Untitirnrne 2.odt

The Dillions had actually laid out a table with traditional china ,bowls and silver ware. The woman said. ”I hope you like pork roast potatoes and brussle sprouts. If not the Rock and Dust Hotel restaurant is open and they deliver too.”

“It smells delicious and I am rather fond of Terran food.”

I could not believe how much I ate. I had completely devoured a second plate, it was that good. “Ms Dillon, that dinner alone was worth the trip.”

“My wife is a talented cook and does it the traditional way from scratch and on a stove. We don't even have a printer.” He said deeply smiling at his proud looking woman.

She poured coffee and said .”Cunningham, the name sounds somhow familiar. As if I heard it before.”

“I am with the Union Galactic Magazine. Maybe you have seen one of my features.”

“Of course. Now I remember where I know your name. We knew you weren't a regular tourist. Oswald was convinced you were on some official Union business and not the science kind.”

He sipped at his coffee. “Well ever so often they come and now that the Nul seem to become friendlier every day and there is talk of the Nul actually joining the Union, there are all sorts of Union officials frequenting this world. I served my 2 month and another four years in the Army and while I was just a Corporal, I can usually spot them.”

“Oh Oswald wouldn't it be nice if this planet would become an Union planet. I am sure once the Kathk are full members, tourist traffic will pick up, and with you writing something about Tomb World, many will want to come.”

“From what I gathered so far, this might not be all to far off, but what about those ghosts you talked about?”

She laughed. “Did he try to scare you too? It's a local past time. Ghost stories that is. I live here as long as he does and I have never seen one. Before started to run the local Post Office and became a house wife, I too served the Union. Science Corps. Our Universe is more fascinating than any could imagine, we don't need ghost stories.”

He crossed his arms before his chest. “I saw what I saw. Only six month ago they found Demr Fux a good fifty klicks from here. Simply dead.”

She waved her hand and places a piece of Apple pie before me. “He most likley was drunk and got lost, out there is nothing.No water,no food and nothing alive. The poor fool got baked in the sun and died of dehydration. The next real doctor is at the space port, all we have is a Terrix Seven Med Bot and all the machine did, declare the poor bastard for dead. “

I had to admit the medical oppinion of a 400 year old civilian Med assist bot was perhaps not the most accurate, but I had seen the green vapour.

For now I decided to keep my discovery quiet, maybe it was just some reflection and I would make a fool out of myself.

