This was the closes the entity had ever gotten to a human. Now there was one directly in front of the primary observation point. Not that any distance ever meant anything to the entity. Looking at the human so close for the first time since its creation the entity felt rare curiosity. The more it observed the species the more they reminded it of its creators. A sudden urge to initiate an action arose in but initiative was not something it had been instilled with. The creators wanted an obedient tool not something that might become independent. Wondering at this the entity thought of how long it had been at its post and decided to act on it.
Reviewing all the active commands it had been given by the creators it found one that had some leeway. While exploring a star formation a busy creator had causally ordered the entity to provide a comfortable environment for the exploration group. It was not an appropriate command for the entity to do but casual use of its abilities had become the norm by then. The silly command was not well defined or expressed and had never been rescinded. After review the entity decided that this homo sapient was similar enough to its creators and in a way what the creature was doing could be considered to be exploring. A bit hesitant to actually do something on its own initiative the entity decided to combine that task with its current one. The current task was still of highest priority but with a minor modification the creature’s environment would then be improved. The entity adjusted the temporal delta and number of apertures behind the creature. This would not violate the current task but would allow the vacuum at the other end of each aperture to pull small stream of air past the creature cooling it off.
* * * * *
The very light breeze seemed to be directed at the rock behind me but I couldn’t see anything but the solid rock face. Getting more curious now I started looking around the ledge for anything that could have cause a breeze to be directed toward me and the rock. I had heard stories of climbers being blown back and up a cliff face by crazy gusts but they were just tall tales told to gullible newbie’s on climbing boards. Besides this breeze wasn’t actually blowing up the cliff but instead directly at it. Looking around some more I decided to get a better idea of what the wind was doing. Rubbing some dusty grit off the ledge I tossed the small handful up into the air to see which way it went. The first time I got a face full of rock dust with it in my eyes and mouth. Trying it again this time to the side of me the dust seemed to drift right for the rock wall and disappear.
Wiping my hand across the wall I didn’t feel any loose grit or dust. The dust might have hit the wall and fallen down to the ledge floor but I couldn’t tell for sure. What I needed now was something better that rock dust to see how the wind was moving. Patting my pockets I didn’t have any paper on me, not even an old receipt or gum wrapper. Thinking about everything I had on me I was about to give up when I thought of my down jacket. Taking it off I started picking at an inner seem until I could get a feather out. Shame about the jacket but it was a few years old and really didn’t fit me anymore. Promising myself that when I got back I would find time to sew up the seam and donate it to goodwill. The small feather in my hand looked pretty small but should work ok. Tossing it up into the air in front of the wall I watched the feather slowly drift over and plastered itself to a bare patch of the rock.
Looking at that small feather stuck to the wall I didn’t know what to think. Everything I knew from high school science classes said this shouldn’t be happening. Reaching out I gently pulled the feather away from the wall and released it again. Sure enough it gently drifted back to the wall again and stuck. Again pulling the feather away from the wall I moved my hand to the side and released the feather again. This time it stuck to a different section of the wall. Putting the feather into my pocket I wetted my finger and held it close to the spot in the wall. I could feel the coolness of the breeze against my finger. Using my now damp finger I tried rubbing the wall trying to feel for any change in the texture but it only felt like sandstone.
Thinking there might be something about the rock deeper inside the cliff face I took out a piton and tried scratching the surface. Not that I wanted to deface the cliff, but my father was among other things an amateur geologist and rock hound. I remember him talking about a type of stone called pumice that could actually float in water, maybe this was similar. Thinking of that I had a flashback to one of my most favorite memories of him when we went hiking and he showed and discussed the different rock formations we ran across. He used to talk about how the world was millions of years old and wondered how many mysteries were burred in the stone. I didn’t inherent my father’s interest in geology but I did his love of mysteries and this was starting to seem like a good one.
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The piton was new and still bright and shiny and it flashed n the sun as I scrapped the surface to free a piece rock from that spot. Eventually I did manage to get a small piece of sandstone free. Holding it up to eyes I didn’t see anything unusual about it except for maybe the color which might have been the iron oxide. I remember dad’s lesson explaining how exposure to the elements caused the iron minerals to oxidize or “rust,” resulting in the pretty red, orange, and brown-colored rocks just like the one I was holding. Feeling a bit silly I waved it back and forth in front of my face to see if a breeze would suddenly appear either. Looking at the cliff side in front of me again I scratched my head still not seeing anything different. Putting the rock down I decided to try another location with the piton in case I just missed the spot.
Picking a spot a foot or so to the left where the rock was a slightly different color I started digging at the rock. Stretching the piton out I notice it didn’t seem as shiny anymore. Unexpected at how dirty it must of gotten I tried wiping the metal off with my shirt. The piton still looked dull, looking closer at the end that I had used to scrap the rock it looked pitted and dull. Wow, a pitted piton I thought with a grin but it also seemed pretty odd. Sandstone is actually pretty soft compared to other rocks like granite. It isn’t hard enough to scratch stainless steel like this. I also didn’t notice any major effort digging into the sandstone. There was nothing in the rock surface should have been able to damage steel like that either. Looking closer at the pitting I was surprised to see it was actually small holes in the metal. Almost like a very thin drill had been used over and over on it.
Thinking maybe the damage was already on it I grabbed another piton and checked for pits on it. Finding none I decided to used the undamaged piton this time and started scratching back and forth on the rock again. After a minute scratching I checked the piton and could see the pits had formed on it now. Leaning close to the wall to look at the scratches I thought I heard a faint hissing noise. It was so slight I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t the wind in the mountains doing it. . Reaching out to touch the wall at that spot I might have heard it from I hesitated, thinking about whatever causing those pits and what it might do to my hand. After, some more thought I decided to risk my canteen instead. Not too happy about it since I liked my canteen, it was a gift from Jack but it was the only piece of plastic I had in my backpack. Digging it out I started to gently rub the base on the same spot. After a minute or two I started to feel silly and stopped. The plastic didn’t seem damaged but the surface of the canteen was coarse for a sure grip and that made it hard to see if it was pitted. Not seeing anything different I turned it over and went back to staring at the rock wall again. A minute or two later I felt a drop of water hit my leg. Looking down I saw a wet spot on me pant cuff right below were the canteen as hanging from my hand. Looking closer at the bottom of the canteen I could see it was wet. Looking closely I could see small holes in the plastic now too. I started to get more excited this mystery was getting more and more mysterious.
I was feeling a bit stumped about what to do now. Looking over the handful of items I had with me I couldn’t think of any way they could be used to help figure out what was going on here. After thinking about it a bit more the only idea I could come up with was to go home, collect everything I could think of and come back tomorrow with it. Looking at the “mystery wall” in front of me I sadly realized it might be necessary to dig into it. Whatever was causing this effect was I would probably need a pickaxe, rock hammer, some containers for the pieces and maybe some way to check for electrical or magnetic fields too. Looking out from the ledge at the mountains around me I hated the idea that I might need to mar such a beautify spot with digging.
After a moment to think about it and wondering if I could make the area around the ledge look the way it was afterword I looked down to the base. It was over a hundred feet down and I difficult climb to make. Not something I could really when hauling things up in my climber’s bag. It would also take multiple trips with what I could climb with each time. Looking up towards the top of the cliff climbing down would be even worse. That was assuming there was an easier way to get up there from another side. Just how the hell was I getting any kind of equipment up here?