Eric Brown: Penumbra

“Carstairs?” Bennett said. “Is it really you?” He shook his head. “We thought you were dead.”

The gaunt, balding man, his face thin and pale from so many years spent underground, inclined his head. “I was dead,” he said. “A man called Klien shot me, many years ago.” He turned and gestured up at the ziggurat. “Welcome to the temple of the Ahloi,” he said.

To return home after all those years, to leave behind the evil of Earth…

Ezekiel Klien sat on the floor of the engine compartment and listened to the slow burn of the vertical thrusters as the Cobra came in to land. The impact was gentle, followed by silence, and Klien closed his eyes. The descent through the atmosphere of Penumbra had been much less of a trial than the take-off from Earth, but he still felt shaken and bruised from the roller-coaster ride. He gave thanks that he was home at last.

He activated his ear-piece. Muffled voices came to him from the flight-deck. “You have the softscreen, Josh?” someone asked.

A period of silence, then Bennett asked about Mackendrick and someone called Ten Lee. Klien listened intently, trying to work out precisely where he was, who Bennett was talking to.

“We’ll study the screen and plot the position of the entrance to the underground caverns,” Bennett’s contact was saying. “Can we make the journey in the ship?”

Bennett replied that they could if there was a suitable landing place. Klien heard their footsteps on the ramp as they left the ship.

Bennett seemed to be in contact with people who wanted the softscreen as a guide to the subterranean cavern—obviously, then, opponents of the Council of Elders, and therefore his own enemies. He guessed that they were somewhere in the mountains, in hiding from the council. Soon they would attempt to fly to the entrance to the underground lair of the Ancients.

He considered the wisest course of action.

It had been a strange four months for Klien, effectively alone as the Cobra lighted through the void. He had had the freedom of the ship. He had eaten well from the stores, and slept in the comfortable beds one at a time, for variety.

During that time he had contemplated the years since leaving Homefall. He was satisfied with his achievements. He had successfully eradicated Quineau, though the fact that the softscreen had remained at large had been a constant source of regret. His time spent in Calcutta he considered a success. He had worked hard to gain his position of eminence at the port, and he had done his best to eradicate evil from the city. Granted, the execution of those he considered unworthy had done little to undermine the rampant spread of evil, but the fact remained that he had done his best. Thanks to him, Earth was a better place, and it was his duty to do the same for Homefall.

He listened to Bennett as he spoke to Mackendrick. A period of silence was followed by Bennett talking to a woman called Ten Lee about how he had discovered the softscreen on Earth. Then they were joined by a number of the renegade colonists. Evidently they were looking at a map, charting the position of the mountain entrance.

“When do you want to set off?” Bennett asked.

“We’ve been ready for months,” a renegade said. “It really depends on how you’re feeling. Are you up to an immediate start?”

“I can’t think of any reason to wait,” Bennett said.

Klien felt his pulse quicken. Soon they would be flying to the entrance of the underground passage which, sixteen years ago he, Quineau and Carstairs had stumbled upon. He considered the fact that, but for that accidental discovery, the entire course of his life would have been completely different. He could only assume, in the circumstances, that his had been a God-given mission.

Thirty minutes later he heard the sounds of footsteps moving through the ship. The ramp was retracted and the engines powered up. He reached out for his laser pistols, reassured by their presence. Soon, he would be fulfilling the very last act of his long and arduous task.

The Cobra lifted. Klien closed his eyes and waited out the journey. In the warmth of the engine compartment, lulled by the vibration, he dozed. He was awoken, later, by the sound of voices. They had landed. Bennett and the others were preparing themselves for the descent into the subterranean caverns. He listened to their brief conversation, heard the ramp go down and the sound of departing footsteps. He waited ten minutes. Judging by the laboured breathing communicated through his ear-piece, Bennett and the others were climbing up the side of the valley.

Klien moved from the engine compartment and hurried to the flight-deck. Through a sidescreen he made out five tiny figures climbing towards the overhang. He considered what to do now.

If he could contact the Council via the ship’s radio and tell them that he had returned… But how would that help the council? He had no idea of the position of the renegades’ hide-out.

Then, on the console before the command-couch, he saw a folded map. With trembling hands he opened it out.

There were two red circles marked on the map, and a line marked in red which he judged to be the route he and the others had taken sixteen years ago. One circle was situated high in the western mountains, and could only be the entrance to the underground chambers. The other was two hundred kilometres to the south. This southernmost circle had to be the position of the renegade camp.

He activated the radio and attempted to get through to someone, anyone, on Homefall. If he could contact the Council, inform them of the whereabouts of the renegades’ camp…

He tried every wavelength, every band, but without luck. The receivers relayed only the white noise of static. Evidently he was too far away, or perhaps atmospheric conditions were scrambling the signal.

Very well, he would try later. He would follow Bennett and the others underground, choose his moment and kill them. He would take their protective thermals, return to the ship, and try to contact the Council again. If unsuccessful, he would make the long trek to home valley, equipped with supplies from the ship, and the map. He had done it once before; he would do it again.

First, though, he had to eliminate the enemy.

In his ear-piece he could hear the heavy breathing of Bennett, the sound of ringing footsteps on rock.

He lowered the ramp and left the ship with his laser pistols. The wind was biting, and he was hardly dressed for the conditions, but soon he would be in the caverns, warming himself with the thrill of the chase. He followed the trail of footprints through the snow to the overhang of rock. The sight of it, the grey slab jutting out over the valley, brought back a slew of memories. He moved from the snow and clambered up the slope, soon locating the narrow entrance.

He began a cautious descent, the sound of Bennett’s breathing playing in his ear.

He removed the ear-piece so that he might hear his quarry naturally and so judge how far away they were.

Over the period of the next six hours, Klien followed Bennett and the others down the sloping corridor and the long, panel-flanked passage, until they came to the head of the natural valley. For the first time he caught sight of them as they stopped to make camp for the night. He inserted his ear-piece as they settled down to sleep, so that he would be alerted when they awoke and set off again. He found a natural mattress of fungus and napped.

Hours later they set off again, and Klien followed at a safe distance. Soon, he knew, they would be coming to the amphitheatre containing the ziggurat of the Ancients.

He recalled Carstairs, and what they had witnessed in the chamber so many years ago. He had not been able to let Carstairs go after that, could not let him spread the word of the Ancients. So he had killed him… and tried to kill Quineau as well. But Quineau had managed to flee the temple, escape the mountains before he, Klien, could silence him.