The Great White Space

Eleven

We made an early start next morning. It had been a wretched night, not improved by a false alarm from Holden during the small hours when he fancied he had seen a shadow moving further down the tunnel. Fortunately he had not fired, as he might well have injured himself with the ricochet but the infernal noise of the klaxon which tumbled us from broken sleep, and the equally noisy inquest which followed, made rest for the remaining hours impossible. By five we were moving forward again, myself at the controls of Number 1 which, despite his previous instructions, the Professor had insisted should lead.

It was a position of honour, as Van Damm had said, but I could not help wishing as I juggled with the steering handles, that Number 2 had gone ahead as planned, as the lead under our present conditions was a far from relaxing station. It did not seem to worry Scarsdale who kept his night-glasses rigidly inclined through the windshield and occasionally gave me instructions to reduce or increase speed. Van Damm's voice came through on the radio at ten minute intervals and to outward purposes all was as it had been the previous day; but there had been a subtle change with the finding of Zalor's body and for myself I knew that I could never again regard these tunnels in quite the same way.

They had always been sinister — I was conscious of that the first instant the tractor rumbled beneath the great portico — but the knowledge that we had also now to deal with some force inimical to life charged every foot of the way with unknown terror. It could not be ruled out, however, that Zalor had been the victim of some quite natural disaster; a beast of the order of a mountain Hon, which perhaps inhabited the deepest caverns? But even as Van Damm put forward the supposition my own secret voices were mocking the theory; on what would living creatures of that sort subsist in these arid tunnels? And surely we should have seen some evidence of them long before now?

Beasts leave droppings or some other signs of their passing, but there had been no evidence of life of any sort. And then there was Holden's reaction; given that he might well have a nature particularly sensitive to death but Zalor's end had been so horrible that Holden had, for a time, been almost out of his mind; and even Scarsdale's grim resolve had been shaken. There remained other problems also; not least the puzzle of how the dwarf had managed to cover such a vast distance to arrive at the caves before the expedition. Or had he perhaps companions at Nylstrom who had carried him with them across the desert more swiftly than our tractors could travel?

There were endless possibilities here and my mind revolved them equally endlessly; the truth was that the alternatives were so disquieting that I was determined to find a natural explanation, however bizarre, which could be made to fit. In the meantime my hands automatically carried out their tasks; the wind blew with increasing warmth; and the needle of the compass pointed obstinately almost due north.

But we were not to travel very far today before a major landmark was reached; it was something after seven a.m. and the mileage indicator registered, I think, around eighty-four miles before I began to sense a slight change in the atmosphere. It was nothing immediately definable but I was conscious that Scarsdale had noted it also. I saw that he had his head cocked on one side, as though he were listening. But I noticed, a short while later, that he was not listening but looking at something. It was quite five minutes more, however, before I myself became aware of the phenomena which had arrested his attention.

This was mainly due to two factors; one, the position of the searchlight which reflected back a steady glow from the rocky walls of the corridor; and my own position, down below the chart-table where the upper edge of the windscreen prevented me from seeing the object of the Professor's curiosity. But as we progressed towards our eighty-fifth mile beneath the mountains there could no longer be any doubt. It was growing lighter.

We were five miles in depth below the mountain tops, according to Scarsdale's calculations and yet a form of twilight existed which made the full-time use of the searchlights unnecessary. We had now almost reached the ultimate point of the Professor's original exploration and from now on we would all be traversing unknown territory. The light underground at this point seemed to emanate from some phosphorescent source high up in the impenetrable fastness of the roof.

Curiously, it appeared directed entirely downwards, instead of at the sides of the tunnel so that the source of the illumination and the structure and height of the roof itself remained hidden. The light was bluish in tinting and gave a corpse-like pallor to the objects beneath and to our own faces, but it was a relief to be no longer within the stygian blackness through which we seemed to have been moving so long.

The light grew in strength, but at no time did it become strong enough to approximate to what we called earthlight — that is, ordinary daylight above — and at its greatest intensity resembled that of dusk in the tropics in the few moments before the sun disappears below the horizon. Nevertheless, it was a great boon to be able to move about and to perceive objects from a distance.

