Chapter 6 – The Heart Of Darkness
Jack and Marie stood on the bridge,
waiting as Sunita did scans of the planet.
“There’s a lot of it down there,” Sunita
reported. “And not that far beneath the surface.” Her expression turned into a
frown. “There’s an especially large deposit beneath their capital.”
“Any way to get at it without bothering
the Davellans?” Marie asked.
“No,” Sunita replied turning to them
both. “It would require demolishing the city.”
“It’s possible they realized that and went
on their way,” Marie said.
“But that doesn’t explain their distress
signal,” Jack said.
Sunita let out a sigh. “Okay, you told
us we sent a distress signal as well, right?”
“Yes,” Jack replied.
“But nothing happened to us,” Sunita
said. She pointed to the tactical station. “And since he’s still here, Mr.
Nakano certainly didn’t die.”
“True,” Marie said.
“And we’ve detected nothing you’d
usually expect from a temporal event.”
“Also true,” Jack said.
“Then I would conclude this is something
new,” Sunita said, looking back at her scans. “Some sort of temporal
distortion, perhaps some alternate timeline bleeding through.”
“That’s as good as explanation as any
we’ve come up with so far,” Marie said.
“See if you can find any evidence of the
distortion,” Jack said. “I’d like to be able to tie this one up in a nice bow
before we leave.”
“It might be easier to simply ask the Davellans if they’ve experienced that sort of thing,”
Sunita said. “They have the technical ability to detect it.”
“Given the topic, I think I’d better be
the one to do this,” Jack said.
Before Jack could turn to the door on
the bridge…
“Sir,” Sunita began. “What exactly is
this mineral you had me scan for? I don’t remember ever seeing anything with
those properties before.”
“I’m afraid that’s classified,
Commander,” Marie stated. “Not even I’m
allowed to see it.”
***
Jack walked up to the main building.
Nara was there waiting for him.
“Did you return to engage in sexual
relations with me, Captain?” she asked.
Jack stopped, doing his best not to show
a negative reaction. He didn’t want to have a cultural incident given they had
only encountered this species a week ago.
“I’m afraid not,” Jack said. “I had some
questions about a science matter to ask you or someone who is more experienced
in these matters.”
“I am an astrophysicist, Captain
McCall,” she said. “I should be able to answer your questions.”
“Good,” he said. “I meant no disrespect.
In most societies I’ve encountered, the scientists aren’t usually very high up
in the political system.”
She smiled. “There was a period of our
history where that was the case as well. Fortunately, we learned that was a
foolish way to govern.”
Jack nodded. “We have found evidence of
some sort of temporal distortion around your planet.”
Nara’s head snapped toward him. “You can
see such things?”
“Yes,” he said.
“It is our protection.”
“Protection?” Jack asked. “Against
what?”
“Many things,” Nara replied.
“Is this a field effect you generate?”
She smiled. “No. Nahas watches over us.
He has saved us from many dire consequences from others and ourselves.”
“He manipulates time to protect you?”
Nara nodded. “Nahas keeps us safe. He is
the guardian of the path.”
Jack wasn’t sure if this was some actual
entity or a religious figure from their past. But given the temporal events
they had observed, something was actively at work here on this planet today.
“Might I be able to speak to Nahas?”
Nara shook her head, and seemed to
almost fly into a panic. “No one has been allowed to speak to him for
centuries.”
Jack had to recover from this quickly.
“I merely wished to understand. I meant no disrespect.”
Nara slowly nodded. “I apologize,
Captain. I understand you know nothing of our ways or he who protects us.”
“I am willing to learn,” Jack replied.
“One of the reasons we explore is to discover things we previously did not
know.”
“A very admirable trait on your part,”
Nara said. “I’m not sure I can tell you much about Nahas. There are writings
about him.”
“If no one is allowed to speak to him,
how did your people become aware of him?”
“He appeared to my people long ago,”
Nara said. “He set us on the right path, and told us he would watch over us.”
“So he’s no
longer here?”
“He remains here. He watches us from his
dwelling place within our world.”
This sounded more like a myth to explain
something they had observed. They experienced time changing then invented Nahas
to provide a cause. Jack began to suspect he wasn’t getting any nearer the true
cause of what he and his crew had observed.
“You doubt what I’m saying, don’t you?”
Nara asked.
“I’m sorry,” Jack replied. “It’s
difficult to believe in a being who no one living has ever seen.”
“Do you wish to see his dwelling place?”
“Is that allowed?” Jack asked. He hoped
they might have connected the myth to the source of the phenomenon.
“I will take you to the entrance,” Nara
said. “Whether or not you go further will be up to Nahas. But be warned. No one
who has entered in over five hundred years has returned.”
***
It took nearly a half hour for Nara to
lead Jack through a maze of corridors going ever deeper into the planet. He
tapped his comm badge at regular intervals to make sure the Chamberlain
knew where he was, and so they could track the exact location of what he
suspected was going to be the source of the temporal anomaly. Perhaps at some
point in the Davellans’ future, the Federation might
be able to send a team to study and perhaps negate the effect.
Nara stopped at a large metal door.
“I can go no further,” she said. “I will
wait here in case you return.”
Jack nodded and approached the door.
Nara touched a control on the wall, and
with a groan, the thick metal door slowly rose into the slot above.
“Step forward,” Nara said once the door
had risen completely.
Jack noticed she would not look in the
direction of the opening.
He stepped forward.
Jack found himself in a large cave. His
eyes began to adjust to the low level of light. He noticed flames coming from
several large lamps set in the ground, two of them at the start and the end of
a narrow stone bridge which spanned a large chasm. Flame glowed in the depth of
that chasm, illuminating the chamber.
