2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light)

by Robert Storey

  Chapter Seven

  Sarah peered down the enormous rent in the Earth’s crust. She knew the bottom lurked far below but from her vantage point, even when using her visor’s magnification, a visual confirmation of its existence proved elusive. Hanging a hundred feet down from the lip of the small plateau above, Sarah held onto the rock wall as Trish and Jason edged down alongside her, their ropes dangling onto a ledge located a further fifty feet down. To her right, the black and yellow form of the Centipede hung suspended by its winch cable, which had been anchored into the rock face using its custom built automated deploy and retrieval system. Sarah had hoped to have left the Centipede behind at this point in their journey, but since the large aerial drone had met an early end, they’d have to make do with scaling future obstacles as best they could.

  Negotiating Sanctuary’s crumbling landscape proved difficult enough, but with the bulky all terrain vehicle along for the ride it slowed their progress to a crawl. With supplies running low, Sarah knew they had to pick up the pace. The time for caution had passed. If they didn’t get to the five transportation devices in the Anakim temple in the next seven days, they might never reach them.

  The fact that the devices represented their only chance of getting back to the surface wasn’t lost on Sarah. Nor was the fact that none of the five might lead to where they wanted to go. There was a chance they might not even work at all. But, when they’d devised this plan back in the safety of the USSB, it had seemed more than feasible; they had after all encountered such adversity before and if they ever wanted to see the surface again this had been their only option. Now that reality had sunk in, doubts had grown with each passing day. Have I made the right decision? Have I led my friends to an early grave? Why did I ever think this could work? Whenever these thoughts emerged, Sarah suppressed them. She knew she could do this. She had to do this. Trish and Jason wouldn’t have agreed had they not thought it viable. Would they? She knew she could be quite persuasive when she wanted to be. Have I deceived them, have I deceived myself?

  NO! came the angry response. This is the only way, the way to freedom, the surface, justice for my mother and exposure of the Anakim and Sanctuary. There is no other option, it was this or nothing. It was all in; the gamble had been made. Now all I have to do is make sure the dice land in our favour.

  Adjusting her harness, mental preoccupation resolved, Sarah continued her descent, the soft clinking of her assorted climbing gear echoed by that coming from her two friends nearby. Reaching the ledge, she disconnected herself and turned her attention to the Centipede. Using its control console, she manoeuvred it onto the same rocky outcrop before Trish and Jason landed alongside moments after.

  ‘You two okay?’

  Jason puffed out his cheeks and nodded.

  ‘I’m not sure I can keep this up,’ Trish said, rubbing a shoulder.

  ‘Here.’ Jason turned her round and began massaging her.

  ‘Ow, not so hard.’

  ‘If it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t work.’

  ‘Who told you that, the Spanish inquisition?’ She let out a grunt of pain and Jason smirked as he moved to knead her back.

  Sarah retrieved the Centipede’s anchor with the touch of a button, the wire rope going slack as the mechanism at its end detached from above. A high-pitched whine indicated the winch span round at speed, the cable retracting faster than gravity’s invisible pull. Repositioning the spider-like device, Sarah initiated its insertion into the rock. A whir of servos forced a spike deep into the substrate while smaller versions repeated the process on either side. Happy, she reversed the Centipede over the lip, each set of its small wheels leaving behind terra firma for another mid-air ballet. With the next leg of the descent underway, the three friends followed their supply vehicle over the edge, abseiling down over the craggy drop.

  Five more times they had to redeploy in this fashion and their supply of abseil anchors had shrunk to half. Sarah had taken to climbing down in order to retrieve her friend’s cams and self-piling bolts for re-use. More time they could ill afford wasted.

  On the final section, everyone was halfway down when a horrendous noise shook the ground.

  ‘Earthquake!’ Jason shouted.

  Trish screamed and Sarah clung on for dear life as the cliff face shifted.

