Space Pioneer 5 - Nephthys - 1. Chapter 1

“I was proud of my son and I was devastated when the ship was lost. I’d never have imagined to see Jeff again. I can only thank you once more for taking him home, although this whole situation is hard to cope with,” Jeff’s father said.

They were sitting on the porch. It was a warm summer evening. Dan Caspar looked at the blackening sky. Lest was watching him.

They had arrived in the afternoon. Lest had landed the Horus shuttle in the backyard of the Caspar country house. The compound was big enough for the vehicle. The Horus orbited one of Jupiter’s moons and the crew checked on the ship while Lest and Jeff were visiting Earth.

Jeff stepped out of the house, carrying a tray with glasses.

“I feel like I was never away,” he said. “I still know every room of the house inside out.”

“How’s your mother?” Dan asked.

“Sleeping sound,” Jeff replied.

He had called his parents from the shuttle shortly before touching down on the compound. The shuttle computer had had no difficulties connecting to his parents’ landline. His father had answered the call and had ended it promptly, believing it was a bad joke. Jeff called again and this time his mother answered and at once recognized Jeff’s voice. Then everything happened quickly. The shuttle landed on the compound and Jeff and Lest got off the vehicle. Jeff’s parents were standing on the porch where Jeff had asked them to wait. The reunion was emotional, tearful, and it took almost half an hour until Jeff’s parents became aware of Lest. The puzzlement was as big as was the excitement, but finally Jeff’s parents calmed down. And then Jeff told them a very long story. His parents listened in disbelief and confusion, in amazement and awe, and Jeff had to repeat his story again and again until they finally believed every word he said. Jeff’s mother, totally overwhelmed with the situation, was close to a breakdown at the end of the day, but only agreed to retire and sleep after Jeff had promised to stay for another couple of days. His parents had mostly ignored Lest as they were totally fixated on their son.

Lest had listened patiently for hours. Jeff had given his parents ear clips and they used the shuttle computer as a temporary language base. The shuttle was shielded and Earth’s surveillance systems weren’t capable of detecting and decrypting the signals the shuttle computer transmitted.

Jeff’s father studied Lest closer for the first time. “In fact, you don’t look very alien. You could well pass as a Scandinavian or so,” he said. “Sorry for being blunt,” he added quickly.

Jeff gave a laugh. “Well, I explained it, Dad,” he said. “Daglons and humans descend from the same species. As an archaeologist, the resemblance should not surprise you.”

“It doesn’t,” Dan said with a smile. “It’s actually not a surprise. We suspected it.”

“Who? What do you mean, Dad?” Jeff asked.

“You suspected that human origin was alien?” Lest asked curiously.

“You never told me,” Jeff said. “I thought you researched on dinosaurs.”

Dan smiled. “Officially, yes. My main interest, however, was always the same as yours, Jeff. Space,” he said.

Jeff looked at him in puzzlement.

“You told a long and stunning story, Jeff,” Dan said. “My story is long and stunning, too. It’s late, however, and maybe you want to rest. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“No, Dad,” Jeff said. “I’m curious. I want to hear it now. What about you, Lest?”

“I’m not tired,” Lest replied.

“Well,” Dan said, looking between them. “It’s classified information. I never told anybody of my investigations and studies. Not even your mother has a clue. I retired from the project after the Daidalos was lost and my son declared dead. Space had become my enemy. Sometimes I even thought the loss was sort of punishment for my secret studies and hiding the truth from the world.”

Dan looked into the distance.

“It’s unsettling,”’ Jeff said.

Dan smiled at his son. “Space has welcomed you, Jeff,” he said. “It’s another secret I must keep to myself.” He took a breath. “Well, let me tell you of the project.”

“How to begin with?” he said pensively, taking a sip of his drink. “With a jump back in time, I think. You told me of the Seth colonists and this fits in well with what we found. The Seth set up a colony on Earth. Their knowledge and technology was advanced, but their civilization was destroyed by the Flood. You jumped back in time and met the men who built the Egyptian pyramids. You said they reverse-engineered the ancient technology. They accomplished a lot but weren’t able to advance the technology. The pyramids are a reminder of a more advanced past. I worked on the excavating compound as a student. My interest back then was Ancient Egypt. We found the tunnels under the Sphinx and we found the contents stored there.”

“They actually stored their devices there like they had planned?” Jeff asked.

