David stared into the darkness beyond the ruined pillars.
June stepped beside him.
Neither moved.
The words still lingered in David's mind.
I AM:
A memory that should have remained buried.
David tightened his grip around the field light.
"What does that mean?"
Silence.
"I AM?"
Nothing.
David waited.
The ancient presence offered no explanation.
Of course.
June looked at him.
"You planning on standing here all night?"
David glanced toward him.
"No."
"Good."
June raised his Kinetic Baton.
"Because I'd really like to find an exit before we discover what lives down here after dark."
David looked around.
"It's already dark."
June stared at him.
"You know what I mean."
David almost smiled.
Then he raised his light.
"Stay close."
They passed between the pillars.
The change was immediate.
The cavern narrowed for nearly fifty yards before widening again, but the stone beneath their feet was different now.
Flat.
Not naturally smooth.
Cut.
Fitted.
Enormous rectangular slabs formed the floor beneath layers of dirt and mineral deposits.
Some had cracked apart.
Others had shifted over time, leaving uneven gaps between them.
Roots pushed through those openings.
David swept his light toward the walls.
More carvings appeared.
Most were damaged beyond recognition.
Some had been split apart by growing roots.
Others disappeared beneath thick mineral formations.
June moved his light across the opposite wall.
"Whoever built this didn't do anything small."
David followed the beam.
The corridor was enormous.
At least forty feet wide.
The walls rose beyond the reach of their lights.
"This wasn't built for six-foot hallways."
"Maybe they liked space."
"Or they were bigger than us."
June stopped.
"Why would you say that?"
David looked at him.
"You brought it up."
"No. I said they liked space."
David continued walking.
June followed.
"Those are two very different things."
Their footsteps echoed through the passage.
For several minutes, nothing changed.
Ancient stone.
Broken carvings.
Roots.
Darkness.
Then David's light struck something ahead.
He stopped.
June noticed immediately.
"What?"
David raised the beam.
At first, all they could see was stone.
A massive wall blocked the passage.
June moved his light higher.
The beam climbed.
And climbed.
Then stopped.
June slowly lowered his baton.
"That's not a wall."
David saw it too.
A vertical seam ran directly through the center.
He moved the light left.
Another edge appeared.
Then right.
Two enormous stone doors stood before them.
David and June approached slowly.
The scale became more apparent with every step.
The doors rose nearly sixty feet above the floor.
Each slab was several feet thick, fitted into an enormous stone frame carved directly into the cavern wall.
Time had damaged them.
Cracks ran through portions of the stone.
Mineral deposits covered the lower sections.
Roots crawled across the frame.
But the doors themselves remained intact.
Closed.
Waiting.
June stopped several yards away.
"Okay."
David looked at him.
June pointed upward.
"That is definitely a door."
"Good observation."
"Thank you."
David moved closer.
His field light passed across the surface.
Carvings covered both doors.
Not random markings.
Scenes.
Figures.
Hundreds of them.
David stepped nearer.
The lower carvings showed tall humanoid forms standing beneath enormous stars.
Above them were worlds.
Dozens.
Maybe hundreds.
Some were represented by simple circles.
Others were surrounded by strange symbols.
Higher still, carved figures stood around something David couldn't identify.
A sphere.
Or perhaps a star.
Lines extended outward from it toward the surrounding worlds.
June came beside him.
"What is all this?"
David slowly shook his head.
"No idea."
June directed his light toward the center.
"There's writing."
Between the two doors ran several vertical rows of symbols.
The same language they had seen on the fallen slab.
Only these markings were preserved.
Deeply carved.
Precise.
David approached them.
His light moved down the first row.
The symbols meant nothing to him.
Curves crossed straight lines.
Circular shapes surrounded smaller markings.
Some repeated.
Others appeared only once.
June stared.
"Anything?"
"No."
"You sure your System doesn't recognize it?"
David's eyes snapped toward him.
June frowned.
"What?"
David realized what June had actually said.
"Scanner."
June lifted his wrist.
"Mine doesn't recognize it."
David relaxed slightly.
"Neither does mine."
June stepped closer to the doors.
"Maybe there's a control somewhere."
He began searching the wall.
David remained in front of the writing.
Something pulled at his attention.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
He raised one hand toward the symbols.
Before his fingers touched them—
I AM:
Do not.
David stopped.
His eyes narrowed.
"You know what they say."
Silence.
David waited.
"You understood the other markings."
I AM:
Yes.
The answer came immediately.
David's pulse quickened.
"What language is this?"
No response.
"I AM."
Silence.
David looked at the enormous doors.
"Who built this?"
Still nothing.
June glanced over from the wall.
"You talking to yourself now?"
David lowered his hand.
"Thinking."
"Try thinking about how we open this."
David looked back at the writing.
"I am."
June continued searching.
David focused inward.
"What does it say?"
For several seconds, I AM remained silent.
Then the ancient voice spoke.
