Book 4: Chapter 8: Survey Results
Bob
July 2333
Outskirts, Eta Leporis
Will, Bill, and Gar were in attendance, in anticipation of some useful returns from our scout drones.
Orbital mechanics being what they are, the drone destined for Planet Boojum arrived first. We were a little concerned about the possibility of deceleration attracting attention from the Boojums, but finally decided that A) there was no reason to expect them to be more interested in powered objects in particular since they’d cleared the system of everything, and B) we didn’t have much choice.
In any case, the drone settled into a low orbit around Planet Boojum with no issues or incidents, and ejected all its scouts.
It was immediately obvious why there was no sign of life. This was a dead planet, and not by natural means. The panorama below us combined the worst of an Others attack with Earth’s fate at the hands of humanity. There had very clearly been an exchange of nukes. Blackened, blasted circles where cities might once have been were still putting out enough radiation to forestall any possible misinterpretation. Impact craters indicated at least some orbital bombardment, although nothing as big as what the Brazilian Empire had used on Earth.
The planet hadn’t spiraled into nuclear winter, but even so, there was no indication of living vegetation. Large swaths of what might once have been forests were burned to the ground, with not the slightest trace of new growth.
Finally, I reached forward and turned off the big monitor. I said to Guppy, “Let me know if anything anomalous shows up. Otherwise, record and archive everything, then recall the scouts and leave the drone in orbit for now.”