She hesitated at the threshold. Leader X had called her, yet she couldn’t bring herself to take that step.
He summoned you all the way to Cross Karakoram. You’d better take that step.
Into Galactor’s Holy of Holies, its axis mundi, the Omphalos? Only Lord Katse could enter.
You serve Lord Katse. Take the effing step!
The room stretched ahead of her, a million miles long and twenty feet wide. Varying hues of blue-grey, walls, floor, the equipment against the walls, blue-grey and orange coiling along the upper walls. At the far end, an eye-shaped screen swirled with fiery colors.
It’s just a room.
Hell, she’d only been on Lord Katse’s staff for --- seven, eight weeks, now. This was only her third time at this base. Why was she terrified?
Because she’d seen Katse immediately after he left Leader X on her second trip. After the Aegean incident. When those bastards tried to kill her lord.
She took the step.
And the next.
The room was only thirty feet long.
Step. Step.
Darkness in the fire, a bluish blob that sharpened and sharpened until narrow, flat, hard eyes stopped her in her tracks and she fell to her knees with her head on the floor under the pressure of those flat hard eyes Oh God how did he stand it how could she even dream of surviving it ----
Get a grip on yourself.
Are you nuts?
How is it doing that it’s just an avatar on a computer simulation a disguise the thing can’t be real Oh God Oh Jesus there is no God but Leader X and Berg Katse is his archangel and prophet and how crazy is that?
“Stand.” The voice. Hard and flat as the eyes.
Stand? Stand? I can’t stand up I can’t stand it here Oh my terrible lord you serve a terrible god and I have to stop this and get hold of myself.
“Stand.” Last request.
She pushed up with her hands, rocked back into a squat. Bracing herself, she raised her head.
A huge, raptor-like head floated in the flaming screen.
The sky rested on her shoulders.
I can do it.
She stood. Her legs wanted to collapse. She wanted to scream.
Those horrible, horrible eyes. She could not look away to save her life.
Say something.
No, don’t say anything. If that thing even sneezed, she would go screaming mad.
Then ---
It vanished.
She fell against the panel on the wall, gasping. It cut the string. It cut the string.
May I leave?
Behind her, the door opened.
Slowly, staggering from wall to wall, she left the room.
In the antechamber, she fell to her knees, this time fighting the need to scream, vomit, and curl up, not necessarily in that order.
Again, she got to her feet.
She’d seen Leader X before. Everyone in Galactor had seen Leader X. Those viewings hadn’t knocked people over.
I’m getting out of here.
Am I allowed to leave?
The pilot knocked on the doorframe. “Leader X said it was time.” His eyes went from her to the door, wide with awe.
Right, then. “Let’s go.” And keep it together all the way home.
***** ***** *****
“Where were you?” barely escaped Katse before he saw the answer. He promptly sent Ranjit on a minor, but time-consuming, errand and made her sit down. “Why did he call you?”
“I --- I don’t know. All I know is that I couldn’t stay on my feet. The --- the pressure of presence drove me down. My mind raced so fast I don’t know what I thought, except I might now be apostate.”
“Leader X said nothing?”
“A command to stand up. Twice. I don’t know how I obeyed, but I did.” Her clenched hands hurt. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. I can read everyone on this planet, but Leader X is beyond my power.”
Deep breath. “That last time you went. When you came out, you --- glowed. You weren’t happy, yet you seemed exalted.”
“I have served Leader X and Galactor since I was twelve. When I first saw him, in all his glory, at Cross Karakoram, I was terrified.” Katse smiled grimly. “Leader X is not generous with compliments. If we took over the world tomorrow, he would find something to criticize. I know that’s no answer, but it’s all that I have.”
***** ***** *****
In the depths of a golden spire buried in the earth at Cross Karakoramm Leader X purred. Unknowable thoughts passed through its mind.
“We have both wrought well, my precious subordinate.”
