Yves Giraud - Kahnu

“I think we should clear the dirt off this door. I want to see what this thing really looks like.” finally said Ladli.

“No, wait! You can’t just…”

But before Dedrick could do anything, the Irish woman, a brush already in hand, started cleaning away.

“See? Nothing! I’m still alive! Stop worrying and come help,” she said with a smile, without looking at him.

Tendai and Liu grabbed a brush and joined her. The three began dusting off all the grooves and crannies they could find. They couldn’t easily reach the last meter at the top, but after a few minutes, most of the alien door was standing in front of them, massive and imposing, its intricate markings now clearly defined and visible. Carved right out of the rock face, the door was covered from top to bottom with lines crisscrossing in all directions, making up intricate designs and geometric shapes that all met at a single point in its center. Several centimeters deep in places, a handful of the lines disappeared outside the portal frame, into the floor of the terrace. The outside groove of the large structure appeared to continue deep into the wall, suggesting it was detached from the rock face and had to move in some way.

“What do you think?” asked Liu, looking at the others.

“It’s definitely a door of some kind,” offered Ladli.

“I agree. Now the question is, how do we open it?”

There was no handle, no lever, no mechanism of any kind, as far as she could tell.

“Whoa! Are we sure we want to do that?” interjected Tendai.

“How else are we supposed to find out where it goes? It’s right here, begging for us to.”

“Could be dangerous…” Dedrick seconded.

“In the words of François, there’s only one way to find out,” offered Ladli, as she raised her arm toward it.

“Wait!” But Dedrick’s protesting was futile.

Pushing as hard as she could against the doorway, she tried desperately to make the large feature barge, to no avail. Giving up, she began pressing her gloved fingers over a few promising spots, including the central point where all the lines seemed to meet, hoping to find a secret lock, without any success. She stepped back somewhat disappointed and looked again attentively at the impressive frame. It just stood there like a giant puzzle towering over them, and she ached to solve it.

“I don’t get it. There’s gotta be a way…” she finally said.

“Maybe it doesn’t open,” suggested Liu.

“What else could it be?

“Actually, Liu has a good point. How do we know for sure it’s a door? I mean, it may look like one to us, but maybe it was something else entirely to those who carved it. Maybe it’s simply a sculpture of some kind, meant as a display, similar to some of the monuments we have, back on Earth.” added Tendai.

“No, it’s a door,” finally volunteered Dedrick.

“How do you know that?”

“Because, I’ve seen it in my dreams.”

“In your dreams? What do you mean, you’ve seen it in your dreams?” asked a baffled Tendai.

All three were now staring intensely at Dedrick.

“Well?”

He took a big breath. “I know this is going to sound nuts, but for the past few years now, I’ve been having this recurring dream… I’m at my uncle’s house, back in Russia, and I’m being chased by this odd-looking man. Eventually, we end up in front of the exact same door. The stranger opens it and drags me in,” he said, looking at them hesitantly.

Perplexed, Tendai stared at the commander, wondering if he had really understood what Dedrick had just said.

“OK, you’re just messing with us, right?”

“No joke. I’m just telling you guys the truth. I don’t understand any of it either. I’ve never been here before, but I have seen this door, many times.”

“How come you’ve never mentioned this before?”

“Not really something I felt like sharing. Only Vera and François know.”

“Well… actually… I know about it too,” volunteered Liu, in a timid voice.

“What? How?” asked Dedrick, shocked.

“Vera told me. But please don’t tell her I told you. She made me promise to never tell anyone. It was a few years ago. She said it was getting worse and she was worried about you.”

“Great! That’s just great,” simply commented Dedrick. “Well, I guess everyone knows now.”

After a short silence, Ladli returned to the subject at hand.

“OK then, how do we open this thing, boss?”

“I don’t know. In my dream, the man chasing me just waves his hand in front of it, and it just opens.”

“I see.” Tendai sounded a bit skeptical.

“Ok, then.” Facing the gate, Ladli began waving her hands in front of it, drawing different shapes in the air, first slowly, then faster, but nothing happened. “OK, what am I doing wrong?”

“I guess I should’ve also mentioned that the man has this small object in his hand, a smaller version of the sphere here, and a ray of light comes out and… it’s difficult to describe. Anyway, there’s a good chance we need that to open it,” replied Dedrick.

“I see. So, all we need is a sphere that shoots out a ‘magical’ ray of light. Well, that shouldn’t be too hard to find. I’ll just go down to the local store. I’ll be right back!” said Tendai sarcastically.

“Ha ha. Very funny,” said Ladli, unimpressed.

“Maybe we’re supposed to do something with THAT sphere…” Liu was pointing at the large object in the middle of the terrace.

“Maybe, but I don’t know what,” replied the Russian. “And maybe it’s just beyond us. We really don’t know what we’re doing, here. There’s a good chance only those who put it there know.”

“Maybe you missed something. What else can you remember from your dream?” asked him Ladli.

“Guys? What’s going on down there? Somebody talk to me, please!” a voice came on everyone’s earpiece.

“Hey François! Are seeing what we’re seeing? Can you believe it? It’s just incredible,” replied Tendai.

“No, I’m not. I lost signal about ten minutes ago. I’ve been calling you since then. I was about to come down there myself. All I have is the view on the two baskets from up here. Glad to finally have you back! What happened?”

“Shoot! We had no idea. We thought you were following everything from up there. Aren’t you getting the camera feeds?” said Dedrick.

“François? François? I think he’s lost us again,” he said turning to the small crew.

“No… I’m… I’m here…” he said slowly, in a low voice. He was sitting in the rover, mesmerized by the images he was finally viewing for the first time on the monitor in front of him. Switching randomly from camera to camera between the crew’s helmets, he couldn’t quite believe what he was looking at.

“I’m looking at the images right now. What is that… thing on the wall?” he finally asked.

“We don’t know. We’re guessing it’s some kind of door.”

“It looks so… big.” He didn’t know what else to say, he was at a complete loss. “And what are all these markings? I’ve never seen anything like it…”

“We’re not sure.”

“Oh, look!!” Liu was pointing at the large orb in the middle of the small group. The sun had finally reached the spherical object, and the large orb appeared to be radiating from within. They all took a few steps back.

“Ok, that’s new,” voiced Ladli.

A thin gas-like substance began to form on the sphere’s surface. Gradually spreading over the whole object, the purple haze slowly started churning and glowing. The site was mesmerizing.

“Dedrick?” called out Liu worried.

“What do we do?” asked Tendai, feeling just as uneasy.