Chapter 05: The members of the Historical Technologies Group socialize and hypothesize about the mystery of the first wave of colonization

8:00 PM

It was a cold winter night out in Tocopha, a northern outlying branch city inextricably connected to Sanmachi known for its large purian population. Snow and salt crunched under Lauren’s shoes. She pulled her coat tighter around herself as she walked from the monorail station to the address that Miguel gave on Friday.

“You can come over to my place Saturday at 20:00,” he said, “my wife and the kids are going west to see her parents for a few days, so we’ll have the house to ourselves.”

Lauren found a cozy three story house of a narrow footprint. Ashley and Morgan were already outside in the front yard creating clouds of fog with their breath.

“Seems like I found the right place,” said Lauren, closing the short picket fence gate behind her.

“Yes,” said Morgan, “it’s a fairly straightforward walk from the monorail station to Miguel’s house.”

“So this gathering has a purpose I heard?” asked Lauren, “besides just hanging out.”

“It’s to brainstorm ideas as to what really caused the failure of the first wave of human colonization without worrying what the literature says,” said Ashley.

“Because trying to reason it out from evidence sometimes seems to be just as fruitless,” said Morgan with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

Lauren rubbed her hands together, “is there a reason why we are still waiting outside?”

“Miguel and his wife are probably still tidying up the place, although more likely Rex is doing the actual cleaning.”

Lauren turned around to see Jethro closing the gate behind him, his other hand holding a resin plastic bag.”

“What have you got in there?” asked Lauren.

“On the assumption he came straight from the Citadel, probably a Snaptic sandwich,” said Ashley.

“Snaptic torta, but same thing basically,” said Jethro.

“You know that’s pretty funny actually,” said Ashley, “considering that you are such a good cook, and here you are eating from a chain that is mainly frequented by college students, tourists, and other people that can’t cook.”

“Hey,” said Jethro, “if I could bring my kitchen into our office then—”

With some rumbling, the garage door opened and an estate car rolled out, opening its doors upon reaching the end of the short driveway. The front door opened to reveal Miguel’s back. A small Purian child was hanging over his shoulder and looking at Lauren. A slightly older Purian child was holding Miguel’s hand. Further into the house, a humanoid robot was vacuuming the carpet, reaching the far end of the room with its telescoping arms.

“Yes, honey, I know,” said Miguel.

“And don’t forget that Rex has work tomorrow so if you get any stains in the carpet you’ll have to clean them yourself,” a Purian woman was busy collecting papers and small bags and boxes.

“Kahina,” protested Miguel.

“I’m just saying,” said the woman, “if you get stains in the carpet because the night takes you that way, that’s fine, just get them out before we get back. Oh, it seems Akoni opened the door.”

Miguel turned around to face the rest of his group, “please come on in. It’s cold outside.”

“I noticed,” said Jethro. He stood next to the door and bowed slightly to Ashley. “After you,” he said.

“No, you’re going to do something,” said Ashley.

“Fine, I’ll just go in,” said Jethro, sighing.

“Wait I was wrong,” said Ashley. The two squeezed through the doorway at the same time.

“Hey watch it.”

“You watch it.”

Morgan and Ashley looked from the short spectacle to each other. “I will stay out here until you go in,” said Morgan.

Lauren walked through the door into a brightly lit entry hall connected to a sunken living room, quickly followed by Morgan. The four of them did their best to stay out of Miguel and Kahina’s way.

Kahina looked at Lauren.

“Oh you must be the new girl at the lab,” she said, “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Really?” said Lauren, “well I hope they were mostly good things.”

Kahina laughed, “yes of course, Miguel is incapable of bad mouthing anyone. Pardon the delay, we were just about to leave town for a few days to see my mother in the plateau cities but I seem to have misplaced some things.”

“No worries,” said Lauren, “please take your time.”

“I wish I could,” said Kahina, “but we have a train to catch.” She turned around to rummage through the drawers in the hall desk.

Lauren turned towards Miguel and the young purian children. “Are these your kids, Miguel?” she asked.

“Yes, yes,” said Miguel. “This is Timur,” he said, hoisting up the one on his shoulder, “say hello Timur.” The purian toddler yawned exposing several sharp teeth.

“Oh my what sharp teeth you have,” said Lauren in a singsong voice.

“Yeah, the first set of teeth youngsters get are always sharper than the adult teeth,” said Miguel, “it’s too bad because it means you’ll get crazy bite marks in primary school if you get into fights often.”

“Did you get into fights as a child?” asked Lauren.

“All the time,” said Kahina. Miguel grinned and scratched the back of his head. The toddler at his side tugged on his pants.

“Oh yes of course,” said Miguel, “this is our first son, Akoni. Say hello Akoni.”

