Chapter 461

The Prison Planet

... He stood looking at her for a minute, obviously undecided whether he wanted to do this or not. “We’ll take a roll of paracord and an extra lantern as well as our weapons, and ... when I say we turn back, we do so without any complaints on your part. Right?”

“I promise,” she responded, “but can we fix something so I can carry my lantern on my chest the way you do yours?”

“That’s a good idea. Let me get some rawhide and we’ll rig you up.”

Morales had the young woman hold the lantern against her chest while he measured and cut the supporting straps, but her breasts presented a problem with the placement of the straps. His face became redder and redder as he tried to maneuver the top straps where they wouldn’t cross her breasts. Finally, not bothering to suppress a giggle, she grabbed the straps and held them in place. “They’re just boobs. The straps are going to touch the sides of them no matter what you do. The lantern doesn’t weigh much, so the rawhide won’t bother me.”

Morales’ rig had straps attached to the sides of the lantern, near the top, that went over his shoulders and down to a horizontal strap that went around his back, through slots in the ends of the shoulder straps, and attached to the bottom of the lantern in front.

Continuing to blush despite himself, Morales cut the slots in the top straps and threaded the horizontal strap through in the back. To use the rig each time, all she had to do was slip the shoulder straps over her head and thread the other end of the horizontal strap through the slot near the bottom right side of the lantern, before securing the end.

As Morales picked up his weapons and slipped into his own lantern rig, she asked, “Why the weapons? We’ll be a quarter mile farther back in the cave and down several hundred feet.”

“Yeah, I know, but I do not like that place, and be damned if I’m going in there without a weapon.”

“Let me get my kit bag and weapons, and I’ll be ready,” she responded as she grabbed her bag from one of her shelves.

Morales had wondered what was in the bag, but hadn’t asked. Guess I’ll find out when we get there, he thought. Turning to Lobo, he instructed, “Stay here, Boy. If something tries to break in, come get me, uh, us,” he corrected when he saw Jasmine’s glare. “Do not take on whatever it is by yourselves.”

It was obvious that Lobo did not like that idea, but he finally looked Morales in the eye.

“Good boy. We’ll be back in a while.”

Jasmine hooked the strap of her bag over a shoulder and, encumbered with weapons and the bag, followed Morales. She was anxious to explore the area on the other side of the crack, but he just walked calmly along while carrying the empty cooler by one handle, and wouldn’t be hurried. When she tried, he sighed and said, “We’ll fill the cooler first, then we’ll explore for a short while. I’m uncomfortable with the whole area and have been since I found the place. To remind you, beyond where I’ve stored the meat, the path begins to slope downward at a steeper angle. Admittedly, it would be easy walking if not for the ice, but I’m afraid to start down that ice without preparation. What if there’s a drop-off a little farther on? Once you are too far down that slope, you’re committed. No way am I going down that thing without a mattock to dig out steps in the ice to put my feet in, and ... a long rope in case things go sour.”

The passage they were presently in was wide enough for them to walk side by side. Glancing over at her, he continued, “Sometimes, late at night, I think I can hear the distant roar of water. Seemingly, it comes from farther back in the main cave, but I have no way of knowing where any of these passages actually wind up. I could have been dreaming that I heard a river or a waterfall, so I don’t know if I’ve really heard anything or whether it was just part of a dream. What little exploring I managed in the main cave was done with torches I’d rigged up from cattails soaked in grease. The light they produced would probably be best described as piss poor. I haven’t had time to explore any of the cave thoroughly after I found the resupply case and the electric lanterns. I was just too caught up in trying to secure firewood and a food supply for winter.

“I don’t know how much snow we’ll wind up with, but there has to be somewhere around fifteen inches or more on the ground just now. The weather is cold, but I have enough clothes to make a hunt doable, especially if I make some snowshoes.”

“What about skis?” she asked, glancing over at him as they walked. “You could cover a lot more distance with them.”

“ ... And risk breaking a leg,” he immediately returned. “I’ve seen skis in the stores and even picked one up to check it out, but that’s my total experience with skiing. Might be something for the future, but then again, would they be worth the risk? Hell, could I even make them? Anyway, a broken leg would probably mean my end. How would I ever be able to get back to the cave? Oh, with you to help, I could probably make it, but you won’t always be here. I’m a lifer, remember?”

Jasmine tried to change the subject, but both said little during the rest of their journey.

After arriving at the hanging meat, Jasmine put her case near the crack before assisting Morales in loading the cooler. She did offer suggestions about various cuts that she liked. When the cooler was full and the lid in place, they set the cooler aside for their exploration.

