Temples to Alien Gods - Episode XII

Episode#12

What many explorers will not tell you about wild space is that, even before you get there, things get a lot less…busy.

It didn’t take long for Gretel and her crew to leave the edge of Oggloid space as they continued toward the planet Korla. Once they crossed that border, though they were still on the map, they encountered fewer colonies and ships. Most were exploratory vessels or probes, merchants taking shortcuts through the backwoods of outer space, or smugglers hiding cargo on unmarked moons.

The last ship Gretel and her crew encountered before Korla was a trade vessel belonging to the Scior, returning from their farthest-away mining colony. Since the crew suspected this would be their last chance to do so, they traded with the vessel for necessary supplies. They also took time to glean new information about Korla from the Scior records.

The Scior had lived in this region for generations. It was theorized that they had originated from wild space as fugitives. There were old legends about the planet Korla.. Those chosen few had been safeguarded with preserving the most ancient traditions, even the ones too taboo to write down.

It was among these ghosts that the planet resided.

“Any luck?” Cortez asked. Adkara had just stepped out of an elderly crew member’s cabin.

“Nothing useful,” Adkara said, wrapping her poncho tighter around herself. “Same as the others: Planet of Dust, Tomb of the Titan, The Great Sword, etc., etc.”

Rosario looked around her as a gang of Scior walked past.

“Well, once we’ve got the last of the stuff on the ship, we’re out of here. And not a moment too soon.”

“You don’t like Scior?”

Rosario nibbled her lips. “I consider myself a fairly progressive individual, but mucus-secreting humanoids with spiny exoskeletons, beady eyes, and complicated mouth structures unsettle me.”

“Why?” Adkara seemed amused.

“They don’t even blink! They lick their eyes when they dry out!” Rosario exclaimed. “Who does that?”

Adkara shook her head. “Humans are weird.”

“Do you like Scior, then?”

“Not especially, but they’re not Oggloids.”

“I almost prefer Oggloids.”

They got back to the ship to find Frank and Obadiah loading the last of the cargo aboard.

“We ran out of room in the cargo hold,” said Obadiah. “So I moved all the vinyl to the jukebox room and put some crates in the spare bedroom.”

Adkara nodded her approval.

“Anything new from this elder?” Obadiah asked.

“More of the same,” said Rosario. “The stories seem pretty consistent. It’s a dead planet.”

“One element to these tales confuses me.”

Everyone looked at Frank, surprised.

“The Great Sword,” Frank said. “A planet’s shape is inconsistent with the shape of a bladed weapon. Why would the ancient Scior assign the planet such a name?”

Adkara shrugged. “It could be a myth or part of a constellation that has been forgotten. Mythology doesn’t always have to make sense.”

“Regardless,” continuedFrank, “I believe we should exercise caution when we arrive at Korla. Who knows what other information the ancients have forgotten or misremembered?”

Obadiah waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing there but dust and rocks.”

“I am not worrying. I am merely analyzing this situation and trying to predict every possible scenario.”

“Give it a rest, then, or you’ll blow your head bucket.”

Rosario tapped Gretel’s hull. “Are we ready to roll?”

“Confirmed.”

Rosario turned to the others. “Let’s move, everybody!”

Korla reminded one of Mars from a distance because of its similar color and size. The differences only became apparent as one drew closer. Korla completely lacked any of Mars’s habitation: there were no cities in the air or on the ground, no orbiting space stations, and no air traffic. No sign of life whatsoever. Korla was more of a dusty grey yellow, like a sea of sand and dust covering the entire planet.

Gretel flew in with Rosario at the controls. Adkara took the co-pilot seat while Frank and Obadiah stood. Spike lay on the dashboard, pretending to be disinterested.

“Gretel,” said Rosario, “are we close enough to do any scans?”

“Not as of yet, Captain,” said Gretel. “Moving into range now.”

Gretel brought herself into orbit above the planet, following its rotation.

“Scanning now.”

They waited, tense. This was not a casual morning. Everyone was fully dressed and wore holstered weapons, ready for action. Even Frank had taken the time to oil himself up a bit.

