It took the better part of six hours, but when they decided to call it for the night, they'd opened up the graves of Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Khrushchev, Juan Carlos-Sanchez, Curtis Smith and Vlad the Impaler.

In each grave was a canister, bearing the insignia of the Gray Bird, containing various documents, both hand written and printed. In an effort to dig up as many containers as they could, no one had paused to examine the contents very closely until they'd decided stop for the evening.

Ethan radioed back to Colonel Patterson while Kathryn and Todd helped Eferia with a fire and a hot meal.

"We're about to look into the papers now, but so far they look to be all the personal and ship records of the trip and crew," Ethan explained. "And in a few more we haven't dug up yet, we found equipment. Nothing major, just panels and wiring."

"No transmitters?" Patterson asked.

"No, sir. I doubt they could send a signal out from six feet under the earth."

"You're probably right," the colonel replied. "I still say that signal is coming from inside this city somewhere. I've had the men start looking around, but we're running into some resistance from the locals."

"Resistance?"

"The council has been in meetings since you left," Patterson replied gruffly. "And out here in the marketplace we've seen several fights erupt. Seems the folk from the dark side aren't taking the news as openly as those from the light."

"Tolen isn't here," Ethan said. "Eferia told me he's not very happy about our explanations either."

"Things could get interesting around here in the next few days, especially with what you've just found. You'd best sleep with one eye open. And radio in if you have any problems."

"Yes, sir. I'll get this data recorded and we'll see what else we can find out here tomorrow. Any trouble with Captain Marshall?"

"He and his men are on location duty," Patterson replied. "I figure locating that transmitter is enough to keep him out of trouble. Maybe he can redeem himself. Just be careful out there, Ghost. Reaper out."

Ethan shut off the com and sat in the mobile for a few minutes, gazing out the windshield at the cemetery. Without a moon to see by, it was impossible to pick out the works on any of the stone markers, but the thousands of orange lights cast an almost comforting light. It was a strange sight, in the complete blackness of the planet's dark side, made stranger still by their recent discovery.

He looked out at the fire casting a soft orange glow on their small camp and saw Eferia staring down at the pile of handwritten papers they'd pulled from one canister. Her arms were crossed, and her expression one of anger and frustration. Kathryn was sitting by the fire, leafing through some ledgers, while Todd brought another armful of dead wood to add to a pile nearby.

Ethan took a deep breath, then stepped out of the mobile and joined his sister by the fire.

"Are these papers then proof that our world began here in the dark?" Eferia was asking as Ethan joined them. "You did not find such things in the light."

"We haven't looked there yet," Kathryn said. "It's possible there are more things buried on the light side of the planet, but judging by the sheer number of false graves here, I can't imagine what they would have left there."

"It would seem they wanted to bury the past," Todd muse as he sat down with a handful of papers. "These are all documents detailing Earth's history, going back as far as there were records." He looked at Eferia and shook his head slightly. "For whatever reason, the founders of this planet wanted their past -- and apparently their origins -- to be completely forgotten."

Ethan picked up a leather bound journal labeled Captain's Log and opened it up while the others continued talking.

"That's why your peoples prefer not to talk about what has been," Kathryn offered. "You say it is your shame, to discuss the wars and the past, but I think it's more a shame of your ancestors, to have kept your history from you, and encouraging you never to question what has been."

Eferia shook her head, but sat down closer to the fire. "But it is true, no one can live in the past, there is nothing good there."

"No one's suggesting you live in the past," Ethan said. "You have to learn from it, though, in order to avoid repeating their mistakes."

"Not just your past here, Eferia," Todd added. "It's very important to know your history -- and in this case the history of those who came here -- so that you can learn from them as well. It was most likely their failure to accept the past they left that lead to your peoples being at war. The light and the dark, it's a scenario that has played out many times, in many different ways."

"Then you are wrong," she countered. "If wars such as ours have occurred again and again, learning from the past is not possible."

