The commlink chimes.
“Hauser requests your presence, Australia. They have encountered an alien humanoid and their translators are having difficulty.” JC’s voice fills the air.
Scott locks the crystal into place. Indicator lights on the transporter control illuminate. “All readings indicate we’ve a functioning transporter.”
“Can you test it?”
“Only one way to test it,” Scott says.
“Send me over there,” Australia orders.
“I’d rather bring one of them back.”
“As first officer, it is my duty. Choosing only one of them to beam back is not roulette. Transport me.” Australia steps up into the cubical chamber.
Running around the outer edge of the cubicle are columns surrounded by patterns congruent to the double helix of a DNA molecule.
Scott swipes his hand over the panel.
The chamber washes in a blinding white light.
HALDON SY PULLS Reynard to his feet. “You don’t have time to rest.”
Reynard’s knees wobble, and he falls on his stomach, spitting up bile.
“Keep eating.”
“Sigmore was a great city of the Nologies. In the center of the great city was the pyramid. Nothing more is known of this place. I suspect the Thaumaturge knows nothing as well.” Eymaxin examines a wall of hieroglyphs matching her tattoos.
Scattered on the ground are the bodies of several historic soldiers, each with their skulls cracked open.
Reynard kicks past spent M60 shell casings to check the backpack next to the dead World War II soldier. “They wanted to blow this pyramid up.”
His mind flashes.
••••••
THE GRIP OF arms wrapping around and pulling him back into the trench. The GI Sergeant shoves an M1903 Springfield rifle into Reynard’s hands before shoving him back into the line. The Sergeant scales the logs. He peeks over the top and drops back to the mud floor. He readies his Thompson submachine gun. The gunfire sound shifts to that of M16s. The Sergeant gives a hand signal down the line. The soldiers snap to readiness. The M16 rattles subside. The World War II GIs scramble over the trench wall. The pops of empty clips echo over the screams of the dying. Reynard witnesses the wave of Sandmen accelerate past the trench. He leaps up—
••••••
FINDING HIMSELF ON the temple floor at Haldon Sy’s feet.
“When I was here before they attempted to destroy this temple with explosives.”
“It was a dream. Sandmen-controlled,” Haldon Sy warns.
“If it was, it was different than when they brought out my memories of home. I experienced the battle.” Reynard gets to his knees. “Why work so hard to damage my synapses? Why not eat my brain?”
Eymaxin pushes her thumb against the edge of the blast marks on the pillar. Chunks of sandy pebbles flake away. She dumps the crumbs in order to brush away more stone. “What substance comprises this pillar?”
Reynard reaches for the weapon. His stomach burns. He ejects the clip from the tommy gun. Empty. Holding the barrel in club fashion, he swings the heavy weapon, shattering the brittle facade of rock. Exposed metal piping snakes through the pillar.
“It wasn’t stone.”
“What purpose does it serve?’
“Portals?” Reynard says, guessing that the distance between each pillar is of equal length. “Allowing transport between planets, gathering in a central meeting place—marketplace.” Reynard cranes his neck to gaze upward into the underside of the hollow pyramid. “Some kind of massive trade center?”
“The portals allow the Sandmen to come to our world,” Haldon Sy speculates.
“The soldier you speak of made the correct action. Many of the pillars are damaged. The portals no longer work,” says Eymaxin.
“One has to still function. It’s my way home.”
“We must destroy it,” Haldon Sy says.
“After I step through, you bring this entire temple down.”
“What makes them work?” Eymaxin asks.
Reynard shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
Sandmen materialize.
Haldon Sy slashes at the monsters. Eymaxin blasts two Sandmen out of existence, and Reynard fires. Sandmen surround the trio. Reynard reloads the rifle. Instead of blood, he showers the floor with Sandmen’s empty robes. Eymaxin waves her hands. Blue flames arc from her fingers.
Between the archway pillars forms a swirling gray and black pattern.
Eymaxin blasts another Sandman. “Reynard, you must pass through the gateway!”
“I won’t leave you and Haldon Sy to die fighting these Sandmen!” Reynard empties the rifle.
“You must go! NOW!” Eymaxin screams at him.
“I will not leave—” The impact hurtles him toward the eddy.
The portal sucks Reynard and the Sandman tackling him inside. The rifle slips from his hand, bouncing off the temple floor.
HAUSER WORRIES THE shrinking of his pupil will remain permanent after being caught off guard by the flash of the Dragon’s transport. Never has he been exposed to something so illuminating. Rarely has he utilized a transporter system before, but never has the energy transference beam been so bright.
When his vision returns enough, the blurry outline of a blonde female in a Silver Dragon uniform stands before him.
She places a rebreather between her lips. “Most humanoid eyes are unable to handle the intensity of the beam. I suggest you shield them next time.”
“How did you know?”
“Your eyelid flutters at a rapid pace to ensure moisture.”
Hauser brushes off the tear from under his eye. “The crew is this way.”
Doug operates a control panel as Elmar supervises, explaining what each key control represents.
“You seem to have fixed any translator malfunction,” Australia notes.
“He’s goading Doug in order to restore computer functions, but at this rate, Reynard will be dead of old age by the time we get off this ship.”
You never told him—
“Amye, navigation and transporters are online.”
“Then we need to go.”
Find him—
“Their technology’s the issue,” Amye whispers. “Doug’s unable to meld with the computer.”
“I am Australia Wells, First Officer on the Silver Dragon, at your service.”
“I am Elmar.” Her ears fill with the failed attempt to translate his title. “I lead my people, the Kalshir’.”
“Are you attempting to reanimate them?”
“Your computer technician finds it ill-advised without a functioning navigation system.”
“Time has ravaged much of the smerth’n controls. This thing’s a floating hulk in space. We haven’t any
