The Forbidden World

Prologue

John looked over the scan results for the fifth time that morning (or whatever was considered morning here anyway).

-Scanning for essential gasses... Normal levels of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulphide

-Scanning for other gasses... WARNING unidentified gas located in high concentration

-Scanning Crust...  Normal amounts of iron, gold, diamond, coal, and emeralds. Low levels of copper, silver, lead, platinum, lead, aluminum, nickel, osmium, uranium, and zinc.  No amount of natural steel.

-ERROR CORRECTED.  Manganese located, may ease steel production.

-Scanning for farm life...  WARNING low amounts of consumable animals

-Scanning flora... 90% of flora is undocumented

-Scanning for intelligent life... Low signs of intelligent life.

-Scanning for other life... WARNING large biomass covers majority of planet.

-ALL SCANS COMPLETE

-Conclusion:  Planet seems capable of sustaining life.

-Awaiting next command . . .

John sighed as he read the last part, "seems capable of sustaining life".  The first scouts he had sent down to the planet had quickly either gone insane, disconnected with all means of communication, or were eaten by purple-zombie-alien-chickens, lacking further description.  He heard heels click down the halls of the Jaded.

"Hello Captain Johnson!" Scarlet, his second in command, said joyfully.  "you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, I need you to do something for me." John said hesitantly.

"Whatever you need Captain"

"I need you to wake up scouts Alpha through Epsilon"

Scarlet's smile slowly melted into a frown. "But sir, we brought them along for emergencies only, and we-"

"This is an emergency Scarlet." John sighed, cutting her off.  "It's going to take more than ninety percent of our remaining supplies to get back to homeworld, this is our last chance to colonize a planet.  If we fail, the human race will die."

Scarlet looked down, acknowledging the problem.  "But sir, last time we woke them all up, they caused more problems than they fixed, we had to abandon twenty scouts because of them."

"I am aware of this Scarlet, but we have no other choice.  They are our best, if not our only hope."

Scarlet sighed heavily.  "alright, but I hope you know what you're doing.  I'm not abandoning anyone else on a hostile alien planet."

John frowned, "Scarlet," he said softly, "I am aware of your... displeasure that we had to leave scout Reginald behind, but we had no other choice, I didn't want to leave him there, nor any of the other scouts, but we had no choice."

Scarlet wiped a hot tear from her cheek as she turn around, "I know," she said quietly.  "I'll go wake them up."

John slumped back into his chair as he heard Scarlet's heels click back down the hallway.  He knew that these scouts could colonize the world, but he felt as if they could do something else as well, something important.  He wasn't sure what, but he knew they could do exactly that.  He knew that it had been waiting for a long time, longer than their homeworld had even been around.  He knew this for a fact.  After all, it had told him so.