The villagers stared at each other, confused. Some wailed a strange, braying noise, the sound of an injured donkey. Some whimpered in fear, scurrying around picking up as many pieces of the shattered obelisk as they could, sniffing them, examining them, unable to comprehend the destruction and loss of their totem. Crowds began to filter in from the village. Those who witnessed the destruction attempted to convey what had happened to the newly arrived through a series of grunts and gestures.
Jaysn and the others regarded the scene as the villagers began to argue over the rocks that remained, often coming to shoving and blows, not for dominance, but for ownership of the last pieces of the connection to their Overseer.
“They learn fast,” Jaysn remarked, raising an eyebrow.
Clarc shrugged. “They’re not built to be aggressors. This will probably be a very short-lived phase once the shock dies down.”
There was a crash of artificial thunder. Jaysn decided it sounded like a low brass instrument, or possibly the horn of one of the ancient sea vessels he’s seen in historical holovids. It shook the entire valley as every animal and creature stopped and looked up in fear. Even the wind had died down in anticipation.
Next, the first drops came. Not water, but the same silvery, seemingly intelligent drops of nanoparticles. Whether they hit the ground directly or bounced off whatever happened to be in their path, leaves, clothing, or a villager, they proceeded instantly into the soil. Seconds later, Jaysn noted that the grass and dirt around the village began to sparkle and disintegrate, replaced by a non-reflective black surface that resembled the material used to make the obelisk and the city’s walls.
“Lev?” Jaysn managed weakly.
“It’s what we saw in the vision.” Novik’s voice was calm. “Nanoparticles are destroying the water table and the mycorrhizal network.”
Wolff nodded. “We weren’t affected by the water in the vision, nor were the villagers. It affected the trees and the ornithoids.”
“Unless I miss my guess,” Novik replied, “it’s an issue of energy conservation and stability. The Overseer is bound by rules that require him to keep the simulation faithful.”
“Is that good or bad?” Wolff asked, defeated.
“If the goal is to wipe out all life in the valley, I imagine it is only a matter of time before the process has sufficient storage and regulatory capabilities and upgrades itself to be a deconstruction of the more complex life forms.”
“Can you estimate how long?” Solvig asked.
“Based on my scans of the spread, the rate of precipitation, and assuming there is no outflow, it will still be several weeks before the valley is completely filled,” Novik said confidently.
A small fault line opened, approximately two meters deep, splitting the village in two. A tide of silvery water began rising from it at several centimeters per second. The speed increased even as the volume it covered within the fault grew.
Novik abruptly wheeled backward several meters. “On the other hand, if the nanoparticles are assembling factories underground for replication, then the expansion is exponential and not linear, and we have only a couple of hours.”
“We’ve seen the rest of this,” Clarc said. In our vision, the villagers were fleeing.”
“The portal back to the city,” Wolff said, scanning the path ahead. Solvig and Clarc started off toward the portal. Jaysn looked at Novik and said nothing.
“I assume you don’t agree?” Novik said, wheeling closer to Jaysn.
“I can’t think of an alternative. This is our fault, though. I just feel like we should be doing something to stop this or at least help these people.”
“Jaysn, this was Tamana’s doing. Not yours. I seem to recall you trying to talk her out of it.”
“That’s just it. I don’t think I really wanted her to change her mind. I just didn’t want to die defending her decision.”
“Well, if there’s a person, or a control system that will stop this, the city may be our best hope of finding it. Death is certain if we stay here, so staying alive is a priority if you hope to salvage anything.”
Jaysn regarded Novik. “You’re very wise, my friend.” He said, half-joking, patted the drone on its back, and the two set off after the others.
The path back to the archway felt shorter this time, Jaysn decided, mostly because he knew exactly what was on their heels. The artificial thunder roared again from the direction of the village. Its ominous, almost musical tone vibrated the ground beneath him. The bleak gray of the artificial cloud above him shimmered as the unearthly rain continued to fall straight down. Ahead, he saw the straight line that marked the edge of the cloud, delineating it from the starless violet sky. He knew that, beyond it, just over a small hill, was the portal.
