While the entrance and the lobby of the Hotel was at least 200 meters underground, the suite was above ground and from the large panoramic windows you could see the mud and the cattle and the feed lots. I was sure that most guests of this hotel appreciated exactly that.
I expected to crawl around a cave and it would be my first normal day as Freya. Not going out or to a party or anything but just being me, working as a Midshipman on a real assignment. I wondered how it would be
Brenda told me she would pick me up at seven and the door announced her only a minute after. She came in and whistled while looking around."Nice choice, but I doubt the Science Corps will agree to cover the expenses on this suite. I was expecting to find you in one of the economy rooms."
"No worries. I can afford it and I rather have a nice bath and an auto dresser, especially now."
She looked at me and nodded." Yes I can understand. Good morning by the way!"
"Good Morning, Ma'am."
"We don't do the Ma'am and Sir thing in the Science Department and usually call ourselves by first names or nicknames. Do you have a female name?"
"Yes I always go by Freya."
"Freya it is, then."
She wore her green uniform and had her hair put up in a knot, but a few strains had escaped and framed her face. It looked accidental, but I somehow knew it was done on purpose. I wore a similar green suit of Intelli-Fab, All Terrain boots, belt and jacket and the hair gathered in a pony tail.
"Did you have breakfast already?"
"I am not a big breakfast person and I had coffee already."
"Great! Then let's go!"
She landed her Utility flyer about three miles north of the rock formation that contained her lab. I could see it in the distance. The green valley with all the bones was stretching before us until it reached mountains. I estimated to be about twenty or thirty kilometers away. The valleys elevation slowly increased to where we had landed.
The air was moist and cool. The grass was about ankle deep and my boots were glistening wet after only a few steps.
She pointed at the grass. That is the real wealth of Wichita, it is called Wichi-green by the locals and while it is a native plant it is not unlike Phleum pretense or Timothy grass and is well liked and easily digested by Terran Cattle. Sixty percent of the planets land is covered with large steppes providing an abundance of food."
I found this information about the local grass mildly interesting and enjoyed being outdoors and the fresh air and even though I was neither dressed glamorous or special and no one but Brenda saw me, the simple fact that I appeared female to the world and to me, gave me a great inner peace.
Brenda and I carried a small backpack, a heavy TKU Blaster rifle, rope and Sunbeam Torches mounted at the front of our caving helmets. After a short hike we reached the step rising rock wall of the northern Mountains of the Bone Valley and there was a natural looking cave entrance. She took the Blaster from her shoulder, set it to the lowest setting and widest dispersion and burned an area of grass away. The Grass turned to black ashes and in doing so she exposed the dirt beneath. Now I could clearly see hundreds of tracks coming out of the cave. I knelt down and examined them. Those were old tracks, no doubt and made by something big and heavy during a wet period. There wasn't much detail left, but I was sure those tracks could not be older than maybe two three years.
"Brenda what is the amount of precipitation of this area in an average year?"
"I kept detailed weather data, one second." She looked at her PDD and then showed me the curve." There are basically three wet month with rain up to 2 centimeters. Then there is one month with snow."
"Have these track been inspected by an expert? I somehow doubt they are 50 years old. This ground is not that hard packed, it allows grass to grow. There is rainfall and there is snow. I don't think you would find any tracks even as deep and wide as these after three four years maybe. Of course I could be wrong."
She had listened to me and said." You are the first who really examines these tracks and it appears you know a bit about it, all I did was record and measure these tracks. I have sent my findings along with my monthly report to Venus. I have not gotten any response so far, but then the Wichita Bone mystery is not considered a priority project."
Somehow the science bug had bitten me and I measured a few of the tracks, made pictures and said." We should excavate a few big slaps and expose them to water and see how long it takes to wash out a similar track."
"Yes we can do that. I have the robots set that up."
We then approached the cave and I said." Don't get me wrong Brenda, but caves don't just form. Usually it is done by lava or water or something. Do you know how this cave was formed? Are these mountains volcanic?"
She laughed silently."You have the hallmarks of a good field researcher. You pointing out things I should have done long ago, maybe I am too much of a biologist, I should have seen the things in a geological context as well." She then said."As far as I know these are not volcanic mountains. I am going to ask for a geological assessment of my data."
I examined the rock closer." This looks like granite, not that I am a geologist either, but Limbur a friend of mine he loved the subject when we covered this in Class."
She looked at me from the side:" I think it is wonderful to have a second set of eyes with me. Robots can't do what you do, so please continue. Maybe by the end of the day you asked enough questions for us to get closer to solving the mystery.
The cave entrance was big enough to accommodate the big animals. Gravel like rocks covered most of the cave floor. We did have one class of about two days in Speleology and caving at Camp Idyllic, where a professional Cave specialist introduced us to the basics of this science. Several member species of the Union and many other life forms both sentient and non sentient were found in caves and similar sub surface areas on planets throughout the known Galaxy and so it was considered quite possible that we could end up in such an environment during our career. Aurellius told us that even wars were fought in caves and that the six year battle of Winston Planet was almost entirely fought underground.
