Irena - Part 4
Disclaimers may be viewed in the previous posts or accessed here: Disclaimers.
After the fade in noise the first sound she heard was water. To her right a fountain danced in the dim light. Buildings carved out of rock stared down onto the small courtyard with black, empty eyes. Stairways and walkways disappeared in several directions, disorienting with the possibilities they revealed. She was underground, the stalactites and stone revealed that. Looking up showed a high ceilinged pocket cavern off an enormous main cavern. The rock floor, slightly cool beneath her bare feet, was composed of intricate stone patterns worn and polished by countless feet.
Everything leaked immense age except for the orange traffic cones and the sign board near one set of stairs. "Welcome to DRC Bevin. For more info go to the classroom" was lettered on the paper with a big arrow pointing to the stairs.
The emptiness ate at her nerves. The place called out for running children and gossiping adults watching over them. There should have been smells of cooking drifting on the faint currents, yet there was only the water and a faint hint of old dust. She shivered, shrugged, and then remembering her sister's instructions, started up the stairs. It was a short flight, a short passage, and another short flight up to a wide balcony.
Looking off to the right was a wide promenade and a still waterway. In the distance a tall waterfall cascaded down the side of the cavern.
To the left, the waterway ended in a pool with fancy stepping stones and multi-colored lights. 'Where was everyone?' she wondered. 'Surely, other explorers must come here,' her thoughts continued. Shaking off the growing unease, she continued along the walkway.
The far end of the balcony widened out into a plaza with two doors into the side of the cavern and a third into a walled off, smaller room. Small glowing white marbles were scattered about on the floor, as if abandoned suddenly. Cracks and chips in the paving told of old stresses and shifts in the earth around her.
She continued on to an out of place sign on the nearest door to the left. It said "Classroom" in the same neat hand as the first sign and was held in place with one red and one blue round magnet. The door was some intricately worked, shiny metal, and it slid open when she touched the glowing blue gem in the center of it. Inside, a short hallway led into a small classroom. Desks were clustered randomly around the room. Four large sheets of paper were fastened to the front wall and a projector of some kind hummed quietly in the back. A purple notebook sat on the large table at the back of the room, in front of the projection device.
Two images alternated on the projector. The first was of a man in a hard hat wearing a light grey shirt with DRC and a logo stenciled on it. The same logo was stamped on the pages at the front of the classroom and on a placard under the viewer. Next to him was a message saying:
Are you new to the Cavern?
Please link to A Beginner's Bevin Neighborhood from the Nexus Terminal. There you will meet fellow explorers and learn more about the D'ni culture.
There will be a Restoration Engineer present to give a brief verbal tour every hour, on the hour, from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM Cavern Time (MST).
The second was of a younger man in a light grey shirt with two hands touching emblazoned on it. Around him was a text message and the two hands symbol and the word 'Greeter', shown larger in the lower right of the image. The message said:
Do you need help?
Please link to the Greeters Neighborhood from the Nexus Terminal.
Find a greeter by looking for this symbol on their shirts. (a large red arrow pointed to the two hands symbol in the image)
The purple notebook was titles "KI/Nexus" and contained detailed descriptions of how to use a device called a KI. The last section talked of a Nexus, a repository of traveling books, apparently called "Linking Books", allowing travel between various areas and places. It required a KI as an authorization device.
The pages at the front of the room contained a set of instructions for getting the KI device. Irena studied the diagram carefully and then followed the path back to the linking room, the small room separated from the classroom courtyard.
Four pedestals were set in the room, each containing an open book. She knew the one to her left, under the stained glass image, similar to the one on the pillar on her cloud island, was the one because of the map in the classroom. Before she placed her hand on the panel she walked around the room, looking at the other three books. The forward, center pedestal showed a small room with a strange mechanism on the left.
The right hand pedestal book showed a small room with a strange sort of platform in the center.
The center pedestal, on the back wall, Showed an outdoor garden under a bright blue sky.
For a few moments she wondered why only two of the books had the DRC stamp, why the garden book had no markings, and what the strange pattern on the last book was about. Half lost in thought she returned to the indicated book and placed her hand on the picture of the large stone chamber, fading out with the now familiar sound.
