“Remember that this artifact, whatever it is, may have been here for millions of years, like the T'aafhal ship that crashed on Earth,” Mizuki added, always the voice of reason amongst the four. Bobby could be reckless, as she well knew, and while Beth and Billy Ray were less prone to rushing into things they too were adventurous types. Not that Mizuki was not curious, but she was a trained scientist, and tried to be methodical and patient.
“I'm surprised that you of all people would want to spend another night on this rock, sweetheart.”
“Inside a shuttle, wearing armor, no problem. Better that than fly into a mountain in the dark—one shuttle crash in my lifetime is quite enough.”
“All right, all right. We'll land... and no back seat flying.” Bobby grinned at his soon to be wife and began a rapid descent toward a flat topped bluff bordering the river.
The Valley of Mists
After an uneventful night the explorers resumed their journey upstream. As the river snaked its way northward, the gorge through which it flowed grew narrower and its walls steeper. Low clouds wreathed the surrounding mountains and the valley below became increasingly obscured by fog.
“I hope the waterfall is tall enough to see through this soup,” Bobby muttered. He was flying well above the fog obscured valley bottom.
“I hope so too,” Mizuki replied. “I talked with Sami again this morning and he said that the river water showed signs of glacial silt. We must be getting near the source of the river.”
Rounding a sharp bend, the river straightened out in front of them. There, rising out of the mists, was a massive water fall.
“I think we have found it,” Beth said dryly.
“It looks to be about three hundred meters wide at the top and radar says it's eight hundred meters, give or take, from top to bottom,” Bobby said. “That qualifies as a 'stupendously large waterfall' in my book.”
“I guess it'll have to do, pardner.” Billy Ray was grinning widely, as excited as the rest of the party over finding a site matching the ant scholar's description.
“So what do we do now?” asked Mizuki, viewing the falling torrent of water with some trepidation.
“I suggest we approach the fall carefully and use the sensors to scan for a cave opening,” Beth replied, “and if there is, hope that a way up to it still exists.”
“Yes Ma'am, let's see what secrets are hidden by the mists.” Bobby eased the shuttle to within fifty meters of the falling avalanche of water and then began a slow vertical descent. The view from the cabin was quickly obscured by billowing mist, eerily illuminated by light from the red sun.
“Sort of like descending into hell,” the Captain said, as swirling mist enveloped the shuttle. Fading from red to gray, things grew darker as they sank deeper into the unknown depths.
The cabin fell silent as the outside visibility dropped to zero. Bobby overlaid the forward windscreen with a holographic image, constructed from multi-spectral sensor returns. The computer generated image showed the cliff face receding away from the thundering torrent tumbling from the ledge above. About a third of the way down the cliff face a sizable hole appeared, its lower edge forming a horizontal shelf in the rock.
“Ye of little faith,” Billy Ray quipped. “Just like our hard-shelled friends said, a cave entrance behind a huge waterfall.”
“Yes, dear. But how do we get to the entrance?”
“I can tell you this, we are not flying through that curtain of water,” Bobby said. “We'd end up on the rocks below with fifty thousand cubic meters of water a minute pounding down on our heads.”
“Didn't the ant scholar say there was a way in from the side of the fall?” Mizuki said, trying to recall the words of the local historian. “It looks like the falling water causes the face of the cliff to erode more rapidly than the ledge at the top, undercutting it. Maybe there is enough gap between the water and the rock face to slip in behind the fall itself.”
Hovering in front of the wall of falling water, Bobby moved the shuttle sideways while scanning for some way to access the hidden cave opening. The width of the stream did not span the entire cliff face, leaving gaps at either side.
“I don't know about you, but it doesn't look like there is any easy way to climb up that cliff,” Billy Ray observed, “or to rappel down from the top.”
“I don't think I would enjoy dangling on 250 meters of rope from an overhanging cliff,” Beth said, adding. “We could call for more personnel from the ship.”
