Jump Point magazine Issue 01.01 (n°01), December 2012 | Page 22

Hours passed in the darkness. Feeling a little queasy, Tonya stopped
to rest for a few minutes. She sipped on the water reserve and rechecked her scanner. She was still above the Kherium and it was still
showing up as being in front of her. That much hadn’t changed . . .

A cavernous structure was built into the wall nearby. Tonya stood and
approached to examine the craftsmanship. It was certainly more ornate than most of the other buildings down here. There weren’t doors
down here, just narrow oval portals. There was some kind of tech integrated into the sides.

She heard something. Very faint. She brought up the audio settings and
pumped the gain on the external mics. A sea of white noise filled her
ears. She didn’t move until she heard it again. Something being dragged,
then stopping.

Tonya decided to take a look. It was a deep bowl with rows of enclosures built into the sides. All of them were angled towards a single
point, a marble-like cylinder at the bottom of the bowl. Tonya descended toward it. There was a small item sitting on top of it. She kept
her light and shotgun trained on it. It was made from a similar marblelike stone \