Scene 2: A Doorway to the Heavens

Alpha Site: 0555hrs

Each of you had been here for the week. An eventful week at that. Though the tragedy at the dig had cast a shadow upon it, work had quickened in pace since. Literally everyone was abuzz at the discovery of the coverstone. After three days of excavation the stone had been safely extracted revealing a metal ring covered in symbols.

The military presence had been summoned because of the nature of radiation emanating from the object. No one had any clue as to what the purpose of the ring could have been. But, working tirelessly Duclair and Dr. Connel-Gulbane had interpreted it to be some kind of "portal."

Progress went rapidly, when a call from Beta Site revealed a set of symbols that corresponded to the markings on the portal. Only last night had the first set been tested. The result was a burst of energy from the portal that had stabilized into what the eggheads called an "Einstein-Rosen Bridge."

A robot outfitted with cameras and sensors had been sent through. After arriving at its destination it revealed a grassy plane, mountains, forests, and a skyline with two suns.

The klaxon of the site wide intercom buzzed twice, jarring those who may have been asleep to full wakefulness. At Alpha site it took the laziest person the better part of a day to realize, life and death happened due to how a person responded to the intercom.

"Kowalsky, Messer, Rodriguez, Donahue, and Duclair. Assemble at Sub-Level 3 for assignment." Came Watch Officer Gennady Rochenkin's monotone voice over the intercom.

2nd Lieutenant Kowalsky looked his usual self, beyond tired, the Gulf War had taken a toll on his mental state but he was recovering well. He shared his thoughts on the state of Iraq with anyone who was curious. He had been an Operator in Delta Force.

Messer had been an infectious disease specialist for Doctor's Without Borders since 1989, and had recently left after the Zulu Ebola outbreak. He was an odd one, having a doctorates in general medicine, a PhD in Virology, and a Master's Degree in Eastern medicine. It turns out he knew Connel-Gulbane and Chief Lauman from their childhood. He referred to them as "The Twins" even though they weren't biologically related. A jab at how alike the duo were in mannerism and appearance.

They met on the lift, with Franziska Edwards already present. She had her normal composure, and the perperually pissed look that made her look scary despite her diminutive stature. She was sipping coffee from a steel insulated travel mug. Nearby a parcel labelled "Elias DuClair" right next to her. Upon seeing the Doctor she beckoned him. "Here's your orser Elias. You can always pick them up at the distribution facility on sublevel 1 if you can't wait. Good work keeping your cool last week, that was a tough situation by any standard."

After directing Elias to his order she took a separate box, a smaller sized from inside her suit coat. A charcoal silk suit, with emerald green accents that matches her blouse. Wearing a pencil skirt and somehow managing stillettos despite the utilitarian construction of the lift. "And a gift from the Brass for all of you. Matching patches! Now you all look official." a glue on set of velcro patches.

Travelling to the gate was a much simpler task now that the water level had been lowered by sumps pumping the cave water into the power station in Sublevel 1. The rudimentary bridge of plastic floats and wire was suitable for foot traffic. Not glamorous but functional and industrious.

Justice was already set to go at the gateroom sitting on the motorized unmanned vehicle holding most of the expeditions equipment, he was strumming on a banjo practicing scales - dressed in khaki and tiger stripe camouflage, with a tan colored poncho. He looked quite cozy as he strummed idly and hummed along. His own equipment was fairly light, and pretty much what one would expect for their mission. The mission parameter was to travel through the gate and ascertain a means for a return trip. The expedition had been outfitted for one month stay beyond the gate. Whereupon Alpha Site would dial back for the return trip.

After everyone assembled for readiness the gate began to dial. A pool of shimmering water exploded between the ring. Promising a new frontier, untouched it seemed by humans.

"The reading from the probe indicated it gets quite cold during transit, which lasts for just a little over one quarter second." Justice briefed and started to stride to the debarkation ramp. "But its temperate, even at night on the other side. We have a busy day ahead campers, so lets get to it." He stopped in awe of the pool, it was written on his face as he observed the seemingly magical portal before him. Justice just grinned, shook his head and chuckled as he walked into the event horizon. The Unmanned vehicle slowly made its way to the shimmering pool. Neither he nor the automaton even slowed as they traversed into the liminal bridge.

Cold had been an understatement. Transit was also not quite accurate to what transpired. The event horizon, felt exactly like freezing cold water. But had acted like a buffer, analyzing the matter which entered the pool. A sixth sense told the human mind it had been known, upon touching the pool in the deepest and most complete sense the gate had known you. This was the shortest part of transit. Fortunately whatever had converted your matter to pure energy did it in an instant, else you mind - still fully conscious - would have felt as it tore your mass apart.