The moment we entered the cave, I activated an Application I had added to my PDD as I remembered the recommendation of the Instructor. It was the Spelunker Assistant Program Suite and one app was called Ariadne Module. This feature would not only make a three dimensional scan of the cave as we advanced but would later help us to find the exit again if we got lost.
The air had a musky odor to it and was cool. The gravel on the ground was loose and shifted at every step and left little in terms of tracks, but I still looked carefully to see if I could find any tell tales if something had moved across it before us and after about 200 meters away from the cave entrance, I found what I somehow expected or hoped to find. A dried out pile of dung.
She was all excited and took a sample of the matter. "I think you are right, it does not look like it has been here for fifty years."
We must have covered the better part of 2 kilometers now and while the cave had narrowed a bit, it was still a big corridor that was steadily declining and according to the PDD, we were already 80 meters below the level of the entrance.
Our lights made the cave bright as day. The air became moist and the walls shimmered wet. On a rock ledge she discovered a bunch of mushroom like plants and was happily examining them closer.
I found a boulder that was sitting more or less in the middle of the path and sat down on it, while she did her thing.
Just as I started to wonder why there was a single boulder and looked up to see where it could have come from. I saw something and it moved!
Chapter 17 - The Huffh
The entire ceiling seemed alive! Hundreds maybe thousands of dark brown drop shaped things hung from that ceiling, Brenda saw them too and said."I think we just discovered this planets equivalent of bats, I wonder why there is no bat dung on the floor."
Before I could ask her what bats are, there was a high-pitched scream, fi
rst one then it swelled to a crescendo of many thousand voices and it did not sound friendly at all. The first things dropped and headed straight for us. They were about thirty centimeters and had leathery wings, long necks. One stuck to my shoulder and another to my helmet. Brenda moved in panic as one covered her face!
I could feel needle sharp claws or teeth trying to dig through the tough Intelli-Fab material of my suit and could hear a chewing scratching sound from the thing on top of my helmet. I dialed the TKU to widest dispersion and low setting and fired several times over our heads, then grabbed Brenda's arm and dragged her as fast as I could along. Three more blasts killed many of these and we were not pursued. With my knife I killed the one on my shoulder and then cut the one off Brenda's face. She was bleeding from several deep scratches and a terrible bite wound on her nose.
She was groaning in pain. I had the first aid kit open in no time and after disinfecting her wound, I pressed the Auto doc Pack on her neck and set the Derma Patcher over what was left of her nose.
Auto doc injected her with pain killers and she sighed." I feel better now!"
The Auto Doc flashed a message to my PDD." Strong bacterial infection of an aggressive unknown type of bacteria, broadband antibiotics administered. Wound is sealed, unit strongly recommends professional medical assistance as soon as possible, this unit is unable to reconstruct missing cartilage."
She had heard the diagnostics as well and said." I guess that will take care of our first foray into this cave. "
I agreed and said."Are you well enough to walk back?"
"Yes, I am pain free."
Something bit me painfully in the neck! I had forgotten about the little beast on top of my helmet. Brenda ripped it off, tearing a big chunk of skin along as the little beast had sharp hook shaped claws almost everywhere.
She had a tough time getting the wild thing in a specimen box, but finally managed. After she had doctored my neck she said." Those things look like a mixture of Piranha fish, Vulture and Vampire bat."
I looked at the trashing thing in the specimen container and said."They are vicious and ugly!"
We both took our blasters and slowly made our way back. With our eyes and lights towards the ceiling, we reached the spot where I had first noticed them. There was not a single bat on the ceiling and I could find none of the ones I burned. Right behind the boulder that was sitting in the middle of the way was a solid rock wall! According to my PDD this was the way back, yet there was a wall and it did not look like it had been part of a moveable wall or something but there forever. Brenda was as surprised as I was." We came from there, I am certain! Over there are the fungi and I remember that boulder."
I was as certain as she was, as the path had not forked so far and there was no other path we could have chosen. I knocked at the rock and it felt as solid as a mountain, so I stepped pack dialed the TKU to max and tight focus and fired and the beam dug a deep hole into the rock material of at least 3 meters’ depth and yet it was still solid rock. Whatever blocked the path was thicker than 3 meters.
Brenda's voice vibrated with fear." I can no longer access GalNet. No matter how deep we are inside a planet. I should be able to connect."
I put my hand on her shoulder."Don't worry we will get out of here. We are alive and we are well equipped and well armed, maybe the Cave has an exit on the other side."
She tried to smile and said." Yes you are right."
We slowly went deeper into the Cave. Just a few meters from where we had stopped the first time fleeing from these bats and where I rendered first aid to Brenda, I noticed a thin metal band almost completely buried and obscured by the gravel on the ground. It ran across the width of the tunnel and now I saw it went up both ways and clear across the ceiling forming something like a ring.