“To do what, build us an elevator?” her husband replied. “Building anything on the cliff face would be dangerous and time consuming. Besides, most of the crew don't know the truth about the T'aafhal: how they manipulated our species's development; how the M'tak Ka'fek fiddled with those who sailed in her; how humanity was drafted to fight a galactic war we didn't start. The worst part about it is we don't even know if there's anything worthwhile in there. No, until we know what this artifact is we need to keep a tight rein on the situation.”
“Are you saying that the crew might not handle the truth well?”
“I'm saying we need to know a lot more than we do now, before letting the rest of mankind in on the secret. They might not take too kindly to having been bred like some alien's prize cattle.”
“Or that some of us are more than human,” added Mizuki.
“Which brings us back to finding a way into the cave on our own,” Bobby said, bringing the conversation full circle.
“The gap is only about ten meters, max. That's not wide enough for the pinnace to just fly in,” Beth said measuring the distance with a pilot's eye.
“What are the dimensions of the cave opening?” Bobby asked.
“It is almost twenty meters wide and fifteen tall at the mouth, though it narrows farther in,” Mizuki replied, giving Bobby an apprehensive look. “Why do you ask?”
“I've got an idea...”
Chapter 36
The Waterfall
“Just what do you have in mind pardner?” Billy Ray asked his friend. Having known Bobby for more than half his life, Billy Ray knew that tone of voice—it usually meant something crazy to follow.
“This shuttle is twelve meters long and eight meters or so wide, right?”
“Yes,” Beth answered, cautious hesitation in her voice. “Like I said, not enough clearance between the cliff face and the cascading water.”
“Not on the level.”
“Why do I have the feeling that there's a 'hey y'all, watch this' moment coming.”
Bobby ignored his friend and elaborated. “My point is, the pinnace is less than five meters tall. That should give sufficient clearance to fit between the rock and the water.”
“Yer sayin' we can fly the pinnace, banked at an angle of ninety degrees, between the rock and the cascade.”
“Right!”
“Are you joking?” asked Mizuki.
“Are you insane?” asked Beth.
“Hell no, he ain't jokin',” Billy Ray said. “And the fact that he's crazy ain't exactly a secret.”
“Come on! It's not like we need aerodynamic lift to keep this puppy in the air. It can hover on its side as easily as on the level like we're doing now.” Bobby's voice grew more excited as he explained his plan. “I'll just flip her on her side, snuggle up to the cliff face and slide in behind the falling water.”
“And how does being sideways behind the waterfall help us?”
“The cave opening is more than big enough to level off in—if it's done carefully—and once level we can land and deplane.”
The cabin was totally silent.
“Well?” he asked his companions, glancing anxiously from one to the next. “It's that or we need to find a place to land so we can try our hand at a bit of mountaineering.”
Billy Ray looked to the two women. “Anybody got an alternative? Cause I got nothing.”
Both shook their heads.
“This better not be as bad as the sled ride inside the metal moon,” Mizuki told he
r partner, “I had trouble keeping food down for a week after that.”
“Not a problem, sweetheart. We have deck gravity this time, you won't feel a thing.”
“Like we all haven't heard that before,” Beth snorted.
“OK, pardner, let me tell the ship what we are about to try and where to start looking for the pieces if it don't work.”
Bobby grinned like a mad man. “What was that you said earlier... Ye of little faith?”
* * * * *
The shuttle sidled up to the rock face, spray from the raging torrent sheeting off the forward windscreen. Beth was in the co-pilot's seat, trying to look less nervous than she felt. The cabin was again in full transparency mode, giving those on board a better view than some of them might wish.
“All right people, we are about to roll ninety degrees to starboard,” Bobby called from the left side pilot's seat. His hands moved imperceptively on the side stick and thruster controls.
The world outside rotated.
In the back of the cabin, Hitch reached out and steadied himself against the cabin overhead. “Woa,” he exclaimed.
