The Omega Device (The Ha-Shan Chronicles Book 1) (22 page)

“Let's just hope you got through.”

Maggie agreed with a tilted brow. She lifted a steaming bowl from the floor, slurped down soup with a furious hunger. Russell tried his best to eat, found his appetite lacking from the pain in his gut. They finished, awaited the guard's return.

When the door opened, a short, old man, with white, thinning hair entered the room. Tattooed script peered from beneath his robes near his wrists and neck. His face wore exaggerated smile-lines, his mouth presently drawn up to his eyes with a grin that refused to waver. Maggie stood and bowed. He bowed back, then gestured to sit with a tattooed hand, took a place across the table from them.

“
Nín shuō yīngyǔ ma
?” Maggie asked politely.

The man spoke slowly with a cracking voice, “My English. From Oxford. Before the Order. Long time since I used it.”

His smile infected her, “I understand.”

She introduced them by name. “And I am the one you seek.”

“You're the Reverberant?” Russell asked.

He bowed his head, “You have a message?”

“Yes, from She-La Chen-Lee in Los Angeles: The Keepers are dead. Ryusaki and Miramoto's information has been compromised and the Nepalese temple was located and overrun. Omega's been chasing us to keep us from informing you.”

“Then we are all in grave danger,” he said, suddenly dark.

Russell interjected, “They may be nearby, but She-La believed you'd aid us.”

“Right,” Maggie added. “We've come in search of assistance. She-La believes it's time for the weapon to be destroyed.”

The Reverberant considered their words, clearly aware of the dissent among his charges. He gave a pensive look, “What do you know of the weapon?”

Maggie reached in her pocket to produce one of the photographs of the Keeper tattoos. She admitted partial ignorance, but handed the photo to the Reverberant, “Not much. Apart from it being some kind of bio-weapon that can be operated with this language.”

“Miramoto,” he breathed with resounding sorrow.

“Yes. I did the same work on Ryusaki.”

Russell intoned, “I was investigating Miramoto's death when Ryusaki was discovered. I met Maggie then. Omega's strike-force has been hunting us ever since.”

“You know nothing of our fight?” He asked, deeply consumed by the photograph.

“Only what little She-La could tell of the Order, the weapon, and the Ha-Shan,” Maggie replied.

Sadness ebbed xenoically over his face, “We have spent eons protecting their secrets, only to lose them in the process.”

“I'm sorry,” Maggie said in earnest.

The Reverberant's eyes rose, “It is our own doing.”

“Who were the Ha-Shan?” Russell asked pointedly.

“The first evolution of sentience on Earth.”

“How do you mean?”

The sadness in his eyes doubled, “They came first. An earlier, sentient lineage that lived in harmony with all life. When they died out, their ways and remains went with them. It has allowed their existence to go unknown from the greater world.”

“She-La said as much, but there is
some
evidence left,” Russell said, confounded.
 

“There is… very little. What we do not already know of, we suppress for fear it might lead to the weapon's discovery.”

“So, what happened to them?” Maggie asked.

The Reverberant sighed. His sadness emanated through-out the room. He replied with a slow, mournful air, “Our legends tell the Ha-Shan's pacifism was their undoing. As our primitive ancestors grew, the Ha-Shan were hunted. Their numbers waned until disease crippled their species. They uplifted the most intelligent of our ancestors and taught them a rudimentary form of their language. Those symbols, there.”

The Reverberant passed the photo back and hung his head.

“The first Protectorate were little more than apes trained to repeat messages and protect temples from intruders. As their intelligence grew, they learned Ha-Shan phrases, stories, and symbols.”

“For what purpose?” Russell asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

“To protect the Ha-Shan legacy.”

“The weapon,” Maggie surmised.

“Yes,” he nodded. “The Ha-Shan were great thinkers, foresighted beyond us. They saw that humans might evolve to care little for their world. Their ways were the converse of this; they embraced the weakest, protected the Earth, sacrificed themselves as prey to do so. We were beasts, but some less-so than others. The others signified the growing divide between animal and sentient. Fearing our cunning and savagery might be the undoing of all species, they created the weapon.”

“An Omega device,” Russell acknowledged with a nod.

“We know little of their civilization, save the symbol denoting the chambers where their ruins reside.”

“
The
symbol?” Maggie said, surprised. “There's only one?”
 

“Yes, hidden within the creed of our Order.”

“The tattoo,” Russell said, examining the photograph.

“It tells a story, a history; “Force and Sun brought first the God-man, who gave hand to man, and became second.” It is
our
history. The force of life and the universe first created the Ha-Shan, who uplifted Humanity as the second, sentient race.”

“The symbol,” Maggie said, studying the asterisk-marked, triangular mound. “
Is
Ha-Shan?”

The Reverberant bowed his head, “Our enemies know of this symbol, but as a marker of our Order. They would never think to associate it with the weapon directly. The Keepers exist to preserve the Ha-Shan language but also to confuse the enemy.”

Maggie was silent, thoughtful; Humanity's origins lay hidden within temples
devoted
to hiding it. The normal anthropocentric view of man's intelligence had long been challenged but now Humanity
was
the late comer. A
second evolution of life, not only vastly inferior, but ferociously more violent.

Locating the ruins of the first evolution would become a race. As much as it pained her, despite their outdated ways, the Protectorate were right. The weapon would be sought, discovered, and after a violent fashion, used.

“We have to destroy it.”

“We cannot,” the Reverberant replied. “It is a remnant of a great, lost people.”

“That's no reason to risk our species' existence.”

“Our peril has been so for eons and will remain so.”

She snipped at him, “With all due respect, you're a fool if you think it can remain hidden forever.”

