The next morning I was eating breakfast while reading a new message from Elder Shalsheed that he had sent while I was asleep, and my eyebrow creased in confusion.
Why would he ask me about that elevator that I've seen in the picture? Wasn't it obvious? But after a few more moments, realization dawned on me.
The reason I myself recognized it is because I had a maintenance unit that could interact with still-functioning systems inside the Solid-State systems within the walls.
The walls within this maze, in their turn, were made of indestructible material that served not only as a channel for 4GM particles that powered all the systems, but also as a protective layer efficiently preserving everything within them from corrosion and decay. These walls were the world's best coating that could protect the systems inside from any damage.
Everything that was outside the walls, though, was almost irreparably damaged by decay.
And that's what I did not take into consideration. I was so accustomed to being surrounded by these indestructible structures that it simply slipped my mind that solid material made out of 4GM is actually a miracle that could be found in one single place within the entire galaxy. Here, in this maze.
All other ruins were made using similar solid-state technologies, but they had no protective coating to protect them from corrosion.
The states in which the ruins were preserved up to this day were different, of course. Some had been left in the vacuum of space and stayed preserved quite well. Some had been pummeled by radiation from nearby stars and had decayed to the degree where they were more brittle than burned paper.
Those that had been on the planets were subjected to forces of weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and even meteorite strikes.
In other words, there may have been thousands of outposts and citadels left from those times all around the ruined space, but by now, barely any of them were in good enough state to be worth studying. Obviously, mechanisms and tools found within them were so decayed that in most cases, they had only archaeological value, rather than scientific.
Even if Elder Shalsheed had somehow acquired a functional maintenance unit just like mine, which was capable of interacting with the demonic tech, it would have been totally useless.
When solid-state nanomaterials decay, they calcify and crystallize, turning into dead stone similar to dinosaur fossils. These stones could say a lot, but they could not be resurrected anymore. Ruins were completely dead, almost entirely morphing into giant, solid blocks of stone.
They were now just simple monuments, reminding us of the past era. Gravestones of the demonic race. Just like the pyramids of the long-abandoned quantum links system were gravestones of our previous civilization.
However, even if they were dead, explorers used top-notch neutrino scanners to 3D-map the structures. It could easily shine through walls, so how come they did not figure out the existence of the elevator when the scanner should have shown a vast empty spot below their feet?
Could I have been mistaken? I opened the pictures where Lady Aininad, wearing her astrosuit, posed for a selfie with all kinds of expedition tools and crates as her background.
I zoomed in on the corner of the picture where I saw a huge wall with strange patterns, and then opened a few pictures of a similar-looking structure that I had encountered while exploring the nearby maze.
Within a month I explored an area the size of a small city and went up as high as fifty floors in some parts of it. That's where I found the strange shaft-like structure that went straight up so high that I could not see the end of it even after shining my flashlight into the darkness. It looked like an endless, pitch-black chasm only above my head.
After studying the area around, I realized that the part of the floor right below that shaft, that with a naked eye looked uniform with the rest of the floor, was actually a separate solid block. Just like the staircase in the sanctuary-like structure where I found Otty, it had such thin seams that without specifically looking for them, they were almost impossible to find.
Had I not encountered such a mechanic before, I would not have noticed it myself. And without the maintenance unit pointing out the hidden functions in that part of the floor, I would not have known what I was looking at.
That block of floor was the platform of an elevator that would travel up through that shaft when powered by the 4GM particles.
Well, in my case, I was on the bottom floor of that elevator, so I had a giant, endless shaft above me as an indication of it being there. Elder Shalsheed was on the top floor of a similar mechanism, but as it was so uniformly integrated into the floor, it was almost impossible to say that it was a platform-like block separate from the rest of the floor. From their side, the room must have looked like a wide, empty chamber with nothing special in it.
In the past, when all these mechanisms were still functioning, they must have been lit by the 4GM particles, clearly indicating where they were. If I am not wrong, then some of the functions that I noticed within this platform would also create an energy field around it when it traveled through the shaft, protecting everyone from air pressure when it passed through the shaft at high speed.
