We started down the remains of the road, Jara in the lead. We didn’t know where the road went, but figured at the very least it was a good landmark to get us back to the shuttle.

  As we walked, I could hear the songs of birds and watch as small creatures scurried around and up trees. It was oddly peaceful, making it difficult to stay alert and focused on potential danger.

  Fortunately, Jara didn’t seem to have that problem, so when she held up a hand for us to stop, we obeyed. She seemed to be listening for something before turning to the right and peering off into the trees, gun drawn. I followed her gaze and saw a large, bear-like creature off in the distance, almost hidden by the shadows.

  Following Jara’s lead, we crept along the broken road, eyes on the creature. Thankfully, after a few minutes, it turned and wandered off in the opposite direction.

  “I don’t know if the wildlife is aggressive, but we should be careful,” Jara whispered, to which the rest of us nodded our agreement.

  We continued along another hour without incident before we came upon more ruins. As we neared, I realized that while these seemed to be in a similar style, they were far larger than where we came from.

  We carefully approached the first building, one that appeared in noticeably worse condition than where we landed. Broken glass doors led inside to what was perhaps the remains of a reception area, but there was not much remaining to indicate that.

  “We should stay together and investigate each building in turn,” I suggested to the group.

  “I agree. If there was still-working tech at the hangar, there might be more here,” Jara responded.

  The others seemed content to follow our lead, so Jara and I led the group through the building. It was mostly composed of smaller rooms of various sizes—probably offices and conference rooms. There were also rooms filled with strange fittings that I suspected were toilets, but they didn’t closely resemble any kind I had seen before, suggesting these aliens were truly, well, alien.

  We spend a couple hours searching the building, but found nothing of note. By that point, it was starting to approach dusk, so I turned to the group.

  “It’s going to be getting dark soon—I suggest we rest here for the night. I think there was a room in the hallway over there that should work.”

  After a round of agreements, I led the group to the room in question, and we settled down. Being off the ship and wanting neither to start a fire in an enclosed space nor risk one outdoors, we were stuck eating cold meals, which only made them worse.

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  Once we had eaten and the sun set, we arranged a watch order and settled in for the night.

  The next day, we ate another cold meal for breakfast before heading out of the building. The next building we checked looked to be another office building, but after that, we found what I suspected were barracks of some sort, suggesting either this species slept in share accommodations regularly or this was the base of some sort of organization where that happened. Given the proximity to the hangar, I suspected it was a military base or something similar.

  When I expressed that idea to the others, they agreed, and we were all optimistic that we might find something worthwhile.

  We found another set of barracks after that before coming upon a building in somewhat better shape. There were still plants growing up and over it, but the building was whole and the metal doors were closed. When we approached, I noticed what appeared to be some sort of flat device next to the door, likely a scanner of some sort, with a light still glowing on it.

  “I’m thinking an intact, locked building is likely to have something important in it, don’t you agree?” I said to the group.

  Ani chuckled. “Oh, I bet it does.”

  “Nope! Not making any more bets!” Isa laughed at that, which prompted me to give her a half-hearted glare before refocusing on our goals.

  “Isa, do you think you can get through this pad?”

  She hesitated. “Maybe, but I suspect not in any reasonable time, given the keypad at the last site.”

  “Going back and bringing the cutting torch isn’t really a reasonable option either. Hmm.”

  “Let me give it a try, at least.” I nodded and Isa got to work while the rest of us stood guard.

  Over the next half hour of being bored, I listened to Isa mumble to herself in between making a series of confused sounds occasionally interspersed with ones suggesting she realized something. Finally, though, a loud “aha!” came from her direction, followed by a clicking sound.

  “I finally understand what they were doing here. Pretty clever, actually. You see, they—”

  “I’m sorry to cut you off, but, again, now is not the time. Good work, though.”

  She looked disappointed for a moment before seeming to realize the situation and straightening up.

  I let Jara lead the group into what was clearly some sort of armory and storage area. There were shelves upon shelves of everything from packs to what looked like food and even strange gun-like objects in a variety of shapes and sizes.

  “If I knew what these were, I bet I’d think this was my birthday,” Jara mumbled, staring in awe at all the supplies.

  “Let’s see what we can figure out,” I suggested.

  We spread out and examined various objects. Some were obvious, but many remained a mystery, and given the possible danger, we didn’t want to risk testing them.

  “Hey, Dax, you should come see this!” called Ani at one point.

  I jogged over to find her looking at a small locked cabinet.

  “You think this is important?”

  “Definitely.” I then called Isa over and had her get to work on the reader. This time, it only took her ten minutes to unlock the cabinet.

  Inside were six metallic orbs of a metal I couldn’t recognize. As I reached out and grabbed one, a tingling sensation began in my hand. I tried to release it, but it was stuck tight. A few seconds later, I saw the object start to dissolve and cover my hand before flowing around my skin and getting absorbed.

  The tingling spread, quickly turning painful, until it reached my head, at which point, everything went black as I passed out.