any signs of their tech?”
“None yet I’m afraid and we are rapidly pulling away from the area.”
“I suspect we’ll have more opportunity to examine debris before this is all over.”
He dismissed the tech. When he was gone Delaney sat back in his seat and rubbed his eyes. Alicia resisted the urge to reach out and touch him.
****
The image on the holo-imager showed a revolving planet painted in blue and green. As they grew closer it was constantly updating with finer and finer details. Alicia, however, watched the crew more than she watched the image. As the image refined faces began to frown and mouths fell open.
“What am I looking at” Delaney asked.
Jones tried to speak several times before the words came out. “It looks like signs of multiple nuclear strikes as well as” her voice broke for a moment, “as well as massive strip mines on every continent.”
Alicia could see Delaney’s hands ball into fists by his side. “How is the background radiation level?”
Jones checked her readouts again. “Tolerable. Whoever nuked the planet must have spent some time and energy cleaning it up; likely to facilitate mining operations.”
“Very well then” Delaney replied. “Prepare a landing party. Someone has ransacked our house and I want to find out who it was.”