Gaian Pyramids IX

The room was square-shaped with two doorways - one was the slide they went through inside, while the other led into a corridor where Keira noticed blood marks.

Interior was in a mess - a lot of dust got inside through the opening from which John and others slid down, there were cracks on the walls and appliances of unknown function were lying around.

Marlow was interested in both the appliances and unusual lights that were making inside of the room really bright despite it being underground. The most interesting observation about the lights was that there seemed to be no connectors or power sources he could notice both with his eyes and PEC.

John knew he could make decisions that would allow him to investigate the room, but they had limited time given the circumstances, and before he could have a better look at various devices, wounded soldier was taken away, and sarge Krawczak was ready to go deeper into the structure in order to find a missing scientist - Jackie. Marlow felt he had to set proper priorities, so he gave up on alien devices for now.

They did not rush though. Instead, they proceeded with checking the blood marks leading into the corridor. Their PECs had built-in database of crewmates, allowing them to identify others based on various types of data, including blood - major did a check and confirmed marks were left by Jackie.

- I wonder how he got hurt - sarge said after seeing the result - I couldn't see any traces by the entrance. Unless it is somewhere in the dust, I didn't notice anything that could hurt him in here. Can we look around a bit longer before we move farther?

- If he bleeds like that after applying the first aid, which I doubt he wouldn't, we shouldn't waste time, sarge - John pointed out - We already had to wait to move that wounded soldier to safety, and there is another wounded person somewhere out there.

- That was only a suggestion. I will follow your orders, major.

- I got your point, and I assure you I too would like to check things before going in there, believe me. I don't want to take risks, but I also don't want to lose people I'm responsible for. Time's of essence here.

Corridor was narrow, of the size that did not allow two people to walk next to each other, so they were forced to walk in single file, and everyone agreed going in like that blindly would be too risky. With that in mind, Marlow made a decision to involve one of the drones they had at their disposal - these were to be used solely for investigation required towards accomplishing their current mission, but safety of the crew was more important right now.

Spider-shaped bot of the average dog's size was walking several meters in front of them, scanning the area in order to discover potential threats. This proved to be a good idea as there were recesses and holes here and there, with some of them hiding alien mechanisms that could be potential traps, or defense systems that could hurt or even kill them. Whenever any such object was found, they would proceed carefully in order to not trigger anything dangerous. Having said that, Jackie was nowhere to be found so far, so it was likely this route was safe.

- Distance between blood marks is getting bigger - sarge Krawczak, who was walking in front, pointed out - Maybe his wound finally started closing.

- Or he is bleeding out - Keira replied.

- Don't jinx it - John scolded her - Even if he tends to be irritating, he is still our crewmate.

- So you admit you sometimes feel that way too?

Marlow sighed.

- That's not the point here. Just focus on the surroundings so we can pass through this route safely. We can't be too relaxed.

Others nodded and continued walking in silence.

Finally, they reached a point where corridor started widening to the point where everyone could again walk next to each other. Moments later, everyone entered an enormous, cube-shaped room.

- Woah, it's huge - miss Evergate reacted with a gasp - I can't see the other end.

- Scan from the drone shows it is shaped in the form of a cube - major informed others - It is also picking up signatures of numerous objects, but cannot identify what these are. But what's more interesting are energy readings - values in the charts are really high.

- Is it safe to proceed? - sarge asked.

- Not sure yet, it is too soon to say. Let's stay on standby by the entrance. The drone needs a moment to proceed through the area, and I have to analyze the data afterwards.

- How long?

- Fifteen minutes at least.

- Roger that.

John continued scouting with a drone, while the others used this moment to take a rest. However, there was a sudden, though not unexpected complication.

- Ouch, damn it - Marlow cursed aloud - Drone got toasted.

When using the drone, his PEC was paired with its sensors to get live data, and every stimulus it felt was translated to the user's senses. This meant that sometimes one could feel pain when something happened to the machine.

- What happened, major? - sarge Krawczak was the first one to approach him.

- There was some kind of power surge - John answered - It got the drone's brain burnt.

- Are you hurt? - Keira asked, putting her hand on his shoulder - What about the data?

- I should be fine in a moment. And, about the data, scan reached over seventy percent. If it could survive for five more minutes...

- Well, we should have something to work with at least, right?

Marlow took a deep breath, then exhaled and inhaled the air couple of times.

- Ok, I feel better now - he finally said - Yes, we have some data, but I think going further may be risky.

- If it is about this power surge, shouldn't our F-suits withstand it? - sarge was the one to ask this.

- Most likely, they would - major confirmed - If it was at the same level as the one that got the drone, that is. Though I'm much more concerned that we didn't get to scan the whole area. One fourth of the room is a big area, and we don't know what's in there.

- Then what do you suggest? - Keira was looking at him, worried - Should we go back?

John was actually concerning this option right now. Obviously, he wanted to find their crewmate and have everyone complete current mission in one piece, but putting more people in danger could produce quite an opposite result.

- I don't want to give up - he told others - but I don't want to force any of you, so let us go with a vote.

Others looked at each other.

- I'm with you on continuing, major - Krawczak said immediately after Marlow suggested voting - We shouldn't leave any of our guys in here.

Remaining soldier agreed to sarge's words.

- I guess my opinion doesn't matter anymore - miss Evergate smiled - Don't worry, though, I wanted to say the same - she added - Besides, I'm here to find about this planet as much as I can, so any place where I can learn something, I will surely go if there is a chance.

- So, it's not about finding Jackie in your case? - John looked at her carefully, when asking that question.

- Don't give me that look, I'm worried about him - she assured him - Even if he is irritating at times.

Major sighed.

- Okay then, give me a moment to review what we have and come up with a plan.

Drone was gathering a ton of data, using numerous sensors, so there was much more to look into than just optical and heat data. The main aim of the analysis for now was to identify potential threats, therefore John paid special attention to any abnormalities in physical properties of materials present in the area.

Common electromagnetic noise present on the planet limited the quality of the readings he received by great deal, though not to the point of rendering the information useless. In a matter of minutes, Marlow identified a number of objects that seemed to be akin to power circuits, though the structure was nothing like what he knew from Earth - there was no trace of materials one could find in such installations made by humans, only processes were similar to what would usually be observed around the cables and transformers.

While producing electricity, these seemed to be quite unstable as power surges were happening quite frequently. There might have been some idea behind it, since he did not know how the creator of this installation was thinking. There could be some kind of malfunction in the system, or maybe it was not even a system, but some raw power that had to be processed.

John was really curious about this energy source as it might have been related to the source they were supposed to investigate within the alien megacity. However, the most important part he had to focus on was to assess how dangerous it could be for his group, and what kind of precautions should they take.

F-suits everyone was wearing here were military grade, meaning they were equipped with a number of defense systems, including resistances to external conditions, which included electricity. Of course, there was a limit as to how much these could withstand, so Marlow wanted to avoid situations where they would be forced to check the durability of their field suits in practice.

Because of that approach, he created a map of the area, marking all sections where such veins - as he labeled these power sources - were located. The idea was to not approach them at all, unless there is some factor that would cause different route to get blocked. Having said that, avoiding the veins could not completely guarantee their safety, therefore the whole group had to remain vigilant, especially around the appliances that were lying everywhere.

As they proceeded, following a path John selected, sarge Krawczak started talking:

- Major, I've been meaning to ask this since we broke through that barrier on our way here - his eyes were focused on the pile of alien equipment on their right - This unusual metal that shaped into a terminal looked really advanced, so I wonder why would they still rely on something like this.

John shrugged.

- There may be a number of reasons I can think of, such as material quantity, energy usage or durability. And that's what comes to my mind most easily, while there can be many more answers - he was also scanning the area around - If you ask about these specifically, I don't think such a solution would work for everything too. Though, you gave an idea I will have to investigate.

- What kind of idea?

Marlow did not think about it before, but with Krawczak reminding him about this liquid metal, he started wondering if maybe this substance actually exists in nature, and could possibly conduct electricity. Still, what he started thinking of was nothing more than just a speculation.