“Captain, the planet Korla contains gravity and an atmosphere suitable for life,” Gretel reported. “However, there is no surface vegetation, moisture, or no lifeforms whatsoever, rendering the atmosphere too weak to breathe effectively. Life support gear is required. In addition, the planet is plagued by frequent high-wind storms that carry enough sand to erode the skin off an organic lifeform.”

Rosario made a face. Obadiah twirled the crystal between his fingers.

“What about the city? The one in the map?” Obadiah asked

“I am scanning the surface of the planet now,” said Gretel.

“Give her time,” Rosario said.

The wait was intolerable, but soon Gretel reported, “I have been unable to locate the city. However, I have detected an unusual landmark, not previously available on maps, which would hint at the existence of an advanced civilization at one point in this planet’s history.”

Rosario swiveled her chair to face the others. “Bit of a long shot.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” said Adkara. “If this location does turn out to be a dud, then we can search the planet from the surface.”

“I concur,” said Frank. “My long-distance sensors will be of more use to us on the ground.”

Rosario turned back to the controls. “Gretel, we’re going down.”

“Confirmed.”

Gretel ducked out of her orbit and descended through the atmosphere of Korla. Due to its lack of moisture, the planet possessed only a few wispy clouds in the uppermost atmosphere and not much beyond that. No objects obscured their view of the planet as they descended.

The travelers were not prepared for how flat Korla would be. The mountain ranges displayed in the map had long been worn away by the high winds and crumbled with age, eroding everything down to the never-ending plain. The monotony was broken as Gretel flew over what had once been an ocean, now a gorge so deep that sunlight dared not journey to the bottom.

“Gretel, how’re we doing?” Rosario asked.

“Captain, we should be in sight of the landmark once we have crossed this ocean,” Gretel reported.

Rosario turned to Frank. “In the cargo hold, there’s a crate marked ‘air tanks.’ Can you bring it through, Frankie dear?”

Frank stood. “Confirmed.”

“Just two,” said Adkara. “I’m covered in terms of air gear.”

It didn’t take long for the travelers to cross the gorge. They caught sight of Gretel’s landmark. Adkara gripped the sides of her chair, Rosario caught herself gaping, and Obadiah leaned forward.

“Oh my God,” he breathed.

It was a sword about 600 miles high. It had been driven blade-down into the land as if a giant had stabbed the planet itself. Its hilt was long enough to accommodate two massive hands and the blade was stained with rust, edges jagged with age. The sword’s shadow dipped into the gorge and disappeared. Gretel circled the site, allowing everyone to gaze out of the window at it.

“How did they build this?” Adkara marveled. “How did they build this? No forge big enough to make such a weapon exists.”

“How did they get it to stand like this?” Rosario asked. “Wouldn’t they have had to haul it upright?”

“No,” said Frank, who had stood up and scanned the area around the weapon. “My short-range scanners detect high levels of tectonic stress. This sword was driven into the ground.”

“Captain, I can confirm this,” Gretel added. “The stress occurred billions of years ago but the evidence is still clear: the force was enough to crack the tectonic plate.”

Obadiah’s breath caught. “How…how…what kind of creature could be big enough to wield a weapon that size?”

“My question,” said Adkara, “is how strong must it have been to drive it into the ground with such force that it has remained upright even after all these millennia?”

Everyone remained silent as they continued to circle the sword. The dashboard beeped at them.

“Gretel?” Rosario asked.

“Captain, I have found the city lying north of the sword.”

Obadiah pointed. “I see it!”

“Gretel, bring us in.” Rosario said as she stood. “Team, prepare for landing..”

Gretel flew low and fast enough to stir up a cloud of dust as she went. Soon they were in sight of the city, which was the only thing aside from the sword to break the never-ending plains of Korla. The city had a square labyrinthine layout from the air, with the ziggurat sitting dead center. Gretel came to the outskirts and extended her landing legs.

