Pol’s limb hovered over the abort toggle as she studiously watched the lander’s level indicator. The craft dropped quickly towards the satellite’s regolith. She knew that on landing, any more than five degrees off camber and she would barely have a second to react.
Bang. The abrupt and savage so-called landing shocked her body and took every centimetre of the suspended cradle’s impact parameters. She almost hit the toggle by mistake as she realised that an actual landing was considerably harsher than any of the many simulations she’d undertaken over the previous seasons.
One degree – one point two – one point two eight. The craft finally settled and was still, well within tolerance, so Pol was able to shut down the engines and relax a little.
As the noise of the engines died away, she was immediately aware of the drag on Tignar. Nowhere near as high as on Callamet, but just enough to keep you secured to the surface.
Disconnecting the cradle restraints, she slid over to one of the two small portal windows and peered out. The grey rocky surface stretched away to the horizon only about a kilometre away, so she turned and went to the opposite side of the cabin and checked that window.
The abnormality was close and she had to push her helmet against the glazing to see the top of it. She wondered at the size and scale of this peculiar monolithic irregularity in the long ovoid moon’s surface. Being the first Callametan to visit another spacial body in their young planet’s existence was a proud moment for her, and being able to visit the Cathedral of the Gods was both exciting and frightening at the same time.
There had been many unwelcome machinations from some of the more devout cults, and on several occasions it seemed the project was doomed as benefactors came under pressure and began to lose their nerve.
The scientists had prevailed eventually, but at times Pol had wondered if all the years of training would ever be put to use.
Pol raised her four arms and pulled herself through into the survival chamber and began preparing for the first traverse. Although she would retain the same helmet, the traversing suit was much more heavy duty and having six limbs meant it took a little time and effort to dress.
When she was ready and with systems and pressure checks done, she proceeded into the airlock and cycled the atmosphere. A second suit check and she was able to open the outer door and slowly slide down the exterior ladder. She looked down as her circular legs hit the surface. A cloud of dust rose up about a metre around her, slowly settling back again, and she knew walking carefully would be best to avoid covering herself in the abrasive particles.
Turning and staring up at the massive abrupt elevation before her, she nodded and trudged forward, leaving two-centimetre-deep circular suit leg prints in the regolith.
The landing zone had been chosen because it was reasonably flat and there were several smaller protrusions on this side before you got to the main one. The first of these she reached after about twenty etos of walking.
It was still about fifty metres tall and the sides almost sheer.
She stood and gazed at it for a few moments, letting the cameras on the front of her suit get the best images they could. It seemed strange, as close up it was obvious the sides weren’t completely smooth as previously thought. An almost regular corrugation ran straight up the side, where perhaps the wind had caused the dust to form itself into this almost manufactured appearance.
Retrieving a small hopper and a scraper from a pouch on her suit, she stepped forward and scraped off a sample of the dust. She swore under her breath as a large piece broke away, knocking the hopper out of her gauntlet, and both dropped almost leisurely to the ground.
Bending down to ground level in these suits was difficult; although she’d practised it a lot, she’d fallen over a lot too. As she bent down and her eyes came level with the hole where the lump had broken away, she gasped and stepped back.
Inside the hole was a flat shiny metallic surface, a deep maroon in colour, and the corrugations were still there, only sharper and at ninety-degree angles.
That’s impossible, she thought, it looks manufactured.
She pushed the scraper back into the hole and levered. More dust and regolith lumps fell away, revealing more of the metalled surface.
Is it a building? she thought to herself, gazing up at it and then over to the main one.
‘Because if they are,’ she said aloud in her suit, ‘then that one is absolutely gargantuan.’
It took her another fifteen etos to trudge her way over to the main abnormality, passing three other smaller ones on the way.
Looking up the sheer side of this one gave her acrophobia. She knew from the surveys done of the moon that this was over three kilometres high. It was also at a slight angle, not straight up.
Perhaps there was a severe quake that caused the foundations to fail and the buildings were abandoned before our race even existed, she thought.
She wandered along the base of it, looking for any indication of where a door might have been.
Maybe it sank and the doors are all below ground level now.
The same corrugated surface was here too and she ran her gauntlet along the side as she walked, bumping her gloved fingers along the ridges until she found a faint arched area that was for some reason entirely flat.
