Encounters (14 page)

I have a long drive to work every day which gives me plenty of time to think. I was passing a plant when I wondered what aliens who found earth long after we were gone would think of it. That’s not really a new idea in Science Fiction. But then I wondered what if they found our planet and every plant, every power station, every water work were all shut down purposely. No signs of war. No signs of zombies. Just packed up and turned off the lights. I decided to turn that around and go find an alien planet where that had happened and watch the crew search for answers.

"Anything new to report?"

The archaeologist looked up from where she knelt and ran the back of her gloved hand across her brow. She squinted in Captain Ivy's direction and he realized the sun was almost directly behind him blinding her. She stood up slowly and he could hear her knees pop. A sound he was intimately familiar with from his own joints.

"Not much new to tell yet Cap." She replied. He smiled a little at her casual informality toward his rank. He was certain his XO would never share his lack of concern.

"The engineers are still busy trying to figure out how to get into a building with no doors. The linguists are in a tizzy because they think they've figured out a new word. That bring us up to a whole two dozen" she said sardonically. "We're about halfway through with our ground scans." She gestured to the device that she had been working with. "Sonar is painting a fairly detailed picture of the underground portion of the structure. It extends for several miles in every direction. So far it is shaping up to be a perfect circle with this tower in the dead center."

"That's truly fascinating" he told her. She cut her eyes at him sharply. "Seriously, this is monumental" he said when he saw her look of skepticism.

She blew a lock of hair out of her eyes that had come loose from where the rest was tied up. "Any word from the other survey teams" she asked.

"It's the same everywhere we've landed. Deserted cities left in pristine condition. The entire infrastructure is intact. Water, sewage, factories, power plants, all shut down and mothballed. Just no people. Whatever happened here, they had time to prepare."

He looked up to the top of the tower shielding his eyes from the sunlight. It was particularly bright here along the equator. On top was the familiar dish sending its signal skyward to the orbiting satellites who were broadcasting it outwards to the stars. When the signal had first been detected the reaction on Earth had been astonishment. The people and governments were rocked by the news. All of this was followed by an impromptu
weeks long celebration. Businesses closed. Bars handed out free drinks. Two minor wars actually came to an abrupt halt. Eventually someone got around to asking the important question. Now that we know we aren't alone, what do we do next?

Sending a response had been out of the question. Backtracking the signal showed that its source was over a hundred light years away. Relatively close on a galactic scale, but still too far away to carry on a chat. It was decided to send a probe, but that would have taken even longer to get there and send back data. An international consortium, partially public and partially privately funded, was hastily developed to attack the problem. They spent the next twenty years developing the
Rickenbacher drive that propelled the initial probe almost instantaneously through a fold in space to Planet P as it was dubbed. The images it sent back were broadcast live to a stunned planet earth. Image after image was shown of a beautiful blue green planet similar to Earth. It was covered in cities and structures, but no one was home. The only sign of life was a large tower complex sending out a lonely signal. The International Space Consortium put together a large expedition to investigate. It took another 10 years to build a starship, the ISCS Beagle, large enough to accommodate the manpower and equipment.

When the American investors had demanded that Captain Charles Ivy be put in charge their European counterparts balked. They claimed that as they were funding the lion’s share of the project they should get the first pick. Truthfully with the American economy and political clout in such a shambles they had a valid point, but Ivy wasn’t about to let that deter him. He campaigned hard for the position and called in as many
favors as he could before getting the nod. He thanked God every day that he stood under this alien sky with its light hint of purple.

"I just can't believe that they're all gone" she told him.

He shrugged. "That’s a mystery alright. I wish we knew why. Was it a disease? I just can't believe it was a war. There's no sign of a large scale natural disaster either. It's like they just turned out the lights and walked away. Hell, we haven't even found any bodies!"

"We've found plenty of pictures though. At least we know what they looked like."

He gave her another tight little grin. "That might have to be enough when this is all done."

"I'm a little surprised a military man like you would be so interested in all of this" she said. “I thought you were all spit and polish and the smell of napalm.”

"You'd be surprised how many career military men are interested in ‘little things like this’. Especially when it comes to ancient alien civilizations” he replied. “Besides, a little napalm goes a long way."

The communicator implanted behind his ear chimed. He tapped it lightly and heard a mousey little voice in his ear.

"Captain, its Zach from linguistics."

"Go ahead Zach, what is it?"

"Can you meet me on the north side of the tower?"

"Will do, I'll be bringing Professor
Broadhead with me."

The two of them walked around the tower. When they got to the north side there was a small group of highly excited linguists and artists standing in a circle. When they saw Captain Ivy they straightened up hurriedly. Zach walked stiffly to meet them. He had apparently suffered some kind of injury as child that left his left leg not working
properly. So far no one had been tactless enough to ask him about it. He moved deceptively quickly despite his leg.

"Captain Ivy, we found it!"

"Found what Zach? A way into the tower?"

