Escape pod before haunted city

Astronaut Miles Vachon stands atop his escape pod after his Z-88 SolarExplorer was destroyed by a space jelly swarm emerging out of Jupiter’s asteroid belt. He landed before the spectacular remains of a long dead alien city, estimated to be over a million years old. 

He set up a distress be on and then set about exploring the ruins. As he approached, he felt increasing pressure on his skull; forward movement became increasingly difficult and a kaleidoscope of lights appeared in his vision. 

The android rescue team found him collapsed on the dust plain. He was removed to a medical facility on Io, where he remained in a coma for two weeks. 

The ruins were later found to be the locus of a powerful memetic field. Remotes, used to enter the interior of the structure, determined it was built over a vast series of interconnected cylindrical caverns, lined with small hexagonal pods. 

All of these proved empty, save for one, which was sealed by an opaque membrane gel. Whenever attempts were made to penetrate the pod, contact with the remote unit would be lost and a wave of feedback would short out the command unit.