The generation ship was never actually intended to journey across the stars. It was just supposed to act as a social experiment and a show piece. It was a precursor to intergalactic travel which would hopefully fill people with wonder and inspire future scientists and explorers to strive for life beyond earth. Hopefully it would also garner some much needed funding.
Unfortunately this prototype testament to human engineering would forever remain a one of a kind marvel. With only sixteen people on board it was forced to become a functioning lifeboat for the last of humanity. Only days before the original crew were set to trade off with a younger group of astronauts, the nations of the earth fell onto each other in a resource war that quickly escalated into full on nuclear conflict.
Perhaps some people survived down there, but there was no sign of life though the ship's telescopes and no communications coming through. To make matters worse, the occasional waves of radiation and heavy radio static coming off of the planet's surface were wreaking havoc on their life support, navigation and propulsion systems. The crew voted. It was unanimous. They would leave the earth behind and hand their fate to the winds of space.
Twenty-six years later, only one child had been born to the aging crew. Only three of his elders remained alive to accompany him on the journey to the nearest possibly habitable star system. This was the second they had tried. The first turned out to be a barren rock. It had water but was far too toxic to sustain life. This time, they were in luck.
To the astronauts' surprise this world was not only habitable, but inhabited.
"I know we are eager to get off of this tin can, but first contact is a big responsibility and we have to do this right." The acting captain, Jenkins, said as they marveled over the impossible alien cityscape on their screens. "Who do we send?"
"I'll go." The boy, Frankie, volunteered. There was some debate about his youth and ignorance of social situations, but it was decided that despite all that he presented,I the least threatening visage and possibly his fresh eyes could endear the people of this world to him.
The capsule fell to the surface just as it was intended to. The elder space travelers guided it to a field, within walking distance of one of the large towns.
Franky noted the smoking chimneys and steam pipes through the porthole, as he passed by a few rooftops during his descent. He thought the population must power their society with something similar to the coal used on earth in bygone eras.
The capsule landed and the youth stepped out onto the red grass. Seed pods popped under his feet as he made his way towards the brick homes.
A crowd was beginning to gather. The people of this world were basically human in shape but were blue and had features like fish or perhaps lizards. There was fear in their eyes as the stranger, who had arrived in a flaming metal egg, slowly advanced on them. They spoke in a language that would take Frankie's translation software weeks to decode and a few of them brandished some sort of weapons.
It looked like this first encounter might turn ugly and not knowing what else to do, the boy sat down in the dirt, a few yards from his new hosts and began drawing his native solar system in the sand and pointing skyward. He told them a story they couldn't possibly understand, in the least threatening tone he could muster and eventually the braver or more curious of the fish people inched closer to find out what he was doing.
After about an hour a loud roar echoed through the air and the crowd quickly retreated to their homes. A few peered though barred windows as something approached from the forest of thorns and vines, beyond the red field.
Frankie stood and dusted himself off. He started to make his way back to the shelter of his pod, but when the beast appeared, it quickly cut him off. It was an enormous, weasel-like creature, as long as one of the busses he knew from old video files and as tall as an elephant.
There was no escape. The thing before the boy born in space was giant and fast and clearly intent on eating small humanoids, such as him. It reared above him and roared. He fell onto his back in fear and as it came down, jaws open, he instinctively lashed out with both feet. He expected death, but to his surprise he felt his attacker's jaw break like wet cardboard under his boots. It fell back and screamed. Silver-grey blood fell from it's mouth by the gallon and it convulsed and desperately made it's escape.
It was a stroke of luck that first contact didn't begin with a handshake. As it turned out this world was composed of low density minerals and so were the beings who inhabited it. The Vextirii eventually came to love their human protectors but they were never able to live in close quarters. When Frankie and his crewmates walked the stre