- It's only a theory, and one that would require quite a bit of time, which we don't have right now, to be proved - he replied in a way that was planned to leave this topic for now - Let's focus on avoiding trouble for now. Of course, keep an eye on anything similar to this material we encountered before.

- Of course.

Being given a moment of silence, major registered his observations in personal log for further investigation later on. Intention was to review whether the surges could have something to do with flow of liquid metal.

Aside from the log, he continued to use his PEC's systems to collect footage of every piece of alien equipment they passed by. Some objects could be easily associated with furniture and pieces of hardware known by humans, while most of them were hardly similar to anything they would know. However, even if there was some kind of resemblance, it did not mean application would be exactly the same. Regardless of that, obtaining any piece of data for future studying was important part of their work, also when having a completely unrelated goal at the moment.

Once they reached past the middle of the room, on the way to one of the passages leading out of it, they could no longer notice any blood marks left by Jackie.

John did not think about it before, but it suddenly occurred to him the whole situation was kinda off. After all, the person they were looking for was not the type to just pass by anything considered new to him, so why would he keep going deeper if there was so many things to check all around the place?

- John, what's going on?

Keira's question woke him up - unknowingly, he stopped walking when focused on analyzing the situation.

- It's just, I started wondering why would Jackie go through all these places without stopping. Looking back at how he was, it feels weird he didn't stop to look at this alien equipment, and kept going instead.

Miss Evergate nodded, confirming she agrees on Marlow's observation, but then sarge Krawczak pointed out:

- Maybe he just panicked and started looking for a way out? He was on his own, so it's likely he might have not kept composure as we do.

- Fair point - major agreed - Then again, sudden lack of traces is concerning. Sure, it may be that the bleeding stopped, though it's something we should think of. We are inside an alien building, who knows what kind of traps there may be?

- But the scan didn't show any open spaces below us, like trap doors, right? - Keira asked - Not that we can be sure such concept existed for locals, obviously.

John started hesitating. There were more and more concerns piling up, and they have already spent over one hour down there.

- We need to set some kind of a time limit - he decided - It may be dangerous to our party in the cave after the nightfall. Since we are unsure what kinds of creatures may appear, we need to be back by then.

- That gives us three more hours - sarge Krawczak set the clock - Hard to say if it is plenty, given we don't know the size of this building. It'd be better for us to find some clues asap.

- There is at least one other corridor than the one we used to get in here - Marlow said - It goes downwards, from what I saw in the footage. Not sure about the other corner where we lost the drone.

- Shouldn't we try and pick it up?

- I don't want to take additional risk right now, so we will consider it for our way back. For now, let us move carefully towards the next corridor, but keep a special attention to any traces Jackie might have left for us.

Everyone confirmed, and they started moving forward again.

The group continued walking for about five minutes before reaching the entrance to the next corridor.

- How does it look, sarge? - Marlow asked Krawczak, who was the closest one to the entrance.

- There is some kind of mechanism in here, like for a platform or a lift. That's how it looks at least.

- Okay, I'll have a look.

John approached and ran a scan of the corridor's interior - the mechanism indeed looked like something humans would see for platform with huge runners used for moving it. However, it had connectors both on the floor and the ceiling, so the object moved inside would have a cubical shape, more like an elevator. Then again, it would be the case if constructors of this place had similar thinking process to humans.

- So, what's the conclusion, John? - Keira got a bit closer to ask.

- It does look like some kind of elevator, as sarge said - he confirmed - Probably any human seeing this would have a similar idea.

- Then, is there any control panel around?

- I found nothing, and I'd rather avoid going in on foot. We don't know if this machinery is functional, and when it may be triggered, so going inside is dangerous. I guess retrieving the drone may be a good idea in the end. Depending on the damage, I may be able to repair it here.

- Should we all go there?

- No, let's split up in case Jackie indeed went down and decides to go back the same route.

Others agreed to the plan - one person stayed by the "elevator", while the others proceeded to the area where connection to the drone was lost.