Rehl and his companion approached Hoit. Following them was a skycap pushing an a-grav sled with their belongings on it. The skycap told the sled to go to the proper bay and left. Rehl handed Hoit his identification flimsy and the authorization to use one of the spaceport’s shuttles for the trip to Rylerra. With the holo-mask firmly in place, Darreth handed his ID and flimsy to her as well, being careful to stand directly under the overhead lights. This close to an actual set of eyes, the mask wasn’t as effective as it was when an audience looked toward someone wearing one at a distance.
“Festival?” Hoit asked Rehl, sounding a bit bored.
“Of course,” he told her.
Hoit didn’t so much as look at Darreth’s face.
“Enjoy yourselves,” Hoit said. “Next,” she said to the couple behind them.
Rehl and Darreth quickly continued on their way. From here on everything was automated except for getting their luggage on board. Rehl’s pilot’s pass required them to proceed down a non-passenger terminal walkway to the awaiting shuttlecrafts. It took another half hour to be processed through the next checkpoint and have their bags loaded on board the Andakar Navigator. They were the only two aboard the eight-passenger ship. Twenty minutes after that Rehl was running through the take-off sequence. Eighteen minutes later, the sky was black and the convex curvature of Andakar’s atmosphere was far below them.
“Hey, turn that thing off. You look ugly,” Rehl said.
Darreth spoke an alphanumeric code aloud to de-energize the holo-mask. He un-strapped it and set the inert mask on the empty seat behind him. “I’m in real trouble this time,” he said.
Rehl was equally in trouble. He knew they would eventually be discovered. “But it’s for a good cause, isn’t it?”
Darreth sure hoped so.
They both logged in to the nav display. Darreth felt a lot safer in the captain’s spot, flying solo. Yet, it was a welcome relief Rehl said he’d join him and pilot the ship for at least the first leg of the journey.
The shuttle headed to where they would be able to wrinkle a wedge. There. The red X at the center of the display was slowly growing larger. Soon enough its shape turned into a frame with a dot in it, indicating they were rapidly approaching an insertion point for Rylerra, not Ajica Prime as stated in their flight plan. That part wasn’t an issue. Rehl knew two ways to change the photronic copy of the flight plan to make it look like someone had screwed up, rather than it look like he had lied about it. In fact, the comm buoy for all of today’s flights had already been sent to Rylerra Space Operations Command, which included their flight. Their arrival would be registered for Rylerra, not Ajica Prime. Only, they wouldn’t actually arrive at the designated spaceport.
Darreth woke Rehl from his slumber. It was only an hour before they would be entering normal space again. Rehl shaved and entered the sonic shower for a few minutes. Refreshed, he took note of the coffee Darreth had made. He had some of it during a quick breakfast.
Darreth took a quick shower too, then donned his gear. He had already checked his backpack several times, but went over some of the equipment in the outer pouches again just to be sure. They both had ample rations for a week, plenty of sensor equipment to help them locate Naylon and Tann, warm clothing and hand weapons. They had no idea what to expect, but Darreth had to rely on his hope that wherever his brother and Naylon were they were alive and able to be rescued. The worst-case scenario would be he and Rehl would cross over the barrier to wherever it actually let to, and find them both dead. If so, the trip would take a lot less time than he envisioned. Regardless, no matter what happened next he was sure he and Rehl would be in heaps of trouble when it was all over.
Leaving the wedge was totally uneventful this time. There were no ships in the vicinity. The telemetry system computed their final vector for sub-orbital entry but Darreth conveniently ignored it. In the pilot seat now, he called up the file containing the coordinates of the cavern and veered thousands of kilometers from normal entry into Rylerran airspace. Within minutes, they were totally off the sensor net that monitored approaching traffic, making them invisible to planetary authorities.
