A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, carefully overlaid to reveal the nested guards ... notice all the faces!
“Listen, will y'all please look at some history books, or at least call your old uncle before you get your ventures messed up for good?”
Being among the galaxy's greatest scientists and science officers is hard when you are a human, because some of your younger relatives, in their human pride and strength and vigor of youth, disdain your perspective because you are supposedly too old and out of it.
I heard my cousin Bruno Banneker actually say that aloud before heading out for an archaelogical dig on Lithtod 6, in search of the ancient Lythograf treasures, and also disdaining the legend of the nested stone guards and the survey of the kind of rock there was in the layers of the crust.
All of it was documented, and it was a bit complicated, and Uncle Benjamin never rushed through complex matters, but Cousin Bruno didn't have time to talk then – only to call in a panic a year later.
“It doesn't matter that I'm an admiral – we can't beam through that kind of rock – it reflects and scatters the transporter systems we have! Those stone guards, once they slide into place, are the weak point – but not weak enough! Even if your friends have enough air to survive until the fleet personnel blast through, and even if your friends survive that, unless they knew to take specified breathing apparatuses, the dust will give them acute silicosis and they will be dead in a week!”
Simply put, that nest of cut stones representing the Lythograf guard was set on a delicate hold, a hold dissolved by carbon aerosols produced by the breathing out of most humanoids. In other words, the stone guards “knew” when their dead were being disturbed because the dead do not breathe. So: it was a matter of time before the doorstopper dissolved and the guards closed the entrance by sliding, one behind another representing the ranks of the guard, into the tomb entrance. Cousin Bruno had survived because he forgot something and left just in time.
But still: Cousin Bruno's friends survived because Uncle Benjamin remembered something, hit the proverbial books, and figured out how to slide the stone guards back. There was a stone code the actual Lythograf guards used to check the tomb doors, and it was still embedded in the wall. He made it out to Lithtod 6 and ordered everyone out of the anteroom to the vault, then cracked the code and slid the guards back – but just how to do this, he refused to say.
“STUDY,” he thundered at his nephew. “You are only alive and your friends are only alive because you forgot some of your gear – who would have been available to call me if you hadn't? Two weeks later, and I would have been redeployed and not even at home to get your call! But keep playing, since you don't listen well! Dead men don't listen well either!”
Cousin Bruno did not need to be told twice, and neither did any of his friends, who had come within hours of suffocating. All of them are living quiet, peaceful, productive lives, and they all call Uncle Benjamin for his birthday and all Earth holidays.