Dsicovery Pt VIII (standard:science fiction, 1132 words) [8/8] show all parts
Author: Goreripper	Added: Dec 11 2001	Views/Reads: 2464/1855	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Mission accomplished, and the narrator returns home, but not without one final revelation.

VIII 

Shortly after the 'Far Traveler' left us, with replacements for those
who had chosen to return home aboard her, Guillamo and I married. It 
was a romance often hindered by interplanetary distance as we led our 
separate teams on Arcana and Daktar, but rekindled with ever-increasing 
intimacy at our every encounter. Those who knew us felt that we were 
both too similar in nature to maintain a relationship with one another, 
and there were even crueler analysts who would claim that I was too 
dedicated to looking at bones and she too interested in planets for us 
to form a bond with another person. Yet love bloomed between us and, as 
he did with many of the marriages which were to ensue, Professor 
Neffergi presided at our wedding. Afterwards he even insisted in his 
charming, gentlemanly way that we put aside our research and spend time 
together in the Discovery's relaxation facility, going so far as to 
actually forbid us from returning to duty for two weeks. It was the 
first extended break either of us had taken during the expedition, and 
in spite of our initial misgivings at being separated from our work we 
found ourselves enjoying the holiday immensely and at the end we found 
that we were reluctant to be apart. So, though we returned to our 
separate teams on our separate planets and took up our research with 
the renewed vigour a vacation can inspire, my wife and I also found 
more time to be together, and it was only with slight reluctance that 
we eventually decided to leave the expedition when the next relief ship 
arrived another two years later. 

As Guillamo and I nestled into our berths aboard the 'Solar Mariner'
when it finally arrived, we both reflected on the incredible 
discoveries we had made, many of which had forced an entire paradigm 
shift in several important areas of scientific research. Holding hands, 
we took our final look at the magical blue and green orb below us with 
the same wonder that the planet's former inhabitants must have felt 
when they had eventually been able to do the same thing. Then it 
gradually fell away behind us until it was lost from sight, and we 
looked at each other and smiled sad but thoughtful smiles. The last 
glimpse we had of the Arcana system before we entered our cryonic beds 
for the eight year journey home was of Millaris, a majestic orange gas 
giant, sixth from its sun, with its magnificent broad, bright ring 
system. Few more beautiful planets exist. 

Then the 'Solar Mariner' opened its travel singularity and we saw it no
more. 

Of all the memories I have of the years my wife and I spent studying the
long dead people of Arcana and its neighbouring worlds, my mind is 
constantly drawn to the starkest image I saw during my time there, and 
it is the report of the new breakthrough in research on the region 
which has inspired me to set down this tale. 

Shortly after we had explored the long-sealed network of domes and
passages on the red planet of Daktar, I travelled with Guillamo to the 
lone, silent satellite companion of Arcana. Previous teams had located 
incredibly ancient examples of machinery scattered over the surface of 
the moon, and close to the northern pole an extensive complex similar 
to the one on Daktar, and she and I were on our way to examine some of 
the geological findings. These appeared to suggest that the make up of 
the moon and the planet it orbited were virtually identical, which in 
turn suggested that the two worlds had once been one and perhaps 
separated by an immense cataclysm sometime very, very early in the 
solar system’s life. While we were there, Dr. Isuldir Fortunatix, who 
was leading the expedition, took us on a flight over the satellite, and 
pointed out various places of considerable interest, including a 
cluster of what appeared to be cinder cones and extensive flat lowland 
areas. In one of these, the doctor informed us, they had found a 
singularly significant discovery, and he steered the shuttle in the 
direction of this object. 

There, near the edge of the vast dead sea of timeless grey dust there
arose from the plain a small squarish structure of manufactured metal, 
silent and lonely, a platform of some kind which rested on four squat, 
sharply bent legs ending in circular feet. The platform and the surface 
around it had been encased in a dome of some kind of glass, although 
the nature of its manufacture and the secret of its longevity even in 
an airless environment has yet to be discovered. Whatever miracle had 
preserved this small area of this world for us to find we could not 


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