Curiosity

The blue-green planet filled Andy's viewscreen in an instant as he took his ship out of hyperwarp.  The alien planet looked superficially like Earth, with its vast oceans, one large contiguous land mass on one side, and a smaller one on the other, as well as many other smaller continents and islands.  But it wasn't in the same shapes or configurations he was familiar with back home.  

The probes had sent back enormous amounts of data prior to his actual arrival, detailing oxygen levels, potentially dangerous life forms (both visible and microbial airborne ones), and many other specifics, especially on the native species that was essentially the same as human beings on Earth.  It was almost like a parallel world, developing millions of miles away, around a different -- yet similar -- star.  Andy prepared his shuttle for the predetermined landing area, far away from any civilized area.  He didn't want to scare the human being-like creatures by coming down in an unknown craft that to them would have been magic, or some sort of god descending from heaven.

The humanlike creatures had reached a reasonable state of development, being roughly equal to a second century BCE human on Earth.  It had been determined that they believed in multiple gods, created art, had begun to learn rudimentary scientific understandings, and so on.  Andy and the Earth Space Administration (founded in 2087 after the unification of most countries under a single banner in response to the long Freedom Wars begun in 2024) were ready to see first hand what this world was like, and possibly have Andy integrate himself into one of the major cities close to where he was set to land to learn more about these beings.

Andy activated the automated controls of the shuttle and prepared for landing.  Going over his checklist to ensure a smooth landing and preparing to step out into a new world, Andy couldn't help but smile.

His smile quickly disappeared when he felt the ship suddenly shudder and rock from some sort of blast.  He had been hit by something, and rushed to the sensors to find out what.  High density plasma bolts were being fired at his vessel, each hitting and tearing apart the hull.  More blasts were going past him, hitting his main ship.

He watched helplessly as his main ship exploded, and then, before he could scream, his shuttle exploded.

"Was a transmission sent?"  A humanlike creature, hiding in an underground bunker on the planet's surface spoke in an odd, guttural language.  It was surrounded by technology more advanced than any available on Earth.

"None were detected.  No more of their probes were around, either," said another, slightly shorter humanoid.  It gestured wildly as it spoke.

"Sending the report now.  It appears our deception made them even more curious about us.  Unfortunate," the first one answered.  "I will suggest that we should change the virtual biological matrix to something much more... inhospitable."  

"Will that not make them even more curious?  Would they detect the difference and send more of their travelers here to explore, especially when they do not hear anything back from this one?"

"Chancellor Frox will make that determination.  I say it's at least worth a try."

"Very well."