Aurona, page 38
There was an instant silence.
Suddenly, Adam winced. Out of the blue, a powerful runic message flooded his mind. He found it hard to keep up with the string of glowing symbols.
“Adam, this is Duron. I have my feet planted firmly on the ground and am sending you this message through the planetary gridwork. I have been watching your progress through your telepathic eyes. Please give one of your crew this abandoned structure, as we have thousands more all over the planet. Consider it a reward for ridding our planet of this dangerous, mutant species. The Elders with me are in agreement that you and your men have taken enormous risks to accomplish this frightrning task. This is the least we can do.”
He shook his head, blinked, and turned to Peter with a completely unexpected answer on his lips. “Ah, do you want it, Peter?”
Everyone swiveled toward him like he’d gone stark, raving mad.
Kron squeaked out a reply. “S-Sir, you’re joking! You can’t be serious!”
Adam laid it out. “No, I’m not joking. Duron, ah, told me to consider this first vault as a gift from the Elders. After that, they want each of us to get one as a reward for ridding the planet of Spyrins. Call it a little added incentive?”
Peter was sputtering. “But, but….”
“It’s for real, men. The Bandors moved out of these vaults centuries ago to live in their bigger, more secure cities. This is just one of thousands of identical copies all over Aurona, and from what I’m figuring out, they’re all over the universe!”
“Whaaat?” Tola interjected. “No way! They abandoned these gems? Why?”
He held up his hands. “Hey, t o Bandors, gold’s just another metal. You know, it’s decorative and useful, like the ultimate in rot-proof trash can liners, or something?” He thought a moment. “I don’t know, guys. When you get your vault just use your imagination: live in it like a home, have a cool vacation retreat in the jungle, make it a research station, whatever! Strip the gold from the walls and melt it into computer connections! Personally, though, I want my vault to stay the same. I think it’s beautiful.”
Peter was still in shock. “C’mon … me? Are you absolutely sure?”
He raised a brow, staring at him levelly. “I’m stark, raving positive!”
As the man let out a whoop and scampered down the ramp, Adam turned to the others and gestured toward the floor. “Sit a minute, guys. Let’s give him some privacy. We’ve worked hard. Take a break and enjoy the cool breezes coming up out of the vault. Since you’re my inner circle, I feel like this is a good time to pass on a bit of insight. Something important has been on my chest for quite a while.”
Their eyes questioning, they settled to the floor at his feet.
“Gold,” he began. “Our symbol ‘Au’ and number 79 in the periodic table. In fact, the symbol ‘Au’ is where the name ‘Aurona’ comes from: a gold planet with a corona around it? My grandfather thought up the name and the Bandors liked it.”
“Hey,” Tola chuckled, “he’s cuttin’ into my turf! Great name, though!”
Adam laughed along with the men. “So there you go. Anyway, in our periodic table, we squeezed gold between platinum and mercury. Since it’s so rare on the Earth, we’ve given it a lot of value. All the gold we’ve ever mined would fit into a 60-foot cube. On the other hand, since it’s so abundant on Aurona, it’s just another metal. They don’t use it as money. In fact, the Bandors have no need for any kind of hard currency here.”
“But-but how do they buy anything?” a voice piped up.
“They don’t,” he shrugged. “Everything’s bartered. Everything.”
Tola raised a pudgy finger. “I just thought of something. Since gold is everywhere here, Aurona might have been bombarded with meteors during its formation.”
Adam looked pleasantly surprised. “You’ve been reading, Tola!”
“Yeah, in the Dream Library. I was wondering what made this place tick.”
He turned to the men. “Remember, guys. Take everything you read with a grain of salt; a lot of what we ‘know’ is just educated guessing. The scientists think, or guess, that tiny 60-foot cube of gold we’ve discovered, maybe 180 or 190 billion tons of it, came to Earth via meteorites very late in its history. That would put it just about 4 billion years ago, during the Late Heavy Bombardment period.”
The small group elbowed and threw looks each other. Apparently, their young leader knew far more than he let on.
