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The

Legend of
The
Sunglow
A Science Fiction Story

By

John Baxter
C 2018.
The History behind the Sunglow

In a distant past, a very long time ago in human history in a dark period for
humanity, calculated to be around the year of 2050 on the Earth calendar, the
calendar used around that time, there seemed to have been a mighty planet wide
catastrophe for humanity, and the total wipeout of all the animal life too.
It happened over a relatively short period of time, and seemingly, looking at
the available evidence, nothing animal based seems to have survived.
On the evidence gleaned from the sparse available data from the ancient past,
it was certainly not a natural disaster.
It had not been caused by some freak of nature, for example a large piece of ice
or rock coming in from space, entering the atmosphere as in an extinction event
like those which had wiped out the dinosaurs.
No, it was something far more devastating than that.
Whatever it was that wiped out all animal life seemed to have come from
nothing and nowhere. It seemed to come from somewhere inside humanity itself,
proven facts of what possibly could or did happen are yet to be investigated and
if any of the many wild theories believed could be proven.
From available evidence and historical documents, plus lots of interpretation
added for good measure, it appears that various powerful factions of the society
seemed to have become polarized in their views, and had then planned the total
eradication of those who held opposing views in an almost genocidal way, until
there was nothing at all left.
The sheer scale of the alleged brutality used by these perpetrators, the likes of
which had never ever been witnessed on so massive a scale of both numbers of
people killed and the lack of humanity used to kill them. The opposing people
then replying with a sort of revenge attack, also brutal beyond belief, and the
mass genocide or the believed ethnic cleansing that followed immediately
afterwards showed that there was a mass dehumanisation of humanity.
This was the only interpretation that made any sense which could be gleaned
from the evidence obtained of the period. There was no video footage, not a great
deal of paper based or electronic archive left from that period so long ago.
Information and communications had been sent to the local colonies, though
over time, these colonies became no longer habitable, and the information
condensed over and over, so many times, till there was very little of it that was
not corrupted in the different types and upgrades of data storage.
The self-destruct theory was the only currently accepted scenario and
reasoning of the death and destruction of the planet Earth, but these were based
only on the scant findings of robotic probes sent many centuries ago, and the
theories derived from that, all based purely on what appeared to be the most
plausible of the many possibilities and nothing based on evidence or fact. This
belief had been the accepted one by the whole community.
Recently, a new movement of the people, more science based than theology,
began to emerge, These more questioning minds and perhaps younger free
thinkers had made representation to persons within the government who in turn
had then made representation to the Senate to have the original ancient parent
planet visited and its demise investigated further, and in much greater detail
than ever before because there was currently little or no fact based information
on which to base the real truth on, and so the folklore and myths generated
about the mystery surrounding the loss of the Earth’s creatures had become less
fact based, and more imagination. Some people were starting to feel
embarrassed at the thought of their ancestors being thought of as insane
murderers, possibly cannibal, if the conjecture was to be believed.
The current archeological teams working out on what had been a couple of the
early colonies no longer in use, still safe enough to visit.
The archeologists were able to formulate and decode some small patches of
data leading to basic, unproven conclusions from the examination of the artefacts
found on a few randomly chosen excavation sites, the data taken from around
the 2050 target time period in Earths planet’s history, discoveries that when
studied, would hopefully clarify the reason or the cause of this huge,
unprecedented polarisation of the masses and create even greater disagreement
and mistrust among the peoples of this whole planet world.
It was accepted as a proven fact that something acted as a trigger, and this was
usually put down to a rumour that there had been a discovery of ancient texts
that had set the whole thing in motion, after all, this was not the first time
historical theologist writings had changed history.
Somewhere, within these lost or missing artifacts would lie the answer to why
a race could, or would, totally and utterly wipe itself out.
Whatever had triggered this massive event, it had already been proved not to
have come from any religious or tribal differences, as evidence gleaned from the
colonies archive had already referred to the many different factions expected to
be the prime culprits, were in fact, colluding with each other, on both sides of the
split.
It wasn’t a kind of global financial power grab either, because once the
hostilities had started, money would have become almost instantly obsolete,
value only now measured in how long you could stay alive, long enough to kill as
many as the opposition as your body would allow till you succumbed, and were
either killed, or died.
There was a great number of questions that needed an answer, and the
investigations could take years before they would get anywhere near the real
reasons and facts.
So far, the facts gleaned seemed contradictory.
It wasn’t political, it wasn’t religion, it wasn’t natural disaster, or some off-
world interference with meteors, comets, or their like. There was no recorded
evidence of any of these possibilities.
Only the fossil record would guide them to the real answer. Time to start work.

The Jigsaw Commences


The many floors of laboratories were lit up, switched on, and the massive array
of analytic high spec instrumentation programmed and checked. The
archaeologists had packed their personal gear into the personnel travel pods,
ready to go down to the planet when their working spaces were ready, the
laboratory complex having already been sent with their remote scanning
equipment and the laser guided digging vehicles stored inside the mobile
laboratory which was already down to the surface of the planet, at a preselected
site.
Following weeks of discussion on their way here, Dave Johnson, the head of
this expedition, had sat with his team in the conference room of the ship that
brought them to the planet of their ancestors. Earth.
They had discussed, in detail, the very thin and scant evidence received so far
from the remote scanners and samplers which had been on the planet collecting
numerous but limited data, but they had been able to work out the location of the
selected first dig site, where it should be, and for how long, and how they should
prioritise the evidence collected into the categories they used in this type of
investigation.
The procedure for recording the findings would start with different files, those
of proven fact, then possible fact, evidence under examination, theories that
could be proved as possibly wrong, and then those already proven wrong, each
of these having many sub categories, the number in each being determined by
the quality of the evidence coming in, and where it had come from.
Dave and his team had already taken the proven facts that had been verified so
far and had it loaded into the main evidence database, though this was very little
real information as it had been very difficult to subjectively prove anything using
remote technology. These robots were ok for guidance, with atmosphere and
climate information, but their DNA or micro study information wasn’t very
accurate, and on an expedition of this publicly sensitive a nature, accuracy was
paramount.
What they had so far as proven facts, removing any interpretation or
conjecture meant the data was very fragmented.
The atmosphere of Earth was still nitrogen rich, still around the ninety percent,
and the oxygen was nearer nine percent which was higher than it had been at the
time of the Great Collapse, the alleged Sunglow, then about 8 percent. This could
be due to the sudden loss of human pollution.
The expected carbon dioxide level was lower than expected as natural volcanic
and lightning strikes would still destroy foliage by fire, so all together, this
indicated that plant life was still in abundance, but a possible lack of animal life.
There were no toxic gasses to speak of, and the samplers did not detect any
new or resistant microorganisms that could be harmful to human life. Even the
common cold was missing from the air sample, along with many of the others
known as common ailments at the time of the catastrophe. It may be still spored
and might be hiding somewhere in the ground, waiting for a human to infect, or
it may have evolved and moved on.
Considering this evidence, anyone who would be working outside of the
laboratory pods would need to wear protective clothing, and follow full
quarantine procedures on their return, as would any bone or organic samples
taken from the soil for the same reason.
Once the samples were loaded into the equipment, they would be processed
and after all the live cultures, bacteria and microorganisms plus any DNA residue
if any remained had been taken, it would come out of the analyzer as totally
sterile and could be handled safely.
Other than this scant information, nothing else could be placed in the proven
fact category.
The time had come to go down to the planet of the ancestors, and find out why
the people had become extinct.

