Spelunkers by Cora Buhlert

Author:Cora Buhlert [Buhlert, Cora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: alien contact, portal fantasy, portal science fiction, dimensional portal, aliens, spiders, siblings, family, Belgium, Ardennes, caves, caving, exploration, short story
Publisher: Pegasus Pulp Publishing
Published: 2021-03-20T23:00:00+00:00

Later that evening, when the summer sun was dipping towards the horizon, bathing the Belgian Ardennes in a red glow, Kate, Evan and Matt were sitting on the patio of their hotel, enjoying an ice cold Trappist beer.

Evan raised the dark brown bottle. “To the first man to set foot on an alien world,” he said.

Their bottles clicked together and they all took a hearty draft of the strong and ever so slightly sweet beer.

“We don’t know if it really was an alien world,” Matt pointed out, “It might have been another dimension.”

“Then I’m the first man to set foot into another dimension,” Evan said.

And once more, Kate had to be the wet blanket. “You do know that we can’t ever tell anybody about this, don’t you?”

“Why not? This is the discovery of the century. We’re going to be famous, all of us.”

“More likely, we’re all going to land in the looney bin,” Kate said.

Once more, Matt came to Kate’s defence.

“She’s right,” he said, “If we go public with this, the cave will be crawling with spelunkers within days. And then someone else will blunder into the portal, someone who’s not as careful as we. And then they’ll get themselves killed or those spiders will escape through the portal again and swarm out across the Belgian countryside. Or maybe something even nastier will come through.”

Evan shot Matt and Kate a look of pure dejection. “Man, I hate it when you’re both so sensible and so right.”

“What do you think that place was?” Kate wanted to know, “Some kind of alien installation?”

“Probably,” Matt said, “So those carvings weren’t manmade after all. And the glowing stalactite was likely some kind of alien lamp. Or maybe an alien power source.”

“As long as it wasn’t radioactive,” Kate said and took a sip of her beer.

“Damn, it’s a pity we can never tell anybody about this,” Evan said.

“Come on, look on the bright side,” Matt countered, “We saw it and we know it’s there. And maybe someday we’ll come back with better equipment to explore whatever’s on the other side of the portal. Maybe a rover or a drone or something.”

“And something to fight off those spiders,” Kate added.

Evan raised his bottle, while Matt and Kate exchanged a private smile.

“I’ll drink to that.”

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