Beneath The Dust

by NeverEatTheLemonsAlone

a.l. #003 - Doorways

ALR 662 - Audio Log #003 - Doorways

Tash and I spent a good long while just...looking at the monolithic door. It was truly an impressive specimen of doorkind; perhaps two hundred meters tall, and perfectly round. It was interspersed with ridges like ancient plate armor that centered at the bottom, making it thinner down by where we were. In the very center, pointing straight down, was a hair-thin seam. It looked like once it was opened, it would retract upwards from both sides until only a quarter of a circle was left, pointing downwards. In the center of the door, the symbol gleamed a brilliant blue; it looked like something that I'd seen when the computer was launching, though I couldn't be sure:

"I've been here before," Tash said softly. "It's like that computer bank. Nopony's ever been able to get it open. I don't know what's behind it. I've only seen a few of them across the whole network of tunnels." She shrugged. "Next one is what, six hundred kilometers away? At least?"

Absorbing that little nugget of information and filing it away for later use, I took to wing, darting up to the symbol and putting my hoof against it, frowning. It wasn't a linelight. I had no idea what it was. The surface was seamless. It was like the metal itself was glowing. I didn't know if magic could do that, but if it could, I'd never seen it. After these tunnels, I wouldn't be surprised. It was set on a (compared to the rest of the door, at least) small-diameter disc set into the huge blockage. As far as I was able to tell, it would be the door's hinge, the point on which the rest of the door rotated back and upwards.

"Anything on this, Tera?"

Sorry, nothing. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of that glyph, but nothing particularly meaningful. It's probably just a chunk of whatever alphabet or logography they use. Used. There was a muted sound of surprise from her. Huh. I can still access the computer's mainframe from down here. There must be some sort of linking network throughout these tunnels. Now we just need to get the rest of the damn things working. That's worth remembering. But back on topic, no. I got nothing for the door. There's an image of the door and a bunch of text, but I can't read it, so it's not really useful.

Nothing happened from poking the symbol a few times, so I sighed and descended back to the floor, rejoining Tash. "I'm not getting anything, and Tera's in the same boat."

She shrugged. "Why not try that cutter thing you have?"

I paused. "That's...a really good idea. Give me a second." I yanked out the plasma cutter and checked the power compulsively. Still solid at about seventy percent. More than enough to slash a big hole through metal. Walking up to the door and firing the torch up, I suddenly realized something, and subsequently powered the plasma down. Tash noticed.

"What's up, Quick? Why'd ya stop?"

I gestured to the door. "Look at the size of this thing. It's...well, it's absolutely massive. If it was thin enough for this little personal cutter to get through, there's no way it could support its own weight. It's probably..." I gave the door a once-over, "...five meters thick here, minimum. Probably more. Definitely more higher up. Maybe—maybe—I could get through with an industrial-strength hardcutter from Hooftauri D. This thing's designed to cut through plate plasteel, tops. It has no chance against this kind of structure." I tucked the cutter back into the bag. I promise you'll get used soon, I told it mentally.

Tash and I stood in silence at the base of the door, trying to figure out some way through it, for a good few minutes. She eventually sighed. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Turn that thing off," she motioned roughly at the helmet's light array, "and get some sleep. We're both tired, and we're probably not thinking as well as we could be."

I nodded, sighing heavily, and reached up to my head, flicking the lights off and plunging the world into darkness once more. The only light was the blue shimmer of the symbol; it was like a night-light, in a way. I heard a gentle, fading hum as Tera powered down, going into sleep mode. Easy for her to do. Tossing and turning, I grunted in frustration, punching the ground with a hoof to be met with a muted clank. Over an hour passed, and yet I still couldn't sleep. How am I supposed to get comfortable?

That, of course, got me thinking. I rolled over, turning to where I'm pretty sure Tash was lying—quite comfortably, it seemed—on the metallic ground. "Hey, Tash."

"Mmmmfffrggg," she replied. "Shu' up."

But now my curiosity was piqued. I propped myself up on one foreleg. "You live alone, right?"

She gave up being asleep and sighed. "Yeah. Why? Where are you going with this?"

