Spelunking- Horta style.

[lt_naraht]

It's edging toward afternoon as Naraht and Peter make their way into the rocky area behind Milliway's gardens. It was in this place that Naraht hollowed out a cave to sleep in before he found a way to master the stairs. But now he's got something more extensive on his mind. He's going to hunt a cave

Comments

[doc_venkman]

Peter had gotten his helmet on, and lit, and he was wearing the industrial style gloves on his hands. He normally wore steel toed boots, so that'll work down here.

"Ready, Naraht. Let 'er rip."

[lt_naraht]

"Keep back a good three meters from me until I tell you," he says, setting his grinders to the soil and activating not only the acid glands on his underside but the ones on his upper body as well. "I don't splatter, but it will take a minute for the acid on my skin to resorb and neutralize."

With that, he starts burrowing into the side of the hill like a hot knife through butter. "Yuck!" he says. "I keep forgetting how nasty topsoil tastes."

[doc_venkman]

Peter nodded, and kept four meters back just to make sure. He watched the Horta's progress, and thought how handy Naraht would have been when they had to tear up part of Fifth.

"Yeah, never understood the kid in my kindergarten class who had a thing for mud pies. Then again, he snacked on paste and chalk too."

[lt_naraht]

"Well, what is downright pathological for humans is...well I suppose you would consider topsoil to be comparable to 'hospital food'." Naraht hits good clean rock about six feet in. "Ahhhh! Now this is the stuff. Limestone with just enough iron in it to give it a nice tang."

He keeps pushing through it steadily, not hurrying. It's not like he's having to flee danger in the way his Mother did when she first encountered humans.

[doc_venkman]

"That makes it sound worse than mudpies then," Peter quipped loudly as he slowly followed. He and the team were no strangers to hospitals, and the evil that was hospital food.

[lt_naraht]

Naraht breaks through into the cave passage. He can sense the undulations of the water-carved walls around him. A simple tunnel here only. No formations other than a few "soda straws" clinging to the ceiling...

...But this is only the beginning. He knows there's something more around here. But which direction will take them there is not clear.

"Okay, Peter. First choice. Left or right?"

[doc_venkman]

Peter thought a moment, as he glanced around. Remembering his awareness training, he tried to relax, and focus on that for a moment.

He then said, "Left."

[lt_naraht]

Naraht glides off to the left. The floor of the cave is damp, not muddy. The water which shaped it was diverted long ago, leaving only the occasional drips from the soda straws to keep it from going dusty. The light from Peter's helmet plays over the walls, slipping like a luminous fish over the undulations.

As they turn a corner, there is a sudden lip of rock about hip height on Peter. The passage continues on beyond it in a "keyhole" shape.

But it's a formidable barrier to Naraht.

"First obstacle," he explains. "I can eat that into a ramp easily, but where is the challenge in that?"

[doc_venkman]

"Nothing wrong with going after a challenge. Gonna go for it then?"

[lt_naraht]

Naraht looks it over. "Best way is to get over it without damaging it. You get the most 'points' that way," he says. "Second best is to alter it in a way so that you can get over, but it still looks like a natural part of the cavern."

He notices that some of the scallops of the walls are pointed toward the lip but shallow out to nothing before reaching it.

"Not going to be able to do number one, but if I extend those..."

The Horta moves over to the groove and starts to gradually deepen and extend it. In a minute or two, he is at the lip and carving it as well, slopeing it back so that he has a way to gain more purchase on the stone. "There we go!" he says as he slithers up it. "Piece of cake, as I believe you'd say."

[doc_venkman]

"Points? Should I be keeping score then?" Peter laughed a little as he asked. He walked carefully along. It was getting chilly, and the unstable stone made it a little bit slippery to walk. He was managing ok so far. He then stepped up after Naraht, still keeping the safe distance.

[lt_naraht]

"Oh, I think you'd probably win at cave-running by Horta rules. Damn your primate ancestry," he says with mock irritation. "You can come a little closer now, if you like. I'm safe to bump into."

The tunnel they're traveling in suddenly opens out into a vast cavern. A giant, flowstone "throne" sits in roughtly the center of an egg-shaped room. Stalagtites and stone curtains deck the ceiling shading from cream to gold.

"Yes!" Naraht says reverently. "The most spectacular caves are on watery worlds."

[doc_venkman]

Peter grinned as he walked close to Naraht, "Yeah, well, how many predators did your ancestors have to worry about? My kind were the blue plate special in the early days."

He remarked as he glanced around, "I'll take your word for it. Geology was never my thing."

[lt_naraht]

"Well, Geology is in my blood, so to speak," Naraht says as he moves through the room. "Janus VI has some water activity or there would be no caves at all other than the volcanic kind. But it has nowhere near the amount to create formations on this scale."

Something catches his attention over by the wall. "Hello," he says. "That doesn't look like a natural formation..."

[doc_venkman]

Peter followed Naraht, and saw what had caught his attention. There was a skeleton, and an inscription. Something familiar about this. Familiar and bad. He looked over to read it.

"I don't think it's a formation, and I don't like the looks of this."

[lt_naraht]

Naraht looks it over. The inscription is crude but legible...and in English.

"Hmmm...'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathia. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of Aaauuuggghhh...'. What in space is this supposed to mean?"