That quarter second might have been an eternity in transit. The sensation of movement certainly existed in the liminal space, however distance and time lost coherence. Therefore, it was directionless, and eternal. An immediate knowing, this was where consciousness lay. And at the knowing, transit ended. A sudden splash into ice water, without wet. And you arrived, pushed through the gate by inertia. The first interplanetary travellers of the age.

The body, and more importantly the mind, on reflex wanted to take a deep breath upon completion of transit. Donahue, who had a lungful of air learned with only a minimum of pain, exhaling before transit was the best choice. He would be fine, but as his diagphragm spasmed he learned. It was painful, but every instinct told him it could have been much worse.

The gate had deposited the team ahead of the MALP, somehow giving priority to living creatures. The air here was sweet, mentholated. It felt quite pleasant. Narcosis was mild, pleasant, but did not induce euphoria only heightened clarity.

Far to the north the naked eye could make out a drop before the horizon was swallowed into water. To the east grasslands. To the south the grassland terminated at what appeared to be a treeline. The west increased in elevation, into a mountain range. Ambient occlusion was higher, distance skewed by the second sun, doubling shadows created a halo effect arround reflected surfaces. But this world was beautiful. It even smelled like heaven, sweet and spicy grass in abundance were instinctively mouthwatering.

Responding to the explosion of gate transit. A flock of birds took flight shrieking in panic flying northward. Landing several hundred yards distant.

Windswept grasses had an all too predictable effect on humans. It was as if there was something built into our species that told us collectively to look and listen. And when it happened, the silence had to be broken.

"Huh, looks like Oklahoma." Justice muttured and considered the scene. "Water to the north, some kind of lake." He rose a setof binoculars and scanned the shore. "Good as place as any to set up camp. No shelter though." He turns to Veronica and Kowalsky. "Thoughts?"

As 1st Lt. Rodriguez input her command code into the MALP the green and black screen disolayed red characters reading "Priority! Secret: Eyes only!"

It did not come with the option to open or close the text. Instead in green characters on the black screen she was informed of her mission parameters. She recognized the Commanding Officer by name and Reputation Colonel Jack O'Neill. The orders were to find a method of activating the device from the other side, no change there. It informed her that the MALP was carrying a W87 mk. 1 Thermonuclear device. To be used in the event a hostile entity attempted to seize control of the gate. Discretion was given to her for employment and with it a Field Promotion to Acting Captain. The command authorization code to arm the device was "BROKEN ARROW." She was then informed that the nessage would erase itself in five seconds.

The MALP connected via radio to Alpha Site where she was patched through to Colonel O'Niell. "Expedition One, you've reached Sierra Golf Actual. How copy and sitrep, over." The signal was strong, loud, and clear. This close to the gate it would be, there was almost no distance between Alpha Site and, wherever they happened to be due to the wormhole.

Messer and Kowalsky exchanged a knowing glance, their body language suggested they began to listen intently. Kowalsky especially having been handpicked by SG-Actual for the mission. "The Grand Poobah himself." He snickered, and fished out a pack of cigarettes, Lucky Strikes. Which he ignited with a silver lighter that boasted his service in SFOD-Delta during Desert Sword.

Messer reached for his own pack, then thought better of it and kept them for later. He only had so many.

Justice continued to scan the horizon, plucking one of the sweet grasses and sucking on the stem. It apparently didn't taste bad as he wore a somewhat delighted expression.

As the connection was established the message self-deleted and gave the Operational Orders.

-OPORD BEGINS-

1st. Lt. Rodriguez: Standing Orders (Lead a Successful recon team to ascertain threat, materiels of value, and determine breakage if necessary)
1st Lt. Kowalsky: Standing Orders (Assist CO in duties roster, maximize securement of materiels, provide watch duty)
Chief Sergeant Donahue: Standing Orders (Provide and oversee supply as Senior Non-Com, Liase with Civilian Attachè as necessary)

Special Notes to Civilian Attachè:
As you are not sworn military operators authority is not mine to order you. However, note that you are still subordinate to the authority of the Commanding Officer and while military charges do not apply, making nice with the person saving your ass is highly recommended. We have generously provided Chief Sergeant Donahue to assist in your function as needed Solidarity is its own reward. Cohesion is possible if we try.

