I: AN OMINOUS PORTENT:
Screams echoed from the dank dirty walls of the asylum, a reverberation of woe and despair that permeated the very air and lent an unsettling ambiance to the atmosphere. Prefect Alistae Carn tried not to shudder as he followed the shuffling doctor, who's name he had quite forgotten, through the seemingly labyrinthine dark corridors, trying not to look too closely into the shadows cast by the wan lumin-globes that sporadically dotted the recesses of the foreboding passage.
Emperor damn Ralscon, damn him and his orders, of all the forsaken locales to be sent to. Worth was a wretched enough place as it was, a dungball of a world ignored by practically everybody, including those unfortunate enough to live on it In fact Carn was pretty sure Worth was ironically named being a particularly small planet, more of a planetoid really. It's real designation was a very boring series of numbers and letters that no one wanted to remember almost like it wasn't worth remembering, hence being relabeled by the first settlers. Worth was devoid of oceans and was primarily comprised of a dense violet grey ash over an unremarkable rock crust dotted with mostly now dormant volcanoes. However, beneath the crust was a wealth of minerals and ores and numerous mining facilities were set up to make use of the only resource that Worth could offer. Other than mining outposts there were small towns and provinces here and there as the inhabitants tried to eke out whatever meagre lives they could. There was only one city and that was Narthley. Here all administration was carried out for the entire planet. Contact with the wider Imperium was minimal, they supplied a tithe of minerals and ores and therefore were left alone blissfully unaware of the majority of the perils that beset the galaxy.
Carn was here to investigate the disappearance (and subsequent reappearance) of one adept Larkarsky. The adept had been inspecting a mining operation in far off Endomaw on the other side of the planet. A fairly routine survey, the output from the mine had wavered somewhat in recent months and Larkarsky's assignment was to see if there were any untoward reason for the aberration. Everything had been fine for the first couple of days with regular updates in Larkasky's usual terse, abrupt fashion (he tended to make his reports curt whilst laboriously preparing detailed written treatises on anything and everything which he would then present upon his return - almost as if to spite his superiors and make them spend excess time reading his texts for the full wealth of detail). The brief reports suggested that little was awry, although a subtle undercurrent of tension and uncertainty was present. This in itself was not unusual though, Larkarsky was from a brave or adventurous man and easily perturbed. Were it not for his analytical skills, Carn mused, Larkarsky likely would not have been sent at all. Certainly, he would not have been Carn's first choice.
It seemed that Carn's judgement was sound as well, for Larkarsky's updates turned increasingly erratic, and furtive. Almost as if he were afraid of saying more in his communiques. Then, without warning, they ceased. Requests for re-established contact were met with silence. The entire of Endomaw went dark and no response was forthcoming for six full solar cycles. Given that Worth had a significantly slower rotation than most planets this was equivalent to just under three Terran weeks. Just as Carn's superiors were about to authorise a rapid strike team to be sent to investigate, Larkarsky reappeared.
He did not however, announce his presence as per standard procedures. Rather he was apprehended for disturbing the peace in a province not far from Endomaw, babbling incoherently and raving about a dark terror, an unfathomable mystery threat that threatened to engulf the entire planet. When he foolishly tried to resist arrest the local constabulary took him down, hard. Larkarsky was dragged, broken and bleeding, into custody where he was found to be utterly without reason, ranting about coming apocalyptic horrors and beings tentacled and omnipotent from beyond the stars, that would consume all in their path. Chances are that he would have been executed at that point without hesitation for witchery as it was a particularly backward and superstitious settlement which he had chosen to appear in, but thankfully one of the more astute denizens of the town recognised Larkarksy's administrative trappings and sent a message to Carn's office. Once it was established that the Adept had indeed reappeared the strike team was stood down and Carn was given the thankless task of journeying to this backwater hole to find out just what had happened in Endomaw. Carn damned Ralscon again, mentally subjecting him to various tortures and agonies in return, he smiled at the thought a bit in the gloom before he realised the doctor had stopped ahead of him.
Shaken from his reverie he glanced at the door that the hunched doctor gestured towards with gnarled bony fingers..
'He's in here, but I warn you, his mind is cracked, you'll not get anything of any worth from him.' The doctors rheumy eyes, dead of emotion, echoed her expressionless lined face. Hers was a visage and frame that had been worn down over years of dealing with the irredeemably insane. No rejuvenat treatments or augmetics here, in this town. On a more prominent world she could have still been beautiful, vital. But here, here she was a prisoner of her advancing years almost as much as her charges were prisoners of their fractured psyches.
'I've seen it before, oh too many times for me to count, Emperor save me,' she continued. 'His mind has gone has that one, whatever he has seen or imagined, it was too much. He'll never recover, never.' Her mouth suddenly set in a sad smile, she stepped back into the shadows allowing Carn access to the viewing slot in the door.
Carn nodded his thanks at the shrouded form of the Doctor and approached the door, unbolting the small hatch and sliding it down to peer into the gloomy room within. A faint feotid stench assaulted his nostrils. He tried to breathe though his mouth instead but the air tasted just as foul. He fought the impulse to gag.
