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The Martian City of Lost Souls
- The Martian City of Lost Souls -
It was a typical Martian evening, and high above my gazing eyes... the two moons loomed in the skies high above me, amid the backdrop of stars beyond counting. My hover-car had taken me nigh unto the dried up shores of a long-vanished sea, its' engines quiet and ecologically efficient. It was not recorded how this body of water came to no longer exist as such, only that for many centuries now this had been the case. I was in pursuit of a party of lost scientists from the rather progressive technological hub-city of Okana'ra, which was by now quite far and very distant behind me. They had ventured out this way, quite insistently by all reputable accounts, and according to each of the reports they had been seeking after a lost city which had been excavated previously within the arid region of that desolate stretch of what had once been a sea. I had come alone, feeling that should there be some danger it would be best to not bring a larger party with me, especially one that could have put even more people in jeopardy. It was just after the winter season had ended, and this was early springtime, or at least the equivalent of that on the red planet. There was very little civilization in this region, and even less signs to follow that would indicate where the missing scientists had gotten off to. I had a map of the way to the lost city, so I followed that... expecting to find the scientists there, since I had seen them nowhere along the way.
There was a shimmering in the distance, and I noticed it came from a stretch of sand which was of a different color and texture than the rest in this desert. For this was now a desert, and a sea no longer... and I had believed it to be simply a mirage, until I got closer and noticed it to be instead the yellowish powder of the Zal'kosi rice, which unlike normal rice was tiny and similar to the granules of sand. This was not a food of any kind, although it could be ingested. Rather, it occurred naturally in places below the surface of the ground. Every so often, it would rise to the surface, and could be gathered. It had but one use, and that was ritualistic in nature. Thus, only the temples of the various deities sought after it. I myself had no use for the substance, at least at this point in time, and so I crossed through the stretch where it manifested itself and simply moved on. I had already been out from town for over a day, and my unusual metabolism allowed me to be able to go for a very long time without too much need for a lengthy rest or sustenance. My distinctly androgynous, green-skinned body had been absorbing a great deal of nourishment from the hot Martian sun's light all through the day, and I had brought some water with me in a container that had the means to replenish any liquid placed within it by means of material replication. Thus, I would never need fear running out! I carried otherwise just a small backpack with various essential supplies within it, and my sword was belted at my waist... just in the event that I may have need to resort to combat, should danger present itself. I felt lonely, and this was a rather long trek.
Before long, just as the hour of dawn had broke upon the horizon, I saw before me within a low area of terrain... a beautiful sight indeed. A magnificent city with sandstone and stucco walls, and bricks all painted a deep shade of blue. The buildings were all very angular, with rounded domes of a pale yellow in coloration. There were tall minaret-like towers, with twisting spires... and those were pure white. I at first imagined this to be but the ghost of a city, for it appeared seemingly out of the depths of a cloud of dust that blew across and through the area quite suddenly as I arrived. But it was all too real! And also very long abandoned. I checked with my map and saw that indeed, this was the lost city I was seeking. All along the right side of the city from where I stood gazing upon it, there were high cliffs and rocky ridges that made for a natural defensive wall. But this city had not been lost to war! It was simply lost to time and history. A deep channel ran through the center of the city, and it was filled with water that bubbled up from someplace underground. This city had been raised upon this spot long after the ancient sea had ceased to exist, and it seemed untouched by time, unbroken in its' structures. It was just as if the people had simply left this place peacefully and never returned. That, made it all the more eerie to see!
I made my way through the archway that was the entrance into the lost city. Inscribed all across the length of the arch were the names of countless gods and goddesses, in various languages and scripts... none of which would be understandable to people of Earth today. I knew only some of them, and that alone was how I knew what the writings upon the archway meant and had to do with. The streets of the city had innumerable temples and shrines on either side of the roads and pathways... this had been a bit of a sacred city, perhaps. I saw monumental statues along those roads as well, of immense multi-armed deities whose identities I would never learn. The faces of some were almost ape-like, bestial, and quite terrifying... with manes like lions and ornate headdresses. Whether these had been favored deities, or guardian spirits, or simply deified royalty... there was no indication. The air was hot and dry, the wind howling through the abandoned city with only the buildings to cease it in places. One name that many of the inhabitants of Mars called the planet was Nergalis, and it was said to be most sacred to the god Nergal, who was a war god of the underworld in many ancient myths and legends. I had often not seen the connection... until this day. If there had been any place upon Mars which was closest to being a kind of domain of the dead, it was this forsaken city. For two full days, I explored the city and still I had not found any traces of the missing scientists. Eventually, I made my way unto the abandoned city's center.
There was a great circular plaza in the city center, with an enormous triangular platform in the middle of it, accessibly by wide steps that ascended gradually. Heaped all about were immense piles of bones, some animal and some humanoid. All very long dead! Upon the top of the platform, was a palace or a temple, I did not know which. Its' walls were of painted blue brick, its' massive dome seeming to be of alabaster. The windows were dark and vacant, betraying nothing of what lay within. Above that dome rose a series of twisty looking spires, with one largest spire in the exact center of it. The palace's gates were wide open, and decorated with images of fabulous beasts in fine gold, in contrast to the dark gray metal of the gates themselves. I passed through that inviting entrance, and found myself within a most luxurious palace indeed! High pillars with entwined serpent-like designs soared up to the vast domed ceiling that loomed in the open vastness above. The floors were all decorated with colorful mosaics of abstract patterning and design, and soft cream-colored carpeting lay upon many of those floors. Delicate curtains and gauzy draperies could be seen hanging from various arches, while incense burners were in use, with heady scents drifting upon the air. Everything was neat and in its' proper place! If the burning incense was anything to go by, someone was evidently here. As I investigated the palace, I passed by an enclosed series of chambers which each contained various murals upon their walls. All of them showed different nature themed vistas depicting beautiful lush, green landscapes with dense forests and flower-filled fields. These rooms contained soft couches and piles of pillows and cushions, with various plates and cups upon the tables near them, all of them empty. Within one of these chambers, I discovered set into the ground an open cellar door, and down inside of it there was a staircase that wound around the entire circumference of the inner palace. The passage downward seemed to be well lit with torchlight from the wall sconces that contained such illumination... thus further proving, that someone was here.
It had been early morning before I took to the stairs and went down them, although soon I felt as if I had lost track of the time entirely. I drank some water from my replication container and poured some on my skin as well, on as much of my body as I could. Like a plant, I required this quite often! And the replication flask made it easier for me in that regard. I wore upon my body only a comfortable pair of scarlet red bloomer-like shorts and a pair of matching red sandals, with a thin, gauzy blue cloak being clasped over my left shoulder. My breasts were very small, somewhere between a man's and a slender woman's chest in appearance... and my body was of average proportions. My chest was uncovered, to make it easier to both apply the water when needed, and to cope with the heat of this arid countryside.
I wore a gold beaded bracelet upon my left wrist, and around my neck I wore a gold necklace that was decorated with an ornate ruby pendant. Keeping my long fiery red hair away from my face, was a rather beautiful golden circlet decorated with an emerald that glowed faintly with its' own inner radiance. My body was smooth and hairless, and it was not possible for someone to tell by looking what gender I had been. Nor did I feel the need to limit myself to just one! So this, then was my appearance upon that day. The air in the palace's under chambers was a lot cooler than that above ground, and there seemed to be a functioning air conditioning system in use. I felt a lot more comfortable with the heat now behind me.
