The four stood right outside the entrance to the temple. The huge towering pillars that held up the main face of the cliff were half sunken into the sand with cracks and chips covering their surfaces. Across the top of the entrance, strange alien symbols were carved into the stone and ran from the bottom right all the way to the top and around to the bottom left. The deep red stone cast eerie shadows on the ground, almost like a huge monster waiting for them.
Once again Fischer found himself standing with his head up and his jaw down, dumbfounded at the sheer size of the ancient ruins.
The entrance seemed to be split into a few different layers. The first and most outer layer reminded him almost of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, huge columns that supported the ceiling. The second layer was carved out of the inside of the temple and was slightly smaller and narrower than the first. It constricted the opening down to a hallway that was just as high, but much narrower. Even still, Fischer estimated it to be at least ten meters across and an easy thirty meters high.
The final layer was the last one the group could see and seemed to be the innermost part of the temple, the one that continued on into the cave itself.
"Wow. . . just. . . I honestly don't even know what to say. . ." Kori stuttered as he gazed into the black abyss of the temple.
"How the hell has something this big remained hidden for so long?" Fischer asked, still in semi disbelief.
"Well, I'm starting to think that it wasn't hidden. People just didn't believe it was real. . . kinda like how you said your kind thinks aliens aren't real. Or anyone who does is supposedly labelled as crazy. . ." the carcan explained.
"That's a good theory. But even still. . . well I guess the galaxy is a pretty big place."
"We've only explored an estimated sixty percent of the Qalantic. It's very easy to miss things, especially when they're located on a planet like this that's so far away from any sort of civilisation." Quin said.
Fischer turned to face Quin. "Speaking of planets, how did you know this one's name if it's so isolated and away from everything? Not to mention only one of billions of other planets."
"I used to do a lot of stargazing. And I mean a lot a lot. It was my main inspiration for a lot of my artworks. That and I just find space fascinating. But if I'm being honest, I'd rather looking at stars from back home, rather than actually standing on them," she nervously chuckled.
Fischer felt a similar feeling in his gut, something just felt really off. He'd grown used to all sorts of strange things now that he was living with aliens, but even still, a new planet with a temple that wasn't even supposed to exist was about as far as he could go and then some. If those voices were still in his head, they'd be screaming bloody murder right about now.
"So. . . what now?" Kori asked, rather nonchalantly.
"Well. . . I guess we go in. . ." Fischer replied.
He looked over at Ko to see how she was doing. Her little flask of water was almost completely empty and she was panting quite loudly. The trek from the Endeavour to the temple wasn't exactly short or easy. Especially not for someone who has spent her whole life not knowing temperatures of over twenty degrees celsius.
"Hey Ko, here," Fischer said as he offered his flask to her. He hadn't drunken much and he could tell she was desperately trying to savour her water.
"O-oh, no no it's ok Fischer, that water is for you. I-I have mine here," she stuttered sheepishly.
Fischer lowered his brow. "Ko c'mon, you need it a lot more than I do. Besides, I'm not that thirsty anyway," he said, thrusting it into her hands.
Ko hesitantly took it and gave him a warming smile. "Thank you." she mumbled.
"Aww!"
Fischer turned to see Quin grinning from horn to horn at the sight of him helping his friend out. He scowled at her slightly which caused her to break into a small giggle.
"Well. Shall we?" Kori asked, waving his hand forwards.
The group all headed forwards and towards the dark entrance. As they grew closer and closer, an overwhelming feeling started to claw at Ko's nerves. Were they being watched? No, that wasn't possible, was it? This planet was supposed to be off the charts, and this temple wasn't supposed to even exist. It was probably just her nerves. She tried her best to push it to the back of her mind.
However when she saw Fischer quickly turn his head and check behind them briefly, she wasn't so sure about it being just nerves.
The four crossed the darkest shadow and now stood directly underneath the temple's entrance. The were shielded from the sun which was a nice relief, but now the unsettling darkness of the hallway began to burn through them.
"Ok. Well standing out here isn't going to help us. C'mon, this shouldn't take long. We'll be back on the ship in a couple of hours, max. Let's get it done alright?" Kori stated, trying to boost both his own morale as well as his friends'. But no speech could hide the fact that they were walking a path that had never even been seen before, let alone walked before.
Taking a few steps forwards, the dark of the hallway seemed to fade a bit, or maybe it was just their eyes adjusting to the darkness. Anyhow, the purplish red rock that formed the inside of the cave began to grow clearer as they walked further, the light from outside illuminating the inside of the temple rather well.
The hallway went on for about a hundred meters before coming to a halt. The group found themselves staring down a huge staircase that was carved out of stone. The ceiling was around twenty or so meters tall and the whole interior of the temple had drastically dropped in temperature. It was still hot, but much more tolerable than outside.
"Well, I guess whoever built this place didn't know what ramps are," Fischer jested as he looked on in awe at the giant hallway.
