They had come to Lua dos Dragões to set up a new Talent tower for the FT&T, but something here was definitely wonky!
"Akie?" Vance gently addressed her, not wanting to spook his wife more than necessary. "What is it?"
"I… I'm not sure," she confessed, her trembling hand resting on her queen's neck. "We're not alone here."
"Well, of course we're not!" he responded, gesturing around them as the build team began unloading their materiel and supplies.
"Didn't you hear it?" Akie begged, taking Vance by the hand.
"Hear what?"
"A… a voice," Akie whispered, glancing about. "In my head."
"Telepathy?" Vance wondered, glancing around.
Akie vigorously nodded.
Vance shrugged. "Didn't hear a thing."
"Luna?"
Akie's changeling daughter merely shook her head.
"I'm not crazy," Akie argued, looking up at her dragon. "Vornath heard it, too!"
"Do you still hear it?" Vance wondered.
Akie shook her head.
"Well, if it happens again, let us know," Vance told her, planting a tender kiss on her cheek.
The build team got right to work. Much of the structure was prefab, but it still took them a month to get it all set up. There was a massive geodesic dome set up over the prime landing zone capable of maintaining atmosphere around the largest trans-atmospheric craft currently in use, the Talent tower in a separate smaller dome nearby, as well as housing for the support staff in yet another dome. Akie wasn't quite sure what the domes were for. After all, the investigative team determined that the atmosphere was breathable with no known… Ah, that was the key word, she realized… no known pathogens. The domes were necessary in the event something did crop up and they had to isolate everyone from a potential hazard.
There was nothing threatening about the moon, Akie was sure of it. And maybe that's what made her nervous. And, then, of course, there was the voice she and Vornath had heard that first day. With nothing else to go on, Akie decided to do a little exploring… and the nearby hills seemed to be calling to her as she and Vornath took to the skies.
Any ideas, my heart? she asked her dragon as they winged along.
No, Vornath replied.
Still, we both heard it. What does it mean?
Akie and Vornath were headed up into the nearby foothills to investigate a series of geothermal-heated pools the survey team had documented in their report. If they were anything like what she remembered from her travels, it would be a nice place to relax. It wasn't long before they spotted their goal. The steam rising off the waters was the first giveaway. Nestled amongst a copse of trees they found a series of pools, heated water bubbling up in the first pool cascaded down waterfalls into two adjoining pools before going over a fall and draining away into a nearby river.
There was a clearing near the middle pool, and Vornath backwinged to a gentle landing there. The pools were a good size, they discovered. Each could accommodate a sizeable number of humans. The bottom pool was the larger of the two and that's the one Vornath headed for.
"Wait a sec!" Akie called out, hurrying to catch up to her dragon. "Let me take your harness off or I'll have a wet ride going home!"
Once the harness was removed, Vornath eased her massive form into the water.
Ah! she silently sighed, sinking up to her neck in the water. Just right!
Kneeling at the edge of the pool, Akie dipped her arm in, realizing in that moment, "It's like moderate bath water!"
Rising, Akie examined the pool more closely. Why, the thing was big enough to accommodate three full-sized queens with a little room to spare!
"I'm going to go check out the upper pool," Akie told her dragon. "I'll be right back."
Take your time! Vornath sighed, thoroughly enjoying the swim.
Chuckling to herself, Akie headed up the path to the middle pool. It was smaller than the bottom one. A green might fit but that was all. It could certainly hold a sizeable number of humans, though. Akie dipped her hand in. This water was considerably warmer but not intolerably so… a good place to soak away the day's aches. Steaming water poured down a rather wide fall at the back of the pool, and as Akie looked closer, there appeared to be a narrow path heading behind the watery curtain. Curious to see what might be back there, Akie carefully slipped her way past the curtain of falling water and found herself in the entrance to a cave.
Found something, my heart, she silently called, starting her way into the cave. I won't be long.
I'll be waiting!
Akie had expected it to get progressively darker the further back into the cave she went, but, to her surprise, it didn't. In fact, the walls almost seemed alive, radiating a curious lambent glow that seemed to swirl and shift as she moved deeper into the cave. For nearly ten minutes, Akie slowly made her way, the path sloping gradually downward. She was just about to turn back when the path finally emerged into a large, illuminated chamber. In fact, the space was easily roomy enough to house the entire staff of the tower!
Everything alright? Vornath silently wondered.
Oh, my heart, you won't believe what I've found! Akie sighed, slowly turning around as she struggled to take it all in.
In the center was what appeared to be a fountain, though Akie couldn't see where the water was draining to. And that's when she noticed what she had first assumed were stalagmites.
What the?! Slowly, Akie stepped up to the first. If she didn't know better, this rocky outgrowth bore a striking resemblance to a small pine tree! As Akie looked further around the chamber, she saw rocky versions of various flora on the moon's surface. Stranger still, some of the stalagmites could've been stony versions of some of the fauna she'd seen in the survey team's report!
"How can this be?" she whispered.
It almost seemed as though the animal rocks were looking at her!
In that moment, Akie heard the sound… faint, almost inaudible… and it seemed to be directed at her… as if the rocks were talking to her!
"Whoa!" Akie gasped, feeling goosebumps all over.
A gentle force seemed to be pulling Akie down. She sank to the floor, sitting cross-legged as she tried to get comfortable. Around her, a mist began to rise, gradually obscuring the chamber. In spite of the strangeness of what was going on, Akie felt no fear. Quite the opposite, in fact. She felt… welcome! Yes, that was it! She was welcome in this place. Within moments, the mist completely obscured the chamber, but Akie was not afraid. The rock flora and fauna were asking her questions and she tried to answer them… even though she had no idea what questions they were asking… or what answers she gave. All things considered, it was an incredibly bizarre experience!
Akie's next conscious awareness was being roughly shaken, someone frantically calling her name.
"Akie! Akie, wake up! Akie!"
"Hmm? What?" she mumbled, slowly opening her eyes.
"Akie!" Trembling arms swept her up into Vance's frightened embrace. "Thank God you're alright!"
Glancing about, Akie realized she was still in the cave. The light was far more subdued than when she had entered, and the mist was gone.
"What's wrong?" she quietly asked, confused.
"Wrong?! You've been missing for the past two days, that's what!"
"Wait. Two days?" Akie gasped. "I've been here two days?!"
"We've been searching everywhere for you! Akie, what happened?"
She stretched, feeling incredibly well-rested. "I'm not sure. Feels like I've only been in here about an hour!"
As Akie slowly got to her feet with Vance's help, she slowly looked around… just as a long-forgotten memory slammed jarringly into place. "Holy shit!"
"What?" Vance asked, puzzled by her reaction.
"Petaybee!" she whispered.
"Peta… what?"
"Petaybee!" Akie exclaimed, seizing Vance's hands. "That Intergal world that had been terraformed with the Whittaker Effect. Don't you remember?"
Clearly, Vance didn't, his expression puzzled as he shook his head.
"It was all over the vid news!" Akie told him, trying by force-of-will to get him to remember. "They thought it was just a dead rock in space. Only… it turned out to be sentient!"
"Are you saying…"
Akie nodded. "We're not alone here." Glancing about, she added, "Lua dos Dragões… is sentient!"
Vance took one look around him… and nearly soiled his pants.