The stairway ended into a long hallway which was filled with many elaborately decorated archways... all of which had colorful lamps and lanterns hung from them. Out of one of the arches stepped a skinny looking man wearing a white loincloth and nothing else, carrying a dagger in his right hand. “You will go no further!” he shouted to me as I approached, drawing my sword. I pressed a button on the hilt of my blade and streaks of visible blue energy crackled all down the length of it. I held out my weapon in a threatening manner, and replied to the man: “Do not think that pathetic knife will stop me!” and yet he made ready to attack even as I sprang forward and ran him through, causing him to convulse and to perish in a very humiliating manner for him. I took a look at his features, and saw that he had cut his face in such a way... that his scars formed a skull-like pattern upon it. This perverse work of “artistry” was fresh as well. What had compelled the dead man to such an act of self-mutilation I could not begin to imagine, nor did I wish to. What is worse, is that the man did not even scream when I had slain him. It was as though he simply felt no pain! I left him as he lay, and continued down that lengthy hallway.
Soon, another strange man came at me from the shadows... only this fellow was dressed in a white lab coat that clearly identified him, as one of the missing scientists I was searching for. He growled like an animal might, and had no weapon in either of his hands. I tried to convince him to stop, but he was not able to understand me it seemed and kept swinging his fists at me wildly. I pushed him at a wall and he toppled towards it unbalanced, his head striking it very hard. His face was mutilated exactly in the same manner as the knife-wielding attacker I had just slain. He turned around suddenly and hissed at me with a mouthful of broken teeth! He must have struck the wall harder than I intended for him to. Following that, he left me no choice but to dispatch him in the same manner I had the previous madman. What had made this once-brilliant man of science... turn into a murderous beast? I wondered if that first man also had been one of the scientists I was looking for. Something had changed them... something truly awful!
I was not an overtly strong person, my muscles not larger than an average person's might tend to be... which was why I used such an overpowering weapon, in order to make up for that. But these two men both had been nearly emaciated in their appearances, and should have been vastly weaker than myself due to their almost skeletal frames. Yet they fought with the ferocity of wild animals and this last one was far stronger than he should ever possibly have been able to be. I needed to be cautious here, lest I become overpowered by more such ghoulish foes! I tried to move more silently, hoping that no one had heard the previous commotion. Presently, I arrived in a large square chamber lit with more torchlight. All was plain, unadorned and carved from natural rock. In the center of this cavern-like room there was a kind of shrine, with three crude stone slabs for altars. All of them were covered in blood, and around one of them, the left-most, were several more of the scientists. All of them dead, their hearts all having been cut from their chests in the most brutal fashion. These men and women had no signs of having at all been bound... so it appeared as if they had been willing sacrifices. What could compel such people, who had once been bound to logic and to reason, to meet their ends in such a horrific manner as this? There was a looming tunnel beyond the far wall, which beckoned to me from the middle of the room.
There had been no idol or statue upon the shrine, it instead had been a crucified scarecrow-like thing which had once been a humanoid person. What remained was a person no longer! The skull had been exposed, and the antlers of some animal attached to it. Within the eye sockets were black gemstones of a sort that had red speckles upon them which were not blood, but that resembled blood. The body was dressed in faded yellow tatters. There seemed to be some kind of primitive cult at work here, and I had a mind to turn around and leave when I saw that grisly totem... but something seemed to beckon to me from the tunnel ahead, and I needed to know if any of the remaining scientists had survived and yet had their wits about them. I was being paid well for this endeavor, and had no intention of not seeing things through to their completion. But, I would be hesitant to take on such jobs in the future after all of this!
The tunnel continued for a long time, the torches that lined the walls giving the impression that there was someone still living in this place and keeping them lit. Someone who had perpetrated those ghastly sacrifices... and created the twisted icon of worship that I had tried to forget ever laying my eyes upon. The tunnel opened up into a long, vast, subterranean passageway with a deep chasm down the left-most side of it. Within the depths of the chasm was an underground river, and the sound of rushing water that one might associate with a rapid flow. I saw various figures standing atop high ledges overlooking the path before me, each of them holding torches in their hands. These were not the scientists! These, were very tall men and women, well past seven feet in height, with chalk white skin, pale white hair and red eyes. Some with a light pinkish tone to the skin around the eyes, with light pink lips to match. Albinos, but of what race I could not be certain. I had never seen their like on Mars before! They wore only the same kind of white loincloth that the first man who had attacked me wore, and were otherwise naked. They carried gold sickle-like weapons, and spoke in a guttural language that was alien to me. They had their gazes fixed upon something in the distance... and none of them noticed me approaching. I hugged the wall beneath where the ledges they stood upon were, and made my way slowly and without making a sound at least to the best of my abilities. I had removed my sandals, to help with the silence, and put them in my pack. Before long, I was well past the guarded area and deeper down into the passageway than previously. I could hear the river much louder now, so I knew I had descended much deeper into the underground than I had perhaps intended to. The walls were more carved, here... with massive, yet crudely etched, images of very alien-looking faces gazing upon me with large almond-shaped eyes and tiny mouths. Gemstones were set into the eyes, black jewels that glinted peculiarly in the torchlight. It was as if even this place was somehow a site of worship for the pale race that I had just caught sight of.
The faces upon the walls continued for a long way onward and down, until finally I could actually see the underground river to my left. There were long stone bridges, that spanned the river in places... and I saw human bones placed in small, neat pyramids along both riverbanks, with lit black candles atop each so that the black wax dripped down over the skulls as the candles melted. The cavern I was in now, was so vast that I could no longer see the ceiling of it, and the walls contained elaborate dwellings built into the sides of the natural rock. It was both a primitive, and yet surprisingly advanced, style of architecture that I saw in that place, and I wondered if the people who had lived in the city far above on the surface had any idea or indication, that all of this lay below it. Yet, how could they not have known? That odd stairway below the palace had been proof that they more than knew. They had dealings with those who dwelt in this region! Yet the grisly fate of the scientists indicated something a great deal more sinister. Not wishing to end up like the scientists, I remained cautious and worked my way through the cavern. I tried to follow the river as much as possible, hoping it would lead out eventually so that I could be free of that underground region once and for all. I had given up on the remaining scientists... if they had at all made it this far, then they were likely either very much dead or like those ones that had attacked me.
It was at that precise moment in which I had resolved myself to flee... when I was captured at last, by the tall subterranean albinos. I had been startled by some noise, as I made my way along the river, and without watching my step I tripped over some rocks... a mistake even a little child might have not been so foolish as to have made. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the primitive people and given little choice but to allow them to escort me to wherever it was we were now bound. The river flowed a great deal deeper, and the air grew a great deal cooler... as the party of albino warriors led me through all of the deep places that lay along that serpentine watery passage. They allowed me to keep my sword, but it would have been suicide to fight so many even armed as I was, and with such a weapon as I carried. I began to wonder at the meaning of this, since had they wanted me dead they could have just slain me. And had they wished to sacrifice me, should they not have confiscated my blade? This made no sense! Before long, I beheld a place where the river flowed out into a massive underground reservoir of sorts. In the midst of the reservoir there was an island upon which was raised a great fortress with metal walls and a single metallic dome. A cylindrical metal shaft rose up from the middle of the dome... and bored into the cavernous ceiling high above. I had no clue as to the purpose of such a thing, for this place was fast becoming increasingly peculiar to my sensibilities. I did not bother to ask where we were going, for it was obvious that fortress was to be our destination. We took a boat across the reservoir's waters, and soon we were at the island and nearing the great doors of the fortress... which slid open, as we made to enter them. This was all far more advanced than anything I had imagined these people to be capable of.