“How do you do?” said the young Purian, extending his hand.

“Oh very well, thank you,” said Lauren crouching to shake hands with him.

“Honey, where’s the ear cleanser?” said Kahina, brushing back her hair.

“In the kitchen next to the Thermo-Wield prepper,” said Miguel. Kahina disappeared further into the house.

“Ear cleanser?” asked Lauren.

“Timur has floppy ears like Kahina’s mother,” said Miguel, “it’s an adaptation for Purians living in the frozen south of Hyperion, where Kahina’s parents are from, to better retain heat. Unfortunately, floppy ears are also prone to yeast infections if not cleaned frequently.”

“Found it!” Kahina strode back into the entry hall then grabbed a suitcase. She walked up to Miguel, trading Timur and then a quick kiss.

“You have everything?” said Miguel.

“Yes,” she turned to the other members of the HTG, “thank you for helping keep my husband company while we’re gone.”

“No problem,” said Jethro.

Akoni ran out ahead to the car and hopped in. Miguel and Kahina followed and put the two children in their car seats and the bag in the trunk. The car then pulled out of the driveway and drove away. Miguel returned to the front door.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“No worries,” said Lauren, “in fact, thank you. I feel like I know you better now.”

Miguel smiled and closed the door.

“Actually, who is Rex?” asked Lauren, “is it that Jordie?”

“Yes, Rex is our family robot,” said Miguel, “new families in Greater Sanmachi have the chance to apply for a subsidy for their own robot to help around the house or send out to work for extra income.”

“Why new families?” asked Lauren.

“Several reasons,” said Morgan, “promote the setting down of roots in the city, creating familiarity towards robots, giving families income diversity, and helping around the house.”

“The last part is the most important, for us at least,” said Miguel. He walked into the kitchen and lifted a panel in the wall connecting it to the living room. “What can I get you all started with?”

“A South Hyperion Spritz please,” said Ashley, taking off her coat and hanging it up.

“Give me an Arcturan Radio Tonic,” said Jethro, sitting on the couch and setting down his bag, “and a plate and a napkin.”

“An Altarian Pale Ale please,” said Morgan, pulling a whiteboard into the middle of the living room. The whiteboard was covered with scribbles and magnets holding up printouts of pictures of various First Human Colonial Era structures.

“Can I get some Denavita mulled wIne?” said Lauren, studying the whiteboard.

8:31 PM

The HTG gathered in Miguel’s living room. Lauren was curled up in a large coffee-colored armchair cradling her mulled wine, Ashley was to her left seated on a well-worn sofa with a laptop, Jethro was sitting on the carpet between the sofa and a marked-up (undoubtedly by Miguel’s children) coffee table in order to avoid getting crumbs everywhere as he ate his sandwich. Miguel was seated across the coffee table from Lauren in a matching armchair while Morgan stood next to the whiteboard. Behind the whiteboard was the entertainment center, with curious models of spaceships filling the glass cabinets that flanked the gargantuan monitor.

“All right,” said Morgan, “are we ready to begin?”

“I have a question actually,” said Lauren, raising her hand.

“Yes?” said Morgan.

“It’s for Miguel actually,” said Lauren turning to Miguel, “did you really get into a lot of fights as a kid?”

“I meant for the brainstorming—” began Morgan.

“It’s really surprising, isn’t it?” cut in Jethro, “it’s only fair that Lauren hears the story too.”

“There’s no real story,” said Miguel, “I went to an all purian school further north in Tocopha where I grew up. I just kept to myself much like I do now, but that encourages others to bully you in purian primary school. So I fought back like my brother taught me, which from time to time involves the biting of some ears.”

“Did it work?” asked Jethro.

“It must have worked because I never got picked on by the same person twice,” said Miguel

“Fascinating,” said Morgan, “let’s move on to the first item of discussion: the remains of a derelict First Human Colonial Era transport ship which was recently dug up on a human resource colony. It’s very likely that it was doing a run between Old Earth and Jezebel since the system it was discovered on lies along what would be the perfect shipping path between those two systems.”

“Was it going towards or away from Old Earth?” asked Lauren.

“Towards Old Earth I believe,” answered Jethro.

“Oh! That seems pretty familiar,” said Ashley, “your first solo project is restoring the black box of a colony ship, right Lauren?”

“Yeah, it is!” said Lauren, “I’m very excited about it because until now, all colony ship remains have been thoroughly inspected, but no one knows anything about this ship.”

“How come no one’s explored this one?” asked Jethro, now sitting on the sofa.

“It was hiding,” said Lauren, “in deep space in the Fringe until an Astratum patrol ship happened across it.”

“Ahh,” said Jethro. He paused to think for a bit, “say, do you know what Astratum patrol ships look like?”

