Probably had something to do with its location, he decided. The war weapons used in this area had been lethal to life but left most of the structures intact. Since they poisoned the land for years, even centuries in some cases, by the time anyone could come back there, the old places had been long forgotten.
That thought made him wonder, though...
What else was out here, in the wasteland's expanse?
*****
It’s been more than a few years since I've seen one of these in operating order, Kaern thought as he examined the Gate that was standing against one of the far walls, alongside ten other similar devices.
He found that, with the power system operating again, the control systems seemed to be working and the system checks all worked out. It was an impressive testament to the World Builders and their civilization, and would have been even more impressive if Kaern didn't know how they'd all died.
Even so. He smiled, a wry and bitter smile. They did know how to make their toys.
He shut down the control systems with a wave of his hand, glad that the gene lock had been deactivated when the girl had accessed the main control room. No one had managed to completely lock down this place. He figured they probably died too quickly. The gene lock on the master control room must have been an automated response, and the World Builders had too many non-human allies to gene lock all of their equipment.
At least not the public stuff, at any rate.
Of course, without intact Gates on the other side of the transit, it was suicide to attempt to use any of them. Which made all the impressive toys standing against the wall in front of him little more than historical curiosities.
There were system diagnostics to identify Gates and note whether they were operating or not, of course, and Kaern thought that the system was encoded to prevent transmission to faulty destinations, but he wasn't planning on testing the theory. There were few things in the natural world that could actually kill his kind, and that was the way he liked it.
Scattering his component atoms across the far wall of another Redoubt in potentially less ideal shape than this one would most likely end his existence well enough, and Kaern wasn't so bored with life that he was ready to try that particular last step.
Besides, the child wouldn't be ready to leave for some days yet, at best. And the shock of being flung a few hundred miles in an instantaneous blast of energy wasn't likely to improve her emotional and mental state.
Kaern smiled thinly, shaking his head as he turned away from the ancient Gates and walked back to the main foyer of the center. What a human girl child was doing this far out in the wastes was almost mind boggling. The fact that she'd managed to piss off an obvious psychotic and sadist, and get herself staked out in the desert sun to die, was just disturbing on so many other levels.
There was a story there, he decided, but she wasn't likely to give it to him.
Which was a pity.
In three thousand years, he'd acquired an affinity for stories. They held a great many truths that real life often overlooked in the pain of the moment.
For the moment, though, he had something else he had to start looking for. Not as impressive as the Gates, perhaps, but more important.
Oh yes, he smirked, considerably more important.
*****
Elanthielle groaned and rolled over, tugging the hides tighter around her, then hissed in unanticipated pain as the rough hide scraped across the blisters and opened the skin underneath to the air. She grimaced, clenching her eyes and teeth against the pain, and gingerly pushed the hides off her as she reluctantly sat up and examined the source of her pain.
The burn blisters had whitened, puffing out incredibly, and looked disgustingly disturbing as some of them pealed back and oozed fluid from underneath. Elan swallowed, pushing back the pain, and reached for the water again.
She was feeling better, she knew, but the pain by times seemed almost worse now. Like the momentary fragments of lancing pain somehow outweighed the omnipresent agony she had suffered only days earlier.
"That's gotta hurt," Kaern said, startling her again with his silent approach. "Here, I found ye something that might help."
He tossed a bundle to her, then grabbed a water bladder and took a sip.
"W...what is this?" she asked, looking at the bundle oddly.
"It's clothes." He rolled his eyes. "A shirt and pants. I'd suggest you wear them... They'll be softer than those hides against yer skin, I'll warrant."
He was right about that, she noted immediately as she picked them up. The shirt was large, and one piece, something she'd not seen before, and she puzzled a bit on how to put it on. Kaern chuckled and flickered his fingers at her. "Over yer head, lass, just pull it on. Nothin’ to tie up on that."
She found the larger hole in the bottom and ducked her head into it and, with a few seconds of painful struggling, managed to get her head through the smaller hole at the top. She looked down at herself and noted the armholes, then proceeded to twist and contort her limbs into place.
Kaern watched, amused, and didn't speak until she was done. "It's easier if you do it one arm at a time, lass."
"Oh." She blinked, but nodded. "Okay."
The pants came next, and they were easier to work out. They fitted just like her old ones had, but were much softer against her skin, and the waist seemed to form itself to her perfectly in order to hold them up.
"No ties..." she said, looking down.
"Naw." Kaern smiled. "Is what they used t' call memory materials, lass. One size fits all, and all that rubbish."
More words from her rescuer that she didn't really understand, at least not in context to what he was saying, but Elan was getting used to that. She nodded slightly this time, looking at him. "Thank you."
He just rolled his shoulders in that peculiar way of his and shook his head. "I just found them in the gift shop."
"Gift...shop?" She blinked.
He smiled. "Long story, lass... Say, while you're awake and I remember, what's your name? I kin keep callin’ ye lass and child, and probably will, but it's only polite to know yer name."
Elanthielle looked surprised for a moment, then looked down at her lap. "I'm Elanth..."
"Elanth, huh?" Kaern didn't notice how her voice trailed off, or if he did, he didn't mention it. "That will do. It is nice to meet you then, Elanth. I'm Kaern."
She nodded. "I remember... Thank you."
She didn't need to say that her thanks had nothing to do with the clothes this time. He knew that she meant, so he just nodded. "Think nothing of it, lass. I was not doing anything that cannot be done later, and you are a very interesting curiosity for me to explore."
She stiffened slightly at his words but, again, he didn't notice or, at least, didn't comment.
"It is not every day that a child walks the Overmind." He smiled in genuine amusement. "Even if she doesn't know where she is or how she got there."
Elan grimaced as he chuckled at her expense, but restrained herself from getting angry. At least, not too angry. Instead she tried to focus, to think, as she'd been taught. He seemed to know about her dreams, and maybe the Dreaming as well. And some of the words he used...
"Overmind?" she asked softly, curiously.
"Aye. That." He nodded. "I suppose yer a mite curious now."
She nodded, perhaps a little eagerly.
"Well, ye know of the Dreamin’. Correct?"
"Yes..." she whispered. "The realm of dreams, where we can touch what isn't always real."
"Aye, that's close enough, I suppose," he told her. "What ye need to understand is that the Dreaming is only one part...one level of a much bigger realm."
"The Overmind..." she whispered.