I AM:
It is not a warning.
David frowned.
"What is it?"
I AM:
An invocation.
David stared at the symbols.
"For what?"
I AM:
Entry.
David's heartbeat quickened.
"Then tell me."
Silence.
David's frustration grew.
"We need a way through."
I AM:
You seek a way out.
"Yes."
I AM:
This leads deeper.
David looked toward the doors.
"Nyra said east."
I AM did not respond.
David glanced back toward the passage behind them.
They could return.
Try another route.
Search the cavern.
Maybe find another way upward.
But they had already traveled this far.
And something about the structure ahead told him that whatever was beyond those doors was connected to the underground system Nyra had detected.
David looked back at the writing.
"Tell me what it says."
Another long silence.
Then—
I AM:
No door remembers the hand.
David frowned.
"What?"
I AM:
No stone remembers the name.
David's eyes moved across the symbols.
The voice continued.
I AM:
What sleeps beneath the stars remembers all.
David felt something cold move through him.
June stopped searching.
He looked toward David.
"You okay?"
David didn't answer.
I AM:
Speak.
David stared at the doors.
"You want me to say that?"
I AM:
Speak.
David hesitated.
Then stepped forward.
June immediately noticed.
"What are you doing?"
"I think I know how to open it."
June looked from David to the sixty-foot doors.
"How?"
David didn't answer.
He stood directly before the ancient writing.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then David spoke.
"No door remembers the hand."
His voice echoed through the corridor.
June slowly lowered his baton.
David continued.
"No stone remembers the name."
Something moved.
Deep inside the doors.
A vibration.
So faint David almost thought he imagined it.
Dust drifted from the carvings.
June's eyes widened.
"David..."
David stared at the symbols.
"What sleeps beneath the stars..."
The vibration grew stronger.
"...remembers all."
Silence.
One second.
Two.
Nothing happened.
June looked toward David.
"Was that supposed to—"
A deep sound rolled through the corridor.
Stone grinding against stone.
June spun around.
The carvings covering the doors began glowing.
Not brightly.
A faint pale violet light appeared inside the ancient symbols.
One after another.
Hundreds of markings awakened across the enormous doors.
June stepped backward.
"What did you just do?"
David didn't answer.
He didn't know.
The seam between the doors brightened.
Dust poured from above.
Ancient mechanisms groaned somewhere behind the stone.
Then the doors moved.
Slowly.
The left door pulled inward.
The right followed.
Stone that had remained sealed for an impossible length of time began separating.
A narrow gap appeared.
Blackness waited beyond it.
The opening widened.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Air rushed from beyond the doors.
Cold.
Dry.
Ancient.
David raised one arm against the sudden wind.
June stared through the growing opening.
His expression changed.
"David."
The doors continued moving.
More darkness appeared.
Then David's field light passed through the opening.
It found stone.
Far away.
Too far away.
David stepped forward.
June followed.
They crossed the threshold.
Both stopped.
Neither spoke.
Their lights were useless.
The space beyond the doors was simply too large.
David slowly increased the intensity of his field light.
The beam traveled outward.
It struck something.
A building.
June raised his light.
Another structure appeared beside it.
Then another.
David took several more steps.
The beams moved farther.
Roads.
Columns.
Collapsed towers.
Enormous statues.
Bridges stretched between structures carved from dark stone.
Some buildings had fallen.
Others remained standing despite the unimaginable passage of time.
Roots descended through portions of the city, wrapping around towers and splitting ancient streets.
Faint violet fungi covered walls and rooftops, casting patches of ghostly light through the darkness.
David raised his field light higher.
The city continued.
Far beyond what he could see.
June slowly turned.
His mouth opened.
Then closed.
For once...
There was no joke.
No sarcastic comment.
Nothing.
David understood.
There weren't words for what they were looking at.
An entire city existed beneath H-09.
Not ruins scattered through a cavern.
A city.
Roads.
Buildings.
Monuments.
Towers disappearing into darkness.
Something that had once held thousands.
Maybe more.
June finally whispered.
"How..."
David didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His eyes moved across the impossible landscape.
Humanity had explored countless worlds.
Found strange ecosystems.
Ancient fossils.
Extinct species.
Natural formations that seemed impossible.
But this...
This was different.
Someone had lived here.
Someone had built all of this.
And somehow...
It had remained buried beneath H-09.
Forgotten.
David took one slow step forward.
His boot touched the first ancient street.
The moment it did—
I AM spoke.
The voice was quieter than before.
Older somehow.
I AM:
Do not mistake silence for emptiness.
David stopped.
His eyes moved toward the endless city.
"What happened here?"
For a long moment...
There was no answer.
Then—
I AM:
Walk.
David stared into the darkness.
June stepped beside him.
"Well?"
David looked toward the ancient road stretching into the city.
Then tightened his grip around the field light.
"We keep moving."
Together, David and June crossed beneath the enormous stone doors.
And entered the city that should have remained buried.