**** Elysium 1986 ****

Together they had descended into the basement of one of the larger houses. The man who had introduced himself to them as Kennak-Laar closed a heavy door behind him that had been assembled from various metal plates. These components, some of which were rusty, also appeared to be items found in the sewers. The TRAP agents and Kennak’s companion, whose name was Eiri, looked around for a moment.
“Why a door here?” Abigail asked hesitantly as Eiri and Kennak carefully removed their helmets from their protective suits and placed them on the floor beside them.
“To keep the food fresh down here,” Kennak replied, pointing to some barrels, clay jugs, and boxes that Yuri briefly examined with his flashlight.
“Drink wants too?” Eiri asked the group uncertainly, going over to one of the clay jugs, still a little wobbly from the previous fall, and pulling off a thick cork. Her American was clearly less practiced than Kennak’s, and she spoke only short sentences, stringing words together with almost no grammar, marked by a heavy accent. Her voice, however, always sounded a bit like she was intoning a soothing melody. They could have listened to her for hours, strange and familiar at the same time. Her eyes, like those of her companion, shimmered faintly in the darkness and seemed to see without difficulty. Harry, on the other hand, who could find his way in the dark much more easily than his companions due to the aftereffects of Yanny’s potion and his now red eyes, still needed a source of residual light that simply did not exist here in this cellar. He hesitated, even though he was dying of thirst. The next thing he reached for was the radiation meter, which he pulled out of his pocket and activated with his right thumb. He sighed in relief.
“True, the radiation is still slightly elevated here in the basement, but nothing compared to outside. We can take off our helmets without putting ourselves in danger,” he remarked. Then he took off his helmet as well, put it on the floor with the others and took a few steps towards Eiri. Meanwhile, he greedily inhaled the stale air of the cellar, which in the first moments after hours in the suit seemed like the freshest and clearest breeze he had ever breathed.
“Drank… Drunk… Drink?” she asked him, looking up at him a little apprehensively.
“I’d love a sip, of anything,” he replied with a smile. She picked up the clay vase and handed it to him.
“Wota!” she declared as he gratefully accepted the vessel. She was right, it was delicious water and after the first few sips Harry didn’t want to put the vase down and drank greedily like someone dying of thirst.
“Whoa! Leave some for me!” Abigail protested, taking off her helmet as well. Yuri followed. He could have drunk a whole lake in one go and licked his chapped lips expectantly.
“There’s plenty, don’t worry,” Kennak explained. “The city has several such storerooms. They were common property until the Great Plague.”
“Great Plague?” Yuri asked, pricking his ears. Then, with a grateful gesture, he also accepted a jug of water and drank eagerly.
“Yes. When your people dug their way through to Gwyneran – that’s the name of our city – about two years ago, the beginning of the end began for us. A few members of the Council of Elders and a small group of warriors went to meet the humans, to welcome them and to negotiate with them. We didn’t know how you humans would react to us, but we knew that you had superior weapons, and we had watched closely how quickly you had spread throughout the region,” Kennak explained.
“Uh… they weren’t our people. They belong to the largest power company in Elysium. We have nothing to do with them. We belong to the TRAP agency, and we’re really only here to solve the mystery of the crawlers, to provide more security for the upper world, as you call it. That is what we are paid for,” Harry objected calmly. Kennak and Eiri thought for a moment, then nodded to each other. Kennak, who had learned his American mainly through extensive consumption of radio broadcasts, magazines, books and newspapers of the upper world, already understood better that among humans there seemed to be many different groups and nations, all with different interests, who also worked against each other and even killed each other for this or that reason. He had even seen it himself once, when he had climbed up from the sewers at night. But all this seemed so strange and absurd to him and his companion that it had taken some time to understand this behavior. By all appearances, these TRAP agents were a group that was not hostile to them, and therefore not dangerous. Or were they? Kennak hoped that one day he would not regret this leap of faith.

