Legend of Earth

“Another bridge,” Amper muttered. “It’s a way across!” he called to Mygs.

“Who built it?” Mygs asked, but stepped toward the area that would hold the nearby end of rope. Seeing it tied to a tree three meters into the woods, he inspected it for its make. “It seems to be… bark? Treated somehow so they’re stuck together.”

“And weatherproofed,” Amper decided as he gripped and tugged at a section. “What did they use?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Mygs stated, looking out to the river. “We’re just going to fulfill it’s purpose and be glad. Looks like we’re going to make it to the easy path down the cliff after all.”

Taking the rope guide one-at a time, each Terranaut crossed the hurried current, and had only one stumble that would have been fatal except for the serendipitous rope. Amper’s hand was still weak as it healed, and he lost purchase and then balance. He eventually reached Mygs on the far side, and they headed toward the drop-off where the waterfall gave-in to gravity. Mygs’ dermiscreen indicated where they would anchor and drop their cords. Undoing Amper’s strap-strap, which was 16 instead of ten meters long, the two were joined on an end, and the anchor was bio-epoxied into a solid rock-face in the ground near the edge. Command indicated that the drop was thirty meters, with a 50-degree slope beginning after twenty meters. Belaying down the joined-together 26-meter cord, making it a twelve meter, would leave an eight-meter jump to the beginning of the slope.

Mygs threaded the cord through the anchor’s karabiner, and latched the cord’s end to the harness-style straps Amper unfolded from his pack and re-strapped.

“You okay for lowering yourself?” Mygs asked Amper. His hand would have to grip and control the belay device to keep from falling too fast.

“I’ll use my other hand, it’s stronger.”

“When you reach the end of the belay, call to me and then detach the end of the rope. I’ll take the weight and lower you to the ground.”

“Pro-toh-call,” Amper responded pithily in the tone of “if you say so.” He didn’t like being babied, but knew it was standard procedure after an injury.

Getting into position and making eye contact with his partner before lowering himself, Amper was then finally able to look down. He found some footing at first, but noted that a concave gap was approaching about three meters down. He looked over his left shoulder and noted that the distyant raft was bobbing in an eddy to the side of the wide Psychopath. He hoped it would stay there. He reached the absence of foothold, and let his legs dangle, pressing the auto button for the belay to time his decent in a slow, smooth pace.

As the shadow under the rock lip grew, he gazed about and saw that it was a gigantic cave inside the cliff, at least seven meters deep that he could see already. He noted the sound of sand spilling, with stone falling from the inside, and realized that this cave had only been born that morning. Just as he was recalling the roar of a distant landslide during the earthquake, his heart leapt into his throat at what his slow descent finally showed him. Dusty sections of ceiling fell like a veil through which Amper could see the back of the cave. Even, rectangular holes the size of a man lined the back of the cave wall, framed by pillars, in three rows from the top of the freshly-exposed cave to the bottom. The shadows within each rectangle suggested more cave area. This giant building from ancient Earth had been buried and preserved.

Excited to the point of shock, Amper jarred back to the moment as his belay whirred and beeped, signifying that it had only one foot to go. He fumbled and stopped the device, and hung there staring at the darkness in the absent windows inside the cave. His ancestors used to look out of those windows eons ago!

“Amper!” Mygs’ voice could be heard above.

“Uh – yeah! Releasing belay!” He waited for Mygs’ call.

“ – And Ok,” Mygs called clearly. He had the rope.

“And Ok,” Amper confirmed loudly, releasing the device. In a moment Amper began slowly lowering past the cave opening and finally set his feet on the top of the slope just as Mygs called that there were two feet of the rope left.

Amper detached the karabiner and yanked the rope mildly twice to let Mygs know he was on the ground. As much as Amper wanted to gaze at the newly-uncovered ancient building, he had to take stock of the area’s surroundings before Mygs arrived. Huge boulders looked like they could dislodge and roll if touched, and when he took a step, the fist-sized pebbles shifted under his foot. They would have to be careful walking toward steady ground. He wanted to find better purchase nearer the cave, but knew that he was supposed to stay away from potential danger, like falling rocks or even a cave-in. He took out and unfolded his walking-pole, nestling its foot grip onto a larger rock nearby and assuring his grip on it with his non-healing hand. He picked-up a stone, and braced himself before lobbing it as hard as he could at a distant boulder. The huge rock shifted and slid further down the slope, taking some of the hill with it, and Amper braced himself to adjust his stance as the rocks under his feet rolled.

