ANTHRO XVIII

“Are you at all surprised, Ray? I mean, look how much and how quickly technology changed in the 21st century, let alone people’s viewpoint on life…” Abigale said factly, she was not wrong either.

“It’s still…just hard to accept it all, how things seemed to me to change overnight…” I said lowering my eyes back to the gun suppressor on the table.

Abigale chuckled, “Overnight? More like over 300 years – that’s an extremely long time!”

“…yeah, I know…”

We spent the rest of the time in the lab categorizing and filing reports on what the exploratory ship the “Primrose” was discovering on what remained of Earth – the barren, nuclear wasteland from past wars. Every artifact sent to ANTHRO for our observations, every detailed documentation on what the scouts of the Primrose had filed on what they seen, discovered or heard, was personal for me. I connected with everything sent our way like a trophy, a token of what things use to be – memorabilia.

Most artifacts sent our way was metallic in nature, things that could withstand the intense radiation and heat on Earth. Anything organic was long gone or burnt to a crisp – destroyed entirely. Some was as mundane as scraps from appliances, old tools, small equipment or gadgets while some were new to me, things I’ve never seen before; objects way past my time since my incident.

“Abigale…how much longer before we reach Earth?” I asked her out of the blue several hours into our observations.

“I suspect ANTHRO should be exiting the wormhole leading within the proximity of Earth’s Sun in a manner of a few more hours, why?” She asked, her gaze focused on a small piece of metal in her paw – a coin.

“I want to talk to you about my last visit to Earth and what happened…” I mentioned, rubbing the side of my head in remembrance of the excruciating pain and dizziness I felt then.

“You mean…when you went back to Area 51 with Branson and Reaves?”

I nodded. “I was exposed to Radon, in my cryogenic stasis there, correct? And by your analysis of what happened, I am sensitive to acute levels of radiation due to it?”

“Yes, that’s what I concluded as the only reasonable explanation – after-all those symptoms only arose once that vault was opened, thus exposing you to all the radioactive waste and materials stored there…” she said with finality, putting the coin under a scanner – the red lasers dancing across it analyzing it.

“Do you suppose since that vault’s open now, that all that radiation is leaking into Earth’s atmosphere, thus inhibiting me from stepping foot there ever again?”

A moment of silence filled the room, before she finally spoke, “I think you’re overthinking it Ray, the radiation levels would be diluted in the atmosphere as to not trigger your symptoms, I would think you would be fine – so long as you did not go near Area 51 again,” she turned to me and removed her glasses, “at worst you may experience minor symptoms, tolerable ones…”

“Not that damn heavy weight I felt? My head feeling like it was stuck in vice grips, my body feeling like I was about to burst into flames? Those visual hallucinations, and extreme dizziness?”

“No, though I cannot say for sure, but I would assume they wouldn’t be AS extreme…”

Those few hours went by swiftly as we zapped from hyperspace into the sun’s orbit. I could see the intense brightness of the sun amidst the dark wonders of space, and that small planet – a twin now to its sister planet Venus. The closer and closer we got to the doomed planet the more detail I could see in the veil of clouds – the flashes of lightening and the memories of entering her for the first time resurfaced.

“Attention all crew members, ANTHRO is declaring code blue, I repeat – Code Blue; we are entering Earth’s atmosphere momentarily. All crew members must brace for entry and be sure any loose valuables are safely secured” – Captain Matticus pronounced over the ship’s intercom system.

“You heard the Captain, let’s get all those artifacts safely stored, and make sure there’s nothing that can fall or break during entry…” Abigale ordered. Even though ANTHRO was a huge ship, entering a planet’s atmosphere was a bumpy ride – especially with unstable conditions like Earth’s.

Sure enough, the ship began to jar and rock, the lights slightly dimming with each impact of pockets of pressure in the upper reaches of the planet. The lab crew held steadfast, grasping onto rails which lined along the walls for this very purpose, secured tables, or even desks.

As the ship dove deeper into the regions of the planet, I could feel the cabin pressure begin to rise as gravity began to take its toll on my body. My legs began to feel the pressure of my own true weight – on the ship in space, the cabin was pressurized to forces less than that of Earth, but now within Earth, the cabin pressure began to rise.

My own body felt heavy, as well as the weight of the air around me squeezing me in every direction. It was slightly suffocating and would take time to get used to. Luckily the pressures never rose any more than what they currently more, I was feeling the pressurized conditions of Earth in its entirety. Still the ship continued to jar and shake as we descended deeper within, until at least it all ceased. The ride became smoother after that, but the heavy weight of pressure was still present and would continue to be until we disembark once more – leaving the hot, dead planet behind.

“We are now preparing to touchdown on Earth’s surface, all crews brace yourself for impact!” Matticus announced, and a few moments later a quick, sudden jolt wracked the whole ship, before it once more fell still and steady – we were here…we had made it back to Earth, where last time I saw with my own eyes; my own worst nightmare.

The interior of the ship glowed with an iridescent green, as I helped Abigale reorganize the lab from what was left ajar from our landing. Being that we were now on Earth, we had to don our protective suits to prevent exposure from others or artifacts or samples from radiation. Although most of our time was to be spent in the lab, we were permitted on occasion to venture off and onto the planet.

With the suppressor now fully catalogued, it was time to seal it and store it away in our ship’s storage vault. Lifting it from the table took more effort, the full weight of the Suppressor was much heavier than before.
After several hours of cataloguing artifacts and checking them for the presence of biological and radiation contamination, I was permitted to venture outside and assist the surveying team aboard the Primrose. Dr. Branson was among them, the maned lion I had met before on my last visit here. I was told the scouts had discovered ‘alien’ plant life, and it was my job to confirm and to advise the team as well as provide an analysis on the suspected sample and bring it back to the lab for further study.

My excitement grew as I stepped off the ship and into the intense heat, ‘what plant-life could have survived the nuclear wars?!’ I thought to myself. Either way it didn’t matter, here was my first chance to make a major discovery and a grand leap into the potential for terraforming Prora AE, for if this plant could survive extreme heat and radiation, whose to say it can’t withstand the cold?

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My next submission and continuation of the Novel Story "ANTHRO" for the  Thursday_Prompt

This weeks story and prompt was inspired by the word - "HEAVY"

I really hope you guys enjoy this story and how the ANTHRO series is moving along so far. I truly hope to make things more exciting in the next few installments! So be sure to stay tuned

If you haven't done so and liked this story so far, be sure to check out the previous chapters and beginning to this story, i'll have each chapter linked with the navigation tags. So be sure to read this story from the beginning to get the full story ^^

Also I am working on another art/story series featuring my main character Hunter and his newest adventures of wilderness survival and the threats and excitements that come with it! It's a realistic albeit semi-fantasy setting, so be sure to check it out - it's called "Epoch of Earth and Stone", I try to draw and write a new chapter for that series once a week!

So that's it for now, I hope you guys have a great weekend and enjoy this story ^^