ATALIS

CHAPTER 16: THE HIDDEN VALLEY

Rotors whir above me and I clutch tightly to the rope and the small platform the rope connects to as it lowers us down into a grove that we'd discovered a day ago. Four sets of drone rotors spin rapidly through the air to give us lift; the small quadcopter is significantly easier to maneuver than a helicopter and allows for traveling through tight areas that helicopters can't get into, and are somewhat less noisy, so they theoretically don't disturb the local wildlife as much. Some 30 feet on either side of me, walls of rock and stone rise up several hundred feet upwards. Vines and foliage cover both sides, obscuring them from view and their secrets. The quadcopter touches the grass and I step off of the metal base and step onto the firm ground. Wind rustles through the grass around us as Isa steps off the other side of the base and straightens, taking their camera and raising it to begin taking pictures.

"Do you see any tunnels?" Isa asks me, holding their camera up toward their face. I glance at them and shake my head.

"No." I walk ahead and look to my right. The foliage is dense in this area in particular. My gaze moves from the walls toward the dip in the ground ahead of us, the lowest point of the area before it slowly began to rise in the distance. Ruins of ancient dwellings jut from several areas on either side of the walls, though none of them reach out toward each other. The crumbled remains of a large tower resting against the ground some 70 feet ahead of us makes me wonder if there had been bridges here to span the gap once upon a time.

I begin walking ahead, feeling the relative cool of the area against my legs. I can feel the moisture in the air and sweat on my brow. A strange feeling together. I thought it would be colder down here, but I'm sweating. The wind moving through the valley provides relief from the heat, though it isn't as consistent as I'd hoped it would be.

Isa walks alongside me with their camera held high. They're taking pictures of the ruins down here along with others as part of a group, a project to tide them over while the factories finish getting set up. Another step toward full colonization of this planet. The factories run on clean energy and have very little waste disposal to take care of, so setting them up will only harm the environment in the sense that building anything anywhere displaces the natural environment. It can't be helped. But the location of the construction can be set up to minimize environmental disruption, and finding the right place to set the factories up that takes that into account is time-consuming.

"I think I see something." Isa rapidly moves toward a bush on the ground beside one of the tower ruins. I walk toward them, curious. They kneel down beside a small hole in the ground and part the bush beside it so I can see it clearly. I kneel down beside them and look at the entrance of the hole, which drops down into a room of some kind. I can clearly see flat stone beneath us that looks like it could be a floor. The hole is just over a foot in diameter and has dirt smoothed around it, which gives me the impression that something has been climbing in and out of the hole regularly.

I undo the clip of my backpack and shrug it off, setting it down behind me and then sliding forward and putting my feet into the hole. Then I reach out and place my hands on either side of the hole, pressing against the edges and lowering my feet down into the darkness, until I've lowered myself as far as I can. I'm just holding onto the edges now, and I look up at Isa.

"If I don't say anything after a minute, call for help." I tell them. They nod to show they understand and then activate the timer on their watch. I let myself drop and I land easily on my feet and dust off some dirt from my shirt. The beam of my flashlight illuminates the area directly ahead of me and I peer into the darkness of the room.

"What do you see?" Isa asks, leaning over the hole. I glance up at them and the light that wreathes their face and then turn back into the ruins.

"I see a room with columns interspersed through it. I don't see anything moving, nor do I see any light sources down here other than my flashlight. I'm going to investigate farther."