After the ground settled, Amper looked back at the cliff and saw Mygs auto-belaying down the rope, just reaching the gap after the first ten feet. With the background sound of a healthy waterfall limiting their communication, he quietly watched Mygs concentrate on letting his legs drop and gripping the belay as he descended. Amper saw Mygs notice the cave, and then forget to grip as he recognized the ancient angled holes. Amper chuckled when Mygs struggled in shock to flex his hand and concentrate on the amazing find in the cave at the same time. Mygs initiated auto-hold and hung there for a moment, gently spinning and staring at the building in the shadows of the cave.

He finally looked down at Amper, who extended his arm toward the concrete cave building as though introducing it to Mygs. Mygs looked back at the cave, and then auto-belayed down. Once reaching the slope’s apex, Amper clambered the few feet to meet him.

“I can’t believe it!” Mygs said loudly.

“When’s the next tremor?”

“None according to the spectrian.” Mygs detached his line and the men found sturdy ground from which to gape at the structure.

“You take images for Command?” Amper asked.

“Not yet,” Mygs brought up his dermiscreen.

“Good. Wait.” Amper nodded, putting a hand on Mygs’ arm. “Let’s just have this for ourselves for a moment.”

They stood and stared. There were twenty openings, as big as doorways though obviously not all of them were used as such because there were no stairs or platforms in front of them. The pillars were sectioned, and Amper wondered whether it was manmade concrete, or if it was actually a type of stone that came out of the Earth like marble. He remembered reading in class about how humans would use tools to fashion rock so that it could be used to build structures. What had the building been used for? It didn’t seem designed to be used as a home, or as apartments.

“Institutional,” Mygs stated.

“Yes,” Amper agreed. “It resembles the design of Persevere Law.”

“I was thinking that. I remember seeing a picture like this in school Earth Theory books.” Mygs squinted in thought. “This is near St. Louis. I wonder whether either of us have ancestry from here.”

“You’d think we could feel it if we did.”

“I wonder if it works that way.”

They stood and stared. This place represented their roots, where their existence learned and grew before they left the planet. Where people lived mundane lives before one of the last ancient names, Alex Stiles, planned the departure of the families of the first Ether Generation, as it was unofficially referred-to in school. Stiles, who was only known as a scientist but was probably also a genius, created the escape plan but was not able to participate in it. He or she – theory doesn’t indicate which one Alex was – stayed behind when the five ships departed, involved in a distraction fabricated for an opponent so that the departure would deploy without incident. The story, general as it remained, was told to everyone repeatedly throughout schooling so that all would appreciate the treasure of living a life that could have so easily been denied if it weren’t for Alex Stiles. June fourteenth was celebrated every year as the day Humans took the Leap of Faith and escaped the turmoil of Earth.

This unburied building was from that time. The men steeped in the mysterious history.

It was three minutes later that Mygs took pictures and a vectype, sending them to Command with the location. “We’ll have a holographic copy of the vectype to look at in homebase,” he told Amper.

“Okay,” Amper said. Then he nodded decisively. “I’m going in.”

“What?” Mygs didn’t register what Amper had said until his partner started making his way to the cave. “No, Amper, that’s not allowed. Command can see what you’re doing,” he warned.

“What are they going to do? Beam me up?” Amper yelled back. “Afterwards they’ll be grateful I explored this!”

“Whatever we do has to be documented!” Mygs yelled to his now-distant friend. “Which means I have to go, too,” he muttered to himself in frustration. And then he smiled and began clambering over loose stone to reach Amper.

After duly admonishing Amper and warning him that they could only spend ten minutes there, Mygs fell into the procedure of scanning the area and noting unexpected items. But the entire structure was unexpected! The pillared window gaps looked as though each one would lead an explorer into a personal-sized cave. The pattern of huge holes disappeared into either side of the cave, causing anyone who found it wonder what else was under the rock. Right over the cave entrance, in a section closest to the waterfall, a chunk of rock seemed to have half-slid out of place but was held by other, smaller, wedged rocks. He resolved to make this quick and get Amper out of there.

