Yves Giraud - Kahnu

And with that, he released his helmet locks and removed the restricting contraption off his head, leaving only enough time for Dedrick to scream, “Wait, what are you DOING?! DON’T—!”

François, looking straight at him, took a deep breath through his nose, and held it for a few seconds, before exhaling loudly through his mouth. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

“Ahhh, that’s much better.”

“What the fuck!? Are you out of your mind?”

François looked at his Russian friend with a puzzled look on his face. “What?”

His helmet was now silently floating next to him.

“What is wrong with you? You could have been killed, taking your helmet off like that! What’s gotten into you?”

“Oh, come on. You saw the levels just as I did. It’s perfectly safe. In fact, the air in here is even more pure than ours at the station.”

“Oh yeah? And what if the analyzer was faulty? What if there was some other toxic gas in here? You are completely careless.”

“Both of our suits? Defective at the same time? Reading the same numbers? I doubt it.”

Dedrick abstained from replying. Instead, he simply stared at François in frustration, the latter floating a few meters ahead of him. The Frenchman’s helmet was now hovering next to him, quietly following its owner. The commander finally let out a heavy sigh and began unlocking his.

“I guess now we know what that purple gas is for,” said François. Dedrick did not respond.

Several more minutes passed before the two came to a fork. The tunnel split into three passages of equal importance. Although he already knew he could not control where he was going, François was about to ask Dedrick which path he thought they should take, when he felt his body pulled strongly to the right. Something or someone had made the decision for him. Hovering behind him, Dedrick suddenly felt the tug and followed down the new passage. They encountered two more intersections as they progressed through the tunnels, and were pulled in a specific direction each time, obviously guided by an intelligence of some kind along a predetermined path. Dedrick, always planning ahead, made a mental note of each turn for the way back. Of course, he realized there was a good chance they would have no more control coming back than they did going in, but he figured it couldn’t hurt.

A few minutes later, the two men arrived in front of a doorway not unlike the Gate they were so familiar with. This one, however, appeared to be made of the same material as the rest of the structure, smooth and white. Countless lines and geometric shapes, similar to the ones found on the Gate, seemed to be glowing randomly, as if lit by an invisible current flowing through the intricate design.

“ The second door in my dream ,” thought Dedrick. He had never been beyond it.

As the two kept approaching, the portal began to slowly morph, becoming more and more opaque, until it had completely vanished, leaving a wide opening for the two to gently glide through without ever slowing down. Dedrick turned his head just in time to see the door re-materialize quickly behind them.

They were now in a large oval room, the size of an average movie theater. The walls were featureless, and Dedrick noticed there was no other door visible anywhere, not even the one they had just come through. In the center of the large space, what looked like big long cylindrical containers were arranged in a wide circle. François quickly counted twenty-six. In the middle of them, another white sphere, like the one they were familiar with, was resting on the flat surface of a large round platform. Reaching the center of the room, the two men felt they were slowing down and, to their pleasant surprise, gently brought to the floor where they finally came to a stop, comfortably landing quietly on their feet. They both let out a big breath of relief. François’ helmet fell silently to the floor, right next to him. Dedrick was still holding his.

“Feels solid,” he said, looking at the floor.

Pointing at one of the twenty-six horizontal capsules, François wondered… “What do you think those are?”

“Not sure, but I have a theory.”

“Yeah, me too…”

The room, just as the rest of the structure, radiated the same purple hue, but again, they could not see where the light was coming from. The space had no sharp angles or corners, and the floor, walls, and vaulted ceiling curved into each other flawlessly. Other than the sphere and its twenty-six containers, there was nothing else noticeable. The long capsules, blending with the purple-lit egg-shaped space, were sparking Dedrick’s interest, especially due to their shape. Although oversized for a human being, it did not take much imagination to suspect they could hold beings. Dedrick suddenly realized the two of them might be standing in a room full of aliens. He was now questioning their decision to come inside.

“ If there’re aliens in those containers, they must be big, very big. And there are twenty-six of them…” he thought to himself. Another wave of doubt rushed through him. He turned to François, who was already studying the pod next to him. The Frenchman didn’t seem the least concerned.

“Man, look at those things! Can you believe how big they are? I’m telling you, there’s gotta be aliens in there!”

“Keep it down, will you? We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. You might wake-up something or someone we should not disturb.”

“Come on! Don’t be such a wuss. I doubt talking loudly or softly matters. Either way, there’s no turning back now. We’re here, and something tells me we’re supposed to open these things.”

“I’m serious, François. We have no idea what we are doing. Half of me is screaming we need to get the hell out of this place, right now!”

“And the other half?”

Dedrick just looked at François without replying. He took another look at the closest capsule. There was no apparent line or break, no feature of any kind on the surface of the pod, and no obvious way of opening it.

“How do you think we open one of these?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t think we should try to find out.”

“And I think we should. Something or someone guided us here just for that. I’m—”

Dedrick turned to his French friend, and with a finger raised in front of his lips, let out a quiet, “ Sssshhhh! Listen…”

With a pondering look on his face, François listened attentively for a few seconds, before shrugging his shoulders at Dedrick. He was about to dismiss the Russian, when realized what he was listening to; nothing. His Russian commander was tapping his boot on the floor, but there was absolutely no sound. Or at least, their headsets could not pick up any. He quickly checked that his suit’s microphone was on and had confirmation. Even after removing his ear piece, the place was absolutely dead quiet. To think of it, it had been so ever since they had entered the structure. That wasn’t necessarily alarming in itself, considering they had made their way inside by floating through it without touching any surface, but now that they were walking on solid ground, they should be able to hear their own footsteps reverberating across the large room, especially without their helmets on. Yet, even the friction of the fabric of their suits was silent.

“That is so weird. How can sound not travel in here?”

“I honestly don’t know,” replied Dedrick.

François removed his headset completely. “Can you hear me now?”

The Russian just shrugged his shoulders, with a negative head nod.

That suddenly reminded Dedrick he had been so absorbed, he had failed to communicate with the team ever since they had gone in. His headset still on him, he called, “Vera, can you hear me?… Tendai? Ladli? Anyone?”