by R. A. Nargi
It was like flying through a waterfall in the middle of the night. Everything became soaked instantly. Visibility was only a few meters with the sled’s lights, and we had to be careful we didn’t smash into a cliff wall as we rose.
“Everyone doing okay?” Narcissa asked.
Chiraine said, “Yeah, I guess. I didn’t expect it to be this cold. And dark.”
“Your suit’s temp regulators will kick in soon,” I said.
As we ascended, the mist cleared. It was still an hour or so before dawn, so we couldn’t see much—even with the EVS overlay on our visors—but the sled’s nav system kept us on course. It was a simple up and over route, but the winds grew stronger as we rose and buffeted the sled so much I thought I was going to be sick.
Within two minutes I was setting the sled down on the top of the butte, a few hundred meters away from the edge of the Coliseum.
“We should probably find an enclosed place to park it,” Narcissa said.
“Good idea.” I drove the sled towards the dark outline of structures to the north.
As we drew closer, the mass of stone buildings loomed up in the darkness. Some of them reached fifteen meters tall.
The glow of Chiraine’s Aura lit her face as she bent over it. “Head around to the right. There should be a gap that will let us get into the central circle.”
Narcissa kept the light pointed down at an angle so I could see the wall of buildings. I flew around the perimeter until we found the gap that Chiraine had identified.
It turned out to be a hundred-meter-wide boulevard. Part of a colossal archway marked the entrance and I had to steer around a toppled pillar that was twice the diameter of the sled.
“This is incredible!” Chiraine said.
The sky had cleared a bit and the dim pre-dawn light had increased enough for our EVS overlays to allow us to pick out individual structures, as well as the immense man-made lake. The lake was a good four hundred meters wide, and had an island in the center with some sort of temple-like building.
“We can park in there,” Narcissa said, pointing off to the south.
I steered us towards what looked like a hangar of some sort. But as we drew closer I saw that it was a blocky three-story building with a large part of its front wall collapsed.
“Stop here and I’ll make sure it’s clear.” Narcissa hopped off the sled and readied her Benham, which she had outfitted with an IR scope she found in the Vostok’s weapons locker.
Chiraine and I watched as Narcissa disappeared into the cave-like structure.
“I really hope this place is as desolate as she thinks it is,” Chiraine said.
“Me too.”
The wind picked up again, whistling eerily through the buildings.
Finally, Narcissa appeared at the entrance of the broken building. She waved at us and her voice crackled in my earpiece. “All clear.”
I crept the sled forward into the structure while Chiraine operated the lights. Beams cut through the darkness, revealing a vast open chamber that spanned the entire three stories. It really was like some sort of hangar.
“Just bring it in a dozen meters or so,” Narcissa said. “That should shield us from any orbital cams.”
I did so, and then turned the sled so its bow faced the opening—just in case we needed to make a quick retreat. Then I extended the hydraulic landing blocks, set the sled down, and powered everything off.
“Grab your gear,” I said. But Chiraine was already moving off towards one of the intact walls. As she illuminated it with her hand lamp, I could see strange carvings.
“This is incredible,” she said, her voice filled with awe.
“Don’t wander off.”
I gathered my equipment, including a Winton snub railgun and the mobile comm unit, which I wore like a backpack.
“You want me to carry that?” Narcissa asked.
“No, I’m good. You’re our guard, remember?”
After a few moments of letting the unit calibrate, I sent a pulse alert to Ana-Zhi to let her know that we had reached our destination. Then I asked Chiraine to tear herself away from the carvings. Less than a minute later, the return pulse arrived, confirming she had received our communication.
“Let’s get our bearings and head to that crypt place you found.”
“It’s not a crypt,” she said. “It’s called the Antrum.” She called up the topo on her Aura. “We need to cross the concourse. It’s on the other side.”
“Lead on.”
We headed due west, hunched over as we fought the howling wind. The manmade lake was right in front of us, ringed by a low ornamental wall. As we drew closer, it became apparent that the lake had silted over. Beyond the wall was an expanse of what looked like dried, cracked mud dotted with whitish splotches that could have been dried mineral deposits or bird droppings. From some large birds. Or maybe they were K’Lortai Dragon droppings.
“Across or around?” Narcissa asked.
“Around,” I said. “Definitely around. I don’t feel like getting stuck in some Yueldian quicksand.”
“Technically, it would be quickmud,” Chiraine said.
We followed the low wall as it curved up to the northwest. It was a long, uncomfortable slog, with the wind kicking up a ton of dust.
“What’s that?” Narcissa pointed towards a large domed structure to the north.
Chiraine checked her Aura. “Not sure. One of the temples, I think. The domes are usually temples of some sort.”
“Let’s get out of the wind,” I said.
We ducked into a narrow alleyway and followed it north for fifty meters, hoping to find another street heading west towards our destination. Unfortunately we had stumbled into a maze of narrow lanes that twisted and turned in random directions every dozen meters. At least we were protected against the wind.
We noticed more of the lumpy white substance splattered about various surfaces of the lanes and buildings. The stuff was definitely organic and from the splash patterns, definitely fell from above. Yueldian bird poo, for sure.
