Planetary Burial: Science Fiction

[penthius]

The tumulous ground rose and fell for miles around them, as far as the eye could see. Standing beside her flitter, she suddenly felt very small and very alone, as if the bones of those buried inside the mounds would rise up and take arms against the, the invader from another world. After all, what right had she to be here, to excavate their graves, to pore over their burial artifacts and measure their bones, to extrapolate the sixteen different ways they were most likely to die, the nature of their civilization, and the reason for their extinction? The right of necessity, she reminded herself. She was one of only a handful of trained archaeologists, and so it was that she was given this planet to examine. When the human race had spread--

Inspiration: 'tumulous'
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Nifty. So, see, the human race expands and expands, until it suddenly hits a belt of dead worlds. It only has a handful of archaeologists, so each one gets their very own world to explore, to try and figure out why it died. Because, maybe, one of the planets on the fringes has suddenly had everybody die? Dunno, could be fun. Probably novel-length.