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"Wait," Pablo said "I hear it, too"

"How could--"

"It’s … not static It’s a river"

He continued on, his pace increasing with the prospect of a change in scenery Sure enough, with each step the sound of rushing water grew, and not a rotto

The expansive space was eerily lit frouess the source of that light, yet Tania still found herself breathless at the beauty on display before her Wave patterns danced lazily across the uneven ceiling, reflected off the rushing water below

The river flowed in fro down the center of the cave In places it appeared to be only centier boulders that o She based that esti into the floor

In other areas the water pooled into iuess Here the black liquid flowedto its widest point almost exactly where their tunnel had bisected the rooe of sorts Ejecta froh the cavern wall lay in an uneven line, piled as high as a meter above the surface of the river The water flowed around the new obstacle with visible churn, its ancient route suddenly obstructed

At the end of this bridge was the shell ship, nose half buried in the pile of rock it had propelled into the cave It had co Tania to see most of one side The surface of the vehicle held deep scars--grooves spiraled around the front half in a corkscrew pattern

Near the center was a gap in the fuselage, just like the one Skyler had seen in the tunnel near Belelow that so beautifully illurandeur of the view, Tania almost failed to notice the lone subhuled against the upstreae "Looks like at least one

Pablo had been about to step out onto the first clump of debris, but paused at her words "All the way down here, only to slip and drown" He shook his head

He also didn’t continue toward the ship, Tania noted She understood the hesitation, too Each of the other objects had been protected, as it were, by a challenge In Belem, thick mists had blanketed the area and concealed subhumans transformed into armored killers In Ireland, Skyler had found a dome that manipulated ti that advantage She didn’t knohat the woman Samantha had faced near Darwin, but she had heard in her tone the iers

So what is it here? The cave itself? Could the challenge of navigating such a place be what the Builders hoped would serve as protection? She thought … lanced at the 3-D route her suit was auto as they y Or perhaps that was the point This would have been a nearly io Maybe this was all some way to assess a planet’s technical capability Prior to first contact, as she still stubbornly hoped, or prior to invasion, as Neil had theorized

Yet the presence of subhu filled her with unease Perhaps the aliens planned for so deadly, but their material source--subhumans--had not an to ru rope and began to tie one end around his waist

"What are you doing?" Vanessa asked him

"The water It makes me uneasy" He walked to Tania and looped the rope around her waist twice, then handed the rest to Vanessa "I had a … vision, I guess Slipping on that bridge, pulled down by an undercurrent and swept into darkness"

"A very wise precaution," Tania acknowledged She looked at the water with istered with her as a pure liquid, an erosive fixture in this ancient place round location Now the obsidian black, rippling surface see An eneo first," Pablo said "Tania, only come out as far as you need to"

His tone left no rooe boulder that had rolled to a stop at the lip of the river She walked behind it and dug in her boots, positioned so the rope had to wrap around it Satisfied, she nodded at the care Probing, testing A little weight, then more, then a shift in stance to place himself exactly halfway between this step and the last More probing, and then the final movement Tania tried to focus on his foot placement, to spot for him and remember where he’d stepped so she could follow exactly, but the shell ship kept pulling her attention to it The ht it had a pulse to it

"Whoa!"

Pablo stu her semi-trance with his voice and sudden hter, braced herself for the worst Suddenly she i her with him This made her realize with horror that she wouldn’t drown No, her fate would be so even worse The suit would keep her alive for hours as she drifted down the underground river until the water pinned her against a wall in some deep, dark place, until her air ran out and she suffocated Tania slaht of the avocado grove on Space-Ag 12, the sound of the artificial breeze rustling the branches, and Neil Her pulse dwindled

The hed, nervously It had only been a loose rock, she saw The gray object rolled into the black water and vanished Pablo paused for aanother position Tania waited, found herself focusing on the green glow again

Finally Pablo reached the crashed vessel He placed his hand on it for support without any apparent concern that the contactto happen Tania wanted to shout to hi, not to wake it, but his hand was already resting on the scarred surface and nothing happened as a result

She let out her breath He was five meters away, just a dozen steps or so Tania ainst her waist She looked back and realized that the th between herself and Vanessa had been reached "This is as far as I can go," she said "Can you move up?"

"I’d rather not," Vanessa replied