October 27th, 2112. H.M.S. Zahi Hawas, descending towards Kinnor Minor.
The Zahi Hawass bumped as it touched the upper atmosphere of Kinnor Minor; Gilbert Kane tightened his grip over the controls. Captain Jones didn't bother looking at him; he simply continued staring at the large duro-plastic front panels. Soon the ship entered the blue-gray clouds and condensation filled the windows.
-"You can undo your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen" Kane exclaimed, the ship shuddering ceased.
-"Oh, Alhamdolilah" Nirajit exclaimed "I think I'm going to puke all over the cabin"
-"Hey, I'm not that bad," Kane protested "the descent was pretty nice thanks to my piloting skills"
-"That doesn't have any merit Mr. Kane, the navigation system of a Prometheus-class ship do all the work" Eli intervened "I want to see you trying to pilot an M-Class cargo hauler in a large terrestrial planet."
- "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" Kane quoted "You're missing the view" he pointed out, where the green covered mountains filled the view.
Humans were surprised there were planets so similar to Earth, not only in size, gravity and water content, but in vegetation. The first colonists expected to find animals, but there were none, it was a mystery.
The jungle on Kinnor was deprived of flowers, plant life limited itself to ferns, cycads, pines and mosses; species which didn't required pollinizers for reproduction and survived the disappearance of animals there. Kinnor twin planetary system was designated LB-328, the LB meaning Life Bearer, unlike LV, Life Viable designation.
The ship glided over a wide river valley, Eli saw the colony constructed in one of the river banks. The settlement consisted of the administrative building, the housing unit, a clinic and a garage for exploration vehicles. Because the planet was habitable from the beginning, it was not necessary to install an atmospheric processor.
The Zahi Hawas turned its thrusters in a vertical position and settled on the colony's landing pad. By the time the hangar's ramp descended, the Colony Administrator Alan Hartford was standing there. The crew disembarked and the administration staff gave them a quick tour.
-"Welcome to Kinnor colony, I'm administrator Alan Hartford" He greeted them.
-"I'm Dr. Eli Monygham, and this is Dr. Nirajit Rashid." Eli made the introductions "He is Ezra, Captain Jones and that man is pilot and the expedition co-supervisor Gilbert Kane."
-"I assume you're eager to see the site. It's about five hours travel time" Hartford explained "When the Trenton's found it, they were almost two days out, but in the month you spend traveling here, we have constructed a road."
-"I was hoping for a cleared pad in the zone" Jones intervened "Land the Zahi Hawass right at the site."
-"We don't want to risk at destroying the ruins, Captain." Eli said "The colonists use explosives into clearing areas of trees and rock."
-"Anyway, maybe you can make yourself comfortable at the colony" Hartford said "I'll show you the maps and tomorrow we took you to the site."
The administrator guided them to the main operations center, there inside the surveyor's office, a large screen table showed a satellite map of Sector 5, the place where the ruins were located. The complex discovered by Jonas and James Trenton had the size of a small city, the brothers and their team had cleared only a few acres, but LiDAR mapping from orbit revealed the true extent of the complex.
The ruins were the size of a small city, its disposition, as Eli observed, was in a series of concentric rings, the wall the Trenton's discovered was enclosing the first housing ring. Two more of this rings existed before a central temple complex at the center.
-"Disposition of the city is so similar to Plato's description of Atlantis." Eli commented.
-"What's the purpose of concentric rings?" Dan asked.
-"Maybe it served as a caste system. The lower castes at the exterior ring and the higher castes in the center better protected." Nirajit said, he was guessing, there were so many questions.
-"Have you found any remains? Bodies? Tombs? Anything?" Eli turned towards Hartford.
-"No, there are no traces of the original inhabitants, neither animal on this planet. It's like if it was abandoned" Hartford responded. "But there are paintings and sculptures; they… looked very similar to us."
-"I can't wait until tomorrow. It's gonna be a very long night" Eli said.
