As the skimmer began its automatic circling of the arrival point, he noticed the condition of the human shuttles. The front ends that faced toward the dome were melted into slag. The alien shuttle front ends were also melted. A glance at the spectroscope sensor readouts that filled one side of the skimmer’s live video image showed the metal of the alien shuttles was the same mix of steel, titanium and nickel that made up the Earth shuttles. Beyond the melted shuttles, the green grass of the meadow had become withered brownness, while the red bark and green needle leaves of the alien trees were blackened on the sides facing the meeting site. Clearly something very hot and very violent had hit the meeting site. There were no survivors. No foot prints were visible in the dirt and ash that lay outside the central crater. The terrain looked overcast due to the storm clouds above. In the distance, yellow lightning bolts spiked down to touch the mountain wall that lay to one side of the site.
