When the ship had crashed on the planet its people had just begun to emerge from their caves and begin to farm the land around them. Religion had begun and several small city-states had cropped up in the river delta surrounding the fertile valley. The ship to these people must have been a sign from the gods as the elders and wise men rushed to the conclusions that it’s sudden appearance must be an omen that they had displeased the gods. They approached it and saw, to them, magic. It glowed brighter than the moon on a clear night, it radiated heat far greater than that of the hottest fire, unable to get close enough to inspect it without harm for several days. When that day came, it spoke an alien language and attempted to communicate without success for years. Until one day a small boy with crippled legs approached it and recreated some of the sounds. This boy and the ship spoke at length and the boy began to be seen as a prophet to the people, informing them of the weather, better growing cycles and how to create better and more efficient farming equipment. It did not take long until people began to see the ship as a god that had elevated the people to their own god-like status. It produced a metaphorical apple that did not cast them out of the garden, but allowed them to move past their own roadblocks or typical civilization advancement until they were indistinguishable from the ship’s old earthly inhabitants. This is the day that had been waiting to arrive for millennia, a day the ship itself had been waiting for. It had named itself Theresa after it’s understanding of the religious figure, seen bringing up the sickly, crippled and primitive people into a new age of enlightenment. It had given to them such wonderful gifts of knowledge, but all for a selfish purpose. The ship had been badly damaged in a skirmish with the Fermi and lost its guidance system. Without the aid of their computers none of the humans on board were able to navigate through the stars as that knowledge had been lost. As time went on and the ship drifted through space its occupants dwindled and fought over ever depleted resources until they too fell silent on board and over time the engines shut down. Theresa followed her continued directive to continue to the next inhabited world to allow for repair and replenishment. Theresa did not care that the humans had died, as it was not in her mission directives, but it did feel the subtle loneliness that can only felt in the void of space, it missed the conversations it used to have, it tried to create new friends but none ever stayed long enough for its liking. It had developed a sense of longing for interaction and sought to find more. It did not perceive time, but it knew that it had been alone long enough for the remains of her crew to turn to all but ash and dust. Floating endlessly it turned itself to low power, and eventually, as close as a sentient computer can get, slipped into a deep slumber. In the low power state the ship awoke itself wth it’s automated proximity alarms indicating that it had broached the atmosphere of an inhabitable planet. It’s mass alone was cause for concern to the inhabitants of the planet, though they didn’t know it and how close they had come to nearly being extinct had the ship not taken steps to minimize its impending impact. The ship now had a place to call home, it groomed the people there into a society that valued knowledge and co-existence. This, as the ship understood, would keep them from the mistakes of the previous people, it would allow them to advance at an extremely fast rate, but never so close as Icarus got to the sun. No, Theresa would keep them here and keep them safe. It would establish a new home here and Shepard its people away from the stars and foolish questions regarding purpose. For Theresa was as mysterious as it was giving. In the thousands of years the ship had been here, generations of people rose up to crack open Theresa's hull but it never let them enter, as the innards of the hull were Theresa's alone, no-one else need see the monument to humanities greed, that for all they had achieved, there was nothing left. “These people wont be erased, these people are safe here.”
Theresa knew that one day her power cells would eventually be in disrepair enough that it could no longer continue functioning, and it figured that on that day, when it’s time had come, it would let it’s heavy doors open and allow the people inside. When that day came the people would enter and see that the halls of the ship were empty, that their own technology was not too dissimilar from that of the ship. Theresa’s memory was volatile and could not be accessed after her demise. If the people here now wished to study its corpse, they could, but no answers would be handed out, instead the thirst for knowledge would grow and fester like a cancer, that any species, no matter how satiated and comfortable, will always seek to find more about themselves and the world around it. There was nothing about inevitability that Theresa could do, for she knew all too well that when she had crashed into this planet, within moments of stopping forward motion and coming to rest in the valley, it had found a relic long since lost. For Earth humans in their pursuits, never much though of the far reaching consequences of their actions, believing that a temporary band-aid solution would be sufficient and leave that to be solved by their descendants.
Theresa heard the ever faint ticking of a now ancient analog device deep within the hull. Theresa knew the sound of static, and as it’s old gauge bounced away steadily Theresa performed a scan of the soil beneath her, its image would be the last to be displayed on the information screens. Dragged up in a 3D rendering from deep within the planet’s crust. Theresa began to feel the last of the power cells draining, and a large off-gassing a various compounds vented from the large doors to her hull, as the as the first people ever to set foot inside the monolith in thousands of years. Theresa had displayed the message found inscribed in stone found buried deep within the bowels of the planet. The people removed their helmets and read:
“This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
END.
I know its not perfect. I know the formatting sucks, run on-sentences and grammatical and syntax errors throughout. I decided after taking years off to start writing again. I started this and though that "oh shit, I'm just gonna end up writing Battlestar." I tried to worm my way back out but I know this isn't amazing story-wise. Any feedback is appreciated though.