The Valley of Despair by Chris L. Adams

Author:Chris L. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: alien, time travel, pulp fiction, lost city, future adventure science, lost race

People of a Star Afar

The man held the girl then, held her clasped in arms of banded iron as if she alone in the Universe rooted him to this point in time and space, held her until rough, gray hands hauled them apart and returned him to his cell.

He learned more eventually about the sphere of time influence, that it came through the gateway from the world of these creatures which they indicated to be near the vicinity of this star, Deneb. The portal extended the influence of the great star to this place and created a semi-sphere of nearly a kilometer in diameter that enclosed almost the entirety of the city, it being caught in the time influence of the far star where time progressed at a much slower rate than it did on Earth.

This last he was able to witness whenever he glimpsed out one of the enormous gates leading towards the outer limits of the ancient pile where he could see what appeared to be the flashing of a strobe - that strobe being the rising and setting of the Earth’s star – the Sun.

Once, laboring in the outer city near a gate, just for a moment he caught a glimpse of the jungle, and noted that it lay only a couple hundred yards distant. The forest seemed alive with movement, dancing lights and contrasting darkness. The ethereal glows he noticed were cast, he soon realized, by the movement of the moon at night and the stars in this dark place, the perceived motion of the vegetation actually being the rapid passage of the Earth’s time, causing gently swaying leafage to appear to be in high speed movement, as if it were being violently shaken.

The gray men took the girl’s father through the portal as soon as they arrived, and she never saw him again. Many slaves were taken thus, she said, but they always maintained several for their needs here, for use as translators for new captives, to man the mines, and for personal attendants to the beings from Deneb. For these creatures lived like kings, never having to lift a finger to perform the slightest chore, all being accomplished by natives captured on this planet.

Eventually they brought monsters here from their own world that they adapted for life here. These they released into the valley partly to discourage escape on the part of slaves, but also to drive quarry toward the city. The girl informed him that the only reason he’d lived to make it to the city alive was due to the fact that these beasts were trained to thwart and discourage escape attempts - not to prevent someone from making their way here.

He’d already suspicioned that the beasts had actually herded him in the direction of this city, and, their job done, they returned to the forest to await the next blundering explorer to scale the great heights of the cliffs into their demesne. These creatures, he also learned, must needs have their

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