S.O.I.L. [Signs Of Intellectual Life]

“Research Officer’s Log:  Lieutenant Colonel Helg Gasperius of the ICS Calumbear, currently aboard Shuttle 14 with Fieldman Bened Yaird. We are exploring and charting a solar system in a particularly desolate region in Sector 3-5A-α.” Helg then brought her eyes back to the cockpit window. Instead of looking at the information, she wanted to see if she could identify the type of star by just looking at it.

“It… yes, it has a class 5Y star, and initial scans show it to have a dozen spots. It is closer to its next cycle than its previous one.” She paused the log, and looked at her assistant, “Yaird, did you see that?”

“No, ma’am, what was it?”

“I thought I saw something shiny in orbit of that third planet. That might be a satellite. Let’s slow our approach.”

“Aye, Lieutenant. Slowing to one quarter approach velocity.”

Helg then put a filter on the long range scanner to detect non-ferrous metals and patterned energy signatures in a focused area around the third planet. She then continued the log, “Upon closer inspection, it appears that the third planetoid may have S.O.I.L. We have slowed our approach to gather more information before we get into visual range.”

She paused as she read the results of the scan, and as she read it, her brow slowly creased harder.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

She paused the log before responding. “Well, what I thought was a singular satellite, is really several wispy thin rings made of space debris. High concentrations of gold, aluminum, and nickel. Definitely evidence that would suggest that it had several terrestrial satellites in orbit. I’m not reading any energy patterns or radio signals. Yaird, increase to full approach velocity.”

“Full approach velocity, aye.”

Helg was now very anxious to investigate. As a xeno-paleontologist, it’s quite a reward to find signs of intellectual life that has gone extinct. It is rare enough to find signs of life, let alone intellectual ones. Even more rare than that, is to find one that has gone extinct. Her biggest hope was that the extinction happened recently. If she could find a mummified specimen, or even abandoned cities to explore, it would mean so much for her career.

After controlling her elation, she quickly programmed in a new scan to detect for biosigns, along with silicates borne of biological and botanical decomposition. She couldn’t allow herself to get too excited as the satellite evidence could also be the remnants of a mining operation. Not as exciting, but still evidence of an alien civilization.

Helg couldn’t control her smile as they were getting close enough to see the rings of the planet, along with a better view of the shape of it, which was similar to an apple having had a big bite taken out of it. The new scan results came in, showing a more detailed image of the planet’s surface. She could also see that the rings did have some small bits of rock as well.

Helg turned to Bened, “Yaird, bring us into a high orbit.”

“Aye, Lieutenant.”

She then continued the log, “It appears to be a barren planet with no biosigns, and very trace amounts of silicates. I am reading higher traces of microplastics, but the rings do show evidence of intellectual life, and that this planet may have had one or more moons. There is a fuselage that looks to be intact still orbiting the planet parallel to its rings.”

Pausing the log again, she turned to Bened. “I’d like for you to investigate that satellite while I fly down to the surface to collect core samples and do a deep ground scan.”

“I suggest that we split the shuttle, ma’am.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Bring us to a full stop, and then we’ll separate.”

“Full stop, aye, Lieutenant.”

Helg didn’t wait for the shuttle to come to a stop before getting up and pulling the monitor she was using out of its place. Even though you are issued one of these tablet-sized computers, this one was her personal computer. She grew up studying rocks since her father was a geologist. When he passed on, she inherited his journal. Despite being only about her home planet, it has helped her piece together clues on other planets that she has explored.

“Rocks are rocks, but they will blow off your socks.” Something her father used to tell her, meaning that, if you know what you’re looking at, a rock can tell you a lot of information.

After the shuttle separation, Helg was now piloting the smaller shuttle, which is more adept at flying in atmospheres. She had flown to a low altitude, and was cruising at a slower speed over a particularly flat area in the northern hemisphere, right around 19.5° latitude. She was looking for a place to land, and when she saw a rather large canyon, she turned around to go and land in the crater she had seen. It is standard operating procedure to find a well-hidden place for the shuttle as a precaution.

Once the post-flight check was complete, she was quick to don her exosuit and prepare the robot to run the core digger while she plans to set up the survey markers needed to do a deep scan on the area.

After loading up the hoverpod with the markers, she started on her way, and that was when her communicator chimed. “Talk to me, Yaird.”

“This must have been some kind of space station. There are several places for a crew to sleep, but it’s designed in such a way that they must not have had artificial gravity technology.”

“That’s interesting. That suggests primitive space technology; pre-FTL. Anything else of interest?”

There was silence for about ten seconds as Helg slowed the hoverpod down, having reached her first destination.

“There are plenty of computer interfaces here, my hope is that their memory banks are not corrupted. I’ll get back to you.”

