Chapter 16 : The Temple

Days passed while Irwin continued his negotiations and Hugo tried to identify the secret of VIBE, and still no time had been set for their return. It left Jack feeling a little uncomfortable, for he was used to living to a timetable. This, he had found, offered numerous advantages. The trials and inconveniences of spaceflight were made bearable by their known and finite duration; he was rarely in one place for long enough to be drawn into other people’s problems and tragedies; and not exposed to alien environments for long enough to ruin his health. Only once before had he spent so long in port. That was a job for Mole Mining, when the whole planet was enveloped in a dust storm for thirty days. At least then the meteorologists promised an end was in sight and made everyone feel better, but Irwin’s diplomacy was not a science and no prediction of its outcome was possible.

Jack started to wonder when he would see Truce again. Even after their divorce, she still occupied the same place deep in his psyche, the place he returned to when his life was in danger, and in his dreams. Their marriage had ended abruptly and Truce’s motives were, to him, incomprehensible. He had not yet given up on her. But now he had the time to think about Crystal too. It surprised him that in a few of these long Greenshoot days he had come to care about her so much. On top of that, he was starting to feel like a father to Hal, his emergence from the cryochamber being somehow like the birth of a son.

Jack was reflecting on these personal matters when, travelling with Hal and on foot, he reached the mysterious outcrop of North Dome. The sun was high in the sky and ferociously hot. Covered in sweat, and his shoulders aching with the weight of his backpack, he rested for a moment on the beach. The tide was low, exposing a rough stone causeway that crossed muddy flats to reach the island. Trees covered the island's lower slopes, shading a jumble of stone structures : arches, walls and towers. Jack pulled a pair of field glasses from his backpack and took a closer look at their target. It was clearer now that the buildings were following a helical path cut into the side of the hill. The top of the hill was cut away completely and there stood the largest structure, built on two floors, with a line of round arches along the side. Then, to his surprise, he saw someone inside, walking from right to left and visible momentarily through an archway. They appeared again at the next arch, and rose some steps, to emerge onto the roof, now in the sunlight and at the very top of the island, standing against the blue sky. He strained to see who it might be, but the glasses yielded only a vague impression of a man in white.

“We timed it well”, Hal said. “We’ve got a few hours here before the sea rises again.”

“Hal, there’s someone up there already”.

Jack put the glasses down, to see Hal walking off along the causeway already some distance ahead.

"Hey, wait a minute", he called.

“Wait for me too”, came a woman’s voice from behind.

It was Crystal, standing in the sand at the top of the beach. She was wearing a tight pair of shorts and cut-down shirt that exposed her trim belly. He dark hair had a luster and seemed fuller than before, a little wavy, and it billowed in the breeze that blew off the sea. Seeing her, Jack forgot his weariness and jumped up.

“I expect you’re wondering why I’m here”, she said. "I got a message from Grinko that something was going on at North Dome. I walked down earlier from the cabin.”

“He knew that Hal and I were going to be here ?”

“Yeah, I think he got some information from Hugo.”

Jack wondered how Hugo had got mixed up with the manipulative newsman. Hugo had said, on that first night on Greenshoot, that he had corresponded with Grinko. It had seemed innocent enough at the time. But having met Grinko, Jack was now suspicious of him. He seemed to have tentacles wrapped round everyone. Was Hugo his on his payroll ? Jack suppressed his anger at the thought of such treachery, for he was pleased to see Crystal, and wanted to show her the better side of his nature. He turned to see Hal far in the distance and called him on the communicator.

“Hal, be careful, I saw someone on the island. Why don’t you wait for us ? Crystal's here too.”

“I saw several guys, Jack”, Hal said briskly. “I’m going to find out who they are.” Hal terminated the call before Jack had the chance to argue.

“Damn it, let’s get over there before he gets himself into trouble again”, Jack said.

They set out with determination, but the stones on the causeway were still slippery from the last high tide, and the island was deceptively far away. Jack tried the communicator again but Hal did not answer.

“Don’t worry about Hal, I think he can look after himself”, Crystal said. She seemed focused and capable it lent her judgment on Hal some credibility.

“You’re probably right”, Jack replied, for a while feeling absolved.

The causeway rose as it approached the island, and was well above the sea as it passed under a high, free-standing arch. The pale yellow stone was wrapped in vines and in places completely overgrown. The builder had revived some ancient art and style which Jack could not name, but he was impressed by the detail of the stonework and the balance of the whole, so much so that Jack was instantly filled with admiration.

