Everything that wasn't a lit button or the stone pillar disappeared and was replaced by the inky blackness of the Void. Cally immediately fell, having lost her balance as soon as the floor was no longer visible. She sat, curled in a ball, with her arms protecting her head.

I fared little better. My stomach was queasy and my balance off. I stumbled forward a step, trying to remain standing, but it was no use. I ended up on the floor with Cally.

"Oh god," she moaned. "Is this what you saw?"

"Yeah. Only there were those eyes, too."

"This is awful! Make it stop!"

"This is... disorienting, but it's nothing compared to those eyes, Cally." I'd begun to sweat, terrified that the eyes would return.

"Tony, we need to hit that button again and see if it turns this off. It's got to be a projection of some kind. I can feel the floor, even if I can't see it."

"Right." I took a deep breath, then opened my eyes and looked around at all the lit panels. I concentrated on the red panel and the button I wanted to press then stood as quickly as I dared and pressed it. Immediately, the room returned. I regained my senses quickly, but Cally was still in a huddle in the floor.

"Cally? The room is back," I said quietly.

She looked up and I could see tears on her cheeks.

"No wonder you had such trouble, Tony," she said, wiping her face. "That Void was bad. I can't imagine how a set of eyes would make it worse."

"Believe me, they did." I looked around again. "At least we know one thing, now."

"What's that?" she asked, digging out a bottle of water from her pack.

"The Void was a projection of some kind. I wonder if the eyes were as well?" I tried to puzzle it out, but it was impossible.

"Hmm. How much to do want to bet all the other buttons with this symbol on it are the same thing?"

"Seems logical, I suppose, but why would you ever need three buttons with that as a result?"

"I think it might have something to do with the, 'I,' 'you,' and 'we.' It's the only thing besides the colors of the panels that I see is different."

I nodded and opened my mouth to suggest we push the next button when we heard a commotion.

"Tony! Cally!" I heard Jeff call out, followed by many voices calling for, "Dr. Graham," and, "Dr. Zenowich!"

I pushed the door's button and it dissolved away, leaving us back-lit by the blue room and front-lit by one of the brightest light's I'd ever had the displeasure to be illuminated by. I threw my hands up to ward off the light.

"Good lord, get that thing out of my face!" I shouted. The beam immediately moved to shine on the vaulted ceiling of the entry chamber.

Jeff came rushing to me. I took a step back, bumping into Cally, when it looked like he was going to hug me. He stopped short, however, remembering his Graham Stride distance in time.

"Tony! I thought we'd never find you. Why in the hell did you go off exploring?"

"Because, Jeff, that's what scientists do,' I said matter-of-factly.

"What is this place?" Mr. Sheridan asked, coming forward. "This is amazing!" I could see the greed crystallizing in his eyes.

"This place is off limits to you, Sheridan," I said. "You'll not touch anything here or I will make your life a miserable hell of legalese and red tape long enough to hang you."

He took a step back at the venom in my voice and held his hands up in surrender. "Whatever you say, Dr. Graham." I knew he was just placating me, so I was going to have to figure out something. "I'll also bury all your contacts in the same pool of red tape. You'll never sell another item again."

He laughed outright. "There will always be a buyer, Dr. Graham. Besides, I have many, many contacts."

"Well, you are correct, there will always be buyers, but I can put a stop to your most influential." I began to give him a list of names. The first wiped the smile off his face. The second made him scowl. By the sixth, he was pale and sweating.

"So, you see, Mr. Sheridan, I can, and I will, bury you if you so much as touch this chamber." I thought I'd intimidated him enough to let it go, but I could see my mistake in a matter of moments. I'd not frightened him, I'd pissed him off.

I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed him, pulled him into the panel room and shut the door. Then, I hit the Void button.

Knowing what to expect, I was able to handle my third trip pretty well. He, on the other hand, fell to his knees and began to scream.

I grabbed him and looked him in the eye. "If you so much as touch anything here, I will have you kidnapped, brought here, and I will leave you here until you either go mad or die, take your pick."

I dropped him on the floor and kicked him over. He cried great sobs and I smelled the urine as he lost control of his bladder.

I could hear pounding on the door. "Tony! Tony! Open the door!" Jeff called.

I managed to hit the Void button again, bringing back the room, then I calmly pressed the door button. Everyone seemed a bit stunned to see me calm and collected, and Mr. Sheridan sobbing on the floor.

I looked at his assistant and the dig foreman and said, "I think Mr. Sheridan will need some assistance."

They rushed to his side and pulled him, stumbling, to his feet. As they led him past, I called, "Don't allow him, or any of his minions, back down here. This place is off limits." I then survey the gaggle of workers that had come down with him. "If anyone wants to stay in Mr. Sheridan's good graces, I suggest you leave now. You will no longer be in mine."

Eyes went wide and many nodded their heads, turned, and fled the room. Only Jeff, Cally, Cally's students, and a small handful of workers stayed.

