is written in the Holy Book of Salvaging. A book you will study very carefully over the next few days.”
“Say what?” Peppita looked confused.
“Since we celebrate Menn-Tenn-Enk we are also forbidden to use the protelizing beam. This is an energy beam that really streamlines the process of joining our religion. During Menn-Tenn-Enk however, we have to rely on the old fashioned way. I will talk to you about the Great Salvager and the cult of Vexex over the next few days, so that you can see how glorious it is. That way you will also begin the Great Journey, when we melt you down.”
“I don’t understand,” Peppita confessed. “You do all these things because it is written in a book?”
“No, you don’t understand. Not just any book. The Holy Book of Salvaging, our most sacred writing. It shows us the will of the Great Salvager. Our laws, our whole society is based on it. It is the most magnificent book ever written.”
“So this Great Salvager guy wrote it? Who is he?” Peppita wanted to know.
“Of course he did not write it himself. He is an omnipotent being. He can’t just simply write a book.”
“In that case you have a very strange definition of ‘omnipotent’.”
“You still don’t comprehend. He is so powerful that he made the first priests write it for him. That was more than a thousand years ago. And the book stayed exactly the same. Do you understand now, how powerful the Great Salvager is.”
“Not updating a rulebook for a thousand years? I would call that lazy.”
“Of course there were updates. Over the years the cult of Vexex had to translate the book in over thirty languages. But the meaning stayed the same.” After a short pause he added, “At least we are fairly sure that it did. Most of the languages died out long ago.”
Peppita shook her head. “So you are saying, that you do all this crazy stuff just because it is written in a very old book in a language nobody speaks anymore?”
“I can see you are still not ready to believe.” Sutu sighted. “Let me show you around. I am sure once you see the glory and happiness the cult of Vexex provides, you will understand that joining us is the only right thing to do.”
“This is the Pit of Sacrifice, the heart of the temple.” Sutu said.
They were in a giant, circular hall. It mainly consisted of a big pit that was filled with lava, which bubbled menacingly. Around the pit was a small walkway and four exits. A small fence separated the walkway from the pit. It was, like most of the temple, completely made of scrap metal, crudely patched together. Kip hid behind Peppita, the tiny fence around the pit did not make him feel at ease. The priest continued with his explanation.
“Here we melt down all the ships we find and the Great Salvager transforms them into new ships, better than any normal ship could ever be.”
Peppita tried to show a little interest, just to be polite. “And how much of these ships does the Great Salvager produce in an average week?”
“Well, we do this for over a thousand years now. Since that time we are waiting for the first ship. So it could be any moment now.”
“Maybe it’s broken,” Peppita suggested. “Should Flinton take a look at it? He might not be the best engineer, but he is all I have.”
“How dare you!” the priest shouted. “Of course it is not broken. It is sacred, holy even. The Great Salvager simply works in mysterious ways. It is absurd to think that we may understand the plan of an omnipotent being. And no, your engineer may not take a look at it. The room beneath the Pit of Sacrifice is even more sacred. Nobody is allowed to enter it, except a very special order of priests.”
“Explain!” demanded Pippita, who was really interested in this secret room all of a sudden.
“The order of the Menn-Tenn-Enk-Kru are the only ones that enter this chamber. And only during the feast of Menn-Tenn-Enk.”
“And what do they do there?”
“They ensure that the Pit of Sacrifice remains intact. Sadly, the knowledge of the original ritual was lost. Fortunately, the Great Salvager sent a vision to the High Priest of that time, so a new ritual was established. It mainly consists of a complicated dance. And as you can see, it works. The Pit of Sacrifice melts down things like a thousand years ago.”
Flinton took a good look at the pit. “I think I saw something like this once,” he whispered to Peppita. “I am not sure where, but it looks familiar. This is all a bit odd.”
“Follow me,” Sutu said. “There is something else I want to show you. It is on the other side of the pit. Just stay right behind me. And every four steps you have to turn around counterclockwise.”
“Another rule of your holy book?” Peppita asked. “And you are sure this is not a mistranslation or something?”