"Why?" I asked, becoming more and more curious the more I thought about it. "Where are your parents? You seem pretty smart too, despite growing up in a tunnel. How?"

She was silent, and I suddenly realized how intrusive I'd been. "I mean," I desperately backtracked, "you don't—"

"They're dead. My parents, I mean. Walker got Dad when I wasn't more than fifteen, probably less, and some of the other ponies killed Mom for...well, they killed her." She shifted. "Mom and Dad—they were smart ponies. Scientists. They made a lot of the stuff I have that I didn't scavenge from the tunnels. Things like the hydroponics, my thermal suit...Mom made them, mostly. She was good with her hooves and horn. Dad was more of a theory pony." Her voice dropped. "They figured out how to get the linelights back on, too. Wish I'd learned how from them."

I thought back to her hub, and to the manacells shoved into the wall. I'd not taken a close look at how it had been done. Now I found myself wishing that I had.

"Doesn't help that of the ponies around here, not many like me. I'm not 'purebred.'" Her voice had changed, carrying a heavy note of scorn.

"Purebred?" I echoed.

"Yeah. Mom and Dad weren't from this Equus. They came from Nova Equus, over in the Horsehead. Came here for research, and got stuck in the tunnels." She shifted again. "I'm sure you noticed, but outsiders aren't quite welcomed around here. You're just lucky it was me that found you. If it was one of the others, they probably would've shot you on sight."

"They really hate VISTCo that much, huh?" I mused to myself. Tash overheard. It was a silly idea to think I wouldn't be heard; other than us, the tunnel was pin-drop silent, and there wasn't anything else to distract us, what with the total lack of light.

"No, not at all. They just hate ponies that aren't from Equus out of some bizarre sense of pride. I'm the only one that really has it out for VISTCo. Tartarus, I might be one of the only ones that even knows what VISTCo is."

"Yeah. What's up with that, by the way? You mentioned that there was a thing about unicorns, but nothing else."

Tash made a sound that I'm pretty sure was surprise. "You don't know?"

I shook my head, not that it did any good. "No. I'm just an engineer. Got a job on one of their warplight ships."

"Well," she replied, "think about this: VISTCo is fueled by mana, right? All of their warplight drives, all of their lights, all the power cells; it's all mana. Well, here's a question: if there's no ambient magic outside of Equus as they so claim, and unicorns offplanet are born with malformed horns...where do they get all that mana from? 'Cause that's a pretty big chunk of it."

I frowned. "They get it...from...from..." I trailed off. I'd never even considered that, and the implications were unsettling.

After a moment of wrestling with the thought, I sighed. "Where do they get it from?"

"See if you can figure it out," she replied. "If you can't, I'll tell you later, but I'll be pretty disappointed."

I was silent, still puzzling over the mana quandary in pensive thought. "Have a good sleep, Tash," I muttered, almost as an afterthought.

"I was," she replied crossly, "and then you woke me up. Not fair that only you get to ask questions. My turn. What's life like where you come from?"

I laughed. "It's boring. Hooftauri D is one of the more unremarkable of the Trisystem Alliance planets. My parents both work for a small fix-it company in Luna City, one of the bigger cites. Mom is the PR, Dad is an engineer just like me." I looked wistfully back towards my flank, wishing the oil-slicked wrench and gear imprinted thereon was visible. After a moment more, my smile died down some. "The company started going under, so when I got out of the edubloc—"

"Edubloc?" she interrupted, clearly curious. I nodded.

"Guess you don't have those around here. An edubloc is...oh, what did it used to be called...? A board school? Something like that. It's a big complex that foals go to live once they turn twelve. It's basically just an intense school where you gotta go for six years." She made a face.

"That sounds awful."

I winced. "It was. I mostly accepted it philosophically, but that didn't make it any more pleasant." My face cleared. "Anyway, once I got out of the edubloc—we usually just call it the Academy—and realized that the company didn't—doesn't," I amended, almost forgetting that it was somehow still going, "have long for the world, I started looking for jobs."

"And that's when you signed on with VISTCo," Tash finished.

