The underwater cave was fairly large and full of stalactites and stalagmites and was a chamber with air trapped inside, keeping the water level where the vessel emerged stable, like a small lake. The group crossed the small extended bridge and lighting the path with only the small petroleum lamp in the professor’s hand, started exploring forward.

"There must be a reason why this particular cave was set as the destination," Smythe speculated. He held the cane in his hand but walked normally for the first time in many years.

"It looks nothing out of the ordinary," said Pickman, examining the walls.

"Except the fact that it has air but is who knows how deep under the ocean," Leah couldn’t make sense of it.

They continued and just a bit further Annabella barely stopped herself from screaming.

"Nothing out of the ordinary?" Smythe asked mockingly, shining the lamp onto what was in front of them.

A tall, naked man sitting on a throne made of stalagmites with his eyes closed, unmoving.

"Is this a statue or ... ?" whispered Annabella.

The man had long black hair swept behind and held in his arms on his lap something impossible to name. The thing changed shape at a rapid, uneven pace, disappearing and coming back into existence. It didn’t have a shadow and reflected light, but looked like complete shapeless blackness, a void in space. In moments that it formed even if incompletely, one could recognize a large scythe.

"Should I ... check his pulse?" asked the doctor.

"I don’t think that’s a good idea," said Pickman, who for the first time looked as if he was plain scared. Up until now, shocked or momentarily terrified but never scared, never enough to tremble.

"I agree. Let’s not poke into a hornet’s nest," said Smythe and continued onward through the cave.

The rest followed him since he had the only lamp and looked as if he knew where he was going.

* * *

After quite some time, the group saw a light further away.

"An exit?" asked Annabella.

"But how? We are deep under the ocean. An exit to where?" Leah scratched his head.

"Only one way to find out," Smythe turned the lamp off and continued toward the light source.

The closer they were the more ominous the feeling inside their gut was. A feeling of being out of place. A feeling of the unknown.
They exited the cave and looked up. On their faces was a mixture of excitement, wonder, and pure dread.

There was a sky, and it was green.

"What ... " Leah couldn’t keep his jaw closed.

"What the absolute fuck?!" said Pickman, almost angry at the sheer impossibility of the situation.

He looked around and saw that the cave they came out of was a part of the mountain and the face of the mountain looked like a temple.
The deliberateness and size of the structure as well as an almost unfathomable geometry induced him with fear. He, as an archaeologist, was familiar with the feeling of discovering ancient remnants of old, but never before did he have a gut-wrenching feeling that what he found was not meant to be found.

What was even more frightening was an enormous spiral of water coming out of the mountain’s center like from a volcano. The water was rising into the sky and out into space, circling out beyond the horizon and out of sight.

"Is this how we got here? " Smythe asked himself, "That would explain the distance shown on the instruments in the vessel. But … how did we cross it so quickly? "

After gazing at the green skies and the strange phenomena for quite some time, their gaze lowered to the horizon and the earth in front of them.

The city stretched as far as the eye could see, filled with forms that neither could nor had any right to stand as they stood or look as they did. Some of the structures were so complicated that they made their eyes divert just to stop the pain, or in contrast, were so simple but large, one had to ask, what was the point in building them?
They were almost exclusively white and geometrical, mathematically correct to that extent they seemed unreal and impossible.

The feeling of discovery was soon replaced by a feeling of humility and almost insignificance, for whoever, or whatever made this was far more intelligent and capable than the ones that discovered it.

The feeling of unfamiliarity was only enhanced by what can never be described to another; colors that have no name. Colors new and fresh, yet itching and irritating for the brain that wasn’t met to be exposed to them. The plants and mineral forms whose strangeness couldn’t be compared even to the ones in the craziest ocean depths were reflecting the light in such ways that it made them simultaneously a joy to look at and a torture to understand.

Smythe put a hand on his face to calm down for a moment, and Annabella had to crouch to control her dizziness. Leah stepped forward, gazing at the city when Pickman grabbed his arm.

"Stop, you idiot!"

