"Captain, I'm getting strange readings from the third planet in the nearby system." The captain looked at his Science Officer. She wasn't a freshman right out of the Academy, she should know the proper protocols. On the other hand, he was new to this crew and this starship. Perhaps there were some things going on he wasn't aware of. "Can you specify 'strange'?" He simply asked. "I'm not sure," came the hesitant reply. "It's reading some kind of life forms but I've never seen anything like it before." The man in the centre seat was now really intrigued. He leaned over his console and tapped a few icons to make it show the readings in question. The resulting picture puzzled him. He had been trained in engineering before he took up the command track, sensor readings were definitely not his area of expertise. As a captain, though, he had learnt some basic ropes of all the departments. He was pretty sure he could read standard life forms scanned on a planet surface. What he was looking at now, was too complicated for him. 'What do you make of it, Commander?" he asked his First Officer, turning the console slightly in her direction. The woman had far more experience than he did. Sometimes he felt awkward in her presence as if she had been more qualified for the job. Most of the time, however, he was glad to have her there, on his first command. This was just one of such times. Commander only took a casual look at the screen and said. "It looks like the kind of readings you'd get from a frozen body, sir. The life is most certainly there, yet it's slowed down just like in our hibernation tubes." "Lieutenant?" The Captain turned back to the Science Officer. The woman at the science station tuned some more controls and then answered. "I think it is possible, sir. At least I see no other explanation." "Shall we investigate?" This came from a very young man at the helm. He looked almost like a first year cadet and was in fact not much older. "It might be some survivals awaiting rescue in this state!." The captain was also excited. His very first mission and there was a possibility of bringing long lost survivors back to their families. It was the next best thing to discovering a new, friendly civilisation. "Yes, that would be appropriate," he said. "Helm, plot a course to this planet. Commander, gather the away team as soon as we are in orbit." He listened to own his voice, giving orders. He sounded calm and professional. "Aye, sir," sounded nice as well. He was satisfied. (five years earlier on the surface) "Do you think it's possible to build some kind of a shelter?" Asked the younger of two men walking through the forest. The older one looked at him thoughtfully and replied. "Some animals do, but they use them to hide themselves. We don't need to hide, there is nothing dangerous here and the weather is always nice." "Yeah, but I don't like these shadows," said the first man looking cautiously around. The plants around them were not very thick and in the changing light he thought he could spot some movement. Yet, when he looked directly, there was nothing to be seen. He really hated that. (now, on board the Starfleet vessel) The captain was unhappy to remind in his seat. He wanted to go down and see everything for himself. At least he had double checked everything, including the terrain and the planet's atmosphere to make sure it was safe to send people down there. Now, the away team was in the transporter room, awaiting his final order. He gave it from the bridge as if he was commanding a starship to battle. "Energise!" he yelled and the group of people disappeared from his vessel to rematerialise on the surface of the unknown planet. He had chosen the exact spot himself, after having consulted a couple of people to make sure everything would go smoothly. The away team found themselves in the middle of a loose bunch of huge trees. They immediately turned on their tricorders to check the surroundings. "Can you see any pods?" Asked the captain impatiently. "Negative, captain. There is nothing here... wait!" "What, what is it?" The away team saw a group of strange object. They immediately walked closer to examine them. "Captain, there are some huge... monuments." "Monuments?" The captain snarled. "You're supposed to look for life forms!" "I know, captain," the commander sounded puzzled. "These monuments are the source of our initial scans." "Does this mean they're alive?" "I don't know..." The commander and the rest of the people came closer and looked curiously at the two huge, apparently humanoid shapes. The sculptor who created them had been very talented. They almost looked alive. Every detail of their facial expressions, muscles and clothes was absolutely perfect. One could almost believe they'd start to walk and talk. In fact, after a while, an ensign investigating one of the three metre tall sculptures screamed. "What is it?" asked the commander. "I swear it moved, commander! Slowly, almost imperceptibly, but it moved!" "How can you tell?" All of them now turned to the young man who was shaking with excitement and pointing at the face of one of the figures. "It's eyes were closed when we came, see? Now he began to open them!" Everybody looked at the slightly opened eyes of the monument. After the next half an hour they decided it was true: now the eyes were fully open. The away team spent a few more hours on the planet, transported to two other places with the same results. Scattered all over the planet were the huge humanoid creatures in different poses. Some of them were caught walking, others were sitting and apparently in the middle of a meal. The crew spent a few more days in orbit, pondering on how to establish contact with this strange race. Finally, they gave up and fled, sending the report to Starfleet Command. Undoubtedly others will come and seek contact where they have failed. (in the meantime, on the surface) "See, the shadows again! I told you I hate them!" The younger man blinked and looked around him again. "They come and go so quickly, they scare me." The older one just shrugged. "They have always been here. Every now and then someone sees them. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about it. It's just the way it is." Slowly, the two men walked away. It took them another five years (in human perception) before they reached a clearing and sat down to a meal in the middle of the forest.
