They stood for long seconds, taking in the macabre details that they were seeing and trying to make sense of them.
Lazarus guided the asteroid pod in for a landing on the very edge of the crater that, until recently, had been filled with viscous liquid oxygen. He directed the vehicle's powerful spotlights down into the basin of the crater, illuminating its interior. As Lamont and Francis quickly made their way out of the cockpit through the rear of the asteroid pod, the mining crew was already rushing up the descending ramp to ready the winch that would pull the oxygen tanks into the cargo bay. They seemed to look through Lamont and the captain, barely acknowledging them with haunted eyes.
Disembarking, the two men quickly scrambled around the side of the asteroid pod until they stood at the edge of the crater. Beneath the sensitive fingertips of his gloves, Lamont felt the subtle ticking of the camera's shutter in his recorder before he consciously realized that he was manipulating it. They stood for long seconds, taking in the macabre details that they were seeing and trying to make sense of them.
The spotlights revealed what appeared at first glance to be shapeless detritus, indefinite scraps of something or other that emerged irregularly from the wisps and tendrils of liquid oxygen that still clung to the bottom of the crater. But the human eye is immediately drawn to certain shapes and patterns, and among these is the peculiar symmetry made by the empty sockets and jagged crevices of a human skull. One or two of these immediately presented themselves among the litter, and the longer one looked, the more became apparent. Other details followed: A partial ribcage, a hip bone, a femur.
"A mass grave?" Lamont whispered.
"Or the site of some disaster," Francis suggested.
Two more long shadows intruded on the grisly scene as Lazarus and Phobos arrived beside them.
"Has anyone gone in there yet?" Carter asked. "Collected any samples?"
"I did," Lazarus answered, his voice subdued. "They're extremely fragile. The liquid oxygen was holding them in a kind of stasis, but they crumble into dust at the slightest application of pressure. For all I know, they were much more intact before we started draining…" He trailed off.
"We've got to find a way to collect something," Carter insisted, beginning to edge his way past the lip of the crater. "Phobos, pick someone from the mining crew and come up with a plan, please. To gather some samples large enough for Dr. Faust to examine."
The Martian bobbed his large head wordlessly and turned back toward the asteroid pod, where one of the tanks was already being pulled inside by the winch.
Carter began inching his way down the treacherous slope of the crater. He was too distracted to notice or protest when Lazarus scrambled to take his free arm so that he wouldn't stumble.
Lamont followed behind, stopping every few sliding steps to capture the scene from a new angle. His imagination painted the image of a photograph as he snapped it: The metallic-suited forms of the captain and the pilot, brightly illuminated, casting scarecrow shadows across the macabre rubble.
"If they're human," Lamont muttered, to no one in particular. "Really human—what does it mean?"
Finding human bones in Alien worlds is starting to become a pattern
In our case, it could be a bad habit.