McDowell and Kingston chatted among themselves the whole time, mostly soldier banter, women they bedded, parties they went to during their younger days. Chevallier kept quiet, much like Foster and Pierce. Foster wondered what would become of Chevallier after they got back to the Carl Sagan now that her mother and UNE navy PR wasn’t here to protect her.
“So, any thoughts, Pierce?” Foster said to him, breaking their multi-hour silence.
“Hmm, too many mysteries about this system. Plant life? An ecosystem? Not enough time has passed since the creation of this system to allow for any of this.” His hand gestures reminded everyone of the bright sun twice the size of the one around Earth above. “Then we got Sirius A, we’re too close to it.”
“Was wondering about that myself.”
“Given what we know about the size and power of a star like this, I was able to extrapolate our estimated distance to it. Simply put, if Sirius A is that big in the skies we should be about one AU way from it.”
Foster winced at what he said. One AU was the distance between Earth and the sun. The habitable zone for Sirius A was five AU due to the intensity of the star. Yet there was an Earthlike planet around them, unaffected by the giver of light above.
“We should be dead if that’s the case,” Foster said.
“Heat and radiation should have killed us long ago, and even if it didn’t the light alone would have blinded us.”
“Then why are we alive?” Chevallier asked from behind.
Foster motioned to the rippling effects of the barriers that surrounded them. “Those barriers, someone built them to make life possible here.”
Pierce nodded in agreement. “Makes sense, though it still doesn’t explain how plants were able to evolve.” He swatted away an insect that resembled a fly with four wings away from his face. “And bugs.”
Foster wiped away a torrent of sweat from her forehead. The barrier, as strong as it was, didn’t filter out everything Sirius A was dishing out to them. Her EAD reported a 10 degree jump in the air temperature as the light grew stronger. They were amid the sun rising to midday, just at a slower rate to that of Sol on Earth, meaning longer day and night cycles.
She had everyone sit down and take a break under the shade of a nearby tree. Pierce passed on the offer and ran off like a kid in a candy store, to scan the plant and insect life around them. Critical situation or not, they were still the first explorers from Earth to make it this far.
“So, hostile aliens on one planet with weapons strong enough to take down our shields, and now this,” Chevallier said to Foster. “Something tells me we might want to rethink our plans to colonize this system.”
“Someone beat us to it,” said Kingston.
Foster fanned her face with her hands, the cool air coming from her EVA suit wasn’t enough. “That thought crossed my mind, but we still don’t know enough about this system to make a call. EVE even said there’s a chance this is all undiscovered Lyonria stuff. If that’s the case we ain’t got nothing to worry about, the Lyonria are long dead.”
“Oh my god,” Pierce called out.
Foster saw Pierce drop to his knees next to the ledge of a valley they were approaching. They sprinted over to him wondering what had him fired up. Foster arrived first and looked down into the valley below them. She saw large animals with massive necks, taller than giraffes travelling in packs. They fed on the plants that overhung on the ledges around them as the valley below lacked any vegetation. Tiny rodents that looked like a cross between a squirrel and bat ran away as the mouths of the long-necked animals came in to feed themselves on the hanging plants.
Foster looked at Pierce’s emotional face. He couldn’t take his eyes off the life before them, life that shouldn’t exist but did. After a long delay he began to speak to Foster. “This is—”
“Yeah, yeah not possible.”
“This changes everything we know about how fast life could evolve on a planet.”
Pierce was right, not only had the planets in the system had not enough time, but the barriers around them no doubt took some time to design, build and activate. They were probably set up years after the planet was created, thus shortening the window for evolution as there was a period were the planet’s surface was being bombarded with heat and radiation.
Foster lost track of how many hours had passed as the five ventured onward. They crossed a natural footbridge across the valley and later entered a forest, heavily populated by creatures with long rubbery arms, six of them they counted. The animals used the long reach of two of their arms to climb up the trunks of trees, while the remaining four held on tight to what appeared to be their children. They swung from branch to branch looking for food Foster figured.
Foster led everyone to a small river, something they were in dire need of as their supplies of water ran low. She analyzed the makeup of the water below them with her EAD, it reported no signs of toxins, radiation, or bacteria. It was pure water.
Break number two commenced as they cupped their hands together and brought up some of the cold, refreshing water to drink. Kingston sat down and began to unwrap and eat one of his protein bars.
Chevallier looked at him and grimaced. “So, what are we going to do when our protein bars run out?”
“Take up hunting,” Foster said pointing to Chevallier’s rifle.
“You really think we’re going to be stranded here?” Pierce asked.
“If we can’t get our comms working, then probably,” McDowell said.
“The Carl Sagan will have continued the mission regardless,” Foster said. “They’ll probably swing by this planet to study it eventually and hopefully find us.”
Chevallier chuckled. “Assuming the aliens didn’t kill them.”
“Must you be so negative?” Foster said to her.
“Just keeping it real.”
They heard movement in the nearby bushes. Everyone stood, on edge, three rifles and two pistols powered on. Foster and Peirce used their EAD to scan about, while the three Hammerhead commandos moved forward taking point.
McDowell checked his motion sensors and whispered. “I got movement.”
“So do we,” Foster said eying her EAD’s projection.
McDowell waved his hand around using military hand signals to communicate to Chevallier and Kingston to surround the bush before him. He began to count down with his fingers for them to act.
Three.
Two.
One.
They charged forward, and two people sprung out of the bushes screaming and yelling in fear, one was clearly female while the other was male. They each wore a burgundy robe and hood that wrapped around their face, leaving only their nose and mouth visible. A black and gold visor covered where their eyes were expected to be, while gold colored chains dangled from their necks and wrists.
The three rifle-wielding Hammerheads kept their weapons aimed at them and began to shout and demand to know who they where and why they were there. Irrelevant questions as far as Foster was concerned. For starters they clearly didn’t speak English, secondly this was their planet. Foster and company were the alien visitors, aliens that now jammed their weapons at the locals.
“Stand down, I don’t think they’re hostile,” Foster said to McDowell.
“After what we went through I’m not taking any chances!”