Mygs initiated his sampler and scanned one section of the building’s surface, then chose another, and then a third as procedure dictated. He scanned three sections of the surrounding ground, and three sections of newly-exposed cave wall. Five minutes after reporting their actions, he and Amper heard the dermiscreen beep that a message was received.

“That waterfall sure is loud,” Amper commented, echoing in the cave.

“Yeah. It’s hard to hear anything else,” Mygs nodded with a smile, ignoring Command’s message.

“Hey – “ Amper stooped to examine a row of crevice fern growing out of a corner in one of the window tunnels. “How could anything grow in here? There’s no sun – Whoa!” Pinpoints of pain stabbed the flesh between his finger and thumb and on his palm as miniscule darts were thrown from the growth area of the crevice. “I’ve been stabbed!” He looked up at Mygs in surprise.

“Oh great,” Mygs changed the scanner to “health” and rushed to find out what was going on in Amper’s recently-healed hand. “This hand is trouble,” he muttered as the screen showed small amounts of poison. “It’s going to itch. That’s all.”

“But what could have – Naaugh!” Amper jerked and instinctively kicked his foot out when he felt pressure grab his pant leg above the top of his boot. A long slab of what looked like dirt and plant matter flew off of his leg and landed on the rocks along the front of the building. Landing plant-side down, the creature slowly twisted and flipped so that the plants were on its spine, and the “dirt” was crawling on the ground like a giant caterpillar with hidden legs. Mygs watched it while Amper noted a rumble and shower of dirt from the ceiling near the entrance of the cave.

“It’s not a plant,” Mygs said, amazed. “It’s a giant worm made to lure plant-eating food.”

“It would have been disappointed. I don’t digest well.” Amper decided that the ceiling was going to hold, and pointed-out the organic sample the creature had left on his boot. Mygs scanned it.

“Yeah, you’re pretty tough, I guess,” Mygs admitted. “And you have bad taste.”

“Bite me,” Amper muttered the pun.

Mygs didn’t react, but looked at the results of the scan. “Yeah, that was animal all right. I need to get a vectype to send Command.” He went to document the caterpillar, so Amper quickly stepped into one of the apertures, which he knew Mygs wouldn’t allow if he noticed. The smell of mildew was immediately prevalent, and when he touched the sides of the walled cavern he felt slime. Water was obviously seeping slowly in from somewhere, maybe just recently because of the quake, or only during certain times of the year, otherwise more of the building would have eroded on the inside. Maybe on Earth this sort of mildew was a preserving substance. He felt his boots slip on what felt like ice, except that it didn’t give-off the chill one would expect.

“Amper?” He heard Mygs call from out in the cave. Amper didn’t respond. He didn’t want to be told to get out. “You can’t do this, we need to meet up with homebase before it’s freed of the eddy.”

“I can’t do what? I’m not doing anything,” Amper let his voice echo out of the small space.

“I am going to collect homebase,” Mygs stated. “You will follow closely or I will be forced to report you. It’ll be your first redmark on this trip.” Mygs was calling backwards to the ancient ruins by the time he finished speaking, and Amper could hear him walking away.

Grumbling, Amper turned to head out of the cave when the toe of his boot kicked a mound that gave under his foot. Recognizing that it hadn’t been a rock, Amper glanced up at his friend before stooping to examine the area. It seemed that he’d kicked a glass dome twice as big as a skull, and shattered it by the looks of the spider web pattern that now faced him through the dirt. But it didn’t break apart. It was as though glass had been adhered to a plasma balloon, so when it shattered it fell-in together and the pieces wouldn’t be taken apart. Trying in vain to pick out one of the shards, Amper finally took a shot with his camera and hurried to catch up with Mygs.

The homebase had been eddying opposite from the ruins, but since the river wasn’t in such a rush beneath the falls, Amper and Mygs found a place to wade and swim across easily before trekking to their belongings. Amper nabbed the raft as it floated by on a circuit of its eddy, and initiated movement control of the hover-homebase, letting Mygs use his dermiscreen controls to get it up out of the water.

