Starflight, page 4
“Scavengers. We found similar markings on the remains we exhumed at the dig. Nothing that would attack or even harm a living person. After death, though, they clean up. I don’t see anything obvious that indicates how the Velox passed. However, based on the bodies’ positions, I’d venture the two of them died together.” She stood up and dusted off her knees. “Perhaps someone with more experience will be able to determine cause of death and such. I just don’t have enough information or experience.”
Phxnolx nodded and pointed to the unmoving fan at the other end. “I suggest that we now focus our energies on that.”
“I agree.” Sarah began moving toward the open cover, only to jerk backwards as the harness tightened. “Topside, Sarah. Need a bit more line. We are going to investigate the fan covering.” The harness’s tension slacked off as the extra line played out from the winch topside.
Using the lights from the two drones, Sarah and Phxnolx examined the fan and opening. The fan was huge, approximately six meters in diameter and apparently electrically driven. Its cover had a handle on the inside and was latched securely to the wall, leaving the dead fan hanging in the space for anyone to examine. Phxnolx sent one drone down first. They watched as the light disappeared into the darkness of the shaft.
With care, Phxnolx drilled a small hole in the wall next to the open fan cover and attached another repeater unit. A blinking blue telltale illuminated as the unit powered on.
A single, unbroken piece of pipe appeared to form the air shaft. The video feed showed a stairwell winding around the shaft, with frequent inspection platforms interspersed. With all the surprises of the day, the sight of an unbroken wall of metal shocked Sarah the most. In her mind, it represented the most alarming condition since it suggested a level of technology well beyond what Arth currently possessed.
“If we continue, we are going to need to unhook from the harnesses.” Sarah gestured into the black space. “There is no way we can safely climb these stairs with them on. The lines will tangle as we work our way around the circumference.”
“I agree. Topside, Phxnolx. We are unhooking from the harnesses to continue downward exploration. I have placed a repeater unit at this entrance.” He paused and verified the steady light on the repeater. “That, and the drones, should allow us to maintain communications. If we find degradation of comms, we will reassess at that time.”
Sahnuli’s calm voice broke the silence. “Understood. I tentatively agree with continuing the exploration. Video of the stairwell shows it is structurally sound with no indications of corrosion. That raises other questions though. Test repeater comms prior to descending.”
“Agreed,” he stated, and unhooked his harness, placing it gently on the floor of the cavern.
“Topside, Phxnolx. Comms check?”
The return voice was almost as clear as it had been when the communications cable had been attached. “Strong and clear. You and Sarah may proceed into the shaft. Maintain communications check every two minutes. If after a check you do not hear us, or if communications degrade, return to the cavern and reestablish communications.”
“Agreed topside. We will check with you every two minutes. If failure or degradation of comms, return to cavern and reestablish communications.” Phxnolx turned towards Sarah. “This is your discovery. You should proceed first.”
Instead of arguing, she gave him a half bow and carefully stooped past the fan motor. The large blades were spaced far enough apart to give plenty of room for passage. Once past the fan housing, Sarah found herself on a flat platform with railings to her left and in front of her. To her right, the stairs began their downward turn. She gasped as dim lights sprang to life inside the shaft. The lights appeared to be built into the railings. Since the entire bottom glowed, it was hard to tell if they were a part of the rail or a separate piece inset into the metal. Each light glowed a soft blue-white, with an almost moonlight quality that allowed one to see clearly while maintaining night vision. They were at full brightness along the railing where they stood but faded into dimness the further away the lights were.
“This place has power somehow!” Sarah shouted in surprise. She lowered her voice. “How could it have power?”
“I am not sure. After this long, I would have expected any power source to have become completely inactive. As I would have also expected, some degradation of materials making up the walls and stairwell, but nothing is evident in that respect.” Phxnolx waved his hand around the space. “It is an additional egg in the mystery we have encountered.”
Sarah sighed and stepped nearer the stairs as Phxnolx followed her onto the platform. “I’m just a simple human. This is getting a bit beyond my levels of acceptable normal.”
Phxnolx pressed a series of commands into his arm computer. The drone that had followed them floated quietly into the center of the shaft. “Wall to wall measures twenty-two meters. Also, there is a ceiling eighteen meters above us and several more fans like this one ringing the top.” He paused and clicked his mandibles together several times. “Readings indicate the shaft descends one-point three two kilometers to the bottom.” Sarah glanced over the edge and down. Below, she could just make out the lights of the first drone.
“Some sort of ventilation system? Drawing air out of the lower section,” she suggested.
“Why not pushing air. . .Ah, of course.” Phxnolx tapped one digit against his helmet. “There would need to be some sort of center fan to draw air downward. No way that they could push enough air from the top fans alone. However, the side and top fans would be sufficient to draw air upward.”
She shifted to radio. “Topside, Descent.”
“Topside, loud and clear.”
