Canto XXXII-XXXIV:

As they began to approach the bottom of the cliff, it became increasingly obvious that the sheet of ice that they were getting progressively closer to standing upon was not ice, but rather white stone. N-3 was the first to reach the bottom and confirmed their suspicions.

“Never did like ice fishing,” mumbled Little Man.

“I just don’t like ice,” said Pernie, “But I don’t know how I feel about this sheet of stone.”

The expanse was roughly elliptical and surrounded on all sides by shear cliffs.The only exit was their entrance, opposite of this appeared to be a structure built into the cliff. It was the only thing down there with them and Pernie’s VRGL did bring them down there, but she checked it again anyway. “Opposite side. Statue. Cube.”

“Looks like we finally have our target,” she said.

“What is it?” questioned N-3.

“A… Cube?”

“I swear to god,” blurted out Dr. Case. “If it's another one of those cubes I will have a stroke.”

The Traveler asked him something.

“No. Twenty years ago repair teams started coming back with these same cubes. All we know is that they royally screw up any place that they end up.”

“Will they screw us up?” asked Pernie.

“They work up until the point they’re taken from where they’re found. After that they’re inert.”

“Well I suppose we ought to go get the thing then,” said Little Man. “Return this place to whatever it was before.”

The group took a few minutes to cross the sheet. What struck them most about this place was just how loud it was. Perhaps it was the echoes of their footsteps bouncing between the cliffs around them, or maybe it was something other than them. Either way, the place was a lot louder than anywhere prior, to them anyway.

They came upon the statue, it was the structure carved in the wall they had spotted earlier. It took the form of a massive throne with a figure seated in it. The figure, whatever it was, bore some semblance to the sphere rolling creatures they had come across before. At its feet was a cube, about the size of a head, placed on the ground almost as if whoever (or whatever) had placed it there was making some sort of offering to the seated stone creature.

“That's definitely one of those cubes,” sighed Dr. Case.

Little Man walked over and picked it up. For being made of what appeared to be metal, he lifted it with little to no effort. Pernie looked down at her not-watch.

“So… Now we can leave?”

“Now you can leave,” he answered.

“Well that wasn’t so bad…”

“I’m calling the dropship to our location,” said N-3. “It’ll be a few minutes.”

The group patiently waited exactly a few minutes for the dropship to arrive. It did, somehow.

Epilogue:

N-3 handed Pernie the formally corrupted book while they traveled through the vast, blue realm of intra-space.

“It should be uncorrupted now.”

She took it and began thumbing through it.

“Oh, well that explains a lot.”

“What is it?” asked Little Man.

“This is Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.”

The Traveler said something.

“It did, didn’t it?”