2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent)

by Robert Storey

  Finally they slowed, but as the tunnel regained a horizontal aspect a disturbing message appeared on her visor:

  WARNING!

  Rocket Propulsion Imminent

  (Burn duration: 10 seconds)

  Stage 1 Ignition in

  T minus 3 seconds

  ‘Stage one!?’ Sarah said, the wind whipping her voice away.

  The countdown timer reached one and the message disappeared. A thunderous detonation catapulted the shuttle forwards, forcing Sarah further into her seat, her arms pinned to her sides. Sarah watched in despair as the speedometer’s digits flashed by until it reached two hundred miles an hour. Feeling like she was being shaken to pieces, the tunnel system disappeared and they were flying along the suspended track through a vast impenetrable blackness, untouched by the lighting of the vehicle. The track veered upwards and Sarah felt nauseous when they slowed once more. Another message appeared on her visor’s head-up-display:

  WARNING!

  Rocket Propulsion Imminent

  (Burn duration: 30 seconds)

  Stage 2 Ignition in

  T minus 3 seconds

  Sarah looked in horror at the duration displayed for the second burn. Thirty seconds? This isn’t a rollercoaster, it’s a tethered space rocket! The shuttle sent another explosion thundering through the air around them, thrusting her back into the seat again. Sarah shut her eyes as they entered a narrow tunnel, the vibrations of the track above rattling her teeth as they flew like an arrow through the interior of Sanctuary Proper at three and then four hundred miles an hour.

  When the second burn ended and with her eyes open again she saw the shuttle slow to three, and then two, hundred mph. As they ploughed onwards yet another message appeared on her visor:

  WARNING!

  Track Transition Imminent

  Disengaging in

  T minus 3 seconds

  Wondering what this message meant, Sarah watched as around them the air-shuttle became encased in a transparent skin, an outer shell spreading out from the individual sections of the sub frame enclosing the fuselage within. Ahead the track ended and it looked a certainty they would be dashed on the rock wall. With her heart in her mouth, Sarah prepared to close her eyes against the inevitable impact, but before she could the shuttle detached from the rails above with a mechanical clunk and entered a tight see-through tunnel made of what looked like the same material that now sheathed the vehicle itself.

  With a sharp downwards turn, the air-shuttle glided through its custom built tube. Sarah finally understood why the machine she rode was called what it was. The craft was flying along wrapped in a cushion of air, propelled forwards like a cork out of a bottle. Now able to enjoy the ride, Sarah glimpsed below them, in a brightly lit chamber, a huge lift system cutting upwards into the rock above. Around it were armoured tanks and a detachment of soldiers, some of whom looked up as the shuttle shot past. Sarah had assumed the worst of the journey was over; she was mistaken, as section after section of tight, painful turns flung her around in her seat until at last they slowed, the top of the transparent skin retracting to act as an air brake, cutting their speed even further.

  Unseen brakes engaged and they cruised to a stop within a large rectangular building which contained more ground crew dressed in the same outfits as those they’d just left behind back at SED headquarters. Sarah’s helmet clicked and detached from the headrest, while the metal bar jerked back and then collapsed down into the floor from whence it had come. Sarah sat there trying to decide whether to throw up or pass out.

  Riley touched her arm. ‘Sarah, time to get out. Are you okay?’

  She stood up on wobbly legs and grabbed onto Riley’s arm for support.

  ‘The trip messes with your inner ear,’ he said, ‘it’ll pass.’

  He was right; already feeling more balanced she followed everyone else out of the shuttle and onto a waiting platform. The floor felt spongy, her body light, as if she was walking on air. Another after-effect she knew; she’d felt something similar when she’d visited a theme park as a child. The difference was funfair coasters travelled up to one hundred miles an hour; they’d just been touching four hundred.

  Sarah chuckled, trying to sound nonchalant. ‘I don’t know how I didn’t pass out.’

  ‘The security bar connects with your vest and coveralls to create a temporary G-suit.’

  ‘Clever,’ she said and then a thought struck her. ‘How do we get back?’

  ‘Same way, but with a few more rockets.’

  Sarah cursed and Riley laughed. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘we’ve got a site to explore.’

  A smaller command post, housing a handful of air-shuttles and the personnel that ran it, also acted as base camp for any team that had the pleasure of using its facilities. After an hour of further prep work the Deep Reach Survey Team moved out, guided by a set of waypoints plotted by previous expeditions; behind, the two multi-wheeled, remote supply vehicles trundled along in their wake, hugging the ground like the many-legged insect to which they owed their nickname, the Centipede.

  As they walked, Riley told Sarah the shuttle had taken them twenty-five miles in six minutes and they were now fifteen miles outside of the USSB. He also explained the shuttles were the quickest and sometimes the only way to travel across long distances and across multiple levels within Sanctuary Proper; the eight long twin-railed tracks having been laid down by specially designed robots many years before. Looking at the current landscape, Sarah began to see why such a transport system took precedence; building roads out here would be nigh on impossible. Unlike the wide open areas Sarah had experienced on her way into Sanctuary many months before, this section of the ancient underground complex was surprisingly confined. The chambers and tunnels they walked through still commanded a certain respect, but their scale was visible as their twin helmet lights adequately illuminated their passage.

  It wasn’t long before intriguing, crumbling structures surrounded the red and blue clad explorers; affording a tantalising glimpse into the distant past of the master builders, the Anakim. Sarah pressed a button on her helmet to activate the personal camera and took some stills and video. The helmets recorded everything they did anyway, but specific points of interest could be documented as a team member saw fit.

  As they moved further from base camp and deeper into Sanctuary, the terrain became increasingly difficult. Four of the team, whose job it was to look after and manoeuvre the supply vehicles, broke out a large hover drone to ferry essentials to their final destination. Each of the four would operate the machine at various intervals along the extensive route, passing over control of the drone like a baton in a relay race. Multiple trips with the aerial machine would need to be made to transfer everything required for the work ahead. Once their job had been completed the supply crew would then switch to mapping new areas of Sanctuary, using the drone along with some of its smaller siblings. Out in the unknown everyone had to pull their weight and multi-tasking was a must.

  Two days came and went surprisingly fast as Alpha Six tackled a series of enormous fissures that had opened up over thousands of years, driving a near impenetrable barrier through the centre of an equally large cavern. A tough ascent followed by a kilometre descent taxed Sarah’s newfound endurance to the limit as they all utilised the state-of-the-art climbing equipment stored in their backpacks.

  On the third day Sarah finished yet another strength-sapping climb and Riley was there, as ever, to lend a helping hand when she reached the summit. Grabbing his calloused hand with her own, she was hauled up onto a loose surface, the dirt underfoot giving way slightly when her weight settled onto it. Shifting to a less precarious position – her climbing gear clinking and rattling as the shackles, hooks and clips knocked against one another – she took in her new surroundings. Half a mile away, across a flat rolling expanse, ten floodlights positioned in a sweeping semi-circle illuminated a massive excavation site. Huge piles of displaced earth squatted together on the fringes of the dig l
ike little hills produced by a giant mole. Across from the mounds, an extensive temporary compound of tents had sprung up. Even from this distance Sarah could see the hustle and bustle of activity as small vehicles darted in and out of the earthworks and cunningly constructed modular cranes distributed their loads. Moving amongst the machines, the small figures of people wove in and out of the shadows, carrying out their respective duties with a measured yet purposeful efficiency.

  ‘How did they get all that machinery up here?’ Sarah asked Riley.

  ‘Piece by excruciating piece,’ Jefferson answered, the bearded, bald-headed man coming to stand by his two team mates, ‘and then reconstructed on site. Riley, you’ll need to make communication with them; you know how they are if we drop in unannounced.’

  Riley grimaced; taking off his helmet he withdrew a military type walkie-talkie and moved away from Sarah and Jefferson.