Clarc, Solvig, and Wolff were the first over the crest. They stopped instantly. Solvig put her hand to her mouth, and Clarc pulled at her hair. Wolff motioned for them to stay put while he investigated. By the time Novik and Jaysn caught up, Solvig was fighting back tears.
The portal was completely inert.
The dais had no light, no glow, no faint hum. It appeared as just a pillar of non-reflective blackness. Wolff frantically pressed at it in multiple places, then gave up and gave it a good-natured kick and a smack with the palm of his hand. “Dammit!”
Novik walked past them to the archway, scanning everything as he moved. “No residual energy, no extra-dimensional anomalies. They’re just inert hunks of that construction material. Something shut them down.”
“What are the odds that’s a coincidence?” Jaysn asked.
Clarc sighed. “Either way, we’re not getting out of the valley this way.”
Another guttural blast of noise vibrated everything around them. Jaysn turned and saw the rain line advancing toward them with the slowly moving cloud line, now only a few minutes away. The falling water looked like a brush pushing through the trees from their vantage point.
A dozen villagers appeared on the trail running toward them, easily outpacing the slow speed of the clouds. Some carried children, others carried one or more pieces of the shattered obelisk. They stopped, faces blank, upon seeing the deactivated portal. One began braying, a low noise that Jaysn could have interpreted either as remorseful or accusatory. One tried to hand Clarc the piece of the obelisk that he carried.
“Don’t blame me!” Clarc said, gently placing the object on the ground, keeping her head low and deferential. The humanoid mirrored her actions.
Novik spoke up, “My friends, we have a new problem.” He gestured to the advancing rain line and floodwaters with one of the drone’s appendages. Through the simmering rain, they could see silvery water climbing up trees, engulfing them, and then receding. Seconds later, the trees began to collapse under their own weight, leaves and branches falling off and turning to dust before they hit the ground. “The nanoparticles have upgraded. It’s only a matter of time before the rains will be a threat to us as well.”
The humanoid in front of Clarc regarded them as they studied the advancing flood, brayed once, then beat his chest three times. All five stared at him. He repeated the gesture, sharply turning his head to the left after the second time.
“Is that language? Does he understand us?” Solvig asked.
Clarc shook her head. “It’s language, but it’s more likely his picking up our emotional pheromones, not our words.”
“He smells our fear, you mean,” Wolff scoffed.
“Most mammals can, yes,” Clarc said, not taking her eyes off the humanoid. She beat her chest three times to mimic his action, then turned her head to the left.
The humanoid grunted in frustration and repeated the pattern a third time.
“Okay, you’re talking, but what are you saying?” Solvig asked.
“No idea, they did this in the valley before Amin was killed,” Clarc said.
Two more humanoids who had been watching also stepped forward and mimicked the gestures. A fourth stopped, turned to the rest of the approaching villagers, and, loudly and deliberately overacting, repeated the ritual, except that he turned his head to the right. Those who approached responded, beating their chests three times and turning their heads to the left. They then turned left and began running for the cliffside.
The humanoid in front of Clarc slapped his back with his long arm.
“Carry me? Yes! Great idea!”
“Dr. Clarc, did you—” Novik began.
Clarc interrupted. “I was overthinking it. It’s much simpler than I expected. Chest beat is heartbeat. In this case, strong and heavy, so ‘exertion,’ ‘work,’ or in this case, ‘run.’ The head turn is a direction. He wants us to run with him to the caves in the cliff face. He’s offering to help us climb to the top.”
“’Us’ or ‘you?’” Wolff asked.
Clarc rolled her eyes. “I promise to teach them gender and plural pronouns later if we get out of this alive. The point is we have a plan, and we have allies.”
