The vixen looked at the door, concerned that it wouldn’t hold long enough. She had the data they needed; now she just had to get it out to the crew that waited outside. With another look at the steel door, she started to form a parabolic dish of energy in front of her. ‘Stupid of them to have put this window here.’ She thought to herself. A bit more energy expended and the dish locked onto a counterpart outside. The energy construct pulsed, transmitted the information she had, and then vanished. ‘Time to make my exit.’ The vixen stopped short at the door. A small section had started to glow; she could feel the heat off of it. “Bloody hell.” She said as she watched it get larger. She looked from the door to the lone window, gauged the amount of time she had, and decided that there wasn’t enough. With a sigh she turned to the only other exit to the room. It was a short walk over to the device, a fair sized ring of some unknown alloy. She looked the control panel on the side of it over. She then tried to use her skills and magic on it, only to be shocked when it threw her out. She did get one thing from it though; with a grin she reached out and hit the ‘on’ button. The device emitted a low whine and then settled down. A look above the touch pad revealed a ten-digit display. ‘Well, lets see if their speculations are correct.’ She thought to herself, as she put in her favorite number five times. ‘I always did want to travel…’ As the steel door behind her began to melt, the device lit up, an energy field, a shimmering, flowing, cascade of color, sprang up. ‘When they said I was gonna change the world, I didn’t think it was, I’m gonna change the world I’m in…’ With that thought, and one last look over her shoulder at the rapidly melted door, she went through the portal…

“I can’t believe that I found this place by falling into it.” Markus Atle Masterson said to himself. The archaeologist had found the site in the Appalachians literally by falling into it. He was up in the mountains on a camping trip, as ordered by his doctor, a way to relax, away from the stress of the academic world. So far, until he had found the site, it hadn’t worked. Then he had literally fallen into his current position. He had been on a worn section of ridgeline when it happened. The ground, that he had thought was stable at the time, gave way beneath him. His pulse had hammered in his chest as it started to shift, and then his heart had tried to leave through his mouth as he fell. He passed out as darkness engulfed him.

Markus moaned as he awoke. “Bloody hell! Feels like a bus hit me.” He looked up at the small circle of light above him. At least 30ft, he thought as he tried to get himself back together. A flashlight helped him determine that there was no easy way out of the spot he was in, but there was an opening, a doorway really, of to one side of the rather large room he had fallen into. Markus shrugged, and winced a little, as he reset his pack. He was glad he had brought it with him on the climb as it most likely saved his life in the thirty-foot fall. Maybe this was going to be a bit of fun after all, he thought as he walked over to the doorway.

Despite his hurts, minor as far as he was concerned, he started to feel happier as he went down the hall. From the way the possible sigils on the wall were worn, he thought this place must be tremendously old. The floor was worn from something going over it, and the glyphs on the walls were worn, not just from touch, but from pure age as well. The entire place felt old, ancient even. He went slowly, with a pause every so often to extend his small map.

Markus had been walking for about three hours now and had yet to find any way out. He was starting to get a bit worried, as the batteries in his light had started to flicker. Half an hour later, as he stood in yet another hallway, the light went dead. He cussed roundly for a bit then reached for a chem. light to make his way back to the spot he had come down in. He stopped as he noticed a slight amount of light that came from down the way. A way out, he thought to himself, yes! With that he made his way down the hall, slowly as he hadn’t pulled the chem. light out. The closer he got, the brighter the light, till he had enough to see rather well with. The light shifted a swirled, sort of like a lava lamp on crack. Psycadelic baby, he thought with a bit of a chuckle. He stopped as he came to the opening that the light emanated from, a pause as he steeled himself to step in front of the door. He took a deep breath, now is not the time to chicken out, dude, he thought.

Resolutely, Markus stepped around and into the doorway. He was confronted with…not much, an impressive not much, but still not much. It was a smallish room, maybe twenty feet long by the same wide. It had four pillars, two to a side, about five feet from the walls. And, at the far end, there was also; it looks like a freakin mini star-gate for Christ sakes, he thought as he looked at the device. He stood there for what had to be a half hour, just staring at it, before the colors started to pulse and shift rapidly. He looked on in astonishment as something came out of the device. It had the appearance of a fox, but it stood upright on digigrade legs. He/She? Stumbled as it came out of the field, it panted and leaned against one of the pillars. She? He tentively tagged it, seemed to calm down and compose itself. Until it caught sight of him, that is. Then it stood about as frozen as he was.

They stood that way as the device pulsed and swirled once again. A figure, similar in appearance to the first, stepped out of the field. It seemed to take the transition better, as it only shook it’s head a little and drew a fair sized blade of some sort. Silently it raised its weapon over its head and advanced. Markus had been running first contact bits through his head until the second had stepped into the room. It took him a second to recognize the blade for what it was; but when he did, his body leapt into action before he even formed a thought about it. With a single smooth move he pulled his snake gun out from under his pack. The gun, given his unreasoning hatred of snakes, did not simple speak. It thundered, it spoke in those close confines like an artillery piece. The .50 cal. bullet not only blew a massive hole in the figure in black, it also hurled it back into the portal.

At the same time the vixen had been watching the figure by the doorway. What the hell is that thing? She thought. Got to be one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. They stared at each other, one frozen against a pillar and the other against a doorsill. This held until the figure by the door started to move with a rather good bit of speed. It reached behind its back, this sent the vixen into action…the back was a prime place to hide a weapon.

Markus watched as the figure in black was launched into the energy field, the blade fell from its grasp as it was slammed back. As he stood back to normal from his shooting stance there was a blinding flash, a distant sound like lightning, and then a massive pain erupted in his chest. With that he blacked out for the second time that day.

Traveler is a work of fiction, as such any resemblance to any person living, dead, or other wise, is purely coincidental. This work and all characters in it, except where otherwise noted, are copyright 2001 Erik Ahlstedt. No duplication is allowed, unless writen permission from the author is given.