Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Cold, hard stares

"It tastes like rain!" laughed Bast as he ran excitedly off the shuttle onto the misty tarmac with his mouth wide open catching the dense particles of moisture.

Sen skipped down the ramp next to her friend and took in the cool, humid surrounds. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. This fog comes from inside the platform creature; it's like creature juice."

In response, Bast's mirth turned to disgust as he spat back onto the ground to eject any possible imagined organic contamination.

They were inside one of the cube extrusions on Qura Amara's big library tower. The low ceiling of the expansive area was large enough for the shuttle to fly down into, and judging by the gentle flow of clouds into the chamber from the outside, was not sealed by an energy field.

Just like the decks of Al Dahni, the tarmac here too was decorated with ornate patterns that seemed to bleed off into the dense fog.

"Which way do we go?" yelled Sen to the Mawlas, Sedek and Xe'ed as they followed down the ramp, "I can't see anything past this cloud!"

"Well I can see just fine," answered Bast as a reminder of his augmented, superhuman senses. "This way!" He darted off and disappeared into the soft white ahead.

"Come back! You don't know what we should do!" Sen shouted nervously to her friend.

"Don't worry," offered Xe'ed as she and Sedek strolled up to her charge from the shuttle ramp behind, "This is your home now. There is nothing to fear here."

"Well, that's not entirely correct," added Sedek, "maybe she should fear the Zoro. Everyone here fears the Zoro."

Sen looked worried, "What's the Zoro?"

"Not what, who; the Zoro is a monster--"

"Cut it out Sedek", laughed Xe'ed as she playfully poked her counterpart in the arm with a loosely clad elbow, "There's no need to play with her fears like that!"

Xe'ed explained, "Zoro is the elder Learned. He's aged over one hundred and sixty years, but his personality died long ago."

"Are you coming!" Bast darted back to the others panting, "It's AMAZING!"

"Sure, let's go meet the Learned!" answered Xe'ed holding out her hand to Sen who took it and followed.

Sedek fell in behind; his face supporting a wide grin and a wink to Sen that said, you'll love it.

The mist followed the four down a dim corridor lined with lush, green ferns and moss covered water features. The way seemed to wind down for a short while until they passed through a wind gate that sucked the moisture from the air up into the ceiling to reveal a room that had the feeling of being ancient. Its timeworn floor was made up of thousands of tiny tiles of red, brown and black laid in an intricate hand-made design. The room lit with the natural flames of two braziers, each set in the back wall corners of the square room as if guarding large, but intricately carved double doors, the design cut through the thick panels into a lattice hinting at further beauty in the chamber beyond.

The value of the architectural artwork was lost on the children who instead were drawn to the fire of the pillar torches. Given more time, they would have started experimenting by setting something alight, but the Mawlas, having passed through the room many times ushered them directly through the wooden doors that Sedek opened with a wave of his arm.

Here, the real wonder began. The large chamber beyond was also tilted with hand-lain mosaic, but, instead of thousands, here were millions of tiles, and the pattern was rendered in such a way to make it appear that the walls were alive, flickering with a Moiré effect at the slightest movement of the head. The optical illusions drew the eyes up to large patterned glass whirlpools of light that were stationary but gave the illusion that they were spinning in their place. Sen stood in awe of the ambience, but it was difficult for her attention not to be drawn to the twelve figures seated on a rostrum towards the back of the chamber.

Each figure wore a voluminous black robe each with a unique design that fanned out before them to merge with the decoration in their environment. Their faces were painted with various arrangements of black and white. The make-up hid their gender and age, although the angles of their shoulders and the few stooped necks belonging to those towards the centre of the stage gave a big hint to the later. The hair of each of the twelve was similarly varied, but clearly, they wore wigs (with the exception of a small figure on the right end who was bald).

The new students waited expectantly before the stage, their wards, standing relaxed behind.

After an awkward silence, they both turned with questioning looks. Bast whispered. "Are they alive? They're not moving at all?"

Sen looked back to the figures and noticed the same. The eyes of the characters all focused forward with hard, cold stares, almost angry-like. She turned to Xe'ed, "Are they robots?"

The Mawlas were clearly having fun at the student's expense. "No! Robots are illegal Sen, even here at the Halls of the Learned. What you see before you are holograms. Lifelike, aren't they?"

Sedek explained, "This is the audience chamber where high-ranked representatives from all of the stellar colonies come to negotiate with the Learned for technology. The people behind the holos interact from a remote location. But now, you are both part of the family; this display is not for you. The real crew are gathered in the room behind, waiting for your arrival."