During an archaeological dig, a new species of intelligent life has been found deep within our own planet. You have been chosen to lead the expedition with a crack team of special ops and scientists. What do you find in there and how do you interact with the new form of life?

Since it is unclear as to what format we should use to answer this question, I did it by writing a quick narrative. Feel free to change and adapt it to your needs:

Answer and Explanation:

It was the darkest dark I had ever seen – sorry about the redundancy. Even as I stood at the cavern’s mouth, no sound could be heard. It was as if life, noise, air, all that we know ceased to exist at that entrance. But nothing could be further from the truth. There was life in there, intelligent life.

They warned me it was a tunnel that went downward. In my brand new suit – it looked something like a scuba diver’s suit -, I was about to rappel my way down to the pool of black water that lay at the bottom. That is where life was waiting.

With lights attached to my knees and shoulders, I could see a few feet ahead of me. Down I went for what seemed to be a whole hour, so scared I was of slipping and falling into the pool and being… what? Devoured? I wouldn’t know. When I finally reached it, I waited. They knew I was there. They were probably assessing me, analyzing my breath, my heartbeat, my intentions. Three of them floated up after what had seemed an eternity.

My first impulse was to look away. They were disgustingly formless – blobs of semi-transparent mucus, I thought. Through their gelatinous bodies, I could see quick flashes of light, incessantly moving, constantly appearing and disappearing after traveling around for an instant. Could those be their synapses?  

I saw no mouths, ears, eyes, hands. How did we know they were intelligent? Who had come to that conclusion? Had they forgotten to tell me something? Perhaps those creatures would suddenly grow limbs and eyeballs and lips and - who knows? - resemble me? I couldn’t have been more mistaken, for they did not need any of that. It was I who suddenly resembled them. I could feel the change, as if I had been plugged to them, as if their synapses were my own. My body quivered, I stopped breathing for just one second. And, in that second, I saw it all. Their lives, their history. I felt their emotions and concerns. I knew their knowledge, I ate their food, I cried their tears. They showed me what I needed, forced me to sense them so deeply I would never be the same. Once it was over, I knew we were connected, I knew I could do it again. It was like pressing a button to be in each other’s minds.

b and d

explanation: