THe Sentinal Satellite Page 14

  “Where are we Santo? Do you suppose it might be another world?”

  His reply was not comforting.

  “Without knowing how to get back I sure hope not.”

  After quickly scanning the area, Santo saw that they were standing beside a large water fountain. In the middle was a jet of water spurting about three feet high. Because their attention was on the surrounding buildings in the distance, the fountain only got a casual scrutiny. All the buildings over there were three stories high bearing the appearance of apartment dwellings. Judging by the location, this water fountain was the centerpiece of what could be a residential complex.

  Wherever they were it was well lit so each turned their flashlights off. Maria reasoned correctly that the mysterious light was coming from the luminescence of the dome itself.

  She judged by the arch of the dome that it was probably a couple of hundred yards across and the top was maybe fifty yards over their heads. She then observed,

  “At least the air is fresh and breathable.”

  Santo already knew it was breathable or they would be dead by now. However, breathable air was not his immediate concern. His eagle eye had spotted movement between two of the distant buildings. When Maria saw him reach into the backpack to retrieve his Basic AK handgun, she knew danger was near. She whispered,

  “What is it? What did you see?”

  He was wise enough not to scare her, saying,

  “Nothing, I just want to be prepared that’s all.”

  As she looked in the direction of his concern, she knew he was lying.

  Because she did not see what had startled him, she looked around. There was only one conclusion to make.

  “This place looks old and abandoned.”

  Abandoned was what he was hoping for but not what he suspected. Making sure that Maria came with him, he followed a path leading to the edge of the dome. An investigating hand surmised that it was made of either glass or a very strong synthetic polymer. Although it was obvious that the luminescence was supplying the light, it was also clear that whatever was on the other side of the dome was pitch black.

  Pressing her face to the glass and looking through cupped hands, she tried to make out what was on the other side. To her surprise, she saw a small dim light seemingly floating in a wave action out in the distance. Engrossed by the mystery she failed to notice that it was coming closer. Suddenly right in front of her face she saw a terrifying open mouth containing hundreds of sharp teeth ready to snap her head off. Terrified she jumped back and yelled,

  “Holy crap! Did you see that?”

  Santo leaned forward and struggled to make out anything on the other side other than darkness. However, persistence paid off for soon he too saw the dim small light. He saw the horrible mouth open wide but unlike Maria, knew what it was. Nevertheless, knowing what it was only deepened the impossibility of where they were.

  He turned to the freighted Maria and with a smile said,

  “Though ugly as sin and having a mouth larger than its body, it is only a deep water Lantern Fish or Angler Fish if you prefer.”

  She knew that is what they were referred to because of the luminescent light at the end of an appendage dangling in front of their massive mouths. It took her a second to figure out that Lantern Fish only lived in the deepest part of the ocean. She gasped aloud,

  “Are you telling me we are at the bottom of the ocean?”

  He tried to put a good spin on their dire situation.

  “I guess the good news is that we are still on Earth.”

  That conclusion did not calm her apprehension. She blurted out,

  “But in the deepest part of the ocean, right?”

  He could only say,

  “That would be my guess.”

  Santo then turned and followed a path leading behind one of the nearby buildings. When the shock of where they were had subsided somewhat, Maria hurried to catch up. What they saw at the back of the building sent shock waves through her and greatly accented the danger of their location. Ever the soldier, Santo was more accustomed to seeing death and therefore not as shocked. Wanting to approach, he pointed to her feet and demanded,

  “Stay here.”

  He then went over to inspect the gruesome scene.

  He cautiously approached what by his estimation were perhaps as many as thirty human bodies piled in a heap. Some were nothing more than skeletons while others seemed mummified. What was equally mysterious was their clothing. Some wore nothing but loincloths while others were clad in clothing indicative of various cultures throughout the world. Two wore clothing native to Tibet. Others were certainly Chinese while another was dressed in western attire, cowboy boots and jeans. There was no way he was going to dig into the pile to see what the bodies below were wearing.

  A voice from behind startled him.

  “They are clearly from all over the world aren’t they?”

  He did not want to show weakness by jumping straight up and snapping around with gun in hand. Instead he stood frozen until adrenaline subsided somewhat. It only took a second before slowly turning around to face Maria. He snapped,

  “I thought I told you to stay back there.”

  With eyes still to the pile of bodies she casually replied,

  “You did.” She then added, “Did you notice they are all old, as if they died here of old age.”

  That was something Santo did not need to know for it implied that there was no escape from this place. She added,

  “When considering the variety of clothing, do you suppose there might be a Cave of Voices in other parts of the world as well?”

  As he walked away, Maria following close behind, he said,

  “Apparently that is what the evidence is implying.”