“No idea,” said Lauren.

“Lauren can search what patrol ships look like on her own time,” said Morgan.

“But this is the perfect time,” said Jethro, “we happen to be in the house of Astratum fleet enthusiast, isn’t that right Miguel?”

“You could say that,” said Miguel, “I’ve assembled and painted almost every standard ship in the Astratum fleet as well as a couple of ships from the Purian Navy.”

“Do you have a model of a patrol ship?” prompted Jethro.

“Several,” said Miguel, “I even have a model for the standard Fringe patrol ship which probably found the ship remains.”

“How about we show Lauren?” suggested Jethro, “better knowing the actors involved in the discovery can only help her with her investigation.”

“Sure!” said Miguel, going over to the entertainment center. Morgan checked her watch. Miguel returned and placed a plastic model of a patrol ship on the table.

The bulk of the ship’s body was composed of two trapezoidal prisms attached to each other at the base so as to give it a hexagonal cross section when viewed from the front, top, or side. Rising out of the top of the body was a rectangular prism that housed the crew quarters, bridge, and sensor array. On the bottom was a single set of airlock doors for a hanger able to accommodate two small delta craft. Arranged around the perimeter of the top and bottom decks were four turrets each.

“The things that make the Fringe, or more correctly Perimeter, patrol ships different from the other variants is the expanded fuel capacity, more powerful sensors, and illuminated stripes,” explained Miguel, “the differences reflect its role as a ship to rescue lost travellers rather than prevent unmonitored traffic like the Core patrol ships.”

“Oh, I’ve seen those,” said Lauren, “one or two of those ships would land in the capital of Plei every month.”

“Very cool,” said Jethro, “do you have any other ships?”

“I think we’ve gotten all that we can out of this tangent,” said Morgan, “unless Miguel has any models of First Human Colonial Era transport ships.”

“Oh yeah,” said Ashley, ”I forgot about that. Do we know what it was carrying?”

“Mostly cement and steel,” said Morgan.

“Hmm, that’s interesting,” said Lauren, looking at a Smart Sheet with an article about the crashed ship, “this ship crashed during the building phase of the colony, they would have needed all of the materials they can get.”

“Maybe the Jezebel colony just had a really good supply chain?” ventured Miguel. Ashley was typing a summary of the conversation.

“I doubt it,” said Ashley, “the Americana government wasn’t famed for their logistical prowess.”

“Then maybe it was just so bad, they accidentally sent much needed building supplies to Old Earth due to a serious oversight,” jested Jethro.

“More likely it was intentional,” said Morgan, “most of the super-continents of Old Earth were in the beginning stages of energy descent but they were very dependent on their colonies for energy and processed resources.”

“Ah, and you said the ship was carrying processed cement and steel, right?” said Ashley.

“Exactly,” said Morgan.

“I don’t mean to be rude—” said Jethro.

“But you’ll do it anyways,” said Ashley.

“How does this help us figure out what caused the demise of the first wave of colonization?” continued Jethro.

“For the hundredth time,” said Morgan, pinching the bridge of her nose, “that’s the point of these gatherings, to look at information and evidence that would normally be overlooked when trying to explain the disappearance of the first colonies.”

“That’s what our day projects are for,” said Ashley.

“Yes,” said Morgan, “well, mostly.”

“Speaking of which,” said Miguel, “what projects is everyone working on right now? I forget.”

“I forget as well,” said Jethro.

“Guys,” said Morgan, “Monday is just two days away, we can talk then—”

“Oh! That reminds me,” said Ashley, setting the laptop on the coffee table, “Lauren, how do you feel about joining Miguel and I on the Daiterran colonial mainframe project?”

“What kind of work do you need me to do?” said Lauren, “I’m not too familiar with old youmen tech.”

“It would be decoding,” said Ashley, “Miguel has acquisition down, the Sanmachi Colonial History Museum is handling the interpreting, but I’m behind on the decoding because there’s a lot more of it than we were expecting.”

“You should do it,” said Jethro, “I looked at the files and they all have simple encryption. It would be a good intro into the other kinds of work we do.”

“Sounds fun, sign me up!” said Lauren, “I feel like I’m doing less work than everyone else anyways.”

“Oh right!” said Miguel, “what is everyone else working on?”

“Well I’m working on the Daiterra colonial mainframe,” said Ashely, “and still working on the Arcturan corpse freighter. For my solo project, I’m creating some educational material for an outreach program organized by Yispevia University and the Meixoto History Museum.”

“That’s with high schoolers?” asked Lauren.

“I think it’s middle schoolers actually,” said Jethro.

“It’s middle schoolers,” said Ashley.