After the fade in noise the first sound she heard was water. To her right a fountain danced in the dim light. Buildings carved out of rock stared down onto the small courtyard with black, empty eyes. Stairways and walkways disappeared in several directions, disorienting with the possibilities they revealed. She was underground, the stalactites and stone revealed that. Looking up showed a high ceilinged pocket cavern off an enormous main cavern. The rock floor, slightly cool beneath her bare feet, was composed of intricate stone patterns worn and polished by countless feet.
Everything leaked immense age except for the orange traffic cones and the sign board near one set of stairs. "Welcome to DRC Bevin. For more info go to the classroom" was lettered on the paper with a big arrow pointing to the stairs.
The emptiness ate at her nerves. The place called out for running children and gossiping adults watching over them. There should have been smells of cooking drifting on the faint currents, yet there was only the water and a faint hint of old dust. She shivered, shrugged, and then remembering her sister's instructions, started up the stairs. It was a short flight, a short passage, and another short flight up to a wide balcony.
Looking off to the right was a wide promenade and a still waterway. In the distance a tall waterfall cascaded down the side of the cavern.
To the left, the waterway ended in a pool with fancy stepping stones and multi-colored lights. 'Where was everyone?' she wondered. 'Surely, other explorers must come here,' her thoughts continued. Shaking off the growing unease, she continued along the walkway.
The far end of the balcony widened out into a plaza with two doors into the side of the cavern and a third into a walled off, smaller room. Small glowing white marbles were scattered about on the floor, as if abandoned suddenly. Cracks and chips in the paving told of old stresses and shifts in the earth around her.
She continued on to an out of place sign on the nearest door to the left. It said "Classroom" in the same neat hand as the first sign and was held in place with one red and one blue round magnet. The door was some intricately worked, shiny metal, and it slid open when she touched the glowing blue gem in the center of it. Inside, a short hallway led into a small classroom. Desks were clustered randomly around the room. Four large sheets of paper were fastened to the front wall and a projector of some kind hummed quietly in the back. A purple notebook sat on the large table at the back of the room, in front of the projection device.
Two images alternated on the projector. The first was of a man in a hard hat wearing a light grey shirt with DRC and a logo stenciled on it. The same logo was stamped on the pages at the front of the classroom and on a placard under the viewer. Next to him was a message saying:
Are you new to the Cavern?
Please link to A Beginner's Bevin Neighborhood from the Nexus Terminal. There you will meet fellow explorers and learn more about the D'ni culture.
There will be a Restoration Engineer present to give a brief verbal tour every hour, on the hour, from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM Cavern Time (MST).
The second was of a younger man in a light grey shirt with two hands touching emblazoned on it. Around him was a text message and the two hands symbol and the word 'Greeter', shown larger in the lower right of the image. The message said:
Do you need help?
Please link to the Greeters Neighborhood from the Nexus Terminal.
Find a greeter by looking for this symbol on their shirts. (a large red arrow pointed to the two hands symbol in the image)
The purple notebook was titles "KI/Nexus" and contained detailed descriptions of how to use a device called a KI. The last section talked of a Nexus, a repository of traveling books, apparently called "Linking Books", allowing travel between various areas and places. It required a KI as an authorization device.
The pages at the front of the room contained a set of instructions for getting the KI device. Irena studied the diagram carefully and then followed the path back to the linking room, the small room separated from the classroom courtyard.
Four pedestals were set in the room, each containing an open book. She knew the one to her left, under the stained glass image, similar to the one on the pillar on her cloud island, was the one because of the map in the classroom. Before she placed her hand on the panel she walked around the room, looking at the other three books. The forward, center pedestal showed a small room with a strange mechanism on the left.
The right hand pedestal book showed a small room with a strange sort of platform in the center.
The center pedestal, on the back wall, Showed an outdoor garden under a bright blue sky.
For a few moments she wondered why only two of the books had the DRC stamp, why the garden book had no markings, and what the strange pattern on the last book was about. Half lost in thought she returned to the indicated book and placed her hand on the picture of the large stone chamber, fading out with the now familiar sound.
posted by Absynthe Grrl at 1:16 PM
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