Even with the best technology available it still took about a week to reach the sector where the ship’s crew estimated the energy wave came from. Sophia contemplated asking her engineering genius nephew if he had any upgrades for the ship’s engines later. Regardless, they had arrived and it was time to examine the nearby star systems.
The crew was refreshed after a week of R and R and ready to return to their duties. Sophia watched as everyone returned to their stations and performed their duties with renewed vigor.
The scans of nearby star systems didn’t show anything out of the ordinary and after hours of scans the crew was beginning to wonder if they had miscalculated the general area the energy wave came from.
That was until one last scan for the current crew’s shift caught their attention. “Hierarch, my scan has detected a world with an anomalous configuration,” said a female Protoss officer. “The system is composed of a planet as the centralized celestial body with a small star and a single moon.”
“A planet with its star orbiting it? That is certainly unusual,” Sophia commented. “Is there any sign that the energy wave may have originated from this world?”
“Unsure, however the energy readouts are picking up a reading that doesn’t match the magnitude but the signature is similar in parts to the energy wave. There is a fairly high chance that the energy originated from this planet.”
“Very well, let us investigate this planet then. The anomalous configuration alone deems this world worth a look.”
“Permission to speak freely, ma’am?” one male human officer requested.
“Granted.”
“Why are we bothering with this matter? Shouldn’t we be using our resources hunting Schezar?”
“It’s not every day that you get an energy readout that greatly surpasses what a starship is capable of. For all we know it could be some super powerful entity showing off or some civilization developed some kind of super weapon capable of destroying planets.”
“You’re a super powerful entity…” another officer muttered in amusement.
Unfortunately for her, Sophia heard that. “I’ll let that slide once, lieutenant, just because it’s true. Please remember your training.” She turned back to address the previous officer. “Energy like that is going to draw the attention of intergalactic powers such as ourselves and depending on who finds this world, they will either want to mine it of its resources or enslave a species if the energy comes from living beings. That’s why I want to investigate this planet before I make a decision on what to do with it. If this world can produce an energy wave that can travel to another quadrant of the galaxy, we can’t leave this matter alone or it could be a potential threat to us.”
The officer nodded, satisfied with her answer. “Orders, ma’am?”
Sophia smiled as she saw her crew returning their attention to the terminals as they resumed their duties. “First, let’s check the atmosphere. Let’s see if the air is breathable.”
“The atmosphere has a composition similar to most inhabited worlds in the Koprulu Sector,” a male Protoss officer replied. “There is a slightly higher composition of argon though.”
“Alright, I’m not even going to bother asking about the climate. We can’t make any proper estimates because of the celestial configuration.”
“Hierarch, I’m picking up an energy reaction coming from the planet’s surface heading directly for the planet’s star!” one officer loudly reported. “It’s registering at magnitude two point two.”
“Let’s see what happens,” Sophia thought out loud.
The next few minutes were fascinating and shocking as the energy reaction wrapped around the star and moved it around to the other side of the planet. The next thing they saw was the lunar satellite being exposed to a second reaction and moved to where the solar satellite was before.
“Where did that signature originate?” Sophia asked. After a few moments, a holographic display of the planet appeared in the center of the room. A red point flashed on the map.
“The observer drones we deployed around the planet gave us this image,” one officer said before indicating the point as a red dot. “Our sensors place the point of origin at this point.”
“Send some observers down planetside, we need to know what we are dealing with,” Sophia ordered.
This task took the rest of the day for the crew, or night as they soon realized from the location of interest. They spotted what appeared to be equine creatures of a wide variety of colors and symbols on their flanks. Because of the time of night, however, there were very few around since most were in their homes. They would need to wait for another energy reaction to return the celestial bodies back to their original configuration before they could reach any conclusions on the population.
They also examined the settlements around the world and witnessed a wide variety of cultures. Using a system of comparing structures to the chronological development of Earth, Sophia concluded that the equine civilization varied from eighteenth century to twentieth century, the latter showing along the eastern coast cities of the region of interest. However, while motorized vehicles were non-existent there were still train tracks which suggested that they may have developed locomotives.
“I see…” Sophia mused. “This scan alone tells me that this world credits the phrase ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ They certainly didn’t develop the way humanity did. No airports, few military bases, and train stations follow a design similar to the American Wild West. Looking at other countries, some might have better military than the equine lands but not by much. One country in the far south seems to have the best military and could potentially conquer the world one day.”
“What now, hierarch?” a Protoss officer asked.