Inside, there was artificial light from panels set into the walls and from globes hung from the ceilings. Various machines, computers, and monitors lined many of the walls inside the fortress... and several of the albino peoples were operating them with skill and efficiency. None of this was as I expected! Soon, we passed through chambers designed to be comfortable living areas, and everything was exactly like I would have expected only of the greatest cities of the surface world. The men and women of this race had knowledge perhaps even exceeding some of the scientists I had been seeking! And I wondered, if they were so intelligent, why they had done as they had with the scientists themselves. Before too much longer, we passed by a pair of immense doors that were kept locked with mechanical seals so that only a certain sequence on a nearby computer panel could open them. I recognized the technology involved, but I saw that no one went near those doors at all! And, some of the people who passed by them had a look of fear upon their faces... seeming to be relieved when past the strange portals. We climbed up a series of metal stairs, at last arriving in a richly appointed room of great opulence and splendor. Here, I was to meet the leader of these underground dwellers, and I hoped that this person was also reasonable.
There were various botanical gardens all along the room's walls, with great palm trees and all manner of very colorful plants and flowers. Through the room's many large windows could be seen holographic images of a splendid green and pleasant landscape not dissimilar to what the murals had depicted in the above-ground city's palace. Were it not for the occasional flickering of the images, I may have been led to believe that we were back on the surface once again. The furniture of the room was like that favored by the nobility of Martian society, and the floor was covered in rich carpeting. At the farthest end of the great chamber was a raised part of the floor on which was a white, cushioned divan. Reclining upon it, was the queen of these albino peoples. She was tall, the same height as they, and had a cleanly shaved head adorned with a blood-red circlet. Her body was quite voluptuous, and she was wearing a flowing white gown that was made of some thin, transparent material. It was belted at her waist with a red sash tied in a neat bow at her side, and she was completely naked beneath that gown. Her face was rounded and rather cherubic looking. She wore a necklace of white and black pearls, and had bracelets of similar design on both wrists. In her ears were looped silver earrings, and she wore a silver nose ring as well.
She adorned her lips with some sort of red lipstick-like substance... which I hoped was not the blood that it appeared to be at first glance. She spoke to me in the tongue of the Martian nobility, which I had full understanding of and fluency in speaking. “What is it that you are doing here... green stranger? The men and women in white who came before you, they were far less quiet as they made their way through our realm... but you seem more respectful, and less rude to us than they were. That is why we wish to speak with you, and perhaps discover the reason for your visit, before deciding upon what to do next.” She paused a bit, and then added: “I saw on one of the monitors, that you slew those others. If you had been our enemy, I suspect you would have allied yourself with them instead! So, now I bid you speak.” To which I bowed and then respectfully replied: “I at first came to discover what became of those men and women you mentioned, because someone wanted to pay me for the information. However, I found them in that barbaric state they were in and had no choice but to fight the ones that attacked me. Many seemed to be dead when I found them, sacrificed before some kind of crudely constructed idol. I had a mind to investigate further and stumbled into your realm in so doing. I was discovered, and here I am.” There was a long silence after that, while the queen sipped from a chalice that one of her servants had brought forth for her to partake from. She sat the cup down on the floor, wiped her mouth with a cloth she had on the divan next to her, and stated: “I know. We have been monitoring all that transpires here, and had you attempted to lie to us we would have already known what you had been up to in this place. At that point, we would have put you to death! But you told us the full truth and so we can accept that. I must ask that you come with me, so that I can show you something that no one else has ever thus seen.”
The queen stood up from the divan and led me personally back to where those strange doors were, the ones that were locked with the mechanical seals. She operated the computer panel next to them, and as soon as that was finished the seals began to unlock. There were no guards with us, so I assumed that I was now an honored guest, rather than a prisoner. The queen explained to me: “What you are about to witness, is a secret of Nergalis... no one knows this secret but myself, and there is a good reason why.” and when she had said that, the doors were slowly opening with a loud mechanical noise that seemed to rumble through the hallways of the metal fortress. Beyond them was the interior of that shaft I had seen that bore its' way up all the way from the center of the fortress's main dome, which must have been the part of the place we were at. Inside of it was a massive generator, of a kind I had never beheld prior to that day. It was connected to countless machines, via tubes, wires, and connectors of all sorts. Within the generator was a pulsing blue energy of some kind, which could be seen through a viewing window set into the front of the generator itself. There was a monitor beneath that and across it was a green line that looked like a measure of a wavelength of some variety. Various buttons and lights flashed upon the monitor's screen, and there was a rather strange, dull sounding hum coming from everywhere seemingly all at once. But it was not at all loud... rather more like the hum of a vehicle one might be driving. One with a quiet engine. Out of the very top of the great generator, erupted a shaft of the blue energy from within it in a straight line that soared above to unknown heights. “What in the world is this machine?” I inquired, in awe at the sight of this before me. The queen responded: “Once I tell you the truth of what this device does, there is no going back! You will know something so terrible and so wonderful, that it will be impossible to tell anyone lest they think you mad. I am the caretaker of this place, of this thing, and my mother was such before me. My daughter will be, when her time comes. You could walk out of this laboratory, and never look back... nothing in your life would change. Or, I could tell you everything and you will leave with a great burden, the burden of forbidden knowledge. Thus will I let you decide!” I would never be ready for what I was about to learn. And yet, I needed to know! I had come all of this way, and my mission had been for nothing so far. Even if I could never tell anyone this secret... I had to find out what it pertained to. I answered the queen: “I wish to learn... I would join you, in this burden.”
This is what she explained to me... and I shall relate it here for you to comprehend, if you can. There are two parallel versions, of the planet Mars. On one, all life went extinct roughly 1.3 billion years ago as of the time in which I am right now writing this on the planet Earth in the year 2022 A.D. But upon the one that exists within a parallel reality, life continued to flourish there well into the time when the dinosaurs were existing on Earth. On that Mars, there was eventually a series of terrible world-altering ecological disasters and a great deal of climate change that eventually endangered all life upon the red planet's surface. Since time beyond memory, that great generator allowed the parallel Mars to share the same physical space as the original, long-dead Mars did. This worked by folding space to such a degree that the dead planet was shifted into the parallel reality, while the parallel variant of Mars shifted into this “prime” reality that we exist in... all, at the exact same instant. Thus was it that the parallel Mars was the one that had been colonized by we who came there from the great mother planet of Rahab that in our languages was also called Terra Primus, with Earth being called Terra Minor. The mighty world that once existed between Mars and Jupiter once upon a time! We never had known... that the original, indigenous inhabitants of the red planet possessed this kind of technology. And when Rahab was in the end obliterated by those enemies of ours who had sought its' destruction... its' annihilation also caused the destruction of all life upon the surface of Mars. Of parallel Mars! But unknown to all, these albino peoples had survived the annihilation of life on Mars' surface due to living so deep underground... and utilized the generator so that they might return to their native reality once more. Once this was done, the long extinct variant of Mars had come back into the “prime” reality... and, unto this very day, no one in this reality knows what became of the parallel Mars, now once more in its' original reality... or, of those indigenous peoples who survived the seeming end of all life thereupon. And the asteroid belt that once was Rahab, can never yield the countless ancient secrets to which that planet has once been witness to.
The albino queen spoke of all this as if she had seen it happen already, even the events that back then were still in the future... such as Rahab's annihilation. At that time, back then, I was dumbfounded and could only stare at her while not comprehending all of what she was talking about. “How can you know of things that have yet to occur... when the future is not set in stone yet?” I asked her, to which she said in a matter of fact manner: “I know all of this because I myself am from the distant future, even though my people here are not! I cannot tell you how I arrived at this point in my home planet's past, only that I did. And, there will come a time when all I have told you about... it shall come to pass exactly as I have said. It shall, in those days, be as if this Mars had never existed at all! Yet our underground civilization shall most certainly, it is hoped, endure.” I understood the sciences and metaphysics behind the folding of space, and regarding the existence of parallel realities... I even knew something of time travel. But I could not at that time comprehend (perhaps because I did not wish to) the reality of Rahab being utterly wiped out of existence and of this woman being so certain of that coming to pass. That was what took me so utterly by surprise! I confided in the queen: “I believe you about everything except as regards you being from the future. Perhaps if you could offer me some proof of that, it might be easier for me to so accept. But as it stands, I can only conclude that although indeed there do seem to be two planets which share this space across two separate realities... the future of them, and of Rahab, cannot be so divined.”