“This way,” Chiraine said.
We passed through a short tunnel and then wound our way deeper into the labyrinth of stone buildings. The dawn light cast deep shadows which made it tough to pick out passageways.
Every few minutes, Chiraine stopped to get her bearings, but several times we found ourselves at a dead end and had to backtrack.
I couldn’t tell how far we had traveled or even if we were making progress.
“We’re not lost, are we?” Narcissa asked.
“No,” Chiraine said. “At least I don’t think so. But these maps don’t seem completely accurate.”
“How can that be?” I asked. “They’re not that old.” If I remembered correctly, the topos came from missions in ’22 and ’29. That meant they were less than forty years old. According to Chiraine, these structures were built 2000 years ago. It didn’t make sense.
“Maybe the data got corrupted somehow,” Narcissa said. She brushed off some of the bird poo that had managed to get on her shoulder.
“We know it’s to the northwest,” Chiraine said. “Let’s keep going.”
We detoured around a full block of buildings that had all collapsed into a hill of rubble a dozen meters tall. I wanted to climb up on the rubble so we could get a better look at our surroundings, but Narcissa convinced me not to. Which was probably smart. Who knew how stable the rubble was?
On the other side of the hill of debris stood an enclosed courtyard, ringed on three sides by domed temple buildings. Thankfully, Chiraine was able to identify our location on the topo.
“Okay, this is promising,” she said. “The Antrum is three hundred meters due west. That-a-way!”
Three hundred meters due west was easier said than done. The alleys twisted and turned even more, and it seemed like shadows were getting darker and darker, even as the sky seemed to dim. It must be some sort of weird atmospheric inversion.
“Did you hear that?” Narc
issa asked.
“What?”
“A fluttering sound. Very faint. To the west.”
We all froze and listened carefully, but all I could hear was the moan of the wind through broken windows and narrow lanes.
“Come on,” I said.
“Has it been an hour?” Chiraine asked.
I called up the chronometer on my Aura.
“Shit.”
We had missed the scheduled communication with Ana-Zhi.
“I need to call her. Hang on.”
I unslung the comm unit and activated it and waited for it to calibrate itself. Sending the pulse alert was fairly quick, but I was encoding location data this time and that took a bit longer.
“Okay, we’re—”
Without warning, a large dark shape swooped down from nowhere, flapping massive leathery wings.
Chiraine screamed and I yelled “Down!” while leaping to tackle her.
The creature angled away before I could get a good look at it. All I could tell was that it was as big as the sled and black as night.
“Everyone okay?” Narcissa said.
“Just startled,” Chiraine said as she entangled herself from my arms. “What was that thing?”
“Baby K’Lortai Dragon?” I said.
“That’s not funny.”
“I didn’t see any feathers,” Narcissa said. “It looked reptilian to me.”
I mentally ran through the list of Yueldian fauna I had been implanted with, but nothing matched. There were hundreds of species of birds, of course, but the largest had a wingspan of just a couple of meters. This thing was twice as big as that.
I helped Chiraine up and we all surveyed the area. The creature was nowhere to be seen.
“Okay, let’s keep on going, but eyes up,” I said. “If that thing body-slams you, it will be painful.”
We moved through the maze, all on high alert. After another hundred meters, we hit another dead end.
“This is getting really old,” I said.
“Tell me about it,” Narcissa said.
“It’s not my fault, guys.” Chiraine said. “I don’t get it. Everything is jumbled around.” She motioned to the wall in front of us, blocking our way. “This shouldn’t be here. It should be a street.”
“Maybe we should head back out into the open area?” Narcissa said. “To the south.”
“No,” I said. “With that creature flying around, the last place we want to be is somewhere open.”
As we backtracked, I wondered again how the topo could be so messed up. Maybe Allegro or Viatani or whoever intentionally messed with the data. But why?
Eventually we found our destination. It was a warehouse-sized building, three stories tall, and its walls were reinforced with buttresses. Compared to most of the other buildings, there wasn’t a lot of ornamentation on this one. It looked blocky and utilitarian.
“Tell me again what this place is,” Narcissa said.
“The Viatani expedition called it the Antrum, but we don’t know much beyond that. Other than it is one of the larger structures in the Coliseum.”
“Well, they called it the Antrum for a reason, right?” I said.
Chiraine said, “Antrum means ‘cavity.’ The notes on this structure are a little sketchy, but they mention that inside the Antrum there’s an entrance to a big cavern right below us. That’s why I thought it might make a good hiding place for the artifacts.”
“Yeah,” I said. “If we can find a more direct way here. Imagine trying to haul multiple sled loads of crates through that maze.”
“Well, we’d have to risk bringing the ship up here—otherwise we’d be unloading forever,” Narcissa said.
“Guys?” Chiraine had wandered to the corner of the structure. “I’m not seeing any doors on this side. Let’s do a perimeter check.”
We walked around the Antrum, but didn’t see any doors—or windows for that matter. It was like a big stone cube, fifteen meters on every side.
“The door must have been bricked up or something,” I said. “I’m going around again.”
We all did another pass around the Antrum, taking our time, checking for discolored wall sections, but there was nothing.