Down to The Planet

Everything had been checked, tested, packed and loaded into the mobile
laboratories cargo holds, and sent down to the first selected dig site a few weeks
ago. The next sites would be set up as soon as the first was established as a safe,
workable site as these complexes were extremely heavy in this gravity.
The personnel would be loaded into their people pods which would all
automatically link up together to form the outer ring of a complete habitation
complex, the central community hub having already been sent and sited by the
building crews who had been on the planet for over three weeks. The area had
been cleared of foliage, and the feet areas only being levelled so as not to disturb
any remains they might be searching for.
This was now sealed and sterile. The laboratory modules were self-siting and
self-sterilising, as nobody was allowed in them till they were all set up due to the
airborne sterilising vapours being toxic to humans.
When the whole thing was finally assembled, it would become a large
interconnecting complex, maintained by only a handful of crew, but with a huge
collection of scientists, each one of them specialists in their own fields, operating
the masses of electronic testing equipment throughout the hubs.
Solar panels made up almost all the outside walls of the complex, and could
generate electricity from very low light, even cloud covered moonlight, though
the storage battery system could run the whole complex in complete darkness
for up to a month if they had to. The power requirements varied from day to day,
as some equipment used more power than others, but tended to be used less
often, hence capacitors had been built into the system to smooth out any possible
drops in power if large usage samplers were all working at the same time.
The all clear had been given from the surface of the planet by the engineers
that the complex was now connected, sealed, sterile, and switched on, and
running. Air purifier filters were fully working, and it was now safe to enter.
One by one, the personnel pods were released from the ship, and made their
way to their lock positions on the outer ring of the complex, docking one by one
for safety, the scientists disembarking and making their way to the pre-allocated
accommodation in an orderly fashion. They just wanted to get started on the
research, so there was little emotion showing on their faces.
As the last pod docked, and the last of the science and tech crew had made
their way to their rooms, Dave and his team had already set up a briefing for
them all in the large meeting hall, and waited for the appointed time to come
around. There was no immediate rush as the first samplers and the operators
were not scheduled to leave the complex till tomorrow, and not due to return for
another two days with the samples collected.
Dave’s senior management team consisted of his personal assistant, Kally
Revlon, his Girl Friday, a born organiser with multi-tasking talents, and a flair for
presentation. Currently, she was passing out copies of the planned timetable and
the other relevant information onto the perfectly placed chairs ready for the
scientific community entering shortly.
The technical assistant on his team, Jimmy Massey, was still supervising the
connecting of the electronics for the communications network to the ship above
ready to run the optical part of the timetable presentation.
As if by a given signal, the doors opened, and the scientists filed in.

Not Quite What Was Expected


The room fell silent as the screens around the room lit up with the logo of
their company, and as the lights dimmed slightly, Kally took her position ready at
the podium.
She nodded to the two technicians operating the visual displays that would
accompany the verbal explanations of the people speaking at this briefing, and
began to deliver an outline and overview of the operating plan for the dig before
the experts would outline theirs in much more depth and detail.
“Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and members of our scientific community, I
welcome you here to participate in this very special project, a project born from
our curiosity of our own distant past, and our inbuilt desire to challenge the
currently accepted norms of our history, and to continue to push out the
boundaries of our knowledge.”
“This project is special. Special to us because it is all about our own ancient
roots, our own cultural heritage, our very DNA passed down to us from this
ancient past, the facts of these people who vanished without a trace inside a very
short timescale, and as the evidence as we are all fully aware, is scant at best, and
therefore open to misinterpretation or even abusive or misleading conjecture.”
“Our job here is to find out the real facts so we can dispel these myths, these
legends, and this utterly useless theology that has been core of what we have
been taught for centuries. These theology leaders, priests for want of a better
name, telling us who they think we were and explaining why we tell the stories
of a Sunglow destroying our ancestors because we upset some supreme being or
another.
The cosmic database shows that there is absolutely no evidence existing
anywhere in any of the star charts or any historical database of any cosmic event
taking place at that time in the history of this area of the Universe.”
“Every cosmic event leaves a footprint, a mark, indication of it happening. Here
there are none, nothing at all.”
“Our job here is to strip off this invented theological veneer, peel back the
layers like an onion, and look for the real facts, the genuine facts of what
happened here.”
“This is our aim, and our only goal. To find out if we are truly descended from
mad, cannibalistic, murdering degenerates, for which we have been made to
suffer a guilt complex throughout our lives and the lives of our ancestors too, or
are there very important pieces of the historical story missing proving our
innocence?”
“In the next year or so, with our accurate investigation procedures, we hope to
have these historical facts, and with your professionalism we should know all, or
most of the answers.”
Kally moved away from the podium to applause from the gathered audience,
and Dave replaced her on the podium position.
The next two hours was devoted to discussions about technical data, plans,
charts, flowcharts, procedures, data analysis, and the recording procedures
which would be acceptable as proof to the academics of their home planet and
colonies, and cut out any doubts that the theologians would try to pick up on.
As the gathered scientists were fully absorbed the protocol and procedures,
the maintenance crew down on Earth were outside of the habitat ring, doing
their normal daily checks, the security of the anchorage points, the legs and their
levelling pads, and the perimeter inspections, checking for any possibility of
landslip or movement because of the massive weight of the complex as it was
now erected, full of people, and complete.
One of the anchor feet had disturbed the soil surface, and from beneath, had
exposed an anomaly, worthy of an investigation. The remains of the whole of this
once metallic structure was carefully removed and transported into the complex,
delivered to some lab boys who were not at the meeting, and, just to show that
the junior staff could function without the senior ones, they started to prep these
remains for a full analysis.
It appears they had accidently found a well decayed section or major part of a
transport vehicle, something the database identified as a “car”. The absent metal
parts were only visible by their oxide remains on a magnetron, the metal long
gone due to oxidisation, but a lot of parts of this vehicle were made of plastic,
aluminium, and other inert parts and were still here. Intact, and in situ.
This was not deemed as the major find. The major find was that because it had
been found almost intact and in situ, what had been the contents inside it
millennia ago were still inside of the vehicle bodywork now, and had remained in
that position after all this time. Protected from the elements and the surrounding
soil, the contents were in an excellent state of preservation.
The official dig had not yet started, and yet evidence had already started to be
detected on the surface. Signs of crumbled structures could be seen at intervals
across the plains. There was a lot of available evidence to work on.
The whole earth vehicle find had been transported in one piece, wrapped and
sealed to prevent any degrading during transport to the lab block for
examination.
The juniors in the lab had started to do the prep work so the top-flight
scientists could have a look after their meeting, and so they began the analysing
sweeps of the remains of the vehicle.
Plastics from this period were inert, and were not biodegradable so would
remain around in the soil or water for centuries. These clues would only give the
shape, and some of the operational components of the vehicles used in that
period, but little else.
It was the finding of fragments of dry dust inside the sealed glass containers
inside the vehicle that were of great interest as these would be classed as pure
since no outside soil or other contaminates could have diluted or altered its
makeup.
What the powder was had yet to be proven, but it was organic in origin and of
course the possibility it could contain DNA of a long dead being was quite
exciting to these junior doctors to begin to work on, and to do the preparation
for the real experts to work on while they waited for the samplers out on the
planet to return with more samples.
This could potentially be a major discovery in this project.

