Frozen Discovery
"This exploration in the arctic is so foolish." Sighed an old, weathered bloodhound, once again looking through the "Reports" Sent in by the Arctic Exploration Team.
"They won't find anything, it's too cold and always has been for life to ever exist. This was one big waste of money." Agreed a much younger, but no more optimistic fox.
"Well, I've had multiple requests from the science division to explore it. And Fox, could you please raise those curtains? I haven't had the chance to see the city lately." The old hound requested, pointing to the dusty velvet curtains behind his desk.
The fox, creatively named Fox, complied, pulling his weight out of the red velvet lounge chair and walked across the room to pull the elaborately braded rope that controlled the curtains position.
Once he pulled them, a wave of red-orange evening sunlight bathed everything in the office. The old hound stood up from his fragile looking desk chair, and turned to peer out at the seemingly endless city that stretched out before his 17th story office.
The light glinted beautifully off the millions of building windows, and all for the cars and pedestrians just barely visible from the great height.
"It's beautiful, is it not Fox?" He said, looking out upon the city which was his to protect.
Fox stepped forward to stand beside the hound. "It is indeed Pepper. I wish it could stay like this by itself though."
Pepper was about to respond before a very loud and quite obnoxious assault on their ears began bursting from seemingly the walls, making the two in the room jump violently.
"What is it Vix?" Asked a now very startled Pepper, rubbing his ears with his paws and making sure there was no blood.
"You need to get down here now General Pepper sir. They've found something big!" The Generals eyes widened a bit as the irritating voice finished is speaking.
"What? How? There is nothing up there?" Pepper shouted, his face plastered with shock and disbelief.
"It's some kind of advanced ruin. They have a live feed broadcasting to the command center. Hurry up here!" The voice squealed excitedly, slightly distorted by the intercom.
"Let's go Fox! I need to see this." Pepper had made it out the door beside Fox with a speed you wouldn't expect from anyone his age.
"Man, you know? You really need to get the intercom off the surround sound. I almost had a heart attack so it can't be very good for you!" Fox said when he caught up the old hounds startlingly fast pace.
Pepper sighed but did not answer him. When they reached the control room the large metal doors slid open with a loud hiss of the hydraulics. The duo stepped through the opening and into the large control room.
In the control room were multiple rows of computers, each with a different person behind them, all staring up at one massive screen.
Said screen held an image which was either impressive or terrifying depending on who see's it. It was a live feed of a massive door in a cavern found in the arctic.
"General, this is it. This is not of Cornerian making. We think its alien sir." Said the voice from the intercom, his voice less annoying than before. Pepper looked to the squat hedgehog standing on a small platform overlooking the room.
"Wha-what is it?" Fox stuttered, in awe of the size and design of the wall.
"We think it's the entrance to a compound. Now that you are here, Pepper, may I give the team permission to enter the structure?"
Pepper merely nodded, his gaze now transfixed on the oddity discovered in a seemingly barren place.
"Explorer 1, permission to go." At his word, to camera, apparently mounted on someone's helmet, began to move closer to the door, where it stopped and looked over to others. Most of them were in snow white coats and thick pants, but some wore armor and carried weapons, just in case. But they were all arctic wolves, as they were suited for this environment better than others.
"Plant the-," A loud whirring followed by the screech of several tons of metal interrupted the hedgehog, who once again stared in awe at the screen. The massive door was opening itself, blue energy streaked all over it in a computer chip design as the complicated loch released themselves.
A gush of warmed air flooded from the door, near instantaneously melting the snow and frost near the door. The frost that had settled on the team's helmets melted leaving behind small drops of water to slide off.
"Well, that's one way to do it!" One of the explorers commented.
"Shut up!"
"Hey…"
"All of you shut up! Second directive initiated, turn on your lights." Barked a wolf, who had a hemetlight already on.
"Someone shit the bed." Grumbled the man behind the camera as he followed his now advancing colleagues.
They didn't get far before a blue glow lit up the small appearing room. It created small shadows that erupted from the intricately carved floor and walls. A voice began to broadcast from somewhere, scaring everyone until they began to listen.
