“Don’t know what this is. I haven’t seen this one in the books. Must have been something new. A prototype.”
“It’s very strange-looking,” commented Suka. “Like a lift car but with lots of extra knobs on. I think something happens to you if you step into it.”
“Perhaps it’s a new punishment device. But it doesn’t seem to work on electricity. Is there a manual anywhere? A blueprint?”
Paul cast around for the essential piece of information, but found none.
“Well, we may never know. I’m going to photograph it and research it back on board ship.” He took a snap of the device, while Suka crouched down and opened a drawer in the outer wall.
“What’s this?”
“Perzidium. The treasure of Paladium Three. Very rare, very valuable, with magnetic and electrical properties.”
Paul turned the bright blue shard of crystal over and over in his hand.
“Could it be used as fuel? Could it be what makes this thing work? No! Stop! What are you doing?”
He leapt forward just a fraction too late to prevent Suka from putting a piece of the Perzidium into a tube on the front of the capsule. A low hum pervaded the air and the periphery of the box fluoresced into life.
Paul’s foot knocked Suka off-balance and she fell backwards into the capsule, screaming as her backside hit the floor, both from pain and from fear of whatever unknown doom she might have consigned herself to.
“I’m disappearing!” Her foot was beginning to melt, the silver boots dripping.
“No!” Paul, without a second thought, took a dive into the capsule with her, trying to drag her out, but already he too was beginning to degrade, his strength crucially sapped. He possessed only enough energy to hold on to Suka and watch as her blonde curls migrated, one by one, from her head.
Suka lay on her stomach, crushed by the weight on top of her, struggling to breathe, unable to see.
Just as it seemed inevitable that her ribs would cave in and her heart would burst, the pressure lifted and she was able to take in lungfuls of air again. The blackness turned to dark spots in front of her eyes, then brightened to a blur of colour and movement.
“You’re okay? You’re alive?”
She turned to the voice. Who? Where?
A hand on her arm, then around her shoulder.
“Christ, what have you done, Suka?”
Yes, that’s my name! And this is Commander Paul. And…
The memories came back all at once, winding her with their intensity and vividness.
“We were in that place. The Hall of the Futures or whatever. Where are we now?”
They huddled beneath a stone arch in the centre of a dusty square. Many of the ancient buildings they had seen in Sevarium towered over them, and in the distance some kind of military drill was taking place, observed and cheered on by a crowd of onlookers.
“Can you stand?” Paul hauled her to her feet. She swayed at first, hanging on to him. He took his communicator from his belt and switched it on. “No signal,” he frowned.
They were halfway across the square when an official-looking man in dark robes hurried over to them.
“The Arch,” he said. “Did you come through the Arch?”
Suka and Paul exchanged a nervous look. It would be clear to their interlocutor that they were not local. He had only to look at their attire and hairstyles.
“I believe we did,” admitted Paul. “Though how is a question I can’t answer. My name is Commander Azed Paul, I’m the captain of—”
“Yes, yes, never mind,” fussed the official. “I’m the keeper of the Arch. I must take you to the Minister. Come with me, please.”
As they accompanied the keeper to the fine building that housed the government of Paladium Three, Suka noticed the event taking place was not a military drill but some kind of slave training ritual. A group of naked young men were performing a variety of lewd acts on their masters and mistresses in strict formation, to the obvious enjoyment of the crowd. Those that defaulted in any way were taken to the side, to be soundly cropped by a scary-looking official before being sent back on to the parade ground.