Before the lantern threw its beam into the mouth of the tunnel, the darkness around was felt as something almost physical, tangible, pressing, like a heavy multi-ton press. Amity felt an inexpressible relief when a piece of the tunnel around her emerged from the pitch darkness, and she managed to see the wet wall of the cave.

    "Yeah, it's scary in here," Amity heard a male voice through her helmet headset. "Goosebumps, really".

    "Stop it," said Amity. However, the voice of her partner, Egan, slightly drove away the oppressive feeling of an intense fear. This happens almost always. Your first spacewalk is a huge, colossal stress that is hard to prepare for. But when you see that very planet, small, in fact, on a galactic scale, those feelings that overwhelm you are, without a doubt, worth all the trials you have experienced. Just a small spheroid covered by the continents and the great ocean - the cradle of life for billions of people. Your breath catches. You seem to be transported into an incredible dream, from which you do not want to wake up. And this dream is real.

    A feeling of awe and horror seizes you when you open your eyes for the first time after many years of cryosleep, you understand that during the time that nothingness covered you, your loved ones there, on Earth, have already managed to grow up, grow old. And you haven't changed at all. You are already so far away. You see alien stars that are not visible in the earthly sky at night. You see a rocky planet in dark blue fading to grey. But that is not water at all. You see this world and understand that you are about to touch something sacred. There are tears in your eyes. Incredible emotions. Here it is, a distant, distant planet in the dim rays of its distant star. thousands of light years away from your home. Somewhere beyond the imagination of most people. You whisper some words, unable to contain your emotions, and for a while your fears go away, and bliss comes in their place. A thousand years ago, people did not suspect that there were worlds outside the solar system. Two hundred years ago, people could only dream of flying to distant stars. And now the moment of truth has come.

   "Okay, I won't," Egan said good-naturedly. “I don't like it here, Amy.

   "Really?"

    "Yeah. Here I am not myself, to be honest.

    The gloomy dark walls of the tunnel somehow looked too much like a grave. Above them now there are at least two tens of meters of rock, and above it is a research station. Other human beings, though not so many, not too far away, if you think about it, but the feeling of loneliness does not disappear. Especially if you indulge in nostalgia. You can't take a plane ticket and fly home - there are trillions of kilometers of outer space between you and your home.

    "Let's go," said Amity. The movement should help to relax, as far as it is, in principle, possible in such conditions. Alien planet, alien distant world. Sometimes it feels like you're an uninvited guest here. The one no one wants here. Everything around seems so alien. Little human beings on the edge of the impossible, trying to touch something that was not made for their hands and even for their ingenious devices.

    The tunnel led further and further into the black darkness. And it is not clear what can be expected there. There, at the other end, if there is an end, basically, anything can be expected.

    Amity remembered her childhood well. One scene in particular was in her mind. She was only nine years old. The backyard of the house where she lived with her father. Her mother died when the girl was only five years old, murdered by an unfortunate robber. Amity stared, fascinated, into the night sky, saw the stars there, shining like wonderful fireflies. She smiled, feeling, at the same time, small, very small, like an insect. And the world was so big, so vast. And a lifetime is not enough to see it in its entirety. So many worlds, unexplored, so far away. The era of interstellar flight has just begun.

    "Do you ever want to go there?" asked the father, pointing towards the stars.

    “I want to,” the girl replied. "Really want to".

    “Then, I think someday you will be there. Will you wave to me from there? I will watch and wait."

    "Definitely," she smiled. - "Will you miss me?"

    "Every second".

    The father coughed. When the cough passed, he said with a smile:

    "I'm sorry."

    The father knelt down and, with a tremulous movement, pressed his daughter to him. He had nobody else, but her, in his life.

    Then a dream arose in Amity at the very dawn of a whole new wonderful age in which humanity left the limits of the known world. And discovered something exciting so very far away from the Earth planet.

   Instruments recorded low oxygen levels. Removing the helmet, accordingly, seemed quite dangerous, although without it, of course, it would be easier to navigate the surrounding area. Although, what kind of terrain is there, only a passage through the thickness of the planetary crust. The planet Atreides, named after a character from science fiction books, once very likely looked like the planet Earth, there are even traces of the ancient oceans there. But now Atreides is an extremely harsh and not the friendliest spheroid in outer space. In size, it is only slightly inferior to Venus, but, at the same time, it is fifty million kilometers farther from its star than the Earth.

