Each member of Banshee Squadron took the news of the death of Jo Schmidt in his or her own way. Captain Matthew Cross retreated behind the impenetrable walls of his stoicism, unreachable, his face granite, while Dexter Gray was kept busy consoling and comforting the terribly distraught Alex Dalton. Sam Beckett sat alone brooding after having shed a few tears. Max paced the floor and quietly simmered, harboring black thoughts of bloody revenge and other mayhem. Lee Carter wandered off to be alone for a while. In the end though, they all decided to put their grief on hold for the time being and concentrate on getting themselves out of this horrible place before anything else bad happened. A thorough exploration of the city of Kurnugi seemed the logical place to start.
"The old woman told us not to wander too far," said Sam. "There might be more of those things out there."
"I remember," replied Carter, "but somehow I don't think our safety was her main concern."
"What do you mean?" asked Cross, taking more interest in the conversation now that someone else had suggested what he'd been thinking all along.
Carter shrugged. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but I don't get the feeling she was telling us the whole story of what happened to Jo. I think Ereshkigal doesn't want us snooping around so that we don't discover the real truth on our own."
"And that truth would be?"
Carter shrugged again. "If I knew that we wouldn't have to go out and snoop around!"
Max stepped forward now. "So what are we waiting for?" She was anxious to do something -- anything but sit around waiting.
Carter shared the sentiment and nodded acceptance of Max's suggestion, but then her eyes fell on Alex. The youngest Banshee member was still holding on to Dexter, who was doing his best to be supportive. Jo Schmidt had befriended Alex when the rookie had joined the squad, and the two of them had often gone on shopping sprees and guy-watching expeditions together, and had become inseparable friends; Alex was taking her sudden death especially hard. Addressing Max but still looking at Alex, Carter said as emphatically as she could, "But this time we stick together! That way we'll stay safe."
"We should make a priority of finding our phasers and life support belts," said Cross, always thinking of the big picture. "Then we'll be even safer."
"Right," said Carter. "Let's go."
The tunnels and caverns of the underworld city wound on forever, an endless warren of torch-lit corridors and sudden, unexpected dead ends. Nor was the maze merely two-dimensional. Stone stairs and rickety ladders wound up and down to whole new levels above and below the one they were on. Fortunately, Sam's cybernetic eye implants were capable of recording images, so there was little danger of getting lost; it was an electronic trail of breadcrumbs they could follow back home. Everywhere they went however, they met with the same general reactions. Men glowered at them from beneath lowered brows and turned away, refusing to acknowledge their presence, women rushed children inside their stone-carved hovels and slammed the doors behind them, then peered out from behind the ratty window coverings. Everyone's faces displayed obvious distrust and even fear in some cases.
"Sheesh! And I thought Sam was neurotic!" commented Max, receiving a frown from the maligned Lieutenant Beckett. "It's going to be hard finding someone to talk to at this rate."
"They've probably just never seen anyone as clean as you four," said Matthew Cross.
Carter stopped in mid-step. "Was that a compliment?" She turned to Max looking incredulous. "Did he just compliment us?"
"I'm not sure. He said we were 'clean'," said Max. "Does that count?"
"Guess not. Oh well."
Cross smiled indulgently at their ribbing, but any comeback he might have had was quashed by a deafening gong ringing throughout the undercity in a thousand echoes until it was impossible to tell from which direction it was coming. Instantly however, all the doors that had just been slammed in their faces were flung open and young and old alike streamed from their homes and joined the growing throng in the corridors.
"What's going on?" asked Sam. She had pressed her back against the nearest stone wall and was nervously watching the masses of people swarm around her. Crowds made her acutely uncomfortable.
Carter stepped over and put her hand on the tall blonde's shoulder. "Take it easy, Sam," she said. "I know you don't like crowds, but we've got to follow them to see what's going on, so just grit your teeth, okay?" Sam nodded uneasily and did her best to comply.
Following Carter's lead, the Banshees waded out into the stream of people and were immediately swept away by the irresistible flow. They were jostled and herded along until they finally broke out of the wide tunnels into another large torch-lit cavern where the throngs broke up and stood milling restlessly around rows of tables and benches. Carter suddenly noticed that most of the people were holding large bowls in their hands, and concluded that this must be some sort of communal mess hall.
