Yves Giraud - Kahnu

“Mmmmh… interesting…”

Dedrick took a few steps back again. “I’m not so sure messing with this thing is such a good idea…”

“Come on, don’t be such a wuss.”

“I’m just saying… I have this eerie feeling this thing is… alive.”

“Alive? Pfff! Seriously…” François shrugged his shoulders.

“You can laugh all you want…”

Leaving it be for now, the two men started walking back alongside the big object and followed its contour, until they came all the way back around. There was no way in, at least none they could find. No doors, no windows, no hatch of any kind were visible anywhere. The only two areas they couldn’t check were the top of the structure and its bottom. If there was a way in, it had to be through one of those. Eventually, giving up their search for the time being, they began heading for another structure they could see further down the giant cave. As they approached the new edifice, the huge tower stretching from floor to ceiling slowly revealed itself in their spotlights. The even surface of the edifice was broken here and there by oval openings or windows of sorts, placed at random intervals along its entire length. A good three meters in diameter, the two humans were beyond surprised when they realized the openings reflected none of the light from their torches. The oval holes were absolutely dark. On each side of the building, what they figured was an entrance, due its greater size, offered only the same unrevealing darkness, when hit by their searchlights.

“Do you see that? It’s like the light stops right there. There’s no sense of depth, no shadows, nothing reflecting back. That’s really strange. It’s like an impenetrable black vacuum.”

“An impenetrable black vacuum? How do you come up with that stuff?” asked the Russian chuckling.

“I don’t know. It sounded good in my head.”

François was once again the first one to touch the new discovery. Passing his gloved hand gently along the structure’s wall, he revealed a darker layer under the dust, almost as dark as the “windows” themselves, but this time, the construction did not give under his pressure. He pushed as hard as he could to no avail.

“This one is solid. Like metal.”

He hit it once with his wrist and quickly stepped back, as if expecting a reaction, but nothing happened.

“What did you do that for?” asked Dedrick.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to see how strong it was.”

“Please don’t do that again. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. I keep worrying we’re gonna wake up something.”

“Come on, it was just a little tap. This place is dead, anyway. And if you want my opinion, I think it’s been like that for quite some time.”

“Yeah, well let’s try to keep it that way, shall we?”

François simply shrugged his shoulders again.

Continuing on, they finally arrived in front of a portion of the cave that had obviously collapsed. Large boulders, some as big as a small car, were blocking what the two soon realized was probably the main entrance of the cave.

“Well, I guess now we know how Chasma’s Big Cloud got in here. Looks like they got trapped.”

“Who, they?”

“Who ever built all this,” replied Dedrick with a large gesture.

“Well, so far we haven’t found anyone, dead or alive. So, hard to say, either way.”

“We’re gonna have to come back with more equipment; definitely more lights. The others must be wondering what we’re doing. We should start heading back.”

Turning around, they began walking back towards the tower when François noticed something at the far end of his beam.

“Hold on! I think you may want to see this.”

Dedrick turned to see him pointing at a geometric and lengthy object. As both searchlights met and lit up the massive artifact, both men quickly realized they were looking at some sort of machine. It was a good fifteen meters long. In the very center of it, a huge portion of ceiling had collapsed on top of the machine and crushed a significant portion of it. Contrary to the large egg-shaped structure they now referred to as the Big Cloud, this new lengthy object had very sharp angles, and was apparently made of a much darker metallic material.

“That doesn’t look good,” said François pointing at the big boulder resting right on top.

“Nope. But we really should head back. We’ll come back with better equipment. And we’re definitely gonna need more lights… What time is it, anyway? Wow! OK, we need to go.”

“Lead the way, mon capitaine!”

Slowly moving back towards the tunnel they had come from, the two men walked up the slope and soon disappeared down the passage.

“Wait until we tell the others what we’ve found!”

Dedrick did not comment back. He was absorbed by a recurring thought. “ What did Chasma mean when she said the big cloud was talking to her? ”

“What are they doing? They’ve been gone for almost an hour, now!” said Sabrina, obviously worried.

“They’re OK, Mommy. The big cloud told me so,” said Chasma to her mother.

All five of them turned to look at the child.

“What is this big cloud you keep talking about, Chasma? I don’t understand,” finally asked Liu.

“The big cloud in the mountain! I already told you. He told me he needs to talk to Daddy,” replied the little girl.

Now they were all staring at her as if she was speaking a foreign language.

A few moments later, Tendai finally agreeing to go find the two missing astronauts, was struggling to get himself over to the other side of the terrace, when he saw François come out from around the corner.

“They’re back!” he announced to the rest of the team.

Sliding back onto firmer ground, he waved at the two men. François and Dedrick soon reached the Zimbabwean, who proceeded to help both men climb back to his side.

“We were worried. You were gone so long. Are you OK?” asked Vera right away to Dedrick.

“Yes, we’re fine. We’ve found a passage into the mountain. Chasma was right. There’s something down there. It’s hard to explain. I think you all gonna want to see it for yourselves.”

“I’m not going over this precipice, if that’s what you mean,” immediately responded Liu, staring at the treacherous corner.

“Don’t worry, Liu, I didn’t mean now. But you need to see the footage we took in there. It was quite dark, but I’m sure you’ll find it interesting, regardless. I’m also thinking we’re gonna need to build a ledge, and set up some kind of safe anchoring, to cross to the other side of that wall. We can get some supplies at the station and come back tomorrow. We should be able to anchor a small bridge across the missing floor between the terraces. Trust me, you’re gonna want to go. It’s worth it.”

Dedrick was still marveling at what François and he had found down the tunnel. All he wanted was to go back and explore even further. What many more secrets did the place hold? He wondered.

“Good! Because, I’m not going over that hole either,” added Sabrina.

“So, what did you find?” asked Tendai.

“Man, wait until you see this! The tunnel goes down for quite a distance. We found another sphere, just like the other one, in a room full of the same kind of carvings on the Gate. But the most amazing part is a much larger cave, full of alien artifacts and structures. There was some intelligent life on Mars at some point, for sure. And they had these machines, and… oh yeah, we found the big cloud Chasma was talking about. Not sure what it is, but it looks pretty wild. I’ve never seen anything like it,” answered François.

“Machines? To do what?” asked Sabrina