    A rather cold world - in the star system in which it is located, there are only six planets, two of which are giants slightly larger than Uranus. But it is Atreides that is the only world on which life has been discovered, although far from the same as on the home planet of the people who flew here.

    "When we get back to the station," Egan said pointedly. “First of all, I turn on some music and relax. My choice is Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring".

    “Good choice,” Amity said.

    "And yours?"

    “I’ll turn on some rock music,” the girl replied.

    "Also a great choice. Come on, something really old. Twentieth century, seventies or eighties. I love their music. Led Zeppelin, Queen, Aerosmith, Motorhead, The Ramones".

    Amity smiled. Egan's words made him feel a little calmer. The colossal mass of planetary soil overhead, however, pressed. The tunnel around it contracted, then unclenched. But there was another dark factor that unnerved. Almost complete silence outside the suit. Feeling of hopelessness. Feeling of emptiness. Like a vacuum. A spaceship rushing through space. And millions of kilometers of interstellar space is absolutely nothing. Just cold. Yes, the radiance of the stars, which are so far away. So far away that the distance to them is unimaginable. Fortunately, the crew is dormant. And only the machine is running, sleepless, emotionless, not knowing what it is like, feeling claustrophobia and loneliness.

   Amity was lost in her thoughts.

    “Did you see it?“ Egan's voice was suddenly heard anxious, frightened. “Behind.“

    Amity turned around, but it seemed too late. Behind her met nothing but a tunnel.

    “What was there?“

    “I don't know,” Egan said. “I spotted something. Something behind. Dipped into darkness.

    “Didn't see how it looked?“ Amity asked.

    “No, I couldn't.“

    "I think it's time for us to go back," the girl said. “That's enough for today. Let's return, we’ll come back with the team later“.

    For a couple of long seconds, the partner did not say anything at all. Then, finally, he squeezed out:

    “You're right. Let's go, shall we?“

    They turned. And then the rays of their lanterns pulled out of the darkness something that did not resemble any living creature on planet Earth. It only took a single second to vaguely see the creature on several limbs. The monster violently rushed at the sources of light.

    “Run!“ Amity exclaimed.

    The astronauts turned and rushed, with considerable difficulty, in spacesuits, it was not easy to scatter, after all, further down the aisle. Hearts were beating at a frantic pace. The thing behind them was clearly not going to fall behind. The unnerving sounds of limbs crawling along the walls of the cave.

    The corridor went further and further. This crazy passage seemed like an endless void. Amity was exhausted, the suit pressed on her from all sides.

Stolen story; please report.

    “Don’t stop,” Egan said, breathing heavily, despite the excellent physical training that all those flying into space go through.

    The creature behind them had no intention of slowing down. The chase continued for a couple of minutes, but then, suddenly, the sound of the tentacles stopped. Amity stopped almost immediately, grabbed Egan by the shoulder. They needed a little time to catch their breath after the exhausting pursuit.

    Amity doubled over like her partner, feeling the oxygen ignite her lungs. Physical training on Earth. A long and very intensive course, but in a tight spacesuit in the dark, everything is completely different. It is impossible to prepare while at home and breathing earthly air.

    “What was it?“ Egan said, recovering a little.

    The creature seems to have stopped. And it disappeared somewhere, because the lantern again did not find the creature behind. It seemed to merge with the walls of the corridor. Is it possible?

    Amity didn't answer. Wherever the monster vanished, it was definitely somewhere nearby, she felt it. The creature is just waiting, perhaps gaining strength.

     “Local life form,” the man chuckled, giving the answer to himself.

    The heavy mass of rock seemed to fall on Amity again. It's time to move. But where? Back to the surface?

    Cold dark corridor. Silence fell again. Just the sound of breathing and heartbeat hammering in Amity’s ears. Universal darkness, universal despair. And there is no way out. Amity remembered her father's face. The day before he passed away from lung cancer. Amity was a part of a flight training program. But she was willing to give up her dreams in order to stay and support her father.

    "Don't sacrifice your life for me," her father told her, smiling through the nightmarish pain. "Live it the way you want. I love you my girl. I love".

    Tears welled up in Amity's eyes. But she did not know that her father had fourteen hours to live.

