As you walk out of the spaceship and the harsh sunlight blinds your vision, you are greeted with a strange sight. All around you are the headstones of the fallen former astronauts. The collected space stones adorn the gravestones of these men, who sacrificed their lives to explore the universe. You smile at the sight, knowing that these man helped to bring mankind greater knowledge, as well as building a new, thriving relationship between the United States and Russia.
"Sammy?" your secretary, Gertie Davies, calls from behind you. "You forgot to turn off the TV. It's been on the screen forever!" you tell the confused girl. "What is it?" you ask her, feeling the relief she is felt as she places the final piece of your mission's rock collection back into the black bag.
"There's a new treaty," she tells you, pulling out the pie chart she made of your space travels. As she hands it to you, she adds, "It seems this radiation has done some very significant damage. Thirty-two percent of the population is dead. And it's not all natural deaths, either."
"What do you mean?" you ask her, taking the chart from her and looking it over yourself.
"You need to come back to my office," she continues. "It's at the university... I think."
"Professor Davies," you sigh as you correct yourself.
"Professor Davies, Professor Davies. I'm forgetting, am I?"
"That's okay," you tell her. "People tend to forget my name after a while. Have fun with your research."
"Of course, Sammy," she tells you, waving as you slowly make your way towards the exit. "I'll see you later."
As soon as you walk out through the door, you feel a hand firmly grab hold of your sleeve. You whirl around and pull the blade from the inside of your sleeve, but you realize that it is just Gertie. "How did you get away from the guards?" you ask.
"They're fine," she tells you, needlessly. "I also have a few pictures that I took of the artifacts we found."
You smile, as Gertie pulls a photo from her pocket. You can see a younger version of her, almost 30 years ago. She pulls out a piece of paper with a drawing of the same item, and a note scrawled across it.
"What is the note?" you ask her, pointing at the paper. "I mean, there is no Russian on it. I can't read it."
"It's in Shaker," she tells you.
"Shaker?" you look down at the paper, biting your lip and wondering what the drawing might be.
"It's a language from a long time ago. I've been deciphering some of the phrases that were found," Gertie tells you, with a smile. It's a smile that may have always been on her face, but it usually goes unnoticed by the world around you.
"What does it say?" you ask, reaching for the paper and studying it.
"It says, 'The most loyal soldier faces his demon,'" she tells you, with a laugh.
"What?" You look at her with a skeptical expression on your face. "Why would it say that?"
"In the story, they say that it's good luck to meet your own demons," she explains.
"How many of these stones are around?" you ask, letting out a yawn and walking towards the door.
"It's not just the stones, it's the whole planet," she tells you with a laugh. "It's because of the large amounts of radiation that have been spread throughout the world for the past 20 years. Most of the trees are dead or dying, and it doesn't look like there is any vegetation left anywhere in the Americas."
"What's wrong with the trees?" you ask, looking back at the 'tree' graph she had created.
"You're not seeing it," she tells you. "There is no vegetation near the planets that allow any of the radiation to dissipate. I had to find a way to resolve the radiation with the planets."
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"The solution is obvious," she tells you.
"What is it, Gertie?" you ask excitedly, with an eagerness to know the answer.
"You have to take out all of the trees," she tells you, with a laugh.
"What?" you ask. "B--"
"You'll have to do it, Sammy," she tells you, giving you a hug.
"No, I'm not going to do that," you tell her, shaking your head.
"Nothing ever worked," she tells you, grabbing your hand and leading you slowly up the steps of the spaceship. "Maybe this will. It's better than watching it all die."
"Maybe, but I'm not going to be the one who is responsible for doing that," you tell her.
She gives you the bag of space stone, and points to the picture and note. "It says that you can be the first to introduce a new culture," she tells you. "It kinds of speaks to you about being the first. You're the first—ever—to go to the moon, ever to walk on it... But, I think, if you do this, it'll be the first time that people will start a new culture of their own. It's not the easiest thing to implement, but the radiation has caused a lot of problems."
"No, I'm not going to do it," you tell her, gripping the bag. "I don't have any problem with you doing it, though. You should put it back into the bag; it will be safe inside of it."
"Ah, but the problem is," she tells you. "What if someone thinks it's fake?"
"Fake?" you ask, with a laugh. "You'll have to do some serious tricks to make a piece of jewelry or something like that look like a piece of rock that came from the moon."
"I've already tested it," she tells you with a laugh. "Some people think I'm just a psychic."
"Well, that's great, but I'm going to tell them what it is and where it came from," you tell her.
"Okay, Sammy," she laughs. "Do what you want to do, but don't you want to save the plants? It's not going to be easy, but isn't it better to fix it, while we can?"
"I don't think I can do that, Gertie," you tell her. "The trees that have died will stay dead... And there is NO WAY I am destroying all of the trees on the planet. It's just not possible..."
"You have to try," she tells you. "Or, at least, it's best to try. If you don't, you'll never know."
You nod slowly, as you realize that it really is the best thing to do at this point.