“Easy, Stevie,” Matt encouraged his friend. “The deck gravity won't let you fall.”
“Yeah, but the damned pinnace could fall!”
Outside, the water slick rocky surface that had been a vertical wall now appeared to be beneath the shuttle. The view forward showed a stream of water flying by from left to right, almost ten meters above the dark rock beneath their feet.
“Remember Bobby, it is OK to have butterflies in your stomach, as long as you make them fly in formation.”
“What?”
“It was just something I read.” Mizuki shrugged. “It sounded zen and seemed to fit the situation.”
“You're the butterfly expert, I just fly the ship.” As he was speaking, Bobby edged the shuttle closer to the seemingly horizontal airborne cascade. “OK, let's slip in between the water and the cliff.”
The pinnace bounced across the rocky surface, kept from actual contact with the cliff face by its bottom repulsors. Water flew sideways across the windscreen, providing mixed signals to the crew's senses. Their vestibular systems—their inner ears—were at odds with what their eyes were telling them. A low moan came from the rear of the cabin.
“Close yer eyes if you feel like pukin',” Billy Ray suggested. “You really don't want to blow chunks inside a suit of armor.”
“Thank you, dear, for bringing up the subject.” Beth's dark face had turned a bit ashen but she held on. As a torpedo ship captain during the battle for Earth she had plenty of experience with similar sensory dissonance. Of course, it was easier to deal with when she was calling the shots—as most pilots will admit, they hate being passengers with somebody else doing the flying.
Soon there was nothing to be seen above the shuttle but raging water. The pinnace bobbled and bumped along, clinging to the rock, trying to avoid being sucked into the avalanche of H2O
“My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives,” Bobby recited.
“What?” Mizuki asked in confusion.
“Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles.” Billy Ray answered.
“They are both certifiably insane! We've been hijacked by madmen!”
Smiling at Beth's sarcastic outburst, Bobby replied. “Lady, you knew I was crazy when you got on board this crate.”
The shuttle wobbled and dipped as a dark hole opened up beneath it—the open mouth of the cave. Guiding the craft along the ledge formed by the floor of the cave, Bobby carefully positioned its blunt delta shape so that he could roll the shuttle into the opening. This was the trickiest part of the whole evolution.
“Hold on to your butts,” he muttered as he slowly rolled the shuttle back toward a level orientation. As the left side tilted into the cave the right side tilted outward, until it was clipped by the deluge.
The shuttle flipped back to an upright position and a bit beyond. At the same time it slid down the side of the cliff, bouncing off of the cave opening.
Bobby's reflexes were amazing before being enhanced by the T'aafhal, now they were almost superhuman. He recovered the craft's attitude and stopped its downward slide.
“OK, everybody. Let's try that again.”
No one else spoke.
Carefully, the shuttle climbed up the cliff face until the cave opening was once again beneath its belly. This time Bobby rolled the shuttle into the cave mouth using a combination of pitch and yaw to swing the wide rear of the craft into the opening.
Ending up a bit nose high he gingerly dropped the front while backing fully into the safety of the cave. Coming to a level hover, he deployed the landing struts and gently sat the bird down on the cave floor. Beth still had a death grip on the arms of the co-pilot's seat.
He took his hands off the controls and flexed his fingers several times. Then, looking at the others, he grinned and said, “See? Piece of cake.”
* * * * *
Interesting, they have arrived at the entrance to the cavern. They are either highly confident of their skills, or they are excessively reckless. No matter, they must still traverse several kilometers of underground terrain and deal successfully with the hazards along the way.
The Cavern
“All right you two,” Billy Ray said to the two petty officers. “Yer gonna stay with the shuttle and maintain a comm link to the ship. We will be dropping signal repeaters along the way, whenever the signal strength gets too low.”
“But Captain,” said Hitch. “The Chief told us not to let you out of our sight.”
“He did, Sir,” said Jacobs, backing up his friend.
