Air forced its way into David’s rapidly thawing lungs; the tweny-two year old man gasped loudly, painful-sounding, and feeling, coughs ripping out. Inside the whirring, hissing cryopod, there was little room to bend over, and David pressed his hands against the glass as he struggled to come fully to. It was a blessing, really. Cryosleep was not a pleasant experience. Black, dreamless sleep, with the strangest feeling of prickles that just does not go away until one wakes up. Gritting his teeth, David slowly flexed his hands, sighing in relief as they moved smoothly. Being an Explorer-Engineer, his hands were his life, and it would suck to have to go to the clinic the second it was up on the ground. That would be a waste of time, and no one wasted time anymore.

Once David was sure he was fully awake, he went through a mental checklist, slowly moving his hands down his chest, sides, and legs. No points of pain really stood out, and the pod would have alerted him to any /major/ malfunctions in his system. He glanced up at his reflection; grungy, goateed face, with shaggy brown hair? Check. Hazel eyes? Check. Sardonic smile? Oh, double check. He let out a breath, slowly reaching up to tap the release sequence control on the hologlass screen. Immediately, a small screen brightened the formerly opague front of the pod, showing the red V-in-circle symbol of the colony’s sponsor, the NASA-Parker Co-operative. David gave a small, proud smile at the sight of it. Every person on the NASA starship had worked hard to prepare their fledgling movement for this day, for the day when America, when all earthlings, could step onto a new home.

“Welcome back, colonist.”

The voice of the Director of the colony was a deep baritone; David had seen the Director before being put into cryosleep: an African-American, tough and tall, guiding everyone to their proper pod with a soft hand. It had given the painfully overworked at the time David a bit of comfort. The voice now was warm and incredibly pleased, almost vibrating with excitement.

“It has been six hundred and seventy three years since we had left our home. I know that must seem like an immense, impossible amount of time, but…”

He chuckled softly in the audio.

“Think of how long it’d be without the wormholes! But that is beside the point. We… have done it. You will see once you are released from the pod, but we have found a new world.”

A lightning bolt raced through David’s spine, and he couldn’t help but smile widely. Of course, it made sense- why else would they have been woken up? But to actually hear that…

“I won’t spoil the moment with a picture of it. You’ll get to see a proper view yourself here shortly, after all. But now I must go over your duty assignments. As an Explorer, you will be among the first humans on the ground, and will be privy to our initial scans. Once you are released, report directly to the Command and Control Center on C-Deck. Your equipment will be waiting for you there, as will your proper briefing from myself, the captain of the vessel, and the captain of the military division onboard the main colony lander. Good luck, Explorer. Let’s get started, shall we?”

“I am all for that, sir,” David whispered, still grinning widely as the glass door slid up into the machinery above.

Oh dear. The walkways were a veritable madhouse of scrambling people; mostly scientists, judging from their blue jumpsuits, which differed from his silver Explorer uniform. Frowning, David watched as a pair of violet culturists quickly ran to a set of scientists. Sociologists? Already? Shaking his head curiously, David quickly strapped on his ID necklace, turning to jog up the staircases built every few pods down. The staircases were just as crowded as the hallways, but these were stacked more with black-uniformed soldiers and other silver explorers, each giving each other terse nods and soft greetings. David did away with that, simply climbing his way up the stairs towards the “top” of the ship.

The Command and Control Center was built in a large dome structure at the top of the colony ship, allowing a 360 degree view of the space around them. Not that there had been much to view for the on-shift bridge crew these past years, David imagined with a small smirk. That smirk died the second he saw the planet. It was only a small view- the windows cut the view into a dome-like picture. But still… The world was, in a word, incredibly massive. At least two Earths could have fit inside its mass, with a riot of greens, browns, and blues running across it. David’s hands twitched. So much to see…

That familiar baritone chuckled beside him, and a paw of a hand clapped firmly onto the smaller man’s shoulder. Director Aurelias Michaels beamed down at David, his middle-aged face alight with an energetic fire.

“Beautiful, isn’t it, Explorer?” he asked, sounding both amused, and still a little awed himself.

David managed to chuckle faintly, trying to stuff his initial panic down, “Very much so, sir.”

David had to make a good impression here. If Director Michaels didn’t like him, he could get the crap jobs- exploring volcanoes or the like. He reluctantly turned towards him, holding out his hand.