“I have proof.” the queen stated in a sad, melancholy tone. “Terrible... terrible proof!” she exclaimed. Taking me literally by the hand, the tall woman led me out of the fortress and down a long and twisted series of maze-like tunnels and caves... deeper and deeper under the ground. The air was hot and humid in this section, probably due to the lack of air conditioning, and there were bizarre plants growing in all manner of weird shapes and varieties. Eventually we came to a set of double doors set into the side of a natural rock wall. All about both sides of this... were heaped skulls, and skeletons in tattered garments.
The pale woman pressed her left hand upon the surface of the double doors and there was a loud ping like sound. The doors then opened very quickly, with a swishing noise. The air was musty and earthy to smell, and it all had the feeling of walking into a tomb, or an open grave. She stepped inside first, and I followed after her. Within was a kind of ancient mausoleum where various mummified bodies lay atop slabs on shelves that were all set into the strong, thick walls of the chamber. All were attired in clothing similar to that worn by the queen herself. “These are my various predecessors.” she thus explained, then adding: “My mother is here, someplace! I come often to visit her, so her spirit will not be lonely for my company.” then, she showed me a sarcophagus in one of the large room's corners. She put her hand on the lid of it, within a circular depression. Suddenly... another very loud ping like sound echoed through the room. Then, the lid of the sarcophagus came all apart and recessed into the large stone coffin like a kind of rectangular iris. “Look inside!” the woman commanded, and I did as she bid me. Inside of that coffin... lay a peculiar looking space suit, with a name tag upon it in a language I did not understand at all. There was a small plastic card next to the space suit, and upon it there was a picture of this woman. Of the albino queen. She was smiling, dressed in a black business suit, and was wearing a pair of round glasses. The name on the identification card (for that is what this actually was), was written in the same language. “I cannot read this, any of this... what does it say?” I asked, and the queen told me: “It gives my name, and the date of my birth, along with other bits of information. My name was... is... Elizabeth Laura Bartlin. I was originally born upon a parallel Earth... well, Terra Minor you would call it... but in the year 2056 A.D. Our science was very advanced in my time, and the laboratory I worked for decided to create a machine capable of folding space. It was the prototype of that generator I showed you before. My mother worked there with me, and was the creator of the first schematics for the machine. I worked with the team assigned to building it and testing it out afterwards. The scientists in charge of the project wanted to send me to the past of our own world, of Earth. My mother wanted to come along with me, to see if the generator worked for herself. But something was just totally wrong with all of our equations, with the mathematical side of things regarding where we were at in relation to where we wanted to go to within space and time. We ended up here on ancient Mars... and to get out of the heat, we found our way down here, into this subterranean domain. The matriarch of the tribe that is now my own, took us in... and she taught us the local languages and dialects, taught us the tribe's culture and beliefs. It took many years to learn everything! When the old matriarch so died, my mother became the next matriarch. She helped me to build this new generator that we have here, but with a different purpose in mind. You see... my mother had a dream one night, in which she saw Mars devoid of all life upon its' surface. She thought it was something that was fated to happen but only if we remained in that reality. So we opted to try and cheat fate... by shifting our adopted world into one of the nearest parallel realities to our own, but one in which Mars was dead already so that no ill could befall it any further, back in the reality we had come from. That is how everything came to be as I revealed to you previously. We had no desire to return to Earth at that point, for we had come to love Mars far more. When my mother died, I became the next ruler of these people, and when I die my daughter will take my place. Now, do you understand all that I was trying to tell you? Mars is this planet, the one that you would call Nergalis, incidentally.”
I laughed, and said to Elizabeth: “You initially said you could not tell me how this came to pass, how your journey through time took place. Then, you called Mars... Nergalis... your home planet. Now, you tell me that in fact you came from Earth, and this is just your new home planet. You did not lie at all... but you did try to conceal the truth, thinking I would never believe it. But... I do believe you, Elizabeth! And I feel sorry for you... because you bear upon your shoulders terrible knowledge indeed. But if all is as you say it is, what drove those scientists I had been searching for insane... who killed the ones I saw sacrificed, and what is the meaning of all the skulls and skeletons I keep seeing all about down here?”
Regarding the lost scientists, Elizabeth explained: “They had breathed in far too much of the air that had become tainted by the Zal'kosi rice... which rose up to the surface just prior to their arrival. It had a hallucinogenic affect on them, but far worse I think than they had expected it to. They lost their minds, and by the time they reached our domain they were nearly feral. Some had even lost all capacity for any kind of speech, and those attacked us on sight. Just as they attacked you! They slaughtered each other when no other victims could be found, and what the meaning of that grisly idol was even I know not.” She then told me about all the skeletal remains everywhere down in the underground. “The people of this tribe, they sometimes do not bury their dead... but keep them in places where they can still be seen and their spirits communed with. This is simply one of their traditions, and I must admit I was slow to accept it when I first came here with my mother. This chamber here, is one of the few such burial vault areas in all of this vast underground domain. It is reserved for the matriarchs of the tribe only, and that is why my mother is interred here. Now let me ask you a rather direct and personal question... are you capable of being able to give pleasure to a woman?” And I confided in her that, indeed, I was capable.
She escorted me on back to her divan, in the resplendent chamber in which she had first received me. There, we both lay atop the divan and engaged in acts of hedonistic, passionate abandon which led to a mutual ecstasy. After we spent a rather lengthy time thus pleasurably engaged, we washed and went for a long walk through a section of the underground that contained countless botanical gardens like those I had seen in Elizabeth's royal chamber. “I have not laid like that with someone in decades...” she said to me, further elaborating: “After we came to Mars... my mother and I were given certain drugs by the old matriarch, and they changed our physiology over several years time. I know not how many! But when it was all said and done, we were both vastly increased in our heights to match the other members of the tribe, and we were now just as long-lived as these peoples likewise. I have reigned as a queen here for hundreds of years now... and I am still young and in my prime. When I will age, or die, I have no idea! My daughter will be much the same.” And that explained the last of the mysteries that these people had to hide. I spent several weeks with them after that, and at the end of it I asked Elizabeth how best I may reach the surface again. She took me to an elevator shaft that only operated one way: up. You could not have used it to get down to this region from the surface. It was in the farthest tunnels, the farthest I had ever explored since descending into that place for the first time. Before entering the elevator, I asked of my hostess one final question: “Elizabeth... do you think it was just a coincidence that both your mother and you were albino, and so are these people who live down here, who took you in?” and she shook her head and said to me in reply: “No, I do not. Everything happens for a reason, and I believe it was some sort of destiny that brought us here, where we would not be treated like outsiders. Be well, green one! Although you never did tell me your name, I will remember you always.” and I told her my name after that, so that she could forever remember it. “My name is Sokrael, dear lady! I hope you find it to be as pleasing to your ears, and I have found your own name to be.” to which she said excitedly: “Oh, I do! I truly do! Farewell, sweet Sokrael... and may happiness and bliss await you at your own journey's end.”
I rode the elevator to the surface, which took me out into the midst of the lost city again. From there, I began my long trek back to the technological hub-city of Okana'ra. This time, the Zal'kosi rice was not to be seen, having long since disappeared beneath the shifting sands... and as I walked along, I began to wonder why I had been immune to its' maddening, hallucinatory effects. Or... had all I had experienced following my initial encounter with the rice been the result of visions caused by it having tainted the air in the peculiar way that so large a quantity of it could? I never did return to the lost city in order to find out, and also never divulged to anyone what I had encountered there. However... as I searched through my pack for my water container, I discovered Elizabeth's old ID card there. It had all been real, after all!
