I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.
Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 20
Xxxxxxxxxx
The titans, sans Beast Boy, walked off into the gloom of the Antarctica night. As a safety precaution, Robin tied a thin cord to the T-Jet. In the dark, it would be easy to get lost. Starfire could fly straight up and orient herself that way and Raven could teleport somewhere, but in the event they became separated, Cyborg and Robin could easily become lost in the darkness. In addition, the numbing cold of the southernmost continent could lead to disorientation by any of them. It would be a disaster if any of them were to lose their direction in this weather, the body might not be found for months. So, three of them heavily bundled themselves against the frigid air and Starfire continued with her normal attire. The warrior from Tamaran could handle the absolute zero of space for a limited time, while this temperature was uncomfortable, it wasn't by any means life threatening. She would probably be good for a few hours before the chill would begin to affect her.
Nevertheless, the other three were feeling the cold. Even though each had every inch of their body covered to avoid frostbite, it was still cold, a body numbing, ever present cold that seeped into the bones. Because they were covered head to toe, Cyborg couldn't use his built in light beam and they were forced to rely on high powered flashlights. In the dark of night, the beams threw odd shapes and shadows all around, when they didn't simply disappear into the gloom of the Antarctica night.
Because of the need to cover all of their exposed skin, each Titan had their headphones underneath their hoods. There was no way they would expose their mouths to the cold and the heavy layers muffled all sound. Excepting Starfire, of course.
Holding onto the thin lifeline that was their only connection to the T-Jet, the titans, Robin in the lead, followed by Cyborg, Raven and Starfire, they began to walk. "Cyborg," Robin asked, "where did the sensors pick up any structures?"
"All around, this seemed to be a large flat surface surrounded by either walls or rock."
"Which direction is closest? We've got tons of cable, but walking in this will tire us pretty quickly. I would suggest that we only walk for half an hour before turning back if we don't find anything. An hour in this is about all I would recommend before we begin to show any effects from the cold."
Starfire had kneeled down to the ground and had began to dig through the snow cover. Although snow accumulated over the millennium, wind had seemed to keep the area relatively clear of deep cover. "Friends, if you can, look down."
This was impossible, due to the heavy layering, none of the other titans could so much as bend. "Starfire, what do you see?" asked Raven.
"We are walking on large blocks. You can see where the seams are between the stones. In your measurements, they appear to be 6 x 8 and are all very even."
"I think we found the city." Replied Robin in an understatement.
Despite the awareness that they were walking on a constructed floor, the darkness did not suddenly lift to enable the titans to find buildings. Shining their flashlights in various directions did not produce any sudden discoveries.
"Be nice if BB were here," offered Cyborg, "his eyesight's better than all of us. He could probably see in which direction to go."
"Well, he not here," grumbled Robin, "and we can't fan out otherwise we could lose track of each other in the night. Our communicators are working all right now, but with this cold, there's no guarantee that they'll continue to operate. I don't want anyone getting lost in this. Back to the original question, was any direction particularly better than another?"
"No."
And so they walked, slowly, in single file, holding on to the thin cord. Not only because their clothing prevented rapid movement, but also because of the ever present darkness. They had to be careful where they walked for fear of stepping through some chasm. More so, however, was oppressiveness of the dark. With the knowledge that they had found the lost city and the awareness that there were further mysteries surrounding this ancient ruin that had drawn Marsh and the Esoteric Order of Dagon, the darkness seemed almost alive, hungry.
"How far have we gone?" asked Raven after about twenty minutes.
"About 100 yards." Robin replied.
"THAT'S IT? Can't we go faster?"
"Not and maintain a measure of safety. Last thing we want to do is fall into a chasm, trip over a boulder or run into..oof." Robin stopped suddenly.
"A wall?" continued Cyborg, with just a hint of a smirk in his voice.
"Yeah, a wall."
The wall appeared suddenly out of the gloom. Even with the light, the swirling snow, disturbed by the wind, had hidden it from their approach. Examining it with his flashlight, Robin could make out only that there was a wall, the top of which disappeared off into the night. It was flat, perfectly flat and stretched off in either direction as far as could be made out, which admittedly wasn't far.
"Do you see anything to either side?" asked Cyborg.
"No, completely flat, no openings that I can make out. Just a humungous wall. Well, which way, left or right?"
"What is that rhyme that Beast Boy says to pick a direction?" asked Starfire.
"Good a way as any, I guess." Responded Raven. Starting with the right, she intoned in her monotone, "Eeny Meeny Miny, Moe. Guess we try to the left."
"Wonderful," replied Robin under his breath. "OK, left it is." Leading the way, Robin slowly walked with his right hand against the wall, the other three titans following him, each with their hands against the wall. It added some small level of comfort to feel the wall when they were lost in this cold, dark land with windblown snow swirling around them.
After about ten minutes, Robin stopped. "OK Titans, time to turn back. We've been out here about 30 minutes and we need to make sure that we're back to the T-Jet before any damage is done."
