The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack

by Arthur C. Clarke

You don’t think this white stuff is from dissolved artifacts, do you? she asked.

  No, he said. Haven’t you noticed? The walls flake.

  I thought that was algae.

  It is—or something like it—in the niches. But the walls themselves. Touch one. You’ll see.

  She was close to an outcropping. She touched its rounded surface gently. As her fingers found the surface, a flurry of white chips entered the water and flowed with it.

  There is some kind of current down here, isn’t there? she asked.

  I’m not sure, he said. We could be doing this. I’m not getting readings that suggest anything other than our disturbing the environment.

  She wasn’t either. She just wanted to find something.

  She moved into the next cavern. It seemed darker than the one before, even though she knew that wasn’t possible.

  No light filtered down here except the lights she and Roye had brought with them.

  At least the water hadn’t gotten any thicker. She glanced at the map. One more large room to go after this one. Then the passageways.

  Then she could get out.

  This would be her last cave dive. If she ever had to go through a ruse like this again, she would stay on the surface and supervise. They would bring a new cave diver in.

  She was getting too old and too impatient for this kind of thing.

  Or maybe the impatience was coming from the lack of treasure.

  She loved treasure just like everyone else.

  The only difference was all she had to do was touch it.

  Then it was hers forever.

  22

  Meklos hadn’t realized how cold he had become in that cavern. His hands ached. His nose throbbed. The moment the sunlight hit him, the blood rose in his skin, attempting to warm him.

  How cold had it been down there?

  Colder than it should have been, even in an underground chamber.

  He wondered what caused that.

  Those caverns were important in a way he couldn’t understand. And if Yusef’s comments were to be believed, Dr. Reese and her team didn’t understand either.

  They didn’t even realize that the Spires were a map.

  Meklos moved away from the building that housed the entrance to the caverns. He stepped into an open area and looked up.

  He had been right. The image he had seen in that suit was the Spires, with a dot indicating where he was.

  A map.

  And his little cave divers, the experts who supposedly knew nothing about this dig, had known about that.

  What else did they know?

  He really should have gone to Dr. Reese and told her that her experts knew more about this place than she did, but he wasn’t going to—at least not yet.

  The walk across the city of Denon took longer than he expected it to. He didn’t walk along the main roads, but stayed to the backs of buildings.

  Not everything was excavated yet. He had to go around mounds of reddish brown dirt, some of which had reattached itself to nearby white buildings.

  Only the larger buildings had been completely excavated. The smaller ones were still half buried.

  He hadn’t realized that before. He’d never done a thorough walk-through of the city. He’d been too busy setting up defensive parameters, and trying to find out exactly what Dr. Reese wanted and then worrying about these so-called experts.

  He hadn’t had time to do some of the most important work at this job.

  But he had had a chance to examine the building where they housed the cave divers. He hadn’t come at it from this angle before—he’d come at it from the front, off the main road, which was where it was situated.

  Coming from the back and side, he realized that half the buildings behind it weren’t fully excavated. Their basic shape had been dug out, and many had been excavated down to the foundation on one side only—usually the side that faced the main street.

  Someone could have—and probably had—gone inside, looked around, and then gone back out. But dirt remained on the walls, and seemed to fill the back areas.

  Oddly enough, however, the roofs on all of the buildings had been cleaned off. They were that same pristine white as the excavated parts of the city.

  He didn’t think about the reasons for that—although he did know the effect. It maximized the light and the reflections.

  This place was already overly bright. Clearing the roofs of all the buildings made it even brighter.

  He ducked inside the building that had housed the cave divers and had to blink at the darkness. Even now, his eyes had trouble adjusting to the shift in light levels.

  He had to pause and wait for his eyes to adjust, which annoyed him. If someone wanted to attack him here, all they had to do was wait until he came in from the outside.

  Fortunately, no one lurked inside. The main room barely looked used, and the air mattresses in the back were pressed against the wall, like beds on a ship, their covers folded and pristine as if they were newly made.

  The cave divers hadn’t left many of their belongings. The clothes they wore the day before were hanging off one of two chairs that Dr. Reese had provided. A few personal items were scattered on the only table.

  A secondary pack, one that had initially been tucked into the other packs, waited near the foot of one of the beds, but had nothing inside.

  The emptiness bothered him. The way the couple had described the cave dives had given him the impression that they would be here for several days, taking each dive slowly, especially if they had to look for the water’s source.

  But the building didn’t look like someone planned to camp here for several days. It looked like one night’s use was all it was going to get.

  Maybe these two were former military, and never left things in a mess. Or maybe they hadn’t brought a lot because they weren’t sure what they would find.

  But the lack of personal items—here and in the cavern—bothered him.

  He carried minimal amounts of things when he was doing what he called a “quick and dirty,” a job that would required him to go in and come out within 24 Earth hours.