By now I understood that the demonic race used 4GM particles literally for everything here. From windows and doors to plates and cutlery, all of their everyday tools were made out of simple, transparent 4GM constructs. Our civilization has also learned to make these constructs, as I mentioned, but this was a privilege of extremely wealthy ones. Because, as I mentioned, the amount of 4GM particles needed for this was simply astonishing. While a normal human within his lifetime may barely accumulate enough 4GM particles to construct a pen-sized object out of them.
These bastards, though, used it as common goods that were equally available to anyone. Huh? Doesn't it sound like communism?
Well, it was a monarchy, to be true, because all of it was owned by one single being who just let others use it. When the owner of all these particles perished, everything made out of them instantly crumbled and disappeared. That's why not a single door or piece of glass could be found within this maze.
Back then, 4GM particles must have seemed to be the best material that could never fail. Until they suddenly vanished one day, that is…
There was one other thing I could not find here besides glass and doors. Corpses. Not only that, but the entire place seemed to be sterile. There was dust, here and there, but not a trace of any life. But I did not wish to dwell on it. Being all alone in this megastructure was eerie enough, and filling my head with thoughts of where all the dead bodies of the demons disappeared to, or what killed all the bacteria in this place, was not going to help lessen my fears. So I avoided even thinking about it.
Anyway, the reason Elder Shalsheed did not realize that there were lower levels seems strange to me. I could understand if he simply did not recognize the elevator platform, but how could their scanner not notice the structure below them?
I wanted to ask him, but to do that I'd first need to answer his question, explaining how I recognized the elevator in the photo. And that was a problem. On all images saved in my mind, it was always in the purple light from the walls. And anyone with half a brain in their head would realize that the ruins I was in were functional. Which would bring a LOT of questions.
So I decided to walk up to the platform and make new images. I took a few batteries, two telescopic tripods and several spotlights.
I asked if he wanted to go with me, and he asked if we were taking food. It was a long walk, so obviously I was going to print a lunchbox for us, so Otty happily agreed to go. This guy… I can swear he hangs out with me only because I feed him.
I smiled and picked up my self-designed backpack for carrying the maintenance unit. Otty took his usual, by now, spot on top of it, that allowed him to watch forward over my shoulder and also cover my back. We were a team, you know.
The walk was long. The climb upward was even longer and also exhausting. Obviously, there were no straight paths. We had to climb then walk to the next spot where we already knew the stairs were to another level; then we had to climb and walk again, repeating the process quite a lot of times.
By the time we reached the huge elevator, my legs were trembling and I was heaving like a dying horse. Otty put one of his cold sprouts on my cheek, as if encouraging me. I sent him a thought that I was alright, and he instantly answered, "Food then." My eye twitched…
That's all you cared? I sent him my aggrieved thought, but he ignored it. Emotions were still a confusing concept to him.
But he was right; we should take a rest before continuing. So we took a break.
Otty was munching his food very slowly, so by the time he reached half of his food, I felt rested and went to the platform, leaving him to his meal.
First I installed tripods and fixed the spotlights, pointing them at the area of the elevator, lighting it up more or less adequate, then turned off the maintenance unit so that all the purple light from the structure would cease. Now it looked like a scene from a normal, gloomy maze explored by normal means.
I walked around, pointing out several important spots and used a bit of my Cry to light up several seams to make an example of how it all should work in an ideal situation, composing an adequate, in my opinion, reply to Elder Shalsheed's questions.
Once I was done, I readjusted the spotlights, pointing them into the shaft and focusing them into a beam, hoping to see the end of it and froze, staring into the distance. For a few seconds I could not believe what I was seeing and took out my recently made binoculars, zooming in on the object. It was a door.
Hatch, gate, shutter, seal, door; call it whatever you want, but for the first time in a month I saw something that looked like a physical barrier between two areas.
For some reason, in this maze that relied on 4GM constructs in everything, the architect of the maze suddenly decided that they needed a gate made of indestructible material. And I did not like any of the reasons they would have needed it for, but one thing that I was now sure of was that my living space may not be as limitless within this miniature-star-sized structure. I must have been in some buble-like, closed-off chamber, separated from the rest of the world outside it with indestructible walls and gates.
"Damn. Getting out of here just became a lot harder." I muttered.