Conflicting Objectives IV

Following nearly one local day of preparations, the group led by John had the initial plan of action ready. They were considering both known routes for entry purposes, but despite the mountain route being seemingly closer to what they believed to be main chamber in the facility, final decision was to use the door originally found within the cave system. The main reasoning was related to the last event in the main chamber encountered on the first visit inside the building, and possibility of the route changing irreversibly. That is why mountain entry was considered to be too risky of an option.

As per this decision, the team had to first investigate the entrance they selected in order to make sure they can go inside safely enough as to possibly not get any injuries on such an early stage of their assigned mission.

Based on the findings so far, everyone focused on performing research on the peculiar black metal that was present close to what they believed to be the main entrance. Similarly to such substance John's group encountered previously, this plate of metal also exhibited ability to change its shape, and it indeed allowed to move the wall which they originally used to follow Jackie, but no one went in once the path was opened. Instead, they sent drones inside to check the area.

- Would you look at that - Martin, who was controlling the drone, started talking - Didn't you say you just slid downwards the last time, John? - he was pointing out at what surprisingly looked to regular stairs.

Marlow did not expect that as he had different memories of the path, so he shrugged before saying:

- It may be just what we were talking about before. Maybe this metal panel allows much more possible actions than just opening the entrance. Let's record the exact movement we did, then try to close the passage, and check what happens when we reopen.

Others nodded, so everyone continued repeating the steps they took in order to open the passage - to much of their confusion, despite doing what they believed to be the same thing as before, the route's setting was changing completely, and in five more tries they were unable to get the stairs to appear inside.

With each subsequent attempt, they were shaking their heads in disbelief.

- For real, what kind of magic is this? - Rashid sat on one of the chairs they set up in the area alongside other equipment - It's either some kind of lottery or we are missing something.

- Maybe you guys need a hand after all? - it was Keira who appeared in front of them, looking at all the equipment and interactive screen listing their notes - I can already see that you are struggling.

Miss Evergate was not supposed to be involved in this mission as per Marlow's request made to colonel McRae.

Hours before her coming to visit them right now, the two of them actually had a talk about the plan to investigate the interior of the biggest building they found in the area so far, and Keira not being included in the team. Saying that she was pissed upon learning about it would have been a huge understatement. However, now that she appearead, no one would believe her being ever angry.

- Don't worry, Keira, we are just starting - John said to her - You can focus on your duties, and let us work on ours.

The woman laughed as she heard that.

- Are you for real, John? I was delegated to check the rubbish compared to what you got. I have completely nothing to do until the guys remove all the rubble that's in the way. In the meantime, I can give you a hand, so I don't get bored while I wait.

Marlow did not like the idea as he specifically decided to not get her involved, but others supported the idea of her helping.

- It's not like she is getting inside with us, John - Alina provided the final point, he could not argue with, therefore Keira ended up joining them in the investigation of the metal plate.

Couple of minutes later, after familiarizing with all of the notes available, miss Evergate was unable to hide her excitement.

- It's looking exactly as the substance from back then, though for some reason it's solid here? - she was walking around the plate, checking it from every possible angle - So why is that? It is only reacting when you touch it, but there is no movement on its surface?

- Precisely, or rather nothing visible to a naked eye, as it was for this unusual interface we've seen - Marlow explained - We can see micro changes in the connections between highest layer of particles, but in-depth analysis is impossible as there is a lot of interference with our instruments. Either way, it seems to have similar traits, though physically differs from what we encountered.

Keira nodded, and continued walking around, then asked for the others to trigger opening of the path several times.

- So, did you come up with something new? - Rashid asked her, sitting in his chair all the time - You were quite excited a moment ago.

Miss Evergate was actually smiling.

- This is what makes it interesting, you know. If you reach the goal easily, there is no challenge, you won't get a sense of achievement, right?

John understood what she was talking about. Even so:

- I would still rather have the results sooner than later.

- Let's go through what you guys did so far, and try to figure out if we may be missing something.

It took them nearly one hour to review everything. Despite that, they were unable to come up with explanation as to how to use the plate for controling the route setup.

The brainstorming took long enough for Keira to be called back to her original station - her disappointment was visible way too much as she was leaving.

