The air on 2Big C was cold, the daylight sky a perpetual twilight color, owing to the red dwarf sun. The shadows cast were darker, fainter, the air forlorn with a sense that what might once have been good or wonderful about this place had long since passed and all that was left now was the slow march toward death.
The hulk of the Naglfar rested on the surface now, never to fly through space again. Staring back at it from over a mile away Iris noted how, despite being from Earth, it looked like just one more artefact of what once was, bathed in the bleak mid-day sun, its hull covered in long since frozen condensation from their landing.
And yet amid this cold air Iris set her coat aside, leaving it at the entrance to a cavern. She could already feel a warmth emanating from deeper inside the cave. It was her job to understand what was producing this heat, why something still seemed alive in this frozen wasteland to which she and a group of other women working for The Company had been sent to live out the rest of their lives. Iris was 25, so that meant she had a lot of years ahead of her.
She carried a box full of sample containers as well as a binder with her field notes. This was her third trip into the caverns. She'd been one of the last women to visit, the others having given up on ever finding anything there but goop and primitive life forms. But Iris had found something else. She'd found a rich ecosystem with a chemistry she didn't understand and odd appendages that looked like moving stalactites.
The air grew warmer as she proceeded. At last she entered a cavern with a small opening that let her see the sky outside. It was an odd area, quite warm and wet. Further into the cavern the ground sloped down into a pit that seemed oddly smooth.
She opened the box and set it down, taking out the first sample container and marking it with the location -- edge of an eroded hole in the ground -- and slowly slid it along the moist surface, kneeling as she did so. Soon it was filled with a viscous whitish fluid. She reset the cap and placed the container in its box. Turning she was startled to see two appendages emerging from the edges of the pit she'd found.
She noticed the fluid on the ground was growing thicker, beginning to pour down the walls and into the pit. With fascination she approached the hole, peering into its depths. She turned on a flashlight and, peering in, was astounded to see a fleshy chamber inside. From its inner walls emerged more appendages. The fluid was growing thicker, beginning to pool around her ankles. She could feel it seeping through the fabric of her pants.
She sat down on a rock and looked over the field notes she'd taken during her previous two visits.
