Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 5 - Expedition

Three hours later, a quite different E.V.A. team was departing the Arcadian and climbing down onto the lowest level of exterior walkways. Walter was now back inside the vessel and acting as E.V.A. controller for a three-person expedition. This time Margaux and Santiago were suited up as a backup team and Megan, along with Aron and Meera performing the E.V.A.

As the suit lights had proved to be largely inadequate for the environment they would be exploring, Megan had instructed each of them to bring a tripod light, a free-standing battery-powered spotlight mounted on a metre-tall collapsible tripod. They had all opted to hook the lights onto the hoops either side of their life-support pack while climbing down to the mysterious ground beneath the Arcadian.

Megan, feeling it was her duty as commander, was the first one to lower herself cautiously down the last ladder. With both boots planted firmly on the almost invisible surface, she shuffled nervously to one side to make room for Aron to clamber down beside her. He dropped the last two steps and landed on both feet with a thump.

It took a few moments for Megan to unhook the tripod light from her life-support pack then, using the collapsed legs as an oversized handgrip for her left hand, she switched it on with her other hand. A brilliant cone of light appeared immediately, an order of magnitude brighter than her suit lights, and she scanned the area around her with it.

The blacker-than-black floor surface was visible for several metres but seemed to reflect just a very tiny percentage of the light from the lamp. She shuffled forwards about a metre while the third member of their team, Meera, tentatively stepped off the ladder.

"We're going to have to release our tethers to go much further, Megan," said Aron.

"I know that, but I think we should tether ourselves to each other. We have no way of knowing what we'll be up against here."

"I agree," said Aron.

"What is this place?" asked Meera, also now using her tripod lamp to scan the area around them.

"I don't know," replied Megan. "This floor, if that's what it is, seems to stretch off in all directions further than we can see."

"I'm wondering if there is a roof," added Aron.

"A roof?" said Meera.

"Well, if there's a floor, it's dark but we can't see the sky – it stands to reason that there's a ceiling up there."

Megan turned her tripod lamp to point upwards. The powerful beam just seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness.

"Let's get all three beams aligned on the same spot," Aron suggested.

"What will that do?" Meera asked.

"We'll be able to see further," replied Megan. "It's worth a try."

With great difficulty, not aided by their cumbersome E.V.A. suits, they attempted to get all three beams aligned. They quickly established that holding the lamps close together with each tilted very slightly towards the centre seemed to maximise the result.

"This isn't working," Aron announced after a few seconds, "We need to switch off our suit lights. There's too much light down here it's ruining the contrast we can see up there. We need to avoid looking at the lamps too or it will compromise the sensitivity of our retinas."

Each of them turned off their suit lights then focused again on aligning their lamps. Meera closed her eyes for a few seconds then used her free hand to shield her eyes from the three tripod lamps and squinted up into the darkness.

"I think I can see something," she murmured after staring for a few seconds.

"What?" asked Megan. "I can't see a thing up there."