'Larkarsky, Adept Larkarsky' he rasped. Only silence greeted him from within, though the space outside the room still echoed with the screams and rantings of myriad maniacal inmates. No, not silence, there was something. He strained to filter out the unwanted sounds, Larkarsky was muttering something. Carn couldn't make it out though, much as he tried. He stepped back from the viewing hatch.
'Open it', he brusquely instructed, glancing at the doctor, not unkindly but with a commanding gaze nonetheless. The Doctor looked up and shook her head slowly.
'I wouldn't recommend tha....'
'Is he dangerous?' Carn interrupted, 'any threat at all?'
'No', she countered. 'But he is utterly broken, there is no point in interrogating him'.
'I'll be the judge of that. Open. The. Door.'
She shrugged and fumbled with a large cluster of metal keys. Carn winced, physical keys? what primitive hell was this? She must have noticed his expression in the gloom for she shot him a dirty look as she located the correct key amongst the bundle and used it to unlock the door. She swung it open and stepped back from the gloomy entrance.
Suppressing a brief uncharacteristic sense of trepidation, Carn stepped inside, trying to ignore the suddenly more prominent odour. Larkarksy was huddled in a far corner, unmoving. Unkempt and filthy, his head was bowed and he was muttering something over and over...Carn stepped closer.
'Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow... '
Over and over and over, that one word. His tone was haunted and despairing, his gaze fixed firmly on the floor. He made no reaction to Carn's approach, even as the Prefect knelt down beside him.
'Larkarsky....' he wracked his memory to recall the Adept's first name. 'Pallas' he tried, Pallas Larkarsky!' With the last he reached out and grabbed the man's shoulder.
Larkarsky stopped repeating and slowly raised his head. Carn's mouth dropped agape, horror etched on his face as Larkarsky suddenly launched himself at the kneeling prefect, bowling him over. They both crashed to the filthy floor as Larkarsky's brief silence ended, the maddened Adept atop of Carn.
'They're coming!' he screamed. 'Oh God Emperor they are coming, we are all going to die, do you understand? We are all going to die. Nothing will survive, nothing will live. Nothing can stop them, nothing, nothing! Yellow will be all, yellow will be all! Our flesh, our bones our blood! All devoured, all devoured, all devoured!'
Carn struggled beneath Larkarsky, though slight of frame he had a strength born of mania and desperation and pinned the Prefect down whilst screaming. With his eyes screwed firmly shut Carn found the strength to hurl that demented visage away from him and he rolled to the left, away from Larkarsky, poor insane Larkarsky. Opening his eyes he shakily stood up and exited the cell as swiftly as dignity would allow. The Adept had gone back to his huddle and once again was whispering the word 'yellow' over and over.
As Carn crossed the threshold he closed the door and breathlessly nodded at the Doctor who rushed to lock it. With the cell secured she turned back to the Prefect, who was stooped, hands on knees.
'I told you' she said gently, 'he's too far gone'.
Carn regulated his breathing and futilely tried to get Larkarsky's face out of his head. It was useless, he knew he'd be seeing that image till his dying days. Damn Ralscon. As his terror subsided the adrenaline found a new home in anger. His voice shook as he rose and stood, straight but unsteady, rounding on the doctor.
'Why... didn't you tell me he'd done that?' His indignant hoarse whisper suddenly turned into an indignant hoarse roar, 'WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT HIS FACE?!'
'You didn't ask,' the doctor returned, though she wasn't quite smug there was nonetheless an air of insouciance about her reply which rankled at the Prefect. 'Self mutilation isn't entirely uncommon among our patients. We tried to sedate him but whatever his torment is it affects his unconsciousness as well as his waking state. His torture is eternal, poor soul' she finished with a downcast look. 'May the Emperor deliver him from his hell.'
Carn didn't reply immediately. In his mind he could still see Larkarsky's ravaged face. The beatings from the authorities were fading to lurid yellows and greens but the gouges, they were fresh, and his eyes......
'But his eyes, why did he tear out his own eyes?' He shuddered, his breathing was becoming more regular now but his mind was still a whirl of emotions. He would never forgive Ralscon for this.
'As I said, whatever he has seen or imagined he has seen, it was too much. He did it just a couple of days after arriving, he didn't even make a noise while doing it. We didn't know until the next day. He just sat there the whole time while he gouged them out. Was he a friend?'
Carn's normal demeanour reasserted itself, 'hardly, he was barely a colleague. We have never spoken, I don't know the man and now I never will. Tell me doctor where are his effects?'
'Stored upstairs securely, nothing has been touched. Would you like me to have them brought to you?'
'Please, have them sent to my offices back in Narthley. There is nothing further for me here.' He walked back down the dark corridor, retracing his steps. Whatever had happened at Endomaw, he wasn't going to get the answer from poor Larkarsky directly. Hopefully the Adepts anally precise written reports would divulge the answers he needed. In the meantime he wanted to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment