Josh’s boot touched level stone and his lights showed him the bubble-shaped room dubbed “Chamber One.” He moved back from the ladder.
A shiver ran up his spine. This place is not ours. This is other. There is someone else out there, and we know nothing about them. That was too huge and too strange a thought not to merit a moment of sheer wonder.
There wasn’t even that much to see here—the base of the ladder, the six holes gaping beside the smooth curving wall. The real prize lay through the narrow tunnel that opened by his right hand. Down there lay Chambers Two and Three and the laser.
“Okay, next,” he said into the intercom. “Keep close to the rungs; don’t bump your pack if you can help it.” They’d all been briefed and run through the simulators, but it wouldn’t hurt to remind them.
“Yes, Papa,” said Vee. He watched her green form descending carefully, foot searching momentarily for each rung. But she reached the bottom without incident and came to stand beside him.
“Next,” Josh said.
“Here we go,” answered Julia. While the archeologist worked her way down, Veronica walked over to look at the inner doorway, if a small, rounded entry to a low tunnel could be called a doorway. Josh was torn between watching Vee and keeping an eye on Julia, who, if anything, was moving less steadily than Vee had, and wishing they would all hurry up.
“Vee, what are you doing?” asked Josh, to distract himself. She was crouched down and running her fingers over the threshold.
“Exploring the secrets of the universe,” she answered. Her voice sounded flat, tight.
Troy descended right after Julia, followed closely by Terry. As soon as Terry was down, she whistled softly and began examining the smooth, rounded walls. Julia bent over the six holes laid out in a straight line at the base of the ladder. Josh was willing to bet she was talking animatedly into her log. Veronica stayed where she was, turning from the inner threshold to the mouth of the entry shaft and back again. Troy just stood in the middle of it all, a look of sheer delight on his face.
“Incredible. It just feels incredible.”
Although part of Josh suspected Troy was, yet again, playing for the cameras, part of him nodded in agreement. He’d run through the videos and holographs a hundred times, but that was nothing compared to standing in the middle of the Discovery, feeling the stone surrounding them and wondering, just wondering.
Freed from his initial bout of amazement, Troy started hopping around the chamber like a kid in a candy store. He bent over the six holes with Julia; he ran his hands over the inner threshold with Veronica. He peered eagerly over Wray’s shoulders to see whatever it was they were looking at, all the time murmuring, “Incredible, incredible.”
“Can we see the rest?” asked Veronica abruptly.
Josh blinked. “Sure.” And I thought it was just me who couldn’t wait.
“One second,” said Terry. “I need a shot of all of you with the light from the shaft coming down.” She shuffled closer to the ladder. “Say cheese, but keep on doing what you’re doing.” People bent or walked, stiffly and reluctantly, but Josh supposed that would later be put down to the suits and the pressure. “Okay. All done.”
Great. “Okay. The main chamber is through here.” Josh gestured down the horizontal tunnel. “Again, I’ll go first. It’s hands and knees. Go slow and try not to bump your packs.”
The inner tunnel was even more constricting than the entry shaft. The smooth, narrow way was completely dark except for the small black-and-gray area illuminated by his suit lights. He crawled forward without feeling anything but the insides of his gloves against his hands and the padding of his suit under his knees. There was no sound except his own breathing.
“It makes a slight rise here in the middle,” he told the people behind him, whether they were following or waiting in Chamber One. He couldn’t tell. There was no room for him to turn his head to look. His general plate displays told him only that their intercoms were up and running, not where those intercoms were.
The tunnel undulated sharply, forcing Josh flat onto his stomach. He shinnied up to the rounded crest and slid back down again. He hoped none of his tourists would find this too much for their dignity. Probably not. Troy seemed the most likely to make a fuss, and he wouldn’t do it while there was a risk of being recorded. If they were nervous about the world around them, they seemed to be burying that feeling under the excitement of exploration.
Another two meters and the tunnel opened up into Chamber Two, the main chamber of the Discovery.
Josh got to his feet and turned around in time to see Veronica emerge from the tunnel. She stood up and moved back from the tunnel’s mouth, turning as she did so she could take absolutely everything in.