Zach waved his hand as if that idea wasn't worth acknowledging. "Better! We found a Rosetta
Stone! We'll need to take it back to the ship to properly decipher it, but this is it!"

Captain Ivy exchanged a bemused glance with Ms.
Broadhead who simply shrugged at his unspoken question. They turned back to congratulate the team of excited language specialists.

"How can it be a true Rosetta Stone" asked Professor
Broadhead. "Wouldn't one of the languages on it have to be one that we speak? How could that be when this species apparently never made it past orbit much less all the way to earth?"

Zach's face grew more animated.
"By using the only true universal language of course! Mathematics! We suspected that we would find something like this. It just took a while to find due to all of the overgrowth and general wear and tear of time."

"Next shuttle is scheduled to depart at 0 six hundred. I'll make sure you and this stone are on it” said Capt. Ivy.

While Professor Broadhead joined the gaggle of researchers pouring over their new find the Capt. started back towards the main camp. His crew had spent long hours hacking away the vegetation around the tower revealing four concrete roads leading to the structure. He walked along one of those crumbling strips of concrete now marveling at the alien environment. It had felt incongruous to fly hundreds of light years in an advanced space craft only to resort to machetes to clear out a few vines. In the course of their work they had discovered several small fountains and sculptures, among other abstract forms of steel. Everyone had been stumped until Angel, one of their artists, made landfall and instantly recognized it as a park. Once it was revealed to him he had mentally kicked himself for not seeing it.

When he reached the base he went straight to his office and stood in front of the air conditioner. He let the cool air dry the sweat off of his face before preparing his latest report. Lately the consortium had grown impatient with their progress. They had begun reminding him the cost of the mission regularly demanding something for their investment. He suspected that this newest discovery would make them allay their concerns somewhat.

***

The conference room was full of noisy scientists and technicians when he called it to order. It took several minutes and finally some shouting by the XO before everyone quieted down. Sandra
Broadhead slouched in her chair sipping her coffee with a bemused smile on her face.

"Let's get started, shall we? First up, Angel has completed her rendition of what she believes the park around the tower would have looked like when it was first completed."

He gestured to Angel as she stood up and moved to the screen. She was a small woman with a fiery disposition and a passion for art. She took the controls of the screen and without any fanfare brought up the image. The reaction was astonishment. It was a beautiful green park field with delicate structures and smiling people. Children were swinging and playing games. Mothers were smiling. Young lovers were courting. There were automobiles with alien lines to them driving past. And standing over all this was the tower gleaming and new. Angel had had much to work with preparing this picture. They had yet to find an actual specimen but they had left behind many pictures in their residences.

"Now if we just knew what this tower was supposed to be" someone muttered from the back of the room.

"I think I can answer that" spoke Zach.

"Then please, by all means, enlighten us" said Capt. Ivy.

Angel took her seat while he hobbled to the front of the room. He brought up an image that was filled with curly q's and other abstract lines.

"This is a sample of their primary alphabet. There are as many languages and dialects here as we have back home, but this appears to have been their ‘Lingua Franca’ so to speak." He switched to another image. This one was another series of odd letters beside a series of dots.

"At first we thought that these dots were part of the letters themselves. That is until someone realized that the dots were actually a progression from 1-100. That's when we realized that the letters were the corresponding count. This was a huge breakthrough for us. We've been able to utilize this finding to decipher quite a bit of their language and we think we know what the lettering on the tower means if not how to open it. But, before I tell you what it means I need Professor Broadhead to present her findings. Professor if you would."

Sandra stood up and joined him at the front. Once again the image was replaced this time with a schematic of a large facility.

"This is a map taken from our sonic scans of the underground portion of the tower facility. As you can see it has a diameter of five miles and is close to a mile deep. That's very relevant to what you are about to hear."

The gathered experts and crew were starting to mumble when Zach held up his hand. "As I've said we've translated the writing on the tower. It was simple once we figured it out. It means museum."

"That's a hell of a museum" someone exclaimed.

"Exactly" replied
Broadhead. She was smirking when she spoke. "We think given the size and its location it is THE museum. We can't know for sure yet, but we think when the end was coming they built this tower to safeguard their entire cultural heritage. Every sonnet, every symphony, every statue, and every piece of art ever painted. Ladies and gentlemen we have before us all that they could save. We can do no less than to make sure it is preserved."

There was silence for a brief second and then a roaring of laughter and applause. This was the discovery of a lifetime and emotions were high. The Captain dismissed them all to their duties and they began to flood out ready to get to work. Sandra started towards the door but looked back to see Captain Ivy staring at the screen. He had turned it back to the image of the children playing in the park while their last great storehouse of culture and history stood over them. She walked across the room to stand beside him. He didn’t turn but he must have felt her presence.

"They knew their end was coming and what do they do? They save the only thing they can save, the essence of their civilization. They insured that their planet would outlast them and whoever found them would remember them forever. I wonder what we would do.”