I shook my head, not that it did much, and chuckled. "Are you kidding? It was years before anything resembling a real company took me, and it certainly wasn't Veritas. I worked odd jobs for a while, just fixing up anything that needed fixin'. I only signed up with Veritas a year or two ago, and it's mostly been orientation and training stuff. I even had to go back to the Academy for spaceflight school. Wasn't too happy about that, but hey," I shrugged, "when it's paying triple your last job, you do what you gotta do, right?" I turned over again, finally finding a spot that wasn't totally irritating. "But I think I've told you enough about my uneventful life for now. Night."

"Night. Again," she echoed, still cranky.

At that moment, I wished desperately smiles could be heard so she could hear mine. It would've been deafening,

---

"Well," jeered a sneering voice, "would'ja lookit what we got 'ere?"

There was a rapid shuffle of movement beside me, and by the time I was even fully awake, I realized that Tash was on her hooves, her manarifle primed and pointed. "Push off, Vix. I have more important things to worry about right now than you." I couldn't quite tell what the light I was seeing her in came from, so I sat there dumbly for a moment before some synapses finally fired and I realized that I wanted to actually be able to tell what was going on.

I reached my sleep-grogged hoof up, turning on my lights. There was a yelp of surprise, and a stocky, shaggy pony reeled away from me. He stood at the head of a group of ten or twelve. All of them were somewhat shocked, but only the leader—at least, I assumed he was the leader—had caught the full beam of the lights head-on. They were all carried weapons. The one Tash had called Vix carried a long blade that looked like it was made of the tip of a walker's leg, and that looked like about the most advanced weapon there. Nopony, it looked like, had any guns or managuns.

I wrangled myself to my hooves, lights still boring full-force into Vix's face. "So who is this joker?" I bit aside to Tash.

A hum came from my helmet, and the blue light blinked. Whoa, looks like I missed something. What's going on?

The shocked look on the ponies' faces—especially Vix, as he recovered from his blinding—told me that she was broadcasting from the speakers.

Tash replied, voice weary and clearly not relishing this encounter. "Quick, this is Vix and his rig. He probably has another name, but I don't care enough to ask, so I just call him what he says. There aren't a lot of rigs over ten down here, so around here—the Canterlot Sector of the tunnels—is mostly his turf."

By now, Vix had recovered some semblance of what dignity he had, and he strutted forward imperiously. "Tha's tur," he confirmed. "This place 'ere's mine." He motioned to his rig. "Gettem bad-blood 'corn ov' here, an' take pet winger an' 'is voicesuit a'grou."

I rubbed my helmet's screen in a poor substitute for rubbing my forehead. "Did...did he just call me a winger?" I asked, somewhat confused by his distorted speech.

Did he just call me a voicesuit? parroted Tera.

"To be fair, you kinda are," I shot back. She harrumphed.

And you aren't a winger?

"I know he called me a bad-blood 'corn," sighed Tash. "This is what passes for conversation down here, you two. Like I said, be grateful it was me that found you."

"Oi! Quitcher mouthin'!" shouted Vix, stepping forward and shaking his walker-leg sword threateningly. His rig moved up after him, pulling out their improvised clubs and pipes. His anger-twisted face was set in a deep frown. "I'll ha'you gnawn ath' met, dirtlickers!"

Okay, it was time to put the serious face on. He was beginning to threaten us properly now—at least, I thought he was; it was kinda hard to tell with what I assumed to be the vernacular of the tunnels—and I got the distinct feeling I wouldn't be talking him down. I pulled out my plasma cutter, pumping the trigger a few times. The plasma flame flared up, igniting the tunnel in a bright blue-purple glow. I must've looked downright demonic; a pony-shaped creature in an ash-gray suit, face hidden by a reflective visor and holding a fire hot as lightning. The rig quailed momentarily, but urged on by Vix, they broke out of their silence and rushed towards us, shrieking bloody murder.

Thump, thump, thump. Before they even came close to us, three of them had fallen on their faces, rendered unconscious by the tuned-down mana discharge of the rifle. Still, spurred on by Vix, who was now leading the charge, they continued their mad dash.

