**** Elysium 1986 ****

The three of them were surprised at how few people were in the subway station. Even on the stairs leading down to the subway, there was usually a hustle and bustle at any time of the day or night. The city had expanded rapidly during the colonization period, and they had regrettably neglected to consider adequate mass transportation during this early phase, also in light of the energy-sapping struggle to survive on a new planet. The subway system was only a few hundred years old and had been implemented later to provide some relief from the permanently chaotic car traffic on the streets. Obviously too late. In other cities on 86 the situation might be different, but here in Elysium the infrastructure was a constant problem in this regard.
“It looks like more and more people are avoiding the subway because of the attacks,” Harry commented on the situation as he looked around the stairwell entrance to Node 2 with Abigail and Yuri. The computer specialist fumbled slightly nervously for her small silver Colt, which she had hidden within easy reach under her jacket, and pursed her lips. Ever since she had seen the two photos of the dead crawler from the investigation files, she had been afraid to enter the underground. Of course, she was too proud to admit it in front of her comrades. All she had to do was think of something nice to chase away the dark thoughts. A villa on North Beach, for example. Wearing a pretty dress and holding a cocktail, strolling down the city’s richest boardwalk to her own estate. Really a beautiful castle in the air!
“Let’s go then, guys,” Yuri said, thirsty for action. “Hopefully power won’t go out while we’re down there, because crawlers eat all electricians by now,” he added with a grin, giving Abigail a friendly pat on the back. She just widened her eyes and noticed that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Wonderful, another horrible thought she hadn’t even considered.
“Are you okay, Aby?” Harry asked, noticing that she was still hesitating at the landing while Yuri was already marching down stoically with a rolling gait.
“Y-yes… sure, I’m fine?” she replied, suddenly scurrying down the stairs at an emphatic pace, a nervous laugh escaping her. Harry squinted one eye as he watched her go, then just shrugged and followed. On the longer walk to the entrance of the platform, they encountered only a few isolated passengers. Many of the smaller shops here in the subway were already closed and had pulled down the heavy security bars in front of their windows. If the situation didn’t improve soon, Mayor Stanford would undoubtedly suffer great political damage.
“The entrance is over there,” Harry said, pointing to a wide turnoff. The entrance area was blocked off by a metal fence, about six feet high, with thick posts and several large turnstiles for entry and exit. Next to the fence, on the right side of the wall, were five ticket machines.
“We’re lucky, fence is not high,” Yuri said with a grin.
“You’re going to climb over the fence?” Abigail asked with a raised eyebrow, looking around nervously as if expecting to be jumped out of a dark corner. The lighting down here was less than generous.
“Yes, we are here on official business. Don’t have to buy ticket, city will pay,” Yuri explained, trying to make his words sound like the most logical conclusion possible. His broad grin, however, counteracted that effect.
“There’s a camera on the wall,” Harry said dryly, pointing his chin up as he slowly removed his sunglasses. The poor underground lighting suited his altered eyes.
“Then I try to climb elegantly with nice posture, so that gives good pictures of me,” Yuri replied, approaching the fence.
“Hey, and me? How am I going to get over there? I’m short!” Abigail protested.
“Can hold onto my back, like baby koala,” Yuri laughed, whereupon she folded her arms across her chest and made an offended face.
“Baby owl, baby koala… why do I always have to…” she began, only to be interrupted by Harry, who slipped a five-dollar bill into her crossed arms with a poker face.
“Get me a ticket from the grocery store too, honey,” he said casually, pointing to the ticket machines.
“You guys are such asses sometimes,” Abigail grumbled, stalking over to the machines. Yuri, on the other hand, reached out, grabbed the top rail of the fence, and pulled himself up effortlessly. The leather jacket tightened around the bulging muscles of his massive arms.
“Please refrain from climbing over the fence and purchase a ticket. You may pay in coins or bills,” a mechanical voice boomed from a small speaker next to the camera.
“What the hell?” said Harry, turning to Yuri.
