Morton glowered at Col. Price as the group moved towards the main tent, but held his tongue. As they entered the tent Alex could see it was a beehive of activity. Many areas were being walled off with plastic sheeting, and expensive looking equipment was still being unpacked and set up. Morton's mood seemed to lift as "Ooo" and "Wow" could be heard escape his lips as looked at the various devices. They were lead down to one end of the tent that had been closed off with white canvas that was lifted up to allow group to enter. Inside were a table, several folding chairs and three women and a man looking expectantly at the newcomers. After more introductions were made, Alex found out that the new people were Jane August, who's with the Xibalba Mapping and Exploration Team and would be assisting with the briefing, Amy Chu, whose specialty is cryptology, Prof. Kathy Reichs a forensic anthropologist, and Dr. Anil Maheshwari, biochemist and microbiologist. Everyone settled around the tables and was given blue folders.
Sarah stood up and began, "If nobody has any objections, I'd like to begin this briefing." She paused and glanced around. "Good. The event that brought you here began one month ago. Two recreational cave divers found a previously undiscovered underwater passageway, no doubt uncovered by a moderate earthquake that hit the area a couple of months ago. That passageway leads to a chamber that contained this." Sarah held up a photograph. It was the same photograph contained in the blue folders. Alex stared at it. It looked like an unremarkable black marble structure with a silver diamond shape on the front partially cut off at ground level.
"We've dubbed it The Obelisk."
Kraus was the first to speak, "It doesn't look Mayan."
"No, it isn't"
Morton had put his reading glasses on to get a better look at the photo, peered up over the rims at Sarah, "Has this photo been retouched in any way?"
Sarah made a quick glance at Col. Brock before answering, "No, why do you ask?"
"Well the black portion of this 'Obelisk' isn't reflecting any light, showing no shadows." Alex peered at the photograph. Morton was right, The Obelisk was uniformly black from top to bottom, not a pixel of variation. If it wasn't for the diamond shape, it would have had the illusion of some doorway into a deep abyss. Morton continued, "What material is this made from?"
"We don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? How can you not know?"
Sarah took a breath before answering, "As far as we can tell, The Obelisk was not constructed with any known terrestrial technology."
Maheshwari was the first to speak, "Are you saying aliens made this?"
"We're working with the premise that a non-terrestrial species constructed this." replied Col. Brock.
Morton let out a long loud laugh. "I can't believe this; I think you guys are actually serious! Aliens! I take it we will each have a chance to examine this to see for ourselves?"
"That is why you are here." replied a slightly exasperated Col. Price, who seemed to have enough of the geologist.
"Have you tried moving the artifact?" questioned Kraus.
Col. Price stood up, "Actually that was the first thing we tried. We built a road to the site and brought in the heavy cranes to drill down and haul up The Obelisk. We couldn't budge it. That's when we knew we needed outside help."
Alex finally had a chance to contribute something, "So it could either be made from super-dense material…"
"Which it can't be." interrupted Morton. "There is no sign of compression stress around the artifact. If it was so heavy that it can't be moved, it probably would have sunk into the Earth already."
"…or its anchored somehow." finished Alex.
"Precisely." smiled Col. Brock.
Prof. Reichs was the next to speak, she had been busy flipping through her folder and looking at the other photos, "I take it these skeletal remains are the reason I and Dr. Kraus are here?"
"Yes," replied Sarah, "We found the entire cave and some of the underwater passageway littered with remains. We would like know if these are Mayan remains, if they are even human, and, if possible, what they died of."
Maheshwari spoke up, "I would guess suffocation due to oxygen deprivation. There appears to originally be only one way in or out of the cave and that way is underwater. It would take a long time for the oxygen from the lichen in the cave and oxygen from the water to filter back into the air. It certainly could not produce enough oxygen to be able to sustain a human being."
"Well that is one of those things we will be looking at."
"Who all knows about this?" asked Kraus
Col. Price replied, "Beyond us and others in this camp, there is the Belize government obviously and the British government, whom we asked for help when we realized our resources wouldn't be enough to deal with this properly."
"I should add that once we've completed our studies of the artifact, we will be releasing the information to the general public." clarified Col. Brock.
The meeting continued on, getting into the fine details of what's been done already, what they hope to accomplish, and the protocols in place to continue their examination. Jane August went into details about the cave itself and some of the potential hazards that they should be wary of. Once the meeting was over, the various assignments were given. Sarah, Alex, Morton and Kraus would all go down into the cave where others were already working, while the rest would stay topside and work in the labs that were being set up. The meeting adjourned, and everyone went to get lunch before starting the task at hand.