Chapter 7 – The Ceremonial Chambers
Malik walked over to the stone pillar ahead of them which bore yet another inscription upon it. Riker and Kargoth came up behind him, reading what the translator said over his shoulder. It read 'The inner ceremonial chambers where the serpents of the Water God reside to eat the flesh of the weak. Only the one who can swim like the serpent can escape this place'. It was plane enough.
"No one's eating my flesh," Kargoth snarled.
"Are you suggesting your weak then?" Riker queried.
"Shut up Riker."
"It sounds like we'll need to go swimming again," Malik noted.
"I take it that's what this scuba gear's for."
Kargoth indicated to the heavy oxygen tank and aqualung on her back. They nodded and crossed over to the doors opposite into the next chamber and through the door. They went into yet another gold door and down a wooden ramp to the next level. Malik found a dead body with another set of scuba gear next to it. Instantly, he put it onto his back.
"We'd better find out how to get out before we search down there," Malik explained. "Especially when only two of us have breathing apparatus. I only hope we come across some more for Riker soon."
"I'm fine for now," Riker assured them.
"You wont be saying that if the way out is under water!"
"There's a lever down there," Kargoth spotted.
"You go down and check that out. Me and Riker will go on further and meet you. I bet this watery bit comes up sooner or later."
Kargoth dived into the water and swam down towards the lever, pulling it back. Further down the tunnel, she watched some iron bars move across and reveal another lever at the far end. She swam towards it but was cut off by three Sliths coming towards her rapidly. She turned the 8-ball launcher on them, locking them on target and firing several missiles at them all.
Above, Riker and Malik heard the rocket fire and the screeching sound of the Sliths being hit. They ran over to investigate, looking down into one of the pools of water and spying Kargoth wrestling with the three Sliths. They shot at them from above, taking the stronger one out and leaving Kargoth with the two weaker ones. Once the bodies had sunk to the bottom, she surfaced and held onto the ledge for support, taking the aqualung out of her mouth.
"There's another lever down at the far end," she noted.
"There are two passageways up here," Malik explained. "They're barred off at the moment, so I hope that lever of yours opens them for us. I take it this is what that little message up there meant."
"The Nali are beginning to make sense now!"
Kargoth replaced her aqualung and dived back down into the water, swimming to the bottom and heading off after the lever. She pulled it and heard the distance sound of some doors being opened. She returned to where Riker and Malik were waiting, removing the aqualung again and pulling herself up. She was now beginning to get used to being wet all the time and was starting to enjoy swimming. Neither were things she had previously been fond of.
The three prisoners left the pool behind and came to one of the previously locked openings, happy to find it was now open for them. A Nali was waiting for them on the other side and began indicating for them to come closer. They obeyed and followed it as it ran to yet another gold door. It indicated to the Slith standing guard and then backed off, allowing them a clear shot.
Riker aimed his ASMD at it and fired a large, circular disk of blue energy at the Slith and then destroyed the disk with the regular shock beam. The two bolts of energy exploded on contact with each other and destroyed the Slith, scattering its limbs every where and into the water. Riker laughed and slung the rifle back over his shoulder, stroking its muzzle affectionately.
"Thought I'd try a shock combo out," he shrugged.
"Next time we meet a Skaarj, do that again!" Kargoth laughed.
"I'm sure I wouldn't mind."
They looked back at the Nali, which wondered aimlessly back into the inner ceremonial chambers, no doubt enjoying the nice Slith free environment beyond. The three prisoners carried on up the staircase and open the gold door ahead of them, walked into the next room and letting the door slide shut behind them. This room was rather dark and they could hear the steady drip of water. They walked further in and behind a pillar to what had caught their eyes.
"Christ," Kargoth muttered. "That's a little sick."
"Did the Skaarj do this?" Riker asked.
"Possibly," Malik replied. "They did use them as slaves in the mines."
What they saw was three Nali hung up by four of their arms on wooden poles hammered into the floor; crucified. The Skaarj clearly thought them as a far inferior race compared to themselves.
"Let's get out of here before we join them," Malik noted.
They turned round, but three Skaarj Warriors jumped down from skylights above, scraping their blades together ready for combat. They lunged straight into the attack, Kargoth starting on the closest to her with the rocket launcher. Malik took one on himself with the Stinger and Riker took on the remainder with the ASMD. It was a lengthy fire fight and they eventually got passed the four guards, looking back to the three crucified Nali.
"Can we help them?" Kargoth asked.
"Best not to," Malik replied. "The Skaarj may take it personal."
