and to dust you shall return

Most people know of the Demeter, a starship, seven class, that disappeared somewhere in the Betelgeuse  system, some   ten years ago.  The  official story of the loss of the Demeter  is that she  lost all hands during an FTL  jump,  when   the Higgs boson particle  accelerator imploded killing all hands.  In truth,  she disappeared  without a trace; thus leaving  huge questions and  grave concerns about the  future of the FTL drive as a viable means for transportation and colonisation  of the known  universe.
However, in the last week, evidence of a life capsule  known to be from  the Demeter was found sending a signal off  towards  Jupiter Station. How it was found was miraculous at all.  What we hoped to find was either a survivor that would verify the established account or  evidence to support what had occurred to the ship in this still un-yet uncharted region of space.  The findings have been puzzling and taken to Admiral Keins at WayStation for furher analysis. This prelimanary report contains the fight recorder, found inside the capusle. the data has been transcribed as heard therein. 

I’m sending  out this message  to anyone  the proximity of this planet in the hope that people will stay clear. I, with what’s left of our crew are planning to make the jump to Terran space and the Jupiter station  as soon as our drive can be enabled.  What happened…we seem to have been…trapped…in a-a time vortex…our on line communication and  instrumentation… failed and we have been  out of contact with Terra now for six weeks…  when we managed  to get our instruments functional  and the server-hybrid controls  stable we  found  ourselves  in the proximity  of an Earth like planet.  However, scans  revealed  that the planet  was once  habitable and contained  life. We found cities that suggested a type 4 civilisation:  one that had managed  to control the chaos of its species and developed minimal  space  travel to  the  outer reaches of its own system. However the planet was deserted.   No life seemed to exist at all.  With the use of thrusters, we managed to land on the outskirts of one of their largest cities.  Myself, Dr Peterson, Chief Engineer Drayton and Captain Wallace made the initial investigation.  Once we found the air breathable, we removed our environmental  suits.  The silence was the first thing we noted. Nothing was heard at all.  Maybe this planet had no knowledge of birds; despite that.  There was something in the silence that was … disturbing.

We  entered  not a city  but a corpse.   Windows had broken  or been shattered  by violence. Machines  resembling cars or  something similar lay  crashed  in the roadways; their paint  rusted, or burnt out. Our steps echoed as we made our way through the long thoroughfares  of what we  thought must be shopping arcades.  There was a dust over everything,  a,a fine powder that became…translucent when our analyser beams shone on it. Our diagnostic devices  seemed  to suggest that this  dry powder  contained DNA, essentially  organic matter now just dust.  We  concluded   that what-ever had happened here, happened on a global scale, because our data from the ship pointed to a planet with over 7 00 billion people on; yet here, in one of the largest metropolis’  of the planet there was nothing but dust.  We walked for hours, trying to find what had happened here, or anything that might lead  to some answers;  Did this civilisation on the brink of a major discovery  choose a  neutron  war and suicide, over progress?  Was the planet invaded by another race? We knew  from  analysis  of the atmosphere, that nuclear conflict hadn’t  occurred and we  could estimate, from the state of decay of the building’s  that this had been a relatively recent event, of about three  to four earth years.  We  also concluded that if there had been a global invasion,  the, the  planet and  most its major cities wouldn’t be in this pristine, though slow-decaying  condition.  There would have been rubble, burns  from laser weapons, anything to show that a global conflict had occurred. Instead there was nothing…nothing but this translucent  dust

We entered the main square at a little after  standard  8 by our chronographs.  In the centre  of the main square was one  of the most stunning buildings that  I or my colleagues had ever seen.  It stood  over thirty meters high and about that square.  It was a, a  paramedical  structure of some black stone, that  all three of us, couldn’t make out.   It has steps  on the outside that led to a large  rectangular stone room.  Above that hung some…stone… humanoid thing  unlike any we had ever seen before.   Seeing it look down on us, we all had this feeling of dislocation and  unwarranted dread.  I felt  the skin on the back of my neck prickle and a  chill came over me; there seemed no reason for this feeling,  yet, it was there.   It was clear that  whatever this thing happened to be, it was a representation.   It was then that Captain Wallace mentioned  something that  we hadn’t really noticed  before.  That was the difference in structure  to this pyramid  and the buildings that surrounded it.
With fresh eyes  I stared about me. Mainly to fight off this feeling of, of perceptive   dread… it was true this was a far older structure to the buildings that surrounded it.   This obviously suggested  different use, perhaps a place  of worship.   If there was any means to find a form of communication device, as to what occurred, then this  would be the place to look.

