The walk back to the alcove was as short as Carbon had indicated, and a quick check of the timer revealed that their estimation on the time left on the countdown had been accurate. The bar in the middle of the timer was still turning, a handful of dots on the inner ring remained now. The rest, and the entire outer ring, had faded out leaving faint blue ghosts against the flat gray material. Still the better part of an hour and a half left.
"Would you look at that, just in time." Alex turned his suit's recorder back on and swept the video camera mounted on his shoulder over the arch and timer. The portal was still frosted over but he could make out the Kshlav’o gleaming in the distance, right where they had left it. He exhaled slowly, seeing the shine of the ship waiting for them flooding him with relief, a concrete thing he knew and understood.
Carbon appeared to be doing the same thing, standing nearby and slowly twisting her torso from left to right. Another dot flashed and then seemed to evaporate, turning translucent like the rest. She looked over at Alex. “We did not cut it that close.”
“No. I guess I’m just ready to get out of here for now.” He blew out his breath, ragged and uneasy as he played what-if in his head. What if it wasn’t counting down to open, but rather to go to a different portal? What if it was shutting down? What if it just didn’t open? They were going to have a hell of a time surviving any significant length of time on a single crop of seasonal fruit.
Staring at things while he waited was bad for him, he had fresh experience with that. Hardly two days had passed since he’d obsessed over the waveride computations finishing on the Kshlav’o and now the idea of watching a timer made his brain itch. He set an alarm on his suit’s computer and stalked back out into the grass, sitting where he’d fallen the day before. The lake sparkled in the false morning light, tiny whitecaps sprinkled across the dark water. He hadn’t measured it specifically when he’d been scouting the area on the globe, but just going off the cuff, it was about the size of lake Huron back on Earth.
Carbon sat down beside him, silent for some time as they both watched the water. Eventually she reached over to bump his forearm with her hand. “What is bothering you?”
“Am I that transparent?” He said, glancing over at her with another sigh, lips pulled tight in a grimace.
“You are not. Your demeanor changed sharply, but I cannot determine the source of that change.” She shrugged and took his hand. “You wear your heart on your sleeve - that is the saying, yes?”
That got a quiet, sullen laugh out of him. “It is. I’m not exactly sure what my problem is.” He picked at the grass with his free hand, ordering his thoughts and trying to suss out exactly what was up. “On the surface, I think I’m catching up with you on being worried about this place. I’m hoping we can leave but I can’t shake this feeling of doubt that we won’t be able to.”
She watched him as he spoke, nodding along. There were people Alex would assume were just doing that to look like they were paying attention, but he knew that’s not something Carbon would do. “It is understandable. Despite the mask of familiarity this place has, everything below that is... It is alien. Possibly so alien it is incomprehensible to us.”
On one hand it was nice to be validated by someone he respected, on the other he hadn’t actually put any thoughts into who built this or why and it presented him with a fresh batch of scenarios surging forward, ranging from sad to unsettling. “That’s- Uh, thank you.”
Carbon made a noncommittal sound, glancing over at him before her gaze turned to the lake. “That did not help, did it?”
He shrugged, most of the motion absorbed by the suit. “Not really.”
They sat in silence for awhile, nothing but the wind rustling the grass making a sound until Carbon abruptly started speaking again.
“Whatever happens, I am glad I have met you. That you have allowed me into your heart and in turn sought out mine. It has been an experience I could not have predicted, and one I would not trade for anything. I love you. ” Her eyes stayed fixed on the horizon as she spoke, “For some time now I have felt I would never say that to someone... with a romantic overtone. Thank you.”
Alex felt his cheeks warm with a blush that couldn’t be explained by the cool breeze coming up off the lake, an odd feeling swirling in his stomach. “Oh, uh- you’re welcome.”
“And if the portal does not open up and let us go back to the ship I am going to be furious. The only reason I am not yet is because I feel that way about you.” She didn’t look away from the lake as she said it. It didn’t even sound like it was directed at him, even though he was the one who had gotten them stuck here.
Alex looked over at her, just in time to see her glance over surreptitiously, a little smirk curling the corner of her mouth. “Ah, yeah... I’m- I’m actually sorry about that.” Even if she was amused by something, it was his impulsiveness that led him to stepping through the portal in the first place.