Although they were off the sensor grid, their contrail would be a dead giveaway as to their location. As they descended further into warmer and denser air the trail finally started to peter out, offering them better cover. Soon enough, they were over familiar terrain. Darreth remembered the configuration of the far peaks. The nav displayed their descent vector and automatically plotted a course to the dry riverbed where Darreth’s shuttle had ended up. They touched down moments later.
“Scans show no activity anywhere nearby,” Rehl announced.
“I guess they really were done with their investigation,” Darreth replied to that bit of news.
With descent procedures completed, Rehl pressed the icon that opened the side exit door. The air pressure had been slowly equalizing and now cool air flooded the interior of the craft. Both lifted their packs by the straps and, once outside, they assisted each other in putting them onto their backs. The only sound they heard was a faint ticking sound of the craft’s skin cooling, then their footsteps crunching across the gravel and sand of the riverbed.
Darreth pulled out a lantern as they reached the cavern entrance. Immediately they noted a force shield generator placed across its maw.
Rehl looked at the field emitters. They were spaced vertically on thin rails that had been drilled into the rock. He recognized the make and model. “This shouldn’t take long,” Rehl told him with a grin. He pulled out a vidPAD and touched an icon on the display. Within ten seconds, the vidPAD discovered the frequency used by the generator. He touched another icon and waited for the program to break the encryption code. Two minutes later, the force shield was deactivated.
“They shouldn’t have bothered,” Darreth said with a grin. Rehl was particularly good at disassembling and decoding photronic technology.
They took a few moments to allow their eyes to adjust to the dark while playing their light beams all over the cavern. It was obvious there had been many people here recently. The dirt floor was covered with fresh boot tracks. Piles of equipment had been left in various places around the rim of the cavern. Both shafts that led away from them were covered with boot tracks, too.
“Which way?” Rehl asked.
“It’s this one. The other one goes nowhere.”
Paper-thin light films had been attached to the ceiling of the shaft at three-meter intervals. Rehl found the power supply module and touched the activate icon. They quickly illuminated to full intensity, providing an even soft glow along the entire shaft. Both switched off their lights and stowed them.
They proceeded at a swift pace down that corridor and quickly arrived at the interior cavern. Light films had been adhered to quite a few of the boulders all around them, some of which had been wrapped around freestanding ones. The most obvious item in the cavern was the large rectangular object in its center. Darreth saw it fully illuminated for the first time. The rock was clearly not part of this cavern. It was distinctly made of reddish granite, not the brown and white limestone the cavern appeared to have been carved from by natural forces.
“This is it,” Darreth said as he pointed.
“No kidding.” Rehl pointed to the cylindrical shaft inside the object. “Hey, I can’t see through it.” He had leaned forward and noted the bizarre play of light along the interior.
“Yeah, that’s what we noted, too. And, apparently, that’s the way. Ready?”
“Yep. Get your lantern. I’m going to deactivate the light films.” He switched his lantern on, as did Darreth.
“Got the device?” Darreth asked.
Rehl pulled his out of the side cargo pocket of his pants. Darreth did the same. Neither had any idea how to use them so simply held on to them as they went through the tunnel.
Neither of them expected the vertigo that accompanied crossing the barrier. Although their flight training had included simulators, and actu
al experience had provided examples of real vertigo, this was totally different. Rehl instantly felt sick to his stomach and leaned up against the smooth rock once out of the cylinder on the other side. Darreth closed his eyes and dropped to his knees. It took both about fifteen seconds to recover.
“What the hell was that?” Rehl asked as he shook his head.
“I have no idea,” Darreth responded. Several minutes later both were satisfied they hadn’t been injured, just disoriented.
Now that both of them had sufficiently recovered, they surveyed their surroundings. It looked like they never left.
“I don’t get it,” Rehl said.
“Don’t get what?”
“This is the same cavern. I thought we were supposed to be ‘somewhere else’.”
“We are somewhere else. This is some sort of alternate cavern. In a different quantum universe.”
