“Rise and shine,” said Bara with a loud voice the next morning. “Wake up and let’s

  get ready for our return."

  Helen curiously looked at Anais who was petting a lizardlike animal. “What is

  this?” she said.

  “This is Draco. He is my new pet.”

  “How did you come to befriend a lizard?”

  “I can hardly sleep more than eight hours per night. When I came out, this guy

  was in the bag of food.”

  “And he just let you hold him?” asked Gakuto with the excitement of a child.

  “Can I touch him?”

  “Ask him, not me,” said Anais.

  When Gakuto’s hand had almost reached Draco, the animal hissed and took

  an aggressive stance.

  “He does not seem to like you,” said Konoya, laughing.

  “Actually, I think he is scared of all of you, being so close to him,” said Anais,

  waving her hand to make space. “It took a little bit of food for him to let me touch him.

  Now he does not let me put him down.”

  “That’s strange for an animal,” said Gakuto while packing his backpack.

  With Draco happily on her shoulder, Anais moved to the front of the party and

  began working to find a path toward Argos. The team crossed many more interesting

  areas, where they registered structures, most of which were deeply buried under the

  soil. On arriving back at the camp, the materials gathered were given to Jabir, who

  was the chemist of the group, to begin analyzing them. In the meantime, the

  exploration team tried to befriend Draco, who became an instant sensation.

  The following days, small excursions took place but at limited range. Another

  excursion to the city was made by Jabir and Steve, who needed data about the

  materials used to build it. The analysis of samples and the observations made by the

  Hera provided enough data to begin forming a hypothesis about the history of that

  world.

  “On top of today’s progress reports, we will be discussing the results of the

  research on the history of this place,” said Jain as he kicked off the meeting.

  “We are beginning to form a hypothesis,” continued Helen, “about the age

  and partial history of this world. It does not, however, feel complete by any standard.

  The Hera provided tectonic information, and contrary to our initial suspicions, this

  planet has very little tectonic movement, which is mainly located away from the area

  of the city. We will be referring to the city we partially explored as Alpha City or just

  Alpha, to distinguish it from the other places we will surely visit.”

  “So, how did it get buried?” asked Juuda.

  “Actually, that is the correct term, Juuda. The city did not sink; it was buried.

  The soil we see there has been deposited over large periods of time by the wind.”

  “How much time are we talking about?” continued Juuda.

  “It’s better if we let Jabir answer that.”

  “I am shocked by this material’s properties,” started Jabir. “It is pretty easy to

  date it from the moment it was split off from the rest of the building, and as long as it

  remains away from direct light. We know that the part I have was split by some kind

  of explosion about twenty-five to thirty thousand years or six to seven thousand Earth

  years ago. It is, however, impossible to date how long ago it was actually made,

  since it does not age.”

  “How can it not age?” asked Steve.

  “It is stronger than any concrete and harder than carbide. On top of that, it

  heals itself and can even close visible cracks.”

  “Does it not need energy to do that?” asked Steve.

  “This is the crazy part,” said Jabir excitedly. “It is solar powered. It can absorb

  various frequencies of light and turn them into current. Then it transfers that current

  throughout its structure, providing replenishment to the basements and areas away

  from the light. Additionally, it stores current in itself. This is a material we worked very

  hard to make on Earth but never completed. The original piece you brought here

  could not show me its age because it was exposed to sun. This was one of the

  reasons I went back there to get new samples.”

  “Can we replicate it?” asked Alex.

  “It will be hard. Figuring out its abilities is the easy part. Analyzing something

  so resistant to anything is another challenge.”

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  “Make it your first priority.”

  After a short pause, Jain continued. “We also have a hypothesis about the

  events that caused the civilization to collapse.”

  “So, we are sure they have collapsed?” said Gakuto.

  “It surely seems that way,” continued Dimitri. “They are holding spears, and

  their city is deserted for twenty-five thousand years. I don’t think there is a doubt

  about that.”

  “So, what took them out?” asked Gakuto.

  “War. It seems war was the reason here. The buildings that have damage on

  them have the characteristics of ballistic weapons.”

  “Ballistic weapons and bullets of unimaginable power,” added Steve. “There

  are holes that go through seven walls. I haven’t tested it yet, but I think our plasma

  rifles would not go through a single wall. There are also buildings that look like they

  have been cut in half. Their war must have been terrifying.”

  “What is the chance that weapons like that are still in circulation out there?”

  asked Alex.

  “It’s not easy to know,” said Steve. “If they could last that long, then they

  could still be around, but it surely does not seem to be so.”

  “Does no one see the weird connection here?” said Juuda. “Their civilization

  ended when ours was beginning. We also see creatures here that existed in our

  legends. Even Anais’s lizard looks more like a miniature dragon than anything else.”