Rosario, Adkara, Frank, and Obadiah stood in the airlock. While there were no obvious signs of life, the giant sword had put them on edge. Adkara held her rifle, Obadiah’s hand kept twitching to his holstered shotgun and the rifle he had slung over his back, and Rosario twirled her disruptor on her finger absent-mindedly. Obadiah and Rosario wore air masks attached to tanks on their backs while Adkara had simply hooked a tank pack to her existing mask. Obadiah and Rosario also wore goggles to keep sand out of their eyes. Rosario had hers tinted, of course.

“Captain, opening the airlock doors,” Gretel announced.

With a hiss, the doors opened and the travelers looked out over the surface of Korla, a planet so dead and empty that they could hear a sandstorm that was days away.

“Gretel,” said Rosario. “If anything funny happens, you got our back, right?”

“Confirmed,” said Gretel.

Rosario started walking, but Frank held up a hand.

“Might I suggest that I take point?” Frank suggested. “I am the most durable one here.”

Obadiah nodded. “That’s true..”

“OK,” said Rosario.

Frank stepped out first, holding a clenched fist upward, signaling the organic lifeforms to hold back. He stepped onto the surface of the planet and sank ankle-deep in the sand. His head did a 180-degree turn.

“Short-range scans detect no threats at this time,” Frank reported. 

Obadiah came next, still twirling the crystal between his fingers while he carried his gun in his other hand. Adkara and Rosario followed him. The latter had drawn her disruptor and held it at eye-level as if expecting something to leap out at them. Like Frank, the three of them sank in the sand up to their ankles.

The architects of the city were clearly big fans of geometric shapes. The city was entirely comprised of domes and cuboids, all forming a network that gave shelter to the streets that wound in and around them. Frequent sandstorms had worn away at all but the hardest stone and the metal framework upon which it sat. The travelers entered the city limits, the sand level dropping once they stepped on the roads. Without needing to say anything to each other, they walked toward the center of the city.

Everyone was on edge and the silence was oppressive. The crunchy sand beneath their feet seemed to echo throughout the city.

“It’s a tomb,” said Rosario. “It’s a blasted tomb.”

“A tomb has bones,” said Adkara. “Not even the bones remain in this place.”

They finally ascended the steps of the ziggurat at the center of the ancient city. The added height made the planet flatter, for as they climbed higher and higher up the crumbling steps, even those features of the planet that towered above all else were of little importance, save the skyscraper-sized sword.

At the top, four pillars underneath a pyramid-shaped roof opened to the stairs on each side. In the center stood an idol around eight feet tall, standing upright and clutching a massive sword in both hands. Its gender and most of its features had long been eroded by the indifferent winds. The nearly-worn mouth gaped at the travelers as they circled the idol in wonder. The idol stood on a short pedestal on which was written an inscription. Frank bent and dusted the sand off.

“This is not a script I readily identify,” he reported. “Corroborating with known written languages.”

“Gretel,” said Rosario, “Give him a hand, alright?”

“Confirmed.” 

The translation took some time. If the adventures were not anxious, they probably would have sat down or at least leaned against the pillars or the idol itself. As it was, they stood in their spots, keeping a grip on their weapons.

“An approximate translation has been reached,” Frank reported.

“What is it?” asked Adkara.

“Feed me. Feed me with the tear of the gods.”

The travelers looked at each other, puzzled. Rosario turned to Obadiah as he continued to twirl the crystal absentmindedly.

“Obadiah,” she said, “hold that up by the narrow side.”

He did. Rosario turned to Adkara.

“Would you say that’s a tear shape?” she asked.

“Will it fit?” asked Adkara,

Obadiah took the tear, walked over to the idol, and held the crystal up to its mouth. “I think so.”

There was a moment of silence. The travelers all looked at Obadiah as he quickly dropped the crystal into the idol’s mouth, as if afraid the thing would snap its jaws on his fingers.

The silence was more tense than any that had come before. Then Frank looked at the ground, alarmed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Seismic activity,” Frank reported. “Its deep, but…”

They could feel it now: the ground beneath their feet shaking, hardly noticeable at first but steadily growing violent.

