Star Fields

Chapter No.87 New Discover

Chapter No.87 New Discovery

Life can be complicated.

The star system that Molly had discovered in the spiral galaxy at the other end of the universe was a lot like ours. It had four rocky inner planets and four gas giants in the outer part of the system. Two of the rocky planets were habitable, but one in particular was very much like Earth. It had a sizable atmosphere containing oxygen and it had a vast ocean. In fact, only about ten percent of the planet's surface was habitable.

"This planet is about four billion years old," Molly said. "That's more than enough time for life to evolve on it."

"There are signs of civilization," Margaret said. "I see what appears to be a city complex near a large lake."

I looked up at the image on the main screen. "That does look promising."

"I'm picking up radio spectra signals," Alexa said. "I think they contain video information."

After several minutes of manipulation, Alexa had a lock on a transmission, but the images were confusing.

"That's really weird," I said. "They look like hominids, but I don't understand the clothing they're wearing. Some of them have what appears to be complete solid-red color uniforms and others are wearing what looks like clown outfits. They're red and light tan stripes that circle their bodies, even their faces."

"I think there's something wrong with this," Margaret said. "The ones with the red color uniforms have light tan faces and hands."

Molly smiled. "You know what I think. I think that they're not wearing clothing,"

We turned to her. "That's rather crazy!" I said.

"If you look very careful at them you can see that the red parts are fur."

"Yeah, I believe you're right."

"I believe that ones with the red rings are female," Alexa said.

"That figures," I said in a sarcastic tone.

"I don't think they have any space technology," Margaret said. "I don't see anything that would indicate they're an advanced civilization."

"Well, make a note of it. We won't go down and disturb them."

"We might want to check out the other habitable planet," Molly said. "It's near the outer edge of the habitable zone for this star, but it appears to have a breathable atmosphere."

"Take us out to that planet, Judy."

Our vessel broke orbit and accelerated away. Despite the fact that the planet was over forty million miles away, we were in orbit around it within ten minutes.

Several minutes later, Molly had a report on her observation of the planet. "Despite being out at the edge of the habitable zone, this planet is not completely frozen over. There is a thousand-mile-wide area around the equator that is lush with vegetation and liquid water. It helps that this planet is only tilted five degrees to this system's ecliptic. I'm not sure what keeps its tilt stable."

"Does it have a breathable atmosphere?" I asked.

"Yes, but the oxygen is only eighteen percent. However, this planet is 1.5 times the size of Earth, so the atmosphere is thicker."

"I see evidence of a civilization," Margaret said. "I also see evidence of machines moving along what appears to be a track."

"Interesting. I'll bet neither civilization realizes the existence of the other."