  They returned to the center courtyard and stood by the fountain. Santo was still vigilant, ever alert for what he knew he had seen just a short while ago. He never returned the AK pistol to his backpack. He asked Maria,

  “Do you remember where we entered this place from?”

  As if she had already given that some thought she answered quickly,

  “Yes, right here by this fountain.”

  He looked around but as they were only standing beside a water fountain with no nearby obvious caves or stone walls he drew the conclusion that the water fountain was an unlikely place to be looking for a way back to the cave that kidnapped them. As she watched him scan in all directions, she understood his perplexity and said,

  “I know it doesn’t seem possible but this is where we dropped in from for sure.”

  He looked high up into the top of the dome but realized a drop from that height would have caused serious injury or death. He uttered,

  “I guess I was just hoping to see a door or portal of some sort that’s all.”

  She agreed, adding

  “Well, whoever or whatever once lived here must have had some way of getting to the surface. There has to be an exit of some kind somewhere.”

  Suddenly Santo ran off toward one of the buildings. Standing mute, she watched as he disappeared behind it. Seconds later, she was stunned to see three very old Australian Aboriginals walking toward her in single file. Santo was right behind them with pistol in hand. They were half naked, dressed only in loin clothes. Each had streaks of white paint over their bodies and faces. All Maria saw were three very scared men. Upon reaching Maria, Santo pointed to the ground with the pistol and all three obeyed the silent command to sit. None took their eyes off the gun in Santo’s hand.

  Maria blurted out,

  “They are Aboriginals. There’s no way they created this place.”

  Santo reasoned,

  “Maybe it’s one of their secret holy places.”

  Shaking her head at the impossibility of the suggestion she sat in front of them, crossed her legs and softly said,

  “Tell me how you got here?”

  All she got for her effort was perplexed looks and from that, Santo drew the logical conclusion,

>   “They don’t understand us and we can’t understand them.”

  Maria tried the same question in the five languages she knew but Aboriginal Outback was not one of them.

  Defeated, she stood and indicated for them to stand as well. Santo again scanned the surrounding complexes prompting Maria to ask,

  “What is it Santo? Do you think there might be more of them?”

  His reply greatly surprised her.

  “I am looking for an Englishman.”

  Seeing her puzzled expression, he explained,

  “Back in the cave somebody with a heavy English accent enticed me to come closer to the wall. Clearly it was not any of these three.”

  Santo exercised his only option and yelled in English,

  “We are not your enemy. Like you, we are searching for a way out of here. Come and join us in that quest.”

  Maria was startled by a responding voice coming from one of the deserted buildings.

  “Return your firearm to the bag.”

  Realizing that he was armed and not projecting a trusting manner, Santo made a flamboyant show of putting the AK into the backpack.

  A moment later from behind the building appeared the strangest man Maria had ever seen. Not counting a massive beard that any hermit would be proud of was his odd attire. Except that they were in a dome somewhere under the ocean, he could be an ancient English explorer in darkest Africa. He was dressed in a white safari outfit wearing a pith helmet. Trying her best to stifle shock, Maria pleasantly introduced herself.

  “I am Maria Espinoza. It is a pleasure to meet you. This is my partner Santo Martinez.”

  As they shook hands, Santo noticed that Maria was smart enough to omit his army rank of Captain. The Englishman introduced himself.

  “How do you do? I am Reginald Cunningworth the Third, a proud member of the Royal British Explorers Club.”

  He then looked at the three Aboriginals. What he said next greatly added mystery to where he thought they were.

  “Frightful looking Africans I must say. They seem to be harmless enough don’t you think.”

  The statement silently shocked Santo while Maria softly voiced hers.

  “Africans?”

  It was now Reginald’s turn to look perplexed. He said,

  “Yes, don’t you see? The Royal British Explorers Club had received reports from the Cameroon natives about seeing dinosaurs in their jungle.”

  Reginald assumed that because Santo was the male, he was the smarter of the two. He therefore turned to Maria and unintentionally insulted her.

  “Cameroon. That’s in western Africa you understand.”

  Maria knew that but begrudgingly accepted the insult. Santo smiled and Reginald continued,

  “Well, I was dispatched there to check it out.”

  Santo interjected,

  “Did you find proof of dinosaurs?”

  “Yes, rather sound proof I must say. I showed the jungle natives some pictures of various supposedly extinct dinosaur species and they all identified it as the Sauropod.”

  He again looked to Maria and said,

  “They are from the Triassic and early Jurassic Period you understand, about 200 million years ago. They have very long necks, long tails, small heads, and thick stubby legs.”

  Maria tried her best to force a smile. Reginald continued,

  “Well, you see, in the deepest jungle near a place the natives refer to as ‘the meeting of the three rivers’ ---.”

  When he again turned to Maria to explain the origin of the name, Santo recognized the beginning of an exploding volcano and quickly interjected,

  “Yes, go on Reginald, then what happened?”