  Sarah wiped the sweat from her brow. ‘Who are they? The army?’

  Jefferson hawked and then spat on the ground. ‘Yeah.’ He scratched his bear-like chest with coarse fingers. ‘Damn SFSD.’

  ‘SFSD?’

  ‘Special Forces Subterranean Detachment,’ Cora said joining them, her helmet with her Vixen call sign on the front hanging from a hook on her belt.

  ‘A bunch of green beret wearing yahoos with above average IQs and a penchant for killing people,’ Jefferson elaborated. ‘They call themselves Terra Force.’

  ‘They sound intimidating,’ Sarah said, feeling uncomfortable due to Cora’s close proximity.

  Cora snorted. ‘They’re nothing of the sort, just a bunch of maggots with guns and long knives who think they can climb.’

  Sarah frowned. ‘What are they looking for?’

  ‘Something to weaponise, most likely.’ Jefferson pulled out a small silver hip flask, flipped off the lid and took a sip.

  Cora held out a hand and Jefferson passed the drink to her. Taking a long swig Cora then offered it to Sarah who hesitated.

  ‘Don’t you English drink?’ Cora asked, her tone mocking.

  For England, Sarah thought, accepting the small canteen and knocking back a shot. The fiery liquid left behind a distinct caramel flavour and set the back of her throat aflame. Stifling a cough she passed it back to Jefferson who stowed it back in a compartment on his harness.

  ‘We good to go, Ace?’ Jefferson asked Riley when he returned to them.

  Riley nodded and gave the command for Alpha Six to move out.

  The Deep Reach Survey Team were soon setting up their own camp on the opposite side of the site to that of the U.S. Army personnel. Sarah, keen to see what the military were excavating, forwent eating her evening meal to take a look. Walking past one of the large floodlights mounted atop a telescopic tripod, the sound of the bulbs buzzing in her ears, she looked out at a large, oblong structure that had been unearthed. Amazingly they’d revealed three storeys of the building, its crumbling façade displaying what looked like windows of some description. Strange angular depressions on the roof hinted that at some point in the far distant past other structures may have protruded towards the glistening rocky ceiling of the chamber, some three hundred feet above.

  ‘Fancy a closer look?’ a familiar voice said from behind.

  ‘Won’t that piss them off?’ she asked Riley who, like Sarah, had shed most of his climbing gear. In one hand he held his helmet and in the other, hers.

  Riley shrugged and handed her headgear to her. ‘Probably, but I want to find out what they’re up to and the best way to do that is to nose about; come on.’ He moved past her and down a steep slope, kicking up dust and dirt as his feet clove into the dry soil. Following him down, she caught him up, her long strides keeping pace with his.

  ‘How is there dirt down here?’ Sarah said as they neared the Anakim edifice. ‘I also saw what looked like fossilised trees when I first entered Sanctuary, how is that possible?’

  ‘The Anakim were extremely advanced. They found a way to produce, as far as we can tell, a fully functioning self-sustaining ecosystem within Sanctuary, or should I say throughout Sanctuary.’

  ‘Throughout?’

  ‘Yes.’ He slowed to a stop and looked up. ‘Have you noticed how the ceilings of the chambers sparkle when the light catches them?’

  She craned her neck to look at the phenomenon. ‘I suppose so, yes.’

  ‘It’s not a result of the geological composition of the rock, but because across virtually every chamber ceiling, tunnel and cave roof a translucent material has been applied.’

  ‘What sort of material?’

  ‘The scientists aren’t sure what it is, only what it does, or did.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘Produce light; in fact they think it functioned much like our dome back at base, but instead of being localised, like the dome, it provided light for the whole of Sanctuary.

  ‘What, on every level?’

  ‘Yep, every level. Well, every level we’ve surveyed so far has the same feature, so it’s assumed it goes everywhere.’

  ‘That’s incredible. So gigantis had the ability to create huge swathes of plant life underground along with simulated sunlight too.’

