by T. J. Quinn
“Tomorrow would be a good day,” she assured him.
“I thought you would like to wait for Luciana to be more at ease here before we leave her alone,” he pointed out, his frown getting a bit deeper.
“She adapts perfectly to wherever she goes. Besides, she will be with Gideon, Ophelia, and Bretdon, people she knows very well, right?”
“Of course, we’ll love to have her around. And Gideon will be thrilled,” Ophelia agreed.
“See? There’s no reason to postpone the journey. It will take us a long time as it is.”
“If that’s what you want, I’ll prepare everything, as fast as possible, but it will take us at least, a couple of days to get them ready,” Lucas finally agreed.
“Yes, it makes sense,” she nodded. “How many people will go with us?”
“I think three more men should be enough,” he replied.
“Yes, it will be perfect. Will we have means to communicate with the city?”
“Our communication devices can reach the whole planet, so we’ll always be in touch,” Lucas assured her.
“Awesome. That will make things a lot easier.”
Their guests left a while later, and Sabrina felt the night had been a success. But Lucas didn’t look very happy. She guessed it was because of her eagerness to go to the ruins, but she wanted that out of the way as soon as possible. Because then, he wouldn’t have an excuse to keep her there and he would have to define things between them.
And she wanted that more than anything, even if it meant he only wanted to be Luciana’s father and nothing more.
The following couple of days were filled with the preparations for the journey. They needed to take all the food they could since hunting wasn’t as easy as it was back on Earth. Animals here were a lot bigger and a lot more dangerous.
They also would need some excavation tools along with the ones to get rid of the wild vegetation around the ruins.
Luciana was excited about the idea of being with Gideon and his family, but she wasn’t that much about not seeing her parents for a while.
“We’ll chat through video conference every day, so you won’t have the opportunity to miss us,” Sabrina comforted her.
“It’s not the same, and you know it, mamma.”
“Yes, I know, sweetheart, but we have to do this and we better do it right away.”
She didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t protest anymore.
They finally left on the third day. Jayport, Jetfra, and Drakmor completed the group, and soon they were on their way.
The journey to the ruins was quite monotonous. All they could see was the wild vegetation around them and once in a while a blue river with its cold water. Sabrina started to think she should have stayed back in the city until they had built a clearing big enough to a flying pod to land on it.
The only thing she was genuinely enjoying was Lucas’ company and their wild nights of passion. During the boring hours traveling, she had asked him a million questions about him and his life, including the years before him becoming a cyborg.
He had patiently answered all of her questions, and now she had a better knowledge of the man she was in love with.
When they finally reached the ruins, Sabrina was amazed. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t anything like this. Though the forest was gradually taking over the place, it looked so much like some of the Mayan ruins from Earth it took her breath away. There were even some pyramids scattered around the location.
She turned to look at Lucas. “This place is identical to the Mayan ruins,” she pointed out.
“I know. I noticed the resemblance too. It’s one of the reasons I wanted this to be explored,” he replied.
“This is astounding. I can’t wait to start,” she assured him, with an excited smile.
“I knew you would say that.”
They started working on the clearing to allow the flying pod to land at ease. While the men worked on that, Sabrina headed to one of the pyramids. Lucas had given her a scanner to look for traps or possible dangers.
If those pyramids were like the ones back on Earth, she would need it. But for now, she was just going to climb to the top of the pyramid.
“Please be careful,” Lucas warned her when she told him what she was going to do.
“I will be.”
She used a laser sword to clear a path to the base of the pyramid. She had scanned the whole area looking for wild animals, but incredibly, she couldn’t detect any.
It took her over an hour to get to the biggest pyramid. Getting rid of all that vegetation would take them a while. Before she even set foot on the pyramid, she scanned the stony construction. But she couldn’t see anything else other than the exterior structure. Something seemed to be blocking the scanner because she couldn’t see anything else.
Puzzled, she approached the staircase and started climbing it, as cautiously as possible, trying to be prepared for anything.
While she was climbing, she kept scanning the pyramid, but she was getting the same results, nothing. On her way up, she found a couple of entrances, closed with massive stones. She was sure they would have some opening mechanism, but she would get to that soon enough.
She finally reached the top of the pyramid and looked around. The place was amazing and clearly bigger than she had thought at first.
Standing at the top of the pyramid, she tried scanning it again, with no luck. She walked around the top of the pyramid still scanning but still with no results. Feeling a bit frustrated, she went down to the highest entrance and started to look for a way to get in.
There were several drawings engraved on the walls of the entrance. She was almost sure they were quite similar to the ones found in the Mayan ruins. The walls were partially covered with some sort of moss so she would need something to clean it up, to have a full view of the wall and the message written on it.
