It's year 2145. Mankind has sent several vessels to different known exoplanets around the space. It was around year 2100 when the technology to travel at half of light speed was introduced as a perfectly functioning method of transportation. 

We had sent unmanned ships to known exoplanets in hopes to find life or habitable planets for mankind, but so far we have been disappointed. First disappointment was Proxima Centauri b, which was the first exoplanet we examined. It was neither suitable for us nor it contained any signs of life.

It had been depressing.

![science-fiction-2907434_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYyipeck7wMfqqSoiYR3zv34jCRshryf13iM46WVkLwLS/science-fiction-2907434_1280.jpg)
<sub>Pixabay</sub>

However, during these next few days one ship was to land on Gliese 667 Cc, Gliese for short. Gliese was a special kind of exoplanet, one side was always face towards the sun and the other was in eternal darkness. On the edges of these two zones, there could be habitable areas. There was just one big but: there could be some heat waves too, which were calculated to cause tremendous heat even to the possibly suitable areas for life. Basically melting or burning everything in the area.

But this was where we were going. Well not <b>us</b>, but the ship was going there. We were happily sitting here on earth, in the European Space HQ. The ship had been traveling for a bit over 44 years already, but now it was going to arrive at the destination.

<i><b>"The ship has landed on Gliese 667 Cc safely and we've managed to start the rover. Everything seems to be in order so far and we all are delighted the mission is a great success so far."</b></i> 
I coughed a bit and don't enjoy at all being in here. 
<i>Why did they want an engineer to talk to the press?</i>

<i>"Have you managed to find any signs of life yet"</i>, asked one reporter, almost shouting.

<i><b>"Nothing so far, the rover has not yet left the vessel but we will let you know as soon as there is anything notable to report for you all."</b></i>
All the questions were the same. Every single time. The media didn't ask any good questions, I couldn't give the media the replies they were asking for. Or I could have, but I didn't want to get the hopes up if it turns out we're wrong - that I'm wrong.

The media conference ends in the time and I managed to get back to real work. We had actually managed to get glimpses of huge tree like plants in the twilight zone, as we called it. We were going to drive the rover to check them out. Luckily the rovers we had nowadays were faster and better in every way compared to the ancient rovers we had used in Mars back in the days. 

<i><b>"How are they looking?"</b></i>, I asked from the team handling the rover.

<i>"Pretty bad, they all seem like they're completely scorched. It has to be the heat waves which have got them.. we've taken some samples from the surface of the trees but it looks like they're pretty much burnt to a crisp"</i>

![deadvlei-2011373_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZffk7EGY8gtEccSKT6LJicGLeth25UBqa4RMnuvaqSb2/deadvlei-2011373_1280.jpg)
<sub>Pixabay</sub>

I understood the disappointed look on them. There was a line of burnt, massive tree like plants as far as the camera could see. None of us was pleased about that, even though finding anything like this was a huge discovery.

The team drove the rover forward for weeks. We had told the press about the burnt "trees" we found and they still had high hopes. They expected us to find something alive, but it just added more pressure on us. The project had cost a lot of money and I'm not sure how people would react to another failure.

Most of us felt like signs of life which had been on the planet were already great! What could these trees have ever been? Or have they been something completely else than trees? If we won't find anything, it'll be a disappointment at first, but I'm sure these plants will be seen as dinosaurs - people making assumptions and guesses what they could have been.

However finally something else happened. 

![silhouette-1502222_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXdiek6vQGGc5xX8ycbWt9c7jqk97XhtyPhjN6XG9ergs/silhouette-1502222_1280.jpg)
<sub>Pixabay</sub>

The team managed to find a tree which was alive. It looked surprisingly much like a tree on earth, it wasn't very big but it had leaves and all. It truly looked like a tree here on earth. Beside it was something which looked like.. parts of a seed. It looked like an empty seedcoat with a crescent around it. 

<i>"Have you ever seen anything that looked as weird?"</i>
<i>"It looks like a frisbee!"</i>
<i>"Could that be edible?"</i>
Everyone had gathered around the screen to look at the strange seed.. or empty seedcoat

We had a botanologist in the center and the time to come up with a possible explanation on the form.

<i>"I would assume it's the seedcoat of the seed, which grew into that tree. The trees need to be scattered with long enough distances and I would assume form like that helps the seed to fly far enough from the mother tree"</i>

<b><i>"Wouldn't most seeds still fly in the extreme heat or the darkness?"</i></b> I was confused as it seemed like a waste, throwing seeds to die in vain.

<i>"Most seeds won't make it even on earth, that's why the tree has plenty of seeds. Sometimes one plant is enough to grow up a grand, new generation of plants"</i>, the botanologist coughed and continued:
<i>"I assume the seeds can withstand the heat. Every tree has to encounter a heat wave sooner or later, but when it manages to grow it's seeds and spread them out, they will grow up and create new seeds after each heat wave."</i>

<i><b>"It has been pretty unlucky if this is the only tree which has managed to survive this time."</b></i> I felt happy about my life right now, as I never would have the pressure of being the only individual protecting a species from extinction.

The next press conference was awesome.
<i><b>"We have found something extraordinary. We have finally found life in outer space!"</b></i>
The reporters were shouting and trying to ask the questions. I wanted to be like a rockstar and shouted to one of the TV crews. I wanted them to see it, not only hear from it.

<i><b>"Come through, come through!"</b></i> I was shouting to the TV crew and to few reporters who were following.
<i><b>"See it for yourself, The Tree of Gliese!"</b></i> I had come up with a nickname to the tree, as nobody had yet decided on a proper name.

The rover team were shocked, as nobody had talked about anything like this. The TV crew were filming and the reporters were asking questions and someone was taking photos.

![mars-rover-1241266_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSAr4bRYfMHuj9LCWYVLyXzKsp1Dhnb1c1VSCgcLNZo3e/mars-rover-1241266_1280.jpg)
<sub>Pixabay</sub>

<i>"Hey can we get a better angle to get some better photos?"</i> asked the photographer.
<i>"What? NO! We're not doing anything for you!"</i> shouted the woman controlling the rover.

<i><b>"Hey wait a second, I'll do it!"</b></i> I told the photographer and pushed the rover operator aside.

<i>"What are you doing? You can't drive that!"</i> the operator was panicking. 

<i><b>"I know what I'm doing. I've seen you drive this for a while and I'm an engineer!"</b></i> 
I took a firm grip on the steers and drove the rover closer to the plant.

The rover was faster than I had assumed.

<i>"What have you done you idiot?"</i> The operator had turned red as she was shouting.

<i><b>"I.. I.. well wait, I'll reverse a bit"</b></i>, I had driven straight over the tree. It hadn't been really tiny, but the rover was somewhat big and heavy.. compared to the tree. Or whatever was left. I tried to drive back and we could see the tree was broken. The thin trunk had snapped under the rover.

<i>"Mr. Engineer.. did you just kill the only living thing we have ever found outside of Earth?"</i> the TV crew had the camera and the microphone pointed at me.

<i><b>"Welll....... I'm sure we'll find some more?"</b></i> I tried to fake my confident smile, but it didn't help. I got fired. I was all around the newspapers and the TV. I was the guy who killed all life on another planet.

They never found another living tree on the planet. I'd say that sucks.

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<sub>Read more about heat waves on Gliese 667 Cc and about other interesting planets:
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32470

Read more about flying seeds:
http://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plfeb99.htm</sub>