  Riley gave her a strange look. ‘Gigantis?’

  ‘Sorry – yes – that’s what I, and many others who theorised and promoted the existence of the Anakim named them, Homo gigantis. And yes, I know, everyone down here calls them giganthropsis or Anakim.’

  ‘Gigantis,’ he said, trying out the word again. ‘I like it, rolls off the tongue better than giganthropsis.’

  ‘I know, doesn’t it?’ she enthused, pleased he agreed with her own viewpoint.

  ‘It wasn’t just plant life, though,’ Riley continued, ‘many small animal fossils have been found down here, too, and there are still many insects and different types of algae clinging onto life in certain places we’ve surveyed.’

  ‘Amazing,’ Sarah said, excited at the prospect.

  ‘Some people are even holding out for larger animal remains to be found. The Anakim had to eat something, after all, and a diet consisting solely of vegetation seems unlikely considering they were omnivores much like us.’

  ‘You know that for certain?’

  Riley nodded. ‘Oh yes, from the remains we’ve found so far their internal organs and bone structure are virtually identical to ours in every respect, the only significant difference being their size.’

  ‘Remains, internal organs, you’ve found individuals that well preserved?’

  He grinned at her. ‘The museum doesn’t have everything on show. Some discoveries are deemed too sensitive for public viewing, as is the case with most of the more advanced technological objects we find; which, to be honest, are few and far between and always snapped up by the military quicker than you can say theft. A lot of the remains of the Anakim themselves are not on display due to the fact that they are still being analysed and documented, plus the Smithsonian powers-that-be want to create a special exhibit dedicated to what they have ferreted away. Supposedly they’re having funding issues for a new building they want to erect for it. I’ll have to give you a tour of the vaults sometime; I guarantee you’ll absolutely love the Boneyard.’

  ‘Boneyard?’

  ‘It’s what we call the vault that contains the most important and impressive Anakim remains found so far. Like their technology, there’ve been curiously few specimens detected by our scanning equipment, although this might be down to the composition of the strata throughout Sanctuary; whatever they used to build this place plays havoc with a lot of our kit.’

  The idea of such treasures sent her imagination into overdrive. ‘I’ll hold you to that tour.’

  ‘It’s a date then,’ he said with a sly wink, before walking off towards the monument once more.

  Sarah, momentarily disarmed by the implication of his wording, regained her senses and trotted to catch up.

  Handily, due to the time it had taken them to set up their base of operations, the
activity around the site had tailed off, allowing the two of them to walk unchallenged through a smallish opening in the rear of the impressive structure. Riley and Sarah, already having donned their headgear, switched on their lights, dropped down their visors and deployed their breathing filters by depressing the appropriate buttons on the side of their helmets. Sarah angled the twin beams of light around the dark interior with her head. Reaching out, she ran her hand along one of the walls; it felt unusual. On closer inspection the dark brown rock was riddled with perforations and pockmarks, its rough texture reminiscent of a hard dried sponge or piece of dead coral.

  Curved ramps within guided them up a level, dust falling from the ceiling and swirling around their feet as their passage disturbed the still air around them. Various warning signs on the inside of Sarah’s visor indicated the impurity of the atmosphere within.

  ‘It’s pretty toxic in here,’ she said to Riley through the helmet’s onboard communication system, her voice sounding muffled due to the breathing apparatus across her mouth and nose.

  ‘So would you be if you’d sat around for nine hundred thousand years.’

  ‘Is that how old this place is?’

  ‘According to the mission brief, this is one of the oldest structures we’ve found so far, almost as old as Sanctuary itself.’

  ‘Is that why the military are so interested in it?’

  ‘That’s why everyone is interested in it.’

  ‘There doesn’t appear to be much in here,’ she said as they passed through yet another curiously shaped, yet empty, room.

  ‘Switch to ultra violet on your visor.’

  Doing as he suggested, Sarah was amazed to see the walls, ceiling and floor; seemingly every surface had been covered in intricate patterns, pictures, text and even maps.