Instead, she ran her fingers over the wall, trying to find something that would open the door, but there was no luck. She went to the first entrance and tried there, but she wasn’t able to find anything that would open it. She walked around the pyramid at that level and wasn’t surprised to find another entrance on the opposite side to the other one.
She searched those walls too, and she was about to give up when she found a small indention in the middle of the perfectly carved stone. Excited, she cleaned the stone as much as she could, trying to check the symbols surrounding the indention before she dared to press it.
At first, nothing happened. She pressed it again and again and only when she pushed it the third time, did she hear the stone door moving.
Excited, she watched it slide to a side, revealing a dark passageway. She would need a powerful flashlight to explore the passage thoroughly, but for now, she would simply scan it.
To her frustration, the scan only read the passage. The whole construction was covered with some strange material that repelled the scanners. That would make things a bit harder, but certainly not impossible.
She decided to go back to the camping site to get a few tools to start working on the ruins. It was midday, so she still had several hours of daylight to explore the passageway as much as possible.
Chapter Nineteen
The guys were almost done with the clearing and Jayport had prepared some food for lunch.
She updated the men on her findings and told them about her plans for the afternoon.
“You should wait until I can go with you,” Lucas told her, not very pleased with the idea.
She shook her head. “I’m just exploring the passageway, nothing more,” she assured him. “Do you think it’s the rock that repels the scanner?” she asked them.
“No, I don’t think so. We scanned some of the planet’s mountains, and we were able to find the minerals we needed,” he explained. “It has to be something else.”
“It’s so intriguing,” she said, with a frustrated sigh. “I can’t wait to explore all of the pyr
amids.”
“Just don’t do it alone. If you can’t scan it, you have no means to know what dangers might hide inside it,” Lucas warned her.
“I know, and I promise I’ll be careful. Today, I’ll only clean up the walls to get some pictures of it and check the passageway, nothing more. We might get some answers from the engravings on the pyramid walls.”
“Very well. Wear your hands-free communication device and keep an open channel with me. You can tell me about your findings, and we’ll be in touch if anything happens,” he suggested, and she agreed.
“That sounds like a good idea.”
She finished eating and picking up the tools she needed, she strode back to the pyramid. Though she was eager to go inside, she forced herself to clean the walls first. She had brought from the camping site a cleaning device that used pressurized air to remove all particles of dirt and moss from the stone. It didn’t take her that much time, and soon she was taking pictures of the incredible engravings she had found underneath.
She had shared all her findings with Lucas, and though she knew he had only suggested it because he wanted to be sure she was safe, she really enjoyed sharing her findings with him. It was almost as good as having him there with her.
“I’m entering the pyramid now. I’m sending you a picture of the indention I used to open it, in case it closes behind me,” she warned him. “I’ve checked the entrance, and I haven’t been able to detect anything that would trigger that, but we have no idea how advanced this civilization was,” she explained.
“If they were clever enough to find a way to deflect our scanners, you should be ready for anything,” he told her, and she could tell by his tone, he was worried.
“Well, if you don’t hear from me, come and get me,” she told him, half joking, half seriously.
“Just be careful, please,” he asked her, in a stern tone.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry,” she assured him, taking a deep breath and stepping inside the pyramid, with a powerful flashlight in her hand.
Nothing happened, and she directed the light towards the floor and the walls of the passageway.
“All good, so far,” she told Lucas and heard him sigh.
“Keep in touch all the time.”
“Yes, sir, don’t worry, sir,” she teased him a bit and almost let out a loud laugh at his snort.
She turned her full attention to the passage and unable to detect anything out of the ordinary, she took another step and another and another until she reached the end of the hallway. Unlike the wall on the outside, the passage walls had no engravings, nor paintings. Not even the ceiling was decorated.
The hallway ended up in yet another heavy stone door, and after looking for a few moments, she found a similar indention to the one outside, on a stone above the door. It was too high for her to reach it, so she used the flashlight to press it.
She guessed she should have been more careful, but the absence of traps or anything remotely dangerous had made her braver than she should have been. She wasn’t ready for what happened when she pressed the damn indention.
One minute she was standing in front of the stone door, the next, a trap door opened underneath her feet and she was falling into a void. She had no idea how long she was falling, but the longer it took, the more certain she was she would die at the end of such a fall. She tried to get through to Lucas, but all she could hear was static, and she suspected the pyramid doors had closed themselves.
At some point, she felt as if she had stopped falling and was now slowly floating. With her flashlight still in her hand, she lit up the area and realized she was only a few feet from the stone floor beneath her.
She pushed her legs down and surprisingly, she was able to put them on the floor and stand usually. The floating sensation disappeared, and she looked around, trying to see where the hell she was. She tried to reach Lucas again, but it was no use.
A bit shaky, trying not to think about the consequences, she lit up the place and discovered she was in another passageway, like the other one she had been in, just a few seconds ago.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to walk along it, hoping it would lead to some sort of exit. There wasn’t much else she could do, other than stay there waiting for Lucas to come rescue her.