“We’ll set up camp here,” Mygs stated from his familiar position of looking and poking at the dermiscreen. “We both have one-marks on our record for going into the ruins. We ignored the protocol of asking first.”

“That should be at least a three-mark each,” Amper commented, pushing the homebase to a level spot near the trees.

Mygs swiped the screen and was reading as he reported. “Command also says our scans and images are unlike anything they ever expected to recover. You sent an image?” Mygs looked up at his partner.

“I tripped on something on my way out of the cave,” Amper nodded. He was glad that their excursion had been rewarded to some extent.

Mygs scrolled through the image log on his arm and widened the picture Amper had taken. “What is it?”

“My first impression brought a memory of seeing the ancient computer screens in Memorial Museum – only this was rounded.”

“Yeah,” Mygs tapped and swiped the screen to be dismissed, moving to help set-up camp, but his mind on the image he’d just seen. “Maybe it was a rounded screen. It actually seems to resemble the third-generation micro-clone shield, only thicker.”

“It might be thinner, but maybe it’s filled-in with debris or something from the apocalypse fallout.”

“Well, it’s not ours to explore any more,” Mygs shrugged, dismissing the conversation. “I think we should make a fire since we’re near the river where animals are likely.”

“I’m all for that,” Amper smiled. He loved the campfires on Earth. The authenticity of seeing the smoke waft up to the stars through tree branches was nothing like the campfire he’d always experienced on Persevere. Nothing on Persevere was original and native, it was all brought from the Leap of Faith. The difference wasn’t the sight of smoke through trees to the sky, it was the feeling that this was where the idea and experience had been born.

After putting up the homebase, securing the raft, Mygs’ required health scan of Amper’s hand, and dinner with hot tea at the campfire, the terranauts dampened the fire and fell into bed.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” Amper felt from Shhah as soon as he emerged in the dark conversation room of his dream. “I was worried after the earthquake. Are you okay?” Her smoke rippled through orange, yellow, gray and brown with pink between each.

“I’m fine,” Amper’s tendril unfurled toward her in green and white. “In fact, we climbed down the waterfall’s cliff and found an ancient building that was uncovered because of the earthquake! It’s very exciting for us. It’s a building of the ancient city of St. Louis.”

“City?” She turned bright orange with edges of white, and her tendril seemed to flatten and expand. Amper felt that she was settling-in for a story to be told. He explained to her that there had been spots on the Earth where humans gathered and lived, constructing buildings in which to live and work. If the spot had a certain amount of people living in it, it was called a city. Smaller spots were called towns or neighborhoods.

“We have stories suggesting such places. Also that some of the buildings were made of healthy trees that were cut-down.”

“I’m afraid so. Where do you get your stories?”

“Fxst tells us.”

“How does Fxst know what happened here eons ago?”

“His incipience is Maxfals-taff. Each nemectis of that incipient has been an informer of history and what people were doing so long ago.”

Amper’s mist turned orange and white. “Incipient?”

“The intelligence we have, the human part of us, comes from our incipient since the beginning. It is why each of us is who we are. Kllsh’s incipient is Jas-m’allie, and all trees of that incipience displays great emotion. Mine is And’war-ren, and our incipience displays communication. We are close to Fxst’s incipience.” Her blue tendril curled with concentration.

“Like a human family,” Amper turned white. “It’s where you come from. Do you have a mother and a father? Siblings?”

“The soil and air, you mean?”

“I mean, a male nemectis and female nemectis who decide to join, – bridge, maybe? – and create a… new nemectis.”

“No – of course, we each grew from a seed, but we don’t have nurturing nemectes of the same incipient. Is that what you mean?”

“You’re the only And’warren?”

“Until I’m gone, yes. There is always only one of each incipient.”

“Wow, I hadn’t –“ Amper’s tendril was turning white and orange when he became immediately dizzy.

“Amper!“ Shhah’s tendril splashed purple and orange.

The light of waking suddenly swallowed him.

“Amper, come on!” Mygs’ deep voice and shaking woke him fiercely. He opened his eyes and looked foggily at Mygs. “There’s intelligent movement across the river in the ruins. Torches.”

