AuthorSME
patreon
IF - Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 00:41:14 +0000 UTC------------------
Churning waves. Jagged rock. Fog rolling in low sheets, blanketing the sea like a stage being set for an ancient ritual. The storm hangs overhead, gray clouds swirling like ink in water. The helicopter’s hum cuts through the distant roar of crashing waves. A camera pans to reveal it: Site-X0. A rocky outcrop rises from the sea like a crooked monolith, its surface lined with ancient, sharp angles that seem to resist erosion. Dark basalt juts out, uneven and raw, but amidst the chaos of stone, something unnatural calls attention to itself: a triangular aperture set into the rock—a doorway. It isn’t carved. It’s fused. A seamless entry shaped by forces beyond human hands.
The aperture pulses faintly with soft, golden light. Glyphs weave along its border like fireflies on parade, each symbol flickering with a rhythm that feels like a heart that’s just woken up. A mist seeps out, curling at the base like dry ice spilled across stone. The entire entrance hums with a faint, harmonic tone that reverberates in Isla’s chest as the helicopter descends.
* — * — *
Isla sat with her elbows on her knees, her eyes locked on the rising structure below as the helicopter tilted into its approach. Her harness dug into her shoulders, rain sliding down the side of the window as the storm raged outside, shaking the vehicle they descended in.
The mist obscured part of the outcrop, but her eyes had no trouble finding it. Her focus darted to every detail of the unearthly sight. A triangular gateway in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle? How has no one noticed this on any satellites or any shipping lanes?
Her gaze shifted to the calm woman seated beside her, wearing a soft smile. I guess there are such things as secret organizations that play on another level than the public is aware of. And, of course, Evelyn would be a part of that.
She returned to her study, spotting the glowing glyphs around the base. It looked like a giant, rocky island that had been excavated to reveal the buried ruins. Her fingers gripped the seat’s edge until her knuckles whitened. Her heart knew it before her brain could catch up.
Precursors… Evelyn’s ridiculous thesis that Jill always teased her about. It’s real.
Her gaze darted to the brown-haired woman opposite her, casually scrolling through a tablet as if reviewing a grocery list. Not a glance spared for the awe-inspiring site below. Not a single flicker of wonder or unease.
“First thoughts?” Evelyn asked, not looking up.
“Symmetry,” Isla muttered, eyes narrowing as she studied the glyphs. “Ancient civilizations aren’t my field of study, but they used a triangular gateway instead of a circular one. Triangles are stronger in nature—structurally, mathematically—but it’s not just that. Look at how the symbols move. It’s not random. It’s a recursive loop, like an algorithm running in physical form.”
“Hmm.” Evelyn swiped her tablet. “And here I thought you’d just say ‘cool door.’ It seems I was right to select you for the task. But that’s nothing new. Your eyes have gotten sharper with experience.”
“Don’t patronize me, Hart.”
A smile tugged at Evelyn’s lips. “I’m not. I was genuinely curious and complimenting you.”
The helicopter pitched to the side as it prepared for landing. Isla gripped the seat, eyes flicking between the outcrop and the swirling sea below. White spray shot up in plumes every time a wave smashed against the cliff face.
Her breath fogged the air in front of her. “This is it, huh? You name them with letters? Site-X0.”
“Hmm? Oh, well, not exactly. This is the entrance to the site. The Precursors, as I called them, are once again…” she spun her finger in the air, making Isla roll her eyes.
“The tip of the iceberg?”
“Precisely,” Evelyn mused, holding a finger to her scarab brooch with a secretive smirk. “This is my new home for the foreseeable future. So try not to make a mess of it.”
The helicopter touched down with a lurch, and within seconds, heavily armed men were swarming them. Catching the badges they wore, she saw three stars on their sleek, dark armor as they moved into position around the aircraft. The Amazon site they’d briefly visited only had single stars on theirs.
I guess this is a higher tier research site for AEGIS… Her gaze darted from their hybrid of a submachine gun and something far bulkier—some kind of rifle, though it didn’t look anything like she’d seen—before glancing at Evelyn. A man quickly moved to cover her with some kind of light-based umbrella. It didn’t look like she’d get such treatment. What kind of shit have you got me wrapped up in? It’s like I’m stepping into a sci-fi book.
One of the soldiers tapped the side of the chopper. “Clear!” he barked through his commlink.
“After you,” Evelyn offered, her grin wider now.
“Sure, send the scientist out first,” Isla muttered, detaching her harness and rising to her feet. She grabbed her duffel bag, slinging it over her shoulder as the cold air swept in through the open door—it was stronger than she expected. Salty. Damp. Sharp with that electric tang before a lightning strike.
Isla wiped the rain from her face, breathing steadily as her boots crunched over slick volcanic stone. Her gaze locked onto the aperture. Her instincts whispered for her to run, a feeling so visceral it gnawed at her gut, but she’d overcome that fear through several ventures into nature’s unexplored regions. This, however, felt slightly different.
Her heart thrummed in her chest with each flicker of the glyphs, like her pulse was answering some unseen call. She stopped just shy of the mist, boots grinding on stone. The steady thrum of the rain fell silent in her mind as she studied it.
“You’re hesitating,” Evelyn’s voice came from behind her, smooth and sharp as a razor sliding across glass. The older woman’s footsteps echoed softly, heels clicking with unnatural clarity despite the storm.
The woman’s expensive coat swayed as she stepped to Isla’s side, her face half-lit by the glow of the glyphs. She adjusted her gloves with practiced care, eyes sharp but patient. Her shouted words bled through the surging waves, assaulting rain, and pulsing runes.
“The longer you stare at it, the more power it holds over you… And this is only the beacon that marks the destination on the Ancient Chavín map in the Amazon temple I showed you on our way here. The real power is deep inside—something AEGIS had to unbury since they sealed it up.”
“Ancient Chavín map? I don’t follow,” Isla muttered, still staring. “Are you saying this is only GPS coordinates? Not some teleportation triangle? And sealed up… It sounds like they were trying to keep something locked away.”
Her gaze shifted to the flickering symbols woven into the rock. Glyphs like sunbursts, jaguar faces, and fractal patterns twisted into endless loops. Evelyn only tilted her head toward it with a smile that never reached her eyes.
“Would you like me to go first, Doctor Reyes? I assure you, it won’t be my first walk through the unknown. I can hold your hand if it makes you feel better,” she snickered as the soldiers around her stepped inside without a second thought, sinking into the watery pool as if made of gelatin.
Isla clenched her jaw, eyes darting to the damnable woman’s face—her boss now, it seemed. Her fingers flexed at her side, knuckles stiff. “I told you before. Don’t patronize me, Hart.” She stepped forward, boots cracking against stone, and faced the swirling liquid-light surface of the gateway. “If this takes me to that Immortal Fish, then I’m not backing down.”
Her reflection stared back at her. A warped, watery version of herself—her brown curls twisting like ink in water, eyes deeper than they should be, her outline stretching and bending like she was being seen through frosted glass. She lifted a hand. Her reflection moved a split-second too slowly.
“...That’s not how reflections work, Evelyn,” Isla muttered, curling her fingers to a fist. Her heart jumped once, hard, in her chest. “Okay… No thinking. Just go.”
Evelyn’s smile widened, but she said nothing as Isla took her first step into the inky pool.
Her breath caught as her foot met the “water” of the gateway. It wasn’t wet. It wasn’t even cold. It was…different. Like stepping onto a trampoline with no resistance, only for it to release her. Her body sank in, eyes wide, arms tense at her sides. Light folded inward. Her limbs blurred, dissolved, and twisted into motes of color. Her senses bent. Sound became distant and hollow. Her heart felt like it was hammering in slow motion. Her ears popped.
Her heartbeat echoed in her skull. Air was gone. Not gone. Replaced. Her lungs ached, but she didn’t suffocate. She floated in the space—between spaces—for what felt like hours, minutes, seconds. There was no time here.
She emerged with a gasp, her body lurching forward like she’d broken the surface of water. Her boots hit solid stone. Her breath came in sharp gulps. Air. Clean air. Cool air. She stumbled forward, blinking against the amber glow surrounding her. The storm, the waves, the noise of the surface—it was all gone.
“Pressure adjustment complete,” a monotone male voice echoed from overhead in an odd accent she couldn’t place. “Decompression at 94%. Stabilizing.”
