Written: Thursday. September 12, 2019.
“Alright, settle down class.” Mr. Summers had just arrived Toby, Tom & Drew’s classroom. “We have a lot to catch up on. I want all of you to grab a piece of paper and write down these instructions.” He took a whiteboard marker out from his small EDC bag. EDC stands for Every Day Carry. You would put stuff there like your phone, a power bank, another phone, some flash drives, a few pens and markers, etc. Anything you would bring with you everyday is basically what you put in an EDC.
Mr. Summers went to the whiteboard and started to write with his marker, which seems to be a tad bit short of ink. “Damn, I could’ve sworn I re-filled this thing the other day.” He whispers to himself. A few students catch his use of profanity, and started giggling to themselves. “Sorry about that class. Remember to avoid such slurs.” He puts the cap back on his marker, puts it back inside his EDC. And heads towards the blackboard side of the wide board in front of the class.
“This guy’s a joke.” Tom tells his two pals. “How did we end up under him again this school year? I thought he left the faculty already to become — what was it again? A soldier? No…a doctor? No…that’s not it — “
“I think it was a Farmer.” Drew said, calmly.
“Yeah, that makes more sense.” Tom nodded, and started doodling on his piece of paper. “Hey, Janice,” he faced towards a girl next to him, “I think I’m gonna need another piece of paper, if you don’t mind?”
“It’s ‘June’.” Janice says.
“What? No it’s not. It’s February.”
“I meant my name.”
“What about your name?”
“Forget it!” Janice, or maybe June — Tom’s not sure — slices a piece of yellow paper from her pack. “Next time you mess up my name, you’ll pay for it.”
“Alright, how much for the next pieces?”
“What — no! I meant — ugh! Never mind!” June faces straight towards what Mr. Summers was writing, which wasn’t really much yet, because the man writes like a turtle.
“What do you think’s up with Julie, dudes?”
“Who’s Ju — “ Toby says, before he stops himself. “Look man, her name is June. She’s been our classmate for two years already.”
Tom looks at Toby confused. He looks at June (or Janice, or Julie. Or maybe February.), looks at Toby again, then looks at June one more time. After a few seconds, looks at Toby again, and shrugs at him.
“Jesus Christ, man.” Toby’s a bit annoyed, but there’s a bit of a smile at both ends of his lips. “How can both of you guys be so chill right now?”
“What do you mean?” Drew asked Toby.
“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’. You were the one who was panicking a while ago when Tom came late and brought that…thing that’s in his bag right now.”
“Okay,” Tom looked left and right, his eyes tense. “could you at least lower your voice before somebody hears you? I get it, man. It’s a metal ball from outer space. So what?”
“OUTER SPAC — “ Toby let out, before Drew dropped his pen, and placed his hand on Toby’s mouth. Though from the impact of his hand on Toby’s face, it turned out to be more of a slap rather than a clasp. Toby squealed under Drew’s hand.
“The only reason I am this calm,” Drew says to Toby, his eyes now directly plastered onto him, while Tom was now looking directly at Drew. Amazed, more than shocked at what had happened. “is because I too am well aware that Tom is carrying an unidentified circular object, that may or may not be from outer space.” When Drew had said Outer Space, Toby tried screaming it again, so Drew held on tighter. “But I also know that it would be the riskiest move for any of us to start panicking. Since we are in the middle of a class right now.”
Tom had a smile on his face, but kept silent the whole time. Toby knew that he was enjoying this.
“So let’s just get through this day until dismissal time — because recess and lunch would be too quick — and figure out what the hell that thing Tom brought with him. Together. Blink once if you understand.”
Toby blinked twice.
“He blink twice.” Tom said. “What does that mean?”
Drew took his hand off of Toby’s face.
Toby rubbed his mouth. He didn’t speak anything at all afterwards, either. He just grabbed his pen and paper, and started writing Mr Summers’ instructions.
Tom looked at both of his friends back and forth. None of them seemed interested in talking to one another. He patted June on the shoulder,
“What do you think’s up with them, Jean?”
“I hate you.”
On a very different, and quite far away planet. I guess if we’re talking light years, this planet, which we’ll refer to as Volga VII, is about light centuries away from Earth, the home-planet of our intrepid trio.
Volga VII is the seventh planet owned by the Volgans, a sentient race of bipeds that have similar features to the average human being, with a few slight differences. They are about 8 feet tall. Their feet only have two sides of, I guess, what passes off as their toes. Each toe is quite sharp, almost like a claw, but it doesn’t have sharp nails. It’s just pointy enough, but also allows them to sort of arch their feet into a claw formation, so that they could grab on to steeper parts of the mountains on their planet.