“This wasn‘t built by any of us, that’s for sure”, Crystal said. “It looks like it’s been here for ages. Can you date it ?”

Jack pulled out a 3D laser scanner, linked by a sturdy power cord to the base unit in his backpack. The silvery scanner head popped open to the shape of a lily flower and spun around. “This is the best portable system we’ve got. Let’s see. Stand clear, there’ll be a high energy burst.” He fired it at some plants clinging to the stonework. “The organic material here is up to ninety years old. The stone was cut a hundred years ago.” They walked up the path that turned slowly to the left about the dome, and offered at intervals glimpses of the tranquil sea on the right. They stopped for a while at a small pavilion with fluted columns, topped by a stone vault. It offered some welcome shade.

Jack dated another piece of stonework. “A hundred and five years here. This was built before the war, definitely. I wonder why they went to so much effort? Didn’t they have some more pressing problems to deal with ? Like survival ?”

“Do you know there are still some medieval buildings standing in Europe ?”, Crystal asked.

“Ancient history wasn’t one of my subjects”, Jack replied shaking his head.

“They are wonderful. People in those days had plague, war, and famine to deal with and they were dirt poor." "Not much changed then." Crystal continued. "And yet they poured all that effort into those towering cathedrals, built so well that they survived a millienium!”

“Yep”, Jack said, “but they were ignorant. Someone convinced them religion was a route to everlasting life. Whereas these were modern, educated people … I’m picking up a lot of gold in this rock, too, from the scanner. I don’t see gold though, do you ?”

Jack looked gingerly over the cliff-edge. The vines were coming straight out of the sea and reached eagerly up the smooth, steep rock face, tapering, and finally encircling the stone columns. At the end of the vine a few small buds had sprouted and he looked closely at them. Where one might expect a flower to emerge, there was lodged a shiny black ball that reminded him immediately of the mysterious kelp in miniature. He switched the scanner to DNA sequencing and fired it at the vine, hoping the ship’s computer could later make some sense of the data. Better still to get the plant into the Beluga’s minilab, and he took a knife and sample bag from his backpack and reached to amputate the plant-head. As he did so he felt a strange sensation, a tingle in the back of his neck, and the muscles in his back tightened as if hit by a rush of cold water. He turned suddenly, out of an instinct for self-preservation and with a sense that something might have crept up behind him. He looked around for a few seconds with wild, hunted glances, but there was no-one there.

Crystal had by now wandered off, and he followed quickly after her up the path. He decided against sample-taking for now, unable to rationalize what had happened to him, and growing anxious again for Hal. At the summit of North Dome he came to a massive, square building, with a side of perhaps a hundred meters. There were high, round arches along the perimeter, and inside that more rows of arches, all of it open to the breeze. A few dry leaves blew in whirling motions around the shadowy, vaulted spaces. The arch supports were aligned and offset so that one never saw right across to the other side, and as Jack walked through, the shifting perspectives and vanishing points left him disoriented. Voices echoed off the stonework, and homing in on them, he found Crystal and Hal. They were in the centre of the building, a circular inner chamber where the roof was domed and double height, with a small oculus at the top throwing down a cool light. Statues, standing life-size figures, were set in high alcoves and watched over them from every side.

“Have you seen anyone else ?” Jack asked. The echo of his voice was deep and long.

“I decided not to chase them”, Hal said flatly.

“But I thought you wanted …”

“No”, Hal interrupted. “They want to be left alone, and I don’t want to upset them. They must know this place well - they know another way out of here.”

He walked around the inner chamber and looked more closely at the statues. Beneath each was a carved inscription.

“Auribus tenere lupum”, Hal said, “I hold a wolf by the ears.”

“Is that Latin ?”, Crystal asked incredulously. “You know Latin ?”

“Belua multorum es capitum - the people are a many-headed beast.” Hal continued round. “Est deus in nobis - there is a God inside us.“ He stopped at the next statue, a man seated and pointing imperiously. “Permissum mens eo in pacem. I’ve not come across that one before. I think it translates, let the mind travel in peace.”

Jack ran his hand over the smooth stone walls, wondering why this place was built, and also why it was attracting such elusive, suspicious characters. Two bands of gold ran around the circular chamber, one at eye level and one higher up at the base of the dome. The lower one he examined closely. The scanner found it was indeed pure, elemental gold. He took an optical image, with a green flash that lit up the whole building, and viewed it on the panel at the back of the scanner head. He zoomed it to the micrometer level. This was not craftwork, it was probably etched by laser, and revealed not a single gold band, but an intricate pattern of connections. The upper band seemed more decorative, like a long stave of musical notes : a perpetual song.