-OPORD COMPLETE-

SG-Actual Colonel Jack O'Niell USAF, Supreme Commander SGC

The gas composition sensor of the MALP read that CO² levels were significantly lower than Earth, at ~180 parts per million. It also read surface oxygen at ~0.8% greater than Earth. There was a warning that indicated exothermic reactions would have higher yield and volatility on the readout. Unfortunately, no further data could be given as the Magnetic Oxide Semiconductors had not been programmed to isolate potential contaminants. Trouble Shooting suggested deployment of an Advanced Alongside Track Scanning Radiometer for more precise active tracking. But it was unlikely that the MALP had been packed with one. And even less likely they had the resources to launch it into geosynchronous orbit.

The scent of menthol in the air, if this planet shared common traits with the ecology of Earth would indicate a dense presence of mint, cornmint, or pennyroyal plants. The lack of flying insects suggested that mint was the culprit, as its insecticidal properties would render the atmosphere toxic to arthropods.

About half a klick towards the treeline revealed they were not trees but towering fungiforms. Enormous stalks of fruiting bodies large as trees spaced with regular intervals, far more regular and spaced than any tree. The parasol domes of the tree sized fungus was a greyish-brown and conical. The gills and stalk of the fruiting body had dark blue stains on the flesh.

As you continued to approach the loamy scent of hyphae and glomus, with an undercurrent of honey masked the scent of menthol. It was a very rich earthy scent, halfway to delicious.

"Not normally one to judge on appearances, but those look like psychedelic mushrooms. Weird that we aren't getting high from the spores." Justice mused. "Though I have never seen a fruiting body of that size before. Outside of prototaxites fossils." As they drew yet closer it was apparent they too were fossils shining bright in the second sun, entirely petrified. They were long dead, an entire epoch of time had rendered them to beautiful grey and blue stones.

Ohbno!!!!

Ok so since I just killed your post I am going to allow you to position "the camera" and set the perspective as if Veronica is explaining to the audience that something immensely powerful just transpired. She touched a mind of immense power and during that brief instant of contact, some primeval sense in Veronica told her it was startled. She had gained a brief advantage over it. It recognized her. As soon as it did that it vanished.

Veronica can hear a buzzing sound and what feels like a warm pulse of energy radiating from her head down to the ends of her extremities. She also subtly feels more alert.

She also feels like she is being watched.

And given time to process the "noise" she can hear distinct structure within it. It was a low mechanical whir, like gears whirring perfectly. That deep chaotic but fully restrained sound, at the edge of violence. Immensely powerful bass droning out, with the peal of screeching metal. It screeched to an end. The closest noise sound of rapidly flipping channels through an FM radio scanning for coherent channels.

The structure of the noise quicky mutated. It played on, this time like the idling of an immensely powerful engine. It sampled the sound across 512channels. Resulting in a series of crescendoing bass beats, white, black, and red noise.

Intermittent rattles, exactly the same frequency her brain just knew was the sound of a dangerous snake. A snake that she could feel scrutinizing her now. There was a wet slap like how a stride sounds when a well made boot frees itself from the mud. Constantly reverberating in the background of it all was her voice, as she heard it in her head. Humming at the highest and lowest ranges of her own voice. Accompanied with a vision of the Sun, our Earthly Sun, a field of infinitely permutating formulae.

All the while the violence of the background music now is reaching crescendo, peaking. It never breaks into rage, but for several moments she could feel its judgement, the white heat of its rage directed at her.

And then they both, somehow found understanding. The violent sounding music erupted in itself at that moment, leaving a reverberation of "black noise" the structure continued the music, but the drone that had built to an explosion of noise was dropped.

It was replaced with the impatient sound of barely restained violence droning, judging, now lurking, patiently and activelt hunting. It wanted her to know it was aware, and learning.

Veronica came back to reality. No time having passed since she made contact with the entity."Why did you touch that?" Justice asked he had been agitated by the mushrooms just by their proximity and had been growing increasingly more jumpy. "Whoa, check it out." He continued in amazement as he pointed to the soft glow and exact palm print of Veronica that glowed soflty in cyan lifht on the flesh of the mushroom, fading rapidly back to its bluish grey marbling.

It was still cold to her touch.

It can, it can also come with. You have no indication to suspect anyone would steal it. But you also don't know if the wildlife wont destroy it. Its your call Acting Captain

Heading west, it takes about an hour to cover a klick. The readout from MALP shows much the same as before, a moatly nitrogen oxygen atmosphere, with slightly higher concentration of oxygen in the mix. It flags a potential hazard for fire in such a condition. Rad count reads well below the banana equivalent dose. Humidity level is arid, but not dangerous.

The growth of mushrooms thins, but the stalks grew far thicker, and correspondingly the fruiting bodies grew taller. In the distance to the south and east, a particularly large stalk had something with abnormal, regular geometries flying from it. It looked a lot like a worn flag when scrutinized.

