As we walked down the gangway to the sandy material that cushioned 
our landing, we looked out at an alien world.  We held our hands 
over our eyes to shield them from the first natural light we had
seen in months. The sky was blue, but not nearly the same as those 
back home, grading gently to a red and violet in the west.

"Follow. You mustn't dally. The ingress is in this direction."

The ornate box led the way propelled by unseen forces, with a 
slight forward lean sheering it's profile to a trapezoid. There was 
nothing to dally with. Anything worth looking at was sun bleached 
waste and dust heaps, barely enough to stumble over, but more than 
enough to make any archaeologist salivate.

We were in a valley, shadows playing about our feet as we marched 
on. Our personal safety equipment gave no warnings, there was no 
one and nothing to see, but our guide (for lack of a better word) 
insisted that we'd be safer wherever we were going.

The archway lay nearly invisible in the shadows, only marked by 
void in the nearly black purple moss. The now familiar iridescent 
black sheen sealed over it after we entered. It was not dark here, 
dim rainbows shone from the walls leaving white splotches where the 
colors intersected. We were not in a cave but a corridor.

"The walls are alive," whispered Hex "and I'm sensing more life 
ahead."

"Please wait here," the box changed shaped again to indicate a 
hollow in the wall forming a long low bench. "We are still 
preparing a place for you, and anticipate you would like to 
acclimate to your new surroundings before socializing."

The box smoothly became one with the floor, and we were left alone 
in some sort of antechamber.

"Do you really have to do that in front of me? Do you?" Commander 
Cranium said in disgust. I looked up to see a miniature Mr Swarm 
walk out of the side of the full-size Mr Swarm's leg and begin 
feeling its way along the walls.

"There are hollows behind several sections of the wall, I can't 
feel how far they go, but they also contain life." Hex said.

"It's alright, my friend can explore freely." Mr Swarm said smugly.

"Whatever this is, it's been here a long time, It's been waiting for 
a long time." Hex intoned. "There's hunger."

The miniature Mr Swarm pushed it's way through what appeared to be 
a solid wall and disappeared.