It was a typical Martian evening, and high above my gazing eyes... the two moons loomed in the skies high above me, amid the backdrop of stars beyond counting. My hover-car had taken me nigh unto the dried up shores of a long-vanished sea, its' engines quiet and ecologically efficient. It was not recorded how this body of water came to no longer exist as such, only that for many centuries now this had been the case. I was in pursuit of a party of lost scientists from the rather progressive technological hub-city of Okana'ra, which was by now quite far and very distant behind me. They had ventured out this way, quite insistently by all reputable accounts, and according to each of the reports they had been seeking after a lost city which had been excavated previously within the arid region of that desolate stretch of what had once been a sea. I had come alone, feeling that should there be some danger it would be best to not bring a larger party with me, especially one that could have put even more people in jeopardy. It was just after the winter season had ended, and this was early springtime, or at least the equivalent of that on the red planet. There was very little civilization in this region, and even less signs to follow that would indicate where the missing scientists had gotten off to. I had a map of the way to the lost city, so I followed that... expecting to find the scientists there, since I had seen them nowhere along the way.
There was a shimmering in the distance, and I noticed it came from a stretch of sand which was of a different color and texture than the rest in this desert. For this was now a desert, and a sea no longer... and I had believed it to be simply a mirage, until I got closer and noticed it to be instead the yellowish powder of the Zal'kosi rice, which unlike normal rice was tiny and similar to the granules of sand. This was not a food of any kind, although it could be ingested. Rather, it occurred naturally in places below the surface of the ground. Every so often, it would rise to the surface, and could be gathered. It had but one use, and that was ritualistic in nature. Thus, only the temples of the various deities sought after it. I myself had no use for the substance, at least at this point in time, and so I crossed through the stretch where it manifested itself and simply moved on. I had already been out from town for over a day, and my unusual metabolism allowed me to be able to go for a very long time without too much need for a lengthy rest or sustenance. My distinctly androgynous, green-skinned body had been absorbing a great deal of nourishment from the hot Martian sun's light all through the day, and I had brought some water with me in a container that had the means to replenish any liquid placed within it by means of material replication. Thus, I would never need fear running out! I carried otherwise just a small backpack with various essential supplies within it, and my sword was belted at my waist... just in the event that I may have need to resort to combat, should danger present itself. I felt lonely, and this was a rather long trek.
Before long, just as the hour of dawn had broke upon the horizon, I saw before me within a low area of terrain... a beautiful sight indeed. A magnificent city with sandstone and stucco walls, and bricks all painted a deep shade of blue. The buildings were all very angular, with rounded domes of a pale yellow in coloration. There were tall minaret-like towers, with twisting spires... and those were pure white. I at first imagined this to be but the ghost of a city, for it appeared seemingly out of the depths of a cloud of dust that blew across and through the area quite suddenly as I arrived. But it was all too real! And also very long abandoned. I checked with my map and saw that indeed, this was the lost city I was seeking. All along the right side of the city from where I stood gazing upon it, there were high cliffs and rocky ridges that made for a natural defensive wall. But this city had not been lost to war! It was simply lost to time and history. A deep channel ran through the center of the city, and it was filled with water that bubbled up from someplace underground. This city had been raised upon this spot long after the ancient sea had ceased to exist, and it seemed untouched by time, unbroken in its' structures. It was just as if the people had simply left this place peacefully and never returned. That, made it all the more eerie to see!
I made my way through the archway that was the entrance into the lost city. Inscribed all across the length of the arch were the names of countless gods and goddesses, in various languages and scripts... none of which would be understandable to people of Earth today. I knew only some of them, and that alone was how I knew what the writings upon the archway meant and had to do with. The streets of the city had innumerable temples and shrines on either side of the roads and pathways... this had been a bit of a sacred city, perhaps. I saw monumental statues along those roads as well, of immense multi-armed deities whose identities I would never learn. The faces of some were almost ape-like, bestial, and quite terrifying... with manes like lions and ornate headdresses. Whether these had been favored deities, or guardian spirits, or simply deified royalty... there was no indication. The air was hot and dry, the wind howling through the abandoned city with only the buildings to cease it in places. One name that many of the inhabitants of Mars called the planet was Nergalis, and it was said to be most sacred to the god Nergal, who was a war god of the underworld in many ancient myths and legends. I had often not seen the connection... until this day. If there had been any place upon Mars which was closest to being a kind of domain of the dead, it was this forsaken city. For two full days, I explored the city and still I had not found any traces of the missing scientists. Eventually, I made my way unto the abandoned city's center.
There was a great circular plaza in the city center, with an enormous triangular platform in the middle of it, accessibly by wide steps that ascended gradually. Heaped all about were immense piles of bones, some animal and some humanoid. All very long dead! Upon the top of the platform, was a palace or a temple, I did not know which. Its' walls were of painted blue brick, its' massive dome seeming to be of alabaster. The windows were dark and vacant, betraying nothing of what lay within. Above that dome rose a series of twisty looking spires, with one largest spire in the exact center of it. The palace's gates were wide open, and decorated with images of fabulous beasts in fine gold, in contrast to the dark gray metal of the gates themselves. I passed through that inviting entrance, and found myself within a most luxurious palace indeed! High pillars with entwined serpent-like designs soared up to the vast domed ceiling that loomed in the open vastness above. The floors were all decorated with colorful mosaics of abstract patterning and design, and soft cream-colored carpeting lay upon many of those floors. Delicate curtains and gauzy draperies could be seen hanging from various arches, while incense burners were in use, with heady scents drifting upon the air. Everything was neat and in its' proper place! If the burning incense was anything to go by, someone was evidently here. As I investigated the palace, I passed by an enclosed series of chambers which each contained various murals upon their walls. All of them showed different nature themed vistas depicting beautiful lush, green landscapes with dense forests and flower-filled fields. These rooms contained soft couches and piles of pillows and cushions, with various plates and cups upon the tables near them, all of them empty. Within one of these chambers, I discovered set into the ground an open cellar door, and down inside of it there was a staircase that wound around the entire circumference of the inner palace. The passage downward seemed to be well lit with torchlight from the wall sconces that contained such illumination... thus further proving, that someone was here.
It had been early morning before I took to the stairs and went down them, although soon I felt as if I had lost track of the time entirely. I drank some water from my replication container and poured some on my skin as well, on as much of my body as I could. Like a plant, I required this quite often! And the replication flask made it easier for me in that regard. I wore upon my body only a comfortable pair of scarlet red bloomer-like shorts and a pair of matching red sandals, with a thin, gauzy blue cloak being clasped over my left shoulder. My breasts were very small, somewhere between a man's and a slender woman's chest in appearance... and my body was of average proportions. My chest was uncovered, to make it easier to both apply the water when needed, and to cope with the heat of this arid countryside.
I wore a gold beaded bracelet upon my left wrist, and around my neck I wore a gold necklace that was decorated with an ornate ruby pendant. Keeping my long fiery red hair away from my face, was a rather beautiful golden circlet decorated with an emerald that glowed faintly with its' own inner radiance. My body was smooth and hairless, and it was not possible for someone to tell by looking what gender I had been. Nor did I feel the need to limit myself to just one! So this, then was my appearance upon that day. The air in the palace's under chambers was a lot cooler than that above ground, and there seemed to be a functioning air conditioning system in use. I felt a lot more comfortable with the heat now behind me.
