He stared in disbelief at the silvery orb hovering just ten feet away and instinctively raised his rifle in defense. He watched as Albrecht fell back as if in slow motion from the pathway and the orb vanished back into the trees as if it were a ghost or mirage. He lowered his weapon and made a quick visual check of his team.<br/><br/>Struggling to calm his nerves, he approached the engineer and scanned the area for the orbs return. No one dared speak; except the doc of course… He nodded at her slowly in agreement. Scott stood in thought for a moment and dropped down to a crouch to get a better look at what was obviously an artificial pathway ahead of them. He checked his watch and noted they had been searching for just over two and a half hours; not much time to work with. Scott cautiously approached the much thicker brush along side the path and the orb did not reappear. Turning back to address the group he quit with the whispering and spoke loudly and plainly. “We’ll follow along the path through the thicker brush. Stay close.” Scott took a calming breath and headed into the bushes. “Follow me.” He called back.<br/><br/>They walked for almost thirty minutes with the artificial pathway still in sight and the orb had not reappeared. The weather had only grown worse; the wind was blowing large drops of cold rain and bits of sand and brush into their faces and the cloud cover made it appear as if the sun was setting. Albrecht caught up to him and explained that the signal was stronger and when he pointed in the direction of the signal; Scott saw a large hill covered in vegetation. Checking it with his binoculars he was surprised to see that what appeared to be a large hill was actually the remains of a crashed ship. It looked nothing like anything he had seen, not that he had a lot of experience with crashed spaceships.<br/><br/>Scott pointed it out to the rest of the team and immediately headed toward it. It took less than a half hour to reach the wrecked hull which by the looks of it had been here for many decades. Albrecht was sure that the ship was the source of the signal but the troubling part was the sandaled human sized foot prints that were all around. Scott pulled the team together and explained the situation as the strange yellowish lighting streaked across the sky nearby. “We have about forty-five minutes before we have to head for the gate, and that will be cutting it close. I’m open to suggestions.” He said as he looked around the assembled group his gaze lingering longer on Dr. Randall. And this time not because she was so nice to look at; he had seen her in action and was developing a decent amount of respect for her decision making skills. “Any ideas doc?”<br/>