But surely ‘carved' was not the right word.
The walls were smooth as glass, the floor rippled, as if to accommodate
some creature which had used the uneven surface to enter and return.....
The slanting tube rose far out of sight---to the top, she imagined, of
Skither's fifteen-hundred foot mountain. A score of masons
couldn't have done the fine work in twenty years.
'What does it mean?' asked Kalus, lost in the wake of her
discovery and unable to follow.
'The oldest question of all, Kalus. Is there life among the stars?
But here, let's follow the passage and see where it leads. I'll
tell you more when I know more.'
Now it was he who became trepid, not understanding. She couldn't
help herself. She laughed.
'Oh, did I look as foolish when you broke the mirror? There's no
reason to be afraid. I'm sure there's no one here now. Machinery
this advanced could have been working completely on its own for
centuries.'
She took his hand, and together they made their way up the long,
arrow-straight passageway, pacing their steps and resting often, so as
not to exhaust themselves in the climb and have nothing left. And yet
at each pause their sense of wonder, as well as the now tenable magic of
the peyote, only seemed to increase.
For so, too, do Science and the indescribable beauty Nature walk---the
study and living manifestation, respectively, of the enigmatic Spirit of
the Universe.
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