Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 38 - Stars

Driving just as carefully as before, Megan manoeuvred the two-seater buggy through the open doorway. This time, L.E.O. Obi, still holding the pole he had used to open the door, followed behind on foot.

"At least it's not raining in here," said Megan as she brought the buggy to a halt just inside the open door.

It took them a few moments to decipher the scene before them. As with most of the other rooms they had experienced so far, everything was formed from the same matt-black material. A raised, circular, five-metre wide platform took up much of the relatively small chamber. It was only around ten centimetres above the rest of the floor but had what appeared to be a high, safety rail around seven-eighths of the perimeter. Next to the gap was a wide, vertical tube, apparently open-topped, about fifty centimetres tall and probably half as wide again.

They cautiously approached the low platform on foot. There was no obvious function to what they could see, although that was nothing new. Supported by three identically-formed legs, the surrounding rail was a little over two metres high with the wide gap nearest the door. The whole construction looked too spindly to be in any way sturdy.

The remainder of the room was empty, just a square area around the platform. Megan had no idea what the arrangement was for, especially as it appeared to be contradictory. Creatures tall enough to be protected by the handrail would not need it and creatures small enough to worry about the height of the platform would probably not be able to reach the rail.

Megan stopped within an arm's reach of the rail and the others matched her.

"Stay here," she ordered. "I'm going to touch it."

Trying to hide her trepidation, she reached up and touched the nearest end of the rail with her gloved fingertips. She could feel nothing beyond the physical resistance of meeting a solid, ungiving object. She felt relieved when nothing happened. Nothing activated or reacted in any way to her touch.

"No reaction," she reported to the others. "I'm going to try stepping on the platform."

"Would it be better if I tried that first, Commander?" suggested L.E.O. Obi.

"I don't have to be male to do this," she retorted.

"No, no," he replied, clearly hurt by the accusation. "I was meaning that you're the commander, you shouldn't be taking risks."

"Oh, I see what you mean," she laughed with embarrassment. "You have a point, but I'm not comfortable sending someone else to do something that's easy for me to do myself."

"With respect, Ma'am, it is much easier to replace an L.E.O. than it would be for the rest of crew to replace a commander."

"Thank you, Mr Obi, but I don't have any reason to expect this to be risky."

L.E.O. Obi did not reply and Megan stepped forward onto the low platform. Again, nothing happened. She did not know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. The platform had to serve some purpose.

"If that platform moves at all, jump right off it immediately," said L.E.O. Obi.

"Don't worry, I will," she replied, taking a couple of tentative steps towards the centre of the platform.

It truly seemed to be nothing more than a simple raised platform. Megan continued to move slowly towards the centre. Feeling a little less paranoid about it, she reached the centre and shuffled herself around to face Margaux and L.E.O. Obi.

"Nothing going on here," she reported.

"I'm trying to work out what this tube is for," replied Margaux, leaning over it. "My suit lights don't make much impact in there, but the hole inside definitely goes lower than the floor in here."