–

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Oswald was in bed, resting for his next shift.But Ms.Dillon said she would show me where Burt's Stair Express Corporation Inc was, on her way to the local post office.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“How can a business be a corporation and an Inc. at the same time?”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Well Burt who runs one of the two Stair Bus companies loves the word Corporation, he thinks it makes his business important. Don't worry he is reliable when he is sober and he usually is on a SecondDay, when new tourists have arrived.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">She took 50 credits for the bed and breakfast and I added a twenty credit tip.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The morning was crisp, the sky blue and the air dry and cold.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Downstairs was bigger than it appeared during the night and had an unique character. The blend of crumbling ruins and distinctive modern Union tech, somehow underlined just how far I was from the core.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Bigger did not mean big however, and I would have found Burts Stair Express even without directions.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The little town was just waking up,so to speak. There were tourists and locals and clearly distinquishble. I saw a Purple Throat Shiss stacking boxes of produce in front of a grocery store. A Klack and a Belanorm were clearly tourists, as the Belanorm engaged in the ageold practice of taking pictures or a video while the Klack posed before a crumbling rock wall.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">A wide shouldered Sauron and two humans accompanied by two robots, were installing a metal pathway between buildings,while an old man was watching them. Another robot collected litter.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Out of the open door of a business wafted the wonderful smell of fresh baked bread, and a sign proclaimed that this bakery did real baking. Judging by the busy crowd, it was quite popular.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">A quite frightfully looking Demonhead was greeted friendly and I overheard he was one of the local Union School teachers.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I had to correct my earlier thoughts, this didn't feel far from the Union Core at all.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Burt's Stair Express turned out to be two container modules stacked and a strange tracked vehicle in front of it.The contraption consisted of tracked frame and a passenger compartment on a articulated arm. A small crowd of tourists and passengers were already assembled. I also noticed a Belmarc approaching.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">A Terran human in a blue coverall greeted me.” Going up?”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Yes I like to get to the Peak Hotel.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“That be twelve credits and we are leaving in about ten minutes.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I paid the fair and climbed the access ramp joining the other passengers.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">It took a good deal more than ten minutes, but I was in no particular hurry.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I counted eleven passenger, nine were of the genus Homo Galactus or in other words human from one of humanoid Union member societies. Eight were tourists and it was easy to overhear that they had come as a part of a travel group all the way from Stafford Planet.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">One was a Belanorm, there was a green skinned Brainer with an elongated head and the last was also human, looking like a local.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">A woman looking to be in her early two hundreds leaned over. “What an exciting place to visit, isn't it?”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Yes it appears to be. You sure picked a distant place for your trip.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Ah that's nothing. We have been to Distant Shores, all the way across the Andromeda galaxy. You see ever Sigismund and I retired twentyfive years ago, we are traveling all across the Union. Now this place is technically no longer Union,but they say there is a chance we will see a ghost.Not that I really think we do, but I am sure a real Necropolis will still be delightfully spooky.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">A man in with sturdy All terrains, a pair of durafab pants held up with actual suspenders. The last time I had seen suspenders was on Earth.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">He wore a broad belt, with some kind of hammer tool and a blaster attached. “Hello everyone, I am Peter Rodan, are you the travel group from Stafford Planet?”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The eight humans, the Brainer and the Belanorm identified themselves as that group.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Splendid I was hired by your travel agency and I am your Tomb Guide.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The vehicle started to move and rolled up a steep inclining path. The passenger cabin was kept level.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">At the end of the path were wide stairs carved into the rock of the mountain leading up in a steep incline.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“These are the White Mountain Stairs. “ The tomb guide said. “There are many stairs like this on this world, two of them are on the Kermac side and another one is by the Belmac temple almost 1500 klicks from here, but this flight of stairs is the longest discovered so far and have a length of over 12 kilometers. There are seventeen serpentines and long steep stretches all the way up to 3,601 meters above the desert level to the First Table. Then they go on for another 2,022 meters to the peak of White Mountain and the second table where the Gaze stone is.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Each step rises between seventeen and nineteen centimeters height has 18 to 21 centimeters tread and all are more or less 300 centimeters wide. There are 83,959 steps altogether. This year the first Stair climbing marathon will be held and extreme athletes in nine being cathegories will attempt to climb these stairs on foot or similar appendixes. Our own local champion is a Quadiped and he is training for the last two years. All locals believe Brownwall will win, but then last month two Kilonians and a Xinpin arrived and they have a lot of legs. Well in any case we hope it becomes an annual event.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“And defile the sanctuary and peace of the Dead with all this horrible Union nonsense!”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">From behind the Belmac priest grunted in a loud disaproving tone. He must have boarded after I took stock of the other travellers.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The guide said with a smile .” Mahking, the High Priest welcomed the idea and said The Dead have given their approval.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Belmac actually spat on the floor.”Mahking and the Seven are becoming more Union every day.” With this the priest opened the rear door and got outside on the small platform with a chest high hand rail.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Peter the Tomb guide shrugged and said. “Never mind him,the other Belmac are very friendly and the High priest and his seven associates have given their expressed blessing.Besides the treaty clearly allows tourism.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The husband of the old lady next to me said.”And as formidable the Belmac might be, they do not want to tango with the fleet. Just so you know a certain Eternal Warrior was there when the Tomb World treaty was signed and he was not to happy and warned the Belmac, that one complaint would be enough for him to come back and deliver his displeasure to the Belmac home world.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Belanorm opened his wide maw and laughed.”Yes we all visited the place yesterday where they signed the Tomb World treaty. Our Stahl never was any good at diplomacy, but you can bet your life he means exactly what he says.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">While the Stair Bus was climbing the stairs,and one would expect the passengers taking about the landscape and the sights, they engaged in what was quite likely the most favorite pasttime of all Union citizens. Admiral Stahl was mentioned and everyone had something to say.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I had travelled the Union far and wide and no matter where,in the restaurant of a Line ship,on the lawn of the Ring park around the Assembly or inside a Stair Bus, someone mentiones Stahl and eyes light up, fists get raised and at least one quote or anectode is told to the open delight of everyone.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I almost understood the sentiment of the priest.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Finally the subject returned to the planet and the sights. The guide resumed his monologue. “No one knows for sure who built these stairs, but we call them the grave diggers. As we are sure it was them who built the Necropolis and the many passages,acloves and mausoleums,that honey comb this mountain and some believe the caves and tunnels are connected with each other all across the planet.