"The next morning, I drove the NASA research monitoring vehicle Lisa had provided me to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The accident had been reported northeast of Longs Peak within Rocky Mountain National Park. Three hiking tourists had reported the unidentified flying object crash.
I had no intention of keeping my agreement with Lisa and remaining only at the forward research station on the outskirts of the mountains. I planned to go deep into Rocky Mountain National Park. I felt that I should at least take a look at the accident site, if only to mourn my fallen colleagues.
The eastern side of Longs Peak had the most difficult climbing route on the entire mountain, and the spacecraft had landed just below a cliff more than 2,500 feet high. That meant that, unless I wanted to take a detour, I would have to climb the mountain and then rappel down.
I had not planned on taking such a risk, so I only intended to look down from the summit and see whether there was truly anything unusual about the accident site.
The journey to the summit was not pleasant, though it had nothing to do with the difficulty of the climb or the physical exertion. The scenery along the way was beautiful. Vast, dense forests were dyed gold in the morning light, but I had no mind to appreciate them. My nerves were taut, and a baseless fear surrounded me.
I had never considered myself particularly timid, but when I stood at the edge of the cliff atop Longs Peak and looked down, I seemed to see an endless Abyss—darkness, darkness, and deeper darkness.
The lush canopy blocked nearly all the sunlight that reached below the cliff. Beneath the canopy, I saw layers upon layers of twisted black shadows