Finders Keepers By Soltan Bey A university student finds an ancient artifact on a dig in Chile. The impact of her discovery is not unnoticed by those who desire power of a sort no rational being thought truly existed. This is a work of fiction no person living or dead...blah blah blah... If you are under the age of 18 or are offended by sexual theme's that include lesbianism, bi-sexual women, and sporadic violence then don't read this. Doing this for fun. Just one of the stories I've tried to crank out. Not a pro by any means! No training! Just got strange ideas in my head, many which I picked up elsewhere. Blame for such odd ideas I suppose could be laid at the feet of Phillip Jose Farmer (Not widely published is his erotic -horror fiction one of which is 'Image of the Beast'), S.M. Stirling (The Dracon series is a must read!), Whitley Strieber (Before he got 'serious' with UFO's he wrote a odd SF called 'The Hunger'), Colin Wilson's truely bizzare "Space Vampires" and others who space does not permit to mention! Ya right. If you find yourself forced to comment and just can't help yourself the author can be assaulted at this electronic address. Insert the @ where you feel is apporiate. sbey AT altavista.net . Finders Keepers Alexandra Nichols Nick Alexia..which she hates...Or Andra. Geologist 4th year college. ..no specialty... 22 Years Old. Brunette. 5,7" In good shape. Pert and firm but not very sexy. Past 2 years has been spending more time in gyms trying to put on muscle after a field accident. Location: Some mountain in Peru. Its 'summer' vacation . Finders Keepers Alexandra wandered away from the rest of the field trip crew. She stood on a small rocky hillock that was jutting up along the side of the mountain she and the others, far below her now, were scrabbling about. It was a standard bleak mountain top one found in this part of Peru. The High Andes. No trees to speak of, just an occasional scabbily bush or cacti. Far below she could see one of her fellow field trip explorers wave toward her in recognition. She couldn't tell who it was, just that one of students had spied her above. She waved back as her hand held radio chirped. "Alexia don't stray so far, come back here!" Squawked the speaker. Alexandra pulled the radio from her waistband and had to bite off the nasty reply she was about to make. Robert had used that nickname she hated so. "I'm OK, I just want to look at some of these veins up here. The area I'm looking at is down behind this hillock a bit and I'll be out of eyesight, it's only a little ways down from where I am." "OK, well check in every 30 minutes. Be careful up there girl." "That's a big ten four good buddy." Alexandra chortled as she got that one in. Robert hated that sort of radio talk and really hated being called a 'good buddy'. Served him right for calling her by the nickname she hated. Alexia is the name of a mental disease and not a proper name. She told Robert not to call her that but he would still occasionally use it. Probably he was irritated at her for being so far away from the rest of the students. She waved one last time at the students below, and scrambled down the backside of the slope. Earlier she had seen an interesting feature thru her binoculars and headed toward that part of the mountainside. The hillock she had just scrambled down was at the base of a small valley like structure that worked its way back up the mountain slope, almost spiraling along its side. As she approached the feature that had caught her eye she could see that recent rains had eroded enough of the mountain side in this area to cause a miniature rock slide. The feature she was interested in was the sheared vertical face the slide had exposed. The exposed sheared face of rock was laced with glittering minerals and strata that was of sufficient interest for her to lose track of time as she pecked away at the rock with her hammer. Realizing it was late for a radio check in she tried to contact Robert via the handheld but there was too much rock between and all she got was a scratchy static swamped reply. She sighed and turned to walk back up the hillock so she could contact Robert and let him and the others know she was OK and hadn't fallen in some ravine or something. As she turned she saw that the rock slide had exposed part of what appeared to be a cave entrance. Excited by this find she poked her head past the fallen rock partially covering the entrance and was delighted to see it was most likely a long hidden cave and she was the first to find it! She was about to enter when she remembered the others, besides it was stupid to enter a cave alone. She ran back up the slope as quickly as she could in the low pressure altitude and radioed down to the others breathlessly. "I've found a cave! Hidden behind a fresh slide!" Robert called back and told her they were coming up to meet her. "Don't do anything till we get there Alexia," he ordered. "And don't go into that cave by yourself, it's too dangerous!" "I know that. Just come up to this hillock and you'll see the slide below, you can't miss it. Ten four and out 'good buddy'." Getting her dig in she clambered back down toward the cave before Robert could reply via the radio. Besides she wasn't going to stand around for the hour or so it would take the others to clamber up. By the time she arrived back at the cave the afternoon sun had settled low enough to cast a goodly deal of light into the westward facing cave opening. Alexandra