Longtime Nuclear Waste Warning Message
an Underfable
Once upon a time, Raccoon Archaeologists unearthed an eldritch abomination of the Old Ones.
On the site they found a fallen fossilized statue - definitely of an Old One – and ruins of buildings. In those ruins the Archaeologists found fossils, preserved in fine sand-stone, of toilet bowls, plates, silverware, wrenches, and screwdrivers. The Raccoons had seen all of these before, and in fact their culture had long ago adopted ceramic plates and steel knives, spoons, and forks, as inspired by findings from previous excavations of the Old Ones.
The Archaeologists also found well-preserved fossils of slide rules: two linear, one circular. They carefully measured the markings on the slide-rules, then replicated them. The Raccoons studied those slide rules, and learned their use, and the mathematics of logarithms.
The site also had ominous black marble spikes surrounding a pillar. The pillar bore a dozen images of Old One skulls, and a dozen versions of the same inscription, written in different languages. The inscriptions all said:
This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
The Raccoon Archaeologists read this message, and in so doing they learned more about how to read the many other Old One inscriptions that other Raccoons had unearthed elsewhere.
The inscription warned them not to excavate, but they excavated anyhow, because they were Raccoons. They discovered a large glass boulder. It was warm and it glowed bright blue. The Raccoons lifted it to the surface.
The next day, the leaders of the expedition died of a mysterious disease. The other Raccoons hastily reburied the cursed relic in its underground tomb. Many of them succumbed too.
The surviving Archaeologists fled the abomination of the Old Ones, bearing only their memories, their notes, some fossils, and the technology of slide-rules. They called the expedition a success; for Raccoons are idea-thieves.
Moral: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
No comments:
Post a Comment