The survey team waited at the containment doors for authorization before proceeding. Delta sector had been closed off for years as the crumbling ruins of the old city were unsafe. Lingering radiation from the explosions responsible for leveling much of the old city made shielded environmental suits mandatory. Special authorization permits from the highest levels had been required to make this expedition happen, but it was mere moments from realization.

Leading the group of ten scientists and researchers was Darvin. Sealed inside his slate gray environment suit with a faceless and reflective helmet obscuring his features, Darvin was identifiable by the purple stripe slashing diagonally across his chest from shoulder to hip. Other members of the team were similarly identified with colors and patterns of lines indicating who was who.

Restriction fields activated, illuminating strips of white along thin rails composing a box around the team. As long as the fields were in operation, the contaminated atmosphere of the old city couldn't be released when the containment doors opened. Lights mounted to the isolation wall began flashing as the doors unsealed and opened. Interlocking teeth pulled away from each other, the doors sliding into concealed compartments within the wall.

The team didn't move right away. Behind them, the rebuilt city was a thing of beauty. Covered walkways crisscrossing between gleaming towers of flawless mathematical precision. The old city in front of them was an obliterated wasteland by comparison. The carcasses of old buildings laying on their sides with exposed ribs of metal support beams sticking up into the ash colored skies. The vehicles used by the city's people before its destruction remained in the streets, silent and inert. The broken remains of the buildings, along with the incinerated inhabitants coated everything in a fine dust.

Darvin and his people were not native to this planet, but when their exploration vessels had found this world empty of all life, it was decided no one would mind if they moved in. The first colonies had been established quickly with the ships themselves becoming the hub from which future expansions were made and connected to for support. As each settlement grew larger, more and more of the old cities they'd been built upon was cleared away and analyzed. Much had been learned of the natives' culture and industry, but many gaps still existed in understanding who they were and what had ultimately led to their destruction. Darvin had argued before the Council how understanding the previous inhabitants was essential, especially if they were not responsible for their demise. If something else played a hand in wiping out an industrialized society, a threat that may still linger, it was in everyone's interest to discover it before any of the colonists became endangered by it. Authorization for the expedition had been given almost immediately.

Knowing his people would be looking to him for guidance, he got them moving by taking the first step into the alien ruins. His team followed cautiously in his wake. No security escort had been requested or provided because in the lifeless sector of the old city, the environment itself was the only true hazard, both the radiation as well as the unstable structures capable of collapsing without warning.

Other than the measured footsteps of the research team, there were no sounds. Everything was still, silent, and grey. The cordoned off section of the old city was frozen in the moment of its death. Pale blue lights of scanning beams swept over the ruins from the handheld instruments the team utilized. The data scrolling across the screens proved to be similar to those of the initial scout teams deployed when Davin's people had first arrived.

"What's this?" asked one of the team. Davin paused, turning to look at the sign posted above an arched threshold. Fissures and cracks covered the entire front of the structure, but the sign remained intact to the degree Davin felt confident no letters were missing, but the arrangement of the alien symbols was unfamiliar.

"I don't recognize the term," Davin admitted. "What is its current level of integrity?"

"It appears stable despite the damage," engineer Kimmons answered, stepping forward to join the pair near the entrance.

"Very well," Davin decided aloud. "Let's have a look inside."

The archway led to a number of doors, but the center pair were missing while the others were caved in as if kicked by an enormous boot. The main corridor was long and wide. Metal doors three feet in height and half as wide covered the flanking walls in an upper and lower row. Larger doors of wood interrupted the unanimous procession of metal a various intervals all the way to the end of the corridor where it branched to the left and right.

"Vailer," Davin instructed. "Take two members of the team and do a full check. I want a report on ambient radiation levels, possible toxins in the air, and anything you might find about the environmental requirements of the natives."

Lead biologist Vailer turned swiftly and selected the two scientists needed to accomplish the task she'd been given, and they headed down the corridor, each with a scanner in hand.

