Much to the colonists misfortune, the salt flats ended in an immense red mountain that shadowed nearly a third of the desert. They towered so high that their peaks were ensconced by queer grey clouds that appeared heavy with rain, but since their arrival the heavens hadn't wept even a tear. Half of the caravan circled west around the mesa while the other commandeered the easternmost wall in search of water as per Sargent Frosts' behest. He was a handsome man with even handsomer notions but his wicked smiles often led his subordinates to believe he fostered a much more insidious agenda than that which he claimed. He chose to abstain from this particular venture, claiming that his marines had no interest in rocks and earth. When Patricia Tannis, one of the head geologists, rebuked by saying they did need some manner of hydration, Sargent Frost scoffed and had her forcible escorted from his cabin.
"I don't think I can stomach this heat any longer." Tannis clutched her belly. She was a frail thing, pallid as the moon and easily moved to vomit when faced with some semblance of gore. Sun-Li, a geologist, eyed her with the most quizzical of expressions as he noshed on his lunch. "Then why did you bother coming?" he half-barked, "We're looking for water. Not bones." Tannis grew to her haunches and cocked her head to the side, with it, a cropped sea of puce coloured ringlets all frayed and scalloped from the heat. "It's unsafe and unwise to assume that there aren't remains. Even if there's the slightest possibility that this planet was, or is, inhabited by other forms, we should be prepared. What if they're hostile? Frost won't rally his marines simply because we claim to have found bones. He'll need irrefutable proof-"
"You seem to forget that Frost is a fucking idiot." Sun-Li scoffed. "His number one priority is feeding his marines and getting his cock wet. Don't you see how he eyeballs you and Ammon? I'm surprised he didn't fuck you when you were in his office the other day." Patricia swallowed her embarassment, but before she was able to retort three men came stampeding around a pillar of composite red loam. "Tannis," they panted, "Come 'ere! We found a cave." Tannis and Sun-Li each exchanged hopeful glances and tore through the earth through a dervish of sand and dust.
When they arrived some moments later, panting and drenched in sweat, they noticed Ammon examining the cave's maw. It was like a sunken black mouth with stalagmites for teeth and unusually cool breath. Oddly enough, Ammon was an engineer; she handled mechanical discrepancies and configured their computers if ever an issue arose. She was shining a spotlight on the cavern's teeth as if she were looking to fix a frayed wire in a computer's hard drive, her coffee complexion dusted with a cocktail of sand and sweat. Secretly Tannis envied Ammon and her roguish Egyptian features, but on that particularly sweltering hot afternoon, Ammon's mane of starless black hair didn't seem all too appealing.
"Any sign of water?" Tannis questioned. Ammon replied with silence. Her freakishly light eyes swept over the stalactites; she absentmindedly chewed on her labret piercing and continued being mesmerized by the dark void ahead. "The air's cool," Ammon replied choppily, "Might be that there's a natural cistern or grotto inside." Without further inclination the crew eased inside with Tannis leading the group and Ammon flanking the rear. From time to time she stopped to analyze the veins woven within the sedimentary. Though she wasn't a geologist, it didn't take one to realize that the veins were bleeding.
"I'm tired," Tannis grunted abruptly. Her adventurous streak ran dry as her throat. Soon enough, after venturing some kilometres into the cavity, she began whining, throwing herself upon a tubular object dredged in fossilized detritus. Sun-Li wiped his forehead and began exploring a further arm of the chamber while the others began planting markers. She unknowingly brushed away a thin layer of the detritus unearthing a cloudy, besmirhed panel of glass. She drew in a sharp gasp, ensorcelled with the large shadow dwelling underneath. "Ammon! Sun! Look at this!"
Sun-Li came barreling in, Ammon having executed her lethargic, almost hypnotic sway her hips. She glanced uninterested at the capsule. "Don't touch it," she grunted, plucking her communicator from her belt. It responded with mild static, but a voice rang garbled from the other end. "Velasco here. What's shakin' on your end, darlin'?" His familiar Latin accent temporarily pacified Ammon's growing unease. "We've found something." Velasco's excitement was clear through the static. "Water? It's about fuckin' time. I'm so-"
"Not water. Something else. Contact Frost, tell him I want twenty marines and a moondoggie dispatched at -2453.8643x and 452.9248y in forty-five minutes." Before Velasco could protest Ammon clipped her communicator back to her belt and meandered over a clutch of boulders and near Tannis who was now examining another capsule. This one had jutted up from the earth and was open, but inside was something far too small for a contained. "Look at this. Isn't it fascinating?" She was molesting a cube shaped artefact; her eyes were aglow, but so was the cube's markings. "It's like brass."
"Tannis! I think there's something in this thing." Tannis squeaked and thrust the artefact into Ammon's hands, leaving her dismayed. "Hold this. I'll be right back. And be gentle! I know you're notorious for breaking things." Quite the opposite as Ammon was an engineer, but she assumed the artefact was safer in her hands than those of an all too eager Tannis. As the scientists all gathered around the capsule, Ammon gazed curiously at the artefact. It thrummed in her hands, aglow with almost kaleidoscopic colours, and in the blink of an eye it began to tremble.
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