The Monolith

From flesh to bone, a pact secured and held.

This picture keeps me sane in the years I spend away from her. A faint reminder of what awaits me in the future. Blonde hair and angel eyes, the kind I wish to be lost in. 
Thinking of her is the only constant in an ocean of unknowns. The waves crashing against the steel side of The Kraken, clawing for me to join the watery depths, like it knows my fears. 
I hear the crews voices in the far reaches of my obsessed mind, allowing me to return to reality safely, and to focus on the task at hand. A hail from the powers that be, a pointing hand in the direction of my objective, my future. 
In the bows of the ship she awaits, a pristine white suit, digitally replicated to give the ships artificial intelligence a human angle, allow us to form a bond with her. We all are glad she is stored at the bottom of the ship. She relays a message from the corporate overlords, a set of coordinates soon arrived upon a few hours south east. 
Already venturing further into the uncharted oceans of this cursed planet. A voice in my head screams as I climb the stairs into the alien sun. A repeating message that I will not return. I stare out over the calm, strange ocean. I do not dare let my mind wander as to what inhabits the foreign ocean below me, as to what the gargantuan shadows gliding past belong to. Instead, I allow myself to be lost in the picture of my beloved once again, to think of grander memories. 
Hours blend together and soon the monolith appears, the tip visible over the horizon. The crew all marvel and lose themselves to what ifs. What lies ahead, what lies inside, yet those are ordained as questions only to be answered by myself. Some are envious of my position, but also will not allow themselves to admit to wanting it, my chances of returning diminishing at every tick of the pocket watch. 

Approaching the monolith was something fabled. To see the black void of mass slowly reach above us, growing storied high as we sail close, reaching to the heavens. Murmurs starting to take over the crews conversations. Talk of treasures and demons split the crew, but they would not leave the safety of their vessel, the night sky marble of the monolith calling only to I. 
Soon, the distance between me and the monolith miniscule comparing to my journey. The tip seemed to reach into the sun, the warmth of a life giving star replaced with a foreboding sense of doom. Carved rock telling an alien story of grandeur, lost on virgin eyes. I waited for the ship to disappear over the horizon, listening to the waves crash onto the sands of the island, the crew did not avert their eyes from me as they left, captivated by my idiocy or by the monolith that towers above me. 

Looming above me the cold stone whispers, the grooves and patterns seemed purposeful and random at the same time. The closer I stepped over the sandy beach the stronger the whispers violate my mind. A thousand strangers screaming in my head yet nothing but the waves lapping against the green sand.. 
Until Him. 
"A journey man approacheth, desire in intent, foolish." The voice resonated inside my bone marrow, the weight of its presence bringing me to my knees. "Reach to me, child of foreign lands, avail your desire to me."
My hand reached for the monolith, my body held by strings, my actions no longer my own. Cold marble at my finger tips, my digits pushing through it. "Articus Mace, looking for salvation in an ancient world from an ancient complexity."
The voice seemed to leave as soon as it arrived,  trailing into the distance of my mind. The strained pronunciation of vowels and syllables and nouns. "Another foolish pawn sent as sacrifice, another foolish hero saving his species for a few more meagre centuries."