Dan nodded. “We found a lot of objects and we carefully investigated them. NASA took part in the project. What we found was never revealed to the public, however,” he said.

“What did the scientists conclude from the findings?” Jeff asked.

“Evidence pointed to an advanced civilization long before the pyramids were built,” Dan replied. “Not a global civilization, a civilization in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. It was puzzling, however. We didn’t understand why this advanced civilization had not expanded, not conquered the entire planet. The ice age was the reason, we concluded. The planet’s conditions were unlike today’s and the population was small. It remained a mystery, however, how early humans had advanced that much. The story of the Seth explains it, of course. The knowledge and the technology were imported.”

“You said you suspected an alien origin,” Lest said.

“Yes,” Dan replied. “An early human civilization was only one explanation for what we found. Alien colonization was the other. Ancient myths and legends actually support this latter theory. That was when the project started. We wanted to find out about a possible alien origin of the ancient civilization. The idea wasn’t entirely new. Many people believe in the theory anyway. There are countless sites on the internet. These people are regarded conspiracy theorists. They’re usually ridiculed. We saw no reason stop it.”

“Why not?” Jeff asked.

“They had theories and we had evidence, shocking evidence,” his father replied. “Advanced gadgets, for instance. Gadgets not working anymore after thousands of years underground, but still good to reverse-engineer. It’s classified stuff. The explanation is simple. You don’t want anybody else get the wind of your findings and, more so, of your progress. It gives you advantage over others.”

“Typical class C species thinking, Doctor Midad would say,” Lest said. He explained the classification system to Dan. “Then again, this classification system is just another way of ranking, making a group superior to others. The problem is a universal one, it seems.”

Dan nodded thoughtfully. “Actually,” he said. “Anyway, I was well in the project already when I married Sonya and Jeff was born. I had seen many of the findings. The government approached me. I had to hold my tongue. They made this very clear to me. I was offered a job on the project and I accepted the offer. The subject intrigued me. It was my chance to learn more, my only chance perhaps. The price was lifelong silence. I always had to keep a part of my life secret from my family. I lied to my wife. I lied to my son. I apologize, Jeff,” he said, looking sadly at his son.

Jeff raised his hand. “It’s all right, Dad,” he said. “You can tell me now. I won’t tell anybody. I can’t anyway. I will never come back to Earth for good.” Jeff looked aside for a moment.

“This is sad,” his father replied. “But I do understand it. Coming back would be dangerous even with a new identity. I hope, however, that we’ll find a way to stay in touch with each other.”

“Difficult,” Jeff said.

“Earth’s communication and surveillance systems are backward,” Lest said. “We’ll try to establish a messenger system. A neural implant would be best, of course.”

“A neural implant?” Dan asked.

Lest explained the technology.
“The implants are tiny, hard to detect,” he said. “And they’re capable of space crease communication.”

“What’s that?” Dan asked.

“Faster than light speed communication,” Jeff said. “You can contact whoever you want and wherever in space the person is. There’s practically no time delay. They combined quantum physics and the theory of relativity long ago in space. Traveling faster than light is the usual, time jumps are feasible, although still under investigation because of the observed negative results of interfering too much with the time lines.”

“Earth’s quite a backward place, it seems,” Dan said. He turned to Lest. “I’d greatly acknowledge a communication system, albeit only one that doesn’t put my family in danger.”

Lest nodded. “I’ll talk with Hulton,” he said. “Would you like to carry on with your story, Dan? I suspect the project’s goal changed at some point.”

Dan nodded. “The ancient myths were carefully studied. Some pointed to the Seth civilization as you described it, but others told of a space-faring nation. We were in doubt. Was the Seth civilization - as I will call it now - capable of space-faring?”

“They weren’t a space-faring nation at the time we visited them,” Lest said. “We talked with the Seth archivist. He didn’t mention space-faring activities. He said they were not capable of building a spaceship. Early on, they might well have built air- and spacecrafts. I can’t say for sure. According to what we learned of the Seth civilization, it was very advanced and developed before the Flood destroyed it. ”

“The myths clearly tell of space-faring activities,” Dan said. “These people visited Venus, Mars and the Moon. They explored the whole solar system. More so, they were said to dwell on a yet undetected planet of the system.”

“Which planet?” Jeff asked. “Probes and rovers have practically observed and investigated every planet of the system.”