“We have entered the air shaft. There are lights here, came on automatically. I am currently assuming electric, but no proof. The shaft is deep enough we cannot see the bottom. Multiple fan openings along the walls. Drone readings indicate greater than a kilometer to the bottom.”
“We intend to continue no further than two full rotations of the stairwell down into the shaft. Video from the drone shows a possible door on that level. After that we will return to the surface.”
“Understood Descent. Good luck. Maintain two-minute communications.”
“Roger.”
Sarah unkeyed her mic. “Down we go,” she said as she grabbed the rail and began descending.
Phxnolx came next, the bright lights following them, silently dimming behind.
The landings, each equally spaced forty-five degrees around the shaft, were a blessing. Not all had fans, but several did. Each fan housing was dark; their metallic blinds shut. This prevented the drones or team members from seeing what lay beyond. They paused on each to catch their breath and rest. The descent had taken nearly an hour, but the next platform was next to the wall with the indications of a door.
Sarah found she was attempting to hurry to get there and look the possible door over. She unsuccessfully attempted to dampen the excited beating of her heart. She slowed her steps, letting Phxnolx catch back up. A single green light on the featureless wall greeted their arrival on the platform. It appeared as soon as they stepped off the stairs. Like the railing lights, it was a soft, diffuse glow.
Then the wall silently slid open. Darkness. The lights from the tunnel behind them illuminated only a small section of floor past the entrance. A platform, roughly the same size as the one they stood on, was all they could see. The light from behind gleamed off railings that encompassed the three sides of the platform.
Sarah paused and listened. The new area had an echoey quality that she had encountered the one time she had visited the Grand Caves in Mirasto. The largest cave was nearly four and a half kilometers across and had what the tour termed an “underground ocean”, complete with fish. Convinced that the space was significantly larger than the tunnel they had just traversed, she flicked on her flashlight. The light shone outward from the door, its beam clearly visible cutting through the darkness. It formed a fuzzy, wide circle on the far side of the area.
“That’s got to be sixty to ninety meters away.”
Phxnolx clicked in agreement. He shot a small laser out from the drone, measuring the distance. “Eighty-six meters, exactly.”
Sarah stepped forward in preparation to shine the light downward. As she did, the door slid shut behind her, cutting off the faint glow from the passageway and trapping Phxnolx behind it. She spun to reopen the door. There was nothing to see. No button or latch.
Reflexively, Sarah grabbed the railing beside her. She stifled a gasp as the platform suddenly and smoothly began moving downward. Lights sprang on, flooding the space with their full intensity. The sudden brightness blinded Sarah. She squeezed her eyes shut, tears rolling down her face. She shook her head to clear the salt water from her vision, then blinked several times. Finally, she held her hand in front of her eyes until they finished adjusting to the glare. Once she could see, she found herself staring upward as the metal ceiling receded further at the top of the enormous shaft. She keyed her radio.
“Phxnolx? Can you hear me?”
She paused. Not even static greeted her call.
She tried again, angling her head towards where she believed the entrance was, attempting to improve her signal strength. Again, nothing. “Completely blocked, no signals.”
Next, she turned her gaze downward. Sixty meters or so below the elevator, a gigantic tank or pressure vessel stood nestled in a vertical cradle. It grew closer as the elevator platform continued its descent. The noise of the passage changed as she passed into the space between the shaft wall and the tank’s upper section, the walls of metal compressing the sounds. Her surprised reflection stared back as she passed a set of huge, silvered windows. Almost before she could register the view, the windows disappeared above her. Silently, the elevator continued sliding past the smooth, bluish-white material of the tank.
As quickly as it began moving, the platform stopped. Sarah stepped forward, leaning against the front rail and attempting to get a clear look at the material. A section of flooring slid out from underneath the elevator platform, moving slowly until it pressed against the wall of the tank. It then rose slightly and, with a thunk, locked into place with the platform. Sarah took a step backwards, jerking her hands away in shock as the forward railing split in two sections and swung outward. They now formed side safety railings on the extended portion of the platform.
Looking back up at the wall, she could just make out faint lines. She stepped forward for a better look. A touchpad flashed into visibility on the wall, near the right side railing. In addition, a large circular picture covering most of the space inside the lines appeared.
Sarah verified that her suit recorder was still on. She carefully took full motion video and still shots of everything. None of the symbols on the touchpad were from a language she recognized or had ever seen. She then turned to the large picture. The artistic style was similar to the realist method that had been popular four or five decades ago, though there were several differences in tonality and color choice. The focus of the painting was, as far as Sarah could determine, a stylized wooden sailing ship floating through a star-filled sky. Masts rose from the top and bottom of the vessel, sails billowing as if catching the cosmic wind. Several pairs of creatures, wearing what looked like spacesuits, crowded the ship’s decks. Surrounding the circular starscape was a solid yellow circle, half a meter thick. Symbols, somewhat similar to the ones on the touchpad, gracefully arched over the top and bottom quarters of the thick circle. These were just as indecipherable as the others were.