    The tentacled creature emerged from the darkness again and attacked. The astronauts had to run again. Even further along the black mouth of the tunnel. Even further into the abyss. Even deeper into the unknown, which swallowed them up meter by meter. Farther away from their base on the surface of Atreides.

   In the end, the chase led both astronauts to a certain underground hall, the creature on many limbs, nevertheless, lagged behind them. Or decided not to pursue further. In any case, there was an opportunity to take a breath again.

    It took some time for the physical recovery. The first fright passed, the creature from the corridor, probably, after all, stopped pursuing them.

    “Well, where are we now?” Amity asked, looking around with curiosity.

    It turned out to be quite spacious here, the rocky walls were leveled. On them, Amity saw strange drawings, and even bizarre runic writing, not similar to the languages of the peoples of the Earth.

    “Looks like a temple,” Egan said.

    “Yes,” the girl nodded. “Temple. Exactly. Altar or something like that“ .

    Amity approached a piece of wall that emerged from the darkness. She could not make out the letters, although she could understand, not perfectly, but still, the languages of the ancient human cultures. But the drawings truly caught her attention.

    Stars, circling in a kind of endless dance, the universe compressed, unclenched. Some creatures larger than galaxies. Suns falling on worlds, burning them to ashes, satellites colliding with each other. Endless spaces of the universe. Amity, as in childhood, felt like an insect, looking at a giant titan, carrying an entire mountain on his shoulders. A quivering sensation of the innermost, to which she and her partner managed, involuntarily, to touch.

    "Amazing," Egan's voice was filled with undisguised admiration, even childish delight. "Phenomenal! It looks like some ancient civilization of sentient beings lived here! This was their temple. And these drawings ... look like what the ancient Egyptians depicted on the walls of their temples!"

    “More like cave paintings,” Amity said.

    “Amazing,” the astronaut repeated. "They others will be so happy! Traces of an ancient civilization three thousand eighty-six light-years from the solar system! Amity, are you happy?"

    "Sure," Amity allowed herself a smile. But, despite the understandable feeling of delight, anxiety remained in the soul. The place where he and her partner ended up. It seems to be sacred. Something that outsiders shouldn't touch. But they are scientists, after all, that's their job. Touch the unknown, touch the sacred.

    The more they looked, the more amazing, bewitching pictures opened up to their eyes. A huge ancient hall, full of evidence that a civilization once existed here.

    “They lived here when Atreides had oceans of liquid water,” Amity said.

    “It's been hundreds of thousands of years,” Egan said.

    "Millions".

    "Even millions. Where do you think the locals have gone? Died out? Or…"

    A fantastic picture appeared before the eyes of the scientists: a giant triangular ship rushing towards the stars scattered in disorder.

    "Fly away," Amity said.

    "Incredible!" answered the partner. "Wonderful!"

    The opened picture awakened a sacred excitement in the most hidden depths of the soul.

   “Humanity has been searching for intelligence in space for centuries,” Amity said. “We finally did find what we have been looking for.“

    No more words needed to be added. The partners continued to inspect the wall, in every possible way, while forgetting about the time, even about the fear that they had to be back in the tunnel.

    In the end, the astronauts came across the opposite wall. There were no drawings there, but a certain rectangular door, two by three meters in size, was discovered.

    "Wow," Egan said, then glanced quickly at Amity. "Maybe we can get in?"

    At the sight of the door, the excitement subsided, but the anxiety returned. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable again. The door, hollowed out of solid stone, immediately, at one glance, aroused fears. There was a circle on this door - it could mean anything, a planet, a star, an atom. Even the universe.

    “I don't like this door,” Amity said. "Maybe we should leave it alone for now?"

    “Come on, Amity?“ Egan's eyes lit up. “Let's try. The door still won't budge, I guess. We are the scientists after all“.

    Amity nodded, though reluctantly. Yes, they are scientists. And maybe Egan is right after all. Why would they retreat now? Three thousand light-years passed not to be afraid of the door in the wall.

    “Okay, come on,” the girl said. “Push“.

    Together, Egan and Amity leaned with their entire mass against the stone door. Amity hoped that nothing would work out for them, and that the door would eventually not give way, and they would safely return to the surface of Atreides. However, she did her best. As did her partner.