“Great,” sighed Abigail, who was in the process of buying the second ticket for Harry. Yuri, on the other hand, wasn’t thinking about following the instructions at all as he swung his right leg up and hooked his calf to slowly twist over the highest point and land softly on the other side. At least that was his plan.
“Please refrain from climbing over the fence and purchase a ticket. You can pay in coins or bills,” the loudspeaker boomed again.
“Neither a coin nor a bill, just climb over I will,” rhymed Yuri, now hanging right on the fence, grinning and giving his two comrades a thumbs up.
“What’s he going to buy with the two and a half dollars he saved…” Abigail sighed and pressed one of the two tickets into Harry’s hand.
“Please refrain from climbing over the fence and purchase a ticket. You may pay in coins or bills,” came the third request from the mechanical voice.
“Never,” Yuri grumbled and was about to drop to the other side when suddenly there was a loud bang and he was hurled from the fence towards his comrades. As he hit the ground with full force, he was shaking all over, his eyes wide open.
“What the fuck!” he grunted.
“Really interesting, I was wondering if they didn’t put any security measures in here,” Harry commented, reaching out to help Yuri back to his feet.
“I wasn’t expecting a high voltage grid, but actually a cool idea,” Abigail chuckled, dropping her ticket into a small box next to an entrance turnstile, then crossing it with an emphatically elegant swagger of her hips.

When Yanny and Ralph entered the main building of the university, most of the seminar rooms and lecture halls were in use and closed. For the occasion, she had put on a fancy-looking costume with high heels and tied her purple hair into a ponytail. Dressed like that, she could have been mistaken for a lecturer, striding down the long corridors with a friendly face and a blue folder in her hand. The old punk walking beside her, however, broke that impression. The numerous chains on his tattered leather jacket jingled with every shuffling step as he hunched over, scratched his buttocks, and cleared his throat loudly from time to time.
“The administration wing is one floor up,” Yanny explained, having just finished looking at a floor plan of the building hanging on the wall behind glass. Ralph mumbled something unintelligible, pulled a piece of gum out of his jacket and popped it into his mouth. A few minutes later, they reached their destination and found themselves in a corridor full of offices. Employees walked back and forth between rooms, seemingly too busy to notice them. Yanny and Ralph looked at each other questioningly for a moment at the apparent disinterest of the staff here. A woman emerged from the room to their left, a stack of papers in her hands. She headed straight for another office further down the hall.
“Excuse me, we have a question…” Yanny addressed her with a smile.
“No time, kid, faculty office hours are not until 3 pm, and only if you have an appointment,” the lady said in a very firm tone that bordered on the unfriendly.
“But I just wanted to…” Yanny started again, but the lady had already hurried away, shaking her head. Ralph rubbed his chin, and his already wrinkled forehead wrinkled even more. But he said nothing. A few moments later, a tall, slender gentleman came out of the room to their right and walked past them.
“Oh, excuse me, could we ask you a question…?” began Yanny in an emphatically friendly manner, tilting her head slightly.
“Office hours are at 3 p.m.,” the gentleman replied with a hurried tone in his voice and was about to walk away when Ralph’s hand suddenly shot forward, grabbing him by the collar from behind and pulling him back with a strong jerk.
“You’re going to answer the lady’s questions right now or I’m going to push your front teeth down your throat, got it?” the punk growled, intensifying the pull on the man’s collar by pressing his left forearm against his neck from behind. The man gasped and quickly turned blue in the face, desperately trying to get his fingers into the collar to free himself from Ralph’s iron grip. Choking and gasping, he fell to his knees as Yanny stood in front of him, still smiling innocently.
“I have some photographs of some writing I can’t decipher. You have a faculty of languages, don’t you? Perhaps you could recommend a specialist we could contact about this?” she asked, tapping her folder. The man choked and gasped for air, waving his arms helplessly. His eyes were wide open and looked like they might pop out of his head at any moment.
“Well, what’ya say?” said Ralph calmly, still holding him tightly. Yanny thought for a moment.
“I think you should choke him a little less so that he can answer,” she said, remembering her knowledge of anatomy.
