Twenty Million Years

“I wonder what happened to these people.”
“It appears they died right where they stood.”
“It’s amazing their bodies didn’t decompose more.”
“Something wiped them out, it was a huge event.”
“There was decay and some slow destruction to the structure, but it appears these people were trapped down here when the event occurred.”
Lights were slowly being set up by the support crew and slowly as the brightness intensified, the enormity of it all became almost surreal.
“The architecture and the artwork look amazing.”
“Yes, even for today’s standards.”
The two doctors had high intensity beam flashlights and scanned around. Between columns under arches were examples of colored glass artwork.
“Those must be lighting structures hanging down from the ceiling.”
“Even though the floor is covered with a lot of dust and debris it appears there is some kind of grid pattern.”
Martice suddenly raised his arm, so his wrist band was a few inches away from his face to enhance the telepathic communications where he telepathically said to the crew now sending down materials and tools, “Bring a sweeper down right away.”
The robotic sweeper made its way down into the subway station in a few minutes. Using the laser designator on his wristband Martice notified the robotic sweeper an area to clean off the floor. The gentle work of the sweeper prevented any damage and since there had not been any foot traffic since the big event that trapped everyone in this hell hole, once the vacuuming of the area was complete, the floor grid pattern was fully exposed.
“This grid pattern probably covers all the flooring area.”
“The cybertronic news agencies will likely want immediate access as soon as they find out about this.”
“We need to limit access for some time because much of this needs to remain undisturbed until we can assess all of it.”
“Those cybertronic guys will be in our faces probably by this afternoon, this kind of finding cannot be hidden for long.”
“Look at that glass panel over there it appears to be fractured and damaged.”
The two doctors walked over and Martice crouched down and shined his light up into the cavity and said, “There is ample wires in here and light fixtures. This device was lit up as a display.”
Just by shining the light up into the cavity gave the surreal look the original designers intended.
“Well, we sort of know what that will look like when we put lights in there.”
“We’ll want to light up a few of these panels before the cybertronic news agencies get here. That will keep them distracted for hours.”
After walking around looking at the area and deciding on how to investigate this vast underground tunnel complex, Jaguland stated, “It appears there are 32 stained glass panels and most of them are still intact.”
“Yes, this is an incredible treasure,” Martice responded.
“I wonder what kept most of those glass panels intact through earthquakes and nuclear explosion shockwaves nearby?”
“Each panel is surrounded by an elaborate brass border and braced into the pylons which probably protected it from shock waves.”
At the end of the platform, they found a mosaic and quickly photographed the inscription they sent up to the support enclave asking for translation. Within five minutes they received a response by one of the assistants cataloging their findings being sent via live video. “The markings state this artwork was created by a person named Pavel Korin and is entitled “Peace Throughout the World.”
“According to the Cobasta Aliens their desire for peace didn’t last long,” Martice commented.
“One might feel sorry for those who were trapped here and died, but I imagine whatever horrific explosion that buried them most likely was far worse to the people that were up on the surface of the planet.”
“Looking at all these remains, they were mummified.”
“No burn marks or any outward signs of trauma.”
“The explosions could have sucked all the oxygen out of this cavity, which is why there were no rodents here to eat the carcass.”
“Those steel bars mounted on the concrete slabs must have been the transportation support.”
“No doubt some device traveled upon those steel bars.”
“Maybe we might get lucky and find one of them in as good of shape as what we discovered here.”
“Us climb down there and see how far back in the cavity those steel bars exist.”
Soon the two were walking down a haunted tunnel that soon came to an end where debris blocked any further travel.
“Looks like the tunnel collapsed here.”
“Us go back the other direction and see how far we can go.”
In about 400 yards in the opposite direction, they came upon the same situation, the tunnel blocked with debris from what was most likely a tunnel collapse.
“Do you think these tunnel collapses were due to nuclear explosions?”
“It also could have happened when they built the dome city here and drove pilings down to support the extreme weight of the dome cover.”
“We can put our locator beacons near the collapse and mark it from above and with measurements we take at the entrance create a calibrated centerline for tunnel drawings we can put in our report. From that we can drill down in the direction we think the tunnel is heading to determine how extensive the collapse is.”
“Any thoughts on digging through the debris blocking the tunnel?”
“The tunnel could be intact further away from here and full of water. I recommend we do not attempt that until we drill some holes from above and see what’s there before, we disturb the mounds of debris that could result in flooding this chamber.”
“I think the first thing we need to do is handle the remains of the deceased people here before the army of cybertronic news agencies show up.”
“It’s a good thing we brought some biologists here with us and some medical examiners.”