.
..
...
⌞---- ⁂ ----⌝
It came on us at once, like dropping weight on our backs. The chamber had barely changed, but as I looked for support, the wall I found myself looking at became a blur; thin streaks of light shot down past the viewport. We were ascending fast, and speeding up.
I turned in a sweep taking in my surroundings. Inlaid glyphs on the triangular faces of each obelisk began to glow teal, save for the imprint of the fern which now burned orange.
did my scan activate the chamber somehow?
> Before long, a deep, omnipresent vibration made its presence known, and the obsidian black console marked in glyphs came alive. The chamber became bathed in a winter sky blue, and all we could do was marvel as the walls dropped away, and the impact rang down.
We were surrounded by a sea of dark, glassy, crystalline pillars scattered haphazardly. Our view barely changed as we raced up. Entranced, I stepped between two obelisks and pressed my helmet against the transparent wall, looking out into the cerulean abyss. The view was eerily familiar to the one we had outside the tiny porthole as we dove deeper into the Pacific, an endless blue. Without warning the viewport went dark, I almost fell at the sudden contrast. Light still flooded in from the opposite wall, and was the only source of light for several seconds before my view was restored. I'm not sure how fast we were going, but suffice to say the pillars were massive.
> I froze at the next impact as it permeated my very being. Entering the nape of my neck it felt like pathways were being traversed, routes being mapped. Up and down my spine I felt energy spread and pool in my head, down my back and into my legs. Behind my shoulders to the outsides of my forearms before fading to nothing. I felt scanned
> Fear gripped me as the next infrasonic impact held my lungs, forcing them still. I tried to turn and see Kai, but I couldn't move. Energy saturated me, the feeling of electricity resonating within, freezing my muscles. My fingertips screamed as it felt like lightning tried to arc from them. The impact rang down, giving time only for a staggered inhale and brief control of my body before another impact washed over us.
> This time, the impact stole my breath before reversing, my lungs saturated until they nearly burst.
> Released once more I collapse to the ground on my hands and knees. Coughing, I could feel the adrenaline dumping into my bloodstream; blood rushing through my ears, the pounding in my chest. Tense, I let my suit support me as I struggled to control my shaky breathing, and by extention my mind. An impact had come and gone, soft electricity flowing down my spine, out to my limbs.
what the hell...
The vibrations shook me to my core yet I remained in control of myself. I took several deep breaths and shifted to sit as I scanned the chamber. The hologlyphs still hovered over the obsidian slab, and as my gaze shifted to the smaller blur of teal below, darkness fell upon the chamber. Kai Once more those strange geometric hologlyphs...six and eight, what significance did those unchanging symbols carry?
the big ones aren't changing, could they represent this transport? or perhaps where it-- where we are going? what then of the blur? speed? coordinates? i can't make anything out...
> We emerged from the wall of a massive enclosed area, the teal hue traded for natural rays tinged with a sandy tan. Sunlight. We flew toward the center of a gargantuan cylinder, topped with a painted circle of wispy whites and deep blues far above, while below an incandescent glow reflected off the smooth interior walls. Walls which saw falling sand and dust permeate the cavity with large sandy clouds, nearly obscuring the far side of the enclosure. The transport gained speed as it moved upwards toward the center of the space.
As Kai turned to help me up, I noticed small, irregular reflections flowing upwards, from the floor of the transport to the ceiling along the wall opposite the console. Looking out I witnessed flashes of light from the far side of the enclosure, peeking through breaks in the dust clouds. Massive frozen deposits of some crystalline substance littered the wall, catching the light from below and above.
> Shooting past the surface revealed the pit was in a massive erg, sand plains completely surrounded by dunes that touched wispy desert clouds high above the basin. Sandfalls peppered the rim.
We continued to climb faster and faster, feeling the heat radiating through the viewports. Kai had opened his visor, our suits read the atmosphere breathable, but I opted to keep mine sealed. They could only measure basic chemical compositions, and I didn't want to take my chances with anything else. Both of us gazed out at the undulating dunes, sharing a brief moment of distraction from the current events, attempting and failing to process how we ended up here in the first place. There was a tacit understanding that all we could do was wait to see where we arrived.
Something was off though, my gaze darted across the sky as I turned to view out the opposite wall; not searching for something per se, I sensed an absence...
"There's no sun. We're above any clouds, yet all I can see is sky"
A puzzled look came over Kai's face as he came to the same conclusion."Yeah, you're right, maybe the atmosphere blocks it somehow? Could be hazier than we see."
Maybe...it ultimately made no difference though. We were travelling away from where we came, and there was no walking back. We couldn't even walk forward. We were stuck. This transport was on a set path, so we were too. Whose path?
We approached rocky foothills, the Shifting Sea giving way to a craggy, dark brown cliff face that extended far above, disappearing into the azure sky. As far as the eye could see on either side of the transport the desert seemed to end here.
Another enclosure?
"We aren't slowing down"
Kai backed away from the front window, and the rapidly approaching wall of sandstone."I can see that"
I squeezed my eyes shut...yet no impact came, only a large WOOOOSH and opened my eyes to a dark chamber, once again lit teal by the obelisks running around the perimiter.
> Motion was hard to discern as we plunged into darkness; an impact had come, and although energy no longer ran down my spine as before, my lungs still drew shallow breaths, my heart still beat like a drum.
"It's slowing, the smaller glyph I mean. It only jumps with the impacts now"
Kai took a quick glance, then returned their gaze to their biomonitor on their wrist. Leg bouncing."One of my sample vials cracked with the first impact, a couple systems are glitching but life support seems fine"
for now..
⌞⁂⌝
⌞⁂⌝
⌞Emergence⌝
「\ ⁂ \⸮」
「\¿ ⁂ 」
there are so many of them...
I had to tear my gaze from the magnetic sight of the central ring structure
...them?
「...」
..
.
⌞⁂⌝