“David Winters, sir, Explorer-Engineer.”

Aurelias’ smile only widened, and he gripped David’s hand tightly, giving it a firm pump.

“Good to meet you, David,” he boomed, “I was waiting for you, actually. The Explorer-Captain said you had the highest marks in wilderness survival, improvisation, and reverse engineering. Is that correct?”

Startled, David could only nod, staring up at the Director in awe. Waiting for… him? He bit back a yelp as the taller man quickly led David towards a small group of men and women, and a single, miniature screen. Explorer-Captain Geoffrey Davis, a Caucasian man in his late fifties, grinned faintly at David, giving a nod of greeting. Beside him stood a stiff Asian-American woman; she looked more to be in her late twenties, but wore the blood red uniform of the Head of the Xenobiology Department. She didn’t nod or smile, merely stare at David with a calculating, appraising gaze. David swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. And finally, the armored figure of Captain Dennis Venkin stared impassively at David for just a moment, then turned his attention back to the screen.

David glanced at it, and frowned.

The hell…

On it was a probe view of a series of tall, stone structures, built into the side of a mountain. Spires rose high into the sky, colored a soft, marble white, and capped with a dull, tarnished metal finish, though parts of the spires seemed weakened and cracked. Water ran down the mountainside from a flowing moat-river, letting steam and spray rise up to partially obscure the view of the sprawling, ruined city around the tall... castle?

“Where… is this?” David asked slowly, frowning, “That doesn’t match any Earth-style castles. Is this from the archives?" What was he missing?

He gazed up and around at the surrounding crewmembers, eyes widening at the somber expressions on their faces. Director Michaels let out a soft sigh.

“That’s from the ground, son. This planet is inhabited.”

********************************************

David’s fingers flew over the probe controls, and he blocked out the stunned gazes of the crew behind him. Twenty probes, their views slaved onto the main viewboard, zoomed across the landscape, scans coming back with more and more shocking redoubts. A soil probe revealed that the soil of a large continent on the temperate northern hemisphere held enough nutrients similar to those on Earth to easily allow the growth of many staple crops they had brought with them in the cavernous cargo hold. Indeed, the botany probe was already finding analogues for wheat, apples, corn, and potatoes, and the botany department could practically be heard squealing from their rooms on C-deck. A geology probe, flying into a natural cave, revealed dozens, if not hundreds, of raw diamonds embedded into the wall, and deep-rock scans revealed even more gemstones all across several of the major continents. And the mineral wealth… basalt, bauxite, raw gold veins… David licked his lips slowly. This colony would be phenomenally wealthy. Well… assuming…

“We should scan for other worlds in this system,” the Asian women muttered for the fourth time in as many hours, shaking her head slowly, “There are lifeforms on this world.”

And, for the fourth time, the Director shut her down with a dismissive wave.

“No,” he replied patiently, “This world holds too much promise to just give it up. Look at the scanner. So far we are only finding small groups of life signs, and all the cities and ruins we have found have been just that- ruins."

The women scowled, jabbing a finger at the screen so hard David was half afraid she might crack it.

“And they’re spread out across it. At the very least we should land on an island, out of the way of their population.”

“And then we won’t have the proper room to expand ourselves, or study the aliens."

David glanced hesitantly over at the pair of Captains; both men had been staring impassively at his work-screen, scanning the lifeform screens thoughtfully. Captain Venkin was the first to move, moments later, when he lightly pointed to a small patch of darkness on the screen.

“Here,” he intoned firmly, “It’s sectioned off in a set of forest, with hills and mountains around it we can use as defensive positions. And it’s just close enough to one of the smaller native groups so that we could observe them.”

He glanced up at Davis, who nodded his assent, turning back to a quiet Michaels.

“Our Explorers can go out, quietly of course, and observe the natives. Let us get a better view of them, their appearance, intelligence. The light-bending armor is operational, of course.”

Venkin’s smile was downright predatory, “And if they prove to be hostile… well, I have four hundred men and women on this ship ready to go hunting, sir."

Yes, let's go hunting the aliens. Definitely the first thing we should do on an unspoiled alien world. Oi.

“It’s too dangerous,” the Xenobiology Head argued hotly, glaring holes in both men, “We don’t know what these aliens are like, what diseases they might have… damnit, they’ll see us landing! If they are intelligent at all, they'll want to check the colony out!”

