Canticle Blue

8. Upper Tunnel

Annibet, Tor, and Elyse were the first ones awake the next morning. They finished setting up the cooking area in the shelter and prepared breakfast for everyone: hot cereal, sprinkled with nuts, pre-baked flat-bread, topped with fruit, and mugs of steaming spiced tea. When it was ready, Elyse met Havilan on the beach with two meal trays, and they worked their way to a low rock outcropping near the cave entrance to watch the sunrise.

By that time, the sun had just cleared the eastern peaks of the caldera, and the light slipping across the south-facing inner slopes, began to highlight the canes of thousands of reed-trees. Completely caught up in the unfolding image, Elyse wished the original colonists could have seen it. She tried to imagine the immense effort they must have made, nurturing the trees and seeds across the great interstellar bridge in the Terreska. She even wondered if there might be cane furniture left behind on the ancient ship. The trees were certainly thriving now, almost everywhere on the slopes. She could see several areas where thickets had prevented erosion, and others where the trees had lost their grip in the volcanic soil and tumbled all the way to the beach.

The morning chill found its way back into her thoughts. It was so cold that she and Havilan shook and chattered as they struggled to eat. "So, are we getting used to this yet?" she managed.

"Not the cold, that's for sure," he laughed. "Or the globes, for that matter. At first I couldn't sleep last night with the lights, just knowing that they were there. I didn't want to close my eyes. Then, when I did finally fall asleep, my mattress deflated."

"I heard you trying to blow it up quietly," she laughed. "I thought about sneaking over to help."

He smiled. "It's nice to know you were concerned... if that's not too strong a word. But how can we get used to the globes, really? Then again, how can we not? Even though we don't understand them, they aren't going away. Our lives didn't include them, but now they do," he shrugged.

They thought about trudging back to the shelter to huddle around a cook stove, but decided that carrying supplies from the beach would work just as well.

"We should find all the extra blankets and parkas we can," Elyse joked, "and drape them over us on the way back. I think I can get Annibet to help us, too, if I threaten to put my cold hands on her."

So they set out for the supplies after breakfast, with Annibet pressed into service and Cian as well. The rest of the group opted to finish clearing the stairs below the sanctuary. Tor and Os hurried through the work there, eager to get a first look at the stairs above it.

The debris on the upper steps was shallow and, according to Os, looked normal. It consisted mostly of fine sand and thin layers of clay. He showed Syl and Geddes subtle patterns in the sediment caused by moving water, probably from normal freeze-thaw weather cycles or seepage in the cave walls. They took several pictures of the sediment and then commenced cleaning. Work on the stairs moved quickly, and yielded a few more puzzling items.

Because of the pitch and curvature of the upper stairway, Geddes-and-Syl's group could not see where it led. The rows of recessed globes continued on both sides, but were noticeably dimmer due to accumulated dust. As they moved higher, though, they began to see brighter light. At first they thought it was another powder spill; but soon they could hear distant ocean waves as well. By the time they reached the top of the tunnel, they realized that they had found one of the cave-in areas previously seen on maps in the Onekotan. The doorway there was completely blocked by large and small rocks, and the pile extended several feet into the tunnel. The light they had seen was filtered sunlight. It was coming through pockets of ice among the rocks.

Os briefly stepped into the rock pile and felt the top of the doorway, then looked back at Syl and Geddes. "This is all very interesting, but I'm not sure how we would want to proceed from here. Would we want to dig it out? The crater is probably not that deep, but it might just cave in again. If it didn't, we might expose the sanctuary to the weather up here. And would it be worth it to try? From what we've already seen, there are other ways to get to the top of the ridge.

"But, to me, this crater—if that's what it is—certainly appears to have been constructed, then intentionally buried for some reason. Did you notice anything strange about the top of the doorway? I think it has a bit of curvature to it. And if you feel the outer edge, the angle there is noticeably less than 90 degrees. I know we can't expect that a doorway cut hundreds of years ago would have precise angles. But those two things taken together make me wonder if the crater might be shaped like an elliptical bowl. When I felt as high as I could, the inner surface there was surprisingly smooth, almost as if it were polished."

"Good points, Os; thanks," Geddes responded. "I'll make sure to get them in the logbook today, especially in case we have to radio the Institute. I don't really know what we're looking at in terms of risk, either. Tor should be bringing up the rest of the group shortly. I'm sure he'll have some ideas.

After Cian got a look at the debris pile, she asked Os, "What about this area at the base of the doorway." She pointed to the south side of it. "It might be an place where we could do some probing to find out what's beyond it. Do you think we could move a few rocks?"

Os stooped to get a good look. "I think you could. The rocks above it are all pretty large and shouldn't move."

So they carefully began sliding them away from the pile, one at a time. Once they had made a small opening, Syl used a trowel to rake away sand and gravel.
"The floor continues beyond the doorway," she said. "Geddes, I'm trying to imagine someone walking into the crater from here and what it might have been used for. I don't remember any of the cultures we studied living in places like this."

"I don't either," he concurred. "What would they have used for a roof? I've seen roofing techniques using split-canes from reed-trees... Even a cane roof would have a hard time of it in winter, though. I can't think of any reason a dwelling would be bowl shaped. And, if it was just a dwelling, why would the Per'sa go through so much trouble to hide it?"

"It certainly wouldn't be a cistern," Os added. "Not with a doorway here, unless it goes much deeper."

Among the few artifacts found on the upper stairway that morning were two, hand-sized, crafted pieces of a deeply textured material. Strangely, the weights of the pieces seemed to vary with their orientation.