“Ah, well I’m working on the drifting colony ship, as you already know,” said Lauren, “and I’m also on the IAF ArcSum project.”

“IAF ArcSum,” said Jethro, “that’s the Intersyst Anthropology Foundation Archaeological Summary right?”

“Yep,” said Lauren, “the 12020 one specifically.”

“For group projects, I’m working on the Daiterra colonial mainframe project and IAF ArcSun,” said Miguel, “for solo stuff, I’m working on the Amezial city archives repair project.”

“Amezial, that’s the capital of the Purian Confederation, right?” asked Jethro.

“I thought you said you didn’t remember what projects everyone was working on, Jethro,” said Morgan.

“Well hold on,” said Jethro, “the capital of the largest multisystem should be common knowledge.”

“And yet you didn’t know it?” said Ashley, amused.

“The dumbest question is the one not asked,” countered Jethro, “anyways, I’m helping the Cosmitech Software Division decode some Foundation era drives and I’m advising the Daiterra Institute of Technology Open Source Universal Decoder team. For team projects, slowly working through the Arcturan corpse freighter project. Oh, and I’m also on IAF ArcSum.”

“You forgot the acronym for your own project?” said Ashley.

“If you remember what happened 10 seconds ago, I remembered it correctly,” said Jethro, “how about you Morgan?”

“Can we just move on?” said Morgan.

“Come on,” said Ashley, “we all said our part already.”

“I noticed,” said Morgan.

“Please?” said Ashley.

“FHCE review paper, IAF ArcSum, finishing up Scrimale Family record,” said Morgan tersely.

“Lot of people on IAF ArcSum…” remarked Jethro.

“In summary,” said Morgan, changing the subject, “there really isn’t anything out of place with the continents of the derelict transport ship.” She turned around to write on the board, “what’s more interesting is that the landing seemed intentional.”

Ashley picked up her laptop and started typing. Lauren laughed to herself but also felt sorry for Morgan.

9:28 PM

Miguel stood laughing next to the whiteboard with a marker in his hand, “no Jethro, I’m sure you would fit right in at General Proteins.”

“I’m gonna take that as a compliment,” said Jethro with a laugh, “I guess I owe it to me having a lot of purian friends in primary school.”

“That would do it,” said Miguel, “anyways, where were we?”

“You were talking about how the latest geological survey report for the Conhispa cluster showed signs of significant earthmoving,” reminded Morgan.

“Right! ” said Miguel, “right, on the order of entire mountain ranges. Which I guess is more than we thought these colonies capable of?”

“We knew that most colonies had significant landscaping capabilities,” said Ashley, “just not at this scale.”

“Well that’s all that I can think of about this article,” said Miguel, inspecting the photograph taped to the whiteboard.

“Thank you Miguel,” said Morgan as she got up and picked up another printout of an article from a stack on the coffee table, taking a moment to align the edges of all of the pieces of paper in the stack into a uniform column. Miguel handed her the marker.

“Our next topic is also from the Conhispa cluster, on Plei actually,” she said, scanning the page, “about a FHCE land vehicle discovered by some loggers.”

“Oh! I know that one,” said Lauren, “or at least there is something like that in the forest near my house.”

“Like this?” said Morgan, holding up the picture from the article.

“Yeah,” said Lauren.

“Excellent!” said Morgan. She turned around to write on the board. She wrote a little bit then started tracing an ever widening circle with increasing pace. The board remained unmarked.

“This marker is bone dry,” exclaimed Morgan, “toss them out when you notice that, Miguel.”

“I actually didn’t notice it was dry,” admitted Miguel.

“Wait, that’s because you didn’t write anything!” snapped Morgan, “even Jethro wrote something during his turn.” With a practiced flick of the wrist, Morgan threw the marker in a clean arc over everyone’s heads. It landed with a clunk in the wastebasket of the neighboring room.

“Do all professors know how to do that?” asked Jethro in jest.

“If only it was that easy to get a tenure-track position,” said Morgan bitterly. A new marker squeaked as she ripped the cap off.

“Are you feeling okay Morgan?” asked Ashley with some concern in her voice.

“Yes, despite Jethro’s best efforts,” said Morgan.

“Yikes,” said Jethro, “how about I get started on some cookies so that I stop distracting you guys?”

“That sounds like an excellent idea, Jethro,“ said Morgan, facing the whiteboard.

“Okay,” said Jethro, “or would you rather like citra-melon cakes?”

“Whatever keeps you in the kitchen longer,” said Morgan resentfully.

“Citra-melon cakes it is then,” announced Jethro, walking to the kitchen.

He turned to Miguel, “do you have any citra-melons in the fridge?”

“We should have a bottle of it in the fridge,” said Miguel, turning in his chair.