"Please Robin, I am fine and wish to go on. I am sure that the others would like to continue in our search." Starfire pleaded.
"Starfire, I know you could handle this, but 'regular' humans can't handle this temperature. We need to give ourselves a measure of safety so that we can get back."
"Yo Robin, can't we give it another five minutes, what could it hurt?"
Robin continued walking along the wall while he responded. "What could it hurt? Frostbite, frozen or amputated body parts, hypothermia, any variety of ahhhhhhh."
"Robin!" shouted Raven, "What happened, are you all right?"
A moment or so passed before a response came through their communicators. "Yeah, I'm ok. This is either a doorway or a turn in the wall. Just fell down. Took me a moment to reorient."
"Can you see to the other side? Is it an entrance or a turn?" asked Raven.
A few moments passed, then Robin responded, "Almost looks like a doorway, I can almost make out another wall about six feet away. I've shone my light up and it looks like there's a support beam above me. I'd almost swear that it's a doorway."
"FRIENDS, Let us enter and explore. Perhaps the clues to the lost island are within."
"Starfire, much as I would like to agree. We need to go back. We can't survive in this environment much longer. Tell you what I will do." Robin said. "I'll plant a stake here and tie the other end of the line to it. That way, when we're ready to pick up the exploration later, we can make directly for this spot and be ready to go."
Although Starfire did not particularly like this course of action, the other two did. While neither Raven nor Cyborg would admit to it, they were feeling the cold. Although Cyborg did not have hands or feet, the metal that was his cybernetic components were frigid against his skin. Raven was having some difficulties feeling her toes at this point. Even though it would take about half an hour to get back, both were looking forward to the warmth.
Robin took out a sharp stake from his backpack and began the laborious process of pounding it into the ground. It was difficult as the ground was not only frozen, but continued to be these large blocks. He had to find a seam between the blocks so that the pinion could be braced. It took several minutes for Robin to secure the line to the pinion, but after several minutes, he said, "OK, it's braced. We should be able to find the doorway again when we resume our search. Time to get back to the T-Jet. Starfire, you're in the lead on this leg. Please follow the line back to the T-Jet. I know you can fly, but remember, most of us can't. Keep a sharp lookout for crevices that any of us might fall into."
"I will remember Robin." And with that, Starfire turned and began the slow, laborious trek through the dark back to the T-Jet. Starfire's pace was somewhat more rapid than Robin's as he was far more cautious than she was. Still, it took the titans about 25 minutes before they were close once again to the T-Jet. By this time, even Starfire was glad that the T-Jet was near and they could warm up as the ever present wind and cold was starting to affect her as well.
When Robin estimated they were within five minutes of the ship, he called out over his communicator "Beast Boy, do you read me?"
There was no response.
"Beast Boy, are you there, copy."
Still no answer.
"Yo, grass stain, stop playing with the gamestation and answer us."
Once again, there was no answer.
"Starfire, follow the cord and fly ahead to the T-Jet, make sure that Beast Boy is all right."
The Tamaranean warrior immediately let go of the line and began to fly at a quickened pace to the T-Jet. It took her less than two minutes to reach the craft. Quickly flying to the sector where Beast Boy usually inhabited. Starfire saw the green teen frantically trying to communicate with her. Over her communications device, she shouted out, "Friend Beast Boy, are you unharmed? Please speak to me."
No sound emanated from the teen. Speaking over her headset, the princess said, "Robin, come in. I have found Beast Boy, but am unable to communicate with him."
"Starfire, what's the problem, is he all right?"
"He appears to be unharmed. However, he is trying to communicate with me and I am unable to hear him. I do not know what is the matter."
"Starfire, reenter the T-Jet, we'll be there in a matter of moments."
Starfire opened the hatch to her section of the T-Jet and climbed in. Shutting the door, first thing she did was turn on the heat. The second thing was to open up the onboard communications system to talk to Beast Boy.
"Where have you guys been? I haven't heard anything out of you for almost an hour now."
This surprised Starfire. "We have been out exploring. You have not heard from us? We have not been silent."
"Dude, I was listening to the conversation and you guys just broke off contact. I've had nothing but radio silence for a while now."
"Please, let me contact Robin over my headset." Starfire put her headset back on. "Robin, can you hear me?"
"Starfire, what is it? Is Beast Boy there?" their leader's voice came over loud and clear on her headset.
"Yes, he is unharmed. We are having difficulties with the communications. It seems that the headsets are the only communication system still working."
"What are you talking about?" Cyborg's voice came through loud and clear.
"Friend Cyborg, Beast Boy said that for almost an hour now there has been no contact from us. He said that contact just broke off."
There was silence on the other end of the signal. "Wonder if something happened to the antenna? That's the only thing I can think of. We're just getting close to the T-Jet now. Rob, I'm going to go around to the side and look at the system. Star, check the communication diagnostics to see if everything is on line and call me back."