There Are More Questions Than Answers


The samplers had been dispatched to sites marked out on grid maps, starting
with what was thought to be the easiest pickings first, so this would get all the
labs up and running at the same time, the rest of the sampler teams sent to more
remote, less obvious sites which had still registered as sites of interest on the
sweeps made by the target drones.
The sampler would stop at the corner of a selected site, sample soil contents
looking for minute traces of anomalies, including changes to the natural soil
deposits, as say a fire or burning would have done. It would make a block of 40
micro boreholes to various depths in a square pattern, each hole about a
centimetre apart, move to the adjacent square, then repeat, and repeat, metre by
metre across the whole site till all the soil in that site had been accurately tested,
analysed, recorded, and the analysis sent to the complex to assess the data.
The scientists would analyse these preliminary soil searches, and compile grid
addresses of areas that would need further and more complex investigation,
possibly with some of the real experts becoming hands on and doing some real
digging, that way being able to better target the evidence they were looking for.
Back on the complex, the senior staff had begun to hydrate the dry samples
found in the car, a lengthy procedure as the ratio of water to sample was an
unknown quantity and there was not a great deal of each sample to work with if
they got it wrong. Every few drops of water added was given time to blend, and
then Spectron-analysed to check on its progress on its journey back to its
original state.
This vehicle, known then as a car, had been analysed and tested. This vehicle
had two seats in the front, and a small cargo area in the back, so it was classed in
the historical record as a van, an internal combustion engine had been in the
front. One of the front seats had been occupied.
Other ghosts of items had been found in the cargo area of this van which were
also of great interest, mostly well decayed metallic objects, and some traces of
fragments of material, the experts working on trying to establish what these
were and what their use would have been.
Piece by piece, as the artifacts came in and were minutely analysed, a picture
would emerge, some items that were originally puzzling would eventually click
into the correct place in an overall picture, and possibly provide the link with
other data information to form real potential evidence. Repeat this many times a
day and gradually the data compiled starts to make sense.
Conjecture would then become fact, then these facts would be worked on to
produce proven facts, till eventually, the truth emerges. That’s the theory behind
how the project worked, but sometimes, there is a spanner that gets thrown into
the works, and some of these spanners are massive.
Not all the planet Earth was a devastated wasteland. There were ruins of many
structures, what were places of abode and places to do business, all centralised
as they would be in the ancient towns and cities. It was understood that these
ancestors had supply chains of the necessary requirements, and were quite
civilized, up to the Sunglow Point.
Some teams were sent to these built up areas too, and finds that required
special examination from these areas were plentiful, though most of the remains
of normal proven household items were left in situ, should the planet ever
become a massive museum, if found safe to ever make it one.
As the weeks went on, more and more data was gathered and added to the
mainframe, a lot of the run of the mill, day to day data taking less time to process
than the finds which needed special examination.
More areas of special interest were being discovered daily, including
underground caverns, where the remains found here needed to be dated
accurately, as these were used by mankind as dwellings for many centuries, and
like the normal burial areas which were earthed up when full to take another
layer, these could contain remains spread over many thousands of years. The
carbon spectrum analysers on site weren’t accurate enough to get the exact
dates, they could get to about a hundred years or so, but the scanners in use up
in the labs were and could almost go to the hour in accuracy.
Some small anomalies would show up in the surveys, like finding remains of
types of bridges, the metal ones already collapsed to the ground as oxidized dust,
the remnants of some of the stone ones still in evidence but nothing could be
found for them to span over, no rivers, no gorges, the land around them
appearing to be level. Though not of a priority nature, this would be investigated
later, possibly with the effect of erosion.
Hundreds of other straightforward investigations were being processed daily,
the results added to the database without problem, and a lot of the special
interest investigations were resolved within a couple of days, filling in gaps in
the education of the scientific community.
However, some items were labelled Of Very Special Interest, and required even
more detailed investigation. These were segregated and all ended up in
laboratories 91 to 95, housed in an isolated part of the complex, these highly
specialist sections having much more accurate testing equipment, and with
massive floorspaces inside these labs, large enough to accommodate complete
items which were brought into these parts of the complex through floor lifts.
These labs were always considered to be the fun one to work in, the most
interesting, but always the most frustrating, especially when things didn’t add
up.

When Two Plus Two Equals Six


It all started when the soil found around one of the human remains seemed odd,
different. Out of place really, so the whole soil sample was sent to Special Interest.
They did all the tests they could, but still couldn’t solve an annoying riddle as to
why certain chemical elements were present in the sample, elements that should
not have been there.
The team sent a message out to the sampling squads in that area to retrieve
more of the soils samples, working a larger area, and to a greater depth, these
being analysed in order as they came in. A pattern seemed to be emerging from
the data. These unusual elements were present in a circle, about a metre across,
and evenly distributed throughout. That was what should not have been.
These elements were from the super heavy end of the periodic table, heavy
metals, that could only have been formed at ultra-high temperatures, higher than
that of the inside of the sun.
Speculation and theory were now being bandied about at every lunch table, rest
room, and coffee bar as to where these elements could possibly have come from,
and how?
Could this be the first evidence found for the fabled occurrence of the legendary
Sunglow, was it now taken from legend to reality. Did it really happen?
Two of the elements detected within these samples were very rare, and could
only be created in extremely special conditions, and would only be stable long
enough, nanoseconds, making it very hard for them to be detected due to their
rapid decay of the atomic structures. However, it left identifiable markers.
The elements were both highly unstable and this increased the speculation,
adding fuel to the belief that the Sunglow must have really happened all those
years ago.
Because of the extreme importance of their mission here, the samples were sent
to the 91-95 complex for extreme analysis, the analysers recalibrated to detect
these heavier metals at lower concentrations, and what is their exact ratio in
relation to each other. All scientific stuff.
Some of the outside sampler teams were given new targets to find these trace
elements, reprogramming their scanning equipment to detect the presence of
these anomalies. They were to collect and send everything found in their target
areas to 91-95, after mapping shape and depth of these very special samples.
For the first two days or so, the information was being gathered, and then
processed into solid data, which was then fed to mainframe. Only then did the
team see patterns emerging, but not expected patterns.
Something wasn’t right.
Somewhere in their previous beliefs the Sunglow was a general, planet wide
Sunglow. These findings indicated this was something totally different.
The excitement levels were rising throughout the complex.
Dave scheduled a meeting of his senior staff in the conference room for the latest
update, and a discussion on the next steps to needed to take. Quite a few anomalies
seem to have cropped up on this dig that were not expected, and he needed
everybody to be up to speed on the findings so far.
“Gooday to you all”, he said, looking at the faces of his assembled staff. They
murmured a muffled reply,
“Today, I will dispense with the usual pleasantries, as what I must announce
goes far beyond anything we expected, and, if proven, will cast doubt on what we
believe happened, and put a whole new understanding of what really happened
here on this planet.”
“To begin, one of the major finds as you know, was the concentration of the
heavy metals, elements that should not be here, at all, ever.”
“This is not the only unusual anomaly. These deposits have been found as
residues in the soils, each forming perfect circles, and each approximately one
metre in diameter, but found at uneven intervals, patches really, so not creating a
recognisable pattern across the landscape, but specifically targeted at certain
things or items.”
“This would not happen in a real Sunglow, as a Sunglow would be completely
indiscriminate, and would wipe out everything, and the patterns would be
uniform throughout.”
“No, these heat signatures seemed to have been targeted at something, and were
extremely effective, as the next item of my talk will explain.”
“The disturbing evidence found within these circular patterns were bones of our
ancestral forefathers, sometimes in a group, sometimes solo, but always there
inside the circles.”
“This would lead us to believe that this was the result of people turning on
people, genocide, ethnic cleansing, whatever you would like to call it. However,
there is one major flaw with this theory.”
“At no time in our history and at no time since have the people of this planet right
through our evolution to ourselves ever had the capability to make any weapons
of the type that must have been used here”.
“We are currently much further advanced than they ever were, and we, even
now, have no idea how to produce this kind of effective weaponry that could do
this, and that, my friends, is what is bothering me.”
“The power needed to generate these chemical elements in an instant would be
astronomic, like that of the inside of a super nova, but would need to be highly
focused, a sort of super powered laser, the device used to deliver it would need to
be very, very large, and would be very heavy indeed.”
“The remains of our ancestors have proved with evidence that they lived the
way we thought they did, they lived as we expected, up until about the last fifty
years or so. Prior to that last period, they lived and died as we had expected,
exactly as we had been taught”.
“However, for the last few years or so they did not.”
“The accurate timescale evidence currently being compiled means we are now
able to deduce from this new evidence that what happened here was a different
story from the one we have all been taught. It showed evidence of a huge
catastrophe. Something went seriously wrong, but there is still no evidence or
artefact remains of people ever turning on each other. This was yet another
branch of the investigations to be followed up later.”
“The thought of one person turning on the other still looks somehow unlikely,
as almost all of the bones found were that of males. There are very few female
skeletal remains found, and this would have the effect of extinction of the race,
which brings up the question of where did our colonies come from without them?”
“There are still lots of unanswered questions to which we know we need the
answers, and I know in time, I am confident we will find these answers, and soon.”
Speak of the Devil……

