Recipe for Adventure Pt. 04

"I hear that girl of yours took out an enemy sniper," he said.

"She winged him," I explained. "But unfortunately she was using a gauss rifle at the time. It tore the poor guy's left arm right off."

"Is that so Captain?"

"Oh yes First Minister," the captain said. "If she had hit him center mass we would have lost the chance to question him. She did very well for a woman that is."

"So there is a cult presence then," the minister asked.

"There was, we have eliminated the one member that infiltrated my men. I have Doctor Donahue for that. It was he that noticed the mark on his wrist."

"Eh, he had a tattoo then?"

"No, I happen to see the patch of skin where he had a tattoo removed." I said. "We spoke before he died. He asked me why I was here. He seemed relieved that we were only interested in the buried village."

"I can never understand that sort of mentality." The minister said and clapped his hands together as we slowed to drive down the earthen ramp. "Magnificent... what a sight!"

The jeep pulled up to the base of the ramp and stopped. We got out and I was given the honor of giving the First Minister a tour of the site and pointed out the key areas of interest. I told him my attack plan and asked for any suggestions. He shook his head and seemed happy with my prioritizing the temple and the removal of the bodies. Once we freed the mummies from the earth they would be sent to Cairo for X-ray and testing. The minister would oversee those operations. The last place I showed him was the tunnel. The older man stared into the darkness and shivered.

"How are you going to handle this," he asked.

"I know this sounds strange but we have a small drone," I responded. "We are going to fit it with lights and send it in ahead of us to get our first look for safety reasons mainly."

"Brilliant, you can never go wrong by being careful. Pity about the other parts of the village, that will take some time to dig out but we have all the time in the world. You have made us all proud Donahue. I can't wait to see your reports. Now how about I meet your team again so I can tell them what a fine job they are doing."

"Thank you First Minister," I said and we returned to the jeep.

Tessa was waiting for the minister's visit and caught his encouraging speech on camera. She asked him a few expected questions concerning his opinion on how well the dig was going and he gave us a sterling report for our efforts so far. That was the crowning piece she needed for the first part of her series on our work here. She and her cameraman returned to their tent for the final editing process. The minister returned to the aircraft just as the last forklift exited and drove towards the pit. Felicia shot me a thumbs up and I couldn't help but smile. The minister gave her a long look and clapped me on the back. He told me how lucky I was. He shook my hand and climbed back aboard the aircraft. He was eager to get back to Cairo and inform the others how well I was doing, the others, being members of the Order. Felicia let out an ear splitting whistle and brought the entire dig team running. We entered the pit and split into two teams. One team was charged with freeing the mummies from the grip of the earth. The other team was going to begin cleaning the ground level of the temple.

Finally the real work had begun. I went between both groups observing and giving advice when necessary. The temple revealed its first secret after only an hour of work. The pillar that Chicago and her partner were working on ended up being crafted of a single piece of basalt. There were a few noticeable characters carved into the surface of the pillar but they were unlike anything I had ever seen. They were a kind of pictographs but the creatures and figures depicted were of a serpentine theme or maybe they were worms. Was there a connection between this temple and the worm bed? I hoped not. That put things on a tangent I felt would lead to my own Antarctica. I didn't want to lose a single member of my team. I walked towards the entrance to the tunnel and Felicia met me there holding two flashlights. I couldn't help but notice she was wearing a sidearm.

"Just in case," I said and she nodded.

"I'll protect you baby," she replied giggling.

We stood in front of the opening and felt the steady cool breeze that came from below. With a shared nervous laugh we entered the tunnel. We plunged into the cool darkness while the echo of our footsteps preceded us into the stygian blackness. The walls of the tunnel were plain and unadorned. I noticed the steady downward slope of the tunnel and I glanced over at Felicia and she nodded. The grade increased the further we went while the tunnel picked up a gentle curve as well. Felicia noticed the chamber in front of us before I did. I could almost feel her stiffen as her hand went to her weapon. I touched her shoulder to tell her to relax. This tunnel had been unused for thousands of years. We entered the chamber and I felt my jaw drop open.

"Holy shit," I said and my voice echoed over the massive area and the vaulted ceiling.