“Yes,” Dan said. “These activities began upon the findings in the myths. They hoped to find remnants of a civilization on the other planets and their moons.”

“What did they believe to find?” Jeff asked.

“Advanced technology, of course,” his father said.

“Did they succeed?” Lest asked.

“We’ve not retrieved anything from another planet,” Dan said.

“The Daidalos,” Jeff said slowly. “Was the Daidalos sent to Mars to retrieve something?”

“You would know,” his father said.

Jeff shook his head. “We were supposed to orbit Mars, scan the surface, land on the planet, stay for a week, and then return to Earth. The Daidalos was constructed to land and take off from Mars. We weren’t instructed to collect anything apart from stones,” he explained.

“It was the maiden flight,” Dan said. “It was about getting to Mars and back to Earth. Future operations would have been different, I think. The project was stopped, however, after the loss of crew and ship. They’re more interested in Venus now anyway.”

“Venus?” Jeff asked.

“We found a trace of the ancient space-faring nation, remnants of a city on Venus fifteen years ago,” his father said. “A probe was sent to Venus. The probe had new and advanced heat shields and was able to stand the heat for a couple of days. Venus is a living hell, 462°C.”

“What did they detect?” Jeff asked. “I never heard of these findings.”

“Like I said, it’s classified information,” his father replied. “The probe sent high-resolution pictures of a city or what is left of it. Artificial structures, the remnants of buildings, concrete, molten steel constructions.”

“A civilization on Venus?” Jeff asked. “What happened?”

“Well,” Dan said, “The ancient myths tell of a big war in the sky.”

“The Horus computer scanned the planets of the system,” Lest said. “The planet you call Venus is on the edge of the habitable zone of your system. Wait,” he said, focusing on his neural implant. “I should be able to pull the relevant data from the Horus computer.”

Dan turned to Jeff. “You said the spaceship is in the proximity of Jupiter. Is he able to connect to his ship’s computer with the implant?”

Jeff gave a nod.

Lest’s implant received the data from the Horus. Lest scanned it. “Size, mass, proximity to the Sun and bulk composition of Venus and Earth are similar,” he said. “Venus is radically different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets in the system. The atmosphere consists of more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth's. With a mean surface temperature of 462 °C Venus is the hottest planet in the system. All the planets orbit the sun in an anti-clockwise direction, most planets also rotate on their axes in an anti-clockwise direction, but Venus rotates clockwise once every 243 Earth days. It’s the slowest rotation period of any planet. About 80% of the Venusian surface is covered by smooth, volcanic plains. The visible caldera are without evidence of lava. That’s odd.”

“It was often suspected that some catastrophic event threw Venus off its original orbit and that Mercury originally was a moon that Venus lost during the catastrophic event,” Dan said.

“Not impossible. A collision with another celestial body might have thrown the planet off its orbit,” Lest said.

“Or the big war in the sky that the myths talk of,” Dan said.

“A war in space?” Jeff asked. “Who fought a war and why? We don’t talk about the Seth colonists, do we?”

“Yes and no,” Dan replied. “Let me explain. We think the Venusians came to Earth for mining operations. Settlement wasn’t their primary goal, although some camps may have expanded as time went by. We talk about a nation that was regarded highly supreme in very ancient times, about people who dwelled in an unknown land, a land that was hard to find and of which we haven’t found a single trace on Earth. It’s name was Atlantis, according to Plato. Atlantis and ancient Athens waged a terrible war. Atlantis was defeated and completely destroyed.”

“This actually sounds like a myth,” Jeff said. “Ancient Athens? Do you mean Ancient Greek?”

Dan shook his head. “I’ll come to this in a moment. We detected remnants of a city on Venus, charred and molten in the catastrophic event. As far as I can tell, everything’s glazed,” he said. “Someone was more powerful than the Venusians and had far more powerful weapons. This technology might still be somewhere around.”

“Where?” Jeff asked. “I thought that nothing was found.”

“According to a Sumerian myth, the powerful weapon was dismantled after the war and the parts were hidden in different places,” Dan said. “The project’s original goal was to find out about a possible alien origin of humanity. The project changed at this stage. The new goal was to find and retrieve the parts of the ancient powerful weapon. Probes were sent off to all planets and moons of the system.”

“What did they find?” Jeff asked.