Throughout the next few weeks, the samples kept coming, and the analysis
continued, the subsequent data slowly expanding and bridging the gaps in the
knowledge, or to confirm previously graded findings, having the effect of moving
more and more data into the hallowed proven files, and deemed as proven fact.
A very detailed history was taking shape of the Earth record, how those
ancestors lived, what they did in their day to day existence, how they died and
what they died of, what happened to the body, the whole life cycle, each piece of
information slowly building up like a three-dimensional jigsaw of life on Earth up
to their year 2042 onwards.
From around that time in their history, things started to change, and then the
remains of all animal life mysteriously vanishing without a trace by around 2054
in the artefact record. The lower orders of other animals on the planet, those
deemed to be of lesser intellect as the then human, coming down from larger
primates of apes, monkeys and more, right down to tiny marsupials. Even sea
mammals like whales, dolphins vanished.
They were not preyed on by the human ancestors because of a lack of available
food, as was first thought due to the catastrophe that had befallen them. A
further major discovery also dogged this theory.
These mammal remains were also found in circles of these heavy metals, the
same as the human remains. This pointed to a possibility that they all died
around the same time from the same thing. Though difficult to test the marine
animals and their remains, this theory added weight to the Sunglow belief, but
the real evidence on the ground did not. More work to be done.
One specialist archeology team were actively studying the ancient sciences
used at the time by the Earth population, what they knew, trying to learn how
they managed to develop their knowledge of space travel very quickly, allowing
them to get to habitable planets as colonists before the Sunglow hit, and would
any of the solar outer planets survive the effect of a Sunglow anyway. That was
for a later archeology dig sometime in the future.
At present, these specialists were concentrating on what scientific equipment
was held in the many ruins of what were buildings that were designed or built
either for use as scientific or medical centres, rebuilding the plan and operation
of each of the machines from what were basically rust maps, as this was about all
that remained, to full operational copies.
What they were used for was sometimes more difficult to work out without
using them, but, in time they would be able to piece together quite a lot of data
needed to answer the questions for the operation of any medical machines
discovered.
They were highly successful in solving these little puzzles, and, as the data base
filled with facts, they could cross reference, and prove the operation of these
machines. This line of investigation worked fine, with only one exception.
This machine was an unusual shape, and resembled a scanner, but the patient
was a distance away from what was deemed to be the scanner head, and a body
would not fit inside the machine as it was solid with electronics.
Most of the real machine had gone, being the steel, iron and ferrous metal
bases rusting away a long time ago. The inert metals, gold, silver platinum was
still there still connected to remains of circuit boards.
It was inside the body of the surviving part of the unit, and lead lined, they
found a cylindrical tube of unknown origin, sealed at both ends, and intact, still in
pristine condition.
Was this a power source, a kind of battery or capacitator?
The metal used on this cylinder could not be scanned through fully, but it
appeared that it did contain something, though of what they could not tell, the
scan merely showing a shadowy outline.
It took quite some time to find out how to open it, as it had to be done inside a
quarantine chamber as it could contain contaminated air, and the remote
handling equipment was still not as good as the feel with the fingers, even if
wearing gloves.
One end came off eventually, and the robot arm was moved into position to
extract the contents. It retracted, and pulled out a scroll, a large one, written in
pictogram form on a material based paper.
This find could be big in this dig, so every care was taken to unroll the scroll to
perhaps glimpse its content, slowly unrolling it and fixing to the table gently with
holding points to keep it open. Inside each scroll was another, and another.
The overhead cameras and scanners were recording everything that was
revealed, zooming for greater detail, and storing it as data ready to analyse later,
after the reveal was over. Copies being sent to the ship above, and to their home
world, though it would be days before it got there due to the distance away.
The popularity of this dig was becoming a must-see television program at
home, the popularity growing daily into a type of reality programme, which, it
really was.
As these scrolls were unfurled, there appeared to be a form of writing on it,
and what appeared to be a set of diagrams.
The scrolls were opened and fixed in the pattern and order they were
unwrapped, each fixed flat to the table.
Could this be the legendary scroll mentioned in all the historical records that
changed humanity, this ancient artefact that started the civil war of old.
Unlike the people of that ancient time who would need years to make sense of
the drawings and diagrams, the archeologists here in the complex could scan,
analyse, translate and if necessary, 3D print whatever was on the plans within
hours.
Unfortunately, as this could contain unknown or unwanted technology, with
unknown consequences, the team would have to seek permission from the home
planet to proceed as they had to do with any experimental testing, and this could
take up to a week to receive. They could, however use the time to manufacture
the component parts, just not assemble them.
Each could be activated, and tested individually to attempt to find out its
purpose, how and why it did what it did, and where it fitted in the build of the
machine. As far as the home planet were concerned, they were just getting ahead
of the game, and the normal testing of the artefacts on the planet were still going
on and keeping the data stream still being transmitted anyway.
Back to the mundane for the time being.
…….And He Will Appear

The discoveries were still coming in, and being processed, though less and less
of a shock each time, all the new data being added to the new historical record
when everything had been proven.
In the main, the people of this planet lived as the original records had said.
They had houses, they worked as a community, and they were humane,
organised, and sociable. To go from this to cruel, maniacal, power crazed animals
in a few short years seemed beyond belief.
The record was almost complete up to about 2042, and some of the normal
lifestyles carried on beyond that time, the changes seemed to be based more on
the geographical location of the archeological remains rather than one sudden
change, as would happen in a Sunglow, spreading from one point, outwards.
This moved the theory and the understanding of the events away from the long
believed original Sunglow theory, and to a more gradual but still rapid change.
This could explain the remnants of live people and animals covering a twelve-
year period of rapid decline before vanishing altogether from the record., and
where had all the women gone?
This gave the scientific community some real work to do. Nowhere was there a
definitive reason for this decline. There was no trigger, no disease, no chemical
or atmospheric variations. Nothing.
In the meantime, the nineties laboratories, those numbered 91 to 95,
manufactured the parts shown on the scrolls, piece by piece, testing each piece
or circuit as they went.
Lots of it were saddles of cables, connections on printed circuit boards, large
numbers of what looked like super capacitors, acting like a type of battery and a
few inline rectifiers that were used to smooth out any fluctuations in current in
the flow, none of which seemed to be anything special, parts that could belong to
an office photocopier or other similar electronic device found everywhere.
Some of the manufactured pieces were parts that the scientists had no idea
what their function was, but could follow the plan to put them into the correct
place should the permit come through. They remained a mystery for now.
As the last of the pieces came off the printer, numbered, they were put in the
packages till required.
The permit came through containing the usual order to proceed with extreme
caution clauses, and a guarantee to keep the home planet in the loop.
The labs were buzzing with excitement at the prospect of trying to make an
ancient plan work with an equally ancient design machine with an unknown
purpose.
The pieces were assembled as the plan had instructed, the last sections
appearing to be solar power collection units, so this device could be used away
from any power grids. It was large, and had it been made of the materials used in
the original casings, extremely heavy. The manufactured plastic polymer
replacements were much lighter, especially the casings, but still made it difficult
to move.
A set of dolly frames and wheels were built into the bottom of each of the
segments which made up the body of the machine. Each of these segments could
be wheeled and plugged into each other to connect all the sections into one unit.
The thinking behind this design change was that when the purpose of its
function was established, if it could be of use on the home planet, it could be
dismantled and moved quickly, in sections, in the landing crafts, and up to the
ship for transport home on their return.
When all the pieces were connected, and the instruction manual translated, the
time had come to switch it on and test it.
The instructions from the machine asked for target coordinates of some
distant object be input, or focused upon using the inbuilt optical sensor to enable
the machine to calibrate for the first time. The one suggested by the machine as a
possible target was Mars, so the coordinates had already been input into the
machine.
The next step was to place an object on the scanner platform, on a seat. A plant
pot, complete with plant, was placed on the position indicated, and the machine
fired.
The scientists were wishing against hope that this would be a matter transfer
machine, the current ones on the home world could only be used for short
distance cargo loading, and these machines were incompatible with live tissue.
That was one of the limitations of molecular transfer that had never been solved.
The pot vanished, and the machine reset itself. The pot was gone, but there
was no proof of where it went. Time for a more accurate test.
Recording the coordinates on Mars again of where this machine indicated it
had put the experimental plant pot, a probe, fully functional, was placed in the
machine, and it was fired again. The probe vanished, and seconds later the
orbiting ship above contacted to say it was receiving the homing signal from the
probe, and it was coming from the exact location of the coordinates given on
Mars.
They decided not to fire it any more, for their safety and that of the complex, so
it was dismantled back into its sections, and together with the plans replaced in
their original tube, sent up to the ship above for transport to the home world,
where the tests could be done in better, and more controlled conditions.
It was strange that the ancient ancestors had access to a machine like this,
their technology was poor by comparison with now, so they were almost
heathen when it came to technology till they found the scroll, and it appeared at
first glance that they hadn’t used it a great deal.
The dig carried on as usual for the next three weeks, evidence coming in from
the dig sites still in operation, and everything seemed to be proceeding as
normal, till a message came from the ship above for Dave.
“Sir, we are picking up a fast-moving object approaching our position from
outside the solar system.”
“Any idea what it can be?”, asked Dave, “Any details at all?”
“Well Sir, it’s not a random object. It is powered, and appears to be being
driven, and it’s on a collision course with Earth”
“How long before it gets here?”. Dave was getting concerned,
“At current speed, though it should slow down once it gets into the solar
system for its own safety, about 60 hours or so, give or take 10 hours.”
There were strict protocols which governed situations like this. The complex
on the planet was not armed defensively, but the ship above had an armory of
defenses, and with the life of the crew and staff as the utmost priority, evacuation
was the next protocol.
The order was given, and the samplers were quickly recalled and returned to
the labs, the crew pods filled in orderly, but quick fashion, and then detached
from the outer walls of the complex and returned to the ship.
As there was time to do it, the labs were sealed individually, and the complex
split into its sections, all returning up to the ship. Sensors were left, out of sight
in the foliage on the planet, just in case.
By the time the 60 hours had elapsed, only slight depressions in the ground
indicated they had been there, and the ship withdrew to a safe distance till this
object, and the motive of its appearance was known. Hopefully they had not been
detected.
Somehow, Dave thought these visitors may not be too friendly, so they hid the
ship behind the moon and watched the scene develop. They had disturbed
something ancient, and the Horses of The Apocalypse were coming on to the
stage. Now was not the time to fight, but to hide and observe, after all, that’s
what they did, gather intelligence and information.

