Chapter 22 An Airplane In A Volcano

The dim light of a new day awoke them; stretching, a little achy from the not too soft sleeping spot, Nansella was soon preparing them breakfast using the solar cooker brought up to the top of the cave in debris. Geodon checked the state of charge on the battery as supplied by the solar cell aboveground; it was steadily accumulating energy, but had a long way to go before fully charged. Perhaps by this evening it would have accumulated enough energy to power the ultrasonic generator to activate a batch of sand adhesive mix, a token amount to be welded to the cave floor as a start on the first wall of the room.

This was feeling like a true vacation time, far away from the problems of the town's situation. No need to skulk around moving through the back utility paths, to escape possible memory erasure mischief from whomever. They decided to go exploring further up the stem of the main lava tube, see how far it went insofar as their light would let them. So with lunch goodies in their backpacks along with other possibly needed supplies, they were soon to the point where they had turned back before. The slope of the floor continued to turn upward to form a steeper slope, although the change was still gradual and the slope easy to walk.

The flashlight swept past an oddity in the sidewall of the lava tube, and they stopped, shone the light more carefully at what had caught their attention. A real oddity, the wall was seemingly perfectly flat and had a rectangular shape with rounded corners. Careful close examination showed a seam all the way around the flat surface, as if it was a moveable object. How could that have formed, they both said at once. Looking around the perimeter of the flat surface, no other oddity was found, no debris even on the floor in front of it. Maybe it was a creation of a bubble of just the right position. Whatever, it was quite interesting. They resumed their walk up the tunnel tube, a bit more slowly and looking more carefully at the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, but there was no repeat of the flat shape seen back there. They were so intent on inspecting the walls that they almost missed it - Nansella suddenly said to shine the flashlight at the ceiling. Geodon turned the light upward, and found nothingness - the light did not reflect off of anything. A bit of tilt on the light showed a little bit of backscatter from fine dust on the surface, apparently a very smooth walled vertical shaft, going straight up above them. Momentarily boosting the light output tenfold and narrowing the beam, still nothing could be seen of its upper reach.

Geodon switched the flashlight back to its normal beam and examined the edges of where the vertical shaft intersected the tunnel they were in. It seemed the vertical shaft was perfectly circular in section, and that cylindrical surface remained perfect as it intersected the somewhat irregular surfaces of the tunnel. Looking at the floor under the vertical shaft, no debris was found. They had found two seemingly impossibilities close to each other, a flat surface and a cylindrical surface, all within about 100 meters of each other. Unable to further explore either anomaly, they continued on up the tunnel as before, at a much slower pace, lest they miss something. But there was no need to look for small things; the cage was sitting on the bottom of the cave floor, clearly involved with another vertical cylindrical tube but smaller than the other one, this one just taking up half of the lava tube's width. In astonishment they shone the flashlight around the cage object. It clearly was no natural phenomenon's result. It was an elevator cage, no doubt about it.

They found a hinged section on the side of the cage, which then led to a moveable section in the side of the cage, a door; it swung open at the touch. Looking around in the cage, they saw an object over on the far side of the cage's floor, so they stepped through the doorway and went over to examine it. They had not quite reached it when suddenly they felt a push on their feet; they were going upward, it was an elevator car and they were on a ride in it. The elevator slowed and came to a stop. They waited for something else to happen, but nothing was happening. Gong back over to where the door was, pushing on the door, it swung open; apparently there was empty space out there, instead of more vertical shafts.. Yet the flashlight reflected off of nothing. The flashlight picked up a little reflectivity off irregularities on a horizontal surface as if a floor out beyond the door. They were worrying about how to get back where they had come from. So they stayed in the elevator car for several minutes. The pair of flashlights had only their charge and there was no way to recharge them here, once depleted. Exploring the cage, there seemed no control for telling it to go down again. Finally they got out and looked around with the flashlight; it reflected back nothing above or to the side. Setting the beam to a narrow spot, but same power as normal, Geodon slowly swept the beam around. Something reflected light off a surface exactly in the direction of the door on the elevator cage; they made a quick look back at the cage from the outside, it was a complex enough structure to be able to be seen from over there. So they walked about a hundred and fifty meters, came to a flat rectangular surface like the other one, except this one had a complex mechanism on one edge. Geodon said it looked like a latch; moving it, the flat surface began to swing outward, and they were nearly blinded by sunlight. Stepping outside, the door stayed open.