The group began to descend deeper into the ruins, gazing at the ancient symbols written in the walls.
"You guys understand any of this?" Kori asked as they walked through another grand hallway.
"No. It doesn't look like any language I've seen or read before. Wouldn't be surprised if this was an undocumented tongue," Quin replied, her hand gently stroking the wall.
"D-did we just discover a new language as well?" Fischer asked hesitantly.
"We've just discovered something that shouldn't exist mate, I think the language is the least of our worries right now," Kori exclaimed.
The hallway started to grow a little wider until it eventually expanded out into an enormous room the size of a rocket hangar. There were more of the same pillars from the entrance holding up the rocky ceiling, which was much more crude than the purpose build rooms that they had just passed through. The floor came to an abrupt halt a few meters in front of them, opening up into a ravine so deep there was mist that prevented the bottom from being visible. Across the ravine lay the other side of the floor which continued on into what was the main attraction of the room.
A gigantic sculpture of a four legged alien creature lay engraved into the stone, staring down at them with beady stone eyes. The creature's body formed the rest of the hallway on the other side, the entrance being carved out of its chest region. The creature bared a striking resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx with the way it was posed. Its huge paws stretched almost across the entire ravine and its raptor-like head faced the four where they stood. A long thin tail stretched from beyond view and curled up into a vicious looking scythe blade at the end.
"Holy shit. . ." Fischer began, once again lost for words.
"What the hell. . . look at that thing!" Quin marvelled.
Ko stood there, gobsmacked, seemingly unable to comprehend the sights she was seeing.
Kori however seemed less interested in the giant alien sculpture and more so the way the were going to have to get across to said giant alien sculpture.
"Uh. . . guys? I'm starting to have some serious second thoughts here," he nervously chuckled, pointing at their way across.
At the middle of the ravine, a small, thin, cracked and chipped stone bridge connected the two sides. It barely looked big enough for even two people to cross at a time and even more unstable. It looked like at any minute a chuck of it could break away and fall, sending the rest of their only way deeper into the temple careening down into the seemingly bottomless abyss below them.
The only noise that came after was the sound of an extremely nervous whimper from a certain zapher.
"Uh huh. . . alright. . . uh yea fuck that. . ." Quin confidently stated as she peered over the edge of the ravine.
"W-we h-have to-to cross. . . to cross that?" Ko squeaked.
Fischer silently nodded as he too gazed down into the pit.
"Alright. . . how the hell are we gonna go about this?" he asked.
"Wait wait, you're not seriously thinking that we're actually gonna cross that thing?" Quin blurted out.
Kori and Fischer gave each other slightly confused looks.
"Uh. . . yea. Yea we kinda have to if we wanna continue," Kori said.
Quin immediately waved her hands in disapproval. "Nuh uh, no, no way in hell we are going across that! We aren't explorers Kori! We aren't some action heroes who can make every jump! If we slip up or fall, we die!" She protested urgently.
A sickening feeling overcame Fischer as he took another look across the pathetic excuse for a bridge.
Quin was right, this wasn't some game anymore. They were actually dealing with life and death, the stakes were higher than they'd ever been before. One wrong move and one if not all of them could be lying on the bottom of that ravine, dead in an instant.
Kori crossed his arms and lowered his brow. "Quin we didn't travel across the entire galaxy and find an ancient alien temple, we didn't come this far to turn back now. C'mon, if we move slowly and cross one at a time, we should be fine."
"Fine?! Kori look at what we're dealing with right now! How can you be so sure of this! I was all aboard for helping Ko until I realised that we would literally be risking our lives for something that may not even be a thing!"
A sickening silence settled across the room as her echo died down and the other took a moment to take in what she had just said.
"Quin. . ?" Fischer asked in slight disbelief.
"Please tell me you didn't just say that,"Kori muttered, his eyes locked on hers.
She took a step back as she too realised what she had just said. Looking over at Ko, her heart sank when she saw the look in the zapher's glowing blue eyes.
"I. . . I-I. . . I didn't mean it like that. . . I'm sorry Ko, I'm not saying what you're going through isn't real, I-"
"That's exactly what you just said," Kori scoffed.
Quin's bio lights had gone from a bright red to a deep and dark blue. She blinked a few more times before rubbing her arm gently.
"I didn't mean it, it just came out. Don't get me wrong Ko, I care about you as much as anyone else here. But what we're doing is no longer fun and games. We could die here."
"It was never fun and games Quin. You think any of us are having fun watching her suffer like this?" Fischer asked with a sickening feeling in his gut.
The carcan let out a defeated and remorseful sigh.
"Fine. Just. . . just please be aware of the risks that we're taking right now ok?"
Kori replied with a sharp nod, then turned to face the bridge. Taking a deep breath in, he looked across to the other side. From the safety of the cliff face the edge looked only about six or seven meters away, definitely not too far.