Observe and Report


Dave had ordered the placement of passive as well as active sensors on the
planet surface while they monitored the approach of this craft to wait and see
what developed. Motion activated camera sensors were also deployed in the
more likely areas of their visit, and where the crew had the most evidence of
their visit to hide.
A long range optical sensor relay array was positioned on the moon facing the
Earth to receive and relay the signal to the ship, where it would be recorded, in
ultra-high definition, any pictures that could be seen if any of the sensors were
triggered.
It was now a waiting game.
The craft approached the Earth, slowing down to take up an orbital position,
and remained there. It appeared they had not been detected.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, the craft held the orbit for a few rotations,
then after about four hours, small craft started to detach from the outer
bodywork and set out down to the planet surface.
Dave ordered the starting up of the planet wide sensors, and the recorders
were running, adopting the same procedures they would use when monitoring a
warring conflict in the colonies, the evidence collected could then be used in the
Universal Laws of proving who attacked who, and what they did.
These small craft from the alien ship approached different points within a
small area and started to move over the surface in threes, using an overlapping
triangular pattern to cover all the ground beneath. They repeated this sweep,
methodically searching in a pattern, looking for something, and for a while
whatever they were seeking evaded them.
What were they looking for? The machine they had made and used, or its parts,
or even the plan scroll had been removed. Only the rust map of the original
remained in situ.
They seemed to concentrate their search around where the complex had been,
but they were not scanning for buildings, as ruins were all over their area, no,
they were looking for something specific.
Dave thought it might be an idea to do a sort of archeology scan on their
mother ship, to see what was in there, and how many crew it had. To use the
archeology scanners would not attract attention because the frequencies used
were much lower in the scale than normal scanners which allowed them to
penetrate deeper into rock than other scanning equipment would reveal, and
these frequencies would be more difficult to detect or establish their source.
Similar frequencies existed naturally in space, so the crew were hoping that the
scans might be misinterpreted as these natural waves.
The results of the alien ship scans revealed some amazing results.
They were empty of life, nothing organic was detected.
They were automatic and electronically isolated robotic droids. No pilot, no
navigator, and not in receipt of instructions from elsewhere, or transmitting any
information either.
From the space debris found across its hull, the samplers could date this craft
as many millennia old, possibly older than this solar system. A real relic.
So, why was it here, and what was it going to do while it was here.
The answer came shortly afterwards, as from the planet below a flash came. A
very bright one, but a very short one. The sensors recorded that this flash was
hot enough to, and would, create the heavy metals found on the planet in those
circular markings. So, what just happened?
Dave ordered the optical scanners to take off and look at where the flash had
come from, the locality being easy to find due to the foliage around was still
burning from the heat.
They found the area, but not the reason, so Dave sent instructions for a drone
to be sent from the nearest active sensor to investigate.
A dangerous move as this could alert the visitors to another presence there,
and could escalate and blow their cover. They had to take the risk though.
The drone reached the flash site and started to scan the soil where foliage had
once been and it didn’t take long to find remains of what looked like a cooked rat,
still steaming, on the ground.
The drone collected it, and took it to one of the active sensors, where it was
scanned, identified as an unknown species, analysed, and recorded, the data sent
to the ship
Over the next few hours, there were more flashes, and drones were sent out
collecting the remains, the active sensor arrays giving information that these
were all the same species of mammal.
A match alert kept appearing in the files when this mammal species
information was being input and recorded. Data they apparently already had in
the system, their data having almost the same DNA as the dead mammals being
entered.
It appears that the red dust samples found in the car, and rehydrated to as near
the original fluid as possible were not human, but that of an early ancestor of
these small mammals. The conclusion drawn from this discovery, and the
location of the evidence found was that these small mammals were in an
experimental base, possibly underground, and therefore protected from what
went on above, kept away from any infections to use for experimental or medical
procedures, escaping or expanding from there after the catastrophe of the other
mammals, to inhabit a predator free planet.
Their DNA recorded a marked increase in evolution between the red dust
samples, and the remains of the small mammals, but proved to be of the same
species. They were not rodents, though looked like them.
Now the team knew where these mammals had come from, they needed to find
out why the robotic craft were killing them, because it was almost certain that
this could also have been the demise of humanity, and the mammal classification
all those years ago. The question now is why?
Time to go on the offensive.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth

Dave sat with his team around the large table in the conference room,
discussing the possibilities of what they think their next move should be.
So far, they had remained undetected by the alien ship, and for some unknown
reason, down on the planet their autobots were also being ignored. Their sensor
arrays were ignored, as were the drones which kept flying. These alien craft
seemed to ignore all the technical machinery, but target and eliminate live
animals. This was strange programming, as the alien craft didn’t seem to
recognise them as a hazard or investigate where these drones had originated.
The only way to examine this programming would be to enter the ship, though
to do so yet would be dangerous and foolish, while its running.
The team had been charged to come up with ideas of how this thing could be
stopped without actual physical contact, or revealing their covert location, as it
was created to wipe out mammals, and the crew were all mammals.
They knew this alien ship and its small craft needed to be stopped, and
stopped permanently before they wiped out the Earths current mammals, but,
they wanted to find out why it did what it did. To blast it into pieces would be no
good. It had to be captured and disabled, then studied. After all this may not be
the only one in the Universe, and the ability to gain the advantage against a
terminator like this one would be huge.
First, the team needed to establish what triggered their appearance here at
Earth, and why it came?
What was their final objective, and, on completion, who did they report to?
Could it be stopped long enough to dismantle without alerting others that may
exist out there?
These were the first plans of action to take into consideration, but they were
no means the only plans. The team knew the alien ship had to be stopped, but not
by destroying it, as an all-out attack could trigger those super heat weapons to be
turned on them, and that would be the end of everything, including them.
This attack needed to be subtle, almost sly, sneaking in through the back-door
type of action, unseen and undetected till it was too late.
This is where an archeological survey ship had the advantage over a fighting
ship. Their ship possessed the ability to find out everything about the alien ship
without going anywhere near it, by running a series of targeted scans, scanning it
as they would a site, and, with a little bit of scientific analysis, they should be able
to calculate some system of how to control it remotely, and all this while staying
undetected.
The team had come up with a plan, and it was now time to go on the offensive,
but passively. Somewhere in there was the Achilles Heel, and they had to find it
using their superb knowledge of interpreting sensor information, and using
every sensor available on their ship to detect anything and everything they could
about the alien ship. This was totally different from their normal work, and, in a
way, they had welcomed the challenge.
The masses of sensors were directed towards the alien ship, to assess every
piece on information that could be gleaned from it. The data collected came in at
speed, and within a day, a full data model of its workings was known. It was now
up to the electrical and computer experts to find out how to override the
programming of the alien ship.
The first change on the agenda was to get the alien ship to recall all the craft
doing their murderous business down on the planet, and then put the whole ship
to sleep long enough to disconnect its power supply. It would then be towed to a
safe place near the home world, and the physical part of it dismantled, leaving
the computer processors switched on and intensely studied to discover who or
what made it, and why did it do what it did, but would be physically unable to do
it.
It was surprisingly easy to access the control system of the alien ship, but a lot
harder to make sense of it, even the ships translators needing time to work out
the algorithms and syntax of the resident language.
The boffins had worked out that the alien ship took simple instructions from
some distant remote location, and the signal received activated this robotic
terminator ship, so they had discovered the input method for their fix being
delivered. What they had to try to do is tell it that their mission was now
complete, and for the killing craft to return to the ship, then await further
instructions.
Only then could they shut it down, and remove all its power sources. This
would have to be done by droid till it was basically dead as it might reactivate if
it detected a human or any other animal near.
The experts started to write the software codes needed to operate the
sequences for the shutdown, working 24 hours a day till they had them all
In the meantime, they continued to scan the alien ship for signals created by
the banks of processers to try to work out which signal controlled which action,
then when the coded signals were sent from the laboratory ship to shut it down,
they could monitor the reaction of the system to see if the instructions were
being followed correctly.
All this covert monitoring would be needed when they started their sneaky
attack.
The mood of the people on the ship seemed to change. They were taking it
personally.
And now, it’s time to put it together.
They were ready. It was make or break time. The mood on the ship was that of
an army going to war.
The first signal to be sent was to make the craft listen, a sort of switch it’s ears
on, or however it listened.
The signal had to be bounced off other planet or moon bodies so to make it
appear the signal came from a different direction from where they were.
The startup signal of the sequence was given, and now they waited.
The staff monitoring the internal workings reported that the signal had been
received, but it did not send a reply. They went to the next phase.
The sensors on the planet reported that the firing below had stopped, and
these craft were flying up towards the mothership above. So far so good.
They watched from their hiding place as the terminator craft reattached
themselves and locked into their positions. The staff monitoring the changes in
the alien ships electronic system could see the ship sensors recognising each
terminator as it locked in. They then watched as the systems started to shut
down, with only the communication nodes remained active. So far, so good.
Dave decided to let it remain in this state for a while, and monitor any changes
in case signals were being received from elsewhere that were undetectable by
them, and it could start up again, unexpectedly.
This gave them some time and enabled the mechanical experts to design, and
complete the build of the drones needed for the next phase.
The next few days were very quiet by comparison, as they shut down the craft
undetected, and removed all the power from the actuators, leaving the
computing core in an electronic coma till it could be examined properly when
they returned to the home planet. With the shutdown of this craft, it was mission
accomplished.
Unfortunately, their Earth mission was not. There were many loose ends to tie
up before they could wind up the dig, and head home, so, only the remote
scanners, and a few diggers returned to the planet, returning to the ship each
night, sampling the newly made heavy metals against the ancient deposits found
earlier, and samples of some of the foliage that had been scorched by these
weapons from the alien ships to see if they could find out information from the
flora as well as the fauna, if they could find any undamaged samples of mammals.
Traps were set, and these reclusive, intelligent animals were very difficult to
track and trap, but they did collect a few for analysis. They did not seem
frightened of humans, as the crew were probably the first ones they had
encountered, but the planet was not overrun by them, or any other species, so
something must be keeping their numbers in control.
Another question for another time, as they had been instructed to concentrate
on the human story, the home planet was not interested in stories of small furry
mammals, even though in the youth of the Earth, the first mammals were not
dissimilar.
The last of the samples were taken, and last scans of the landscape also taken,
then everything was brought back up to the ship. There was little more they
could find out here.
Dave was annoyed that the results of this study were not complete. Something
was missing, or were they missing something?
They dispatched the towing vessel pulling the alien craft towards their home,
and, once it was safely on its way, the crew started the final filing, testing,
sorting, preserving, and generally gleaning the last snippets of information.
Dave sat with his team in the conference suite, trying to work their way
through everything they had discovered, making sure all the evidence had been
checked out, and filed through to proven evidence.
Most of it slotted together like a good jigsaw, and most of the picture was now
revealed. There were odd pieces missing, which could be assumed closely to
what probably happened, and close enough to be accepted as fact.
Unfortunately, there were some large holes in the record. Information that
could not be filled in by conjecture, and it was these that were being discussed in
the conference room now.
They started with the bones of the ancestors that had been found and
analysed. At first glance, everything was deemed as normal, until they were
classified. Up to 2049/2051, everything was as expected. It was after that date
period that things started to change, and become confused and unclear.
The population of the area where the dig had taken place had been selected
because it was a high-density area, what was known in those days as a city,
chosen to try to gain data from a full cross-section of society as it was in those
days. The fossil record found in the dig produced very few skeletal remains per
square kilometre from about 2053 onward, at first thought to be due to the
alleged cannibalism and mass murders they had believed happened, with people
fleeing for their lives, but as the historic record showed, this could not be
because there were no remains of the alleged killed victims either, and none of
the remains that were found showing any sign of trauma on their skeletons other
than the heavy metal residue.
So, anomaly number one, what happened to the people, or at least, their
remains?
On closer analysis, the remains that were found were almost all male, and of
advanced age. Very few female archeological remains of any kind were found in
that area, in that period, and those that were discovered were also of a senior
age, or late in their life. Had the murderous cannibals took the females first as
they would be weaker, and easier to overcome?
Once again, none of the female remains that were found showed any sign of
trauma either, just this heavy metal residue.
Had these alien craft arrived and kidnapped them all, possibly into slavery, but
this would be unlikely, as then the colonies, including all the way up to
themselves, would not have come into being.
So, anomaly number two, where were the remains of the women?
These two anomalies were the most puzzling, but there were many others that
needed investigation.
The discovered remains of the males and females also were not only in their
senior years, but most suffering from the known degenerative diseases which
would afflict them at that period.
So, where did the young men, and most of the women go?
The pieces are coming out of the box.

