Chapter No.44 Unbelievable

The impossible often becomes possible when least expected.

The next system on Molly's list was a nearly identical system to our Solar system, with a few exceptions. It had the usual gas giants some distance from the G4 dwarf star and four rocky planets in the inner part of the system, but these rocky planets were nearly the same size.

Two of these planets were habitable.

"I think we'll check out the planet with the two moons," Molly said. "I assume that it should be more stable because of that."

I nodded, but I wasn't sure of anything.

We achieved orbit and Molly began her survey.

"I don't believe this!" she exclaimed. "There are several large cities on this planet and they resemble those that used to be on Earth."

"That's wild!" I said.

"The atmosphere is very similar to Earth's,"  she said. "That's why I chose to explore this one first. The oxygen content is around twenty percent and the temperatures are very close to nominal."

"The other habitable planet is hotter because it's closer to the star," I said.

"Yes, but it's not in a runaway condition like Venus. It's just warmer than normal, but since it has much less carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, it hadn't gone to pot."

"I'm not seeing any signs of aircraft or transmissions," Molly said. "We may as well send the probes down."

"They're on the way, Molly," Judy said.

Soon, the video feeds began streaming back.

"Oh my God!" Molly squealed. "They look like humans."

"I believe they are humans," I said while looking at her screen. "And, it appears that there are a lot of them."

"How in the hell could they have gotten here. A trip from Earth to here would have taken a very long time even at the original warp speed."

"Maybe the reptilians brought them here," I said.

"Or, the Scath brought them here to keep them from the reptilians," Molly said.

"That's a good possibility," I replied. "But, how are we going to know that they are genuine humans?"

"If we could obtain some tissue swipes from them, we could use our DNA sequencer to determine that."

I sighed. "That means we'll have to go down there. That could be dangerous."

She turned back to her screen. "Let me do some more scans. Maybe they're not violent."

I guffawed. "If they're real humans, they're violent."

She ignored me. "I'm not seeing any signs of weapons or military."

"How about transmissions?"

"Not a peep," she replied.

"Send the insect probes down, Judy."

"Yes, Jason."

The video feeds reinforced our belief that these were real humans.

"They have family units with children," I said. "If these are not human, they are so close it would be difficult to detect any differences."

"They're not speaking English or any other Earth language," Molly said. "The translator is handling it though."

"That could be the result of being bred by the reptilians. With time, language would change."

"We also don't know how long they've been on this planet," Molly said.

"Yes, that would be a factor."

"Do you think it wise to go down there?" she asked.

"I think we have no other choice. If the Scath did put them here, it would be another reason to believe that they're genuinely human."

I turned to Judy. "We're going down. Alice and Ellen should be sufficient backup."

"Yes, Jason."

The trip down was uneventful. We didn't encounter any resistance or surveillance. We landed on a large meadow near the largest city, which consisted of row after row of round towers that had round windows that circled each floor. Constructing these buildings would have required advanced equipment and tools, a conclusion that was not consistent with the fact that these people didn't exhibit advanced technology like land or air vehicles.

After we landed, we waited for a crowd to gather, but it required some time to actually happen, another indication that they were not employing any communication systems.

The crowd that did gather around our shuttle didn't react surprised when Molly and I climbed out of the shuttle, followed by Alice and Ellen, holding BFG's.

"Greetings," I said while holding a universal translator stick. "We are from the other side of this galaxy and have noted that you appear to be human. We are interested in knowing how you arrived here."

A woman was brave enough to come forward. "We are not certain of the time that it happened. Our ancestors told us that they came here in a large space vessel, but we are not sure when that was."

"How are you related to your ancestor that came in the space vessel?" I asked.

"She was my great grandmother."

"That's three generations," I told Molly. "It means that they've been here for more than a hundred years. I'm not sure how that calculates out for our time."

"It would be approximately the same time, but it doesn't account for how long the vessel took to get here and how fast it traveled."

"Let's just say it's several hundred years."

I turned back to the woman. "We would like to verify how human you are."

"How could you do that?"

"All we need is for you to put some saliva on a specimen stick." I gestured to Molly and she pulled an antiseptic bottle with a cotton swab in it. The cotton was actually not organic but rather a polymeric substitute. She took it to the woman and had her run it around in her mouth before returning it to the bottle.

"Thank you," I said.

"We will go now. Thank you for your patience."

We returned to our shuttle and flew back to our ship. I'm not sure what they thought of us, but it didn't matter. We would soon know if they are real humans.

Molly ran the test sample through our DNA sequencer and what she found was rather disturbing.

"These people are not quite human. There are several major discrepancies in their DNA. They only match at 75% human."

I rubbed my jaw. "That's interesting. It could be that they're the result of cross breeding with other hominid species. Who knows what the reptilians did to enhance their palatability. I think that we can still assume that they were brought here by the Scath."

"What are we going to do with them?" Molly asked.

"As far as I'm concerned, this planet doesn't exist and we never found any humans or mostly humans. What the reptilians don't know will protect these people."

"I suppose we should continue our search for actual humans."

I nodded. "I agree."

End of Part 4
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