"In short, there are various species in our own galaxy who have a similar level of intelligence compared to our primitive selves." Captain Barslain went on. "Most of their technology is out of date compared to ours and that's why they are an easy target for our trillionaires to conquer and claim as their own. Therefore, the space federation and the space association came to terms and forged a strict guideline."
And according to that guideline, only a handful of people knew about the whole intelligent life thing. And those handful of people were the regents and their trusted few. This ensured that humans weren't going out of their ways just to conquer other worlds.
Instead, the trillionaires spent their money and time in digital worlds where they could basically do everything and waste all their not-so-hard-earned money.
But that didn't explain why Theo and the others were being notified now. It was totally possible that if the government tried hard enough, they could have still covered all this up. The same went for this ship. They needed supplies, the top bunch, aka, the captain could have just made something up and sent R.I down to the planet instead. And they could have used the R.I to repair the spaceship too.
So, something didn't quite add up.
"And I'd assume we'd be pretty much dead if we try to break this contract and leak the info," John said.
A bit of silence ensued. NO one said anything- more like no one could.
"Yes. That is correct. Now I'm sure many of you are wondering why we decided to tell you, and that's because the whole thing about going to a distant planet and finding out life there was just a cover." The captain paused for a second to gaze at the responses.
"A cover?" Theo mumbled.
"Yes, a cover. Our report would be simple. We experienced technical difficulties and had to cancel the mission."
"Then our job was always on this planet- meaning, the misfire of the wormhole-" Voli murmured.
All the puzzle pieces fell into place.
The initial failure- the sudden missions…
"Was also set up, yes," Barslain admitted, hands up in the air.
One of the engineers, Derek, ground his teeth. "People died because of this!"
Some of the other crew members shared similar feelings of anger and frustration and maybe a bit of confusion.
"I'm aware of that." Barslain looked at the man with fierce eyes. "And I only learned this moments ago, believe me, I'm just as mad- no, I'm much angrier than any of you could ever hope to be. But- we don't have a choice: we've been played and unless we finish this mission properly, it won't hurt the government to declare us as dead either." She didn't quite shout, but her words weighed heavily on everyone. And yet her tone was neutral.
Murmurs ran across the room. No one was happy to hear this, but no one was going to complain. They were here on a mission and they had to fulfill it no matter what.
Perhaps remaining ignorant would have been better though- at least that was the general conscience.
This is how it always worked. There were certain things certain people never knew and when they did know, the thought almost always ran through their minds- 'Wouldn't it have been better if I was just maybe ignorant, instead?'
And yet it was human nature to seek out the truth- the reality and then regret it later on.
"Then what is the mission?" John asked.
"Our original mission is the very same. Just instead of the planet, we were supposed to visit, we'd be visiting this one. That's all. At least on paper that is. All of your missions would be updated by the space association soon- or so I've heard."
Moments later everyone's Holo's bleeped. It was almost as though Someone was watching.
Everyone's except Theo's.
John chuckled as he looked at his.
"This'll be tough." Voli sighed inaudibly.
Everyone got new missions. Some were simple as befriending a local and extracting history and other information while others were more complicated like, convincing locals that humans were benevolent gods, not destroyers. But some others-
Theo's mission wasn't updated. 'So, I'll still have to steal-' Or rather, kidnap.
He already knew this would be hard, but just because it would be hard, didn't mean he could sit idle and do nothing.
After all, then everything would have been pointless.
'Besides, the system-'
***
The ship would descend in under twelve hours, during that time, Theo checked the unknown planet and its information.
The ship didn't quite have any information, so he resorted to his map.
The map was quite a mystery. Some places had thousands of years gap, while others had merely a hundred or two. In this planet's case, the difference was a mere three decades.
'But how is this thing kept updated?'
And he even had a map of the ship too.
The people who created this, were long gone- or so Theo believed. He didn't know and though he tried looking into that with the journal and all that- nothing came out it.
It was almost like the people who created this, deliberately kept certain information hidden.
Theo didn't understand and he had to admit, this technology really was beyond him.
According to the map and his journal, this planet- planet Vardak- was a treasure trove of many rare gems: it was roughly 0.73X the size of planet Aura; a green planet. Not because it had way too many trees, no, but because the ocean was full of algae.
The planet itself was rather muted in color. The soil was red and infertile, while other conditions like temperature and pressure were also rough. It was barely enough to sustain life, let alone intelligent life. And that was true for two-thirds of the planet's land. As for the third part- things were different, very different.
Nature always found ways to make things happen, and in this planet's case, that something was a large tree in the middle of the whole planet. A tree that was perhaps about a hundred kilometers tall and it took about 500 kilometers of space through its sheer radius. The trunk was three kilometers wide and almost all the land creatures of the planet evolved to cope with the tree's shade and the benefits it provided. Compared to the rest of the planet, the area under the tree was basically heaven.
It was noted that this tree's fruits were not only delicious but also had anti-aging properties. Sometimes even granting immortality or containing sacred beings. But the fruits were rather small, and they were very hard to find due to the sheer size of the tree. The fruits only grew twice every four decades- so they were rare, indeed.
The planet was rich in Oceanus life: From small fish, to massive behemoths.
As for the creatures living beneath the tree- most were content with just the shade. The planet was slightly closer to its star compared to similar planets, hence it had an average temperature of 27 degrees. So, the shade was essential for the survival of most species.
The creatures were similar to that of planet Aura's and most had ears, tails, eyes, and noses. Most were like mammals, having two ears, two eyes, and a nose. Some also had more than four limbs while others had multiple eyes. Insects were also present but they were rare. Reptiles had gone extinct for some reason.
The intelligent ones- the Sahalla were mostly humanoid in shape but something about them was different and they were certainly not content with their lifestyle. They wanted more: in some ways, they were perhaps even greedier than most intelligent life forms across the galaxy. Some of their ancestors ate the fruit of the tree and became the gods of their race and from then on, they took full charge of the whole place and started revolutionizing everything.
It didn't take them long to invent and use technology.
Soon, industrialization boomed and set an age for steam engines and other machinery. What took humans thousands of years in the past, only took them centuries.
'So, they're still in the steam age?'
But that was thirty years ago and judging by the quick progress, Theo predicted, the Sahalla's current level would be somewhere between the pre-information age to the actual explosion of information tech. Perhaps they were even near creating A.I and such. 'Truly marvelous.'
But also frightening.