They fell back several meters either side of the panel as it came to a stop, and all was silent. Then a bright white light came on inside the newly-opened space with a thud that frightened Neb almost out of his wits. None of the others reacted.

Inside was a transport vehicle.

Mallory sighed in relief and lowered his pistol, then looked at Neb disapprovingly. ‘I was sure it was going to be some sort of giant bug.’

Neb half-met Mallory’s gaze apologetically. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled. Buzz glared at him but didn’t say anything.

The transport was a sleek open-top vehicle with a clearly recognisable driver’s seat and two rows of passenger seats. There were three big wheels on either side. They walked around it, examining it from every angle. It looked brand new, with no dust or any signs of age.

‘Not exactly a work truck,’ Meathead said.

‘No,’ Buzz said. ‘Evacuation vehicle, maybe?’

‘But why is it open on top?’ Meathead asked. ‘Seems weird, in a world of huge dangerous creatures.’

No-one had an answer for that.

‘Neb, get in the driver’s seat and figure this thing out,’ Buzz ordered. ‘But don’t fucking touch anything without giving us a heads up first.’

‘Yes sir,’ Neb said. In other circumstances getting to examine a Main artifact like this would have been a quasi-religious experience for him, and just jumping in like it was a normal transport felt sacreligious. But he did as he was ordered. The driver’s seat was comfortable but not ostentatious, constructed from another of the familiar-yet-different materials Neb was coming to understand were common to the Main. Neb could sit at it comfortably. Among the many things Earth scholars did not know for sure about the Main was what size they were -- some indications were that they had been as much as three meters tall, whereas in other places it seemed they were similar to human scale. The transport felt large to Neb, but as if it was designed to feel large, rather than to accommodate very large bipeds. His feet could reach the floor easily.

There were no obvious controls, just smooth unadorned surfaces. Everything was patterned in grays and blacks, but they overlapped and intersected in ways that he couldn’t quite figure out until the deepest part of his mind told him what he was looking at: camouflage. He examined every surface carefully but could see no hint of a symbol, and there was no help from his Main Scholar skill. He tried every voice command he could think of -- start, go, help, ignition, move -- but nothing worked.

He cautiously touched a central panel, and a grid of golden symbols glowed into life. He held his breath and hoped that the Main Scholar would help him with some of them, but there was no yellow highlight. ‘Dammit,’ he murmured. He was on his own.

‘Do you know any of those?’ Buzz asked. He was watching Neb’s every move.

‘Umm,’ Neb said. Some of them did look familiar, as if they derived from symbols he had previously seen. He scanned them in various directions, trying to let his subconscious make the associations.

‘Well?’ Buzz said impatiently.

‘Working on it, sir,’ Neb answered. There was a cluster of symbols at the top left that kept catching his eye. Something about the central symbol seemed familiar, and yet not what he was expecting… The thought would not quite form in his mind, and he tried to keep away from it, give it space. It was the slenderest of associations. Something to do with the Banker, maybe? No, not that. It was something about… But the thought dancing maddeningly out of reach.

The cluster of nine symbols was set slightly away from the others, isolated by a small break in the symmetry. The design was trying to tell him something. But what? And what was the central symbol? The thought was so close to coming together, he could almost --

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

‘Oh fuck me,’ he said softly.

‘What is it?’ Buzz demanded.

‘This central symbol looks like the Earth Gate,’ Neb said. ‘There’s even a little line to represent the launch tunnel. I would bet my life this symbol will start the machine up.’ The fucking Main… Did they design the symbol to match the Gate, or by some godlike ultragenius did they design the Gate to be like the symbol? Neb could have laughed at the pure ridiculousness of it all. He did not even wait for Buzz’s order, and touched the shape.

Immediately the transport came to life, headlights and other outer lights glowing brightly, a new range of symbols visible on a second panel at the driver’s seat. The steering wheel unlocked and Neb could turn it smoothly. All three wheels on either side turned with it.

‘Good work, Doc,’ Buzz said. ‘Now can you get it to move?’

Neb looked again at the symbols, but even as he did so he knew what he needed was not there -- no-one would design a transport to be driven by making the driver lean forward to touch the dashboard. He ran his hands over the steering wheel and found that where it had been smooth before, some buttons and controls had now risen out of the strange material. It felt natural, intuitive, as if it had been designed for a creature very like Neb.

He pushed gently on the upper control switch at his right hand, and the transport rolled forward a few centimeters.

‘Good,’ Buzz said, and though he kept the emotion from his voice, Neb could see how pleased he was. ‘Move it out into the tunnel.’

Neb eased the machine forward and cleared the alcove at a sharp angle, all six wheels at maximum angle.

‘Okay,’ Buzz began. ‘How are we going to…’

But then Gray was beside him. ‘My Operator skill just triggered,’ she whispered. ‘We’re being watched.’

‘Where?’ Buzz whispered back. He gave no outward reaction.

‘One of the goblin creatures is about forty meters down the hall behind us,’ Gray answered. ‘And getting closer.’

Neb felt his blood chill, but like the rest of them kept his reaction hidden.

‘Neb,’ Buzz said loudly. ‘Check the symbols again. We move out in five minutes.’

Gray whispered: ‘There are two of them… No... Three. Creeping down the wall. Thirty meters.’

‘Everyone hold position,’ Buzz barely breathed. ‘We jump in, heads down, and the Doc guns it. You ready for that, Doc?’

‘Yes sir,’ Neb breathed back.

‘Any more of them coming from the exit side?’ Buzz whispered to Gray. To Mallory aloud he said loudly: ‘Final weapons check.’

‘I don’t, um…’ Gray tried to see further down the tunnel towards the brightness of the exit. ‘Yes. Fuck. Two more. The orange guys from before. I can see these even without the Operator skill.’ Buzz had a casual glance where she was looking.

‘Confirmed,’ he whispered.

Neb could hardly believe how casual the others were able to keep their behavior. They gave no indication at all that they knew they were being targeted.

‘The front group has stopped,’ Gray whispered. ‘They’re… I can’t see. Doing something. They have some kind of device.’

Neb stared at the control symbols of the machine just to give his mind something to focus on. The symbols were all the same color, but some of them had little shimmers of movement as if there were ripples of light running across them. On the second panel there were two clear groups of symbols. He was pretty certain they represented two distinct chunks of semantics. But doing or controlling what? He had no idea. He wanted to touch them and just see what happened, but with the precariousness of their situation that could be suicide for the whole team.

‘Oh fuck,’ Anna whispered. She didn’t have Gray’s Operator skill, but she was very sharp-eyed. ‘The front assholes are setting up a mounted weapon. I thought I heard the click of something latching.’

‘I can see it in my overlay,’ Gray whispered. ‘Oh shit. Tactical plasma rocket.’

‘How close are they to firing it?’ Buzz breathed.

‘Pretty fucking close,’ Gray whispered back. ‘The rear team just retreated.’

‘Get fucking ready,’ Buzz whispered. ‘Doc, hands on the wheel. Everyone jump in and Doc fucking floors it on the count of five…’

Neb felt the tension on his skin like a physical thing. There was another audible click from the shadow in the tunnel up ahead.

‘Four…’ Buzz whispered.

‘Three…’

Oh please just let us go, thought a frightened childlike part of Neb. Just let us run away. But then he felt a sudden jolt of realization. His mind was screaming for attention but he just couldn’t hear it because of the fear that was convulsing through him. He stared at the control panel.

‘Two,’ Buzz hissed. ‘Get ready everyone --’

‘Go! Move!’

Everyone leaped into the transport, but they were too late.

The goblins fired the rocket.