The stairway ended into a long hallway which was filled with many elaborately decorated archways... all of which had colorful lamps and lanterns hung from them. Out of one of the arches stepped a skinny looking man wearing a white loincloth and nothing else, carrying a dagger in his right hand. “You will go no further!” he shouted to me as I approached, drawing my sword. I pressed a button on the hilt of my blade and streaks of visible blue energy crackled all down the length of it. I held out my weapon in a threatening manner, and replied to the man: “Do not think that pathetic knife will stop me!” and yet he made ready to attack even as I sprang forward and ran him through, causing him to convulse and to perish in a very humiliating manner for him. I took a look at his features, and saw that he had cut his face in such a way... that his scars formed a skull-like pattern upon it. This perverse work of “artistry” was fresh as well. What had compelled the dead man to such an act of self-mutilation I could not begin to imagine, nor did I wish to. What is worse, is that the man did not even scream when I had slain him. It was as though he simply felt no pain! I left him as he lay, and continued down that lengthy hallway.
Soon, another strange man came at me from the shadows... only this fellow was dressed in a white lab coat that clearly identified him, as one of the missing scientists I was searching for. He growled like an animal might, and had no weapon in either of his hands. I tried to convince him to stop, but he was not able to understand me it seemed and kept swinging his fists at me wildly. I pushed him at a wall and he toppled towards it unbalanced, his head striking it very hard. His face was mutilated exactly in the same manner as the knife-wielding attacker I had just slain. He turned around suddenly and hissed at me with a mouthful of broken teeth! He must have struck the wall harder than I intended for him to. Following that, he left me no choice but to dispatch him in the same manner I had the previous madman. What had made this once-brilliant man of science... turn into a murderous beast? I wondered if that first man also had been one of the scientists I was looking for. Something had changed them... something truly awful!
I was not an overtly strong person, my muscles not larger than an average person's might tend to be... which was why I used such an overpowering weapon, in order to make up for that. But these two men both had been nearly emaciated in their appearances, and should have been vastly weaker than myself due to their almost skeletal frames. Yet they fought with the ferocity of wild animals and this last one was far stronger than he should ever possibly have been able to be. I needed to be cautious here, lest I become overpowered by more such ghoulish foes! I tried to move more silently, hoping that no one had heard the previous commotion. Presently, I arrived in a large square chamber lit with more torchlight. All was plain, unadorned and carved from natural rock. In the center of this cavern-like room there was a kind of shrine, with three crude stone slabs for altars. All of them were covered in blood, and around one of them, the left-most, were several more of the scientists. All of them dead, their hearts all having been cut from their chests in the most brutal fashion. These men and women had no signs of having at all been bound... so it appeared as if they had been willing sacrifices. What could compel such people, who had once been bound to logic and to reason, to meet their ends in such a horrific manner as this? There was a looming tunnel beyond the far wall, which beckoned to me from the middle of the room.
There had been no idol or statue upon the shrine, it instead had been a crucified scarecrow-like thing which had once been a humanoid person. What remained was a person no longer! The skull had been exposed, and the antlers of some animal attached to it. Within the eye sockets were black gemstones of a sort that had red speckles upon them which were not blood, but that resembled blood. The body was dressed in faded yellow tatters. There seemed to be some kind of primitive cult at work here, and I had a mind to turn around and leave when I saw that grisly totem... but something seemed to beckon to me from the tunnel ahead, and I needed to know if any of the remaining scientists had survived and yet had their wits about them. I was being paid well for this endeavor, and had no intention of not seeing things through to their completion. But, I would be hesitant to take on such jobs in the future after all of this!
The tunnel continued for a long time, the torches that lined the walls giving the impression that there was someone still living in this place and keeping them lit. Someone who had perpetrated those ghastly sacrifices... and created the twisted icon of worship that I had tried to forget ever laying my eyes upon. The tunnel opened up into a long, vast, subterranean passageway with a deep chasm down the left-most side of it. Within the depths of the chasm was an underground river, and the sound of rushing water that one might associate with a rapid flow. I saw various figures standing atop high ledges overlooking the path before me, each of them holding torches in their hands. These were not the scientists! These, were very tall men and women, well past seven feet in height, with chalk white skin, pale white hair and red eyes. Some with a light pinkish tone to the skin around the eyes, with light pink lips to match. Albinos, but of what race I could not be certain. I had never seen their like on Mars before! They wore only the same kind of white loincloth that the first man who had attacked me wore, and were otherwise naked. They carried gold sickle-like weapons, and spoke in a guttural language that was alien to me. They had their gazes fixed upon something in the distance... and none of them noticed me approaching. I hugged the wall beneath where the ledges they stood upon were, and made my way slowly and without making a sound at least to the best of my abilities. I had removed my sandals, to help with the silence, and put them in my pack. Before long, I was well past the guarded area and deeper down into the passageway than previously. I could hear the river much louder now, so I knew I had descended much deeper into the underground than I had perhaps intended to. The walls were more carved, here... with massive, yet crudely etched, images of very alien-looking faces gazing upon me with large almond-shaped eyes and tiny mouths. Gemstones were set into the eyes, black jewels that glinted peculiarly in the torchlight. It was as if even this place was somehow a site of worship for the pale race that I had just caught sight of.
The faces upon the walls continued for a long way onward and down, until finally I could actually see the underground river to my left. There were long stone bridges, that spanned the river in places... and I saw human bones placed in small, neat pyramids along both riverbanks, with lit black candles atop each so that the black wax dripped down over the skulls as the candles melted. The cavern I was in now, was so vast that I could no longer see the ceiling of it, and the walls contained elaborate dwellings built into the sides of the natural rock. It was both a primitive, and yet surprisingly advanced, style of architecture that I saw in that place, and I wondered if the people who had lived in the city far above on the surface had any idea or indication, that all of this lay below it. Yet, how could they not have known? That odd stairway below the palace had been proof that they more than knew. They had dealings with those who dwelt in this region! Yet the grisly fate of the scientists indicated something a great deal more sinister. Not wishing to end up like the scientists, I remained cautious and worked my way through the cavern. I tried to follow the river as much as possible, hoping it would lead out eventually so that I could be free of that underground region once and for all. I had given up on the remaining scientists... if they had at all made it this far, then they were likely either very much dead or like those ones that had attacked me.
It was at that precise moment in which I had resolved myself to flee... when I was captured at last, by the tall subterranean albinos. I had been startled by some noise, as I made my way along the river, and without watching my step I tripped over some rocks... a mistake even a little child might have not been so foolish as to have made. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the primitive people and given little choice but to allow them to escort me to wherever it was we were now bound. The river flowed a great deal deeper, and the air grew a great deal cooler... as the party of albino warriors led me through all of the deep places that lay along that serpentine watery passage. They allowed me to keep my sword, but it would have been suicide to fight so many even armed as I was, and with such a weapon as I carried. I began to wonder at the meaning of this, since had they wanted me dead they could have just slain me. And had they wished to sacrifice me, should they not have confiscated my blade? This made no sense! Before long, I beheld a place where the river flowed out into a massive underground reservoir of sorts. In the midst of the reservoir there was an island upon which was raised a great fortress with metal walls and a single metallic dome. A cylindrical metal shaft rose up from the middle of the dome... and bored into the cavernous ceiling high above. I had no clue as to the purpose of such a thing, for this place was fast becoming increasingly peculiar to my sensibilities. I did not bother to ask where we were going, for it was obvious that fortress was to be our destination. We took a boat across the reservoir's waters, and soon we were at the island and nearing the great doors of the fortress... which slid open, as we made to enter them. This was all far more advanced than anything I had imagined these people to be capable of.
Inside, there was artificial light from panels set into the walls and from globes hung from the ceilings. Various machines, computers, and monitors lined many of the walls inside the fortress... and several of the albino peoples were operating them with skill and efficiency. None of this was as I expected! Soon, we passed through chambers designed to be comfortable living areas, and everything was exactly like I would have expected only of the greatest cities of the surface world. The men and women of this race had knowledge perhaps even exceeding some of the scientists I had been seeking! And I wondered, if they were so intelligent, why they had done as they had with the scientists themselves. Before too much longer, we passed by a pair of immense doors that were kept locked with mechanical seals so that only a certain sequence on a nearby computer panel could open them. I recognized the technology involved, but I saw that no one went near those doors at all! And, some of the people who passed by them had a look of fear upon their faces... seeming to be relieved when past the strange portals. We climbed up a series of metal stairs, at last arriving in a richly appointed room of great opulence and splendor. Here, I was to meet the leader of these underground dwellers, and I hoped that this person was also reasonable.