This passage was a lot longer than the other one, and it took her several minutes to reach its end. Unlike the other one, this one didn’t end with a stone door. Instead, it let out to a chamber whose walls were covered with colorful paintings so similar to the ones on the Mayan ruins, she felt drawn to them, especially the ones she had visited in Chiapas.
She took her time to examine the paintings and take some pictures of them. She knew she wasn’t acting rationally and that she should be looking for a way out instead of taking pictures of the walls, but she couldn’t help it.
She also took pictures of the golden statues scattered around the room. They looked like some sort of warriors, and some of them even had weapons in their hands.
The anthropologist inside her was so excited, she didn’t even consider she was trapped inside the pyramid and might not find a way out.
When she was done documenting the whole room, she proceeded to the door in one of its walls. This one was made of some sort of golden metal, probably the same used on the statues, and it opened up the minute she touched it. It led into another hallway, and with a heavy sigh, she stepped into it. Fortunately, it started there, so she didn’t have to choose which way to go. Like the others, this hallway had no decorations whatsoever and seemed a little larger than the other ones she had been in.
It led into another chamber, but this one was empty. It was a very small room, more like a passageway than a room and it had another metal door she opened easily, into yet another hallway.
Feeling she was in some sort of maze, she sighed and looked around. This time she had to choose which way to go, and both sides were as dark as they could be, making it hard for her to decide.
Considering she had turned right in all of the other hallways, she decided to do it here again and pray she was making the right decision. She could always return if she had to, or at least she hoped so.
Taking a deep breath, she walked down the hallway, and at some point, she started to hear what sounded like water falling. There was a small river near the ruins, but she hadn’t explored it, so she had no idea if the water came from the same river. If it did, that meant the water came in at some point and went out in another. She should be able to use any of them to escape the pyramid.
She hurried her steps, and after a few minutes, she entered a large chamber carved in the rock. There was an unnatural blue light in the room that lit it up to some extent, so she used her flashlight to explore the room more thoroughly.
But there was nothing there. Only a water spring flowing from one of the rocky walls, which eliminated the possibility of an entrance, and the small stream of water formed by it.
The blue light came from the water, and that dissuaded her from even touching it. Water shouldn’t shine or have light of its own.
She walked along the stream to see where it led and she wasn’t that surprised to see it ended on a small pool with no visible bottom. The water clearly left the chamber, but there was no way of telling how the hell it did so.
Frustrated, she sighed and looked for a way out of the room, after taking a few pictures of it, but the only exit was the passageway she had used to enter.
She looked around one last time before she headed back and she was about to step away from the pool when she heard a strange noise coming from it.
Startled, she turned around to look at the pool. What she saw, made her step back immediately and trip over one of the rocks on the ground.
Three creatures had come out of the water. They looked translucent as if made of the same water they were coming out of. They had humanoid forms but looked a lot more like ghosts than any living beings she had ever seen.
Sure she was in deep trouble, she stru
ggled to get up, clumsily.
One of the creatures mumbled a few words she wasn’t able to understand, and that only scared her even more. Once on her feet, she ran towards the door, but she should have known things wouldn’t be that easy.
Before she could reach the door, it closed with an ominous sound, forcing her to turn around and look at the creatures. They were still in the pool and didn’t seem to have moved at all.
“Listen, I mean no harm, alright? If you let me, I’ll leave right away,” she mumbled, though she was sure it was useless.
“Please, don’t be afraid,” the same creature spoke, this time in perfect English, surprising her even more, with a clear mellifluous tone. “We won’t harm you in any way,” the creature assured her.
Sabrina took a deep breath and tried to quiet down the deafening roar of her heart. “Then, why did you stop me from leaving?” she asked, sarcastically.
“We have been waiting for someone like you for centuries,” one of the other creatures said. “We just want to talk to you.”
“What are you?” she asked, realizing she would have to play the creatures game if she wanted a chance at leaving that place.
“We are the only survivors of our species, the Dropas, former inhabitants of this planet,” the first creature explained. “My name is Drox, and my friends are Dexian and Darex,” he introduced themselves.
They all looked alike and sounded alike, so Sabrina was sure she wouldn’t be able to tell who they were if they moved from their current positions.
“What happened to your people?” she asked, too curious to hold back her questions.
“We made some very bad decisions that led to the destruction of our people a few centuries ago,” Drox replied, in a tone that showed some regret. “We were the only ones able to survive because we discovered this fountain that transformed our physical bodies into this form,” he explained.
“What we didn’t know when we chose to use the fountain was that we wouldn’t be able to leave the fountain,” Dexian added.
“That’s terrible,” she said, not even able to imagine how it would be to be trapped in a place like that for centuries.