    In the monstrously impenetrable darkness, two dozen meters below the surface of Atreides, two astronauts in spacesuits tried to budge a mysterious heavy door found in an ancient temple of an alien civilization. Not right away, but they did it. Gritting their teeth tightly, they pushed, sparing no effort, even Amity. The door gave way, pushed back, and a black maw opened before the two astronauts, reaching even deeper into the bowels of Atreides.

    At that very moment, suddenly, Amity felt a ringing in her head. And so strong that all other sounds seemed to be gone. A terrible ringing filled everything with itself, crashed into the head with an arrow tearing the brain. Amity began to scream, but her scream seemed to go in rather than out. Amity saw the black mouth behind the door suddenly turn blindingly white. The girl heard a voice. But not the partner's voice. Some kind of a frightening whisper. Amity was not able to make out the words. She couldn't resist. She was pulled into the white passage by the powerful force of gravity. Amity flew into this passage. The sounds all around died. She was surrounded by an endless milky white ocean. The door disappeared, the ancient temple disappeared. Egan is gone. Everything is gone. Nothing left.

    Suddenly, Amity found herself unable to take a single breath. Her limbs began to twitch convulsively. She opened her mouth wide, but not a drop of oxygen entered her lungs. Ahead, the girl saw a black, arachnid figure reaching for her. It seemed to her that all the insides would burst out through the mouth opening. Eyes wide and horrified. The spidery black creature was reaching out for her. It could go on for seconds, or it could go on for eons. There are no laws of physics, there is no time. Amity's body twisted and untwisted, changing shape. And then she began to fall. Fall somewhere into the void. Fall somewhere into the eternal darkness of the Universe. Terrible cold. Killing heat. She was falling down, and worlds were rushing past her. She felt like screaming. There are no sounds in infinity. There are no colors in infinity. What's happening? Where did the ocean of milk go? And where did the black monstrous creature, so similar to a spider, go?

    Thoughts couldn't come together. Atoms spread out in different directions. There is no form here. There is no gravity here. Nothing here attracts or repels. Each neutron is the size of the universe. And the whole universe shrinks to the size of a neutron. Infinity beyond time. Something before the singularity. The great singularity itself. One billionth of an atom that gave birth to the whole mighty cosmos. Streams of energy diverging in different directions. Each electron is its own world. The fall doesn't stop. A pile of elementary particles rushing faster than photons of light. Some colors that can't be defined. And the complete absence of sound. Vacuum. An emptiness filled with everything and nothing at the same time.

    Suddenly, Amity heard a quiet voice, a whisper, that spoke words not in human language, but rather in the language of the strings of space, but she managed to make out those truly strange words:

    "I will find you".

    Then darkness and non-existence came. Space filled with nothing. At some point, a wild scream cut through her, escaping from her throat. Amity awoke with a wild jerk. Egan immediately rushed to her, grabbed her by the shoulders.

    "Are you okay?! he said fearfully. "I thought you were screwed. At some point, your pulse disappeared, and ... I thought you were finished".

    There were tears in the man's eyes.

    Amity couldn't say a word. It was as if her brain had been loaded with data it couldn't process. Eyes wide, she looked around. They are on a spaceship. But what happened?

    “Eee… gan…” Amity snarled, exhausted, exhausted to the limit. “What… happened?“

    “When we opened that terrible door, you suddenly felt uneasy. You fell, twitched, moaned, and then passed out. I was so scared. I barely carried you to the base. And then…“

    “Then?“

    Egan was deathly pale.

    "I don't know... we don't know... But something... the impossible has begun... Amity, you and I released something from that passage." And now it's taking over Atreides. We barely escaped. Barely survived. Just a little more and... Hey, don't get up! Lie down a little longer... Amity!“

    But Amity wasn't listening. With difficulty keeping on her feet, there was no strength in her muscles, she hobbled from the bunk to the wide porthole window in order to look at what was behind it. And Amity saw the receding planet, Atreides. But more than half of the planet was swallowed up by a gigantic formless black substance that was expanding at a staggering rate.

    Amity remembered the words she had heard in the infinity where she had fallen. "I will find you". And, suddenly, she got very scared. She watched as Atreides vanished into the mouth of the black substance. Then she turned her gaze to the mortally frightened Egan. There was only one phrase in his eyes.

    "What have we done?"