Delphi blinked his eyes, finding himself back in the real world. He stopped scanning the body before him, turning away indifferently.
“Doctor? What did you see?”, asked Leo.
“Nothing of value…”
Delphi concisely explained his vision just now to the major.
“A family which had to separate? Did their son board one of the rockets?”
“Yeah, sounds about right.”
“Not bad. We can figure out a few things based on this.”
Delphi didn’t quite agree with the major, but he refrained from arguing. In his opinion, they already knew that their ancestors abandoned earth so what exactly did they learn from this vision?
But instead of harping on, the doctor would rather change the topic:
“Major, can you call Scorpio back? I want to take a look at the other bodies.”
“Sure.”
Soon, Scorpio returned to the room, reluctantly helping the doctor. He watched as the man nonchalantly examined the lifeless bodies, drawing blood, scanning tissue…
Even as a seasoned soldier he didn’t enjoy the sight. Fortunately, the doctor soon lost interest as none of the bodies triggered new visions.
With a wave of Delphi’s hand all his equipment vanished.
“Let’s go Leo. There is nothing to get in this place. The people here don’t seem to have held important positions.”
Leo nodded, agreeing with the doctor. Although he was no expert in research, even he could see that the people here wore relatively simple clothes, indicating that they were low-level workers.
Under the major’s lead the trio regathered with the other soldiers.
“Scorpio, Taurus, you stay here and keep an eye out. The rest comes with me. We will take a look at the upper floors.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Aquarius, take the lead. Carefully scan the building again.”
“Yes, sir.”
The female soldier was eager to make up for her mistakes. She felt somewhat guilty for not detecting the robot at the beginning.
She separated from the group, her power armor camouflaging her body, shielding against all perception.
Aquarius silently went up the stairs, entering another hallway. She stopped, putting her hand on the floor, and sending out a thorough scan.
Taking her time, Aquarius deeply analyzed the entire floor. Suddenly she frowned, noticing tiny moving dots which distorted her vision.
Stopping her scan she thoughtfully stared at the locked door closest to her. With careful steps she approached the door. Her power armor’s sensors were highly sensitive, perceiving even the slightest sounds.
However, it didn’t notice anything. The absolute silence unsettled Aquarius, creating an invisible pressure. Her heartbeat accelerated as she pressed a button next to the door.
With a hiss it slid to the side. Aquarius immediately retreated, leaning against the wall. She kept perfectly still, expecting something to change any second.
The soldiers stayed like this for a full minute before daring to peek into the room. She ignored the rest and only stared at the spot which obscured her vision earlier.
However, she found nothing but a few debris on the floor. Aquarius didn’t understand what was going on. She carefully drew back, deciding to return to the first floor and let the doctor figure it out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Leo waited below the stairs when Aquarius suddenly appeared in front of him. The scout briefly reported everything she saw.
“So there is no danger on the upper floor?”
“As far as I can tell, no. Sir.”
Leo nodded, signaling his soldiers to follow him upstairs. Although he was careful about Aquarius’s strange findings, he trusted his own danger sense, which remained inactive.
A few moments later Leo, Aquarius, and Delphi entered the first room. The doctor immediately looked around excitedly. The room they entered appeared to be an office, with two white desks, which showed clear signs of the passing of time.
“Doctor, it’s here!”
Aquarius’s voice distracted Delphi, calling his attention towards a place in the corner. With one gaze the man already found the readings displayed within his armor showing some irregularities.
“Interesting, how could this be?”
Like a child finding a new toy Delphi was immediately transfixed. He took out a few drones, which began scanning the corner. Meanwhile Delphi took some of the rubble on the floor in his hand.
“Is this some special stone?”, asked Aquarius curiously.
“No. It’s the most basic marble. The only question what it’s doing here.”
Leo, Delphi, and Aquarius discussed for a few seconds, eventually judging that the marvel must’ve contained something else. At this moment the drones finished their scans, sending information to Delphi.
“These readings are in line with our hypothesis. This corner has been influenced by something over a long time, putting everything into a highly energized state.”
