[Brynar, Southeastern Region]

Several beams of sunrays shine through the foggy morning, illuminating the wooden and cobblestone structure. Abandoned long ago by the locals, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair, falling victim once more to nature itself, with only the strongest of supports remaining. Nestled in the boundary of the ancient man-made fortifications lay three jagged stone pillars, black as the night sky, erected from the ground, reaching roughly 15 meters into the air. These posts stand in contrast to the landscape not only in color alone, but in the absence of time and lack of overgrowth.

A tiny little (moldvarpa) crawls along the cobblestone flooring. The beast hobbles its way over and carefully tests a paw against the Blackstone, and once confident that nothing happens, nestles its rear end against the structure for about a minute. Once it scuttles away, a metallic silver disk is left in its place, attached to the construct. For a moment, the metal glimmers in the sunlight before shimmering into the form of a dull cobblestone chunk.

[USS Fox, Deck One, Bridge]

“Sensor is attached to the superstructure,” Trixie reports from her terminal.

“Visual confirmation on camouflage,” Yeager reports. On the main view screen, the bridge can see a ‘birds-eye view’ from the same aerial drone he had been using for the past day.

“ETA on the next energy pulse?” Michael asked.

“According to current projections, not for another 2 hours,” Archie confirmed, a PADD in his hand as he stood behind the commander’s chair watching the view screen.

“Alright, proceed with phase two.” Michael affirmed.

The overlay on the main viewscreen split, as it now also showed the field of vision of a small creature that could be seen scurrying across the ground. Trixie controlled the mole-camouflaged drilling drone to the center of the three pillars, which was marked by an outline of ingrained Blackstone, and began to dig down through the packed earth.

Once the drone was approximately 60 meters underground, the view screen changed to an estimated 3D topological map of the area. “Initiating Seismic Wave Generator.” Trixie conveyed to the commander. On the planet’s surface, the underground drone began to emit various pulses, which were represented on the view screen above. As the reflected and refraction waves were detected by the drone, it began to slowly piece together in real time the underground substructure of the ruins. This process continued, 80 meters, 120, 200, 360, 680, finally reaching a depth of 1320 meters. Each ping would resonate in the ground and indicate its findings back on the bridge.

This process was repeated several times at various rune sites on the planet’s surface. Each time, Trixie would push the depth limit of the drones to find when and where these pillars would end, but it seemed to be endless. The final depth she managed to reach was 5160 meters before the time for the next energy pulse was due. A few subterranean drones were left in place to take scans while aerial drones were perched in positions near various pillar sites to take additional readings.

“How many assets do we have on the planet?” Michael queried

“Thirteen sir. Five underground, and eight aerial units.” Archie announced.

“I want all drones set for full spectrum scan; Electromagnetic, Chemical, Radioactive, and Biological. Let’s try to get this in one shot, so we don’t have to wait another two hours.” The commander requested

“Aye, sir.” The crewmen echoed in response.

“Estimated power fluctuations in 4…3…2…1…” Doc counted down from the Science terminal. There was a moment of silence as everyone waited on bated breath for the pillars to show reactions. When nothing happened, Archie quickly referenced his PADD for the calculated timeframe of the recurrent power readings the ship had been monitoring. “That’s odd, it should be…” he began to explain.

“Subterranean activity!” Trixie called out, refocusing everyone’s attention. The power surge appeared to be coming from underground and traveling up the pillars. However, as soon as the energy waves reached topside, everything went wrong. Screens began to glitch and, one by one and black out.

“Report?” Michael called.

“All drones are offline from the ionic interference.” Trixie relayed.

“Is the camouflage still intact?” Michael bade

“Unknown sir.” Romen reported

“Initiate recall protocols. Beam all units back to the ship.” Archie commanded.

Once more, the bridge worked in silence as Michael sat, waiting for confirmation. “All aboard sir.” Trixie finally confirmed. Michael was able to breathe a sigh of relief. “Scan all drone locations for any life signs in the area. Make sure we don’t have any contamination.” He directed.

“All areas clear of local’s sir.” Yeager reported.

“We got lucky.” Archie confessed to Michael under his breath.

“We did. Trixie, Yeager, and Romen, please run a diagnostic on the drones, see what they came up with just before they blacked out. Let’s reconvene in an hour in the Mess Hall.” The Commander finalized.

[USS Fox; Deck 2; Mess Hall]
(One Hour Later)

“Even though we lost connection, the drones were still collecting data up until we beamed them back to the ship. Once I cracked them open, I was able to see everything they saw. And it’s amazing.” Trixie lectured the room, turning to the makeshift view screen that had been set up.

“For starters, the energy signatures we have been picking up are coming from the BASE of the Pillars themselves, and from our seismographs, they appear to go on for miles…” Trixie commented aloud, looking at the data on the screen.

“Each pillar we have recorded so far is roughly 200 kilometers in length, and it’s safe to assume all of them are roughly the same. Each one practically reaches the planet’s Asthenosphere; it is the start of the soft liquid core of the planet’s upper mantle.” Doc continued.

Yeager let out a chuckle, “Kinda like a meat thermometer in a brisket.”

“Yes, running theory is that they’re channeling geothermal energy upwards to the surface and somehow converting within the pillars themselves into, get this: Nucleogenic energy.” Doc further explained.

All brows perked up at the mention of such a rare and exotic form of energy. “Explains why our equipment keeps going haywire.” Michael justified.

“And all of that is feeding into the mountain region?” Archie asked.

“All roads lead to Rome.” Romen confirmed.

“Sir, it gets worse,” Trixie added. “We carbon-dated the pillars, and one; we can’t even identify what element they’re composed of yet. Two, they all appear to predate the planet itself by roughly 10,000 years.”

“You mean someone, or something, put them all there?” Romen gasped.

Trixie nodded, “Probably back when the landmass was a fully formed supercontinent.”

“Which means we’re dealing with a far more advanced alien species than the Brynarians,” Michael confirmed. “What is the social implication of these pillars on the local society?”

“Some are abandoned, though signs show at one time they were ritualistic or burial sites. Each formation has between 3 and 6 pillars. The few larger ones we have observed appear to still be sites of worship and still have moderate foot traffic, but their all well outside civilization borders.” Doc described

“I’d go as far as to say that they are probably markers for landmass borders. We have seen structures and caverns in the direct vicinity, but nothing expanded out from them.” Trixie responded.

“We are ending up with more questions than answers at this point. Regrettably, there’s only one thing left for us to do if we’re going to get to the bottom of this.” Archie admitted out loud.

“We’ve got to get down there,” Michael affirmed.

[To be Continued]