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file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Quintara%20
Marathon%202%20-%20The%20Run%20to%20Chaos.txt also say that one of them was a
cyborg of some sort?"
"Yes, they call them cymols. Unreadable as Corithians, but I got the
information from the minds of the others."
"Captain, it was I who first suggested we take them out," Desreth noted. "Now
I
recommend that we do not. Just one of those explosives, directed in here,
would bring this whole place down upon us, and even if we got them all in one
volley, this cyborg could still direct fire into here. If it were just the
Mizlaplan, then it would make sense to remain and finish it, but we should
know much more about where the Exchange loyalties now lie before taking them
all on. You have all had sleep, food, and water. It is best we go now if we
are going down that falls trail. If they are so close, it is almost inevitable
that they will camp here as we did. A sure lead is certainly worth more than
the possibility of being outgunned and buried alive."
Josef sighed. "All right. I hate to abandon such a perfect position, and the
fight has to continue at some point, but I agree with you for now. We've got
the lead we should keep it."
"Oh, not again!" Kalia sulked. "Must we always run from fights unless the
enemy agrees to lie down and submit to execution?"
"In this case, I'm with you in my desire to have done with it," Josef told
her, "but this isn't just a personal thing. This is duty now."
"Shit! We're most likely gonna die anyway! Why not chance it here?"
"Because," Tobrush put in, "then we'd never really know what this was all
about.
I am prepared to die if need be my oath commands it but not unless it need be,
and certainly not without some answers."
Josef nodded, to himself rather than to Tobrush. That was really about the
size of things. "Whatever those ancient people worshiped was connected to
these falls, and the pit at the bottom,'' he said.' 'I have no intention of
dying at the top of it, like they did. Let's go!"
The trail cut into the side of the falls was steeper than it looked, but there
were also previously unnoticed handholds, a bit high up but usable, at least
to
Josef and Kalia, and to Desreth as well if the Corithian wanted to shoot a
tentacle to them.
By the time they were at the falls itself they were already more than twenty
meters below the rim; entering the falls from the side, they went through a
curtain of water and then were behind the great volume of water, damp but
reasonably dry.
"I gotta admit, this is weird," Kalia commented. "We're outta the rain 'cause
the roofs all water!"
"Look at the trail and handholds!" Tobrush called to them. They all looked,
and, slowly, eerily, the trail and holds were softly glowing.
"Did we turn on the lights or are we expected?" Josef wondered aloud.
"Whatever, it's a little late to back out now," she noted.
' 'I wonder if this can be seen from the rim?'' Tobrush put in. "I was
thinking of the effect it would have on a very primitive people to see ribbons
of glowing light rising from below through the falls. If you also had some
bright light, or perhaps even fire, it would impress the hell out of them."
"Or into them," Josef shot back. "At least this shows we're on the right
trail,
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Marathon%202%20-%20The%20Run%20to%20Chaos.txt as it were. If something or
somebody came up this way often enough to warrant a lighting system, they had
to come from somewhere."
"Hey! It looks like we're comin' to the end up there!" Kalia pointed.' 'And
we're not even out from under the whole falls!"
"No! It's a switchback!" Josef responded. "Now we go back the way we came and
down more."
' 'If this thing goes down to the bottom, we had all better check flotation
gear," Tobrush noted worriedly. "There had better be an 'exit' sign there
before we reach the water level!"
"Hmmm ... Let's not worry about that unless we have to," Josef said, thinking
about just how long it was back and just how exposed they'd be coming back up.
"What happens if we run into more demons like that first pair?"
' 'They are the demigods, the creators of us and our worlds,'' Kalia argued.
"We should free them and worship them and they will be the powers to slay all
our enemies!"
"If we could make a deal, I might agree with you on that, too," Josef
admitted.
"Unfortunately, I think we're considered no better than toys or pets to them.
That's the impression I got, anyway. Anybody in this group want to be some
other life form's pet or plaything? Particularly you, Kalia. I'd mink that
going back to being somebody's slave, if you were lucky, would be the last
thing you'd want."
"But this is different! They are gods!"
"Which means that they have more power and knowledge than we have," Tobrush
put in. "Why were you originally a plaything of the rich and powerful on your
home world? Same thing, isn't it? The only thing you'd do is add somebody
higher up to the top of the ruling heap; you would still remain on the
bottom."
That stopped her. "I I had never thought of it like that before," she
admitted.
"The big problem," the telepath continued, "is their mental power. They had me
cold back there it took Robakuk to get me out of there. We don't have Robakuk
any more."
Josef thought about that. "Desreth, Kalia, I'm going to give you both an order
that is not to be countermanded under any conditions. If Tobrush moves to free
a demon, kill him."
"Now, wait a minute!" the Julki exclaimed.
"Sorry, Tobrush. If they can beat you and take you over, we haven't any
choice.
If they know that any of us will absolutely do it, and with Desreth you won't
even have the advantage of warning, they might try dealing instead, or at
least keep you free. It's the only insurance I know."
"Urn thank you, I think. If I come up with a more palatable alternative, I
shall assuredly give it to you at once, though. Still, I would count on
nothing for certain in this place. Sooner or later, even if this works, we are
going to meet one not imprisoned or contained. I had the very strong
impression that, freed of all constraint, their mental powers are almost
godlike. I should certainly love to know who imprisoned them, and how."
"Yeah," Josef sighed. "And if they're still around, do we want to meet them,
either? Uh-oh."
They stopped at the next switchback, the fourth. It was difficult to say just
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but their best estimate was that they were now better than a kilometer below
the surface and very close to where the water struck bottom, throwing up the
massive spray and mist. That, however, wasn't the problem.
The path simply ended. No switchback, nothing. It just seemed to end, about
ten meters above the water.
'Wow what do we do?" Kalia asked, staring at the dead end.
"Scan the end of the trail," Desreth suggested. "I believe you will find the
results quite interesting."
Josef turned all of his instrumentation on. The helmet now became a screen,
with the entire forward area electronically scanned and analyzed. There were
no surprises except right where the path ended; there the thing simply refused
to lock, but showed a massive, irregular burst of energy.
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