The primitive creatures greet our landing party. Desperate to meet us, they stick their spears into the dirt and run to us with open arms. They smile just like Earthlings. I hear the order barking out of our captain. As I look into the inhabitants’ eyes, I think about disobeying.
Shots ring out and the creatures all fall over each other. Their blood is red too. Other than the breathable air and purple dirt, nothing else is matching Doctor Connolly’s information.
“Captain Heartwell, do you see what I see?” I ask.
“I do,” she says in a shaky voice. “But this has got to be the same planetoid. We dissected and followed every detail Doctor Connolly transmitted. We made the most accurate map of the galaxy to date, specifically so this,” she kneels down to inspect the dead bodies. “doesn’t happen.”
“Well, we just didn’t know. It’s not our fault!” says Private Alex Turney. As he paces around the pile of bodies, a shaky hand rises out of a puddle of blood. Alex screams and shoots off the drippy fingers.
Captain Heartwell tackles Alex to the ground. A purple cloud of sand swirls around the two. I go towards the fingerless creature, wanting to scrape out some kind of explanation before its last breath.
It eyes me with familiarity and fear. Its thick lips quiver in pain and fear of the unknown afterlife. We stare at each other as I stop myself from asking anything in English. I think about how I can communicate with this misunderstood soul. Before I speak, it speaks.
“Doctor Connolly,” it utters. The fingerless hand paints a red arrow on the purple ground. Finally, it dies. Alex and Heartwell stop fighting and make eye contact with me, amazed and confused.
***
After burying the victims of our murderous mistake, we invite the rest of our team out of the rocket. Unaware of the bodies underground, they all celebrate our arrival with breaths of fresh foreign air. My husband comes out and kisses me. He knows something is going on in my head. He always knows.
“What? We’re so close to rescuing your hero! All we need to do is find the cave he’s hiding in.” He holds me tight.
“We know where he is,” I say. I point down at the arrow. Jack’s teeth clench at the sight.
“Is that his blood, you think?” asks Jack.
“No.”
We follow the direction of the arrow. The purple sand turns into purple rocks. The vegetation is like Earth’s. The trees have beautiful brown bark and gorgeous green leaves. Many bear fruit that looks too delicious to be good for me.
I’m not dumb enough to eat an unknown fruit, but I couldn’t help but pick the apple-like orb off of a tiny tree next to me. The scent is sweet and the texture is firm. I pretend to take a bite and throw it to Jack. He catches it and laughs.
“Easy there, Eve. I don’t want us to corrupt this Eden!” He tosses the fruit back to me. I’m too distracted by his joke. The fruit rolls down the purple hill. He sees me frowning, picks another fruit, and hands it to me gently.
Captain Heartwell comes up behind me and wraps her arm around my shoulders. She’s been quiet this whole hike, but knows she can talk to me about what has happened. We ask one another how we’re holding up. We both answer with the same understatement. She decides to change the subject.
“When we find the cave, I’m going to let you do all the talking. You know more about this man and his work than anyone on our team. We’re going to need to ask him about the crash, the cost and damage of the artifacts, and finally, about the violent tribe.”
“Should we tell him about–” I start.
“No,” Heartwell answers.
I look back at Jack after our captain picks up her pace. He’s talking to Alex with his eyebrows furled. Cursing, I run up to the front of our group. Jack calls for me from behind. I ignore him.
We make it to a clearing in the woods. Shattered tree trunks are under our boots. Between the splintered piles of wood are pieces of metallic machinery. We have found the Intergalactic Museum. Somewhere buried under all of these logs and rocket droppings are artifacts and relics from every known inhabited and formerly inhabited planet.
It is a wealth of knowledge of other cultures and traditions Earthlings would’ve never known about if it wasn’t for the work of Doctor Connolly. He’s spent his life collecting and sharing all he finds with anyone who’ll listen. He’s written several books and I own them all. I’ve never seen him in person, but I’d know his face from all the pictures he takes with all the smiling and happy aliens he meets. The museum he traveled in until it crashed here is truly one of a kind.
“Hey Bea!” Captain Heartwell calls out to me. She lifts up a brass egg-shaped statuette full of cycloptic faces. “This is the one you were telling me about a while ago!”
“Hey Bea!” Jack calls out to me. His tone is different. He stumbles through the debris and steps on a glimmering green bracelet. “Why didn’t you tell me? Are you alright?”
“Watch where you’re stepping!” I tell him.
“Watch where all of you are stepping!” shouts an accented, old voice. “That’s my meal ticket you’re trampling on!”
We see an old man in a ripped suit. A red tie hangs loosely from his neck and his glasses are only in one piece from him sticking them together with spaceship-grade sealant. The whole group of rescuers gasp in excitement. I am the first to run down the mound of debris to greet Dr. Connolly. He doesn’t expect my hug.
Doctor Connolly and Captain Heartwell instruct the majority of our crew to dig up all intact remnants of the crashed museum. I’m invited to walk with my hero and my captain to the cave he’s been hunkering in for the past few days. Alex walks behind us with his head on a swivel. Heartwell tells him to keep an eye out for the tribe of murderous inhabitants. Doctor Connolly chuckles.
“He doesn’t have to come with us, ladies!” he says. “You got them all when you landed, right?”
Captain Heartwell and I look back at Alex. Alex looks at Doctor Connolly.
“I don’t think the things we killed were the violent ones,” Alex says. Heartwell and I nod in agreement. “Whoever we killed,” Alex gulps, “seemed friendly and-and-and-and knew you personally,” he sighs, looking down at the purple dirt. “Uh, sorry.”
Doctor Connolly is silent. He puts his head down, not looking at us, but still inviting us into the cave entrance full of survival gear. Alex leans against the purple rock wall. Heartwell nudges me with her elbow, silently begging me to speak to my heartbroken hero. I clear my throat.
“We’ve been wondering how to tell you about this, this whole way here. Most of our crew have no idea this happened. I’ve never felt more guilt in my life and I’m wondering if we can–”
“There’s no need to feel so guilty,” Doctor Connolly chuckles. “You got the right group. believe me. There’s only one small group of inhabitants on this 600 mile space rock and they’ve been a thorn in my side this whole miserable camping trip.”
“What?” I hiss through my teeth. “You lied to us?”
“I had to in order to take this with us!” He pulls out a crystal prism full of dancing humanoid light. The couple made out of color are clearly in love in the moving image. After thirty seconds, the clip replays. “They wouldn’t let me take it for preservation. You’ve seen how little their tribe was. They weren’t going to live much longer and once they’d die, their culture would disappear with them. Not unless I handle it like the others I’ve collected over the years.”
***
Alex, Heartwell, and I all make it back to the crash site. Piles of priceless artifacts and religious relics surround the area. Jack drops a ring the size of his belt into the pile and crawls down the debris to meet me.
“Hey, how’d it go?” he asks.
“Doctor Connolly is staying here,” I say loud enough for others to hear me. “Captain Heartwell and I decided since we aren’t taking Doctor Connolly back to Earth, we will embark on a new mission.”
Jack gently puts his hands on my red-hot face. He looks into my eyes, trying to see what I’ve seen. I tell him Alex needs more ammo and I’m no longer a fan of my former hero.
“Well,” Jack pushes his hair back, “are we going to leave all of these things here or something?”
“No,” I answer. “We’re taking them home.”