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Matti-Jay’s explorations of the building didn’t lead far. There were closed and sealed doors. A stairway that led up another level. That was where the light came from. A single circular panel a half a meter wide mounted in the third level ceiling. The panel glowed with a varying, soft light.
The room was directly above the one on the ground floor with the doorway. It had no open exits. Three doors on one wall, two on the other. All sealed up.
What was through them?
“Probably a bedroom, all fitted out with clean sheets and plump pillows,” she muttered.
Still, the room was dry, and smelled of ozone. As if there was some electrical transformer mounted in the walls. At least the room was warmer than it had been down below. The sounds of the thunder were muted by the walls. The storm sounded even farther off.
Matti-Jay found a corner and lay down to sleep.
It didn’t come. She was damp and cold. Shivering.
She stripped off and tried to wring as much water from her clothes as she could. It didn’t make much difference. The clothes were still pretty damp.
She took off her boots and left them on the top of the stairway to air. Cooler air did drift up from below, so there was at least some circulation.
If she had a rug or something to lie on, she would have spread out her clothes to dry too. But it was just too uncomfortable lying on the floor naked. The choice was between being damp and cool or having no cushioning at all between herself and the solid floor.
Eventually she slept. Fitful and uncomfortable. A few times she woke not knowing where she was. There was no reference point.
The glowing circular panel had faded to almost nothing. Barely enough to see by at all.
The storm rumbled on. A couple of times when she woke she realized that she had actually dried out a bit. The clothes sucking away her own body heat and drying slowly. She shivered.
Eventually she woke to quiet and brighter light coming up from the stairway.
Morning.
She was hungry. No surprise.
The storm had blown through. The light panel had gone completely dark. One of the doors had opened up.
“Great,” she said.
Standing, she took a quick look inside. Another room. Smaller, with another circular panel light on the wall and some kind of desk standing on the floor. An odd-shaped chair in front of it. The seat part was angled forward and bent up like a low tent.
Equipment mounted in the walls that looked like electrical controls and readouts. Almost primitive, like something from an old power station museum back on Earth.
Another door at the far end. Closed.
“See,” she said. “I could have slept in here.” The desk looked infinitely more comfortable than the floor had been, and she could have hung her clothes on the chair to air out.
From below came a familiar sound. That peeping whistling sound.
The cats.
“Well, that’s just great. All I need.”