Ficlets

Monument

Primordial ooze stretches as far as the eye can see.

Lightning flashes fill the angry sky as distant volcanoes spew ash and lava.

Through a break in the dark clouds, atop an impossibly bright shaft of flame, a metal shape descends to land atop a flat-topped rock outcropping.

The metal shape, a spaceship, sits quietly, slowly cooling from its transit through the roiling atmosphere. Suddenly, an opening appears in the side of the ship and a ladder extends to the scorched rock.

After a moment, a figure, clad in metal, appears in the doorway and surveys the forboding landscape.

The figure slowly descends the ladder and, after what seems an eternity, stands on the rocky surface.

Slowly, as if unsure of how to move, the space traveler walks to the edge of the outcropping and removes an object from its suit, which it places, almost reverently, on the hard surface of the outcropping.

Moments later, the space traveler and its ship are gone, only the object remains, alone on the rocky outcropping.

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