The Lights of Capella IV

The Lights of Capella IV

By Charles Lankiwicz

         Jandar Loues surveyed the terrain from his vantage point high on a rocky outcrop.  Capella shone brightly from the western horizon of its fourth planet.  The sky was so dark blue as to be almost black, due to the thin atmosphere. The terrain was not unlike Terran Mars, being predominately reddish in color, arid, pitted with craters, deep rift valleys, and high mountains.
         Before him, on a bleak plain, surrounded with high rough ridges, was a ruined city, the only one found on the planet.  It was some 15 kilometers in width at tis widest point.  Its buildings were crumbling, some mere piles of debris.  It had been laid out in a geometrically accurate circle.  Judging by the size of the doors and window openings, the inhabitants had b een approximately human sized. Its angles, however, were slightly off from what a human dwelling would have been, and no one would have mistaken it for a human city.
         He walked down the outcrop towards the city, the thick boots of his space suit crunching on the sandy soil.  The sun glinted off the visor of his helmet as he glanced towards the exploration ship.
         The Bonaventure was of the Hyperion class, spherical in shape, 500 meters in diameter, and capable of sustained exploration for a period of up to five years.  A full complement of scientific equipment was aboard, enough  for any conceivable need.
         But not quite enough, he thought, as he looked at the Lights.  The Lights had been in the city since their arrival. They were about fist sized, and multi-colored, blues, reds, yellows and some that defied description.  They darted about the ruins, sometimes alone, other times in swarms.  Occasionally, they hovered around the exploration team.  They emitted energy of some sort that, at times, played some havoc with their instruments.  Jandar remembered the conversation he had earlier that day.
         “I think they could be intelligent–perhaps they’re trying to communicate with us,” Jandar said to the ship’s captain, Joan Gault.
         “Nonsense, Loues. You exobiology people are seeing alien life forms under every stone.  How could sparks of light possibly be intelligent?”
         “We only see them in or very near the city.  And they seem to hover around our team, almost as if they’re watching us.”
         She laughed in response.
         Now, as he neared the city, two of them came very close to him.  His analyometer, a device for recording data as visual images, analyzing mineral deposits, and detecting energy emissions, began to go haywire, as it lit up and flickered.
         Almost, almost, I could detect a ...pattern here, he thought, But how to analyze it?  What to relate it to?
         Off in the near distance, he could see the orange suit of Zafl, a security guard assigned to the exploration team.  Soon, he came up to him.
         “Dammed bowlshit–having me guard here.  But Gault says orders are orders!” said Zafl, as he switched his laser rifle to the other arm.
         “Where is Laamon and the rest of the team?” asked Jandar.
         “Off to the northwest–hey those things are damed close to you!”
         “Yes, I seem to have a following.”
         “I’ll scatter them from you!” said Zafl, as he aimed his laser rifle, set for wide beam, at the lights surrounding Jandar.
         “Hold on! They’re not–“
         His words were drowned out by the actinic blast of Zafl’s rifle.  Automatically, his helmet filers darkened.
         Suddenly, lights seemed to come from everywhere, a dazzle of color surrounded them.  Jandar felt  a mild electrical shock as they brushed up against his suit.  He swung his arms about, but to no effect.
         He looked towards Zafl, and saw that he was down, surrounded by lights.
         He began to move towards him, but felt an intense shock as he did so.
         “Zafl!  Are you alright, Zafl?”
         But Zafl did not answer or move.
         Again he tried to move towards him.  But again he was shocked, a vibration shaking his limbs.
         He noticed a clear opening to his left, and moved there.  The lights moved away from him.  But when he again went towards Zafl, they clustered around him, shocking him.  He pulled away towards the opening to his left.  As he moved there, the lights moved into the space he had vacated.
         Sweat beaded coldly on his forehead, and his heart began to beat faster.
         “Jandar to Bonaventure. Emergency! The lights have attacked and downed Zafl, and have surrounded me,” he said as he moved the transmit switch to send with his chin.
         “Acknowledged, Jandar.  Stay where you are until help arrives.” came the answering voice through his helmet speaker.
         “I can’t! They seem to be hear4ding me somewhere.  I can’t stay still, or move in any other direction.”
         “Keep calm.  Help is on the way.”
         Jandar moved towards the ruble of the city, constantly surrounded by the lights.  He looked about, but could see nothing but the city’s ruins.
         Zafl must have angered them, he thought.  At least one thing had been proven, they do have some form of intelligence.  They might have killed him.  What do they have in store for me?  Where are they heading me?
         He noticed a doorway to his right, one theat seemed to have a door.  Some of the buildings did.  He made a  quick decision.
         He moved sharply to his right, towards the door.  Intense pain flowed through him.  He screamed inside his helmet.  Then he stumbled, going to his hands and knees.  With a supreme effort, he stood up, and lurched towards the door.
         Then he was through it, slamming it shut.  The lights had not got in with him.  He went to his knees, breathing heavily, his heart pumping.
         For awhile, how long he could not say, he stayed there, until he regained some of his equilibrium.  Again, he tried to contact the Bonaventure, but the thick walls defeated his efforts..
         He flicked on the search beam atop his helmet and looked around.  He was in a room about 40 by 40 feet filled with loose rubble.  Ahead, he could see another doorway.  Getting up, he went towards and through it, entering other rooms.  I must have lost them, he thought; they can’t go through walls.  If I can find another exit, maybe I can get back to the ship.
