The Cave - Part 3

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The Cave - Part 3

Before entering the cave, Enmanuel opened the orange container that had just gone down the ramp, inside, on several smaller boxes of supplies and camping equipment, there was a gray metallic one, took it and opened it, inside there were sixteen small devices, neatly arranged forming a matrix of four on each side, and a black bracelet with a small projection screen and a keyboard with four buttons with directional arrows.

-Wait, I am going to activate the trackers, -said Enmanuel, putting on the bracelet, and manipulating the buttons on it; a screen with several commands was projected from the device, he typed some of them in the projection and from inside the container, the sixteen small drones were raised, without emitting any sound.

The small devices flew around them and floated in a circle, about fifty centimeters above their head, then after typing a new series of commands, the ring of drones separated into two, each made up of eight machines, the second ring moved and was placed over Lionel's head.

Then, Enmanuel opened a second container and from it, he extracted a small receiver with a recording device for sixteen video and audio signals. He turned it on and typed a set of new commands into the bracelet's projection.

-Well, we're ready to go in, -he said, after deactivating the screen projection-. These little ones will follow us and record everything we see, say or hear, they will also keep track of our vital signs, everything will be transmitted via a quantum link and recorded in this receiver.

-I'm going down the platform, it feels pretty solid, although it shows signs of joint fatigue, from my position apart from several containers, a slider, clearly inoperative, a deployable room and the platform clear, there is no sign of the explorers, -said LEONARD, to the operators located in a ship in stationary orbit over the location of the cave.

-LEONARD, please stand at the entrance and examine the cave using all frequencies in the spectrum, -said Hernán, the engineer in charge of the mission's operations.

-The cave has a length of two hundred meters, then it deviates to the right, you can't see anything else, there doesn't seem to be any kind of rock obstruction or any natural or artificial object in the way, I would even say that the cave is strangely regular, - explained LEONARD, after scanning the tunnel.

-All right, check what's in the containers, -said Hernán.

After a few minutes of checking, LEONARD reported that it was more about camping supplies and equipment, lots of biological sample collectors, a portable DNA mapping lab and other lab equipment that he didn't identify, but which, by the supplier, was supposed to be.

-There's also a video signal and data receiver by quantum link, and a briefcase that appeared to contain a set of trackers, -Leonard added.

-Download the registry from the receiver and send it to us, please.

After taking the receiver, downloading its records and transmitting them, LEONARD activated its quantum link and ventured into the cave, advanced by several hundred meters, beyond the bend that could be observed from the initial gallery, as I had mentioned, the cave looked more regular than normal, Even when the initial gallery was flooded, there did not seem to be any cause of water running through it and its walls and ceiling had an almost perfectly circular shape, as if it had been dug into the rock.

A new gallery opened approximately one kilometer away, a ghostly blue light illuminated the entire room and did not seem to have a single origin, on the contrary, everything in the place seemed to shine. Hundreds of giant mushrooms, growing everywhere, radiated that tenuous and spectral light, but not only them, the walls, the ceiling and the water, which like in the first gallery flooded the floor, up to a height of about ten centimeters, also shone slightly.

-Do you see what I see, Hernán, -said LEONARD suddenly.

-No, what are you seeing,- said Hernán, from the ship, as he watched the video signal transmitted by LEONARD.

LEONARD, still standing at the entrance to the gallery, zoomed in on his vision, and it focused on a bulge peeking out over the water level, it looked like a white void in the middle of the blue phosphorescence of everything around him.

-Is that a body? -asked Hernán in surprise.

-I think we found one of the missing explorers, fifty-two years ago, - replied LEONARD.

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, November 2019

Otros relatos de la serie La Era de Perseo / Other stories from the series The Age of Perseus

• The Cave - Part 1
• The Cave - Part 2
• The Cave - Part 3

Thank you all for visiting my publication, I hope your comments and I appreciate your support, until next time

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