Their hands only have four sharp fingers. Again, just pointy enough that it could be used to slash their prey and deal piercing damage. But that doesn’t mean that they are the barbaric sort. They are actually quite intelligent. They are a race that has been prospering for almost ten times the amount of what humans have lived for already. Evolution is merely a mundane thing for them at this point. They can actually devolve themselves if they wanted to. After so many eons of trying to fully evolve their race, they have grown bored of it, and so treat it as nostalgia. Kind of like what humans do with their own eras of old. They go back to the 80’s or the 90’s of their whole racial existence.
But of course, years and months and days and, basically time itself, is unknown to the Volgans. They operate at such a level of precision and focus, that they have no use of the ethereal and otherwise antiquated — some would argue non-existent — concept of the old basic bitch known as time.
They speak a different language, of course. They speak in Volgan-tongue. Yes, they have tongues. But words in a story somehow have this magical way of translating their language to make it look like English.
“My Lady,” a somewhat small and feeble Volgan says to their superior, who is sitting on a throne. A floating throne, made out of rocks, metal, a slight bit of Greva, a mineral that can be found in Volga VII, which is the cause of why the throne could float a mere 3 feet off the ground. Which can also be controlled by Volgan minds. Not as an evolutionary trait, but as a binding spell of some sort, that is passed on to the race that victoriously claims the planet. Volga VII, which used to be called Omnia I, was succeeded by the Volgan army, and by the blood shed inside a cave found in the highest part of Mount Omnia. The planet is alive, in some sense of the term. It knows what is happening to itself at every moment.
When the one sitting on the throne doesn’t seem to be picking up the voice of their servant, the feeble servant repeats itself. “My Lady — “
The Superior, who stands from her throne, looks at her servant, “make this quick, Ervagh.”
“My Lady Veergha, there seems to be a disturbance coming from the planet Omnia — “
With the mentioning of the planet’s original name, Lady Veergha grabs Ervagh in the throat, “What did I say about uttering that meaningless word in my presence, child?”
“N-not to use it, m-my Lady?” Ervagh accomplishes to say under Lady Veergha’s hold. She lets go of his throat. Ervagh rubs it, and continues, “What I meant, my Lady, was that there seemed to be a slight disturbance within the Planet Omn — I mean, Volgan VII’s core.”
“What kind of disturbance?”
“Well, you see my Lady, the planet, since it does have it’s own brain — if we could properly even call it that — and knows what happens to it almost every moment…well, see — “
“Spill it out, Ervagh! I have work needed to be done.”
Ervagh, looking at Lady Veergha confusedly, as he recalled seeing her doing nothing at all when he had arrived at her presence, dismissed the thought, and said to her, “The planet…it sent out the Orbs!”
“WHAT?” Veergha shouted, “What do you mean it sent out the Orbs? It sent out all of it?”
“Yes, my Lady, my savior, my only leader.” Ervagh knelt in front of her.
Ervagh tapped on his forehead, and raised his hand towards Lady Veergha, who leaned down close enough for her forehead to touch Ervagh’s hand. Then she saw visions of Ervagh’s thoughts. Ervagh lead her to his memory of seeing the Mount Omnia Cave suddenly glowing. Then the visions changed. Veergha was now inside the cave, seeing through Ervagh’s eyes, only that this was a past memory, not a live feed. They could do that too, but that’s a story for another time.
The Orbs are placed inside the Cave. The Volgans knew nothing of the Orbs, only that these artifacts were placed there by a species long forgotten. Not the species they had executed in order to win this planet and claim it as their seventh one, but a very ancient race of sentient beings.
The Orbs glowed, like they never did before, or ever, they wouldn’t know. It never glowed like that since their reign. But now, it glowed, and it started to hover towards the outside of the cave.
Veergha, in the body of a past Ervagh, followed the Orbs, until they all flew at an incredible speed…towards the skies…towards space.
Lady Veergha snapped herself out of the vision. Ervagh seemed tired after the memory-sharing session, and was about to black out, when Veergha caught him. “Ervagh, where were the Orbs headed?”
Ervagh didn’t seem to respond, his eyes fixed towards the skies.
“Ervagh, talk to me child!”
“…it was…headed…towards…the Terran…planet…”
Lady Veergha slowly looked towards the Omnian skies.
“Which one?”