“Give me the hide we brought,” she said, reaching to pull it from his shoulders. “Let’s figure out how to hang it over the crack.”

Not understanding why she had wanted the hide to begin with, “What do you...” But she put her finger to his lips and shook her head slightly.

It took Morales a second before he figured it out, but when he did, a grin spread across his face and he went quickly on, “I don’t like this place. The whole area gives me the willies, as a friend of mine used to say. And this place in particular,” he said while motioning toward the area behind the crack, “is worse. Logically, I know that the movement I’ve seen isn’t movement at all, and just reflections, but my mind knowing it, and my neck knowing it, are two different things.”

“Neck?” Jasmine asked, turning to him with a frown.

“Yeah, my neck where the goosebumps are learning to play hopscotch,” he tried to joke.

“Oh, there isn’t anything in there but reflections from the clear ice...” She told him, and herself. Although she wouldn’t admit it to him, she felt uncomfortable past the crack, too, but the scientist in her wanted to explore, and that mostly overrode the feeling of dread she experienced in the unexplored area.

His hand snaked out and grabbed her arm to interrupt her. “Jasmine, this is serious. We don’t set foot through that crack in the wall without a rope tied to something solid out here and... with the two of us also tied together. Remember how the ice is in there? It’s as smooth as glass. What if there’s a slope and maybe a drop-off? Without a rope, there is no way we could stop before it was too late.”

“Okay,” she said, “you’ve succeeded in scaring the crap out of me, but I am going to explore. Remember, I’m a Physical Anthropologist. It’s what I do, and in addition, I must have been born curious.”

When his frown deepened, she decided that she had better reassure him, “Okay, we explore for a short while like you said, but sooner or later I’m going to explore the whole thing. Besides, the area may not extend any great distance.”

“Yeah, and just who believes that shit?” he groused. “That frigging place is big and you damn well know it. Suppose it goes on and eventually drops off into that underground river I either heard or dreamed of. We don’t know what’s in there, so we are going to be careful. Can’t expect to dial 911 and have people show up to bail us out. Just remember that safety is the first thing you think about on 2214, or there might not be a second thing. So, forget about how interesting it is in there and let’s be careful – really careful. Like the old saying goes, ‘look before you leap’.”

Jasmine wasn’t particularly pleased with his lecture, but she refrained from reminding him yet again that she was the professional.

While they had been talking, Morales had cut a twenty-foot length of the paracord and attached an end to each of their belts so that they would be linked together. After securing one end of a long roll of the paracord to a nearby boulder and the other end to his belt, he hung the coil of rope over his shoulder so that he could pay out the line as they walked. “If we get to a slope, I’ll take a turn of the rope around my waist and work from there.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” she said while looking at all the rope. Seeing his frown, she quickly added, “but as you say, better safe than sorry.”

“Let’s do it,” he responded, “but when I say we’ve gone far enough, we stop.”

She almost responded with a joking, “Yes, Dear,” but the look on his face changed her mind. “I’ll be careful,” she assured him, and quickly took the few steps to the crack before he could add more rules.

As carefully as she could, she moved under the skin, pushed her kit bag on through the crack, then managed to work her own way through the narrow space despite the encumbrance of her weapons. Due to his size and the coil of rope, Morales had a harder time and wound up shoving his bow and crossbow through before he could wiggle his way through the crevice.

When they stood on the other side, he looked back at the crack in the wall. “It was easier last time without our weapons, but I damn sure feel better now that they’re with us.”

She noted the ‘us’ with a feeling of pride.

Looking around and forgetting about the smoother ice in this area, he just managed to catch his balance before falling. “Shit,” he grumbled, “This place is even slicker than the main area.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “That’s one of the things that intrigues me. The ice in the area where the meat is has dirt, gravel and imperfections in it, but this is different...” she said motioning.

“So, with all that slipping under the hide we did, do you think those damn cameras made it through with us?” he asked.

“I doubt it. They’re too small to move that thick skin, and thinking about the way the view usually is on the vids, they seem to stay a distance away and use a zoom lens.”

“Hmmm. Makes sense,” he groused. “But I still wish I could stomp at least one of them flat just to piss the General off.”

“That might not be the best idea, though,” she cautioned as she scanned the area. “He could have sent you here with a lot less gear.”

Morales ignored her as he slowly turned, his light reflecting and bouncing from one column to another to be returned from what seemed like a hundred different directions. “No, shit,” he understated. Then, after clearing his throat, “Well, everything is crystal clear, obviously, although the ice does have a blue cast to it that’s more pronounced than on the other side of the wall. And all these columns,” he said, sweeping his hand around to indicate the whole area, “just how in the hell were they formed?”