Adam homed in on his point. “Listen guys, and bear with me. Think about the concept of bartering. Think about all the things that bartering reflects and represents: motives can’t be forced, nor can attitudes or heart, for that matter. Everybody here on Aurona works freely for the common good and everything’s shared equally, even their thoughts! And no one goes hungry.”
“Sounds too good to be true,” Elke murmured.
“No, it sounds more like socialism,” Tola corrected.
“Bees!” Adam slapped his leg, laughing. “They’re all worker bees here! Seriously, you might think that lack of ownership might destroy every speck of initiative, but somewhere along the line a funny thing happened.”
“What’s that sir?”
He shrugged. “The greed disappeared. They totally forgot about it. Their real prize has turned out to be equally shared thoughts, their treasure fresh new ideas for the betterment of all! Here’s the low-down: through their powers of telepathy, they’ve become an extremely closely-knit race. When one gets hurt they all feel the pain. On the other hand, when one gets a brilliant idea, he instantly beams it out over the entire planet. Think about this: telepathy is the Ultimate Internet! Telepathy is the sole reason they’re so incredibly advanced, both materially and socially.” He paused, contemplating. “But on the down side, now that we’ve arrived, there’s something else I really worry about.”
Kron cut in. “I think I know, sir.” He shrugged, hesitantly. “It’s us! Right?”
He turned to him, relieved. “Thanks, man. I-I was starting to feel like you guys might be hanging off the tip of my branch. Yes, it’s us. We’re a real danger to them.”
“I’m with you all the way on that one, sir.” Tola nodded.
He held up an admonishing finger. “We’re still greedy. We’re Neanderthals compared to them. We’re still acting like stupid animals growling over our pitiful piles of bones. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is taking forever to die out in our backward civilization!”
“But-but the Bandors seem to like us…,” one of the men offered.
“Yes,” he interrupted, “but even that scares me! You’ve got to understand that in many ways they’re like innocent children. They’ve been trusting each other so long they’ve forgotten about all the snaky human things like suspicion, dominance, greed, and stupid ego trips.”
“Whooee!!” Kron expelled a breath of air. “Go for it! Tell it like it is!”
“Preach it, man!” Tola beamed. “I think you’ve missed your calling!”
Adam waved them off, laughing. “Listen, guys. Since I trust you, I want to ask each one of you a very important favor.”
“What is it, sir?” Tola answered for the group.
“For the sake of these innocent Bandors, pass on this stuff to the rest of the crew? I know it’ll be hard, but hopefully they’ll come around. At least the ones with half a brain…. Oh, and speaking of Neanderthal thinking, you may be surprised that the Bandors have already spotted the, ah, negative people among us.”
Kron interjected quickly. “Of course you’re referring to Dexor and his goons?”
“Bingo! You noticed too? There’s a serious flaw in their thought patterns. Telepathically speaking, they stand out like sore thumbs! Duron could actually see an aura around them! He simply couldn’t understand their negativity and resistance.”
“Well, we understand, sir,” Kron affirmed. “You may not be aware of this, but some of us have had long talks about them. We got ‘em locked in our sights!”
The morning sun was now streaming down brightly through the surrounding canopy of the rainforest, promising yet another perfect seventy-five degree day. Adam let out a long breath. A great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The men were coming out of their shells and starting to know each other on a far deeper level.
“You know,” he concluded quietly, “and I’m even more serious now, you’ve got to admire the way the Bandors have handled this planet. I mean, from zero: a barren, lifeless desert, to this?” He breathed deeply, filling his lungs with the pure air. “What a specimen, what a showpiece for the universe!” He stretched, looking around.
Tola grinned. “I’ll tell you one thing, sir: if we were in control, the whole planet would’ve been zapped into a cinder by now!”
Chuckling, Adam started down the ramp. “Hey, gimme a minute, guys,” he tossed over his shoulder. “I gotta talk to Peter.”
As he descended the long spiral, he paused near the bottom of the stairs, rubbing his forehead. Someone was talking.
“Why me?”
Startled, he stood riveted to the spot, his hand resting on the alabaster wall. Cocking his head and listening intently, he stole a quick look around the corner. Peter was gazing intently over his head, but his mouth wasn’t moving.
