The Archangel Chronicles Part Five: Voices of Stone

"No." She answered. Her back to Daniel, Siouean stared at the portal that had given them entry. It was nothing more than a black line now, not even so much as a slit. She stepped forward and ran her finger over it. "We cannot exit this way," she said.

"We can’t leave without Marin either," Daniel said. "I don’t even know if he came in with us."

"He came in before us," Siouean reminded him. "Did he not?"

"I think so. I hope so, but who knows if it worked the way we think it should have. I have never entered a ship that way before. It was like I was being crushed."

"It was the same for me. And our suits, they were damaged."

"This ship was not made for humans. Who knows what kind of creature it was made for?" Even as he said it, he wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want to think about finding anyone else here but Marin.

"He must have woken before us and gone on," Siouean offered.

Since Daniel’s scan of the corridor had not yet revealed Marin’s broken body he supposed that Siouean had to be correct.

"We should follow him?" Siouean asked.

"I don’t see a choice," Daniel said. "This is doing me no good." He unclasped his facemask and pulled it off his head. Warm air pushed against his short, curly hair, and he scratched at his scalp. Siouean followed Daniel in removing her helm, revealing a head shaved but for several patches of long dark hair woven into thin braids, which fell around her ears and past her chin.

"Have you any idea of how to find him?" Siouean asked.

"There’s only one way we can go," Daniel said, and then stepped off down into the corridor. As Siouean joined him, the lights at the portal dimmed and only those immediately around them remained lit.

"I have never seen a ship built in this fashion," Siouean said.

"Neither have I," Daniel said, though the surface of the stone reminded very much of the walls of the main cavern in Patmos. He remembered that Marin thought he knew who’d built it-and Daniel had no way to say that Marin was wrong. He only wished only that Marin had thought to share what he knew.

The corridor dipped, but there came no corresponding effect in the gravity. They continued to be rooted by the feet, no threat of a slide at all, and as the path continued to slope up and down and twist upon itself, Daniel guessed they could be standing upside down compared to where they’d entered.

"You said your commanding officer is here somewhere too?’ Daniel said.

Siouean nodded. "It is my hope to find him. He entered the same way we did-or seemed to-but I have seen no sign of him yet. My suit’s com systems call to his, but there has been no answer."

"It’s reasonable to assume he did the same thing we’re doing, going deeper. It would have been just as obvious to him he couldn’t leave the way he came in."

Siouean agreed.

The corridor above them was lost in shadows cast by the red orbs. There was no way to know how much open space rose above them. Daniel assumed it couldn’t be much, given the stone’s dimensions. There were no sounds but for their own minimal conversation; once in a while Daniel thought he noticed shadows shift above them. Once, something that looked very much like a stone carved face squinted at them. He wished he had access to all of his standard Union pulse weaponry, but all he’d brought was his side pistol. That couldn’t do much against any kind of force.