Chapter IV
She stared at him for a moment considering his words before nodding her acceptance and closed the door, after silently communicating that he could come.
A few dozen members of the expedition were rappelling down the tunnel, with helmet lights illuminating the way, every 20ft Lex hangs lights off of pitons that she had placed in the ice; the team was followed by several sledges that carried any necessary equipment.
On the surface Quinn and his team are struggling against the storm that had formed, tents were being uprooted, and it was making covering the equipment extremely difficult.
"Quinn says there's a storm." Max said after rappelling down to Weyland.
"Will it affect us?" Weyland asked after he had turned to Lex.
She laughed a bit before saying. "We're 700ft deep. Quinn could be setting of an atomic bomb up there and we would never even notice." At that everyone was reassured.
Suddenly a tent is uprooted, it flies past Quinn to quickly for him to catch it, and gets jammed in the winching gear.
Down 700ft Weyland's line is jerked off tightly and catches the side of the tunnel, smashing the billionaire into the ice, for a second nothing happens making Weyland think that he is safe but then the line snaps and he begins hurtling down the shaft, he's moving too fast for anyone to catch him.
"Man down!" Sebastian yells. "Lex watch out!"
Lex turns around quickly and saw Weyland sliding down the tunnel, she grabs one of four ice axes that she carries with her and drove it into the ice stopping Weyland form sliding down any further, she knew that had she hesitated for a moment then Weyland would have died, she helped him up and secured his rope again making sure that what happened wouldn't happen again.
"You ok?" She asked as she worked, Weyland nodded. "Thank you." She said.
"For what? You saved my life… remember?" Weyland retorted.
"For what you said earlier." She replied, and Weyland nodded in understanding.
Max grabbed his radio and asked. "What the hell is going on up there Quinn?"
Quinn stood by the winching gear watching as his men work frantically to get the tent out of the mechanism.
"A jam in the winching gear." Quinn reported.
"Get it fixed right away." Max replied in a curt tone.
"No problem." Quinn said then turned the radio off and muttered "English asshole." Under his breath drawing slight smiles from his men.
The whaling station was in the clod grip of the storm, Quinn has a difficult time making his way through the snow that covers the ground, and all the while he shouts order to his men.
"I told you to get that tied down!" He shouts at Boris. "Get everybody under cover!" He shouts a few minutes later as tents are continuously uprooted by the wind and flung into the air like tissue paper. "Everyone inside!" He yells for a second time. "Move it! Now!" He urges as he moves his men into some of the buildings of the whaling station. "Go! Go!" he yells again.
Nobody notices the spacecraft that passes over head, as its bulk is lost in the storm covered by the flying snow, and any sound that it made was covered by the howling wind, a moment passes before Quinn looks up but sees nothing as the spacecraft has already passed and leaves only turbulence in its wake.
Once everyone was in the shelter of the whaling stations buildings or in the tunnel leading to the pyramid, it looks as if no one has stepped foot there since 1904, the only sign that there was life was the abandoned winching system with the digital counter still flashing the depth that the team were at, 1.980ft, 1.990ft, 2.000ft they had reached the bottom.
Down in the icy cavern that surrounds the pyramid it's calm and silent the polar opposite of the surface.
Lex looks around before lighting another flare, shining light on beautiful but surreal sight, they're surrounded by giant stalactites and stalagmites made from frozen water, everything around them shimmers in the light from the flare, up ahead the passage opens up into the cavern that the pyramid sits in.
There is no telling how big the cavern is, the ceiling is vaulted of far above them not giving them a hint of how far up the cavern goes.
"Let's get those lights up." Max ordered.
"Any second now." Connors replied, as he and the rest of the men worked on unpacking several sets of flood-lights, after unpacking them they attach them to the power cables which are connected to the generators on the surface.
"I don't understand…" Weyland says as he looks around the cavern, breathless from the decent. "No equipment, no sign of another team."
"Well this tunnel didn't dig itself." Max replied.
"We have power!" Connors yelled cutting of whatever Max was going to say next.
"Let's light her up!" Max yelled in response, then as one multiple beams of powerful flood-lights illuminate the cavern, Lex had to shield her sensitive eyes for longer than the rest of the team, she growled lowly at not being able to see, but when she can her annoyance flees and in its place is awe, she may have seen it in her visions but seeing it in her mind and in real life are two different things.
The pyramid towers above them beautifully, the stone steps were covered by blue ice crystals and were lined with statues of beings that were clearly their gods. Lex turned to Weyland once she had gotten over the sight of the pyramid. "Congratulations, Mr. Weyland. Looks like you'll be leaving your mark after all."
Weyland share a smile and a look with the dark skinned woman, despite being breathless he turned to the rest of the team.
"Thank you all for this." He said before pausing to take a breath. "Let's make history."
Back on the surface Quinn and his men are inside several of the buildings and all hear a primal battle cry that is issued by something before it is taken by the wind.
