The Evon Experience
by Alex Poff

Chapter 3 Exploration

Our two scout ships emerged in the 3rd and final system connected to our own and found... nothing. The system we called Sham held five large, lifeless red 2 planets with no immediate hope of colonization on any of them.

On a more positive note, there were two additional lanes that exited the system, so, it was obvious, we split up and venture forth alone in separate directions, hoping to find, well, more of everything that may lie ahead of us.

So travel we did, with Scout 1 discovering a wealth of planets, etc. Ezor was first, with four habitable planets, then Selia with five more, along with four other planets that ranged from yellow to large red. Our scientists were not totally displeased with these large red planets, however. Remember, our Rhean friends thrived on this type of world, and with them now thriving and expanding rapidly on their homeworld, the time would come when they too, as part of our Empire, would need to branch out and find additional planets to seed.

An offshoot lane led to the Ibis system, which held, much to our delight, another race that called themselves Darloks. They, too, expressed an overwhelming desire to join us and beseeched us to send a colony ship to their homeworld much as we had done with the Rheans. This was entirely possible, as by this time, we had completed colonizing all planets within our own system of Sente and were now onto full scale production of warp capable colony ships for use with all the "green" planets we had discovered.

Coming back out of the dead end Ibis system, Scout 1 continued on through Selia to one more system which held inconsequential, small or totally uninhabitable planets where an interesting "fork in the road" presented itself; one lane led to a very close system, while the other appeared to be a much longer "wormhole" which appeared to transverse a phenomenal distance. Being a conservative people, we chose the close system route first, and upon entering the system were shocked to find ourselves immediately under attack by a single massive vessel that called itself "Guardian". Our scout was able to escape and the "Guardian" thankfully did not give chase, but we quickly determined that we would not be entering that system again any time soon. We marked the lane with a warning buoy and set course down the wormhole.

Scout 2 traveled out of Sham and discovered another system (Saak) with four planets, one of which was considerably large and green. We then moved on through the Takaras system into the Moya system, with, again, nothing consequential or of use being discovered.

At Moya, another "fork in the road" presented itself, and Scout 2 chose to go "north". Entering the next system (Ognath), we then continued north and, upon full scouting and investigation discovered a conjoined ring of systems, which held another race called the Alkari and a further northerly exit point. Negotiations with the Alkari were equally successful as our previous two encounters with the Rheans and Darloks and we agreed to send a colony ship to their homeworld, with the knowledge that it may take some time before the colony ship arrived. With smiles all around, Scout 2 exited to the north and it was then that our Empire experienced one of the worst days in our history.

Scout 2 entered the Tokan system. Immediately, automatic sensors snapped on the "Red Alert – Proximity Warning”. Our ships' captain took immediate evasive maneuvers; something was bearing down on him fast. We listened in horror over interstellar communicator, as our scout ship was ripped apart by beam weapons that our captain did not recognize.

A day of mourning ensued and then came anger and the realization that there were others out there in the universe that did not value peace. Admittedly, we were scared. We had not developed any type of offensive ship capability to this point in our development. Why should we, we thought? We had been lulled into complacency because all we had met were peaceful, open and to be honest, considerably less advanced than we. We were going to have our eyes opened very quickly it seemed in the very near future.