  Rocks rained down upon them, bouncing from helmets and bodies alike. Looking up, Sarah saw a large boulder heading straight for her. She swung to one side. Pain tore through her as it clipped her shoulder. Letting out a shout she fell ten feet before her safety line jerked her to a stop. Spinning in circles, she heard Jason shout, but she only had eyes for the wall which appeared, reappeared, disappeared, reappeared – BANG! A fist-sized stone bounced from her helmet as the deafening shaking continued. Her rotation slowed and she made a grab for the wall. Slipping a hand inside a deep crack, she pulled herself back in just as another massive boulder whooshed past behind. Pulling herself flat against the relative safety of a tiny overhang, Sarah saw Jason had also managed to secure himself. Trish, however, swung out in dangerous arcs while behind her, appearing out of the gloom, the Centipede tore through the air towards her.

  Sarah’s eyes widened. ‘WATCH OUT!’

  Trish turned.

  Too late! The supply vehicle swatted her into the rock wall like a rag doll. Knocked out, or worse, Trish rotated, limp, while the Centipede careered into the cliff, the force of its momentum broken by its canisters, which exploded with precious water.

  After what seemed an eternity the tremors subsided and Sarah was able to reach Trish’s lifeless form.

  ‘Is she hurt?’ Jason said, his voice desperate.

  Sarah felt for a pulse and her friend’s eyes opened at the touch.

  Sarah let out a grateful gasp. ‘You okay?’

  ‘I think so,’ she said, her voice shaky.

  Awash with relief, Sarah helped Trish down to the floor of the crevasse.

  Sarah looked at her friend in concern. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

  Trish gave a small smile and nodded, but before Sarah could say or do anything else, Jason was there and hugging Trish to him.

  As her two companions embraced, Sarah regretted the missed opportunity to repair the frayed bonds of her friendship with Trish. And then she remembered the Centipede that still swung from its tether above. She lowered it to the ground and inspected the damage.

  ‘What’s the story?’ Jason said, coming up behind.

  Sarah shook her head and stepped aside. ‘The story is, we’re in big trouble.’

  Chapter Eight

  Before them the two water canisters that had saved the Centipede from becoming a lump of scrap metal stood torn and empty, the remnants of their life saving liquid barely enough for one drink.

  Trish looked in despair at Sarah. ‘What do we do now?’

  Sarah raised her visor and rubbed a palm against one eye, searching for inspiration.

  ‘We’ll have to go back,’ Trish said.

  Jason gave a near hysterical laugh. ‘We can’t go back, remember, only forward.’

  Trish frowned. ‘How long can we go on without water?’

  ‘We’ve already been on rations.’ Jason wetted his parched lips. ‘No more than three days, max. With this kind of exertion, probably less.’

  ‘How far to the temple?’

  ‘At the rate we’ve been going? Seven days, who knows?’

  ‘Then we’re screwed.’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  Trish and Jason’s voices, getting increasingly fraught, faded into the background as Sarah walked away to think. Pressing a button on her helmet and sending her visor back down, she controlled the screen with her eyes, selecting the Deep Reach map to the Anakim temple. Searching along the length of the route, interspersed by waypoint beacons, she expanded a section that doubled back on itself. Selecting another option, she brought up other pre-mapped sections.

  Due to the remoteness of their location, no other area nearby had been explored
by the SED; however, after the Deep Reach team had discovered the temple they’d decided not to retrace their steps. Instead they took a different path which created a giant, circuitous loop on the map. The point of intersection had long since passed, Sarah deciding at the time that the shortest way to the temple was the same path taken by the SED explorers on their way out from the shuttle station. Now, though, this alternate plotline grabbed her interest.

  Its nearest point was a few ‘Sanctuary’ miles away, but crucially one symbol indicated water had been found there. Drilling down into the data revealed water had been reported to seep from the rocks. Perhaps enough to refill a repaired tank, she reasoned, or part of one if they were lucky. There was just one problem.

  ‘That’s great!’ Trish said when Sarah told them, but her elation faltered when Sarah’s expression failed to mirror her own. ‘Isn’t it?’

