Gaia 3

XI. Bones

Once the sun had set, and the sky turned a purplish shade of blue, Jaleah started making her way back to camp. Suddenly, however, her foot caught onto something and she fell to the ground. It was while she was sheepishly picking herself up and brushing the red dirt off her clothes that she noticed an odd rock with a spiral pattern mixed in with the others. Jaleah picked it up and examined it before pocketing it. She would show it to Zax in the morning. Undoubtedly, he would know more about this than she.   

--<<>>--

The next morning, Liyan shook her out of her sleep again. 

"Is this going to be a thing every morning now?" Jaleah asked, brushing red dirt out of her hair. 

"If you keep sleeping in, then absolutely," Liyan replied, "Now come on, you're late breakfast again." 

Jaleah rolled her eyes but followed Liyan to the breakfast table. 

"You abandoned us last night," Carsin said, feigning anger, "We had to do all of your math." 

"You and Karmyne are both smart and capable intellectuals," Jaleah replied, "You're competent enough to be able to do your own math. Especially when I've already done ninety percent of it for you." 

"Well I hope you enjoyed your sunset," Carsin grumbled. 

"I did. Very much, thank you. It was absolutely gorgeous." 

"Apocalyptic is more the word I would have used," Liyan said, "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with having a sky that's a mixture of fire red and blood red." 

"Anyway," Karmyne interrupted, "Thanks to our joint effort last evening, we have determined a much more accurate location for Julius Lucioni's remains. We have it narrowed down to a ten-mile radius about fifty miles southwest from here." 

"That's wonderful news, Kami!" Daviron exclaimed, "We'll finally be able to settle that age-old mystery once and for all." 

"Exactly," Karmyne agreed, "And you can mention that in your message to the Union this morning, Davi." 

Daviron swore. 
"The message to the Union. I knew I was forgetting something!" he mumbled to himself as he ran off to his tent. 

Zax laughed. 
"It's a good thing he's got you, Karmyne," he said, "If not, he'd stick his head in a pile of rocks and forget it there." 

The group laughed, and Jaleah was reminded of her find the night before. 

"By the way, Zax, I found this last night while walking back to camp. I thought you might want to take a look at it. It looks pretty interesting." 

She handed the rock to Zax, who began examining it closely.  

"That is very interesting," he agreed, "I don't believe I've ever seen this pattern occur naturally in geology. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a fossil." 

"It's very possible," Jaleah shrugged, "We know this planet doesn't support the evolution of advanced lifeforms, but it is entirely possible that it at one point supported simple, single-celled organisms. This could be a fossil of one of those." 

"Possibly," Zax replied, "But I have to say, if this is a fossil, then the organism here looks a little more advanced than the single-celled organisms I'm used to dealing with." 

"But we are on a foreign planet," Jaleah countered, "What we consider a normal size for a single-celled organism might be different from what this planet could potentially support."