walked along the side of one of the walkways and looked over
     the edge at the wide expanse of illuminated ice below, being
     melted and excavated by martian machinery.

          "This," explained Betl, "is where we reclaim air and water
     from the ice trapped beneath the planet's crust."
          "Amazing," said Rick.

          A levitational vehicle carrying a number of martians zoomed
     past them, and up above their heads a number of columns dropped
     slowly into the ice below.  They came up to a transparent
     elevator cubicle in the center of the walkway, Kryll stepped in
     followed by Betl and the scientists.  The elevator moved up at
     the touch of a button and gave them a birds eye view of the
     bustling excavation site below.  Nestled amongst a mass of pipes
     and machinery, the elevator tube rose through the roof of the
     immense cavern.

          In the scout ship, now situated at the base of the towering,
     five sided D&M pyramid, Grey and Will were looking tiredly at the
     screens on the wall.  They showed nothing but static.

          "We've lost total visual contact and tracking sir,"
     said Grey, "something's shielding their homing signals."
          "Damn." said Captain Freeman who was trying to make radio
     contact.  "Communication is down as well, there must be something
     in that pyramid that's shielding our signals."

          The next level was just as large as the one before, and was
     a brilliant display of glowing, spider-like, crystalline
     structures and more immense machinery buildings.

          "This is where the energy comes from to run our city," said
     Kryll, "We harness the sun's radiation through the walls of our
     city, convert it into energy and store it here."
          "This is all absolutely amazing!" said Clara.

          Soon the elevator left the harsh light of the intermingled
     mass of metal and crystal and came to a level with a lower
     ceiling filled with giant vegetation growing in rows of
     transparent tanks.  Betl stopped the lift and the door slid back.
     They alighted from the elevator and their two martian guides led
     them to a forest of hydroponic tanks.  The plants within ranged
     in size from about five to eight feet high, were light green in
     colour and had thick leathery leaves with rounded ends.  In shape
     they resembled squat, dense leafed leeks.  The tanks they were
     contained in were framed with thin metal pipes with spray nozzles
     along their length at regular intervals.  Above each tank two
     pipes led off to a small pyramid attached to the ceiling.

          "These are what manufacture our oxygen," began Kryll," the
     plants have been genetically engineered to specifically carry out
     this function.  The atmosphere inside the tanks is carbon dioxide
     rich to further promote the oxygen manufacturing process."
           "They have no roots," Betl continued," they absorb water
     through the leaves, that's what the nozzles are for.  The oxygen
     is sucked out, mixed with other gases and transferred throughout
     the pyramid."
          "Over there," Kryll said, as he pointed to more tanks filled
     with even stranger looking plants, "are the food production
     tanks."

          The group then went back to the lift cubicle and began to
     ascend to the top of the huge pyramid, through many levels of
     living quarters and work places.

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