  ‘The area between us and it is uncharted. Well, almost uncharted.’

  Jason frowned. ‘Almost?’

  ‘It looks like the team who was down here before us did a preliminary recce with aerial drones. They seemed to think, according to the report, that there might be a way through, but—’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘But it was deemed too dangerous.’

  Trish sighed. ‘Why was that?’

  ‘Unstable, potentially impassable obstacles and dangerous temperature spikes.’

  ‘Temperature spikes – caused by what?’

  ‘They don’t say what they were caused by, only that some of them reached over a hundred degrees.’

  ‘That’s not so bad,’ Trish said.

  ‘Centigrade.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘It’s either that or make for the temple and end up dying of dehydration before we get there.’

  Jason looked more than a little anxious, as did Trish. ‘Not much of a choice,’ he said.

  ‘Can you repair those tanks?’ Sarah asked him.

  He glanced over at the Centipede. ‘One of them I can, using the material from the other one and the right welding torch.’

  ‘There’s a repair kit in the rear compartment, you should find everything you need inside.’

  Jason gave a nod and moved away to start the task. Meanwhile Sarah and Trish went through their supply inventory and made sure the Centipede wasn’t damaged beyond the obvious.

  An hour later they set out once more, but this time into the mystery of the greater unknown.

  ♦

  Four hours of gruelling hiking, climbing and abseiling followed before the three battered and bruised explorers, or Sancturians as they’d become during their stay back in the USSB, found their path blocked by an impassable void. Even with their visors, nothing could be seen beyond where the ground ended in a sheer drop; nothing, that was, except for the remains of a narrow bridge jutting out of the rock a hundred feet down, leading to nowhere. The top of the crumbling structure stood broken, with large swathes of the walkway gone and only the supporting lattice framework left beneath.

  A laser rangefinder device aimed down the escarpment’s vertical face produced a grim picture. The reading on its small screen read:

  10.267 Kilometres

  It seemed their luck had finally run out. For all intents and purposes, considering their dwindling supplies, the drop was bottomless. Pointing the laser ahead and above resulted in similarly distant numbers of just over one kilometre, and two kilometres, respectively. The chamber was enormous. When angling the laser out diagonally, there was some good news – there was a floor, after all – but it was little consolation as it was too far away to be accessible.

  ‘End of the road,’ Jason said.

  Trish leaned over to look down. ‘What about the bridge?’

  Jason adjusted a setting on his helmet visor. ‘Not a chance, there’s no way across and even if there was it’s too damaged. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy out on that thing, it’s a death trap. We’ll have to find another way round.’

  Sarah had other ideas. ‘Okay, let’s set up camp and grab a few hours rest.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we keep moving, try searching for another route?’ Trish said, sounding weary.

  Sarah shook her head. ‘There was a fork in a tunnel an hour back which had potential. I’ll check the maps, but we need to recoup first, you especially, you may have a concussion.’

  A look of concern flashed across Jason’s face and Sarah felt a pang of guilt for manipulating them. It’s for their own good, she told herself, they’ll thank me when they’ve had time to think about it.

  While Jason bustled about tending to Trish’s needs, Sarah manoeuvred the Centipede to a position of her liking. She then started a small fire to keep them warm, suppressing the memory of her infernal nightmares as she did so, before suggesting they get some sleep. With Trish and Jason in agreement, she settled down with them in an attempt at heeding her own advice.

  It wasn’t long before Trish let sleep take her; however, despite Sarah pretending to drift off herself, her deception failed to induce Jason into a similar slumber. She cracked open an eye to see he remained wide awake, much to her annoyance. She needed another tactic.

  Sitting up, she yawned. ‘Can’t sleep?’

  Jason shook his head. ‘Do you think that other tunnel will work out?’

  ‘Pretty sure,’ Sarah said, trying to keep his hopes up despite her own fears and the knowledge that there was no other tunnel. ‘We just took a wrong turn, is all.’