A steel pipe, probably salvaged from the surface at some point, swung at me. I caught it in my hoof , wincing at the shock, and ignited the cutter, quickly running it down the pipe and slicing it off just above the pony's hooves. She stared at it, then at me, in shock, then after a moment screamed and swung the small stub of steel at me, missing completely as I stepped away.

Thump. Another unconscious pony. As the mare swung at me again, I danced out of the way, then turned quickly and reared back, delivering her a two-hoofed buck straight to the chest, feeling something crack. She stumbled backwards, choking out a surprised gasp, and after a moment, she fell over, wheezing.

I was breathing heavily. I'd never been particularly combative; sure, I'd gotten into my fair share of scraps at the Academy, but didn't everypony? As it was, I was feeling quite out of my element just bucking that one pony. I was pretty sure I'd broken a rib, and though at the moment I was feeling nothing but detached, I was fairly certain that later, I would be concerned with guilt.

No time for that at the moment, though. I was rushed by two more ponies. The first, a ragged mare with an exceptionally long, unkempt coat and mane and tail festooned with braids, was holding a spar of metal that looked like it came off of a surface building. She snarled as she swung it at me. The second was Vix, whose walker-leg sword was humming a deadly arc towards my neck. I slid backwards, only to realize I was backed into a corner. Less than a second before the sword sliced me open, I jumped straight up, snapping open my wings and taking to the air.

Luckily, they were all earth ponies; no pegasi or unicorns among them. After taking a moment to collect my thoughts, I began looking around the little battlefield. Tash was beginning to be overrun. In the dark of the tunnel, the only illumination was brought by my sporadic headlights, and without light to see by, she was shooting them based solely off sound. My eyes suddenly widened. One, illuminated by my gaze, viciously sharp knife in hoof, was creeping up behind her. Without pausing to think, I shot down in a steep dive. Right as he was raising his knife hoof to slash Tash's back open, I cannoned into him with a shout, knocking him sprawling. Tash whirled around, nearly whacking me in the head with the barrel of her rifle.

"Thanks," she said shortly as she saw what had happened.

There were only three ponies left; the mare that had come at me, a stallion who was skulking in the back, and Vix. Tash had done her work well; the floor was littered with unconscious ponies. Looking around, Vix revealed himself to be not quite as dumb as he looked. With one final snarl at me, he hissed to what remained of his rig, and they folded back in, backing out into the darkness of the tunnels.

We stared out into the darkness, making sure they wouldn't creep back and stab us in the back. Then, a moment later, Tera chimed in:

So...what do we do with these creeps?

Right. We were surrounded by unconscious ponies who had tried to kill us. As long as they could wake up and attack us any moment, we certainly weren't going to make any progress on the door. I looked at Tash helplessly. I was way out of my element. Hopefully, she'd have a better idea of how to go about this than I.

She slumped down and rubbed her forehead just beneath her horn, ignoring me. "Of course," she muttered under her breath, so light I wasn't sure I heard it at all. "Of course that hateful wretch would choose now to bug me. Like I'm not busy enough already."

"Tash?" I asked, concerned.

She shook her head as though to clear it, and stood straight. "Sorry, sorry. What were you asking?"

I waved a hoof broadly to the motionless bodies, the beam from my helmet lighting up the pile of sprawled limbs. "What do we do with all of these?"

She jumped slightly, like she'd just seen the whole debacle for the first time. Actually, she probably had; my headlamp could only do so much during the fight. A moment later, she seemed to settle down, getting back to business. "It wouldn't be enough to just go out into the tunnels and dump them off. They'd be able to find their way back here pretty easily, they all know the tunnels almost as well as I do. We need something more permanent to get them off our backs." She levitated the rifle off of her back, igniting the mana within. I watched, almost in shock, as the barrel's glow grew brighter and she walked over to one of the ponies.

"Tash!" I hissed. "You can't just kill them!"

"I'm not going to kill them, Quick," she responded, almost in a monotone, positioning the gun over an unfortunate leg. She stared thinly down at the pony, who moaned in his unconsciousness. "I'm just keeping them off our backs."