Ensuring she had captured all the visible items, Sarah stepped back and turned around. A single green light now glowed softly in the wall behind her. She held her breath and pressed the button. The railings realigned themselves, and the extension retracted underneath the elevator platform. The touchpad and painting vanished, leaving only four thin lines to mar the milky blue-white wall. Sarah sighed in relief as the platform began rising. She was headed back, returning to the surface and the rest of the crew.
“. . .and as the door opened, I leapt out. No way I was going back down. Completely caught Phxnolx off-guard. I’d never heard a Velox squeak before. Didn’t even know they could.” Sarah smiled and leaned back in her seat. “The rest of the story was just us coming back up to the surface. You all have seen that part already.”
Sahnuli leaned over and tapped the primary screen in the central portion of the terrain vehicle. “You said you have video?”
“Of course. Hold on.” She used the vehicle’s wireless network to connect her suit recorder to the video system. The video began playing. It ran for several minutes, then shifted to a slide show of the individual photos of the symbols. Gareth leapt forward and hit the pause button. The screen froze on the close-up shot of the flying wooden ship. He stared at the screen, then stood up and headed for the back of the vehicle.
“By the Holy Rock!” he gasped.
“What. . .” began Sarah. Gareth held up a hand and began rummaging through his personnel locker. He pulled a small book out and closed the locker, then returned to his seat. The rest of the crew leaned towards him as he searched through the last few pages of the book.
“Here.”
He slapped the small volume on the shelf below the screen. On the page was a full color painting, the style from several hundred years earlier. A wooden ship sailed upon a blue sky full of golden stars. Two masts with billowing sails stretched out from the sides of the vessel, and stylized Thrynn, Elowan, Humans, and Velox danced upon the deck.
“Where is that picture from?” Sarah asked.
Gareth snorted in surprise and flipped the volume over. Embossed on the reddish-brown leather was the title The Writings of the Rock. “I am surprised that you didn’t immediately recognize what you had found.” Gareth flipped through the book as he spoke. “Somehow you were chosen.”
Sarah blinked in surprise. She had not been raised in the Church of the Rock. Few people followed the ancient belief system. “Excuse me? You just saw exactly what I saw. Video proof. No gods or magic or anything else.”
“That is the symbol of Noah, the great creator and savior.”
“What I found is something that is going to change a lot of things, beliefs included. Whatever it is, it’s been here a long time, and it holds secrets we can’t even fathom.” Sarah waved at the book. “You might be right in that the symbols are the same. Maybe it is some sort of high-tech temple. That’s not what it felt like though.” Sarah paused, biting her lip in thought.
Phxnolx leaned forward, his chiton darkening into indigo blue in serious resolve. “What did it ‘feel’ like?”
“It felt like it was ancient. Ancient in a way I have never felt. Not from any ruins or artifacts I have ever seen in a museum or visited. And not only ancient but also preserved and waiting. Waiting for us. . .well, someone. . .to find it.”
Sahnuli looked across the table at the other three crew members, then waved a frond. “For what purpose? More importantly, left by whom?”
“I’m not sure of the purpose. We, and by that I mean all Arthlings, are going to need to find what the purpose is. As to whom, all I can guess is that it was left by those who came before us.”
Choices
By Christopher Woods
The screen alarms were blaring and I watched helplessly as the pirates closed the distance between the Speadilus and their fleet. This was the end for us.
“Engines at maximum,” I ordered. “Aim for the center ship. I want ramming speed!”
Yelv Sims, the navigator, looked at me in horror.
“They’re going to kill us and then hit the convoy again. They’re miners. We can’t let that happen if we can help it.”
“We’re cadets.”
He swallowed and hit the engines.
“We could run, sir, lure them away.” Alta Kohr, the science officer, suggested.
“We don’t have enough fuel to get far enough,” I said. “Used too much on the asteroids.”
She let out a slow breath, “Then, we do what we must. Are they close enough to get them all in the explosion?”
“They are right now. If they spread their formation? Who knows?”
She nodded and turned back to her station on the bridge.
I gripped the arms of the command chair as the Speadilus picked up speed. This was not how I had planned for this to go.
“Sir!” Gaothsin Pearthin exclaimed. “Missiles inbound!”
“Countermeasures!”
“They’re not aimed at us, sir!”
The pirate vessels erupted with wreckage and atmosphere just before we reached their weapons range.
I sat back into the Command chair, hands trembling.
I awoke with a start.
“Been awhile since I dreamed about that,” I said as I sat up in my bed. Hela Feer stirred beside me and opened her emerald green eyes.
“The dreams, again?” she asked. “Was it the one where we were caught, naked, on the bridge? Oh yeah, that was mine.”
I chuckled. “I like yours a lot better than mine.”
“Was it bad?”
“It was five years ago.” I shook my head. “Been in plenty of bad situations since then.”
