A solitary and distinctively human figure was standing by his office’s eight-story window, indifferently gazing at the emerald colored campus grounds as Sol began her decline behind Earth’s horizon. It had been another long day of molding fledgling minds and the middle-aged man was absorbing the last of what this day offered. He only stirred when a data file began to download in the cybernetic portion of his brain.
At the same time the file finished downloading, a female colleague entered the small room and said, “Professor, one of the remote surveyors has picked up something interesting.”
“Really?” The professor kept his eyes focused on the scene out the window. “What’s so interesting about it?”
“Readings are a little bit hazy, so there’s some type of interference, possibly from the star, but there are obvious signs that the last world surveyed contained sapient life at one point. I’ve passed the data to your account just now. It’s under surveyor 2X79-K.”
The professor mentally chose said file and began overlooking the information that started to stream into the necessary sections of his brain, still keeping his spot by the view.
“Let’s see… Yes… Fascinating! Archaic buildings, many collapsed or in decay, and… What’s this? Yes, possible signs of nuclear type weapons being used. A lost civilization right at the edge of Coalition space! Tell the Parliament Archaeological Society about the discovery and, for the love of the Sacred, make sure to use the secure line! We don’t want looters to get there first. If we’re lucky, we can be knee-deep in forgotten knowledge within five years!”
The woman bowed, which he customarily returned, and then left the room to carry out his instructions. The professor was as excited as he had been in decades. The heavens were finally aligning for him. It was a rare opportunity for an archaeologist of any era or species to delve into a lost people’s past for the first time. The readings presented no recent meddling by rogue mining companies, unprincipled governments, or scavengers. The planet was unlikely touched by sapient hands since its ruin, which, if the radiation from the nuclear impact sites were any indication, happened around twelve hundred years ago.
He wondered about so many things. How much had their technology deteriorated? Why the unusual interference? How many should he bring on his team? Who exactly should he bring? He smiled at the thought of his contemporaries and some of his graduate students kissing his ass for the next few years in the hopes he would pick them. He smiled a little further when he imagined bringing only female cohorts. But no! As the director of the department, he must remain professional. Sacred forbid an important detail was missed because he was fantasizing foolishly; not to mention that he was married. His wife, an expert in alien culture and a fellow professor, would certainly join him.
He sighed when he sat down, realizing years of red tape lied between him and his grand adventure. No matter. Thanks to his vida training (he could warp air fairly well) and the nanotech flowing through his blood, he was still in the prime of his life at 187 years of age. Yes, surely the heavens had aligned perfectly for him.