Thump

There was a scream, quickly cut off into a gargling silence as Tash pressed her hoof into the victim's mouth, choking him back into sleep. Splitting the stream of magic in her horn, she lifted up the severed, cauterized hoof, tossing it over her shoulder. My eyes widened in something between shock, horror and—inevitably, and probably not to my credit—vindictive justice.

"What are you doing?" I shouted, appalled. She turned to glare at me, her voice a hard, harsh hiss.

"Look, Quick. Trust me; this isn't the first time I've had to do something like this. These ponies—they're not really ponies. Not like the kind you know, at least. All they care about is what they own, and what they can take." Her voice lowered some, almost to a whisper, and her face slid into sadness. "What they hurt...who they hurt...doesn't matter to them. I'm just doing what needs to be done. Turn your light off. It'll make it easier on both of us."

I stood up from the slouch that I'd adopted, and made to move towards her. Without even turning her head, she swiveled the gun in the air, the brilliant green aura surrounding it and her horn lighting up the tears on her face. "I said," she snarled, voice noticeably quavering, "turn the light off."

I slowly reached my hoof up, never breaking eye contact, and flicked off the lights. I turned away, and even in the dark, I could see the brief flashes of blue as the manarifle fired its leg-splitting shots. I began to feel nauseous around the sixth, and I abruptly began walking, then galloping, fleeing into the encompassing darkness.

Quick! Quick, get it together! You don't know what you're doing in the tunnels! If you meet a walker, or even Vix, then you're going to die!

My breath came in short, sharp, panicked heaves, Tera's words a buzzing in my ears that I wasn't really considering at the time. My mind was filled to capacity with the image of the hoof sailing through the air, and the dull thunking sound it made upon hitting the metallic ground. The merciless expression on Tash's face, and yet her tears. I didn't even think about where I was going; I just ran. I didn't even think to turn on my lights. Just sprinted, fumbling blindly through the darkness.

Eventually—I don't know how long it was, really—I was spent, and collapsed on my side, choking and wheezing. I didn't know how far I'd run, or where I was. She was probably right, Quick. Think about it. They would've killed you and Tash. You know they would. Tash was just doing what would be best for you in the long run. Tera's calm, logical voice only served to make everything worse.

"I don't want to hear it," I snarled, though the effect was largely lost through my hoarse, weepy voice. I had never seen that kind of violence before. Like I said, my only image of fighting was hoofs-out in the lunchroom at the Academy, not blasting the hooves off of helpless, unconscious ponies, even ones that had tried to kill you.

Stop being a child, Quick. I've only been able to comprehend the idea of concept of emotion for a few months, and even I know you're overreacting. Her voice grew quieter. Besides, I think she needs to do this. Maybe I'm amoral, but vengeance is fine and good by me.

"Vengeance?" I echoed.

Oh, come on. It's obvious what's going here. Think about it; she seems to really dislike Vix and his rig. They're about the only rig around here. They called her a bad-blood unicorn, and she'd just told us what happened to her parents. It's pretty evident that Vix and his rig killed her mother.

Puzzle pieces clicked together in my head, and the fact that she was crying started to make more sense. I rose shakily to my hooves. Nice to see you're not a total idiot, snarked Tera. I'll plot you a course back to the door.

"No," I interjected, to a surprised sound. "No. I get it now, but that doesn't mean I want to see her dragging a bunch of legless ponies out into the tunnels to die. I'm going to stay out here for a while."

Are you sure? Vix is still out here somewhere, with the ponies from his rig that got away. I get the feeling they wouldn't take it easy on you.

Shoot, she was right. Vix could take me apart right now, and the further I got from the door, the more likely it was that I would run into him. I sighed. "Fine, you're right. Get me back to the door."

Got it, boss.

A moment later, the blue line appeared on my screen. I took a few steps towards it, then stopped, confused. It fizzled, as though with some sort of static, then winked out. Panicked, I turned my headlight on. "Tera, what's going on?"

I don't know! she said frantically. Something's wrong! I can't access the tunnel schematics anymore! The computer just locked me out!