Looking at the doctor’s thoughtful expression, Aquarius chuckled faintly:
“Maybe this was their radiator.”
“Not impossible.”
Delphi’s dry voice silenced the soldier. She felt somewhat awkward as if berated by a teacher.
Unfortunately, Delphi didn’t care for others, fully immersed in his research. He put away the marble and turned towards the desks.
“Screens inlaid in the desk. The glass cracked a long time ago. The components look solid. Was it the cold? Did it come unexpected to the ancestors?”
Leo watched as Delphi murmured to himself, caught in his own world. After inspecting the desk, he rummaged through empty drawers before searching through some dilapidated shelves, which looked as if they would break apart any second.
Suddenly the doctor’s hand moved like a flash of lightning, grabbing something from the shelves. A small black metal box was held in his hand, immediately surrounded by multiple drones.
“Did you find something doctor?”
“Of course! Look, Leo. If my guess is correct this is an ancient storage medium.”
“Can you read its contents?”
“Give me a few minutes.”
Delphi studied the box, turning it in his hands.
“Here are two interfaces. Ahh, quite the ancient technology. We haven’t used such interfaces in thousands of years.”
“Can you gain access?”
Delphi let out a sigh, it was lonely being the only intelligent person in the room. Or the entire planet. Maybe even the star region.
He didn’t answer but took out a blueish metal sphere, which had a small black patch on one side.
“Good old Technata’s Multi-Standardizer, or TMS. Backbone of modern research. There is no technology it can’t access, be it human or alien.”
Delphi expected some kind of reaction from Leo but the major only looked at him with his obscuring black helmet. The doctor coughed to dispel the awkwardness, getting back to work.
“TMS, scan this storage medium!”
“Yes, doctor Delphi.”
The monotone voice was accompanied by an invisible wave which spread to the black box.
“Scan complete. Connection ready.”
Delphi nodded ion satisfaction, holding the blueish sphere close to the black box. Suddenly the sphere deformed, revealing a plug which perfectly fitted with the black box’s interface.
With a click the two objects were connected and a screen of light was emitted by the TMS, showing the black box’s content.
“Hmm, looks like a bunch of damaged data, most likely deleted on purpose.”
Delphi murmured to himself while using his finger to scroll through the light screen, which mostly deployed documents with indecipherable names.
“TMS, can you reconstruct something?”
“Gathering information, searching, reconstruction complete…”
Delphi’s eyes lit up as the TMS presented him with a single file where it gathered the few patches of sentences it could decipher.
“… start on 21.08.1304… evacuation end… cryochambers prepared… thank you for your service!”
Leo looked around the office while listening to Delphi. He couldn’t help but feel respect for the people working here.
Humans evacuated earth and these people knew they were forced to stay behind, yet they did their jobs, contributing to humanity’s survival in the universe.
The major involuntarily brought his fist to his chest for a salute, honoring these people. Without them their mighty empire wouldn’t exist now.
“What a waste! What were they thinking?”
Delphi’s annoyed voice immediately destroyed Leo’s solemn mood. His mouth twitched as he stared at the doctor.
“Idiots, all of them. How did they decide who to evacuate? The people working here must have been some of the most intelligent among the ancient humans. They worked with rockets able to travel far beyond this solar system!
It’s incredible! I really don’t know what happened for our technology to regress in the space age! It took modern humans more than a thousand years to develop such rockets!
Why would the government leave such people behind? Their knowledge is invaluable! You can always train a few soldiers but these people c…”
Suddenly a shiver ran down Delphi’s back, prompting him to stop his rant. He glanced at the unmoving Leo, feeling his chest tighten:
“You know I didn’t mean it like this Leo! What I was talking about were normal soldiers. Cannon fodder. Not elites like your unit!”
“Hmpf. I say we are done here.”
Leo scoffed at the doctor, leaving the room. As soon as he stepped outside, he heard a hiss. The major’s head abruptly turned to the side, finding Virgo in front of an open door.
“SOLDIER! Who allowed you to wander randomly?!”