“Neither the weapon nor parts of it,” Dan replied. “We discovered the Venusian city and scanning probes discovered artificial structures on Mars and the Moon. Rovers explored the areas, but no items were found. Sand and dust have covered everything. I don’t think the parts of the weapon are scattered all over the system. I’m an archaeologist. My field of interest was Ancient Egypt and I think I have figured it out.”

He looked between Jeff and Lest.

“I’m certain that the parts of the weapon were already collected in the past,” he said. There’s the legend of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld. He was dismembered by his brother Seth, a very dark and evil figure in Egyptian mythology. Seth, Satan, you see the connection.”

His son gave a whistle. “The Seth defeated Venus,” he said.

“Yes,” his father said. “Ancient Athens defeated them. Ancient Athens was located on a Mediterranean peninsula.”

“The big war in the sky,” Lest said thoughtfully. “The Seth didn’t mention it to us during our stay with them.”

“We didn’t stay long in the past,” Jeff said. “We were mainly interested in the arrival of the Seth spaceship and how the Seth coped in the time of Pharaoh Cheops.”

“The Seth arrived in a vast starship after centuries of traveling through space and they successfully landed on the planet. Early on, they had available their entire technology and the devices they brought, including their starship,” Lest said “They might have been more powerful than the Venusians.”

“The Seth set up a colony,” Dan said. “They occupied the most fertile lands of Earth at the time of the ice age. The planet was vastly covered with ice. The Venusians didn’t settle on Earth permanently, but came to Earth for mining resources. We concluded this from Plato’s story. Atlantis controlled the world, but the Atlanteans isolated themselves. The Seth stopped their activities. If this is not a reason for war....”

“Okay,” Jeff said. “The Seth won, dismantled the weapon and later gathered the parts again.”

“Yes,” his father said. “According to the myth, Osiris, the god of the underworld, was dismembered. Osiris is the weapon. Isis put the parts together and brought Osiris back to life.”

“A functioning weapon,” Lest said.

“And where is this weapon now?” Jeff asked.

“Osiris is the god of the underworld. He dwells in the underworld, in the land beyond,” Dan said.

“In the immaterial world?” Jeff asked doubtingly.

“In the land devoid of matter,” Lest said. “The void, interstellar space. Do you think the weapon was taken out of the solar system?”

“It’s located where the boundless expanse begins,” Dan said.

“They discovered the two outmost planets of the system only three years before I left for the Mars mission,” Jeff said. “The outmost planet, Nephthys, is 300 astronomical units away from the sun. This is a big distance. 1 AU is about 150 million kilometers. Do you think the Seth took the weapon there?”

“Their starship would have been capable of the trip,” Lest said. “I’m just wondering why they took the weapon to the outmost planet. Thus it became unreachable in later times.”

“They didn’t reckon with the Flood,” Dan said. “They didn’t believe their civilization would go down like the Venusians’. I’m certain the weapon can be found on the boundary to interstellar space. They look everywhere in the system for the weapon now and they will ultimately find it. They sent off probes to the outermost planets soon after those were discovered. It will take years for them to get there, but the probes will ultimately arrive and will at last find what they’re looking for.”

“It would still take them a long time to get there and retrieve an item from the frozen planet,” Jeff said.

“I retired from the project when the Mars mission failed, but I still have connections,” Dan said. “I know of the latest developments. If there’s anything on Nephthys to be found, they might find it sooner than we think they can. They work on the hyper speed drive and they’re making progress. No manned mission, of course. We’re far from this. But a probe is said to travel with 20% of light speed.”

“That’s actually quite slow,” Jeff said. “The Horus could get to Nephthys in less than a day from its current position in the proximity of Jupiter.”

“The Horus could make the trip in a couple of minutes in space jump mode, but I’m usually hesitant to jump in a solar system,” Lest said. “Too many items are flying around. The space jump system has a protection shield. Jump sensors scan real space before the ship drops back into it. The sensors would initiate an emergency jump to avoid a collision. Tiny items are simply vaporized. But I’m not too keen to bump into a gas giant or a frozen super Earth. I’ll contact the Horus and have them thoroughly scan and map the system and locate the planet Nephthys.”

“Why?” Jeff’s father asked in confusion. “It sounds as if you were preparing for a trip to Nephthys.”

