Ka-chak.
With a rusty groan of metal, the floodlights sparked back into existence. Across the underground tunnel, mining equipment lay silent and dormant, hurriedly drawn to a halt and shunted aside, their once mighty tools now quiet.
"What do you make of it, Professor Fang?"
"Don't rush me."
"O-Oh. Sorry."
A pair of figures, clad in bleach-white hazmat suits, trod through the underground. One of them raised a large torchlight, bringing its beam across the earthy floors, and onto the rock ahead. Veins of jade marbled the rock, snarling into... a shape that hardly seemed to match the surrounding strata. No, this was man-made.
Carved into the heart of the rock, a gate of some kind, formed of pure Jadeite mineral, inlaid with streaks and hues of gold. Characters formed and flickered across its surface suggestively, before fading back into the patterned rock, as though it was never there. The center of the gate was open, like a slender maw - and within, only pitch blackness. Nobody had dared to tread into its depths, not since its discovery. The figure holding the torch made their way towards it, running a gloved hand across the characters, eyes narrowing in concentration.
"See these marks here?" - A woman's voice, stern and formal, stated as a finger was pointed towards the corners of the gate.
"This architecture dates back to the Qin Dynasty."
"How many years old?"
"Thousands."
The beam was brought back around, once more circumnavigating the exterior of the gate, as Professor Fang continued, thoughtfully.
"What I'd like to know is... What it's doing here?"
With a rusty groan of metal, the floodlights sparked back into existence. Across the underground tunnel, mining equipment lay silent and dormant, hurriedly drawn to a halt and shunted aside, their once mighty tools now quiet.
"What do you make of it, Professor Fang?"
"Don't rush me."
"O-Oh. Sorry."
A pair of figures, clad in bleach-white hazmat suits, trod through the underground. One of them raised a large torchlight, bringing its beam across the earthy floors, and onto the rock ahead. Veins of jade marbled the rock, snarling into... a shape that hardly seemed to match the surrounding strata. No, this was man-made.
Carved into the heart of the rock, a gate of some kind, formed of pure Jadeite mineral, inlaid with streaks and hues of gold. Characters formed and flickered across its surface suggestively, before fading back into the patterned rock, as though it was never there. The center of the gate was open, like a slender maw - and within, only pitch blackness. Nobody had dared to tread into its depths, not since its discovery. The figure holding the torch made their way towards it, running a gloved hand across the characters, eyes narrowing in concentration.
"See these marks here?" - A woman's voice, stern and formal, stated as a finger was pointed towards the corners of the gate.
"This architecture dates back to the Qin Dynasty."
"How many years old?"
"Thousands."
The beam was brought back around, once more circumnavigating the exterior of the gate, as Professor Fang continued, thoughtfully.
"What I'd like to know is... What it's doing here?"
Cartagena Port City, Colombia
January 12th, OE 102
January 12th, OE 102
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