Okay, calm down, Quick, I told myself. You've been in worse situations. I can't remember them off the top of my head right now, but you've definitely been there. "Tera," I replied, struggling to keep my voice calm as possible and to suppress the fear-driven quake, "do you remember how we got here?"

I...I think so? I can't remember exactly how, but I have some idea. I wasn't focusing on directions at the time, but I think you mostly went straight, with a few curves. Try walking back the way you came, and I might be able to help you out. Her voice was laced with trepidation.

I did as she asked, rapidly trotting back in the general direction of the door. I waited in tense silence. Without warning, I heard a left! and acquiesced without question, making a sharp turn to the left and continuing. We proceeded like this for quite some time, until I heard her sigh tremulously. Sorry, Quick. I just can't remember from here on out. It's either straight or right, and I can't tell which. You're gonna have to choose.

Screwing up my courage, I did so, striding forward, straight into the tunnel ahead of me.

---

Hours later, I had to stop walking. By this point, I was pretty sure I'd been going in circles, and was well and truly lost amid the labyrinthine network of tunnels. Tera had gone quiet an hour or so ago. She blamed herself, I blamed myself, and it had snowballed into a tense silence that had us both on edge when I thought of something that I should've thought of from the beginning. "Tera," I began, "can you run a scan for equine life signs?"

Her pony representation popped up on the screen and she nodded silently, closing her eyes lightly. A pulse of blue light washed out from me along the tunnels, disappearing into the blackness. I slowed to a halt, letting my aching hooves rest.

A few minutes later, Tash opened her eyes, pointing off to my right and a little behind me. Ten equine bioforms in that direction, she said, then lapsed into silence again. I nodded, then backtracked to the last right turn and took it.

As I walked, the walls blended into each other, forming an endless, monotonous gray haze over my vision. So imagine my surprise when I suddenly heard a sound out in the darkness ahead of me. A faint whisper that might have been a distant shout:

"Quick!"

"Tera?" I said.

Yeah?

"Amplify my voice."

I inhaled a massive lungful of air, and then belted out at the top of my lungs, "TASH! I'M OVER HERE!"

The voice echoed again. "Is that her?" I asked. Tera nodded.

That, or it's an equoid that sounds just like her.

I broke into a gallop again, ignoring the ache in my hooves, as I grew closer to her shouts. As I cornered an exit to one of the enormous tunnels, I found her standing there, breath heaving, eyes wide. After a moment of staring at each other, she lunged at me, smacking me to the ground. "You idiot!" she seethed. "Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to find you?"

I struggled back to my hooves, massaging my shoulder. Even through the suit, her hoof had hurt. "Nice to see you too," I muttered. She sighed.

"Seriously. Where did you even go off to?"

I shrugged. "Started running, went for maybe half an hour." Her brow furrowed.

"Half an hour? You've been gone for," she checked a small device on her hoof that I realized I'd never seen before, "almost an entire cycle! It's been nearly eleven hours! Couldn't Tera map you back to the door?"

I got cut off from the computer somehow. Quick pretty much had to wander through the tunnels until he remembered I could run a scan for bioforms.

Tash rolled her eyes. "'Course he did. Anyway, get over here. I think I found something at the door!" She was a far cry from the forlorn mare I'd last seen. She was nearly bouncing. I followed her on weary hooves.

"Look, Tash," I said, "I'd love to get through that door right now, but I just walked through tunnels for eleven hours. I'm not used to this. I'm going to sleep first."

She sighed. "Right, right. Mind turning your light off?" I did so, and as we rounded the next dark corner, the glimmering blue symbol of the door loomed far above me. Disregarding everything around me, I lay down, suddenly finding the metal far more comfortable than the last time I'd slept on it. As soon as I closed my eyes, I could feel myself drifting off. I sighed deeply, and let myself fall into the pitch-dark of sleep.

This time, I woke up on my own. Unlike the last time, I wasn't really even aware of my wakefulness at first; when I opened my eyes, everything looked pretty much the same as when they'd been closed. The only thing that alerted me to the fact that I was no longer asleep was the symbol on the door casting a shallow blue glow out into the nothingness when I turned to face it.