“What have you got there, Jack ?”, Hal asked.

Jack was gathering his thoughts, trying to put together the dates and readings from North Dome into a plausible scenario, when the sound of deep, ecstatic breathing carried around the chamber. He turned to see Crystal in the middle of the floor, directly beneath the oculus, holding up her hands, like someone catching raindrops in a moment of childish abandon. Hal ran over to her and they looked at each other with passionate intensity.

“What is it Crystal, what have you found ? Tell me.”

“Hal ? I can see something in you now. I can see right through you to that wall ! You didn’t tell me Daff was pregnant.” She strained her eyes and drew a little closer to Hal. “You don’t love her ?” Her expressions changed every few seconds, from joy to surprise and sorrow, as if stimulated by some remarkable conversation, but Hal stood still and silent. He looked round at Jack, but Crystal reached out to him and grabbed back his attention.

“Why are you so unhappy, Hal ?”, Crystal asked, shaking her head. “You know that people admire you. We all do. Isn’t this life enough ? Can‘t you stay with Daff ?" She now seemed deflated and looked away, their strange, one-sided communication apparently over.

Jack fingered the scanner. He cycled through the environmental options, chemical, ultrasound, electromagnetic, nothing was above the level of background noise. He was bemused at the thought that he and his equipment might be out of their depth. Crystal was looking uncertain and sheepish and she sat on floor. Jack signaled to Hal with a beckoning finger, to join him in the vaults to the side of the chamber. To understand what was going on, he needed to know if Crystal’s outpouring was a revelation or a fantasy.

“Now, I know this is difficult, Hal”, Jack said in a soft, husky voice, that still somehow carried round the stonework. “Was she reading your mind back there ? Or is she pychotic ?”

“I don’t know Jack”, Hal replied. “She’s … acting strangely.”

The most logical explanation was that Crystal was indeed psychotic, and that would tie in with the statistics he had read from the government physician, Dr Hoi. Then it occurred to Jack that Hal might be giving off unusually powerful pheromones - it was just possible that Crystal‘s behaviour might have been triggered chemically. He set the scanner to test the atmosphere again, its tiny fan started to whirr, and he waved it around Hal’s head. “Enough !”, Hal said, losing his temper, “this is none of your business.” He marched off into the dark receding spaces.

His reaction, Jack felt, had given it away. There was hardly any need to call Daff and verify Crystal's claim. She was still on the floor. Her eyes were red and watery and she looked at Jack helplessly. He walked over to her, near the middle of the chamber. Crystal slowly stood up and faced him. She swayed gently back and forth; she looked to the side as if searching for a lost memory. Jack tried to tune his senses to the telepathic signals, listening for a sound inside his head, but he heard only the wind breathing slowly through the arches. Perhaps signals were amplified in here, but this was the machinery of a dead civilization and it was mysterious and a little sinister. He preferred the clinical world of the scanner, and was checking it again when Crystal went shockingly pale and her legs collapsed underneath her. Jack rushed forward and caught her by the left arm, but with her downward momentum they both tumbled to the floor, and the delicate petals of the scanner head shattered on the hard surface into tiny silver pieces and flew in all directions.

“Jack … where are you ?”, she said faintly.

He laid her flat on the cool stone and checked his watch. We had better get out of here in an hour, he thought, or we’ll be trapped by the tide. Getting a hold on Crystal under her arms, he pulled her backwards with her feet sliding over the smooth floor, out of the chamber and between the rows of columns, back to the bright sunlight and the familiar sounds of the sea. Crystal roused and sat up, holding her head and shaking it as if there were something in there trying to get out. Just the causeway stood between them and the relative safety and sanity of the mainland. It would invite disaster to carry her over those slippery cobbles, with the water rising and splashing over them, so he pursuaded Crystal to get up and walk, despite her fragile condition. There was no conversation until they were back on the beach.

“Grinko put me up to this”, Crystal said bitterly. “I hate him.”

“You’ve got a story haven’t you ? Are you going to tell it ?”

“How can I ?”, Crystal answered. “It’s confidential, I don’t want to embarrass Hal and Daff. I have principles.”

“You might leave that part out … Did you see anything, just before you fainted ? About me, I mean.”

Crystal smiled at him, the first sign of good humour since they left the island.

“Maybe your brain, Jack, is so capacious that I was overloaded. Your experiences so profound ..." She broke into laughter. "Seriously, I don’t think you were standing in the right spot."