No, there was more. Sunlight streamed
down from an opening in the top of the cave.
That reassured Jack. If he got stuck in
here, the ship should be able to locate him through the opening.
Jack walked forward.
Whisps of dark gas swirled about in the
air midway across the bridge. It began to coalesce in a tall figure.
Jack wasn’t sure if he believed what he
was seeing.
The figure stood some nine feet tall, it
had dark red skin, glowing eyes, and fire in its mouth. And… it had horns.
This had to be a deception. Jack simply
couldn’t take seriously a figure so resembling a character found in so many
Earth mythologies.
The figure opened its mouth and with
fire spewing forth, it roared so loud the walls of the cave seemed to shake.
“Very dramatic,” Jack said with as much
sarcasm as he could muster. “The horns are a bit much though.”
The creature closed its mouth, and
narrowed its eyes as it stared at Jack.
“Am I really supposed to believe you’re
some lord of evil?”
The figure stood, unmoving.
“Are we going to have a conversation or
should I just leave now?” Jack asked.
“I am Nahas, lord of the underworld.”
“Of course you
are.” Jack fought back a chuckle. “No, really, who are you?”
“You see my appearance,” the figure said
in a deep voice. “Does it lie to you?”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Jack replied.
“It you are truly the guardian of the abyss, looking like so many depictions
found on my home world, then why are you here on this planet? Why focus on one
small world?”
“Aren’t I allowed to focus on one
world?”
“But if you are the personification of
all evil, shouldn’t the scale of your interests be universal in scope?” Jack
asked. “The character of Satan on my world was obsessed with events on Earth.
You seem to be obsessed with the Davellans.” Jack
smiled a moment. “But… they see you as some sort of protector.”
“You seek a figure of evil,” the
creature said. “A being who has
perplexed you and confounds your attempts to understand.”
“That’s more a trickster god than a
devil,” Jack replied with a wide smile. “Perhaps you should pick a different
form.”
The large creature took a step forward,
its eyes narrowing as it gazed at Jack.
“You do not belong here!” it bellowed.
“Go back to where you came from!”
“What did you do to the starship Zhukov?”
Nahas turned away for a moment. “The
other vessel…”
“Yes.”
“They came to attack my people.”
“Attack?”
“They trained their weapons on the city
above,” Nahas said. “The people defended themselves, but I could see more would
come. I reset events. Yet you still came.”
“We received a message from them calling
for help.”
The tall figure nodded. “They no longer
need help.”
“You can manipulate time?”
Nahas looked at Jack. “Not me, but the
one I serve--the beast which has one eye.”
Jack suspected that was another
mythological reference, but not one with which he was familiar.
“You don’t understand, do you?”
“I am willing to learn,” Jack replied.
“No, you’re not,” Nahas said. “I know
who you are, Jack McCall. Death follows wherever you go. You should not be.”
“My people do our best to be peaceful.”
Nahas stood silent for several seconds.
“Was that why the Zhukov came here?”
“I don’t have a full understanding about
why they came here,” Jack said.
After a moment, the figure in front of
Jack melted away into floating black dust then reassembled into a more humanoid
form, but indistinct, almost gaseous. The new figure floated a few feet above
the stone bridge. “The people of this world belong to me. I am their guardian.”
“How can any being belong to another?”
“Their sins invited me here. I now own
this world, and them.”
“What possible sin could they have
committed which caused them to belong to you?”
“Long ago, they set out to conquer this
galaxy, and they would have succeeded,” Nahas said. “I changed events, and
prevented the destruction of your world and many more.”
“You have no right to interfere with
another society,” Jack said. “And most certainly you have no right to change
the timeline.”
“Time is not a line,” the dark figure of
Nahas said, his tone now softer than before. “Like space, time is multidimensional.
Its intricacies form a web along with space, bringing forth the universe in all
its complexity.”
The dark humanoid figure moved closer to
Jack. “The universe you see is only a shadow upon a wall. You believe the wall
is all there is of reality because it is all you can perceive while all along
there is a much more complex universe you cannot see.”
“You shouldn’t change time. It isn’t
right.”
“Aren’t you seeking to save this galaxy
from itself? You are unwilling to allow it to unfold as it will, instead
demanding the universe order itself according to the dictates of your mind.”
“That’s not who I am,” Jack said.
“Isn’t it?” Nahas asked. “You call it
saving people, but do you really care about them? Or is it your own sense of
how reality should be which drives you?”
“No,” Jack said, but he knew he wasn’t
being completely honest.
“The original Jack McCall would grab
such an opportunity without thinking,” Nahas said.
“As far as I know, I am…”
“You have gained the attention of beings
in this galaxy it is best to avoid.”
“The Q? The Vedala?”
“No,” Nahas said with a chuckle. “Beings
far more powerful than either of them.”
“Once they get past a certain level on
the evolutionary scale, what’s the difference?”
“Beware of Mei-Wan Lau, Jack McCall. She
will be the end of you.”
“Mei? What does she…”
“Or you will be the end of her.”
“But what about…”
“Leave this planet,” Nahas said. “Tell your people never to come here again. My patience with
them and you is at an end.”
The smoky humanoid figure vanished as
dust on a gust of wind.
Jack heard the stone door behind him
begin to rise. He turned to it as it was fully open.
He walked out of the cave.
When he entered the outer room, Nara
looked up at him, her eyes wide.
“You survived?!”
“I believe so,” Jack said.
He had a few answers, but now more
questions than before.
