Chapter No.36. Unknown.

We strapped into our G-chairs to begin our journey to Trappist 1-e, a planet we believe is the Greys home world. The burn lasted ten minutes, but when it was finished, we were in for a four-day journey in hyperspace.

We gathered later that day at the food station to enjoy a supper that consisted of a soy beef version of beef Stroganoff along with a beer. The general mood was moody.

"What if these Greys are responsible for humans disappearing from Earth? We can't really do anything about it now," Janet said.

"That's right. We're not the cops of the universe. I want to know if they know anything about it."

"Do you think that humans are on the planet?" Natale asked.

"Don't know. There might be."

"I think that whatever the situation, we cannot change anything," Sharon said. "We're literally lost in time."

I pointed at her. "That's a good way to put it. Hyperspace has not only relegated us to a life without time change, it has made us useless to do anything about it." I raised my glass of beer. "At least we have this to sooth our melancholy."

They held theirs up in an unofficial toast to misery.

Three days later, we arrived at Trappist 1-e and achieved orbit. The planet did not resemble Earth in any respect. It was a sullen looking world with a gray surface and dirty clouds bathed in orange light of a red dwarf star.

"I'm not detecting any vessels in orbit or any evidence of satellites," Sharon said. "There are metropolises on the surface that appear to be active."

"Guess we picked the right planet," I said.

"I don't see anything that would indicate that there are humans on this planet," Janet said. "Infra-red readings from groups of people are too low in the spectrum to be humans."

"Okay," I said. "Try pinging the frequencies. Maybe they'll answer the phone."

They gave me funny looks.

It wasn't too long before we got a response. A typical looking Grey alien face appeared, but it wasn't quite what I expected. It looked more like a bald young human woman with a bad complexion.

"Why have you come here?"

"We're curious," I replied.

My response caused a pause.

"Elaborate."

"We are researching why billions of people have disappeared from Earth."

"We believe they were taken by a species that resembles what you would call a lizard."

"Do you know where their home planet is?"

"We believe it is on a world like ours in this region of the galaxy."

"You speak perfect English. I assume that members of your people came to Earth near Roswell, Nevada."

"Yes."

"Your arrival and treatment were considered a coverup conspiracy."

"We are aware of that."

"What is the purpose of the communication device on Earth?"

"We monitor for intrusions by the lizard species."

"How long ago did they arrive?"

"A hundred of your years relative to Earth's velocity around the galaxy."

"I assume by your response that you use hyperspace to traverse long distances."

"Yes."

I paused for a moment. "What do you know about the lizard species weapons capability?"

"They are aggressive."

I waited for more, but it wasn't forthcoming. "Thank you for the information. We will be leaving your system shortly."

The communication link ended.

"Not very talkative," I said. "But I detected no deception."

"I'm surprised that he didn't ask us how we found them," Janet said.

"Maybe they know," I said. "I suppose the next step is to try and determine if we can locate another habitable system nearby."

Janet turned to her astronomy station. "I'm on it."

She didn't have a candidate system the first day. In fact, it was very late when the rest of us were in our bunks sawing logs that I found her and Sharon at her astronomy stations unclothed.

"Any luck?" I asked then.

Janet replied. "I have three possible candidates, but I want to see if I can choose the most possible one based on characteristics."

"Don't you ladies like to wear clothes?" I asked.

"We decided to get up and work," Janet said. "And we didn't want to waste time dressing."

"Besides, we really don't need to wear anything," Sharon said. "No one is viewing us."

I assumed that her response meant that they don't wear anything to sleep, but I dismissed their explanation for doing so as being argumentative.

But I had the perfect comeback. "You're acting like Natale and Bridget."

"Not really! Their hormones are raging," Sharon said.

"And, yours aren't?" I asked with a subtle grin.

"Ours are on hold."

"For what?"

"For you," she said with a smirk.

I gave her a mock smirk back.

"Don't you like us like this?" Janet asked.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but I don't wish to disrespect you."

"We don't consider you ogling us as disrespect," she said.

"Unfortunately, I do, but I'm not going to discipline you or argue about it. You deserve to be treated equally."

"You're much too nice," Sharon said looking earnest.

"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment."

They giggled.

I decided that they were acting like schoolgirls because of being bored, but I really didn't understand women. No male does, despite saying they do.

They did find a candidate system the next day.

"We're picking Gliese 581-b," Janet said. "It's not too far away from here."

I had to make a decision, and I really didn't like what we might find there. "Okay, we'll go there but remain back at least a billion kilometers from the planet."

It only required a day in hyperspace to get there, and when we came out of hperspace we were far enough away to avoid notice, but Janet and Sharon kept a sharp eye out for anything that resembled a space vessel. I had the proverbial foot on the accelerator if we did spot something coming our direction.

"The planet is baseline habitable," Sharon said. "It's hotter and more arid than Earth and the oxygen content is lower."

"Just right for lizards," I said with a grin.

"They would have to be different than the lizards on Earth, but it's hard to tell if there are any intelligent species this far out."

"There's no indication of space vessels near the planet," Janet said. "I'm not detecting anything in orbit."

"Good," I replied.

Silence for several minutes before the real excitement began.

"I'm detecting an object at ten thousand kilometers," Janet said. "I'm not sure what it is."

"What's its velocity?" I asked while squinting at the main screen.

"It's only traveling at a thousand kilometers per hour," she replied. "It doesn't seem to be guided."

Janet increased the magnification, and what I saw was something that I would never imagine seeing out here.