It's been 7 minutes that Dureena was climbing. It was dark, she had a helmet on with a torchlight built into it. Dureena thought she looked silly in it. But she had to see where she was going. So, it really wasn't much of a choice. She was being very careful and moving very slowly. She didn't want to risk falling, she didn't know what was down there. She looked up and could see that Eilerson was watching here. And then she wondered what was taking so long for Galen to climb down with her.

"I'll come down after you" he said

But he doesn't seem to be climbing down after her. She ignored that and went on.

Then she saw it, ground. She could see, it was close. She moved quickly and got down.

As she got her feet on the ground, there was really nothing in it. According to the scanners on the ship, she should be in a large room of some short, but the was nothing but the small space that she was standing in. And the stone four walls that was surrounding her.

"I've reached the bottom" she said to Eilerson through the link.

"Good, Galen's coming down now" he said

Dureena looked up and saw a big black shadow, coming down on her fast. It was Galen and as it would appear. He must have jumped down into the hole.

"Is he insane?" she thought to herself as she moved aside not wanting to be flattened by him.

But to her surprised, he landed safely on his feet.

"Ah, another one of your Technomage advantages" she said

Galen smiled. And she could see it clearly because the light from her helmet was shinning directly at his face.

she saw a tunnel and went to turn back to tell Galen, she realized he has noticed too.

"Shall we?' she asked. Galen nodded and they walked into it.

Then Dureena's link beeped.

"Excalibur to Dureena" it was Gideon's voice

"Dureena, yes?" she answered

"How you doing down there?" he asked

"We've just found a tunnel, walking into it now" she said.

"What about you? How are things up there?" she asked

"Just some cargo ships, they meant no harm, got me panicked for nothing, I'll come down after I'm done up here" he said

"Dureena out"

Dureena continued walking with Galen following closely behind. Then she realized that they have come to end of the tunnel and was now in a big room It was rather dark, and the light from the helmet was not really helping. But she was sure something was in front of her.

Galen conjured a ball of bright light. And in front of them, Galen and Dureena could see a huge ball in front of them in the shape of an egg. It looked like as if the shell was a metal casing. On it was strange carvings that went around the whole thing. The egg was big enough to put an average sized human in it. It was tall.

"Dureena to Excalibur"

"Excalibur" Matheson's voice came on

"Put Gideon on" Dureena said

"Gideon, what's up, Dureena?" asked Gideon

"We found something" said Dureena

"What is it?" Gideon asked

Dureena looked at it but didn't know what to say

"We don't know exactly" said Galen.

"One thing, why aren't we picking up you guys on the ships scanners?" asked Gideon

Galen looked around the room, seeing in the dark wasn't a problem for him as he seeing everything in night vision.

"This place is heavily shielded" said Galen.

He did try to scan around the whole planet, somehow, he failed to pick up this little place. Apparently, the scanners could pick up this place but couldn't pick up what was inside.

"Well, it's one hell of a shield" said Gideon

"Just send someone down here" said Dureena

"Will do…keep this channel open" said Gideon

"What the hell is it?" Dureena said as she used her finger to touch the egg. The egg was covered in some kind of black goo.

"Do you think it's wise to touch it" asked Galen, keeping a distance from the egg. It gave him an uneasy feeling.

Dureena hand was not covered in the black goo, as she pushed her hand further into the goo, she realized there was nothing but this liquid goo, and it was cold. There was no shell or anything of that sort to this egg.

Galen turned on his scanners and realized what Dureena had just found out.

"How is it capable of keeping it's form when it's made up of nothing but liquid substance" Galen said

Dureena shook her head, as she had no idea.

"I'll be down there in a few minutes, Eilerson is coming down to meet you guys" said Gideon over the link.

"Alright" Dureena said to the link that was on her right hand. Meanwhile, her other hand was still inside the egg. It had reached till her elbow. Just then, she felt something in it, a warm…goo?

"There's something in here" she said to Galen

Galen checked his scanners but couldn't see anything other than the liquid

"It's warm" she said

He then checked his scanners using heat sensors, and he realized the outer layer of the egg was cold, but in the middle, it was warm. The possibility of a living being inside was very possible. Was this some kind of organic stasis pod?

Just then, Dureena realized that touching the egg in the first place was a bad choice. The warm goo seemed to have wrapped itself around her hand and as she pull out her hand of the egg it was still covered with it.

"Galen, we have a problem" she said

Galen couldn't believe his eyes. It looked like as if the black substance was moving on it own and was growing… it slowly covered the whole of Dureena's left arm. It was like it was consuming her.

It spread fast to cover her neck, slowly going up to her head. Dureena tried to pull herself away.

Galen tried to help, he tried to pull her away from the egg, when it failed to help. He conjured a fireball and was about to throw it at the egg and just then Dureena grabbed Galen's arm firmly. It was dark, but he could tell that Dureena's eyes were now all black.

She spoke "Kill me and I'll take her with me"

Galen realized that whatever that was trying to cover itself over Dureena was controlling Dureena now. He dissolved the fireball.

"What's going on Galen" came Gideon's voice, he heard Dureena said there was a problem and something about killing

"The thing we found…it has taken over Dureena" said Galen as he broke free of Dureena's grip. He took two steps back.

"What?" asked Gideon

At this time, the black goo has covered most of Dureena's body, her face could still be seen.

"I'll bring her back" said Dureena and she moved closer to the egg, and the egg took her in, as if absorbing her…consuming her.

Galen tried to grab Dureena, but was dragged in as well. He could feel the goo soaking into his clothes, it was cold, he felt like he could hardly breathe, then the last thing he heard was Gideon calling out his name.