"Can somebody tell me what's going on right now?" Kepler exclaimed.

The dropship fired off as everyone sat down, trying to process what just had happened.

"So? Anyone? Nova, please explain what you just did out there."

Nova lifted her head after catching her breath and explained what she saw, "While I was patrolling the area, I decided to check what was over the cliff. When I got over, I stepped on something soft. It looked like mud, except it wasn't brown like mud, it was purple."

My father realized that must've been the sediment he had found. "As I took another step, I tripped over another one of those damn patches of loose sand. Right when I fell, I caught a glimpse of something in the hole where the sand collapsed. I saw a pair of red eyes and horns that protruded from its mouth, but when I looked again it disappeared. The best bet was to call everyone in, this mission isn't safe anymore."

My father decided to let Nova know what he thought was going on, "Hey Nova, I think I know what it might've been. Our research so far indicates that creatures of variable sizes lived on this planet; from ones that could bury into small holes, to others that are larger and can fly. I think the one that you might've seen could've been the smaller one. But when I say smaller, I speak in relative terms, that creature still might've been the size of a wolf. Also, it might be related to the fossil that I found when I first came here for my research. The fossil I found was a femur of a creature about the size of a wolf, and it had a horn like bone that extended from the femur. And if you saw horns that came out of the face of the creature, than that is a good indication it could have horns elsewhere.

The dropship fell silent as everyone started to believe the possibility of Nova's story.

"I guess we're not alone on this planet," Nova said, breaking the silence.

"Hey guys, let's not get ahead of ourselves here," a marine taunted. "Nova could've just seen something that wasn't alive, maybe she was hallucinating because of the heat. I think I trust the life form indicator on the dropship more than her eyes, if it says we are alone, we are alone."

"It doesn't matter who's right or wrong, the safest thing to do right now is to get back to base and see what we got from our new samples today. It should help us connect some of the dots," Lestra said.

While they were flying back to base, my father kept a keen eye out the window to see if he could catch any movement on the ground. If he could see something move on the surface, it would back up Nova's story, but all he saw was the dull red brown sand that covered Zerus he saw on the way there.

But he looked closer at the sand and recognized a pattern that he hadn't before. There was a clear contrast between the ground and the tiny pockets of loose sand, which looked like hundreds of obvious circles that covered the area. He knew right away that those circles were transects of a cylinder and were certainly burrows made by some creature; most likely the ones from the fossils that he had found.

"Guys listen up, I believe Nova's right. We are not the only ones alive on this planet. Before you say anything, let me explain. All the data that we had gathered thus far points to the fact that creatures once lived here. Today, I found fossils that indicated their existence on this planet a mere few hundred years ago. And according to geological time scales, that isn't a long time, and they could most certainly be alive today. What Nova saw in the sand was most likely responsible for all the patches of loose sand. Just look outside, you can clearly see darker circular patches across the ground; I believe those are burrows of the creatures. Those burrows that you guys are looking at right now can't be as clear as they are unless they have been recently made," my father attempted to explain.

Everyone stared out the window processing what my father had just told them. It began to make sense, but a few still had their doubts.

"How do you explain the life form indicators, they showed no sign of biological life except for us," one of the marines said.

"I don't know how to explain that, but all I know is that we have to be careful from now on out. We can try running it again to see if we can pick anything up, but once we touch down, I suggest we pack everything and head home," my father said.

The rest of the flight was a constant debate on who was right. Settling the argument, Nova suggested running the LFIs again.

When they landed back at base, Nova ran the LFI on both dropships: negative.

"As long as the LFI shows that we are the only ones here, we should stay," Lestra said. "We can learn a lot more even if it's just a couple more days."

"I hate to say this, but this is what we agreed on. I know what I saw, but the LFIs indicate otherwise. However, I want everyone to keep a constant lookout, and run the LFIs every hour, understood?" Nova said.

Everyone followed Nova inside, but my father was skeptical; he had no doubts that he was right, but he didn't have an answer for the LFIs just yet. When dinner rolled around, he decided to stay in the dropships to run the LFIs himself to see if anything changes, but like before, the scans came out negative. He tried again and again, but got the same results. He continued to scan until there was only enough energy left for one more. With hope he waited for the results. The scan took longer than the other ones, but the result was the same; it was negative. Annoyed and frustrated, he jumped out and walked back to the research facility.

As he jumped out, his arm brushed the console. Another scan initiated, however there was only enough energy for a few seconds. But in those few seconds, the LFI caught something. Beep.