It was with a desperate relief we caught sight of it, hitherto obscured amidst the chaos – a recess in which we might claim momentary shelter. Despite its meagre dimensions, it seemed to gape dizzyingly as if in silent invitation.

Squeezing through the tangled nest of pipes and wiring that framed the beckoning cavity, we emerged into the cramped confines of what appeared to be a workshop of sorts. The room was filled with strange surfaces - scattered with a selection of devices, their origins and application completely alien.

Most intriguing of all, however, was the pod-like chamber that rose imposingly out of the clutter. A translucent shell - part biomass and part machine - its surface criss-crossed with dense runic scripts, representing some unutterable foreign tongue.

Reason wrestled with curiosity in each of us as we stepped forward, irrevocably drawn into the folds of its cylindrical embrace, as the chambers from which we had fled now succumbed to a violent deconstruction.