By then, Jasmine had dug an odd-looking camera out of her bag. After taking shots of the whole area, she knelt near a column and with the camera lens almost against it, began taking a picture or two, moved the camera a short distance around the column and took more pictures. After doing the same general thing to several nearby columns, she returned the camera to her bag and took out another odd-looking instrument before pressing it against one column after another, checking the readings and noting them in a small notebook, much of the time mumbling to herself, “Can’t be. My goodness,” or other comments and exclamations. As far as Morales could determine, the columns looked quite similar, although some were thicker than others.

Eventually, she put the instrument back in her bag and, using what appeared to be a laser tape measure, began measuring the distance between various columns and recording them in her notebook.

Several times, preoccupied, she would make a loop around a column, and would have to reverse her path to unwind the rope that bound the two together.

Once, frustrated, she turned to him, but before she could speak, he was shaking his head. “It’s not going to happen. We stay roped together until I’m certain this place is safe. And ... judging from how big it looks, that might be quite a while yet.”

“But the rope is a hindrance...” she began, but his shaking head accompanied by the look on his face, stopped her from continuing with her plea.

Morales was having his own problems since he had the master rope to contend with as she moved around, and in addition, each time he looked into the distance, he became even more convinced that the cave might well be dangerous.

Jasmine was continuing to move from one column to another, sometimes using one of her instruments – Morales was now carrying her bag so she didn’t have to go back to it all the time – other times she just cupped her hands around her eyes, with her nose practically touching the ice column.

At one point, Jasmine stood looking up at her light reflecting off the ceiling roughly twenty feet above their heads. Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “I’ve never been in a cave with stalagmites and stalactites that were perfectly uniform from top to bottom,” she mumbled to herself, again and again, the words changing slightly from time to time, but the meaning remaining the same. “Dripping water did not form these. It just could not have,” she turned to say/ask him, yet again. “But if they are artificial, then why aren’t they evenly spaced instead of this almost haphazard field of them. Some are grouped at 3.6 meters, others at 10.1, yet others are positioned at seemingly random distances. The ones I’ve examined vary in thickness from 2.2 meters to slightly more than five. If this place is artificial – which it most certainly has to be – then why aren’t the distances between the columns uniform?”

“Field?” he asked.

“Well, I can’t seem to arrive at a better term,” she returned uncertainly.

“Maybe so,” he said as he freed a kink in their back rope. When he turned around, he noticed another reflection in the distance, “but isn’t that a wall or something over there,” he said, pointing with a gloved hand.

As Jasmine started around one of the columns to look where he was pointing, her feet went out from under her and she landed hard on her rear.

“Oh, shit, that hurt,” she gasped out as she tried to get her feet under her so she could stand again.

“Easy,” he said, kneeling beside her. “Are you hurt?” he asked, the concern evident in his voice.

“Well, it hurts, but I’m not injured,” she said as she got her knees under her on what felt like a slope.

“Here, move away from that place before you try to stand,” he said as he helped her to her feet.

“Look,” she responded while pressing one hand to her hip, “Most of the floor – at least the part here – is perfectly smooth, but there’s a slight rise for a few feet right there,” she said while pointing, “and that’s what got me.”

“I wonder why it’s different there,” he responded with a frown.

“Actually, it doesn’t seem logical that this whole area is almost glass smooth and level, while on the other side of the crack, it’s everything but – well, except for the spot that just did me in,” she finished with a grimace.

“I’m not sure it is all level,” Morales answered as he stared around them. “I get the feeling that the whole floor is sloping very gradually in that direction,” he finished, pointing. “But with the reflections from our lights and the limited distance we can see because of all these columns, it’s hard to tell.”

“Well, if it is, there isn’t enough slope to easily see, and my laser level hasn’t noted it. Of course, as you just commented, it’s difficult to get a clear distant view because of all the columns and reflections. We can stand on the ice without sliding in any direction, well, other than the place I stepped on, so if there is a slope, it’s very minor.”

Jasmine knelt so her light would be nearer the floor.

“What do you see?” he asked.

“This area where I slipped, it’s hard to tell, but I could swear that it’s almost a perfect rectangle with gently sloping sides. Nature isn’t prone to do things in straight lines.”

Dragging out her equipment again, she examined the area in detail before finally saying, “It’s difficult to see because the last few millimeters of the sides slope down to floor level. Why would there be a raised area on the floor two millimeters in height with straight sides and ninety-degree corners? And these columns?” she said, gesturing while still on her knees. “Again, nature obviously did not make this place.”