There was another blast of horn-like thunder. This time, the ground shook more than normal. Fissures began to open up, shattering the landscape into a spiderweb-like pattern, like cracked glass. Some of the crevices were narrow and shallow, easily jumped over. Others split like wounds, several meters across and seemingly bottomless. Within seconds, the tide of silvery nanoparticles could be seen filling the cracks’ bottoms and slowly creeping up their sides.
One of the villagers — female, Jaysn decided — slipped and fell into one of the smaller cracks, letting out a shriek of pain and terror. The humanoid behind her leaped the ditch and pulled her up to the far side, revealing her left foot, sparkling with nanoparticles as it slowly disintegrated, taking everything from the ankle downward. There was no wound. Flesh, bone, blood, and muscle were gone, leaving no trace. Her rescuer helped her to her stand, slapping his back three times. Without hesitation, she climbed onto him and the two headed for the cliffs.
Solvig gasped at the sight. “We’re out of time.”
Novik regarded the situation and studied the advancing tide. “We should be able to stay in front of the rains long enough to reach the cliffside and the caves.” His voice had only a trace of fear and panic. “Dr. Clarc, what is the plan after that?”
“There is a network of passages, carved stairs that lead up to the top of the cliff. The villagers know them. We took them down to the valley floor when we first got here. At the escarpment is the archway we arrived from. If it’s still functional, we can get everyone into the city.”
“’If’ it’s still functional,” Jaysn countered. “And what if this cloud parks itself over the top of the cliff and rains nanoparticles down into the caves? We’d be trapped in there.”
“I don’t see an alternative,” Clarc raised her voice and gestured to the advancing rain line. “We certainly can’t stay here. We have to keep moving.”
Jaysn scanned in all directions, his eyes finally settling on where Lev had assured him was one of the light-beam towers. “Lev, is that thing still on?”
Novik’s drone tilted its head and scanned. “The structure is 4.3 kilometers away, presumably starting near the base of the cliff where the city meets the valley. The beam is active and projecting at an angle of 60 degrees to the valley floor. It passes through the largest of the artificial clouds.”
“Dr. Solvig, you activated a platform in the one we saw in the city,” Jaysn said.
“We can’t say for certain if it stops there or continues into orbit. Remember, we saw a lot of those light towers from space when we arrived. Not to mention you’re assuming there’s something in those cloud constructs that will help us.”
“Except we know that it still has power,” Jaysn said, urgently. “Maybe we can communicate with the Overseer or someone else who can help us. Maybe we can find a way back into the city.”
Clarc shook her head. “Your plan has more ‘maybes’ than mine has ‘if’s,’ in case you were keeping score.”
Jaysn nodded. “I know, but I also know God is apparently hitting the reset button down here, and I don’t think running into the caves and hoping he can’t flush nanoparticles uphill is the answer. I’m willing to take a chance that whatever that,” he gestured toward the other cliff, “turns out to be. At least we know it has power and is connected to something he doesn’t want to destroy.”
There was another blast of thunder. The ground shook again, and the ground split further. Villagers were beginning to be caught on islands of land in between canyons that were rapidly filling up with floodwater. Wolff looked around frantically, sizing up the situation.
“Jaysn,” Lev said, “The light beam from the tower flickered when the thunder went off.”
Jaysn nodded. “So, they’re connected somehow.”
Frustrated, Clarc turned to the humanoid, beat her chest three times, and inclined her head toward the light tower. The humanoid let out a barking sound and instantly covered his eyes. He then beat his chest and directed her back to his original plan of using the caves in the other direction.
“Whatever it is, he seems to be afraid of it. He’s hell-bent on the caves,” Clarc said. “With our team leader gone, and as the person with the most experience here, I say we head for the caves.”
Jaysn frowned. “Tamana wasn’t the team leader. We removed her when we found out she was compromised and set us up to be in those caves when the base crew mutinied. Dr. Novik has been made expedition leader.”
“Well, let’s just unmake that decision right now, since the other half of the team wasn’t here to vote for that.” Clarc snarled.