And that’s my cue!

David quickly got to his feet, clearing his throat and smiling softly at Director Michaels.

“That might not be entirely true, sir,” he said quickly, heading off the quickly puffing up civilian, “There seems to be a big storm building up over that continent. Some kind of hurricane, perhaps? Either way, if we hurry, we can land using the storm as visual and audio cover. The natives likely will think our thrusters are thunderclaps.”

Judging from the grin slowly spreading across the faces of all but the civilian, David could only imagine what his next job might end up being… Whether that was good or bad, well, that’s life.

****************************

Melanie Storm cackled excitedly as she tightly gripped the controls of the Colonial Landing Vehicle and Prime Colony, storm-grey eyes bright. She hadn’t had this much fun since piloting jets for the ARC paramilitary back on Earth. The storm was bucking and rocking the CLV-PC with everything it had, and Melanie had to keep a white-knuckled grip just to control the descent. To her right and left, her co-pilots, both men, were screaming like little girls.

“WHY THE HELL AREN’T WE JUST USING THE AUTOPILOT!?” One yelled, staring at Melanie in horror.

The twenty-seven year old blonde rolled her eyes, smirking back at him slyly.

“Because the autopilot isn’t made for storms, and I’m the best damn pilot here. Now hush, and double-check those scans. That cloud-city we saw had to be some kind of illusion.”

Thankfully the storm had blocked them visually from whatever low-orbit device that “city” had been, but they had plenty of scans of it. Melanie had had the forethought to launch a few probes to study it for the colony scientists. That might earn her a few ration points later! Chuckling faintly, the pilot glanced at her screen, nodding. Right on check, they’d land safely in the valley, hooking into the geothermal vents their deep-scans had shown were in the rock face below. Melanie was pleased with that- the excess energy from geothermal could be used to charge her wing of Tacjets in the hanger bay, or even one of the dropships. Getting out in the skies again with one of the super-lights would be just…

Melanie shivered in delight, earning concerned looks from both co-pilots. Eh, screw ‘em. ...well, maybe later.

**********************

Anya Sulucia frowned deeply as she stared down at her datapad, tapping out rapid-fire commands as she walked determinedly for the airlock. The twenty-four year old Indian woman was dressed in her field gear- an exosuit colored blue for her Scientist class, bulky and lined with sensors, evidence bags, and a few test kits. Though she disliked weapons in general, she did keep a SK-12 Sonic pistol on her belt, and knew the weapon inside and out. A nice little stun device on one setting, and a deadly hellion on another.

“This can’t be right,” she muttered softly, then froze as she thumped into another exosuit-wearing colonist.

The silver-armored young man glanced back at her in surprise, then smiled warmly.

“Hey Anya!” David greeted cheerfully, “Ready to go?”

David Winters and Anya had been working together in NASA for several years before the Seeding project, mostly on field research into the dangerous Middle Eastern Nuclear Zone. It had been there that they had undergone rigorous field tests for their NASA-Parker handlers, and even more testing once the Seeding project had been announced. It had been damn hard work to get on the same ship together, but neither would have traded partners and been happy about it. Anya trusted David’s gut and aim, and Anya knew David trusted her moral compass and logic more than even that. In a word, they were friends. Good friends.

“Now that my brains have had time to unscramble from that rough landing, yes,” she replied with a smirk, moving over to the locker to fetch her coded helmet.

“Definitely Melanie’s handiwork,” David replied, already snapping on the airtight seals.

Scans showed that the world had a perfectly breathable atmosphere, but protocol was clear. Exosuits on till virus and bacterial studies could be conducted. Getting some kind of alien superbug in the first week could spell the death of an entire colony. And Explorer teams were the ones who’d be exposed more often than not. Anya glanced over at the rifle David removed from the weapons locker, frowning slightly.

“Do you really think we’ll need an Armor-Piercing weapon?”

He shrugged, shouldering the long rifle and smiling as it linked up with his suit, “Can never be too careful. We don’t know what the natives even look like yet, or how dangerous they might be. For all we know they can be carnivorous monsters with six heads and tank armor.”

He grinned at Anya’s deadpan look, matching gazes till she finally cracked, giggling a bit.

“Let’s just get out there,” she admonished, punching his arm lightly and sealing on her helmet, hurrying down towards the airlock.