"If you are hearing this, and can understand this, it means either you are really smart, or you are influenced by what was left of our culture. Or some other third thing…" A second voice interrupted the first.
"Don't act like an ass!" Another voice hissed.
"Hey, I'm in charge of recording, now shut up. Anyway, whoever triggered this recording, you need to listen. Since the doors only open when they detect some form of energy, you are technologically advanced enough. Now you need to listen. Shits gone down millions of years before you got here, and all but one of us are dead, and even the one may not have survived."
Everyone was frozen. Not one of them new how to react to this and none of them could believe it. The control room was silent, not a noise was made. Pepper looked as though he'd seen a ghost, and Fox didn't look any better, and they all shared a dropped jaw.
"Now, you need to listen, and no, this isn't a trap."
"Like that's reassuring." The other voice cut in again. "Oh yeah, real mature Dean." It said not long after, signaling the one named Dean had done something.
"Well then shut up. This is important. Now, one of you who are listening need to walk up and place you hands on the sphere on the podium in front of you, assuming you haven't sprinted in the opposite direction by now."
"Does-does it mean something, that they speak our language?" Fox finally asked, breaking the silence in the room like a hammer to glass.
"Fox, I think we speak their language. Our scanners indicate that this compound is 23 million years old. That's remarkable! Now, one of you do it! Put your hand on that sphere!" Vix ordered, seeming overly giddy now. After all, it was his idea to explore the arctic.
Slowly, one of the bravest of the team stepped forward to the earlier unnoticed podium, and inched his hand to it before making contact.
Rays of nearly blinding light sprayed like water from the sphere, causing the wolf that had activated it to yelp and fall back, and the rest of the team step back. The light seems to flow through the walls and floors, lighting up the whole area and revealing the true scope of the room.
"Oh, my God." Vix said in a near whisper, not audible over the massive chatter that had erupted from the room. Fox had called his team and told them to come, while Pepper still just stood there.
The voice resumed then. "Now that you've done that, you need to follow the blue light on the floor. Don't go anywhere else yet. Well, it's not like you can, but still. I will walk you through the few steps you need to take."
"Steps for what I wonder?" Vix asked himself aloud.
"Well move already!" He shouted at the team whom were locked in place. They began to move forward, following the same pattern of light they saw in the door. They gazed at the foreign architecture all throughout the room, and felt a bit humbled at the people that built its technology.
They came to a passage which led down before resuming a straight course.
The voice began to speak from the walls, as the Cornerian team thought, and began to explain a bit more.
"Now, the reason no one greeted you, is because we have been killed off by a massive alien race. They are technologically inferior, but there are just to many of them. If what the eggheads think is true, then you are the evolved descendants of the animals we are familiar with now. But if not, whatever. Now, you are about to enter a cryo room. And now you're in it. What you need to do, is press the BIG. BLUE. BUTTON!" The team was in a room with dozens of deactivated terminals, most of which were of a tech level that they weren't understood, but the one right in the middle of the room was quite simple.
It was a simple podium with a single button in the middle that steadily blinked blue. The other computers had strange holographic interfaces with symbols the Cornerians were unfamiliar with.
"Well, I'll go press it then." A soldier said, pushing through the others. He stepped up the terminal and presses the button. A loud hiss cut through the air as compressed gasses escaped from the gaps in the wall caused by the moving of a large white hexagonal prism.
Everyone by then was past the point of being shocked, so they simply waited for the next instructions.
"Now that you've done that, you need to know, that no matter what you are, or what you look like, who you are about to see is going to look different. I pray he's alive. Now just touch the pod and watch."
Someone had poked the pod as soon as he hear touch, so they were already watching the metal move away like it was alive, revealing a very strange sight.
"My God! What have we found?!" Vix shouting, jumping off the platform.
"What the fuck?!" That about summed up what everyone was thinking.
"Sir…it's alive." And with those words, a whole new experience began for everyone.
Well, it was kinda short, and I don't think it's all that good, but we'll see! I'll be messing with this a bit more soon. Heck, it may even become a main project depending on what you guys think! But, I'll just have to wait for some feedback from all of you!
Till next time
(P.S. I went over it and added in a bit more detail. I will do so for any chapter that I believe needs it.)