“This place is freaky,” Narcissa said.
“That’s an understatement,” I said. “Could one of the later expeditions have sealed it somehow?”
“Either that or there’s another entrance,” Narcissa said. “Maybe a tunnel in from another building.”
I looked up towards the top of the Antrum’s flat roof. “I wouldn’t mind getting on top of it. Maybe there’s a hatch or something.”
“Not a bad idea,” Narcissa said. “You have a drone?”
“No, we didn’t have time to reprogram them. I’ll have to climb.”
The problem was that I didn’t bring any climbing gear or a jet pack. I would have to use a rope and grapple and do it the hard way.
“Let’s check the other buildings first,” Chiraine said. “I’m hopeful that there’s a tunnel.”
Unfortunately there wasn’t.
We checked six nearby buildings. They all had normal doors and windows. Some were storehouses. Others were for accommodating Yueldians. We saw the remains of dozens of long cots for sleeping—or maybe they were hospital beds. In other buildings there were rows of stone benches such as might be found in a church or meeting hall. And there were some buildings that were completely empty save for a thick layer of dust. But none of the structures had any obvious tunnels or passages.
“Okay, I’m losing patience,” I said. “I’m going up.”
“You sure, Jannigan?” Chiraine asked. “That looks like a tough climb.”
“I’ve climbed much higher than that,” I bragged. I wasn’t sure that it was completely true, but I had made up my mind—and I was a Beck, damn it. This was what we did.
Narcissa loaded a grapple bolt unit into her Benham. Thank Dynark she thought to bring some utility bolts. The grapple was a small expanding anchor with fifteen meters of carbon nanotube line.
“Where do you want it?” She sighted along the top edge of the building.
“As close to the top as you can get it.”
“I can put it within seven or eight centimeters from the edge.”
“That’s just showing off,” I smiled. “Thirty or forty is fine.”
I stripped off most of my gear and traded my Winton for Chiraine’s RB. Still, the exosuit added about seven kilos to my weight. But I needed it for protection in case I fell, not to mention the life support functions.
Narcissa fired and the bolt embedded itself into the parapet wall. From down where we stood, it looked like she hit it right below the top. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was within seven centimeters. The line expanded and thickened as the nanotubes decompressed. Within a minute, it was ready.
“Here goes nothing.”
“Be careful, Jannigan!” Chiraine called after me.
I just went for it, leaping as high as I could and catching the rope. Then I braced my legs against the wall, leaned back, and started pulling myself up, hand over hand. It was either momentum, sheer force of will, or dumb luck, but I managed to get to the top of the wall without falling. At the top I caught the edge of the parapet and pulled myself up, thankful for the augmented strength my suit provided.
As Chiraine and Narcissa cheered me on, I swung myself up and pivoted over the edge and—
I nearly fell through the roof.
It was almost completely collapsed—a tangle of broken beams and timbers that formed a three-story-deep crater of debris.
“What is it?” Narcissa yelled.
“The roof’s just about gone!” I pulled myself back up and straddled the top of the parapet.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Collapsed. The whole thing.” I leaned over, trying to take in as much as possible.
“Get back down here, then,” Chiraine yelled. “It’s not safe.”
She was right. It wasn
’t safe. But, judging by the weathering of the debris, this roof had collapsed a long time ago.
“It might be stable enough for me to climb down.” I had spotted a natural archway on the bottom where some rafters had fallen and were propped against each other. As long as I didn’t disturb anything, I bet I could gain entrance to the ground floor. It was worth a shot.
“I’m going in.”
“You’re crazy!” Chiraine yelled.
“I agree,” Narcissa called. “It’s not worth it. We’ll find someplace else.”
My dad always said that I had a stubborn streak, and maybe it was true. Especially when faced with a challenge.
I gathered the line and tossed it down into the interior of the building. Nothing collapsed further, thank Dynark.
“Here I go!”
Chiraine and Narcissa yelled some more protests, but I was already rappelling down into the crater.
It was all good until my shoulder hit a broken beam and triggered an avalanche of wreckage which rained down on me. I hit the ground hard, and rolled towards the outer walls as timbers and slate shingles crumbled in a cloud of debris.
Heart thundering, I staggered to my feet, almost losing my balance as I slipped on the thick layer of detritus on the ground. Lunging forward, I pressed myself against the closest stone wall.
“Jannigan!” Chiraine called over the comm.
I forced myself to take a deep breath. That was close. “I’m okay,” I said.
“You sure?” Narcissa asked. “It sounded like a serious collapse.”
“There’s not much more roof left to collapse.” I turned on my helmet lamp and activated the EVS overlay so I could get a better look at my surroundings. There were a row of posts that held up the section of ceiling above my head. Beams and rafters canted at odd angles and the floor was covered with piles of broken building materials. There was so much debris I couldn’t even tell what the original purpose of this building was.
“See any doors?” Narcissa asked over the comm.
“Actually, no.” I had hoped that there would be some sort of hidden door that was more visible from the inside, but I couldn’t see anything like that.
There was, however, something that appeared to be a staircase leading down. It was covered with a ton of broken wood and tile, but this might be what we had been looking for.