Chapter No. 26. Confusion.

After some effort, Janet was able to get high magnification images of the village outside the city. We gathered at the command station to view them.

"They look like humans," I said. "What the hell's going on here?"

"Maybe these are the humans that the aliens abducted," Natale proposed.

"They would have to be their offspring," I said.

"I didn't get any images of children," Janet said.

"Or, they were brought here in hyperspace and don't age like us," Bridget said.

That made me cringe. What she was suggesting was very disturbing.

"I've done some magnified images of the city, but I found no evidence of any living beings there," Janet said.

"I think we have to assume that the aliens brought these humans here and then they perished, maybe by some human infectious disease."

"That would be the ultimate revenge," Natale said.

"That it would, but we'll have to go down there to verify that theory."

"Are we going to wear bio suits?" Bridget asked.

"I don't think that would be necessary. Whatever killed the aliens shouldn't harm us."

We waited to the next day to travel down to the surface of the planet near the village. I took a laser rifle and had the women arm with laser pistols. I didn't think they would end up being used, but I felt it was a necessary precaution.

We landed near the village and exited the shuttle. The weather was not unlike any other day on the Earth we remembered except for one big difference; two suns dominated the sky, a sight that was definitely alien for earthlings.

The human colonists came up to greet us. They didn't appear to be armed or exhibit signs of violent intent. What surprised us was the fact that they all looked to be in their 20's, and there were no children.

"Who are you?" a male asked.

"We are the survivors of the first attempt to explore Proxima-b. Our mission was launched in 2043 but failed because of an engineering mistake that put us in hyperspace."

"We have no idea what year it is," the male said.

"We came here from Earth, which is in the year 2250, but it's probably a few years older now.'

"How did you come to settle here?" Janet asked.

"We once lived on Earth but were taken by alien creatures."

"Where are these aliens?" I asked.

"They became ill and died," he replied.

"We note that you don't have children," Sharon said.

"We are unable to birth," a woman replied. "We haven't had periods."

"We understand," Janet said. "We have the same problem. It's because of being in hyperspace. Obviously, the aliens used that process to bring you here."

"Are any of you from Mars?" I asked.

"They were vivisected," another male said. "The aliens wanted to understand them."

His statement momentarily angered me, but I refrained from expressing my anger.

"Are you okay living here?" I asked.

"We have plenty of food and water," the first male said. "The weather here is moderate."

"What is Earth like?" a female asked.

"The planet has suffered greatly from climate change that has brought on global warming. The only remaining humans live in a domed city in what was once Canada."

"We are fortunate to be here," the male said.

I concurred with his statement.

"We wish to explore the alien city," I said. "We will leave you now."

They didn't react.

We got back in our shuttle and I flew it up and over the city. After flying around for a time, I chose a large plaza area to land. The city was truly alien with twisted spires that rose hundreds of meters into the sky. Many of the geometrically enhanced buildings had transparent sides that resulted in two glistening shadows in a dual sun sky.

"I don't see any alien bodies lying around," Sharon said.

"Maybe they're in the buildings," I replied.

We entered through a triangular shaped doorway of a pyramid shaped structure without windows.

"Holy hell!" I exclaimed. "There must be hundreds of skeletons in here."

Bridget examined some of them, taking measurements and making notes in a handheld unit. "They were bipedal and had three fingered hands. Their skulls look a lot like human ones, but they are larger relative to their body size."

"That's weird," I said. "That would suggest that they were a lot like us."

She didn't reply.

"If these are the remains of the species that abducted humans, I wonder where their space vessels are."

"Maybe they were in an orbit that eventually deteriorated," Janet said.

"We didn't see any evidence of that on the surface of the land masses; although, the debris could have fallen into the oceans."

It wasn't until we entered another building that we were able to see what they looked like. Relief images on the walls showed them in various poses and activities.

"That is not what I expected," I said. "They look like Manga characters."

"Look at how large their eyes are," Natale said.

"They had big feet," Sharon said.

"I wonder if these images are exaggerated," I said.

"They fit the skeleton configurations that I examined," Bridget said. "I would love to know what species they evolved from."

"I would assume that it was some species that evolved on this planet," I said.

"Maybe they didn't evolve on this planet," Sharon said. "Maybe it was on a planet in a system nearby that was no longer habitable."

"Are you suggesting that it was a planet around the other star in this system?"

"Not necessarily. There are many M-class stars within ten light years of the Centauri system."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. We've determined where the people abducted from Earth ended up and that Proxima-b is not habitable."

"We're are we going next?" Janet asked.

"I suppose we should return to Earth and see how the trees they planet fared."

"Are we going to live on Earth?" Natale asked.

"Not until we return its climate to its former glory," I said.

They just stared at me as if I had gone bonkers.

We returned to the ship and prepared to return to Earth. We had to strap in the G-chairs to do the burn that put us into hyperspace. After a half hour burn, we were able to get out of our chairs and relax.

The real discussion occurred when we gathered for supper that first evening.

"So, how are we going to restore Earth's climate?" Natale asked.

"I don't know, but if we can plant enough trees, we might be able to make an improvement."

"That would require a long time to cause change," Sharon said. "The main problem is the fact that there's too much carbon dioxide and methane in Earth's atmosphere."

"Wouldn't the fact that there's no more large-scale emissions mitigate that?"

"It might have, but the emissions are still in the atmosphere. We'd have to find a way to reduce them."

"Let's wait until we get back and do a thorough survey before we try to determine how to do that."

"No matter what we come up with, it'll take decades to make it work."

"We'll just have to live on the ship until we do."

They didn't like that, but it was the truth. What we had to deal with next was a much more urgent problem.