Now to see what type of people came in on that thing… and discover if they’re more of a threat than their vehicle.
***
Muffled, staccato screams echoed into the chamber. Kyle turned toward the entrance a moment before the ground shook and a deafening roar echoed off the ceiling. He cried out, slapping his hands against his ears. The temperature rose several degrees, biting through his clothes.
“What the hell was that?” Kyle shouted. “Lysa, are you okay?”
“That was the ship,” Lysa called back. “They destroyed it completely!”
“What? How? Impossible!”
“Obviously not.” Lysa waved at him from the left corner opposite the entrance to the place. “I found a passage.”
“Thank God!” Kyle hustled over. “What kind of pirates blow up potential cargo? Why would they throw away a prize? That doesn’t make a damn bit of sense!”
“I sincerely doubt they’re pirates.” A section of the wall had moved inward. The two stepped into the darkness before she shoved it closed. “Without the ship, we’re in a lot more trouble than I thought.” She tapped at her tablet. “Try to jam this thing somehow. With anything you’ve got. Hurry!”
Kyle searched around the enclosed space. Nothing happened to be around. He admired the door, checking from the top to the bottom. At the midpoint, he found a bolt. He threw it, plunging the metal deep into the stone. “That’s the best we’re going to get. What’re you doing?”
“Thank God we didn’t pack up the camp,” Lysa said. “I’m bursting a distress call. It won’t last long before they find it and jam it, but at least it’ll be something.” She shrugged. “Come on! We need to move our asses!” She bolted off without another word, sprinting into the darkness. “We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
“I’ll say. What’re you hoping to find down here besides a way out?”
“Maybe we can engage the shields again,” Lysa replied. “By the time we find them, I’m pretty sure those people will be inside with us. However, we might take them out if they don’t have reinforcements. Right?”
I don’t even know who or what we’re up against. The latter part made him stiffen. “Hey… what if these are… well…”
“I didn’t want to say it out loud either.”
“Aliens?” Kyle swallowed hard.
“Yep! Pretty much.” Lysa held up her hand for him to slow down as they reached a hard turn. They hustled along the corridor then down some stairs. “This looks like maintenance more than a hallway for people to get around. I wish we knew what the building had been for before.”
“Maybe a temple.” Kyle tapped her shoulder to get her to slow down. “Take your time on the next part here. The closer we get to any sort of reactor, the riskier this gets. Besides, the guys pursuing us have to know there’s nowhere we can go. What did your distress call say anyway?”
“Generic please help. Explorers in danger. Basic stuff for what we had at the camp. It’s not like the gear back there was all that sophisticated.”
Kyle didn’t know specifically what she had up there but he sure as hell knew everything they lost with their vessel. Everything they owned, clothes, equipment, tools they saved for, even old heirlooms from his family… all gone. With an unknown enemy pursuing them, they may well have been looking at the last few hours of their lives.
He approved of Lysa’s attitude. Kyle never felt like giving in to a difficult situation. This felt different. Her perseverance helped bolster his determination. She must think we can get out of this. Her cynicism went far deeper than his. Of the two of them, she fell into deeper depressions far more often.
“Power readings are increasing,” Lysa announced. “I’m thinking the reactor has to be just up ahead.”
“How far away does the reactor have to be from the geothermal vents?” Kyle asked. “In other words, how hot is this going to be?”
“The power is collected then transferred to the reactor which is just a fancy ass generator. That’s how the energy is regulated before sending out to the systems that require it. Like the lights and those crazy shields.” Lysa paused as they reached a T intersection. “What I don’t understand is why we’re seeing this.”
“What do you mean?”
“If the area we just left is basically a temple, then why isn’t the path leading directly to the reactor? What other systems could there be? For example, if we go left and it doesn’t lead to our destination, what would we find? Lights maybe? Or shield controls?” Lysa nodded. “That has to be it.”
“So the reactor room is one thing,” Kyle said, “then we’ve got the control room.” He snapped his fingers. “Because the people who work here don’t want to be fried by the runoff from their reactor, right? Would there be radiation?”
“Technically, all power has some form of radiation. The question is how harmful it is. Now, our understanding of geothermal power comes down to the idea that it would be natural radioactivity and easily contained with proper procedures. There are three problems here that we have to worry about.
“One, we don’t know anything about the people who built it. They may have had some sort of natural resistance to radioactivity that would kill us. Two, we don’t know what type of technology they had when they built this so we can’t know they had a way to contain it if they wanted to. And finally, the power itself may not produce dangerous emissions.”
“So we should not go to the reactor,” Kyle said, “until we get
