In the midst of twilight, a large black helicopter swooped over the sea of sand that was the Gobi desert. Within were seated a strange assortment of characters. A young slender Korean woman with strikingly beautiful features, she was pushing away the strands of long ebony hair that kept grazing her face as the wind blew into the machine from the outside. She was leaning back comfortably, quietly listening to a young tall skinny man whose hair was a short afro, his skin chocolate brown. He couldn't have been more than 20, he wore a lab-coat, and in his hands were a custom laptop, which he was typing away on eagerly with his thin long fingers, the entire time he was babbling about this and that, a hint of arrogance bled through more than once, but he unapologetically continued, he was the genius after all.
Suddenly a powerful gust of wind struck the helicopter and the four people within shook violently, had it not been for the seatbelt he would've surely been knocked to the ground. From what he observed so would've the young lady, his fiancée, the only two who seemed unaffected were her two bodyguards, one seated on each side.
Caspar, pushed back his glasses with his long dark finger, his curious gaze observing the two men, one of them certainly looked like a bodyguard, he was close to two meter tall with a buzz-cut, he was somewhat tan and wore grey cargo-pants, a black turtleneck sweater and had a shoulder-holster where his gun was resting comfortably. Caspar nodded to the man who nodded back, his expression unclear under his dark aviator sunglasses. Caspar nodded inwardly, the man was clearly a professional, and although Caspar didn't have much respect for anyone, least of all non-scientists, he could appreciate that the woman that he was betrothed to was well-protected. It was at this thought that he leaned back and eyed the other bodyguard.
His eyes were closed; his skin was quite light, and he had stubble, his features manly, the man had a strong jawline. He appeared to be in his late 20s and about 185cm tall, he had wavy ash-brown hair in a relaxed ivy-league haircut seemingly with no gel making it move gently from the wind. He seemed to be strong as he had a sturdy physique as was evident from underneath the black tight thermal knit Henley, which was tucked into waist-high smooth dark brown khaki pants, a black leather belt keeping them in place. Although not as tight, thick muscles bulged under the surface of the pants, which ended in a pair of dark charcoal rounded leather oxfords. The man looked strong, sure, but that was it, he didn't carry any weapons, he didn't even have a watch, all that the man carried with him was a moss-green flannel shirt, and two identical bracelets, some sort of steel thread wrapped around each of the man's wrists, and ended in an oblong shape on the topside. Caspar concluded that it looked dumb. With a shake of his head he spoke to his fiancée in Korean.
"Youjung, why in did you bring that oaf with you?" he glanced to the shorter of the two body-guards "this is a top-secret operation, does he even have clearance from your father?"
She grimaced in response "don't tell me about it, it was my grandpa that insisted that he came with, I have never met him until today" she spoke with an annoyed tone, clearly dissatisfied.
The two continued conversing in Korean happily, eventually the chopper began descending, the sun now high in the sky.
. . . . .
Upon landing they were met with several soldiers, and people in lab-coats, everyone spoke in different languages, and Caspar and Youjung fluently communicated with them as they got off, the two bodyguards following closely behind the young lady.
The sun was scorching in the desert landscape making it feel uninhabitable, however in a radius of a square kilometer there were both fences and tents, surrounding a large crash-site, its surrounding having turned into crystal clear glass, and in the middle there was huge tent set up, whatever lay beneath hidden from prying eyes.
Caspar quickly took charge of the group; he was truly a genius among geniuses. He had an arrogant look in his eyes as he charged forward towards the main tent. The front entrance was heavily guarded, several large men in military uniform stood completely in position. Caspar received a certain satisfaction from the fact that regardless of how strong and powerful these men were; they still had to follow his orders. He licked his dry lips as he showed his ID to the guards, who quickly made space. Youjung showed her ID as well, however the large bodyguard in military uniform wasn't allowed entrance, and therefore simply got in position outside the tent, but to the surprise of both Caspar and Youjung, the casually dressed unshaven bodyguard flashed a badge and was granted entry as well.
Inside the tent Caspar stopped Youjung and the bodyguard, waiting for the rest of the scientists to continue without them, he couldn't help but get agitated, as he spoke hurriedly to Youjung in Korean "ask him to wait outside, there is no room for someone to stand around, not to mention how classified this is".
Youjung nodded her head in agreement "Idris, you can…" however before she could continue, she was interrupted by the man, his voice somewhat deep, his accent almost transatlantic American, as if he had seen old films and decided to imitate them.
"Your grandpa made me promise to watch you closely during this trip miss" his deep sky-blue eyes piercing the distance between them "I understand your concerns Dr. Washington, however rest assured that I'll stay out of your way, as for the nature of this camp, I have been filled in prior to the trip, and this is hardly the first classified trip I have been on, I can keep my mouth shut" he went quiet for a moment, the whooshing from the outside filling the void, his gaze sharpened as he spoke in Korean as well, no less fluently than a native "I'd appreciate it if you spoke to me directly, don't you both agree" although spoken softly, the sentence left little room for argument.
Caspar's heart palpitated; the man was not acting like a bodyguard at all, was he a spook? "Sure sure, no offence meant" he half-sneered, as he mumbled "I didn't expect you to be muslim".
Idris smirked "I'm not a Muslim Dr. my family was originally from Wales, and Idris is a Welsh name as well."
Caspar's eye twitched as he ignored the comment and continued into the tent dismissively.