Back underground the team make their way up the stairs and into the entrance hall of the pyramid that is halfway up the stairs, once inside Lex illuminates a section of the wall and sees a Predator and an Alien locked in combat, she glances down at her watch and takes in the reading that it is showing her and the time comparing it to the vision that she had received.
"I recognize the Egyptian." Lex hears Thomas say. "But not the other two."
"The second line is Aztec, pre-conquest era. The third is Cambodian, looks like a mixture of Bantu and Sanskrit." Sebastian said as he examined the wall. "Impressed?" he asked Lex when he caught her looking at him.
Lex smirked slightly and said "Maybe." Causing the other men to glare at the Mexican Professor.
"Then you were right, the pyramid does contain all three cultures?" Weyland asked.
"That's what it looks like." Sebastian replies still looking at the wall. "This goes against every history book that's ever been written." He continued.
"…You may… choose… to enter. Those who choose may enter." Thomas translated slowly.
"It's like an ancient welcoming mat." Miller said of to the side as he looked around the huge entrance hall.
"Who taught you to translate?" Sebastian questioned Thomas unimpressed.
"Funny, he looks just like you." Thomas replied uncaringly getting a laugh from Lex at the mini argument that was going on between them.
"It's not 'choose', partner." Sebastian rebuked "It's 'chosen'." He corrected, as he continues to examine the writing. "Only the… chosen ones may enter." He says lowly.
Verheiden is the first one to step into the pyramid, stepping on an ornate tile that sinks slightly into the ground that no one but Lex notices, making her close her eyes and whisper "So it has begun." Knowing that it was a trigger.
Deep in the pyramid in a chamber that hasn't been active for 100 years, there's a pool filled with a substance that is similar to liquid nitrogen, chains of vast durability and strength run from the ceiling into the pool, the tile that Verheiden stepped on activates the machine, and it begins to raise a massive Alien Queen from the pool, she is covered in a thin sheet of ice.
She is connected to the machine via a complex web of pipes and tubes that pierce her body in several places, as she is raised it is revealed that she is shackled to the machine as everyone of her limbs are restrained, her 'crown' has been pierced several times and now has chains running through the holes that were created by the piercing.
Minutes pass before she begins to awaken, she flexes any limb that she can, as soon as she has woken up enough arches of electricity begin to hit her, making her begin to produce eggs that are put on a conveyor belt and taken from her to another room, she lays a single egg every 15-20 seconds, we are now able to understand that this chamber was built to service the Alien Queen.
When the Massive Alien matriarch sees that her eggs are being taken from her, she starts to strain against her restraints but it is useless, in the end she settles for a scream of frustration.
Back with the team Lex hears the Alien Queen scream out her frustration, she turns her attention to the future to see if it was possible to avoid what she knew was going to happen but she see that there is no way out of what will happen.
"I've never seen anything like it." Sebastian mutters. "The hieroglyphics look to be some kind of hybrid language… Containing both Aztec and Egyptian characteristics." He continued.
Miller was near a stone running a spectral analysis. "This reading says that these stones are at least 10.000 years old." He reports after checking the reading again.
"That's impossible. Check it again." Sebastian said looking at Miller.
"I already did." Miller said as he too looked at Sebastian.
Lex had been listening to the conversation with half an ear, as she was concentrating on dropping small strobe lights behind her, she then realizes that Sebastian was watching her.
"They'll burn for six hours, we'll be able to find our way back" She explained and he nodded.
Lex lead the team into what she knew was the sacrificial chamber, the room had a vaulted ceiling with bizarre imagery etched onto the walls, in the room there were seven stone slabs that had a mummified cadavers on each one.
"These are…?" Weyland asked as he gestured to the slabs.
"Sacrificial slabs." Sebastian replies absently as he looks around the room.
"Just like the Aztecs and Egyptians. Whoever built this pyramid believed in ritual sacrifice." Thomas said.
"It's almost perfectly preserved." Miller said as he studied one of the skeletons.
"This is where they offered the 'chosen ones' to the gods." Thomas explained for the ones that didn't know.
"Those that were chosen would lie here." Sebastian said as he circled one of the slabs not noticing that he had everyone's attention. "They weren't bound or tied in any way. They went to their deaths willingly. Men and Women, it was considered an honour." Sebastian finished once he saw that he had Lex's attention.
"Lucky them." Lex said before she runs her fingers around a circular, bowl like indentation that was at the base of the slab. "What's this for?" She asked to keep up appearances.
"Some think it's were the heart was placed after it was torn from the body." Sebastian explained.
Weyland's flashlight illuminate a grate on the floor, Max strikes a flare and drops it through one of the holes in the grate, it falls for a while until it hits something.
"What have you found Max?" Weyland asked as he approached the dark skinned man
"It's a shaft to another level, looks like another room down there." Max reported, Weyland turns and the beam of his flash light hits a huge pile of human bones, many of the skeletons were still intact.
"There must be a hundred people there." Weyland said as he looked at the pile of bones.
"At least." Max corrected quietly as he too stared at the pile, the others clusters around the mountain of bones.
Thomas examine the hieroglyphics written for a moment before translating them. "They gave their lives… So that the hunt may begin."