| The Second Angel Part 6 By Keiko We stood up and looked around us. We were at the base of the statue, the center of a large square. Here, there were almost no plants, a polar contrast to the jungle at the edge of the Dome. Buildings made of an unidentifiable material gleamed a dull mahogany in the sunlight, dotted here and there with small, unobtrusive doors. The buildings made a loose circle around the statue, with gardens visible just beyond. "The buildings in the center of the Dome are the only buildings worth searching. Everything else is just more of the same gardens we wandered through just now." I pointed at one of the buildings. "I'll start there. You search in the one next to it. When you're done, we'll meet back here. Okay?" Tali frowned. "I think we should stick together. There's something about this place that strikes me as odd, and I'm not inclined to leave you alone, where you can't defend yourself." I scowled. "I can defend myself." I remind him, flicking a flame into existence right in front of his face. Tali leaned back from my fire and shrugged. "I can do a better job." "But if we split up, we can search faster, and then we can leave before the sun goes down." I reasoned. Tali shook his head stubbornly. "I'm not leaving you all alone. Endo would kill me if he ever found out I left you alone in a place like this." He looked around and shuddered slightly. "There's something really wrong with this place. I can't quite put my finger on it." Involuntarily, I looked up at the face of the angel. "Alright. Let's go together then." I finally said. Tali was right. There was something strange with this Dome. Especially the center, where we were. I could feel the wrongness as we walked from building to building. The first building we tried to enter was locked, and Tali knocked the door down as he had with the garden entrance. The inside was dark and musty, but everything was in neat order. We did not find a library in this house, nor in the next one, or the one after that. After breaking into nearly all the buildings in the square, we found one that housed a small room filled with books. However, none of the tomes were what we were looking for. After we exited the last house, Tali teleported us up onto the roof of one of the houses, and we looked around us. "I just realized something." Tali murmured, shading his eyes from the pale sunlight of the afternoon. "This Dome is decorated with many gems on the outside, and this huge ivory statue on the inside, and filled from the rim with gardens, but there are only these buildings that we see here. Where are the metal smiths and gem cutters and gardener? I don't think just the people who lived here could have taken care of this huge Dome by themselves." "Maybe they had help from another Dome?" I suggested, thought not quite believing it myself. "No, I don't think so. The nearest Dome is leagues away, too far for other people to travel here for maintenance. And back in those days, not many people dared to leave their Domes. It isn't even a possibility that this Dome could have been a luxury retreat for the rich. No one wasted resources on stuff like this back then." I felt troubled. The thoughtful look on Tali's face further disquieted me as he turned to look at the angel. I turned as well, gazing up into the neutral face of the statue. It was a well-sculpted face, a strong jaw line, with sweeping lashes over almond-shaped eyes. It was a terrible beautiful face, yet somehow it did nothing to calm my mind, as the faces of angels are said to do. "The houses are too clean." Tali said abruptly. I thought back to the neat interiors of each and every single one of the buildings surrounding the statue. There hadn't even been any spider webs. All the houses were meticulously clean, as if its residents had just finished tidying up their homes and stepped out for a moment. "If this Dome was abandoned, or evacuated, it should show signs of disarray. Like furniture or things knocked over in haste, or something. But there's nothing like that." Tali continued my line of thought. "And that statue!" I closed my eyes. So he'd noticed as well. "There can't possibly be something of that size, made entirely of ivory. It's unnatural." I wrapped my arms about me to stop from trembling, "This whole place is unnatural. We've done what we came to do. Let's get out of here as soon as possible." "Yes." Tali glanced around. "Let's." I took a step towards him, preparing for teleportation, then stopped, taken with an idea. "Tali, do you think you can take us up onto the top of the Dome? Outside? I don't want to stay in this place as long as I have to. Once we're out there, we can climb down the side." Tali looked up and nodded. A moment later, we were standing on top of the Dome, the wind whipping our hair into our face. It felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off of me. I was suddenly impatient to get back to the launch pod. I wanted to be well away from this Dome as possible by nightfall. "Come on, Tali, teleport us back. I'll drive." Keiko's Rants: *shudder* just thinking about what I wrote scares me. Part 5 Part 7 Back Main K & K |