Ethan laughed shortly, but just shook his head and looked at the journal in his hands. It was titled Captain's Log, and started out simply enough, logging the crew and passenger roster, dates of launch, specifics of the journey up to and including a safe landing on the new world.

From there, the captain noted the decision to build a colony in the safety of the mountain bowl, and their plans to have as much housing as possible, in anticipation of the ships to follow. They had no idea their ship was considered lost in space, or that no other colony vessels were planned.

Several months passed with no notes, then the entries began to read differently. Ethan could see the handwriting changing, slowly at first, as if the entries had been made in haste. The further they went, the more abstract they became. Captain Fielding, of the Gray Bird, had begun to babble.

Ethan closed the ledger and rubbed his eyes. "I think we should all call it a night."

"No argument here," Todd replied as he fought back a yawn. "It'll take all day to scan the rest of those graves for more canisters."

"The last two we scanned were empty," Kathryn said. "We might have found the last of the stash."

Ethan glanced around. "Where's Eferia?"

"Boy, you really weren't listening, were you?" Kathryn laughed. "She just went out to pick some of those flowers, so we can have tea in the morning. Said she'd be a little while, and not to worry."

Ethan looked out into the darkness, but he'd left his night vision back in the mobile.

"So, do we have sleeping arraignments?" Todd asked.

The question brought Ethan's attention back in a flash. He eyed his sister, who was staring back at him. "There's room enough inside for all of us," he said.

"Right, well I'll just get started moving things around then." Todd stuffed the documents he'd been reading back into one of the canisters and went into the mobile.

"Ethan --"

"I know," he said with a resigned sigh. "At least he's better than the others."

"I thought you were getting to like him." Kathryn gathered up what she'd been studying and placed it carefully in a stack beside the other canisters. "I know he's properly intimidated by you. That's your main criteria, isn't it?"

"Listen, it's just --"

"Would it help if I told you I like Ara? She's a lot smarter than her grasp on English would make it seem, and she's quite fond of you, for some reason."

Ethan shook his head and leaned back against one of the mobile's large wheels. "There hasn't been any time to stop and think, about much of anything, you know?"

Kathryn leaned against the mobile alongside her brother and nodded. "You've been under a lot of pressure since before launch. We all have, but you and Colonel Patterson more than most. But we're here now, Ethan. It might not be the planet we were aiming for, but it's home now, and it's a safe home. It's our second chance as a species, to finally get things right."

"I'm just not sure that's even possible." He looked out into the darkness again, but couldn't see past the dying glow of the fire. "The crew of the Gray Bird thought that same thing, and look what happened. They left a legacy of civil war." He looked at his sister, who was listening as patiently as she always did when he was working something out in his head. "Already I've got a colonel who may or may not be in control, a captain who may or may not have destroyed that last ship on purpose, and a dead commander who may or may not have been trying to kill himself." He took a long breath and let it out slowly. "Now we've just informed a society on the shaky edge of peace that everything they thought they knew about their history was a bit off, and oh by the way, we're not sure if thousands more of us are coming here or not."

Kathryn shook her head. "You realize your shoulders aren't that wide?"

Ethan looked at his sister.

"Seriously, Ethan. Whatever doubts you might have had about John Patterson -- whatever stress he might have been under, I think he's gotten over it. He seemed perfectly rational to me. Now, Captain Marshall and Commander Ellis -- well, who knows what history they had. You can certainly sympathize with Ellis's breakdown. Everything else will work itself out." She put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "You're not alone in any of it, Ethan. Not anymore. Even if Patterson goes batshit and this whole world descends into madness, we still have each other. Just like always."

Ethan slowly nodded, then smiled slightly and pushed away from the wheel. "At least if I go crazy, you'll look after me," he said. "Feed me, make sure I don't drool on my shirt."

"Don't push it," Kathryn chided. "So, are you coming inside?"

"You go ahead," Ethan said, once again looking out at the darkness. "I'll wait for Eferia and put out the fire."