“Captain,” said Gretel. “Run north!”

“Gretel, what are you—”

“You are standing on its head!”

Obadiah bolted for the northward-facing steps. His leg seized up and he fell down the steps. Adkara ran after him, her own reflexes and balance keeping herself from being overcome by the shaking. Rosario and Frank followed close behind.

As the party hurried down the steps, some of the taller structures fell over. Dust and sand rose from the ground in a growing cloud. As the travelers neared the bottom of the stairs, zigzagging wounds in the earth appeared, swallowing the sand as they grew larger.

“Captain, keep running north” Gretel called over the radio. “Keep running!”

“When can we stop?”

“Do not.”

The travelers ran and as they did they could see what Gretel meant. The earthquake wasn’t just affecting the city, the trembling ground and the cracks were spreading, covering a wide and wider area in a southerly direction. The cloud of sand was growing, like smoke curling from the ground. The travelers tried to outrun the cloud of sand. As they did, they noticed something more disconcerting: the ground all along the cracked section bulged and expanded as if the planet was giving birth.

And then the titan crowned.

First came the right hand, disturbing a massive cloud of sand and dust. The hand itself could easily grasp the hilt of the sword that stood in the distance. The hand braced itself against the earth as it heaved the rest of the arm out of the ground.

The cloud of sand was now so dense that it was impossible to see. The travelers heard Gretel’s rockets in the confusion, but they could not see her. More of the arm raised itself out of the earth, countless sand grains spilling off its sides.

Then came the head.

Face first, a face so huge that it took up the entire city. The titan had been lying on its back, for it rose face-first out of the ground. As it did, the city of the ancients collapsed.. The travelers stopped and stood in a huddle, transfixed. Another colossal hand and arm rose as the titan struggled to pull itself upright, weighed down by generations of sand, hardened earth, and stone.

“Gretel!” Rosario yelled into her headset. “Where the hell are you? We need you! Gretel!”

The titan roared as it heaved itself upright, sand and rock tumbling from dizzying heights to the earth below. With another roar, the colossus freed its legs from the earth and knelt. It pulled itself to its feet and reached its full height.

The naked colossus was made of metal, dulled bronze with age. The sound was appalling: ancient hinges and joints screaming. The monster tested its joints as a human would after a long nap. Everyone covered their ears.

The titan raised both hands to its face, as if feeling it was still there. It opened its eyes, revealing two green glowing orbs. They shone from deep inside the head, one flickering slightly.

The monster spoke, its jaw screeching and grinding as it did. Its voice shook the earth and reverberated through the air. It was in a deep, rumbling language that none of the travelers understood, one with many clicks that the giant made by clicking its many-jointed metal tongue against the roof of its mouth and iron teeth.

Silence fell. The giant turned its head, looking for any sign of life on the ground. It found itself face-to-face with the travelers.

The bronze giant repeated its question and waited for a response. Rosario turned the volume up on her breath mask’s little speaker.

“WE DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!” she hollered.

The beast tilted its head. Its green eyes flashed as its ancient brain whirled: clicking, clacking, computing.

“Adjusting.” The beast spoke in a deep, booming roar. “Adjusting for alternative language settings.”

The bronze beast took its time to form each word, as if unsure of how to use them correctly. Finally...

“Why have you come here?” it boomed. “Who are you?”

“Travelers!” Obadiah shouted. “Explorers!”

With another groan of metal, the monster dropped to one knee to get a better look at the creatures. “What manner of lifeforms are you?”

“I am of the Ekta people!” Adkara called up. “These two are humans, and this one is a robot of human manufacture.”

The beast’s green eyes flashed. “Ah, so you are lower lifeforms. How did you awaken me?”

“We found the crystal,” said Frank. “It guided us here.”

The beast looked skyward.

“I see,” it said. “The awakening has begun. I must continue the mission of my masters.”

“Who are your masters?” Rosario asked.

They all knew the answer in their hearts, but it still chilled them to hear the name rumbled through the air.

“The Anunnaki.”