Tom Strong #9: Terror Temple of Tayasal!

Tom encounters a group of Guatemalan archaeologists who have discovered a mysterious two- to three-thousand-year-old exoskeleton in the jungle. He knows that Dhalua and her father are waiting to have dinner with him at Attabar Teru, but Tom can't resist learning more about the archaeological find. As he wanders deeper into the jungle, he comes across a Mayan temple that appears to have been undisturbed for centuries. While exploring the interior, Tom is attacked by a gelatinous, biomechanical creature, who forcibly transfers its early memories onto Tom. The images that flash through Tom's mind are of a living spacecraft (that's at least thousands of years old) that crashes and dies on Earth. The creature Tom finds in the temple was one of several living components of that spacecraft, but it was the only one that survived the crash. Presumably discovered by ancient Mayan tribesmen, the creature was taken into the temple and worshiped as a god. Over time, the tribe dies out, and with no blueprint of its parent spacecraft, the creature's reduced capacity for movement or escape left it only to stay and grow alone for centuries. Tom is deeply moved by this story, and heads back to the site of the archaeological dig. He takes part of the spine of what he now knows is the alien spacecraft, and gives it to the creature to be used as a blueprint. With it, the creature is able to rapidly grow legs, and emerges as a turtle-like creature with the whole temple on its back. Although Tom estimates that it may take months or years for the creature to grow the flagella needed for interplanetary flight, he feels happy to know that it can at least manage rudimentary travel.

Aventura / Ficção científica / HQ, comics, mangá