- Aren't you too hard on her, John? - Martin asked him after she left - I get you are worried about Keira, but at the same time we are taking Alina with us, not to mention two of the soldiers that will be going with us are women. She may feel underestimated. Or is it more personal?

Marlow sighed.

- It's a more complicated thing than that - he started explaining - I already have too many of people I care about being involved in this, and the choice I made is related specifically to what we are going to face. That's why, among all the people whom I care about, it is you and Rashid who will be going as you have enough both strength and knowledge.

- You know that you basically stated you are not taking Keira because she is weak?

- I didn't say that. You guys are just stronger. Besides, I had access to medical information when making decisions, so I know some details none of you is aware of.

Johnson gave him a curious look.

- Don't tell me she is pregnant!

John almost fell from his chair.

- Don't say something so stupid! No, it's not like that, she is not as far as I know. The only thing I did was to check physical condition charts, and yours are better, okay?

- So, it's only about you wanting her to get some rest?

- I would have lied if I said it is only about that. Yes, I'm worried about her too, and there is also the case of her having one of key jobs in such investigations. There should be an advance party that secures the route, then people like her should go in.

- Oh, so we are finally going to use the proper protocols? - Martin laughed at that - I guess Ryan is starting to get comfortable as the head of expedition?

John shrugged.

- We need someone to take on the role, while Mathias is nowhere to be found. Either way, it's enough of the chitchat. We won't learn more about this metal plate by talking about unrelated stuff.

- Agreed, but we are in lack of ideas, and we are soon to go in, so I'm not sure if staying here, trying to figure it out right now is the best choice we have.

Hearing that, major laughed out loud.

- That's exactly what we need! We should take a look around, and see what this thing may be connected to. Why didn't I think about it before? It's just a single plate, it may be a terminal, a button or whatever, but it needs to be connected to something that affects the interior. We should look for that!

Martin was looking at him, surprised.

- Okay, but where should we even start? Do you think we will have enough time to do a proper work? Isn't it better to just rely on the drone, and continue with triggering this system until we get a satisfactory result?

John sighed.

- Yes, we may not have enough time, but either way, I would like to give it a shot. In the end, we have what you suggested as the last resort. However, I feel concerned that without understanding this device properly, encountering anything similar inside may determine whether we live or not. If that's going to be the case, would you put everything on the sheer luck?

Johnson shook his head, hearing his friend's explanation.

- I definitely don't want that. I will help you to the best of my ability.

- Great, let's gather everyone so we can divide work.

With that, their whole approach was completely changed now. Marlow gave assignments to everyone, and these included attempts to uncover possible mechanism hidden under the rocks in the area where the entrance was located, but also visiting other structures inside the cave to look for possible connections.

Knowing that this new approach will involve more people than those in his group, major decided to take the area where miss Keira Evergate works for himself and Martin.

- Look, who do we have here? - these were the words Keira used to welcome them - Did you come here to ask for the help? If so, I won't be able to leave my assignment for the next couple of hours. We finally got through, and will be able to peek inside in a matter of minutes.

- You are only partially right - John replied - We are not here to ask for help, though your work here may actually help us.

Miss Evergate looked at him, visibly confused.

- I don't really get your point. Weren't you assigned to something else? - she asked, but then her eyes opened wide as if she realized something - So this is what you thought about? That's actually interesting, and something I should have thought about.

- Keira, what are you...? - Martin started asking. However, Keira entered a mode in which she was simply not listening to him.

- So, we are looking into connections between different buildings in the area, to see what functions they had and how affected each other?

She was ranting for couple of minutes about what she already knew before Marlow finally stopped her.

- Okay, that's already plenty of info, but we don't need to know all the details - he explained - We need to focus on whatever is related to the mechanism we have down there whatever it might be.

Miss Evergate nodded with a serious look on her face.

- So you guys are going to walk around looking for clues or do you have it somehow divided in your team?

- We are taking this side of the cave, so yeah, we are staying here.

- Great, then help us get the work done so we can investigate the interior sooner.

John and Martin looked at each other, then just shrugged and asked others for instructions as to what exactly they can help with.

As it turned out, this group was doing most of the work manually, relying mainly on their F-suits - based on Keira's explanation, drones were not precise enough for the state of the external walls of this building and even the slightes error in controls could end up in a catastrophe.

