Golgota (a science-fiction novel)

Chapter 22

Lost Golgotha.

Behind the mountains, only black shapes against the rolling and pounding darkness, lightning twitches. A thunderstorm is rising. It is going to storm. The rocks towering before them look horrific from their position. Dwarves looking up at giants. The black rocks are like the roaring faces of titans. When lightning flashes, bright and white, beyond the mountains and beyond this cold tower of metal, the hollows in the rock look like empty eye sockets.

Looking at them from below, it looks like the faces are screaming.

"I see them," Crycek said. Everyone knew what he meant. The Ngoys.

Kovacs could see them now, too. Scurrying. White. Among the cliffs. The foul green ground in the shadow of the mountains looked slippery. Everything below seemed to squirm with Ngoys, covered only with a thin layer of slime. Everything about it repelled Kovacs.

Physical disgust clenched his guts.

"The death zone," Riley said, remembering Donovan's words well. The young man's voice was thin and high with fear.

"Yeah," Crycek said. "The fucking kill zone."

Above their heads, Golgotha's beacon slid through the clouds. The Nubii pelted their helmets.

"I'm scared," Riley said quietly.

"So am I," Kovacs said. "But there's got to be another way."

"Look out for the two biggest and pointiest cliffs," Nakamura said, and they were the first words he had said since breaking from the station. Since Macey's death. They all looked to him, though the voice was quiet, the words brittle. "That's where the stairs are supposed to be," Nakamura said. "It's the fastest way to the tower. Probably the only one."

A distant flash briefly lit the darkness, and they could all see the stairs now. Around them, the first cliffs were now boring out of the green sediment, and the closer they got to the stairs, the more there were.

Riley suddenly stopped. "No, I'm not going any further there. Not one step. There's got to be another way."

Kovacs looked at the other man. He was shaking all over, shaking his head vehemently.

"No, I won't do that. I..."

"Jesus, Riley!", Crycek snapped at him. "Look around you. Look at the rock face. Smooth. Absolutely smooth. We're not going to have anywhere to hold on to. There's no other way!"

"There are Ngoys there!"

"Yes. And we have weapons. We just need to get to the stairs."

"Shit, Crycek, I'm scared!"

"Stick it out, Riley! Be a man!"

Now more voices were raised, agreeing with Crycek. "Don't lose your nerve now. We're as good as there."

"It's just a few Ngoys."

"We've already killed so many of these maggots, it doesn't matter about these last ones."

But it did very much depend on those last ones.

"There are too many, Kovacs," Nakamura said quietly. Kovacs turned around. The other man was standing right next to him. "There are just too many. They're going to kill us. There must be another way. There has to be."

"I'll go," Riley said, speaking aloud Nakamura's whispered words. "There has to be another way, too."

"You will go alone," Crycek said.