Chapter 705

Ship

... The First hesitated, “I am unfamiliar with the variable settings on your energy weapons. I might choose a setting inappropriate for a cavern, especially one that has already had a cave-in. I also understand that this handgun is quite loud, and there is no predicting how sound might affect the possibly delicate structure of the cavern; consequently, I will fire it only as a last resort.”

“Valid points,” the General said, impressed.

Helen was displeased when she realized she would not be able to accompany the others into the cavern but would be left in charge of Ship and the crew.

Whitworth handed out portable radios to everyone, and a few minutes later, the four stood at an open hatch staring at the cavern entrance when the General turned to First. “I gave Ship a group picture of the Science Team taken just before they ported to the planet — the picture is SOP for outbound teams, of course.”

“She showed it to me mentally,” Jeff said, “but the First Officer has not seen it...”

The picture appeared on a wall screen so the First Officer could see the makeup of the team as well. Two wore Security uniforms and stood, one at either end of the small group. The others were wearing fatigue pants and boots with an assortment of civilian upper wear. The two Security personnel were male, while the scientists comprised two of each gender. Each person was wearing a sidearm, with a pack on their back and a pulse rifle strapped over a shoulder in addition to a wide belt with other implements of their trade attached. There was a stack of equipment behind them, as well as a loaded pull cart. In the background sat an odd-looking vehicle.

“Presumably, anyone we encounter in the cavern — if they are actually in the cavern — will be our people, and anyone else should be alien. However, as the General will attest, we have twice encountered humanoid species that were near-duplicates of the human race. I have no idea what’s going on or why the Science Team didn’t meet us near the cavern entrance, but we need to proceed with caution until we understand what’s happening. Of course, I’m assuming that they are, for some reason, in the cavern, despite the cave-in.”

Jeff had ensured that each of them had a canteen of water in addition to a subsistence backpack which contained food and other essentials for two days, as well as a First Aid kit.

With her inertialess tractor beam, Ship put them down twenty feet to the left of the entrance. First stepped out toward the entrance, obviously intending to lead the group and consequently taking the most vulnerable position. Jeff and the General passed a glance, and both shrugged. Jeff also noted that the entrance had been cleared of larger rocks that were piled to the side — presumably by the Team.

As they stepped past the entrance, Whitworth took his radio off his belt. “This is General Whitworth calling the Science Team. Whitworth calling the Science Team,” the General repeated.

After a moment of silence, he called again, but still, there was no answer.

All had turned their headlamps on as soon as they stepped past the entranceway, which they had determined while still on Ship, was approximately twenty feet wide by ten feet high, and at this point, was generally level. This held true past the first curving turn of the tunnel and continued for the next hundred yards of the winding path before it began to slope downward at a slight but noticeable angle while the width of the passageway quickly reduced to twelve feet or so.

The General was walking a step in front of Jeff when he said, “Note that most of the larger rocks have been moved to the sides. I wonder if the Science Team did that so the runabout could more easily navigate the passageway, or was it already done when they got here?”

The General glanced at his Colonel. “Good question, I suppose, but there aren’t any intelligent beings on the planet, remember?” the General commented.

“Still,” Jeff said, “there sure seems to have been a lot of work done to clear the center of the passageway. If the team didn’t move the rocks, then who did? And the tunnel is smooth in some places but almost natural in others. Even in the rough areas, though, there is still a wide enough path for the runabout to pass without difficulty. I think the team cleared some of this, but I’m not sure about all of it.”

The General shrugged and tried his radio again but got no response. “Shit. These have always worked well for us,” he grumbled under his breath as he put the radio back on his belt.

“I assume these are like the ones you gave Morales and his family? They worked a lot better than I expected inside their cave,” Jeff said before he tried to contact the Science Team with his radio in case there happened to be something wrong with the General’s. However, he didn’t receive an answer either.

“They should have worked here too,” Whitworth said with a frown.

When they came to an intersection, the First Officer turned to look back and froze. Before he could say anything, Jeff spoke. “Ship sent a couple of her mechanicals with us.”

The General, who had also turned to look, seemed to tear his eyes away from the mechanicals. “Shit, they’re eerie-looking things, like maybe she forgot to finish them.”

Jeff chuckled and said, “They’ll make sure we don’t get lost, and I imagine they are designed to do just about anything.”

Yeah, like starring in my next nightmare, the General thought but didn’t speak aloud. A second later, he said, “We won’t get lost, either,” as he shined a small UV light at the base of the wall near the intersection where a green arrow showed distinctly. “The team marked their way as per SOP. The paint will fade over a few weeks and won’t mar nature’s work.”

They continued until they came to a branching. “The painted arrow indicates that we use the right passageway,” the First Officer said even before the General shined his UV light.

“You can see that?” the General asked.

“Uh, why should I not? It is quite obvious.”

“Must be nice,” Whitworth quietly mumbled while Jeff just grinned.

They continued on with each turn marked with a green arrow. At each intersection, the General called on his radio, but there was still no response.

