Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) (15 page)

Anna, Jason, and the scientists sat huddled together for what felt like hours, while Cooper reclined nearby with his pistol trained on them. The only sounds Anna heard were their own breathing, occasional shuffling while somebody adjusted their position, and a distant drip of water, which Anna deduced was on the far side of the cavern. She rubbed her arms and, for the first time in a long time, thought about donning something other than the sleeveless leather top she wore; the temperature in the cavern was a little lower than comfortable.

Anna stared into the darkness, lost in thought. She focused on their current situation and thought back over her words and actions. Could she have said or done anything different that would have had a better result and not trapped them below the pyramid? What secrets could possibly lie behind the door inside the pyramid that had never been opened? Could the key to solving their problem be there?

An elbow jabbed into her ribs, pulling Anna’s wandering mind back to reality. Jason was pointing at Cooper. She saw that his head had lolled to the side and he had loosened his grip on the pistol.

Anna placed a finger to her lips and slowly stood up. She stepped carefully toward the sergeant, alternately shifting her eyes from him to the uneven floor ahead of her. It was not easy to watch her target given the low green light, but her determination to get the gun out of Cooper’s hand fueled her bravado.

A sharp breath from behind caused Anna to stop. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Tomomi. The scientist had been sleeping a moment ago. Now, she stared at Anna with wide eyes, her hand cupped over her mouth.

Anna froze and stared unblinking at Cooper. Expecting him to awaken, her muscles tightened as she crouched, preparing to dive back toward her seat if he stirred.

Hearing Tomomi’s deep breathing return after another moment, Anna stood again and breathed easily before resuming her cautious approach. Remembering the pistol still holstered in her tool belt, she contemplated readying the weapon to defend herself should Cooper wake up. She decided it would be best to be prepared, slowly drew her pistol, and kept it trained on the slumbering sergeant.

Step.

Anna could now hear Cooper’s soft breathing as he slept. Though he did not stir, he appeared as if he could spring into action at any time. She renewed her grip on her pistol. Was she breathing? She could no longer tell.

Step.

Cooper’s weapon was almost within reach.

Step.

Anna crouched next to Cooper and reached for his pistol. She kept her own aimed at his head. As her fingers slid over the pistol, Cooper inhaled sharply and squirmed. Anna jumped, almost reflexively squeezing off a shot. She steadied her hand, but her heart continued to race so hard she thought each beat echoed within the cavern. Her eyes, wide and alert in the dim light, locked on Cooper’s face for any sign of him waking up.

To her relief, Cooper settled back down and returned to sleep. Anna turned her gaze to his pistol, closed her grip on it, and slowly lifted it from his hand. Once it was clear, she stood and stepped backwards while watching him. Confident that he slept on, she returned to the rest of the group.

As Anna sat down, she looked at the weapon. She mentally kicked herself. Its digital displays were lifeless. She could not believe she had forgotten the EM field. While mentally kicking herself, she handed the dead firearm to Cary, who took it and shrugged after looking over the pistol for a second.

Jason leaned toward her ear. “What do we do now?”

She looked back at him. “I’m going to scout the caves while the rest of you wait here and keep an eye on the sergeant.”

“I want to go with you.”

“No, I’ll move faster alone. Besides, you’re the only other uninjured person here. You need to stay and help the others.”

Anna patted him on the shoulder and smiled before rising to her feet. She pulled two light sticks from Anderson’s jacket and sneaked to the lower exit from the chamber.

* * * * *

Jason turned to Cary and Tomomi, both of whom stared at him with questioning looks. He mimed his message to them, only to receive confused looks in return. As he started again, Tomomi’s face changed, showing she had figured it out, and she whispered something into Cary’s ear. He nodded knowingly and beckoned for Jason to lean in close.

“Next time,” said Cary in hushed tones. “You don’t need to be all secretive about it. Just let us know that Anna had to use the restroom. It’s no big deal.”

* * * * *

Anna drew another arrow on the cave wall with the rock she’d picked up shortly after leaving the rest of the group. It pointed back the way she had come, so that it could lead her back to the group.