Using his PEC for quick scan of the area, the only thing Marlow could do was to agree with Miss Evergate assessment. As he did that, he also provided several suggestions for securing the building for investigation - obviously, it required additional work, which would be mainly done by him and Johnson, and time, which was the only thing they did not have in high quantities given the overall plan for proceeding to the megacity. Having said that, after the recent events, safety was something everyone was extra cautious about.

With the use of reinforced composite material, John and Martin created light girder system to support ceiling and walls - something that should work for a building which had a set structure with no movable elements, contrary to the location they were supposed to investigate soon.

Once this was done, a spacious hall opened for investigation.

Keira immediately went into archeologist mode, starting to secure all the appliances they found inside.

- This is amazing! - she kept saying as they were discovering one item after the another - Some of the items show similarity to what I recall from various sites back on Earth, though craftsmanship is on a completely different level here.

- And the materials are completely different, correct? - John asked pointing out at the very first item he noticed among what they already collected.

- Definitely so, but I cannot tell what exactly we are talking about before I make proper scans.

- I already did, and noticed a couple of materials we already came in contact with, for example these metal trees' trunks had the same composition as this one. However, the polishing and tweaks used here.

- Yeah, it doesn't look similar to the original material.

- We never actually tried processing the trees yet, so we have no idea how useful of a resource these could be, contrary to original inhabitants of the planet it seems.

- Oh, based on what we found so far, they were much more advanced than we. I really wonder why would they leave such a nice world.

Marlow shrugged.

- Maybe they led this planet to the same fate Earth is heading? We cannot be sure when exactly they left, but you can see how this area looks like.

Miss Evergate nodded.

- Yes, while we still need to run proper tests, I would say at least five thousand years is required to lead to similar results, though atmosphere here is different, meaning there is going to be a difference.

- Either way, it is an interesting topic indeed, but I have some other stuff to look into.

- Right, the system connected to the entrance to that facility, I remember - Keira gave instructions related to smaller appliances and went with John to look into other sections of the area - Similarly to the rest of this place, some parts were covered in rock or otherwise destroyed due to geological processes, but not to such an extent as in open areas of this settlement or whatever it was. I say settlement because the setting of other buildings suggests that - she clarified - It's either buildings around were used for maintenance service of the biggest one, or this biggest one was the key point used for sustaining the rest.

- So, if our guess of the main building acting as an energy source is correct - Martin jumped in on the conversation - That would mean that it's either a power plant for supporting some city in the area, or just a core of the city and there is many more buildings buried here if that's the case, am I right?

Miss Evergate shrugged the same way as Marlow did before.

- It's too many variables at this point for me. As it stands, we cannot rule out any possibility. Still, this building we are in does not look like a house to me.

- How do you know? - John asked - I can see items that look like furniture.

- But the setting, how the things are organized - Keira started pointing out at various spots - Of course, I don't know what race lived here and what would be convenient for them, or what kind of tools and other items they would need. However, remembering the limited footage we got from the megacity, my guess they were bipedal and taller than us. I didn't tell you this, but I did some estimation for their size and solely taking this into consideration, I say this building is too small to be used for living quarters.

- What is it then?

She shrugged again.

- No idea, some storage or control room maybe? Assessment of the items we gathered will take a bit of time, so maybe if we check additional details on the walls, floor and ceiling, we may notice something.

John and Martin were disappointed, but continued to support Keira's team on investigating the area further, and after couple of minutes, she called them to come quickly.

- Have a look here. Load this tool on your PECs - she shared an app with them - Here, and here - she marked spots for them with usage of her own implant.

Both men could see a wide range of weird symbols appearing on one of the walls in front of them.

- It looks interesting, but what are we looking at? - Johnson asked.

- These are glyphs. And looking at how they are changing, it looks like some kind of a display, right?

- Can I touch the wall? - Marlow pointed at the one on which glyphs were appearing.

Miss Evergate shook her head.

- I would love to see what happens when we do that, but I feel it's too dangerous to be done before we secure the spot and document this finding properly. Give us a couple more minutes, then we will give it a try.

John and Martin agreed by nodding, and Keira assigned her people to gathering data.