“Yes, Dad,” Jeff said, his eyes filled with excitement. “It can’t hurt to have a close look at the edge of our system.”

“I sent the instructions to the main ship,” Lest said.

“But you don’t mean to be going soon? You’ve only just arrived, Jeff,” Dan said with a desperate undertone.

“No, I won’t leave right away, Dad. I promised to stay for a week,” Jeff replied with a smile.

“No need to hurry,” Lest agreed. “But I also look forward to the endeavor.”

The following days were calm and peaceful. Jeff’s mother called off all visits and activities they had planned, pretending she had caught the flu. Jeff’s father drove to three different supermarkets to buy food and drinks in order to not attract attention. Jeff’s mother cooked Jeff’s favorite dishes and indulged her son. Dan put up a grill on the evening of the third day. They were having a barbecue.

“Excellent,” Lest said after taking a bite of a steak.

Dan nodded at him with a pleased smile.

“Try with the barbecue sauce,” Sonya, Jeff’s mother, said. She handed the bottle to Lest.

“Very good,” Lest said. “I like all the dishes. Some taste exotic to me, but they are all very good.”

Sonya smiled warmly.

“You wouldn’t like the meals the food processor produces,” Jeff said. “We often buy precooked meals on Cyrus for a change of diet.”

“Precooked meals?” Sonya asked.

“We bought a microwave oven or sort of,” Jeff said, taking another steak from the grill.

Sonya’s eyes were gleaming with excitement. She turned to Lest. “Would the microwave also work with frozen dishes?”

“I guess so,” Lest said. “Why?”

“I froze the leftover food,” Sonya said. “I already have plenty of boxes filled with Jeff’s favorite food.” She turned to Dan. “Dan, please, get a cooling box for transport.”

“God, Mom,” Jeff said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

“Transport of what?” Dan asked.

“The frozen food,” Sonya replied, rolling her eyes. “They must take it to the spaceship. It’s near Jupiter, quite a distance from Earth.”

“We’ve got two cooling boxes. I will get them,” Dan said, rising from his chair.

“Please, Dad,” Jeff said in an embarrassed voice.

Lest was laughing. “Why not, Jeff? I do like Earth’s food.”

Sonya gave Lest a flattered smile, then she cast Jeff a scolding look.

Jeff raised his hands. “Okay, Mom, you won.” he said.

Lest patted Jeff’s shoulder.

The days went by quickly. Jeff and Lest told Sonya and Dan of their life in space. Jeff’s parents were amazed and stunned.

“It will be hard to keep this secret,” Sonya said. “But I swear that never will a word slip my mouth.” She looked at Jeff melancholically.

It was the final day of their stay on Earth. Jeff and Lest would depart at night.

Jeff seized his mother’s hand and squeezed it. “I won’t be gone for good, Mom,” he said. “I plan to come back. We’ll arrange another meeting.”

Sonya just looked at him sadly.

“We’ll establish a messenger system,” Lest said. “Hulton is working on it. He sent me a message a short while ago. He’s almost done with the software program. He’ll send it to the shuttle computer and I will reprogram your ear clips. You should be able to use them similar to a neural implant. We won’t have much time to test the system, however, and you should not use it often. I don’t think Earth’s technology will detect the signals, but better use the clips with the utmost caution.”

“Of course,” Sonya said. “I thank you so much.” Her voice trailed off and she wiped a tear from her eyes. “Excuse me,” she said, rising to her feet. She gathered the plates from the breakfast table.

Dan made a sign to Jeff and Lest. The men stepped out on the porch.

“I scanned the Egyptian myths about Osiris again. There’s more information. You might find it useful,” he said.

They sat down in the chairs on the porch.

“Nephthys is an Egyptian name. The planet Nephthys was named after the guardian of the last gate to the underworld,” Dan said. “Osiris dwells in the underworld. The meaning of Osiris is ‘seat of the eye’.”

“An eye on a seat,” Jeff mused.

“An eye can see,” Dan said. “An automatic assault weapon capable of detecting the target? Computer-controlled?”

“Sounds like it,” Lest said. “The Horus computer should be able to detect its signature, if it still works, that is.”

“Nephthys is the last gate to the underworld. Osiris dwells in the underworld. This distinction is important,” Dan said. “It indicates that the weapon is not on the planet, but farther away from it.”