Over the last several minutes, Anna’s task had been relatively easy. The passage in the rock that led downward from the cavern curved around gradually but did not branch off. She figured it would have to divide at some point.

Fate must have listened to her; Anna encountered a three-way intersection several steps later.
The main passage continued straight forward. But, another passage branched off and spiraled down and to the right, while another narrow tunnel led directly upward. Anna examined the walls of the shaft. She thought she could climb it, although with some difficulty. She did note, however, that no air seemed to be coming down the shaft as she stood below the entrance, and the glow from her light stick did not reveal any deviation in the passage’s direction. She believed the shaft was worth investigating, even as she doubted it led directly to the surface. She paused to put on the knee pads stored in her tool belt before beginning her ascent.

Several minutes passed while Anna
scaled the pipe. She was glad it was narrow enough for her to brace herself from time to time, which she now did. She braced herself against the wall behind her with her feet and wiped the sweat from her brow. The shaft felt warmer now. She thought she could see either the top or a turn the illumination from the light stick did not clarify which. Anna took a deep breath and set off again.

Anna reached the top in no time. It was solid stone. She reached up and pushed against it, but it did not budge. Her fingertips came away damp. With a frown, she climbed back down to the intersection.

Anna dropped to the floor and looked up again as she ran her thumb across her fingertips. They were dry!

“That’s odd. The cave isn’t that warm. They should still be wet,” she mused out loud.

She crouched and examined the tunnel’s floor. No water. Despite the fact that her arms ached from the climb, she scrambled back inside. About halfway up, she caught a water droplet fall past her out of the corner of her eye. She returned back to the bottom of the pipe.

She scrutinized the floor on her arrival, but did not find the telltale wet spot where the water would have landed. Puzzled, she looked straight up the tunnel. “Where did you go?”

She waited for several minutes for another drop of water to fall out of the opening, but none came.

“This makes no sense,” she said before ascending the shaft yet again. “And, I really need to find an easier way to climb this.” She grunted, trying to ignore the burn in her arms and legs.

When she reached the halfway mark again, she braced herself and pulled a rag from her belt and draped it over her legs. She planned to wait for several minutes, so she rested as best she could while taking a sip from her canteen.

Just as her legs felt as if they were about to give out on her, a drop of water impacted with the rag. She immediately snatched the rag up and scrambled back down the shaft, pausing every few meters to check that the rag remained wet. The stain was there all the way down, but as she fell through the opening into the intersection again, it appeared to evaporate, leaving the rag bone dry. She stared at the cloth for a few seconds. What could cause such a phenomenon?

“It’s a hologram!”

Anna stuffed the rag back into her belt and reached for the shaft again but stopped. Her current capacity for examining the suspected hologram was about as good as that of somebody from the Dark Ages. Without the proper tools to examine it, the end of the tunnel might as well be real stone.

She sighed, disappointed, and drew a star on the wall by the entrance to the shaft. She looked up it one last time before turning and resuming her expedition. She chose the straight path and ventured down it after marking an arrow just inside the opening.

She had walked along the new passageway for barely a minute, when it abruptly curved to her right and downward. Perhaps the sergeant was right; the tunnels did not lead to a way out. She leaned against the rocky wall and examined what she knew so far of the underground labyrinth. Only the vertical shaft held any hope of providing an exit. These other passageways led deeper into the moon. Her memories of the network of caves she had wandered through almost a decade ago were hazy at best, the most prominent being of the pain from her broken leg. One thing she did recall was that the passage that had come to a dead end had also dripped water from the ceiling.

Water dripping from the ceiling…

Noting the similarities between the tunnel she had first discovered and the most recent one, a startling revelation struck her.

“Could it be that the exit was there the whole time?”

Her lips creased into a smile that widened.

Almost squealing with delight, Anna turned to dash back to the rest of the group, but halted in her tracks. “Better mark this spot, just in case.”

As she stepped next to the far wall and placed her left hand on it to steady herself, the activation light on her wristcomp, now glowing, grabbed her attention. She stared at the device, then gasped. She was outside the EM field.

