"Restoration complete" Said the ship's High Performance Computer while it opened the recharge pod inside the command center. Out came Psi, ship's commander.
"Local sweep."
"New LHP found." The computer answered.
"Complex organics?"
"Yes, spread throughout the planet."
"Make a course for it. And name it Xeno-23." Psi answered, as the computer assigned a name to what was moments before a mere Life Harboring Planet on the edge of the galaxy.
"Prepare the SAEV (Search and Exploration Vessel). I'll come down to board it when it's ready. Beta, follow me to the anchorage room."
Even though the crew moved and spoke calmly, the situation was far from usual. The last LFP found had been a frustration. Organics and life, yes, but early stages, the atmosphere was rare and the gravity way too demanding. And they had spent months searching for a new prospect.
As captain and number one walked through the ship's corridors, silver nano-fiber legs smoothly cruising by, other crew members lit up as they saw them as a sign of acknowledgement. The letters PSI lit up in response on the captain's forehead. Every crew member had a different color body, assigned according to job. Silver ones like Psi were responsible for ship and, more importantly, human management. The smart walls on the ship allowed all Silver crew to see all fifty-nine neon pink, yellow and green members of the crew with one quick turn. All of them were performing their tasks as mandated. All was balanced inside the Harmony.
Psi stopped before the door with the SAEV symbol. The scanner read her face and passage was granted.
"It is all ready for departure." Beta stated before entering the small ship.
All crew present at the dock turned on their magnetic shoes before the gates opened to the emptiness of space. The countdown appeared on the monitor and when it came down to zero the vessel smoothly took off and quickly left the mother ship behind.
"Activate cloaking." Beta said, watching the captain closely. Whatever life that small planet possessed would most likely not be able to see or detect them.
After a few moments of being on board the ship they had already began planatary entry procedures. The Harmony could be seen through the back window, it's flat surface reflecting the light of a nearby star. As they approached the planet's atmosphere, both Psi and Beta worded a handful of commands and the ship itself notified Harmony of their descent.
The captain's mind was half lost in protocol, but deep within scientific questions made her focus visual on the surface. What unknown would be found? But a soothing voice broke off her trail of thought. "Incoming message.". Gamma's voice was all over the tiny craft.
"Captain, we have detected unidentified objects approaching in hyperspace. They are eight minutes away and unresponsive to all our hails."
"Redirect all spare power to cloaking and activate defense measures." Psi firmly responded.
The object was massive enough to be seen by them in the rear window. They turned on the monitor that mirrored what crew inside the command center could see outside and to their surprise the feed was interrupted after a few seconds. Every member of crew and every ship component was catapulted into space, debris floated where an undamaged Harmony stood, and there was no sign of what caused it, with the exception of what was now following them to the surface of the new planet. The object flew fast and was gaining up on them. From the back they could see black, tentacle like structures coming in and out of whatever was trying to catch them, in a frustrated attempt to keep them from landing.
Touch down would be smooth, thought Beta. Psi went into calculation mode soon after the Harmony was no longer. She nervously waited for her commander to return, but the long black arm of the creature could be seen by the side window.
"There is a 13% chance at least seven hundred H Pods are safe and roaming through space out there. We'll have to pick each one up."
"You are still at 23% capacity Beta, we can land and take care of you!" Psi yelled. "Every second you stay Captain is a second wasted in your escape. The SAEV may explode at any moment."
"Captain, haven't you seen what we are up against? Even if the pods are functioning, I don't believe whatever was following us will allow us to pick them up."
"Following us?" Psi said, gathering visual information around her. She saw it, whatever it was, and reading Beta she understood she was operating at maximum capacity. The arm now attempted to break the windows and after a couple of taps it made its way inside. Their vessel destabilized and a computerized voice blasted over the wooshing of the wind inside it. "Overall Main systems Failure.".
"Captain we are going through the threshold for your ejection." As soon as she said, the arm pierced her core, in and out, exposing the makings of it. She continued the maneuvers, hoping she would last long enough for her captain's compliance in the ejection plan.
"You are still at 23% capacity Beta, we can land and take care of you!" Psi yelled.
"Every second you stay Captain is a second wasted in your escape. The SAEV may explode at any moment, there's no reason to risk us both! Those pods might still have a chance if you're operational!" Beta answered.
"My designation is..." Psi started forming the protocol sentence that would override Beta's conscious and stop her from continuing on with her logical speech. But before she could finish, Beta ejected her seat off the aircraft and Psi was left to watch SAEV fight for her existence in a high speed spiral down, engulfed in the creature that wanted it gone. She watched as the ship exploded when it hit the ground, far away in the distance and hoped the blast would had taken whatever that was along with it.
Her parachute touched down on sand next to an vast ocean. To her back a dense forest filled with life. The sounds did not lie. But before she could scan the area and all life form, an arrow pierced the structure that was the back of her neck, coming through her mouth. She fell on her knees as she watched human like creatures screaming and coming from behind the trees, approaching. A second arrow and a third finally knocked her out.
As Psi woke up the arrow had been removed and she understood the parts they pierced had been regenerated. Still, she felt out of sorts, confused and her vision was blurred, like a veil had fallen over her eyes. There was a strong humming sound around her, it changed tone rapidly, in perfect sync. Psi had never heard of vocal cords that could do that on Earth. Her hands were tied down and she must had not regenerated fully because she had no strength to get free. She watched the singing figures from the ground, they gathered around her in a perfect circle over an enormous cliff by enormous rocks. On them, the drawings of what she could only imagine would be the biological evolution of the planet, from unicellular beings at the bottom left of the rock, to microorganisms and so on. And on the right top corner of the formation, the creature that attacked her ship, a great black shadow, painted with long stretched out arms, just as Psi had seen before. The drawing may had continued up but she laid in an angle that kept her from them, the only light around them being the fire near her.
She asked herself how primitive beings like these could have traced the understanding of their species while she tried untying herself one more time. That's when she realized there was nothing to untie. They had cut her limbs, leaving her a head, chest and core, nothing more.
"They had cut her limbs, leaving her a head, chest and core, nothing more. "
Two men came from behind her and suspended the rope around her torso. All those in the circle bowed. At her. She was at the center of the shape now, her structure reflecting on the fire below. As she rose, their heads tilted up and she managed to see their eyes, there was no white in them, only pitch black darkness. Inside a metal drum that stood over a fire she saw parts of what was once Beta, cooking in a black stew. No, not stew. Organism. The same one from before.
She was laid down gently among Beta's remains. As they placed her inside, some of what was inside the drum spilled, exploding in a glare of light and she managed to see the rest of the register of their evolution path. Her, and the letters P S I written in silver ink on her forehead drawn on black rock. Only, her image had black eyes, like them. And quick as a glimpse she also saw what was the base of all those life forms, underneath all other creatures, but connected to each one through a thin black thread, the same thing that now was taking over her protocols and enveloping her senses, a creature that she sensed had now found a creature superior to all others it had connected to before. The creature that destroyed Harmony and the chance of a Human colony outside of old, dead Earth. All inside her core was rapidly changing, chaos, but an orderly one. And before Psi disappeared completely, she understood how it waited for generations for this moment, for this new capability, and how she (it?) felt the urge to say her last sentence, human words she knew they would not know. But she was not surprised when in her final moment, her and all the others around her said "We are all one", right before she faded. To her, her last day, but to the universe, a new beginning.
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