Alex was excited, "Can you read it? Does it give any clue about what happened to these people? How they got here?"

Sarah shook her head, "No, it's too faded. I'm only seeing bits and pieces at the moment." Sarah moved away and motioned to Alex that he could put the flashlight away. "I'm going to have to go topside and get some paper. I'll try to make a rubbing. It might bring out details I can't see in this light. Don't touch anything while I'm gone."

Alex was taken aback by the last comment, but then chuckled. Sarah's husband Rick was widely known for his sense of humour; it's what made him such a popular television personality. However Sarah had quite a dry wit herself that was unfortunately overshadowed by her hyper-extrovert husband. Alex knew she had to be kidding, what was the point of bringing him here if he didn't get to touch stuff?

Alex went back over to Morton. The geologist was observing a trickle of the ice tea coming out from underneath the Obelisk. He then went behind the Obelisk and quickly poured out the contents of the water bottle. A small gush of water flowed around and under the artifact. Morton than went down on his stomach and looked to be attempting to peek underneath the object of their collective fascination. Alex decided to join him.

Morton looked at him, "Well I proved one thing."

"What is that?"

"My original assessment was correct. Water doesn't ignore this object. In sufficient quantities, it will flow around it, like any other object. This proves that it was placed here after the cave was formed. Unfortunately with a frictionless surface, a small trickle of water just flows underneath uninterrupted, leaving normal erosion patterns. I was hoping I could narrow the time frame by analyzing those patterns, but unfortunately that is a dead end."

Alex nodded and then smiled, "Well you also proved something else."

Morton gave a surprised look, "What is that?"

"Whatever is holding this thing in place isn't the result of it being attached to the rocky surface."

Morton looked back at the flow patterns of the water with wide-eyed astonishment. "Of course, how could I have missed that? If this thing is just sitting on the surface, with a frictionless bottom, they should be able to push this all over the place! What the hell is holding it in place?"

"That is another very good question." replied Alex. He was gaining new respect for Prof. Morton. Despite being rough around the edges, he had a keen intellect and a strong sense of curiosity.

Morton moved to his knees to get up. He paused and looked the ceiling of the cave for a few seconds. Alex could detect an almost indiscernible change in his expression. Morton looked around the cave and seemed to grow more excited. "I wonder…?" Alex could hear him breathe.

"Thought of something?" pried Alex.

"You remember in the briefing that they said they removed all the speleothem in the cave in order to better study the Obelisk?"

"It would help if I knew what a speleothem is."

This seem to derail Morton a bit, "They are cave formations; stalactites, stalagmites that sort of thing."

"Ah yes, you decried it as 'wanton vandalism' as I recall."

"Yes, yes," waved Morton, trying to get control of the conversation again, "it was unfortunate but necessary in light of what was found here. Now it stands to reason that whoever placed this thing here might have done the same thing."

Alex let it sink in for a couple of seconds. "If you can find some remnant of an older…er…cave formation that had been removed previously, you can do radiological testing on it in order to date it?"

"Possibly. I would have to find evidence of it first, which won't be easy. But I can also do testing on the speleothem that they removed from here."

"With the oldest sample being likely the date near the time the Obelisk arrived here."

"Exactly. It's going to take a lot grunt work, but the hardest part has already been done for me. In fact…" Morton pointed his flashlight at a portion of the cave floor a couple of feet away. "…I think this proves my hypothesis. You see this?"

Alex peered at where Morton was pointing. There was a ring on the floor where a stalagmite was removed. It kind of reminded him of tree rings. Morton explained, "If you can notice, this remnant is overlapping a much fainter older ring."

Alex could barely make it out, it almost blended in with the natural variations of the limestone surface, but he knew what it meant. "Just like moon craters, newer craters overlapping older ones."

"See? You already are a better geologist than most of my students." laughed Morton. "Now if excuse me, I'm going to head topside and get some equipment."

When Morton left, Alex turned his attention towards the Obelisk. He once again put his fingers on it and felt them glide across the surface. He moved from the black area to the silver area but couldn't feel any variation in the different surfaces, no change between the two, it was perfectly seamless. In a moment of inspiration he decided to place his palm dead centre of the diamond. Nothing happened; it was the same feel of a frictionless surface as before. He then glided his fingers from the centre back to his left…

He felt it. To make sure it wasn't his imagination he moved his fingers back right. It was definitely there, in the black area right at the left point of the diamond, he found, for lack of a better word, a notch. He placed his face right next to the Obelisk to see if he could see any shadow cast of the notch, but then felt foolish. The way this thing can absorb light, there was no chance to see a shadow, so this notch was effectively invisible. He once again put his finger on it, perhaps notch wasn't the right word, it seemed more like a small circular area where there was suddenly surface friction. He pressed on it gently, then with more force. Nothing happened. He decided to explore the top most point of the diamond, it too had a similar notch, he pressed that too, still nothing happened. Finally he tried the right most point, and like the other points it too had a notch. Like the others he pressed it….

"What the hell did you just do?"