“It
must.
”

“You're not understanding me,” she stressed. “This
isn't
something you can keep hidden. Even if Omega doesn't figure it out, and try to get what they want by
telling
the world, someone will find
something
that leads them to it.”

“Then we will suppress it.”

She countered quickly, “You can try, but progress
will
eventually reveal our origins. It
will
happen. It's inevitable. Being onerous is bollocks. You're only digging yourself and the Order a grave. If you don't evolve, adapt to the world around you, it will annihilate you. If you
don't
destroy the weapon, and the Protectorate falls, all of the Order's work will have been for nothing.”
 

“You propose destroying the weapon, simply to protect the world from it?”

She threw up her arms, “What the bloody hell's the point to preserving it anyhow?”

“Maggie.”

“No!” She silenced Russell with a hand. “I was
dragged
into this. I'm not walking away until it's over, and I
intend
to end it.”
 

“There is no end to this battle,” the Reverberant calmly replied.

“
Bullshit!”
 

“Maggie!”

“Russell, I'm
tired
of running.” She looked to the Reverberant. “You should be too. The people here… life is for
living
. If there's a threat you alone can neutralize, you're
obligated
to do so.”
 

“By what authority?”

“The
moral
one,” she replied, as frustrated as though arguing with a petulant child. “You speak so highly of benevolent masters from millennia ago, yet don't practice benevolence yourself. You're the
only
people that can guarantee Humanity's safety against this threat. If the Order falls, so does Humanity's hope. If you don't change, you become obsolete. Your ideals are already in danger of it. You cannot expect to lord over Humanity peacefully if you do not take steps to
protect
the peace. It is
inevitable
the weapon will be found. Even
if
it's a thousand years from now, you've still caused it through inaction.
It. Must. Be. Destroyed.
”
 

The Reverberant reflected on her words with a deep breath. “What do you propose?”

Maggie rubbed her throbbing forehead, “I… I don't know.”

“You come bearing issue, but not solution,” he said studiously.

“No, I come seeking guidance and assistance from the only source capable of it. Secrets do
not
stay buried when they're this large. You're a rational human, one whose life hangs in the balance. You must see the weapon will
eventually
be discovered.”

“Yet you've no strategy for dealing with it.”

“No,” Russell mused. “But I assume you don't either. Otherwise, you'd have done it yourself by now. There must be some reason
you
haven't destroyed the weapon. Either you know where it is, and can't reach it, or you have
no idea
if it exists.”

The Reverberant considered his implication, “It does exist.”

“So
where
is it?” Maggie asked, her frustration mounting. The Reverberant was clearly apprehensive. She attempted to assuage his fears. “We're asking to help. This needs to end. It's mutually beneficial. I'm not spending my whole life on the run, and no-one else, Protectorate included, should have to die to protect a
threat
.”

Russell jumped in, seeing the Reverberant's internal dilemma. “You say the first Protectorate were beasts. They'd have known nothing of brotherhood, nor moral obligation, but the Ha-Shan would've foreseen Humanity's evolution—
this
eventuality. They'd have expected the Order to become true guardians by destroying or activating the weapon. By judging where they could not. They'd have known we couldn't live peacefully in
this
eventuality if the weapon existed. The history of the Order already dictated the weapon's existence would be known. If you believe what you say, the Ha-Shan would've anticipated this.  If so, d
estroying the weapon
is
protecting their legacy—of peace.”
 

Maggie picked up, hoping to finally persuade the Reverberant. “The Order's priorities must either evolve with Humanity, or be consumed by it. There's no other logical path. The weapon
must
be destroyed, and it
must
be done before Omega finds it.”

Her final words rang through her head, throbbed with each repeating syllable. She forced away pain to watch the Reverberant's unchanged demeanor.

He looked her in the eyes, “You make powerful points, but my decision cannot yet be made.” His hand rose to stay her opening mouth. “I must meditate further. It is a decision I cannot take lightly. I will return. Remain here until then.”

Maggie sighed desperately, seeing his mind would not easily be  swayed. He rose for the door and gave a hard knock. It opened on a guard that followed him away. A second guard shut the door. Maggie sank beside Russell, rested her aching head against his shoulder.

“He'll make the right call,” he said, sliding an arm around her.

“Fuck, I hope so.”

She listened to his heartbeat resonate in his chest, it counted away each moment in life's dwindling time.

19.

Judgment

October 5
th
 

3:41 AM

Tibetan Protectorate Temple

Maggie and Russell spent the next several hours in silence. Maggie's mind was too full to speak. Russell tried to lift her mood, but her replies were short. She snapped without malice but with a clear resignation not to speak. Eventually, he allowed her to pace about the small room while he settled against a corner of the bed.

She walked with her arms crossed, bit or pulled at her lip-ring with a pair of fingers. Every few laps she'd stop, listen, scoff, then return to pacing. The succinct rhythm was hypnotic.

Russell closed his eyes to let his mind wander. He found little sympathy for the Reverberant. His people had devoted their lives to something for no reason grander than a historical burden. They'd given up everything the world offered, exiled themselves to protect it.

Despite that, their exile had forced a silent narcissism about the man, his actions and motivations therein difficult to understand. If dissent within the Order had caused a schism, why refuse the logic in their views? The weapon was a threat, countered their mission to protect Humanity at the Ha-Shan's behest, so why allow it to remain intact?

Giving the Reverberant sole control was a mistake, regardless of the man's personal wisdom. He must have known that. Likewise, Maggie's belief of the Order's obsolescence was also erroneous, at least for now. They might still uphold their purpose as delegated; protecting Ha-Shan knowledge was not exclusive to the weapon's state. Any responsibility otherwise was assumed, not assigned.

But Maggie's
moral assertion
was correct. History would not remain buried forever, and when brought to light, would invariably result in war for possession of the weapon. Her point was valid, and gravely in need of consideration.