The air tasted like metal and rain mixed with cold stone. It wasn’t fresh air, but it was breathable. She wiped her face and blinked rapidly, eyes adjusting to the strange glow illuminating the vast chamber—she wasn’t wet anymore, yet felt slightly like she was.
The first thing Isla noticed was the ceiling. She tilted her head back, and her breath hitched. Water. Miles and miles of ocean hung above her like a glass-bottomed lake. It was still and perfect, like gravity had been turned upside down. The faint outline of fish swam above, their shapes blurred as they passed in slow, dreamlike drifts. Her heart skipped a beat. It was beautiful. Horrifying. Impossible.
“The Ancient Chavíns apparently called it the Endless Sea,” Evelyn softly answered, stepping past her. She glanced up briefly, eyes sharp, unfazed. “Whether it is or not… is left for debate. They abandoned this post and sealed it up. Placed that warning signal at the front gate.”
Isla turned, taking in the chamber. An inverted step pyramid. Stone walls were somehow translucent, lined with glowing glyphs that lit up as she passed. The aurelian light pulsed, tracking her movements. Each step echoed like she was walking through a cathedral. Above, water. Below, stairs lead deeper into the structure.
“Warning… I thought it was a beacon.”
“Can’t it be both?” the insufferable woman smirked, moving past her with a bored gaze. “Try to keep up.”
“The echoes,” Isla muttered, her voice hushed. Her eyes flicked to the jaguar-faced carvings set into the walls. Their eyes, vivid and wide, followed her movements. Her breath slowed. “They’re…watching.”
“The AI always does AI things,” Evelyn replied. “Ancient AI that I’ve become rather well acquainted with thanks to a little scarab friend of mine. No need to panic. They can’t kick us out because doing so would break the 450-watt rule.”
“450-watt rule?” she repeated, moving after her. “Who are these people?”
At the base of the platform, three figures stood waiting for them. Isla’s eyes darted to each of them, quickly assessing. She knew these types of people. Expedition teams always had a type. Ever like herself, Evelyn skipped right past her explanation and introduced each, allowing them to greet her.
Kael Moore: Field Engineer. Compact. Wiry. Brown buzz cut, oil-stained gloves, and an unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear. He leaned on a crate of equipment with an uneasy grin.
“Yo, Captain Reyes, welcome to the end of the world, or that’s what I’m calling it,” he said, flashing a cocky smile. His eyes scanned her like he was already measuring her for a job she didn’t know she had. “Don’t worry. I brought the good drills we used to unearth this place—the best shit—Element 16 shit.”
“She doesn’t know what that even means, idiot,” growled a tall, broad-shouldered Samoan woman as she slapped his arm. “Dr. Maeva Moreau, your field medic. Director Evelyn told me that you’re the woman to talk to about marine biology.”
“That’s me, among several other fields I’ve studied in,” Isla returned. “Surely you have more skills than just being a ‘field medic’ on this expedition,” she challenged with a narrowed eye.
Maeva’s lips curved. “Guilty as charged. My main fields of study are human anatomy and plant biology—two PhDs to prove it, one in Comparative Human Biology and the other in Plant Biochemistry and Pharmacognosy. I’m also a licensed medical doctor, which means when someone inevitably gets impaled on a “mysterious spike,” I’ll be the one pulling it out.
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into what mysteries await us beyond these walls. Oh, and this is Hollow—well, his real name is James Holloway, but we just use Hollow—he’s the theoretical physicist, specializing in unnatural energy fields among a few other things.”
“Should I ask why?” Isla asked with a strained smile, not accustomed to working with larger groups since they rarely kept up with her. “It’s not just because of his last name, right?”
Lanky, pale, and wearing glasses, he glanced up from his notepad, raising one brow like he’d been watching them the whole time. “What? No, of course, it’s because it’s my last name. Not like the hole in my stomach means anything. And you’re late! Ugh. Guess I owe Kael twenty bucks.”
Isla raised an unimpressed brow while staring at his covered belly, not sure if he was stating a fact or trying to haze the new girl. “If I’d known there was a pool, I’d have placed my own bet.”
Kael snorted, tossing her a grin. “Too late, Doc. She’s alright.”
-----------------
