Fragments 1: Devolution Landing

Basic Needs

Having inspected the scan results, the team were then taken to view the two trenches that the Rymerian survey team had dug. Unsurprisingly, they had not been as professional here. They had been improvising and it showed.

Mor Moorfier tutted as she made her way through the first trench. The Rymerians had made the classic mistake of digging too fast and had undoubtedly disturbed valuable evidence as they had cut through the soil, metal and debris. Even with the harsh time schedule that they had, no proper archaeologist would have rushed a job like this. It is always better to leave it to future generations if you can't do it properly yourself.

Nevertheless, the team were able to get a real physical sense of how this part of the fuselage had collapsed, leaving twisted beams, but also large spaces within which many of the passengers would have survived.

"How many bodies were there in the mass grave," asked Moorfier as she turned slowly to inspect the two sides of the deep trench.

"One hundred and eighty nine," said Marcus, getting in before Orobos, who looked genuinely impressed and could merely nod.

"This ship would have carried between five hundred and a thousand colonists," she said slowly. "It looks like most of them made it, but where did they go?"

"Could they have used this as a shelter?" asked Ran.

She shook her head slowly.

"I don't think so - not for very long anyway. It looks to me as if the wreck would have been unstable and dangerous. They probably didn't stay here very long, if at all..."

Professor Androbos suddenly grabbed the scan printout from Marcus and strode off in the direction of the tents muttering to himself...

"We're missing something important... They couldn't have lasted long here because it’s a dry planet and there is no water here. With their ship in pieces, they would have needed to have found a source of hydration - and fast..."

The group followed him back to the tent where he was hunting through the scan printouts and survey charts.

"Is there a map of the wider area?" he asked as Orobos entered.

The Rymerian nodded and hooked out a large sheet of paper which they spread out on the table.

"Here we are," he said, pointing to some marks.

The team looked at the charts, trying to make sense of them.

"There," said Androbos pointing to a meandering river. "That's the nearest water source, and I'd be willing to bet they were aiming for it anyway. Look at that big loop. It's just... five miles away. I'd be willing to bet they went there next."

He turned to Orobos.

"Have you got any more scans of that area?"

The Rymerian nodded.

"We must have something," he said. "We swept through this entire corridor, checking out the geology. It's where we want to run a major drainage channel, so we wanted to gauge any significant issues before drawing up plans."

Androbos nodded as the foreman hunted through files and images.

"Here," he said, holding a chart up for them.

The team examined it carefully.

"What are these markings?" asked Moorfier.

"It's difficult to be sure," Orobos replied carefully. "It's not a detailed scan, but I could get someone out to have a look..."

"That would be great," said Androbos. He looked happy. Their real work had begun.