Chapter 6

Jorie held the map in between the seats for the other two to see. He pointed at one specific spot.

"There is the only site that is totally unique on this continent. Notice this circle of stone, which is too perfect to be natural. I realize that the vegetation obscures a lot of the circumference, but the numbers don't lie. Plus, this circle is a donut. There is a whole inner circle that is probably an inner courtyard."

Mista stared at the map for the moment and then traced a route.

"I'm guessing 175 kilometers beyond the border of the base camp satellite system, Dothan. If we follow this river, the FAD can fly below tree level."

"This is only the first problem," Jorie said. "There is no obvious entrance from this aerial recon map. If we were seeking a primitive people, I would suggest cardinal points, but not for an advanced civilization. They have too many variables."

"One step at a time," Dothan said. "Belt yourself for turbulence."

Jorie barely clicked his belt in place when afterburners kicked in. The sudden G's went uncompensated by the internal system and Jorie's head pressed deep into the back of the seat. The sudden dive made him want to lose his lunch. When he dared to look out the window, he wondered if the FAD was even 15 meters above the ground. The trees on his right were a blur.

When Dothan indicated they had no pursuit, Mista relaxed at the weapons console, allowing the computer to seek targets. She released the swivel lock on her seat and turned towards Jorie.

"Tell me more about this girlfriend of Vantis," Mista said.

Jorie tried to be evasive but Mista was not deterred. With the precision of a professional interrogator, she had him admitting the sex they had after drinking the drug laced wine. She teased out his feelings towards Kita and forced him to admit that he liked her.

When Jorie explained his disgust with her personal arrangement with Vantis, Mista dismissed his complaint.

"Sex in a corrupt system is just another commodity. The exchange speaks nothing of love or feelings, just business," she said.

Two hours later they slowly circled the site, looking for an entrance because the entire area was partially overgrown with trees. On the second loop, Mista announced that the radar showed a depression in the midst of a small copse of trees. Dothan sat the craft down in the deep shade of a nearby grove of larger trees, nearly wedging the FAD between two trunks.

Dothan was weighted down with weapons and his big sword. Jorie brought a basic set of tools and Mista threw food tabs, water, rope and lights in a backpack.

The copse of trees was tight with brambles and littered with alien guano from whatever nested in the trees. Strange looking hordes of insects scurried at their approach under the vines and brambles. The leaves were barbed and thick. More than once, Jorie had to snatch his hat back when he didn't duck low enough.

Dothan swung his sword like a machete, clearing a narrow path that twisted and turned around the alien tree trunks. The smell was putrid. The ground squished with animal waste and scavenger insects whose feeding they had disturbed. The sun barely filtered through the foliage as they slowly weaved through the trees.

"Someone doesn't want the entrance to be found," Jorie said. "This flora and fauna are too nasty to be a coincidence."

They turned a corner and before them rose a wall of thick vines with evil-looking, purple leaves. Dothan took a slice at the vine. His sword bounced back but not before cutting a leaf stem. A milky white liquid shot out of the cut a fair distance. When it hit the ground, the liquid sizzled and turned to smoke.

"You're going to have to cut it with an energy beam," Mista said, stepping away from the smoke.

"Anyone looking for us could read energy signature," Dothan said, protesting.

"We have no choice and the chrono is ticking," Mista said.

Dothan made two quick cuts with his smallest energy weapon. A dark maw opened up beyond the cut vines. It was the entrance to a tunnel.

"Shall we?" Mista said, leading the way without any hesitation. Jorie followed and Dothan took the rear.

The floor beneath was flat and smooth. Their light beams bounced off the sandstone walls which were vertically straight until they hit the barrel ceiling. No ornamentation survived the transformation into sandstone. Their footsteps echoed off of the walls.

The tunnel stopped and the explorers had the choice of left or right. Either way was dark. Looking backwards, Jorie realized that the entrance had disappeared. They had been walking steadily downwards and he never realized it.

Mista was acting strangely. Instead of using her instruments to probe the murk, she had her right arm extended with her fingers splayed.

"This way," she said and she turned right. The tunnel split again and then a third time. The tunnel took a sharp right turn and then another. By this point, Jorie was completely turned around and he had no sense of direction.

They walked through a doorway and entered a long, thin room two stories high. A window at the top let in the light. The floor was rough with natural rock, a harder stone than sandstone.

"We are close," Mista said. They followed her across the length of the room and ducked through another doorway. On the other side was a staircase leading upwards. Mista bypassed the stairs and went behind them. Another staircase, hidden in the shadow of the first, led downward.

They went down. In the dark again, they followed the line of the wall until another stone staircase beckoned out of the gloom. They climbed twenty-three steps. Jorie counted each one. Mista asked Dothan to push and a stone block at their waist gave way. The two of them pushed harder and the stone suddenly slid forward and light shone through, causing Jorie's eyes to water.

Squeezing through the hole, Jorie emerged into the inner courtyard. Before he could get his bearings, Dothan started to stride towards the center. Mista lunged for him and pulled him back.