“Good. We understand there’s a difference, and you’re not one of them,” he finally nodded. “So these energy people found our city. We invited them in, showed them how we live and that we are no threat to humans. We also asked them not to reveal our location. However, just one day after the meeting, these men returned with a larger group of armed mercenaries and began looting our homes and shooting those who resisted,” Kennak explained.
“But… why?” Abigail asked, stunned. Yuri rubbed his beard thoughtfully, then pulled a brownish turnip from one of the crates. Without hesitation, he bit off a piece and began to chew.
“They were after the gold, coins, and all the other valuables we had accumulated over time. Many things from the upper world ended up in the tunnel system you created, called the sewers. Some of our people also went up through those sewers at night and took what they thought was usable from backyards and alleys,” he replied.
“Sounds like bulky waste,” Yuri mused, smacking his lips, and Harry nodded in agreement.
“So Gwyneran has existed longer than Elysium?” he said then. Kennak grinned and translated the question again for Eiri, who could only follow the conversation in bits and pieces. A smile crossed her face as well.
“In the newspapers we find from time to time it says that you are in the year 409. The humans started counting after they arrived on the planet. We do too, for us it is the year 2133,” Kennak answered the question and sat down on the floor. The others did the same. For the TRAP agents, this new information, which ended all speculation about the age of the underground city, was a shock. All the certainty they thought they had about their own history was shattered at that moment. Harry’s mind raced, and he could tell by the expressions on his comrades’ faces that they too had questions on their lips. It was imperative that they get as complete a picture as possible of what had happened.
“What happened then, what happened after these people invaded the city? Please continue,” Harry asked Kennak.
“Panic broke out in Gwyneran. The energy people retreated after the initial looting, after our warriors finally managed to drive them away. But they probably just ran out of ammunition. Only three days after the incident, while we were still burying our dead, they came back. This time with the first yellow barrels of the Great Plague. There was another clash with our warriors, but our losses were too great and most fled to the far reaches of Gwyneran. The energy people continued to loot and dump the barrels in the entrance area. After a short time, two small mountains were formed from these barrels. When they stopped coming for a long time, the warriors examined the barrels more closely,” Kennak said, his voice filled with despair.
“They examined the barrels without protective gear?” Abigail asked, her face turning ashen at this story. Kennak confirmed it with a nod and continued.
“The barrels made them sick. At first we thought they were going to die. Their skin had turned pitch black from the toxic substances, just discolored. Their eyes had turned black as well, and their hair was falling out. But these were not the only changes. Their minds also seemed to be completely erased. They didn’t recognize friends or family, and in a mad frenzy they began to prey on the healthy, picking up where the energy people had left off. All this with unbridled vigor. There were about 15,000 people in Gwyneran, and after about two weeks we had already lost a good quarter of them,” he continued.
“I don’t know what to say anymore,” Abigail whispered, wiping her eyes with both hands, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. Yuri, who had eaten the turnip completely by now, nodded to Kennak to continue his report.
“As time went on, more and more of our people changed because of the poison,” he continued. “Many began to flee into the tunnels in all directions. Most, however, would not leave the city and would not be driven out despite the horror. However, according to our current knowledge, the majority of the inhabitants have become crawlers. Eiri and I are part of a group of about one hundred and fifty who have settled about two days’ walk from here. The suits we use are sewn from pieces of captured protective clothing. We are here to see if we can find anything else useful. Tools or weapons.” Harry, sitting cross-legged on the ground, ran a hand through his sweaty hair and blinked for a moment. So this was what had caused the crawlers. POWERS Generating Plant had carried out a genocide of an unknown people here in the caves deep underground in order to dispose of nuclear waste cheaply. They had also hired a ruthless mercenary force that did not hesitate to shoot unarmed civilians for their looting. At the beginning of this mission, he certainly had no idea what the solution to the mystery might be. But he had expected to be relieved when they had found the source of this evil. There had been no relief. Despite all the fatigue and exhaustion, a spark had ignited within him, burning stronger than any prospect of rich rewards and a more carefree life.
“Those responsible will pay for this,” Harry spoke slowly, with an icy coldness in his voice that was completely unfamiliar even to his companions. “These actions will not go unpunished, I promise.”
“But can you help us?” Kennak asked in amazement. “Will you bring the energy people to justice?” Yuri, who had watched Harry’s reaction closely, pulled another thick turnip from one of the crates and spun it in his hands.
“No court on this planet will be able to protect energy people from us,” he said calmly, then took another large bite of the vegetable.
“That’s right,” Harry confirmed. Kennak translated for Eiri, who now seemed to have a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Abigail was just as determined to hunt down those responsible, no matter what it took. But that was not enough. Even if they succeeded in bringing those responsible to justice, it wouldn’t be the end of the matter for Kennak’s people.
“We need more information to help you better,” she began. “What do you call yourselves and how are you organized?”
“Our people call themselves Aon-I. Aon-I means nothing more than the people in your language,” Kennak readily answered her question. “We are governed by a council of elders and a seer who presides over the senate. The seers all come from a single bloodline. We do not know if the current seer, Tvenan-Dru, is still alive. Otherwise, we are organized into castes. There are warriors, farmers, and commoners who do all kinds of work from trading to prospecting. Warriors like me and members of the senate wear tattoos.” He pointed to the marks on his face.
“What if the current seer did not survive?” Abigail dug deeper.
“Then his daughter would have to succeed him. She is a member of our group and too inexperienced for such a great task. That’s why we hope that Tvenan-Dru is hiding somewhere,” Kennak replied and Abigail nodded.
“What I’d also like to know is that some of the crawlers seem to be able to teleport. One disintegrated, then jumped through Yuri and reassembled behind him,” she continued.
“The warrior caste is divided into those who fight with weapons and the scouts. The scouts have strong mental abilities and can teleport over short distances. However, this requires a lot of strength,” Kennak explained. “Eiri, for example, is a scout.”
“Yes I is,” Eiri confirmed. “Not has much power little training.”
“You’ll get there,” Yuri said, nodding encouragement as he ate the last of his second turnip. Eiri looked up at him, then smiled. Next to her, the Northern Cities man, already impressively tall for a human, looked like a giant from an old fairy tale.
“I hope,” she returned.
“By the way, we found dogs down by the big hole. Crawlers are much stronger than dogs, right? Did the energy people also bring dogs here to the city?” Kennak scratched his chin and thought.
“In the ancient lore of our people, there are mentions of four-legged demons that brought evil into the world. They look like dogs. I have seen crawlers who were greatly intimidated by the energy people’s dogs. Their minds no longer exist, but a primal fear of the demons still seems to be present at the core of their being.”
“That’s why the POWERS people bring them here. …. It must have occurred to them at some point that the crawlers are afraid of the animals. They don’t care if the dogs get irradiated down here,” Abigail grumbled.
“Not with Anton,” Yuri grumbled. “We’ll take him with us when we go back up there.”
“And you really think you can help us?” Kennak asked.
“We’ll do what we can,” Harry nodded and slowly stood up. “I think I have an idea too…”
“When we get back to surface, we call for reinforcements immediately,” Yuri said, grinning broadly. Abigail thought about it. Was he referring to Ralph?

Categorized as: Novel 4 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

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