Chapter Two: Too Clever By Half
A/N: Here is the back-story I had in mind when I wrote the main plot. I was not originally going to include it, but the story had too many "because-it's-in-the-script" moments, so I decided I needed to explain a bit.
A/N2: You can thank my wonderful beta Ujai and his OCD for haranguing me into posting again.
I still do not own anything nor have any right to play in this world.
What lies between the edges of matter? There has to be something, otherwise there could be no edges, but the common belief of emptiness could be correct it its own way. Take the void of space for example. An abyss of nothingness; light races across it and micro meteors rain through it even though the common conciseness is that it is empty. Even voids have to contain something, even if it is just more void.
The dead planet's name was Bywawnta, a name as forgotten as its long extinct population. Once it was the home world of the Lysherians, a small and generally heavyset bipod with two overly large multi-colored eyes. Their hands were wonderfully dexterous with three fingers and two thumbs and they could build and repair just about anything.
The Lysherians liked to think that they were the only people on Bywawnta but in reality, Bywawnta had another sentient population, the Bollakans.
The Bollakans did not have any obvious reptilian traits, they just looked like they would be happier sunning themselves on a rock someplace, and in fact, they did like to sun themselves as much as possible, completely content with their existence.
This contentment with life baffled the Lysherians and had to be a sign of a lower life form that needed to be managed. Since they valued hard work above all else and always strode for advancements and learning, they decided to ensure the Bollakans were properly educated.
Unfortunately, this decision would have catastrophic consequences.
Batteries of skill test showed the Bollakans had an aptitude for science and while the scientist would not dream of letting Bollokans do any real work, they were happy to explain everything. Including the history of one vial of horribly effective strain of bacterial warfare.
The chief scientist explained to microscopic detail on what it did to Lysherians He really should have been less ego centric and explained what it did to everything else because that group of students left his labs with thoughts of genocide running thru their heads.
Two weeks later, the world ended. The bug, once freed, turned out to be even more lethal that expected. It killed everything larger than mold spores and quickly spread to the space stations and on to the colonies.
Within two weeks, everything that could die was dead.
Only one of Bywawnta's colonies survived its death and that was only because it was lost, completely and embarrassingly inaccessible from Bywawnta.
Five years prior to the end of the world, a strange and wondrous artifact was found drifting in space. Recognizing it as powerful and potentially useful, the Lysherians brought it back to study it. It took months of hard labor, but finally the scientists discovered that the device was an instantaneous teleportation portal.
This portal was extremely stable and after no change was reported after several weeks of observations, a robot team was sent thru. On the other side was a planet of lush green continents and deep, blue oceans. Perfect for a colony.
Over two hundred people had successfully crossed and the colony was starting to thrive when a scientist discovered that the portal could be expanded to send larger objects thru.
Large enough to sent spacecraft through.
The military leaders and scientific experts that had agreed it was perfectly safe to place a colony on an unexplored planet in unexplored space suddenly changed their minds and demanded a ship be sent though to ascertain the safety, location and possibilities of a base for further exploration.
The LSC Morgan's Run, an M-436 class warship, was the most powerful ship they could fit through the expanded portal. Hopefully, it would be large enough to protect the fledging colony from any unpleasantness and evacuate it if necessary.
Amidst much pomp and circumstance, the ship was pulled though the portal and disappeared with a pop as the portal shorted out and disappeared.