The Spider Queen

(Alpha Star System- Planet Gaia)

(N'rean City- National History Museum)

Sophie secretly felt a bit excited as she walked toward one of the doors at the end of the hall.

Having Sui Meng's memories meant that she felt a connection to the ancient Earth era and it would be fascinating to see some relics from that long ago time.

The hybrid girl hummed softly as she got closer to the door.

Cleo was also in a good mood as she held her girlfriend's hand and squeezed her fingers lightly.

"I actually don't know much about ancient Earth," Rachel truthfully confessed as they neared the door.

"I always skipped history class during high school so… I can't really remember all of the details. I just remember the teacher vaguely talking about high levels of radiation…"

"Oh… are you referring to the high concentrations found in the northern hemisphere?" Cleo asked curiously.

"I believe the common consensus is that the radiation is from primitive nuclear weapons that exploded after years of no maintenance."

"It's actually crazy to think that our ancestors were capable of splitting apart atoms and yet had no knowledge of cultivation."

Sophie listened to their conversation with mixed feelings in her heart.

Before the Draxes arrived and enslaved humanity, there was a very real possibility that humans could have wiped out each other in an apocalyptic nuclear winter.

The girls eventually arrived at the door which opened automatically since there was a sensor hanging from the ceiling.

Sophie entered the elevator first and was then followed by Cleo and Rachel who were not far behind.

The elevator slowly began its descent and the pleasant sound of music echoed through the container.

It came from the speakers attached to the top of the elevator.

"Sophie are you curious about how those ancient humans lived?" Rachel asked casually as she played with her curly hair.

"Yeah.. I mean they considered themselves to be the center of the universe. The only intelligent species in the galaxy," Sophie replied with a strange look on her face.

"Little did they know how wrong they were…"

Humanity should have taken hundreds of thousands of years to finally venture forth and colonise the neighbouring planets in the milky way galaxy.

Instead, they were captured and enslaved by the Draxi empire and forced to live as second-class citizens and slaves like the Mendolesa, Quafes and Servies.

Fortunately, after the violent revolution had succeeded, humanity took their place as one of the most fearsome races in the universe.

The glass elevator stopped moving and then the doors opened up to reveal a maze-like room with dozens of objects displayed.

Each object had a plaque in front of it which described the use of the object and its historical significance.

Sophie looked around the room and saw recreations of animals during the ancient Earth era, paintings that showed what the buildings would have looked like and other oddities.

This was truly a treasure trove of information.

"Let's check out the buildings first!" Cleo exclaimed excitedly as she dragged Sophie along to one of the displays.

When humanity eventually returned to Earth, all of the buildings and traces of civilisation were all little more than dust.

There were some traces left behind but nothing substantial.

Most of the research done today was based on speculation and educated guesses.

Sophie gazed at the painting and saw a 'skyscraper'. The artist had painted an enormous structure that extended upwards until it reached the stratosphere.

There were tiny ant-like humans moving around the building which appeared to be made from… plastic?

"Why did they assume that the buildings were made from plastic?" Sophie asked curiously.

Cleo bent down and read the plaque in front of the painting before replying to her girlfriend's question.

"It says here that the large amounts of plastic in the ocean must have come from humanity's magnificent buildings," Cleo explained quietly.

"The sheer volume of plastic found scattered around the planet means that it must have been a valuable material in the lives of the ancient humans."

Sophie raised an eyebrow and said nothing. She supposed that plastic was important but it was not used for buildings.

Instead, the large amount of plastic in the ocean probably came from poor waste management or just the dumping of trash into the ocean.

"Girls check this out!" Rachel's voice came from the far side of the room.

The saintess had wandered over to one of the displays and saw something that she could not believe.

Rachel didn't care if her loud voice made the other people in the room look at her with funny expressions.

Sophie and Cleo quickly walked over and found Rachel standing in front of what appeared to be a statue depicting a peculiar animal.

"Err… what the hell is that?" Sophie asked in disbelief.

"This is a cat! The ancient humans used to worship it. I can't believe that it looks so… so… err…" Rachel's voice trailed off as she couldn't find anything good to say.

The statue in the display case was modelled after a 'cat' but it was unlike any cat that Sophie had seen in Sui Meng's memories.

The creature was roughly two feet tall and the basic body shape was correct. It had four paws, one head and a tail.

Now what really stood out… was the face.

The 'cat' had a long-pointed snout almost like rat with flat stubby teeth that would not look out of place on an herbivore.

Its eyes were completely white and one could see thick fleshy whiskers coming out of its face that were a pinkish- red colour.

Honestly… it looked fucking disgusting.

"This model was based on drawings that were sketched during the dark era of enslavement," Rachel read the plaque out loud.

"Clearly those artists had no idea what they were doing…" Sophie muttered quietly under her breath.

"I'm glad that they went extinct… imagine one of those things roaming around your home," Cleo whispered as she stared at the statue.

Looking at those fleshy coloured whiskers made her skin crawl. She could not believe that the ancient humans worshipped such monsters.

The princess opened up her mouth to complain some more when a confident voice echoed through the room.

A tour guide was leading a group of ten wealthy tourists and showing them a display that was covered by a thick purple cover.

"Well actually that's not true… a recent archaeology dig made a shocking discovery," the guide said loudly before reaching for the cover and pulling it off from the display.

Shocked gasps echoed through the room as what was revealed had the potential to rewrite human history forever.

Sophie glanced in the direction of the display and her expression was… confused.