Signing out at the airlock took longer than Anya expected, but NASA had always been a stickler for protocol. Hopefully that would fade over time. It wasn’t that Anya disliked NASA-Parker- they had saved her family’s home in the Mississippi River Basin, after all, and given her the best job in the world, and were a step up from the ARC conglomerate- but the mountains of digital paperwork could always get a bit… tiresome. Especially when she was so damn excited to step on this alien world, and to possibly even study its inhabitants! Finally, the airlock sequence began, native air hissing in as their own, recycled air was pumped out. Her armor sensors pinged on a few things right off the bat- more of the strange energy spikes in the very air, and higher-than-normal oxygen levels. Not enough to cause them physical problems, but interesting nonetheless.

David reached over to pat her armored shoulder firmly, giving it a small squeeze. No words were needed now. This was their destiny, after all. Grinning widely at the majesty of it all, Anya surged forward as the outer airlock door swung open… and sunk calf-deep into a peat bog, falling on her face in the fertile but mushy substance.

*********************

David was still cackling as he dragged them both out of the bog, grinning down at a glaring, huffing Anya. He couldn’t help it! That had been utterly priceless! Idly, he sent in a request to build a support at that particular airlock, so they could move a little more freely next time.

“Look at it this way, Anya!” he exclaimed cheerfully, “The agronomists will be excited that you discovered the best fertilizer for their crops!”

“Oh shove it,” she snarled half-heartedly, rolling her eyes and stomping her way up the muddy slope.

The storm they had used for cover had stopped but, oddly enough, the deeply ominous black clouds remained. David frowned as he peered up at them, quickly readying an atmospheric probe with a few flicks of his eyes on the holographic headset the exosuit helmet gave him. His armor was more designed for scanning and observation, linked to Anya, whose gear could analyze whatever he found. Anya glanced over at him, likely noting the atmospheric probe settings flashing on her headset, then peered up at the sky herself. Her sharp intake of breath instantly brought David’s face back up towards the sky, and he gaped up at it in wonder. The object looked shockingly like an ancient Greek acropolis, tall columns and wide buildings set up in a step-up pattern. But... on... clouds. In several places, a rainbow colored liquid seemed to be trickling down from a few buildings.

“Launching probe,” he whispered softly, activating his active camouflage and kneeling down as the silver spheroid launched out of his backpack with a soft hiss of released rockets.

The probes were only the size of a fist, but were packed with sensors and audio/visual recorders; they had been originally designed as spy-grade remotes, useful for listening in on conversations or spotting for snipers. These were far more benign, which suited David just fine. He and Anya stared, enraptured, at their screens as the probe rose higher and higher, finally poking through the cloud cover. Anya nearly fainted in shock, leaning against David’s side. The probe was zipping through street after street, able to easily punch its way through the "buildings," which seemed to, somehow, be made of clouds themselves. This... was impossible. Amazing! But impossible.

“The xenobiologists are going to piss themselves when they see this,” he whispered softly.

Anya snorted, “I’m about to piss myself. They must have some kind of advanced technology, somewhere, to-”

A loud, incredulous cry rocked their audio sensors, and both humans froze, turning slowly to their right... and looking right into the face of a rainbow-haired, cyan-coated alien, its ruby eyes staring straight back at them from the thick cover of the forest. It was panting heavily from the loud whinny, trembling heavily and slowly pawing the ground. Anya bit her lip as she slowly turned towards it, keeping her arms raised peacefully. This was... a very big moment. She had to do this just right...

"Hi there, little guy... awww."

God... damnit, David.

The alien blinked at them in surprise, ears flopping back on its head and eyes going wide. Looking around slowly, staring uncomprehendingly at the massive bulk of the colony lander, then back to the two humans, the alien slowly stepped back... then turned and bolted back into the forest. Anya bit back a curse... then yelped as David raced after the alien.

"Wha- get back here, you idiot!" she screamed, frantically racing after him.

"Turn your armor on and follow it! It'll lead us back to the rest of them!"

"Or into a trap!"

"That's why I brought the gun!"

Anya groaned loudly, blinking at the eye-sensitive display in her helmet to turn on her armor's light-bending technology, leaving her all but invisible in the dense brush. Damn David and his excitable nature. If this got them killed, she was going to kill him in the afterlife!

Author's Notes:

Phew! And the rewrite has started! As you can see, this is going to be quite different from the original!