The crowd at the far end of the cavern parted respectfully, allowing an old woman to pass through. It was Ereshkigal, also carrying a bowl, though hers was considerably more ornate and clean than those carried by the general populace. She stopped before a large wooden vat.
Then, from a different area of the cavern, a new commotion arose. Again the crowd was parting, but this time in a hurried, desperate scramble to get out of the way. Nergal and a dozen of his cronies were pushing their way through the press, shoving aside or trampling anyone who didn't get out of the way quickly enough. They passed close by where the Banshees were standing, and Nergal took the time to spare them a menacing glower and implied threat. "You eat last," he growled at Carter before moving on. He and his gang took up position behind Ereshkigal.
An officious-looking character wearing scorpion symbol-adorned robes and miter emerged from behind the giant vat now, and taking Ereshkigal's bowl, held it under a large spigot in the side of the vat, turned a valve, and dispensed a brownish-gray slop into the dish. When it was almost full, he shut off the tap and with a slight bow handed the bowl back to the old woman, who took it in both hands and disappeared back into the crowd without a word.
Nergal now came forward and thrust his own considerably-larger bowl into the waiting hands of the priest, who filled it to the top before handing it back. Nergal's thugs were next, though their bowls were again of the smaller variety -- seems like even being toadies of the top dog didn't grant them all privileges -- and once they were all cleared out and the priest had once more disappeared behind the vat, the free-for-all began.
The tide of people surged forward, everyone clamoring for their turn at the tap. The din was tremendous! As each got his own bowl filled, he would fight back out against the multitude still pressing inward and quickly find an empty seat at a table. Then they'd start shoveling the gray slop into their mouths with a voracity that defied description. Hunched over their bowls, they ate as though they were afraid someone would steal their food right out of their mouths, which probably happened all too often here, thought Carter.
"We better get down there if we want something to eat," suggested Matthew Cross.
"My olfactory system can smell it from here," said Sam wrinkling her nose. "I think I'd rather starve."
"That's exactly what we don't want," said Cross. "Come on." He started towards the food vat and the others followed. By the time they got there, the crowd had dissipated, the last straggler was just scurrying off with his bowl clutched tightly in his hands.
"How are we supposed to eat this stuff?" asked Max. "With our bare hands?"
"Here, try this," said Dexter. The young man had found a small discarded bowl lying partway underneath the low platform on which stood the food vat, and handed it to Max.
She took it over to the tap and turned the valve expecting a torrent of gray goo to issue forth, but was rewarded with no more than a tiny dollop of the viscous foodstuff. The tap sputtered and hissed for a few seconds, but relinquished no more of the vile-smelling brew.
"Looks like we're in luck," said Max sarcastically, tossing down the empty bowl. "The well's gone dry."
"What do we do now?" asked Alex.
"We should go back outside to our ships and raid the replicator on the Longbow," said Cross. "Besides, it might be safer spending the night in the Cat's Eye than in the cave Ereshkigal loaned us, especially with your buddy Nergal prowling around." He said this looking at Lee Carter, who frowned in distaste at the mention of the hulking bully's name and unconsciously rubbed her still-sore neck. "We can come back tomorrow, rearmed, and resume our search for what happened to Jo."
The trip back through the maze of tunnels to the first chamber with the huge stone carved door leading to the outside world took about a half hour. When they got there they found the door pushed closed again.
"Let's get this thing open," said Cross, and immediately set about looking for a handle or something else to pull on. The others joined in the search, but after a few moments they all came to the same terrible conclusion. Not only was the inside of the huge stone door free from the intricate carvings that adorned the outside, but was equally free of doorknobs or handles or anything else for that matter. There was nothing to grab hold of and pull it open, no indication that it was even meant to be opened from the inside. The seams between the door and the walls were a near perfect seal, fitting too tightly to slip so much as a piece of paper between them much less fingers or a crowbar.
"We're trapped!" exclaimed Alex.
Carter stepped away from the door back into the entry chamber and caught sight of the large alien text carved prominently on the far wall and recalled with chilling new insight its translation. "Welcome to the Land of No Return."
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