Chapter 570

The Prison Planet

As the group neared the second area that was obstructed by boulders, Jeff said with a sigh, “Sorry, Ladies, but I still have a headache from moving the last bunch. No way am I going to play bulldozer just now.”

“It’s getting colder in here,” Tosha said as she zipped her jacket, took her gloves out of a pocket and pulled them on.

“Is it just me, or is the path sloping downward more?” Kei asked as she and the others followed suit – other than Jeff, who only zipped his light jacket.

“You’re right, and we’ll be on ice soon, so watch your footing,” Jeff advised.

After reaching the ice cave where Morales and Jasmine stored meat, the group stood looking around at the hanging meat and the numerous flashes from their lights reflecting off the walls of ice.

“Jasmine wasn’t kidding when she said she had plenty of meat,” Tosha commented as she tried to get her mind off the seeming movements that she hoped were caused by their lights being reflected back to them. “This place gives me the heebie jeebies.”

“Hah. If this bothers you, wait until you see the column room,” Kayla said. “My goosebumps had kittens when we were in there.”

While Selina giggled, Arlene turned to her husband, “I would have expected the ice to be dirty, and some of it is, but this area is almost clear.”

“Yeah. Jasmine pointed that out early on, but I don’t have an answer for you unless whoever built the booster station had something to do with it. As far as the ice inside the thing goes, I’m wondering if it is ice at all. It’s slick and very cold, but not as slick as I would expect ice that smooth would be. Additionally, it’s extremely tough and doesn’t chip, as you would expect ice to do. Bottom line, since we aren’t telepaths, we have to leave it up to Ship to decipher what those transmissions mean – hopefully, without waking up any defenses the column place has – or once had.”

While glancing at the group, he continued, “Ready to take another look?”

“So, how do we get there?” Tosha asked while trying to ignore the goosebumps on her neck, only some of which were from the cold.

“Through the crack in the ice wall over there,” Arlene replied while pointing and consequently turning her light toward the entrance crack.

Tosha turned to Jeff. “Colonel, please, let’s do it before I talk myself out of going in there.”

“I definitely agree,” Kei whispered barely loudly enough to hear.

“When we were exploring in there before, I worried about that entrance crack closing and trapping us, so I’m going to nullify that potential problem.”

With that said and using his TK, Jeff slid a big rock into the bottom of the crack in the ice wall. “That will make it a bit more of a hassle to scramble over the rock as we go through the crack, but with the rock there, we’ll know that the wall can’t close and trap us inside the column place.”

“So, you think it’s alive then,” Arlene asked.

“I don’t know for certain. It may not be alive as we think of life, but I’m reasonably certain there’s something intelligent in control of that room. I have no way to determine whether its powers include the wall or not, but I don’t want to find out the hard way either.”

Tosha stared at her Colonel. “If you’re screwing with me, then you’ve definitely achieved your goal, because I now have a fresh set of goosebumps.”

Arlene grinned at her. “It hasn’t harmed us in any way, but as far as I’m concerned, goosebumps are the norm inside that place. So ... who’s first?”

“Hold up a minute,” Jeff told his daughter before turning to Tosha and Kei. “With all the reflections in there, it would be easy for someone to become separated from the group. To prevent that, we usually attach a twenty-foot safety line between everyone so that we’re all tied to one another. To make certain we can find our way back, we’ll pull a thin paracord that’s tied to that big boulder over there. Also, the room has a – shall we say – quirk that we want you two to experience for yourselves, so we’ll have a fresh view on the subject. Oh, yeah. I want you to help me walk in a straight line as we walk away from our entrance point. Okay?”

“I ... uh, sure. Just tell me what to do,” Tosha hesitantly said as Kei nodded her agreement, too.

“You’ll know more when we’re inside. I’ll go first, then you, then Kei followed by Selina and Arlene. Kayla will be last. Take your time working your way through the crack. With the way it angles down the wall, and with the wall’s thickness, it can be a hassle squeezing through, so be careful and don’t fall and hurt yourselves. But you’ll catch on.”

Moments later, the group was inside and Tosha was making all the usual exclamations about the oddity of the columns and the reflections.

Arlene noticed that Kei wasn’t saying a lot. “You aren’t bothered by this place?” Arlene asked.

“What? Oh, it is very spooky, if that is the correct term, but my husband would not have brought us here if he were not reasonably certain that nothing would harm us.”

“He brought us here because he knows we would bitch him out if he didn’t,” Arlene returned as she grinned at her husband.

“Nevertheless, my logic still applies,” Kei insisted. “Therefore, even though I have goosebumps, I know that we will be safe.”

Their exploration went on as they checked out the adjacent area until...

Selina reached to tug on Jeff’s hand as he was peering into a column. “My Prime, I ... think it is awakening.” Even as she spoke, Little One had just finished telling him basically the same thing.

Jeff became aware of Little One projecting her thoughts, but at a rate and in a manner that he was unable to comprehend. Abruptly, he realized that she wasn’t trying to converse with him at all.

