Yves Giraud - Kahnu

“ I came to show you something. Look! ”

She gracefully walked to the window and placed her hand on the glassy material. With a lateral movement, she dragged the view and pointed at a small object outside. A quick zooming effect brought it right in front of them, and Dedrick instantly recognized what he was looking at.

“Earth!” he said out loud.

“ Yes, your home planet. We will be there in a few days. I thought you might want to have a better look at it as we approach .”

“ Thank you, Mahhzee ,” he replied mentally, while transfixed on the three-dimensional image. He noted the pale bluish planet didn’t look as bright and colorful as he remembered it. That immediately worried him, especially after his morose thoughts moments earlier. He pushed the thought away again and looked at the view. It was Earth regardless and it was still a beautiful sight.

As promised, for the next two days, Earth grew larger on the visioning window of the ship’s cockpit and soon, they would enter Kahjuna’s atmosphere. The one thing that began to really worry Dedrick and his crew as they approached the blue planet, was the dullness and washed out colors of the continents and oceans. The closer they got, the more obvious it became that things didn’t look right. Even Chasma, who had only seen Earth in photos and videos, expected much more vivid tints of blues and greens. As for the cloud cover over Earth’s mass, it was giving them by far the strangest feeling of all. From pole to pole, the once bright white swirly features now appeared doll and gray, giving the world ahead a lugubrious look.

“I don’t understand. It looks like another planet. What happened here?” finally said Tendai, breaking the silence.

“ Mahhzee, can you show us a close up of this? ” asked Vera telepathically, while pointing at the island of Manhattan, on the New York coast of the American continent.

Mahhzee reached out and moved her six fingers across the Zarfha.

“Where is everybody? I… I can’t believe it! It all looks abandoned, like no one has been there in years. Where are the people?” She did not want to face the truth yet. “How can that be? I mean, the buildings are still standing, right? So where is everybody? They couldn’t all be gone?!”

Mahhzee brought the view even closer until… they finally saw them; human bodies, laying everywhere in the streets. Most still partially clothed, their skeleton remains confirming their worst nightmare. They had been dead for years, and no one had been there since. Vera stopped talking and brought her hands to her face. All eyes in the room were transfixed. It was a scene from a true holocaust.

“ I am afraid you will find the same thing all over your world ,” telepathically said Jorh as Mahhzee pulled back the display to a general view of Earth. The aliens could feel the distress in all of them. Even Chasma, who had always seemed so comfortable and happy in any situation, looked upset. Liu slowly approached the window.

“ Mahhzee, can you let me see this place, please ?”

Mahhzee obliged.

The city of Seoul, in South Korea, quickly appeared. As they all feared, it looked just as devastated. Dead carcasses, trash, abandoned vehicles, and all sorts of debris littered the once buzzing avenues. The mess all around was a testimony to the rapidity at which everything had happened. Boxes, bags, furniture, food stands, advertisement signs, bicycles, store canvasses, broken glass, machines, TVs, and so much more were piled up all over, as if a giant flood had dragged everything out of the buildings and strewn it all about. More evident that whatever had taken place there had happened in complete chaos.

The next few minutes were enough to let them discover thousands more corpses in the streets of others around the world. They had flown over dozens of large metropolises and witnessed the exact same scenes. Not a single sign of life, human or animal alike. Only scattered skeletons, pet carcasses and trash, littering the roads and highways. All had died years ago. And now, even the most cherished manmade structures, humanity had proudly congratulated itself to have created, were crumbling away all across the globe. It was hard to believe, but in time, no trace of them or mankind would remain.

They had all expected to find a battered Earth, aware of some of the tragic events that had taken place years ago, but none had truly thought the planet would have become too hostile for them to survive there.

The spaceship was now flying just a few dozen meters above the ground. By now, all of them knew Earth was no longer a possible home for them. Nothing green had survived. Grass, plants, flowers, crops did not exist anymore. The only visible remnants of the once thriving vegetation were dead tree trunks and dried out bushes and plants, a sad reminder of the once beautiful and lavish forests of Earth. Parks in urban meccas and residential areas had become dirt covered lots. Eventually flying over more rural parts of the world, the true magnitude of Earth’s predicament became evident. Everywhere they went, they found only desolation and death.

“ I’m afraid your world has become uninhabitable as well, my friends. We are truly sorry ,” said Jorh to the group, as they passed over Australia.

“I can’t believe they managed to destroy everything,” Tendai said out loud. “I mean, we’ve had wars before but this… It’s…” he couldn’t finish.

In the back of the room, Liu was crying, curled up in a ball. Mahhzee was seated next to her.

“ I am truly sorry that your world is gone, Liu. I can tell it must have been a wonderful home for you and your people. I had seen Zarfha recreations from the Grand Halis Library, but seeing it now, I can only imagine its true beauty, with the vibrant colors and life I remember from our library of knowledge. Our world was beautiful as well, and when we lost it, I lost a part of myself. It was a long time ago, but for me it was yesterday. I miss the Klomags and their majesty. I miss our Mohgvar Ocean… I miss my home… my mother… ”

Liu was now listening attentively to Mahhzee, feeling less alone, knowing she had experienced a similar tragedy. She had stopped crying.

Back at the other end of the room…

“Crap. So, what now?” asked Tendai.

Dedrick was about to ask Jorh a question but the alien, reading his mind, answered it before he could.

“ It’s toxic. The ship’s probes indicate that the air is unbreathable for your people. It can no longer support your life as you know it. You and your friends would need your suits to breathe. You would not survive long. I am truly sorry .”

“Are you sure it is so everywhere? What about the poles?”

“ Even at the poles. Nothing there has survived either but a few scattered small life forms that barely register on our probe. Not enough to sustain you and your friends .”

“So, what do we do? Return to Mars?” asked Tendai.

“We just left Mars because we could no longer survive there, remember? Earth is all we have left now. There has to be a way…” Ladli was visibly upset.

“ What about the oceans? Could there still be life there ?” asked François.

Jorh turned his attention to the Zarfha…

“ Your oceans still harbor some life forms, but they are too few and deep-down remote regions of the oceans. Most are small creatures living near volcanic vents and deep trenches. All fish and mammals are gone. ”

While Jorh was telepathically talking to Dedrick and his crew, the images of Earth’s desolated cities and land masses were replaced by deep ocean views, void of any colors. Small ghostly looking creatures crawled on a desolate oceanic floor, floating slowly above heated chimneys of hot gas, clearly visible in the dark murky waters. Some resembled small crabs and shrimps, and others even looked completely alien to the human crew. But all were relatively small, no more than a few centimeters long.