“Dr. Clarc, I’m sorry, but you have no recourse for removing me, and we don’t have time to plead our cases and vote again on a situation that has been decided.” Novik spoke forcefully, but without losing any of the kindness normally present in his voice, “
“You backstabbing, synthetic bastard! I’d trust a screwdriver to make better decisions than you!” She started toward the drone, unbalanced by rage.
Wolff caught her arm and held it, even as she struggled to break free. “Are you really going to punch my Class 5 drone?”
Clarc spun around and glared at him. He met her gaze with steady calmness. After ten tense seconds, she deflated and stepped back, refusing to look at Novik, silently conceding that he had made his point.
Jaysn broke the silence at last. “Lev, I think you’re going to have to make a decision.”
The drone wheeled back half a meter. “Very well. We will proceed with Jaysn’s plan of investigating the light tower.”
“You can’t be serious,” Clarc voice was raised, but calmer than before.
“We know it is functioning city technology. We have a reasonable chance of finding either another way into the city or something that will help us resolve the current situation. A power switch, a communication node to the Overseer, or possibly even environmental controls. On the other hand, the caves may represent only a temporary reprieve if the archway at the top is powered off the same way this one is.”
“You’re still rolling dice with our lives, Dr. Novik. The villagers believe the caves will be safe, and there’s a very good chance we can—”
“Then you are welcome to join them, Dr. Clarc,” Novik said. “I’d much rather keep the team together under the circumstances, but if you are unable to respect my decisions, I will not hold you to your contract or any allegiance and simply wish you good fortune.”
Clarc stood defiantly, diffused, but still enraged. Finally, she threw up her hands in defeat. “It’s on you then, Dr. Novik.”
Wolff stepped forward. “Dr. Novik, I’m going to need your cutting torch.”
“To what end, Major?” Novik asked.
“Those villagers are trapped. Even if they get free, these trenches are getting too wide to cross. These are still trees until the rain and flood waters reach them, or those trenches overflow their banks. Trees make bridges. Torches cut down trees.”
“Major Wolff, I’m responsible for the safety of—”
“I’m not an expedition member, Doctor. SDEC gave Tamana a field rank so she’d have authority over me. As far as I’m concerned, however, the rest of you are civilians. That drone you’ve ‘borrowed,’ on the other hand, is equipment issued to my base, and therefore my jurisdiction. So, I’m asking you again to relinquish the torch.”
More cracks began spiderwebbing up the slope, glimmering water spilling into each one from its larger cousins. More and more villagers were becoming trapped in the carnage downhill, and the way uphill was becoming more perilous by the minute.
Jaysn stepped in, putting a hand on Wolff’s shoulder. “Major, this is really not the time–”
“It’s the only time, Doctor. We created this mess. Some of us died for this mess. Now, you’re going to try to fix this mess. I’m going to keep as many of these people as I can alive until then. It’s better for them, it’s better for you, but I’m not going to treat this like a game, or a dream, or something artificial and beyond my control.” He hit Jaysn with a look that would have made a mountain step aside. “It’s real enough for me, and I know my role when things like this happen.”
The drone lifted one of its left arms. There was a mechanical whirring sound as the claw-like appendage retracted into the casing, replaced by a long, perforated barrel. Then one of the right arms gripped the torch as it detached from the center body and handed the assembly to Wolff. Wolff took it without saying a word, adjusted a control at the base, and a half-meter-long beam of glowing plasma formed at the end. Satisfied, he turned it off and nodded to the others. You guys had better get going. Oh, and if you do find the shut-off valve, please don’t forget about your ground team here. He smiled.
“Not a problem. You’re very memorable.” Jaysn said, snapping a quick, but sincere salute.
“You have 26 minutes until the cloud front is over this area. Please make sure you’re not here when it arrives,” Novik said.
Clarc stepped forward, hand extended. “Good Luck, Major.”
Wolff shook Clarc’s hand, accepted a hug from Solvig, and stormed off towards the tree line, torch in hand.