  “We are aware of the similarities,” said Dimitri. “Taking the statue we found

  and everything else into consideration, we are starting to form the hypothesis that

  they indeed visited our world before their end. It is, however, a bit far-fetched. At

  least with the data we currently have..”

  “On our second visit to Alpha, we came across a large predatory animal,” said

  Bara. “We monitored it for a while, and we came to the conclusion that an attack from

  that thing would probably result in death. Our nanos will not be enough to protect us

  against it.”

  “I need to add to this,” said Konoya. “Our entire population has never

  experienced disease or physical threat at all. This has made us fearless. But it has

  also made us high risk takers. I gather information on the daily lives of everyone, and

  I notice a high inclination to risk taking. Stories of big animals and Anais’s dragon

  only drive people to want to venture out more.”

  Alex seemed worried. “Based on everything we heard, we will be making

  some changes. For starters, Steve, I want you to fabricate weapons for everyone.”

  “What kind of weapons?” asked Steve.

  “Bara, do you have a say in it?”

  “Well, I don’t like the idea of everyone walking around with a plasma weapon.

  It is very dangerous. There is a technology that was developed before the Osiris

  impact which would be great for here.”

  “Which is?” asked Steve.

  “Electric weapons. It uses electrical charge to shoot a tiny projectile out with

  supersonic speeds.”

  “How is that less dangerous?”

  “It is, greatly. The projectile has the size of a pinhead. Despite its

  extraordinary speed, it has an effective range of about six meters. It is particularly

  devastating at anything under a meter. Shoots one projectile per second, and most

  importantly, it makes a very loud crackling sound. Perfect for scaring away anything.”

  “Sounds ideal. I suppose the schematics are in the database?” asked Alex.

  “Of course,” replied Bara.

  “Then give access to the file to Steve. Begin producing one for each citizen.

  Since we can’t stay within Argos any longer, we will allow excursions, but they will be

  accompanied by at least one soldier. Bara, you’ll be in charge of the schedules.”

  “Should I place the weapon production before the sewage treatment?” asked

  Steve.

  “Yes. Make sure everyone has a weapon. It will be included in the necessary

  equipment for all excursions.”

  “I also have an announcement,” said Steve, while sending an image to the

  display. “This is a new drone. It can’t hover, so it’s actually a plane, but it can fly at

  very high altitudes, and it looks like some of the birds here. We can mount a small

  amount of weight, so for starters I am placing a visual camera on it, and I will be

  sending it to slowly map out the continent. I will make more of them after finishing the

  production of the weapons.”

  “There is one more thing,” said Jain. “Every city must have a library of some

  kind. A place to hold important information and manage it. I want to organize the next

  excursion there in search of such a building. The information found inside would be

  invaluable. We have explored a tiny fraction of this continent, which is but a small

  fraction of this planet, and we are surrounded by mysteries. We need to speed up our

  information gathering, and I think the fastest way is through the discovery of a

  library.”

  “I have to agree with that,” said Konoya. “Everyone wants to venture out and

  see this world, but mainly for their own recreation. We are working toward answers

  and progress extremely slowly. A library with ready answers sounds ideal.”

  In the days that followed, new data kept coming in. More preindustrial species

  were observed, which raised new questions. They also noted a pattern of scouting

  parties from various species coming to see Argos from a distance. Steve added a

  dozen more scouting planes, and soon a rough map of the terrain of the continent

  was made. It revealed a landscape rich in cities, with countless settlements of the

  indigenous species, which were marked and avoided when venturing for excursions

  until an approach plan was devised.

  “Tomorrow the team will be leaving to go search for the library,” said Jain to

  Alex while getting ready to sleep.

  “Jain, does it not seem surreal to you?”

  “You mean the whole situation here or something in particular?”

  “Well, everything really. We have clear images of a few species living here,

  and they all resemble mythological creatures from back home. Dimitri, who had quite

  the fascination with old legends, is shocked. When I speak with him, he makes a

  compelling argument that we were visited by them a long time ago.”

  “It could be so. We will soon have more data to test this hypothesis. It should

  not trouble you so much.”

  “I can’t help thinking that some of those ancient technologies will resurface

  somewhere and pose a threat to us. I delayed contacting the Goblins and every other

  species because I worry that this will start a series of events that might lead us to

  conflict.”

  “I understand. We do not have a good history of meeting new people in our

  own world.”

  “Yes, and here we see species which differ greatly, all living together. How

  did they manage it?”

  “The answers will come slowly. Stressing about them will not help you make

  the right choices.”

  “You’re right, as always. I am happy I can go through all this with you by my

  side.”