'We're almost there.' Sidoni's grey eyes were shining. 'What do you think they'll be like?'

I smiled. She'd asked the same question repeatedly during our three week journey. Her childlike ways were so endearing that I'd quickly come to think of her as the little sister I'd never had.

'When I was selected to captain the HALO, I didn't believe anyone could ever be more excited.' I eyed her sideways. 'Then I met you.'

Sid giggled. 'I know, but it's Second Contact, Ry. I still can't believe that we're the ones who've been chosen to do it. We're going to make history today. Our names are going to be remembered forever. It's such an honour.'

Her enthusiasm was infectious.

'I suppose a little more research wouldn't harm.' I was just as eager to learn as much about what we were about to encounter as she was. 'Can you open file Alpha 004 again, please, JEM.'

'Certainly, Ryder.'

Not for the first time, I wondered what our ship's computer would have looked like if she'd been corporeal. That husky voice of hers was so damned sexy.

A hologram of a dazzling blue-green planet appeared before us. An oasis in the desert of darkness that is space.

'Located at co-ordinates 65-1-136...'

'Thanks JEM,' I interrupted, 'but you can skip the boring technical bits.'

'As you like,' she purred. 'When the crew of the VEENA Explorer first came across Azurra, they were so surprised at the startling resemblance it bore to their home planet that they stopped to investigate.'

'And what they found changed everything,' breathed Sid.

I smiled again. My crew-mate was able to recite the whole article word for word, yet still she displayed the wonder of a young child.

'Would you like to take over the commentary, Sidoni?' enquired JEM.

'No, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please carry on.'

'Perhaps we could switch to the captain's log entries?' I suggested. 'There may be something in there that we've missed.'

'Very well.'

The holographic planet was replaced with the image of Captain Sprager's face. This remarkable woman, rumoured to be an ancestor of mine, had been my inspiration. She was the reason I'd joined the agency in the first place.

'Log entry, Captain Roxel Sprager of the VEENA explorer. Today my crew and I discovered a hitherto unknown planet with all the elements necessary for sustaining life. At first we thought it may be a useful location for future colonisation, however on closer examination, it became apparent that it is far more than that.' She paused. 'It seems our species is not alone in the universe after all.'

Sid gasped, as though she was hearing this news for the first time.

'I have named the planet Azurra. Partly because of its appearance from space, and partly because it is my beloved daughter's name. After several days of observation, we can confirm that it is home to many different forms of life. There are even sentient beings present. Although they are extremely primitive by our standards, they have already evolved to the point of walking upright, communicating with each other and wearing clothing made from fabric spun from plant fibres. Our ship's science officer estimates that this race is around three thousand years behind our own in terms of development.'

'We've heard this section several times,' I interjected. 'Can you go forward to the log entry made on day one of week four, please, JEM.'

Sprager's head disappeared and then reappeared. 'First Contact was remarkably easy. Azurra's inhabitants seem to believe that we are gods. This is a fantasy of their own making and not in any way encouraged by my crew, but it has made it easy for us to become accepted. We can now freely integrate with the locals without any trepidation. They have even started depicting our ship and crew in their carvings and artwork.'

'Now skip to week seven please.'

Sprager's face flickered for a moment, then she continued. 'We have shown the people how their rudimentary tools can be utilised to greater effect and provided advice on new and improved tools and construction methods. This will enable them to achieve their dream of building far larger structures that will stand the test of time. We've also begun teaching them how to read the stars, in the hope that they will one day use this knowledge to traverse the galaxies for themselves.'

The hologram halted when Sid held up her hand.

'I heard the ship's scientist manipulated the genomes of hundreds of the inhabitants in order to speed up their development,' she said.

'This is true,' replied Sprager, 'and he was keen to continue this work, but I decided not to extend this treatment further, because over time the genomes would be naturally distributed through breeding. It is for this reason I came to the conclusion that we shouldn't interfere in their evolution any further and, as captain of this mission, I invoked Section 325 of the exploration charter.'

'And the high council upheld your decision,' I added. 'So it was decreed that this planet and its people would remain undisturbed for three thousand years, in order that they could evolve without further intervention on our part.'

'It was my sincere hope that its inhabitants would develop to a stage similar to our own. Peaceful, altruistic and non-discriminatory. That they would be capable of travelling through space and one day come to seek us out,' continued Sprager. 'They would no longer think of us as gods by then, of course. They'd be far too advanced for all that, but I hoped they would think of us as friends and allies and maybe even share technological developments of their own.'

I glanced at Sid. She was drinking in the hologram's words, as though the real Captain Sprager was speaking to her. It was merely JEM's interpretation of what she would have said, of course, based on the information in our memory banks. Nevertheless, these interactions always felt uncannily real.

'The knowledge that we aren't on our own in the universe has long been a comfort to our people. Even those who believe that an advanced alien race could pose a threat to our planet have admitted that the thought of being completely alone is equally terrifying.' Sid paused. 'They never did come to find us though. I wonder why.'

'Maybe they didn't develop as quickly as we thought,' I offered, 'or perhaps they forgot how to read the stars. Either way, three thousand years have passed, so I guess we're about to find out.'

Sprager's face disappeared and the front shield began to rise, allowing us to see outside.

Sid's eyes widened. 'Wow!'

There it was, in all its glory. It looked a lot bluer and didn't display anything like as much green as the hologram had suggested, but it was beautiful, none the less.

'It's almost like we're looking at home,' I declared. 'I can't wait to see what they've done with the place. Take us in, JEM.'

'With pleasure,' came her sultry reply.

'I don't understand.' Sid slowly followed me back inside the ship. 'Where is everyone?'

'I don't know,' I admitted. 'We've made forty two landings and we haven't found a single person to make Second Contact with. Sprager's maps don't make sense either. Some of the areas she listed as warm and fertile are parched and desolate. Others don't even exist, or they are completely submerged in water.'

I sat down and plugged the device I'd been carrying into the console. 'JEM, can you analyse the data I've collected and try and establish what's happened, please?'

'Yes Ryder, just give me a few moments.'

'Let's try one more set of co-ordinates,' begged Sid.

'I'm afraid there would be no point,' replied JEM.

With growing dismay, my eyes scanned the report that had appeared on my screen. I knew our own planet had almost followed that path, but it was long before First Contact with Azurra, and everyone had worked together to reverse the damage. Why hadn't they done the same?

'What happened?' Sid's eyes were welling with tears.

'Their world heated up,' replied JEM. 'There were droughts and floods. Much of the planet became submerged in water. Plants and wildlife died off and the remaining people slaughtered each other in a futile attempt to stay alive. The last of their records, entitled 23.58hrs 24/12/2191, reports forty three survivors, but they were gradually starving to death. That was three years ago.'

Grief-stricken, I stared directly at my screen. This was history, but not the kind I'd ever wanted to make. 'Log entry, Captain Ryder Tura of the HALO. I'm sorry to report that our attempt to make Second Contact on planet Azurra has failed. All lifeforms once in existence here have been wiped out, apparently by a disaster of their own making. Instead of evolving, the sentient beings we first encountered went onto destroy their own planet.  A planet they'd once called Earth.'