Enslavement Read online

  “I agree,” replied Brodrick, “but where does the ore go? It's just solid stone behind the grid - there's no opening into anywhere else. This is weird, or we've missed something. Do you want to go down?”

  “No thanks,” Ted quickly replied. “Don't see the point of it - you've seen all there is to see.”

  “Let's take a break, have something to eat, and try and figure this out. There must be some explanation. Let's see if we can get that slab back into position - some poor sod in the future might fall in.”

  Brodrick got to his feet, and somewhat unsteadily walked over to the strange carving on the wall; taking hold of the protruding nose-like object, he pushed it back into its original position.

  There was a distant clunk, a deep grinding sound, and the floor slab moved back into place, and then rose up to floor level, showing no sign that it had ever moved.

  “Well, don't that just about beat all,” exclaimed Brodrick, “you really have to see it to believe it - I'd love to see the mechanism that works that floor slab, but I doubt we'll get access to it. There's nothing else in here for us, let's go look at the other little building - that may contain some more surprises.”

  They left the ore dumping chamber, passed the main temple with its sacrificial slab, and walked around the smaller building of the three. As far as they could tell, there were no openings, doorways, or other means of access.

  “There's got to be some way in,” exclaimed Brodrick, somewhat frustrated, “otherwise, what's the point of the damned thing in the first place?”

  After the third time of walking around the enigmatic block, examining the surface for any signs of entry, the pair gave up.

  “Maybe the means of entry is in the main temple, or the ore chamber,” suggested Ted, “it's got to be somewhere.”

  They went back to the ore chamber, but the only thing they could find apart from bare stone walls, was the strange carving on the wall which had worked the floor slab.

  “I wonder if it does anything else.” Brodrick said, but without his usual enthusiasm.

  Taking hold of the proboscis-like nose of the mythical stone creature, he pushed it in an upwards direction. Nothing happened, so he pushed it back into the main carving, as you would a button. There was sharp click, and the nose retracted back to almost disappear - there was another faint sound, but they couldn't tell where it was coming from.

  “I've got a feeling about this,” said Brodrick, “let's go look at the smaller building again.”

  They both ran out of the ore chamber and over to the lone featureless building past the main temple. It looked the same, but going around the back, a recess had appeared in the otherwise blank wall. Looking into the hole, a small round knob could be seen; as far as they could tell, also made of stone.

  “OK, who's going to try tweaking it then?” Brodrick asked. Ted took a step back.

  “Alright, I'll do it.” And so saying he reached into the dark space, grasped the knob and gave it a push - nothing. Brodrick then tried pulling, again nothing happened.

  A twist to the right produce the required result. A low grinding sound accompanied a section of the wall retracting and then sliding to one side.

  All they could see when they peered in was a plain stone walled room with no other features at all.

  “Well, that's a bit disappointing,” said Ted, bravely stepping into the chamber, “don't see what they used this for, unless as a hidey hole from the visiting God - if it really existed.”

  They both explored the room, tapping the walls and floor for anything which would do something - but there was nothing.

  “We could use it for a base - keep our gear in here. It will keep us dry if it rains, and it's a safer place to sleep; we still don't know what makes all those awful noises at night.” Brodrick added.

  They moved their packs into the building, and as the light was beginning to fade gathered up what dry wood they could find, and lit a fire just outside the entrance. An evening meal was prepared and consumed, and then they talked on into the night, trying to make sense of what they had discovered.

  Next morning, after a frugal breakfast of concentrates washed down with hot black coffee, it was decided to go over the buildings again, just in case they had missed something of importance.

  “It's odd that we can't see much above our heads,” commented Ted, “it must be a very high ceiling, or there's something up there which doesn't reflect light.”

  Brodrick picked up the torch, gave it a few quick winds and shone it upwards.

  “See what you mean - it just seems to absorb the light, that is odd. If we can find a long enough stick we'll tie the torch on the end and shove it up there - I don't like things like that - it's against nature.”

  “This whole damn place is.” Ted retorted.

  First they went to the ore receiving block, armed with camera and note book. Pictures were taken of anything which looked interesting on the outside, and then the weird plaque with the mythical beast and its nose - which was still retracted. There was nothing else of interest on the walls, so Brodrick pulled the nose back out and then down - the expected low rumble followed with the floor slab sliding back, and after a bit of persuasion, Ted was sent down the cord to take pictures of the grid lined chamber beneath.

  With a puffing Ted safely back, Brodrick reset the nose to replace the floor slab, making a short film of it moving into place. The nose was then pushed back in so that they would have access to the small plain building where their gear was stored.

  Taking pictures of the carving outside and within the main temple took a lot longer, and having done so, they went back to the refuge for some food - only to find the entrance blocked.

  This time Ted put his hand into the recess, turned the knob, and the door block obligingly retracted and slid back.

  “If we can get into this block so easily, I wonder why the Maya didn't have a go?” Ted asked.

  “Perhaps there was a powerful taboo on touching anything apart from the main temple,” Brodrick suggested. “According to the old boy's notes, they were terrified of the God thing, so I suppose that was enough.”

