Chapter 473

The Prison Planet

... Jasmine had been concentrating on the information that one of her instruments was reporting. Looking up with a frown on her face, it took a second for her thoughts to focus.

Shock hit like a dash of cold water. “Oh, my goodness,” she whispered as she stared. “It just can’t be.”

She quickly changed her light to the strong beam, adding to Morales light, but that didn’t change what they saw. Less than a hundred feet ahead and fifty feet to the left was the entrance crack. “We walked in a cir...”

“No, we did not,” Morales snarled, cutting her off. “I frequently checked ahead and behind to make sure we stayed on a straight path. How many times did I nudge you right or left during our little hike, huh? I made certain we continued in the direction we started in.”

She knew he was pissed, and she had to give him credit, every time she turned aside to check out something, once she was finished, he brought her back and checked the fishing line behind them, then pointed in the direction she should keep going.

“I checked behind me to make sure of my orientation, then picked out a column at the limit of my light and made sure we walked straight toward that column. I did that every time. I fucking paid attention. We walked in as near a straight line as I could manage under the circumstances. We did-fucking-not walk in a circle,” he ground out.

Her impulse was to argue, after all, they were back where they started, and she even opened her mouth to point that out when she had second thoughts. This was Morales. He lived by being careful. If it were just me, I would laugh it off for walking in a circle. No harm done; we’re back where we started, but ... if he didn’t have a good sense of direction, he would have gotten himself lost in the forest around the cave. He told me he went after salt and also went back to the drop point for the second case. It doesn’t make sense that a person like that would become lost in a twenty-minute walk in what amounts to a giant underground room. But what other explanation is there?

Turning to look him in the face, “Tell me what you think happened.” When he frowned, she went quickly on. “I am not arguing with you. If you say we didn’t walk in a circle, then we didn’t. But I’m stymied for an answer.” With another quick look around, then back at the crack, “So now what do we do?”

His frown lessened, but didn’t go completely away. “Jas, this place is really, really beginning to scare the shit out of me, and I’m not just talking about the feeling of being watched, or of dread, or whatever the proper term would be. Dammit, I’m beginning to think this place is... alive.“ Before she could start shaking her head, he went quickly on, “Oh, I don’t mean like we are, but... functioning somehow. I think it knows we’re in here and it doesn’t like it.”

Jasmine started to respond, but stopped before the words left her mouth, saying instead, “There is movement inside those columns, barely perceptible movement, but nonetheless, it’s there. There’s a fluid of some kind, or at least something flowing or moving around in them. It’s so clear that it is barely perceptible, but it is there.”

Going on mentally: I thought I would, at least, map out the size of the place today, but suddenly that’s become a joke. Even with what we can actually see, there have to be hundreds, if not thousands of those columns varying from roughly three inches, to more than 60 inches – just in the area we’ve covered. No telling what else is in here. How could this ... place distract Morales to the point he led us in a circle? But he’s so certain we traveled in a straight line. So if he is right and we didn’t walk in a circle, then ... Oh, shit.

Inadvertently, she let out a chuckle. When he glared at her, she blurted, “The situation just reminded me of an old joke about, do you believe what I’m telling you, or are you going to believe your lying eyes – something to that effect, anyway. I guess applied to our situation, I’m faced with believing you or my lying eyes.”

“Jas,” he returned, exasperated, “we did walk in a straight line. We did not walk in a circle. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I can walk in a straight line.”

Jasmine frowned for a second before reaching over to touch his cold cheek. When they locked eyes, she said, her voice soft, “Time to stop putting yourself down. You screwed up, got caught and was sent here to pay for your crimes. We’ve all screwed up from time to time, some of us worse than others. But it’s time you stopped cutting yourself down. No more comments about not being the sharpest knife, and crap like that – for that’s all it is – crap. If I had thought you were stupid, I never would have come here to be alone with you in the first place, not to mention trusting you to keep me from being eaten by some of the local fauna. My stay and interaction with you have only reinforced my original estimation of you and your abilities. You’re a good, moral man who was lax with his high school education, but that has nothing to do with your intelligence level. If you weren’t smart, you would already be dead. The education thing can be corrected.”

Morales tried twice to say something, but the words ground to a hoarse halt each time, before he finally got out, “Uh, thanks, Jas. I, uh, hope you’re right.”

Glancing back toward where the other side of the area should be, he said, “Look, Jas, if you want, we can do it again. This time you don’t stop to check out things, and we’ll both work toward walking as straight a line away from the crack as we can manage, okay?”

She almost agreed to it, but there was a look on his face. Hmmm, this feels like it’s developing into a trust issue. He’s trusted me, and to a point, I’ve certainly trusted him. He could rape me or even kill me and I couldn’t do a thing about either. He’s absolutely certain that we didn’t circle, and if he did what he said he did, there’s no way we could have.