A short while after I was able to steer the tractor visually from surrounding observations, we came out from the tunnel and the vibrations which had been accompanying us for the past two days, died away. We were running on something which felt like and resembled the black sand in the mountain gorge. As soon as this occurred, Scarsdale called a halt, the searchlights were switched off and we all got out the tractors.

It was an extraordinary sight; we were in a vast cavern lit by the flickering, ghostly blue light which made the far distance shimmer and undulate. We appeared to be on a wide shore composed of the dark sand and a shingle-like substance, which grated beneath our feet. The light seemed to come from a 'sky' far above our heads but which Scarsdale explained was emanating from the phosphorescence in the roof of the cavern at a vast distance above us; this was the reason why we were still unable to see the limit of the gigantic geological formation which formed the cave.

We stayed near the tunnel entrance for about half an hour while my companions took measurements and navigational positions while I tried, possibly unsuccessfully, to capture something of the scene on film; the tunnel entrance into the vast cave was quite small at this point and appeared to be the only means of entry. The chisel-like marks on the engineered wall just ended, as though the tunnellers had got tired of their immense task and the surface of the cave interior was of natural rock.

I found myself next to Van Damm as we all wandered around, marvelling at the strange quality of the shimmering light.

'What I can't understand, doctor,' I said to Van Damm,' is how this ancient people realised they would come to this cavern.'

Van Damm smiled. 'Rather ask yourself, Plowright, whether the people who inhabited this cavern were not more concerned with breaking out and drilling a communication tunnel through the mountains to the open air and the valley beyond.'

The explanation was so simple and logical that I must have looked as foolish as I felt for Van Damm burst into a short,

barking laugh and said, 'Don't look so crest-fallen, man. Like many laymen you were merely working from the wrong premises.'

He excused himself and went to consult with Scarsdale while I finished my photographic work and collected my apparatus. The wind still blew freshly from the north but now it had a more glutinous taste to it; it was difficult to describe but I felt somehow as I had once felt when taken as a child on a long-promised first trip to the seaside.

I got in the tractor to find Scarsdale already at the chart- table, making notes.

'This is a great day, Plowright, is it not?' he said enthusiastically, his eyes burning in a way I had never seen before. 'In a few minutes we shall be at the spot where I was finally forced to turn back. From here on in we shall be embarked upon a modern voyage of discoveries.'

It was difficult not to be affected by his enthusiasm but I still had my inward misgivings; though I disguised them as best I could and went instead to the control seat and awaited his orders. I asked him what course to steer.

'North, of course,' he said impatiently. Then he added, with a softening glance at me, 'I'm sorry, Plowright, I'm forgetting my manners. Excitement, you know, and pressure. We've only a mile of beach to cross and then we make permanent camp.'

The tractor treads bit softly into the yielding sand and the noise of the motors was now lost in the vastness of the great domed cave as we set off on the last stage of our extraordinary journey through the shimmering, misty light of that underground domain. Van Damm's machine pulled up alongside us and I saw that he had once again raised his pennants which were slightly agitated by the faint wind and that generated by the tractor's passage, which for a moment or so gave me the illusion that we were travelling in the open air.

We had now lost sight of the sides of the cave and were travelling across a wide sandy plain into a shimmering haze which obscured our vision, so that we might have been advancing toward some distant horizon. Indeed, the illusion was so complete that there were times when I completely forgot that we were not still upon the surface. Scarsdale had not forgotten our place or purpose, however, as I noticed he had his revolver out and beside him on the chart-table. Van Damm maintained the radio link and apart from our taking station abreast and the fact that we had no artificial lighting switched on, all seemed as normal as our habitual routine underground.

And yet it was not normal, could not be normal, and for the first time since we had been beneath the surface of the mountains, I began to experience a fueling of tingling excitement; I put this down to the illusion of being on the surface. Truth to tell I could not have maintained my morale had we continued much longer within the eternal darkness of the tunnel. The mileage recorder registered a little over eighty-six miles when we at last came to the extreme limit of our journey, at least so far as the tractors were concerned.

