The chamber it emptied into was vast, an impressive chasm sitting at the centre. Like the tunnel everything was constructed in the same dull grey metal, even the yawning pit that split the chamber in two. Floating in the void, flickering slightly, were projections of the planet above. Representations of the flat world.
“You know,” Michael said as he walked across the chamber. Something about the projections seemed familiar in a way he couldn’t quite place. “I feel like I’ve seen something like this before.”
“You’ve been in a weird underground complex in a fake planet? I find that unlikely.”
“No, the actual planet itself, does it ring any bells for you?”
“Not sure why a bell would be relevant.”
“Ah, sorry,” Michael said. “Guess the translation didn’t carry that one. I mean does it bring back any memories?”
Aileena shook her head. “No, sorry.” She stepped past Michael, walking across the chamber. Both sides of the chasm were totally flat, except for a small raised section at the edge of the drop on both sides, each opposite the other. “We need to find a way across. There must be one, otherwise whatever we were following would be here.”
“Maybe it can fly?”
“If it could fly, why would it need a ramp to get down here?”
“Questions we’ll have to ask it if we can find it and hopefully the troopers as well.” Aileena stepped onto the raised section, the only focal point in the vicinity aside from the holograms. As she did, there was a low drone, a reverberating hum that filled the chamber.
A few seconds later the source of the noise appeared, a large rectangular platform with a low wall appearing in the chasm, flying up from the black below. A faint blue light pulsed on the bottom as it moved, bringing itself alongside the platform. A section of the wall folded open like a gate.
“Guess we’re supposed to get on?” Michael said, stepping past Aileena and onto the platform. It felt stable, unmoving despite its hovering over a pit.
“I suppose so.” Aileena followed behind him, stepping onto the platform. The gate closed, the join between it and the wall imperceptible once it shut. The platform began to descend, sinking into the black.
The light slowly returned as the platform continued its travels, something glowing from within the chasm. There was no sensation of movement, aside from the light creeping towards the platform’s passengers. As the platform descended, the source of the light became revealed, the illumination pouring up from a second chamber as massive as the one above.
This second chamber wasn’t barren like the first. Instead it full of strange machines, bizarre glowing tubes filled with liquid, and whirring moving gizmos, their purposes unclear. It was an active place, objects moving in and out of the chamber on conveyers. Rocks, plants, strangely shaped metal lumps, all moved in and out of the room, snaking through some of the machines and out the other side imperceptibly changed.
As the platform landed within the chamber coming to a gentle stop, the starkest thing in the room became clear. Sat in a pair of folding chairs made from the same grey metal, were two aliens. One had long bat-like ears and hooved feet, whilst the other had a coating of thick blue hair. Both were wearing black formfitting bodysuits, the underclothes to the brilliant red suits of armour laying nearby. Each held a glass in their hand, a bronze coloured liquid within.
“Oh, uh, hello?” Said Gurrit.
Chapter Ten
Gurrit leant forward in his chair and placed his drink on the ground before him, the glass clinking on the metal floor. He smiled and stood up, extending his hand towards Michael, the palm held facing upwards. Michael copied the bat-eared alien, placing his palm atop Gurrit’s, who then shook his hand from side to side horizontally.
“I’m Gurrit, this is Jurlt, we’re both Council troopers. And you, are the Knower of Truths, right?”
Michael nodded. “Please, call me Michael. This is Aileena. Your commander, uh, kindly requested that we go looking for you.” Michael slid his weapon back into the holster tied loosely through the belt loops of his trousers.
“You mean he screamed at you? Not the calmest guy in the galaxy.”
“That’s an understatement,” Aileena said. “How did you get down here? We followed tracks and it looks like you were dragged, but you seem fine. More than fine, even.”
“We uh, we don’t know how we got here,” Jurlt said. “Being dragged makes sense.” He turned to face his comrade. “Guess that’s how he got us here.”
“Makes sense,” Gurrit said, nodding in agreement. “We just woke up here, got knocked out somehow. Must have been our host.”
“Your host?” Michael said, his hand returning to the grip of his pistol.
“Yeah, he’s about here somewhere. Probably tinkering with something or other.” Gurrit looked down at Michael’s hand. “You won’t need that, he’s perfectly harmless.”
“Aside from knocking you out and kidnapping you?”
“He could have done a lot worse. He was just curious, I think, about who we are and why we’re here. He’s been perfectly pleasant. If anything, he’s been a little too nice. It’s a bit like visiting your brood mother, you know?”
“I think so,” Michael said. The term brood mother had thrown him a little, the aliens he had met so far had family units similar to what he was used to. These two species were new to him, Gurrit had huge bat-like ears and hooves, but otherwise looked humanlike, the ears poking through a layer of thick auburn hair, his skin a light pink. Jurlt, on the other hand, was an interesting thing, his body covered in a layer of blue hair, his face a permanent snarl, a strange mixture of boar and gorilla.
There was a clatter from somewhere deeper in the chamber, the noise of something falling to the floor then rolling a little before coming to a stop.
“That’s probably him now,” Gurrit said. He reached down, picking his drink up off the floor. The liquid inside was fizzing gently.
As if summoned, something appeared, inch by inch, from behind the machines. It shone in the dull illumination, light scattering off its metal body. The thing was a floating sphere, metal tendrils dangling from beneath like a mechanical jellyfish. It reminded Michael of the bots aboard the Sword, though they didn’t hover like this machine, and the slowly advancing robot lacked the polish the bots had. It seemed more industrial, its metals the same dull grey as the rest of the planet’s interior.
“Formulating greeting. Hello. I say, you wait two hundred million years for a visitor then you get four come along at once. Seems fairly typical to me,” the machine said, its tentacles quivering as it spoke.
“Uh, hello, I’m Michael, this is Aileena. We’re looking for your other visitors actually, people were concerned about them.”
“Calculating appropriate reaction. I am sorry. I didn’t want to startle them- I am aware my appearance might be imposing for organic life. I thought perhaps introducing myself in a more controlled environment might be prudent. I will say, it has been a long time since I used my cloaking systems, I’m rather surprised they worked.”
“Show them!” Gurrit said. “It’s a neat party trick.”
“Rendering Acknowledgment. Of course.” The machine seemed to shimmer for a moment, then vanished. It reappeared a second later, fading back into existence. “Apparently this ability is uncommon in your era.”
“Who are you? What is this place?” Aileena let her rifle hang slack on its strap. Despite its worries about appearing threatening, the machine felt anything but.
“Installing shocked expression. Oh, I’m sorry, how rude of me. I am called, the Custodian. Not a terribly original name I know, but I’m rather attached to it. This is planetary temple installation twelve.” The Custodian’s tentacles gestured around itself proudly. “Sadly, I believe this to be the only temple remaining.”