The Black Pod (4 page)

She scrubbed him until all the blood
was gone and she was sure he wasn’t injured.

She talked the whole time.

Tony looked around
himself. The walls all around were made of massive blocks and went
up about ten meters. The wall was about two meters thick, based on
the arch where they entered and there was a walk around the
battlements at the top. Everything was covered
with
vines.

The courtyard was about thirty meters
across and overgrown with scrub. All of it was intact but
overgrown. The vines and scrub were untouched by the
fire.

The tower made up the
entire east end of the Keep. The top was about thirty meters higher
than the wall. Where the walls
met
the tower was the only
access to
the upper
part of the
wall.

“
Box, are you seeing
this?” Tony asked the air.

Yes. Are you thinking what
I am thinking?

“
Do it. No rush. Conserve
all the maneuvering thrusters you can.” He said. “I need to
sleep.”

I will be there by
dawn.

Adams discovered that the tower was
empty except for dry leaves and cobwebs. Wynn lived here alone and
occupied a small kitchen off the side of the smallest building. He
would later learn it was the night servant’s kitchen.

The Fly patrolled and mapped the Keep.
Tony slept.

***

The next morning, thirst
drove Adams out of the small warm room. His canteen was empty, so
he headed
to the
fountain
to refill it.
Box
had landed
the Black Pod so quietly inside the
walls that
not even Lane
had stirred in the predawn. He lay on the floor in front of the
fireplace’s embers. Wynn was nowhere to be seen.

The Black Pod looked like
it belonged there. Like it had always been there. The dome of it
sat among the tall grasses and struggling saplings. Its ramp came
down neatly to the edge of the cobbles and managed
to balance
architecturally
with the tower at the
other end.

Adams drank an entire canteen and then
refilled it again.

“
Good morning, Box. How
are you feeling today?” he said as he walked up the
broad
staircase to the massive doors at the base of the tower. One
of the doors was ajar.

When he entered, the avatar of Box was
waiting inside. Adams knew he had to be careful talking to Box this
way because he was the only one that could see her via his personal
HUD.

“
I’m feeling much better.
You?” As usual, she stood at parade rest, examining the
room.

“
The nanites are going to
drive me mad with the itching. Fever isn’t too bad though. I’ve had
worse.” He looked at his forearm; the sleeve had been cut
away.

“
This room is really
something.” Box said, “It’s half cathedral and half throne room.”
It was empty except for a raised dais at the far side with
a great
stone throne at the top of thirty
wide
steps. There was
no dust. No cobwebs on the finely carved seat.

Tony climbed the steps and
sat.

A light autumn breeze came
in through six tall, high windows that faced the dais. Outside wind
blew in and the dry leaves stirred. This room was designed around
this chair. He was surprised how comfortable it was. The biggest
fireplace he had ever seen was directly opposite the throne, across
the
vast
room. It had a carved wooden mantle that must
have been a meter thick and five meters wide. It was flanked by
massive doors. The door on the right must have been covered with
vines outside. He had not noticed it from the courtyard.

Box waited.

She climbed the stairs and sat on the
top step. She also faced the six tall windows. Sun was beginning to
peak over the wall and through the windows.

“
It’ll do.” Tony had a new
tone in his voice. It was noticeable enough that Box turned her
virtual head toward him. The look of confidence on his face showed
he knew the road ahead may be long, but he had trained for
it.

Just then, as the sun
reached him, Wynn entered the room, Lane right behind her. Adams
did not say a word as she approached the base of the stairs. She
glanced up
at
him and bowed formally, not setting
foot
on the steps.

She straightened up and held her head
high, looking him straight in the eye. She spoke in English.
Clearly and slowly.

“
Lord Keeper Adams, the
Raptor.” It sounded like a pronouncement. She reached around and
took off
an
enormous
bag that had been slung
over
her back, upending it to dump its contents onto the
steps.

At first glance, they looked like
twelve wickedly curved daggers. She took a single step back and
dropped her chin to her chest. Adams realized as he descended the
stairs that they were the tail spikes from the Telis Raptors they
had killed the day before. Wynn must have gone back and harvested
them.