Amper sat up quickly, rubbing his face vigorously. He was still trying to adjust from the darkness of communication. A torch meant that someone figured out how to make fire and use it, which no mere animal can do. It hadn’t been stolen from their fire, either, or the proximity alarm would have sounded.

The men exited the homebase, and since the fire had been put out before retiring they didn’t worry about being seen by newcomers in the dark from across the river. Watching, the men saw two dots of light slowly entering the cave. The dots of light disappeared and reappeared in the area that moonlight wasn’t hitting, and the terranauts could tell that the upper windows of the structure were being explored by one torch-holder, and the other was going into each of the bottom caverns – they were climbing around carelessly in the cave.

The waterfall made it impossible to hear whether they were calling to each other, but the movement of the dots of light caused the men to assume that one probably coaxed the other to come see something. The torches were hovering close together near the ground, when suddenly they jumped apart and the hint of some sort of loud cry or yell carried through the waterfall’s splashing purr. The torches began bobbing, growing bigger as they approached the cave entrance from inside, but that unstable section of the moonlit rock face finally rumbled loose and fell. One torch with its silhouetted figure had reached the slope of dislodged rocks and began slipping as they all moved with the new shifting. The second torch had suddenly disappeared.

“One of them was under it!” Amper exclaimed.

The first torch headed back up the slope, and obvious cries of distress – a repeated name or plea of some sort – carried once or twice over the dancing pool of fallen water. The torch disappeared behind what must have been the fallen boulder, and Mygs and Amper emerged from behind the homebase, not afraid that this distracted creature would see them in the darkness across the river. After a few moments of no movement in the cave, Mygs motioned Amper to stay at the camp, and he slid into the water to get closer without sound. Once he reached the shore, he didn’t have time to climb up before the torch reappeared. Hurriedly picking its way across the loose stones and small boulders, the unidentifiable torch-bearer was mumbling audibly and didn’t look anywhere but at its feet so that there would be no stumbling.

Mygs got a pretty good glimpse of it, and was taken-aback by what little he saw. Was that an owl’s face? And the head was sleek like a fish’s body. About as tall as a chimpanzee, it had what seemed to be mostly the upright body of a fish, but its face was big-eyed and pointy-nosed like a bird of prey, and its feet were a wet, flopping version of talons. Even if this creature was more intelligent than either an owl or a fish because of the asteroid, in seven years it couldn’t possibly evolve to become this thing! Maybe it had already started centuries ago, and the intelligence was just added when the asteroid hit. He would have to talk it over with Amper.

There was a muttering grunt from the creature as it passed, and Mygs’ gaze darted back to the cave when he understood what the creature was mumbling to itself. He slid back across the water to Amper and reported quickly, “The one left at the cave is still alive! We need to help it!” He ran into the homebase and grabbed an emergency kit.

“What?” Amper stared incredulously. “We don’t know if the healer can –“

“It’s partially trapped under the boulder. No matter what kind of creature it is, we can at least possibly un-trap it. The other stellasen left to get help, but there may not be enough time!”

Amper joined Mygs right away, swimming across the water with their head-beams, e-kit and healer, quickly clambering up the slope of rocks. They found the stellasensus lying prone, face up, one arm and shoulder pinned under the huge stone. Its eyes opened wearily beneath a layer of yellow-orange blood that was seeping from its brow. The close call had hit his head as well. Amper gasped when he saw the being’s striking face, and the stellasen cried-out when it saw that these men were not like itself.

“It’s okay, we can help,” Mygs said in a gentle voice. “Your friend said there might not be time to wait for help from your people.” The injured stared wildly, but stopped panicking.

Amper looked at Mygs then, surprised. “They know our language?”

Mygs shrugged and shook his head, dismissing the question to assess the situation. Amper would wait until after the urgency to find out how Mygs knew what the creature had said. Mygs handed Amper the bladder-gel wand, and then unfolded a wrap-strap that he carefully edged around the victim’s ribs and chest in preparation for pulling him out from under the rock. Amper tucked the point of the hollow wand as deeply beneath the boulder as he could, and started pumping the expanding gel. Since it emitted as a liquid first, the gel oozed further beneath the rock before foaming and plumping with the strength of a titanium balloon. At the sound of shifting stone, Mygs braced his grip on the wrap and Amper stood-by with a stone that he would wedge under the boulder once it lifted high enough.

