The Shadow of the Moon-Lydia's Tale

Chapter Eight

Even at full velocity the trip across the crater to the rim took about three hours. Bounced and buffeted by hot air pockets just above the surface Faulke found the old mag-levi hard work with its half open cabin and considered perhaps he should have gone it alone and just flown his own ship leaving the young archaeologists to their own devices. Once over the crater rim they were able to shake the black dust out of their clothes as they tore over a long stretch of scrubland down to the old town of Kar'rak nestled in the cultivated valley beyond. 

Faulke dropped the levi down in an area of sparse woodland just outside the crumbing town walls and killed the pounding engines. Nape and Saffi tumbled out of the cabin and walked off fully suited along a rough track through the trees. After ascertaining the lovebirds preferred to stay together in the levi Faulke and Lydia made their way after them. 

The track led them through what once had been an orchard, long since neglected. Stunted trees pockmarked the landscape, like skeletal hands their fingers blanched white by the reflective rays of the moon they grasped up at the vapid pink sky high above them. 

'What do you know of the people here?' Faulke fell in beside Lydia. 

'Not much, they're Polymids.'  

'I know the type, humanoids evolved to live in a low oxygen atmosphere. Deep chested, no noses.' Faulke observed. 

'I wondered about that? How do they smell?'  

'Terrible.' remarked Faulke. 

Lydia stopped abruptly, looked up at him and smiled. 'Was that meant to be a joke? I didn't know you had a sense of humour.' 

'There's much you don't know about me Lydia.' 

'Have you travelled to many other planets?' 

'Yes, too many. Far too many, unfortunately.' 

'Oh I'm sorry, to fight in the wars you mean. It must have been terrible.' She stopped for a moment, kicking the earth up under her feet while she thought about what he'd said. 'I'd never left earth before we came here. Apart from the locals here you're the only alie... I mean non human that I've ever met. That's what I'd like to do, to travel. To new worlds, meet new people, races from far away with different histories, religions, beliefs.' 

'What happened in the temple Lydia?'  

Lydia turned off the track and walked across to a giant marbled hand sticking up out of the ground in amongst the trees. 'We've found these everywhere. It's the part of a bigger statue that probably once stood here. Look there's the arm over there.' She ran her gloved hand over the smooth surface. 'We think they are of an ancient god, the Nergalrhod.' 

'Is the Nergalrhod something to do with this?' Lydia's mind remained dark to him. He sought some ingress but found none. 

'It seems that they stopped worshiping their god and allowed all this and the temple we're excavating to fall into neglect. They avoid the temple now -old superstitions I suppose.' 

'Perhaps there were more pressing things, like trying to stay alive. Maybe they stopped believing.' 

Lydia turned to face him. 'You're not the first person to say that. Come on. We need to catch up with the others.'  

Faulke watched her lumber off in the heavy suit. It was not worth pressing further. 'Perhaps I can get you and the others some breathing kit like mine from the flagship, then you can dump those antique suits.' 

Lydia didn't stop. It was if she hadn't heard him. He followed her in silence.  

The town of Kar'rak had an air of tiredness about it. Like a distinguished old man who had spent too many years of his latter life sitting in the sun it lay listless and remote from its surroundings, a thin forlorn shadow of its former self. As they walked through a broken stone archway into the rough cobbled streets of the outskirts they passed row upon row of poorly constructed single story houses. Every now and then they came upon a square containing a ruined fountain or derelict temple building, each telling of a time long ago when the Polymid had risen to cultural greatness, a pinnacle from which they had now inexplicitly slipped