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">So far 12,454kilometers of tunnels and passages have been mapped, and there are more.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Science Corps has officially arrived only two years ago. The Belmac did not allow any real research.Only six month ago they agreed to mapping. The Science Corps will start a new expediton in a few days to explore a tunnel, not even the Belmac knew existed.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The man grinned wide. “My own son, just six years old has found the entrance. Aslan and his friends are true Tunnel rats and know these tunnels like few others.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“You let a six year old, explore these tombs on his own?” The old lady asked with a surprised tone.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Yes Ma'am. He accompanies me a lot after school. Of course they are not allowed to go into the unexplored sections, but being small they managed to squeeze through holes, adults could never. I feel it is better to trust a child and give it all the tools and knowledge to do the things safe and in the right way, than to prohibit it. Knowing the kids will do it anyway.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Stair Bus climbed an exceptional steep section and the Tomb guide said.”This section is called the Dizzy Spell. It takes your last breath if you have to climb it on foot and makes you dizzy with fear when you have to go down. One false step and you tumble a good kilometer or if unlucky, all the way,broken neck guaranteed. The red painted step that coming up now,is called Eroll's last step. Eroll Waincroft was one of the first colonists and the first who climbed these steps. At his third trip,he stumbled and they found his body in the Three Boulder Ravine 1400 meters below.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Guide lowered his voice looked around and then said with an ominous tone. “Tom Chukker who was a few hundred meters behind Eroll claimed,it was a spooky aparition who scared Eroll and made him stumble.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Have you seen a ghost, Mr.Aslan.” One of the other tourists wanted to know.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“I can't say for sure,but I have heard strange sounds far below in the Red Passage. You all will hear the screams of the wind in the Howling Chasms, later today. They are very spooky and sometimes you can hear the howls when there is no wind at all. Some even claim they can decypher words.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I was pretty sure, he told this for effect and to provide the tourists some chilling entertainment. The same lines were told by simiar guides on planets all over the Union.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Just a year ago, I had been on Wichita planet with the famous Big Bone mystery.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Science department was suddenly very tight lipped and only issued that a statement that the Big Bone Mystery was about to be solved. The local tour guide showing me the valley talked about eerie sounds that could someimes be heard. But all that was there was a Science Corps research station right against a mountain, without granting access. I still wondered why a science corps station was guarded by Marines. I made a mental note to have the editors office ask the Science Corps for more information.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I also had visited a haunted castle on Earth and a Temple on Petra where supernatural things supposedly happened and never really did. But no matter how much I told myself that it was only done for show and entertainment,Icould not dismiss the greenish vapor I had seen.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Space Bus was slowing down and Mr.Aslan said. We are approaching the First table now. All members of the Travel group have booked rooms at the Maw of Death hotel. After you had a chance to refresh your self and have a lunch at the restaurant, we will then descent into the Howling Chasm.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Bus will continue to the Mountain peak and the second table.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The next connection going down is at 4th hour.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The First Table was rock ledge about 50 meters wide and maybe 150 meters long. At one side were the stairs and on the other side a gaping cave entrance. Large modular containers,painted red stacked one high nested against the rock wall at the mountain side. The edge of the tableau like ledge dropped of at an almost vertical angle. From my elevated seat in the Stair Bus I could see all the way to the bottom at least 2000 meters below, and even though I was not particular afraid of heights, it knotted my stomach with an tight grip. So much that I switched to a now empty seat on the other side of the bus.Only to notice that the edge of the tracks lined up with the edge of the stairs and there was no room to spare before a sheer drop of similar proportions The Stairs were carved into very ridge peak of a high but narrow geological fold of rock.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">One false move on the controls would certainly result in the this seemingly top heavy machine,taking a tumble to the desert far below.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I also realized I had to take the StairBus back down.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I was now the only passenger, the Belmac priest had left the bus as well and was on his way to the cave entrance that was called the Maw of Death and so I had learned was one of the known entrances to the Necropolis and the tombs and graves that gave this world its name.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The machine retracted its boarding ladder and moved on.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">In the line of my travels I had been on the most unusual rides,but I had to admit this manual driven machine was not robotic,no computronic appeared to assist the driver, affected my nerves.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Like so many citizen from the Sol system, I called on Mickey and Donald. These deities were,so it turned out not gods at all, but some sort of Pre Astro literary figures. The extensive temple area that was excavated in Southern California was not a temple according to McElligott and Stahl, but a theme park that got destroyed and burried in an Earth quake cathastrophe a good three thousand years ago. Still many Solaners (citizens of the Sol system) called,just as I did upon Mickey. I was never a religious man and did not follow any of the many religions,but right now I wondered if I should revise my oppinion. In an Universe where Narth existed there was the posibility of something or someone with perhaps Omnipotence able to make sure the driver did not fall asleep or something like that.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">But as the bus reached the Second Table. I scolded myself just how stupid my own train of thougts were. The talk about The Dead and ghosts must have affected me more than I thought.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The second table was a flat area just below the mountain peak. There was a stack of these modular containers fourwide and 20 containers high.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I had seen the SII Needle on Pluribus that reached past the stratosphere, and my own office on Mercury was over 2000 meters of the ground. Yet this modular building of maybe 80 meters seemed very tall to me.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Stair Bus behind me swiveled the cabin around and started on its descend.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The air up here was noticeable thinner, and the entrance to the hotel had a force field curtain and was so I noticed pressurized inside. The lobby was clean and two humans and a Klack sat at a bar, while a Human male of Asian descent behind the counter greeted me. “Welcome to the Peak Hotel Mr. Cunningham, we have been expcting you. The Pleasure Stay company which owns and operates this hotel, instructed me to make our finest suite available to you on compliments of the company. Please feel free to make extensive and free use of our hospitality.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“That is very nice indeed, but my Magazine provides me with a generous expense account.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">“You are to modest, Mr. Cunningham.Even if you don't mention our hotel. A feature of you about Tomb World will most certainly increase Union wide awarness and thus increase tourist numbers. I personally are a long time subscriber and love your travel reports.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">I was not a vane person, but I could not completely ignore a feeling of professional pride.”Thank you then indeed.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">The suite was modestlyluxurious ,but the large panorama windows provided a spectacular vista. It was all the way on the top, and even higher than the actual mountain peak. The view was so crisp and clear, I would see the Space Port all the way at the far distant horizon.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">Here inside a building, the height did not bother me.

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">