As soon as their eyes got adapted to the bright sunlight, they walked over to a nearby rise; from there they could see that this was the cone of an extinct volcano. They could see far from there; walking around a bit, they found where they could see the vast lake off in the distance, and then could see a bit of Geodon's lake too. The row of pylons was visible, a half dozen of them including the terminal one at the big lake. Geodon made a sketch of the angles to the lakes and pylons from here; he ought to be able to identify which volcanic peak this was, from down there.

Speaking of down there, Nansella commented, I would like to be down there soon, as we only have food for one meal. Looking down the steep slope of the cone's exterior, it seemed unscalable and then only dropped into the generally impassable lava ripples that was impassable by anything except helicopter. wondering why PE would have made this place here and then abandon it; they had never heard of that activity; but PE did not tell people anything other than what the people needed to do to do their job, so that was not surprising.

Exploring all around the fairly flat surface of the volcanic peak, they found little of interest. Going back to the open door, and peering into the blackness beyond but now somewhat lit by the sunlight streaming in through the open door, they could see the elevator cage directly opposite the doorway to the outside; the floor in there was amazingly flat, again seemed no natural phenomena, yet the technology for making it was something Geodon had never seen among PE's works. Then they saw another object off to the side, it was near the wall of this giant room. Glancing back at the outer door, which seemed to be staying open, they walked over to the object, which began to take shape more; it was as black as the lava of the walls, yet it was of quite complex shape, clearly man made. Up close, it appeared to be a winged aircraft, streamlined, clearly intended to fly through the atmosphere; yet it had no helicopter rotor, just the wings. It was apparently like the airplanes of Old Earth, which would stay aloft only when in fairly rapid forward motion; not a useful thing on this planet which had no runway on which to land. Or take off. What was it doing here inside a room carved inside a volcanic cone?

Geodon began looking around for the communicator so they could call PE to come rescue them, but no communicator was found. They had gotten hungry, so they went back outside, found a place to sit down, and Nansella unfolded the solar cooker and warmed some hot brew for them, and they ate their prepared snacks. By then the brew was hot so they sipped it; it was not as cool out here as in the underground areas, but the air was a bit chilly, winter had not fully left here yet.

Rested and no longer hungry, they returned to further inspect the airplane. It too had a section with the odd hinges; opening it, they found more of the odd shapes like the one that was in the elevator car. They put one of them into Nansella's backpack, where the snacks had been and now had some empty space. Still no PE communicator was found inside the aircraft; however, searching further back in the airplane, all they found was that the sides had lots of indents and each of them had more of the odd shaped things which had been placed in them. There were more complex items in one area, but everything was made out of a material which seemed much like Geodon's spoons.

"Your spoons and tableware," Nansella began chatting. "There has been no available items made like them except as made of metal. Didn't you invent the process for making the small, highly detailed spoon and forks?" The shapes in here were of what seemed that same obsidian material yet were of greater detail than anything Geodon or Nansella had ever made. This was not making sense; if PE could make such things, why were they being such a nuisance regarding what Geodon was making? There were too many things making no sense to them. Deciding that they had better go see if the elevator could be gotten to work to take them back down, they got over to the elevator and went through its door, and began to use the flashlight to examine things in more detail, when they noticed that light was getting dim; looking over at the big door in the side of the room, it was closing and then was closed; and they were in darkness again except for the flashlight. And suddenly they were slowly falling; the cage was going down. Geodon said it must be triggered by the weight of things getting in and out of the elevator car. Standing there motionlessly in the dark, only lit by the flashlight's streak of light, down and down they went. Then it stopped. Quickly they moved over to the cage's door and got out; looking around with the flashlight, this appeared to be where they were when they had gotten into the elevator cage. They did not know how many floors this elevator went to, so either this floor was the one in which they had arrived, or a very similar one. They headed down the way they had come, and soon found the flat door in the wall; it looked like they were on their way back home. And both of them had had quite enough adventure for one day already.