"So, did anyone bring any food? I'm starving," I said to Jeff. He looked at me for several seconds before laughing heartily. He gestured for one of the workers to pass him a pack. In it, there were emergency pouches of instant rescue meals as well as more water and various utensils and tools.

I smiled. "I knew you'd bring my favorite," I said, almost giggling over my joke. Jeff knew that I didn't care for the emergency rations, but he also knew that I'd eat them if I had to. Their saving grace was that there was only one food per pouch.

Amongst them, too, were pouches of flavored tuna, chicken, and salmon. I dug out one of each and let Cally pick the one she wanted. I kept the other two and soon, we were eating where we stood. I didn't think tuna had ever tasted so good.

Finished, I unfolded the small trash bag and we made sure we left no trace. The trash bag would go with us. One of the workers stepped up to take it from me and I gladly handed it over.

"Okay, so, tell me what the heck we have here?" Jeff asked again.

"We don't really know, except this is definitely the chamber with the Void."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Well, it's easier to show you. Come on," I said, motioning for him and the workers to join me in the room. To a man, all the workers refused. Only Jeff was willing. I guess my little terrifying routine had worked a tad too well.

Cally's student, on the other hand, were all eager to get into the room and see what all the glowing blue panels were.

We stepped into the panel room and I closed the door. "Okay," I said to them, "you'll probably want to sit on the floor."

Jeff looked puzzled, but did as I asked, trusting that if I suggested he do it, there was a really good reason. Cally nodded to her students as she, too, quickly sat on the floor. They followed suit.

I pressed the Void button and Jeff gasped. "Holy shit!" he shouted. One of Cally's students started to scream, but I don't know which one as they had all balled themselves up.

I hit the Void button again to bring back the room.

"That's what you saw?" Jeff asked, his voice squeaking.

"That's what I saw. Some of that stomach churning fear you just felt? I felt that, too, only magnified by those damned eyes."

"Jesus H. Christ, Tony."

"So far, that's the only button we've pushed," Cally explained.

"Let me guess. You want to push them all," Jeff said, looking at me.

I just smiled.

"I think that we should be pretty methodical about this," Cally said. "We need to keep really good notes about the glyph on each button and what the result is when we press it."

"Agreed,' I said. "We need to gather some supplies and set up a station down here, I think." I hit the door button, surprising the workers when it dissolved open. "Come on. We'll go back to camp, gather what we need, then get a few hours of sleep before coming back down."

~~~

Our "station" consisted of some camping gear, a tent, a couple of tables, and backup batteries for just about every camera and tablet we owned. We also had food, water, and I had several sketchbooks.

The room hadn't changed since we were last in it and I showed Jeff, and Cally's students, Haseem, Matt, and Jody, the different colored panels. She showed them the glyphs. I tried to not be too anxious about getting on with it while the others were getting caught up. I busied myself with taking pictures of the buttons and starting to catalog them.

When I realized that everyone was simply watching what I was doing, I stopped. "So you all want to push a button?" I asked them.

"Kinda," Cally's student Jody said.

"Cool. Might as well go in order. Also might be a good idea to sit on the floor, just in case," I explained.

With everyone as settled as they were going to be, I pushed the second button. Once again, the room fell away, but this time, it was replaced by a panoramic mountain scene. All around us were green mountains with ruins seen in the far distance and people milling about on the ruins. The peaks were surrounded by fluffy clouds and the sky above them was a stunning shade of azure blue.

"Oh, wow! Cally exclaimed.

Jody rose and studied the ruins. "Wait. I think... I think that's Machu Picchu! I think we're on Machu Picchu mountain near the ruins!"

"Cally, I think that we should station one person at each wall for pictures. You can your students would be perfect for that. Jeff, I think you'd be good at documenting what's going on here with us."

"What are you going to do?" Jeff asked.

I smiled. "Push buttons, of course."

"Of course," he said with a smile of his own.

"Hey, Tony," Cally said, "Look, all the buttons that look like the one you pushed are flashing."

She was right. There were two other walls that had the exact same panel and, on those panels, this particular button was flashing. The fourth wall, however, had a different set of buttons. If I didn't know any better, I'd say one set looked like a phone pad or a calculator. It glowed softly, as if it didn't want to overwhelm the projection of the mountains.

I wanted to explore that wall a bit more, but it was important to do these sorts of things with care, so I returned to the original wall.

But, I couldn't resist. I pushed the door button. It dissolved away and now, not only could we see the mountains, but we could hear, smell, and feel them too. The doorway looked into an area of dense underbrush. Unfamiliar, but beautiful sounding birds sang and the wind blew into the room as a soft breeze bringing the scent of the green forest after rain.

"Stargate," I heard Cally's student Matt said.

"What?"

"Stargate. Haven't you ever seen that show? The people find the rings in Egypt and there ends up being a whole slew of them out around that galaxy? Portals? Aliens?" He looked from one to another of us. "Don't you people watch science fiction?"