He reached down and lifted
the smallest one. It was still longer than a
hand's
breadth.
The spike was incredibly sharp and the last tail bone made the
perfect handle. He lifted her chin with his left hand. She
stared
at his bruised but healing
wound
. It was just a scar
now.

“
Thank you.” He handed the
tail spike to her. He wouldn’t know the significance of the gesture
until much later.

***

That winter his collection
of tail spikes increased to
twenty-three
. The Telis
learned to stay away from the Keep after that first year. The Telis
were the reason people also stayed away.

The
land recovered, and the hunting became better.
With Box’s help, Tony learned common tongue and Wynn
learned
the high speech.

Each of the tail spikes
was boiled clean and polished, and Wynn made a leather wrap for the
grip. Each of them was stuck into the underside of the mantel as a
trophy. At first it was
just to dry
the leather of the grips,
but there they stayed.

Box maintained radio silence, waiting
for a retrieval signal that never came. Passive sensors saw one
other ship get destroyed by the automated defense grid. But that
was the last. There was a war going on it seemed. Adams remained at
his post. They stayed quiet, as nuclear bombs destroyed the
planets’ networks.

***

Years passed and
the
world
was
silent
. Refugees found them, bringing
tales of mass destruction and chaos on a planet named Baytirus.
Pilgrims came. Many
stayed,
if they were brave. They all
believed Adams was a Keeper. A kind of spiritual leader.

Adams let them believe it. He would
sit on the throne and answer questions. He adjudicated disputes. It
was easy with Box. It was a simple life as he waited. They repaired
the Keep, planted gardens and orchards and fields.

He envied their ignorance of the
universe.

Lane lived another
nineteen years. He became a legend that no one actually believed,
that is until they saw him sleeping at
Adams'
feet in the
throne room. Eventually, he was cremated with every honor that a
Keeper would have received. Adams personally tended the fire with
Wynn, and collected the ashes for burial. It was then that he found
Lane’s tail spike; it would not burn. It was larger than any in his
collection. After that, he carried it with him always, in a sheath
Wynn had made for the purpose.

Thirty-two
years after Adams’ arrival,
the entire Keep had glass in all the windows. It was alive again.
Vines covered the dome of the Black Pod. Forty-six adults
and
twenty-one
children resided inside the Keep full time. It
was clean and beautiful. Where the forest had once been burned flat
was now dotted with farms and even a small village with a
tavern.

Wynn and her husband had
four children and eight grandchildren. She was the Keep’s
real
leader, and the only one that had ever been inside the dome
where Adams lived. She was also the only one that noticed that Lord
Adams had not aged a day since they had met.

***

“
Box, will you please tell
Keeper Adams that a guest will arrive in a few minutes. He wears
the livery of one of the High Keeper’s Trackers.” Wynn knew that
she could speak directly to Box from anywhere that had a
line
of sight with the vine-covered dome.

By the time the hooded figure entered
the Keep, Adams was waiting in the high seat. As he entered the
great hall, instead of approaching the dais right away as was the
custom, the High Tracker turned his back on Adams to examine the
collection of Telis Raptor blades stuck to the mantel.

Box
was sitting in her usual spot on
the steps just to the right of the throne. “
Be very careful with this
one
,
” she said to Tony in his
HUD.

The man turned his head
then and lowered his hood, as if he had heard her statement and was
responding to it. As the man approached the
steps,
Adams
could see he, too, wore a huge Telis blade.

The man approached and began to climb
the stairs. Another breach of protocol, to climb the steps without
invitation.

“
Hello, Caisy. It has been
a long time,” the man said.
Box
didn’t reply but stood as
Tony stood.

Then suddenly Adams recognized him.
They both froze. The man was two steps from the top, but he was
still taller than Adams.

“
I was about to ask if you
were ready to go home?” The man looked
from
Adams to Box,
then over his shoulder at a crowd gathering in the
courtyard.

“
I think I am
home,
” Adams
said
quietly
.

“
I know… Me too.” His old
friend smiled wide. “I hear you make some fine bourbon
here.”