my eyes could be fatigued, it has been a long day. please don't show any back there...huh, it's a few degrees warmer, this was near an active plate boundary after all.
The prospect of entering the black-within-black void wasn't enticing, but she knew she would regret leaving this mystery unsolved. The reflective stream had dug a channel in the middle of the corridor, maintaining its width as it exited the cave and flowed down the hill. Naomi had expected the metallic liquid to be mercury, but the preliminary test ruled that out. No matches against any likely substance. She needed more information, but turned her attention as loose sand fell against the exposed basalt."See for yourself, we can get through easy. It's a tight fit, but doable." Naomi said, sharing a rendering of the cave.
The entrance was just wider than each of their shoulders, but quickly required them to walk sideways for four and a half meters before emerging in a larger chamber. Two fists worth of clearance with their suits."'Easy' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there" Kai jabbed.
A small recon drone detached from his left arm and glided silently into the cave, disappearing beyond the veil of darkness"The drone can get it. I'd be at the sub already if it wasn't against protocol to wait there on my own."
She waited as a second box appeared on her heads up display, the feed from his drone entering the wider chamber. A pulse of red light came from the cave as Kai initiated a scan.that faint afterglow again...
It revealed three of the walls past the squeeze were obsidian, with one section on the far wall, labeled as unknown. The scan also revealed a large air pocket above the chamber."How do you think I got my rendering? We'd be back at the sub if the trail ended here" Naomi teased.
"If you want any of that obsidian for yourself, you'll need to get it. I won't be sharing mine"
Kai too now wrestled with his own inhibitions and curiosities as Naomi moved to enter the cave.Their suits scraped against the walls as they inched their way deeper into the continental plate. At first, it was absent-minded; shoulders impacting outcroppings of rock not flush with the surface. Now it was an annoyance, bordering on unbearable.
not large enough to get stuck, although i shouldn't turn my head too much
Her mind brought forth stories of people entering caves and never walking out. She shuddered, but trusted her instruments. The walls had gradually come together until they were about a foot and a half apart. Naomi focused on the dim glow of her HUD as she inched closer and closer to the wider chamber. The grating of metal against basalt was unbearable, her toes dragged against the wall in front of her, a near omnipresent scraping with each movement. The passageway opened up, but was a dead end. A dim, warm orange saturated the room, reflecting off the dark glassy walls."See that wasn't so bad" Naomi said, relieved to return to the ocean stillness.
"You're lucky there's actually obsidian in here" Kai replied, a hint of shakiness to his breath.
He knelt for loose shards, placing a small one in the compartment on his forearm."Don't get ahead of yourself just yet, let's check out the dry chamber first."
Naomi motioned to the silvery stream flowing down a portion of the back wall."If there's nothing interesting, we can grab some on our way back to the sub, after we get the sample."
Kai nodded in agreement, but something tugged at the back of his mind."Are caves like this naturally ocurring? You'd think with the pressure down here any air would be forced out. Maybe whoever owns the vaults had this place set up too?"
"Hard to say, but if so, why not tell us that from the jump? Nothing in our briefing gave away that anyone knew what this is"
She pointed back to the flowing mirror on the wall."Let's just get the sample and go."
Kai moved to surface, and Naomi examined her suits reflection briefly before entering the dry chamber above.