"Well this doesn't look good", I heard Tim say as he looked over a large computer console. It was flashing red and making a beeping sound. "Here," I said, walking across the dimly lit room towards him, "Just press the blue button".
"What blue button?"
"That one"
He leaned over and pressed the green button. The flashing and beeping ceased immediately. "Aw crap," I said under my breath. The green button is wired up to our navigation computer, the thing that tells our ship where we are, where we were, and where to go next. "Um, what does green mean?". Before I could answer, Mark, red faced and sweaty, burst into the room. "It means we're screwed," He said angrily. The nav-computer is a tricky thing sometimes, but i didn't understand how it could really be that harmful. "What's the problem, shouldn't we be locked onto our last destination?," I asked. Mark shook his head and said, "No, me and Jack had just set our next course, but the captain said to stop and delete the route from our databanks".
"Why would we need to delete it?".
"the captain said it was too dangerous to explore".
Tim looked backed down at the console and for for the second time that day said, "Well this doesn't look good".
The year is 2153, I'm part of an expedition dedicated to exploring the far reaches of our universe. Our starship is small and red with a few screws loose. It's a strange little thing, almost shaped like a fat beetle. It's gotten us this far out, but I don't know how much longer it will last. This will be our twenty third planet, and if what the captain says is true, the second one with life. If you're wondering, the first was pretty much barren with just a few interesting bacteria. I was going over all of this in my head as the captain explained to us just how much me and Tim just screwed up. Frankly, I think he has a few more screws loose than the ship. While all this was going on, Mark, Jack, and Aaron were all getting on protective gear to go outside for when we were to land. "The ship's coming into view", Tim said. I walked over to him and looked at the screen on which we can view the planet. "Is it just me, or does this land formation look familiar?" I asked. Jack walked over with a map of the globe. "recognize this?" he said. It was a picture of pangea, the prehistoric land formation before the one continent split apart to form the seven that we know today. "So we're looking at a prehistoric Earth?" Aaron asked. The captain walked over. "Not exactly, more of an evolved species of carnivorous dinosaurs live on that planet," he explained. Just then, Kyle walked in. "we're beginning our descent now", he told us.
About an hour later, Mark, Jack, and Aaron were all leaving the ship to explore the planet's surface. They had left their protective gear, realizing that the planet had a very similar atmosphere to our own. This left me, the captain, Tim, and Kyle to wait for their return. After half an hour of anxious waiting, we heard Aaron come over the intercom. "Hey, we found something!" he yelled. The captain stood up suddenly. "Don't touch it until we get some readings!" he nearly screamed into the small circular device in his hand. "Alright, Alright," Aaron responded, "It's a cluster of eggs". Tim's eyes went wide when this was said. "Should we bring one in?" He asked. It was Kyle's turn to talk now. "Sure, grab one and bring it to the ship so we can analyze it", he said into the intercom. At the time, finding an egg was exciting. This was probably the first recorded sighting of alien life! The captain got up and left the room, leaving me, Tim, and Kyle to go over the readings we were getting on the egg. "Looks like a velociraptor, but I would need a closer look to confirm it", Tim said as he scanned the chart in his hands. Suddenly there was scream from outside. Kyle was the first out the door. I was second. I walked out into the bright sunlight. The air was wet and moist. We were surrounded by a dark and foreboding forest. Suddenly I saw Mark and Jack burst through the trees, running for their lives from what looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. "Oh god", Tim whispered. "They don't stand a chance against a T-rex's running speed". Kyle shook his head and yelled, "It's not a tyrannosaurus, it's an Allosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived way back in the Jurassic era of prehistoric time!".Mark was the first to reach the door. He bolted through it and slammed it behind him, Which meant that we were now trapped outside with a carnivorous dinosaur. I saw Jack dive into the the dense foliage. The dinosaur sped right past him when it noticed us standing in a group. I glanced at Tim and ran into the woods. When I was about three feet in, I tripped over a leg. A hand went over my mouth and I heard Aaron say, "Quiet, it might find us!". The allosaurus was tromping around the area, trying to sniff us out. For hours, we just sat there, listening. Eventually, it left, and at last we were free to look for the others. "I don't even want to see a picture of that thing for the rest of my life", Aaron whispered as we searched. We found Jack first, he had covered himself in branches was praying when we walked over. "Have you seen Kyle and/or Tim?" I asked. Jack stood up and said, "Nope, last I saw 'em, they were running off toward that cave". He pointed to a spot in the trees where i could just make out the faint outline of a large hill. "Oh hey guys!" I heard Mark say as he stepped out of the now open doorway of the starship. Aaron ran up and grabbed him by the throat. "You bastard, you left us to die!" Aaron yelled as he attempted to strangle him. "Woah woah woah!", I yelled as I ran over and tried to break them up. I could understand Mark's reasoning, that thing was absolutely horrifying. I could also understand Aaron's reasoning all too well. He didn't mean to, but Mark left us to die. "Oh, break it up you two", The captain yelled as he to, stepped out of the open doorway of the ship. Aaron got up and brushed himself off. "Captain, we need to get Kyle and Tim, they ran off toward the cave", he said. Mark was now on his feet. "I can grab some gear for a party to go out and get them", he told the captain. "Oh, and what about you, Mr. I'm so helpfull?" Jack said accusingly. Mark thought about this for a moment. "Someone needs to stay behind on the ship with the egg", he said with a slight smile.
Well, I have to admit, he did have a point. After everything was organized, me, the captain, and Jack set out to find Tim and Kyle. "Hello?" I called out, "Is anybody there?". No answer. I walked a few feet into the cave. "Hello?" I called out again. I checked my smart-watch. There were life signs in the cave, but more than two. This meant trouble. I swiped down on the surface of the watch and a small satellite dish came out of the side. It rose two inches into the air and started spinning. This would detect human voices in the cave, if there were any to be detected. A few seconds later, the satellite dish popped back in. "One human voice detected", it said in its horrifying Serie-like voice. Oh boy. This meant I had to go in. No weapon, no plan, and no back up. Jack and the captain had decided to search the surrounding woods to see if Tim and Kyle hadn't gone into the cave at all. I clicked my solar powered flashlight on and walked into the near complete darkness. Alone. No, not alone. There was something watching me, out of the corner of my eye, I could just nearly make out something, but every time I turned to look at it, it would disappear. My flashlight then died. I was left in total darkness. How long had I been walking? It felt like hours. There was just no end to this cave! Like a tunnel leading down to hell. I was about to turn around when, for the second time that day, I tripped over a leg. "Ow", I heard someone shout. It was Tim. "Oh, hey Tim, we've been looking for you," I said as I got up. I couldn't see him, but I could recognize his voice. "I haven't been able to find Kyle," he said, "Maybe he left the cave and I didn't see him". I looked at the patch of darkness that I guessed was where Tim was standing. "Come on, we need to get back", I said, "Maybe we'll find Kyle waiting for us at the ship". After what felt like hours, we stepped out into the crisp night air. The captain and Jack were waiting for us. "We found Kyle", Jack said. "He had his arm ripped off by the Allosaurus". I tried to imagine Kyle without an arm. It was pretty weird thinking about it, so I pushed the thought from my mind. As we were walking back, I heard Mark's voice over my comlink. "Hey guys, the egg is hatching," he said.