23 – PORTAL

After barely a few steps inside the tunnel, what little light was coming in from the outside was already gone. While Calvin could see quite well thanks to his constitution, Tommy did not have that advantage. His eyes were far better than human eyes, but the tunnel was pitch black even for him.

“I can’t see anything.” Tommy said.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t think about it.” Calvin replied, and asked Computer for a solution.

Synthesizing fluorescent compound.

In his open hand, a wooden rod materialized out of his own mass, and at the end of the rod there was a large glowing lump of rock. As soon as it emerged, it started glowing in a bright yellow light, and it was enough to light up the tunnel for quite a few meters before the darkness was once again too deep to peer through.

He gave the makeshift torch to Tommy, and took the lead. The tunnel was wide and circular, with pipes and wires running along the ceiling, embedded in the concrete. Along the walls, at regular intervals support beams shrunk the open space by at least half its width, with thick steel beams that were curved to match the circular walls. They didn’t seem to be rusted, or even worn by time. In fact, the whole interior of the tunnel was dry and clean. The air smelled ancient and stale, but not wet and moldy. The walls were unblemished, save for a few cracks in the concrete here and there, probably caused by the many tremors. But there was no sign of water coming through the cracks, or of plants managing to invade the sealed off space. It was perfectly dry and clean.

On the ground there were many small piles of dust, and when the next tremor came, the two saw little plumes of pulverized concrete come out of some cracks and add to the piles. Continuing on, the two arrived at a sharp right turn, bending ninety degrees. So far, the tunnel was completely empty, be it the walls, ceiling or floor, there was nothing but concrete and the occasional beams.

Now, however, they were faced with a staircase leading up. On the sides of the metal staircase there were two flags, identical, hung on the concrete of the wall just above a small cabinet filled with whitened sheets of paper in frames. The flags were immaculate, deep red with a large white picture of a garden sickle and a hammer amidst a field of stars. On one side, a stylized image of a person and a large star hung behind his head completed the picture.

There was text beneath the flag, but it was incomprehensible and strange.

“What do you think this is?”

“Maybe this is a relic, from before our world was like this?” Tommy asked in reply.

“You think those ancient civilizations are real?”

“Well, the myths talked of lighthuggers and men among the stars and planets and all that. Perhaps they were not myths, but real stories, talking of an ancient past. I mean, this architecture and flag are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Look at the materials there. The flag, the strange furniture, the walls. This is not from our time.”

Calvin hummed in agreement, now deep in thought.

“Maybe, yes. A relic from the past, or from somewhere far away. Maybe even from the place the nanites came from.”

They went up the several steps of the metal staircase. The yellow light illuminated the steps one at a time, and cast strange shadows onto the floor below them, as it passed through the little holes in the metal. As they went up and looked around, Tommy tried to be inquisitive as to what Calvin could remember or make out of the past before the nanites came to this world, but got no conclusive answers. He didn’t know if his brother didn’t know, or if he was being secretive for some reason, and didn’t think this was the right place to press the matter.

The room opened up in front of them. As soon as they took the last few steps, the yellow light subtly illuminated the large open area ahead of them. By the far wall there were countless terminals, machines made of metal and plastic, filled with buttons, levers and handles. Strange chairs on wheels populated the space in front of the terminals, and both they and the machines were clean and without an ounce of dust on them. Thinking about it, Tommy realized that there was no dust in this place, other than the dust that came from the tunnel walls and accumulated on the ground after each tremor. On their left and right, hung on the walls right next to the stairs in the middle, banners and flags adorned the place, interspaced by large machines filled with dead lights and a few screens. The banners were enriched with gold and precious intricate patterns, while the machines looked bare and brutalist in making. They were bulky and protruded from the wall like rectangles of light metal with their many buttons. The wall on the right was made of glass, thick and reinforced, and looked upon a dark unlit space below.

Tommy was looking around in wonder, slowly walking towards the glass wall to see what laid down below and didn’t see that Calvin, instead, stopped in place and stood as still as possible.

“I think I heard something.” He whispered to Tommy.

The young wolf-kin stopped in place as well, and slowly turned around to face the dark corridor at the bottom of the metal steps. It was once again dark, and to his senses it was completely silent and immobile. But, he knew that Calvin was the one with the superior senses, going so far as seeing in the complete dark without issues. It would not be a stretch, then, to assume that he heard something that he could not.

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As they stood still, his eyes were momentarily captured by a blinking green light in the row of strange contraptions by the wall. His eyes felt drawn to it, the deep emerald of the light, its eerie feeling of unnaturalness, its alluring air of mystery. But Calvin’s voice made him turn around.

“Show yourself!” He yelled. “I know you’re there.” His voice was almost trembling, and it was clear that he was doing his best to sound authoritative.

There was no reply to his taunts, but already Tommy’s mind was swirling with possible scenarios. They had been followed, possibly all the way here from Pyee, but by who? Inquisitors? It was unlikely, given that they had not acted earlier. It was not their style to just stalk them like this. Also, it would not fit with how Calvin was acting right now. His was not a tone of voice he would have used if he had to confront an inquisitor. Who, then? A peasant, or a farmer or a curious fisherman? Unlikely as well. He prepared himself for every possibility, struggling to imagine just what kind of threat they were about to face, but preparing for the worst.

