Jaysn had been leading the way for the better part of four hours, he decided. Above them, the starless violet sky had begun to shift toward a dim azure, which brightened as it approached the horizon, though there were few opportunities to see it in the grid-like maze of buildings. They had been making their way along streets roughly parallel to the canal, which then turned more diagonally, requiring them to move up a block at a time to stay as close as possible.
It was Novik, to Jaysn’s surprise, who called for the first rest break and suggested they take it around the corner where the street met the canal to keep an eye on the number and position of the wisps riding the featureless rectangular barges down the canal. Jaysn and Novik volunteered to take first watch over Tamana and Solvig’s protests, who said they didn’t feel the least bit tired. Jaysn admired their attempts to appear relaxed on a completely flat, solid surface, both folding their coats into makeshift pillows, as they lay head-to-head against the side of a massive, triangular alien structure at least five stories tall.
He watched the street for several minutes, realized it was unlikely any harm would come to them, and slowly made his way over to where Novik was standing on the bank of the canal. The wisps, which seemed harmless enough if not provoked, had been the only movement in the city to this point, and if they were even aware of the four of them, they made no indication of this as they floated by. “It reminds me of the floating lanterns at the Yi Peng festival in Thailand,” Jaysn remarked.
“I didn’t realize you’ve been to Yi Peng.”
“I’m an anthropologist. It’s one of the oldest festivals on the planet, even if every culture has written its own version of the origin and meaning of the festival. I think most people have forgotten that it’s supposed to be about cleansing the soul and renewing your perspective on life, and see it as an excuse to interfere with local air and river traffic.”
Novik considered him for a moment. “You think that’s what we’re doing here? Interfering?”
“Hey, Dr. Tamana’s in charge of moral decisions,” he said quietly so as not to be overheard. “I’m just trying to enjoy the moment until my expertise is required, if it ever is required.”
“You don’t agree with her, though. Do you?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I know I certainly wouldn’t want to make the kinds of decisions she’s making. Did we leave three of our party behind to die? Is this really the best way to help them? Is there something more we should be doing?”
“I’ve been observing Dr. Tamana closely. She is concealing severe signs of stress and anxiety, more so since the disappearance of Dr. Clarc, Dr. Amin, and Major Wolff. She is a competent leader who has led dozens of expeditions to investigate potential extra-terrestrial life. Still, our current situation goes far beyond anything she, or anyone else, has ever encountered. If you have ideas, I’m sure she would be more than happy to entertain them.”
“Frankly, Lev, I’m doing my best to stay out of her way at this point.” Jaysn shook his head. “She knows what I’m like; how I operate. She’s been nothing but critical of my ideas and downright opposed to every suggestion I’ve made up to this point. I get the impression she doesn’t even want me around.”
“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t value your skills as a scientist and researcher.”
“Those are the only skills she has no need of on this trip.”
Novik nodded toward the barges. “You don’t think they’re intelligent, then?”
“I think ‘wisp’ is a perfectly apt name for them, don’t you?”
Novik arched an eyebrow. “I assumed it was a reference to the will-o’-the-wisp phenomenon, and not a bundle of sticks fashioned into a torch?”
“The Latin term for will-o’-the-wisp is ignis fatuus, the fool’s fire. For centuries, people thought they were fairies, spirits, or some sort of intelligent bio-luminescent animal, when really, even by the 17th century, they figured out it was a trick of phosphine buildup from decaying plants.”
“You think that’s just a chemical reaction?”
“No, they’re alive, but I’ve watched fish school, birds migrate, and sheep flock with more uniformity and complexity than those things are exhibiting.” Jaysn sighed. “I think Solvig’s on to something — a pareidolic reaction, or maybe just wish fulfillment. If that was a face I saw when I touched one of them, it didn’t look any more intelligent than a bird or a fish, at any rate. They certainly weren’t the ones who built all this, whatever this is.” He gestured at the massive buildings and canal that surrounded them.
“You’re an anthropologist. You should be used to figuring out what civilizations were like based on what they built.” Novik asked.
Jaysn scoffed. “I’ve figured out that either they are very alien, or this is no city. Dr. Solvig was right, from an efficiency perspective, the layout makes no sense. Who puts canals bisecting the middle of a city with no way to cross them? Not to mention, the city is apparently functioning despite the complete lack of a population or even the evidence that there was ever a population here.”
“What would you expect to see?”
“Some evidence that this place has been used at one point and then left behind. I don’t know, a piece of trash, abandoned transport, a trace of pollution in the air or water, or even a microbe. You’re scanning these bodies, are we aging?”
Novik rubbed his cheek with the back of his fingers. “You probably haven’t noticed because you already have a beard, but it is growing, and at a rate consistent with normal follicle growth. In addition, I can see at a microscopic level, our skin cells are also dying and falling off our bodies as they would with our old ones.”
“So, we’re leaving dust behind. Every living thing returns to dust, but I don’t see any. I think we can assume no one has ever lived here.”
