“—and they might still be. They were obviously extremely intelligent. Even in the Devonian Age, they were light-years beyond where we are now…but there’s no hard evidence to validate the claim that they created life or engineered us as a race.”

Hubbs barked that laugh again. “Wishful thinking, my dear. They did and we all know it.”

“Easy now, Hubbs,” Murphy said. “Javy is a creationist. She thinks God made Heaven and Earth and created men in his own image.”

Javonivic looked angry. “Can you prove that he or she didn’t?”

Hubbs shook his head. “Nope. I think God did create us. Only we were a little wrong on his appearance. God happens to be an alien monster, is all.”

Bell didn’t even bother taking part in it.

The argument was really pointless. Javonivic was essentially right: nobody really knew anything. The aliens existed, or had, they built cities, and they probably played around with the evolution on the planet. Beyond that who really knew? Well, maybe the NSF and the ONI did, but they weren’t saying.

He tried not to think about it. Like the argument going on, he tuned it out.

The first day in the habitat had merely been a technical exercise.

The four of them went through the Neptune’s systems one by one, checking back ups and redundancies. Then they had secured and performed maintenance on their equipment, everything from the hardsuits to the SDVs, Swimmer Delivery Vehicles. It had been pretty routine stuff, but routine maintenance was the mantra of DSU: if your equipment fails, so does your life expectancy. So, they went over things again and again. As Chief Petty Officer, Bell was in charge of the team. Like Orr himself, he wasn’t much on military protocol, but when it came to upkeep and preventative maintenance, he could be a real bastard.

It wasn’t until yesterday that they’d actually climbed into their suits and rode the SDVs out to the city itself for reconnaissance. Bell and Murphy had gone in the morning followed by Javonivic and Hubbs in the afternoon. Bell and Murphy had gone again in the evening. And now Hubbs and Javonivic had just returned from yet another survey. Before they tracked the magnetic anomaly, the Navy wanted a general survey of the city itself. AUV Orca had already done much of that, but the divers were to be a little more specific. The whole idea was ridiculous, of course, because the city seemed to go on and on. Much of it had crumbled away into ruins, but the majority, though covered in marine growths, was undamaged.

Bell hated it.

They all hated that damn city even if they were not saying so.