Relics of the Past - Chapter Three

Before reading this chapter, you can catch up by reading the first two chapters

https://theprose.com/post/214881/relics-of-the-past-chapter-one

https://theprose.com/post/216841/relics-of-the-past-chapter-two

The Twelve days seemed to last a long time. Mark was anxious to get to his destination. He didn’t really have anything to do while he waited. He did make a tour of the colony and it seemed like all the other colonies he had ever visited. He occupied some of his time reading and he did a lot of walking around. Finally the day came and like before, he sat in the waiting area waiting for the transport to take him to his destination.

It took seventeen days to reach the outpost. The outpost was at the edge of known space and it took some time to reach it. For Mark however, it still seemed like but a moment because everybody on the transport was asleep except for the crew. When Mark arrived, He was greeted by the Project Manager and the Project Manager wasted no time in getting down to business.

The non-man made structure was roughly 3 meters long and 2 meters wide. It was also 2 meters deep. It seemed to be connected to something that was buried below the surface which provided the structure with power. They had tried scanning the structure but nothing they did seemed to penetrate its hull. There also didn’t seem to be any way to enter or exit the structure. There seemed to be no purpose for the structure. There were some markings on the side and that’s why Mark was here.

An atmosphere had been constructed around the structure so that it could be studied without anyone having to wear protective gear. Mark walked around the structure and studied it carefully. He looked for anything that might have been missed in a previous inspection but he didn’t find anything new. All he found was a single inscription that contained some random symbols. When Mark was done studying the structure, the team retreated to a conference room to discuss his assessment.

Mark had come to the conclusion that the markings were an identification number. Mark explained that the symbols were nothing more that the equivalent of a serial number for tracking purposes. Mark thought that this structure was mass produced and the markings were there to distinguish it from all the other structures that probably looked just like it. When the project manager heard Mark’s assessment, she was not happy. The team was no closer to figuring out what this structure was than they were before Mark’s arrival.

Mark asked if they had thought about cutting the thing open and just looking inside it. The Project Manager wanted to avoid damaging the structure as much as possible and decided to wait for Mark’s assessment before deciding upon violence. There was no way of knowing if the structure had some sort of defense capability or would simply blow up if messed with. Since Mark had not provided anything useful the Project Director decided they had waited long enough.

A shield was constructed around the structure in case the structure did decide to explode. Once that was in place, a large cutting device was installed and then the cutting began. All of this took several days and Mark was anxious the entire time. He really didn’t have to personally come but he wanted to be here when history was made. When the day finally came, everyone was on pins and needles to see what was inside. The structure did not put up much of a fight, in fact it didn’t put up a fight at all, the cut was clean and they were able to pry the structure apart. What they found inside was a chamber and inside the chamber there was something being preserved. The something they found was alive but not awake. As soon as they open the structure however, the thing that was alive started to shake violently. They were all shocked when they discovered the thing alive inside was human.