"But the Nali have helped us get this far, Malik."
"Do you really think there's anything we can do for them?"
Kargoth looked at them hanging there, writhing in agony. She sighed.
"I guess not," she noted.
"They're dying Kargoth and we cannot stop that," Malik stated. "You know that."
"I'm really starting to feel a change in myself."
"I think we can all agree on that one, Kargoth."
Riker walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I guess you could always give them a quick death," he suggested. "Put an end to their pain and suffering. It seems cruel to leave an animal suffering with something that cannot be cured; the same could be said for these aliens."
Kargoth nodded and waved off Riker's hand, taking out her automag. In turn, she went up to each of the crucified Nali and put a bullet in their heads, watching as they stopped writhing and just hung their, limply. She sighed and turned away, walking back into the main room. A Nali walked down from the ramp ahead of them and stood in front of her, looking back to his dead comrades.
"I don't know if you can understand," she told it. "But they're better off dead."
Even if it was merely her tone of voice or facial expression, the Nali almost seemed to understand what she meant. It bowed its head, offering prayers for her and then standing back up again. Kargoth reached out and clapped it on the shoulder, leaving it to grieve for its dead alone, Riker and Malik joining her.
They walked up the wooden ramp and down a windy corridor and into another room which contained a single pillar and a lever. A Skaarj pushed a Nali out of the window and then turned to face them. Curling her lip into a vicious snarl, she fired a single rocket at the Skaarj and knocked it flying out of the window. She went up to its edge and watched as it landed on a rock, the crack of its back braking wringing out across the canyon below.
"A fitting end," she snarled. "Even if they do look cute."
"You have strange tastes Kargoth," Riker shook his head.
Malik crossed the room and pulled on the lever, hearing the sound of a lift mechanism drawing closer. The wooden lift arrived on the metal beam overhead and drew to a halt by the window. The three of them stepped onto it and it took them down into the chasm below passed the rock where the Skaarj had fallen to its doom. They stepped off at the bottom, looking around for where to go next. They saw a wooden platform away from them and they jumped into the water, swimming over to it and being swarmed upon by a pair of Sliths.
Now that Kargoth had the rocket launcher, the creatures they killed didn't last as long as they used to. However, if it was their imagination, they appeared to be getting stronger. They destroyed the pair of Sliths and climbed up onto the wooden platform out of the water, eyeing up the grapple gun. Using her good sense of vision, Kargoth squinted along the grapple gun's line of sight and saw that there was a rock just along it with a wooden beam leading to a platform further up.
"I'll do this," she said.
She took aim with the grapple gun and fired it at the rock face, steam jetting out from where the arrow was fired. It stuck into the rock face and the three of them carefully mounted the wire and slowly climbed to the top. Each of them were cautious not to look down, especially Malik who was not overly fond of heights.
It took them a while, but they eventually landed on the tall rock and walked along the wooden beam to the platform. They had to cross another beam to get to the corridor on the other side of the wall which appeared to be a way out leaving the ceremonial chambers and the Chizra Temple behind. Perhaps once they got out of here, they'd find more information on the whereabouts of ISV-Kran, the crashed Russian ship.
Down the corridor, there was a small little wooden harbour with a wooden platform attacked at a post. They stepped onto it, Kargoth untying it and letting it flow loose down the small stream in the cave. It was slightly misty down here and very cool, if not slightly humid, but not enough to make them sweat. On the ceiling above them they saw a large vein of the sparkling blue Tarydium crystals which were being mined at Rrajagar and used in Malik's Stinger.
"You'd never see anything like this on Earth," Malik observed.
"Na Pali is a beautiful planet," Kargoth admitted. "I'll miss it."
"If we can get off it! We don't know yet, do we."
"Hopefully we'll find some answers we need at ISV-Kran."
"That could be miles away from here!"
"Then we have to carry on. I'm not giving up yet, not after traipsing through those horrible dark mines and that confusing temple. I want to find that Russian ship and get to safety as soon as possible, no matter how pretty this planet is!"
"I'll drink to that!" Riker added.
The wooden platform eventually came to a halt at the harbour at the other end of the cavern. They stepped off it and open the doors ahead of them, walked into a blank, white stone wall. Looking down, they saw a pool of water below them, realising that now was the time to get wet once again.
"Down we go again," Kargoth sighed.
"Ladies first," Riker indicated to the hole.
She glared at him slightly before lowering herself down and splashing into the water below, her two companions joining her shortly afterwards.
