Lunar Antipodes: The Second Book of Regenesis Read online

  While all the drawings depict the kinds of scenes Noah has viewed from the cave-paintings of Paleolithic peoples in his own world, there is something bizarre, even inhuman, about the figures displayed here. At first, he attributes it to the remarkable images of the monsters accosted by the hunters. But then it strikes him!

  It is not the savage appearance of the huge carnivores that so unsettles him. It is the portrayal of the hunters themselves. For they are chimera-like. Combining the familiar physiology of humanoid figures with outlandishly incongruous bird-like heads. Their large, unblinking eyes staring back at him. Reaching into his very soul.

  --Chapter 17. The Ledge-Builders

  The alien worlds of D. Scott Dickinson:

  The Bromeliad Passage

  World Beneath Our Feet

  The Janus-Faced Queen

  Paradox Moon

  Lunar Antipodes

  Visit D. Scott Dickinson’s author page at amazon.com.

  Lunar Antipodes, The Far Ends of the World and The Book of Regenesis

  Copyright © 2019 by D. Scott Dickinson.

  All rights reserved

  .Cover: original artwork by Doan Trang

  Contents

  Chapter 1. Descent

  Chapter 2. Escape

  Chapter 3. Sea-Rats

  Chapter 4. The Great Melt

  Chapter 5. Wheel of Extinction

  Chapter 6. The Land of Shadow

  Chapter 7. Gruk the Brave

  Chapter 8. Calvings

  Chapter 9. The Moaning Mountains

  Chapter 10. The Land of Clouds

  Chapter 11. Hidden Eyes

  Chapter 12. An Unexpected Message

  Chapter 13. Creature of the Grotto

  Chapter 14. Bolt-Hole

  Chapter 15. A Day Behind

  Chapter 16. Valley of the Chimeras

  Chapter 17. The Ledge-Builders

  Chapter 18. Village of the Damned

  Chapter 19. The High Plateau

  Chapter 20. The Maiden’s Gift

  Chapter 21. The Keen Edge of Revenge

  Chapter 22. Reunited

  Chapter 23. Kidnapped!

  Chapter 24. Earth and Fire

  Chapter 25. The Great Cataclysm

  Chapter 26. Pearls in the Sky

  Chapter 27. Years Later

  Afterword

  Prologue

  They stand on the outer edge of the cloud-shrouded southern polar region. Two pioneers on the threshold of a strange and changing world.

  They survey the bleak, barren tundra beyond. As the harsh, frigid landscape tugs at emotions raw and deep.

  For Noah, it is a boundary between past and future. Between the hollow pursuits of an insular existence and the promise of discovery and fulfillment in the wide world beyond.

  For Davina, it is a portal to an unknown world.

  To wonders revealed through the comprehending eyes and critical mind of her companion and soulmate.

  To wonders she has long imagined from the retelling of ancient ancestral lore passed down through countless generations.

  But their vicarious glimpses frame only the vaguest outline of things to come; they cannot convey the essence that flows from the direct experience of living them.

  For her, this first step beyond the protective cover of polar clouds marks the opening of a journey of fulfillment she has longed for in every brief foray from the confines of her communal existence.

  For both, it will be a life-long journey of self-realization as, together, they reclaim a world that once perished but is now reborn.

  “Paradox!” Noah declares, sweeping his arms across the open panorama ahead. “I name this new world ‘Paradox’.”

  Turning, he lovingly hugs his companion and explains:

  “Nothing is what it seems in this place; it is truly a world of paradox. And yet, it is sanctuary to us both. Refuge from an empty existence for you, asylum from the emptiness of space for me. Let us welcome our new world of paradox, whatever mysteries it may hold.

  “It is our destiny.

  “It is our mission.

  “It is our home!”

  Looking back at him, wide-eyed, Davina agrees:

  “What a fitting name! It embodies all my dreams for us: the thrill of exploration and discovery, the novelty of a different world, the hope of a new beginning. All embracing the love that is ours to share!”

  Looking upward, beyond the cloud margin, Noah points to the red-violet-yellow planet hovering overhead. It has regained its circular shape, since last he saw it, and somehow seems to have shrunk to a less menacing presence.

  The second sun also has returned. Joining its twin near the far rim of the giant planet.

  Together, they form a celestial trinity dominating the visible sky from the cloudbank above to the landward horizon in the distance ahead.

  “And watching over us,” he adds pointing to the giant planet, “is ‘Cosmos’!

  “It is where I lost the crew and ship that brought me here to you,” Noah elaborates. “And I name it ‘Cosmos’ to honor their courage and sacrifice in the quest to know our universe better.

  “It is their quest that, ultimately, delivered me to you and us, together, to this threshold of a new world.

  “We are refugees, Davina, two castaways on the shore of a renascent world.”

  Following his gaze skyward, Davina blinks as her pupils begin constricting to adjust to the greater brightness cast by two suns. She is not unaccustomed to the presence of color and light. But the refracted rays of her obelisk home were pale compared to the direct rays of the suns overhead.

