Jo Schmidt shuffled listlessly around her small room, drowned in a deadly mire of self-torture and recriminations. Ereshkigal's news that all the other Banshees had been horribly killed still weighed heavily on her mind, and there was nothing here to distract her from her morbid thoughts; there was nothing with which she could busy herself. Her equipment had been gone when she had awakened yesterday; there was nothing to read; there weren't even any windows or scenery in this lightless netherworld realm. All she had in abundance was time. Time to blame herself for everything that had happened. If she hadn't backtracked into that dark tunnel, she would have been with her wingmates when the Aqrabu attacked. She would have fought alongside her friends. It would have made a difference. Or at least that was what she had convinced herself was the truth. The blood of six innocent people was on her hands.
Yet the scientist in her was restless, refusing to blindly accept everything she'd been told by the old woman Ereshkigal without hard physical proof. The scientist in her found it hard to believe that there was absolutely nothing left of her friends after the Aqrabu had finished with them. And the scientist wasn't the only internal voice demanding to be heard. The warrior in her warned her it was an unbelievable coincidence that all her equipment had been lost during the scuffle that had rendered her comatose. Even if her phaser and communicator had been dropped, surely her life support belt would have remained fastened around her waist. The only way to remove it was to undo the magnatomic buckle, a difficult feat for a killer man-scorpion creature.
Unfortunately, the dominant voice, the terminally depressed, self-torturing voice was the loudest and held the others at bay, chased them away with a big stick whenever they grew too boisterous in their demands for Jo's attention. And so she sulked, pacing aimlessly back and forth in her room, a prisoner of her own guilt.
She heard a small sound behind her and turned to see Ereshkigal standing in the doorway.
"You look ten times better than you did yesterday, girl," said the old woman. "The color has returned to your cheeks. How do you feel?"
Jo shrugged. "I'm okay," she replied without too much conviction. "A little restless, I guess."
"Then maybe we should find something for you to do," said Ereshkigal. She held out her hand, beckoning Jo to follow her. After a moment's hesitation, she did.
Together, the two women walked slowly through the rock-hewn corridors and open caverns of the underground city. As Ereshkigal passed by, citizens stopped whatever they were doing and just followed her with their eyes until she was out of sight. The warrior voice inside Jo was shouting again. Something seemed odd; there was something out of place in the citizens' expressions. Ereshkigal had told Jo that the city's denizens looked up to her as a leader and protector, but the expressions she saw on most of the people's faces were colored by veiled fear and resentment.
Finally, the pair passed into a quieter sector where the underlying hubbub of the city was only a faint echo. "Where are we?" asked Jo, peering into the large cavern into which she had been led. Inside she saw endless rows of shelves disappearing away into the haze of distance, all bending under the weight of countless thousands of rectangular cases, and what looked like computer consoles of some sort interspersed at even intervals throughout. The high ceiling arched away into shadow and was upheld by widely spaced and intricately carved columns. The walls were adorned by baroque scrollwork in the inescapable half-man-half-scorpion motif. Torches in wall sconces and braziers on freestanding pedestals cast ruddy, dancing shadows everywhere. The huge cavity had something of the air of an ancient cathedral about it. All that was missing were stained glass windows and statues of deities wearing beatific expressions on their marble faces.
Ereshkigal stepped into the chamber and in a reverent hush explained. "This is the Great Library," she said, gazing at the walls of information. "It was left by the Builders and is ancient beyond imagining. The keys to the universe lie within these walls."
Jo stepped across the threshold into the library, reluctant to disturb the holy place, yet at the same time irresistibly drawn in by the promise of an inexhaustible treasure trove of knowledge. She moved forward as if in a dream, gazing in wonder at the arcane terminals and dusty tomes on the shelves, a smile inching across her face.
Ereshkigal watched the young human scientist closely and with growing satisfaction. Yes, she had chosen the right one; her designs were unfolding as planned. "Do you think you would be interested in spending some time here?" she asked, though she knew what the answer would be and was in fact counting on it.
Jo turned from her inspection of one of the ancient computer terminals with an almost-happy face. The deep pain of the recent loss of her friends was still evident in her eyes, but there was also renewed hope for herself, something that had been conspicuously missing since she had awakened from her coma. "Oh yes, Ereshkigal. I'd be honored if you gave me access to this. Just think of the knowledge I could take back to the Federation with me!" No sooner were those words out of her mouth, of course, than she remembered where she was and that there was no way back home and her face fell again. But then a new thought occurred. "Well, maybe I can find a way out of here buried somewhere in the records," she said.
Ereshkigal smiled mirthlessly. "I am sure you can, girl."
back to TOC