Starfire began to run a diagnostics check on the communication system. It would take several minutes for the entire system to run. Meanwhile, Raven and Robin were now getting on board the T-Jet through the lower hatches. The lower hatches had air locks so that the titans could get in and out of the ship under water or in space without flooding the entire ship or losing precious air in space. It also served to keep the bitter cold out. After going through the locks, the two titans began to remove their heavy clothes and began to warm up.
"Starfire," Cyborg's voice came over the headset. "Never mind the diagnostics, I found the problem. I'll be coming aboard in a couple of minutes, just have to make my way back to the hatch."
Puzzled, the princess turned off the diagnostics system. Beast Boy interrupted, "What's going on? Why'd you shut down?"
"I do not know. Cyborg said to stop running the diagnostics. Let us go down to the lower hatches and see if Robin knows anything about this."
The two titans left their compartments and made their way down to the lower hatches. They met up with Robin and Raven, who were desperately trying to get warm.
"Told ya it was cold."
"Shut up." Robin replied. "Starfire, what did the diagnostics say?"
"Robin, Cyborg said he found the problem and that I could stop running them."
The boy wonder reached for his headset again. Donning it, he called, "Cyborg, come in. Do you know what the problem is?"
"Yeah Bird Boy I do. I'll be in in a moment or two. Just need to make my way around this vent and I'll be at the hatch in a few minutes. I'll tell everyone once I get inside." With that, he signed off.
"So did you find anything out there?" Beast Boy said.
"Sort of," answered Raven. "We found a large wall and what looks like a doorway. By the time we found it, it was too late to do any exploring so we had to come back and get warm. And if you say ONE WORD about cold, I'll throw you through the hatch so you can experience it yourself." Beast Boy immediately cancelled what he was about to say.
Instead, he pursued a different tack, "What kind of wall?"
"It was made of large square blocks, same as the base that this entire area is made of. It was definitely designed and built." Beast Boy's eyes widened at this.
Before he could resume his questioning, the airlock opened once again and Cyborg came through. "Ohhh, that feels good." He began to remove his heavy clothing.
"Well, what's the problem?" asked Robin.
"Antenna's busted. Snapped right off. Could be from the cold and the wind. A bit of ice flying at just the right spot and the whole ensemble is gone."
"Can you fix it? Don't we have a spare?"
Cyborg looked at the boy detective. "Sure we have a spare. Got three of them. Mind telling me HOW I'm going to replace it wearing these huge gloves? Going to be difficult enough to get a base constructed if we can find a spot. Delicate electronic work, in this temperature, not going to happen, even assuming I could GET the panels open if they're not frozen."
"Damn!" The four titans looked at Robin. For him to curse like that was uncharacteristic.
"Robin, why is this a problem? Can we not continue to use our headsets?" Starfire inquired.
"Sure, we can use them to contact each other. The only problem is what happens if we need to contact the outside world."
It was then that the full realization hit the others. The antenna was their only means of communication beyond the confines of the ship. If there were any problems, if they needed assistance, there was no way to get a message out.
They were now effectively abandoned to the long, dark, cold of the Antarctica night with no way to get help, and no other human for thousands of miles.
And the night became colder, and darker.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At the end of my last chapter, I mentioned that I was focusing a bit on science in that one. I did neglect another important area, specifically relating to Lovecraft. A key feature that Lovecraft returned to repeatedly was the concept of how geometry and perspective affected human beings. In some ways, he was ahead of his time in that studies really do show that people are affected by changes in perspective.
Lovecraft mentioned in numerous stories the influenced of Non-Euclidian geometry. For those of you who are not particularly familiar with the concepts, Euclid was a Greek mathematician who originally developed and wrote down the basic geometric rules and formulas. All that high school geometry is his fault.
While now, in the 21st century, we're developing a variety of geometric and mathematical fields that move well beyond these 'laws', they are still the basis behind all architecture.
What happens when the rules don't apply? Our friends will be finding out soon.
Meanwhile, I've now reached 2500 hits for the story and seem to have a consistent 35-50 readers for each chapter. My humble thanks to those of you who continue to follow my exploration of Lovecraft. Things will start to speed up in another chapter or so. I have to get them out of their ship and into the city. After that, all bets are off.
And as always, my special thanks to my reviewers,
Novus Ordo Seclorum – I am extremely grateful for your kind words. Is the story too slow building? Is the story, as you say, too over people's heads? Don't know. This is how I write stories. I find characterization far more interesting than action. (Don't worry, there will be PLENTY of action during the final arc of the story.) And the buildup of suspense is what I'm trying to emulate with Lovecraft. He's the real master.
SoulSeekerthe13th – Welcome back. If I go mad, I might gnaw off a finger or two, maybe a hand. Certainly NOT an entire arm (I don't get that hungry). You are correct, it is Elder Things, or Elder Ones. Thank Azaroth it's not the Elder Gods. Oh, and congratulations on your book. Please let me know the details. I am definitely interested in reading it.
ForceIsStrongWithThisOne – Glad you enjoyed it. Thought I'd throw a little suspense in here regarding BB being left alone. And there is plenty more to happen to him, and the others.
Until next time my friends, sleep well.