“It orbits the planet. This object is a defense satellite,” Lest said. He leaned back in his chair, thinking. “The Seth brought it in their starship, I think. They probably orbited the satellite before landing on Earth. The satellite was meant to defend their new home, which it successfully did. It shot down the Venusian targets.”

“Do you think the weapon attacked Venus and threw the planet off its orbit? This would in fact be a powerful weapon,” Jeff said.

“That’s what the myths say,” Dan said. “The weapon was dismantled because of its devastating power. Perhaps the Seth feared to lose control of it. Anyway, it was reassembled later, brought back to life, like the god Osiris. The weapon might still function. I have no idea as to why they stored it at the edge of the solar system.”

“For defense reasons,” Lest said. “Space-faring nations watch their borders. The natural border is the edge of the solar system.”

“Why?” Dan asked. “Did they fear any intruders from interstellar space?”

“They crossed interstellar space themselves,” Lest said. “They were familiar with the idea.” He looked into the distance. “Perhaps your Venusian theory isn’t entirely correct, Dan,” he said. “The species didn’t originate from Venus, I think. The aggressors came from outer space. The planets of this system were their outposts, never meant for permanent settlement. The system could have been a transit system, a re-fueling stop, or they were mining the system because rare materials can be found on the planets and moons. We’ll learn more when we’re back on the Horus. Hulton and Le’Ton should have completed the scans by now. Anyway, I think you’re right, Dan. This species and the Seth started a war and the Seth drove the unknown species out of the system. The Seth feared, however, that the others would come back eventually.”

“A single powerful weapon at the edge of the system won’t help much,” Dan said. “The attackers could just pass it by and come from a totally different direction.”

“Unless Nephthys was their main operation base,” Lest said. “This species either never came back or the defense satellite still functions, but they don’t care to shoot it down.”

“It’s more likely they lost interest in the area, I think,” Jeff said. “The universe is vast. Millions of galaxies, billions of solar systems. If your sole interest is mining, you’ll find an empty system everywhere you look. The distance isn’t a problem with a spaceship capable of traveling in space jump mode. Mining operations outside your home system are practically impossible with a conventional drive. The unknown species didn’t travel conventionally, they knew how to use space jump technology. They might have simply turned to some place elsewhere in space.” He paused. “It would nonetheless be interesting to explore Nephthys and see what this species left behind there.”

“Mining equipment most likely,” Lest said.

“A frozen orb in space that holds a mystery,” Jeff said pensively.

“We’ll uncover this secret,” Lest said with a confident smile.

Night had come. Jeff and Lest said goodbye. The departure was emotional. Dan hugged his son and Sonya wept. Finally, they all left the house and went to the shuttle. Jeff’s mother insisted on bringing two cooling boxes, filled with frozen dishes, to the ramp. Finally, Jeff and Lest boarded the shuttle. The hatch closed and the men settled in the cockpit. The computer calculated the flight path back to the Horus and the shuttle took off.

“You ought to do something about the space debris,” Lest said. “Thousands of items orbit Earth. The computer plotted a safe path, but leaving the planet is actually dangerous.”

The shuttle approached the Horus and was taken in by the main ship. The cargo bay was pressurized and the men got off the shuttle. Doctor Midad awaited them in the bay and insisted on a health check. This done, the men went on the bridge. Hulton, Le’Ton, and Corr greeted them, eager to learn what they had experienced on Earth. Lest and Jeff sat down in their seats. Within a minute they were back in space mode.

“Updates, please,” Lest said. “Corr, put me through to the engine room.”

The engineers reported on the system checks and said the ship was ready to go.

The men on the bridge also reported back to the captain, and finally Lest gave the command to leave orbit. The ship set course on Nephthys. It was on autopilot.

Lest rose to his feet. “Okay, let’s go to the lounge. Hulton, inform Doctor Midad, Galven and Forrit. We’ve much to discuss. We could as well have a meal while we talk.”

The men gathered in the lounge.

“I think the planet was the outpost of an unknown alien civilization. They returned to their home system, went elsewhere or may no longer exist. They didn’t come back at least, after the Seth had driven them out of Earth’s system,” Lest finished his report.

“Why do you want to take a look at the planet?” Le’Ton asked.

“Out of curiosity,” Lest replied. “Why not have a quick look before flying back to Cyrus?”

Nobody protested.

The ship arrived at Nephthys the following day.