She tapped the communicator button and opened her mouth to speak, but stopped in shock. The rock wall in front of her shimmered and disappeared to reveal more tunnel leading further along its original straight path.

Excited, but now wary, Anna looked down the new piece of tunnel, unsure of whether to venture further or not. She looked back over her shoulder toward the cavern. The group depended on her finding a way out. She didn’t want to let them down.

She turned back to the new portion of tunnel. After ten years of living in solitude with only occasional interactions with the strange beings who visited the moon, she finally had a possibility of learning more about them. Her heart leaped at the chance to find them.

But, what if they didn’t want to see her? After all, their isolationist behavior in the past had made relations with them unreliable. Only the one scientist and his companion had been open and friendly toward her. Would they be there to greet her? Would anybody be there at all? Where would they be anyway?

Anna looked behind her again. Should she take the chance at meeting with the other life forms while trying to find their escape route, if that was where this tunnel led? The tunnels she had already checked all led to dead ends or areas that could not be explored while the EM field was in place. The others guided her further down and were less likely to lead to a surface entrance. This was her best option.

Anna removed her flashlight from her belt and turned it on. She grinned at the bright beam that penetrated the darkness ahead. She dropped the light stick on the ground in front of the cave entrance, hoping it would serve as a clue, if anyone followed her down the tunnels, as to her whereabouts. She took a deep breath and stepped into the tunnel.

Hunter ran down the pyramid steps and on to the stone terrace surrounding the large, ancient building. Pivoting on his foot, he bolted for the officers’ tents. He almost tripped during the sudden turn, but managed to keep his footing. He sped past the unsuspecting scientists and soldiers, who paused their activities to watch him.

Todd screeched to a halt in front of the captain and his lieutenants moments later, sweaty and out of breath. He saluted and stood at attention for the scant seconds it took for the captain to return the gesture.

“Report, soldier.”

“They’re…dead, sir. Lt. Kriegler…Hicks…Ramage…the whole squad, sir.”

“What? What in the hell happened, private?”

“I…don’t know, sir. One minute…they were talking…and the next…silence.” He was out of breath.

“Why aren’t you dead?”

“Pardon…sir?”

“Where were you, when the rest of the squad perished?”

“I…was investigating…the walls…outside of the room…lieutenant’s orders…sir.”

The captain fell silent for a few seconds. His brow furrowed while he rubbed his chin.

One of the lieutenants interrupted, “Sir?”

“Private, go have a seat over there. Take a breather.”

“Yes, sir.” Hunter saluted.

After Hunter moved away, the captain turned to his subordinates, “This sounds fishy to me. Buckley, call a couple of MPs up here to take the private into custody for further questioning. Basta, assemble an assault team. I don’t care what kind of collateral damage is done to that god-damned pyramid. We’re getting our people out.”

* * * * *

A low moan escaped Cooper’s lips as he stirred from his nap. He was fully awake a couple of seconds later, momentarily confused by the dim surroundings but recalled that he was trapped underground
moments later. Cary sat several meters in front of him, holding a pistol. Tomomi slept next to Cary on the hard ground, using her backpack as a makeshift pillow. Neither Anna nor Jason were in sight. It was then he realized he no longer held his sidearm.

“What the…” He tried to sit up, only to find his movement hampered by the rope tied around him, pinning his arms to his chest and his ankles together.

“
Jane!
” He struggled against his bonds, but a harsh reminder from his broken arm stopped his movements. He heard the crunch of footsteps on loose rock behind him. He craned his neck to view the source of the sound and cursed under his breath.

Jason stood a few strides behind Cooper and was staring at him. He held the rifle in his hands, relaxed and casual. The deadpan expression on his face told the sergeant nothing he wanted to know.

“If you’re referring to Anna, she’s not here.”

“Where is she, Fuller? And, untie me, you reckless asshole!”

“Now, sergeant,” Jason chided. “Calling me names is not going to get you what you want. Ever heard the phrase ‘you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar’?”

“Maybe we need to remind him who’s in charge now,”
Cary suggested.