Selina came to her knees as she held her hands against either side of her head. “Something is going on,” she bit out through clenched teeth as the others made similar comments.

“Are you okay?” Jeff asked as he knelt to put an arm around the child.

“It does not appear to be a threat to me, but it caused me to become disoriented with, perhaps, a bit of vertigo,” she managed to say.

“I think Little One must be conversing with it – whatever it is, but come on, let’s get you out of here,” he told Selina.

“No, My Prime. Please, I am unharmed. I prefer to wait for Little One to conclude her conversation. After we assess her data, we may decide to continue with our research.”

One glance around them and Jeff realized that they all felt something, but from the expressions, it was probably in varying degrees.

He explained to the others what he felt was happening, and they waited. The conversation, if that was what it was, continued with Jeff feeling that he was “hearing” only the fringes of what must be a very in-depth conversation. Finally, Little One’s thoughts shifted to him, and she asked him to look to his right, which was approximately parallel to the wall. When he was looking in the correct direction, she asked him to walk that way.

After telling the others, they untangled their safety lines and followed Jeff, the main line paying out behind them.

This time, they walked much farther than they had before, only stopping to connect the second roll of cord before continuing. Also, they were not returned to their starting point, as they had been on previous trips. Eventually, Little One told Jeff to stop while another exchange happened between Little One and whatever she was communicating with.

{{{ Move cautiously forward }}} Little One told him.

He took a couple of steps and stopped when he arrived at a column, only to have Little One tell him to continue. He took the next step with his hand out in front of him to keep from banging his face against the column, but that never happened, since the column must have been an illusion.

When he disappeared, Kayla and Arlene charged through – Kayla with her pulse rifle in her hands and Arlene with her pistol out. A couple of seconds later found the whole group inside ... something.

“What is this ... this thing?” Arlene said, her voice echoing and wavering oddly.

When they discussed it later, they would fully realize that they all saw something different: one saw a pleasant white beach with gentle waves on the sparkling blue water that was bordered by a jungle. Another was standing high upon a steep mountain crag with the wind whipping a stinging, oddly-colored snow against her body, another appeared to be hovering over a busy alien street/roadway with impossibly high, spiraling buildings set well back, another seemed to be inside something immense and living, the parts of which were moving to the rhythm of a gigantic heart, on and on. Then things changed and got weirder. Even as this was happening, the communication between Little One and the ancient controller resumed.

It seemed only moments later that all the illusions came crashing down, and the group was again standing among the columns. When they turned to Jeff, their headlamps all focused on his face, he put a hand in front of his eyes to block out the blinding lights. A deluge of simultaneous questions ensued, but he motioned for them to wait. When it was finally quiet, “Please, you’re blinding me. If you haven’t done so already, turn your headlamps to flood and angle them upward a little.”

When he could comfortably see again, he went on. “From your questions, I suspect that our senses were subjected to something beyond what our brains could tolerate. I know that what I saw could not have been real – at least I hope it wasn’t – and Little One tells me that it was my brain trying to function in an environment that could not be, at least not in our dimension.”

“But, according to Ship, we’re already in a different dimension from Earth...” Arlene slowly said.

“Yes,” he agreed, “but from what Ship has told me, 2214 is in a neighboring dimension where most natural laws are the same or only slightly different. From what Little One just told me, what we experienced was in a dimension that is quite different from what we’re accustomed to. So different that our brains could not properly assimilate it. I’m fairly certain that the only reason we could survive there was something that the ... controller did. What felt like seconds, was much longer in this dimension, according to Little One, and might not have even been time as we know it.”

He hesitated for a moment before, “Okay, we need to get out of here and start back before the others decide to come looking for us.”

“What? We’ve only been in here thirty minutes are so,” Arlene said as she glanced at her watch.

“Yeah, I know, but Little One just told me that it was much longer.”

“But...”

“I agree, we were only gone a few minutes, but Little One insists, so please humor me. I want to be able to sit and talk with her without distractions, anyway, so let’s head on back to the entrance crack.”

Things seemed to shift around them.

“Wait, isn’t that where we came in?” Kei asked as she changed the focus on her light and shined it on what appeared to be the entrance crack.

“Oh, crap,” Arlene whispered.

“Did that thing move us back here somehow?” Kayla asked.

Jeff stood looking around them. “This place has sent us back to the entrance before, but this felt ... oddly different, somehow.” After another short pause, “Apparently, Little One convinced the controller to move us back to the crack.”

“Yes. I agree. The transmission of our bodies produced a tingling that I have not experienced heretofore, and it was certainly quite dissimilar to Ship’s matter transmission,” Selina hesitantly commented.

“Okay, let’s get the cord wound up and start back,” Jeff said as he began winding the cord in. When he finally saw the end approaching, “Note that our safety line was not cut when we were transported back here. And before you ask, I have no idea how that’s possible. But, I’m beginning to think that this whole place might be an extension of the thing where we experienced the unusual effects. Anyway, let’s get through the crack, get rid of the cords that are linking us together and be on our way.”