They had been walking for twenty minutes before they came to another intersection. One passageway turned to the right and was marked with a green arrow, while another corridor turned to the left and was marked with a red arrow, both showing plainly under the UV light.

“Now what?” the First Officer asked.

Jeff didn’t hesitate. “We’ll stay with the green arrows. If that doesn’t work, we’ll come back and check out where the red arrows go.

As they continued down the passageway marked by the green arrows, it had made several turns before it began to slope more steeply downward. Still, the slope was not very steep, but they had started to wonder how far down they had come. It wasn’t long before they came to a junction. One passageway turned approximately ninety degrees to their right and appeared to angle subtly downward. The other turned ninety degrees to the left and seemed to angle upward.

“Now what?” Whitworth said after he had tried to contact the Science Team again.

“Well,” Jeff said, thinking aloud. “The passageway to either side seems to be a foot or so narrower, and the team has a runabout. Chances are they would have gone for the wider passageway — the center one — at least at first.”

First shrugged. “Straight ahead it is.”

The angle downward increased. It didn’t seem to be enough for concern but it was continuous.

“Just keep your eyes and ears open,” the Prime reminded the First Officer. “This is just too easy.”

The passageway suddenly opened into what they soon realized was a virtual jungle of stalagmites. When First cast the beam of his light upward, there were matching stalactites hanging from the ceiling far above. Unsettling were the piles of rubble that had, without doubt, been caused by some of the stalactites breaking loose from the cavern’s roof to come crashing down.

“Not a good place to be, should an earthquake happen in the neighborhood,” Kayla said dryly.

Someone or some group had spent time clearing a passageway through the maze. The stalagmites ranged from tiny to a giant size of what they guessed to be more than fifty feet high. With all of the group shining their lights around, and with the dripping stalactites as well as the jungle of stalagmites, there were reflections and shadows aplenty. Also, their voices seemed to take on an odd quality.

“I do not like this place,” Kayla muttered while unconsciously stroking the stock of her pulse rifle. “This would be a great place for an ambush.”

“I don’t think the Science Team is going to ambush us, and there are no other intelligent beings on the planet other than us,” the General said with a grin, even as he tried his radio again, but with the same result.

“So, the team is out of range, not in the cavern at all, or are unable to answer for some other reason,” Jeff said while not expecting an answer.

While Whitworth was using the radio, Jeff, First and Kayla had changed the focus of their lights to narrow beam in an attempt to see better between the stalagmites and the piles of rubble. That had a second effect in that the shadows now appeared to move.

Jeff put his hand on Kayla’s shoulder. “I don’t sense anything alive in here other than us.”

Kayla, trusting her husband, immediately relaxed somewhat, which was a compliment as far as Jeff was concerned; however, as the minutes passed and they continued to move through the cavern, Jeff began to feel the first tingling of uneasiness. It wasn’t long before the First Officer began to look a bit uncomfortable, and the two glanced at each other and nodded.

Finally, they reached the other side of the big room, which was more of a long tunnel section than just one room. Whatever the terminology, all were pleased to be out of the area to where sound returned to normal — as far as normal could be deep in a cavern.

Another twenty more minutes of walking, and they would have been totally lost except for the green arrows that continued at each intersection or branching.

Eventually, they could see the hint of light ahead, and they crept slowly forward until the light subtly increased.

“Everyone, quiet and turn your lights off from here on,” Jeff hissed out, “I hear voices.”

“Me, too,” Kayla agreed a few moments after Jeff had first heard the voices.

“First and I will go first,” Jeff told the General while hoping that Kayla would do as he implied.

Kayla waited until Jeff was a few feet ahead and started after him, as both Jeff and Whitworth knew she would, but the General clamped a hand around her wrist and pulled her close enough to whisper, “He’s better at this than either of us. If you insist, you will only endanger him.”

Kayla thought about pretending to relax, then snatching away, but she knew Whitworth was right.

After a moment, she whispered, “Okay, but if anything happens, don’t try to stop me. Protecting him is my number one priority — remember?”

“Look, I know that I assigned you to be his last line of defense, and it is a priority, but staying alive so you can continue to be his wife is a priority too,” Whitworth tried to reason. “Look, Kayla, neither of us can do anything that he can’t do better and faster.”

Unmoved by Whitworth’s logic, she said, “I’ll wait for three minutes. If we haven’t heard from them by then, I’m going.”

“Make it five, and we have a deal.”

“Three,” she hissed back as she crawled a few feet farther along the passageway before stopping. Cursing under his breath, Whitworth crawled up beside her to wait.

As the First Officer crawled nearer the opening to the area in front of them, Jeff put a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to prove anything. I have more training in this than you. Let me lead. Just concentrate on being as quiet as you can.”

The First hesitated for a second while he mulled over his Captain’s comment, then whispered his acknowledgment before relaxing to allow Jeff to ease past him. Jeff crawled on for a handful of seconds before he stopped, waited for ten seconds or so while listening, then crawled around the corner and into the room — which was not exactly a room.