Lazarus Rising

1.23 Labyrinth

The passageway they were following ended abruptly. It opened onto a central hexagonal platform, perhaps thirty metres across with nothing but two levers at its centre. As she stepped onto the metallic surface Cheyenne could feel it vibrate under her feet. Suddenly the surface erupted into a stream of undulating light. Like the reflection of sunlit water on the ripples of a receding tide the display raced to and fro across the surface in an intricate set of complex patterns. For a second she stood and watched the entrancing display as the radial beams ran round her feet, like a stream round two obstructions in its path.

"Here, look." Urbaine walked across to the two levers and extinguished the globe.

Springing out of the darkness, drowned in the same moving display of light, a colossal set of gears appeared, an intricate set of springs and cogs linked with chains weights and counter weights. Above them, floor upon floor of the citadel flickered into life, in a series of hexagonal shapes shrinking away into infinity.

"The Martians built this, I guess they used it to move goods up and down between the floors of the fortress. It has got no discernible power source, it's just weights and counterweights." Urbaine lent on one of the two levers and the platform lurched slightly under her feet. Above them, the gears sprang into life. Spinning noiselessly, the multitude of chains ran up over the cogs, a series of metallic snakes silently slithering through the intricate gear-sets.

The platform dropped, slowly at first then quickly picking up speed until the floors began flashing past them in a flurry of blurred light. Cautiously Cheyenne peered over the edge. Like above, below them the hexagonal pulsing shapes marking each level of the fortress spiralled downward as far as she could see. The citadel was dizzyingly high. With countless floors above and below them Cheyenne could not imagine any structure on Earth that could surpass it. Alerted by a low swishing coming from the darkness toward her, she quickly stepped back as a huge pendulum shot out of the darkness and swished past the platform. She gasped in astonishment and stepped back from the edge.

"Miraculous, isn't it." Called Urbaine. "Constructed millions of years ago, it still works. A testament to their ingenuity."

As the gears ran faster. Cheyenne could feel the draught rushing up from beneath them. The great pendulum reappeared, the huge globe whooshing past the platform into the darkness. Like a yellow orb racing across the sky it appeared and disappeared into the gloom, making the air vibrate across her body as it swept past her. Astounded by the impossible size of the mechanism she stood absorbed and watched as it ran gracefully two and fro.

"Here, here. Come on here." Urbaine waved her over. Turning his tattooed face upward, he stood, his hands raised up, like a cult priest worshiping the dying sun. "It means something, all this, but I don't know what. Why build something so complex, so ingenious, so time consuming to construct? ... ...Perhaps to prove it could be done. I've seen their crashed spaceships, out in the desert, bought down in a final struggle with an old enemy. They had power sources that would have negated the need for all this. Maybe it was built by the Old Martians before they had their ships. Did they know what they were building would last for eternity. Would still be here long after they'd gone?"

Cheyenne studied the monk's face. "Urbaine, the cross, it was once meant to represent benevolence, hope and salvation. Why have you corrupted it?"

"It is the sign of Chaos, and chaos is the natural state of things."

"But the cross is the sign of the old Earth god, not the sign of Chaos. These things you see in signs like the crescent and the cross, they don't have the meaning you believe. You know that?"

"No, the crescent is the crescent of Mars and the cross, it's Chaos. I know that. It's you that are mistaken." Urbaine seemed to drift off, transfixed by the pendulum as it appeared and disappeared in front of them. "Yes, yes. I'm taking you. You'll soon be meeting him. He's been waiting to see you. Take her to see him, that's what I'm doing now. He'll be pleased, so pleased with me."