Space was nothing new to James Caron; he was born in it, he was raised in it, and now he spent most of his time living in it. Wincing from his back pain as he shifted into a more comfortable position, he sighed when he remembered that this would be his last time piloting his beloved Explorer2794-Alpha. He was a planetary scout; a man living aboard a home vessel, picked to scout out potential new homes for his kind. Not too long ago, his home vessel, the Alpha, detected the presence of a planet filled with life; eager to scout out this new world, he readily volunteered himself for the mission. Right now, as he drifted along in space, he had nothing to preoccupy himself; sighing once more, he shrugged his shoulders and flicked a switch to his right. A screen appeared, with the words: "Earth's Archives" written on them...
Earth was our race's first home, and like all the other ones we had, it was a flawed one. Over the course of life's evolution, there came a time when the genetic impurity finally revealed itself; but by that time, a cure was miraculously discovered. Pharmagic Inc., the saviors of the human race, began correcting the flaws they had found within our genetic code; and though they are still in the process of finding a cure, they have succeeded in prolonging our lifespans to the current age we have today. Unfortunately, however, all life that wasn't in the hands of Pharmagic Inc. died away, leaving our home planet lifeless. For this reason, Pharmagic Inc. also pioneered the use of home vessels for interstellar travel, and to find new planets to colonize.
At that moment, Jame's planet tracker picked up a huge signal. Turning off the archives, he looked at the readings and almost had a heart attack; they were off the charts, and he was still lightyears away! Inputting the bearings and adjusting his ship's power output, James braced himself into his chair and said, "Warp."
A feeling of weightlessness wrapped around him, as the ship raced towards the coordinates. Even after all the warps he had experienced, he could never get used to this sensation. It took another minute or two, but the instant he came out of warp, his eyes grew wide. There before him was the largest planet he had ever seen, and it was giving off an insane amount of life readings. In all the eighteen years of his long life, he had never seen such a sight, and as he was about to start his descent into the planet's atmosphere, there was a blinding flash followed by a sickening feeling; and he was positive it was the last thing he would ever know...