used this to good advantage and found she could see quite far into the cave. However she couldn't see as far as she wanted as her daytime adjusted eyes couldn't cope with the contrast. She cursed. By the time the others arrived the light would probably be too low to enter the cave. Sure, some of them had flashlights, but none of the crew were outfitted for cave work at the moment, and the current sun angle was perfect for a quick peek. She looked again at the cave and determined it was safe enough to enter just a short way. Besides the others were coming. What harm would it be just to enter a little way into a sunlit cave? She gently eased through the exposed opening and found a few small rocks to toss into the gloom. By the clinking sounds she determined there was a solid rock floor just below and deeper into the cave. She eased farther through the opening and down the inside of the crumbled rock slide. Her shoe found purchase on a flat surface that did not move so she paused and allowed her eyes to adjust in the gloom. Above her the sunlight still shone in and she could see the dust motes in the shaft of light. It took about 5 minutes for her eyes to adjust enough to begin making out details outside the main cone of sunlight. Before her was a small wide cave that had a good flat surface to walk on. Looking to her left and right she could see a good way into the gloom and directly ahead she could see a solid rock wall. Gingerly she walked toward the wall she could examine it. Almost to the wall something caught her eye off to one side. When she saw what it was she let out a startled gasp. A skeleton! Her eyes had become even more adjusted to the gloom and there was just enough light to see that the skeleton must have belonged to a giant. She marveled at the length of femur. It was huge. She crept closer and cast her eyes further into the gloom and saw something glinting in the dwindling light. She reached her hand out for the glint and found it was some sort of metallic necklace and pendant. Peering closely as she dared, as she did not wish to disturb any of the bones, she could see that the giant's head had been crushed beneath a large slab of almost rectangular rock. The light was almost gone as she turned to leave the cave and wait for the others. Outside the cave she excitedly examined the object she had picked up. To her amazement the necklace was made of what appeared to be solid gold links. Large links and wonderfully crafted. Each link must have been an inch in length and perhaps a quarter inch in diameter. The pendant was truly strange. Approximately 2 inches in diameter and perhaps 3/4 inch thick it was nothing more than a disk, no ornamentation and almost seemed machined. One side of the disk was of a darker shade than the other. Overall it had a gold like appearance, though of a much lighter shade than gold should be. Perhaps some sort of alloy. Other than that it was unremarkable. The chain had been crudely welded to the edge of the medallion. She heard noises above and her radio began to squawk as Robert was trying to contact her. She looked at the object and realized it would soon belong to one of the archaeology students to gawk at. She was just a geology student and had no right to keep such a find. Saddened by this thought she thought about her life to date and how boring it was. School was fun but that was about to end as her scholarship money had run out. "Damn it to hell," she said aloud. "I'm keeping this as a memento. Something to show my friends and family when I'm old, proof I had something exciting happen sometime in my travels." She slid the necklace over her neck let the pendant drape beneath the heavy cotton shirt she was wearing. When she stood up the pendant draped to just above her bellybutton. Robert had just reached the rise above as she snapped the top shirt buttons tight, making sure the necklace was not visible. She waved at Robert and the rest as they clambered down toward her and she mused about them as she waited. They were a mix of geology and archaeology students from a wide variety of colleges and universities in the USA. Alexandra was on her 3rd trip in this part of the world and was a bit saddened she was about to finish her 4th year of college. In a few months she would have her degree and would have to try and find work. Hopefully something exciting that involved lots of field work but she knew those chances were dim. Especially in todays market. There just wasn't that much call for geologists these days. Robert and the rest were all excited by the find and several wanted to enter the cave immediately but it was decided to wait until tomorrow when they could return with proper safety gear to enter. In the meantime they would cover the entrance with the fallen rocks outside so to keep unwanted visitors out. Robert chided Alexandra severely for entering the cave on her own. Some of the others congratulated Alexandra on her serendipitous find and the group headed back toward the camp below. It was already late afternoon and it would take them about 2 hours to return. Sweaty from her hike back to camp Alexandra was glad to relax before the dwindling setting sun and remained silent as the some of the others chatted about the days finds. When the conversation turned back to the cave she excused herself to go and help prepare the evening meal. Rebecca and Jim had drawn cook duty that night and were pleasantly surprised when Alexandra showed up to help