Elora Ch. 03

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Into the darkness.
2k words
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Part 3 of the 4 part series

Updated 09/22/2022
Created 07/04/2014
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**Edited by WEI**

Chapter 3

Into the Darkness

I already know. It's not an empty room. It's an elevator to the secret tunnels. Only a second or two passes before the floor starts to descend. The walls are the familiar concrete I've passed through a thousand times when descending into the hidden city, but this elevator is moving faster. Two minutes go by and I know, at these speeds, I've passed the entrances into the manmade hidden city. Then the blurred concrete stops and the walls look to be raw rock and earth. She was right. The secret, deeper tunnels aren't manmade. The concrete marked our descent through the manmade hidden city but this shaft isn't concrete, isn't human. No soldier could miss the light shimmer of the walls. It's an effect created by a clear Elori sealant applied to keep the raw dirt and rock from coming loose. The compound is as thin as paint, but stronger than titanium. The hidden city has its own secrets. Siama always believed they hadn't told us everything. Lately she's been furious that they haven't told us their secrets and are about to send us off to war.

The elevator is racing now, faster and faster. At high speeds, the shimmer starts to look like hundreds of streaks of lightning racing down the walls. I kneel, fearing that if the elevator shakes, I'll fall into the wall. I look around for a grip but see nothing. I keep my eyes on the wall. It's truly racing now, hundreds of miles per hour. I kneel lower to bring down my center of gravity and keep my balance. I feel my blood pressure rise, my heart pump faster, and my muscles turn to the ready, flush with blood and ready for anything. Fuckin' RB, it takes the lightest signals of increased awareness and turns the human body to fight mode. I can feel the difference in my thinking, my brain wanting to shut down all advanced cognitive function areas and increase blood flow to the receptors that affect reaction time, balance, agility, and spatial reasoning. I steady my breathing and keep control. Stay straight, it's only a slight trigger, nothing you can't handle.

My attention snaps back to the elevator. I look around again. Still nothing to hold on to, but I notice small holes in the floor... even small indents. There had once been railings, seats even? It never ends. So there will be a last test, and this is an agitator to make the RB kick in. Creative. They are paranoid that eventually the RB will interfere with my ability to overcome their every simulation. This is a better attempt than usual. It lacks the bluntness of other agitators; loud bangs, a simulated explosion nearby. This is just subtle enough let the RB kick in gradually, unnoticed, unchecked. I close my eyes. Breath. Breath. Breath. She'll be there. Breath.

I survey the floor again. It's flat and even. I won't slide. I lay down in the center and put my hands behind my head; my raised arms will open my lungs and the familiar relaxed position will send the desired signal to my brain. Relax. I am relaxed. You do it too. I open my eyes and look up. Beautiful.

The streaks of light are almost majestic. It's an odd coincidence that not only their world, but even their tunnels, are beautiful. How is it that such beauty is the home of dark, violent creatures? Their world offers abundance in every necessary resource, and yet a race that lives on the most beautiful planet known to man almost killed off our entire species, without provocation. Why? The question has plagued me for years now. We don't understand them.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts, startled by the sudden disappearance of the walls, leaving me in darkness, and staring at the bright circle of the tunnel's exit racing away. All else is black. I look around. The platform is falling through open space. I'm not slipping from my position on the platform, so this is a controlled fall. This is fine. This is planned. My heart pounds but I will it not to.

I look up and see the enormous tunnel now resembles a faint, shimmering star. It hits me; this is a cavern. It's huge! My god, it's bigger than any cavern of theirs I've even heard of; the entrance must be a mile away already. I squint at the ceiling and look for the glimmer but see none. From this far away though, it might not be visible. I look at the platform, but it's hardly visible without the light bouncing off the sealed walls. I try to ignore the feeling that I'm in a black void falling endlessly. What could they have possibly needed to build such an enormous cavern for?

The platform begins to rapidly slow. I immediately hear the buzz of the platform's electric hover propulsion revved up to full deceleration. Above me is still dark, but I know the hover propulsion gives off light so I make my way closer to the edge. I see a dimly lit floor far below, but it's getting closer by the second. Decisions, fast.

I look for cover but there's none within the lit area. I look for movement, but see none. I listen and, even without gear, can hear the evenness in the echo; I'll be landing in the center. Fuck, if this is a simulated breach, I'm blind and dumb. The ground is getting closer, maybe 15 seconds. Then I see it. An arrow etched into the rocky floor of the cavern. Next to it there is her call sign, Sia. I realize that when the platform lands, the propulsion will shut off and the light will be gone. I align my body to point in the same direction as the arrow. I want to think about what this cavern was used for but there's no time. The platform comes to a halt and a second later there's only complete darkness.

