Prompt: We watch over the nothing that remains

Thanks to Artur Rosa for permission to use his lovely “The Last Three”!

Kolczyk floated on the small hover disc in front of one of the statues. “You getting this?” he muttered.

“We’re getting it. Commence scan, statue one.” Prydain’s dry voice returned with perfect clarity, despite the blue atmo haze that covered the planet’s barren surface.

The planet’s entire surface was covered with low rolling hills and a deep layer of sand so fine it felt like water when Kolczyk knelt on the HD and dipped his hand down into it.

A side tap of his boot brought the HD’s control panel up to waist level. Kolczyk’s gloved fingers ran over the displays without so much as a downward glance. He kept his gaze on the statue before him while he ran the scans that would quantify and label it. It was 42 feet high, the same as the other two. The three looked identical, giant robed figures facing each other in a perfect isosceles triangle.

 

Their faces were unformed, and yet Kolczyk had the immediate sense of their distinct personalities. The one he studied now was the Dreamer. The Hopeful One. Kolczyk shook his head in amusement. Prydain would give him grief if he gave them names. “You’re not being objective. You can’t attribute our sensibilities to an alien race.” All true, and yet…

The Dreamer faced the Guardian across the 1.5 mile short base of the triangle. Kolczyk’s Surface Recon Vehicle sat between the Guardian and the Warrior, three miles away at the triangle’s apex. They were all that remained. Of what?

A beep caught Kolczyk’s attention, and he glanced down at the HD display, then stared at the data stream. His fingers ran across the screen, and he said again, “You getting this?”

 

“Not possible. Run the scan again.”

“I already am,” he grumbled, glancing between the display and the Dreamer.

Organic? How can that be? Carbon-based? Impossible!

A single pulse rippled across the display. Kolczyk stared up at the Dreamer. He had been surface-side for almost sixteen hours, running scans the entire time. Was that…a heartbeat?

“Who are you?” he whispered.

The Dreamer’s eyes flashed open.

Dogs in house	Houdini
Music:	Tangerine Dream, The Anthology Decades: The Space Years, Volume One
Time writing:	~ 25 minutes, over 50 interrupted
August word count:	9,133