The Source - Michael Cordy [35]
'Some of it, of course.'
'Okay, go for it.' She reached for the computer mouse and, as she scrolled through the beginning of Lauren's translation, Ross sat down beside her and together they read what was on the screen:
. . . Our quest was ill fated from the outset. We began in the cloud forests high in the mountains. The mist was so dense we could not see our feet. In the first week, seven soldiers fell to their deaths, disappearing into the ghostly white void. When we eventually descended to the plain, an impenetrable jungle awaited us, pierced only by a mighty river. We built rafts and let the current carry us deep into the green unknown.
For days the river took us where it willed, through violent rapids and rocks, until it drove us towards a waterfall. Two rafts were smashed, drowning all on board. Those craft remaining to us were propelled headlong through the waterfall, then along a narrow waterway, inhabited by dragon-like creatures. More of our number were taken.
We left the rafts to cut our way through the jungle. By now the conquerors had become the conquered. Infested with beasts and disease, the forest was so dense that time lost any meaning. Day and night became one. As we marched, snakes bit the soldiers' feet and legs, then disappeared into the thick undergrowth, while unseen beasts lurked in the viridian depths. I soon despaired of finding any city of gold. Death was the only thing we would discover there.
Lost, our numbers depleted, I showed the captain my chronicle in which I had recorded key landmarks, compass bearings and the position of the stars. It will lead us home, I told him. But the captain could not return without gold.
'Nothing too controversial so far,' Zeb mused.
'Carry on.'
We struck deeper into the infernal jungle. Weary and in despair, we endured many obstacles before entering a vast cave, a cathedral of rock, seamed with gold. We followed the gold downward to a towering chamber, as hot as any oven, lit by a single opening in the high ceiling. The gold led us lower to a river of fire bridged by a causeway of black rock. We traversed the causeway and entered more caves. The air was poisonous, heavy with brimstone, and the walls dripped burning rain. We covered our mouths, shielded our eyes and went on, but terror gripped me because I feared I was about to enter Hell. Finally I saw light. Then a sweet, eerie sound filled my ears. I rushed to the light and was almost blinded by the beauty of what I saw. This was not Hell, but Heaven on Earth, the Garden of God . . .
Zeb paused the mouse. 'Still okay?'
'I think so. The seam of gold could have been either true gold or pyrites. The subterranean lava stream and sulphur caves dripping with sulphuric acid are possible geological features and often found together.'
'Okay. A light leads them outside into a garden filled with strange plants unlike any in the outside world, and walled on all sides by steep cliffs. What about the plants?'
Despite his scepticism Ross was responding now to her enthusiasm. 'If the enclosed garden is ringed by lava it could possibly have evolved its unique ecosystem, entirely independent of the jungle outside. A teenager recently discovered a complete prehistoric ecosystem in Israel, sealed off for millions of years. The Ayalon Cave is pitch black, two and a half kilometres long, has its own lake and lies deep under layers of impermeable chalk. Its ecosystem is powered not by the sun but by creatures that oxidize sulphur as an energy source. At least eight new species, which date back millions of years, have been found there.'
'There you go. This ain't so hard, is it?' She scrolled down the text. 'How about the perfectly circular lake in the middle of the garden fed by a stream of glowing water from the forbidden caves at the far end of the garden?'
'A circular lake's not uncommon: there's a perfectly round lake in the middle