I stay still enough to hear my every heartbeat and my exhalation through my nostrils. Too loud, I think. Much too loud. I take faster, softer, shallower breaths. Better. Still I can hear my heartbeat. If they were near, I'd be dead. I take a knee, making sure to keep my knee pointed in the same direction I've been lying in. This is Earth. Siama is down here, somewhere. Be calm, be invisible.

I feel my heartbeat slow a little, then a little more. Good enough. I need to move away from the platform, it's a known position. My first step is too quick and too loud; my second is noiseless. I count 40 steps, a distance I calculate to be the edge of the lit area I viewed from the platform. Beyond this point the next step could be off of a cliff and I wouldn't know it. I listen to my heartbeat and decide its quiet enough to keep moving.

I make it 100 paces, stopping to listen every ten. Nothing. I keep moving, but slower, recognizing the possibility that I've deviated from the direction I started out in. I think back to the height of the cavern and realize that I could have a very long distance to cover. Is there time for this? Launch is in less than six hours. I consider speeding up but instead stay low, slow, and noiseless.

What was this enormous thing used for? I start listing the possible uses: it could be that their tunnel intersected a natural cavern but it's unlikely. It could have held water, also unlikely. The manmade hidden city was probably built over this to keep it protected but allow continued covert access. It could be an engineering bay. If so, why is it empty? The emptiness implies that the cavern is a byproduct. Was the open air used to dissipate heat from a power source? I've never heard of an Elori power source that works in such a way. I grow frustrated, knowing that I know nothing about their caves or technology that would suggest why they would require such an enormous, underground space.

Then I hear it, running water. I keep moving in the straight line I set out on and the sound keeps getting louder. Under the mask of the river's echo, I risk louder footsteps and move faster. Out of nowhere, it strikes me. Elora's sky is entirely layered in cloud, their forests grow without sunlight. Their alien forests need only water, minerals, and deep roots to collect heat energy from the Earth. A forest is the only thing that makes sense. Over a third of all of their technology is biological. If they had a forest on Earth, they could continuously resupply. During the war growing a forest above ground, where satellites and missiles could reach, wasn't an option so they grew it right here!

I move faster, excited. I listen for my footsteps and hear nothing but the river getting closer and closer. As I approach the sound I realize that I don't hear rapids, the water isn't moving fast enough. Still, the sound is enormous. The river must be huge. As I take my next step a feeling washes over me like the sound of the river. It's Sia. She's close. I turn right and slowly move 20 paces.

Softly I whisper her name. "Sia."

"State. Five right, forward." I take five diagonal steps forward and to the right. I feel her presence right beside me.

"Straight?"

I pause, "Yes"

She pauses, surely disliking the moment I let lapse before responding. She lets it go. "Told you they were hiding something."

"Yeah... yeah you did."

"You want to see it?"

"It? The forest is still here?"

"Yeah, did they explain it or did you figure it out?" she whispers quietly.

"I assumed the Elori grew it for resupply, down here for secrecy and heat. I figured they'd have burned it before giving it up though."

"They tried but..."

"We blocked the air?"

"Exactly."

"The rest can wait, I think you'll want to see this."

As she said it, I noticed I could feel a rock in her hand. She leans back, winding up, and chucks the rock off into the distance. My heart rate jumps in anticipation. An Elori forest, here? A moment later, the crack of the rock striking something hard resounds and an echo fills the hall, bouncing off the walls, filling every inch of the chamber. Then all at once, a dim glow replaces the blackness. I squint but can't see shapes, just blurs. It grows brighter. Lines, lots of vertical lines. The forest is glowing. Brighter still. I can see the tree trunks. I trace them up with my eyes until my eyes are almost in my head, then my chin follows upwards, until I have to lean back to see the lines disappear into the dark.

I look forward again and squint to see into the trees. I see the huge horizontal trees, connecting and reinforcing the vertical forest. Then I see movement, deep in, too deep to define a shape, but movement. I realize that in the light we're in the open and vulnerable and wheel around to check our six. I lose my breath. The cavern is as big as the dome. I look up and can faintly see the intricate architecture I've seen a thousand times above, looking up in the IRH domes. It's immediately obvious that even our domes are their technology. What chance do we have if even the International Resistance HQ is built using their design?

The last reverberations of the echo pass and the forest's glow fades away. Darkness creeps back. I manage to ask the first question of the many questions flooding my mind. "Are we here to see the forest?" It seems obvious, but not. If we are, why did they give us so little time to explore it? And that shadow, I didn't imagine it. "Siama, why are we here?"

"In six hours you're being sent into the stars, never to return, to take command of an army you built which never knew more than rumors of your existence."

"We... we are being sent. Answer?"

"Yes, we. We are being sent to fight an enemy we've never met and this will help that. We are here to be shown the forest and to meet the scientist that might be able to answer some of your questions about the Elori."

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READ MORE OF THIS SERIES

Elora Ch. 02 Previous Part
Elora Series Info

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