I had for some minutes been conscious of a humidity in the atmosphere and a slight disturbance in the middle distance which resembled the lazy breathing of a restless giant. As we advanced over suddenly wet sand I then saw what appeared to be a thin line of surf which flowed and receded before us, leaving a glistening iridescence upon the sloping surface of what, for want of a better term, I will call the beach. I was already slackening the tractor's speed and at the executive signal both machines turned to port together and we drew back up the shore-line to a commanding position where the water was unlikely to penetrate.

Curiously, now that we were nere Scarsdale seemed to nave lost all interest in the scene before us. To my mild astonishment 1 heard him give radio orders to Van Damm that no-one was to leave the tractors; that as soon as engines were switched off we were to start battery re-charging procedures, clear up the interiors, check rubber boats, weapons and ammunition. Looking back now, this routine and somewhat dull programme made excellent sense. We did not know what we would be facing and there would be all the time in the world for examination of our surroundings later.

Our survival would depend upon the efficiency of our equipment and if anything happened to the tractors it seemed, despite the Professor's previous experience, unlikely that so large a party would get back on foot without some major disaster. Scarsdale was an exceptional man and one built for survival under adverse conditions, but I did not see myself as being cast from that heroic mould and the remainder of our companions, though exceptional men in their fields, were probably not of sufficient physical calibre, though these things are always difficult to ascertain with any degree of accuracy.

So we spent the remainder of the morning on our allotted tasks, without going outside and even lunched within the tractors, until our leader was satisfied that things were as far forward as they could possibly be. Then he set us all to dragging out the rubber boats, military stores and other equipment on to the foreshore; it was not until late afternoon, when we had set a guard, inflated the two large rubber boats and set up two machine-guns on tripods that he announced his plans. To our astonishment he said that it would be a further two days before we would embark upon the underground lake; he called it a lake but it was like a small tidal sea. He did not know its limits but despite the vast length of the tunnel we had traversed, he would guess it to be fairly small, even though it had a minute tidal movement. He had ascertained on his previous visit that the water was brackish and it did not seem to contain any marine life of any sort.

His plan was to continue to steer almost due north and hope to hit another beach on the far side of the lake. The party would then explore onwards, always leaving good margins for food, water and stores in order that we could return. The boats would be left on the far shore and we would then proceed with tents. The time spent at the present site, which Scarsdale had designated Camp Two, to distinguish it from the spot where we had left the reserve tractor at the tunnel entrance, would be employed in training and exploration.

As I saw it Scarsdale intended us to concentrate on our weapon training; and we would also be taught how to handle the somewhat cumbersome rubber boats, which were of bright red material, which stood out well under the dim phosphorescence of the atmosphere. We would try to explore the limits of the beach; take samples of sand, rock and water for analysis; perform life-jacket and life-saving drill; practise filling the special packs in which we would have to transport our belongings; and also pitch tents and strike camp, all things we would have to get used to on the other side of the lake.

Scarsdale, somewhat jokingly, had suggested naming the tunnel along which we had so laboriously travelled, the Van Damm Passage, in honour of our companion; the doctor had flushed scarlet at this and had stammeringly disclaimed the distinction but Scarsdale insisted on pencilling it on the large- scale maps that were being drawn by our companions. Now, as we walked briefly on our first reconnoitre towards the shore, Van Damm reciprocated by suggesting that we dub the lake the Scarsdale Sea, a suggestion which found favour with the whole party.

It was in this amiable state of mind that we all set to after lunch, only Prescott's movements being conscribed, as he was on the first guard-duty, having to remain by the tractors and within easy reach of the klaxon and machine-gun. The remainder of us then walked slowly down towards the water's edge, three of us at least marvelling at the unearthly vista before us. Before I describe our surroundings, one action of the Professor's drew audible comment from Holden; oblivious to the weird beauty of the scene he seated himself on a spur of black, basaltic rock which thrust itself out of the sand before us and buried himself in The Ethics of Ygor, occasionally humming to himself as he consulted his columns of figures.

We waited politely until he had finished his calculations before moving on; when he was ready Scarsdale jumped up with a muttered apology and came towards us. He then acted as our guide, setting off along the shore at a brisk pace, the rest of us falling into step. I do not think I shall ever forget the spectacle that was spread before us that afternoon, in a place which had no dawn, day, night or sunset and in which all sense of time was lost; a region of other-worldly beauty which we were forced to subordinate to our man-made notions of time, order and routine.

