Ryan Taylor awakens from hibernation to a mystery that he, along with his crew, must solve in order to continue their mission. How they solve it and what they find is astounding.
Bridget and I were walking on an alien beach while the shuttle was taking on fresh water. I saw something that didn't seem to be right. I walked over to it and picked a black object up. After brushing the sand off of it, I turned it in my hand to see if I could understand what it was.
It definitely wasn't something natural. It was a black box-looking object about ten centimeters long, six centimeters wide and two centimeters thick. I wanted to scratch my head if I could, but then I spotted what looked like numbers. That's when I realized what it was.
"Oh my God!" I exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Bridget asked, her eyes large as saucers.
"This is a laser pistol battery," I said.
"How'd that get here?"
"Good question. It means that humans were here before us."
"How's that possible?"
"Did your ship come here before it exploded?"
"I don't know. I wasn't revived from hibernation until just before it did."
"Yes, I forgot. We'll have to check your ship's operations list." I put the battery into my belt pouch.
We completed the water collection operation on time and ascended back to the ship. After gently maneuvering the shuttle into the hanger, I had COMA pressurize the hanger so that we could exit the shuttle and connect the water tanks to a feed pipe that went down through the axel tube to the engineering wheel deck.
We returned through the axel tube to the crew wheel deck.
Janet, Sharon and Natale were at the food station.
"How'd it go?" Janet asked.
"We got the water we needed." I held up the battery. "I found this on the beach of the island we landed on.
"What is that?" Janet asked.
"A laser pistol battery," I said.
"What the hell was it doing on this planet?"
"Good question. I'll go through the other crew's operations list to see if they were there."
"I don't get it," Sharon said. "What were they doing on that planet?"
I held my hand up, palm out. "We don't know if they were there. All we do know is that humans were there."
"Do we have any more info on why the species became extinct?" Sharon asked.
"I think we should go through all of the photos we made of their art. Maybe there's a clue in them."
"What's next?" Natale asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose we should search for another habitable planet."
They weren't impressed with my ability to make decisions.
Later that evening, I was at the command station trying to find out if the other ship visited the planet we were orbiting when Janet sat down next to me.
"Burning the midnight oil?" she said adding a smirk.
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