AGORA ONE - A SPACE ADVENTURE - SLICE 5

Tequi and the others investigate what happened on Earth.  

A small fleet of pods, each one about ten feet in diameter, with an opaque appearance to any outside viewer, had just broken through the atmosphere.  They were now soaring and descending gracefully, under Turbo’s guidance, with basic anti-gravitic propulsion, through a collage of fluffy white.  Once through this layer of sky, some of the aftermath on the surface began to come into focus.  

A shiny seacoast brushed against soaring peaks.  Raw took note, and was fairly certain that this was not normal in recent Earth history.  The Pacific Ocean was not supposed to be touching the Rocky Mountains in this central land mass.  He called to Masher over the comms, “Masher, what did this place used to be called?”

“Colorado,” it announced.

As they got closer to the surface, they could see trees had been uprooted and tossed around like twigs.  Boulders sat on crushed bodies.  Some artificial structures sat topsy-turvy.  One of them was what appeared to be a giant statue of a life form, a monument of some sort.  It was sitting on its head, with murky water taunting its edges.  Various parts were strewn about the landscape.  They appeared to be parts of what were formerly vehicles of some sort.  Aerial vehicles, perhaps, based on the shapes and sizes.  

WHACK!

They made a rather rough landing on a damp, rocky surface at the foot of an enormous mountain.  Well, enormous by Earth standards.  Some mountains on Altavea had peaks over 50,000 meters.  This one stood around 4,000 meters.  

They crawled out of the pods.  Tequi scolded his ship, “As precise as you machines think you are, that’s the softest landing you could pull off?”

“Do it yourself next time, gramps.”

Tequi brushed it off, rubbed his back, and slowly swiveled his head to look at his surroundings.  “So where are these two survivors supposed to be at?”

“About 500 meters up, there’s a small ridge that juts out.  Once you get to the ridge, there are metallic doors built into the rock.”

Tequi and Raw both squinted upwards and tried to see the area referred to.  Masher, Tabe, and Fost floated up steadily in search of the artificial opening.  The heavy metallic doors lay slanted in the side of the mountain.  Fost called down to the others, “They appear to be made of a primitive substance called steel.”

Tequi and Raw eyed the slope before them.  It wasn’t the worst terrain to hike up, but it wasn’t the most endearing, either.  Things were still soggy and slick from whatever torrents of aquatic chaos had fallen recently.  The grade was steep enough to be a bit daunting.  They looked at each other.  Tequi asked, "Wanna use our anti-g lifts?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Raw said playfully.  They started lunging upwards.  

About a hundred meters up, they heard a rumbling noise.  Tequi looked up and left, then right, then left again, and there it was.  A house-sized boulder rumbling down the side of the mountain directly for them, and only seconds away.  Tequi and Raw split apart, diving left and right.  Just before the crushing gift from on high met their path, Tabe shot down and annihilated it with a fantastic, explosive jolt in the boulder’s core.  The force broke it into a fountain of airborne fragments just before it reached the flailing humans.  

Tequi law sprawled out, holding onto a tough little shrub for dear life, and slowly pulled himself up.  He groaned and picked up his cowboy hat, which now donned mud stains on the brim.  He looked skyward and yelled sarcastically to Turbo, “Thanks for the warning!”

He and Raw then gave a sincere thanks to Tabe.  As they continued up, Masher announced a new finding.  “That wasn’t a random boulder.  Somebody doesn’t want us here.”

“Aw, I see, that was the welcoming committee.”

“Hold on a sec, let’s look at this from the moral perspective.  If they’ve sealed themselves inside a hollowed out mountain, aren’t we aggressing by entering? Especially after they’ve just made it very clear that we’re not welcome?”

They all pondered the question for a moment, then Tequi offered his thoughts, “Well, let’s look at some other details of the situation.  They’re the last two people on Earth.  They just survived what were obviously unspeakable catastrophes.  They probably faced an untold number of bandits in the past few months, and are scared shitless, hence their paranoid and aggressive actions on our approach.  We should at least talk to them, let them know that we’re here to help.  I don’t suppose there’s an intercom system or doorbell on that steel door, is there, Masher?”

“Negative.”

Fost suggested, “I could communicate with them telepathically.”

Raw chuckled, “Yeah, I’m sure that wouldn’t freak them out.  We don’t even know if they’ve ever seen an extraterrestrial, let alone had a voice put in their heads by one.”

Tabe mocked Fost, “So much for your superior intellect.”

Fost turned an annoyed eye at Tabe and fluffed out his fur to show angst.  

Tequi asked, “Hey Masher, how is that door controlled?”

“By brute force.  All electronics were fried here, remember?”

Raw commented playfully, “Hence the stone weaponry.” 

Tequi said, “Well, let’s finish the hike up while we think about it.”

They carefully navigated the rugged terrain and soon reached the ridge with the others.  Tabe made a sly eye on one side of his smooth, steely complexion and said, “I think I’ve got a solution to our present dilemma regarding entry.”

“I’m all ears.”

Tabe smashed through the steel doors like they were paper and exclaimed, “Ooops, how clumsy of me.”

They all shrugged it off and followed behind, except for Fost.  Inside the structure, they found themselves staring into a pitch black tunnel.  Masher illuminated itself and put a glow onto their surroundings.  They were in a metallic tube walkway.  As they progressed down its slight slope, frayed and busted electronics littered their path.  Mystery liquids appeared randomly as well.  After a few minutes, they came to a crossroads of sorts.  At the crossroads were three paths.  One up, one left, and one right.  They also came to a charred console, which they assumed to formerly serve as some sort of control panel.  Peering upwards to see where the higher path went, they could see what appeared to be a lift of some sort, one that had seen much better days.  

Raw looked anxiously upwards, then over to Tequi, “Where to now? Should we split up?”

“I think up is out of the question,” Tequi answered.  

“Not necessarily,” Masher said.  It turned to Tabe, “You shouldn’t have any trouble navigating up through that broken lift, should you?”

“I’ve broken tougher things in my sleep.”

Tequi said cautiously, “Your offer is appreciated, Tabe, but perhaps we shouldn’t break any more than necessary?”

All agreed.  “What’s the wise old ship from above have to say? Can you see exactly where the life forms are?”

“They’re too deep to get a proper reading.  They’re definitely not up.  I recommend going down.”

“There is no down.  Only left or right.”

Tequi slowly took a macro view of his surroundings and suggested, “Let’s split up.  One group left, one group right.  Masher, you go left with Raw.  Tabe, you’re with me.  How about it?”

They agreed and went separate ways.  Within seconds, there was a shriek from the left.  Everyone turned and was startled to see that Raw had disappeared.  Raw announced, “Surprise! Looks like there is a down!”

“Should we follow him?” Tabe asked.  

“Nah, just leave him and get on with our lives,” Tequi said sarcastically.  “Of course we’ll follow him!”

Masher went in first and illuminated the chute.  Upon reaching the bottom, a gigantic fishnet was there and nearby was a relieved Raw. “Oh, good, you’re not hurt,” Masher said dryly.  Masher called up to the others and gave them a brief assessment of the situation, along with the go-ahead to come down.  

Moments later, Tequi came tumbling down, holding only his trusty cowboy hat for dear life.  He plopped down into the fish net and bounced around for a bit until coming to an awkward halt, his body tangled in the webbing of the net.  Tabe came next, rumbling down quite loudly.  

Upon illuminating their surroundings, they were astounded by what they saw.  High overhead and surrounding them was what appeared to be an abandoned stadium area of some sort.  There was staggered seating around the perimeter, carved out of solid rock and smoothed down to the finest degree.  There were contortion bars hanging around at various heights, along with a rainbow colored array of streamers, banners, and other artful tapestries.  It was as if an art supply store had exploded and the remains had settled into a bizarre collage of dangling exhibitions.  Even more bizarre was a variety of cages hanging at various heights, top to bottom.  Lights also hung in grand lines that spanned the entire underground stadium.  None of them were lit because of the lack of power.  Mirrors of different shapes and sizes were also scattered at various heights.  Some lay broken on the stone floor.  A great number of dead holo-emitters were also ubiquitous throughout it all.  

“Well, not exactly what I was expecting,” Tequi said as he gawked around.  

“I didn’t come all this way to find a circus,” Raw quipped.

Tequi said, “Why not? Seems about right for you, Raw.”

Tabe floated near an archway on the other side of the underground stadium.  “Who’s up for another tunnel? Raw, wanna go first again?”

“Very funny, and no.”

Masher volunteered, as it was the best suited to survival in a larger variety of conditions.  It entered the tunnel and after zipping along for a few moments, it came to another vaulted opening.  This time, however, there was a multitude of smaller, bubble-like structures together, resembling a beehive.  Masher, being an A.I., had advanced hearing capabilities and sensed something in the upper reaches of the hive.  Not wanting to alarm whoever or whatever it was, Masher sent a message in silence to Turbo, which then communicated with the others about the situation.  They all decided to enter. 

When they got to the hive, they looked around, fascinated.  “Must’ve housed at least a few thousand down here.”

“And who knows how many more tunnels there are.”

Click-clack.

An echo rang through the cavernous chamber.

“What the hell are you doing here?” an angry, male voice called towards them.

Slice 6 Coming Soon!

Thanks for your time and attention!

Just say "NO" to slavery!

Top image is from wikipedia.

To download a heaping helping of my writings for FREE, including all of my fiction novels, go to

https://archive.org/details/@todd_borho  

Please note:  While Agora One can be read as a standalone, I recommend finishing the James Bong series first, and reading SeAgora second, as Agora One is the final installment of a loosely interlocking trilogy.