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When the shuttle settled down on the ice just ten yards from the entrance, it was still cold on Sandeling. Nothing had changed on the landscape. The ice structures looked like daggers stabbing the cold heart of the planet. The howl of the wind had changed into a more subdued sound, almost like a song, but a song you might hear at a funeral. I put on my goggles and thanked the shuttle pilot.
“Any time, major,” he said. “I won’t take off until you’re safely inside.”
Lt. Alvarez met me when the door slid open.
“Status is unchanged, major. We’ve had one more wall wailing since you left. Nothing more.”
“Get the multi-color treatment too?”
“Yes. But nothing ominous,” she said.
“Good. I hope that continues. I really like that phrase. But nothing ominous.”
I joined Cajun and the Panther as they stood in a doorway to a cavern. The walls stood solid and didn’t move. A hum resonated in the chamber, but it diminished until you could hardly hear it. The color of the hour was a light purple, but it faded as I watched it.
“Figure out what this is?” I said.
“Not conclusively, major,” Panther said. “I can give you a guess, but only a guess.”
“Better than nothing.”
He walked into the chamber and tapped the rocky wall. “This is not rock as we know it. It’s a material but, as you noticed, it’s flexible. It’s meant to be a camouflage, disguising this chamber. Hidden behind these walls there are, I suspect, extremely sophisticated Artificial Intelligence machines that are doing their job.”
“And what exactly is the job of the AIs?”
“I’m not sure. The sounds, the movements you see is the machine trying to accomplish something, but I’m not sure what. The AIs certainly know.”
“If they are AIs, could we communicate with them?”
“We might be able to. I’m working on that. I have a tentative theory about this planet.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“The inhabitants here were very advanced, possibly even more advanced in science than we are and they knew they were facing a great danger. They had at least some time to react. And this...” He swept his hand around to indicate the caverns and tunnels. “...is part of their defense. Maybe somehow their escape route.”
“If it’s an escape route, where did they go? Another ten miles into the planet?”
“Possibly.”
“If they were as advanced as we are, did they have space ships? Or transport ships that could take them to other planets?”
“Perhaps. But I don’t think that’s the answer. I think the answer lies here, with these machines.”
“When you figure it out, let me be the first to know.”
“We have one bit of information for you, major,” Cajun said. “These tunnels and caverns are underneath the entire planet, from pole to pole. Apparently they’ve been here for some time.”
I took a last look at the cavern. “I suppose we just have to wait and see what the AIs are up to. Keep working on that communication thing.”
“I will,” Panther said.