"I can't see the top," Felicia said as she shined her light upward.

"Look at the murals," I gasped as I played my light across the walls. "They are in pristine condition even after all these years."

"What the hell am I looking at?"

"The history of the people that lived in that village I guess." I said as I walked along seeing the progression of the story.

"Care to tell me why they drew themselves as snake people?" She asked.

"I have no clue. Maybe they worship some kind of serpent god and see themselves as his children or chosen ones." I guessed.

"Works for me," Felicia said. "So this dark sky here, you think that's the volcano."

"Looks like it," I said.

We followed the panels of the murals and more of their history unfolded. It showed the villagers moving underground through this tunnel complex. The last panel showed a battle between the snake people and what could only be a giant worm. I looked at the size between the worm and their serpent god, the worm was far larger. Did it mean they began worshipping the worm or were they destroyed by it? Hopefully there were other chambers and more murals. There was one other doorway we could use to continue further downward and deeper into the complex. I looked at Felicia and she nodded. We walked side by side and about fifty feet into the new tunnel everything changed. Our footsteps were now louder and the echo seemed to carry further. We stopped and shined our lights over the floor and walls. The previous tunnel had been carved out of the earth but suddenly the architecture had changed to some kind of dark stone.

"There on the wall, it's more of those weird symbols like the ones on the temple." Felicia said pointing her light at a plaque anchored on the side of the tunnel wall.

"What the hell," I said as we walked over to examine the plaque. "This is far more advanced than whoever made the temple. I wonder what it means."

"Maybe we'll find someone to translate for us." Felicia giggled.

"Translate... oh my god I'm a freaking idiot, the cube!" I gasped. "Shit, I left it in my tent."

"Professor," a new voice chimed in. "I have access to the scans of the cube. I have been working on my own translation. I think I can transcribe this message."

The avatar appeared and Felicia bit back a laugh when she saw the cat girl lean forward and appear to stare at the plaque. She even hemmed and hawed as she worked out the loose translation. It appeared to be some kind of dire warning. It spoke of the Nameless and the Formless that dwelt below and to tread carefully. It sounded much like the words spoken to me by the Widow about the threat on the sister scroll I had found. We continued down the tunnel where it eventually opened up in an unusual chamber. The room was octagonal with six of the walls covered in more of those plaques like we had seen in the tunnel and on the wall opposite the one we had entered was a set of double doors. The right door was warped as if some great force had struck it from the other side. I decided to get a translation of these plaques and then we would return to the surface.

"Okay Neko let's get to work," I said speaking to my avatar. "What's this one mean?" I asked pointing to one of the characters.

"Are you trying to learn this language?" Felicia asked and I nodded. "I wish I was good at linguistics like you and Carol."

"How do you know until you try," I said and she looked at me with an expression of pleasant shock. "You can do anything you put your mind to."

"Okay Neko, take it slow and help us out," Felicia said moving to stand next to me.

"Yes Detective," Neko replied. "The first character represents holiness or hallowed ground."

It went on like that and soon we began building an inventory of knowledge about this alien language. We wouldn't have had a chance if it wasn't for the cube. By the time we reached the second wall both of us were working through the characters at a slow but steady speed. After we finished the third wall we needed Neko's help less and less often. Three hours later we were heading back up to the main dig site. What we had learned was both disturbing but also quite exciting. The sun was nearing the horizon by the time we emerged from the tunnel. Three of the mummified bodies had been removed and a good portion of the temple wall at ground level had been cleaned. Felicia thanked me for my confidence in her. I told her I had chosen her as head of security for a very good reason. I trusted her with my life and that of everyone on the dig. I told everyone to take a break and get some food and water in them.

A helicopter was going to take the bodies directly to Cairo for examination. I suspected that when they X-Rayed that first body things here were going to change. That's why I was going to take anyone that wanted to go into the tunnel after the evening meal. I felt we might find ourselves replaced with other archaeologists or the dig shut down altogether. I waited for after the meal to make my offer. Everyone wanted to go and that didn't surprise me at all. Once I saw how eager they were I told them why we were all going in. The entire crew fell silent when I said that one word, nonhuman.