She patted his knee, “I think you were right to do it. This place does not seem hostile, it seems restricted. There is something being said here, we do not know what yet. I believe I can see a few potential meanings.”
That made sense to him, particularly in light of her earlier comment about whoever built this being incomprehensibly alien. “This structure must have taken an age to build, and it appeared to be abandoned or never used, yet set up to be habitable for both Humans and Tsla’o. It required both of us to be present to gain access and activate the globe.” Alex picked up a few blades of grass he’d torn out of the ground, weaving them together as he pondered this.
“If it only took them a century, certainly they would still live. Perhaps not if it took them a millennium, automated systems finishing it after they died out. There should be more evidence of a race this advanced.”
“Maybe they’re not from our spiral arm, or even our galaxy. We’ve got no point of reference with how far the big portal took us... and really, no point of reference on how far the small one did, either.” The thick gloves of his suit made working on the grass difficult, forcing him to slow down and be conscious of what he was doing with each blade. “But I wouldn’t build a parking lot that far away from the place it goes to.”
Carbon grunted, presumably in agreement. “It is so. I believe too many things here are intentional for this to be abandoned. The builders knew we existed and prepared this for us. Their portals can move without detection, presumably their ships can as well - if they even use ships anymore. The thun trees are not the kind my family had, but I recognize them as a heritage variety. Which means I can identify that they were sampled sometime in the last three hundred years.”
“That’s a long time for us.”
“Perhaps not a long time for them.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“You think if they were still around, they would just come out if we asked?” He paused his work on the braided grass in his hands and looked around. Alex cleared his throat and spoke louder, nearly yelling into the distance, “Hey, we can’t guess who you are, can we get a hint? Please? Maybe a hello?”
Carbon rolled her eyes, but waited a few seconds anyway. “I think if they intended to speak to us, they would have by now.”
“We hadn’t tried asking nicely.” He said, resuming his busywork before putting forth the first question that popped into his head. “Do you think they built one of these for the Eohm too?”
That gave her pause. “Hn. Considering this experience has required cooperation between species, I would think not... But that also ascribes my own thought processes to the situation.”
Alex chuckled softly, “Why do we have to share one when the Eohm get their own. I’m gonna tell mom.”
“Perhaps this is just our entrance. There are several million planets worth of land here, it would be trivial to simply not come in contact with them if there were to be settlements. If they even wanted to be in here.” She gesticulated as she spoke, pointing off into the distance, landmasses millions of kilometers away that they couldn’t see with the naked eye.
Eohm were not known for settling down on planets, an inverted one would probably not be changing their mind. “And one for the tkt.”
She shivered and shook her head. “No, perhaps not them.”
He had seen pictures of tkt before, odd little bug-like aliens. Hive minded, the most common worker caste were shorter than Tsla’o. They were probably sentient, though lacked any interest in interacting with anyone that wasn’t tkt. “Maybe they’d have to cooperate with the Eohm.
“That will be impossible.”
“You never know.” Alex couldn’t actually see one species of violently xenophobic aliens and another that didn’t seem to give a damn about anything but their hives working together, but the thought was amusing. “Stranger things have happened.”
Carbon turned slowly to look at him, eyebrows raised, her gaze laden with skepticism. “Do tell me one.”
He grinned and held a bracelet of woven grass out to her. “I’m dating an alien.”
Confusion crossed her face for a moment, the expectation of a more serious answer stopped dead in its tracks. She looked down at the bracelet as she took it from his hand, a warm smile on her short muzzle as she turned it over, inspecting the gift with a soft laugh. “That does not count.”
Alex’s alarm went off, a few minutes left to go. He silenced it and stood, Carbon already back on her feet by the time he was. “Why’s that?” He asked, turning back towards the alcove.
She grabbed his suit by the collar, his helmet still retracted, and pulled him back. Her eyes were alive with mischief as she stretched up to kiss him. “I am dating one as well. It is not that strange.”
He laughed and held his hands out, “you got me there. Who is it?”
“I don’t think you’ve met him.” She released his suit, patting his chest before turning to the alcove herself. “A little odd looking, very short face. But he is kind and earnest, and that makes up for a lot.”
Alex smiled as he glanced over at her. “Maybe you’ll introduce me someday.”