The doctor got pulled out of his mesmerized state and moved his foot back from the edge. They were high up on the mountain overlooking the city, almost like it was in the very middle of it.

"Come, there is a pathway leading down. This way," said Smythe.

* * *

As they reached the ground level of the city, the initial amazement with the size of the structures now became enhanced tenfold. Looking at them from close up, the structures were so large that they seemed almost incomprehensible.

"This planet ... it’s not the one we’re from," said Smythe.

"What makes you say that? I mean, sure, the sky is green but ... " Annabella was confused.

"It’s larger. It’s so much larger than its horizon is different."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Our planet is a globe. Almost every celestial body is," he said.

"Nonsense," Pickman intervened.

"How would we even get to another planet?" asked Leah, "I’m more inclined to believe that all we’re seeing now is under the ocean. Our trip downward makes sense, in that case."

"No. We are not. Look up. See that? I’m willing to bet that's what we traveled trough," Smythe pointed toward the watery spiral.

Everyone looked up and their faces changed as the realization came to them slowly but surely.

"That ... can’t be," Leah opened his mouth.

"No ... no, no, no, no, NO!" Pickman grabbed his head, "No! Wouldn’t we see our home from here then?"

"Not if it’s beyond the horizon," Smythe answered.

"Where’s the moon? Wouldn’t we see the same moon? And ... and what about this place? Wouldn’t we see this place from the surface of our home if it was as large as you say?"

The archaeologist did drive a hard bargain and the professor had no answer to these legitimate questions, but he wasn’t going to be dissuaded so easily.

"Just ... hear me out for a moment. Look at the facts. We went down into the depths, yet we are under the sky. A planet inside our own planet is but one of the options, but I find that hard to believe since this planet is larger. There is no moon or our planet in the sky, but they could be beyond the horizon. Now, the fact we never saw this place from our home points to the conclusion that this place is somewhere far away, but it could also be hidden behind where our continents are facing. For that, it would have to rotate around our planet, which I find incredibly difficult to believe since celestial bodies usually rotate around larger bodies."

"What?" asked Pickman, who didn’t understand half of it.

"Ah…I can’t explain this to you. These are facts I discovered on my own, but they are true," Smythe didn’t think they’d understand.

"Okay ... what are you saying?" asked Annabella.

"I’m saying is that every explanation we can muster has a flaw in logic. Each possibility is also an impossibility. So, in that sense, try to hear me out, with having that in mind."

"Alright, I get what you’re saying," Pickman crossed his arms, "Since it’s all bonkers, might as well hear one more crazy idea, right?"

"Right," Smythe nodded, "And my theory is ... that this planet is invisible to the occupants of our home. To us."

"What? How?" Leah shook his head and opened his arms.

"It is cloaked. Hid from the eyes deliberately. And the moon ... Have you ever stared at the moon?" the professor looked at each one of them.

"Yeah ... if I stare at it for long enough, I get this sense of ... like something is off," confirmed Annabella.

"Precisely! That’s exactly how I feel. Like the part of the night sky is just ... wrong," Smythe described, continuing.

"I think the inhabitants of this place made the moon, to act as a cloaking device for this planet. To hide its presence to their neighbors, to us," he finished.

"But ... why?" asked Leah.

"That’s something we need to find out. But with this theory in mind, the answer might not slip past us that easily," Smythe pointed at his temple.

* * *

They wondered for hours, heading awkwardly toward the largest structure they saw, following the logic that its size might signify its importance. The lack of any kind of smell in the air was odd and the only sounds were their own footsteps that echoed and reverberated almost endlessly, sending an eerie feeling down their spine. There were no streets or pathways and often there would be an obstruction they had to either vault or go around, sometimes being forced to backtrack and find an alternate route altogether.

"I’m willing to bet that these people were able to fly, or used some kind of transport that we haven’t discovered yet, "Smythe concluded.

"Yeah ... there’s no way they would be putting up with this every day," the doctor laughed and everyone agreed.

"Strangely enough I don’t feel tired," said the professor.

