The winding corridors which led into long forgotten dark spaces passed by quickly as everyone picked up their paces, and ran as quickly as they could; the ghostly green holograms shifted and ran, only to pause and then look around before running again. It was as if they were running from something, some unseen object, being or something else entirely. Some movements seemed jerky, panicked as they continued to run down corridors, all the while the group followed as quickly as they could. These things, whatever they were, were incredibly tall. They outdid them on height by a long shot, their long strides easily equalled up to three of theirs. Yet eventually an end did come, the image of one tripped and fell and with that, it disappeared.

Before them now was a wall, a door even. A dark crease could be seen which signalled to them that it was a door, only it was unknown to them how they could open it. Yet it wasn't the door which had grasped their attention, it was the form which remained on the floor. Dusty, grey, ashen and sunken in, it was a body of the holographic being which had tripped and fell, and subsequently beheaded itself. Everyone hesitantly skidded to a halt and looked down at the form on the floor.

Elizabeth was the first to exclaim in excitement over the clear evidence before her, there was some founded truth to her thesis. There was a body, who could dispute her and Charlie's reasoning now? "We found them!" She said, her voice quiet, yet full of wonder and excitement as she leaned down to looking at the suited corpse. An almost skeletal like structure – much like that of the interior of the ship – was on its suit, ribs stood out against the charcoal colour.

"What do you mean, them?" Sean asked, his voice not sounding as wonder filled as the doctor's. He looked almost worriedly to the form, then around him at the group. They all still looked in awe and astonishment at what was really before them. It was clear that none of them had even contemplated, or contended to see anything.

"It is them, Eli." Charlie said while he stepped close to Elizabeth's side as he knelt to get a better look. He looked up slowly when he noticed the dark crease, "It looks like a door, and he's been decapitated by it." He looked around and back at the group. Frowning slightly at the sight of odd markings on the wall he pointed a torch in its direction. "David, please tell me you can read that."

David tilted his head and eyed the markings up. "Perhaps." He replied at length.

"No. No. I'm out of here!" The sudden outburst from the redhead caused most to look at him with confusion, Alma who had been standing by his side suddenly jumped. She honestly wasn't expecting to suddenly get shouted in the ear. Considering Fifield appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown, she slowly edged away. She didn't want to be caught up in a tantrum, of any sort or form. Feeling a hand on her arm she looked up, David had moved away from where he was about to inspect the markings on the wall and pulled her a little closer to himself. Which was ultimately probably a good thing considering the sudden turning and stomping demonstrated by Fifield.

"Hey, Fifield! Where you going?" Was called out to him, not that it did a lot, other than slow him down, he did stand for a moment or two before turning back with a determined look on his face as he stared Elizabeth down.

"What? Look, I'm just a geologist! I like rocks! I love rocks! Now it's clear you two don't give a shit about rocks. But what you do seem to care about is gigantic dead bodies, and I don't really have anything to contribute in the gigantic dead body area! I'm gonna go back to the ship, if you don't mind." He ranted out with a scathing tone as he frowned deeply and then turned and looked at the others. "Anyone want to join me, hey?" He mainly seemed to direct this to Rafe, he'd taken to crouching on the ground looking reasonably pale and distant. It seemed he had similar thoughts, which he was thankful he didn't have to voice because he got beaten to it. "You staying?"

"Uh...no. Ship's good." He said slowly and sighed before nodding and jumping to a stand.

"Yeah. Ship very good." He said with a nod as he looked to the taller male. "Congratulations on meeting your maker." He said while looking darkly to Elizabeth again.

"Thank you," she said in a pointed tone as she looked up at him.

"Pull yourself together, man!" Charlie exclaimed, slightly exasperated sounding. It did nothing for either men, because both continued to walk away and didn't turn back. With a sigh, and two down, Charlie turned back to the corpse and the inspection of it.

David looked slowly up at the wall, someone had produced a ladder and left it leaning on its side. He just needed to right it and climb up it to get to the markings overhead. The leaving of two members of the team meant very little to him. In part, even the corpse on the floor meant very little. He seemed to be the only person totally impartial to it; other than Alma who seemed insanely lost in this all. She wasn't a doctor, like Kate, Elizabeth or Charlie. She was disciplined with robotics, technology, not this...nothing like this. This was a whole new ball game for her. So, David was more than pleased to see she had stayed close. So apparently, the gigantic corpse area didn't appeal to her either. Yet she wasn't going off charging anywhere, not that he would allow her to.

He tapped her on the shoulder gently, she looked slowly up at him curiously. He placed the ladder against the wall and nodded at it. She rolled her eyes yet got the hint and stepped back to let him commence climbing up it. She placed a boot to the bottom step and then leaned against the ladder keeping it steady, not that she needed to. The floor was firm and level and really, even if David did fall, he wasn't going to hurt himself. There were no nerve endings to hurt. Though with a look sent up at him, Alma couldn't help but ponder whether he'd believe he hurt out of some strange concept. She shrugged, maybe not the line of thought she expected to have when she had the scene before her unfolding by the moment.