  Pausing hand-in-hand at the extremity of the polar cloudbank, Noah is exultant at the promise of the frontier they are entering. Davina harbors few compunctions about abandoning the land of her birth as she, too, thrills at the prospect of exploring unknown lands.

  Both know they are on the threshold of a new beginning.

  Meantime, at the other end of the world . . .

  Chapter 1. Descent

  The dozen warriors, accompanied by Grak, materialize like wraiths out of the mist that now blankets the scarred surface of smoking ruin that is valley no more.

  The soaring columns of smoke are gone, but there remain shallow wisps of hot vapor warning trespassers away from the cooling vents of lava still bubbling black skins resembling roasted marshmallow.

  Like their companion and the waiting leader, the warriors are large of bone but small of stature. An impression heightened by their bandy-legged, rolling gait as they thread their way between the rising vapors to where Gruk crouches.

  “Look here,” he barks, “and mark well what I show you.”

  Crouching around him, they all become excited at the unexpected appearance of smudged footprints leading in the direction of the shore they have never trod. Now, with the valley gone, they are eager to travel the path that was barred to them.

  Soon, all the brutes are jumping up and down in their crouched stances, gabbling and gesturing their eagerness to pursue the authors of the footprints and to fall upon them unawares. Gruk fans their enthusiasm with talk of fresh slaves and rich booty. His promises drive the brutes into frenzy, literally foaming at the mouth at the prospect of ambuscade and swag.

  The brutes are not erect; nor are they standing on all fours. While they walk on two limbs only, their slouching demeanor makes them look bent and misshapen as they scuttle along in a mostly sideways, crab-like gait.

  At the same time, their lowered profile accentuates the breadth and bulk of their massive shoulders. Telegraphing the great physical strength possessed by these primitive predators.

 
Millennia of devolution have made them almost unrecognizable from their civilized forbears and, in their case, culture has followed appearance.

  The black hair that covers their hide proclaims their fall to the low order they have become.

  Small, dark, deeply recessed pupils stare out from sockets surrounded by bushy black hair beneath beetling brows. The ridge of their nose has melted back into the skull, leaving only a vestigial smudge with two wide nostrils where the nose used to be. Like the nose, their ears have melted into the sides of their head so only the open auditory canals remain.

  Shuffling after Gruk in the direction the smudged prints lead, the warriors carry the crude cudgels and rude stone knives they have fashioned from the low limbs of gnarled trees and from the rocks that lie on the ground.

  Once the proud industrialists of this world, Gruk’s race retains only the arrogance and callous disregard for all living things that moved their ancestors to sacrifice a civilization.

  Arriving at a sheltered cove, Gruk calls the company to a halt for food and rest. From experience along his tribe’s own stretch of shoreline, he knows they will find fish here.

  But their hunt is not the elegant coup de grace of those he follows. Nor does theirs target the redoubtable finned monsters they hold in awe and fear.

  No, the hunt this day will involve brute force and even more brutal gorging on the flesh of their still living prey.

  To this end, the hunters gather around a narrow, deep pool on the lee side of the shoreline path, where they skewer several fish with their stone knives.

  There is no cooperation in the capture. No sharing in the bounty.

  As each warrior pulls out a wriggling fish on the point of his knife, he draws it immediately into his waiting jaws and rends every moving, quivering part—head and scale, bone and flesh—until the entire creature is consumed.

  They wash down the meal with ice melt, using the warmth of their cupped hands, from the thick patches of snow mottling the cold stone walls around the cove.

  Gruk knows it may be a long while before they again find such an ideal haven, and he commands his hunters to find what shelter they can to sleep as long as they will. When they strike out in earnest on the morrow, they will have no time for laggards.

  He wants the hunting-party well rested for the rigors of the journey ahead.

  While at the top of the world . . .

  Chapter 2. Escape

  Many bittersweet days have elapsed since their betrothal in the obelisk's great hall. A quotidian treadmill of mind-numbing tedium as Noah struggled to adapt to Davina’s world.

  Made bearable only by the sweet tonic of her presence and comradeship every waking hour.

  Assigned to the geology lab, he found the rote inspection of rock samples to be every bit as tedious and pointless as the process he observed on his first visit to the labs. Where ice-core wafers were examined and discarded without result or record. Its only redeeming quality was Davina’s constant presence beside him as they pointlessly processed stone after stone without end.

  She had been his constant companion, also, on the crowded open terrace where they ate and talked between themselves amidst a throng of other couples doing the same.

  While his nights were long and lonely, spent away from her in the men’s sleeping quarters, he filled the emptiness of separation with pleasant dreams of her by his side. Together in the wide world like two pioneers on an untamed frontier.

  Little did he suspect these dreams would become prophecy!

  While their long days at the lab stretched into tedium, they were a learning exercise for Noah in one important respect:

  They showed him just how different Davina was from her people.

  Like him, she balked at the monotony and meaninglessness of their motions at the lab. Although she tried hard to hide it for his sake and acceptance among her peers.

  Like him, she exhibited a critical, questioning skepticism, although she repressed it entirely in the presence of the others.

  And like him, she refused to accept the repetitive exercise as the central purpose of life.

