A/N: This was originally written for science class. My science teacher is so awesome. He's always wanted to be an English teacher, but got a job as a science teacher, so he compromises with himself and has us write science fiction short stories. It's really cool of him. Here's a little thing I wrote for his class. We were supposed to write a story about an alien who goes to Earth centuries into the future, long after the human race has gone extinct, and finds four objects.

The Expedition

I waited backstage and nervously straightened my tentacle bands. All sixteen bands were nicely tied and neat but I was too preoccupied with my current task to realize that. This was my first press conference in my ten years as a paleontologist. I was to explain to a room full of reporters and photographers what our expedition found in our time on Earth and why we thought Earth was, besides a few species of insects, bacteria, and plants, uninhabited by living creatures.

The director of my unit at the University introduced me and my team. Being the leader of the expedition, I was to give the speech. My colleagues said they were only there to answer questions.

The six of us stepped out onto the stage. The bright lights felt like they were melting my antennae. Photo-capturers flashed, sound-detectors buzzed, the crowd murmured. A seven-eyed tortellini-bug flew past my face.

I cleared my speaking pipe.

I inflated my air holes.

I began.

"We were on Earth two days before we reached our first discovery. During those eight dark times we slept in the space shuttle. It was a bit cramped, but luckily it wasn't for long. During the dark time if we looked out of the space shuttle we saw stars. It was the easiest time to sleep because during that time the big bright thing in the sky didn't keep us awake. We looked through the televiewer yesterday at it and from what we saw we could tell it was a very big star, and extremely close to Earth. It was quite similar to our star only ours is smaller and red.

"So we ended up taking four short naps every day.

"During the brighter times we ventured out of the shuttle and surveyed our surroundings. For the first few times we all made sure to wear our protective suits because we weren't sure of what was in the air yet. Then, on the third bright time my colleague tripped and hit his helmet on a hard gray thing in the ground, cracking it. He didn't die, so we decided it must be safe. Back at the lab in the shuttle my team and I studied a sample of the air and found it safe. However, there were traces of artificial chemicals and toxins in it, giving us the idea that, once upon a time, it had been a jungle of poisonous gases. This was our first hypotheses to why there was so little life on planet Earth.

"But we still had no clue as to what species used to live here...until that day.

"Two colleagues, Orchid and Grub, and I were surveying a ruin today. It appeared to be a town. There were flat squares of land with a ditch around the outside. In some of the ditches, there were walls of red rectangular prisms, sticking together with a white crumbly thing. Both were similar to the gray thing in the ground our colleague had hit his helmet on before. Only these red prisms were stacked neatly, as if someone had put them there.

"If the walls of red prisms were higher, and there was something balancing on top of all of them covering the flat part, it would not be unlike one of the dwellings in which people live on our planet. We thought that, probably, some species that used to live here lived inside these walls.

"We supposed not all of the dwellings here on Earth were made of the red prisms, because some of the walls that should have been here were gone, I suppose worn away by the weather.

"I put a loose red prism in an evidence baggie and made a mental note to do some more research.

"Then Orchid called Grub and I over. She pointed at something sticking out of the brown, powdery ground. We all whipped out our brushes and spent the rest of the bright time brushing the brown stuff away from the thing in the ground.

"As the yellow star was dipping below the horizon, turning the sky purple and pink, we brushed away the last of the brown powder. The thing in the ground was brown as well, and cracked. It had holes running up the top and there was a string that was laced through the holes. It was thicker on the bottom than on the top and there was a larger hole above the string.

"Perhaps something an animal might wear? It didn't seem to have any other use. The ground on Earth was rough so maybe they needed something to protect themselves against it, hence the thickness of the bottom.

"It would not have been very comfortable on our tentacles, so obviously the creatures on this planet had been much different from us, at least the creatures who used this strange box with the string.

"We made progress again today. Orchid, Grub, and I went back to the ruins. We had not gotten a good look at the dwelling made of red prisms before because Orchid had called us over to look at the brown box with string (we call it Object 2, the red prism being Object 1). The dwelling of red prisms was quite a bit larger than the other ones. It was in the shape of a rectangle, and two of the walls, the back one and the left one, were still tall. We supposed there had been more than one floor.

