The first thing that they both noticed when they emerged into their new surrounding, was the brightness of the light. Whereas a second or so earlier, they had been standing in an extremely large and relatively dimly lit cave, they now found themselves in a much smaller space that looked sterile and was brightly lit.
Even though it was greatly smaller than the cave they had just came from, it still reminded Vincent to a gymnasium on account of its emptiness as well as its height.
In one corner of the large room stood Nika. She hadn't yet recognized them yet and her arms were outstretched, with her knees bent as if she was getting ready to fight them.
When she did recognize them, her facial expression changed from one of a mixture of anger and fear to one of shock and joy. She immediately ran toward them with tears in her eyes. It took the three of them a couple of minutes before they could overcome their emotions. As soon as the hugging and kissing was over, they began to ask her all kind of questions.
Her story was very simple.
After she had been captured by the birdmen, they took her to their village, which was situated many miles to the south. Once there, she was placed into a wooden cage. As a measure of security, they tied her hands behind her back and although she could walk inside the cage, she couldn't use her hands at all. Nika remained like that for five days. Her hands were untied twice a day when she was fed and also when she had to attend her body needs.
On the fifth day, she knew that something special was going to happen since the whole village was very excited and she could see them making preparations for a celebration. In mid-afternoon, they untied her hand and took her out of her cage. Then every man, woman and child was made to touch her. Later, she was forced to parade throughout the village. Then she was taken through large carved doors that led to the enormous cave inside the mountain.
Once she was in the depth of the mountain, she discovered that there were hundred of people already assembled there and she realized that they had all been waiting for her arrival. She soon figured out that she was going to be offered as a sacrifice in front of a very tall statue of a bird. But when she saw the arch near the tall statue, she got very scared and she knew what her fate was going to be.
The fact that she already believed that the arch was evil, did much to boost her resistance and she fought back. But at last, the physical strength of those holding her was too much and she was finally thrown on the plate of the arch. She next found herself in this room where they were now. All of this had happened just a few minutes before Vincent and Verla appeared.
Once the joy of being reunited was over and after listening to Nika's story, they began to pay more attention to their surrounding. The room they were in was large indeed; light was being diffused somewhere from the ceiling behind translucent panels high above their head. Some of the light seemed to come also from the higher portion of the walls. They couldn't actually see the light sources on the upper wall since it seamed to be coming from the paint or the colors of the material of itself.
There were two doors or panels in the far wall, while near the wall where they now stood, was the receiving end of the arch. As for the floor of the room, it seemed to Vincent that if it was made of the same plastic-looking material as the floor of the tunnel.
They slowly walked toward the two doors and examined them. Both doors were identical except for one small difference. The door on their right had a small hole in the middle as if a key could fit in. There was no such hole in the other door. A distance of at least thirty feet separated both doors and except for the small hole in one of them, there were no other mark whatsoever to distinguish them.
To Vincent who was familiar with doors, and also judging by the rectangular cracks along their contour, he could tell that they were made to open somehow. Either pivoting on hinges or sliding into the wall. But no hinges or knobs could be seen. They tried to push on each door, sliding it using the friction of their hands, but it felt as if the doors were part of the wall and they didn't even begin to move.
After many long minutes of trying all sorts of ways to open them, they finally gave up and they focussed their attention on the rest of the room. In one corner, hidden behind the arch they soon discovered a table-like altar made of the same material as that of the walls of the room. Resting on the table was a rectangular transparent box about ten inches long by four inches wide.
As soon as Vincent approached the table, he discovered that the tabletop in front of the transparent box was covered with small round buttons arranged in many rows. Each button was about half an inch high and they were arranged in such a way so as to form a triangular pattern.
Starting from the top, which made up the first row there was one button only. Then two buttons in the second row and so on, up to twenty-two rows with twenty-two buttons in that last row.
Inside the transparent box was a turquoise rod about six inches long. It appeared to be made of glass and it had an intricate design at one end while being flattened at the other end.
Vincent noticed that the round end with the intricate design could probably fit into the hole of the door. It thus became apparent to him - since he was familiar with doors on his world - that it was the key that could open one of the two doors.
The only problem was that they couldn't open the lid of the box inside which the key was. Even when he hit it with the butt of his rifle he couldn't break the glass-like material. After a while he ordered the two women to stand behind him and he fired two shots at it.
When he examined the box afterward, there wasn't even a mark on it. The material from which the box was made was transparent, but it was certainly not glass or plastic since none of these would have resisted the penetrating capacity of a 303 high-speed slug. Worst still, without even sustaining a scratch.
Vincent next focused his attention on the round buttons arranged in rows in front of the box. When he pressed one, it did depress half way into the table and a soft musical note was heard coming from the box. It was a sound very similar to that made by a touch-tone telephone on his world. Then after what he estimated to be eight or nine seconds, the sound stopped and the depressed button lifted itself to its initial position. When he pressed another button, the same thing happened but a different note was emitted. He next tried pressing two or more buttons simultaneously. But each time he did that, only one note was heard; it appeared that the button that had gone in first, would be the one to emit its corresponding pitch. Pressing on any other button while this one was emitting a sound did not change the pitch of the note in any way. Finally he looked at both women and he said.
"It's some kind of code to open the box. The only problem is that we don't know what buttons to press or what sequence to use."
"Why do we need to open the box?" Said Nika.
She had probably never seen a key before and Vincent though that her question was very logical.
"You see that small rod inside the box, it will open one of the doors if we can get it."
"Then why don't we press all the buttons one after the other, then we are certain to get the right one?" Said Verla.