A sudden voice in her helmet made her jump. It was the operational control centre back on Callamet and because of the distance involved, they were only just congratulating her on the successful landing. It would be a long wait before they would know anything about her discovery and the same again for a reaction to get back to her.
She began scraping away around the edge of the arched area, and after about five etos had cleared about a metre up each side. This was indeed flat behind what must be many millennia’s worth of crust. It was a black colour here and not the maroon of the sides, polished to a perfect shine.
As she scraped along the top, she came across an arrow pointing upwards with some indecipherable lettering at ninety degrees. She continued scraping following the direction of the arrow.
It uncovered a square plate slightly countersunk into the maroon corrugations. This also had some of the sideways lettering on it and was ringed in red. She tried levering it open with the scraper to no avail. She pushed it, pulled it and swore at it; nothing made any difference, or marked it in any way, so strong was the material.
Her suit pinged at her to tell her she’d used half her oxygen supply. She quickly worked out she had about another thirty etos before she should begin making her way back to the lander.
She knocked on the panel three times as if knocking on a door.
‘Anybody home?’ she called, shaking her head in frustration.
The panel suddenly lit up around its edge, sank in further and slid upwards out of sight. She stepped back in surprise.
‘There’s power,’ she shouted to herself. ‘How can there be power? We’ve been observing these things for centuries, no one’s been near them.’
She stepped back up and looked into the now square hole revealing a red handle in the upright position.
Swallowing nervously, she raised one of her gauntlets up and found it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get her three fingers in the hole, but not impossible.
‘Please don’t be a self-destruct system or anything,’ she said to the handle and turned it tentatively to the right.
She stepped back quickly as the ground beneath her legs trembled. A cracking noise came from below that she heard clearly inside her helmet above the racket of the environment fans, even though the atmosphere was thin.
The arch clunked inwards abruptly and slid away downwards, lights came on within and absolute silence returned.
Pol swore again, licked her lips and approached slowly just in case something really pissed off lurked within. As she peered inside, it became obvious the door wasn’t an arch at all, it was circular. She’d only been able to see the top half of it. Just down below was a small room with a second circular door beyond.
Is that an airlock? she wondered. Glancing back over her shoulder in the direction of her lander and then at her suit charge level, she hesitated. Perhaps I should go back and recharge the suit. Looking forward again, she decided on a quick fifteen etos inside and then go back for a recharge and a meal.
She sat on the lip of the opening and slid down inside. The landing was a bit weird as she immediately rolled to the right and as she stood she was a little confused as the gravity was stronger here. The airlock or whatever it was had a metallic grid-like floor and maroon walls. The inner door had a rectangular glass panel across the centre with no light showing beyond and a similar red handle set into the wall. This one was on the left-hand side and not on the top like the outer one.
Pol turned it to see if the inner door would open too. She swore at her stupidity as the outer door whooshed shut behind her. Pol turned to find the handle to reopen it, but there was nothing on either side or above. She jumped as the inner door flashed red lights around the outside, sank inwards away from her and, contrary to the outer one, slid away to the right inside the wall.
Lighting panels in the walls within lit up to display a corridor leading left and right.
She quickly entered, turned and looked for the outer door control. Here was only a covered button panel with more of the strange symbols on the keys. Without warning the inner door began to close again. She braced all four arms against it unsuccessfully and before she had time to jump back through it closed with a thunk and sank in away from her.
‘You stupid bloody idiot,’ she shouted at herself, her four arms pounding on the door in frustration.
Pol took a step back, glanced at the oxygen readout in her peripheral vision. If she couldn’t find a way out of this, whatever it was, in the next few etos, she’d be dead.
Vehicle consciousness reinitiated?
Confirmed.
Check vehicle at journey end?
Unascertained.
Scan for location confirmation?
Inconclusive.
Duration since previous awakening?
7,000 spins – system error? – system reinitiating.
Check drive status?
Primary drive emergency shutdown has been initiated – system reinitiating.
Check internal vehicle systems?
Core @ 15% – Environmental @ 37% – Hull containment @ 94% – Biological cargo status @ 66%.
Check security status?
Airlock 2398s – exterior breach – resecured.
Check for pathogen infiltration?
Critical error.
Awaken security glider from region 2300?
Advocated.
Inform crew?
Crew location inconclusive.
Awaken biological cargo?
Negative.
Initiate software rebuild to critically damaged systems?
Advocated.
Recommend vehicle consciousness remain in standby mode?
Advocated.