  In the dim light inside the building, they didn't at first notice the change which had taken place.

  “Hey - the floor's got that grid pattern on it,” exclaimed Ted, “that wasn't here before.”

  Brodrick went in and grabbed the torch, shining it on the metal grid which covered the floor.

  “That's odd,” he said. “if the grid had slid in from one side, all our stuff would have been piled up in a heap, and it isn't - so the grid must have come up from underneath, but we didn't see any sign of it before. So where the hell did it come from?”

  A hesitant Ted now joined Brodrick on the grid lined floor, and the extra weight triggered a mechanism somewhere - the door slab slid back into place, cutting out what little light there was. The walls took on a faint glow, and a sound of something moving from overhead made them both look up.

  “Oh no.” Brodrick called out, but it was too late to do anything.

  CHAPTER 3

  WITHIN SECONDS THE walls of the room were now lined with the familiar grid-like pattern of metal bars they had seen in the ore chamber; then the room seemed to fill with an intangible white mist, obscuring everything except their pile of equipment and the two explorers.

  “What the…” Brodrick exclaimed. And then the mist faded away.

  The metal grids were gone; there were just the two of them and their equipment, in a metal lined room.

  “Hey - where have the walls gone,” Ted almost yelled. “they were stone with that grid thing on them.”

  “Don't know,” Brodrick replied a little nervously, after looking around at their new surroundings. “Sliding stone doors and metal grids I had got used to, but this is something else. Surely it can't be the same room we were in just now; if it is, where is the stone work - and if it isn't……don't want to think about that.”

  “Maybe it's like a lift, only horizon
tal, and we have shifted to another part of the temple complex,” Ted offered, but doubting his words as he uttered them.

  “Only one way to find out,” said Brodrick, bravely, flashing his torch about, “and that's to find the bloody door - if it still exists.”

  Suddenly there was a quiet whooosh, and an opening appeared in the wall opposite them. There was nothing to see except an inky blackness, even the glow in the chamber had gone.

  “I have an awful feeling we're not at the temple any more - but where we are is anyone's guess; the only thing to do is go outside and see what's there. Better take our stuff with us in case the door shuts.”

  They gathered up their equipment and, with torch in hand, entered the opening in the wall ahead. It was short passage - and then it ended, just an intense blackness lay ahead. They shone their torches all around, but all there was to see was the dull grey featureless metallic building, and the ground - which seemed to be sandy.

  “Looks like we've got ourselves into a bit of a fix,” said Brodrick, “no point in going any further until we can see what is out there; I suggest we go back inside. Have something to eat, and see what happens.”

  Back inside they scoured the walls of the building for any clues as to what it was, apart from a large metal box.

  “Hey,” Ted called out, “we must have missed this, it looks like some sort of dial. There's a knob with a pointer, and five symbols in a circle around it.”

  “For God’s sake don't touch it,” Brodrick yelled. “Let's see if we can work out what it is and does.”

  Together they looked at the location dial, tempted to turn it, but not daring to.

  “I'll get my sketch book and make a note of the details,” said Brodrick, “it's just possible it might send us back to where we came from - if we can figure how it works.”

  Having made a drawing of the dial, the symbols, and the present setting, there was little else they could do, so they sat there and chewed on a concentrate bar, waiting for a flash of inspiration.

  “If we could find out how to operate that dial thing on its present setting,” said Ted, “we could go back to where we came from.”

  “That's if ‘it’ hasn't gone on to some place else,” Brodrick replied. “It's too risky, until we find out a bit more about what this place is, and where ‘it’ might have gone.”

  Just then they noticed a faint light in the doorway.

  “Right, let's see what we have outside,” Brodrick said, “but be careful not to fiddle with anything, and watch where you step.”

  They picked up their belongings, and went down the short passageway to the outside world. In the grey light of dawn they could just make out an undulating plain going out to a range of distant hills, all shrouded in thin mist and indistinct. On the horizon the sun was about to rise.

  “Funny, there aren’t any stars,” said Ted, “normally we can always see them - so where are they?”

  “Could be that misty stuff obscuring them,” offered Brodrick. “But I'm beginning to get a funny feeling about this place.”

  And then the sun rose. At first it was just a bright light on the horizon, and then it hove into view in all its full glory. They could feel its heat even though it was low on the horizon.

  “Oh my God - we really are in trouble. That sun has a blue green tinge, ours is yellowish. I know it sounds impossible, but I think we are on another planet. That grid thing must be a teleport of some kind – it’s has been thought about for years, but no one has ever come up with the goods. I think the technology is based on Quantum Theory - or something like that.”

  “So what the hell do we do now?” asked a really worried Ted. Brodrick was silent.

  Slowly the sun ascended, the mist burned off, and they had a good view of their new world. Apart from a few sad wrinkled looking plants composed of long thin leaves, the terrain was barren, mainly composed of coarse sand with a few rocks scattered here and there. Even the distant hills were bare - black masses of jagged rock, jutting up into an ever increasingly warm air.

