Overlord

11

The next cavern they entered blew every memory of the previous ones from Aston’s mind. The entire subterranean system was like a Russian Matryoshka doll of wonders, but instead of each being smaller than the last, each was more incredible. A similar size to the previous cavern, this one also had patches of the vein-like fungus on the walls and small clumps of the glossy green ferns in crevices and cracks. But the glow came from entirely bigger and more prominent growths that twisted up the walls and across the high ceiling. Aston could best compare them to meandering vines, like a thick-stemmed ivy but without the leaves, the branches themselves emitting the luminescence. Some no thicker than butcher’s string, right up to some broader than his thumb, they snaked and wove around each other, intertwining, filling the cavern with a soft light. It felt like being underwater.

And there was water. A light tinkling came from a stream running across one side of the cavern, emerging from an overhang of rock back and to the right, then disappearing again into a small crevasse on the other side. Just over the stream on that side, another tunnel appeared to lead away and down, but all around the space were caves and indentations, disappearing into shadow.

Syed made a noise of barely contained excitement and ran to the nearest outcrop of vines. Aston, his inner biologist almost as excited as hers, went with her. Syed carefully tapped a finger to one, brow scrunched in concentration. Aston noticed Jeff sidle up just behind them, filming, so he kept to Syed’s other side.

“It feels like stone,” Jahara said, barely above a whisper. She touched again, squeezed between forefinger and thumb. “They’re hard and crystalline, but there is some give in them. I’ve never felt anything like this. But it looks more like a plant growth than a fungal spread, no?”

“But it’s leafless,” Aston said. “So maybe some new life form, one that shares the properties of both?”

“You want to name this one?” Syed said with a laugh. She looked up, scanned around until she spotted Sol Griffin. The man stood in the center of the cavern, staring around himself in wonder.

“Sol, is this the stuff? The greenium?”

He shook himself, tore his attention away from the walls. “No. No, the sample is definitely a kind of crystal structure, not like this. I’ve only seen photographs, but it’s embedded in the rock, not growing from it like this stuff.” He smiled, incredulous. “What is this stuff, Jahara? Sam?”

Both biologists shook their heads. “No idea,” Syed said.

She pulled a field microscope from her bag and lined it up with one of the thicker sections of glowing vine. She stared into it for several moments, adjusting focus, moving slightly left and right like a jeweler appraising a fine gem.

“They’re definitely organic but…” Her voice trailed off.

“But what?” Slater asked from behind Jeff.

“I’m not sure. Something isn’t right. Let me study them some more. I’ll need to take a sample back topside as well, of course.”

Aston keenly wanted a look with her instruments, but knew better than to disturb a scientist at work. His expertise lay elsewhere anyway. As Slater and her crew got footage of the others, chatting briefly with each member of the team, he explored. Firstly he went to the stream, drawn to water as his own natural element. It was icy cold, fast flowing, and clear as glass. He used a sample cup and caught some, held it up in the glow of his headlamp. He saw some particulate matter, but it looked mineral. Nothing else of much interest. Even so, he sealed the cup and marked it with a Sharpie, then tucked it into his satchel. His large bag with his wetsuit and other gear sat off to one side and he left it there while he went to investigate the shadowed caves around the edge of the larger cavern.

Along the left side from where they had entered, opposite the stream, five similarly sized caves went back into the rock. Aston entered the first one and found Dig O’Donnell inside, shining his light onto what appeared to be a bench carved out of the bedrock. There were alcoves in the walls that might have been used for storage of some kind. The space was almost certainly a deliberate dwelling.

“This is man-made,” Aston said, his stomach light with trepidation. “It has to be, right?”

“I don’t know,” Dig said quietly, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. He crouched, ran his hand along the edge of the bench.

“Looking for marks of tool use?” Aston asked.

Dig nodded. “It’s almost impossible to accurately judge the age of stuff like this, but if it is deliberately made, then some considerable effort has been put into it.”

“Especially without the aid of machine tools, which we can safely say weren’t around when these caves were occupied.”

Dig stood, took a deep breath. “Not human machine tools anyway.”

“You think…”

Dig turned to leave. “I don’t know what I think.”

Aston followed him into the next cave along and it had a similar layout, similar constructions. And the next. All five openings along that side of the larger cavern were undoubtedly deliberately made dwellings, though none contained any other signs of habitation.

Standing in the fifth one, Aston asked, “Did they take everything with them when they left?”

Dig shrugged. “You’re assuming they left.”

“Well, they’re not here now.”

“No, but perhaps they died.”

“Wouldn’t there be bones? Lost possessions?”

Dig nodded. “I suppose so. You know, I mentioned it before when we spoke, but it’s worth remembering there is a theory that Antarctica was once a far more temperate continent. Ancient climate change froze the polar caps of our planet, and that’s what created Antarctica as we know it today. It’s entirely possible we’re looking at the remains of an ancient civilization. Their bones may have long since turned to dust, leaving only the rock to mark their existence. Rock is, after all, about the only thing that lasts pretty much forever.”

Aston was about to question the truth of that when Slater spoke up from behind them. Jeff had the camera trained on them, capturing all the speculation. “How well backed by science is this ancient civilization theory?” Slater asked.

Dig laughed. “Well, there’s been precious little exploration here in our modern age. We’re no doubt the first to explore these caves since whoever carved them out, which could have been thousands of years ago, or tens of thousands, or even more. So there really isn’t any hard science, it’s all speculation.”

“Otherwise known as conspiracy theory?” Slater pressed.

“Of course. But you of all people should know that sometimes the legends are true.”

Before Slater could reply, a sharp crack and a cry of pain echoed to them from the main chamber. They ran together to see what had happened and found Jahara Syed sitting on the ground by one wall, rubbing her eyes. Terry Reid was standing over her, his muscle, Ronda Tate, crouched beside the fallen biologist.

Sol Griffin hurried over. “I’m the physician here, let me through.” He pulled a pack from his shoulder that Aston realized was a medical kit, and dropped it to the ground beside them as he crouched. He put a hand under Syed’s chin, tipping her face up into the light of his headlamp. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Syed looked at her hands, rubbed her fingers against each other in confusion, then shook her hands out. She took a deep shuddering breath. “I’m okay. I’m pretty sure I’m okay, anyway. I wanted a sample of the vine, so I tried to break a piece off, but it was far too tough. It kind of flexed and moved, but there was no way I could break it. So I tried a knife, taking a scalpel to it, but it didn’t even mark the surface. It’s like the stuff has an outer skin that’s… I don’t know, kind of glassy of something, but flexible. So I decided to try to chip a section away. I put a chisel to it, right where some seemed attached to the cave wall. As soon as I cut through it, it sort of… not exactly exploded, but then something flashed, and I felt something like an electric shock shoot through me. It sat me right on my ass.” She grinned sheepishly. “It hurt, but I think I was more surprised than injured. My hands are fine.” She turned them palm out for everyone to see. They appeared unmarked.

“I think I want to give you a check over anyway,” Sol said. “We need to be certain. I’ll just run a few tests, okay?”

“Sure.”

The rest of the team drifted away, muttering to each other. Aston moved to the wall behind Syed, looking for where she had received her shock. A small section of vine lay on the floor, where she had successfully chipped it free. He touched it tentatively, but it was cool and inert, so he dropped it into a sample bag and handed it to the biologist. She smiled her thanks.

Turning back to the wall, Aston could see where she had chipped the small section free. The remaining end of the vine, standing a little free from the stone now, glowed with a hint of red. He frowned, trying to figure out what phenomena of natural plant activity might cause a reaction like that.

“Hey, you guys!” Slater called out. “I’ve found something.”