Several large computers and machine were placed inside the main dome of the tent, bright lights illuminating every inch of the place. In the middle a large cracked blue square object lay, there were several solid lines on the construct, the lines were smooth and seemed to have a purpose, however the cracks were clearly caused by something else, as they were irregular, some sort of circuitry was exposed, and blinked in a slow soft creamy light amidst the cracks.
It didn't take long for Caspar to find his footing again when he began going over the preliminary readings from the different apparatuses. He soon began talking with the other scientists, and giving orders, his right hand Youjung working diligently at her own workstation. Once in a while he'd cast an arrogant glance in the direction of Idris, whom he now considered a spook, which specific intelligent service he worked for he couldn't ascertain, not that he cared, the man was just that, a man, nobody special. In comparison Caspar, no older than 20 was the lead scientist of investigating an extraterrestrial object, which may very well be the defining discovery of the 21st century, leading mankind into its next step of evolution, and he would be at the forefront, history would remember him. He nearly got goosebumps from how amazing he himself was.
. . . .
The work continued for several days, however they had yet to crack the secret behind the object, it was seemingly impervious to most tools, however a diamond drill-bit had cracked the shell slightly after it had been exposed to extreme heat and cold. The tiny piece that had been cut off after several days was now inside a large box, which was scanning and performing tests nonstop. Every single reading had been astounding. The scientists were jubilant and very excited, even if they wouldn't solve the riddle of the box anytime soon, they would certainly be able to create a paradigm shift in terms of alloys and materials, this alone could revolutionize travelling and construction. Everyone present looked at the piece of exotic material with the longing gazes of lovers, except Idris, who was calmly sitting in a chair by the edge of the tent, he appeared to be asleep. Caspar scoffed at the man; did he not understand what he was witnessing? Was he truly that dumb?
Hours passed; eventually the tent was almost empty, the only ones left were Youjung, Caspar, Idris, a red-haired freckled woman in her 30s, and a stout old man who was limping back and fro. All of a sudden Idris opened his intense blue eyes, staring at the object, his movement was subtle, however everyone noticed it, for the man had only moved when he came and left with Youjung, Caspar was about to ask him what was wrong, when out of nowhere a humming began, the source, the blue object.
Idris got up slowly, as he noticed the other four approach the large cube, they did so carefully. What exactly had activated the object, they didn't know, but they were determined to find out! Caspar opened his mouth, ready to give orders to the team, when the pulsating light in-between the cracks intensified in speed and strength. Idris's pupils constricted as he moved like lightning, shielding Caspar and Youjung as the light reached its zenith, the entire tent lit up.
. . . .
Not long after, the guards and several scientists came running into the main-dome of the tent, however what they found shocked them deeply, because it was entirely empty, it was as if nobody had been there. Only compressed flat sand remained, not even the crystalized glass was left.
. . . .
The intense bright white light died down slowly, and the five people began coming to their senses. They were inside a large room, 30 or so square meters in size, 3 meters to the ceiling, there were three bunkbeds with space for 9, which was built into the grey metallic wall that lined the entire right half L-side of the room. In the back of the room was what appeared to be a single shower cabin and a toilet. The rest of the room was empty; the remaining L-side of the room was completely white. Everyone was deeply baffled, the four scientists went around touching and feeling, upturning and investigating, the panels in the back-room bathroom was of particular note, and they soon solved how to activate it. Meanwhile Idris walked along the walls, and knocked on them. The metallic wall gave off a muffled thonk, whereas the white wall made no sound at all. He frowned slightly as he moved to one of the bunkbeds, his back against the wall.
Time passed by slowly, everyone's smart phones ran out of battery, after what they had calculated to be a couple of days, at intervals of 36,36hours the light in the room would turn off for 9,36hours, at each interval the dark metallic floor would open up, and a selection of food would be pushed up, it was different types of porridge and paste. Four such intervals passed, the first few days the scientists had been especially excited, and Caspar had started fiddling with the control panel in the back, he was convinced that he could hack it somehow. So far, he had made no headway, and the mood of the remaining scientists had soured, the red-haired woman was sobbing most of the time in her bunkbed, the old man was staring blankly at nothing most of the time, and Youjung was desperately trying to assist Caspar, her confidence in him remaining high.
On the fifth interval the white wall flickered turning transparent, revealing a hallway on the short side of the L-shape, and another room next to theirs, which was the same length, but much less wide. It currently appeared to be empty, aside from a dark purple bomber-like jacket lying on a two person bunkbed.
The five people had varying expressions as they quietly moved closer to the hallway which was behind the transparent wall. A slight reflection of themselves could be seen, and although the time they had been gone couldn't have been more than a few days, they all looked more haggard than the other, they had been wearing the same clothes daily, and although they had been trying to wash it in the shower cabin, there was a certain stale smell to it. The men had longer beards; especially Idris' beard had grown longer faster, no longer stubble, but a short full beard, with strong sideburns. The beard made him look haggard, in comparison, but in fact he seemed entirely unaffected by the ordeal. Caspar noticed that he had a crazed look in his eyes, because despite of his genius, he had made zero headway insofar as to cracking into the system from the bathroom, he had even lashed out at Youjung a couple of times. He sighed heavily as he glanced over at her, her eyes puffy from crying. His hand moved towards her shoulder hesitantly, he had to stay strong, for her! However just as he was about lay his hand on her; they appeared, their captors!