The Chronicles of the Milky Way Galaxy : Gaia

Chapter 15 : Alpha City and a Pet Dragon

"Rise and shine," said Bara with a loud voice the next morning. "Wake up and let's
get ready for our return."

Helen curiously looked at Anais who was petting a lizardlike animal. "What is
this?" she said.

"This is Draco. He is my new pet."

"How did you come to befriend a lizard?"

"I can hardly sleep more than eight hours per night. When I came out, this guy
was in the bag of food."

"And he just let you hold him?" asked Gakuto with the excitement of a child.

"Can I touch him?"

"Ask him, not me," said Anais.

When Gakuto's hand had almost reached Draco, the animal hissed and took
an aggressive stance.

"He does not seem to like you," said Konoya, laughing.

"Actually, I think he is scared of all of you, being so close to him," said Anais,
waving her hand to make space. "It took a little bit of food for him to let me touch him.
Now he does not let me put him down."

"That's strange for an animal," said Gakuto while packing his backpack.

With Draco happily on her shoulder, Anais moved to the front of the party and
began working to find a path toward Argos. The team crossed many more interesting
areas, where they registered structures, most of which were deeply buried under the
soil. On arriving back at the camp, the materials gathered were given to Jabir, who
was the chemist of the group, to begin analyzing them. In the meantime, the
exploration team tried to befriend Draco, who became an instant sensation.

The following days, small excursions took place but at limited range. Another
excursion to the city was made by Jabir and Steve, who needed data about the
materials used to build it. The analysis of samples and the observations made by the
Hera provided enough data to begin forming a hypothesis about the history of that
world.

"On top of today's progress reports, we will be discussing the results of the
research on the history of this place," said Jain as he kicked off the meeting.

"We are beginning to form a hypothesis," continued Helen, "about the age
and partial history of this world. It does not, however, feel complete by any standard.
The Hera provided tectonic information, and contrary to our initial suspicions, this
planet has very little tectonic movement, which is mainly located away from the area
of the city. We will be referring to the city we partially explored as Alpha City or just
Alpha, to distinguish it from the other places we will surely visit."

"So, how did it get buried?" asked Juuda.

"Actually, that is the correct term, Juuda. The city did not sink; it was buried.
The soil we see there has been deposited over large periods of time by the wind."

"How much time are we talking about?" continued Juuda.

"It's better if we let Jabir answer that."

"I am shocked by this material's properties," started Jabir. "It is pretty easy to
date it from the moment it was split off from the rest of the building, and as long as it
remains away from direct light. We know that the part I have was split by some kind
of explosion about twenty-five to thirty thousand years or six to seven thousand Earth
years ago. It is, however, impossible to date how long ago it was actually made,
since it does not age."

"How can it not age?" asked Steve.

"It is stronger than any concrete and harder than carbide. On top of that, it
heals itself and can even close visible cracks."