“Well, I admit it is a little bit strange. But I don’t think it is a translational error. Why would the Great Salvager allow such a thing. That is even more absurd. There are lots of rules that are difficult to understand as mere mortal. For example, all our writings should bear the picture of the Tuku bird. The problem is, that this bird went extinct a long time ago, so nobody really remembers how it looked like. And all the original pictures we had faded hundreds of years ago. The month of Kutkut is ever worse. We are only allowed to eat the meat of the Tuku bird during this time. This means we can eat nothing, many of us starve to death during that time. But who are we to question the will of the Great Salvager?”
“And you never thought about reforming the cult? I mean, obviously these rules were intended for a time, where there were a lot of Tuku birds around. These rules are outdated now. You need to change them,” Peppita suggested.
Sutu looked slightly ashamed. He made sure they were alone and then whispered. “To be honest, sometimes I do think about that. Of course I can not change the will of the Great Salvager, but maybe interpret it a little bit differently. As High Priest I would not change much. Just some small things. I would allow people to eat what they like. And I would ask infidels if they even want to be melted down. I know that being melted down is an honor, but you, for example, do not. I think we should be tolerant of that. But I am only a simple priest, and I am content the way it is. And every time I start to doubt the cult of Vexex, I visit the place I am about to show you now. This gives me new strength. I am sure it will help you as well.”
After 200 steps and exactly 50 counterclockwise rotations the four finally arrived in a well lit chamber. It was very hot, like every place that is close to a giant pit of molten rock. The room was completely empty except for a small pedestal with an old, wooden chest on it.
“This is the most sacred relic in the whole cult of Vexex,” Sutu said in a proud voice. “In this chest is a piece of the original Holy Book of Salvage. Untranslated, written in Common, undisturbed for over a thousand years. You feel its presence? This is the word of the Great Salvager. Do you now see, why you have to join our cult?”
“Let me take a look at it,” Peppita yelled and dashed forward.
“No!” Sutu shouted. “Nobody is even allowed to approach it. Come back here!”
The priest followed Peppita a few steps but had to stop as he was bound by the rules of his cult. “Don’t!” he shouted, but Peppita had already crawled on the pedestal and tried to open the chest. It cracked open after a few tries and some pieces of old paper fell to the ground.
“Don’t you dare reading it!” Sutu shouted. “Not even the priests are allowed to read that.”
Peppita grinned. “Well, if you are not allowed to read them, then I will just read them to you. I am sure you are as curious as I am.”
She looked at some of the papers and finally found something interesting.
“This one is quite enlightening: ‘Dear Woppit. How often must I tell you, that you should only salvage ships in the Vexex system. The other systems belong to my other employees. Please try to remain in your system, at least until the end of your shift. The Great Salvaging Company is a respected business, another such incident and I will have to fire you.’ Do you see now w
hat your stupid cult is based on. Why you melt down people and ships?”
Sutu fell down on his knees. “You are lying. What does this mean? I don’t understand.”
“Let me read you some more,” Peppita offered. “How about that one: ‘Sorry everyone, but there is a problem on our main supply route. The next ship will probably arrive next week. Until then it might be best if we just hunt these Tuku birds that are all over Vexex. I think they are edible. They look quite adorable, maybe we should change our company logo.’ Or listen to this. This is my favorite one so far: ‘Info for all employees. Please do not use the autoyard on Vexex, it will be down for maintenance for the next three days.’”
“Of course!” Flinton shouted. “The pit looks exactly like one of these ancient autoyards. You remember those, Pep?”
Peppita shook her head, “I’m afraid I am far too young for that. Only fossils like you remember such old technology.”
“I don’t remember them. I am not that old,” Flinton protested. “I learned about them during my engineering training. They are very primitive. They work similar to modern autoyards. You just request a ship at the terminal and the autoyard builds it for you within minutes. Today the process is very easy, the autoyard simply takes some matter from the planet it’s on, transforms it into energy and then back again to matter in form of a ship. Those old versions however were