Vanessa operated her scanner, watching a holographic display map out the surrounding terrain. She sighed. Another day, another survey. She couldn't wait to get off this planet, off this job. Come to Venus they said, a jewel among the stars they said!
It didn't take her long to find out that Venus was the butterface planet of the solar system, pretty from afar, a complete hag up close. Sulfuric rain, oppressive heat, and jagged rocks to break down the rovers at every turn while horrific storms threatened to ragdoll anyone who wasn't wearing the right boots. At least the pay was good. She figured she could settle down and start a family once the company had finished terraforming the place.
As she finished up with her work, the sun peaked through the clouds for a moment, illuminating her kneeling form like a shining diamond in an ocean of rust, her skin-tight reflective suit doing its best to mitigate the heat. If she could find the silver lining in this job, it would be that the sweaty work and scalding heat had made her body lean and sleek. Her breasts were upturned and athletic, reflective globes that were just as eager as her to burst free from the restrictive confines of the suit.
She folded her scanner up, moving towards her rover as she saw the silhouette of her partner, Karla, wave to her through swirling dust clouds. She too had finished her scanning duties and headed for their land vehicle, its exterior pitted and muddied from the elements. Vanessa hopped into the passenger seat, sighing as she closed her eyes, relishing the end of the day.
Karla got in soon after, ready to pilot the creaking, grinding mess that was their transport. "Whew! What a day...can't wait to get some chow."
Vanessa nodded tiredly. "Yeah...some clam chowder would do me some good right now, or a milkshake. Feels hotter today." Karla ignited the engine, a loud blast signifying it had come to life once more before lurching into action as they drove back to base.
Karla spared a brief look of sympathy to her partner. "Oh...about that. All solid state meals got diverted to the boys breakin rocks on Mars."
"Fuckers."
"Yeah corporate always gets the good shit." All Venus operations were seen as the red headed step child in importance to the rest of the solar system, the other worlds getting the best rations and using hovercraft for transportation. The fruit of the company's low standards was just about to be reaped in full.
"Oh shit!" shouted Karla as one of the wheels on the rover blew out, sending them careening into a craggy valley of rock, the front windshield exploding in a shower of glass as the harsh atmosphere flooded into the cabin. The two women bailed out of the skidding hunk of metal before it crashed into a pillar of rock, as a tall, exploding plume of flame heralded its end.
Vanessa looked at the wreckage, flames reflecting off her visor. "Well...shit. How far are we from base?"
"Four hours."
"And we've got one hour of oxygen..." Vanessa looked up into the sky as Karla called for help. "Why? Why do you hate me?" The swirling yellow clouds looked down on her, and for a moment she could have sworn she saw a face within.
"No signal!" said Karla.
Vanessa shook her head. "Come on, we might get a better signal above." The two trudged up the hill, leaving behind the rocky valley. Once out of the crash site, the two braced down from the blustering winds, now more intense without any rocks to crash against.
They scrambled across the thundering, toxic surface, looking for any refuge as their oxygen supply dwindled with every passing moment. Karla hooted with glee, her voice filled with joy as she pulled up her scanner. "Vanessa, there's a cave here, it has just the right levels of oxygen and nitrogen, we can hold out, wait for retrieval!"
Vanessa thought that was bizarre. There had been no caves recorded in this area, and that a cave just simply had the right conditions for survival struck her as too good to be true. "That doesn't even make any sense!"
"Who cares!" screamed Karla over the howling winds. "It's the only chance we've got!"
Vanessa shrugged, her partner was right, but still kept her wits about her, something wasn't adding up. "Let's go!" She charged up her plasma weapon, ready for anything.
Both of the explorers slid down the rocky hole, moving far enough into the cave where the oxygen was thick enough to take off their helmets. A hissing sound accompanied their removal, and the first thing the girl's noticed was not the elegant, alien plants that hung from the ceiling, but rather how pleasant the place smelled.
It smelled like fresh roses mixed with the smell of rain after a thunderstorm. For Vanessa, she was able to detect something that smelled like the musky aroma of sex. The two tread deep into the cavern, the illuminators on their suits burning through the haze with intense beams of light.
Water dripped from stalactites as a ruddy mist wafted around their legs, the walls coated with bio luminescent fungus, glowing lush lavender on one wall, vibrant gold on another. The two explorers were careful not to touch any of the plants, being well versed in safety protocols.
Karla had an antennae extended from her wrist, emitting low beeps as it tried to lock on a signal from outside. "Got it!" She stood up on a rock, raising her transmitter as high as she could before speaking into her comms array. "Relay 1138 this is Wild Horse, requesting emergency pick-up. Forwarding coordinates now."
Vanessa was squatting down, waving away the mist as Karla rattled off her situation to their superiors. Exploration protocols forbade touching of plants, but said nothing of touching rock formations. As the mist cleared away from the lower wall, it revealed ancient hieroglyphs, indecipherable except for various images of strange women.
She traced her finger around the hypersexual curves of the women, all of them endowed with absurd hourglass shapes, while some had developed impossibly large clitorises, acting as some sort of phallus as they mounted other, normally proportioned women. Could it be? A lost civilization of alien hermaphrodites? She scratched her head, technically they weren't hermaphrodites if they didn't have the male equipment, but it still intrigued her how these creatures had adapted female biology for male functions. Oddly she could only see various scenes of fornication and coupling, no other forms of culture present besides an obsession for sex. It was as if it was all they lived for.
"Roger that Wild Horse, ETA on pick-up is three hours. Command out." squawked Karla's receiver, breaking Vanessa out of her thoughts.
Vanessa turned around, facing Karla, oblivious to the hieroglyphs that were beginning to energize themselves with radiant pink light. "I think I found something, it's going to blow yo-" she was cut short as the ground gave way underneath her, crumbling and dragging her into a black abyss.
Karla's survival instincts kicked in, jumping off her perch and rolling on the ground before breaking into a sprint as the rest of the cavern caved in. She stretched her stride, taking a massive jump into a neighboring cave tunnel as the last piece of solid ground fell away from her feet, her momentum causing her to skid to safety. She looked behind, breathing heavily, taking in the newly formed chasm, and then sighed with relief as she saw orange light sticks brighten up the bottom of the fall.
Vanessa was alive.
***
Vanessa turned off her comms after her status update to Karla. It had been one hour since her fall, and she had spent her time exploring her new space, finding no exits besides scaling the cave's walls. After her fall, her suit's illuminators were damaged and she was just out of glow sticks. Fortunately and curiously, the local fauna had illuminated once she arrived, kindly lighting up her path through the darkness like an airstrip.
Just as she felt like she was going to stop and rest for her limping leg, she saw a big flash of light as a grand altar lay before her, casting a brilliant reddish-gold glow over its marble surface. It struck her that the pillars around the altar were vaguely Grecian in their design but still very alien. She stifled her suspicions as she went up its craggy and overturned steps, noticing how only one figurine stood upon the alabaster altar.
It was in the shape of a human woman, yet not quite human, mirroring the hieroglyphics she saw earlier. Stylistic variations aside, this lady's face was far too alien, her physique, while technically possible on a human being, would be absurd, requiring a colossal amount of surgery and Olympic level fitness.