they gave me a suit, it was completely reflective (a silver sheen when viewed in isolation) a black mirror suit, light material, transnano weightless so i could move with ease through the crystal zones at the epicentre, the geeks had speculated gravitational fields may be unpredictable.

the drop was a few hundred yards away, in dense jungle that was once a vast city, now over grown with vines, fabulous blooms, flowers of several vivid intensities, mutated orchids towering up the size of old buildings from before the catalysm. a number of old crumbling skyscrapers wrapped in thick vines, exposed floors, offices and bedrooms carpeted in tall grass, moss and fungi.

i look upwards, sunlight filters through the canopy, beams becoming shafts of light exposed by density. an infra red filter slips down, protecting my eyes and revealing some tiny life forms, bugs crawling along the giant leaves, butterflies with glorious bright wings fluttering high up in an elaborate dance, a massive reptile skin gleaming basking on a branch. 

i look ahead, towards the epicentre. 
my vision adjusts and i clamber over some rubble and debris, leaping across the uneven ground. 
once there were roads and pavements, schools and shopping malls, monuments of civilization lost to swift nature and the blast zone.

the scientists had been playing with neutrino's sending them through various crystals in a collider, altering their tau value. it all seemed harmless on paper, but something went dramatically wrong. there were several theories but little fact.

for ten years the zone was unobservable, nothing could penetrate the radius. nothing left or entered and when it cleared, exposed a completely new landscape, the city was mostly swallowed by jungle but at the centre was a crystal area. 

a few drones flew over the area but mostly the operators found it hard to navigate, even the advanced spider drones found it impossible to traverse. then they send human teams, six went in, six disappeared. no information returned, radio contact stopped after a few hours and there was no sign of what had happened to them, not one person could even speculate. the video feed went from clear to static all signals frazzled. 

i'd entered the zone at dawn, i had at least six hours to get to the crystal field and the epicentre. i called up a map and checked for references, main street was now a trough of about 70 meters, overgrown with dense foliage, some of the side streets were still intact, but there was nothing to get a fix on, the buildings were unrecognisable. it was as if liquid metal had been poured over all the structures and they had warped and shifted into strange massive sculptures penetrating the jungle. 

i moved forwards, clambering through some vine. the sun was still behind me, i needed to make as much progress inwards as i could before it reached its zenith, at which i would have to travel back.

it was remarkably silent save for the gentle hum of my air filters and my breathing. i was aware the whole area would be teeming with life forms, my screens could pick up any erratic movements but nothing significant seemed to identify itself.

there was something meditative in working through the growth, hopping over branches and root systems, leaping across the rubble and looking out at the vivid fractured landscape. the suit made my movement fast, and offered me an unnatural agility and strength. 
as i approached the epicentre i could see a sudden contrast, the trees and some vines became crystallised in a significant curved demarcation, almost as if a circumference had been detailed into the landscape. this was a blast radius.

these crystal trees were magnificent, they towered up into the sky, even the leaves had become crystal refracting light everywhere.
my suit adjusted reflecting the glass environment back at itself. it was perfect camouflage.