“Perhaps.”
It was just a few steps, and jokes faded as soon as they were back on the hard floor before the portal, the moment of truth upon them. They waited in silence as the timer spun down. Alex shifted nervously from foot to foot as Carbon just stood, face placid but otherwise unreadable. He knew her well enough to know she was covering something up - that was one of the two expressions he had seen her use during the first few months on the ship.
The bar stopped suddenly, sitting vertically as the final dot faded like the others. Nothing seemed to happen at first, then the frost-like haze covering the portal thawed and disappeared, leaving it clear. Alex heaved a sigh of relief, looking over just in time to see Carbon relax and break into a grin. She reached out and took hold of his arm, “let us go now, before this closes again.”
He didn’t need to be told twice and they stepped through the portal together. No surprises going this way, no searing pain. One foot after the other and they were done, back in the landing area with the ship. It didn’t frost over again, but it only took one shared look to know they didn’t intend to go back through just yet.
Carbon retrieved her weapons from the outer arch and set about reattaching them while Alex looked around. Nothing had changed, which wasn’t surprising. They hadn’t even been gone for a day. That wasn’t even long enough for dust to settle.
But that was the problem: nothing had changed. He looked up at the portal ring embedded at the top of the dome, as empty as it had been when they left. He balled up his fists and glared at it up there, growling out a single quiet word under his breath.
Carbon’s head snapped up from re-affixing the holster to her armor, startled by his tone. She stepped out of the arch and stood next to him, not yet seeing the problem. “What is- Oh, no.”
He seethed in silence, unable to form a cohesive thought that wasn’t just profanity. Finally, words returned to him. “What the hell does this thing want? Do we have to go all the way up to that building at the top of the shell? There’s no way for us to do that!”
Carbon started to speak, picking her words carefully. “Perhaps... this has a timer as well? It could open at a preset interval.”
Alex gritted his teeth and tamped down on his temper. “Why would they do that? They could turn the thing on whenever they wanted when they brought us here.”
“I do not know. I am just offering it as a possibility.” Carbon paused as she attached the sword to its hardpoint on her armor as well. “I think we could also create a powered sled of sorts from parts of the ship to make overland travel faster, if need be.”
“Are you insane? That would take centuries.” Alex spun on a heel to face her, finger leveled at her nose and anger in his voice again. She looked back at him, somber blue eyes filled with worry that shut him down before he could get any further. His arms dropped and shoulders slumped, the fire in him dead. “I’m sorry. I just... I’m fine waiting in the globule, if we could get back to it. I don’t want us to be stuck here. I want to go back to Earth. I want to show you around, sit on a patio, and do nothing for an afternoon.” He hadn’t expected that to slip out, an unambitious fantasy he’d been harboring for a week or so now.
“I would like that, but be-” Carbon stopped abruptly as the floor started to vibrate, as though the entire dome had been rung like a bell. It grew to an audible drone and rose to a roar, ending with a massive clap of thunder as the portal above them activated.
It wasn’t the dusty mess of the globule they had taken refuge in this time. Space as black as ink with a few twinkling spots lay on the other side of the portal now. As they stared up at it, Carbon was the first to speak. “Where do you think it goes?”
“It couldn’t... Come on.” Alex turned and started running to the ship as fast as he could manage in the suit.
“What is it?” She was only a few steps behind him, keeping up easily in her powered suit.
He didn’t respond at all, possessed by what had taken root in his mind and audibly panting from exertion as he stumbled through the airlock. Alex was sprinting down the main passageway on the Kshlav’o before Carbon had cleared the airlock herself
“What is going on?” Her voice came in over the com link, anxiety in it clear as if she were standing next to him.
“Just need to see something.” Alex finally replied as he plowed through engineering, slipping through the airlock doors as soon as the gap was wide enough to fit the suit.
She followed him through the ship to find him sitting at the backup console, fingers tapping a rapid beat across the control surface. “Alex, what are you doing?”
“Nav system’s back on, everything is back on. And this...” He brought up a live scan on the display and slumped back into the chair, gesturing at a little yellow speck. His chest still heaved as he looked up at Carbon, brow gleaming with sweat. Surprise still managed to creep out around his exhaustion. “This is Sol.”