  “Well, I was trudging through the thick jungle when coming upon a large hill. About half way up was this rather large cave. Upon exploring it, thinking it might be the home of the Sauropod, I discovered that it was quite massive. I saw cave drawings depicting the large creature. That made my hopes rise somewhat. Strangely, I found myself mesmerized by a section of cave wall shimmering as if throwing a stone into a pond. When I reached out to touch it, well here I am in a different section of the cave with these three Africans. I’ve been searching for an exit ever since but there just isn’t another tunnel leading out of this cave.”

  When considering what Reginald had just said about no other tunnel leading out of here, Santo asked,

  “If you thought you were trapped in here forever to eventually join the bones behind that building, why then did you entice me to step closer to the wall back in the cave?”

  A flash of guilt washed over his face. While responding, he lowered his eyes to the ground.

  “Yes, well frightfully sorry about that, old chap. I did it mostly in panic. I was hoping somebody would eventually come to figure out how not to become part of that grizzly pile of bodies back there.”

  Maria asked,

  “Who piled those bodies there, was it you?”

  Looking back up at Maria, he replied,

  “Yes but only the one with the cowboy boots. These three Africans and I found him dead in one of the rooms. I suspect that over the millennia those trapped in this cave did the same to those they found dead.”

  While Santo was nodding in agreement, Maria asked,

  “How did you come to hear us? How did you know we were in the cave?”

  Pointing to the fountain he said,

  “The voices came right out of the water. That’s why we spend a lot of time gathered around it. Sometimes I don’t understand the language, then like yours, sometimes I do. Once or twice these natives would hear a low sounding blare from a horn that would get them all excited.”

  Santo and Maria exchanged quizzical looks. They knew what that horn sound was and where it came from.

  Reginald then voiced what he assumed was a logical conclusion.

  “I gather you two came to Africa and found the same cave I did. Did you lean against the wall as well?”

  Maria then suddenly asked,

  “What year was it when you walked into the cave?”

  Stiffening a bit, he sharply announced the year. Santo knew it was a couple of years ago. The shock of the reply forced Maria to utter aloud the hated term ‘time dilation’. Suddenly both understood the urgency of getting out of this strange place as soon as possible.

  Seeing no reason to complicate the explorer’s simplistic thinking and his dire situation, both kept silent about their true location under the ocean as well as what year it really was. Santo returned his attention to their predicament and asked Reginald,

  “Have you explored every nook and cranny around here and still not found anything that shimmers or undulates like the wall you fell through in the cave?”

  “No. All I found in one of the buildings were books written in a strange language looking like codes or something.”

  Suddenly excited, Maria turned to Reginald and with great enthusiasm demanded,

  “Show me this library.”

  When he walked away everybody, including the Aboriginals followed him.

  They now stood in front of a badly damaged building. The main entrance had double doors but one of them was inside on the foyer floor and the other was barely hanging onto broken hinges. As they walked on top of the door, Marie looked down to see a unique design in the tiles. Because the door covered half of the design, all she saw was what looked like the right side of a figure eight with a feathered wing on top. Although she thought it unique, excitement to see the books caused her to miss the startling significance.

  Reginald led them down the hall to a large room. As they entered, Maria noticed that the three Aboriginals would not come in with them. They looked afraid and stood in the doorway whispering. The room looked like an abandoned library or archive of some sort with row after row of empty bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Reginald said to Santo,

  “When I accidently knocked one of the shelves over it tore a hole in a portion of the wall. It was there that I found a book crammed into the
exposed hole. I pulled it out and put it on a shelf just over there. As it was in a strange extinct language there wasn’t any use trying to make sense of it.”

  While he was explaining it to Santo, Maria strolled down one of the aisles inspecting the empty shelves.

  Reginald walked down another aisle. Stopping about half way down, he pointed to the discovered book. After Santo had called Maria over, she eagerly inspected it. The cover was a thin metal sheet with even thinner metallic pages. On the cover was what looked like a star map of different constellations and planets. Because the star map and characters were clearly of a style or language that she did not recognise, she reasoned that it must be alien.

  After flipping through a few pages she was disappointed to discover that Reginald was right, there was no way of understanding the language. Holding it open, she went to the door and showed it to the three fearful Aboriginals. In unison as well as confusion, they all shook their heads. If there were instructions on how to escape the dome on these pages then they were well concealed in the strange symbols. Santo saw her disappointment and said to her,

  “Yeah, I don’t know what that means either.”

  She replied,

  “I will hand it over to our experts and see what they can glean from it.”

  After taking a deep breath, Maria indicated for Santo to turn around. As he complied, she crammed the book into his backpack. While she was doing that Santo observed,

  “Why would technically advance aliens bother to write anything in an antiquated book?”

  As she secured the flap over the backpack, she replied,