“No.” Jason swung his rifle upward and rested it on his shoulder. “I think he’s smart enough to know that by seeing who’s holding the hardware.”

Cooper squirmed against the rope with his good arm for a few seconds, until Cary stated, “I really don’t think you’re going to get out of that. I was a Boy Scout as a kid, and I’m really good with ropes and knots. You see, I secured the rope with a constrictor knot, so I don’t advise struggling too much. You might hurt yourself even more.”

“You son-of-a-bitch! How are we going to get out of here, if you have me hog-tied like this?”

Jason replied with almost no emotion behind his words. “We don’t.”

“What?”

“We wait for Anna to come back.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“A while,” Cary said. “It’s kind of hard to keep track of time down here without our watches working.”

Cooper narrowed his eyes, hurling silent curses at them. “And, what if she doesn’t come back?”

“She’ll come back.” Jason’s reply was prompt.

“Are you sure?” Cooper’s voice became smooth. “What if she doesn’t?”

“She will. I know she will.”

Cary stood suddenly, and looked at something in the darkness behind the two other men. “Guys, what is that?” he
asked as he pointed at something behind them.

Jason and Cooper turned and peered into the inky black, quickly locating three yellow glowing orbs floating close together in a triangular formation. A few seconds later, they blinked.

Jason’s next words were cautious. “I think we are about to have a close encounter with one of the natives.”

“They really do exist?” Cary asked.

Jason slowly braced his rifle against his shoulder and aimed it at the three eyes. “It appears so.”

Cooper, watching Jason’s actions, leaned toward him. “Boy, what are you doing?”

“Protecting us.”

“You really should…”

“No,” interrupted Jason. “I can handle this.”

He aimed, reassuring himself under his breath that he could kill the beast. He took a deep breath, squeezed the trigger, and…

Click!

Jason’s expression changed to disbelief. He removed the rifle from his shoulder and looked at it dumbfounded. He returned it to firing position and pulled the trigger again. “What’s going on?”

Feeling smug, Cooper answered, “Remember? Technology doesn’t work right now.”

Jason glanced back at the distant eyes, horror settling over his features. “Oh, shit.”

* * * * *

The dark, rough-hewn corridor continued on. Anna wondered how long it would continue. Despite making wide sweeps with her flashlight, she saw nothing new. She hoped something would change to indicate that she was not on some “wild goose chase”.

Anna found herself humming a tune she had picked up several months ago from Kate’s library on the ship. It had surprised her that the song was by a group she had disregarded before leaving Earth. “I guess Ryan had at least one redeeming quality,” she mused to herself.

Mention of his name sent Anna’s thoughts back to the time she had spent with him on the mining station. She remembered the time she had first seen him when he had hailed the station on his arrival, with his dark, unkempt hair and five-o’clock shadow. He had been so sweet for most of his time on board, from her first face-to-face encounter with him to the picnic lunch on the command deck to the time she had been hurt while he had flown her to the different planets orbiting g Lupi. Even during that one time when they had sex, he had seemed more interested in her needs than his own. His touch had been so gentle, and he had not rushed through it like many other men.

“Why did he have to go and ruin it?” Her question echoed within the tunnel. She had no idea how far-reaching the events of the following day would be. They impacted her even now, since they had left her marooned on the earthlike moon for a decade.

Anna spotted something ahead down the tunnel. Though it was still some distance away, it looked like a metal wall closed off the path ahead. This was confirmed as she drew near to it. Remembering the hologram, she touched the wall with her hand and found it to be solid. She tucked the flashlight under her arm and toggled the communicator on her wristcomp as she had done previously. When the channel was opened, multiple seams, which spiraled out from the center of the wall, appeared in the metal. Half a second later, they expanded into a circular opening, accompanied by a noticeable hiss.

Anna smiled as she grasped her flashlight again and stepped through the doorway into another stretch of corridor that extended beyond the range of her light. This time, however, the walls, floor, and ceiling were fashioned from a bluish-gray metal she did not recognize. And much like the door behind her, which sealed shut shortly after she had passed through it, all of the surfaces were featureless.