- o -
October 28th, 2112. Ancient city ruins, Kinnor Minor.
Eli adjusted the seatbelt in the passenger bay of one of our two exploration vehicles, Nirajit sat at her right and the co-supervisor, Kane in front of her. To Eli, the man looked excited.
-"Are you excited, Eli?" He asked.
-"You kidding, Right?" she replied with disdain "The find of the century? I'm like a child in a toy store. I'm surprised you show little emotion Mr. Kane."
-"I'm thinking in all the paper work I have to do."
Kane was right, he wasn't to be at the site, his job will be authorize and request supplies and equipment. Eli and Nirajit will do the all the hard work, Eli missed Andrew Woods; he would have been very helpful with the translation of the alien language but had passed away about a year ago. After their discovery at Mount Ebrus, Eli and Nirajit took a diplomat course in linguistics at Harvard with him and Eli was confident it was enough for decipher the language in the ruins, in case it was the same as the tomb on Earth.
-"The jungle is so dense. Not surprise the complex wasn't detected from the orbit before." Eli said, breaking the ice.
-"We took samples from the trees. The oldest trees are some thousands years old, but that could be wrong due to the different amount of light and slightly thinner pressure." The colony's exo-biologist, Dr. Amelia Hartford explained.
-"We are planning an additional drill hole at the site" Ezra added "See the rock basement and stratigraphic sequence."
The original wall discovered by James and Jonas appeared ahead, the all-terrain vehicles passed through an arch serving as an entrance for the city, Eli's first impression was it shared the same style as the carvings in mount Ebrus, Proto Indo-European. The Trenton's were there, they supervised the installation of a provisional camp, they hoped it was finished by the time the Archeologists arrived but a storm had delayed their job.
Eli admired the reliefs at the entrance, they were so detailed. No doubt the giant pale humanoids had constructed this place as their images appeared occasionally on the motifs.
-"We're right, Rashid." She exclaimed "The Systems –or at least one –in the summer triangle represents Zeus, or his race." Eli wrote again on her Notepad.
-"If this planet truly represents Vultur Cadens, I'm wondering what the other systems have" Rashid responded.
-"I want to see the central temple. If there's something interesting here, it must be there." Eli said, and they walked towards the transport.
They crossed the city's first ring, and then they left the transport and continued on foot. Ezra and one of the colony security guards accompanied them. Eli saw this unnecessary as no animals existed on the planet. It was weird to stay on a place with no background sound, no birds calling, no flies buzzing, nothing.
-"How much is left to get there?" Eli asked.
-"We're almost there" Nirajit Rashid consulted his GPS device, the same he used back at Mount Ebrus, now set to use it on Kinnor Minor.
Suddenly the lower and dense jungle foliage ceased and they came out on a clearing covered by tall trees, in the middle of the clearing, an elliptic door marked the entrance to the central temple, still covered by the jungle.
-"Let's get inside, just a quick view before we have to get back" Eli couldn't hide her excitement.
-"Dr. Monygham, I'm receiving the results from a test by Dr. Hartford, the exo-biologist." Ezra informed.
-"And what they said?"
-"Carbon dating, along with the amount of UV radiation, gravity and atmospheric pressure gives the trees an age of… Wait, can't be, less than a decade?"
Shortly after their arrival, the exo-biologist Amelia Hartford had sampled the rings of at least twenty trees growing out of the ruins, assuming the trees grown after the city was abandoned as the inhabitants surely did regular maintenance to the buildings, so any tree destroying the ruins will show the time elapsed since the city abandonment.
-"No, it can't be. No jungle grows this thick in ten years. Are you sure they sampled the oldest trees and not the new ones?" Eli exclaimed.
-"Dr. Amelia said she sampled the trees herself."
-"Then the city was abandoned about ten years ago?" Eli asked.
-"Until we solve this. Yes." Ezra concluded.
- o –