Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (early reader books txt) 📕

Still, he reminded himself, he thoughtthey’d be able to make out the regularity of the form and see thatit wasn’t a natural cavern but one that had been designed andconstructed.

He still needed that damned satellite!That was key to proving the species that inhabited this world wastechnologically advanced. No one could dispute that they werehigher life-forms if he took something like that back!

If he could get back.

The onboard computer had indicated thatit was still capable of controlling the crash landing, though.Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any damage that couldn’t berepaired.

He decided there wasn’t any point inworrying about that, now, though. He needed to focus on collectingwhatever evidence still existed to prove his theories. Then, if hehad to, he thought he could hang on in these underground tunnelsuntil the colonists came—somehow.

That could take years, though, anddidn’t bear thinking on. Even with the acceleration of theevolutionary process, it still took time to complete thecycle.

He was sorry now that he hadn’t paidcloser attention to just how long that process took, but then againit differed with each planet they terra-formed. Some, like thisworld, were already habitable—just not particularlycomfortable.

Of course, now he knew that the poorair quality and excessive levels of methane, carbon dioxide andcarbon monoxide were due to the inhabitants’ poor husbandry oftheir world. Or he suspected that was the cause. He didn’t knowthat for a fact—there were natural explanations for the poisoningof the world—but they’d nearly destroyed their own world in theirwastefulness before they’d wised up and cleaned up and developedless wasteful and destructive ways of living. He thought it was agood guess that Anya’s people had done much the same—used upresources as if they were infinite.

It hit him abruptly as he turned tolook at Anya again that he’d been so focused on his own concernsthat he hadn’t considered what the terra-forming meant to Anya andher people.

It was the nanites’ job to breakeverything down to enrich the soil and air. He’d never consideredwhat they might do to anything manmade—or unnatural. He didn’tthink anyone else had either, but it seemed obvious that they weregoing to erase any evidence of her people’s civilization longbefore his own people arrived to colonize.

That didn’t bode well for Anya’speople. He didn’t know how he could’ve been so focused oncollecting evidence without actually considering the other side ofwhy it was important to gather it while it was still possible, buthe couldn’t deny that that had been the case.

Not that there was anything he could doabout it that he could see—not for Anya and her people. If hesurvived and managed to get proof back, it might help others onother worlds, but Anya’s civilization would be gone and the biggestmajority of her people with it if any survived the terra-forming atall.

They’d never stopped the process thathe knew of. Could it even be done?

Chapter Five

Anya was ready to drop by the timeAidan stopped to rest. She’d muttered complaints for a while—forall the good it did. She doubted he would’ve paid her any attentionif he’d been able to understand, but since he didn’t thecomplaining served no purpose at all beyond relieving some of herfrustration.

Like the cussing.

She wasn’t prone to it. She rarely lether frustrations get the better of her. Somehow ‘shoot’ and‘dog-gone-it’ didn’t seem powerful enough to vent the sort ofemotions she’d been experiencing lately, though.

She was still uncomfortable that she’dused the ‘f’ word and he’d picked up on it—partly because she wasworried that he might be really pissed off if and when he everfigured out what that word was.

Beyond taking her captive, though, hehadn’t seemed threatening. She still thought it would be wise toditch him at the first opportunity. She didn’t know what his planswere for her after all and she didn’t think it would be anythinggood considering his people had invaded Earth.

She was keenly aware of not beingequipped either physically, mentally, or otherwise to survive onher own, though. She didn’t have a weapon, any supplies—like waterand food or even clothing that would protect her from the elements.And beyond that, she hadn’t seen a living soul, of her own kind,since she’d seen the people that had been in the cars heading forthe hills.

Well, actually, the flatlands becausethe hills were the other way.

For all she knew she was the last humanleft.

She didn’t believe that.She couldn’t believe that. There hadto be other people out there. She just needed tofind them.

On foot, particularly since she wasbarefoot, that seemed an almost impossible feat. Even before thebug-things that seemed like they would eat everything and themonster bugs and the huge monster beasts, if she’d been stranded inthe woods like she was now, she could’ve wandered for days or maybeweeks without finding another living soul. With all those thingsout there and nothing to eat or drink or protect herself with—wheneverybody that was left was probably hiding—she didn’t think herchances were good at all.

It occurred to her that there was onesurefire, or maybe surefire, way of getting Aidan out of hisclothes, but she wouldn’t be a lot better off with his clothes andboots and the little bit of rations he had in his pockets. And thatwas assuming he wasn’t in any condition to fight her for the stuffafterwards and she didn’t see how she could count on that withoutmaking some kind of plan to bash him over the head or otherwiseincapacitate him.

It dawned on her abruptly that, as farshe knew, he didn’t have a weapon of any kind on him.

What kind of invader invaded a placewithout weapons?

Was she completely wrong about hispurpose in being here?

But how likely was it that those thingswould arrive and start destroying everything and an alien fromanother place would arrive at the same time?

Maybe he’d expected everything andeverybody to be wiped out before he landed? Did that really makeany sense, though? Surely, he’d have to be familiar with theweapons and would’ve known there hadn’t been time?

It occurred to Anya when Aidan nudgedher and handed her a piece of the nasty rations he was carryingthat there could be other explanations to what she’d been swept