Contact Not Found by Jared Austin

Author:Jared Austin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space City, aliens, young adult, juvenile fiction, exploration, space exploration, ET, E.T., extraterrestrial, interplanetary, science fiction, outer space, humor, YA, scifi, series, adventure, space opera, futuristic, multiple POV, coming of age, romance, world building, diverse cast
Publisher: Up Past Dawn
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

A short, narrow hallway led from the Etaem temple entrance inside to a large room covered with animated murals. On the room’s left wall, figures depicted in the mural resembled the statues Devika had seen on her way in. The figures swam among sand dunes hunting giant worms. Presumably the Etaem, they possessed five legs, brown carapaces, and heads that narrowed to a point.

“They remind me of squids,” Devika said to Nico. “Except with clawed feet.”

“Cool tattoos,” Nico said, pointing out the blue or green markings adorning much of their carapaces.

Visitors stepped through a doorway in the middle of the scene, while others studied different aspects of the murals.

Devika wrinkled her nose at the stench of sweat. “Too bad the Etaem didn’t provide a place to freshen up.”

On the wall to their right, the animated mural depicted tiny Etaem stacking stone blocks on what she guessed was the base of a new pyramid. Other Etaem poured mud into square molds, or carved large rocks hauled in from the jungle.

“I wonder what it took to get these back up and running?” Devika asked, marveling at the image quality.

“I heard the discoverers claimed it all functioned on its own when they found it,” Nico said.

“No way. How long have the Etaem been gone?”

Nico shrugged. “Several hundred years, I believe.”

Devika whistled. All this time, and yet their artifacts still functioned, showing no signs of deterioration. How long might it last? She wished she could look behind the murals to see what the Etaem had used to make them.

In the middle of the mural of the partially built pyramid on their right was a physical door, taller than the mural itself, leading from this room to another.

The room they stood in was trapezoidal with the short wall toward the center of the temple, as if designed like a clock with each room a different hour mark. The narrow wall possessed a simple diagram of a pyramid. Lights from the ceiling illuminated the diagram.

Nico snapped a picture of the diagram. “Is this part of the trial?”

“Not sure.” Devika captured an image of the pyramid in construction. “They might be scenes of early Etaem life, like their history. We may need to refer to them later.”

Turning back to the main entrance, Devika found a giant image of a sun surrounding the doorway. Its rays appeared to leap off the wall.

“Which way?” Nico asked.

She shrugged. “I solved the first riddle. You pick.”

He grimaced. “Picking a direction doesn’t qualify as solving the next riddle.”

“How do you know?” she asked. “We know nothing about the Etaem or how they laid out this trial. The direction we choose determines how this trial unfolds initially, which may help or hinder our progress.”

“Maybe.” He studied the two doorways before choosing left, the one in the middle of the desert scene.

Dozens of people studied new animated murals in the next room, which also had the trapezoidal shape to it, seemingly confirming her theory that the place was arranged in a giant circle. Groups formed around four pedestals, one in each corner of the room.

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