“Wait,” said Lauren, “I’ve had citra-melon juice before, and I thought I was going to die.”

“You had citra-melon juice?” said Miguel inquisitively, “where?” Lauren heard the refrigerator door slam.

“A purian restaurant in Markova,” said Lauren.

“I understand your concern,” said Jethro, shaking up a spheroid plastic bottle that was supposed to be in the shape of a citra-melon, “both the rind and the interior of the melon contain delicious compounds, but unfortunately the interior contains a lot of unpleasant stuff, chiefly citric acid and ethanol. However, with some distilling, filtering, and elementary knowledge of acid-base reactions, it is possible to make the juice smooth and sweet again.”

“We actually just got a citra-melon processor,” said Miguel, getting up from his chair.

“Ooh, I’ve heard of these,” said Jethro, “is it an all in one?”

“Yep,” said Miguel, retrieving the machine from a cupboard for Jethro, “it can make sweetener, palate cleanser, cleaning solvent, and disinfectant.”

Lauren watched as he unfolded and extended various parts of the machine resulting in it becoming twice as large in the same way a page of a pop-up book expands.

“So I imagine you pour the juice into the top here,” said Jethro, gesturing to the funnel at the top of the machine.

“Yes but you first have to check that there is baking soda in the hopper.” Miguel pulled a bin out of the side of the machine, peeked inside, then pushed it back in with a clack.

“Amazing,” said Jethro, “where did you get this? A purian store out here?”

“This one is actually made by Cosmitech Appliances,” said Miguel.

“No way!” said Jethro, prereading through the manual, “imagine that.” He sneaked a glance at Morgan who was also watching the whole demonstration. Morgan took a swing from her bottle.

“I think I can take it from here,” he said to Miguel, “your input is needed.”

“Oh right,” said Miguel. He returned to his chair.

“Alright,” said Morgan, “this vehicle was discovered in the forest due south of the capital city Tsae.” She held up a photograph of the abandoned vehicle for everyone to see.

“That forest looks dense,” remarked Ashley, she turned to Lauren, “did you go in there by yourself?”

“Most of the time,” said Lauren, “this one was actually the farthest I’ve ever gone into the forest on foot. Let me see if I have any pictures still on my phone.”

“Excellent,” said Morgan, “some interesting things about this vehicle are that it is extremely rugged and too wide to fit on normal roads.” Morgan added items to the bulleted list on the board. Ashley typed notes on her laptop.

“Also, something interesting I learned about Plei recently,” continued Morgan, “Plei has the largest network of underground First Human Colonial Era structures.”

“It’s definitely too much for one person to explore on their own,” remarked Lauren.

“If you had some subterranean drones it would be a lot easier,” offered Miguel.

“Absolutely,” said Lauren, scrolling through her phone, “part of the reason I joined the Knowledge Corps was so that I could be funded for a personal project and actually go to Plei with a fleet of mapping drones.” Lauren stopped scrolling, “oh I found the pictures by the way Morgan.”

“Great, can you send them to me?” said Morgan, “or better yet, put them on the HTG server.”

“Sure thing,” said Lauren.

“In the meantime,” said Morgan, “we can talk about the location of this vehicle relative to other FHCE struct—”

Morgan was interrupted by a series of sharp clicks followed by a loud whirring from the kitchen.

“Sorry!” said Jethro, poking his head through the opening connecting the kitchen and living room. On his face was an expression of genuine embarrassment, “I didn’t expect the centrifuge to be so loud.” The whirring tapered off and then stopped.

“You are forgiven,” said Morgan, “anyways, this vehicle was found at the midpoint between two heavily fortified structures which were connected by tunnels, which is somewhat strange since the forest floor there is very unfriendly terrain.”

“Were the tunnels caved in?” asked Miguel.

“Yes, but it’s hard to pinpoint when,” said Morgan.

“If we could confirm that the tunnel had a cave-in while the first colony was active, that would be pretty big since it would suggest that things were going quite wrong at the colony,” remarked Ashley.

“Are there a lot of earthquakes in that region, Lauren?” asked Morgan.

Lauren was setting everything up on the server so that Morgan could view the images. “Um, not really,” she said, somewhat distracted, “there are a lot of landslides though. I don’t know if that could cause a cave in.”

“There’s got to be a way to date when the cave in occurred,” ventured Ashley, “like the number of layers in the surrounding soil, perhaps.”

“I’ll check out the data in the geological surveys,” said Morgan. Her phone buzzed. She looked at Lauren’s pictures that were just pushed to the server, “oh my lord these pictures are grainy.”

“Yeah,” said Lauren, “I had a really old phone growing up, even by Plei standards.”

“Jethro!” called Morgan.

