Chapter 6: Exodus

Memories of the past floated by, starting with the Ad Hoc Exodus from their doomed planet. Baer had a particularly vivid memory of the destruction observed when looking back during their long escape.

Although the deterioration was unexpectedly quick in the end, reports of impending doom had been going round for aeons. But would anybody listen? Of course not!

Their planet circling the star Vega was a peculiar one. Because it refused to rotate properly, one very hot side was always facing Vega. The other much darker and slightly less char-grilled side was where life was allowed to happen. It had happened, though limited by the still extreme temperature conditions. On the colder pole, water could be found in the form of steam, sometimes even forming condensation in some of the deeper and darker crevices. This is where the colonies had started, once a very rugged plant life had evolved. Over time, intricate constructions were developed to leave the confines of the crevices and really start off on all aspects of life, culture and conquest.

The atmosphere on the other, much hotter side was saturated with evaporated iron, leading to a spectacular band of iron rain on the border between light and dark. Not that anyone had ever gone there to actually see it… Anyone venturing too far off-pole, turned into someone else’s crunchy dinner, if anyone dared to collect it.

In the end, the trouble was that Vega’s heat had managed to leak through the core of the planet, to the cold side, making the safe circle and the solid ground on top ever smaller, eating away at the protective structures. Only right at the end, some had seen the rains and the iron ring surrounding the planet, while they were finally in orbit, still in the planet’s shadow, ready to speed off to safety, to a more forgiving and welcoming home planet.

For a race with suspended animation built in, the voyage to one of the closer stars was just a formality. Picking out a planet caused some heated debate. Some said that the planet we now call Mercury was most suitable as it showed slightly similar behaviour when comparing to their old home planet. This was exactly what worried the others, having just narrowly escaped extinction there. The next planet was deemed too feminine and its toxic cloud cover would spoil the view way too much. The lack of oxygen was also ruling against it. Out of the next two planets, the most outward appeared in the process of losing its liquid water and further out planets were too cold, had no solid surface or weird rings that reminded them of the iron rain stuff.

So… Number three it is then.

Thus, after several revolutions of probing the surface for the right spot, the explorers descended in a low gliding approach on what we now call Earth, although it would look quite unfamiliar to us if we had been there. They didn’t consider themselves refugees as there was nothing or nobody around to ask for refuge.

Revitalised, Baer stretched his appendages and hid his old skin as a possible snack for later.

Caiman Raptor Elk