The senior scientists had discussed these findings many times before while
they were adding the data to the database, and had each come up with many
different possibilities, each discounted one by one as the new evidence came in.
They all agreed however on one possibility, but it could not be proven, or not
yet.
The scientists had built as an experiment, a fully operational matter transfer
machine from an assumed alien plan. Was the plan really of alien origin?
They know the people of Earth built one, they had found the remains of it but
had no proof it was ever used. Could the Earth occupants have used it to flee the
alien killing machines?
One of the questions outlined in their original remit of this dig was how did the
Earth people learn to move to other planets so quickly, having no lightspeed
capability? Could this be the answer? More to the point, how would they know
where they could go, and arrive at wherever they chose, safely?
This was going to be one of the more difficult questions to try to seek the
answer.
Dave thought that some of the clues must lie somewhere within the machine,
in its data banks, and somehow built into the guidance programme. This would
be the only way the ancients would find out what was out there beyond the Solar
System, and safe to go to.
Would it be possible to retrieve this kind of data, or at least some of it, from
the original machine, or what remained of it, and replicate it into the rebuild.
The electronic remains of the original would possess a kind of data footprint
all over its parts, of what was stored there, and provided there had not been a
major magnetic interference, it could be slowly located and retrieved. Whether it
would be of use would remain to be seen, but worth a try. These files they were
looking for would have a lot of location references in the stream, so this data was
targeted first.
The copy machine was reassembled down in the 91-96 area as this had the
highest level of security, and they had strict instructions that it must not, under
any circumstances be fired, then the salvaged data gradually fed into it.
From this location data, they could find about ten or so used destinations
locations in the database, ones of regular and repeated use, the list of one offs
possibly would have been unsuitable. It did make Dave wonder how they tested
the results for the unsuitable ones.
Comparing this with their vague known list of early colony locations, they had
a match with only two of the ten or so targets discovered in the original machine.
It could only be assumed that the other eight destination colonies failed for
unknown reasons. This would be another dig, at another time.
Would it be worth visiting these planets perhaps, if they still existed, and see
what could be gleaned from them? What could they find there that might help
them understand what really happened to Earth, and its people.
Their employers on the home planet thought this was the correct thing to do to
further the investigation, so the ship was instructed to check out some of the
ones that were not listed as colonies as well as the known and listed ones. Did
the colonies fail through natural causes, or were they attacked again?
If there was a mechanical terminator race out there, it needs to be found, for all
their safety.
The last of the equipment that had been to Earth was brought up, made sterile,
and stored away, ready to be used again at wherever they arrived.
Once everything was locked down and safe, the ship was taken out of Earth
orbit, and on its way to the nearest coordinates given to investigate. This one
was deemed to be one of the failed colonies. It was also the nearest.
As they entered the star system of this first port of call, it was immediately
evident why the colony would have not lasted long.
A dying star sat at the centre, and working the timescales backwards to the
period under scrutiny, any planets inside this area would have been swallowed
up by the red giant very soon after the time of colonisation, so the coordinates
database were out of date, and this destination was not safe. One could only hope
they carried one of these machines with them and were able to move to another
base if they had the time.
While still a sad result, they still had to move on, and visit the next known
location, once again, another failed or deserted colony, but as they approached
this system, the location looked intact.
As they were a fully functional archeological survey ship, they started scanning
as they entered the system, and the data analysis commenced almost
immediately
The planet was a desert planet now, after all this time, and, as far as they could
tell, currently uninhabited.
A full scale archeological dig was authorised, and once again, the modules were
sent to the surface and set up, the labs then activated.
Over a period of about a month, the crew could plot most of the history of what
had been a thriving colony, its start date, which converted to around Earth year
2053 and remained occupied up to about Earth year 2280, when severe climate
change slowly took the atmosphere and then the liquid water. Why it was
deemed to be a failed colony was not accurate.
No evidence was found of anything living, other than lots of plants, prior to the
colonists’ arrival. That’s not to say that anything had never lived there before, it’s
just they never found any evidence to prove it.
Judging by the evidence collected, it appeared that the colonists, possibly
hiding from the possibility of attacks like those suffered on Earth, became
reclusive and protectionist, the analysis of their technology, and weaponry
indicated this, as did remains found during the dig. They would most likely have
not had any communication with the other colonies, as, in those days it was very
difficult without the right technology to send messages, if there were other
colonies in the vicinity, people who went to other locations on the matter
transfer machine.
On the upside, most of their history was recorded, and not all digitally saved.
Paper was still widely in use, so some time was spent scan reading the written
word into the computer. Digital copies were taken by the ship, copies sent to the
home world for their archive.
They had light speed technology in their later existence, and it seemed evident
that other colonies did start to visit from time to time, which pointed towards a
kind of trade relationship as landing pads were found, storage units, that sort of
thing.
It was possible, and now thought likely, that before the planet finally dried up,
the colonist could travel in ships to some of the other colonies throughout the
universe.
There was no sign of a matter transfer machine anywhere, so it was assumed
they never had the plan, or a copy machine. They were left to develop and evolve
as they should, as all the colonies should.
The history of this colony could be documented accurately, though it wasn’t
particularly special in any way, it did add weight to what was deemed to be
normal for life in their period. It was still added to the main database as they
travelled to other colonies in the group, some long abandoned, some still thriving
but living a different style of life, and different objectives, but still sharing their
history.
The passage of the colonist movement unfolded slowly, revealing what had
happened to the Earth people.
They sent the women and children first, followed by men, and any adults who
were capable of breeding, a cross section of each being sent to the known sites,
sending them in rapid succession, like a production line. A mass, planet wide
exodus. Why did this happen, and what was the trigger to make humanity
abandon its own home.
The remains found on the locations of the first colonies they checked so far
had all started to appear at the same time, light years apart, but some dated
within a day.
This proved that they were using the matter transfer machine on an industrial
scale, moving millions of people, in what appeared to be over a timescale of nine
to ten months. Why so quick? What had threatened them, and how?
Maybe the next colony to visit, a one still in operation, and still in possession of
documents and stories which unfortunately may not be one hundred percent
accurate, as this is the colony where the theory of the Sunglow originated from
scant historical documentation. At best, their data could act as a guide to the
answers the archeologists required.

