A New Mission
The Alex Murphy was in dry dock at Reciba. The crew was granted extended shore leave. Grendel went to a ski resort to cool off. Grrr accompanied Bletherin on a hunting expedition.
In the mean time, the rumor mills reported that Avalon (the space Nazis) was pressuring the Cananites (the fundamentalist embryo suppliers), prompting the latter to ask for Collective membership.
When the crew was summoned back to duty, they were assigned to escort a Harth royal from Porle and her retinue to on a diplomatic mission to induct planet Iliari into the Collective. Grrr escorted them to their quarters and then chatted up the female Harth warrior.
The Iliari were semi-aquatic tentacled octopoid beings who could survive extreme depths without equipment. They were highly sought after by the survey corp for this ability.
They were also transporting a Terran archaeological who had completed her tour without finding any artifacts at her dig.
When the last straggling crewman was collected, the Alex Murphy commenced on the journey.
The Antar System
The first jump was into the Antar System. Antar, however, was no longer highly populated on account of the unstable orbit of the moon. The Antar sun was larger than Sol, so the Antar homeworld was further away from the star.
The Alex Murphy stopped Niausta, the seat of the Antar government, to collect a new engineer. Alex contacted the Antar AI to share news. There was not much to report from the Antar side.
While at the station, Grendel sought special parts, but could not find what he needed. Grrr followed the Harth bodyguard to a Harth restaurant where the royal met another diplomat. The warrior wanted to keep close to her to keep the royal our of trouble.
Bletherin shared a Garlan meal with the Terran archaeologist. She informed him that the native inhabitants of the world were more Garlan-like than humanoid, based on the shape of the doors, but more advanced species did not leave rubbish behind, so there were few artifacts to be discovered.
The Trenka System
The next jump came out a good distance from the superhot star. The inhabited planet was the furthest planet out. There was a lot of traffic there, including a yacht who hailed them.
An older Antar requested assistance looking for a missing person. An Antar child had run off without a forwarding address. The Antar was afraid the child had gotten into trouble after a fight at home, possibly on a free trader. A database search revealed the ship as a typical smuggler who kept under the radar unless they called attention to themselves. They took a report and passed it on through the proper channels.
The Dark Point
The next jump point was a dark pulsar. There was nothing of consequence there.
Alcron’s World
The next jump went to a red star system. There was a domed scientific colony on the outermost of the five planets. This was the destination of the archaeologist. One of the two moons had been partially slagged by an asteroid.
This system was abnormal in that the star was too small, such that the planets should have been destroyed due to their proximity, but they were not. Also there was insufficient gravity to keep the planets in orbit
There was a small transport in orbit, possibly new personnel, students, or tourists coming to see the strange phenomena on the planet. The projected an identification as a University of Michigan ship.
Bletherin and Grendel decided to go to the planet. The diplomat and her entourage also went to the planet, so Grrr came along as well.
The planet was cold and had no atmosphere outside of the dome, but it had been a highly populated world at some time. There were structures there, but no artifacts had been found. Anything that was portable had been taken.
Given the lack of damage to the ruins, the archaeologist estimated that the exodus from the planet was within the past 300-400 years.
On the Planet
The landing party was greeted by a Garlan and an ancient Harth thinker. They greeted the captain before the ambassador, which annoyed the ambassador. The Garlan and the archaeologist were clearly old friends.
They were given a tour of the site. There were buildings and streets built along Garlan lines. The scientists hypothesized that it was a decentralized society. They were shown a probable apartment block and a retail structure.
They estimated that there might have been a population of 3 billion.
There was also a network of tunnels beneath the surface perhaps indicating a subway system, but any rails or similar infrastructure had been removed.
The only estimates of the indigenous species was that they were short, and similar in proportions to Garlan.
The surface of the planet had been covered by snow, which was the only residue of the atmosphere.
The scientists recently uncovered a subterranean chamber that they believed was an archive.
A New Discovery
Suddenly, a minion appeared and announced a new discovery. They followed the minion down a spiral ramp under the city (the elevator that would have been in the center had been removed).
The ancient Harth was surprisingly fit, and led the way into an obvious subway station. There were marks on the walls that was probably graffiti of some kind. And there was another, narrower, spiral ramp going down from there, but there was no elevator shaft.
At that bottom of the ramp there were the remains of a metal gate or portcullis, but there was no evidence of any kind of controls or mechanisms. Beyond that was a large space, and the scientists were excited by something that was buried in the far wall.
It appeared to be a skeleton of something big embedded in the wall. Alex’s analysis revealed it as a fossil. It was large and six-limbed. It resembled the Garlan version of a dragon. This is the first organic specimen that had been found on the planet.
There was nothing else in the chamber, though there were niches in the walls and evidence of the presence of shelving at one time.
The scientists conducted scans adn discussed approaches for a while, until another Antar ran in, falling on its face. Everyone laughed, but the Antar got up and commenced studying the fossil. She was the paleontologist. To Grrr, the bones sounded almost hollow, so perhaps the creature had been a flyer.
The Garlan studying the wall accidentally poked through it and was admonished by a superior. The archaeologist confided in the visitors that she was more interested in the wall.
Grendel slipped a fiber optic thread through the hole in the wall. Beyond, there was an arched pedestrian tunnel that led into darkness. It was lined with brick or stone and gave the impression of greater age than the archive chamber, and there was more dust within than in the outer chamber.
There was an alcove in the side of the tunnel, and something piled up within the alcove. This discovery reignited the debate about breaking through the wall vs. examining the fossil. The leadership was inclined toward the fossil first.
The paleontologist carefully pried one of the small bones from the wall for examination. Initial examination identified it as ancient megafauna.
The scientists retrieved more equipment and determined that there was a pile of cloth in the alcove, perhaps discarded by someone who had been sleeping there. There was also a flicker of light at the opposite end of the tunnel, perhaps reflecting off something there.
At impatient gestures by the ambassador, Bletherin ordered a return to the ship for imminent departure.
A Flash on the Moon
Approaching the Alex Murphy, there is a flash of light from the smaller moon with the ruins of an ancient colony. Alex maneuvered the ship and the shuttle meet en route to the planet.
Alex scanned the surface and determined that it had been a laser flare, indicating a light transmission into space, as opposed to the planet, the other moon, or a visible ship. Light transmission was used for secure communication between planets.
The flare did not come from the archaeological expedition. It came from the ruins of a domed city.
Alex cloaked a probe to investigate the source of the transmission, which was out of view from the expedition. He pinpointed the source location, but did not detect anything there.
Grrr analyzed the data Alex relayed and surmised that there was something below the surface as the site was too flat and smooth.
The probe revealed that the dome of the colony had cracked and the entire ship would fit within. Active scanning of the transmission source revealed it to be almost glass-like such that one could shoot a transmission through it like a one-way mirror.
The Alex Murphy approached the city. The dome remnants had crushed sections of the city in a catastrophic failure. They took the hyperspace-capable shuttle to investigate the site while the ship remained in orbit.