Chapter 3: The Discovery

Eukary stopped to catch her breath. From what she saw on their approach, the Temple of Fiends was mostly a cold, grey desert of wind-crushed rock spread thinly over undulant hills. She found it to have a hypnotic effect on her as they hiked towards Solomon's grotte, along with the mute haze of the liminal sky. Even the featureless landscape seemed comforting. Each hill they climbed felt familiar, archetypal even, though to the naked eye each one was the same as the other.

Revol stopped next to her and looked around. She could tell from the orange and blue glow of his view port that his thermal visor was active.

"See anything?" she asked.

"Just us. This planet is completely devoid of heat. And yet," he took off his glove and picked a rock off the ground, "it's not cold either."

Eukary did the same. The rock was freezing. She threw it at Revol. She was uncomfortable with the urge to laugh.

"What do you think of the sky?" she asked after they stood silently for a moment, waiting for the others to catch up.

Revol changed his visor to neutral and looked around. "It's kinda weird. I like it. I don't know why, though."

Catalyst and Forge came up next. Haruspex wasn't far behind.

"What do you guys think of this place?"

"I think we need to find Solomon," Catalyst said.

Forge shook his head. "I agree with Cat. This place is getting to me. No cover. No heat. But, as cold as it is, it should be colder, and how could a whole planet be hills? I know we’ve been to some strange places, but…"

"It's pretty cold," Revol said.

"Not cold enough. There’s no heat here. Like, none. The whole place should be covered in ice.”

Eukary cocked her head towards Forge. "What do you mean by 'only hills'?"

Forge looked around nervously. "I know Cap' said to stay off the comms, but Cat and I've been talking with Speck, and he's seen some strange stuff. Says he launched some probes and so far the topography and geography are cut and paste. Like every eighteen square kilometers the landscape repeats."

Everyone was quiet, and by the time Eukary thought of something to say, Haruspex, Ishtar, Aster and Sensus caught up.

"We've been noticing some strange things about this planet," said Sensus.

"Us too," Forge replied, hurriedly.

"You can speak with Speck, by the way," said the captain.

Forge shifted on his feet. Even with his skullfort on, Eukary could tell he wore a nervous grin.

"I told you," said Catalyst.

"I wanted you to see the expansion of the Phrastus Belt, but our briefing room wasn't the place to discuss it. I’m considering collecting some samples to bring back. I’m not convinced this is rock we’re standing on.”

"Permission to speak, sir," said Catalyst.

"Always."

"Bringing in Solomon won't be easy. Studying this planet will."

Sensus shook his head. "I doubt we'll ever set foot here again, once we've brought Solomon back in. If we're to learn anything about what's happening here, now's the time."

"With respect, sir," said Forge, "what exactly do we need to know about Bhindu Prime? The Quorum's request was confirmed and we have our orders."

"Forge," Sensus took on a patient, fatherly affect, "we're not soldiers. We're warriors. We don't serve kings or queens. We are kings and queens. We Harbingers hold power that common humanity trembles at. I don't for one instant suggest we should abuse that power, but we would be fools to abandon the responsibility of possessing it. It may be the Quorum's place to govern station policy, but we can't yield to them on everything. Even when we're properly commissioned to run an op for them."

”And whatever’s happened to Sol,” said Ishtar, “he’s one of us.”

”I agree,” said Sensus.

"Then let's get to him quick," Catalyst said. "We can deal with Quorum later.”

No one could disagree with that, so they moved on. Eukary lagged a little behind, following close behind Catalyst. She gave Revol a look and a nod to ask him to help. He didn't seem sure why, but he agreed and fell in beside her.

"Is no one else curious why Solomon's comm file didn't fully erase?" said Ishtar. "That was pretty weird, if you ask me."

"I assumed we were all curious about that," said Catalyst.

"Speck's looking into it," Sensus said.

"And I imagine he's getting some very detailed planetary scans."

"He's a talented man."

They went back and forth a little more, Sensus seeming to come out on top at the end.

Solomon's grotte was close, but they were circling wide to avoid his sensor buoys, which hovered overhead in what at first seemed an erratic pattern, but as they circled they were learning how to predict them, and were able to take sharp cuts across the hills now and then. Still, it was slow going, and with no proper cover, they were forced to weave their way through the low spaces between the hills.

"Could really use those prolonged cloak fields right about now," said Forge.

"Like I said," Sensus replied, "we can't yield to the Quorum on everything. I'd love a longer lasting cloak, Forge."

Wayland.

"Who said that?" Eukary looked around.

"Said what?" asked Revol.

She was quiet, not sure what to say. She was already doubting that she'd heard anything, and chocked it up to an idle thought brought on by the monotony of their march.

"Nothing."

The day went by, then another, and on the third they rested.

"His grotte's close," said Aster. She was sitting cross legged, looking at the mission map on her vam. The space all around them was blank, but there, inside a hill that could be found again every eighteen kilometers, was a trace of energy output.

"Hey cap," said Revol. "That recording of Solomon, is that how Needle's team tracked him here?"

"To be honest," said Sensus, "I don't know how they tracked him here. But that transmission is something they found on a moon nearer the belt."

"No point questioning Needle's work," said Catalyst.

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Revol had taken his rifle apart and was purging the smart gel from the barrel chamber. He looked up at Cat and nodded. There was a lot of that going on, silent nodding, as if everyone was afraid to speak their minds.

Who is Wayland? Eukary thought. She was suddenly wanting to leave Bindu Prime.

"What do we know about this planet?" Eukary asked. She was quickly becoming aware of how little she herself knew beyond its moniker, which at the time of the briefing seemed as likely a reason as any for Solomon to be hiding there.

"I know its nickname," said Revol. "Now that I'm here, I can think of lots of planets more deserving of it. I was expecting a fight. But there is exactly nothing here."

"I wouldn't call Sol nothing," said Catalyst.

"Well, neither would I. But, it's Solomon. He's not gonna shoot at us. Right?"

"Not if he means to hurt us," said Sensus.

"What?" asked Aster. "Oh. I get it."

"What is we're all so bothered by?" Catalyst asked.

"He was praying to the tangents, Cat," said Forge.

"And did he sound himself?"

Forge was clearly confused, shaking his head and looking around the circle someone to agree with him.

"Aren't you bothered by this?" Revol was looking directly at Catalyst.

"I'm deeply bothered by the fact we've come to hunt down a dear friend, and all because the Quorum feels he's a threat to them."

"They feel he's a threat to all of Albion, Catalyst," Sensus clarified.

"It's like you said, Cap," said Aster. "We can't let them control everything. I say we go to Solomon as friends. Weapons down, skullforts off, arms open. We let him explain to us what happened to those colonies. For all we know, he had nothing to do with the attacks."

"Two Harbinger teams saw him detonate an antimatter device, Aster," said Forge.

"And were we one of those teams?" she replied.

Forge was quickly growing more agitated. He stood and began to pace around the circle.

"So now we've got two of our teams working with the Quorum to defame Solomon? That doesn't make any sense! And if this really is some kind of conspiracy, then why send us to bring him in?"

"Because we're the only team who can," Eukary replied. "Because he trusts us."

Forge pointed to his vam. "That wasn't Sol, Euk. I don't know who or what was saying all those weird chants; Mighty Haleon, I bow to your throne of skulls. But it wasn't the man we knew. He's lost it, guys. I know it hurts, but we've gotta admit it."

Revol had refilled his barrel chamber and reassembled his rifle. When Forge finished talking, he stood up and threw a rock at his head. The rock bounced off his skullfort, but Forge still looked as if it had hurt.

"You figured it out!" Revol said. "Guys, Aster's right. It wasn't Solomon. We all heard him talk on the last bit of that transmission. That's the Sol we all remember. Giving us intel that he risked his life to find. Now I can't be the only one who noticed his voice sounded a little weird during the chanting part."

"Boys," said Sensus, "please. Calm down. As I said before we landed, we're going to have to stretch out trust in each other to new lengths. Two teams of Harbingers couldn't be corrupted by any governing official, no matter how influential. They believe that they saw Solomon fire on an antimatter device, causing the deaths of four thousand colonists. Two teams of Harbingers, who all know how important Solomon has been to us and Albion as a whole, believe they were marooned by him when he escaped. We can't ignore this."