“We wait for the next shift in the celestial bodies.”
A couple of hours passed and Sophia had the crew end their shifts while the next set, rested and ready to go, entered the bridge and took their stations. Sophia briefed the new staff on what they had discovered so far.
It wasn’t long before the same energy reaction that moved the star and moon was detected and just as Sophia figured, the celestial orbs moved back to their original position.
“Time for another scan, I want to know if these equine creatures are the civilized species on that part of the continent.”
A few hours passed and the crew found that the equine creatures were going about their days like civilized people. Other countries also had their share of civilized creatures, all of them were of mythological creatures from human legends. She spotted griffons, dragons, hippogryphs, cat people, zebras (not mythical but Sophia noted that their behavior mirrored ancient African tribes), and minotaurs. They also spotted a species of insect-like equines in a region northwest of the equine lands.
Focusing on the lands the energy reaction came from, the crew examined the equines in more detail. They noted that they came in four types: those with horns on their foreheads, those with feathered wings, those with bat wings (Sophia noted that they didn’t mingle with the other types and seemed to keep to themselves), and those without.
One important thing that Sophia noted was that every species in the world radiated energy in subtle amounts, leading to the conclusion that there was something about the planet itself that appeared to guide their evolution.
One observer scanned what appeared to be a garden around the castle in a city built into a mountain. It spotted what appeared to be a fairly large specimen of the equines, taller than any of the others. The equine appeared to have a light fuchsia coat that could be mistaken for white along with a mane that emulated an aurora of cerulean, turquoise, heliotrope and cobalt, that appeared to billow in a non-existent breeze. A mark of a sun flaring in eight directions was on her flank. A crown on her head indicated that she may be a leader. It also gave the crew the impression that the equines lived under a monarchist government.
Other things of note were the large wings and long horn, a combination not found from any other equines. This gave the impression that the combination could be a status symbol, given the adornments and the uniqueness of the creature. More importantly, the crew measured her energy emissions and found that the magnitude exceeded anything else they found on this world. While there were a handful of readings that were well above what could be established as an average, this one gave off the most energy by far.
“I think we found the source of the energy that’s been moving the star and moon,” Sophia noted.
“Orders, ma’am? I think we have learned all we can from remote observations.”
“Indeed,” Sophia agreed. “The energies emitted from this world could have attracted others besides us. I don’t know when, but I am certain that those with ill intent will visit this world. Since we can’t go on protecting this world forever, we will need to implement a permanent solution: destroy the planet or uplift the people so they can protect themselves.”
“Are you sure we can accomplish that?” one officer asked, knowing that the former option was not actually on the table, given how Sophia was. “Those creatures are still technologically medieval and militarily primitive. They seem to still be using swords and spears. Even if they were infused with energy it wouldn’t make them very effective when facing gauss guns and combat walkers.”
“Which is why I am going to be performing a field study before I start drafting plans to uplift them. I have no doubt that it will be a long term project though.”
“You are bringing some bodyguards with you, right?” another officer asked, a tone that allowed no negotiation.”
Sophia chuckled awkwardly while rubbing the back of her head. “Ehehe…right.” As much as she was their leader, the other officers were still allowed to make sure Sophia had protection even if she wouldn’t need it. The last time she went off and did things on her own, her adjutants dumped a literal mountain of paperwork on her desk and had her deal with it without using illusionary clones like she usually did. She was lucky her Zerg biology prevented her from getting carpal tunnel.
Sophia cleared her throat and voiced her decision, “Since these creatures are not ready for extraterrestrial interaction, this will have to be a stealth observation. Me and the two bodyguards of my choice will be going incognito for this. Therefore I have decided on the two to come with me. It’s about time I let those two out of the freezer anyway.”
“‘Those two?’ Hierarch, you don’t mean…”
Sophia nodded, “Yep, they’ve been very useful to me over the centuries but I think it’s time for them to begin acclimating to civilian life before I have them retire. And who knows, maybe they might find someone down there who they are willing to pass down their skills.”
One officer looked at the info on the creatures and looked at her as if she just ordered the whole universe to be compressed into a marble. “With all due respect, ma’am, I can’t imagine these creatures having that kind of potential.”
Sophia chuckled at the officer’s comment, “Look past the biology and see what they have done for themselves. Despite being quadrupeds without grasping limbs, these creatures built an entire civilization with impressive structures. They even built skyscrapers! There is more to them than meets the eye and I want to see where this potential takes them.”