I was an Earth historian, so I was perplexed that I had been asked to investigate an archeological find on a different planet entirely. Humanity had gotten situated on this world known as Zelutov-B90 (my partner Joq kindly informed me most people here call it "Zell") and now we were spreading out our influence. In our way stand the "Piho", 9-foot-tall alien creatures. They're intelligent and no friends of ours. There have been attacks on the human settlements on Zell for as long as humans have been on Zell. I heard that when we brought a Piho's body back to Earth for scientists to analyze, it caused a massive stir: not only do the Piho look vaguely human (if you look past them being 9 feet tall and covered in thick black hair to block out UV), according to science they're so close to Earth mammals internally it all but proves the existence of a God or some other kind of intelligent designer.

Apparently the find I was to investigate was some kind of spacecraft. It didn't look like anything Earth could build and the Piho weren't advanced enough to have built it so the scientific community was pretty much sending in anyone with any credentials to try to unravel the mystery of the ship.

"First observation; it's small. Too small for Piho, they'd be bent over like we was in a house for dwarves. Second observation, this is very well kept. Why?" That was Joq. She spoke the Piho-Kan language and was our interpreter, besides that she was a scientist. We and the Piho had been able to negotiate an unstable peace but Zell rules are always have someone who knows the language, especially if you go snooping around.

I answered: "A long time ago on Earth, there were primitive tribes who saw the technology of the more advanced civilizations around them, and worshipped them as the work of gods. Maybe some alien crash-landed here and now to the Piho this is the Temple to the Sky God or something. Would explain why it's maintained as well as it is."

"I don't know. Seems far fetched." Joq looked around. "Hey, Hoz? Can you take a look at these symbols? They look like they might be writing. Can you read them?

I looked at the panel she was pointing at. "CONTROL" was written in an ancient script.

"Those are Roman runes. Used from the first to the 27th century, one of the longest lasting writing systems. This is definitely a human ship"

"27th century?" Joq repeated in disbelief. "That means this thing is-"

"- At least," I continued for her, "5000 years old. I can't believe it. I mean, I'd always heard stories about how people used to be able to fly in the stars eons ago but I figured it was just a myth. I mean, this is huge! This is tangible evidence of human space travel in the far past! We're going to be famous!" I excitedly began typing into my computer descriptions of the ship - its appearance, size, controls, any writing. No such ships existed on Earth; anything old and metal had long since been recycled into new things.

Joq too was stunned. "I mean I knew this thing was old but.... That means this thing is 5000 years old and kept in pristine condition - by aliens who don't even have airplanes. Maybe what you were saying is true. Maybe they do think this is a holy place. If that's the case then we would be the gods to them! But they hate us.. it makes no sense!"

"They figured out how to keep the generator working," I said as the lights came on in the ship. "Course there's no fuel so they're not going anywhere, but hey, maybe the computer works!"

"5000 years old and the computer works?"

"Hey, 27th century technology was actually better than ours. If anyone would have a 5000 year old computer work, it'd be humans 5000 years ago. Gotta give credit to these aliens, they're smart fellows."

The computer was slow to turn on, but it did in fact work. The interface was written all in the Roman runes like on the CONTROL panel. "If this is written in the language I think it is, I should be able to read it"

"Which language is that?" asked Joq. I answered her. "Standard Creole. It's a mix of 27th century English, Spanish and Chinese. Basically incomprehensible to us, but it was the language of the world back then. And...." I opened up a document on the computer "It looks like it is! This looks to be the Captain's log."

"Well, go on and tell me what it says!"

"Let's see... I haven't had to read this stuff for a while, my studies are mostly on the 20th century and earlier. 'Mi dem no go frai bak a mi dem waad' - we're not going back to our planet.... 'aas du dem no kan go sta mas" - the Earthlings can't go to space anymore." I continued reading. "It seems like whoever flew this ship had the misfortune of being on another planet at the time of the Great Collapse. Earth was a barren wasteland and sending a spaceship back would have just meant more people on that rock to suffer. So the crew of this ship were basically told to fend for themselves."

