Sargasso of Souls – Session 25

Early evening on the 22nd Santino returned from his latest stint in the alien complex and began excitedly pouring over his notebooks with his new assistant. He was very close now, elements of the Ancient’s language had begun to fall into place and he believed his understanding was nearly sufficient for him to attempt more complicated communication.

The following day he, Carnahan and Vaughan went into the complex again with Johansson and Voronova as security. A few hours later Nadya Voronova came out to fetch me.

“The professor says you should come right away”, she said. “They’ve started talking”

I suited up and went back across the canyon with her. We entered the complex and made our way to the lab where the others were waiting. Santino immediately filled me in.

“Communication is still far from straightforward” he admitted “but I’m pretty sure we have just established that these Ancients are the creators of the jumpgates. It also appears that their culture reveres hunting, or at least considers it an art-form or possibly a science, and that they died on this planet over one-hundred thousand years ago.”

“So how come they’re still here?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

“I’m just deciphering the answer to that very question”, Santino revealed. He scrutinized a series of symbols that had appeared on the floor and then briefly discussed possible interpretations with Rachel Carnahan.

“If we’re understanding this correctly”, he said after a while, “It would appear to be a property of the planet itself. The essence of anything that dies here remains in perpetuity”

A further sequence of symbols appeared and again Santino and Carnahan worked to translate them.

“I think they’re saying that some of the Ancients have brought an end to their existence by leaving the planet aboard our shuttles”

“And the others?”

“Apparently they have remained because they find us interesting”

“Ask them about the energy pulse” I instructed.

Santino translated for me, keying into a portable handset and causing a sequence of symbols to appear on a nearby monitor.

A few moments later the shapes on the floor changed once again.

“As far as I can determine” Santino said after he and Carnahan and interpreted them, “that was the life-force of those Ancients that were aboard dissipating as they left the atmosphere.”

Another sequence of symbols appeared.

“They say they are sorry if it caused us any harm. They won’t do it again without our permission”

Further questions and answers followed.

“So everyone who dies on the planet is still here?”

“Yes”

“What about Bell? Can we talk to him?”

“They say it will be a long time before he learns how to manifest”

Convenient I thought. So there’s no chance of us confirming any of this with Bell any time soon.

“And what about the demon?” I asked next. “What will it do now?”

“Kill many”

“Can we stop it?”

“They don’t know”

“Why did it go to Mars?”

“There are others of its kind there”

“The images of Mars they showed us before, what were they?”

“The past. The demons destroyed everything”

“I think they’re saying the demons destroyed their whole civilization” Santino added soberly.

“Where did these demons come from?” I persevered.

In response, part of the jump network appeared. A planet was indicated in a system beyond a gate that humanity has yet to open.

Santino continued to interpret as the Ancients told their story.

A party of hunters had gone through the gate, stumbled upon the planet and disturbed the demons, the ‘killer’s without form’. All seventeen of the hunters were possessed. They came back through the gate and the killing began. They jumped from host to host and from planet to planet, killing everything. It was like a game to them, as though they were competing to be the one that caused the most harm.

Two of the demons ended up on Storm. They came into the complex and there was a battle. The Ancients stopped one of them in the courtyard but the other one worked its way through the complex jumping from host to host until all the Ancients were dead. Then it left. It made no attempt to free the demon that had been trapped.

After that the Ancient’s entire civilization was destroyed. Only the spectres of those who died on Storm remained, lingering there because of the planet’s unique properties.

The story was a sobering one. The demons had brought down the Ancient’s entire civilization and now, after one hundred thousand years, one of them was loose once again. It didn’t bode well.

I needed to get word of this to Razor and Morris as soon as possible but, for the moment, what happened on the surface was my main concern.

“What about us” I continued, “are they happy for us to stay here and for more like us to come down to the surface?”

“Yes” Santino translated. “As I mentioned earlier, it would appear that we amuse them. From what I understand they are striving to transform the atmosphere within the complex so it is habitable for us. I believe the process will be complete in around twenty-six hours”

I nodded. That news was promising at least.

“Thank them”

After Santino had done so, I asked some more questions.

“Is this their only base on the planet?”

“No”

“Will they show us where the others are?”

A map of the surface appeared depicting the canyon and the base where we were standing. It panned sideways across the plain for some distance before settling on another location. I estimated it was about three times as far as the farthest we had been. The viewpoint zoomed in on what appeared to be a larger base. The main entrance to it from the surface was shown to have collapsed, and was clearly blocked, but there was also a hangar entrance some five hundred metres down a crevasse which remained accessible.

“Is it occupied by others like them?” I went on.

“No, it is empty” Santino responded.

The exchange went on for a while longer but it was slow going and little else of any consequence was communicated. Major steps forward had been made however and afterward we left the complex with much to contemplate.

A short while later, Vaughan informed me that he and Santino had ascertained from our records that there was already a team working on cracking the code to the jumpgate which opened the way to the demon’s planet. There was no telling how long it would take them to unlock it but it was inevitable that they would do so eventually.

That night my dreams were full of brutality and leering faces. Death was suffocating as the violence and killing went on and on. It was a relief when Maya woke me.

“Shush, it’s just a nightmare”

She held me close and whispered reassurances until she had calmed me.

The next morning the Salvation departed with a message alerting Razor and Morris to what we had learned. It would be a few more days before any plan of action could be decided, as Razor wasn’t scheduled to return from the Mars mission until the 27th but I felt that something needed to be done soon.

For the time being I busied myself planning a mission to the other Ancient base. Vaughan and Launaston believed it was possible to extend the range of the ATV by making modifications to allow it to carry additional oxygen tanks and, in Maya and Santino, we had sufficient climbing expertise available on planet to attempt the descent into the crevasse. The main difficulty would be assembling a team of five that encompassed all the skills we needed. As driver and mechanic for the ATV Launaston was a necessity and it seemed prudent to take Maya and Santino because of their climbing experience, and the professor’s knowledge of the Ancients. That only left two spaces, when we had yet to allocate any security and an assortment of scientists including Phipps and Vaughan were keen to be included. It was going to be a difficult decision, one I would have to consider carefully.