In his dream, she was nude. Long honey-gold hair cascaded down across her shoulders, partially hiding her breasts, and extending nearly to her waist. Her complexion was soft and warm. She had beautiful green eyes, well raised cheek bones, a short, pert nose, with full, naturally pink lips. Apart from the luxurious mane on her head, the rest of her body seemed denuded of hair.
She would approach him in his dream, and cup his face in her hands and whisper something to him. Something he could never quite make out. Something that felt like anticipation. Then he would reach for her, to pull her close and kiss her. He wanted to taste this glorious being in front of him. But then, she would be at arm's length. So he would walk to her, but she would fade back. He would run to her and she would fade back even more. It was as if she was drawing him somewhere, either metaphysically or psychologically. She was pulling him down a path that led ... where? He did not know.
All that he knew was that his energy was limitless, chasing this naked angel. Except that when he awoke, the feelings and the confidence faded, and he was left tired and drawn out, as if from a mild hang over.
He broke from his reverie and paused briefly to glance over at his small ship floating serenely next to the asteroid he was working on. The onboard computer kept it at a perfect distance and rotation relative to the large rock's surface. Any kind of malfunction that endangered that orbit would have raised an alarm on Jake's suite, but he just couldn't help checking on the ship from time to time. His anxiety over it, the rock he was working on and what he hoped to dig out of it had been extremely high for weeks now.
Jake had found this rock only two months ago. At first, it had seemed as dead as the rest of the rocks in the Klide-Terrel belt, a string of asteroids seven hundred million kilometers in length that occupied part of the orbital path of the nearest planet, aptly named Temptation. It was a partial gas giant nearly 20 times larger in volume than ancient Earth that orbited a T class red-dwarf named Xyphes. While the planet itself was uninhabitable, several major industries had sprung up around it to mine the various resources contained within its atmosphere, including the largest of the stations, Gratifall, which processed starship fuel. Gratifall accounted for 85% of the population of the system, and had a population approaching 2 million humans and aliens.
Temptation had been attracting folks from all parts of the galaxy for decades now, ever since the first find in the KT belt of a non-functional electro-mechanical artifact. No one was really sure what it did, or where it came from, only that it was radio isotope dated at more than sixty five million years old. In the vacuum and cold of space, it was perfectly preserved, trapped under a thin layer of rock inside one of the KT asteroids. Ever since then, archeologists and treasure hunters had been flocking to this belt to lay down their claim to fame and fortune.
Jake considered himself a man of both measures, however; an archeologist having graduated in the top of his class at University and obtained his masters in Xeno-history and a PH.d in Interstellar Archeology before he was 23, and a man who understood that the real work in his field was only accomplished with money. The work demanded lots and lots of money. That was what drove him to the KT belt 2 years ago. Now, at 26, he was nearing the end of his rope.
Jake studied the rock face in front of him carefully, as he cut through the material with the micro-torch. Small pieces; just like his professor had taught him. Do not try to cut the entire sample out in one swipe. Turning off the torch, he cleared away the loose material with a thick, soft brush. Then he used a precious jet of air, to blow it off, and into space. It was slow, tedious work made all the more stressful by the fact that he was running low on air. By last calculation, he had a mere five days worth left at his current use rate, and then he would have to return to the station and resupply.
It also did not help that he was not sleeping as he should. He had been taking long sleep cycles as he had been taught. A well rested body used less oxygen than a tired and stressed body. However, his sleep lately was being interrupted by a repetitious, yet very vivid, dream. He'd never seen her before, he was sure, and yet he was just as sure that he should know her name. He was also just as sure that he was going to fuck her one day.
He looked critically at the surface he was working on. He had carved a two meter wide hole nearly 80 centimeters deep. His instruments were telling him that he was close to his target, so he had slowed his work pace and started using the micro torch. In another few centimeters, he should be able to uncover the ... whatever the hell it was. That was the biggest problem, and source of his anxiety. His instruments could not return a relative shape or composition of the object, only its approximate size and location. It had been a similar situation with the slag find earlier, only this object, at nearly 1.5 meters in diameter, was much bigger.
That was when he heard the crack. Dozens of sensors attached to the rock around his dig site transmitted readings back to his suit computers. Temperature, vibration, heat, variations in movement, etc. He had set them up, as prescribed, before he started his work, all around the dig site, and then in intervals of twenty meters until he had three rings. All the information they fed back to his suit was also fed to the micro torch, instructing it on how to angle the plasma, what intensity, what duration and so on.
And now a big cracking sound. And something else. The sensor rings had started to detect trace amounts of energy, and it was coming from his object.
Jake shut down the torch immediately and maneuvered his suit a few meters from the rock surface. Around his dig site, he could see the first and second sensor rings, surrounding the darkened black hole that he had dug in the middle. And now, according to the sensors, the cracking sound was coming from the bottom of that hole. A series of quick, popping snaps like the kind you would get from dropping an ice cube into hot water.
Jake started to panic. Two months worth of work, and he had been so careful! It couldn't go wrong now! He was so close to ...whatever it was down there! If this failed, he was finished here. Wiped out! He let out a groan and grasped the side of his helmet.
"No ..no ...no.. don't do it!" he whispered to himself. "Don't you fucking do it! You bastard rock! Let me have my ....thing! Damn you!" His voice slowly rose until he realized he was yelling at himself.
Then it stopped. The cracking sound had stopped. Jake listened carefully to the sensors, scrolling madly through the data feeds for any sign that something had gone wrong, but he couldn't find anything. Then he realized he wasn't breathing and let out a gasp.
Maneuvering his suit carefully, he approached the rock surface again. What he saw made his heart flutter in between excitement and despair. There were small chunks of rock dislodged in the bottom of his hole. Either the dig was destroyed, or the asteroid had just saved him a few weeks of digging.
Jake reached into the hole and started to pick up the pieces of rock that had broken away, small chunks about the size of his hand came loose. He kept pulling the rocks away from the top of the hole, carefully scanning each one for any piece of an artifact and then tossing it carefully out into space. Two hours later and he had cleared away the last of the big pieces, so he started to use some of his precious air to blow away the dust. The first puff of air made him catch his breath, as a dull metallic surface was revealed. Several puffs more and the surface was more prominent. In fact, there were several surfaces.
The reality of what was being uncovered hit Jake like a freight loader. He opened a large bag from his collection kit and started pulling out the objects and carefully placing them inside. Several metallic canisters, each about the size of his forearm in both width and length were nestled inside a large cavity, a pocket of some sort formed inside the asteroid. That mystery, however, would have to wait for another time. As soon as the last canister was in the bag, Jake closed and sealed it. He then spent the next several hours conducting a survey of the hole and the exposed space, collecting micro particle samples and cataloguing the hole. Once finished, he sealed the hole with a bio locked cover that would protect the site and identify him as its owner, and started maneuvering back to his ship.
It wasn't until he was onboard and out of his suit that he started breathing normally again. He then broke the seal on the bag and pulled out one of the canisters. That was when he noticed the small light on it. Once again, breathing became a challenge as he realized that somehow, the device had power. After 65 million years?! How that was possible was beyond him at the moment. He removed the canisters from the collection bag and placed them inside a storage crate. Each crate contained a computer module that scanned the canisters and then molded a foam injection to fit the shape. Jake liked these boxes, because they could form around any shaped object in less than a second and protect it perfectly.