"Wait, you really believe those bodies belong to some sort of anthropomorphic snakes." Xion asked.

"Yep, I have with a little help translated plaques we found in the tunnels. I believe we are dealing with a nonhuman species. I also believe they are long extinct and we have a chance to see something few people ever get a chance to observe. Do you still want to go?"

There was a resounding yes. I told them to gather up any and all flashlights that we had and any other things they might require. Half an hour later we were gathered at the mouth of the tunnel and I led them inside. The gallery chamber as I thought of it got a huge reaction from my crew. We spent a good twenty minutes there as they took photos and saw why I believed as I did. We continued deeper into the complex and I showed them the first plaque I had encountered earlier. One of the students took a quick rubbing of it for his personal collection. The next chamber blew them away. They stared at the series of plaques and the double doors. I grabbed the handle of the left door and pulled. The door swung inward with little effort. Even after thousands of years the craftsmanship stood the test of time. Now we were in unknown territory. I told them to be careful and watch their step. The tunnel had a steeper decline and a noticeable bend. We were definitely spiraling into the earth. The corridor went for about a hundred feet or so when it opened into a well-lit chamber. The light came from the ceiling.

"Are those diamonds?" Gideon asked staring at the glowing gems set into the ceiling.

"What a weird pattern," another student remarked.

"Pattern... oh yeah it is a pattern," Carol cried out. "They are constellations I think. But they aren't any that I recognize."

"Why are those stones dark?" Chicago asked pointing to a spot near the center of the ceiling.

Carol called up her avatar and scanned the entire ceiling. She looked at the stones from different perspectives as her A.I. processed the image and compared it to the current night sky. The stones were different sizes as well as varying brightness. That was the key to isolating the overall pattern. Carol looked from her avatar to the ceiling and her face darkened. One by one she identified the stars represented above us. I asked her what was wrong. She held up her hand and we waited for her to finish her analysis. Instead of explaining her theory out loud she sent me a private message. I walked off and read it with help from Felicia covering my movements. What I read was alarming but made a strange sort of sense. It complimented the things Felicia and I had gleaned from the plaques from the previous chamber. We passed from the constellation room and down a longer tunnel that spiraled twice before reaching a long straight corridor. Once again the material that formed the walls and floor changed. This metal looked very similar to the alloy the cube was crafted from. I didn't think it was a coincidence.

We walked down the tunnel and the texture of the walls took on an almost biological quality. I started having flashes of H.R. Giger in my head and began checking the ceiling for anything that might be clinging there. I wasn't the only one that made that connection. Felicia actually voiced her concerns and actually used the A word. That sparked an entire conversation about biomechanics and the likelihood of the existence of a Xenomorph. I stopped in my tracks and the group giggled thinking the talk about monsters had gotten to me. I shook my head and looked around at our surroundings. There was definitely something wrong and only now did I put my finger on it.

"How long do you think this tunnel has been inactive," I asked my team.

"Twenty thousand years or more," Chicago replied and then she saw it too. "Oh wait, if that is the case and all that sulfur dioxide gas why are these tunnels so pristine. Something or someone has been maintaining them."

"My thought exactly," I said and that's when everyone began looking around. "We'll keep going and maybe something will present itself."

The other thing that became obvious is that the deeper we went the longer the distance between chambers. We had travelled hundreds of feet and only encountered a few rooms. Where were the living quarters? Did they reside deeper still and would we even recognize them when we saw them? We circled further down and when we saw the next chamber Neko informed me we should try and alert Master Terry. When I asked why she told me we were quite near to the anomaly detected by the satellite. Another chill ran through me and I asked for volunteers to go to the surface and inform Terry of our discovery. Half the team offered to return to the surface and I sent all of them. I thought of it as safety in numbers. The rest of us reached the next chamber and my jaw dropped open. The room was at least a hundred feet in diameter and it housed only one thing, a pedestal. On top of the pedestal was a small golden statue. We closed the distance and I gasped when I figured out who the subject of the sculpture was.

"It's Osiris," I gasped.

"Why is he sitting in a lotus position," Chicago asked.

"Why is there acupuncture needles protruding from it?" Gideon asked.