Calvin lost his patience; Tommy could see him clutching his fists in anger. He was thinking what to do, how to act. His peaceful and trusting nature was with all probability fighting to keep the new awakened impulses at bay. They were still too weak, he noticed, but was glad they were there. Just another little push here and there, and he could finally feel safe at night, knowing that Calvin was all grown up.

“Woman, 1.78 meters tall, 98 kilograms with all the equipment, standing three meters behind the curve of the tunnel, with a sword in hand.” Calvin said, acting like he was reading from a script. “Show yourself now.” He demanded.

“Aww, man! To think you had detection magic, I would have not even tried hiding.”

The voice that Tommy heard coming from behind the wall was feminine, graceful and beautiful. It almost made his heart thump in his chest, before he reminded himself that the woman had followed them here and was with all probability a hostile.

“Who are you?” Asked Calvin.

“Let me ask one better. Who are you?” She asked in turn. “And what are you doing here?”

“We—” Calvin began, but was promptly stopped by Tommy whispering to him.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to her. We don’t know who she is, and what she wants, and in any case it’s her who followed us. If anything, we’re the ones who are owed an explanation.”

“You’re right. Thanks Tommy.” Calvin said sweetly, and then turned to the woman. “You first. Why did you follow us, and what do you want?” He asked sternly.

“I juuust happened to be in the area. I saw you manhandling that stone door, I thought I would check.”

“And who would you be?”

“Marceline, professional adventurer.” She extended a hand.

“Calvin.” He said and shook it, “and Tommy here, my brother.”

Marceline eyed the two, her gaze sweeping through Calvin and lingering on Tommy as if she were looking at a tasty snack. He felt his neck skin crawl under the gaze, feeling more like a prey or a prize rather than a living being. Livestock, perhaps, and he had doubts that she was thinking of him, and probably of Calvin, as of people on the same level as she was.

“And what would two wolf puppies be doing here, I wonder?”

“We were just—” Calvin was once again stopped by Tommy, who took the lead in the stead of his now fidgeting and nervous brother.

“Stop. Who do you think you are, miss professional adventurer, that you think you can talk to us like that?”

“How cute! The little guy is angry!” She smiled widely, and talked like she would talk to a puppy.

Calvin’s gaze hardened. Marceline’s tone shifted completely, becoming low and hateful.

“But shut up, let the adults talk.”

Tommy was at a loss for words. He felt the voice get stuck in his throat, and he was aware that his age and his childish appearance were working against him. Like they did back at home, when he really was just a child. Calvin saw the misty eyes of his brother, and seized the woman’s wrist with force, and yanked her to himself.

“Watch your mouth.” He growled, and hearing this she contorted into a frown, while Tommy felt his heart soar and his cheeks grow red.

“Alright, alright. Sorry, okay?” she tried to no avail to free herself. “I was just exploring the place, and was curious as to what laid hidden in here. When I saw you breaking the door, I thought I’d just follow you for a while. Didn’t think you’d find me so easily, that’s for sure.”

Calvin let go of her arm, and she pulled back.

“Now what?” He asked, and turned to Tommy.

He shook his head.

“Come on guys! I’m here now, right? Can’t I stay?”

Right at that moment, the screen with the blinking green light came to life, distracting the trio and making them all focus onto it. Calvin rushed to the screen, and saw the very same unreadable characters he saw back in the flag in the wall.

Can you translate? He asked Computer and, surprisingly, the text changed into something that he could read.

Doomsday scenario 48: all contingencies active. Dark energy re-routing: absorption at 32% efficiency.

“Doomsday… 48?”

“That’s the same as the forest!” Shouted Tommy. “Are we in danger?”

“No, I don’t think we are. What is this?”

He touched one of the keys in the keyboard, and suddenly all the terminals and the servers in the room awoke. In the blink of an eye, the room was flooded with blinking lights, and the noise of clicks and of rushing wind, and the whirr of hidden machinery. Many screen and beeping lights fought to grasp the attention of their audience, and the glowing green letters updated frantically, displaying all sorts of warning messages and errors.

Then, a siren started to blare and flooded the whole underground compound with its noise.

“What is happening?” Yelled Marceline over the deafening sound.

“I don’t know!”

“Calvin! Something is opening down there!” Tommy said, looking below from the windows.

There was a blue light, faint and deep, coming from below, but Calvin could not see anything opening, unlike Tommy said. There was a circle made of stone, metal and black crystals connected via cables to something in the wall, but apart from the light it seemed inactive. And the light itself didn’t come from anywhere in particular, and was like if it came from the very walls of the room below. Back to the terminal, he saw that now it was filled with new messages, and numbers.

Target coordinates locked. Small scale permanent portal opening.

Coordinates: Universe: 2bff72; 9su77d, 274nha, d73kd7. Time: present time

Equalizing energy. Dark energy found at target coordinates, but inactive. Activating.

Insufficient storage, increasing draw from environment.

Then, like an explosion of energy, the circle of stone came to life. A portal opened inside of it, and a tremor unlike any they ever witnessed shook the room.