“That is my hope as well. Good work, Yaird.” She stated this as she punched the first marker into the ground. She waited for it to initialize, then set it as the first marker. It lit up, showing its readiness, and her tablet beeped as it recognized this. It then updated and showed the positions for the rest of the markers.

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As she turned to get onto the hoverpod, she could barely see the robot setting up the base of the core digger. She let out a happy sigh, going as fast as she could to the next marker’s position.

Everything was going smoothly as Helg was approaching the final marker’s position. Her communicator chimed. “I hope it’s good news.”

“Actually, ma’am, there is a rather large dust storm heading your way.”

“How long do I have?”

“Maybe twenty minutes.”

“That should be plenty of time. It looks like my robot is packing up the core digger, and I’m about to place the final marker for the deep scan. Have you had any luck with the memory banks?”

“I just got back to the shuttle, and I’m about to put them into the scanner.”

“Very good. Keep an eye on that storm for me.”

“Already on it, Lieutenant. Good luck.”

She heard the click of the communication ending just as she was initializing the final marker. Normally, she would be offended by an abrupt end to the conversation like that, but she has gotten used to how focused Yaird gets in his work. It often causes him to skip out on things like pleasantries.

As she made her way back to the shuttle, she could see the eastern sky getting darker. She was happy to see that the robot had finished its work as she barely stopped in time before hitting a wall in the storage area.

Once the outer hatch was closed, she impatiently waited for the room to re-pressurize. She had her hand on the helmet release and a hand on the hatch release, waiting for the green light. As soon as it was lit, she activated both releases, then rushed to the cockpit to begin the pre-flight check. She then heard her communicator chime again. “I’m almost on my way. Just finishing up the pre-flight check now.”

“That’s good to hear. The storm has picked up in intensity. You have maybe two minutes.”

“I’ll be in orbit by then, don’t you worry.”

“See you soon, Lieutenant.”

All systems were nominal as she slid the tablet back into place on the console. She was happy to see that the deep scan was at 89%. She should have the results before merging with the other shuttle. She quickly lifted off and as she flew above the crest of the crater, she looked in awe at the gargantuan dust storm that would soon swallow it.

She let out a short sigh in relief before focusing on exiting the atmosphere and joining up with the other shuttle. Once merged, she programmed the robot to take the core sample to the storage area of the main shuttle and display it. She was very anxious to see what clues were left behind. However, the evidence was pointing to the fact that this civilization went extinct quite some time ago.

Helg stopped by the cockpit, “Yaird, please launch a solar class probe to survey the system, and then launch a communications relay.”

“Aye, Lieutenant.”

“How was it on the space station?”

“Ugh, it was creepy, and very cramped. I don’t think I could’ve spent another minute over there.”

“Hmm. I wonder if that suggests that they had limited resources on this planet. Have you learned anything from the memory banks?”

“Unfortunately, most of the data is corrupted. I’m having the computer do a resequencing, but it doesn’t seem to be having much luck.”

“Let’s hope that the core sample and deep scan will tell us more. I’m really hoping that the captain will let me bring a full team here. Let me know when that is finished.”

“Certainly, ma’am.”

They gave each other a courteous smile before she left. She went to the science station along the front wall of the storage area. The robot was just finishing laying out the capsules that hold each segment of the core sample. As she waited for the system to synchronize with the other shuttle, she noted that a few of the capsules had their radioactivity warning light active.

The thought had crossed her mind, and as the results of the deep scan came in, she sighed as it confirmed that there was some kind of nuclear disaster in that region. What really got her attention, though, was the groupings of tiny clusters of microplastics. Some of them were heavily concentrated. After looking at the depth of this, she determined that this civilization went extinct nearly 20,000 years ago. There were also heavy concentrations in the same areas of compounds that relate to pesticides and other toxins.

This made her sigh heavily. She would have to wait to get to the Calumbear to use the laboratory to inspect the radioactive core samples with toxic compounds.

That was when Bened showed up. “Are you having any luck, Lieutenant?”

“It’s strange. I can only assume that this civilization was wiped out by some kind of nuclear event, but these concentrations of microplastics lead me to believe that they must have eaten plastic, and that the planet must have been infested with insects.”

“Why would anyone want to eat plastic?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe they did have resource problems, and had to supplement their diet with plastics.”

“That is strange. I didn’t get much from the memory banks. What I can figure is that it was used for scientific experimentation along with planet surveillance. Get this, they called their planet, Earth.” he said with a giggle.

Helg scoffed at that. “How uninspired. Hi, what planet are you from? I’m from Rock.”

They both laughed, and Helg put a tentacle up to her mouth.

“Oh, and look,” Bened said, grabbing something from a pocket, “I grabbed a patch from one of the uniforms I found. I think it’s a flag. Each uniform had a different one, but I liked this one the most.”

Helg grabbed it from him. It had red and white stripes, with a small blue field of white stars. “I wonder what all these stars mean?”

The end.

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