His voice came again in a disembodied whisper. “I-I really don’t need all this gold, but it’s mine? Wow, once I get rid of that big nest up there, this would make a fantastic room for parties, for dancing…. Gee, I hope Ariel likes it and it’s not too gloomy for her. Hmm, a few more ventilation holes up there might lighten this place up, and….”
Adam had heard enough. Was this a breakthrough? Maybe now he could listen to Dexor’s thoughts, too! He squared his shoulders and walked in, the picture of innocence. “Hey! Nice digs, Peter! A bit dismal, though, don’tcha think?” He swept his arm toward the glittering dome. “You might want to put in a skylight or two!”
He looked up, startled. “Wow! That’s-that’s exactly what I was thinking, sir! I can’t speak for my girl, though. I-I haven’t even asked her to marry me yet.”
“Ariel, is it?” Adam chuckled.
Peter squinted at him suspiciously. “How’d you know?”
He shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. Had he really heard Peter’s thoughts? Time to cover up. “Oh, we’ve all seen you,” he bluffed. “It’s obvious! The way you drool when she goes by? You know, the little things?”
The man grinned. “Oh. Sorry. I do slobber a bit.”
He thumped him on the back. “Let’s get the guys back down here to finish cleaning up. Hey, how about solar tubes? This vault could be a model for the others!”
“Wow! Even better! I was thinking, though, where’d I sleep, or eat? It-it just seems to be just one big, round room!” As he twirled around, his arms in the air, there was the sudden sound of thumping of feet.
The men filed in. They’d heard Peter on the way down. Lights flashing, they began to explore in earnest, their Asron torches reflecting brightly off the walls.
They paced off the perimeter, checked out the carvings, and poked their fingers into the crevices and elaborate designs carved into the heavily embossed gold. In a minute, Peter stopped short and swept his arm in an arc.
“Wait, guys! Do you see the way the big arches frame off these panels? Yeah, they’re definitely some kind of doors! I wonder if…?” His sentence was left unfinished. Everyone began to jab and prod at them with renewed vigor.
Kron suddenly let out a shout. “Look! An opening!” They crowded behind him, their eyes following his fingertip and focusing on a tiny pinpoint of light beaming through the gold. “I was kinda’ ‘sniffing,’ using my air quality indicator! It just registered a slight difference between the smoky air in here and a fresher breeze from … there!”
Peter put his nose up to the pinhole, sniffing. “Another room?”
“You’d think so,” Kron answered, “but the air quality indicator reads differently. It says it’s coming from the outside!”
Peter poked at the panel, enthusiastically massaging every nook of the elaborately embellished archway. Suddenly, as his finger brushed a small button in the middle of the grand center rosette, it gave a slight bounce. He paused, looked pointedly over his shoulder, and then pushed harder. There was a muffled clank. “Yes!” He grinned, his fist in the air. They backed away in excitement.
A huge, fifteen foot arched panel slid backward, and then smoothly changing direction, began to rise in total silence. Suddenly, a long bar of blinding sunlight stabbed into the gloom! Peter could contain himself no longer. Before anyone could react, he dove recklessly under the lifting door and scrambled into an incredibly bright, domed antechamber. He jumped to his feet, spinning around, his arms wide. “Holy cow, this is unbelievable!” His voice echoed hollowly. “Where’s all this light coming from?”
They poked their heads inside, breathing deeply and inhaling the pure, filtered air. The walls were flawlessly polished white alabaster, buffed to a high gloss, precisely fit and amazingly reflective.
“Forget the light!” Kron exclaimed. “Where’s all this cool, dry air coming from? We must be under a ventilation shaft or something!”
There was a hollow-sounding shout behind them. They spun on their heels to see Adam sprinting around the perimeter of the room like a madman, screeching to a halt in the floor litter and pressing the buttons in all the center rosettes. More light was pouring in! One by one, twenty brilliant antechambers slowly opened in sequence behind him! The magnificent carvings in the great central vault now gleamed brilliantly, shown in their real light for the first time in millennia!
Peter stumbled into the center of the great room. “No! All this is-is mine?”