"Me neither. Nor thirsty," Annabella added.

"It could be the effect of the weird food we were consuming in the vessel. Just look at my leg, and my facial scars are gone" Leah touched his face.

Suddenly, they felt the ground shake under their feet.

"An earthquake!" Leah yelled and everyone tried to crouch or sit, with no shelter being close.

It lasted for a while and luckily, the city remained intact. No structure showed any sign of giving in to the tremors. Still, it was an incredibly uneasy feeling. The quake culminated in a loud sound of bursting water penetrated the eerie silence and their gazes focused on a large tower of water rising from the ground far away from them.

"The shaking stopped, but is that … a geyser?" asked Pickman.

"And look at the size of it!" Annabella said as the water had risen so high it was visible above the many buildings.

"That could be trouble," said the professor.

"What makes you say that?" asked Leah.

"Remember when we were at the top of the mountain? Wherever we looked, there was nothing but the city."

"You’re saying that geyser must be in the city and not in the wilderness?" Pickman asked Smythe.

"Precisely what I’m saying. Let’s not be lulled into a false sense of security just because we are traversing on the constructed ground. Whoever lived here either had use of the geysers or … simply didn’t care."

They continued onward, but with hurried steps. Fortunately, nothing else happened on their way toward the largest tower.

The giant structure was unimaginably tall, penetrating the sky. It was made from the same white material as everything else, but the strangest thing is that it all looked like it was made of one piece, not put together like human structures were.
There was a large entrance up front and the group went inside.

From the inside, one look up was definitely a confirmation of the theory that whoever built this could fly, because no visible stairway or other path led up. The ground floor had many interesting artifacts displayed almost like in a museum.
The archaeologist went to inspect one of them more closely.

"This ... this can’t ... "

"What’s wrong, Pickman?" asked the doctor.

"Look ... this can’t be ... this ball is ... a perfect sphere. It’s perfect. There are no indents, and mathematically speaking ... it’s ... " Pickman rotated it, lifted it, looked at it from every possible angle, but couldn’t let it go.

"Let me see," the doctor tried to take it but the man jolted out of the way.

"No! It’s perfect! Don’t touch it!" he shouted and started getting away.

"Okay! It’s yours, I get it. I won’t take it away ... hey, wait!" Leah tried to calm him down.

"Come back!" shouted Smythe, "Pickman! PICKMAN!!!"

But the man sprinted out of the building and out of their sight. Leah wanted to follow him but the professor grabbed his shoulder.

"No! He’ll come back. We can’t be following him now."

"Screw you!" the doctor snapped his shoulder out of the grasp, "We have to help him. That thing did something to him. I’m going," he looked at the two and ran after Pickman.

Annabella was torn between going after them or staying. She looked at Smythe with pleading eyes.

" ... catch," he threw his cane

She caught it, looking at him with a puzzled face.

"Smythe ... ?"

"There is something I must do. I must finish this, see it through to the end or I will never know peace. If I’m not back for a long time, or a need arises, use it to turn the vessel on."

She nodded and started running after the two.

"Annabella!" Smythe yelled after her, "I should have told you before, but ... it’s not safe outside. Once you find them, go back to the vessel."

"Okay!" she answered and then ran away.

The professor let out a sigh and continued to search the structure. It could have been hours before he finally got tired, but in this place, there was no way to tell. The stillness and unchanging nature of the city were maddening. It felt as if one was trapped in an eternal and empty moment.
He sat down on the white floor and took off his glasses to wipe them. The moment he did, his eyes opened and he looked around.

"Huh ... "

He could see more clearly and the shapes that made no sense, now slowly started to fall into place.

"My illness ... is ... a gift?" he looked around and saw a large entrance.

"Was this here ... the whole time?" he wondered as he gazed at a huge door that was until now hidden in plain sight, right in the middle of the structure, under their noses.

He came closer to the door and it started twisting and forming into a very familiar shape: a black, ribbed tube leading down under the structure itself.
Smythe turned on his small lamp and started to descend.