the previous teams had reached this point and then transmission was broken, i checked all my instruments, waited before stepping out onto the crystallised ground, suddenly my connection feeds died. it must be the crystal interfering with signals, somehow generating a field of energy.
my foot crunched upon the glass like sand and when i bent down to grab it my hands clutched billions of tiny crystal forms, some interlocking with others. i noticed some were moving, like iron filings, they were forming a pattern, following some invisible force. they were alive, but that was impossible, crystal was inorganic.
i let the tiny fragments slip from my fingers and fall in a small puff on the floor. the filter was still assisting me to have clear visuals and i could make out several large structures ahead. i crunched forwards until the crunching stopped and i found myself upon a white glass like surface. i looked around me at the large crystal figures, human. they had been turned into crystal, almost unrecognisably trapped within a crystal shell.
i started to move away, retreat back, tactically it was a good move but the crystal sand had crawled up my legs and was slowing all movement until i was trapped, it very quickly encased me and began to attack the suit.
the vision flared into a white washed out sheen, a filter dropped down to keep my sight and everything went monochrome.
the crystal began to penetrate the suit, i don't know how it did, but i guess it was at a sub atomic level, i began to feel it upon my skin, as it flowed into my pores and flooded my blood stream and i could feel it climbing up through my spine into my brain.
i was outside my body, in a clear void. there was no sound but i could hear a voice, a silent voice inside my head.
whatever this crystal was it was intelligent, it was inside me, could read my mind and alter my thoughts and emotions. it was music, it was love, it was bliss, it was infinite and it was good.
what are you? 
i thought the question and was given an answer in a sweeping cinematic injection of vision. it was fire, ancient words burning in the skies and typhoons, the elements arranging themselves in front of me, there were creatures made of creatures, fabulous life in all its variety, there were ladders reaching the stars that turned in upon themselves and became dna strands, there were masses of people moving through time and space, some human, some alien all flickering across the screen, animals of all kinds, mythological and real, i could see all these things in the face of a massive explosion, times arrow expanding out into the void.
and then sucked into a crystal.
there was silence.
are you alive?
suddenly i saw the crystal pulse, i could hear it vibrate, like wind chimes, soft sounds subtle and elegant, the tremble of vibrations began to grow and i watched light refracting until it became a sun in the night skies.
this was not an anomaly, it was not an experiment gone wrong, this was first contact. somehow the neutreno's must have created a tachyonic field and these crystals entered, which means there would be an interface between worlds, earth and wherever these crystals inhabited.
can you return?
immediate retreat, time running backwards, they could manipulate time but they were staying, they were curious about our world and wanted exploration, they sought out information, that's what the crystals did, held records of information. they were storage devices, much like human beings i guess.
i can help, what do you want to know?
they were curious about organic life, about our diversity, for where we had infinite possibility with dna these beings had only crystalline.
i request that you keep your presence unknown to the humans, we would not know how to respond correctly, you would be at risk from our collective ignorance.
there was a silence.
what do we call you i asked.
there was a powerful force of words, three syllables.
i couldn't repeat the name, but i could the first syllable, elle.
elle, please you must not continue to remain in this realm, we are not ready for you, i cannot guarantee the others of my species would embrace the idea of you, we are primitive, stupid violent creatures, we are just not ready for this, it's premature for our species to have this contact.
the crystal throbbed, i could feel it inside my mind, scanning my memories, collecting the experience. i felt myself swallowed up in an ocean of pure information, the pictures continued but they took on different forms, liquid, like a tidal wave, a massive energy pervaded everything, stretching through time and space.
i remained uncertain where i was, if indeed i inhabited a physical form anymore, i floated in an ocean of quanta, and all information was accessible.
it was endless, infinity at my fingertips, life teemed through the universe, millions of planets inhabited by intelligent lifeforms, civilisations spanned the galaxies, inter dimensional beings, knowledge flooded into my mind, i shared collective knowledge with everything. i could feel the energy of the other teams, they inhabited this ocean as well, they had abandoned everything and chosen to stay here. i appealed to them to return but they were at peace, happy and free. i saw the past, the folly of our race, we had fallen into the same patterns that billions of other civilisations had, we had made the same mistakes, repeated them over and over and i came to know this was okay as time was endless and at some point in time we would collectively escape the cycle of suffering.
i didn't want to stay despite the serenity, for i knew if i did stay others would follow, eventually all humans would journey in to the crystal zone, it would become a pilgrimage, a religion would be built upon the experience, humans would control it, access would be for the rich and powerful, while the people in need are kept out. that was the human condition, i couldn't change it could i?
i contemplated what the correct action would be, what should i do. i felt the responsibility in my heart.
elle suggested i return to the human world and that it would close in upon itself forever sealing humanity from escape within the quanta ocean of crystal. i could feel it retreating from me incrementally, like a time lapse wave.
i slowly became aware of my suit, uncertainty gripped me. if i stayed i would be at peace forever, completely free and in the arms of pure intelligence, a life form so unusual and powerful but i would never be human again, i would be something else. if i went back into the world and spoke of this no one would believe me, they would want proof or they would attempt to stop the closure, capture elle, god knows what kind of weaponry they may use. if i asked elle to stay and converge with humanity only suffering would follow, politicians would get in the way, the military and secret police. they would seek to use the crystal as weaponry of a means of control instead of liberation. but then could they, could they stop a wave, nothing exists that can do that. there had to be a solution, a way of compromise, a way some of the crystal form can stay on earth, assisting people transcend. 
elle was still inhabiting me, she agreed it would be useful to remain in contact with some of the humans and she devised an option. the crystal was holographic, that meant in one tiny grain there existed the same information that existed in the massive structures of composite crystal forms, so some of it could remain but as microscopic spores. these would be absorbed by the vines in the surrounding jungles, stored within their organic structures for safekeeping. i could access them when i needed by brewing the vine and drinking it. 
i found myself laying on a small area of crystal sand, surrounded by dense jungle, the circle was decreasing, my suit came back on, normal vision returned, transmissions came in and a signal resumed. 
'i'm okay, i'm okay, i'm returning from the epicentre.'
i looked up at the sun directly over my head, plenty of time to make it back, plenty of time to concoct a story and plan a new life.
i could feel the trace elements of crystal inside me surging through my veins exploring my neural networks.