“Alright, settle down class.” Mr. Summers had just arrived Toby, Tom & Drew’s classroom. “We have a lot to catch up on. I want all of you to grab a piece of paper and write down these instructions.” He took a whiteboard marker out from his small EDC bag. EDC stands for Every Day Carry. You would put stuff there like your phone, a power bank, another phone, some flash drives, a few pens and markers, etc. Anything you would bring with you everyday is basically what you put in an EDC.
Mr. Summers went to the whiteboard and started to write with his marker, which seems to be a tad bit short of ink. “Damn, I could’ve sworn I re-filled this thing the other day.” He whispers to himself. A few students catch his use of profanity, and started giggling to themselves. “Sorry about that class. Remember to avoid such slurs.” He puts the cap back on his marker, puts it back inside his EDC. And heads towards the blackboard side of the wide board in front of the class.
“This guy’s a joke.” Tom tells his two pals. “How did we end up under him again this school year? I thought he left the faculty already to become — what was it again? A soldier? No…a doctor? No…that’s not it — “
“I think it was a Farmer.” Drew said, calmly.
“Yeah, that makes more sense.” Tom nodded, and started doodling on his piece of paper. “Hey, Janice,” he faced towards a girl next to him, “I think I’m gonna need another piece of paper, if you don’t mind?”
“It’s ‘June’.” Janice says.
“What? No it’s not. It’s February.”
“I meant my name.”
“What about your name?”
“Forget it!” Janice, or maybe June — Tom’s not sure — slices a piece of yellow paper from her pack. “Next time you mess up my name, you’ll pay for it.”
“Alright, how much for the next pieces?”
“What — no! I meant — ugh! Never mind!” June faces straight towards what Mr. Summers was writing, which wasn’t really much yet, because the man writes like a turtle.
“What do you think’s up with Julie, dudes?”
“Who’s Ju — “ Toby says, before he stops himself. “Look man, her name is June. She’s been our classmate for two years already.”
Tom looks at Toby confused. He looks at June (or Janice, or Julie. Or maybe February.), looks at Toby again, then looks at June one more time. After a few seconds, looks at Toby again, and shrugs at him.
“Jesus Christ, man.” Toby’s a bit annoyed, but there’s a bit of a smile at both ends of his lips. “How can both of you guys be so chill right now?”
“What do you mean?” Drew asked Toby.
“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’. You were the one who was panicking a while ago when Tom came late and brought that…thing that’s in his bag right now.”
“Okay,” Tom looked left and right, his eyes tense. “could you at least lower your voice before somebody hears you? I get it, man. It’s a metal ball from outer space. So what?”
“OUTER SPAC — “ Toby let out, before Drew dropped his pen, and placed his hand on Toby’s mouth. Though from the impact of his hand on Toby’s face, it turned out to be more of a slap rather than a clasp. Toby squealed under Drew’s hand.
“The only reason I am this calm,” Drew says to Toby, his eyes now directly plastered onto him, while Tom was now looking directly at Drew. Amazed, more than shocked at what had happened. “is because I too am well aware that Tom is carrying an unidentified circular object, that may or may not be from outer space.” When Drew had said Outer Space, Toby tried screaming it again, so Drew held on tighter. “But I also know that it would be the riskiest move for any of us to start panicking. Since we are in the middle of a class right now.”
Tom had a smile on his face, but kept silent the whole time. Toby knew that he was enjoying this.
“So let’s just get through this day until dismissal time — because recess and lunch would be too quick — and figure out what the hell that thing Tom brought with him. Together. Blink once if you understand.”
Toby blinked twice.
“He blink twice.” Tom said. “What does that mean?”
Drew took his hand off of Toby’s face.
Toby rubbed his mouth. He didn’t speak anything at all afterwards, either. He just grabbed his pen and paper, and started writing Mr Summers’ instructions.
Tom looked at both of his friends back and forth. None of them seemed interested in talking to one another. He patted June on the shoulder,
“What do you think’s up with them, Jean?”
“I hate you.”
* * *
On a very different, and quite far away planet. I guess if we’re talking light years, this planet, which we’ll refer to as Volga VII, is about light centuries away from Earth, the home-planet of our intrepid trio.
Volga VII is the seventh planet owned by the Volgans, a sentient race of bipeds that have similar features to the average human being, with a few slight differences. They are about 8 feet tall. Their feet only have two sides of, I guess, what passes off as their toes. Each toe is quite sharp, almost like a claw, but it doesn’t have sharp nails. It’s just pointy enough, but also allows them to sort of arch their feet into a claw formation, so that they could grab on to steeper parts of the mountains on their planet.