It seemed like a longer walk back to their campsite at the opening in the lava tube, but eventually they got there. It was already getting to be dusk, so they turned on the little LED lamp powered by the battery that had been partly charged by the day's sunshine; the little area seemed almost like home, furnished with the clutter of objects they had brought there. Most inviting of all was the comfortable looking bedroll. After dinner they quickly got into the bedroll; but they left the little LED light glowing, it would not use much of the energy in the battery to stay on all night. And their day had been a bit too strange; something about it all was not making sense. Maybe it would look better in the morning.

Another awakening the next morning, even more stiffly than the previous one spent on the same hard floor. Nansella went up with the solar cooker to prepare breakfast; Geodon brought up the daypack she had used on the excursion yesterday, as he wanted to look more carefully at the object that they had retrieved back there in the airplane. Finding a fairly flat place near where she was cooking the food, Geodon set the thing on the flat area and got his first close look at it. His first impression was that it was of incredibly fine detail, still very black in color, but of intricate shapes far beyond anything he could hope to make. But what the thing was for, what it did, was not yet apparent to him. He thought he had seen about all the kinds of tools used in manufacture in the cities by PE workers; this one did not look at all like any of them. It must have been a shipment of them that somehow got lost here.

Nansella called to him, inviting him over for a tasty breakfast, here in the warm morning sun. It was peaceful and quiet, a place to relax and enjoy the meal. When the conversation got around to what Geodon had found out about the object, he said it was some kind of tool, but he had not figured out what kind yet. Inviting her to come look at it, he found that it was not where he had set it down. Or thought he had set it down there. Then he spotted it a few meters off to the side, that was odd. Nansella said for him to stop, look; the thing is moving. And it was, ever so slowly. It is a solar powered machine, Geodon announced. The sunshine indeed seemed to be powering its movements; what a clever device. He went to pick it up to put it back on the flat area, but the object changed its direction and was moving away from him. But slowly. The little odd lever shapes on its surface were propelling it across the surface. Nansella said it almost looked alive. As the thing again changed course to avoid Geodon from picking it up, Geodon suddenly stopped. "It is alive." he said slowly. A living robot, something he had read about in a fiction story once long ago.

They watched the robot moving slowly and methodically along, seemed to be exploring the perimeter of the flat area, the furthest away from Geodon and Nansella. We need to watch this thing, or we will lose it, Nansella declared. It did not seem able to go beyond the fairly flat area, however. The system of small levers and cams along its underside did not seem to be designed to be able to propel it beyond a flat surface. It was trapped in here; but if it got down into the tunnel, it might go a long way. But in the tunnel there was no sunlight to energize the little robot. Deciding it was a toy for children, they left it there while they went back down to work on their room project

Geodon was looking at the small start they had made on the wall, only a few cubic centimeters in size, and he was thinking about lugging sand and adhesive all the way for months to build the room. Then he thought that maybe he could use a slurry of sand and adhesive to glue chunks of the fallen rock shards, building a wall faster that way. So he climbed up to the top of the pile and began searching for lava fragments that sort of fit together He stacked them up loosely into the shape of a wall, setting a large number of rocks that had not fit there but might later. Occasionally Geodon would look over at the toy robot, which seemed to be motionless now. Except that wherever Geodon went, looking at the robot, the same side of the robot was facing him. Geodon then deliberately moved around, watching the robot, and indeed, it was moving to keep the same side of the robot always facing Geodon. What a cute robot, he thought. Almost like a pet. Maybe it would make friends with the pair of young rabbits Geodon had down in the wheat part of his lake's agricultural area.

He and Nansella succeeded in getting a few square meters of a room wall cemented in place, by the end of the day. The sun had gone down by then and since they had used up their food, it was time to head back to cave number three. Remembering the little robot, Geodon went up to get it; in the dark, it no longer moved to face him nor try to escape. Geodon put it in his now empty backpack for the walk home. They brought all the equipment back down except the solar cell array, hoping to not attract attention of any helicopter that might pass by here, unlikely that seemed to be. The solar cell was about the same color as the lava, most likely hard to spot from a distance.

Then with the path illuminated by the remaining charged flashlight, he and Nansella headed back to artificial cave number three, carrying their bedrolls; some trip soon they intended to bring over more bedrolls; but for now, these were the best they had, only a bottom cover had been left behind at cave number three. But that was going to make tonight a much softer sleep, for sure.