  This looked like a quick and dirty to him, right down to the items left in the building.

  If the experts had to leave quickly, they could abandon the things they had here with no consequences at all. A few items of clothing, some cheap jewelry, nothing that couldn’t be easily replaced.

  Nothing that wouldn’t be missed.

  He shivered now, even though he had gotten warm.

  What were they planning?

  Why were they here?

  And, most important of all, what did Dr. Reese know, and why hadn’t she told him?

  23

  Navi let Roye go into the passageway first. She dreaded it, which surprised her. He had mentioned getting caught or trapped inside the passages before they dove, and now the idea was stuck in her head.

  Everything seemed stuck in her head. Her teeth ached, and the ache was traveling up her cheekbones into her forehead. She would have a blinding headache before this was through if she didn’t stop grinding her teeth together.

  Roye’s lights reflected off the white walls, coming back toward her like a halo. She dove into that instead of the darkness, swimming for the first time since they’d gone underwater.

  At least the white sediment had thinned. Now it looked like they were going through actual water, not some kind of snow storm.

  Roye moved slowly ahead of her, his feet kicking just enough to propel him forward. She followed far enough behind that his moving feet wouldn’t hit her.

  She hadn’t asked him if this place made him uneasy. She didn’t want to admit it to herself.

  So far they had found nothing.

  She was beginning to wonder if they would find anything at all.

  24

  Gabrielle wiped the last of the dirt off a tiny vase. The vase was fragile, the glass so thin that a press of her fingers would crack it. Amazing it had survived this lon
g underground. Amazing that digging it up hadn’t harmed it in anyway.

  Amazing that she even held it at all.

  She was in the cleaning station at the back of the temple. So far, she was the only one to use this building. Even then, she hadn’t brought the most precious items in here, like the statue she had found in the caverns. She didn’t want to get into the habit.

  She knew she would have to allow the others in soon, but she didn’t want to.

  She didn’t want the interns and the post-docs and the eager young graduate students to see all of her treasures.

  Of course, they wouldn’t see all of her treasures. Some she would move to her own building, without ever having crossed the threshold here.

  But even the small vases, insignificant except that they had come from the City of Denon and were a great example of Denonite workmanship, felt like hers.

  She could sell this little thing for a small fortune, enough to retire on, and no one would ever know. She could sell the two dozen tiny vases already recovered, replenishing her finances as the years went by, and she would never get caught.

  Collectors never told. They just enjoyed.

  The problem was that she didn’t want to retire. She loved the work in the field as much as she loved the treasures.

  And she loved having her name attached to a major discovery—a discovery that would forever change not just the field of archeology, but the fields of history and art history. A discovery that might even help the humans in this sector recover the knowledge they had lost.

  She held the vase up to the light flowing in from the door. The glass was so fine, she could see through it. It was so milky white, so dainty, that she had a hunch it was made from the white dirt that covered the top of the mountain.

  As she stared through the vase, a shadow appeared.

  Someone had come inside.

  She sighed, and set the vase down.

  Of course, the person violating her privacy was the stupid head of security, Meklos Verr.

  Eventually, he would leave her alone.

  Eventually, he would leave.

  “Your experts have made a fascinating discovery,” he said.

  Her heart leaped. She had been hoping for this, but she hadn’t wanted it to come through him. She wanted it to come from Yusef down in the cavern.

  She carefully set the vase down—she didn’t want to break it in her excitement—and stepped off the newly constructed floor. The tips of her shoes touched the edge of the drawing on the temple floor.

  But Meklos didn’t stand on the drawing, even though on previous occasions, he had walked all over it. He stayed at the other end of it, forcing her to walk to him.

  She almost didn’t. She almost made him come to her.

  But she was too excited over the idea of a discovery. She wanted to see it, whatever it was.

  “Aren’t they early?” she asked. “Was there trouble? Why are they back so soon?”

  “They aren’t back,” he said. “I found out about this by going through their packs.”

  The disappointment hit her like a physical blow.

  She made sure her tone was cool. “I thought you had already searched the packs.”

  “I did,” he said. “But I hadn’t turned on their extra diving suit.”

  “They have an extra suit?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “In case one got damaged, I would suppose. They form to whatever body puts them on.”

  She nodded. She’d seen suits like that in some of the space vessels she’d traveled on. She had even worn one, since one of the captains on one of her early trips wanted to make certain everyone knew how to put one on.

  “So?”

  “So,” he said, “this one comes fitted with a map.”

  “A map?” she asked.

  “Of the caverns.”

  “I never gave them a map of the caverns,” she said. “We don’t have one.”

  He studied her for a moment, as if he didn’t believe her. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Why the hell do you think I’ve sent them below?” she snapped. “It’s not because I enjoy spending money. I need to know what’s down there, and right now, I don’t.”

  He nodded. The nod was tiny, and she wasn’t even sure she was meant to see it. It seemed like a private nod, meant for him alone.