         He saw another door, went to it, and stood beside it.  For a full minute, he waited, his hands on the door.  Then he pushed it open.
         Immediately, blinding light surrounded him,  pain shot through his body.  He turned back towards the door, but it was useless.  They had him again.  This time much closer than before.  Again, an empty avenue opened before him, and he staggered along it.
         “Jandar to ship.  I tried to...”
         “Jandar! Where were you? We lost contact and feared you were dead.  Hold on–a rescue craft is approaching.”
                   As he moved along, he could see an agitated movement among the lights.  Looking to his left, he saw the ship’s landing boat approaching him, all its lights blazing.  Hope rose within him.
         “You’re northeast of me.  Keep on your present heading and you’ll come right to me.”
         The boat came steadily towards him.  The lights seemed to part from it.  It came to within one hundred yards.  And then the lights converged on it. They surrounded it until it became a ball of multi-colored fire.
         “Landing boat to ship.  We’re losing power.  We...”
         Jandar saw the boat crash in a cloud of dust and debris.  The lights parted from it instantly.  It lay like a broken toy on the arid ground.
         “Boat to ship, we have impacted.  Crew is shook up,  but no one is badly hurt.  We will attempt to exit craft to go to Jandar.”
         “Bonaventure to Boat, do not leave the craft.  We cannot afford to lose anyone else.  Jandar, we will do everything we can to help you...”
         Then the transmission became garbled. Jandar checked his equipment, but could find nothing wrong.  He realized that the lights must have cut the signal off, that they were on a higher order of intelligence then he had thought.  With a sinking feeling, he moved along the open pathway the lights had left him–he could do nothing else.
         After an hour, he saw a large building come into view.  It was the one at the center of the city, it was unexplored as of yet.  Nearer and nearer, he approached, until a large entrance came into view.
         He hesitated, but the lights clustered closely and force him onward, into the black opening.  He was in a long corridor that went into the building endlessly.  It would have been dark if it had not been for the lights.  Ahead he could see a dim glow.
         They came into a large area, filled with high walls, covered with areas of color that were much like the lights themselves.  It was enormous, row after row of walls, deeper and deeper, he went into them.
         Tension gripped him–what would he come to? At least he would find out.  The last walls were passed, and he saw a raised dias, upon which was a chair-like fixture.  It was not of human proportions, and various attachments hung about it.
         Finally, he stood beside it.  Around him, the lights swarmed, but kept their distance, no longer right against him.  At the top of the chair fixture, was an arrangement of metal, with wire-like attachments.
         He waited, but the lights did nothing but stay in position around the dais.  Waiting...
         Is something supposed to happen to me here, he thought.  Or am I a prisoner.  Or do they want me to do something with the machine?
         The situation was static.  Time passed.  Jandar felt very tired.  The planet had low gravity, but he still had been moving for hours, and fatigue began to overtake him.  He sat down in the chair object, his scientific curiosity made him examine the metal object, turn it over, looking at different angles.  This would almost fit like a hat, if I was of a different species, he thought, as he fitted it over his helmet.  Then everything changed.
         He was looking over an ocean coast, with a large city on its edge, that he realized was the very one they where now in.  The sky was a deep green, with pinkish clouds scuttling along it.  The city was surrounded with delicate but large tree-like objects.  He could see figures walking along the streets.  Then he was zooming up closer to them.
         They were taller than men, some eight feet on average.  In general, they were humaniod in appearance, having two arms, two legs, a head, but there, the similarities ended.  Their fingers consisted of a mass of thin wavy tentacles at the end of the arms.  The sking was scaly, with small plates.  The faces had holes about where the nose would be on a human, with a wide slit mouth, and large green orbs for eyes.  The tops of the heads had a  wavy line of spines along the top of the skull.  Intently, he studied them, his exobiology training coming to the fore.
         However, as he watched them, the scene began to change.  The sky grew darker, the oceans shrunk, the vegetation wilted.  The city became more deteriorated in appearance.  At first, he thought it was the changing of the seasons.  But then he realized that he was seeing the world itself undergoing a change for the worst.  The planet was becoming uninhabitable.
         Then he was looking at the very building where he now was.  Lines of the creatures were approaching the dais where he lay, sitting in the chair, and becoming points of light–the lights were the former inhabitants of the dying planet!
         He tore the headpiece off, and looked at the lights surrounding the dais.
         “There you have it–our history, what we have now become,” said a voice in his mind.
         “I did not know.  None of us did. We couldn’t....”  said Jandar out loud, hoping the voices would hear him.
         “The creature we subdued is alive, We merely disabled his systems temporarily so that he would not harm us.  We were hoping that you would discover this building before anything happened.  But when it did, we had no choice but to guide you here, so that you would understand.  For us to be able to speak to you, you had to use the machine.”
         “Yes! Yes, I understand.  I will tell the others.  Yu have nothing more to fear from us–indeed we may be able to help each other. We can combine our knowledge.”
         “That would be very good indeed,” came the thought in his mind.
         Jandar walked away from the dais.  No lights hindered him.  The path to the Bonaventure and the future was open.

The End