Unidentified

An interesting challenge - someone gives you one word as the theme for a short story. Two weeks later, what have you got?

As a teaser, here are the first few lines. If you want to read more go to: http://tinyurl.com/ydu87mm

Unidentified

About three years ago

"Deke. C'm'nd have a look at this."

"What you got?"

"Not sure. Need you to take a look."

They look. On the fizzing screen in front of them, ahead of the Lander, is a strange, bulbous outcrop.

"What's the scale here?"

"Close. Close in. Thing's about five, maybe six inches across."

"New?"

"Tracked this quadrant before and no record of it. Could have blown in on a wind, 's small enough."

"Composition?"

"Haven't probed it yet, but it doesn't look like standard Mars rock. It's kinda shiny. Waxy."

"OK. Approach. Have a dig. See what it is."