Behind the door was a disappointingly plain, corrugated steel staircase. The madman accompanying Colin and Alex would have sprinted down the steps on all fours like a rabid animal had Alex not gripped him by the collar.
“I can work with doors,” she said. “Guards and lasers and such require quite a bit more work. Take it slow.”
Titus seemed as though he wanted to protest, but instead only nodded.
As they descended, a theory was forming in Colin’s mind. “Titus,” he asked “Can you tell us about…how the god has called to you?”
“Oh,” Titus grinned “with a divine voice across the ether and into my mind. It…it tingles with purpose and power. That same power you exude.”
The same power they exuded?
Alex, seeing that this stairwell went on quite a bit longer, decided to press further. “Why do you think the god chose you?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know how others cannot hear it! I see no cause for it to choose me, I am but a mere and disgraced guard!”
“Anything unusual about your diet? Any chronic health issues?” Alex continued.
“I know I am not mad.” Titus said as he stepped off the stairs onto the first basement level. “I saw the finest psychiatrist on Second Alexandria.”
“ On Second Alexandria?” Colin titled his head. “But this is Third…Did you say ‘on’?” Something in their psionic translation sparked and self-corrected.
“Yes. Everyone knows the best medical research is being done on Second Alexandria.”One question answered, several raised.
Colin vocalized his realization. “Third Alexandria is the planet.”
“Third Alexandria from the sun. Fecking hell.” Alex shook her head.
“The plot thickens.” Colin said.
“That’s not a plot. It’s an increasingly messy load of information,” Alex sniped as she stepped off the stairs and onto the basement floor. She left it unsaid that the two are not mutually exclusive.
Speaking of loads of information: The stacks. Books as far as the eye could see. They may as well have traveled to another world, some realm of E-space where only books could exist.
“Depends on what angle you look at it from.” Colin rushed over to a section of what appeared to be much more recent books.
“Deeper, we have to go deeper.” Titus muttered as he paced about the literary labyrinth.
“Yes, yes we will just give us a minute.” Alex had picked up a much older tome and gently opened it. “You were going to destroy all this, you realize that?”
Titus made a noise somewhere between grumbling and sighing. “It’s all been digitized anyway.”
“It’s the principle of the thing.” Colin had set the recent book down and headed for an impossibly old scroll, he pulled gloves from his pocket and carefully applied them before doubly carefully unrolling the scroll. “Regardless… How well do you know history, Titus?”
“Not well,” Titus shook his head. “I was raised to be a guard, history wasn’t really part of the curriculum.”
“Then you wouldn’t happen to know when Alexandria spread beyond this planet.” Colin didn’t look up from the scroll, but tapped a specific section in thought as though waiting for Titus to complete the circuit.
“Everywhere has always been Alexandria,” Titus said, parroting a lifetime of lessons.
“Even if the people there don’t know it yet, right?” Alex said. “Yeah, where we come from thought the same of itself for a long time. These days the people who believe it are recognized as assholes.” She too had moved on to another book.
It’s true by the way: It has been scientifically proven that if you’re an imperialist, you are, in fact, an asshole. When there are infinite realities, it can be hard for a bad idea to stand out as a capital Bad Idea. Imperialism, along with racism, fascism and genocide are amongst the ‘lucky’ few to be classified as BAD IDEAS. In fact. Because they all so easily lead to each other, there have been petitions to elevate their status to BAD IDEAS.
But that’s beside the point.
“I’ll rephrase the question.” Colin was still concentrating on the same part of the same scroll. “When did people first set foot on another planet?”
“Oh, at least a thousand years.” Titus had begun looking around frantic and eager to make his way deeper, closer to the imprisoned god. “Why are you asking me this? Where are you from if not the heavens?”
Colin ignored the question and sidled up to Alex. “This isn’t right, their history is the same up to the…not burning part. They shouldn’t have been able to make the technological leaps.”
Alex frowned as she stared deep into the pages of a large green tome. “I’m thinking the same thing, but I can’t find anything to suggest Titus is wrong about the timeframe either.”
“I have a theory.” Colin said
“Which is?”
The two were so lost in speculation that Titus was able to take them by surprise. He grabbed their collars and pulled. “Guards. Now. We have to go deeper! We have to escape!” Titus needn’t use so many words. The moment their concentration broke, they heard it. Footsteps. The crackle of light spears.
“Which way?” Colin asked.
“Uhh…” Titus looked around and whimpered in ignorance. The glow of the light spears flooded the stairs way. A guard appeared. Then two more—
It was Alex’s turn to grab the collar, and she ran with it. Down one aisle. Out of sight, around another. Stairs? An elevator? Titus insisted on deeper. Surely there was something.
Too many guards. They flooded the stacks.
“What do we do?!” Titus’s cry alerted their pursuers. Both wanderers shot him a look.
One more corridor. Short. They run. They check one door: a broom closet. They check another: little more than a wash basin.
“We’re out of doors!” Titus seemed about to collapse.
“Oh, never say that” Alex smiled. She looked at Colin “Can you do it? Now?”
Colin nodded yes. “Titus, you say you want to go deeper? Think deeper, think of the door down there. Yes good, that’s it, now run!”
“But it’s a dead end!” The guards were so close now.
“Not anymore.” Colin pulled the psychic location from Titus, and the door at the end of the hall swung open.
Six dozen guards stared at an empty wall.