A tiny, ominous dot appeared on the horizon, barely distinguishable against the infinite blackness of space. As they drew closer, Jupiter loomed large, its swirling storms casting an eerie glow over the foreign object that orbited it. The asteroid came into view, a perfectly round, unnatural sphere that defied all logic.
They were approaching slowly, and slowly the interstellar rock revealed itself to its first observants since....
Dark circles under their eyes and the sluggishness in their movements told the story of sleepless nights. Each glance at the growing asteroid tightened the knots of anxiety in their chests.
Lucia's thoughts drifted to her brother, the last remaining thread of family. She hadn't spoken to him in months, and now the distance felt infinite, a gnawing reminder of the cost of her decision to come on this mission.
Daniel couldn't take his eyes away from the almost perfectly spherical asteroid. Almost perfect, because as it grew in size during their approach they all saw strange lines on its surface.
It felt like random lines, fissures and tears on the surface but soon their brains recognized patterns. Their conscious side refused to believe while the unconscious understood it as artificially made drawings.
They stood in silence for maybe an entire hour until their ship stopped few kilometers away of their objective.
The closer they got, the more the intricate lines on the surface of the asteroid seemed to come alive, shifting under their gaze in ways that defied logic. It was as if the asteroid itself was a riddle, one that their minds weren't equipped to solve.
The impossibility of the perfectly round, 5-kilometer-wide sphere gnawed at them, each of its precise, alien patterns whispering secrets they couldn't quite grasp.
Science said this was impossible—that an object of this size should not be so perfectly spherical, should not exist at all. But here it was, hovering before them, challenging everything they thought they knew.
The tension was palpable, an unspoken question hanging in the air: what kind of mind could create something like this? And more terrifyingly, why?
"Who....?" Someone asked, but their minds did not register who asked that, not even the one that made the question knew it was him who said it.
The image of his family passing through his mind made John remember what they were doing there and woke him up.
"Hey, let's start the observations. Daniel, point the cameras and other hardwares to the asteroid and start recording and analising." John gave the orders with a steady and commanding voice, waking up the other two from their dream state.
"What in the universe... this shouldn't be possible," Daniel muttered, his voice cracking with disbelief. They all looked at the image the cameras were taking. With the zoom it was clear that such lines and drawing weren't natural.
"Retransmit everything we get from the analysis to earth." John said without taking his eyes off from the monitor.
"Already doing that, sir."
After what seemed hours to them, Lucia's voice broke the heavy silence, barely more than a whisper. "I think... I think we should get closer." The words hung in the air, met with a tense pause.
Daniel, after a moment's hesitation, gave a slow nod, his eyes fixed on the alien surface. But John felt a knot tighten in his chest, every instinct screaming at him to stay away.
"I don't know," he began, his voice trailing off as he struggled to find the right words. Something deep inside told him this was a mistake, but he couldn't bring himself to say no.
"This probably the most important discovery ever made by humanity so we cannot leave with empty hands." Lucia's eyes had a glint to them. She felt some short of connection to the round object.
John was struggling to decide. The idea that they weren't alone in the universe made his mind spin.
"Hey guys, look at this!" Daniel said pointing to the monitor. As the sphere turned around they noticed something at its edge. Soon enought they understood it was a single mountain sticking out in the perfectly round asteroid.
"The lines.... They..."
"Yes. All lines leads towards that mountain." Lucia completed the thought Daniel was too stupefied to deliver out loud.
John shook his head to their reasoning, "that's no mountain." He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The three got closer and closer to the screen to look at it.
"It's...!"
"It's a pyramid." John's breath caught in his throat as the realization struck him. He squinted, hardly believing what he was seeing.
The words felt absurd, impossible. A structure like this should never exist beyond Earth, yet here it was—an ancient, solitary pyramid rising from the barren surface of the asteroid. The sheer improbability of it sent chills down his spine, the alien architecture defying everything they understood about the universe.
"I think we've found our landing point," Daniel said, though his voice trembled with an excitement laced with fear. John hesitated, but his crewmates' determination was infectious. Within minutes, he found himself agreeing to the plan, the ship beginning its descent toward the mysterious structure.
"Gravity reads at 0.006 m/s²," Daniel reported, his voice crackling through the comms. The low gravity would make movement tricky, but they were prepared for this.
In the cargo hold, John and Lucia donned their EVA suits, the layers of fabric and technology both protecting them and weighing on their minds. The decompression chamber hissed as it equalized with the outside vacuum, the door slowly sliding open to reveal the alien landscape beyond.
Descending the ladder felt surreal, their bodies moving with exaggerated slowness in the weak gravity. The pyramid loomed before them, a massive structure with smooth surface and of the same color of the ground around them: grey.