“What? I’m just here baking,” Jethro poked his head out of the connecting window. He held up a bowl and a mixer as proof.

“I need your help processing some images,” said Morgan.

“Oh,” said Jethro, “sure thing, let me just stick this in the oven.”

Morgan addressed the others, “how about we take a break from the discussion? I think these photos will give us a lot to talk about if we put in the necessary time.”

“Sure!” said Ashley. She turned to Lauren, “tell us more about your home planet. I’d love to hear about where you grew up.”

10:12 PM

“So if you want a more diverse selection of restaurants, Tsae, the capital, is just four train station stops north of Glenbee.” Lauren was describing the area around her hometown to Miguel and Ashley who listened intently.

Meanwhile, Jethro was coaching Morgan on using his image restorer.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Jethro, kneeling next to the armchair that Morgan was seated in, “the compression used on this photo was pretty lossy.”

Morgan scrolled through the pictures as she listened, “I noticed you didn’t say impossible.”

“Yeah, so what you want to do is feed it a bunch of pictures that you think would be similar to the one you want to restore,” said Jethro, “that will train the program to come up with an inverse compression process and fill in the lost data.”

“Do you ever go to the stations in between your hometown and the capital?” Ashley asked Lauren.

“Some of them,” answered Lauren, “the first station north of Glenbee is Milldale which is nestled in a valley similar to Glenbee. I had some friends there that I would hang out with. North of that is Lakefield which I sometimes would go to with my friends when it gets hot enough or with my parents when we want to sell some produce at the farmer’s market but don’t have enough to make the trip to the capital worthwhile.”

“Does Glenbee not have a farmer’s market?” asked Ashley.

“We do but the closer you get to the capital, the more you can sell your crops for generally,” said Lauren, “speaking of which, north of Lakefield is a suburb of the capital which I’ve rarely gone to, and north of that is Tsae itself where I spent a lot of time even before I went to college there.”

“Tsae University has a very good extra-galactic astronomy program I hear,” remarked Miguel.

“They must be, judging by all the fancy buildings their department has,” said Lauren, “Plei really benefits from being far from the galactic plane since there’s less light from nearby stars.”

“Try searching ‘abandoned car jungle,’” suggested Jethro to Morgan, “then take all the images that look similar to Lauren’s photos, try to get around 150.”

“150?” balked Morgan.

Jethro stood up from his crouching position and stretched. “I told you it was going to be tough,” he said, “anyway I have to go finish preparing the citra-melon cake.”

“So what kind of ruins are near your house?” Ashley asked Lauren.

“Big ones,” said Lauren, “there are three relatively close by. One that is straight south from my house and then two more that are a bit further but equally far apart. I spent most of my time exploring the closer one though.”

“Do you know if anyone else has explored it?” asked Ashley.

“I can’t be sure but I think I was the only one. All of the entrances are locked and the building is impenetrable,” said Lauren, “the only way in that I’ve found is through the top.”

“So how did you get in?” asked Miguel.

“Rock climbing,” said Lauren, “or I guess building climbing in this case.”

“Wow,” said Ashley, “weren’t you afraid of falling? Judging from the pictures, those buildings are hundreds of feet tall.”

“I was a little afraid,” admitted Lauren, “but there were plenty of good handholds all the way up the side.”

“Can I get a little help distributing some cakes?” called Jethro from the kitchen.

“Coming!” said Lauren. She walked into the kitchen to find Jethro placing slices of cake onto plates.

“You want me to take these in?” she asked Jethro.

“Yeah, hold on. I need to put the frosting on these,” he said. He carefully applied frosting to each slice with a spoon.

“I’ve been wondering,” said Lauren in a low voice, “why did you keep derailing the discussion earlier in the night?”

“Oh that?” said Jethro, “these gatherings used to just be for fun. Discussions about the fall of the first human colonies would just sometimes happen spontaneously but overall we got to relax and simply enjoy each other’s company. I think every working group needs to do that sort of thing on a regular basis in order to be healthy and productive.” Jethro applied an especially large dollop to one of the slices. “But a while back Morgan turned these gatherings into brainstorming sessions and we haven’t been able to unwind as much as a result. So I try and steer the conversation in directions where people can catch up with each other’s lives.”

“I see,” said Lauren, “and here I thought you were just fooling around.”

“That’s what I disguise my efforts as,” said Jethro, “also I doubled my efforts this time since I think you deserve to experience one of our gatherings in its original relaxed form. Unfortunately, Morgan seems to have noticed. Alright, all done.”

“Time to take the plates in?” said Lauren.

“Yep,” said Jethro, “oh, the slice with the extra frosting is for Morgan. She really likes frosting even though she won’t admit it.”

