Chapter 9 – The Corridor
Kurt grinned at Kitty, and reached up towards the metal frame of the door, "Well, let's see if this works," he said. He placed the key that Callisto had given to him against the hinges of the door, and then stepped back, looking at the door uncertainly.
For a moment, absolutely nothing happened. Then the wooden door started to creak, and open slowly, revealing a huge corridor inside the mountain. There were doors all along the corridor, just as Callisto had said there would be. The corridor stretched on into the distance, and appeared to have identical doors all along its length. Kitty walked up to the nearest door, and examined the strange markings just above her head. They seemed to be made of vertical lines of various lengths and dots of different colours. It was quite possible that it was some form of writing, but unlike any sort of writing that Kitty had ever seen before. She examined the next door along the corridor, which had a sort of picture writing upon it, depicting what looked like snakes and elephants dancing with each other. She was just going to look at the third door, when Kurt called to her, "Come and look at this," he said.
Kitty ran over, and noticed the characters on the door. They seemed to be some form of Asian writing, but she could not read the words.
"I think it's Japanese," said Kurt thoughtfully.
Kitty nodded, "It looks like it," she said uncertainly, "do you know what it says?"
Kurt stared at it for a moment, "I remember the strong man who used to work at Margali's circus, Shiro. He was from Edo. If I remember correctly, he had to go home because his Mum was ill, but I was only about seven or eight when he left, so I'm not too sure. But he taught me a couple of symbols. He traced one of the symbols on the door with his finger, "If I remember correctly, this one means man, or person, and this one," he pointed to another symbol, "means a possessive, something belonging to the, er, person, I think," Kurt said uncertainly.
"I don't think that's our door," said Kitty, after a moment's hesitation, "I think if it was meant for us, it would be easier for us to understand."
Kurt sighed, "I guess so," he said, "I guess we had better keep looking. Tell me if you see one in a language you understand."
Kitty nodded, and walked along the row of doors for several minutes. They all had what she supposed must be writing on them, although for a long time she could make no sense of what was actually written upon the doors. Although she was not sure, she thought she recognised some of the graphics on one of the doors as being ancient Egyptian, and the writing on another door as being possibly Chinese. She walked a little further, and finally found a door with writing on it in a language that she could actually understand. "Kurt, come and have a look at this," she said uncertainly.
Kurt came running towards her, and examined the words critically for a moment, "Well, I understand the words," he said uncertainly, "but not when they're put together like that; 'If you are on a Federation spaceship, don't, whatever you do, wear a red shirt, it has proven fatal, time and time again,'" he correctly read, "I really don't think that's our door either."
"Yes, I guess you are right," Kitty said, "I suppose we had better keep looking."
Kurt nodded, and for a few minutes they both examined more of the doors with the mysterious writings on them. After a while, Kurt muttered, "Well, I guess that makes sense."
Kitty came running over to him, and examined the writing on the door; "'It's best to avoid using love potions, they almost always cause more trouble than they are worth.'" Kitty shrugged, and then smiled at Kurt, "It's not as if you need one of those love potions anyway," she said, "I think we should just keep looking."
"I guess so," said Kurt, "but just when I'm starting to understand some of what all of this says, I find myself unable to work out what it all means."
Kitty grinned at him. "Life can be like that sometimes," she said, "but it wouldn't be any fun if it made sense all of the time, now would it?"
Kurt returned her grin, "You spent way too much time talking to Narran, didn't you?"
"Who me?" Kitty asked mischievously, "Still, I guess we should get on with looking for the right door."
Kurt nodded and once again they continued to walk along the corridor.
"Well, if there were any vampires in the immediate vicinity, I guess that would make sense," Kurt muttered, as he stared at another door, "'Whenever living in any environment where vampires are known to inhabit in the immediate vicinity, never invite anyone into your home, just to be sure.'"
Kitty shook her head, "I don't think that's our door either," she said.
"No," Kurt admitted, still staring at the door thoughtfully, "it would be a lot easier if we knew what we were looking for."
"Don't worry, it will make sense when we see it," Kitty said reassuringly.
"Yes, I suppose it will," Kurt said uncertainly.
Kitty smiled, "These aren't our stories," she said, indicating all the doors they had examined so far, "they don't belong to us. They are stories for other people, perhaps even people from other worlds, other realities. They're not important to us, but I think they might mean a great deal to others. We just have to find the door to our story, that's all."
"You did spend too long with Narran," Kurt said, laughing.
Kitty winked at him, "Mysterious mentor story teller people can be a lot of fun," she said.
"So I guess that means that we had better get back to our own story now," Kurt said, grinning at her, and then returning to examining the doors all along the hall.
"Yes," said Kitty thoughtfully, and for a long while they both continued in silence along the corridor.
All of the doors that Kitty saw seemed to have what she supposed must be some form of writing on them, although she could only actually read a tiny fraction of the writing upon these doors. Also, much of what she could read she could not really understand, 'Don't go on TV tropes if you have an assignment due in the next few days, it is a really bad idea' 'Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men', ' whenever upon a twenty-fourth century starship, say 'computer end programme'at least once a day, just to be sure','If a seemingly harmless little old lady with an interest in crime fiction comes to your village, get out of that village as soon as possible, someone almost certainly will be murdered in the next few days,', 'before getting angry at a story you have read in the paper, first check that the paper is not The Onion', 'do not call an orang-utan, working in a magical library, a monkey,' and other such pieces of advice that doubtlessly meant something very important to someone else, but just left her feeling slightly puzzled and confused. Then she heard Kurt calling to her, "I think this is it, I think this might be the right door," he sounded hopeful, if just a little apprehensive.
Kitty came running over, and examined the writing on the door for a long moment, 'It's advisable to avoid getting in the way of trains from other worlds when you live in a pre-industrialised society, but those aboard these trains can prove to be valuable friends'.
"Yes, I think you might be right," she said thoughtfully, "the other Kitty said something about us living in a pre-industrial society, remember? From what I can gather, that means a society that does not yet make trains and things like that out of metal."
Kurt nodded, then smiled at Kitty uncertainly. "So…" he said, his tail thrashing behind himself indicating his nervousness, "Do you want to see what might be behind this door?"
Kitty smiled at him, and hugged him gently, "Well, that's why we came here, isn't it? Take my hand."
Kurt smiled at her gratefully, and grasped her hand in his own. Then, cautiously, carefully, he opened the door and stepped inside.
For a moment, there was total blackness, and then Kitty, to her shock and surprise, found herself phasing, and then falling. She let go of Kurt's hand, as her own hand became as intangible as smoke. She tried to grab on to Kurt's hand again, but she might as well of tried to grab the wind; her hand just slipped through his. She started to panic, as she found herself falling through the floor, and attempted to grab on to something, anything. It was terrifying, and it was all the worse because she was totally alone in the complete blackness, falling, ever falling, towards an unknown fate.