Sam watched, squinting his eyes as Gnome suddenly reappeared and opened the box for him; she truly was amazing. However, he looked back to the sleeping serpent creatures, fearful her little light show had awoken; they still seemed to be sleeping, so no harm done. Upon opening the box, he saw a shiny, shimmering flat circle; a holo-disk! And its reader was included as well.
"Hopefully something that can give us some answers" he then said in response to Gnome's question; he was about to play it when he remembered the creatures he'd just checked on.
"Damn, need to play this outside or in an isolated environment. Can't have those things waking up."
He tip-toed his way out of the front desk, trying to find a room he could use. He decided to check the second level; he found a set of stairs that he quickly and quietly made his way up to. His heart was pounding; he felt like he was some undercover agent recovering an important piece of enemy intelligence or something. He eventually found an old conference room; he hoped the distance was far enough to where the creatures wouldn't hear the disk. He took a seat in one of the rusted chairs; Talbor's father robes seemed to be thick enough to where he wouldn't get cut. He then took the disk out and placed in its reader; both seemed to be in pristine condition. He then watched as a bright screen popped up, hovering in mid-air; it displayed
WARNNG: TOP SECRET, COMPARTMENTALIZED INFORMATION. PLEASE ENTER NAME AND SIXTEEN-DIGIT ACCESS STRING." "Name and access code? What the hell?" he then muttered; he tried to see if there was anything in the box with this information.
He found an etching on the bottom; he couldn't really read it too well. But, after letting his eyes adjust, he saw that it read
Dr. Marcus Braun 0AS3EDTFGHRH23QW "Heh, well color me lucky" Sam then grumbled; after putting in the information, the disk's screen faded before reappearing with a drop-down holomenu. There were three options:
Planetary data,
Attachment A and a strange third option
LEAVE THIS PLANET NOW. "What the hell?" Sam uttered; he then pulled open the first option by tapping it with his finger. Data poured on the screen; whoever this Marcus guy was did a LOT of research on this world. Surface sunlight intensity measurements, atmospheric anomaly tracking, composition of the crust and mantle, and even a name: Deseus.
"Deseus, what the hell kind of name is that?" After reading through all that, he came to a file that read
INDIGENOUS POPULATION When he clicked it, however, it just read
ERROR, DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED. FILE INACCESSIBLE. ERROR CODE 000X34DFG He then scrolled through
Attachment A; this was just a documentation and analysis of the research team's findings. Nothing really pertaining to his situation; useful information in most circumstances, but not here. It did reveal to him that there was a colonization speculation for this planet.
Finally, he came to
LEAVE THIS PLANET NOW. When he clicked, a small hologram popped up, showing a well-dressed, elderly-looking
scientist. "This is Dr. Marcus Braun, if someone is reading this hologram, you need to get off this planet immediately. The indigenous population......they're getting crazier, like something's driving them. Half my research team disappeared in a matter of weeks, which would translate to days on this planet. The monsters......they're kidnapping the colonists! I saw an Amazoness tribe drag off Steve, John, and Frank; god bless their souls for giving me time to escape. Most everyone's been evacuated already, but you need to get out of here! Your life could be in great peril! You..." the disk then cut off; Sam just sat in shock before trying to futz with it and get it back. "Come on, work! Why is my life in peril? What's going on here?" he said in slightly panicked tone.