I never thought I'd end up as a field exobiologist, much less be assigned to an expedition. My grades at the academy weren't that great, and truth be told, I mainly volunteered for a survey mission in order to avoid being conscripted into something worse. The cramped quarters of a scout ship are better than being stuck in a refinery on the dark side of a tidally-locked moon orbiting a lifeless gas giant. Sure, the pay was good, but the scenery, not so much, unless you count the night sky. I was never much of an astronomer, and scout ship astronauts always end up with better stories anyway.
The planets of the western spiral arm were still largely a mystery, and so there was plenty of work for survey crews. Our first stop was an interesting world, as the bulk of its surfaced was covered in water, much like our own planet. The similarities didn't stop there. The planet had a single moon, polar ice caps, an axial tilt, a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, and similar gravity. All in all, it was an extraordinary coincidence to find such a place in the vastness of space. While I was checking the planet's geography, one of the robots was checking for signs of life and alien technology. We had a small crew, with just me, the captain, and the two robots. We called one robot Prime and the other Back-Up, or B for short. Not very creative names, but the robots didn't care. They weren't designed for that. I made my way to the bridge to check up on Prime.
"Hey Prime, any sign of alien satellites in orbit?"
"No, but sensors are detecting a lot of space junk, which indicates there were functional satellites at one time."
"Any other signs of technology?"
"None so far. I've been scanning the electromagnetic spectrum and haven't found any artificial signals. Once we move to the dark side of the planet, I'll be able to scan for artificial illumination."
Artificial illumination visible from orbit was the most reliable indicator of intelligent life. That is to say, the kind of civilization with basic technology. Only a handful of such civilizations had been discovered in centuries of exploration. It was far more common to find planets with life but no civilization. At least not what we could call civilization, though some alien cultures still managed to pile up dirt or rocks in interesting ways. The general rule was no contact with any culture that couldn't broadcast a signal that was detectable at a distance of less than one light-second.
The ship came around to the dark side of the planet. Part of me wanted to see the lights of cities. That would mean a chance for the captain and me to establish first contact. Only a handful of crews were lucky enough to have that experience, and they all became celebrities back home. Alas, we saw no signs of artificial light. That didn't completely rule out the possibility of civilization, but if there was one down there, it would be so alien to us that we'd be better off ignoring them entirely.
I read a report once about an undersea civilization. Probes were sent to investigate as it was deemed too risky to send astronauts there, let alone establishing contact.
The captain entered the bridge and glanced at all the monitors. Even though it was just the two of us, we referred to each other by rank, as that was customary in such situations. It kept things professional.
"Well, ensign, what do we have here?"
"Primary found traces of old satellites. As you can see on the screen now, it doesn't look like there are any cities, at least as we know them. So all that's left now is to check out the flora and fauna on the surface. The greatest variety would probably be in that tropical zone near the equator."
"Sounds like a plan. Get your gear ready. Primary, set a course for that peninsula there."
Primary began tapping out commands as the captain and I prepared for landing. We were running out of cargo space from the samples we'd taken already, so I would mostly be taking photographs and video. The main question was what weapons to bring. I decided a ray gun and a survival machete would be enough. Primary would come along while B guarded the ship. I'd let Primary lug around the heavy-duty particle beam cannon.
When the ship touched down, I was almost done putting my spacesuit on. It was a bulkier older model, which were uncomfortable even in low-gravity environments. It was a relief to see the captain setting up the rover as I came down the gangplank. Primary mounted the particle beam cannon on top and took up position as a gunner.
"Thanks, captain. You read my mind."
"Hop in, ensign. Let's go a ride. Let me know when you want to stop for anything. I plan on sticking to flat and open ground."
I released a surveillance drone and motioned for the captain to drive. We drove along for a few minutes until I got an alert from the drone. When I looked at the feed, I was stunned. It appeared the drone had discovered the ruins of an ancient city. Since this might be the most exciting find of the expedition, I hit the alarm buzzer to get the captain's attention and handed him my data screen. Without saying a word, the captain did a u-turn and headed directly to the location the drone had marked.
As we entered the clearing with the ruins, we were awestruck.
"These are definitely artificial structures, captain. Look at all the symmetry and complex geometry."
"How about we get the drone to take a picture of us at the top of that...pyramid? Not sure what else to call it."
"Whatever they called it, it probably wasn't 'pyramid'."
We got out of the rover and climbed to the top of the pyramid. After taking in the view, we posed so the drone could take a nice picture of us.
"It's against regulations to send non-emergency messages via the priority channel, but since I'm the captain, I'm allowed to bend the rules once in a while. I'm sure are friends back home will enjoy this photo."
The captain hit the "send" button and our postcard began its faster-than-light journey to the mission control center trillions of miles away. The really amazing part is that the message would arrive in less time than it took us to reach the top of the pyramid. As we descended, there was a strange commotion in the jungle surrounding the clearing with the ruins. We paused to keep the safety of the high ground. Suddenly, out of the tree line came a herd of galloping green creatures.
"Ensign, are those triffids? They sure look like them."
"It's impossible to tell from this distance. Tell Primary to stun one so we can inspect it."
The captain spoke into his wrist communicator.
"Primary, stun one of those triffid things."
We could hear the particle beam canon's capacitors charging up and watched a blue bolt struck one of the larger triffids and knocked it to the ground. We all gathered around to get a closer look at the creature as the rest of the herd scampered off in fright. The creature was definitely a triffid, at least as we understood it.
"Captain, I can say with utmost confidence that this is a triffid. Mobile, carnivorous plants are rare, but found in nature on some planets. In our case, we genetically-engineered them, so they were always domesticated. But the triffids here are wild and move in herds. So if they were domesticated initially, they became feral sometime after the civilization on this world collapsed."
"That all adds up, at least from what we've seen so far. I think we've seen enough here. Before we move on to the next world, I want to check out the moon here. I have a hunch there's something interesting there."
We returned to the ship and set a course for the moon. The captain's hunch was right. We found some technological remains in one of the larger basins on the light side. We suited up again and made our way to the airlock. It was hard to walk normally in the lower gravity, so we sort of skipped in slow motion toward the wreckage.
On one of the metal legs, I saw a plaque with what was clearly writing. Below is a reproduction of a portion of the inscription:
***
HERE MEN FROM THE EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
***
"Ensign, a lot must have happened between the time they built that pyramid, and the time they left this stuff here."
"Yes, but sadly, we'll probably never know much about it. It will remain another beautiful mystery. I sort of want to go home now."
"Me too."
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