I knelt down and wiped the gravel aside. It was a dark gray smooth metal and not a natural ore vein.
Brenda now noticed it too and said." This does not look natural at all, it almost appears like some sort of threshold and we must have passed over it as we ran from the bats."
She unhooked a hand-held device from her belt and said." I am only using this for Bio scans, but it is a Standard Field Science Scanner. I think you can do energy scans with it too."
I remembered she had given me the same gear and I took the scanner and activated it as well. It was the same model we had been trained to use." I am detecting multi dimensional energies here, very weak or maybe the scanner is not able to detect the whole spectrum." By looking at the scanners read out and the representation, I said."This ring is some sort of gate; I don't think we are in the Kansas System anymore."
Despite our strange and serious situation, she laughed." This isn't the Yellow brick road, Dorothy but I wish you could click your heels and we get back."
I looked at her with a big question mark on my face." I left the Dorothy Mask at the hotel and I am not sure I know what you are talking about?"
"You just quoted more or less the most famous line of that old movie I told you about. Well if we get out of here I will make a point and we watch that old show. How do you call yourself when you are female? Not Dorothy, right?"
"No and it is not Erica either. I am Freya."
"I like that name, Freya. It suits you.
I smiled at her and then wondered how that device was triggered and who had put it there. "Maybe all we have to do is step over this ring and we will be back."
I stepped over it and nothing happened, but then I did not feel anything before. Brenda was still there and even after stepping over the ring several times, the rock barrier was still there and the faint energy reading did not change.
So we decided to move on and see where the cave would lead us.
Interlude: Huffh
The Huffh always were and could remember the beginning. Caram would soon reach the end of his journey in this realm and would pass on to the Valley, almost all the Huffh had gathered and many families had come. Even the Alikta Huffh family was here and they had to travel seven Sky ball rises.
Caram was not an old Huffh and if he did not have that accident where he fell from the cliff he would not have to go into the final Cave and seek the Valley so soon. But it was the way of things, Caram's wounds had never healed well enough and Gulah and Parah the healers said Caram's injuries were beyond the herbs, as a flesh eating fire had set around its Bones and soon Caram would no longer be able to move at all and die right here. To die not in the Valley was a terrible faith and omen, so Caram had received pain reducing herbs and would with his last strength walk into the final cave and seek the Valley.
Balmi was the life partner of Caram and the Huffh lamented her fate almost as much as they felt sorry for Caram as she would now live without ever becoming Anali and bring a Huffh from her own cave of life into this world. Balmi was standing with the Anali of her family and she moaned silently, not to make it even harder for Caram to enter the Final Cave. She had told no one, but she would follow Caram, tonight and be with him in the Valley. She did not have to tell anyone as it was expected and foreseen that she would go into the Cave before her natural time, all Huffh that lost a partner before life drew naturally to an end.
Caram still had a little time. The Cave to the Valley would not be open for passage until the light ball had moved behind the mountains and he dragged himself to UtnAnali, the oldest to seek comfort in her stories. She would soon seek the Valley herself and she was certain she would not see another White cold season, but she needed to tell all stories to the next UtnAnali and to all the Huffh.
The crowd that had gathered around the Old Anali respectfully made room for Caram, so he could be close and hear well.
The Old Anali gracefully lowered her grizzled head and exposed the few yellow teeth she had left, the mighty tusks worn down to sad stumps." Caram it is good you seek us out.
So we all may radiate our affection upon you."
Caram wheezed as a wave of pain from his shattered hind bones flashed through his mighty body.
Before the accident he was a strong Huffh and his size and strength the source of friendly envy among the other Huffh." Affection is what makes me bear my faith, Old UtnAnali. Tell me the Old Story and tell me about the Valley."
She nodded again and three juveniles robbed closer so they too could hear the story better. The Old Anali began." It was an era long ago, so long ago that no one can count the number of White Cold Seasons that happened since then. All the Huffh knew only one Place. It was a warm Place with much water. All that was crawling and walking on that Place came out of the water to claim land for the first time. Then a big ball of fire came from the skies and burned many of the others, the skies stayed dark and hot for many seasons. Some of the Huffh decided to go back into the waters and became separate from the Huffh and even changed their form over many seasons, but it is said they sing in the deep waters of the Old Place to this very season, and their songs tell of the days when they were Huffh. Again untold seasons came and went, and the wound and damage, the ball of fire had caused to the Place, was long forgotten and the Huffh that remained on land changed their shape and form just as our brothers changed that went into the water. The Water-Huffh bodies became more and more like the little things that always live in the water. Something else happened to the Huffh that stayed on land, the veil of ignorance slowly lifted of their minds. The Huffh began to speak to one another and there were words! The first stories were told and the first songs were sung. Little ones came, different from the Huffh in many ways, small they were and had no fur and looked weak and fragile compared to the Huffh.
They said that the Place was not for the Huffh and that the Place was reserved for others. We did not understand why the Place that was ours was not ours."
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 282
