Golgota (a science-fiction novel)

Chapter 13

It took them a long time to reach the pyramid.
Kovacs saw that a narrow basin had been built around the pyramid, in which the red liquid shimmered. A bridge led across the moat to a narrow, high gate that served as the pyramid's main entrance.
Directly in front of the bridge was a worm-like machine creature, with countless stubby legs on either side that extended into grasping claws.
"Maybe there was a signal," said Macey, who was walking beside Kovacs. "An electrical impulse, and all the machines flipped over at the same time."
"Probably," Kovacs said.
"I would have liked to have examined one of those machines," Macey continued. "Then we might have found the cause of this great dying. In the meantime, I'm more and more convinced that they all keeled over at the same time. Where do you think this signal came from, Bobby?"
"The Ska'," Kovacs said.
Macey nodded. "If he was stronger than all the others, better built, more advanced, he must have seen the other machines as competitors."
"Or he killed them because they weren't worthy of him."
Macey was silent for a while as they walked in a wide arc around the elongated robot - whose shape reminded Kovacs of a Ngoy - and Kovacs knew Macey was thinking about something.
"Kovacs," Macey finally said hesitantly, "do you think it's a good idea to go inside that pyramid?"
"It's our only way into paradise. And Ellison is right about one thing: on the surface, the Ngoy city is too big. We can't cross that moat."
"Have you perhaps thought about why the firstborn might have left Golgotha?"
"Do you think that Ska'...?"
"I don't know what to believe. That's just it, Bobby. It's driving me crazy."
On the bridge, all the men came to a brief halt again and gazed up in awe at this structure of the Old Era, intimidated by its size.
Then Nakamura said, "Onward, men."
They started moving again, and the shadow of the structure fell over them, and everything became dark.

The corridors were narrow, and the high walls cast no echo. It was so dark that they all had their helmets on again, using their headlamps for illumination. This time, Kovacs was one of the men Ellison's bound men had to escort. Neil Ellison was exhaustedly silent, and this was a great relief: Ellison's sarcastic comments had been unbearable, mostly because he alluded to a slow and grisly death at the hands of Ska Azath.
Now they were all silent. The only things that could be heard were their almost silent footsteps and the whir and drone of machines behind the walls. Even the floor was vibrating.
It was like climbing into the belly of a beast made of circuits and circuit boards, Kovacs thought. He noticed the bulbous pipes that ran along the top of the corridor. He had noticed these pipes elsewhere in the maze, and until now he had never given them much thought.  Here, they partially covered the entire ceiling. Regulators were mounted on the pipes, large pistons with rows of numbers and pressure scales. They turned a corner into a corridor and saw several short men with pale skin in white work clothes working on the pipes with welding torches. Kovacs couldn't make out what they were doing, but he assumed it was important.
All the males stopped abruptly in their work as they turned the corner. They flinched and covered their eyes - instinctively - as the light from the headlamps stabbed into the darkness.
"Headlamps off," Nakamura ordered. "Only Kovacs, Macey and I are leaving them on."
Kovacs noticed the males had white hair and pink eyes. One word emerged; just a hint of former knowledge in the messy archive that was his memory.
Albinos.
At least, that's what they looked like albinos, though Kovacs suspected that, like them, they were a race specially bred up by the Godmen, whose alien appearance came from adaptation in this dark environment.
The males regarded them for a moment, weighing whether these beings were a threat in their spacesuits, heavy weapons, and black axon-glass visors - then resumed their work.
"Go on, Nakamura?" asked Macey.
Nakamura nodded. "Go on. And nobody hurts them, understand?"
Some of the males turned as they passed, looking at them out of motionless, pink eyes.
"What are they, Nakamura?" asked Macey on an isolated channel.
"Workers. Like us. At least, I would guess so."
"Looks like they're keeping the machines running," Gleeson said.
"Do you think they were created by the firstborn?"
"No, Macey. They look like us, except for a few changes. They are clearly made in the image of man. They are a creation of the God-men."
Macey thought a bit. "There's probably also some kind of birthing station down here where these beings are spat out and pulled up. Where they get mineral solutions pumped into their blood and fed guu."
"Guu is a good keyword," Kovacs said. "If these beings are a creation of the god-men, then there must be a guu pump around here somewhere, too."
"Guu." Macey laughed hard. "I ran out of my ration yesterday."
"Mine, too," Nakamura said. "I planned well for the rations, but this trip is going on longer now than I would have expected."
"So... if there's Guu around here somewhere, we'll have to look for it."
"Maybe you can communicate with them?" Macey stopped next to one of the males, and pulled out a limp pouch with a mouth closure, which until yesterday had contained his Guu ration.
The male turned and looked at the pouch. Gently, he took it from Macey's fingers.
The other men had also stopped and were watching what was happening. If the pink-eyed creature was unsettled or interested, he didn't let on. Its face remained smooth and pale. Kovacs noticed that basically it was not even possible to tell whether the being was male or female.
A hermaphrodite.
The small humanoid unscrewed the cap and held the bag to its colorless lips, then a small, pink tongue shot out and licked the inside of the opening.
Then it dropped the bag, and looked at Macey motionless. Macey got down on his knees and picked up the bag, then slowly stood up, pointing at his chest.
"Emmet Macey."
The creature hesitated for a moment, then pointed to its own chest. "Wong Tang."
"It has a name," McGuire said. "I don't believe it."
Then the creature that had called itself Wong Tang started moving, and they followed.