Their hands only have four sharp fingers. Again, just pointy enough that it could be used to slash their prey and deal piercing damage. But that doesn’t mean that they are the barbaric sort. They are actually quite intelligent. They are a race that has been prospering for almost ten times the amount of what humans have lived for already. Evolution is merely a mundane thing for them at this point. They can actually devolve themselves if they wanted to. After so many eons of trying to fully evolve their race, they have grown bored of it, and so treat it as nostalgia. Kind of like what humans do with their own eras of old. They go back to the 80’s or the 90’s of their whole racial existence.
But of course, years and months and days and, basically time itself, is unknown to the Volgans. They operate at such a level of precision and focus, that they have no use of the ethereal and otherwise antiquated — some would argue non-existent — concept of the old basic bitch known as time.
They speak a different language, of course. They speak in Volgan-tongue. Yes, they have tongues. But words in a story somehow have this magical way of translating their language to make it look like English.
“My Lady,” a somewhat small and feeble Volgan says to their superior, who is sitting on a throne. A floating throne, made out of rocks, metal, a slight bit of Greva, a mineral that can be found in Volga VII, which is the cause of why the throne could float a mere 3 feet off the ground. Which can also be controlled by Volgan minds. Not as an evolutionary trait, but as a binding spell of some sort, that is passed on to the race that victoriously claims the planet. Volga VII, which used to be called Omnia I, was succeeded by the Volgan army, and by the blood shed inside a cave found in the highest part of Mount Omnia. The planet is alive, in some sense of the term. It knows what is happening to itself at every moment.
When the one sitting on the throne doesn’t seem to be picking up the voice of their servant, the feeble servant repeats itself. “My Lady — “
The Superior, who stands from her throne, looks at her servant, “make this quick, Ervagh.”
“My Lady Veergha, there seems to be a disturbance coming from the planet Omnia — “
With the mentioning of the planet’s original name, Lady Veergha grabs Ervagh in the throat, “What did I say about uttering that meaningless word in my presence, child?”
“N-not to use it, m-my Lady?” Ervagh accomplishes to say under Lady Veergha’s hold. She lets go of his throat. Ervagh rubs it, and continues, “What I meant, my Lady, was that there seemed to be a slight disturbance within the Planet Omn — I mean, Volgan VII’s core.”
“What kind of disturbance?”
“Well, you see my Lady, the planet, since it does have it’s own brain — if we could properly even call it that — and knows what happens to it almost every moment…well, see — “
“Spill it out, Ervagh! I have work needed to be done.”
Ervagh, looking at Lady Veergha confusedly, as he recalled seeing her doing nothing at all when he had arrived at her presence, dismissed the thought, and said to her, “The planet…it sent out the Orbs!”
“WHAT?” Veergha shouted, “What do you mean it sent out the Orbs? It sent out all of it?”
“Yes, my Lady, my savior, my only leader.” Ervagh knelt in front of her.
Ervagh tapped on his forehead, and raised his hand towards Lady Veergha, who leaned down close enough for her forehead to touch Ervagh’s hand. Then she saw visions of Ervagh’s thoughts. Ervagh lead her to his memory of seeing the Mount Omnia Cave suddenly glowing. Then the visions changed. Veergha was now inside the cave, seeing through Ervagh’s eyes, only that this was a past memory, not a live feed. They could do that too, but that’s a story for another time.
The Orbs are placed inside the Cave. The Volgans knew nothing of the Orbs, only that these artifacts were placed there by a species long forgotten. Not the species they had executed in order to win this planet and claim it as their seventh one, but a very ancient race of sentient beings.
The Orbs glowed, like they never did before, or ever, they wouldn’t know. It never glowed like that since their reign. But now, it glowed, and it started to hover towards the outside of the cave.
Veergha, in the body of a past Ervagh, followed the Orbs, until they all flew at an incredible speed…towards the skies…towards space.
Lady Veergha snapped herself out of the vision. Ervagh seemed tired after the memory-sharing session, and was about to black out, when Veergha caught him. “Ervagh, where were the Orbs headed?”
Ervagh didn’t seem to respond, his eyes fixed towards the skies.
“Ervagh, talk to me child!”
“…it was…headed…towards…the Terran…planet…”
Lady Veergha slowly looked towards the Omnian skies.
“Which one?”
End of Chapter.
* * *
* * *
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