"Underground is where it's all at, Commander," Ryder told Zen. His conspiratorial tone said he was imparting some special piece of secret information, which made the more senior man smile inwardly.

Outwardly, Commander Zen Redmond merely nodded. He was, it was true, only thirty years old, but he'd been in the Space Corps for eleven years by then and that meant he'd seen and heard pretty much everything - until that latest discovery at least. However, bitter experience had taught him that little was surprising in the end. Still, he was glad of anything that appeared that it might relieve the monotony of life as an astronaut, where everything had to be done by the book, although he doubted that this latest mission would turn out to be particularly different.

"Was this entry here when it was found?" Zen asked.

"No, sir. We were digging for something or other and broke in by accident. We've found another entrance now - about three K away - but we still don't know how it works and anyway, once this was fitted, they said to wait for you to get here from Earth, or wherever you were coming from."

"Moonbase actually," Zen informed the lieutenant, although he was unsure why he bothered, but, out here, people always seemed to grab at any piece of information, however insignificant, as a way of making time pass just that little bit quicker. "This is a standard airlock. There's air inside then?"

"Yes, sir. It's not exactly Earth composition, but it's breathable."

Zen raised his eyebrows. "And it was here when you found the place then?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hrmph."

"Confusing and quite exciting, isn't it, sir?" Ryder asked.

"Maybe. We'll see," the commander agreed, noncommittally.

It certainly had seemed as if something unusual had come to light when he was first ordered to Mars from the Moon, where he was based. His briefing had given him most of the information available, which wasn't a great deal to be honest, but past experience told him that things rarely turned out to be as exciting as they first appeared and getting too enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by apparently surprising events usually ended in disappointment and still more boredom.

"The air's still here then? How come?" Zen queried.

"Don't know, sir. It was really weird, but when…"

"We'll talk inside. Okay?"

"Yes, sir."

Once through the airlock and their cumbersome suits removed, Zen looked around. His handsome features registered surprise. "Wow," he breathed. Then he asked, "These steps were put here by us?"

"Yes."

"Hmm."

Zen walked around the quite wide and tall corridor, or tunnel, or whatever it was. He touched the walls, which had a fluid look to them, but were perfectly smooth solid rock, or so they appeared.

"They're solid, sir."

"Yes, so I see. Where's the light come from?"

"Don't know. Er … um … I mean, I don't know, sir."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, I'm not bothered if you drop the sir sometimes - most of the time really."

"Thanks, sir."

"Look, how much investigation has really been done here? Not what are you all admitting to - what has actually been done?"

"Well," Ryder hesitated. "Is it okay if I just call you boss? It's what we normally call people in charge here."

"Fine. No problem at all."

Ryder grinned a little nervously. "Well, boss, we've checked it all out - briefly that is. We don't know where the light comes from, as I said. The rock or whatever it is just seems to glow, or at least produces light, but there's no radiation or anything. Another thing: when we broke in, only a tiny bit of air escaped, but we don't know why that was either … oh and the tunnel seems to run round in a big circle with only one other entrance that we can find, but can't work. It's about fifteen K long in total."

"Have you checked out what's outside the entrance you found?"

"Sure. It's in a dip in the landscape there and only about three metres down. We've cleared it all away outside, but we can't make it…"

"…work. Yes, you said. Is there anything that looks like a control pad or anything like that for the entrance?"

"Not as far as we can tell. In fact, there's nothing really, but we've located it inside and out and it can only be an entrance of some sort."

Zen was silent, thinking.

Ryder was patient, but then he went on hesitantly, "There's no … well, as far as we can tell, the door's only about three or four centimetres thick. It's in a bit of a recess, but there's no sign of an airlock of any sort."

"Really? Interesting."

"I thought so, boss."

Out of the blue, Zen asked, "Is there anyone else down here - working, or testing, or whatever?"

"No sir. No one."

"Funny. Smells like perfume around here."

"Eh? Oh … er … well … yes it might be the Doc's perfume you can still smell. She might have been down here till a little while ago."

"Who's the Doc?"

"Kim Ronan - Kimberly Ronan. She's our resident scientific advisor, cum expert, cum boss of most of the clever stuff … she is too - clever that is; very, very clever." Ryder reddened a little and seemed slightly ill at ease.

"And very pretty too."

"Absolutely bloody gorgeous, boss. I don't know any of the guys here who wouldn't like to get into her … er, well, you know … not that any of us would stand a chance, of course."

Zen grinned, but said nothing - if Kim Ronan ran things scientific, then it explained why the research staff had totally ignored his arrival twelve hours earlier...

© Copyright Adam Frayle 2008