“Chief Zackly isn't here to assess the situation, gentlemen. We need you two in reserve, just in case something unexpected happens. You will stay with the shuttle unless we call for you or we lose communications. Do you understand?”
The two sailors came to attention. “Aye, aye, Sir!”
Billy Ray turned and descended the open airstair. Joining the three other officers, he talked to them over suit-to-suit.
“Y'all about ready to move out?”
“Yes, dear. What was that all about?”
“NCOs, all of 'em think officers are like children to be coddled and watched over.”
“They care about us, Billy Ray,” Mizuki said in support of the ship's noncoms.
“They just don't want an ass chewing from the Chief when they get back to the ship,” scoffed Bobby. Billy Ray snorted and Beth raised one eyebrow in bemused agreement.
“Whatever, we got a good supply of signal repeaters and a small recon drone.” The size of the pinnace didn't allow for the bigger, more capable recon drones carried by the large shuttles. The grapefruit sized drone didn't have the full spectrum sensors of its larger relatives, but it could transmit high-def video and IR back to its operator’s suit display.
“I've run the drone a kilometer deep into the cave and it looks like, after narrowing a bit, it opens up to a much larger space inside.” Beth had assumed command of the drone, though the others could all receive telemetry from the little scout robot.
“Mizuki, do you have any way of tellin' if we are getting close to this gizmo?”
“Most of my detection equipment was destroyed in the shuttle crash and there wasn't time for engineering to fabricate replacements. I do have a nanoresonance detector that may be able to tell us if we come across something interesting.”
“Sing out if you pickup anything. All right folks, let's head out.”
* * * * *
Using their suit lamps for illumination, augmented by IR imaging, the quartet of friends descended into the pitch dark cavern. As promised, about a kilometer inside the cave opened up into a much larger cavern. The formerly gray-black rock became laced with color, ranging from milky white to hot pink.
Many speleothems graced the huge space—stalactites, stalagmites, and columns where the two had grown together. The ceiling was fes
tooned with stone icicles, formed by the slow drip of mineral laced water over aeons. The sides of the cavern were so ornately decorated in places that they looked like something out of a mad king's fantasy grotto. Mizuki's butterflies flitting about only heightened the effect. The little winged aliens raced from place to place like a pack of puppies in a strange room.
“Oh wow,” Beth exclaimed. “That is quite something.”
“That view alone makes this trip worth while,” Billy Ray agreed.
“The surrounding rock is mostly dolomite—calcium magnesium carbonate—which can occur in many colors. It is also susceptible to cave formation by ground water. Dr. Hussein says this cave must be quite old. It takes a million years or more to form large columns like those back on Earth.”
“That formation to the left, where those red ribbons streak down the paler rock, it looks like the cave wall is bleeding.”
“Yer just an incurable romantic, honey bunch.” Billy Ray teased his wife.
“Look, there is a pool about fifty meters in,” said Bobby, pointing at a crystal clear pond, “with a stone arch over it.”
“It looks like a traditional Japanese bridge over a koi pond,” Mizuki added, a touch of homesickness in her voice. Faced with such grandeur a hush settled over them all.
After a minute of awed reverence, Billy Ray broke the silence. “As spectacular as this is, we need to keep moving, y'all. Just watch where yer stepping.”
Billy Ray strode forward, into the larger space. With tacit agreement the others moved into the cavern, following the path their captain blazed. After pausing to marvel at the tranquil stillness of the subterranean pool, staring into its turquoise depths, they crossed the stone bridge one at a time.
Among the rocks and spires, strange creatures moved cautiously. Blind scorpions with no eyes or body pigment, like miniature ghosts of their ferocious relatives on the surface. Cave newts—blind salamanders—a pale pinkish-white in color with splashes of red on their external gills. Guided by sound, one of the blind lizards tried to eat a butterfly and paid for its bad judgment with its life.
The Queen's Daemon (T'aafhal Legacy Book 2) Page 28