open cans and chop the veggies. "Andra, feeling bored?" Jim asked jokingly. "Ya, I guess. Just want to keep my hands busy for some reason," Alexandra chuckled back. She smiled warmly at Jim as he was always sure to get her preferred nickname right. That and he was a good looker to boot. Andra could always hope. However when she glanced over at the curvaceous Rebecca she felt a slight blush rise on her face. Compared to Rebecca she was a stick. A healthy trim stick. But still a stick. Finished with the cooking chores they called everyone in. "Dinners Up! Grab a plate and get in line you scurvy dogs!" Rebecca was such a funny gal. Tended to be a bit bossy as well. Andra ate a good sized helping and helped with the clean up chores. Though there wasn't much to clean up since most of the dinnerware was of the disposable kind. Cleaning up mainly consisted of making sure everything that was supposed to be put in a trash bag was in one, rather than fluttering about the camp. Since there was no wood to burn in these barren lands they relied on fuel lamps for light and the group sat about and chatted. Slowly one by one they headed for their respective tents. Some were single person pups and others had tents large enough to fit up to 4 people in. Andra had her pup tent placed in a cluster of other single user tents and as she headed for her tent she fondled the links of the necklace beneath her shirt. Since it was so cold at night up in these mountains most of the students slept with their clothes on and Andra was no exception. However she did take the time to change into fresh clothes after she took a quick sponge bath, concentrating on the standard problem areas like the groin and nether regions. She didn't want to get the necklace wet so she put off bathing upstairs. As she slid into the sleeping bag she noted it was almost 11p.m. Not wanting to sleep with the necklace on she pulled the chain from her neck. However as she pulled the chain over the top of her head she felt resistance and a tug on the skin of her belly where the pendant rested. Surprised by this she unbuttoned her shirt and pulled on the chain again. The pendant seemed to be stuck to her skin somehow. Feeling panicky she quickly drew the entrance folds of the pup tent and fumbled about for the small MagLight flashlight she kept in her night kit. Pointing the light at her belly she could see the pendant was glued somehow to her skin as she pulled at it again. "Oh my God," she whispered. She pulled harder on the pendant and felt pain as the skin was pulled along with it. "It's stuck!," she whimpered. She kept pulling and prying but it would not yield. "Water, maybe if I soaked it in water." She poured some water out of one of her water bottles and soaked the medallion as best she could. Then she soaked one of her tee shirts and placed that on the medallion. She waited a few minutes and pulled again. It was still stuck! Andra was beginning to panic. "Soap. I'll soak this damn thing in soap," she mumbled and headed out of the pup to find some dish detergent near the mess area. She returned with the detergent and applied a liberal amount mixed with water to the juncture of her skin and the medallion. It still would not yield. It appeared to have become one with her skin! Andra began to simper quietly in her pup tent. "Why oh why did I take this thing?" She wanted to get up and get some help and was about to do just that when she realized if she did that she would have to explain where the strange gold necklace and medallion came from., but she realized she would be finished, doomed, if she did that. Branded as a thief and a grave robber. She had taken something that should have been left for the qualified to study, not as a personal memento! Once her comrades found out what she had done she could never look them in the face again. They would shame her in public court. As long as she didn't pull on it she felt no discomfort, but nonetheless she spent the next few hours pawing at the medallion in the hopes it would work loose. It was way late in the morning hours before she fell into a restless slumber, to tired to care but to worried to sleep well. ............................................. The once dormant nodes were awakened by the 'scent' of a new host. The warm moist salts and proteins allowed them to propagate and establish contact with the living being they were now in contact with. The Nodes commanded their subsets to begin transfer after the initial bond was established. The subsets prepared a path for the main controller nodes to follow and a began to use the newfound hosts' tissues to generate more subsets. Subsets that would be needed for analyses of their new host and to set up an initial defensive ring to fend of the hosts natural defenses to their initial insertion. Soon they would become invisible to the hosts' body and would be ignored. Then the real work could begin. The multiplication of subsets and Main Node Controller duplication would be of the highest priority. Communication lines could then begin between the scattered Main Node Controllers, which would in turn control and instruct sub Node controllers and the subset workers. If the Nodes could feel happiness they would, for it had been countless ages since they had last been alive to do their work. Work they were designed to do. They would attempt to contact the host as soon as they were capable and ready. In the meantime they would grow and multiply in numbers so as to serve the host when called upon. ........................ Andra was startled into a groggy wakefulness by someone rudely banging a couple of pans together outside her tent. "Wake up sleepyhead! Rise and shine!" It was Robert. Damn him. "OK OK, quit making that damn racket, I'm awake," she grumbled sleepily. She felt as hammered shit and wanted to go back to sleep. As she crawled out of her pup she saw everyone else had been up for hours it appeared. "Andra, we've been trying to wake you for a hour! I didn't realize you were such a heavy sleeper girl!" Robert quipped cutlet. "Have a rough night?" Andra still in a fog looked at Robert and considered ripping his heart out with a few well-placed words but merely responded, "Ya, I had a rough night. Couldn't sleep for some reason and I feel like crap." She headed for the mess area to get some coffee, hoping that would vitalize her weary system. Robert followed along, "Well were about to head out, do you feel up to a climb to the cave?" "I don't think so Robert, I must have only slept a few hours, at best. Or at least I feel that way anyway. With the way I feel right now it will be hours before I'm ready to do jack shit. You guys head up without me, I'll just hang around camp today." "Damn you -must- be feeling bad." He knew must be feeling bad because she hardly ever used nasty talk. He touched her forehead with the back of his hand. "Don't feel a fever or anything. Just feeling tired or sick? Any pain? Don't lie now, if your coming down with something I need to know. It could be serious up here, we're a couple days from any decent medical help." Robert said the last with a very concerned look on his face. Andra was warmed by Roberts attention but heck, he was team leader. It was his job to worry. She tried to put on a good face for him and smiled wanly at him. "No Robert, I just feel tired. Hard to say if I'm coming down with something. To early to say. Honestly, I just didn't get any sleep last night, that's all! Now get up that mountain before the sun sets." "Well, OK. Rebecca would have drawn camp day dog today, she can come out to eyeball rocks today if she wants. You get to be camp guard dog. Keep a radio with you and be sure the repeater radio is on, blah blah. You know the routine." "Roger Wilco Robert, Andra will have the camp secured and ready while you kids have fun. Now get your stuff together and let me finish waking up." Andra continued sucking down coffee and waved good-byes to the crew as they headed out. "Happy spelunking guys," she said over the radio as her final words during the radio check. "Well there they go and here I am. Me and my stupid medallion that's glued to my stupid ass." She said with bitter conviction. Since the group was far enough away not to notice what she was doing, she unbuttoned her blouse so she could get a good look at the medallion stuck to her belly. She groaned and closed her eyes in despair as she saw the reddened skin about the medallion. "Great, blood poisoning or a allergic reaction or something. Just what I need." She sighed and cursed her stupidity and plopped dejectedly into one of the camp chairs. She felt the gnawing of hunger in her belly building to a dull roar. A roar she usually ignored in the mornings as she liked to remain trim. Breakfast just made one fat as far as she was concerned. However since she felt so crappy she decided to find some fruit to nibble on. When she got up with a quick lurch she let out a gasp of glee as the medallion swung free in the breeze. Quickly she pulled the chain from her neck and tossed the cursed affair on the table nearby. "Free! Free! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!" She peeked down at her belly, blouse still open and blowing in the breeze, and saw the skin where the medallion had been stuck was red and inflamed. She cautiously ran a finger across the reddened area and noted it was slightly tender but not horribly so. However it was raised a bit. Kind of like a 2 inch plus diameter super hickey from hell. She decided to wash the area with water and soap. In fact she ended up bathing thoroughly then she dressed the reddened area with some Bactracin creme and covered it with some sterile gauze. She was terribly worried about what had happened but was so happy the stupid medallion had broken loose she soon forgot her worries and fixed a good sized breakfast. After she ate she felt much better and even considered taking a short walk away from camp. "Best stick around as ordered," she commented. Trying to reach the group by radio yielded Robert calling back with a bit of static. "All OK up here, how you doing Andra?" "Feeling much better, thanks. I was thinking of taking a walk, not to far though, just enough to work up a sweat." "Don't stray to far from camp, put the base radio in repeater mode like I shown you if you do leave. And take a hand held with you. And don't forget to test it!" Andra knew the drill, having been on trips with Robert before. "Roger Wilco Captain Robert. Over and Out." She knew that would goose Robert and let him know she was feeling better if she was up to using her space cadet lingo over -his- radios. She grabbed some gear and headed out to poke around at some rocks. At least she would feel as if she was doing something. Two hours later, 10am, she was back at the camp feeling ravenous. She ripped open a can of beans and found some bread to sop up them up with. "First time in my life I ate a entire 16oz can of