Chapter 8. Conjecture:''

When the guys met the gals for the communal supper, they were not sure what the women would think about their AI experiments.

"AI surmised that it was an alien attack," Charles announced. "It didn't have a possible explanation as to how it happened."

"I'm not surprised," Hilary said. Her expression turned more exited. "We've come up with a possible theory that's more realistic, and it has a possible way to prove it."

Charles tilted his head as if trying to hear a low sound. "Really?"

"Yes. Really!" she replied with a sly smile. "After taking very detailed readings on the Earth's surface, we think that what we're looking at is Earth a couple of thousand years in the future."

"How so?"

"The background radiation suggests that Earth went into an intense global warming period that caused it to enter a Venus-like status in which the surface became molten after the atmosphere heated up from large amounts of carbon dioxide. Basically, the Earth suffered a melting of the surface and everything on it. The oceans boiled, killing everything. With time, it cooled down and then entered the adiabatic period that we can see."

"That would suggest that we've been transported into the far future," Dave said.

"Yes. I know that sounds crazy, but at least it doesn't suggest that we're in some sort of psychic fog."

Charles tapped a finger to his lips before he replied. "Yes, I see what you mean. That idea could be proven by examining the surface. There should be residues of elements that would only be possible if it once contained a technical society."

Hilary pointed at him. "Exactly!"

"Are we sure it's safe to go down there?" Carl asked.

"The probes didn't detect any dangerous situation other than low oxygen," Charles replied.

"Even if we do determine that we're in the future, how can we go back to our time?" Alice asked.

"One problem at a time," Charles said. "Let's see if this idea is legitimate and then we'll work on that question."

"So, who's going down there?" Alice asked.

"I think that it should be a planetary expert and someone who understands detection methods," Charles said. "I think that suggests Carl and Beverly. Carl knows how to fly the shuttle, and Beverly knows planetary science as well as archeological principles."

Both Carl and Beverly expressed concurrence with that idea.

The big adventure happened the next day. Carl and Beverly went to the hanger deck and boarded a shuttle. After going through the initial check, Carl moved the shuttle out of the hanger and fired the breaking engines to send it down into Earth's atmosphere. When it was into the stratosphere, Carl leveled it out and began an approach to an area that was once New York city.

"I'm surprised that this section of land is still there," Carl said. "It was only eight hundred square miles of lowland."

"Yes," Beverly replied. "If Earth was mostly molten, it's hard to imagine how this section of land survived. It could have been protected by the fact that it's so close to the Atlantic Ocean."

Carl sat the shuttle down in the middle of what would have been Manhattan.

"We'll have to wear oxygen masks," he told her. "Otherwise, we should be fine."

They also got into suits that covered everything. This would prevent them from infecting the planet.

"Air temperature is 20.6 C," Beverly announced. "The pressure is just under one atmosphere."

"Sounds like a typical balmy day," Carl said. "It's hard to believe that it was once like Venus."

"Yes, I agree. However, it depends upon how long ago it happened and how quickly it revived. Usually, geophysical events like that take millions of years to recover."

"It's possible that it was only a flash event that burned everything off the surface," Carl said.

"Yes, it could have been an intense gamma ray burst from a close supernova which could have caused an intense period of global warming that wiped the Earth clean of biotic life."

Once they were walking around the surface, Carl and Beverly were not as concerned about their safety. The sky was a solid blue with only a few high stratospheric clouds. There was a subtle wind out of the north that barely stirred the ocean water.

The way that Beverly could search for metallic elements in the surface was complicated, but it involved using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. What she did was use a small pickaxe to break up the solid rock surface and then grind it up and place it into the flame of the instrument and then wait for the analysis.

"Wow!" Beverly exclaimed. "I'm picking up substantial quantities of iron, aluminum, copper, magnesium, cadmium, titanium and smaller amounts of all sorts of materials like selenium, cobalt, boron and silicon. There's even traces of gold and silver."

"The only way that's possible is if this land once contained technology." Carl said.

"Bingo!" she replied. "All these elements would not be here without it."

"The fact that there's good quantities of these elements would suggest that the molten state was short lived, but long enough to destroy life."

"Yes, that's a possibility, but it would help if we could find evidence of human life here."

"I doubt that would be easy here," Carl said. "But, maybe closer to the poles would show that evidence."

"You're right, but I'm not sure what sort of evidence we could find."

Carl activated his communication link. "We've detected evidence that technology was once on this planet, but it would be better if we could find sources of human presence."

"How would that be possible if the planet was turned into a molten mess?" Charles asked.

"Beverly thinks there might be some evidence near the poles, assuming that the molten event didn't last very long."

"How's your oxygen holding up?" Charles asked.

"We still have enough for about six hours."

"Ok, go for it, but don't push the envelope."

Carl smiled. "I understand."

After ending the communication link Carl turned to Beverly. "We're good to go to the poles as long as we watch our oxygen levels."

Beverly nodded. They boarded the shuttle and Carl took it up to a low altitude and headed to the North Pole. Interestingly, the North pole was ice covered as if it would have been in the early centuries, a condition that could have buried human evidence.

After flying around the pole without spotting anything, Beverly pointed at what looked like a round hole. "Set it down there."

Carl sat the shuttle down as close as he could to the hole, which was ringed with what appeared to be mound-like wall. They exited the shuttle and walked up to near the wall.

"This appears to be something humans would make, perhaps like an indigenous tribe," Beverly said. "If we could find a way into the ring, we might be able to verify that."

"Maybe the easiest way in is for us to use the shuttle to get in there," Carl suggested.

"Yeah, that might be the quickest way."

They got back into the shuttle and Carl moved it up and then over the hole. The interior of the obviously man-made artifact was mostly flat. Carl sat the shuttle down on a large open section. Much of the interior contained what appeared to be dirt igloos.

Without doing anything, they could assume that this artifact was constructed by humans, but more direct evidence would be better. Once they were out of the shuttle, Carl and Beverly looked for evidence of burial.

"Those mounds might contain bodies," Carl said, pointing to a section of the hole that had dirt piles lined up. Carl used a shovel to dig off the top surface of one of the piles.

"Bingo!" Carl reacted to what he saw. "Looks like a human skeleton to me."

"Yep!" Beverly added. "I think this is the evidence we need, and judging by the quality of the skeleton, the devastation that resulted from a Venus effect was very short ivied."

"You should be able to get a carbon fourteen reading on that hair."

"Yes," she replied. I'll get a sample. This should help us date the event."

Carl wasn't as sure as she was. Time seems to have been warped to the point of being erroneous.

After grabbing more samples of hair from deceased humans, Beverly and Carl boarded the shuttle for a flight back to the ship, a trip that they completed without incident.

"It appears that what we've found indicates that the Venus effect was short lived," Carl said when they met up with the rest of the crew. Although, I'm not sure that we have a handle on time ever since we came out of the blackout."

"You're probably right," Charles said. "Even if we can determine the timing of Earth's demise, we still don't have a clue about how we could get back to our time."

That cast a sour note to everything they've done so far.