The team chased the movement through the trees for a few minutes until they had the creature cornered at the edge of the vine-covered lake.
There was no way that anything was swimming through that, and the vines wouldn't support the weight to run on them, so the creature was trapped. From all appearances, it was one of the gray-skinned local intelligent beings, but it hadn't spoken at all and only silently ran away until it ran out of places to run to.
"Calm down, little creature, we're not going to hurt you. Tell us, are there more of your people still living here? We came looking for survivors." The Team Leader asked in what she hoped was a soothing tone, using the alien's language.
The small gray creature stared at her for a few seconds, then began to slowly speak.
"You speak the language of our ancestors? How?" It asked.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "We found it recorded in the ruins of your old capital city. What happened here? The whole planet seems to be empty." The Team Leader asked.
The alien shook its head. "Not empty, hiding. The Ancients changed us so we could survive the toxic times. We went underground and into the domes to keep our people alive, and then the Harvest came, and everyone else was gone."
The words were spoken in a broken version of the language, indicating that the species had undergone a linguistic shift in the centuries since the version that the Hunters had found recorded. But it was understandable, and it seemed that there were more of the aliens here somewhere.
[Huntress Khan, there are still no life signs on the scanner. Do you have anything up there?] The Team Leader asked.
[Yes, we have found them. They altered their biorhythm to a lower frequency, so they show on the scanner as very similar to the plant life. It's an incredible form of camouflage, similar to the one we use on the Hunter Suits, so we missed it at first. There should be roughly one hundred of them inside the dome or in a series of caverns nearby.
It looks like they expanded them off of the main service tunnels, so there should be an open door around there somewhere.] Khan replied.
[That explains the clean air in the lower corridors. Thank you, Huntress.]
The conversation only took a few seconds, and the other team members had taken over for the Leader while she was occupied. The alien seemed reluctant to let them meet the others of its species, but it was clear that they were not using any form of technology and were living off the remains of the biodome's natural food production.
If there were other similar facilities around the world, they should be doing the same, but Max wondered if any of them had survived this long.
So, he started a planetary scan that would reveal any more living creatures with the same unique adaptation to avoid regular scans.
Two of the other targets they had seen that were using power also appeared to be biodomes but in much worse condition going by the power usage. The surface of the planet didn't have any life on it at all. But they did find some more of the aliens living in one of the biodomes and a few clusters of them in mountain caves.
Unless there were more that their scans had missed, it appeared that the total population was under ten thousand, and none of them were using any sort of technology.
"Would you like for us to help your diodome? We can fix some of the lights or clear the roof so that natural light gets in. There are no more Harvesters or anyone else on the surface, and the air is better now." The Team Leader asked the alien.
"The surface can be survived? Are you certain? From the ancient texts, it was said that the toxic times would continue for a thousand years after the Harvest. The black-hearted ones would not stop their ways until they were all dead, and only then could the world recover."
It sounded like a religious text recital the way that the alien spoke it, but the Team Leader just shrugged.
"After the Harvest, something else happened, and everyone else left. We have heard of many other Harvests, and they only take nine out of ten." The Team Leader explained.
The alien looked confused but then suddenly more energetic. "One in ten was chosen to live in the domes. All signals stopped after the Harvest, and we thought they went into hiding. But could the Harvest have taken them all and spared us? Could it have been a gift from the divine ones that we didn't understand?"
The Team Leader shrugged. "I don't have any knowledge of that. But I can tell you that the surface is empty, and the air is much better than it used to be. It is safe enough for our species to comfortably stay on the surface, and from the data we recovered, it should be safe for yours as well.
But the biodomes are having a hard time surviving now that they are covered. The star's light was meant to get inside. These lights should not have had to work so hard."
[Team Leader, we have an audience. There are dozens of them in the trees now, listening to us.] One of the members informed her.
[Good, let them listen. Their species might survive if they do.]
"What proof do you have that there is starlight again and not the black haze of death blanketing the planet?" The alien asked.
Nico sent a message to the away team, clarifying the topic. [According to my analysis of the collected data, the fog from the pollution would have been inky black and perpetual. You wouldn't have been able to truly see the sun from the ground, only a hazy glow.]
The Team Leader thought for a second, then gestured to the roof.
"Let me show you that what we say is the truth."
[Shuttle pilot, please use the gravity beam to remove a portion of the dirt from the south side of the biodome. Make it a stable cavern but with a direct view of the local star from our current location.]
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