“How do you know then?” Lauren loaded three plates onto her arm.

“Everytime the plates come back in, Morgan’s is the only one without even a molecule of frosting on it. She must wipe it off with her fingers when no one is looking,” mused Jethro, “Alright the people need their cake.”

Lauren nodded and went into the living room with a fourth plate in her other hand. She handed plates to Ashley and Miguel.

“Thank you,” said Miguel.

“Thanks!” said Ashley, “you’re like a professional waiter.”

“I used to wait tables in college,” said Lauren.

“So did I!” said Ashley.

“Oh neat,” said Lauren, “so you would carry plates like this too then, right?”

“Actually I used wielding to carry the extra plates,” admitted Ashley.

“Jethro only knows how to carry two plates,” quipped Miguel.

“Fortunately that’s all you need when you’re a line cook in college,” said Jethro sitting down next to them with his cake.

Lauren walked up to Morgan who was absorbed in her task on the computer, “here’s your cake,” said Lauren.

“Ah thank you,” said Morgan, “you can set it down on the arm rest for now.”

Lauren returned to her spot next to Ashley, Miguel, and now Jethro on the couch.

“Another amazing cake as always Jethro,” said Ashley, covering her mouth.

Lauren took a bite of the cake and was struck by the smooth and sweet flavor. She had a hard time convincing herself that the flavor of the cake came from the same fruit as the palate cleanser she almost choked on at Palace Amezial.

Morgan came over to the group and sat in a folding chair across from the couch.

“It’s processing now?” ventured Jethro.

“Yeah, about half an hour left,” said Morgan moving a large amount of frosting onto a small piece of cake before eating it.” The fan in Morgan’s computer revved up to a disconcerting speed.

“It sounds like your computer is ready to take off,” commented Miguel.

“Yeah the training process is pretty heavy on the GPU,” said Jethro.

“Since we’re waiting for the photos,” said Lauren, “tell us about your college experience.”

“Me?” asked Morgan after wiping her mouth.

“Yeah, like what you studied or any jobs that you had,” said Lauren.

“Well for work, I was a grader for a few classes in the human history department,” began Morgan, “and believe it or not, I originally studied photography.”

“Wow really?” Lauren was very surprised, “where was this? Can I see some of your photos?”

“I went to Haiola University,” said Morgan, “and sure, just give me a moment to pull up some photos.”

Lauren took a moment to recalibrate how impressed she was by Morgan. The flagship school of the capital city of the Human Federation, Yispevia, Haiola University consistently ranked as the top university in the Human Federation and was widely considered one of the best liberal arts school among the members of the Federated Academies, the self-governing institution for coordinating collaboration between the various colleges and universities in the Combined Galaxies.

“Here are my best photos,” said Morgan, pushing a smart sheet across the table. The others crowded around to look. Morgan took the opportunity to finish eating her cake. Lauren scrolled through the photos, slowly to make sure everyone else got a good look at each photo. In the album were various landscape photos, each having ideal composition, color balance, and no central subject, causing Lauren’s gaze to wander across the photo and notice every small detail. She stopped on a photo of the central atrium of the Haiola University Main Library, which felt oddly familiar to her.

“Huh, I don’t remember seeing this photo at my first gathering,” said Ashley, examining the photo, “did you take this recently?”

Lauren looked up to see Morgan collecting crumbs of cake with her fork by pressing down on them. Lauren thought about what Jethro said for a bit and then realized that Morgan was making a sponge with the crumbs to scrub the tiny bits of remaining frosting off the plate.

Morgan set the fork down, “I took it in my first year for a class.”

“Wait I remember where I saw this,” said Lauren suddenly, “I saw this in the Federated Academies member magazine a few weeks ago in their special issue for Haiola University’s 370th anniversary.”

“That’s right,” said Morgan, “I didn’t think it was that good since I took it in my first year but put it in my portfolio after seeing that the editor of the member magazine disagreed.”

“Forgive my asking,” said Jethro, “but how does a photo taken by a freshman photography student end up on the desk of the editor of the Federated Academies member magazine?”

“Haiola University keeps a master album of all photos taken by its students which it shares with the Federated Academies,” answered Morgan.

“Ok so it seems you were doing well as a photography student,” said Lauren, “how did you end up specializing in First Human Colonial Era history?”

“I switched halfway through college after my parents told me I had to be a professor of some form of human history,” said Morgan.

“I didn’t know human families had designated scholars,” said Jethro.

“They don’t,” said Morgan, “both my parents are professors of human history and so were their parents. My mother made it very clear to me that the trend wasn’t going to stop with me.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for each family to have a few scholars rather than a few families be entirely scholars?” asked Ashley.

“For the good of society, perhaps,” said Morgan, “but my situation was more concerned about the good of the family.”

