Genesis

[WP]"Captain, why is an entire planet being used to hold only two life forms"? "The species confined there is the most savage and destructive of any world. We've waited this long to check on them to make sure they died. We're lucky they're the last ones". "Checking status of prisoners Adam and Eve".

*****

Entering warp always made Jonz uncomfortable. The way everything in view became so squished made it hard to look at and sightly dizzying. Most officers didn't mind the strange effect, but it always got to Jonz. So he settled down to view his reports instead to distract his mind from the scene out the front viewport.

There were a lot of cases to go through, but this was a routine flight, nothing to worry about. Still, it was protocol to mark status updates on every stop along the route so he figured he'd get a jump on the next stop. This one was pretty out of the way so he didn't expect anything unusual.

"Computer, call up planet V4-1534 for routine inspection." He commanded monotonously. The computer only took a moment to call up the record. In a soothing tone it began reading the relevant details. "Planet V4-1534, classification: habitable, with liquid water and moderate climate. Discovered by Xax the explorer in the galactic year 10,1789 and charted as a class 9 planet capable of sustaining life. The planet was referenced in the treaty of 10,3054 as one of 136 planets to be preserved from development by the Galactic Delegation."

So far so good. Sounds like another easy flyby. Jonz was ready to get back into his favorite immersive game chapter from the Cinnadion Epic Opera when he arrived quite a bit sooner than he expected. Ah well, the Opera would have to wait. This would only take a few minutes. He was pulling into far orbit when something unusual caught his eye. There appeared to be lights on the dark side of the planet. He rubbed his weary eyes, a little tired after being in warp, then checked again; there appeared to be lights all over the surface on the dark side of the planet on the landmass. He was reminded of some of the more populated planets he'd flown by with massive cities. This paled by comparison, but it was unmistakeable nonetheless.

After his initial shock wore off he thought he must have come out of warp at a different planet. That would explain why he got here so fast. Though perhaps he'd just lost track of the time while reviewing reports.

"Computer, verify nearby planet in the current sector." The reply came back in mere seconds after doing the necessary calculations to verify star positions. "Planet verification complete. Planet confirmed designation V4-1534." What? There had to be some mistake. Jonz was still in a state of shock. Not really processing this information. Planets reserved by the treaty were completely off limits for development. Surely no one would have risked expulsion from the Galactic Delegation to start a new colony. Every new habitation had to go through a series of approvals even to begin a colony on an approved world.

Looks like this just got elevated to a priority one investigation. He opened the case somewhat hesitatingly. "Computer, open priority investigation code alpha...planet V4-1534." The computer acknowledged and the file was opened. Still reeling from his complete astonishment Officer Jonz sat motionless for a few minutes trying to remember the correct protocols for those situation. Calling back years of training for this moment. He knew once the case was opened a priority alert was sent to the Interstellar Command for review. Then he needed to report all anomalies.

Ah yes, he pulled up the last patrol entry on record to check for anything out of the ordinary. After checking a few entries that didn't say anything beyond a normal status he did see one with a warning flag attached. Opening the report and it said planet V4-1534 was involved with the human incursion of 10,3900. After the incursion was repelled, resulting in the extinction of the human race, there were some ships that had been tracked fleeing the final battle at Saezz outpost. One ship with two passengers was last seen in the V4 sector. Patrol confirmed a crash of the ship on the surface of the planet V4-1534. Scanning for life signs came back negative.

Strange, but that didn't explain anything. Subsequent patrols didn't detect anything unusual. The last patrol 2,000 years ago didn't detect anything, and that was at least 10,000 years after the last human war ended. Surely if that was connected in any way to the crash discovered patrols would have seen something sooner. Jonz thought for a moment unless someone got lazy on patrol. It wasn't a glamorous job, but he took pride in being the best officer in his division, always doing that extra little bit to have a thorough and detailed report. Though he also knew some officers had been careless in the past.

He decided to be extra cautious just in case and pulled into a flight position that he'd be least likely to be scanned from the surface of the planet. He also checked for any orbital scanners. Once feeling a bit better that he hadn't been detected he launched a probe to gather more information. As the probe got within range he initiated a preliminary scan. Nothing was showing signs of advanced scanners or communications. He decided he could risk moving in closer for a better scan.

Powering up his scanner relay for a deep scan he pulled into position. "Computer, initiate a level 5 scan of the planet." After confirmation the computer began the scan. The data was being processed pretty much immediately so Jonz began looking through the information analysis panel on his terminal to get an idea of what exactly was happening down there.

He was kind of surprised at the seemingly primitive technology being found. This was some kind of pre-warp civilization? Those were fairly well cataloged already, and there weren't many left these days. Though a few new ones were discovered here and there. That would make this a fairly recent addition to that list. Suddenly it started to make more sense why it had been missed by previous patrols. Unless they were looking for it an emergent civilization might not have been advanced enough to register as anything other than normal biomass.

No advanced warp technology, communications relays, or other tech meant this couldn't be an illegal colony though. So for a moment Jonz breathed a sigh of relief. But his relief was a bit premature as a warning alarm gently dinged on the console.

Bringing up the alarm it displayed something unusual. WARNING: PROHIBITED SPECIES DETECTED.

Again Jonz wasn't sure what he was looking at. Then he got a sick feeling in his stomach. He expected some exotic pets, cattle, or other contraband he usually ran into on patrol. He wasn't expecting what was coming up now. He'd never even seen it before. Humans.

Suddenly he found himself wishing he'd found an illegal colony. How in the cosmos had humans wound up here?

Then he thought of the crash. Impossible. No way.

He checked the report about the crashed ship again. ICI, The Interstellar Command Intelligence, accessed the missing ship to be containing one human male and one human female survivor, and an assortment of food supplies. Perhaps some animal cargo. Though the crash was confirmed the wreckage couldn't be reclaimed since it sunk into an ocean. All scans at the time for non-native life came back negative. But could they have survived? It seemed unlikely, but that's the only explanation he could think of. And the only known contract of humans with this world.

12,000 years after crash landing could humans have really built this primitive civilization out of a single crashed ship? It seemed impossible. And yet here he was staring at the evidence.

This was going to be a mess with his commander. Then he began to realize the bureaucratic nightmare he'd just stumbled into. The military would freak out that another human threat was discovered. And the politicians were going to debate the next steps. And the preservationists were going to try and save the humans and mark them as a protected endangered species. That is if they weren't going to already lose their minds that a protected planet had been contaminated by an outside species.

The more he thought about it the more Jonz felt unsure about this report. But the alert had already gone out. Even if he closed the case now someone from Command had already seen the alert and would mark it for follow up.

"This is way above me now." He thought to himself. He might have inadvertently just initiated the true extinction of the human species before he even realized it. Perhaps the survival of the Galactic Delegation would silence any qualms about genocide of a dangerous species. Jonz barely remembered his history now. He remembered the stories of human brutality. Of how they conquered and enslaved countless planets and species. And their terrifying weapons of mass destruction decimating whole planets. Ghost stories told to scared children no doubt? And yet Jonz felt eerily afraid even from this distance. He somewhat subconsciously found himself moving further from the planet.

Down on the surface an astronomer stared at the images of stars on a computer screen being relayed from the nearby telescope. Ever fascinated with the distant objects shining hundreds of light years away. And in his heart he pondered the question, "are we truly alone in the vastness of this universe?"

Unaware that the answer was disturbingly closer than he knew.

*****

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