His grandchildren like him had inherited a love for the night sky, every now and then when the two suns would slip below the horizon for a few hours they would beg to come sit in the observatory with him.
"Tell us about the life that surrounds us they pleaded" the youngest grandchild begged.
"Its his birthday I doubt he wants to work tonight" Nim chuckled knowing full well her partner loved nothing more then to tell fascinating stories of the people from Gaia.
Reaching into his pockets Mir pulled out some still frames he had taken recently when observing Gaia through the observatory's giant telescope, and passed them around. Each as amazed as the other.
"Luckily there is no black holes between us and Gaia and so the light 140 light years away remains constant, in fact they can see our brighter sun Achernar appear as a dot in their night sky." explained Mir.
"Can they see us?" exclaimed Mil a little bit frightened, the grandson who already had his heart set on becoming a Guru of the night sky.
"As of yet no, but I can't be certain"
"How come?"
"I watch the people of Gaia from 140 light years away Mil you see"
"So that mean we see them 140 years in the past and not as they are now?"
"Exactly beamed Mir", proud of his grandson
"As I see them now they have relatively recently discovered the vastness of their own planet, discovering tribes of other Gaian's that were separated by vast quantities of water"
"Can they not move on their water?" Mil exclaimed even more frightened.
"They have liquid water everywhere, unlike here very little is frozen as they live very close to their star. It is the source of all their life and also their moon is abnormally huge"
"Wow so they depend on the star?"
"Yes they have not reached our level of advancement and so depend on their star for all life, They used to worship and love their star, honoring its gift of life and practicing great faith in the universe"
"What happened? Surely they still worship their nature"
"No they traded that for an egotistical view that God created them in his own image and they brought violence on those that worshiped the Stars and Nature, this is why I don't recommend a travel to Gaia they are incredibly violent, They believe themselves to be more intelligent then all life even other Gaian's."
"They fight amongst themselves?"
"Throughout their history once a more advanced tribe finds another they would declare war. Intimidated by different intelligence, beliefs and cultures, always greedy for more resources. I do not know how much more advanced they are now but I don't want to see them visited in my time as I have no doubt they would react violently"
"How does their nature differ? do they not orbit a larger planet?" asked Mil curious as ever.
"No they only orbit a Star, in a circle"
"But then where does the planets fire come from?"
"Their planet is not covered in fires like ours, our orbit is an elipse around a Gas Giant Planet causing great friction inside our core resulting in all this lava which melts the ice.
Their ice is melted by their close proximity to a Star. They do have some fire from the planets core however as their planet is divided into plates and along these plates you will find many tribes taking the risk of being melted in exchange for the planets resources."
Mil was left with still so many questions as he flicked through the photographs, one showed a massive wall stretching for miles, another showed lines of creatures drawn on the ground. He wondered if he would ever get to visit one day, Mir as if reading his mind.
"Traveling such a distance is difficult within a lifetime Mil, we shouldn't make contact until they have reached greater maturity, for their own safety. As we speak they are fast approaching their life renaissance should they survive, this will make for exciting observations and no doubt much more science fiction titles about life on Gaia"
Mil remembered back to what he had been thought in school about the life renaissance. The generations before him began to use their mind for great achievements of creativity, engineering and love. When intelligence and spirituality became the main subjects thought to the children. When they realized the full potential of all their minds when put to good use. Now his kind were capable of life on other moons and mined asteroids for resources. His kind unlike so many would stand the great test of geological time.
Looking at the photo of Gaia with the massive wall stretching for miles across a continent his optimism for the people of Gaia began to fade. He was not as excited at the prospect of their doubtful future.
