Gaia 3

XIV. Cavern

Jaleah woke up early once again to watch the sun rise over the ruins of the city. Today's sunrise was different, however. Rather than shyly peeking out from below the horizon, the sun boldly rose, sending blinding beams of lights through the ruined buildings. The breathtaking display further reinforced Jaleah's conclusion from the night before: Gaia 3 was just a mystery waiting to be solved, and Jaleah would be the one to solve it.

--<<>>--

After the sun rose, she joined the early risers at the breakfast. This time, she was one of the first at the table, so when Liyan finally woke up and stumbled to breakfast, Jaleah was there to voice her disapproval.

"Liyan, Liyan, Liyan," she tutted, "Breakfast started five minutes ago."

Liyan stared at her half-shocked, half-annoyed.
"Did you get up early just so you could say that?" she asked, still staring at Jaleah.

"That's not important."

Liyan sighed and rolled her eyes.
"You're unbelievable, professor," she said as she sat down.

"You still love me though."

"Do I?"

"Ahem," Zax interrupted. Both women turned to look at him with a slightly annoyed look on their faces.

"What is it, rock man?" Liyan asked, scowling.

"If the two of you are done flirting, I'd like to brief everyone on what Aedard and I have found."

Liyan's scowl deepened, and Jaleah rolled her eyes.
"Sure. Go ahead, Zax."

"Great. Aedard and I went over some of the radar data, and we noticed some odd readings coming from a few miles northwest from here."

"Another city?" Carsin asked, looking excited at the prospect of another archaeological site.

"No," Zax replied as Carsin's face fell, "It's definitely natural now. My best guess based on the readings is that it's a mountain of some kind."

"And why is that odd?" Jaleah asked, "We've seen plenty of mountains on this planet so far. Gaia 3's tectonic plates are very active, so it would be more surprising if there weren't any mountains." The other members of the crew nodded in agreement.

"It's more like a plateau," Zax corrected, "But from what I'm seeing, the landscape is just...odd. Plus, most of it is natural, but I'm getting a reading from something metal there, which doesn't really make sense to me." 

"That is odd," Jaleah agreed, "But you really should take it up with Daviron. He's the one who decides where we go."

"Of course. I just wanted to get a second opinion."

He left the table to go search for Daviron, and Liyan turned back to Jaleah.

"He's kind of needy, don't you think?"

Jaleah laughed and nodded, then finished her breakfast. As needy as Zax was, she was excited to see this anomaly in the region's geography.

--<<>>--

Fifteen minutes later, it became clear that Zax had been able to convince Daviron to investigate the plateau and the mysterious metal signal. Daviron had burst out of his tent and ordered them all to pack their things and break camp, and when Karmyne asked him where they were going, all he said was something about hidden treasure before running off to send his report to the Union.

Finally, they were speeding towards the lone mountain. Though no one cared to admit it, they were all imagining increasingly fantastical discoveries. No one wanted to believe the mountain was just a mountain; rather, they hoped they would find some sort of temple or burial site that hid countless treasures behind an inconspicuous facade.