Short Fiction · Chapter
The Lost City's Secret explained
Garth reunites with Doc Willard, who has survived for five years in the hidden library of the Ancients.
What happens
Garth reunites with Doc Willard, who has survived for five years in the hidden library of the Ancients. Willard reveals that the fake sacrifice was a planned escape attempt, explains the nature of the Ancients' robots and their failed mind-transplantation, and confirms he has discovered both the cure for the Silver Plague and the secret of the Ancients' power source. Despite this, escape from the Zarno-controlled city seems impossible until Garth proposes using a telepathic helmet-transmitter to impersonate a god.
Themes in this chapter
Forbidden Knowledge and Curses
Willard has spent five years studying the Ancients' library, uncovering both the cure for the Silver Plague and the doomed mind-transplantation that killed the Ancients.
Survival and Endurance
Willard's five-year survival in the Darkness, sustained by pills and a water machine, highlights human endurance in extreme isolation.
Identity and Transformation
The Ancients' attempt to escape death by transplanting their minds into robot bodies, only to perish due to the alien nature of the new forms.
Characters to notice
- Ed Garth
Reunites with Willard, learns the truth about the fake sacrifice, and proposes a daring plan to use a telepathic transmitter to impersonate an Ancient god.
- Doc Willard
Revealed to be alive, having spent five years in the Ancients' library; he has discovered the cure for the Silver Plague and the power-source secret, but is trapped by the Zarno.
- Moira
Mentioned as the red-gold haired girl escaping with Willard; Garth's thoughts of her underscore his personal loss.
- Paula Trent
Referenced indirectly as someone who would be glad to know about the Ancients' power source.
Key passages
“Alive, yes. If you can call it that. I’ve been living for only one thing. I knew you’d come back, with help, if you got through. And you did!”
Willard confirms he is alive but has been surviving solely on the hope that Garth would return with aid.
Willard's first words to Garth reveal his long wait and faith in his friend.
“The sacrifice—it was a fake, that’s all. And it went through as we planned. You pretended to stab me, and while the Zarno were bowing and genuflecting, we got away.”
Willard explains that the sacrificial ceremony was staged to deceive the Zarno and allow their escape.
Clears up Garth's guilt-ridden memory of the event.
“Yes. I worked it out, completely, with the aid of the Ancients’ library. They were studying it too, but they didn’t have quite the right angle. However, they were able to supply the missing data I needed.”
Willard confirms he has developed a complete theoretical cure for the Silver Plague using the Ancients' records.
The cure is a major plot point, offering hope for Earth.
“The Ancients tried to escape by transplanting, not their physical brains, but their minds. … Their minds were put into the robots’ brains—and controlled the metal bodies. So they escaped the Plague. But they died anyway.”
Willard describes how the Ancients transferred their consciousness into robot bodies to avoid the Silver Plague, but the alien bodies eventually killed them.
Explains the fate of the Ancients and the nature of the robots.
“Suppose one of them came back? … Originally the robots were controlled telepathically. Why can’t that work now—for us?”
Garth proposes using a telepathic helmet-transmitter to control a robot and impersonate an Ancient god to deceive the Zarno.
Sets up the plan for the climax of the chapter.