The structures do not appear man made, though he can see where tools have shaped them, the flag is supported by a badly corroded metal pole, and while tattered to the point of just being a few scraps, still maintains enough shape to look like a flag. While it has been bleached off white by the sunlights where flag meets the pole is dark, near black. It was old and impossible to tell what color the flag had been from this distance.

As you press deeper into the fungus, there was that ever preset gnawing sensation at the back of your mind like you were being watched. It was accompanied with a quiet yet clear music, it sounded like smoldering, barely constrained rage. Though you could not hear it, as it was in your head, it was coming from Veronica. The soft chanted "voice" in it had the same timbre as her voice.

Quiet as it was inescapable. The more you tried to tune it out, the louder it seemed.

As you drew closer to the structure tell-tale signs of violent conflict was evident. Stipling in the petrified fungus, like high caliber automatic weapons fire. Aged craters, like high explosive. As you came to the tower, seated at the base of the staircase, a human skeleton. Cause of death, self inflicted gunshot wound. What appeared to be a handmade pistol, still in hand, locked in his jaw. Fragments of his skull bones were on the stairwell leading up. His ribcage was horribly deformed, while it was impossible to tell what had caused the deformity it looked like bone cancer.

Mold had consumed much of the skeleton's effects. His clothing may have been a uniform, it had the cut and was made of canvas. There had been some metal on it, as evident by oxidation, but it was no longer recognizable. The handgun he carried was rusted as well, a single shot breechloader. The action had rusted shut, but it was easily identifiable as holding a centerfire cartridge. Familiar, yet alien, whoever built it had no consideration for ergonomics, its blocky shape purely utilitarian.

It was still quiet, near dead silent as the wind died down this deep in the fungus.

Messer approached and examined the body. He poked and prodded with a pen for a few minutes and sighed. "Male, in his seventies, looks like he had been syphillitic, and some kind of tumor grew in his bones. I could do a necropsy, but these are old bones. Decades old." Something caught his eye on the steps and he picked it up. A piece of lead, smashed by extreme force, it had blossomed out like a flower before flattening. "Looks like a jacketed hollow point." Messer offered it to Donahue as he was the expert. It was indeed a hollowpoint, and Donahue didn't need calipers to identify the projectile, it was a 10mm round, he had fired tens of thousands in training. If he could examine the casing he could find out more, but the state of the handgun left it dubious if the relic would survive handling.

Donahue takes the handgun, from the skeleton and marvels at how lightweight it was considering its size. As he opens the breech it swivels easily, it could use a cleaning and oiling but the handgun was intact and he surmised it was in operational condition. The brass in the breech had been expertly handloaded, it was nearly free of corrosion and stamped in German.

It was clearly a 10mm Mauser. The barrel had been handrolled, painstakingly, and rifled by hand tools. It was well constructed and with a bit of TLC would make a fine sidearm, bearing that it was a single shot only. The most noteworthy trait of its construction was that it was not steel or aluminium, some kind of alloy.

As a matter of fact, Veronica was feeling ecstatic. While there was still a strong desire to kneel and stretch before the larger of the two suns(as if on instinct for some kind of yogic meditation), she was feeling more energetic, stronger, sharper than before. Than ever before. It wasn't the same as stimulants, which left the liver and kidneys sluggish and dirty and came with the general malaise of stressing the body. It was more akin to having slept perfectly. Regarding sleep, she felt not the slightest trace of fatigue though she had been working moderately hard for hours walking the alien landscape. Likewise, she was not hungry, nor thirsty.

Asher found the entryway to be a bit cramped, every dimension inside the carved fungus seemed just slightly too small for comfort. The dwelling, for it became immediately apparent through the furnishings that it had been someone's home, was spartan. It looked almost like it had been furnished from a magazine, though with a minimalist standard. As he entered he noted that the space had been carved, not cut. The tool marks had taken time, a precise and thought out practice. The toolmarks formed a flowing mosaic that blended all the walls and ceilings, though the floors and stairs had been scratched purposefully, the material looked quite smooth there.

The rooms had no doors. Each was separated by tapestries, though they were ruined by age the quality was evident that they held up this long. This place had been abandoned for decades, he could tell as he looked at the weathering. There were many decorations made of reed or bamboo, they were more crude, utilitarian. And the ones made of ceramic and glass doubtless made by similar craftsmen that had carved out the dwelling, having both carved ribbing, and the same puposeful scratching.

Elias saw what he would have called a stele if he had seen it on Earth. It was a magnificently carved depiction of a man and a woman. It was carved into the petrified fungus and set in a well lot area. Pottery that once contained some kind of incense trees had been in the corner so long that the incense trees themselves had petrified.

