Guardian by Thomas F. Monteleone

Author:Thomas F. Monteleone [Monteleone, Thomas F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 0101-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Three and a half weeks passed before they found the Guardian.

Actually, it was the Finder which first located the ancient complex, and then it was only a vaguely defined area of electromagnetic activity. The group could not be certain it was the Citadel of the Guardian until they were finally within its fortifications, which was an accomplishment in itself.

On a map, the location was in the eastern end of the Ironfields, angling northeasterly to the Carrington Range, which formed the southern borders of the Baadghizi Vale.

Stoor was elated, so much so that he could not think of anything other than homing in on the incoming signals and reaching their origin. This meant a respite from the unending parade of tall tales. Varian was now convinced that Stoor would have had to be several hundred years old to have accomplished even half of the exploits he claimed.

The personnel carrier continued to perform flawlessly, running on the methane converter and the human-excrement fuel. The solar panel/batteries provided warmth and power for their equipment. The machine was a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the First Age, but the group knew that the vehicle was like a child’s toy when contrasted with the miracles of the Guardian’s Citadel, of which the robot, Kartaphilos, had been an impressive example.

Varian had been reluctant to question Tessa on her true feelings about the discovery of the Citadel’s location. Whatever she felt, she masked it beneath a placid and determined demeanor, which belied only a desire to help accomplish the task at hand.

And so they mapped out a course through the ruins of the Ironfields, confident that they were closing in on the quarry. Varian had made the observation during the almost full moon cycle spent in the Ironfields that more than one great battle had been fought here. It seemed that there had been some great explosions or other cataclysmic events that had taken place in the ‘fields which uncovered levels beneath the present one. Sometimes they would rumble into an area where the broken pieces of the First Age were less prevalent, where there were slashes ripped into the semidesert, revealing marbled striping of past strata. In some of these places, the bones of men were so thickly impregnated into the rock as to resemble a white thicket of brambles. Had they been mass graves? Execution areas? The remains of a singular kind of battle which could only be imagined in the blackest nightmare? It was a mystery to be forever lost, they feared, one which led only further into the shadows of other mysteries.

As they grew closer and closer to the signal source, they found other odd things. Lying among the rusting hulks of war, amidst the wind-strewn bones of men, were the bones of other creatures. Although there were few skeletons in relatively intact positions, the group was able to estimate the sizes of these creatures, and they were truly immense. Many of them were bipedal, possessing thighbones as thick as a man’s waist and almost three ems in length.

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