But as soon as he took a step towards the bridge, it seemed like it was light years away.
"Alright, here's what we're gonna do. I'll go first since I'm the heaviest. That way we'll know if it can take our weight. Single file, one step at a time. Be sure to take slow, light steps. The last thing we want is for this thing to break because of our weight. And try not to look down alright?"
The three of them responded with a series of uncertain nods.
Kori prepared himself, taking deep breaths and clenching his fists. He stood at the end of the bridge and gazed longingly at the other side. After a few more moments of psyching himself up, he took a step.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
Fischer watched, subconsciously biting his nails in terror. The carcan was ever so slowly making his way across the bridge. So far so good, he had made it halfway.
Kori's confidence grew slightly, and he began to take bigger steps as he went, closing the gap with both ease and speed.
Reaching the other side, he breathed a heavy sight of relief and waved back to the others.
"Alright, see that wasn't too bad was it? Now who's next?"
Quin, Fischer and Ko all looked at each other nervously. But after seeing the look in Ko's eyes, Fischer found himself with a slight boost in confidence.
"Alright, I'll go," he said, walking up to run the six meter gauntlet.
With his heart beating faster than a freight train and his head spinning faster than a helicopter's blades, he closed his eyes.
He tried to push the fear to the back of his mind and instead focus on why he was doing all this. Who he was doing it all for.
Memories of himself and Ko sitting by the river of lights, stargazing, laughing together, watching movies back on Earth together, they all came flooding back.
'Do it for her,'
'Be brave for her,'
'She needs you,'
'Ko needs you, do it for her,'
'If you're going to die, die for Ko,'
He looked towards the other side where Kori stood and made his move.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Four, five six, seven.
Before he knew it, he was standing next to his big orange carcan buddy.
It was down to Quin and Ko.
In a surprising twist, Ko was the next to step up. Even from the other side of the ridge, Fischer could see just how much she was trembling. Her hands and knees were shaking like wild and she was breathing very quickly.
"Ko! Ko listen to me, listen to me alright? Eyes on us ok? Just look at me, don't think about it. Just go slowly alright? Keep your head up and go slowly. You'll be fine, if I can do it, you can too, you'll be fine ok?" Fischer called.
Ko looked down at the bridge, her heart racing like a jet. If she wanted to get these voices out of her head though, this was the only way to do it. She took a deep breath in.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Ever so slowly, she made her way across the perilous gap. Shuffling forwards, she made sure to keep her eyes on Fischer as she moved. Little grains and rocks of sand slipped and fell below as she moved, but she kept her head straight. Centimetre by centimetre she grew closer and closer until suddenly she felt Fischer's hands on her trembling arms.
Without even realising, she quickly pulled herself into his arms and hugged him, her heart still racing faster than a bullet.
"Hey, nice work blue! Ya made it look easy!" Kori chuckled.
She tried to smile back at him, but the only thing she could manage was a trembling grin.
Now it was Quin's turn. Like the others, she took her place at the edge of the bridge.
"Oh fuck this," she quivered, biting her lip. Her bio lights were now a deep shade of purple and her tail was as stiff as a wooden plank. But just like the others she began to move forwards.
Slowly making her way across, she focused on Kori standing on the other side, holding his arms out.
"You got it bud, c'mon, almost there."
'Crack!'
Quin froze, her blood running cold. She wasn't sure if that was her mind playing tricks on her or the bridge below her falling apart.
"Quin? What's wrong?" Fischer called.
His call snapped her out of her trance, figuring it must have been her head. She took another step forwards.
'Crack!'
"Quin! Don't. Move." Kori shouted, his voice running dry with fear. The looks on her friend's faces told her everything she needed to know.
She was frozen stiff, she couldn't even look down to see how bad the cracking was.
"Uhh, ok, ok ok ok, fuck, uh, alright sweety just come to me alright? Ignore the cracking, just come to me, shuffle slowly ok?" Kori frantically called with.
Ko instinctively grabbed Fischer's arms, who in turn did the same.
Quin tried to move forwards, but she was frozen with fear. He body was locked in place and the cries of her friends fell on deaf ears.
The crack in the bridge slowly started to grow larger and larger until suddenly, a chunk behind her broke off and fell tumbling down below.
This sudden realisation snapped her back into reality and filled her with a surge of adrenaline. She bolted for the edge, not caring about the fact that she was only creating more stress on the already fractured bridge. Suddenly. . .
'Crack!'
Quin felt her stomach rise. The bridge beneath her broke in two, her desperate, frantic clambering doing nothing to get her any closer to the edge. With nothing between her and the ravine but air, she plummeted downwards, screaming in terror as she fell.
Ko let out a gut wrenching cry and and Kori bolted forwards to try and catch her, but it was no use.
"Quin!"
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Artwork of Quin done by KaiThePhaux! :D