Page 30 of Rebirth

The chamber is filled with thick veins. Pulsating cords of deep red winding through the rock and emitting a deep vibration, almost like a heartbeat in its rhythmic thumps. The veins branch into a tangled web covering every surface of the cavern, looking like the circulatory system of some unfathomable being.

I step forward in wonder and apprehension, my light flickering over He’rox’s pale form as he strides ahead without hesitation. The red veins thrum with power and strange energy prickles across my skin. This technology…or whatever it is, was left by them. And even though they’re no longer here, it lives on. Thriving. Surviving.

How?

Somehow I know, whatever answer we find won’t be one I like, but probably the one I anticipate the most. My father’s warnings ring in the back of my mind while the promise of discovering what this is wars with a knot of fear in my gut.

He’rox stops right at the edge of the veins that crawl along the floor, eyes glowing with the light from my beam. “This place holds power,” he says.

Yep. Exactly what I want to hear.

I step up beside him, fighting a shiver.

“We need to take some samples.” I’m already reaching into my backpack, eyes surveying the walls around us as I take out a test kit filled with a sterilized scalpel, syringe, collection tubes, pH strips, and other basic equipment for field sampling. If I can collect tissue, liquid, and samples from these strange veins and the surroundings, it may provide clues about their composition and purpose.

I move slowly toward the nearest vein, hypnotized by the pulsing liquid flowing through its alien circulatory system. The vein is as thick as my arm, its surface smoother than glass.

“Do you think it’s safe?”

A long silence. “Safe is…relative.”

I want to tell him he’s freaking me out more than helping but then I remember he can smell my fear. He already knows.

He crouches and I follow him, swallowing a lump in my throat at the unnerving beat of the “heart” around us.

Reaching forward, I almost jump out of my skin and stab him with the scalpel as his hand suddenly closes around my wrist.

I swallow hard again. “What is it?”

The feel of his skin on mine sends a rush of warmth through me, despite the chill of our surroundings, and I struggle to understand my response. To reconcile it with the person I know I am.

I meet his icy gaze, struck again by his unearthly beauty and the strangeness of this moment. Those two tentacles at the sides of his mouth curl with my attention and I forget I need to breathe.

“What is it?” I repeat, whispering this time.

He’rox releases my wrist slowly and I hate that I am aware of the fact he’s letting me go.

“This technology…senses beyond the physical. Your presence may have unforeseen effects.”

“What?” I blink at him. He’s saying… “You’re saying this…thing…has some form of consciousness?”

More silence. And then… “We seek to understand it…but it may end up understanding us, instead.”

His warning echoes through me as I turn my gaze back to the structure surrounding us. Because it is a structure. Pulsing. Expansive.

I realize at this moment that things will never be the same. The world I knew is changing. Has changed. I can only hope humanity will change with it…and survive.

Swallowing hard, I meet He’rox’s icy gaze. My voice emerges in a hoarse whisper. “Where do we even start?”

The veins pulse around us, hinting at something I, humanity, was never meant to grasp. I can’t escape the feeling this place is just the tip of the iceberg. That there is more to come. That this is nothing compared to what we’ll soon discover.

Even with my father’s teachings, the future has never felt so frightening.

“Here,” He’rox says, long thick fingers closing over mine as he takes my test kit from my hands.

With smooth dexterity, he takes a sample off the top of one vein, scraping it so lightly and with such care, he doesn’t break the surface.

“You must not touch it,” he says.

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