Chapter No.20. Shock.

We slipped into a high orbit around the Earth-like planet and began a more thorough study of its surface.

"This planet does resemble Earth in many ways," Sharon said. "Except for the fact that it only has two large unconnected continents."

"See anything that resembles civilization?" I asked.

"Not yet, but there could be smaller clusters." Her eyes grew larger. "Wait, there is a structure near a large lake there." She pointed at the screen.

I looked at it with intense scrutiny, and that's when I realized something was not right. "That looks like one of those igloo shaped habitats we saw on the first planet we visited."

"Yeah, you're right," Sharon said. "That means that a ship visited here."

"Or they're living on this planet."

"I don't see any activity around the structure."

"Shit! That means we'll have to go down there. We had better pick a good day for that."

"Why?" Natale asked.

"Because we sure as hell want to make certain we can see any threatening targets well." I made my hand point like a gun.

"We're not trained to use weapons," Bridget said.

"It's easy, you power up the thing, aim it, and pull the trigger."

They rewarded me with frowns.

The next day we gathered in the hanger to go down to the surface near where the habitat was located. I made sure that each of them had laser pistols. I obtained a laser rifle from a weapons container before boarding the shuttle.

After we got buckled in, I fired the retrorockets to plunge the shuttle into the atmosphere and then level out at ten thousand meters to do a fly over. I didn't see any movement near the habitat, so I nosed it down for a rapid plunge into a landing near the structure. I wanted to come in hot to scare anything that might try to attack us. The women didn't care for the G-forces I put them through.

We got into our bio suits before exiting the shuttle. The habitat was nestled in a clearing near an alien forest of broad-leafed trees and teardrop shaped high grass. Reddish clay covered much of what wasn't in the surrounding forest, which was bathed in a crimson light.

I kept the laser rifle at ready just in case as we walked up to the habitat. I carefully opened the door and entered first but didn't find anything threatening. I looked around and soon saw what I didn't want to see. Two bodies lay near the back of the structure, and it was obvious that they had been dead for quite some time.

"This does not look good," I said.

Bridget went over to the bodies and squatted to look them over. "It doesn't look like anything violent killed them. By the looks of them I would say they just fell down and died."

"What you're suggesting is that they died from natural causes."

She looked back at me. "I would label this as unnatural causes. Their eyes are bulged out and their mouths are wide open. Whatever killed them wasn't pleasant."

"Judging by the equipment in here, these are humans from Earth," I said. I pointed. "That's a Victor 1000 Radar unit over there." I looked it over better. "Wait, it's a 1100 model."

"If they came here from Earth, where's their ship?" Natale asked.

"Good question. Maybe it slid out of low orbit and burnt up."

"We should be able to see the wreckage," Janet said. "A ship the size of ours wouldn't completely burn up."

"True. We'll have to scan for it from orbit or fly the shuttle around this location."

"If it hit the ocean, the wreckage wouldn't be visible," Sharon said.

I pointed at her. "Right."

I went over to bunks and looked around. I located a log and looked through it. "It says that this is a mission from Earth on July 5, 2078. The crew consisted of seven, four men and three women."

"That's over thirty years after we left," Janet said. "We're definitely in the future."

"Maybe we should search around here to see if there's more bodies," Sharon said.

"Yeah, but let's go together just in case."

We exited the habitat and began walking around the area near the habitat. We soon found graves with the crude signs to indicate who was buried in them.

"It looks like they all died," Janet said. "The two in the habitat didn't have anyone to bury them."

"We'll do the honors," I said. I pointed. "There's a shovel over there."

They looked over at it but didn't move. I went over and grabbed it before exiting the habitat. I began the burial process by digging. The ground was firm but not too solid, but it still was hard work to dig a deep enough pit for a body.

Once I had the two graves dug, I went back to the habitat. "I'll need help to drag these bodies to the graves."

They weren't happy about that, but there was no other way to move them to their everlasting homes.

Once they were in the graves, I began the process of filling in the dirt over them. After I finished the job, I stood and said my farewell to them. "May you rest in peace and enjoy the fruits of heaven."

I looked at the women. "It's time to go. We've done all we can do here."

"What about the crewmembers in the hibernation pods?" Sharon asked. "Shouldn't we bury them while we have the chance?"

I nodded. "Yes, but I would rather do that on Earth."

That caused them to stare at me with wide eyes.

"We're going to go to Earth?" Janet asked.

"We're going to make a good try at it. There's nothing out here that makes me feel satisfied that we've found a human friendly new home."

"The problem is that when we get there, we'll be in the future. They won't realize who we are."

"Yeah, that will be a problem, but I can't envisage another feasible possibility."

"Maybe Proxima-b is a human friendly world," Sharon said.

"We can check it out when we get back to our solar system."

That ended the discussion for the time being. We walked back to the shuttle and boarded it to begin the disinfection process before we returned to the ship.

Once we were in the crew wheel deck, Janet and Sharon went to work trying to figure out which direction to go to get back to Earth. After an hour, they decided to join Natale, Bridget and me at the food station.

"Any luck?" I asked.

Janet answered my question. "We have the Milky Way galaxy in view, but we're not sure which spatial orientation we're seeing from here. We may have to just choose a location and then correct our course when we arrive there."

"How distant is it?"

"I estimate it at 150 million light years. I'll have a more accurate number after I calibrate the telescope dimensional detectors."

"We should be able to get there in four weeks or so," I said.

"It'll be interesting to see how Earth has progressed," Sharon said.

I agreed, but what we discovered was not what I expected to see.