“All this and more!” Kron poked his head out of the entrance of an antechamber, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re not going to believe this, but it goes on and on. I just opened a total of ten smaller chambers off this one!”
In a flash, they crowded in next to him. “Look at that long row of buttons on the left! C’mon, let’s go inside!”
The antechambers were living quarters, every one of them, with bathrooms, small cooking areas and twenty hidden, paneled sleeping niches carved into their alabaster walls. There were more flush rows of buttons. They pushed them one by one, watching the sleeping niches open silently.
“Hey, I just added it all up, guys!” Kron held up his programmer. “Here goes: there are twenty antechambers around this huge main vault, with ten living areas per antechamber, then twenty sleeping niches in each one. You’re not gonna believe it, but the numbers don’t lie! There are a total of four thousand possible sleeping accommodations in here! This really was one of their early cities!”
Tola’s jaw sagged. “Overload! Overload!” he twanged. “Way too many numbers! This small round unit will self-destruct in ten seconds! Overload! Overload….”
The crew guffawed, cutting him off.
“Hey, Peter!” someone shouted. “Looks like you could start a good-sized family!” They teased him, thumping him on the back. “Ariel might even have quadruplets!”
“C’mon, guys!” He blushed.
Working in the amazingly bright dome, they enthusiastically bent their backs into the last stages of cleanup. With a collective zap of their Stiflers, the great vestigial stump of the nest crashed to the floor and spilled its contents. As expected, the menagerie outside relished the dead, smoked larvae. Soon, not a trace of the Spyrins was left except clouds of black wings, drifting into glistening piles in the underbrush. By two o’clock the vault was totally empty, the debris swept into antigrav buckets and hauled away.
With the magnificent glass floor now clean and glistening, Adam was finally able to translate the runes that were revealed around the edges. They spoke of unknown sections of the universe and revealed yet another fabulous infrared star map. He sent the black holocamera aloft to record it in detail, figuring that Duron would be able to fill in the blanks and give them some answers.
They left in high spirits with chunks of nest material stowed behind their seats for the ship’s researchers. Shields up, they switched to Amplified Autopilot: the onboard supercomputers crunched the numbers, reversing every compass, radar, gyroscope and altimeter reading they’d meticulously recorded on the way in. It was incredible: every twist, dip, and pause was flawlessly repeated in the opposite direction, but this time at quarter speed. As they gained confidence in their unfamiliar equipment, the men slowly relaxed as they sped home, exhausted after the morning’s hard workout.
Chapter 21: METAMORPHOSIS
“Adam?”
“Umm?” He opened one eye groggily, then coming to his senses he sat bolt upright, grabbing for his covers. “Duron! How? Who…?”
The chuckling Bandor whisked in and plopped himself down on the foot of his bed. “Good evening and congratulations for a job well done this morning! I have been talking to Peter. He wants to install a force field over the entrance of his new home, and I think it is a splendid idea! We can produce what you call Solumbra domes in any shape and quite efficiently. Oh, I am sorry; did you have a pleasant rest?”
Just beyond the old one’s oddly proportioned head, there was a new Auronian chronometer on the wall. The fine, downy fuzz of Duron’s hair was backlit by a nearby fiberoptic sun-diffuser, and squinting, he could just about read the numbers. “Yeah,” he mumbled, “I guess a four-hour nap does make a lot of difference. After that Spyrin chase this morning, I was pooped.”
“Pooped?”
“Slang again, Duron. Tuckered out, frazzled, knocked for a loop … oh, forget it.” He swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Not to change the subject, but….”
“Y-yes?” The big head tilted way to the side, trying to keep up with the jargon.
“After we cleaned up the Spyrin nest, there was a star map on the floor showing a remote section of the universe. There was another system of galaxies I’ve never seen. I took some holo-photos of it, if you want to see them.”
“Later, perhaps. I do remember as a child visiting the last of our ancestor’s caves before we abandoned them for our new underground cities. There were also tales of a great coastal tomb, the very first to have ever been constructed, that was lost in a cataclysmic flood. Beyond that my memory seems to be incomplete.”
