Nothing, save sunlight, had touched this land in a millennium. Animals, even the insects and worms, had yet to repopulate this far south. With no food to draw them, the migratory birds had changed their routes; when marine life strayed too close, they soon joined the decomposing wall of flesh that was still sinking to the ocean floor. The ships that had sought safe harbor a thousand years past should have rotted into nothingness, but the lack of microbial life had left them well preserved.
Overhead, a drone hummed. The sound echoed over the water; in contrast, the overgrown remnants of the city swallowed the noise.
Illie watched the images flickering on the monitors. The quality was somewhat grainier than ze had hoped, but the expedition had made it to the edge of the dead zone later than expected. At this time of year the sun would neither truly set nor truly rise, but there were still periods of darker and lighter, and right now was darker, nearing twilight. The cameras the drone was equipped with could make the switch to infrared, and in brighter light the pictures were crisp, but until Illie could respec the lenses the fuzzy photos were all the monitors would display.
Even so, the images Illie could see were breathtaking.
Boats, what must have once been great ships, lay shattered. Here the ice was still thick enough that, throughout the heating and cooling periods, the preserved remains of humans still rested visibly, only partially sunk into the ice. Illie made note of that in zir logbook. The archaeologist, Henri, would need to take ice samples to determine how long the dead had been there. Previous records had indicated another crew had been sent, almost eighty years ago, but even that recently this site had been deemed too dangerous for public knowledge.
Atomic fallout had been the cover story, for centuries. And as the expedition’s instruments confirmed, there was an increase in background radiation here. Records from around the surviving world even confirmed the dropping of more than one hydrogen bomb. But the levels weren’t on par with the total lack of life. Even nuclear waste from power plants wouldn’t have had this effect.
Illie tapped zir fingers on the table in front of zir. Puzzles and mysteries, mysteries and puzzles. Infuriating. The governments of the world past had been more scared of the truth than the consequences of it.
A shadow caught zir eye. Illie tapped the microphone icon and spoke, slowly and clearly. “H-X-Seventeen. Re-perform sweep pattern alpha, starting -” ze mentally counted back the time- “five seconds ago. Please.”
On the right-hand monitor a chat box was open; the drones were all outfitted with the latest AI, to give the controllers access to more complex instructions. Zir words appeared in the drone’s command box on screen; ze tapped the “confirm” button, and watched the live feed again, leaning in to spot what it was that had caught zir attention.
Written for this prompt
Reading Cactus 