  While the others sat docilely, perfectly content to while away the hours in this pointless undertaking, Davina was stultified, restless and discontented. And the better Noah came to know her, the harder it became for her to mask her dissatisfaction for the sake of his acceptance into the community.

  Her deepening discontent accompanied inexplicable behavior—actions she performed mechanically, rather than willfully—and it was most evident each time she and Noah helped tend the vast communal gardens.

  It was customary for those working the fields to eat a handful of the seeds laid by for the purpose. A rewarding snack and important source of needed vitamins to supplement their normal diet.

  But now, Davina is compelled to preserve her seeds and store them in Noah’s backpack.

  Each day they visit the gardens, they share Noah’s allotment while the seeds she gathers for hers enrich their cache with new varieties and strains.

  For her, it is an out-of-body routine, her actions guided by an invisible hand compelling her to set new and different seeds aside each time. And as the couple’s seedbank grows to encompass every garden species, her restlessness grows.

  But she senses their time will not come until the deposits to their secreted seedbank are complete.

  Months slip silently by on cat’s paws before every variety of seed is stored in Noah’s carry-all, and she makes the confession that will change their lives, unalterably and for a future as yet unimagined.

  It is while they are eating alone at the edge of the open terrace, safely removed from others’ ears, that Davina gives voice to the urgency plaguing them both:

  “You are restless and unhappy, Noah. I read it in your thoughts. And, as we are one, I share your discontent.

  “As you were told, you are not a prisoner here. Nor am I. We are, both of us, free to leave.

  “Life here holds no joy for you and, as we are alike in our wanderlust and need of purpose, neither does it for me.

  “I, too, long to see the wide world you have told me about in your exciting tales on this terrace.

  “It is time for us to go! And I, for one, am glad it is so.”

  Astonished by her unexpected confession, Noah is struck speechless by the spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice that motivates her words. She is willing to give up her world for him, he realizes, and the thought humbles him.

  He realizes also that life in this ice-locked communal realm is not working for him. And he has learned that, unlike her fellows, she shares a unique bond with him beyond their formal union.

  A love of inquiry. Of discovery. And of empirical knowledge which alone confers wisdom.

  Their decision made, the couple immediately begin planning for their departure and the many challenges they will face in a world whose mystery and promise Noah has barely plumbed. While the places and creatures he encountered are known to him, he infers many more await them that are not.

  But first things being first, they must time their departure so as to avoid any unexpected intervention by her people to delay or prevent their leaving. They resolve to slip silently away while the rest of the community sleeps.

  The sleeping quarters reverberate with the heavy breathing of many slumbering men when, like some dreamlike specter, Davina materializes before the 23rd pod, bottom row on the left.

  Quietly gathering up his backpack, hand-axe and knife, Noah slips out.

  Like silent shadows in the night, they make their way through the ice-walled galleries and onto the well-worn pathway leading away from the obelisks.

  As soon as they clear the city of crystal spires, Davina pauses at a spot where the snow has been recently disturbed. There she uncovers a surprise which increases Noah’s admiration for her foresight and resourcefulness.

  She withdraws two long, slim, reed-like shafts. Like the prod she carried when he first saw her on the forsaken shore. But these manifest a cr
ucial improvement:

  Cruel, keen-edged spear-points at both ends of their 10-foot length, making them menacing weapons, indeed!

  When he hefts his against a large chunk of ice, it demonstrates the unyielding force of a pike which, along with its suppleness as a lance, makes it a marvel of lightweight strength and versatility.

  “You have told me of the many fierce creatures roaming the wide world,” she explains, “and I have crafted points from the metal you call titanium. My prod was a sufficient weapon in the world we leave. But we will need more persuasive means of discouragement in the one we enter.”

  Hours later, they are passing by that same high stone embankment, dusted with snow, where Noah first espied Davina, when the ice-locked city awakens to a new day.

  Inured to the repetitive humdrum of everyday routine, the residents take no notice whatever of the absence of the two who have fled.

  Indeed, they need not have feared pursuit or intervention in their break for freedom, for none seems aware they are gone.

  It is as if they never were there!

  Chapter 3. Sea-Rats

  The ocean is gentle this day, as the couple follow the once-forsaken shore in the shadow of the sheer rocky escarpment.

  The calmer sea is not the only positive influence that lightens Noah’s step. It is the joy of Davina’s constant presence that makes the return journey a very different affair from the endless monotony of his earlier passage.

  Every new travel-day finds them arm-in-arm. Sharing the surreal beauty of the placid blue-green sea.

  Every sleep-night finds their bodies locked together. Each giving the other warmth against the cold air. Dreaming blissfully of the future they now share.

  So idyllic has this leg of the journey been that Noah almost regrets reaching the vertical cleft hiding behind the wide lip of stone. But he does not know they travel unpursued and, so, hastens to put this last barrier between themselves and her people.

  The pitch-black tunnel takes them quickly and directly to the foot of the high rocky ridge where he suffered such despair on his inbound journey. It was here that he lay down in dispirited defeat at the prospect of the unscalable barrier it seemed