She made up her mind. “No point in conducting the same experiment over again hoping for a different outcome. We walked as straight a line as you could manage in this darkness with only our lanterns to see into the distance, and ... we wound up within a hundred feet of our starting point. With both of us working to keep an absolutely straight path, we might do a little better, but that wouldn’t prove anything.”

Morales was still frowning. “Oh, stop that,” she said with a chuckle as she reached to hug him. “We need to go back to our place and think about this. If we come up with any ideas, though, we should probably wait until we go to bed to discuss them. I’ve heard the General mention that even prisoners should have privacy, and I can’t believe he would record me nude or uh, doing my morning constitutional, as you call it. I know you think he’s an asshole for putting you here, but I’ve never heard anyone say General Whitworth hasn’t been fair with them.”

Morales let out a sigh. “Look, Jas, I told you I screwed up and deserved everything that’s happened to me. As much as I would like to hate him, the bottom line is he could have sent me on a trip to the sun, but he showed mercy. Hell, truth be told, I’ve learned a lot while I’ve been here, and if I had a few more conveniences, it would be a great place to live, well, if I didn’t have to do it alone, that is.”

Jasmine just stood looking up at him, a strange look on her face. After a few seconds of silence, she said, “Let’s go home and think about what’s happened. We can discuss it after lights out tonight.”

They had moved near the crack to the column where Morales had tied the fishing line when they started out. “Problem,” he said motioning to the line. “I’m not going to leave my line in here.”

“Oh, crap. Surely we’re not going to have to retrace our steps to wind the line in. I...”

“It’s high test line. I’ve never been able to break it, no matter what I’ve done with it. Fuck, it’s just a fishing line lying on the floor, and there isn’t anything we saw while we took our little tour that was rough or jagged to snag the line on. Moreover, everything was smooth or nicely rounded, namely the columns. Let’s give the line a yank and see what happens.”

He untied the end of the fishing line from the column where he had secured it near the wall when they started out, took the big reel off his belt and started cranking the handle. The line tightened and straightened on the floor as he took up the slack. There was a sharp resistance, he yanked and began reeling, a grin on his face as they watched the end of the line begin snaking away.

Jasmine stood watching until the line disappeared into the distance. “I’m thinking of a physicist that I would love to have with us right now. He buys pullover shirts because he has trouble buttoning regular shirts, but he is a certified, walking, mumbling genius. The guy would probably have an orgasm over this.”

When Morales finished bringing the line in and had it wound up to his satisfaction, he realized that Jasmine was on her knees rubbing her bare hand over the ice floor. “What gives?” he asked.

Still on her knees, she looked up at him. “I’m beginning to think I’m a fool.”

“Hon, what in the hell are you talking about?”

“This is an ice cave, right? It’s slick, dirty for the most part, even has rocks and dirt trapped in it sometimes, but what do you see in here?”

“Huh?”

“No. I’m serious. What do you really see?”

“Well,” he grumbled, “it’s so fucking dark that I can’t see my hand in front of my face without the light, so I don’t see much of anything except shiny ice reflecting our lights and these ice columns or whatever they’re made of.”

“And the floor?”

“More ... ice,” he said, hesitantly, “but it isn’t as slick as the ice where I keep the meat, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

“But who says it’s ice?” she asked.

“What the fuck? It’s cold as hell. It’s almost clear, uh, translucent, I suppose the word is. Granted, it’s much clearer than the ice outside the wall, but it’s slick, but like you said, it isn’t as slick as the regular ice out there is,” he finished, motioning. “So, I suppose you’re going to tell me that the water the floor is made up of is extremely pure or something.”

Only then did he notice the small, oddly-shaped hammer with the sharp spike on it that she was putting back into her pack. “No samples. The hammer doesn’t even scar the surface. It looks like ice and it’s ten below zero Fahrenheit in here, but what we’re standing on isn’t ice. And don’t bother asking, because I don’t have a clue. None. This place has made a mockery of my instruments. I have gotten entirely different readings from the first trip. This is totally out of my field, yet I don’t dare bring in more appropriate scientists or they would most certainly take over your cave.”

Coming to her feet, she walked over to him. “I will not do anything that will cause you to be removed from your home. Nor will I endanger Lobo, Lila or your chicken friends.”

“A find like this, whatever it is, could make you famous, couldn’t it?”

“And lose my friends in the process,” she responded as she tried to put her arms around him, but with the weapons, it wasn’t much of a hug. “We’ll do better when we get ... home,” she said as she pulled his head down so she could briefly touch her lips to his.

With one last look around, she turned toward the crack. “Let’s go. I’m tired of being in here.” Then at the crack, she turned back to him, “Remember, don’t let anything slip in front of the cameras. The last thing I want is Greer and his cronies hearing about this find. Even if he has to bring in people in other fields, he’ll make sure he remains in overall charge. He would be bitching to the General about getting rid of you and your animals five minutes after he got here.”

As she started through the crack, he took hold of her arm. “Wait up a minute.” When she turned to him, “Look, Jas, I’m sure I can find some other place to live. Chances are there are more caves around. I mean...”