01 Taxilas Children

TAXILA'S CHILDREN
He approached the opening, slowed down and finally stopped a few paces from it. He
looked at the view through it, as far as he could determine, it was parkland. He asked the
Bole cautiously.
"What is ahead - beyond the gateway?"
"My sensors detect a cultivated area."
"Is it an illusion?"
"My sensors detect what is actual, not what is illusory."
"Sorry I asked!"
No matter what he and the Bole thought they saw, the image of the five sided entrance had
connotations of the unexpected. He looked behind him at the other end of the corridor. The
alternative was not appealing. He shrugged and murmured to the Bole.
"Whatever will be, will be."
"That is self evident logic."
He walked forward into the opening and through. The Bole followed. On the far side, the
cultivated parkland stretched to both sides, it was perfectly groomed, the alien ground cover
well manicured.
"In hell's name, who looks after this?"
"Insufficient data."
"Where is the power source?"
"We are within it."
"Explain!"
"The power source emanates from the structure of the city and from all we see around us."
"How is that possible?"
"Insufficient data."
"You said the source was beyond the wall where we entered - to the north west."
"Correct - a node of the source is focused in the building immediately ahead."
"Explain a node of the source."
"A concentration and emission of power from a specific point."
"Where are the nearest life forms."
"The nearest life forms are seven point three four kilometres into the city."
Steve looked back at the five sided entrance. Beyond it, the corridor from the barrier wall
looked comfortingly familiar. He turned and marched resolutely towards the colonnaded
building indicated by the Bole. A flight of shallow step surrounded it, which he climbed
without hesitation. The structure was massive, it reminded him of history files of the ancient
structures which once had survived the centuries on Old Earth. They had been the palaces of
kings and the temples of their gods.
By this time he was dwarfed within a soaring chamber which was lit by long slit windows
from floor to roof. He felt like something microscopic, perhaps that had been the architect's
intention. He was hardly surprised to see that the great room was five sided and that in the
centre of the floor, was a Pentagram. He walked forward until he stood at the edge of it. Its
structure was separate from the stonework which surrounded it, and appeared to be composed
of the same clear plastic material of the Pentacles he wore around his neck.
Within, was the image of a man in the same pose as those within the Pentacles. This was a
giant, ten times the size of a human being. In the space between the two feet, something was
written in Lynxe characters. Momentarily, he thought of Hara and how she had laboriously
taught him their alphabet. He walked round the edge of the plastic to see if he could decipher
what was inscribed. Even before he stood before them, he knew what they read. He stared at
the word, absorbing the implications.
TAXILA
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