  His expression brightened and her guilt deepened. She hated lying to him, so she changed the subject.

  ‘You care for her a great deal don’t you?’ She made a move with her hand toward Trish.

  ‘That obvious, huh?’

  ‘A little.’

  ‘I don’t think she feels the same way.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Stuff.’

  ‘You made a pass at her and she blew you off?’

  ‘How did you know?’

  Sarah shrugged. ‘I know Trish. She doesn’t let many people in.’

  ‘I think she likes me, though.’

  ‘I think you’re right.’

  ‘So what’s her problem?’

  ‘Time and place.’

  Jason made an odd face. ‘What’s that, then?’

  ‘If she was up on the surface living her life and without all this crap going on then you’d still find it difficult to land her.’

  ‘And down here, I’ve got no chance.’

  ‘’Fraid so.’

  ‘What if I’m patient?’

  Sarah thought about it and gave a downturn of her mouth. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘That’s not very helpful.’

  ‘Lay the foundations. If she’s worth waiting for, which she is – you’d be lucky to have her – then that’s all you can do.’

  Jason looked into the fire and juggled something from hand to hand in silent contemplation.

  ‘You found any more of those?’ She gestured to his hands.

  He opened a fist to reveal some blue stones that glowed in the half-light, stones he’d collected on their journey through Sanctuary Proper. He shook his head.

  Sarah groaned inwardly, she could tell Jason wasn’t about to shut his eyes in a hurry. ‘Let’s have a look, then.’ She held out a hand.

  Jason tossed one to her. She caught the small object and inspected it. Shielded from the light of the fire it shone even brighter, its iridescent blues shimmering as if alive.

  ‘It looks more like crystal than stone,’ she said, holding it up to the light of the fire, ‘but it doesn’t look natural.’ She flipped it over in her hand. ‘They’re not radioactive like Trish said, as our visors would have flagged it up. They could still be dangerous, though, so I wouldn’t touch them too much.’

  ‘They can’t be any more dangerous than that orb of yours.’

  Sarah grunted.

  Jason sat up straighter. ‘Let’s see it, then.’

  ‘Trish wouldn’t like us messing about with
it. Whenever I take it out she gives me one of her looks.’

  ‘You do seem a bit obsessed with it,’ he glanced over at Trish, ‘but, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.’

  ‘I hope that philosophy doesn’t apply to your love life or you’re on the road to nowhere with sleeping beauty there.’

  Jason looked anxious. ‘Eh? No – hey, stop playing with me, get it out.’

  A small smile crossed her face. ‘Why so interested?’

  ‘What, you afraid I’m going to steal it? Is it that precious to you?’ He made an odd noise with his throat, like he had whooping cough.

  Sarah chuckled. ‘You watch way too many films.’

  ‘Says she who knew what I meant. And anyway, I always preferred the books. So come on, let the dog see the rabbit.’ He raised a suggestive eyebrow.

  Sarah laughed. Whatever the situation Jason could always lighten her day, even when they faced the worst of situations as they did now. It was one of the reasons she loved him as a dear friend and was probably one of the main reasons why Trish reciprocated his feelings towards her, at least in part. Reaching inside her coverall pocket, she withdrew the orb and its cloth cover and laid it on the ground between them.

  Jason lent forward and liberated the Anakim artefact from its protective sheath of white material. Sparkling with a metallic sheen, it looked a little like a spherical Fabergé egg, although with less of the ornate and more of the art deco about it. That it seemed unfinished, its surface rough and corrugated, gave it a sinister air, but that might have been because Sarah knew what it was capable of: rendering a person comatose, or worse, dead.

  Jason touched it with the tip of a finger and then moved his hand back as if he’d gotten a shock.

  ‘Scaredy-cat.’

  He grinned.

  Sarah couldn’t help but touch it too, her fingers compelled to caress its surface. The pentagonal side she’d made contact with turned smooth and then lit up with a white light before sinking down to slide aside, revealing a dark, hollow interior.