God Star by Simon Kewin

Author:Simon Kewin [Kewin, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SciFi, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Publisher: Stormcrow Books
Published: 2019-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

5. The Bells, Silenced

Malleus ignored the prickling in his tired eyes as the images streamed across the galaxy from Borial.

He wasn't completely sure if the pictures he was being allowed to view were intended as a punishment, or if he was being granted privileged access as some sort of reward for his actions. The First Augurs had said little to him since Secundus Godel had escorted him from Kane's ship. His hesitant questions had gone unanswered. They'd treated him well enough, giving him the comfortable quarters he now found himself within, but he'd seen nothing of them for three days. He wondered again: was he being punished or were they granting him the opportunity for quiet contemplation? He had no way of knowing.

Regrettably, Omn had so far failed to provide him with any guidance on the matter.

He certainly wasn't able to leave. On the other hand, his quarters were spacious, comfortable, even luxurious. He was warm and well-fed and perhaps even safe. He was no longer completely sure where the door he'd come in by was: he could see no sign of it anywhere in any of his rooms. He hadn't paid enough attention when they'd brought him there; too much had happened to him recently. He'd tried banging on the walls, searching in vain for a way out. He'd called into the air more than once, but there had never been any reply. He wondered if he'd been left to live out the rest of his life in isolation, for reasons he couldn't begin to fathom.

Food appeared at one of his three tables at regular intervals, but he hadn't been able to work out how it arrived there. Did someone bring it or was there some automated mechanism involved? He'd tried positioning himself to keep a watchful eye on all three tables, but there was nowhere in his rambling warren that gave him sight of all three. If he watched two, food appeared on the third at the allotted time. Its manifestation never made any sound.

There was no doubt the building had been constructed by the same minds, the same hands, that had built the Angelic Gaze. He had grown used to the design over the years, but now he looked at it all afresh. The odd thing was that everything – furniture, doorways, buttons – was slightly outsized, as if intended for creatures of greater stature. It had been the same back on the ship, the thrones in the convocation circle a little too tall for everyone to sit upon comfortably, the Augury too high to place his hands upon for long periods.

It was hard, sometimes, to escape the notion that he and the others of Concordance were children playing games in a grown-up world, a world they didn't and couldn't understand. He had never mentioned the thought to anyone else, and none had ever voiced it to him.

Were the First Augurs watching him now? The walls were inevitably smooth and white, unblemished, but perhaps they were only opaque in one direction.

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