Whatever they were doing, she had no clue, but they had taken to examining it properly. They leaned in close, shone their torches over it, and carefully pointed parts out. Through their prompt and brief exam, they had discovered that the being had been dead for over two thousand years.

"What are you doing, David?" Elizabeth suddenly looked up and toward the pair. Alma shook her head and seemed to come to the present again, she'd been lost in her thoughts, yet she looked up to see David pressing away at the wall. Much like earlier a dim light shone out from whatever it was he was putting pressure on.

"I'm attempting to open the door." He responded simply. There wasn't a whole lot else he could explain really.

"Wait! We don't know what's on the other side." Elizabeth had shot to a stand then.

Alma frowned and pointed to Charlie. "He asked David if he could open the door..." Alma trailed off, how was David doing anything wrong? Charlie had asked something of him, and he was complying.

"Oops. Sorry." David said, sounding so unsympathetic as he looked over his shoulder with a small smile. It was meant to be an apologetic smile, but it really didn't seem all too sorry.

Regardless of her moment of being serious and staring hard up at David, Elizabeth was the first to turn and stare wide eyed at the head which belonged to the body. Any moment of lecturing or whatever left her as she, along with Kate, commenced looking over it. Much like Elizabeth, the Scottish woman was as amazed at the state and condition of the head.

"Stay close," David had jumped down from the ladder by now and was walking towards the room. Everyone could fuss over the head, but the dark canisters which were littered around the room caused his attention to pique. He briefly looked over the large sculptured head which stood at the back of the room, and in the centre. All around it the same slim and slender canisters circled around it. All perfectly in place, untouched and spaced apart. "Remarkably human." He commented when looking away from the statue.

Alma tilted her head with a small frown on her face. "It is, isn't it?" She asked quietly. The room that had opened was large and vaulted. By now the others had moved into the room and were looking around with a similar sense of shock and awe.

David tilted his head and looked over the walls. "Beautiful paintings." He eyed the strange forms and figures up, his eyes followed them around the room; he didn't know what it meant, whether it was a story of some form, but they were curious.

"It's a mural." Elizabeth said quietly, as if talking any louder would ruin the oddly tranquil feeling which was within the room. "Stop! Stop! Don't touch it." She slowly trailed her eyes along the room, attempting to fully take in what she was seeing, only to spot David close to a canister and looking quite like he was about to reach out and touch it.

"It's alright." David offered a smile and held up a hand to show he meant to do no such thing.

Alma crossed her arms and frowned at him. It was rather clear already that he had a thing of just randomly doing just that. She moved over and crouched down, though she shifted backwards when her boot almost came into contact with a thick looking black liquid. "David!" Alma exclaimed quietly and looked despairingly at him. He may not have reached out to touch the canister, but he did reach down to where her boot was and placed his finger within the liquid. Neither knew what it was, so for him to do this was just throwing her off. She ran a hand down her face and frowned at him. When did he become such a hands on, tactical being? She rolled her eyes, that was a rhetorical question, she decided.

"It's organic." He said while pulling his finger and thumb apart, whatever it was it stretched between his digits as he looked it over before looking to her.

Alma frowned slowly and leaned her forearms on her knees. "Organic? As in, it's alive?"

David looked at her and together they slowly looked to the canister. "Or something within is."

"I don't want to know..."

"Defeats the purpose of why we're here, don't you think?" He looked up at her from the corner of his eyes as she slowly stood and stepped back.

"Don't...don't, David..." Alma said slowly, she could hear Elizabeth shouting about how opening the room had affected the atmosphere within. She was urging everyone out, not before bagging the head as she went.

"We must leave now!" Elizabeth exclaimed urgently, they had all received the message from Janek which told them of a massive storm heading their way. Elizabeth typically sounded like she tried to beg for more time here, which Janek or Meredith shot down. So, accepting this, she called out, they needed to leave. The last thing they wanted was to be stranded here for the night. "David!" Elizabeth and Alma seemed to say at the same time, Elizabeth sounding desperate for him to appear and exit the room, and Alma sounding truly despairing.

David had easily picked up the canister that they were both just looking over, he turned it on its side and placed it carefully into the bag which was by his side. Despite of the nagging from Elizabeth, he calmly zipped the bag up and held onto the handle as he stood. "Shh," he said while placing a gloved finger to his lips as he looked down at Alma, she was looking up at him with a frown and wide, worried eyes. "Come along, I believe that is our cue to get moving." He nodded and commenced walking through the rows around them with Alma walking briskly by his side.

"What do you plan to do with it?" She asked lowly, she could see the others rushing to finish bagging the head and exiting the room.

David sent her a sidelong look. "That is no concern of yours. I must ask you not to bring this up again, Miss." He said seriously, Alma slowed down and looked at him with a distant look. David just smiled as they joined the sides of their companions. He did feel a little bad for being blunt with her, but this...this didn't have anything to do with her, what he did with the canister and its content was not for her to know. She frowned at him and stepped away from his side to walk alongside Kate, David tilted his head, he had upset her, it seemed. She didn't like being lied to, or kept in the dark, so of course she would naturally take offence and be displeased with this all.

——

(Edited: 2/March/2021)