But Rehl noted right away that this cavern was decidedly different. Both saw the wide opening in the far wall. Sunlight was streaming into the cavern. Plus, it was significantly warmer than before. Both played their lantern beams around. They were satisfied they were alone and that no light films were anywhere to be seen, which proved they were no longer in ‘their’ cave’.
As they looked around, Darreth noted footprints leading toward the corridor they had just taken to get into the cavern. Both men followed the trail in the dirt and continued for only ten meters before Darreth stopped. “Something’s wrong,” he said.
“What?”
“There are two sets of prints. But one is going away and the same one is coming back.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Do you see another set?”
They aimed their lights in the dirt for another couple of meters. “No, I only see those two.”
“That means someone went back to the entrance but came back this way. They didn’t leave that way.”
Rehl scanned the floor, noting any other clues. “Looks like no one has come this way for a very, very long time.”
“Which means they both may have gone another way.” They returned to the inner cavern that contained the rectangular monolith. Darreth pointed toward the crack in the cavern wall. Rehl nodded agreement. There they noted several sets of footprints that clearly went toward the open crack in the wall.
“Well, this is definitely where they both went,” Rehl said.
Both men went through the open crack, noting their surroundings. It was evident it was warm outside. In addition, a river rushed almost directly below them. Rehl took out his scanning equipment, as did Darreth. Both scanned the full EM spectrum for biosigns or transmissions. While doing so, Darreth tried several times to raise Naylon via his neural implant. No return signal came through. Rehl did the same and got no response either.
“Anything?” Darreth asked him as he looked at Rehl’s vidPAD.
“Just background radiation.” He looked past his display. “Hey, what’s that?” Rehl said.
“Looks like something recently slid down there.”
Darreth stepped forward as much as he dared on the slippery slope. “It ends at the water’s edge.”
Rehl looked at Darreth. “You think they…?”
Darreth nodded. “Looks like it.”
Darreth shaded his eyes while surveying the river as it rushed past. “Until we know otherwise, I still have to assume they’re both alive. So, we go downriver.”
The vegetation all around them made it difficult to see ahead of them. That’s where the scanning equipment they had with them came in handy. A scan of the area down slope to their right indicated the plants were at best half as tall and much more scattered. Carefully picking their way down the treacherous slope they came to a much flatter area. Sure enough, the bushes thinned out considerably, allowing them to zigzag their way in the general direction the river was running.
“Still nothing,” Rehl told him after his fifth scan. But while they were stopped, Darreth saw a single footprint in the sand. He pointed, greatly relieved they had at least something to go on. I recognize that tread, he thought. He was sure of it. Tann was alive.
“I assumed they both slid down that slope back there and were in the river. Looks like Naylon was the one who fell. We have to assume that Tann went looking for him,” Darreth told Rehl.
Rehl nodded at that assessment. “I’m getting a faint energy signature now. Residual only.”
Darreth’s scanner was in navigation mode, still mapping out their best route. He immediately switched the display to the same mode Rehl was using. “Bearing is 42 degrees, range is… what does your scanner read?”
“Eleven hundred meters.”
“Same. Weapons.”
They stopped, pulled out their stunners and continued on their way.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the location where Rehl found the greatest concentration of residual energy.
“A ship definitely landed here. But I can’t get a match on the energy signature. It’s not in the database,” Rehl said.
Darreth looked at the reading while Rehl attempted to coax the scanner to cull something out of the data. It kept coming up with nothing discernable. “Whoever it was clearly uses a different type of engine and propulsion system than we do. No surprise there. We’re not even in our universe. It could be anyone or anything,” he reported.
“Look. Footprints.” Rehl pointed.
“Does that look human to you?” Darreth asked.
“No… but these do!”
“They come from that direction. Here. Looks like they were followed by these larger… animals… whatever.” Darreth mused over his choice of the word ‘animals’. He was entertaining the idea they weren’t animals but rather aliens. After all, there were three back on ‘their’ Rylerra right now.
“Let’s see. I count two sets of clearly human footprints,” Rehl said. “But these are so odd-looking I can’t tell how many of the… other ones there are.”
