Patchwork Universe

Karl Groever · Posted: 02 Feb 2004 06:41 pm Post subject: The Break - In

A mile of travel, half sinking, through the sands, and the Dome was reached. Its bulk lay dark before them, all hint of the ochre hue which, by day, gave rise to its catalogue designation, was occluded.
Karl signalled for Alberny to stay back a few steps ; played his torch beam over the rubble which filled the imposing doorway. After a moment, he caught it; the slight depressing of stone inward which indicated the weak spot that the Baron's foreman had prepared. Deftly done, no doubt about that; inevitable that the Baron's co - organisers in the Antiquities Service had missed it. All ready to be worked on with the appropriate application of leverage...
Karl signalled to Alberny to unwrap the crowbar from his pack, took it in hand, and began to force a hole, top right -hand corner, stepping aside every few minutes to avoid minor stonefalls. After ten minutes, Alberny began at last to help, growing bored of contemplation ; scrabbling in with bare hands to dislodge rocks, he punctuated the desert silence with grunts of satisfaction. After forty minutes, the work was done, and, as Alberny ran further sweat from hands into matted hair, Groever took up the torch again, and led the way, a little awed at his sheer audacity, into the beckoning gloom.

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He was afterwards uncertain of what he had been expecting. The Dome proved both more, and less, engrossing than he had, in reverie, supposed it might. Passing through the inaugural corridor, he had entered into the inner sanctum. Architecturally majestic, he noted, not quite levelly, his light beam picking out carven pillars and buttresses soaring upward to support a cupola bedecked with the images of stars. Yet some part of his mind held back from wonderment ; the place was also spartan, bereft of ornament and treasure hoard, empty, save for what appeared to be some form of stone tomb placed centrally, beneath the dome.
Groever overcame his initial dissociation; came back to himself. 'Luke,' he said over his shoulder in Alberny's direction, 'are you getting anything here ?'
The red head swiftly came to join him ; seemed uncertain. 'Nothing clear,' he confessed 'Smoke or shadows, a fire, perhaps. Clearly it's immeasurably old. I feel inadequate to even attempt to place these things.'
'Then you should give this up now and go back to the Circus,' Karl growled. 'We have a paid job to do here, and the Baron 's wrath to face down if we foul things up.'
'Karl, you misjudge me' Alberny chided, sounding pained. 'This little adventure is nothing short of miraculous. I feel suitably privileged ; thus, I want to find out more. You, my friend, could do with a little of the same determination. A non - hit is a non - hit, that's all. Now, if you don't mind...'
Taking the torch from Groever's fingers, using the light to guide him to the tomb side, he left Karl fuming for a moment in the dark. Karl reached into a pocket, struck up a match with a heartfelt sigh. Bearings acknowledged in the wan light, he made a point of striding straight to Alberny's side through the enchroaching blackness, after the flame winked out.
'So...what ?' he asked buntly, in a short - tempered tone.
Alberny - running scarred fingers across the sheer edges of the marble sarcophagus. 'There was once great power here,' he intoned, hushed and far - away sounding.
Groever shook his head, to clear it. 'Let's just prise the goddamned top off, and see what we can see.'
'You think ?' Alberny was straight back with him, wide eyes seeking reassurance 'You really think that's...?'
'What ? Acceptable ?'
'If you want'
'Acceptable to whom ? The Antiquarians ? The Ancients ? Who are you talking about here, Luke ?'
'Yes, Karl, those who built this place...this tomb.'
'We have a job to do, Luke.'
'You aren't sensitive in these ways.'
'Don't give me that. The Baron pays you to do a job. He pays me to do the same. If we fail him on this one, then neither of us ever gets paid to do anything... ever...again'.
That seemed to get through. Alberny nodded slowly, took on a suddenly deflated air, all hunched shoulders and bowed head. Here, the matter rested. Karl took the opportunity to get started on the lid, wedging the crowbar tight. Eventually, with Alberny's help, the thing was done, the heavy stone shunted aside, and the contents of the tomb revealed; exposed to open air for the first time in who knew how many centuries ?