The first thing we noticed was that the sluggish tide which rose and fell a foot or two on the shallow shelving shore, was itself as phosphorescent as the light which came from the sky. In between was a sort of vaporous mist which hung in thin sheets over the surface of the water, so that we were able only to see about two hundred yards out from the beach, when all was lost amid the indistinct haze. But the faint luminosity of the water, the brief lacunae caused by the mist and the recurrence of the vibrating brightness from the vast roof of the cave, hidden from us, made the whole atmosphere nothing more reminiscent than some great painting of Turner, gigantically enlarged.

We walked for about a mile westwards along the beach until our passage was barred by a configuration of rocks which thrust out into the water, so sealing us off, as the landward side of the mass was sheer and unclimbable. We came back, each heavy with his own thoughts, all of us exhilarated and moved at the strangeness of our surroundings. On our return I relieved Prescott who was then free to join the others in another sweep to eastward. I remained on top of the tractor, straining my eyes until the last of my companions had dissolved into the blur of the atmosphere.

I passed a long hour and was then relieved to see the four of them returning. They had found a similar situation to that obtaining to the west. A broad beach, misty water and finally impassable rocks. Scarsdale was inclined to the theory that the rock formations were masses broken away from the main walls of the vast cavern when it had solidified in pre-historic times and the others were of similar opinion. None of them felt that the rocks had any particular significance and that if it had been possible to scale them they would have merely led the explorer, sooner or later, to the blank, impassable walls of the main cave.

From figures the Professor had worked out, based on measurements and theories expounded on his walk, he.had advanced the opinion that the lake or tarn, despite its apparent tidal tendencies, would not prove to be of vast size, though he had surmised it might be a mile or more in width. We were not proposing to explore — its longitudinal limits and Van Damm felt that the tide might be caused by inlets, at some vast distance beneath the earth, running down into one end of the lake and out at the other.

We debated earnestly within the tractor that evening and many were the theories that Van Damm and Scarsdale argued; it was, from my point of view, one of the most stimulating and interesting evenings we had yet spent, the burden of the earlier nights having given way to a light-hearted optimism on the part of the three junior members. Even Holden was more like his normal self, though I noticed, that, even when off watch, he cast occasional glances through the windscreen, as if to assure himself that all was well outside.

Van Damm had taken the first of the two-hour watches and was, thus, the first to observe the sheer monotony of the atmosphere here, the light never varying by the slightest degree from the overall twilight. But even this mundane fact was written up in the voluminous notebooks which the Professor and his companions were beginning to fill with columns of figures and other statistics. I took my own watch at four in the morning and though the slight breeze from the north still blew, the atmosphere was not damp as might have been supposed from the nearby presence of water; neither did I hear or see anything untoward.

Ever since the strange flapping noise I had first heard at the great portico entrance several days ago, which might now almost be measured in years so long did we seem to have been beneath the surface, my nerves had been playing me strange tricks. The horrifying and quite unexplainable death of Zalor had completed the stealthy undermining of my morale and so I faced my first turn of sentry-duty, my companions all being asleep, with rather more tension that I would have liked.

But all passed without incident as did the subsequent spells of watching over the next two days. We fired the various weapons, with differing degrees of success, the dull explosions seeming to start weird echoes from far off across the water. We hauled the rubber boats down to the edge of the brackish lake and embarked, paddling a few hundred yards out into the mist by compass, and then turning again, making our way back to the beach without mishap. The rubber lifebelts were duly inflated and each of us — not without forebodings, though the water had been already declared non-injurious to health — plunged into the cold tide until their buoyancy had been duly tested.

These, and other equally strenuous enterprises occupied us for the allotted time, until Scarsdale had professed himself satisfied with our efficiency. On the third morning, after a substantial breakfast, shortly after seven a.m. the five of us, in two rubber boats attached one to the other by the painters, slipped into the cold tide, leaving the two locked tractors shrouded under their tarpaulins, and splashed out somewhat hesitantly into the misty unknown.