Stairs leading up to a second floor lay ahead, as well as a metal canteen that had rusted from decades of exposure. It was in better condition than the uniform on the skeleton outside. Though the leather had rotted to fragmented dust, it was clearly a Straid M31 canteen. The wool insulator was in decent shape, though badly stained from rust., The tin cup had rusted through and the cap was in terrible condition.

The couple depicted certainly seemed human. And it was obvious this dwelling was much older. Someone had discovered it and used it for shelter, that was obvious. That person had likely been the corpse at the entrance. But little evidence showed when the structure had been carved.

The stele depicted what appeared to be humans. A man and a woman. Wearing some form of ceremonial dress that was plain in adornments but well tailored. They did not dtand with authority or power, so that fairly well ruled out the depictions being some form of worship. Rather they looked welcoming and passive. The tool markings proved the sculptor had advanced understanding of materials science, but that did not narrow the window of time much. It could have been any period of human history since the neolithic era.

"Its set up a bit like a temple, or maybe a government building. Some administrative center at any rate." Justice remarked as he walked around the base level. He was touching just about everything. "Or maybe a place to have communal meals? There's an awful lot of bowls and plates."

Messer and Kowalsky begin to head upstairs. After a few moments the distinct sound of a door being rattled on its hinges. "Locked door up here." Kowalsky calls down.

The sheet metal door looked quite flimsy and Veronica was pretty sure she could break it down with little effort. She was wrong. She heard a sound like splitting wood, the door split through the wooden hinge. She carried through and felt hot intense pain in her shoulder.

It lasted mere seconds before she felt the clavicle she had broken knit itself back together. That hurt, worse than breaking it. But that too faded in moments. Now all she felt was ravenously hungry, and completely physically exhausted.

The door was open, and she was looking in a round room, directly across from her were the same meticulously carved stairs. The patterns formed a kind of mandala in this room, carved in wave pattern surrounding a black stone in the center. The stonw was well worn, four distinct indentations in the stone faced "east" at the cardinal directions, four seats, East with five steps, west with three steps, south with a single step, and north at ground level.

That 10 was a critical fail, but Veronica is super human at the moment. She broke herself opening it, but got better.

No need to take a hit. But she is extremely hungry, as in starving to death, might not even properly realize it.

Elias isn't sure what exactly the pattern is. Though from his study of various Earth cultures, he can see a distinct similarity to a courtroom or a temple.

As he examined the stone in the center of the room the indentations looked very clearly like impressions from untold thousands of knees. It was reminiscent of a Jovian ritual, Jupiter's stone. A place to swear oaths.

Then there were the seats at the cardinal directions. He saw two concentric circles and two lines at each station. Similar to many of the Earth's own sun cults. This chamber, he got the sense was a place where people were bound by law, swore oaths, married, some place where people could bear witness.

There was yet another floor above.

Upstairs, there was a most curious setup. A Feld series radio had been hacked to pieces by a shovel. The shovel was in remarkably good condition. It was made of the same alloy the door and handcannon was. The radio had corroded nearly to dust, though the pack was still holding what the shovel hadn't destroyed together. Other than the radio, a stool had been fashioned from wood, and a ropeladder had been tied off to the roof. The rope was made of shreds of bakelite plastic the years had not effected it so badly as the other artifacts. Still it was not in perfect order, it lead up to the roof of the humongous fungal dwelling.

What Asher saw flying from the flagpole made his blood freeze. Though weathered and sunbleached to near white color, the flag was black, with a green stripe running horizontal. Two stylized lightning bolts, and a skull and crossbones. Though he had not seen its likeness in a history book, it was clearly a flag of an SS Expeditionary Unit.

Asher upon close inspection can see that the pole is indeed made of the same metal alloy. It has remarkably little corrosion.

Asher sees quite far from his third story vantage, he reckoned if the slope were similar to Earth he could see about five miles. What he saw when he looked West towards the setting suns was more fruiting bodies of the Prototaxities. A gradual decline formed a basin in the lattice of mushrooms, and filling the basin was a fluid, a deep burnt orange color, with a bluish miasma wafting off of it. This continued west, southwest, and northwest as far as the eye could see. Haze swallowed up visual beyond this, even as he glassed the region.

To the north, and back to the gate he saw grasslands, blue water, an immense body of water. And to the south, volcanic regions, steaming, burning, choking the sky with pyroclast. The Gate was positioned between these natural barriers. It couldn't have been coincidence.

On the shore of the waters he could make out artificial structures. Square and rectangular shapes. A promise of civilization.

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