“You sound disappointed,” Aileena said.
“It’s an Earth movies thing. So, we’re the first spaceship to come crashing down since then, which fills in the someone from the stars bit. You mentioned the coming of the ice? That explains the buildings we saw.”
“Covered up by a glacier, taken over by an ice age,” Aileena said in agreement.
“You’re right. When the Vystok and its Vystak arrived, they cast our world into ice, killing most of us. We’ve hung on, clinging to the mountains, sheltering in the caves, for millennia.” Gravult, looked grim, the weight of his ancestors pressing on his shoulders.
“I’m… I’m sorry to hear that. There can’t be many of you left.” Aileena let her normally gruff demeanour lapse for a moment, her shoulders relaxing.
“There are only a few million of us,” Gravult said, shaking his head.
“A few million?!” Michael couldn’t quite believe what he had heard. “A few million, in those mountains? How is there even space?”
“It is, uh, difficult, to explain. I think you might find it more believable once we reach the tower.”
“Uh-huh, and what exactly, is this Vystok?”
Gravult smiled, revealing the rows of sharp teeth in his mouth. “It is the destroyer, the terror from beyond the stars, come to lay us low. It spawned the Vystak, it brought the ice upon us. That is why you’re here, right, to slay the beast?”
“And there it is,” Michael said, nudging Aileena in the side. “I knew there would be a catch.”
The trip took a few hours, the time seemingly taking longer because of the lack of any reference point. Michael wondered how the blimp was powered, there was no kind of engine that he could see, and nothing electronic seemed to work. He had decided against asking, not wanting to wander into another lecture from Gravult. Michael wasn’t sure how exactly they expected him to kill a monster, let alone one that had seemingly created the legions of ice crabs.
There was a shudder as the blimp came to a stop. The crew released their controls, lining up alongside Gravult as if a guard of honour. The older Merydian lead the way, walking towards the copper doorways which had once again dropped open.
This time, there was no degrading sling ride, the blimp had come to a stop a few inches above a plateau of stone. One of the cat-like aliens had dropped a large metal hook into a hoop on the outside of the cabin, mooring the blimp in place.
Bursting forth from the plateau, trailing off into sky was the tower they had passed. It was set at an angle, reminding Michael of a postcard he had received from a friend’s Italian holiday once. Its surface was covered with large archways, through which Merydians clambered. They danced across the tower with effortless grace, their hands finding grips invisible to Michael’s eye. He wondered how they had lived before the ice, the aliens clearly arboreal in nature.
“Come, you are welcome in our home,” Gravult said as he led them towards the base of the tower.
“That’s nice and all, but I like the ropes on the blimp, we aren’t built to use it,” Michael said.
“Oh, you will be just fine.”
Gravult wasn’t wrong. Michael was speechless. He had stepped through an archway at the base of a tower into an interior. Then he had stepped out again. It seemed impossible, but each time he did it, the effect repeated. His friends were doing the same, equally as bamboozled.
The interior of the tower was big. Too big. The inside was studded with buildings, thousands of them. It was as if the space inside had been stretched out, expanded, like someone had lifted a city from the ground and rolled it into a cylinder.
“Welcome, to the tower,” Gravult said proudly.
Chapter Twenty
The city was unbelievable, looking at it made Michaels eyes and head ache. The furry aliens weren’t clambering around the inside like they were on the exterior, instead, they simply walked, gravity losing all meaning as the city folded into itself. Michael watched as a Merydian walked into one of the archways, reappearing moments later from one at least a mile away, taking advantage of the skewed space within the tower.
“This is… impressive,” Mellok said, nodding his head approvingly. “All your people are in here?”
“Oh yes, our ancestors built this place, when the ice came, to preserve our people. It is totally self-contained. We grow our own food, purify our own water, everything here is catered for.” Gravult was obviously proud, gesturing towards the city with his hooked cane. He began to hobble forward, motioning for his guests to follow. “Though, these days things are a little… tight. We’ve had to move some of our people into caves within the mountains. We’ve even started farming some of the more edible strains of mushrooms that live there. Our ancestors created a marvel when they built this place, but I don’t think they expected us to be here this long.”
“How long have you been here?” Michael asked
“A few thousand years now, give or take.” He let out a long sigh. “I’m afraid our society isn’t what it used to be. We could never create something like this again. We don’t even know how it works, not truly. From what I’ve learnt from the texts we still have, this was supposed to harbour our best and brightest at the time. They didn’t expect the Vystak to come with the snow.”
“So, these Vystak, the… ice crabs, Michael called them,” Aileena said. “They work for this Vystok thing?”
“In a manner of speaking. After the Vystok arrived, it brought the ice and snows. Then the Vystak began to appear, marauding the countryside, attacking our people. According to my research, they take the form of a now-extinct predator on our world.”
“Are we safe, up here in the tower?” Aileena asked
Gravult nodded. “Yes, the Vystak do not venture into the mountains. They do not like the crystals that grow in the caves below, fortunately for us.”
“That is weirdly fortunate yes. Have you ever considered weaponizing the crystals to use against them?” Aileena had crossed her arms and was looking down on the short Gravult.
“We have considered it. We wouldn’t know the first place to begin, however. The crystals are almost impossible to break. It just isn’t possible to make any kind of weapons on the scale we would need. Besides the crystals have a much more important use.”
“And what might that be?” Mellok said
“Ah, I will show you,” Gravult said with a smile.
Meggok turned over the slice of bread, spreading across the margarine he had found within the ships limited larder. No matter where in the galaxy you were, there was always some company peddling what was basically congealed fat. He had combined it with some unidentified dried meats and a layer of green leaves with a crispy texture. He cut it in half, then placed each half onto a plate, carrying them out of the small galley.
“Hey, got some lunch here for you.”
Kestok looked up, his apron covered in thick grease. “Is that edible? We’ve lost power totally. The fridges must be out too.”
Meggok lifted one of the sandwiches to his eye-line. “Looks fine. I do have a trained eye remember? Speaking of which, any luck finding out what’s wrong?”
“No,” Kestok said, climbing up the ladder. He pulled himself to the second level, where the kitchen was located. “It’s weird, there’s nothing wrong with any of the electronics, it’s like the power just got sucked out of them. That seems dumb.”
“No, it makes total sense. Remember, machines are all Gorkan to me. Try not to think it sounds dumb and think more of it as layman’s terms. At least you’re being useful.”
There was a loud banging as something knocked against the side of the hull. It came in waves, like the creatures outside were trying their luck. They had grown more frequent, bolder in their testing the armour on the ship.