  “Well,” he said after a moment. “You know part of what’s down there.”

  “Of course I do,” she said. “Just like you do. We’ve been in the dry caverns—”

  “No,” he said. “You’re standing on it.”

  She frowned, then looked down. She was standing on the reproduction of the Spires of Denon.

  “What are you saying?”

  He crouched and put his finger alongside one of the curves. “When I turned on the suit, this appeared. Only it was in outline only and three dimensional, like the Spires are above. And it had one added feature.”

  She walked toward him so that she could see what he was doing.

  “Right here,” he said, “was a small red dot. Right here.”

  One of the widest points of the Spires.

  “When I moved the suit,” he said, “the dot moved.”

  Like a directional device.

  “It fits.” With his finger, he traced the bottom part of the Spires. The drawing was wider here than at any other point. The circles crowded in on each other and eventually were separated by branches.

  Passageways.

  “If you overlay the map you have of the existing caves, you’ll see that they’re identical to this drawing,” he said.

  “That’s not possible,” she said. But she didn’t mean that it was impossible to have this be a map. She was surprised, yes, but not that surprised.

  He was right; the bottom part of this drawing did outline the caverns.

  “It’s possible,” he said, somewhat defensively.

  “No, no,” she said. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Then she realized she couldn’t explain what she meant. She meant it was impossible for a lowly security guard, no matter how inflated his opinion was of himself, could make a discovery that she had missed.

  “What did you mean then?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I meant,” she lied, “I wonder how they knew.”

  25

  The next cavern was obviously smaller. Navi could see that from the passageway. Roye’s light hit the walls, the ceiling, and the floor all at the same time, showing the entire cavern.

  She could even see the passageway beyond.

  The floor held nothing, so far as she could tell. There were niches, just like there’d been in the other caverns, but if she were a betting woman, she would bet they were empty.

  Still, she would have to check them out.

  Roye had moved toward one wall. She kicked slightly to propel herself forward, and veered a little to the left.

  She grabbed the edge of the passageway’s opening with one covered hand, planning to use the wall to push herself into the cavern.

  Instead a thrumming echoed through her head. Her hand shook off the wall, and the violence of it sent her tumbling backwards.

  Her entire body felt like it was being vibrated apart.

  On one of her spins, she saw Roye, bent in half, his hands over his ears, even though the suit covered them.

  What the hell? she said, but doubted Roye could hear her.

  He shook his head—maybe he had heard her—and then looked toward her.

  Sediment was filling the water.

  Sediment—and something else—something coming out of the top of the passageway door.

  26

  Sirens went off—and just as Meklos was going to ask what was causing the sound (and why had Dr. Reese set up such a system, since they were worried about the vibrations destroying the Spires)—light flared.

  Reflexively, he covered his eyes, and then he forced himself to open them.

  A small line on the Spires drawing near his feet
was glowing, the light so bright that he had to blink to keep the tears out of his eyes.

  He looked up and saw that the ceiling of the temple had become porous, and through it, he thought he saw a similar light on the Spires themselves.

  “Make it stop!” Dr. Reese shouted. “You’ll ruin the Spires.”

  Her shout sounded like a whisper. He didn’t want to answer her—it would take more effort than she deserved.

  Instead, he ran outside. The light seemed worse than it had a moment ago, as if the sun had become even brighter. He shielded his eyes and made himself look up.

  Sure enough, one small part of the Spires was glowing, sending light down to the temple, to the map that the Denonites had built in the temple floor.

  He couldn’t see the Spires clearly enough from below, not clearly enough to understand what he was looking at, so he went back inside the temple.

  The single line glowed and so did one of the circles beyond. It wasn’t very far from the first caverns that the divers would have gone into underwater.

  A series of caverns, and then a passageway, and then another cavern. The passageway and the cavern had lit up.

  “My God,” Meklos said. “It’s not artwork at all.”

  “What?” Dr. Reese had somehow managed to join him. Her eyes were small pinpoints of blackness in her pale face. “What’s not art?”

  “The Spires,” he said. “They’re not art or a map or anything like that. They’re a defense system.”

  27

  A barrier descended from the top of the passageway door. The barrier was milk-colored and opaque, like the water, and it came down with great force.

  Navi thought it should have shattered as it hit the ground. Then she realized that had her hand been in the way, the sharp bottom of that barrier would have sliced it off.

  She whirled, not wanting to be trapped in the passageway. But nothing had come down behind her. She looked up, and the ceiling of the passage looked fine.

  She was disturbing the water, making the sediment rise around her, but otherwise she was fine.

  The vibrating had stopped. All the shaking and thrumming and violence had ended when the barrier connected with the bottom of the passage.

  Roye? She sent to him. Roye?

  She could see him through the barrier. He looked a little smaller than he was. He had swum to the barrier between them.