The others turned to look at her as she answered, “I don’t want to speculate.” They continued to look at her, except Johnston, who was scanning the environment, looking for threats. Sykes made a go-on gesture and she sighed, “But if I had to I would say that we’re looking at two distinct civilizations here, one significantly more advanced, technologically, than the other, such as we understand technology.” She shifted, uncomfortable at making what amounted to guesses.

“Ok, what else?” Sykes asked patiently.

She huffed and tucked her hair behind her ears, a nervous habit she had consistently failed to kick. “Ok, I would guess, and it is guessing, that whoever cut the steps here did so well after the main section of the plinths were cut.”

“And that means… what exactly?” Sykes asked as Makari bent to examine the steps as well.

“I’m not really sure.” She held up a hand to stall further questions while she got her thoughts in order. “So, I would guess, and again I’d like to emphasize the ‘guess’, that the second set of persons or entities were bipedal, but that could very well be my own Earth born bias. I’ve only seen steps carved by bipedal creatures and we’re looking at steps so I assume bipedal. On Earth different civilizations made steps of wildly differing sizes when you consider the bell curves of heights so I can’t tell you if they actually look at all like us or function similarly to us. But here,” she moved down to the base of the steps, “you see the scuff marks?” Brennan and Sykes nodded and Makari waved a foreleg, possibly in ascent “Those could mean that something heavy was dragged to the base and up these stairs.” From this angle she could see a continuing pattern of scuff marks up to the main platform and that some were considerably newer than others. She pointed them out to the team. “From a rough estimate, and totally guessing at the weathering patterns that would be on an Earth-like world, I would say that the de-, that the Corridor has been used regularly, but infrequently for transporting heavy goods of some kind for at least” she waggled her hand in an I’m-estimating gesture, “500 years. Our years, I mean.”

Sykes nodded slowly.

“Wouldn’t there be a path then? Or wheel furrows or something?” Brennan asked, dubious.

“Not necessarily.” Sykes answered. “From mowing my lawn at home I can tell you that in a nice sunny spot like this grass grows quickly and it’s harder than you might think to spot dips or even rows in it.” He checked his watch. “Mac, anything to add? You’ve been around the galaxy a bit.” He looked down at Makari who was doing something with a short beam of light directed at the stones.

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“Anytime now.” Sykes prompted.

“Ah, you are addressing me.” Makari said, sensors or cameras or whatnot spinning. “Is Mac a form of address?” It asked, quizzical, and now speaking in a heavy Australian accent.

Sykes looked patient, “It is for you. I’m calling you Mac, the other one was a bit much.”

“Is this a common custom?” Makari asked, rising to a surprising height of a meter and a half or so and sounding offended.

“Yes, many cultures on Earth use shorter, more familiar names for friends and family.” Dr. Zanna stated, excited to be crossing her first interstellar cultural divide.

“Oh, well, alright then. Mac… Mac? Mac!” Makari said, trying out the new name.

Johnston coughed.

“So, anything to add before we, you know, blunder off into the wild unknown?” Sykes asked, losing some patience with asking a question a third time.

“Oh, no. Unfortunately, almost my entire library was lost in the crash.” Makari said, settling back down to a more reasonable less than a meter tall. Dr. Zanna wasn’t entirely clear how he’d gotten so high up in the first place.

Johnston coughed again, though this time clearly to cover a laugh.

Sykes sighed, “Ok, move out. This is the center of the clock.” He pointed at the Corridor behind them. “This is 12 o’clock.” He pointed, making a line between the Corridor, them, and the edge of the meadow. “Doc, you take 2 o’clock. Brennan, you’re on 4, Johnston you’re on 10 and Mac, you’re with me. Everybody take a look around at your spot, check for alien...ships, bad guys, signs of civilization, that kind of thing. And samples, the boys and girls back at the lab are going to want samples of every little thing. So grab those.” He looked around and saw nods. “Ok, go!”

A short while later the group was gathered back together, samples collected.

“Anything to report?” Sykes asked.

When no one else spoke up Dr. Zanna volunteered, “I found a path, it looks like it leads to the Corridor. And there are furrows underneath the grass, if it were humans I’d say from a wagon or something similar.”

Sykes thought for a moment, rubbing his chin. “We’re not expected back for a while so we’re going to check this out. Let me know if you see, hear, or even smell anything weird. Questions?”

“Why do you humans shorten names? I’m pleased to be accepted amongst you, but I don’t understand this custom.” Makari queried, using an Indian accent now, from the Bihar region Dr. Zanna would guess.

Dr. Zanna opened her mouth to speak, but before she could Sykes preempted, “Let’s discuss that on the way, shall we?” and started towards the path. The team followed suit and Dr. Zanna happily explained nickname and familiar name customs from around the world. It felt like a nice spring day a little after dawn in a temperate climate and walking along the path into rolling hills was a nice way to spend it.