CONDEMNED TO THE FUTURE

Chapter 17.

                                                          

They looked like eye patches, but he could barely feel them in place. When he'd pulled out his flashlamp, Bree'a had told him he wouldn't need it. She'd spoken to the mundrana briefly, then an oval area had bulged up in the disc near his pack. Inside this, four more ovals had condensed in a minute. She had peeled two rubbery ones. So, nanobots in the mundrana too.

"Stick them over your eyes."

Of course he'd waited till after she'd done this. At once they went transparent, curved outward, and hardened in place. Although they adhered just above his brows and around onto his cheeks, they weren't uncomfortable; they were tinted daylight green and let in the breeze now blowing into the entry. When he looked that way, the dark maw suddenly became a bright green!

Watching his double take, she smiled. "They project light too red for us to see and change the bounce-back into visible. Last about two hours on one charge from sunlight. Ok?"

"That should be long enough." Another advanced tech on the ole IR goggles.

He realized there was another topic she couldn't discuss adequately. It was obvious to him now that the Orrt culture was illogical, with very advanced tech in some areas, comparatively low tech in others, with knowledge to match. It was a crazy quilt because various areas represented no even front of advancement, or de-vancement for that matter. If their tech were organic-based, then why these snooper goggles? If they controlled gene modification so well, why not just alter the eye structure to be infrared sensitive? It was like the beings themselves: all a jumble thrown together, an alphabet soup of characters with no theme, other than hositility. Of course they would be interested in Ius's supposed treasure trove of ancient tech. Yet they lacked the ability to enter. If there was an active comm terminal here, he'd at least ask Lioowm Waa for some answers. All it could do was say nothing. He'd move on to Coprates anyway, then to the Hhronkan Repository for an upclose and personal with the compmind. That was his only hope, if a fading one considering the surprises so far.

A last impulse made him put on his pack. He still had one climbing rope, should they return and find the carrier gone. He was taking nothing for granted here, including the probablilty that both their transpatches could continue to be monitored even deep within Ius's rock-carved corridors. They entered the main throat side by side. Since each could see the other's IR beam, the total illumination made it almost like being back outside. This main tunnel to Ius had been the same as Coprates's, but smaller. The square opening cut in the solid red rock had gone straight back a half klic, with hundred-meter side tunnels every hundred meters. At 25 meters on a side the passages had been roomy enough for the human psyche and big enough to move and store any large equipment in use back then. Originally designed solely as the HQ for the mining operations at the west end of Mariner Valley, its role had been changed completely with the Thaw's flood. As the new center for a growing community it had eventually mutated into the city hall and shopping mall for the rim's surface residential areas. All now gone forever.

But was this hole truly Ius's entry?

As far back as their lights could reflect they saw nothing but flat smooth rock walls, ceiling, and floor. The binocs said the corridors were 25 meters by 25. Their boots raised little puffs of dust, scaling from the naked rock over a very long time. Back about 20 paces, two openings could be seen, one on each side of the main tunnel. He looked where the marker should be, high on the wall at the left as he faced this first right side tunnel. There were letters, carvings in the stone well-worn with time, but he could make out "A-1" and "Iu_ Com____entra_."