Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 10 - 'Whatever'

The expedition party had walked over a hundred metres along the unchanging, black corridor before they found anything of further interest. It was still impossible to tell how old the dirt on the floor was or how recently it had been disturbed.

Megan was struggling to shake off the feeling that they were being watched from the darkness at either end of their view along the seemingly endless tunnel. Even with the powerful beams of light from the four active tripod-lamps, the darkness never seemed far away.

They had paused to poke at a couple of pieces of large debris discovered lying along the edges of the corridor, but found nothing identifiable. Meera had taken samples from what appeared to be a ball of dust and possibly hair, and then from what might have been a dried up fruit skin but it would be impossible to be sure until the samples were analysed back at the Arcadian.

It was not long after that they arrived at another door, this time in the left wall. It seemed to be the same size as the door into the airlock. Aron immediately began to study the identical control panel that was positioned beside it.

"Should be easy to open, Megan," he reported seconds later.

"Good," Megan replied.

"Shall I open it?" he asked.

"Not yet," she replied. "I'd like a better idea of where this corridor goes first."

"I think that is wise, Commander," agreed Santiago.

"I get the feeling that we're going to need to make a map," Megan sighed. "Let's carry on along this corridor for now."

They set off again. Santiago swung his lamp beam to illuminate the corridor behind them for a few seconds then went back to scanning the debris on the floor either side of the corridor.

"I wonder how many doors we're going to find?" asked Meera, mostly to herself.

"I'm more worried about what's behind them," replied Aron.

"This place is giving me the creeps," said Meera.

"It would help if everything was not so dark," Santiago added.

"It's bad enough that there is no light in here," said Megan, "But we haven't found any trace of lighting at all. The ceiling is blank, the same as the walls."

"It's like this place is not designed for anyone to ever be in here," added Santiago.

"Why have doors if it's not designed for anyone to be in here?" Aron asked.

"I don't want to meet whoever this place is designed for," said Meera.

"Maybe we will bump into them while we are exploring?" suggested Santiago.

"What if they're not friendly?!"

Aron chuckled again, "They didn't have to capture the Arcadian and position her in a suitable atmosphere. That must have taken some effort. It would have been considerably easier to destroy us."

"We've been captured, you reckon?" asked Meera, her voice faltering.

"It would certainly seem that way," replied Santiago.

Megan decided it was time to end that conversation. "Let's concentrate on exploring and finding out where we are. There's no point in conjecturing about who built this place until we know a lot more than we do now."

"There's something larger up ahead," Aron announced. He kept the beam of his lamp directed at the object lying against the left wall of the corridor some thirty metres further on.

"That doesn't look like anything," commented Meera as she added her beam to it too.

They kept walking. Three of their four shafts of light were targeted at the mystery object. Only Megan kept her light illuminating the tunnel ahead. Even so, she could not concentrate on the view ahead and instead stared at the irregular lump.