Uncharted Neptune: The Nervous Expedition

"I wouldn't enter it if I were you."

Theodore eyed the large circular area surrounded by an electrical fence. As he and Huxley crested a small hill, they could see that this area was surrounded by a few trees and various other plants. In the middle of the area, where a clearing would usually be, there was a large puddle filled with water, nearly half-way full. Huxley took out his walkie talkie and said "Captain to engineering... we think we found something. It's a puddle."

"We already know about it," replied a voice from the walkie talkie. "It's just standing water; however, it seems to be irradiated with some sort of radiation."

"What kind of radiation?" Theodore asked out loud.

"We're not sure yet. We'll know when Huxley gets back to the ship," the voice responded. "Don't go near it for now; we don't want any contamination."

Theodore turned to Huxley. "Well, let's head back to the ship." He began walking away from the puddle while Huxley followed behind him. They both began making their way down the hill when Theodore spoke again. "We should check around this area more thoroughly when we have time later on," he said as they got closer to the ship. "There might be something valuable here." He looked down at his 3D map to see what direction he had to go in order to get back to the ship. The path led straight past the puddle of water; however, he decided not to make any detours. He wanted to get back as soon as possible so that they could start exploring again as soon as possible, before they ran out of power or supplies on their way back home. As they walked through the tall grasses and other vegetation, their boots crunched against all of the dead leaves on the ground which had fallen off of the trees above them. Theodore heard Huxley crunching some leaves under his feet as well; those same sounds were also being made by animals that were running away from them as well. Theodore looked up at one point and saw some birds flying away from them as well into the distance, but they weren't actually moving very quickly at all; they probably couldn't fly fast because they were carrying food in their mouths which they were going to eat later on in their nests among the trees before nightfall came that evening. Theodore looked forward again and continued walking ahead until he thought he saw something strange in front of him up ahead on his 3D map: instead of a line pointing toward where he needed to go next in order to get back up to his ship, there was now a large circle surrounding an area that didn't seem like it belonged there at all. After looking at it for a moment longer, Theodore turned around and noticed that Huxley wasn't following him anymore; instead, he was standing still about ten feet behind him with his arms crossed over each other while looking directly at Theodore with a confused look on his face.

He turned around again and walked towards Huxley who said after a few seconds, "I'm not going any further unless you tell me what this is supposed to be." He pointed down at a round object that seemed like it was made entirely out of metal sitting in between two large tree roots which extended outward from its base into two directions in front of it before curving upwards towards its top like two giant hands grasping onto either side of a ball before letting go so that it falls safely into their palms below them before dropping gently onto the ground between them and rolling forward slightly before stopping itself by running into one of the tree roots in front of it and sitting still for a moment before continuing its journey onwards again after shaking off whatever dust had collected onto its surface during its brief stop against both tree roots before finally settling underneath another tree root ahead of them where it continued rolling across its surface until it fell off of both tree roots in front of it and landed on some dead leaves underneath it with a dull thud*

"Well..." Theodore began speaking slowly as he turned around and looked down at what lay before him down below him and began turning around again when he finally answered Huxley's question by saying "... I think this is supposed to be water."