Rachel absent-mindedly brushed some dust off the plinth. She glanced at her fingers before wiping it off with her other hand as she continued, equally absent-mindedly and on auto-pilot, reciting her speech to the visitors. About 20 tourists were gathered around her, examining the curious object that stood on the plinth in the middle of this large room. They listened intently as she spoke about the artifact. Rachel was the sole employee at the Museum of Egonian Culture and Historical Artifacts. The plural "Artifacts" in the name was misleading, as there was, and had always been, only one artifact in the museum's "collection". The museum was usually called by its acronym MECHA, often pronouced "metcha" so as not to confuse it with the destination of religious pilgrimage, Mecca.

The MECHA artifact was believed to be 2.5 billion years old, pre-dating the oldest known animals on Earth. Its extremely intricate structure suggested it was not a naturally occuring object, rather created by some intelligent being. It initially theorized to be of extra-terrestrial origin, but this idea was discarded after research and testing showed only terrestrial compounds in the artifact's makeup.

Such was the gist of the explanation Rachel recited to the group of tourists now gawking at the object. She had said the words so many times that she could recite them in her sleep. In fact, once she did fall asleep while speaking to a tour group, but that particular group was from some middle-eastern country. They didn't speak English so they didn't understand what she was saying. But her sleepy mumblings were just as truthful as the "real" explanation anyway.

It was somewhat amusing to Rachel to know that if the truth about the MECHA "artifact" ever got out, the public outrage might rival that following an act of terrorism. The MECHA object was actually just a large rock found on the beach by Dennis Lingon (previously a failed con-man with multiple arrests for fraud, generally unknown to the world). He had bought a warehouse, dressed it up, and put the funny looking rock in the middle of the space. The he invented an elaborate history with the ficticious Egonians at the center of it. The lie worked. People came from all over the world to see this mysterious "historical artifact" from a lost civilization. With the planet in chaos and the world at war, there was just an eagerness to believe in ... something. Rachel had discovered the truth a few months ago, when Dennis let had let it slip during a drunken stupor. Now Rachel was biding her time until she could escape this mundane job and sell her story for millions of dollars. On the other hand, the fervor for the "artifact" was so strong that there was a non-zero chance she could be lynched for blasphemy. She just had to find someone she could trust, to break the story.