The Warning

"What is it?" Dr. Carter peered down the excavation shaft, where Amelia was carefully strapping an intricately detailed piece of metal onto a small crane. They were part of a xenoarchaeological expedition to the world of Draconis IV. Several thousand years in the past, the world had been inhabited by an alien race that called themselves Lealsed. Their species was long gone, but as with many other species, they had been builders and many remnants of their society remained on their world. The Lealsed were unusual in one way: Although their technology was advanced, in some ways more advanced than what the team on the planet had seen at home, they seemed to have never established any real presence outside of the orbit of their homeworld. The world had become nigh-inhospitable for a long time afterwards, rivaling Earth's most extreme deserts in terms of heat.

Amelia had come to this world for the summer to assist Dr. Carter in the ongoing investigation, but so far little progress had been made until geological imaging had found the chamber they were now excavating. The discovery of the chamber itself, and how well-preserved everything within it was, represented a tremendous breakthrough.

The location of the chamber itself was abnormal, too. The settlement it was in appeared to be a rather small one, established on top of what seemed like a depleted resource deposit, possibly coal or a metal ore. The existence of a chamber underground that seemed specifically built to last through the end of civilization was an odd one, especially since that chamber didn't seem connected to a larger complex like an emergency shelter system. It was only built to hold what was inside of it.

Climbing out after the metal block was lifted up, Amelia dusted herself off and turned to Dr. Carter. "It's definitely some kind of recording. Maybe a plaque or something. I can try to translate the text on it, but it'll take a while."

"Good idea." Carter gestured to the tent behind him. "The system is set up in there if you want to get started." The tent was blessedly cool, and any excuse to get out of the sun and the heat was good enough for Amelia.

Their understanding of the alien language was still somewhat primitive, but it was improving somewhat as time went on. Translating the block would be a difficult challenge. At least, it should have been, but it seemed to be written in very simple language, even using pictograms at points instead of complex words or phrases. Still, Amelia spent the next two days working on the translation until she was satisfied with what she had. Coming back to Dr. Carter, she gave him the translation she had and started to explain it.

"It seems like it's some kind of message to anyone finding the site in the future," Amelia said. "It's written like it's meant for... it's simple language, but not in the way you'd expect from an educational text, and it's pretty obviously meant to be preserved. I don't think it's the only message of this type around, but the others are probably pretty similar."

Dr. Carter's curiosity had been thoroughly piqued by this point. "What kind of message were they trying to send?"

"It looks like a message about how their society collapsed. Poor environmental planning and engineering led to a chain of ecological disasters, topped off by a massive warming from carbon emissions. This isn't just a message, it's a warning to whoever finds it not to do the same thing."

Carter shook his head. "That can't be right."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't doubt that's what the text says, but it must be some kind of fiction." Dr. Carter indicated the skeletal structures in the distance of buildings that had been decaying since before humanity knew the planet existed. "There's no way that a species could be intelligent enough to industrialize and build things like this, yet unintelligent enough to destroy their environment in a way they could so clearly see coming."