Written By: T. Lucas Earle

“Praising what is lost

Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;

We are reconciled, and the first view shall kill

All repetition: let him not ask our pardon;

The nature of his great offence is dead,

And deeper than oblivion we do bury

The incensing relics of it.”

-‘illian Shakes’eare

Part I

Kessler dreamt of his world freezing in the void, silent and lifeless. He awoke in a strange mood that morning and climbed down from his house to watch the cattle sleep. They twitched and moaned in the half-light of dawn. It was comforting to him to know that even on this strange planet, everyone dreamed. Even the beasts.

A villager quietly emerged from the mist and approached the sleeping cattle. He patted one of them until it awoke. He guided the creature out of the pen and gave Kessler a solemn nod as he walked it towards the slaughter house. The beast gazed at Kessler with dull eyes and did not look away until it disappeared into the mist. Kessler sighed and climbed back into his house. He couldn’t bring himself to eat breakfast that morning.

As the sun rose and the village came to life, Kessler stayed in his room, poring over glyphs, trying to decipher the language of the Ancients, hoping to uncover the elusive past of this glorious planet. The hours slipped by, until Kessler received word from a colleague that he was needed at a new excavation located some distance from the village. He collected his tools and a few reference documents, then promptly jumped out the window.

High above the forest bed, Kessler free fell for a moment before unfolding his wings and gliding through the forest, deftly dodging trees and branches. He alternated between gliding through the canopy and leaping along the forest bed, until he reached his destination.

The trees abruptly gave way to a grassy clearing. It was midday and the sun had burned away the morning mist. He shielded his eyes and looked up. A massive ruin stood before him, a long towering block leaning to one side, covered in vines, gray and crumbling in the hot sun – an ancient behemoth being wrestled to the ground, strangled by the foliage.

Kessler approached the team of scientists congregated around the base of the monument. He recognized most of them from previous excavations: Hissun, the engineer; Ki’en, the archeologist, accompanied by his team; and his friend and neighbor, Ti’ek, the resident xenobiologist, who noticed Kessler first and bobbed his head to greet him. Kessler bobbed back and approached the group. Ki’en’s team busied themselves, setting up tents and unloading equipment from their vehicles. Ti’ek lifted his tail, affectionately swatting Kessler’s side as Kessler inspected the building closely. It was so weather-worn there was very little chance any glyphs were left intact on the structure. But Ti’ek seemed quite excited as he led Kessler into the ruins.

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