"Do we know what happened? Well actually, considering this thing is right in the middle of Piho country, I'd say they probably got killed for some 9 foot family's dinner."

"No, the logs mention no sign of sentient life. Plants, animals, but no Piho."

"Far cry from now, where if you walk 5 feet you'll trip on a Piho's sacred rock and they'll shoot you for it."

As Joq was saying this her face contorted. "Wait, can you say that last sentence in the log again? The one with "aas du?". I did. "sta...," joq pondered. "Is 'sta du dem'" correct Standard Creole?"

"Should be. Means something like space traveler if I understand the language correctly." As I was saying this I made the connection. "Wait, what do the Piho like to call humans?"

"When they don't say "yuman" they say "tagu ren". I always thought it just meant foreigner but that's why I asked about sta du! When you were reading that Creole I almost felt like I understood it. Shouldn't be possible, it's a mix of 3 5000 year old languages - but I had the crazy thought, it sounds JUST like Piho Kan - like, their language."

"So..."

"Sta du dem, tagu ren... Oh my God. How do you say person in Creole?"

"I'm rusty but I think it's pipo. From the Ancient English world peo-"

"PIHO! PIHO IS PIPO!" She was more excited now than I was when I realized what the ship was. Not just excited, terrified, almost. "Piho Kan - what is language in creole?"

"It's either Krio or Tang-"

"PIPO TANG - PIHO KAN!"

"So the language sounds similar. Maybe the Piho learned it from these guys, thought it was the divine language or something."

"No, Hoz, I think this is something much bigger than that. There were no Piho when this ship crashed. The language the Piho speak is a direct descendent of the language the stranded humans spoke - like, what you said earlier about them being stranded? 'Mi dem no go frai bak?' That's 'Mi ren n'go pre baka' in Piho. AND the Piho are SO much like earth mammals it's been used to prove Jesus is real for GOD'S SAKE DON'T YOU SEE? THE PIHO are HUMAN!"

This was too much for me. "That's insanity."

"The Piho have stories about the sky being full of "gods" just like we did. I always thought they were myths just like you thought the stories on earth were. But no! They were telling the same story, of when Earthlings could fly to space thousands of years ago! Because THEY ARE THE EARTHLINGS!"

It seemed our yelling had caught the attention of the possibly non-alien aliens. Suddenly we were surrounded by Piho, arrows in hand.

"I'll handle this." Joq began speaking in perfect Piho Kan (which I had to admit, did ring a bell to my Standard Creole). "Please understand. We are not here to pilfer. We know this is an important place to you. This was where it all began."

"Where the end began, perhaps," said one of the Piho, probably a leader of some kind. "You - you tagu, star flyers, left us here to die. All because you ruined your planet. And now you come back to us, to repeat the same mistake that left us here in the first place."

"Well back then, there was no us and you - you were all human."

"There was an us and a them the moment that Earth told us we were no longer welcome. You are lucky we did not kill every one of you on sight. We only agreed not to fight in the hopes you might come to understand"

"We didn't even know who you were."

"You forgot us. It's easier to forget your evils than to confront the reality. We never forgot. For thousands of years we have told the tale of the men in the sky who left us to rot and how we persevered (Joq told me that the phrase he used, "awa kaweha ee" means "keep your head up") and turned this world into our own. It is not yours for the taking. You already took it over, just that you became us."

"We will need to tell our leaders about this discovery. Will you come with us to prove it to them?"

"I will - on the one condition that humans leave Mundus Nova forever."

As the ships of men left Zell over the following months, the Piho gave Joq and I permission to fully document the ship and its history for our knowledge. As we left for Earth, one thought came to mind - a harrowing one. "How many other planets do you think there are like this?"

"Like?"

"Places we abandoned our brothers in the 2600s, like the Piho."

"Oh, I don't want to think about it."