“Or, the population has left, and it has been thoroughly sanitized,” Solvig said from behind them.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping, Dr. Solvig,” Jaysn said in a scolding tone.
She slowly sat up and unfolded the jacket that had been serving as a pillow. “You really think I can sleep in the middle of an advanced alien habitat mere hours after discovering it? How could anyone?” She looked over at Dr. Tamana, who, to her surprise, was sound asleep and undisturbed by the others talking. She rolled her eyes, unamused. “At any rate, I seem quite refreshed just stopping for a few moments.”
“I assure you that is an illusion,” Novik said. “Your melatonin levels are still elevated, as are your adrenaline, cortisol, and glucose levels. It will eventually catch up with you.”
“Let it,” she said defiantly and slowly got to her feet. She unfolded the jacket with one flick of her wrists and quickly donned it again. “Your next train of thought was that the architects of this place aren’t here because they’re elsewhere on this planet, possibly in those floating structures we observed when we entered. In fact, this may not be a city at all, and just another example of pareidolia that you seem to keep going back to. So, what do you think it is?”
Jaysn nodded toward the wisps floating down the canal on the barges. “If I had to guess? A zoo? A laboratory?”
“We’ve gotten stuck in the maze with the rats?” Solvig pursed her lips.
“I don’t think there are any rats. I think the snakes ate them.” Jaysn said.
Solvig smiled and laughed softly.
“All the more reason why we need to get out of here, which means finding the starting point and, hopefully, getting the attention of whoever is running this place,” Tamana said, slowly getting to her feet. “Dr. Solvig is right, sleep is going to have to wait until our brains catch up with our bodies, it seems. Dr. Katsaros, a moment, please?”
Jaysn and Novik exchanged looks, and he slowly walked over to join her, expecting the worst.
“I heard what you said to Dr. Novik, and he’s right. I do respect and value your scientific knowledge and opinions, but I also understand that this mission is completely off script, and I need everyone on the same page and willing to take orders when I give them. I’ve indulged you up to this point, making first contact with an alien species on your own and experimenting with technology, but I need you to stay focused.”
“Focused? Disha, I am very aware of the potential consequences of everything I do. It may seem like I’m off on my own, or being reckless, but if I may point out, it was Dr. Amin who got caught up in the stampede, not me. It was Major Wolff and Dr. Clarc who recklessly split the party, running off after him. I’m not–“
“I’m not talking about that. You know what I’m talking about,” Tamana hissed, inclining her head toward Solvig. “I don’t want a repeat of Procyon.”
“Disha, that’s insane. I would never–“
“I saw the way you looked at her back at the base. I see you sneaking glances at her now. I heard you flirting with her earlier. This is a team in a crisis. I need you to keep your priorities in line.”
Jaysn held up a hand. “Stop it, Disha. Whatever you may think, I’m not exactly initiating a mating ritual here in the middle of a kidnapping-slash-expedition on an alien world. I’m simply trying to make sure she’s relaxed and not overwhelmed by what’s happening here, and frankly, I’m a bit insulted you automatically assume otherwise.”
They locked eyes. Jaysn wondered if he had gone a bit too far, given the fact that he couldn’t exactly storm off and head home in the current circumstances. Still, she was behaving in a manner completely out of character for her, almost irrational. If he had seriously messed up or crossed a line, he would have expected and accepted the rebuke, but in this instance, her argument was extremely thin. Surely, she could see that.
Finally, Tamana blinked, relaxing slightly. “Fine,” she said, “just … be certain you know what you’re doing.” She stormed off to join Novik and Solvig.
“Dr. Clarc, how long are we planning on staying here?” Wolff asked. Clarc had been meticulously studying the multi-colored construct for the past two hours while he and Dr. Amin sat quietly watching. Several times, one of the wisps, or possibly the same wisp, gave her a new multi-colored rod, which she placed in the structure. Each time she placed it in a different position, suggesting completion of a different geometric structure. Each time, the wisps recognized what she was doing and completed the structure. So far, she had worked through triangles, squares, pyramids, cubes, all the way up to dodecahedra.
“Their spatial perception is extremely acute. They’re able to visually match the angles I create and intuitively see the patterns I set up in the placement.”
“Yes, but how do you use this to communicate with them?” Amin shrugged.
Clarc clucked her tongue. “I’m working on that. I need to know more about them than I do right now before I can form a basis for communication.”
“What exactly do you know right now?” Wolff asked defiantly.
Clarc stood up, annoyed with the interruption, but understanding her companion’s frustration that she wasn’t sharing any information with them. “Right now? I know they’re good at geometry.” She shrugged. “Are they still coming in?”
Amin nodded. “Slightly fewer numbers now than when we arrived. From what I’ve observed, one of them comes in, adds two, three, or five rods to that structure, and then leaves through that passageway. So far, I haven’t seen one produce more than five rods or produce more than two different colors of rod.”