It stood at half the height of the Great Pyramids of Giza, yet its presence was overwhelming—a monument built by hands unknown, in a place where no hands should ever have existed.
Both tapped the screen on their left arm. They felt the reassuring pull as the magnets in their boots engaged, anchoring them to the ground. "We should be stable now. No chance of floating off into space."
"Let's get started," Lucia said, her voice resolute but tinged with the awe they all felt. She set to work, kneeling on the compacted ground as she unpacked her instruments. The drill whirred to life as she began taking samples, each piece of the asteroid carefully stored for later analysis.
John watched as she drilled the ground, collected diferent samples and stored away.
"Guys, I see something," Daniel's voice broke through the tension. "There's an entrance at the base of the pyramid."
"An entrance?" Lucia froze, the drill still in her hands.
They felt a pull, this irresistible urge to see what lay within. Despite the low gravity, their bodies felt heavy from the stress built up for months. Their minds were tired and slow.
Lucia glanced at him, her eyes wide behind the visor. "We can't leave empty-handed, John. We have to know what's inside."
John nodded, knowing she was right. The cameras in their helmets would record everything, providing at least some measure of safety. After a brief pause, he relented. "Alright. Let's go."
Together, they began the slow, careful trek toward the dark entrance, each step bringing them closer to the secrets the pyramid and the asteroid, if it even could be called that.
The journey felt endless. The huge structure felt bigger and taller as they drawn closer to its base. The opening yawned before them, a pitch-black void that swallowed the weak light of the sun.
"Here we go," John murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. He flicked on the helmet light, the beam cutting through the darkness like a knife, revealing the smooth, compacted stone of the interior walls.
Lucia followed suit, her own light casting eerie shadows that danced along the edges of the passageway.
The interior walls, just like the ground outside, were tightly packed and unnervingly uniform, as if everything had been carved with meticulous precision. It was not a natural formation; every inch of the passage screamed of intention, of design.
The further they ventured, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. The silence was absolute, broken only by the faint sound of their breathing, magnified by the helmets.
Then, the light from their helmets caught something—a slight shift in the shadows that revealed stairs going upward, disappearing into the unknown above. The sight of the steps, so out of place in this alien environment, made their hearts skip a beat.
"Daniel, are you seeing this?" Lucia's voice trembled, a mixture of disbelief and nervous laughter escaping her lips.
There was a brief silence on the other end before Daniel responded, his voice hushed in awe. "My God… It's real. All of it."
John too was dumbfounded. An interstellar asteroid, entering their solar system, bearing clear signs of intelligent design—a pyramid, and now these stairs which means whatever built all that was probably similar to humans.
"We have to go up," John said, the decision solidifying in his mind. The stairs were wide enough for them to walk side by side.
The eerie silence wrapped around them as they climbed higher. Neither John nor Lucia noticed when their connection to the ship faded, the thick stone walls of the pyramid isolating them from everything they knew.
Their focus was singular, driven by a mix of emotions—happiness at the discovery, curiosity about what lay ahead, dread for the unknown, and a creeping fear that gnawed at the edges of their minds.
Minutes passed like hours in the claustrophobic stairwell. Each step forward felt heavier, the weight of their anticipation pressing down on them. Finally, a faint glow appeared above—a sliver of light, hinting at an exit.
The narrow passage opened up, revealing the exterior of the pyramid once more. They stepped out into the light, a muted, almost surreal sunlight that bathed the summit in a soft, otherworldly glow. They were nearly at the top, the ship now just a distant speck far below.
"We're at the top of the structure," John announced, his voice shaky as he tried to reach out. "Hey, Daniel, do you read me?" But only silence answered.
"Not yet," Lucia murmured, her eyes fixed on the last few steps that led to a flat, open area at the very peak of the pyramid. Without waiting for John, she began to climb again, the excitement overpowering her caution.
"Lucia, wait! Don't rush—Daniel isn't responding," John called out, his concern mounting as he hurried after her.
But Lucia barely heard him. The allure of the summit pulled her forward, each step a heartbeat closer to the answers they sought. "This is incredible, John! Just imagine the view, the discovery..." Her voice trailed off as she reached the top, her eyes locking onto something that froze her in place.
John noticed the shift in her posture first, the way her body went rigid, her breath caught in her throat. "Lucia?" he called out, his voice tinged with worry as he moved to stand beside her. "What is it? Are you okay?"
She didn't answer. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open, her expression one of pure, unfiltered terror. John's stomach dropped as a wave of cold dread washed over him, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. Slowly, he turned to follow her gaze.
He too became paralyzed.
They found the one who devised such intricate small world.