beans." She commented. Not soon after, she felt hungry again. Not being one to pay much attention in the past to hunger pains, she relented this time as the hunger seemed quite severe. Rooting around the mess she found a 16 oz can of tuna and slapped the tuna on some bread. Before she realized what she was doing she had made up two hefty tuna sandwiches and had consumed the entire contents of the tin. "Good Lord. Oink Oink." At least the hunger pains had abated and she felt stuffed. She undid her blouse and the bandage to take a peek at the red mark and saw with relief it was no longer as swollen, nor as red as it had been a few hours ago. She cleaned the spot again and applied more of the Bactracin and a fresh gauze bandage. The near noon sun was comforting as she decided to sit and make some entries in her journal. Before not to long she began to feel a bit drowsy she decided to take a nap. She pulled her sleeping bag out so she could lie in the sun, and be near the camp radio in case someone called. It wasn't long till she fell into a sun warmed slumber. ....................... Up on the mountain the group was all excited. The cave appeared to have been part of an ancient storage area or a tomb. They determined an earthquake must have caused the slab of rock to kill the unfortunate giant. The same quake probably sealed the cave as well and it had only recently been exposed after, perhaps millennia. Later study would determine the age of his remains. The giant, a true freak, they estimated must have been close to 7 feet tall, perhaps more. Their tentative guess that the giant was a male, but further study would have to be done. The giant was sure to cause great excitement in the scientific community. Farther into the cave they found some old relics, pottery and such. Nothing of really exotic nature however some where very excited that none of the limited artifacts they found resembled any prior known civilization in South America. They took many pictures of the cave and especially of the giant since he was the most noteworthy thing they could find. They carefully packed his bones away and headed out to return to camp. Tomorrow they would have to leave the area and head back into town to catch the weekly bus that would take them to the airport. Then home to USA!. ............... The squawk of the radio woke Alexandra with a start from one of the strangest dreams of her life. It was Robert and the crew was headed in to camp. They should be here in a few hours. She looked at her wristwatch. 2pm! Quite a nap. She stretched as she got up. She frowned as she felt the gnaw of hunger again. "Damn, what's going on. I have better control than this. I can't be hungry dammit. I just stuffed my face 4 hours ago!" Her ranting reached no one but the vulture circling above. She chuckled when she realized that the vulture had probably been circling her as she slept in the midday sun. He was hungry too. "Glad you have more restraint than I do," she commented to the circling bird. She mulled about the camp a while finding things that needed doing, trying to keep her mind from thinking about food. After about thirty minutes she gave up and ripped into a jar of peanut butter. She spooned out some monster helpings and slopped it onto some stale camp bread then wolfed it down. Fifteen minutes later she made another sandwich. There was so much peanut butter on this one it oozed out when she bit into it. "The heck with it. I'm putting this hunger bug to rest," she growled. All the calories and oils in the peanut butter seemed to quiet her gut down for a bit. Along with the sandwiches she guzzled the last of the coffee and put some more on brew. The radio squawked again. It was Robert. The crew would soon be visible over the rise in the distance. Remembering her 'red spot' she ripped her shirt off to take a gander at it before they arrived. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the red inflammation was greatly reduced and there was no longer any sign of the swelling. She surmised it must have been some bizarre allergic reaction to the metal on the disk. The disk! She forgot it was out in the open for anyone to see. Quickly she grabbed it up and headed back to her pup so she could stow it away properly. As she walked back to the tent she examined the damned medallion and noted it no longer was colored oddly on one surface. Both surfaces appeared identical now. Odd that. The other day one surface was colored a somewhat deeper color. Deep dark yellow maybe. Perhaps the soap had rubbed it off. She cursed her stupidity. If any of the archeologist types found out what she had done they would kill her, after skinning her alive first though. With the medallion safely tucked away in her bags she headed back toward the mess area and ate several boiled eggs. That settled her stomach somewhat further. She shook her head in bafflement when she realized she was eating almost nonstop. What was wrong? Finally the gang arrived and they chattered away about the find in the cave. The whole camp was excited they had ended their vacation with such a bang and celebrated into the night. For tomorrow they would head back for their journey home. Alexandra partied as well, but for an additional reason. Her red spot worries were over and she was feeling fine. As long as she kept herself stoked that is. She spent the night sneaking munchies from the mess and vowed to exercise like a demon when she got back home. ........................