There were various botanical gardens all along the room's walls, with great palm trees and all manner of very colorful plants and flowers. Through the room's many large windows could be seen holographic images of a splendid green and pleasant landscape not dissimilar to what the murals had depicted in the above-ground city's palace. Were it not for the occasional flickering of the images, I may have been led to believe that we were back on the surface once again. The furniture of the room was like that favored by the nobility of Martian society, and the floor was covered in rich carpeting. At the farthest end of the great chamber was a raised part of the floor on which was a white, cushioned divan. Reclining upon it, was the queen of these albino peoples. She was tall, the same height as they, and had a cleanly shaved head adorned with a blood-red circlet. Her body was quite voluptuous, and she was wearing a flowing white gown that was made of some thin, transparent material. It was belted at her waist with a red sash tied in a neat bow at her side, and she was completely naked beneath that gown. Her face was rounded and rather cherubic looking. She wore a necklace of white and black pearls, and had bracelets of similar design on both wrists. In her ears were looped silver earrings, and she wore a silver nose ring as well.
She adorned her lips with some sort of red lipstick-like substance... which I hoped was not the blood that it appeared to be at first glance. She spoke to me in the tongue of the Martian nobility, which I had full understanding of and fluency in speaking. “What is it that you are doing here... green stranger? The men and women in white who came before you, they were far less quiet as they made their way through our realm... but you seem more respectful, and less rude to us than they were. That is why we wish to speak with you, and perhaps discover the reason for your visit, before deciding upon what to do next.” She paused a bit, and then added: “I saw on one of the monitors, that you slew those others. If you had been our enemy, I suspect you would have allied yourself with them instead! So, now I bid you speak.” To which I bowed and then respectfully replied: “I at first came to discover what became of those men and women you mentioned, because someone wanted to pay me for the information. However, I found them in that barbaric state they were in and had no choice but to fight the ones that attacked me. Many seemed to be dead when I found them, sacrificed before some kind of crudely constructed idol. I had a mind to investigate further and stumbled into your realm in so doing. I was discovered, and here I am.” There was a long silence after that, while the queen sipped from a chalice that one of her servants had brought forth for her to partake from. She sat the cup down on the floor, wiped her mouth with a cloth she had on the divan next to her, and stated: “I know. We have been monitoring all that transpires here, and had you attempted to lie to us we would have already known what you had been up to in this place. At that point, we would have put you to death! But you told us the full truth and so we can accept that. I must ask that you come with me, so that I can show you something that no one else has ever thus seen.”
The queen stood up from the divan and led me personally back to where those strange doors were, the ones that were locked with the mechanical seals. She operated the computer panel next to them, and as soon as that was finished the seals began to unlock. There were no guards with us, so I assumed that I was now an honored guest, rather than a prisoner. The queen explained to me: “What you are about to witness, is a secret of Nergalis... no one knows this secret but myself, and there is a good reason why.” and when she had said that, the doors were slowly opening with a loud mechanical noise that seemed to rumble through the hallways of the metal fortress. Beyond them was the interior of that shaft I had seen that bore its' way up all the way from the center of the fortress's main dome, which must have been the part of the place we were at. Inside of it was a massive generator, of a kind I had never beheld prior to that day. It was connected to countless machines, via tubes, wires, and connectors of all sorts. Within the generator was a pulsing blue energy of some kind, which could be seen through a viewing window set into the front of the generator itself. There was a monitor beneath that and across it was a green line that looked like a measure of a wavelength of some variety. Various buttons and lights flashed upon the monitor's screen, and there was a rather strange, dull sounding hum coming from everywhere seemingly all at once. But it was not at all loud... rather more like the hum of a vehicle one might be driving. One with a quiet engine. Out of the very top of the great generator, erupted a shaft of the blue energy from within it in a straight line that soared above to unknown heights. “What in the world is this machine?” I inquired, in awe at the sight of this before me. The queen responded: “Once I tell you the truth of what this device does, there is no going back! You will know something so terrible and so wonderful, that it will be impossible to tell anyone lest they think you mad. I am the caretaker of this place, of this thing, and my mother was such before me. My daughter will be, when her time comes. You could walk out of this laboratory, and never look back... nothing in your life would change. Or, I could tell you everything and you will leave with a great burden, the burden of forbidden knowledge. Thus will I let you decide!” I would never be ready for what I was about to learn. And yet, I needed to know! I had come all of this way, and my mission had been for nothing so far. Even if I could never tell anyone this secret... I had to find out what it pertained to. I answered the queen: “I wish to learn... I would join you, in this burden.”
This is what she explained to me... and I shall relate it here for you to comprehend, if you can. There are two parallel versions, of the planet Mars. On one, all life went extinct roughly 1.3 billion years ago as of the time in which I am right now writing this on the planet Earth in the year 2022 A.D. But upon the one that exists within a parallel reality, life continued to flourish there well into the time when the dinosaurs were existing on Earth. On that Mars, there was eventually a series of terrible world-altering ecological disasters and a great deal of climate change that eventually endangered all life upon the red planet's surface. Since time beyond memory, that great generator allowed the parallel Mars to share the same physical space as the original, long-dead Mars did. This worked by folding space to such a degree that the dead planet was shifted into the parallel reality, while the parallel variant of Mars shifted into this “prime” reality that we exist in... all, at the exact same instant. Thus was it that the parallel Mars was the one that had been colonized by we who came there from the great mother planet of Rahab that in our languages was also called Terra Primus, with Earth being called Terra Minor. The mighty world that once existed between Mars and Jupiter once upon a time! We never had known... that the original, indigenous inhabitants of the red planet possessed this kind of technology. And when Rahab was in the end obliterated by those enemies of ours who had sought its' destruction... its' annihilation also caused the destruction of all life upon the surface of Mars. Of parallel Mars! But unknown to all, these albino peoples had survived the annihilation of life on Mars' surface due to living so deep underground... and utilized the generator so that they might return to their native reality once more. Once this was done, the long extinct variant of Mars had come back into the “prime” reality... and, unto this very day, no one in this reality knows what became of the parallel Mars, now once more in its' original reality... or, of those indigenous peoples who survived the seeming end of all life thereupon. And the asteroid belt that once was Rahab, can never yield the countless ancient secrets to which that planet has once been witness to.
The albino queen spoke of all this as if she had seen it happen already, even the events that back then were still in the future... such as Rahab's annihilation. At that time, back then, I was dumbfounded and could only stare at her while not comprehending all of what she was talking about. “How can you know of things that have yet to occur... when the future is not set in stone yet?” I asked her, to which she said in a matter of fact manner: “I know all of this because I myself am from the distant future, even though my people here are not! I cannot tell you how I arrived at this point in my home planet's past, only that I did. And, there will come a time when all I have told you about... it shall come to pass exactly as I have said. It shall, in those days, be as if this Mars had never existed at all! Yet our underground civilization shall most certainly, it is hoped, endure.” I understood the sciences and metaphysics behind the folding of space, and regarding the existence of parallel realities... I even knew something of time travel. But I could not at that time comprehend (perhaps because I did not wish to) the reality of Rahab being utterly wiped out of existence and of this woman being so certain of that coming to pass. That was what took me so utterly by surprise! I confided in the queen: “I believe you about everything except as regards you being from the future. Perhaps if you could offer me some proof of that, it might be easier for me to so accept. But as it stands, I can only conclude that although indeed there do seem to be two planets which share this space across two separate realities... the future of them, and of Rahab, cannot be so divined.”