Kathryn gave him a wink, then went into the mobile while Ethan checked the fire. It was down to smoldering orange embers now, but he didn't want to risk anything spreading to the grass around the cemetery, so he used the small shovel to smother the last of the sparks with dirt.

As he was folding up the shovel, he heard footsteps coming up from behind the mobile. "I was about to come looking for you." Ethan turned around, but instead of Eferia and an armload of tea flowers, he saw a blur of motion that was followed immediately by one of the worst headaches he could remember.

_______________________________________________

"Ethan?"

"I told the colonel we'd be there as soon as we could manage."

"Come on, Ethan, open your eyes."

It took a few seconds for him to realize he hadn't opened his eyes already, and that the flashes of light nearly blinding him were coming from a small hand light his sister was waving in front of his face while pushing his eyelid up.

Ethan blinked, then reached up to touch his pounding head. "What the hell?"

"That's better," Kathryn said as she glanced over at Todd. "He'll be fine."

Before he could argue the point, Ethan realized his left side was hot. He glanced over and saw what was left of a massive fire. "The canisters?"

"She used an accelerant of some kind," Kathryn said. "We didn't know anything was wrong out here until we saw everything go up. By the time we got out here and found you on the ground, it was too late to put out the fire."

"Eferia?" Ethan pushed himself up slowly to a sitting position with the help of Todd.

"We're assuming so, yeah," he said. "But we didn't actually see her."

"Neither did I." Ethan rubbed his head where he'd been hit. She'd managed a blow strong enough to put him down for a few seconds, but apparently not enough to do serious damage. He'd certainly been hit harder in his life, once by his own twin sister.

"Yeah, you've got a good bump there, but no concussion," Kathryn said.

Ethan looked up and took a deep breath. "She must have thought burning the evidence was easier than explaining the truth to Tolen and the others."

"Censorship at its finest." Kathryn put the small light in her pocket and shook her head at the burning pile. "Hiding the truth just like her forefathers did won't change anything. Her people are going to have to come to terms, or decide on their own."

Ethan blinked. He was staring at the stars, still trying to bring his vision into clear focus, but one of them kept moving.

"No concussion, you said?" he asked.

Kathryn shook her head. "No, just a bruise." She glanced up at the dark sky. "And that's not your imagination."

Ethan looked at his sister.

"Colonel Patterson called fifteen minutes ago," she explained. "That's Fleet Ship Twelve."

"What?" Ethan scrambled to his feet, then swayed a little as the pounding behind his eyes increased dramatically.

Todd grabbed his arm to offer a little stability. "They're in contact with the ship's onboard computers, but so far haven't spoken to anyone. Colonel Patterson says Captain Marshall's people are landing the ship using remote commands."

"They're going to put it just outside the city's walls, on the light side," Kathryn added. "He wants you back as soon as you can travel."

"Which would be now," Ethan replied. He shot another look at the flaming pile, then turned for the mobile. "There's a fire suppression canister inside. Let's put that out and get back. We can deal with this mess later."

"I did get quite a lot of this scanned into the computers," Kathryn offered as they worked to put out the flames. "In case Eferia and her people try to destroy anything we didn't dig up yet, at least we have some evidence to show those who want to see it."

Ethan kept glancing up at the light growing in intensity above them as the ship approached the planet. "Who was scheduled on Twelve, do you know?"

"Originally that was to be Senator Thompson and CEO Reese's flight," Todd replied. "But they were supposed to launch six months after the Solaria, when the colony had time to set up. They were to arrive and take command after everyone settled."

"So four months early and who knows what we'll find on board." Ethan tossed the extinguisher aside when it was empty and nodded toward the mobile. "This is good enough, let's go."

"Let Todd drive," Kathryn ordered as they hurried back to their ride.

Ethan was about to protest, then realized his time could be better spent in contact with Colonel Patterson. "Fine, let's go." He shot the sky another glance. "At this speed, they'll be landing in a few hours."

"If they don't blow up first."