  “Well, at least we can breathe,” said Brodrick, “but food might be a bit of a problem.”

  They had a good supply of concentrates, which would last a long time, but fresh fruit and vegetables were part of man's diet - and there was no sign of them. Water must be present as there were a few plants - it would be just a matter of finding where it was hidden.

  “Look down there”, said Ted, “it looks like a building of some sort, worth a look?”

  “Yes, I don't see why not. There's nothing much here apart from fiddling with that dial thing, and God knows what that does, or where it would send us.”

  They picked up their equipment and headed in the direction of what looked as if it might be a building, although it only looked like a sort of symmetrical stone block from where they stood.

  “Have you noticed how hard the ground is?” asked Ted. “It's not far short of concrete, so how do the plants get their roots down?”

  “We'll soon see, there's one just ahead, we'll have a look at it.”

  As they drew nearer, they could see the plant had somehow plumped up its leaves, was standing taller, and the wrinkles had gone.

  “It would seem,” said Brodrick, “that the plant draws up water from below when the sun hits it - that's the opposite of what earth plants do.”

  He looked thoughtful for a few moments, and then said, “Could be the night here is a lot colder than anything we're used to, so the plant has to get rid of excess water or its cells would burst. Maybe it has some sort of anti-freeze, like some of ours do, but not enough to handle the full water content. It's possible they are still evolving, and one day might be able to withstand the cold without dumping most of their water - doubt if we'll be here long enough to see that though.” He added wryly.

  “And look at those needle sharp spikes on the end of the leaves,” Ted commented, “never seen a plant like that before. I'll give this smaller one a tug to see what the roots are like.” And so saying, he gripped the base of the plant and tried to pull it up.

  “Get back!” Brodrick shouted, as one of the leaves began curving down towards Ted's hand. The sharp tip of the leaf just missed his hand as he leapt back.

  “Look at the tip of the spike,” said Brodrick, “it's got a tiny drop of pale yellow fluid on it - I'll bet it's a toxin of some kind. A plant only goes to that length to protect itself if there's something around to attack or eat it - so I wonder what that is?”

  They both looked around the barren landscape, but nothing was moving, except the leaf, which was slowly rising upwards to take up its normal position.

  A short while later and they had reached what looked like the building; it was just a square block, composed of the same material as the ground, but in one continuous mass - no blocks or joins.

  “Where's the entrance?” asked Ted, “I wonder why there's no door?”

  “Look, there's a line marking out where a door could be,” Brodrick replied, “but they didn't put one in.”

  He put his hand on the slight recess, and it went straight through, and his hand was still visible.

  “Well now, that's real clever,” he said. “Looks like we have an illusion of a door which people who know about it can go through, but animals would only see the wall, and not bother; how the hell do they do that?”

  They both cautiously entered the building, and as they did so the walls emitted a soft glow - just enough light to see an assortment of small cylindrical dull grey tanks, a series of pipes joining them up, and a large cylinder raised on blocks.

  They walked around the strange collection of alien equipment, trying to fathom out what it might be used for, but as there were no signs, symbols, levers or knobs to turn, they were no wiser after their inspection.

  Brodrick had spotted a small tank on its own, joined to the system by one pipe and with a downward curving spout sticking out of its side. Without thinking, he slipped his hand under the spout, and jumped back in astonishment as a clea
r liquid gushed out, wetting his hand.

  “That looks like water,” he exclaimed, putting his wet hand up to his nose, “and it has no smell. I'll just try a drop.”

  “Don't be so bloody stupid,” said Ted, “it might be poisonous.”

  It was too late, Brodrick had put a wet finger under his tongue, waited a moment, and said, “It's OK - this is the standard tongue test I learned for testing water. Looks like one of our problems has been solved,” he added with a grin.

  Brodrick got a meal tin from his backpack, put it under the spout, and waited while it was obligingly filled to the brim. He then took a mouthful, swilled it around his mouth, and swallowed it.

  “That tastes really good,” he said, handing the tin to Ted, “try some.”

  Ted took a sip, and then emptied the container, slaking his not inconsiderable thirst.

  “Look,” said Brodrick, “there's a pipe going down into the ground. I reckon this is a water pumping and purification plant, and it's just possible there may be more of them dotted about the place. It's solved our water problem - at least for now.”

  “But why would anyone build this place in the middle of nowhere?” Ted asked, not being widely known for using logic.

  “Maybe there isn't any surface water here - people need water when they travel - hence the pump building. I bet there are more of them, as I said. Anyway, let's fill our water containers to the brim.”

  “OK, so where to now?” a somewhat disgruntled Ted said.

  “Well, we could go on to that next rise,” Brodrick replied, “and see if there is anything different on offer, and if not, we may as well return to the building we arrived in, and see if we can get back to our own world.”

  It took a little longer to reach the next point of high ground, as distance in this kind of terrain is difficult to judge. As far as they could see it was more of the same, with the dark rocky hills in the far distance.

  “I don't see any…..” and that was when they had their first glimpse of the native animal life. A large creature, about the size of a horse, was chewing away at a corpse in the shallow valley below them.