"Sounds like you're awake," said Tash from somewhere in front of me, between me and the door. "Come on, let me show you what I found!"

I groaned, nodded, and when I remembered belatedly that nodding was useless, said groggily, "lead on."

I followed her footsteps over to the door, and as her hoof tapped the wall, I reached out to the same place. My mouth hung a little open as I realized it was the same shape and texture as the monitor from the hallway, where we'd initially rediscovered the sentient AI. "Hey, Tera?" I muttered, "I think you'll want to see this."

There was a hum as she woke from sleep mode, and immediately, she vanished from my helmet, my heads-up display going dark. A moment later, the screen lit up:

"Please activate genetic scanner for access."

In the bright blue glow, I looked at Tash and grinned at her, to be met with one of her own. The shunk sound of the genetic scanner echoed through the tunnels, and I pricked my hoof, watching with bated breath as it returned to the console.

"Genetic material within permissible range. Welcome, Architect."

Tash pumped her gray hoof, shouting out "Yes!" I suddenly realized that she didn't have her thermal suit on anymore. Well, that explained why I'd never seen the little device she'd had in her hoof before.

"Hey, Tash, what happened to the suit?" I commented offhandedly. She shrugged, but I could see tension suddenly coming into her shoulders.

"Got ripped up when I was...cleaning up." She was quiet after that.

Alright, came Tera's voice suddenly from the computer, I'm in! I think I can open up this door! I'm starting to get the hang of how this thing is coded.

There was a dull rumbling sound, not unlike thunder, that began to spread through the tunnel, quickly growing to enormous, bone-shaking volumes. The symbol in the door suddenly flared incredibly bright, rotated a perfect hundred-eighty degrees, then winked out. I reached up and flicked on my headlight, and my eyes shot wide. The top of the enormous door was retracting in upon itself. It reminded me of the giant woodbugs on Ht-D, the way is almost curled in on itself. Just like I'd thought, it was folding up like armor. I reached out a hoof and laid it on Tash to steady myself; the floor of the tunnel was actually shaking as the enormous aperture slid into position to open itself.

Beams of light blasted through as the first crack formed in the bottom, blinding me and Tash. I turned the lights on my suit off to save power, fumbling for the switch as I squeezed my seared eyes closed. A few moments later, the light grew less intense, and I resumed watching as the door shook its way open. It was agonizingly slow, ancient gears groaning as they were activated for the first time in...who really knew how long?

Just as I'd figured, it finally rumbled to an earth-shaking stop about two-thirds of the way up either side. As the thunderous sounds abruptly stopped and left us in almost preternatural silence, the symbol on the door once again came on. I turned to Tera, looking aside at the brilliant doorway to light that lay ahead of us.

"You know, there's a metaphor here," I commented, voice dry, "and I don't like it."

Comments

[paul]

:)
was his metaphor about the light at the end of the tunnel?
is Quick afraid of trains ? ;)

[Mix-up]

Sorry for missing the last update, I haven't connected the title to the story yet and just didn't register in my mind that it was it. Well, the reveal about the unicorn was interesting to say the least, or at least it might be part of the truth there has to be more to it. the idea of the navies being aggressive in interesting but not much to say about it.

I feel you would need a prologue to explain how is what's his name of a main character, were he is from what was his life was, who bad or perfect before he fell into that hell hole, who were his friends on the ship, what was a normal scheduled like what he unappreciative by his collages, what was life life while growing up in space what did he believed in, why were they even around the planet in the first place. We really don't know a 'things' about him and doesn't even have a defining personalty at the moment.

I am trying to be helpful for your story and I do like it but you skipped to much on the set up of the story and just jump into the action. While this is all good so far the glaring flaws are pilling up and could be easily fixed. I hope you tale my advice to heart at least on that point.

[NeverEatTheLemonsAlone]

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I have plans to slowly reveal more of Quick's life and history as the story progresses, but you may be right, it might be taking too long. I may make some edits to this last chapter to add in some of it; there's a point where it could be done fairly easily.

Definitely not a prologue, though.