Clarc nodded, processing the information, but could find no significance to it. She filed it away in her memory. “The colors could be part of a role-based or class structure. They seem only to give me yellow and green rods. It’s a pity we don’t have any recording equipment, or even Dr. Novik, with us. There might be a deeper pattern or code of some sort in the color/number combinations, or possibly in the way they’re arranged in that … sculpture, I suppose you’d call it.” She stared at it for a moment, willing it to give up its answers. “Where do they go after they’ve added their rods?”
“That tunnel there,” Wolff said, pointing to one of four identical exits at the compass points of the room. Clarc instinctively called it East, assuming they were heading north and entered from the south side of the room.
“Well then,” she said, dusting off her hands needlessly. “Shall we follow?”
Amin and Wolff both stood and followed Clarc out of the room and down a dark tunnel. The only light visible was a dim blue glow at the exit, and the ever-present glow of the wisps that moved past them as they walked. They exited into a roughly oval chamber, with lines of pulsing blue light arranged in an almost fractal pattern on the floor and walls. Around the perimeter of the room were a series of small circular platforms set in arched recesses. Blue light bathed the platforms, several shades brighter than the blue in the patterns, which Clarc thought were almost trying to direct her eye back there whenever she tried to look away.
Amin gasped and spoke very softly. “This is the first real non-linear imagery we’ve seen. This room feels almost…”
“… alive,” Clarc said, finishing the thought.
“I think you’re right,” Wolff confirmed as he walked slowly into the center of the room. “I count thirty-two platforms.”
“Why isn’t this room symmetrical?” Clarc wondered aloud, continuing to study the patterns on the walls and floor.
“Maybe they got bored with symmetry. That sculpture thing wasn’t symmetrical either,” Wolff offered.
Four wisps entered the room and walked immediately to one of the recesses and stopped. Seconds later, they turned to dust, just as the snakes had earlier.
“Well now,” Clarc said, fascinated.
“So, this is a dead end.” Amin fidgeted slightly. “Literally, I suppose for them.”
Wolff shook his head. “That can’t be right. Would an intelligent creature just voluntarily walk into death without hesitation or ceremony like that? Especially these guys, who seem to thrive on ritual behavior.”
Clarc continued staring at the platform where the wisps had stood seconds before. “Depends on your awareness of death. You’ve never heard of a religious zealot martyring themselves or the ancient Samurai who believed in death before dishonor?” She felt moisture in the air and smelled a faint hint of flora. Unfamiliar, but definitely plant life. She said nothing, but walked slowly toward the recess.
“You think this is some kind of ritual?”
Clarc paused for a second, staring at the pattern on the wall under the archway. Abruptly, it shifted, becoming a transparent threshold. A lush jungle, lit by intense daylight, appeared. She could make out leaves and branches moving in the wind, and thought she saw movement in the distance. “No, I don’t,” she said slowly, then pointed at the recess closest to the tunnel they entered through. “Dr. Amin, walk over to that platform and tell me what you see.”
Amin nervously approached the recess, stopped, and peered into it. “Nothing, just light in a weird design,” he said. “No, wait, now I’m seeing a room. It’s lit in green. There’s a glowing yellow orb on the floor in the middle of it.”
Clarc stood up, smiling, and walked to the recess immediately to her left, just as three more wisps stepped on the platform she had just left. They too vanished into clouds of dust that settled invisibly back to the floor. Clarc ignored this and stared at the wall in front of her. As before, the lines of light went transparent, revealing a new image: a rooftop. She could make out the sun on the horizon, looking more like a child’s drawing of a sun than an actual star. She saw the tops of most of the buildings in the city, with only a few of the largest structures extending above her so high she couldn’t see the tops of them.
“What are you thinking, Dr. Clarc?” Wolff asked.
“That we’re in some kind of transportation hub. I think each of these is a shortcut to another location on the planet.” She pointed to each platform, inviting the two men to look for themselves as she slowly worked her way around all thirty-two. “This group, however,” she said, pointing at a block of seven portals, “leads to some sort of wilderness environment outside the city, including the one all of the wisps seem to be taking.”
“Wilderness environment?” Wolff thought for a moment. “I seem to remember a small, roughly circular patch in the northern hemisphere that looked like a park, or maybe an oasis. Could that be where these lead?”
Clarc nodded. “It’s possible. Or it could be a similar preserve somewhere inside the city, I suppose.”
“Or it could be a trick to lure us to our deaths,” Amin said. “Remember, if that’s really outside, we don’t even know if the air on this planet is breathable. What if there’s radiation or some kind of airborne pathogens on that part of the planet, and that’s why they built this city?”
“Very nice thinking, Dr. Amin, but as always, we’re forgetting one thing,” Clarc said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
“What’s that?”
“This air is already poisonous to us, but our hosts have modified us to make it livable. Not to mention, if they wanted us dead, they could have just left us back in the cave.” With that, she gave a wink and leapt onto the platform the wisps had been using, vanishing into dust a few seconds later.
