chapter 1

A Chapter by James Rayner

July 1 2022
Frisco, CO

Helen Smith was attending the University of Denver to get her PHD in Computer Technology. She was engaged to Mike Thompson who was also attending the same university to get his PHD in mechanical engineering as well as just receiving his masters in electrical engineering .

Helen and Mike both loved the outdoors and were always finding time to go camping in the mountains and exploring caves. This weekend was their 3 year anniversary as a couple. They both wanted to get away from all the preparations for the upcoming wedding. They decided to take a week long camping trip into the local mountains.

They arrive at the parking spot and get out their backpacks and head off into the mountains. After hiking for about 2 hours Helen said “Mike this looks like a good place to take a quick break before heading deeper into the mountains.”

Mike replied “OK, while you take a break I am going to look at the other side of that ridge it looks like there might be a cave there.”

Helen said “ OK be careful and don't go into the cave without coming back and getting me and the supplies.”

Mike went over the ridge and while making his way threw the sparse tree cover spots an opening at the bottom of an overhang. He makes his way over and gets out his flashlight and shines it into the opening. It looks like they would have to crawl for about 5 feet but then it opens up into a big chamber. He gets up and goes back to Helen. She looked up when she heard him going back.

“Well,” she said “ did you find anything interesting?”

He replied “yes found a small opening over the ridge we will have to crawl for a little bit but it opens up into a big cavern.”

“Sounds like it will be fun to explore. Does it look like anybody has been in it?”

Mike replied, “if there was it was a long time ago the area does not look like it has been disturbed even by animals, which I do not understand because it would make a good den.”

“Well lets go exploring then” Helen said.

They gathered up their packs and went to were the crawl-way was. When they got there they removed their packs and pushed them ahead of them as the crawled. They got into the cavern and stood up and took out their helmets with lights on them. They decided not to set up base camp there but further in. Mike took out a can of washable fluorescent paint to mark their route, while Helen took out here tablet and opened up a mapping program that would make a 3D map of their route using sensors on their helmets to get dimensions.

Their was 4 tunnels of this entrance cavern and they took the first one to the left think to take them in order of left to right.
They had traveled about 200 yards before there was an intersection looking at the map so far it looked like the one to the right curved back around to go back to the entrance cave. They took one to the left again.

They traveled about 1000 yards before the ground started a gradual down incline that went on for about 500 yards before leveling off again they figured they were down about 30 feet below where they started the tunnel started to turn sharp to the right and by looking at the map it looked like this tunnel mike led to a cliff that was on the other side of the mountain. The cliff was a vertical fall of about 300 feet into a crevasse.

They started noticing the wall of the tunnel had started smoothing out and was looking more and more like they had been made by a machine they were getting that smooth. Both of them stopped and had to decide whether to go on or go back and explore another tunnel. Eventually the lure of discovering if they had stumbled on a old hideout or military installation made them go on. they were think that if this was a man made place this was a back entrance and the main one was somewhere else.

As they went further in they noticed the air was starting to get a stale smell to it as there was not much air circulation. The tunnel widened and got higher. It also went from being made of stone to being made of a metal like material. It wasn't exactly metal as they knew it it was more organic looking like it was grown in place and not made.

Mike went closer to the wall and took out a knife to try and take a sample to analyse, but when he tried to cut it it would not cut. He put more pressure on it and his knife broke.

Mike said “this material has a very high strength but is still malleable it is like a organic memory metal.”

Helen asked “what is memory metal?”

“Memory metal is a metal that you can deform or twist and will always go back to the same shape.”

“Do you want to go further in Mike?”

“Yes I do. I want to see where this leads. This material is more advanced than any that I have heard of in my studies for my doctorate.”

They continued on. As they went they noticed that they ambient light level was rising, but when they looked around they did not see a source it was bright enough they could turn of their headlamps.

they turned a corner in the corridor and saw a door. Beside the door was what looked like a panel but the writing on it was like nothing they had ever seen.

They noticed that one of the button was glowing a faint yellowish green light. They looked at each other. Mike said “well do we or don't we?” Helen answered “What can possibly happen?”

So Mike reached out and pushed the button.

next chapter

© 2013 James Rayner

My Review

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Reviews

reeyce smythe wilder

An interesting read, although there could have been more description to refine the imagery of their location. at times it felt a bit narrative, and I would have liked to see opinions from both of them. Great overall story idea though.