The End of Eternity

Looking around

During the upcoming months, they spent their time in a building, which had not fallen apart yet, well, most of it. They tried to learn Petr's language and they could gradually understand him more and more. During that time, they ate, what they found, or what they were able to hunt down. Even though they tried to speak often, due to lack of trust, their conversations were usually just an empty small talk.

"I still do not understand, why the environment is this much hostile. The sun, the radiation thing . .. " Claw did not speak very well yet and was glad to squeeze some words out of himself. He hoped, that this conversation would be less fruitless, than the previous ones.

"It is because of the planet's history. " Petr said, he was tired of their constant questions, it almost looked like these people . . well people, that these two existences really did not understand him. They should have dropped the act already! His blood boiled, but he calmed himself down, there was nothing he could do about it. "There was a great war on this planet, it ended up with a huge detonation of an anti-matter bomb, which blew away a significant part of Earth's atmosphere. That is why the sun rays here are dangerous and skin exposure should be avoided. During the war, the losing side resorted to dirty bombs, that is the primary cause of today's radiation. It is the reason, why is the radiation concentrated in specific areas today. Most of the radiaton caused by atomic bombs has already vanished. A significant part of the radiation from an atomic blast is caused by elements with half-lives up to thirty years, which means the radiation of these elements are under one tenth of a percent in three hundred years. Not mentioning most of the explosions were high-altitude blasts, executed in order to generate an electromagnetic pulse." Petr sighed. Sometimes, he had a feeling, he was explaining things to rabbits.

"The planet has never been rebuilt, Earth's colonies on other panets and moons snatched the initiative and became much more powerful than the pitiful remnants of population on Earth."

"Ehm." Claw thought, where to start with his questions. "What is a planet?"

Petr stared at him in disbelief. He gritted his teeth and explained to Claw the most basic principles, which should be known to any adult with a functioning brain.

It was about time, he would be the one to be surprised.

"I am doing it, she is barely alive now." Mei said, looking at Davena.

"Seems like it is our only option, he said her state is curable, but the cure is very expensive."

"I hope it still works like it worked before." Mei causally sliced open her wrist and fed Davena some of her blood. She had not produced any descendants of her bloodline, therefore she should be able to convert Davena.

Petr looked at the scene, not knowing what to think. Mei having blood was something he had not expected and the rest of the procedure was equally mysterious to him.

His eyes glittered, Mei having blood meant, she was not an autonomous robot. He could kill them and return to his ship, he was nothing more than a thieving scoundrel after all. All this time, he could have been searching the ruins, making profit, but he had been sitting here with them for moths instead, he had just enough of it. The absence of a dron meant he could just kill them and no one would know about it. He had found some ammunition two weeks ago and could finally use his main weapon.

He did not wait a second longer and drew his plasma pistol, pulling the trigger. The next second, a glowing stream of liquid penetrated Mei's chest, it was hot beyond comparison and burned everything it touched.

Following a successful hit, his next target became Claw. Thanks to the moment of surprise, Petr managed to hit them both and watched them falling to the ground with a smile on his face.