“Do you think people were using this during the Stone Age?”
“Cavemen lived in caves,” Rook replied, unaware of the long distance conversation with Deep Blue.
“It’s a possibility,” Deep Blue said. “But metal working wasn’t a universal discovery. Metal tools were almost unknown in the Americas until the European discovery of the New World. Regardless, this is a significant discovery.”
“Blue says we’ve made a significant discovery,” she told Rook.
“Cool. Does that mean we’ll be famous?”
“More importantly,” the disembodied voice continued, “A wheel means that Rook is right. You’re on a road that leads somewhere. Don’t give up.”
Queen didn’t pass that along. She got the impression it was meant for her ears alone.
The silence settled back over them. Queen wrapped herself in it like a blanket. Conversation would have been an anchor to a reality that she preferred not to think about. This wasn’t like combat, where letting one’s mind wander might prove instantly fatal. This was more like a prison sentence, where the only way to deal with the fatigue and drudgery, and as she soon discovered, the gnawing hunger, was to set the autopilot and mentally unplug.
She knew it had to be even worse for Rook, who was making the same journey in total darkness. From time to time, she had to guide him around unexpected bends in the tunnel. She missed the first one, and he smacked face first into the wall, before it occurred to her that he was walking blind.
The passage rose and fell according to the whim of whatever natural processes had formed it, but the grooved pathway remained a constant. At one point, the road intersected a wide crevasse, and Queen saw more evidence of deliberate human activity. The Ancients had bridged the gap with loose stones, packed together to form an arch nearly thirty feet thick. Queen realized that it was little more than a pile of rocks suspended above the chasm and held together with little more than friction and Stone Age optimism. She balked momentarily, but Rook just walked across it, blissfully unaware of the potential danger. Feeling a little foolish, she raced to catch up with him. The bridge felt solid beneath her feet.
Shortly after crossing, the passage opened up into another large chamber. The well-worn path continued on, but then ended abruptly. The way ahead was blocked by a massive round stone. High stone walls rose on either side — loose pieces of rock that had been fitted together in a manner similar to that used at the bridge. There was a ramp of piled stone rising to the top of the wall, and at its base were openings to what she could only assume were rooms built into the wall. Queen stared at it in awe. The structure reminded her of something from the Lord of the Rings movies — the subterranean Dwarven kingdom of Moria, perhaps — but she kept that to herself to avoid a harangue from Rook. Instead, she just said, “Rook, you need to see this.”
“I already can.” He was squinting as if to sharpen his night vision. “There’s light coming from up there.”
Deep Blue confirmed Rook’s observation. “There’s definitely a light source on the other side of the wall. Your glasses automatically adjust to the ambient light conditions, so you won’t notice it.”
Rook advanced toward the wall, slowing as he reached its base, and then cautiously made his way onto the ramp. Queen stayed close, ready to intervene if necessary, but he became increasingly surefooted with each step. When he reached the top, he came to an abrupt stop, and as she slipped around him, Queen saw why.
Beyond the wall was another world.
Queen had no other words for it.
40
The cavern stretched away to the vanishing point in every direction. The high ceiling was irregular, with glistening mineral deposits reaching to the floor, creating the impression of massive support columns, but this was the least interesting feature of the cave. On its floor, at the base of the wall, was an alien landscape that made even the otherworldly surface of Lake Natron look about as strange as a duck pond.
Her first impression was that it was a forest, but she saw almost immediately that wasn’t right at all. The things that looked at a glance like trees were… She couldn’t really tell what they were, but they definitely weren’t trees. She didn’t even think they were plants. They seemed more like weird multi-colored fungal growths, crawling up stalagmites, throwing out vine-like tendrils that ended in fan-shaped crests.
It was the lights, however, that really got her attention. “What are those?”
The landscape was dotted with little fires. Blue and yellow flames erupted randomly from the midst of the weird forest. Queen lifted her glasses for a moment to look upon the sight unaided. The individual flames weren’t bright but their sum total was enough to cast the entire scene in a perpetual twilight. It’s almost bright enough to read by, she thought.
From their perch atop the wall, they could see that the road continued beyond the gate, but it did not go far. Less than a hundred yards away, the road ended at the remains of a jetty. It was almost identical to the one in the lake, only this time the stone pier extended out into a pool, at the base of a waterfall. It poured straight down out of the cavern ceiling and drained away in a slow moving river that ran parallel to the wall. The river followed the wall for a short distance before turning away into the cavern.
“If you were right about the Ancients using the river as part of their trade route,” Queen said, “then I think our chances of getting out of this alive just got a whole lot better. You up for another swim?”
“Maybe there’s a boat.”
Queen didn’t think that was very likely, but then the underground world was nothing, if not full of surprises. She peered over the edge of the exterior wall. The strange vegetation had grown right up to its base, sixty feet below. “We’re going to need to get down there somehow.”
“Check this out.” Rook knelt down for a moment and came up holding a long wooden rod, tipped with a flat sliver of stone as long as his forearm. “This is an assegai, a traditional African throwing spear.”
He drew it back, striking a javelin thrower’s pose, but the wood crumbled in his grip and the stone head fell at his feet.
Queen laughed. “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
Rook retrieved the spear head and inspected its sharp edges. “This might come in handy,” he said, tucking it in his belt.
Queen realized it was the only tool or weapon they possessed.
They headed back down the ramp and approached the massive stone that barricaded the road. The round stone sat in a long trench. It was apparent that the Ancient engineers had designed it so it could be rolled out of the way, providing access to travelers on the subterranean highway. Wooden rods protruded from the enormous wheel, presumably to give the gatekeepers leverage, but like the spear shaft, these disintegrated when touched. Rook braced a shoulder against one edge of the stone but it refused to budge.
“I don’t think we’re getting through this way,” Queen remarked. “We’ll have to climb down the outside of the wall.”
Rook gave the stone another futile push then admitted defeat. “Why do you suppose they put this here?”
“Why does anyone build a fence? Maybe this place was some kind of border checkpoint.”
“Pretty sophisticated for a forgotten civilization. I think Joe was right about them. I bet we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
“All the more reason for us to get back to the surface,” Queen said. She was a little surprised to discover that she actually meant it. Rook’s optimism was starting to rub off on her. Every discovery they made reinforced the idea that the subterranean world was not merely a hopeless maze of branching caverns created by random acts of nature. It was something that had been charted, developed and utilized by people from a forgotten age.