"The rest of you, divide into teams of two and begin checking rooms," Davin ordered. "Mark the door to rooms after examination to designate them for more detailed inspection or to be ignored for the time being. Keep an eye on your life monitors. I don't want a repeat of last month's incident if someone's radiation seal breaks. Understood?"

The team acknowledge the orders. Before they broke up to start on their assigned jobs, Davin selected one person for his team. "Eskin, you're with me."

The philologist took several steps forward to quickly close the distance as Davin headed for the nearest door. As an expert on literary texts and records, Eskin had been studying the native language since their arrival and possessed the best chance to translate anything they discovered.

"First impressions?" Davin requested.

Eskin looked the room over with its arrangement of desks and display screens. The walls were a bare composite resembling stone. If anything had adorned the walls, it had long ago turned to dust.

"It would seem to be some kind of meeting space, possibly instructional," Eskin theorized.

"Or educational?" Davin prompted.

"It's certainly a possibility," Eskin agreed.

"Let's see if we can get these primitive terminals working again," Davin suggested. He knelt beside the desk and examined the ancient components. Taking a multiform adapter from his belt, he pressed it against one of the fasteners holding the back panel together. The adapter hummed slightly as it changed its molecular configuration to match the indentations on the fastener before it spun in place and spiraled the fastener out of its position. He repeated the process several times until able to lift the rear panel off and expose the inner workings.

"Hardwired circuits," Eskin mused while watching over Davin's shoulder. "Ancient stuff by our standards."

"True," Davin agreed. "However, it did take our own species some time to develop crystalic relays. I wonder what these people would've created if they hadn't been wiped out."

Davin held up a scanner, checking the interior designs of the various components until he found what appeared to be a power source. He had Eskin hand him a portable generator pack, and Davin wired the palm sized device into the alien technology.

"I've got it set on the lowest power setting as we don't want to overload it," Davin explained. "But, you might want to step back."

Davin checked his scanner to find the most likely activation switch and used it. The circuits in the device lit up as power flowed back into them for the first time in countless years. The display screen illuminated in all white for a moment before dissolving into a menu. Seven different options, each written in the alien script, were marked on individual colored bands extending across the display area from the left side of the screen.

"Any ideas?" Davin prompted after Eskin had studied the screen in silence for some time.

"I wish I could tell you more," Eskin lamented. "So much destruction was done during the fall of their civilization, we've only recovered bits and pieces of their languages, and they had several. I recognize this one's type, but I couldn't say what they mean. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Davin dismissed. "We're out here to learn what we don't know, so pick one and let's get started and see what we can learn."

Time passed slowly but continuously. The other teams reported in, finding similar room layouts and a few spaces defying classification. One room had been constructed with an organic flooring that had long since rotted away, leaving the metal supports and the same composite material found everywhere in the building exposed underneath. One room had possessed numerous chemicals, but the blast damage done to the city during the fall of the native species had shattered many of the containers, mixing them together to create a secondary explosion and fire that destroyed anything of relevance they might have discovered.

"I've got it!" Eskin announced.

Davin came over to see for himself. "What is it?"

"It would seem this is a place of education as you hypothesized," Eskin explained. "The system is badly damaged and old, so many of the files are inaccessible, but I did manage to find this."

Eskin pulled up a page of alien script Davin found just as baffling and incoherent as any other he'd seen.

"Am I supposed to know what I'm looking at?" Davin questioned.

"My apologies," Eskin offered. "This is a breakdown of their language for teaching purposes, most likely to their young."

"If their young can learn from this, can you?" Davin pressed.

"I've been feeding the information into the scanner, looking for correlating patterns in the hopes of finally deciphering their language," Eskin replied. "It worked, and I've input a translation program into their system to change everything visible into our language."

"Good. Very good," Davin praised. "The first thing I'd like to know is who these people were."

"I should be able to find it," Eskin assured him. He shifted through different data files on the alien device, changed virtual locations on the internal drives and looked elsewhere, all the while muttering to himself. "No, that's not it. What about...no, that's not it either. What about over here? No. File corruption. Here? Yes!"

"You found it?" Davin questioned.

"I did," Eskin confirmed. "The natives called themselves humans, and their world was named Earth."