The entrance  to the pyramid was dark.  So we put on our  shoulder lights and entered.  On initial  inspection  If there was a power  source, then it would have lost its means  years ago.  Yet there was an odour in this first room.  A musty dank foetid  odour that made me quake.  Both Dayton and  I  wanted  to return to our ship,  there was nothing to be gleaned  from wandering in the dark.  But Wallace insisted that we find perhaps  something, a data recorder or some  such device that might give insight to this tragedy.  In the end  Wallace won… So…with faltering steps…I continued.

We went from one dark cavernous room to another.  Each more oppressive than the one before.  Our footsteps  echoed  around us.  Making  a clattering sound that could be mistaken for dark  laugher.  We  finally entered a large circular room that had a range of what might have been holo-screen emitters   and a  large  computer console.  Wallace, with a trembling hand, for even now the oppressiveness of the room.  Slowly  touched the console.  Then he let out out an… an ouch.  We looked  at his his hand… he had pricked his finger on the console.    “Confucking thing  bit me.” I recall him saying, which at the time seemed an odd thing to say.  We looked down at the console, that then began  to slowly fire with a form of energy that we had never come across before.
The screens were a blue green in colour,  I recall our pasty faces in the eerie light.  Still  all round us was night.  The screens displayed  an unknown language, and any voices , that  we , we  heard were unknown to us.  This was an entirely unknown race.  Then the  hideous  terrifying screaming  began. Thankfully  the film was corrupted;  so we couldn’t see, but  it was clear that what we were hearing were screams of millions of people. I blocked my ears and backed away.   I stumbled backward, and away from the screens  then to save myself from falling backwards  and fell forward and  onto some damp liquid.  I looked at my hand. It was covered in a water wet reddish slime.  For the first time I looked behind me and then up. The walls were dripping with  this liquid; and out of this liquid stared  hundreds and hundreds of faces.
I looked at Wallace, who then paled, grabbed his head, and bent double.  He held his head tighter, screaming in pain  and then pulled his eyes from his own sockets. 
I screamed and turned and ran.  I didn’t wait for Drayton…I was too scared.. I could hear footsteps behind me but I didn’t look back; I wanted to be free of this  terrible  place as soon as possible.  From all the buildings  I could hear the wails and the low screams   coming from everywhere, as what windows were left shattered or broke as  great the walls of the  city began  to crumble.  Though Now those noises  could have been something else…
It took me half an  hour  to reach the  ship.   It was  only then  that I noticed  that Dayton wasn’t  behind me. How I survived I cannot say.  I climbed through the hatch and called ,called out for my other  ship ship-mates… but… I was alone. All around me were these particles… these  particles of dust.  I, I,  didn’t wait… I managed to get the ship off the ground and head off to a safe distance. Only then did is survey the city and noted that at every single major  city centre rested a black temple.   Whatever has has  happened, drove these people  poor  people insane….or  something far more  terrible…The planet now is a ghostworld….do not go there..do not land…do not visit…I  am setting the ship to find the nearest jump station…I am alone… yet… I can hear footsteps… the footsteps are coming nearer…coming out of the dark.

Confidential summary.

It has  been six weeks since the finding of the remains of who we now know to be Officer Davis. The analysis of the dust  particles  do confirm that this was, in fact, his body. The extra particles within the particulates found  also indicate a foreign  body.
This foreign body  has also been analysed and found to contain unique properties that might merit the need for further investigation.  So much so that we are considering  taking a another ship to the point where the Demeter was last seen in the hope that this unique particle can be gathered  and  used  to  further our ventures into space.
Whether Davis was witness  to some form of now long dead civilisation is  now mute. He  could easily  have  be considered as delusional. Whose to say that he  during a bout of space sickness , go wild and attack the crew? Against this, of course  is the unknown element found in what would be his burial casket in space.  In sum we cannot be sure. Which is why we recommend further analysis of the Betelguse system. 

Signed
Joseph  Keins  (Amiral)  Waystation.  20th June 2454

(c) ADH 2016