Seek, and Ye shall Find


They arrived at the next colony with a prepared priority list of questions that
needed answers, and some of these answers may well be easy to discover, but
some could take a full-on investigation, but at least they knew the direction to
take the enquiry.
Having had some time to study the masses of evidence collected from the
colonies visited so far, they were able to track what happened to the humans on
Earth, and how they left, yet could not solve why they forced to do what they did.
Did these kill machines attack, with a plan to wipe out the Earth, and the
people had to flee?
On the evidence they had so far, this could not be done.
It would take up to two years to evacuate the whole of the planet,
remembering that all the livestock would have to come too, and already
prepared and packed foodstuffs to see them through till first harvest.
Even if the whole population formed a queue and ran through the sender unit
one after the other, it would still take a lot more than two year, and those
terminator ships were extremely efficient, so that’s not how it happened either.
The human population who remained there when the killer machines came were
left there on purpose.
The general population must have been warned in some way a long time
before the terminators turned up, but how, and more importantly, why?
One theory suggested was that the matter transfer machine they had built
could retrieve as well as send, and the experts were checking out this possibility
in the copy machine in the 91-95 labs. Was there a reverse switch? Could people
sent out be brought back intact? How would the machine detect who went
through to enable a lock on them to be able to recall them and not some random
object at the parameters?
Maybe some answers might be found in the folklore of this colony, somewhere
in the old histories, maybe it merely needs a new interpretation, a new slant.
The lander left the ship with some of the senior team, setting down on the pad
at the transfer station positioned on the top of the headquarters of the ruling
government building, where they were met by a corps of diplomats, all
previously briefed about the purpose of their visit by the home world.
They had been informed of the seriousness of the enquiries, and the very tight
timescale at which Dave and his team were working to. The home world wanted
the answers so they could dispel the centuries of myths and legends invented
and used by power people to subjugate the masses into obedience in the
centuries past. These people, these so-called priests had held the people of the
home world, and some of the colonies back for centuries in a caste system
bordering on slavery, and it was only after a long, and bloody revolution, which
cost millions of lives, were the people free at last, to evolve and discover.
Like all revolutions, there were always those who thought the old way was the
only way, but, having been stripped of any real power, they could only object,
and attempt to awaken the old beliefs.
As time went on, they were starting to gain a foothold with this belief system,
almost by unashamed bullying, so the government decided to take direct action
and get to the bottom of it once and for all.
This was the reason for the archeological dig being sent to planet Earth, to
prove the truth once and for all, whichever way it went, and it had to be
irrefutable proof.
Proven facts so far had already dispelled most of these legends and myths, the
fact that the ancestors did not turn on each other, or turn into crazed mass
murderers, for which some god-like deity was sent to root out the sinners.
For centuries, the priest people had made the people bow down continually to
atone for their indiscretion on the ancient planet, an indiscretion that had
summoned up the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to evict them from their Eden, for
which many innocents had to die.
The real evidence proved that they did not live like the animals they were
attributed, or as heathens as the old beliefs would have it. All the evidence
gathered had shown a high degree of civilization right up till the last Earthling
was wiped out by the terminator craft.
They now knew what had happened on Earth, and where humanity went when
it left Earth, but still no proven reason why it happened. What had caused the
mass exodus of Earth.
The old archives of this current colony had been kept underground since they
were first recorded, as this world was one of extremes of weather, and the
librarians of this colony took great pains to save everything they could for as
long as they could.
The whole archive was built into a massive cave system, well below any
pollutants that may be created by the city’s evolution over time, and during the
period of the religious fervor which gripped some the other colonies, this one
being where it was in relation to the others, was affected in a much lesser degree
than most, so, for their pure protection against outside interference, the ancient
vaults were sealed, airtight, to protect the archive library from harm, and had
remained sealed to this day. The newer archives were added on adjacent to the
ancient one, and even that was sub divided as their history became more and
more complex as they evolved.
If the ancient written records were still intact, there would be so much
information to be gleaned from them, lots of history, written by the people who
really lived it, and not conjecture or supposition by those theologist ideals.
Getting the permission to enter these ancient archives to study these
documents had been difficult, as there was no way of knowing what they would
find while in there, as it was many millennia since these were open. These
colonists were reluctant not because of what might be revealed but more
concerned about any damage that could be done to this very precious priceless
archive.
Eventually, all the authorisations needed were now in place, and the
archeologists were moving the reading scanners into position at the archive
entrance to begin the process of scan reading each document, one by one, taking
care that each document was not damaged in any way, and returning it to where
it was taken from, to preserve the integrity of the archive itself, therefore
protecting the truth for posterity.
The process began in earnest, and the information started to stream up to the
ship still in orbit. This was where the experts examined the stream of
information being delivered, and gradually could then build up the picture from
when the settlers first came and colonised this planet, the way they lived when
they first arrived, which was a very hard life indeed, how they progressed, and
developed into a full culture. Detailed information had been kept of cultivation,
planting, even prices of the crops.
Of more interest to the experts was something similar to a land registry,
detailing where the colonists were distributed, depending on their talents and
qualifications. In effect, a total history of the colony from their arrival and
organisation up to the present day, the later information being digital, and easy
to upload. A real priceless find for archeologists.
However, the information needed were the stories of the pioneers, the first
people to leave Earth, the first to begin the colonisation, from the time they left
Earth, and how the mass exodus was engineered, and why?
Were there any records in existence from this very early period of
colonisation. Did anyone think at the time about making a record of what they
did? If someone had kept a record, it would be a paper written record, as it
would take the colonists quite some time to update their technology to what they
were used to, so the searchers were looking for paper, books, velum, or any other
material that could be used to write on.
They found what they were looking for in a small annex inside the vaults, away
from the normal archive, and luckily, housed in a very dry atmosphere.
There was quite a lot of it, and it would take the crew a while to sort and then
slowly scan, page by page, each folder, book, file and box contents inside this
treasure room, sometimes using a hand-held scanner where the page was not
detached, or could not be separated.
Would they find the answers to the outstanding remaining questions they had
from studying this ancient archive?

End Game
The lab 91-95 staff were quite excited.
As they had first suspected, it was possible to reverse the stream from the
machine, and bring back what was sent. The difficulty in doing this would be
non-toxic method of marking a live human so the machine could detect them
light years away.
They think they have found the answer.
Every item put through the machine received an internal identification marker,
a chemical marker which remained active for up to 6 weeks or so, and could be
detected to within a few metres of the original landing location.
People and things could go backwards and forwards from chosen locations,
meaning they could travel to potential colony sites, check them out, and return
with suitability reports.
That’s how they could avoid the unsuitable planets.
The laboratory was also able to set the transmission targeting beam wide
enough to take a roomful of people or equipment all in one go, and then move the
focus on to another room, and send them too. This could be programmed to
empty any room, in sequence, anywhere in the world at about two a second.
The exodus was now feasible. It would just need a lot of organisation, and
pinpoint timing and accuracy, but still feasible.
The archive was also revealing a lot of information from those early days, most
of which slotted directly into the gaps in the data, bringing the investigation
together.
There was one very disturbing article in the archive, written by someone while
still on Earth, which could explain not only what happened, but how the myth of
murderous people could have come about. The details were sketchy, but would
explain a great deal.
Very early on in planet selection, it appears that a team of people had travelled
to one of the sites programmed into the machine as a possible colony site, and
while there, had found a lifeform which had no method of independent
movement, and used mechanical means to propel itself across the landscape.
The human settlers made three mistakes in their suppositions in the time they
came and went from that planet.
The first was that they assumed these beings were backward technologically
speaking, as their visible lifestyle was simple and uncomplicated, almost
backward. The mistake was that these beings lived like this by choice, enabled by
the very sophisticated technology in the background, allowing them to live in
this ideal way. No stress, and nothing to worry about. Utopia.
The second mistake was thinking this race were a soft touch. Instead of moving
to the areas that the locals could not use, which was most of the planet, they
abused them. The colonists started to steal from them, bully them to a degree,
and attempt to subjugate them almost into slavery.
Then they tried to execute some of the planet dwellers as an example of the
human supposed superior power over them.
The third assumption, and by far the worst mistake they could have made, was
not investigating or considering the history of these creatures.
This race was living a life of peace because, in their past, they had been a
savage, ruthless, warring race who were now ashamed of their past, and had
engineered their evolution to breed out the war stage, even breeding out their
limbs to stop them ever doing anything like that again.
They issued a sort of general warning to these colonists that they must cease
their antisocial activities, and leave their planet alone. It was ignored. Mankind
were still arrogant back then too.
The human colony remaining there was wiped out, and those who escaped
back to Earth were tracked back to their planet following the marker back to the
matter transfer machine location. The aliens started to rebuild their defense
machines to send to Earth and wipe them out.
Earth knew they were coming!
Here was the warning to evacuate!
The alien race did not have lightspeed technology, so their arrival at Earth
would be around two years to come.
With this information, the archeological picture was almost complete, and the
Earth people had been merciless as the legends had said, but not to each other.
To a peaceful alien race, who looked defenseless.
Once the archive had been loaded into the ships database, and the total picture
of the past events now irrefutably proven, the home planet sent an urgent
message back to them.
They were to locate the planet from where these mechanical cyborgs had
originated from, and report back its status. Under no circumstances are they to
engage, or land on the surface, but scan as much as possible. If needed, the
fighting ships could be dispatched to their locality if needed.
The archeological vessel, travelling at over lightspeed, could make it inside
three weeks. Luckily for Earth, these mechanical people didn’t have light speed
capability at the time of their Earth attack, otherwise the story would have been
radically different.
They arrived in the region of space of this planet, dropped to normal speeds
and immediately started to scan their solar system as they entered.
The target planet was found to be dead, totally lifeless, and it looked like it had
been for some time. Further, deeper scans produced results of massive fighting
taking place many centuries ago, and very little remaining on the surface.
There were no broadcasts coming from it and no transmissions or
communications across it, indicating that the drone they had captured and
currently on its way to the home planet still in an electronic coma, could only
have been triggered into action by the only signal that they knew had been
emitted millennia apart, and that was the firing of the matter transfer machine. It
must have been sent the first time, to eliminate humans on Earth, and then
parked somewhere relatively near, and wait for humans to build another
machine, wherever they had gone, and give their hiding place away.
With that sitting out there, it was lucky that no one took the plans of the
machine with them, or made another matter transfer device, as humanity with
all its colonies would have been annihilated, one by one, automatically.
As the archeology ship turned to make its way back to their home planet, the
final data was now loaded into the database, and the historical documents on the
home planet were changed to the new information. The priesthood, for so many
centuries, a power of guilt and fear, was ruled illegal, and placed on statute that it
can never return.
As expected, the killer craft was activated by detecting and locating the firing
of the matter transfer machine.
Even though this matter transfer machine was efficient, it would not be used
in its current form, just in case another killer craft was still lurking out there
somewhere.
In time, modifications to it would be made, frequencies changed perhaps, but
that’s for the future.
Archeology deals with the past.

John Baxter 2018

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