"The pedestal says that this artifact is for healing immortals," I said after translating the characters carved into the material. "Why would an immortal need healing?"

"The legend of Osiris talks about his murder by his brother Set. Isis used her magic to restore him. Do you think this is the magic they were talking about?" Gideon offered.

"I guess every legend has its source but how the hell did they learn about this? This place has been isolated for twenty thousand years."

We took photos of the pedestal before I took off my backpack and loaded the statue into it. I wasn't going all this way with nothing to show for it. We finished examining the chamber and it went from odd to downright weird. The walls of the room were covered in square and rectangular tiles. Decorating the tiles were hands. The square tiles had a single hand upon it while the rectangular had a pair of hands. The strange part of the tiles was the gestures they were making. My thought after reading so many esoteric books of knowledge was that these hands were arcane in nature. Neko offered to scan the entire chamber to collect the tiles for me. I took off the watch and placed it upon the pedestal and we left the chamber. It took her nearly twenty minutes for her to take in each and every tile. It took far longer for her to isolate and organize them. I put the watch back on and a new excitement filled those remaining.

We crossed to the far side of the chamber and down yet another tunnel. We were barely out of the sight of the last room when Felicia's A.I. alerted us. We all stopped and fell silent. The avatar warned us that something ahead of us sent out some sort of electric pulse. So there is something alive down here, but what is it? I told the others that if things got risky to run for the surface. I rearranged our group with me leading the way, Carol in the middle and Felicia bringing up the rear. We went slowly and I kept an eye out for any kind of movement. Nothing revealed itself and after another two hundred feet we saw the opening to the next chamber. We approached it more caution than any other chambers so far. The room was round and about fifty feet across. The ceiling was beyond the reach of our flashlights and set into the wall in five foot increments were pill shaped capsules. Each capsule was six feet in height and they were stacked on top of each other who knew how high.

"Sleeping quarters," Chicago said with a shrug.

"Suspended animation tubes," Carol replied.

"Let's see," I said as I approached one.

As I neared it the tube went from dark and solid to translucent and finally transparent. Inside the tube was the preserved body of a serpent man or woman. Its head was down to his chest and the arms were crossed. Neko was still busy working on the tiles from the previous chamber so Carol scanned the bipedal snake. Her A.I. registered the faintest of heartbeats. It was alive! I suggested we leave sleeping serpents be and everyone else agreed. There was nothing else of interest so we continued to the far side of the chamber. Felicia let out an alarmed hiss and we stopped dead in our tracks. I looked at her and she said there were several more of those pulses from the open doorway. I held up a hand and peered outside. There was nothing in the tunnel but when I looked upwards there was something clinging to the ceiling. I froze and watched as the thing shifted and changed every second or so. It was constantly shifting and I remembered the warning about the Formless. This had to be one of them. I backed up and told everyone else what I had seen.

"I think we should go back now," Corey said.

"I agree. Felicia will take you back to the surface." I said and that caused an argument instantly.

"We are all going back," Felicia said. "I am not leaving without you."

"I can protect myself but I can't guarantee the safety of everyone. We are almost at the heart of this place and I can feel it. I am only going one or two rooms further then I am leaving."

"You have half an hour," Carol growled. "If you don't come back in that time we are coming back."

"That should be plenty of time," I agreed.

We split up and I watched them head to the surface. I was about to move forward when Neko told me she had finished. I told her to hold onto that data until I needed it. I held my right hand above my head and stepped out into the tunnel. The things clinging to the ceiling instantly reacted like some kind of shadowy vampires confronted with a crucifix. I jogged along the tunnel to the next chamber. This was the largest chamber yet. It appeared to be some kind of temple or chapel. The massive statue in the center of the chamber must represent the serpent god Yig. The father of serpents looked down on his children from a height of thirty feet. There were no pews or furniture of any kind. The walls of the temple were covered in plaques. I scanned the ones closest to the floor and they were a set of commandments. The serpent folk were a dark and aggressive species. They saw themselves as apex predators and anything not serpentine was fair game. I was heading to the next tunnel when I heard voices, human voices. But these were coming from ahead of me. Did some of the cleaners slip in here to rob this place?