"Just don't make Drew's mistake," Kim said as the shuttle approached the planet.

"Which was?" Cora glanced at her. "He did something when I had my back turned, didn't he?"

"I heard him mumbling about it when they were going into quarantine and you were on the intercom with Ludmila." Kim snickered. "He pushed one of the buttons on the doohickey."

"What?" Cora programmed the shuttle's descent and turned to stare at her. "He just started pushing buttons?"

"Yep. He said something that looked like a blue laser swept over all four of them, a bunch of lights flashed on the pyramid's surface, and then the fun started."

"Sounds like it scanned them. Maybe it needed to adjust the lights and gasses to make them work on humans."

"Sounds right." Kim shook her head. "Seriously, who the hell pushes a button without knowing what it does?"

Cora tossed a sheepish grin at her. "I … probably would've, now that I think about it."

Kim burst into laughter. "I should've figured that."

Cora took a moment to be thankful for her features not including the human ability to blush. She tapped one of the screens in front of her, brought up a menu, and selected the recordings made by the probes investigating the structures near the underground chamber. Kim leaned over for a look at the screen.

"Hey, y'know what those remind me of? There was a set of domes built in Casa Grande about a hundred years ago. If I remember correctly, they were built by an electronics manufacturer, but the company went bankrupt and construction was never finished. Decades later, the domes were falling apart and hardly anyone knew what they were for. I saw some photos and vids of them. Pretty creepy, especially at night."

"Nice. I'll have to find some of those videos." Cora smiled. "I've developed a fascination with ruins and abandoned buildings. That's one of the reasons I wanted to join the Sagan's crew. Aside from just wanting to see what's out there, I like the idea of exploring places where no one has walked in thousands of years."

"Yeah. It's like you're getting a glimpse at something that'll remain unknown forever. Really gets the ol' imagination going."

"It certainly does." Cora watched the recordings for a moment. "Hmm. Notice the interior of that one, the way the pedestals are laid out? It reminds me of an audience facing a panel of judges."

"Yeah, now that you mention it. Makes me wonder if there was more to this Peacemaker thing than the inscriptions told us. Maybe the 'volunteers' were selected in a sort of trial."

"Like criminals being sentenced?" Cora shrugged. "Could be, I suppose. Maybe they selected those who'd committed the worst war crimes on each side and sent them in to fall in love with each other."

"Hah! That's kinda messed up, but it makes sense."

"Or maybe the leaders of each military force had to go into the chamber."

"Yeah. It might've been considered a general's duty to go through the process as a way of taking responsibility for the bloodshed the war caused."

Cora nodded, closed the recording, and set down in the same spot Boner had landed the shuttle a few hours ago. "Here we are."

Kim released her seat restraints and headed for the equipment lockers. "Try not to push any buttons while we're in there."