"But Aster may have a point," said Ishtar. "We can talk to him before bringing him in. He trusts us, like Euk said. So, let's use that. Let's get some answers. But, let's decide for ourselves what to do with him."

"He may have a say in that as well," said Revol.

"Revol's right," said Catalyst, joining the standers. "We've no clue what's happened to him. If he has gone insane, then we're going to have a very difficult fight on our hands. We need to focus one on stage of the op at a time."

"I can't believe we're even calling this an op," said Aster. "Solomon kindled each one of us. He's our father, as far as I'm concerned. If we're going to trust anyone, I say we trust him."

And what Eukary kept to herself, was that she felt they were sent to bring him in as an act of submission.

"Cap," she said.

"What's on your mind, Euk?"

"Can we at least try to have a conversation with him?"

"Of course. Why do you think I arranged for our back up to come from the 79th? They owe as much to Solomon as we do, even if they lack radiance. I see I need to lay this out clearly for all of you. I've been speaking with some of the other Harbinger captains, along with a number of the unlifted military. There is a growing movement for reform, and the consensus is that we Harbingers need to have a say in government. Fewer and fewer people trust the Quorum to have any authority over us, and some even feel we should have authority over them. In either case, this situation with Solomon is extremely sensitive, but I wasn't about to let the Quorum keep us in the dark."

"Allright," said Forge. He'd calmed down considerably. "I get it, Cap."

They were then quiet for the remainder of their rest, and when they rose it was night. Bindhu Prime did not orbit a sun. Through an act of defiance against all probabilities, it was in a fixed quadrinary aphelion. The nights then were long, but eerily light. Only a dampening of the wick signaled that three of the suns had drifted a little further away for a while.

"Everything about this planet is impossible," Speck said over the comms. They were eight days into their approach, and everytime they found themselves close to Solomon's grotte, it would turn out to be in another hill.

"I'm tracking you guys," Speck assured them, "and you're moving closer to it. It's gotta be an optical illusion."

The illusion persisted for several more days, until finally they had spread out and encircled the targeted hill. They prepped a subterranean probe before closing in. Forge suggested it. Revol helped him set up the launcher, and it revealed that there was a vast network of uniform caves beneath the entire surface for as far as the probe's range could tell.

They approached as Aster recommended, but it made no difference. No one was home. They entered slowly, searching the sparse rooms. There was a bedroll in one, some crates of rations in another, a desk and chair in yet another. They drew their weapons when they uncovered a trapdoor in a remote corner. Everyone had their targeting visors active, seeing the world in black fields outlined by colored light.

The ladder under the trapdoor was very long, and it took them some time to slide down its rungs. They were grateful for their skullforts, sensing how much debris was in the air in the dark tunnels they hunted through. They mapped the perimeter before closing in on the large central chamber, setting up sensor nets where they couldn't cover in case Solomon was trying to outmaneuver them.

The central chamber was quite large, maybe forty or fifty feet high and three times as big around. They entered from four different points in pairs. There was almost no light, save for a thin strip ensconced in the ground and ceiling along the outside wall. Eukary could make out the fringes of a large design on the floor. There were rows of shapes along the ground, none of them emitting any heat.

"I found the lights," Revol said quietly over the comms.

"There's some here too," said Isthar. She and Aster had entered from the opposite side.

"We've got some as well," said Sensus. "Haruspex, any on your side?"

"Copy. Want me to flip 'em?"

"Om two."

The room was lit on the count of two. The shapes Eukary saw were black tarps laid on the floor in rows. Black, silken sheets covered an object on each one. Eukary leaned down, keeping her rifle trained on the tarp while she lifted the sheet. Each team had done the same. They counted one thousand and another in an etched circle in the center.

"I told you," said Forge. His voice was shaking.

They stopped pulling the sheets away after ten or so, seeing that each one was the same. One thousand and one bodies had been opened, preserved, drained of blood, and emptied of their organs.

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