"On the ground there were many things strewn around. More red prisms, the gray things that protruded from the ground, and these strange objects. If you looked at them from directly above, they were rectangular. However, in between the two hard, rectangular covers were many, many thin sheets. It was spotted with mold.

"We took the object back (we call it Object 3) and looked at it closely. Inside the two hard covers, on the thin sheets, there were many small symbols in lines. One of the covers have some of those same symbols. The ones on the cover look like this:"

I pushed a button and the screen behind me lit up. On it was a photograph of the object and a sheet with the symbols written a bit more clearly.

The Lord of the Rings

By J.R.R. Tolkien

"This was our first encounter with these strange symbols. We have searched the catalogue for any explanation to what the symbols mean but apparently no one of our race has encountered these symbols either.

"In those same ruins we found something else very strange. It was a box, black in color, and heavy. It had a screen like our catalog, but the screen was blank.

"We could not fit the box into a baggie, so we taped off the area and pitched a InstaDwelling (I don't like using such rich and famous brands as that; I'd rather use a lesser-known brand because famous brands are known for their carelessness because of mass production. But InstaDwelling is the only company that makes blow up tents. Oh well).

"We put a sign on the InstaDwelling saying 'Object 4.'

"I wondered what the creatures here used it for. Information gathering? Perhaps it was not unlike our catalog which can be used to look up information. I had not known the creatures on this planet were that technologically advanced. Maybe there was a species on this lifeless planet that was intelligent."

Someone from the crowd shouted, "If they were so intelligent, why did they die off?"

I pointed a tentacle in the general direction from which the voice came. "Good question. We spent a long time brainstorming the answer. What we came up with in the end was that probably this species became, well, 'too smart,' if you follow me. They invented chemicals and toxins that were distributed into the air.

"Before I move on, I must say that Earth is surrounded by several thin layers of, well, space. It is in charge of letting light in but letting enough out so the planet doesn't fry up.

"However, these chemicals and toxins thickened these layers and caked up around them. Less of the light was let out and so the planet grew warmer. Frozen water at the two poles melted. That disposed of the creatures that lived there. The places around the center line of the planet grew far too warm. Even the creatures that were built to survive in warm temperatures could not survive in the rapidly increasing heat. That took care of them. With these creatures gone, the rest of the life became more and more primitive, having resources limited to their own areas only. As the planet grew warmer still, the remaining organisms were defeated and they were forced to die off."

Another shout came from the crowd. "When did this happen? How long has Earth been uninhabited?"

I pointed a tentacle in the other direction. "Another excellent question.

"According to the evidence, Objects 1, 2, 3, and 4, there has not been life on Earth for at least 3,500 years."

The crowd gasped. I mentally smirked. It's a good feeling when you know something others didn't, especially when it's also shocking.

A while later, my team and I left the stage. I sighed. "Finally over!"

"Yes," Orchid said. "It's really late. I should be getting home."

"You guys don't want to go back to the lab?"

"Not tonight," Grub said.

"Same here," Ark said. "I'll be in tomorrow morning though."

The other three said the same.

"Fine," I said. "I'm going back to the lab."

Outside the lab I keyed in my password and the sleek doors slid silently separate. Inside the lab was a long covered case. I uncovered a button a pressed it, sliding the cover off the case. Inside was an assembled skeleton. The bones were old and fossilized. I hadn't really tried it, but just from looking I could tell Object 2, the brown thing with laces, fit perfectly where, if it were of my species, the tentacles would be. Object 3, the one with two covers, would fit flawlessly in the other two limbs so the organism could decipher the symbols.

I had my plan laid out in my head. Some more research, some more studying, some more work. Soon...my discovery will live!

A/N: See if you can guess what the objects are...mwahahaha...I'm such a nerd. Anyway, perhaps I will write a sequel, in which the nameless main character will try to imitate Dr. Frankenstein.

Here's my rule: if you liked it, please review. If not...please review anyway and tell me what to fix. That would make everybody happy!

-Demented Cookies