Finally seeing that pressure had begun to release off of the arm, Mygs slowly pulled as the being’s face scrunched with pain and it cried-out. Amper placed the wedge and then took out the healer while Mygs dragged the arm completely free and coaxed the stranger to lie still.

“I figure it’s a mix between a bird of prey and a fish, only bigger,” Mygs suggested. “Maybe set the healer to 15 rather than 30.”

Amper was already on it. “It blanked on 12 and 15, but it’s green on 20.”

Mygs nodded. “Okay. Do it.” He looked straight at the helpless creature. Its fear was ebbing and intelligence began pooling in its gaze before it looked back at what Amper was doing.

“Do you feel anything?” Amper asked it, glancing at its face as he monitored the healer. It didn’t respond, but stared with amazement at the healer, and then at Amper.

“Does it hurt?” Mygs asked. The strangely scaled and feathered head shook, its attention back to Mygs, and a sound came out of its mouth that was between a whisper and a cough. Mygs nodded, “Good. You’re not supposed to.”

Amper threw a steady look at Mygs. “Mygs. Did you understand that?”

Mygs stared back at Amper, then looked down at their patient. “I – did. I got it.” He realized what his ears had heard, as opposed to what he internally understood, and knew he had caught more than just the sounds. Amper hadn’t. Silently, they acknowledged the importance of their respective abilities to communicate with the creatures of Earth. The unspoken imbalance of each man’s place in the exploration of this legend had just become more even. Now, apparently, Mygs could communicate with someone Amper couldn’t.

The decision to stay and wait for the other stellasen was mutual and unforced, but unnerving. They both knew that if they just took-off, there would be a hunt for them, and then they might not have a chance to prove their benign intentions in this area. Certainly, with intelligence and organization such as these stellasen have already shown, comes civilization and establishment of territories, as well as leaders – and warriors. Their best bet was to wait and be up-front about meeting the new beings. This is what Mygs had expected, in the manner of first contact, and he hadn’t known he was braced for it until the moment was upon him. Now he felt their trip reached a goal. But whether their goal was successful had yet to be seen.

Activity was heard near the river. The stellasen had come from the trees lining the river, where the other adventurer had disappeared to get help. All three cave-sitters were looking at them when the torches and faces reached them. Amper and Mygs were struck once again by the owl-like beak and eye socket areas, covered by what might have been a type of feather or type of scale. Either way, their expressions were obvious and varied: surprise, anger, fear.

The injured stellasen made guttural sounds, an explanation that made the standing, torch-wielding group pay attention, and one or two faces became less stone-cast. It seemed to gesture toward Mygs, who was nodding with understanding, while Amper just waited and hoped everything would smooth-over. After everything was conveyed between the group and the injured, Mygs nodded and then spoke to Amper as the group approached their comrade, carrying a dragged stick-tied gurney lined with moss.

“I understand them,” Mygs told Amper, “But I don’t speak their language. Maybe they’ll understand me just because we have some sort of connection, but it’s not guaranteed. They want me to go with them.”

“We aren’t to be separated, it’s protocol,” Amper reminded him.

“I will explain that if they question you being with me. They may just understand that we are supposed to be together. We’ll leave the homebase there and it should be safe.”

“We’re following them now?”

“Yes. I want to gain their trust, so don’t want to make our movements strange.”

“That won’t last long,” Amper muttered. “As soon as Command sees us straying away from homebase your arm will light up and start beeping.”

“I have it on ‘contact mode,’ which makes it silent and dim until I decide I need to use it. Command will know, then, that we’re encountering intelligent life and we don’t want to compromise it with our technology, and they’ll be able to track us still so we’re ok.”

“Alright.” Amper sighed, bracing himself. “Let’s see what these stellasen have in store for us.”

The creatures had put the injured one on the gurney, and were assembling to leave. The leader indicated to Mygs that it was time. He nodded, and he and Amper stood. The stellasensus looked at Amper a moment as though deciding, and then walked toward the front of the group. Apparently he could join them for now. A runner was sent ahead, then they started walking.

“You know this could be them,” Amper whispered. “Who turn on us.”

“I know,” Mygs stated. “So we will be careful.”