XIN: The Veiled Genocides (standard:science fiction, 54750 words)
Author: Robert G Moons	Added: Jan 02 2013	Views/Reads: 5426/4856	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
We are not alone in the galaxy, but soon we will be. A story of one man's journey to the stars after finding an alien probe of immense power.

Chapter 1 

Drumheller 

The Sun brutalized the strange landscape with its all too familiar waves
of heat. A landscape made up of large, curved hills, created by rivers 
that had cut deep into the sandstone and other soft rock. There were a 
number of odd looking sculptures that had been carved over time – 
mushroom like formations – some that would make the more prudish blush, 
and others just laugh. There was minimal vegetation in this harsh 
landscape; only the hardiest of plants claiming their small patch of 
parched, Sun-baked ground. All elements combined gave the landscape an 
almost eerie other worldly feel. The area was called the Badlands by 
the early settlers, and with good reason – nothing they wanted to grow, 
would grow. 

A solitary figure moved slowly over the solar heated ground, stirring up
small clouds of dust with every arduous step. With every step, he was 
deciding whether to go back to his air-conditioned hotel in Drumheller, 
Alberta, or go on just a bit farther. His stubbornness won out, so on 
he struggled. 

David Van Bercham wasn't a paleontologist or some professional dinosaur
hunter. He was just an avid hobbyist, who used some of his vacation 
time hunting for fossils. This was the newest of his interests, and 
one, he was even now deciding whether to keep. Playing guitar in room 
temperature was starting to look better and better as the huge sweat 
spots on his light grey t-shirt expanded, threatening to dominate the 
few dry areas that remained. 

He wasn't looking for anything in particular. Just finding anything was
starting to look real good right about now, but he had hoped for the 
rare possibility of finding a Troodon, a raptor-like dinosaur that was 
about two metres long. It was the paleontologist's flavour of the 
month. He was looking in an area up a hill where the layers of rock 
were estimated to be around 73 million years old. It was around the 
right time for the Troodons, so if he was going to find one, this was 
the place. Then, something strange caught his eye. 

Farther up the hill of sedimentary outcroppings, there was a dense black
colour that looked oddly out of place compared to its surroundings. He 
was too far away to identify what it was, so he climbed the steep slope 
to the rock outcropping that framed the dark thing. 

Less than a minute later, he was conversation distance close and looking
eye level at it. He thought it would have been a dark rock or hole, but 
getting closer had made it even more of a mystery. Only about 15 
centimetres of it was visible. Rain and wind had partially dug it out 
from its tomb of rock, but the small rubble of rocks at his feet told 
him something more immediate had recently happened. 

He touched it, but quickly pulled his hand back. He didn't know why.
Something instinctive, something very primal made him react like that. 
Like a cat seeing itself in a mirror for the first time. But like the 
curious cat, he touched it again. It felt like glass, but cold, very 
cold. It shouldn't feel that cold in this heat, he puzzled. Yes, that's 
why he pulled back so quickly. The briefest touch told him something 
was wrong. Another odd thing struck him next. There were no reflections 
on it. Something this smooth should have reflections, but instead of 
seeing his face or the glare of sunlight on it – nothing. If he wasn't 
touching the black smoothness of the thing, he would have thought there 
was nothing there. 

He noticed it was sitting within a dark layer of rock. This layer was
supposedly created by the fallout after a giant meteorite hit the Earth 
65 million years ago. It was one of the many dinosaur extinction 
theories. 

He could also discern it had a slight curve to it. Was this a large,
volcanic rock or meteorite that had somehow found its way to this 
location? Melted rocks can be glassy smooth, he reasoned, trying to 
further convince himself. Yes, that's it, and there might be a lot more 
of it buried! He might have found something interesting after all. He 
took his small wedge-shaped hammer from his backpack, and started 
chipping away at the layers of soft rock. 


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