“Looks like at least two sets. Maybe more. This doesn’t look good at all,” Darreth replied.
Rehl scanned the area again where something had landed. Again, it was fruitless. The only thing they could discern was all sets of footprints led to where a ship obviously had been, then went no further. Obviously, they all took off in the ship.
“What’s this?” Rehl said.
“What?”
“Another signature. It’s pretty far away. Several kilometers in that direction.” He pointed. “This one’s different.”
“Maybe Rylerra is an alien inhab on this side of the tunnel.”
“And maybe they were rescued,” Rehl offered. “The larger footprints look a lot like the alien ones we found in the cavern. They have the same long and narrow shape. Maybe in this dimension the place is crawling with them.”
“Let’s hope they were rescued and not captured,” Darreth replied. His stress level just went up a couple of notches anyway.
Captain Pacudas and Commander Selaye studied the readout. The scan was clear. There were two Terran bio signs headed their way. They weren’t there a minute ago, but they certainly were now. The captain felt confident they had found their missing guests after all.
Chapter 32
Naylon and Tann were led at gunpoint to an entrance on the side of the large Telkan ship. Naylon instantly recognized it as a military vessel despite it being totally alien. That was bad. Now they were really caught up in this war. There was nothing they could do. They certainly weren’t going to run while weapons were trained on them.
Two Telkans, also fully armed, were just inside the outer door of the airlock, backing up as Naylon and Tann stepped in, aiming weapons squarely at them. Os’Taga and Th’Gan remained outside pointing sensor equipment all around, searching for anyone else they might have missed. An’Arka followed behind Naylon and Tann until they were completely inside the long narrow airlock compartment. He pointed at their packs, indicating they were to be removed. Both of them complied immediately. An’Arka stuffed them both into a stora
ge container. Os’Taga and Th’Gan quickly followed him inside and the door was closed. Five Telkans and two humans occupied the compartment in close quarters. Tann was terrified into total silence. He was literally surrounded by fierce-looking and well-armed alien creatures. He was sure at any minute they would both be very dead.
The outer airlock door was curiously semi-transparent. Three long opaque beams within the door reinforced it horizontally. They were motioned to sit down on unexpectedly soft cushions along the sides of the airlock compartment. Seconds later, after Os’Taga spoke something unintelligible, they saw the ground swiftly fall away as the vessel took to the air. Their vertical motion was quickly replaced with a rapid horizontal one.
A door at the other side of the compartment where they had been sitting opened and they were motioned to go into the interior of the craft. Impossible-to-read writing was all over the walls, appearing to Naylon to have been written from top to bottom. It seemed more of an adornment than instructions or warnings because there was so much of it. Tann noted it right away, too. Swirls, dots, small segments, and wavy lines, etched into surfaces everywhere. It looked primitive, but sophisticated at the same time.
Naylon expected the interior of the ship to be dark and evil looking. It was nothing of the sort. It was brightly lit. Metallic objects were brightly colored. The interior was spotless. There wasn’t so much as a smudge on any of the brightly colored walls of the wide corridors they were led down. They passed two open rooms, one of which looked like a recreation room, and the other appeared to be a large galley. Curiously, two distinct smells found their way to his nose as they passed. Both were pleasant.
Two of the Telkans who had helped capture them, plus An’Arka, continued to lead them to the end of the corridor, then to the right. The other two left in a hurry when a comm signal was received by one of them. They were led to two individual small rooms. These were distinctly cells, Naylon noted. The only furnishings were a short bed with a thin bare mattress and what looked like a toilet recessed into an alcove. Next to the alcove was a recessed area with what looked like a sink in it. A small cup was next to it in a recess where a spigot protruded. They were ushered into the rooms and the doors were sealed. Once the doors shut, the overhead illumination faded until what remained was a small red pinpoint of light. There were no windows or other light sources. The door was sealed so tightly no light issued from under it.
The Rylerran Gateway Page 29
