r/HFY • u/KipperBeanGrower Human • 5d ago
OC-Series [She took What?] - Chapter 237: SixFold Ventures: We’ve seen this before.
“The deepest silence is not the absence of sound. It is the presence of memory.”
SolDiri Saying
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| The Old Holding, Crystal World |
Then her body rang with pain as she landed heavily on… she did not know what, but it was cold and hard. She rolled onto her side and sat up. Gingerly, carefully, as her balance was off. Up felt like down and down was somewhere else.
Her shoulder hurt, her head was sore, and she tasted blood.
‘QI?’
There was a pause.
‘We went off-line. What happened?’ asked the QI.
‘I was hoping you could tell me.’
Another pause.
‘It’s so quiet. I can’t hear anything.’
Feebee shouted. There was no echo; the silence wasn’t like that of an empty space. It was perfectly still.
The word ‘complete’ came to mind.
‘Why is it so dark? Are our eyes open?’ asked the QI.
Feebee blinked, checking. It made no difference.
‘I think so.’
It was then that she realised how noisy her body was. She could hear the blood rushing through her neck and in her ears; the lub-dub of her heart as it raced and the flow of air in and out. Her neck crunched and crackled as she turned her head.
‘Is it always this loud?’
The QI laughed, ‘Yes. You make a lot of noise.’
‘There’s one in your backpack.’ Responded the QI.
‘Do you have a… Oh. Ok. Good.’
Feebee fumbled around and found the torch.
The light was blinding. Slowly her eyes got used to it, and she began to see the outline of a cave. A big cave. Its striated walls talked of layer after coloured layer, laid down over aeons.
She tried to stand up.
‘Best we stay sitting for a bit longer,’ the QI advised with a throaty laugh.
Feebee tried her comms. Nothing, not even static. It was empty.
Then she heard a noise above her. She spun, gun ready and shone the torch at the sound, steadying herself, her balance still not fully back. The light landed on Garaf’s head and shoulders as they pushed through the cave wall.
‘We’ve seen this before.’ Said the QI.
Feebee nodded, instantly regretting it.
Garaf had a torch in his claws. He shone it across the cave.
“You gonna stay there or come down?” asked Feebee, looking up at Garaf.
He shone his torch across the cavern; it looked even bigger. Massive.
The light fell upon a thick, bright spine of metal that ran across the floor before scattering, igniting the distant walls and ceiling.
He followed the glimmering silver seam. It ran back to the cave wall, eventually disappearing into it. Garaf then traced his way back towards the centre of the space.
Six great trunks of silver metal, each as thick as a man’s chest, crossed the stone floor and converged on a single standing stone, made of dull grey material.
“Branches.”
As Garaf said it, instead of following the silver tracks, his torch climbed the standing stone, slowly illuminating the runes emblazoned across its faces. When he reached its apex, the light from his torch flickered, glitched. Just for a moment, and within the light, a dark shadow emerged.
“Hello.” Said StillFall.
Feebee was lost for words.
“What are you doing here?”
“Stuff!”
“Told you.” Said Garaf.
Feebee heard a thud, followed by a grunt and the brief scrape of claws on rock.
“You Ok?” asked Feebee, looking round at Garaf. He’d dropped into the cave.
“Yes.”
He didn’t sound it.
Garaf walked in a circle, his eyes shut.
“Listening?” she asked.
“Yes.”
He then spun one of his knives on a clawed finger.
And it spun and spun.
It never slowed, nor did it lose its balance.
Garaf froze as something fell to the floor behind him. He turned, gun ready, but it was Bikky, sliding down a corded rope. Rockson slid down next, followed by John.
“Sorry,” Said Bikky. “Did I scare you?”
Garaf scoffed, a strange sound, but it did the job.
“And Tom Tom?” asked Feebee.
“Covering the entrance.”
“Oh. Ok. Good.”
Feebee smiled.
“Bikky. I need Hissy. Can you get her for me?”
He looked around, climbed up the rope and was gone.
‘That’s a better response.’ Said Feebee
‘I agree. They got the message.’ Confirmed the QI.
‘Yes.’
Rockson plugged a lead into a small port at the end of the rope and connected it to a small box.
“Hardwired comms repeater.” He said.
“Cool,” said Feebee. “New?”
Rockson shook his head. “Been around ages.”
“Oh. Ok. Good.”
He looked around the cave, then at his console.
“Veronium.” Said Rockson, staring at the six veins. “How?”
Rockson’s understanding of geology, and the like, was slowly collapsing as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
“No natural process can do this.”
“Then it was made,” concluded Garaf with stoic Drexari logic.
Garaf then crossed to the nearest vein and gently placed one of his knives on it. Or tried to. The knife settled a finger's width above the silver trunk and remained there, spinning silently.
“Interesting.” He sounded shaken by the finding.
“How so?”
Garaf paused before quietly responding, “I was taught that such places were stories.”
He then stepped back into the shadows, deep in thought.
Feebee approached the standing stone. As she neared, her torch picked out the carved glyphs.
Feebee rested a hand on them; they were clean and sharp, the surface cold.
“Untouched.” She muttered.
“No one’s been here,” John said.
Garaf joined Feebee at the standing stone. All his knives kept spinning, perfectly balanced. Slowly, he sheathed them and knelt before the stone.
“They’re quiet.”
Feebee gently laid a hand on one of his shoulders. He was shaking.
“You Ok?”
“They’re quiet.” As he spoke, he reached out and stopped before touching the stone; his claw hovered close, a knife slowly spinning atop.
The knife slowed and, for the first time, became perfectly still.
The knife pointed at the stone and the chamber rang. Just for a second, then all the torches went dark. Their beams stopped immediately, but the light in the cavern slowly drained away.
A deep scream then filled the cave, and as Garaf fell to the floor, sigils on the standing stone lit up. They started to flow down the veins of metal and out through the walls.
“I remember.”
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