Lazarus Rising

1.28 Into the Extensivity

Up close the Extensity rose from the ground like a huge circular monolith of irregularly cut black stone. Jamek felt as if he were staring into the entrance to a vast well that rose high above them into the sky, its vapid tip reeling wildly around them at the top of the underground valley, almost touching the amber roof.

It was now clear what the racing shapes contained within it were. An accession of planets, moons and suns swept by. Violent collapsing stars flared and died, shrinking dwarf stars shone with an intensity that shrank the shadows in the city behind them. Hydrogen blown suns spiralled past, chased across the stars by chasms of black holes that gorged on the moons that ran before them desperate to escape the clutches of their immense gravitational pulls. An endless march of creation and destruction displayed through the outlandish portal.

"The stepping stones of the gods across the planets. Like you said! "cried out Lazarus, in awe of the visions of the heavens within.

"And other things, far more monstrous," said Runf hearing the elation in Lazarus's voice. "Have a care, Lazarus. Even to the Martians this was the unknown, they built this whole valley in reverence to it and worshiped its power. When you worship something like this it shows you do not understand it. Its mysteries had yet to be cowed before the advances in Martian science. And you can see their science was far ahead of ours. We are but infants in their footsteps and should be careful where we place our feet or we may fall."

Lazarus reluctantly tore his gaze from the tumbling Universe's before him and shifted it to Runf, "You seem to have gone all mystical on me, Runf. Remember I'm a man of science. These things do not frighten me, they are a challenge."

They stopped talking and stood, craning their necks to take in the full scale of the spectacle, the forces of Universes whirling by, interspersed with the occasional brilliant flash of light. Lazarus, overwhelmed by his own excitement suddenly became aware dull roaring in his head, like a torrent of water hurtling through an underground cavern.

"You hear it?" Runf tapped his head. "In here."

Lazarus and Jamek both nodded.

"An echo of something in there, calling out to us. What do you feel?"

"Elation!" Shouted Lazarus above the deafening noise in his head.

"Fear." shuddered Jamek.

"As it should be." Runf cautioned.

Lazarus raised his arm like a preacher and walked toward the spiralling mass. "When we get back to Earth, I'm going to bring a team here to Mars. This place is incredible, what we could learn! Through this we could break free of the shackles of our Universe and venture out there to the stars. Imagine!"

"Lazarus, look at Cheyenne. That's what can happen if you get too close to what lies within. It's not wise to dabble in such things." shouted Runf across the square.

"You are a product of Martian ignominy, Runf, to have failed to have exploited this. Cannot you see the possibilities?"

"I see the possibilities ...and the dangers, Lazarus. I see both sides in equivalence."

"An explorers dream, this is what this is. What's wrong with that?" Lazarus threw his hands up in frustration. "Think of Drake, Cortes, Azmhur and Elmet and the discoveries they made. The advances humankind made because of men like them."

"And what about the explorers that never came back, Lazarus? The ones you cannot name because when they failed to return, they were forgotten. Or the ones who made it and bought misery with them to the indigenous peoples. Death, disease and despair. Man is not perhaps the best to light up the Universe with the flame of his desires."