Dread in the Black and Deep

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viperslate13610

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Lincoln Stone, Link to his friends, (Yes, they made those kinds of really bad jokes) stood outside his tent, overlooking the excavation site, the sun beaming through crystal blue skies, pounding down upon the sand and dust. The digging plot lay clearly before him. Already they had made some, if only very slight, progress in finding little bits and bobs beneath the desert sands, alluding to human habitation and activity and after all they had only been out here for six weeks. It looked like this was going to be a very promising dig indeed.

Lincoln was a language expert of note in archaeological circles and when the Brittish Institute of Archaeology accepted his pitch and granted funding for his request for a dig in Egypt, a few miles west of the Valley of the Kings, he was extatic. He got together the best team he could find and set out post haste to see if there was indeed a tomb or temple or some other kind of marvelous structure out there beneath the scorching sands of the mysterious Egypt.

Lincoln was relatively young for an expert in his field being no older than twenty-six. He trod carefully down the slope, avoiding any loose dirt or especially pointy rocks or abandoned tools and made his way down to the excavation level where his team were digging or brushing or cleaning up bits of old bricks or pottery or household tools of the time. "Anything to report?" he asked the team in general, hoping vainly for some kind of important, ground breaking discovery.
 
"Think I found steps man!" A gruff latin voice exclaimed. Vaz was farther out near the edge of the digsite. He didn't like being around others when he worked he tended to get aggravated easily. Looking down he saw the stairway he'd found buried under thousands of years of sand and desert rock, and then put his Pulse Hammer (Sonic wave hammer for loosening sand and rubble making it easier to dig out, uses same technology as a sonic amplifier cannon riot control uses) down on the sand next to it and walked over to Link.

"
Yeah man, found steps where I'm diggin' He said, pointing over to where the hammer was laying next to a hole. Vaz started on back to where he was working, Vaz was always a laborer, a hard worker who only stopped for breaks from the heat and when the job was done. This wasn't the first job Vaz had gone on under Link, in fact he'd worked with Link for a few years now, and enjoyed it for the most part, seeing the world, getting paid money to play in big sandboxes, getting to see remains of worlds long dead. A fortunate career path being the mechanic and laborer for an archaeologist.
 
"Good man, Vaz. Good man." he said, lighting a cigarette. "Take a Clearance team as well as Jordan and Michael. Clear as much as you can and then those two will take over." he said, taking a drag. "Oh, and Vaz!" he called out after him, "Be careful!"
Everything was going extremely well. Six weeks and already, a set of stairs! Could they be leading to a storage room or some kind of beer cellar? It was just too exciting. Link decided to follow Vaz and personally supervise the process. It was like waiting for something you knew was coming in the mail but you never knew what you were going to get. Could lead to nothing, but he didn't care. They had found a clear point that there was indeed a structure here and it was in common enough use to have steps. The university would be pleased. Never know, might even get a little bit more funding to extend the dig. The excited thoughts swirled inside his head as they walked on towards the uncovered steps.
 
"Aight boss!" he started waving over Jordan and Michael and a couple others who saw the wave, and upon seeing them assembled he addressed them saying, "Aight, boss man wants these steps cleared find out where dey go to, so as I pulse out the path, you clear it out, and don't break nuttin' " and at that he grabbed the pulse hammer and laid it at an angle to apply the reverberations that allow easier clearing to go underway. After emitting a low frequency long pulse he waved the clearance team to start removing the sand, while he turned to Jordan and Michael.

"You two are gonna start at the top o'dos stairs and make sure the stairs aren't supposed to lead up. Go!" Seeing them off he walked back up to Link, Hammer still in hand waiting for the team to clear a way for him. "I didn't think any dynasty ruled this part during the ancient days, what're you lookin' for man?" He asked, normally he wasn't too much of an archaeologist but, he'd remembered other digs that suggested the borders of the egyptian empire, and this seemed a bit far out for that. What was also odd was that there was no wind, not even a slight breeze, it was dead air, and aside from the sounds of the excavation a dead silence too.
 
"That is true, Vas." he said pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "But we are not looking for a royal tomb. I wouldn't have come here if we were. I really don't know what to expect, but I have a feeling that it may be something exciting." he said, taking a notebook out of his top pocket. He scratched in a few details about the dig along with a chicken-scratch sketch of the steps. He placed it back in his pocket. He pushed his glasses up again. He watched as the two other men cleared the steps very carefully but with a substantial speed nonetheless. "You know, I think that we might just find something..." he paused for a second, trying to place the word. "Special. That no one has ever found before." he said smiling. He laughed after a while. "Sorry about that, Vas, I just got caught up in my own mind there for a sec." he said, shaking a little bit of sand off his boot. "But, when it comes down to it, you never do know..." he said, taking the last drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out in the cap of his zippo lighter and placing the butt in his coat pocket so as not to contaminate any potential findings.
 
The Clearance team waved over to Vaz, seemingly elated about something. He wiped his brow off and nodded to Link to come with him to check it out. Upong getting there he didn't need them to say anything to know what they were so happy about, he saw it. A dark ancient passage way at the bottom of the stairway. Of course, to make any other headway, the rest of the sand would need to be sucked out. "Jordan! Michael! get me da vacuum!" The vacuum was basically a pool vac, just with the motor tuned up and the tubes designed for sand instead of water.

"Link you think you can give me a hand wit da vac man? Just need'you to hold da back tube down so it doesn't spray sand everywhere." He said as the two returned with the vacuum. It was a four man machine, two would have to stay near the motor to make sure it stayed cooled and lubricated. One in front to guide the suction tube, and one in back to keep the expulsion tube steady. He grabbed the suction tube and started down the stairway into the sand covered corridor and shouted back, "YO! CRANK DA VAC UP MAN!" At that Jordan yanked the ripcord on the motor and the engine roared to life, the loud putter of the pistons and the motor giving power to the suction tube as Vaz put the tube to the sand, and the tube began turning a greenish yellow as the sand began to go through it out back into the desert.
 
(I'd like to slow down the progression of the story for the time being and let everyone else catch up first. I'll do a post in a day or two and have Link cordon off the area for further examination by himself and a catalogue team.)