“Oh, yeah?” retorted Ralph, letting go abruptly. The man collapsed to the floor in front of Yanny, coughing and rubbing his throat. Meanwhile, a few other employees had come out of their rooms and looked at the scene in horror. Doors were hastily closed and locked from the inside. “We’re all ears,” Ralph said to the man, kneading his hands.
“Dr. Ivanov, Department of Ancient Languages in Annex 3, Room 17…” he croaked in reply.
“Thank you, that helps us. Have a nice day,” Yanny said cheerfully, then went back down the corridor they had come from.
“See? It would have been so easy,” Ralph said, shrugging at the man who continued to crouch on the floor intimidated, and then followed Yanny again.
“Wasn’t that a little… drastic?” Yanny asked Ralph as the two of them left the main building on their way to the said outbuilding, and he held the door open for her as they did so.
“Baby, if I have to, I’ll strangle the whole campus until you get your information,” Ralph replied with a grin.
“Oooh, that’s really sweet of you,” Yanny replied, giggling.

A good ten minutes and some wandering through confusing corridors later, the two stood in front of Dr. Niclas Ivanov’s office. Yanny knocked and waited until a deep voice encouraged her to enter. She opened the door and entered the room with Ralph. Each wall of the small office was filled to the ceiling with bookshelves. Many of the books were pulled out of their shelves, with post-its and bookmarks sticking out all over the place. There was a faint musty smell of old paper and dust. Behind an impractical and clunky looking desk sat an elderly man with a half bald head and a mustache. Judging by his worn-out clothes, he didn’t care much for appearances. He was typing with both index fingers on the keyboard of a computer in front of him. His reading glasses were pushed so far forward that they looked as if they might fall off his nose at any moment. Four open books lay crisscrossed next to the keyboard, and on his lap he balanced a large notepad filled with spidery bullet points.
“How… can I help you?” he murmured without looking up from the screen. Yanny could detect a very slight Russian accent in his words, revealing that he most likely had not grown up in Elysium.
“You are Dr. Ivanov?” she asked kindly.
“Yes, exactly,” he nodded and looked at them. When he saw Ralph grinning broadly at him, he raised both eyebrows. This beautiful woman also had a slightly unreal look to her because of the color of her hair. Of course, dyed hair was nothing unusual in young people. However, one could always tell that it was an applied color. Her hair, however, seemed natural in a way, as if it had always been that color.
“We both work for the city,” Yanny began her explanation. “This is Mr…” She hesitated. It was then she realized that neither Ralph nor she had a usable last name. “This is Mr. Smith, and my name is Williams,” she quickly improvised. “We’re here about two photographs that are holding up our investigation.”
“Investigation?” Ivanov asked curtly. The two were probably from the police and on some kind of undercover mission. At least it was a nice change from his usual routine.
“Unfortunately, we can’t reveal too much,” Yanny evaded, putting on her most charming smile.
“Well, that’s not a problem. So… how exactly can I help you? I’m sure you know my area of expertise, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. What is this about?” the scientist inquired, now genuinely curious despite his astonishment. Yanny placed her folder in an empty spot on his table, flipped to the clear sheet with the photos and pulled out the two relevant images.
“I must ask for your absolute discretion,” she said as she handed him the two photos. Wow! Almost like a spy movie, Ivanov thought.
“You make it sound pretty dramatic,” he replied with a smile, looking at the pictures. But his expression froze when he realized what was on them. Then he exhaled loudly. “Now I understand what you mean by discretion…” he finally nodded. Meanwhile, Ralph closed the office door to make sure they weren’t overheard from outside.
“Do these symbols mean anything to you, have you seen anything like this before?” Yanny asked. Ivanov pondered, turning the pictures over and over, holding them up to his eyes. Then he looked at them both.
“The Southpoint Lair tablet means nothing to you, I take it?” he asked back.
“No,” Yanny replied. She read everything she could get her hands on, but she had never heard of this before.
