Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

Bones

This chapter contains the prompt! 

Yup. There was a hole, and it was bloody big as well. The ground radar displayed the cavity in all its glory.

Fortunately, since its roof had been pierced, the mysterious hollow had stayed in situ. They really didn't need mobile underground hazards. Not only were they a bloody menace, but they were scientifically impossible. There was a logical explanation for all this. There had to be.

They only had to find it.

"The unidentified object is exactly circular, with a circumference of 20 meters. That gives us 6.36942675159 for the diameter."

"Just round it up, will you, Dr. Katal?" Floyd said. He'd given up on the first name. There were some people he didn't want to be on a first-name basis with, and sweet little Leela was one of them.

"I never round things up."

Of course not.

"The thingumajig looks like a ball cut in half. Top is there, bottom has been sliced off," Bones said, tapping his finger at the plas-glass screen.

"Don't do that. It leaves stains," Leelawati said.

Bones sighed. But he withdrew his finger.

"The camera scan revealed nothing of further relevance. Apart from an unidentifiable object in the corner." Leelawati's tone conveyed very clearly what she thought of the camera's observational capabilities.

Nothing.

"What's this here?" Floyd would have tapped the screen, but caught himself at the last moment. "There's something on one wall."

"It's unidentifiable as well. This equipment is flawed."

"Looks like we have to ditch the camera and spy with our own little eyes," Bones said.

Floyd sighed. No our. His. The Boy Friday of the mission had just got himself another job.

"Gotcha. I'll suit up."

***

The Mars atmosphere muffled the boosters' roar, but they worked just fine and deposited Floyd on the sandy floor of the cave, bubble, cavity, or whatever the stupid thing was. From above seeped a diffuse tangerine glow into the place's murky interior. It was late in the day. Normally not the ideal time for explorations, but even Leelawati for once didn't insist on procedures. She was curious, she only didn't want to admit it.

"Floyd to Base. Am on site. Now proceeding to investigate object. Tape and camera activated."

"Base to Floyd. Copied," Bones said.

Protocol observed, Floyd let the beam of his power-torch travel over the smooth walls of the cavity. They lit up in a flare of glitter, which caused the self-adjustable visor of his helmet to enter shading mode, leaving him standing in a black sinkhole.

"Oh, screw this."

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but eventually Floyd pointed the torch at the floor and pressed his gloved fingers against the wall. Smooth, not quite like glass, but definitely not rock.

He pointed his scanner at the wall. Readings flickered over the screen.

"Igneous rock detected."

That was a big fat help.

"Which igneous rock?"

"Correlation Obsidian 95 percent. Mica minerals four percent."

Okay, that was possible. Obsidian was basically volcanic glass formed when lava cooled rapidly with minimal crystal growth. Mars had plenty of volcanos, and a huge one was just around the corner. The minerals might be responsible for the flare, though the flare had been rather on the bright side.