“This is a puzzle box?” asked Jack, hefting the thing off the lab table.

“Well, technically it’s a puzzle skull,” Daniel answered in his best academic drawl. He neglected to look up from his notebook.

Jack held the thing aloft, turned it to look in the eye sockets: they were decorated by a simple spiral pattern. “I wonder how many they went through before they got it right. What’d you call them again? Chachas?”

“Tcho-Tcho,” said Daniel, finishing his notes. He read from his translation: ”’The abominable Tcho-Tcho people of the dread plateau of Leng.’”

“That’s a bit… hackneyed, isn’t it?”

Daniel explained: “Well, ancient cultures were often given to a certain degree of hyperbole in their myths, especially for really wacky things like visiting aliens.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Jack said, fiddling with the nose hole.

“You… might want to be careful with that,” said Daniel, starting to reach for the skull. “We haven’t scanned it yet.”

“I am being careful,” said Jack just before the jaw clicked open.