“I somehow doubt this place will have any obvious doors.” Her voice rebounded off the walls. She kneeled, brushed her fingertips across the floor, and brought them up to eye level to examine them. “No dust. Interesting.”

Anna stood and walked several meters from the door. She stopped and activated her communicator, expecting a door to open nearby. Nothing happened. She sighed and continued down the hall, stopping to open and close a channel every dozen steps.

A few minutes passed with no results, until Anna heard a loud hiss to her left after pressing the button on her wristcomp. She snapped her gaze toward the sound and watched as seams expanded to form another circular doorway that led into darkness. She swept her light through the opening to reveal a room in which several backless stools were positioned along the far wall. She stepped inside, compelled by curiosity more than anything else.

The door closed a few seconds after she passed through it. She stepped up to one of the stools and, seeing nothing out of the ordinary about it, sat down. As soon as she shifted her body weight to the seat, a hologram appeared, originating from the wall an arm’s length away. A message in a blue script she did not recognize was displayed above a green circle, which displayed an image of a hand with three fingers and two thumbs on opposite sides of the hand from each other.

“Palitsa,” a deep voice uttered from the behind the hologram.

Anna flinched, startled. Her curiosity, however, meant that she studied the holographic projection for a few seconds. She found several similarities to the interface on her ship.

“Palitsa.” The voice repeated the unknown word.

“I wonder if it wants me to login.”

Anna held her hand in front of the display and positioned her hand as best she could to match the image in front of her. She concluded after a few attempts that emulating the image perfectly would involve breaking her pinky. She gave up trying, shrugged, and passed her hand into the image.

As she did, the green circle turned blue. “Palitas tik fa Anna Foster. Livo thran fenta.”

The hologram disappeared for a brief second, and a larger image replaced the first one. All of the text was in the same lettering as before, and the voice added, “Sintas vasa abil malas.”

Anna was still trying to figure out how this alien system knew her name, let alone that it had just, seemingly, granted her access. Her gaze darted to various points on the hologram. She could not read the language or understand what was being said. How was she supposed to do anything with it?

She sighed with frustration. “I wish you spoke English.”

“Language selection accepted.”

Anna recoiled. “What the hell? How did you do that?”

“Your statement was interpreted as a request to change the language settings at this terminal. Do you wish to return to the previous language setting?”

“No!” She blurted out her answer while shaking her head. “This one’s fine.”

“Please make your selection.”

“Change the text language to English.”

“Unable to comply.”

“Why?”

“No written component is on file for the selected language.”

“How did you learn English?”

“Language database was obtained through the subject named Anna Foster.”

Anna balked. Thoughts flooded her mind, mostly questioning when and how she had provided them with the information.

“Uh,” she hesitated as her mind raced through many questions. What should she ask first? “What information do you have on Anna Foster?”

“That information is classified.”

“Classified?” She creased her brow as her mouth pressed into a thin line. “I can’t even read about myself?”

“No. Please make your selection.”

She waved away the response. “Fine, whatever. What information do you have on the beings that created you?”

The display produced a picture of one of the tripedal beings she had encountered at various times over the last decade, along with lines of unreadable text beside it.

“Could you please read the descriptive text next to the image?”

“Race: Altiki. Trinomial Name:
valdo
sandanas trelini
. Data subcategories available are biological, cultural, historical, and psychological.”

Anna was tempted to delve further into the information about the beings…the Altiki. She wanted to find out more about them. In particular, why did they visit the moon from time to time? But, her current mission to find a way out of the caverns nagged at her, and she did not want to ignore Jason and the rest of the group, as there were wounded.

“What can you tell me about this facility?” She wondered if that phrasing might get answers to both of her questions at once.

The hologram produced a map, complete with labels and a red dot Anna assumed was her current location. A cursory glance told her she was near its center.

“This facility was constructed after the area was rediscovered over 7E.B3 local orbital cycles ago by an Altiki survey team. Its primary purpose is archaeological research. Its secondary purpose is xenobiological research.”