He stood in a place he’d never been before. The soil was blood red and the wind howled around him. Pink clouds of dust soared overhead but the sun looked as if it was far, far away. He shivered and realized the temperature was cold even though there was light. He was standing in a crater like those on the moon but this wasn’t the moon, he was sure of that.
He also didn’t think this was Earth so he looked around for the Goddess. This was an interesting place but he didn’t dream like this on his own.
“Very good, my knight.”
He looked around again but the voice seemed to come from below him. “Ma’am?”
“Behind the boulder. Come on down.”
He crossed the sand and rocks, kicking up dust at each step. Behind the boulder was a dark crack that he approached cautiously only to find it reach out and pull him on in. He slid down a slick channel with increasing speed until with a whoop, he landed in a pile of something soft and yielding.
Laughing, he lay there and caught his breath. “Thanks, Mother. I needed that.”
“I know you did, Peter.” She came out of the darkness in yet another guise. Here, she was small and slender with long black hair that fell to her waist, held back by a silver band that held a glowing crystal over the spot where her third eye would be. Holding out her hand, she raised him to his feet.
“Where are we, Mother?” He looked around at the corridor that led in three different directions. It appeared to be like the ones they’d mined from the moon but the ceiling wasn’t as high and the walls were only five feet apart.
“Ruth will know. For the moment, I need you to walk with me.” She gestured and led him down the left hand corridor.
Rooms lined the hall but each was dark and empty. He slowed and poked his head inside one of them. A weak light came on as if activated by his presence. The furniture was utilitarian but dusty as if nothing had been moved for eons. He shivered and wondered where the people were who’d once lived here. The Goddess beckoned him on and he noticed that the temperature rose the further down they went. It felt like a spiral that circled down farther and farther.
For a moment he wondered if they would travel all the way to the core of whatever planet this was but ahead, he heard the sound of voices singing. His guide took his hand and they walked a few more steps then stopped in an open doorway to a meeting hall similar to the one on the Moon. Peter saw no more than a hundred men and women gathered around an altar in the middle of the room.
Their dress was similar to what the Goddess wore and each of them wore a crystal set in a band around their foreheads. Each crystal was different yet all the colors were contained in the large crystal that sat atop the altar. It seemed to pulse along with the chants that rose and fell in the room.
“Come, my knight.” She tugged on his hand and he shook his brain free of the hypnotic rhythm and followed her still deeper to a room much like the one where the crystal matrix now known as Chimera lived.
But the crystal here had darkened patches that marred its surface and he counted no less than five places where shards had completely separated from the Mother Crystal and lay black and lifeless on the sandy floor. He knelt and touched one of the dead ones but there was no longer any resonance.
“All things die, my knight. This matrix has very little time left before it loses the last of its strength.”
“And when it dies, what happens to those people?” Peter looked up at her.
“They will die as well. The crystal is their shield against the inhospitable climate of this world. Without it, they will succumb to the cold. But this is the least of their worries at the moment.” Her wise eyes looked down into his. “They’re dying out anyway. No children have been born for the last century and the last of the young ones will soon be past their child-bearing years.”
“What can we do to help?” He stood and looked about the decaying room.
“Soon. You’ll know soon.” And she touched his forehead sending him back into the darkness.
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End of chapter 47