CHAPTER 17
Faith becomes lame, when
it venture into matters pertaining to reason.
Belief in God has to be based on faith which transcends reason.
-
Mahatma Gandhi
The
hatchway slid open much too slowly for Sarwin’s impatient disposition. No sooner had it opened and Kleesic stepped
through, did Sarwin embrace his friend warmly.
"It is good to be together
again, old friend," Kleesic said, patting Sarwin on the back. "It’s been much too long."
Sarwin stepped back and looked at
Kleesic’s face. Though it was clearly
the good friend he had known for years, he looked much different now. His gray hide, especially around the eyes,
had grown wrinkled. He had developed a
distinct set of jowls and Sarwin saw gaps in Kleesic’s grin that were not there
last time Sarwin saw his friend’s smile.
Kleesic looked old.
"I don’t understand," said
Sarwin stepping back, "I saw you less than two hours ago... before the
jump. What’s happened to you,
Kleesic? What’s happened to the
World?" Sarwin gestured out the
view port to the poised azure arc of the planet outside.
Kleesic sat down in the main command
chair. He used his arm to steady
himself as he sank down, in a manner much the way aged senators used when they
sat down.
"What happened to me is easy to
explain," he said, "the course of years have robbed me of the sweet
vitality of youth. What happened to the
World... that... well, that is a bit
more complex, I’m afraid."
Kleesic looked up at Sarwin; his
eyes sunk deep in their hollowed sockets.
Sarwin knelt down beside his friend, trying to mask a grimace of pain as
his recently battered body protested the move.
If Kleesic noticed, he gave no sign.
Kleesic reached out and touched Sarwin on the cheek.
"Damn it, Sarwin," he went
on, "You look so young. You
haven’t changed at all. You’re just as
I remembered... so long ago... so long." Kleesic's focus seemed to drift a bit. He looked so old. So
tired and old.
"Kleesic... talk to me,"
Sarwin reached out and touched his friend on the shoulder to keep his
attention, "Are the others here also?"
"Others?" asked Kleesic,
seeming to come back to full awareness.
"Oh yes, the others. Yes,
now that you have finally arrived, we are all here now."
"And what of Siverelle?"
asked Sarwin, impatiently, "What of my wife?"
Old Kleesic nodded and Sarwin's
heart leapt. "She is here, my
friend, here... somewhere."
"Here somewhere? You mean you don't know where she is?"
"Yes," replied Kleesic,
"She was the first to arrive. Her
ship crashed into the World, as it was damaged and out of control from her
collision with Etyiam."
"But she is alive?" asked
Sarwin, anxiously.
"To be honest, we don't know
Sarwin. We know she survived the crash
and that she was still alive until at least a few years ago. How she fares today, we can't be sure. She is a guest of... them."
Kleesic nodded toward the window and the planet beyond.
"Them?" reacted Sarwin,
pointing toward the window, "You mean those Vartyiar beasts I saw on my
monitors just moments ago? What the
hell are they? Where did they come
from? Was the World invaded by aliens
from..."
Kleesic put up his hand in a motion
to silence his friend. Sarwin fell
quiet.
"You have many questions,
Sarwin," said the aged Ordinary, looking very weary, "and we can
answer most of them. Let us go meet the
others and all will be explained."
Fifteen minutes later, Sarwin watched
out the window as his ship drew closer to the nearly featureless white plane,
which stretched endlessly to the horizon in all directions. He didn't have to worry about control, as
his ship was slaved to Kleesic's, which was ahead and slightly to the left of
Sarwin's saucer. They were over the
vast south polar continent of Char, which popular myth thought contained the
doorway to Scoggast. Few saurians were
willing to travel here, if not because of the cold, then because of the chance
of running into a Vartyiar. How ironic
is seemed to Sarwin now, that the World was overrun with such hairy demons and
the vestiges of saurian-kind were taking refuge here, at the very gates of
hell. His World had been literally
turned upside-down.
Kleesic had told Sarwin that his
team had taken refuge here, as it was about the only place left on the World
that these humans, as they called themselves, had not completely overrun. He said when they first arrived in this
reality, they took refuge in a tropical paradise on the southern continent of
Noor. But in time, the humans so
encroached on the jungle, they had to abandon that base and take refuge
here. They had found a large, natural
cave beneath the ice, which they enlarged and heated to make a habitat suitable
for themselves in this icy wasteland.
Sarwin saw Kleesic's saucer bank
slightly and then a second later felt his own saucer shadow the move, as it
followed the other's flight path precisely.
The sensors showed they were getting near the surface now, but it was
difficult to tell by looking out the window, as the featureless white
snow-scape offered few landmarks by which to judge distance. It was like flying over calm water at night.
Now Sarwin could see something in
the distance. A dark spot in the
endless blanket of white, which grew larger with each passing second. It must be the cave Kleesic spoke of. They were very low now. Sarwin could see the twin round shadows of
their ships far ahead of them, racing over the landscape, trying to beat them
to the cave. With the sun in its
eternal twilight at their backs, the saucers had no chance of overtaking their
silhouettes. Now the shadows
disappeared into the maw of the cavern and within seconds the saucers
themselves were entering it. The
darkness of the great hole swallowed them up, a complete contrast to the muted
whiteness outside. He saw the
brilliant, multicolor running lights of Kleesic's saucer wink on in a vain
attempt to drive off the gloom.
I'm entering hell, he thought,
relinquishing his higher faculties to the superstitious hollows of his mind;
those dark and primitive places where demons, gods and angels lived as true as
the light of day. Kleesic is dead and
damned to hell. Now his ghost has come
to escort me there too.
Sarwin shook his head and the
darkness completely enveloped the two tiny ships.