The Station, Part 15 cont.

18/6/2207 con’t.

Wondering where I’ve been? Thought I lost my nerve and decided to stay home? I hope you have more confidence in me than that. No, I just made the walk to the wall with my mouth shut and just listened. On the way all I heard was the sound of my own breathing and footsteps. About halfway there I stopped for a few minutes. I even held my breath for a few moments and just took in the absolute silence. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place with no sound like this. It’s the sound of the dead. Briefly took my morale down a notch. I dumped that thought and made my way here. Where’s here you ask? I’m right in front of the wall. Well, more like five meters away. Let’s not get too technical right now. Now it’s a guessing game. This is where I find out about how long I will be outside. All these opening look the same to me. Most are out of reach, but that still leaves a generous choice of paths to take. Let’s see, how should I do this? Eeny meeny miney mo. Yup, very scientific. Or, how about the one directly ahead? It’s just about a half a meter above the floor. Easy to get into. I like convenience. Here we go. And I’m not gonna look back at Frontier. Yes, of course I’m lying. I’ve looked back twice already. Can’t fool you.

Didn’t think it was possible, but it may be even darker in here. Fortunately the tunnel is high enough for me to stand up in with headroom to spare. I’m touching the sides again. Smooth. No sharp edges at all. But before I go further, I’m placing a beacon at the mouth of the opening. The first of my breadcrumbs. Hope I won’t really need it. Beacon placed. Now, let’s do some exploring.

I’m looking up ahead and I can see that the tunnel goes in a more or less straight line path for a ways. I’m making my way through now. Sound is muffled in here. My footsteps aren’t nearly as jarring. Starting to slope upward a bit now. No change in the tunnel size or texture. Hope this doesn’t get too steep or I’m going to have to turn back. The suit isn’t designed for this. Now if things went zero g all of a sudden, that would make the suit happy. Alright, we’re leveling out again. Rather anticlimactic, I know. Remember, I’m just the messenger people. Debating whether I should place another beacon, but I have only so many of those. And I’m still getting strong signal from the first one. Okay, I’ll save the next beacon drop for later. Hmm. Tunnel’s sloping slightly up again. Wonder what causes that.
I’m huffing and puffing a bit now. Suit’s not too heavy, but it does work against you in gravity. The tunnel’s slope lasted longer this time. Gonna need a break soon. Don’t want to needlessly exhaust myself. Taking a breather and water break. Wonder if anybody else feels like a hamster when they drink from the suit’s helmet tube.

Sitting down and looking down the tunnel I can see that the sloping continues past where my light penetrates. The good news is the way back is going to be a snap. I could practically roll my way down. This occurred to me: Since starting out, there has been no sign of a deviation in direction, no side passages and no change in size. It’s all very precise. Not knowing exactly what the surrounding material is makes it hard to guess at what it would take to shape this tunnel. Non expert that I am, I would think that even modern drilling machinery would have a time cutting through this stuff. Well, enough random thoughts for now. I’m feeling rested. Come on feet, let’s get going. I’ll get back to you when something changes. Right now I think I should talk a little less and concentrate my energy on walking. I’ll pipe back up if something changes. Bradley out for now.

Bradley here. The tunnel has ended. I’m in another….crap, I don’t know what to call it. A valley? It’s narrow. It has a gradual curve to it like a crescent moon. That’s what I can see from my vantage point. I must be oh…fifty meters above it. And there are colors down there. Glows in a myriad of colors. No discernable order to it. It’s providing a good amount of psychedelic looking light to the place. I’ve turned up the suit’s ambient audio pickups to maximum. I’m listening….yes, I’m not imagining it. There’s something making sounds down there. My pulse is going a mile a minute now. Gotta calm it down, Bradley. Take a breath. Damn, I wish I could send in a sound file to you. You should hear this. Fuck, it reminds me of whalesong. The valley walls below might be amplifying it like the chamber holding Frontier does. There. Yes. Almost like a young woman singing. That’s in there, too. Turning up my visual pickups. What’s down there… Huh. They don’t even look real. Like a fantasy painting. Reds, blue, oranges, green, purples, all bright colors. Like giant mushrooms. Roughly uniform in size. Most are round, others are much narrower. They’re all absolutely still as far as I can tell. The tops of the larger rounded ones have some kind of pale bumpy protrusions on their tops, something like pimples. Not a very elegant way to put it but that’s what came to mind. Are these…creatures…are they making the sounds? Enhancing the image more…yes. Covering the entire valley floor. Some of them must be huge. Would you believe it? Giant mushrooms. Incredible...I would love to get a first hand look at them, but I don’t see an obvious way to get down there, not without some serious climbing gear. And I don’t have any of—