It was the first time I had been in the wildlands of Venus, where the green clouds boiled across the sky and the craters filled the heat-baked valleys that ran like cracks through the Obsidian Mountains. It had taken us five days to reach the entrance to the underground complex, and we spent another three days just inside the door, waiting for the dust storm to blow over before we could even think about bringing the promised supplies in after us.
Below, the maze of tunnels slithered out in all directions, vanishing in the brown subterranian murk like tricks of the mind. The sculpted reliefs along the stone walls reminded me of the friezes from the Parthenon, and I marvelled that such similarities could be found on so distant a place as Venus. The sentries' clanging steps echoed down these corridors as they plodded ahead of us, their lurching gait making their phosphorous lamps weave in the darkness as we followed them in toward the inner sanctum.
"Cor!" someone behind me said. "And don't these mechanical monstrosities give me a chill?"
"Button it up, Mister Parker," Lieutenant-commander Hunnicut growled over his shoulder. "If I hear one more break in your discipline it'll be the thrusters for you when we return!" The thruster chamber was the hottest and most unbearable place to work aboard an aethership like the "Sovereign," due in no small part to the hydrogen being burned in the thrusters directly aft. Parker buttoned it up.
"Your men seem jittery," Tal Gromin said, his green skinned face barely hiding his sneer. "Are you sure they wouldn't rather wait in the antechamber?" Hunnicut ignored him, but his face was stony. Tal Gromin and his Royal Guardsmen had been tasked with accompanying us, as only they knew the secret of operating the clockwork sentries. There was no love lost between the British and the Venusians, but theirs was an alliance of necessity for only the British had been able to negotiate with the Goddess. There were six guardsmen with us, and despite the fact that they'd left their axes in the antechamber with the Brits' firearms, they had a fearsome look about them. Whether it was more from their imposing size or their glowing yellow eyes I could never decide, but their British counterparts gave them a wide berth either way.
We stopped in a large round chamber after what seemed an eternity, and Tal Gromin's men took up a defensive perimeter. The clockwork sentries lurched to a closed door in the opposite wall and turned to face us. Standing just over ten feet tall, they too were an imposing sight, with intricate assemblies of cogs and coil springs covered and protected by plates of bronze armor. Long plumes bristled from helmets that adorned faceless heads, and I realized for the first time that the armor - like the carvings on the walls - was styled in similar fashion to that of the ancient Greeks. Moreover, the stone statue at the center of the chamber looked for all the world like a goddess from one of Homer's epics.There were other mechanical figures standing silently in alcoves along the walls, and judging by the cobwebs these looked to have been standing in situ for a very long time. A closer inspection, however, revealed spring coils at maximum tension, as though they were set to leap into action at a lever's release. They clearly had a different function than the sentries we'd been following. I glanced at the heavy swords in each robotic claw and wondered little about what would happen should these fearsome automatons be activated.
It was warmer now, much warmer even than the surface of the planet had been, and I could hear the distant thrum of machinery beyond the door. By contrast even the persistent clacking of the sentries' gears seemed small and quiet. The "Sovereign's" crew had finished stacking the crates we'd brought as a token of our goodwill towards the Goddess, and I took advantage of the momentary pause to speak with Hunnicut.
"Do you suppose anything is wrong?" I asked. "I understand it's been a while since our ambassador went incommunicado."
"Her dealings with all of our ambassador's predecessors have gone ill," he replied without turning.
"How so?"
"Apparently no man can resist her will," came the reply. "That's part of the reason our weapons were left in the antechamber."
"I don't understand."
"It's to minimize the risk of us being persuaded to use them on each other," Tal Gromin said from across the room. Several of the crew exchanged worried glances.
"She's that persuasive?"
"Seductive is more like it," Hunnicut said. "We tried sending in a female representative once, but even she fell under the Goddess' spell."
I shifted uncomfortably. "So then it's serious," I said. "This new ambassador may have likewise been...."
"Seduced?" Hunnicut replied with a smirk at my embarrassment. "Not bloody likely; not this fellow. No, there must be something else going on." A boom sounded from deep beneath the floor, shaking the room. Another followed, and I shot Tal Gromin a questioning look.
"The Goddess is the least of our worries," he said. "It sounds as though something has angered her consort."
To Be Continued...
