Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [20]
Benny matched them to her mental image of the site from the holograms. She walked into the centre of the clearing. ‘There’s a thirty-foot margin around the temple itself,’ she called out. ‘There are so few huts... unless we find similar structures hidden in the surrounding forest, I’d say they travelled here specifically to carry out rituals.’
‘The rituals must have been lengthy,’ said Jenny.
Benny found herself drawn across the margin to the temple itself. For a moment, following the lines of its sharp ascent, she felt dizzy. ‘They were tall,’ she said, as Zaniwe and Jenny came up behind her. ‘Look at the height of the steps.’
The temple was a ziggurat, dull-edged with time. It was unornamented. No writing, no symbols. Except at the top, where two glyphs looked down at them like a pair of eyes.
And the pock-marks of what might be bullets or small-blaster fire, a random trail of circular blemishes in the rock.
The last record left by the Yemayans.
‘This design’s very common in Earth’s part of the galaxy,’
said Benny. The glyphs were complex — she’d need a closer look. ‘There’s probably some Exxilon or Osirian influence.’
‘I wonder if we can find any of their writing?’
‘Yemaya well ask,’ said Benny.
She was about to climb up onto the first step when Jenny put a hand on her arm. ‘Wait,’ she said.
Benny waited, arms folded, while Jenny went back to her Pack. She returned with a bundle of cloth. She sat down on the ground and unrolled it. There were candles and incense inside.
Benny squatted down. ‘What is it?’
‘If this place is a tomb,’ said Jenny, fitting the candles into their holders, ‘or if sacrifices were made here, then we should ask permission of the dead before proceeding.’
Benny opened her mouth and closed it again. Then she nodded. ‘Let’s do that.’
Benny and Zaniwe stood back a little while Jenny carefully lit one of the candles with a battery-powered lighter.
She picked up the other two candles and lit them from the centre one, and finally the incense.
Zaniwe shut her eyes, humming something. Benny bowed her head, feeling awkward. She didn’t have anything to pray to, not these days. She’d seen too many miracles.
Getting jaded in your old age, Summerfield, she told herself.
Here you are standing at the foot of an ancient temple centuries in your own past, and you —
‘Bernice!’ said Jenny.
‘What?’
Jenny pointed past the flickering candles. Benny knelt down, peering at the stones of the first step.
‘What is it?’ said Zaniwe, somewhere behind her.
Benny rummaged in her pocket for a Swiss army knife.
She unfolded the magnifying glass, looked more closely still.
‘Well, raise my rent!’ she said, her nose almost touching the silvery grey stone. ‘There’s writing. It’s tiny, but it’s writing. Pass me my notebook, will you?’
Captain Kamotja of the Dione-Kisumu Company fleet gripped the podium, took a deep breath, and said, ‘I hope you’re not expecting an easy solution from me, because I don’t have one.’
She looked around at the colonists assembled for the kgotla. They were mostly sitting on the ground, though some had brought chairs from their rooms or from the common area. ‘There are some things I can tell you, though.
‘Most importantly, there is no question of isolating anyone who has developed psychic powers. We’ll deal with these new abilities on an individual basis as best we can. In fact, once we learn how to use them, I’m hoping they’ll be an asset to the colony.
‘But it looks like someone has deliberately done this to us, and we’re going to do something about it.
‘In the meantime, we have to keep on with the development plan. You all know how important that is. The epidemic has put us a couple of weeks behind schedule.
We’re going to have to work hard to make up that time.
‘Hang in there, folks. We’re going to make this colony work, no matter what they throw at us.
‘OK, who’s next?’
Byerley leaned over to the Doctor and Roz as a muscular man took the stand. ‘That’s Dimitri Molokomme,’ he whispered. ‘He