“Was it hard to switch majors halfway through college?” asked Miguel.

“Not particularly,” said Morgan, “I just had to take an extra class every year including during the extended breaks.”

Lauren heard from Jethro an exasperated “just?” under his breath.

“Anyways,” she continued, “after that I went to Haiola University for a PhD in human history specializing in First Human Colonial Era history. And then as you know I came here after I found that none of the universities I would want to teach at had any vacancies.”

“Which universities are these?” asked Lauren, “I know Tsae University has a few openings.”

“More like Haiola University, University of Yispevia, Arcturus Planetary University, Sanmachi Institute of Anthropology, UD Sanmachi, or Amezial Federal University,” said Morgan.

“With all that work,” said Jethro, “did you have any time for friends?”

“Enough for two, in college at least,” said Morgan, “in fact I still talk with them on a daily basis.”

“That’s close!” said Ashley, “who are they?”

“Elise is a freelance photographer from Hyperion who mostly works for the Galactic Combined Press,” said Morgan, “and Fairuza is a physics professor at Arcturus Planetary University, I think she’s a designated scholar too.”

“How did you meet Fairuza?” asked Lauren, “I mean, I can imagine how you met your friend who is a photographer.”

“She was already friends with my photographer friend,” said Morgan.

“Ahh, did you have any activities you did for fun?” said Lauren, “besides hanging out with friends.”

“Well,” said Morgan, “I was a member of the boxing team for Haiola University.”

“Was that for fun or to let off steam?” quipped Jethro. Morgan glanced at him.

“Sorry!” he said, apologetically, “that was a reflex joke, I swear.”

“I never would have expected boxing,” said Lauren, trying to picture it, “how did you get into that?”

“My youmen friend convinced me to join,” said Morgan.

“Wow,” said Lauren, “so does that mean if we were all to fight each other over the last piece of cake, hypothetically, Morgan would get it?

“Absolutely not,” said Miguel.

“Ashley here was the captain of the martial wielding team when she was in college,” said Jethro, tapping Ashley on the shoulder, “Kairexa was pretty dominant when it came to competitive wielding in her time.”

“For the last time, Jethro,” said Ashley, “I was the secondary captain. Plus that was a long time ago.” Ashley looked like she was reminiscing about her college days in her head.

A beeping issued from Morgan’s computer. Morgan went over to her armchair. “Image restoration is done,” she said.

“How did it turn out?” said Jethro, who seemed unsure how his own program performed.

Morgan cradled her laptop with one hand, and zoomed and panned with the other for a moment.

“Interesting,” she said at last, “can you take a look at this Jethro?”

“What is it?” said Jethro, getting up and stepping around the coffee table.

“Can your program generate stuff in the restored photo that was not in the original?” asked Morgan.

“Sometimes,” said Jethro, “but they are usually small things like weird shadows.” He stood next to Morgan and studied the laptop screen. “Oh, huh. No, that was definitely not generated, it’s too well defined in terms of shape and color.

“What is?” asked Ashley, eager to see what they were talking about.

“Well,” said Morgan, “it really can only be described as a gun.” She set the laptop on the coffee table for the others to see.

“A big one too,” said Jehtro.

Miguel, Ashley, and Lauren crowded together to look at the screen.

“Why would a colony need such a large gun?” asked Miguel.

“Are the fauna on Plei particularly dangerous?” asked Ashley.

“Mole-bears sometimes attack people but you can take them down with just a rifle,” said Lauren, “also they will always run away from vehicles.”

For the first time that night, silence gripped the living room while everyone was lost in thought. The windows rattled as the wind picked up outside.

“Ah! Wait I remember now,” said Lauren, breaking the silence, “the gun was a wielding type gun.”

“Are you sure?” asked Morgan. Aside from paralyzers for personal self defence, wielding guns were always significantly more destructive than their ballistic counterparts, especially any gun longer than 20 centimeters. The gun in the picture was easily a meter long.

“Yeah, the barrel was rectangular,” said Lauren, “that’s where the converter plates go right?”

“Correct,” said Miguel, “but there are many guns of various types that have all sorts of shapes of barrels.

“I remember that there was no opening at the end of the barrel,” offered Lauren.

“Then it’s definitely a wielding gun,” said Miguel.

“Well this narrows down what sort of vehicle this is,” said Morgan, refocusing the group, “the first colony of Plei apparently had need of heavily armed vehicles.”

“So maybe the colonies disappeared because of infighting,” said Jethro.

“We’ve already made that hypothesis before,” said Ashley.

“True, but this time we have a unique piece of evidence to support it,” said Morgan, sounding somewhat pleased with herself. “Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised with how well tonight turned out.”