“That sounds right to me too,” Mary confirmed. “I don’t know which pyramid we’re in, but they all took an insane amount of effort. I can’t believe there’s been a hidden portal down inside, and no one’s found it.”
That got me thinking. “These days, they have all sorts of ultrasonic sensors that tell them what density of soil and rock are under things. How did they not learn there was an opening down here?” I asked, perplexed.
“No idea. I’ll chalk it up to ancient alien gods,” Magnus said.
I looked back at the hybrids, who had remained very quiet to this point. “Are you guys okay?”
“The sooner we get out of this dusty tomb, the better. I’m not a fan of tight underground spaces,” Leslie said.
Terrance slid his hand into Leslie’s. “Me neither.”
The walkway kept going slightly uphill, but eventually, it came to an end. Magnus was ahead; he and Mary were feeling the walls.
“There’s no exit,” Magnus said, and I instantly felt the walls closing in on me.
“What do you mean, there’s no exit?” Leslie’s voice lifted, on the edge of panic.
“We’ll find a way out,” Mary said.
I tried to get a feel for where we could be. We’d walked a short way, and at an uphill trajectory. We were probably near the ground level, where they’d plopped the pyramid on top of the portal access. If archeologists hadn’t found what was below, there had to be a layer of thick rock between the levels.
We spent an hour looking for any sign of an exit, and by the time we’d given up, we were covered in dust and Leslie was crying.
“We’ll be okay. We can always go back,” Mary said, trying to comfort her.
“We aren’t going back!” she yelled. “Our family is up there, stuffed away in a prison, tormented and dying. I’ve seen enough of humans to know how they’ll treat us.”
“Kind of like how you were trying to fly our comatose bodies into the sun, hey?” Magnus asked, egging her on. It was clear he was at his wits’ end with Operation Stuck-Under-a-Pyramid too.
“I don’t have to justify it. You all know our story. We repented and asked forgiveness. Some of you gave it, some of you couldn’t.” Terrance took over for his sobbing counterpart.
“The last time anyone from Earth knew what was happening, you two escaped a secret military base and snuck around the Long Island camp, having midnight clandestine meetings. Remember the bodies? Who do you think they blamed for that?” Magnus added fuel to the fire.
“We did it for them!” Terrance said, pushing himself chest to chest with Magnus, though he stood a good six inches shorter than the Scandinavian.
“Lot of good it did them. You two were living easy on planet log-cabin, and they were blamed for everything!” Magnus yelled back, spittle flying from his mouth as he shouted.
“It was your goddamn friend Mae that killed those guards! We aren’t to blame!” Leslie screeched from the ground, her hands on top of her head in a frantic gesture.
“Enough!” I called, standing between the two men, pushing Magnus back. For a second, he looked like a Rottweiler who’d had a bone taken from its mouth; I was worried he was going to snap at me. But his common sense took over, and he turned, walking away. “Neither of you are right, and neither are wrong. Both sides are to blame. We may not be able to fix it, but we can change the outcome now. We won’t be able to do that and set an example if we can’t even work together without fighting.”
Terrance leaned against the wall and slid down until his butt was touching the dirt floor beside Leslie.
The hall had gotten pin-drop quiet, and Leslie broke the silence. “You’re right. We’re with you. No more bad blood. I’m sorry for all the trouble we caused. If we hadn’t escaped, you wouldn’t be here right now. Maybe humans would eventually have seen us as friends. Instead, we ran away, which was exactly what Mae wanted. The Bhlat are now knocking on your door, and it could be our fault, and we made you lose seven years of your loved ones’ lives.”
We hadn’t told them all of this, so clearly, they’d been listening as we talked to Kareem. Something struck me at that moment. Something Kareem had asked, or almost asked.
“Guys, Kareem started to ask if we had our…something…then cut himself short before he looked at the pin on the uniform. What if someone added a lift on the other side of the ground? Anyone with this technology could press their pin, glow green, and lift toward the target embedded above by the Deltra or some other ancient race after the pyramid was built.”
I walked around the halls again, this time with a renewed vigor. Magnus and Mary were near the end, and I moved them out of the way as I searched, this time not for a handle or a secret door or hatch in the ceiling, but a sign on the floor. I used my boots to brush away dirt from the ground near the end wall and found that section was really a slab of stone with dirt covering it. Mary got down on her knees, and I joined her, wiping the stone surface with our gloved hands, clearing the dirt off, until we could see it.
Laughing, tired, and covered in dust, we hugged; the image of Earth’s icon was emblazoned on the rock.
“You did it again,” Magnus said, clapping me on the shoulder after he helped Mary up off the dirt.
“I’ll go first.” I looked up at the ceiling, wondering how thick the space between us and the well-trodden paths of the pyramid above was.
“Are you sure?” Mary said, worry thick in her voice.
I nodded, ready to get out of the sealed-off trap we were in. “There have to be openings here too; otherwise, we wouldn’t be breathing in this stale air. If anything happens to me and my plan fails, look for a spot with air flow. It may be your way out. And if that doesn’t work, go back and convince Kareem to give us what we asked for. We’ll bring your friends back after we deal with the Bhlat.” The last bit was for Leslie and Terrance. I caught his gaze and held it there for a moment. He nodded solemnly.
Mary took my face in her hands. “Do it. Communicate back to us, and we’ll be right up.” I felt the press of her lips against mine. They were dry and covered in old sediment, but I didn’t care. Not caring who was watching, I kissed her back.
“Enough already. Tell you what. You get us out of here, and you two can have seven minutes in heaven at the Queen’s chamber up above,” Magnus said.
I stopped the kiss short and smiled at Mary. She was so beautiful; so wonderful. The few months we’d had on New Spero just being a couple was the best time of my life. We walked Maggie, tended the garden, chopped wood… that was the life I wanted for us, at least part-time. She seemed to be reading my mind, because she just gave me a slow, soft nod, her eyes just on the brink of tearing up.
“See you on the other side.” I clasped my helmet tight, hearing the familiar hiss as it pressurized, then hit the pin on my uniform. The familiar weightless feeling engulfed me, and I floated upward.
SEVENTEEN
I forced myself to open my eyes, only after a count to five. I instantly regretted it. I was still inside the rock, and even though I couldn’t feel it, I thought it was going to crush me. Just as I calmed myself out of the sudden shock, I emerged from the stone.
The green light around me dissipated, leaving me on shaky knees in the pyramid passageway. My lights were on, and they showed me two directions to go. One careened at a downward angle, the other elevated at an acute pitch. That was the way we needed to go.
“Dean, are you there?” Mary’s voice carried into my ear. I’d been so distracted, I’d forgotten to tell them I made it.