“The story goes back quite far in the annals of the city. About 270 years ago, when the city’s subway system was being built, a natural cave system was stumbled upon quite unexpectedly somewhere in the southern underground. This discovery, of course, pleased the project’s designers immensely, as it allowed them to use existing structures, which saved an enormous amount of money and drilling time, and allowed the project to be completed many years earlier than originally hoped,” Ivanov began his elaborations.
“South of the city, you say…” Yanny mused.
“Exactly. But the point is that a find made in one of those natural caves back then went down in the history of unexplained mysteries as the Tablet of Southpoint Lair.” With that, he rose from his chair and began to search the shelf behind him. It did not take him long to find what he was looking for, and he pulled out a thick chronicle. He placed it on the small pile of already opened books and flipped to a particular entry.
“This tablet, which was found at that time, was a massive stone tablet with a completely unknown script carved into it. At the time, after a rather cursory analysis, it was assumed that it must have been a well-crafted hoax. Something to boost newspaper circulation. That’s probably why you haven’t heard about it. It was just an aside, the matter was quickly dropped by the scientific community. No one wanted to ruin their career by getting seriously involved in a joke like that. That’s why there are no treatises about it, only small articles in the city chronicle,” Ivanov continued. Ralph ran his hand thoughtfully through his brushed hair while the doctor turned the page again and placed his finger on a printed photograph of the tablet. The two looked at the illustration with curiosity. Many of the characters on the tablet were absolutely identical to the carvings on the Crawler’s back.
“Holy shit… Newspaper hoax my ass…” muttered Ralph.
“Where is this tablet now? Where can we look at it?” Yanny asked. She didn’t know how to put this in the context of the crawler problem. This new information just raised more questions.
“The few museums that existed in the city adamantly refused to display this tablet,” the scientist explained. “After it spent a few years in the city’s archives, a wealthy Brightland curio collector became interested in it. So they shipped it off on a cargo ship, and the city took some money for it. Where it is now, after all this time, and if it still exists, I don’t think anyone can say for sure”. Then he took off his glasses and cleaned the lenses with his worn shirt.
“Thank you for your help, Dr. Ivanov,” Yanny thanked him. “Would you mind if I made some copies of the article in the Chronicle?”
“Gladly, you’ve probably seen the copier outside my office in the open room to the left,” he replied.
“Yes,” the cyborg nodded and took the large book.
“Wait, that thing needs a copy card…” With that, he pulled a wrinkled briefcase from under his desk and opened it. Yanny’s eyes suddenly lit up with excitement as she spotted a very special treasure among the unsorted papers and a plastic box of sandwiches in his bag. They were two identical action figures from the new TV series Heroes of Ulthrard, depicting a massive barbarian in fur pants with a sword and a goggle helmet on his head.
“Oh, you have Caine Powerheart figurines?” she asked, beaming.
“You know those plastic things? Yeah… my little boy is a big fan of the show, and he always wants new figurines. There’s a promotion going on at the local toy store right now where they’re selling big surprise balls with the figurines in them. The downside, of course, is that you don’t know exactly which ones you’re going to get. Of course, I’m unlucky enough to draw two balls with exactly the same character in them,” Ivanov sighed and looked at the absolutely delighted Yanny with growing amazement.
“You watch that cartoon all the time, don’t you?” remarked Ralph, grinning at Yanny, who blushed a little.
“Sometimes I get stuck on an episode while zapping, it was pure coincidence,” she tried to talk her way out of it. Ralph grinned even wider, knowing full well that she hadn’t missed an episode since the show had been on the air. Dr. Ivanov handed Yanny the copy card he had finally found in the briefcase, along with the open City Chronicle. When she had left the office for the copy room, Ralph whispered to Ivanov:
“How much for the double?” At the same time, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. A deal was quickly struck without Yanny noticing, and Ralph hid the figure in his jacket. After the two finally thanked him and said goodbye, Ivanov made them promise to at least keep him informed about the connection between the tattoo and the stone tablet if there were any new results. He also gave them his business card. A short time later, the scientist could hear Yanny’s loud scream of joy from the street, even through his closed window. So she had gotten the figurine. He shook his head slowly and smiled. What a strange young woman.

Categorized as: Novel 3 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

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