“I have proof.” the queen stated in a sad, melancholy tone. “Terrible... terrible proof!” she exclaimed. Taking me literally by the hand, the tall woman led me out of the fortress and down a long and twisted series of maze-like tunnels and caves... deeper and deeper under the ground. The air was hot and humid in this section, probably due to the lack of air conditioning, and there were bizarre plants growing in all manner of weird shapes and varieties. Eventually we came to a set of double doors set into the side of a natural rock wall. All about both sides of this... were heaped skulls, and skeletons in tattered garments.
The pale woman pressed her left hand upon the surface of the double doors and there was a loud ping like sound. The doors then opened very quickly, with a swishing noise. The air was musty and earthy to smell, and it all had the feeling of walking into a tomb, or an open grave. She stepped inside first, and I followed after her. Within was a kind of ancient mausoleum where various mummified bodies lay atop slabs on shelves that were all set into the strong, thick walls of the chamber. All were attired in clothing similar to that worn by the queen herself. “These are my various predecessors.” she thus explained, then adding: “My mother is here, someplace! I come often to visit her, so her spirit will not be lonely for my company.” then, she showed me a sarcophagus in one of the large room's corners. She put her hand on the lid of it, within a circular depression. Suddenly... another very loud ping like sound echoed through the room. Then, the lid of the sarcophagus came all apart and recessed into the large stone coffin like a kind of rectangular iris. “Look inside!” the woman commanded, and I did as she bid me. Inside of that coffin... lay a peculiar looking space suit, with a name tag upon it in a language I did not understand at all. There was a small plastic card next to the space suit, and upon it there was a picture of this woman. Of the albino queen. She was smiling, dressed in a black business suit, and was wearing a pair of round glasses. The name on the identification card (for that is what this actually was), was written in the same language. “I cannot read this, any of this... what does it say?” I asked, and the queen told me: “It gives my name, and the date of my birth, along with other bits of information. My name was... is... Elizabeth Laura Bartlin. I was originally born upon a parallel Earth... well, Terra Minor you would call it... but in the year 2056 A.D. Our science was very advanced in my time, and the laboratory I worked for decided to create a machine capable of folding space. It was the prototype of that generator I showed you before. My mother worked there with me, and was the creator of the first schematics for the machine. I worked with the team assigned to building it and testing it out afterwards. The scientists in charge of the project wanted to send me to the past of our own world, of Earth. My mother wanted to come along with me, to see if the generator worked for herself. But something was just totally wrong with all of our equations, with the mathematical side of things regarding where we were at in relation to where we wanted to go to within space and time. We ended up here on ancient Mars... and to get out of the heat, we found our way down here, into this subterranean domain. The matriarch of the tribe that is now my own, took us in... and she taught us the local languages and dialects, taught us the tribe's culture and beliefs. It took many years to learn everything! When the old matriarch so died, my mother became the next matriarch. She helped me to build this new generator that we have here, but with a different purpose in mind. You see... my mother had a dream one night, in which she saw Mars devoid of all life upon its' surface. She thought it was something that was fated to happen but only if we remained in that reality. So we opted to try and cheat fate... by shifting our adopted world into one of the nearest parallel realities to our own, but one in which Mars was dead already so that no ill could befall it any further, back in the reality we had come from. That is how everything came to be as I revealed to you previously. We had no desire to return to Earth at that point, for we had come to love Mars far more. When my mother died, I became the next ruler of these people, and when I die my daughter will take my place. Now, do you understand all that I was trying to tell you? Mars is this planet, the one that you would call Nergalis, incidentally.”
I laughed, and said to Elizabeth: “You initially said you could not tell me how this came to pass, how your journey through time took place. Then, you called Mars... Nergalis... your home planet. Now, you tell me that in fact you came from Earth, and this is just your new home planet. You did not lie at all... but you did try to conceal the truth, thinking I would never believe it. But... I do believe you, Elizabeth! And I feel sorry for you... because you bear upon your shoulders terrible knowledge indeed. But if all is as you say it is, what drove those scientists I had been searching for insane... who killed the ones I saw sacrificed, and what is the meaning of all the skulls and skeletons I keep seeing all about down here?”
Regarding the lost scientists, Elizabeth explained: “They had breathed in far too much of the air that had become tainted by the Zal'kosi rice... which rose up to the surface just prior to their arrival. It had a hallucinogenic affect on them, but far worse I think than they had expected it to. They lost their minds, and by the time they reached our domain they were nearly feral. Some had even lost all capacity for any kind of speech, and those attacked us on sight. Just as they attacked you! They slaughtered each other when no other victims could be found, and what the meaning of that grisly idol was even I know not.” She then told me about all the skeletal remains everywhere down in the underground. “The people of this tribe, they sometimes do not bury their dead... but keep them in places where they can still be seen and their spirits communed with. This is simply one of their traditions, and I must admit I was slow to accept it when I first came here with my mother. This chamber here, is one of the few such burial vault areas in all of this vast underground domain. It is reserved for the matriarchs of the tribe only, and that is why my mother is interred here. Now let me ask you a rather direct and personal question... are you capable of being able to give pleasure to a woman?” And I confided in her that, indeed, I was capable.
She escorted me on back to her divan, in the resplendent chamber in which she had first received me. There, we both lay atop the divan and engaged in acts of hedonistic, passionate abandon which led to a mutual ecstasy. After we spent a rather lengthy time thus pleasurably engaged, we washed and went for a long walk through a section of the underground that contained countless botanical gardens like those I had seen in Elizabeth's royal chamber. “I have not laid like that with someone in decades...” she said to me, further elaborating: “After we came to Mars... my mother and I were given certain drugs by the old matriarch, and they changed our physiology over several years time. I know not how many! But when it was all said and done, we were both vastly increased in our heights to match the other members of the tribe, and we were now just as long-lived as these peoples likewise. I have reigned as a queen here for hundreds of years now... and I am still young and in my prime. When I will age, or die, I have no idea! My daughter will be much the same.” And that explained the last of the mysteries that these people had to hide. I spent several weeks with them after that, and at the end of it I asked Elizabeth how best I may reach the surface again. She took me to an elevator shaft that only operated one way: up. You could not have used it to get down to this region from the surface. It was in the farthest tunnels, the farthest I had ever explored since descending into that place for the first time. Before entering the elevator, I asked of my hostess one final question: “Elizabeth... do you think it was just a coincidence that both your mother and you were albino, and so are these people who live down here, who took you in?” and she shook her head and said to me in reply: “No, I do not. Everything happens for a reason, and I believe it was some sort of destiny that brought us here, where we would not be treated like outsiders. Be well, green one! Although you never did tell me your name, I will remember you always.” and I told her my name after that, so that she could forever remember it. “My name is Sokrael, dear lady! I hope you find it to be as pleasing to your ears, and I have found your own name to be.” to which she said excitedly: “Oh, I do! I truly do! Farewell, sweet Sokrael... and may happiness and bliss await you at your own journey's end.”
I rode the elevator to the surface, which took me out into the midst of the lost city again. From there, I began my long trek back to the technological hub-city of Okana'ra. This time, the Zal'kosi rice was not to be seen, having long since disappeared beneath the shifting sands... and as I walked along, I began to wonder why I had been immune to its' maddening, hallucinatory effects. Or... had all I had experienced following my initial encounter with the rice been the result of visions caused by it having tainted the air in the peculiar way that so large a quantity of it could? I never did return to the lost city in order to find out, and also never divulged to anyone what I had encountered there. However... as I searched through my pack for my water container, I discovered Elizabeth's old ID card there. It had all been real, after all!
Published 22nd May 2022
Author's Note
This work is based upon some of my past-life memories.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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