The Book of Petch

Petch couldn't peel his black eyes away from the sky. Kelgus was smoldering in some places and burning in others. Whatever had scorched it had also appeared to melt it rock in certain places. As far as Petch could remember of his youth studies, Kelgus was home to mostly flora and fauna. The Sorian Order had sent probes to the planet several times over the last fifty or sixty years as well as a couple landing missions, but the geographic study of the planet as well as the study of plant and animal life suggested that intelligent life such as primitive tribes or civilizations, didn't exist. As every species that lived in Olna now seemed to be on the city beach staring up, Petch's left wrist lit up which he touched with the first finger of his other hand. This generated a holoscreen with Jedro's face on it.

"Did you see it?" asked Jedro

“I did” said Petch. “What might have caused this?”

“I am unsure. It looks to me as if something was traveling at faster than light speeds toward Kelgus.” said Pedro

“It looked like a beam to me.” said Petch. “What makes you think it was an object?”

“You should review your studies more often brother. If you did you’d know that there is no one in our star system capable of building a beam weapon other than right here on Cyloc. This didn’t come up from our planet. It crossed our sky. It was fired from somewhere.” said Jedro.

“But why burn everything on a planet that had only plant live and animal species?” asked Petch.

“That is why I’m calling you. The Sorian Order has activated an expedition and our universarium is chosen. We are part of the science initiative to investigate what happened. It is part of our duty as citizens.” said Jedro.

“I’ve never been off planet.” said Petch. I don’t know the first thing about space travel”.

“Fortunately for you, I have. Before you were born and when I was a child, I was part of an orbital expedition arranged between my elementarium and The Order to go with fifteen other students to learn and discuss the various parts of Cylok and their histories.” said Jedro.

“Where should I go?” asked Petch

“I will meet you in the lobby of your student tower.” said Jedro. “I believe this expedition will be run by the Olnian Navy. They control our space transports and frigates. The order will provide us with what we need for this expedition and so there is no need to pack anything.”

“I will be there soon.’ said Petch. His brother nodded and the screen on Petch’s arm disappeared.

Petch got back on the hyper transport and ten minutes later he walked into his dorm tower to find his slightly taller brother waiting for him.

“We are to report to Sorian Hub One in central Olna.” said Jedro

“Hub One? Isn’t that where the order council is housed? This expedition must be important” said Petch.

“That is what I understood when Cleric Bunta contacted me about this.” said Jedro

“The Chief Cleric?” asked Petch as his black eyes widened.

“Yes.” said Jedro. “Highly abnormal in being contacted by her but not unheard of. Please do your best not to scan her thoughts unless she gives you permission. The order is made up of every species living in Olna and they all do their best to respect each others cultural differences as well as physical and mental capabilities.”

Petch nodded in understanding.

The two brothers boarded the hyper transport to the city center staring out the window at the shiny silvery bulbous towers of Olna. Petch had never been to the cities center before. As the transport got closer it wasn’t hard to make out Hub One. It was the only structure in the city that wasn’t a tower of some kind. It was a shiny black structure circular in shape with lights from the many floors. In comparison to the liquid metal buildings that surrounded it, Hub One was built with solid metal. It was much older than the towers of Olna. It was also the largest structure in the city. It was very large and could be seen from space as a big black circle amongst the shiny twinkle tops of the silvery towers surrounding it. Hub One didn’t just house The Order of course. It was the central seat of government for Olna and it housed and trained the Sorian Army and Navy as well as all of the district leaders of Olna. Since Olna covered most of the Estian continent, there was a lot to govern. The hyper transport arrived at the tunneled station of Hub One. Petch couldn’t help but admire the structure. He had never seen a wall he couldn’t walk through or anything with doors really. The interior reminded him of structures depicted in Alkian ancestral stories. Millions of years ago, Alkians had to walk up structures by slightly elevated steps and had to physically open and close doors to access different building segments. Cities upon cities built in solid metals. Hub One reminded him of ancestral history.

Cleric Bunta was waiting on the station platform. She was a Calpan. Her species was a minority in Olna but respected all the same. She was short and pudgy as was her species. She was actually considered thin by the standards of her Calpan peers. She didn’t have a neck but she had stubby legs, stubby arms, two holes on either side for ears and tubules that came up from her face and seated two green eyeballs with black centers for pupils. She was dressed in the robe of her culture. It was brown in color with gold trimmings.

“I’ll allow you another moment to stare.” said Bunta as her eyeball tubes were moving up and down looking at Petch. “Understandable if you’ve never seen a Calpan.”

Petch didn’t speak as he was still trying to comprehend what he was looking at.

“Forgive my brother.” said Jedro. “He has never seen a Calpan. I however went to school with three of them. On behalf of the Second Olnian Universarium, it is a pleasure to meet you in person.”

The cleric looked at Jedro only scanning him quickly and chuckled. Her whole short body jiggled.

“I take no offense.” said Bunta. “Even to other species in this city, the sight of us can take some getting used to. Welcome to Hub One. I’m afraid we’ll need to dispense with pleasantries. The orbital transport is fueled and I need to brief you both. Please follow me.”

The brothers followed her up the stairs off the platform and two doors that slid open on their own. Petch had been silent since the train but he then got the courage to ask a burning question based from his studies.

“Forgive me cleric. I must ask you.” said Petch

“Please do.” said Bunta

“Hub One is the only solid structure in Olna. It reminds me of my ancestral studies of solid structures used in their civilizations. I feel like I’m walking through very old history.” said Petch

“You have every right to feel that way.” said Bunta as they continued walking. “This building WAS Olna thousands of years ago. It was built by Alkians. The city existed in this one structure. There are tens of thousands of compartmental structures within this building that don’t just end at pass level. They run underground too. The Order was small back then only taking the top levels of this structure. There is still much of this building that is still unused despite our defense forces living and training here.”

“I had suspected Alkian design for a long time but when I brought this up with my instructors they told me that I was incorrect.” said Jedro.

“That is sadly typical of our educational system.” said Bunta. “Our instructors have become ignorant to certain histories of our society and part of that is because many have never been in this structure. There will be many who never venture to our center even though they are free to do so. I’ve invited elementarium and universarium instructors alike to spend a week here with our historians however they have never accepted my offer.”

Petch and Jedro followed Cleric Bunta into another room off the main hall. It was small and colored in the same black metal as the building. There was a black table in the center of the room. Bunta was so short that only her eye tubes reached over the table. She closed her eye lids and started touching buttons on the table with her tubes. A hologram of Kelgus came up. Its scorched image was hard to look at. Only a few hours ago, the planet was green. Petch grew up looking into the sky during the day time to see the faded green outline. Kelgus was beautiful but not anymore.

Bunta looked at the image as it rotated. A red line now poked the planet like a stick.

“We believe that this is the center of impact.” said Bunta pointing at a large amber orange crater on the planet. “Its understood that there is no way to access this as it is too dangerous, however we believe that you can collect samples of the crater run off in the lava streams that have been created off the crater center. They are everywhere on the planet now. We believe that a sample of this will tell us what may have caused this.”

“We need to learn why this happened.” said Petch

“Collecting this sample will allow us to work backwards to revealing that answer” said Jedro looking at his brother.

“You will collect a sample, take it back aboard the frigate Nastas and use the lab there to determine what the cause of this was.” said Bunta. “Once you have a conclusion, please contact me. As for the origin this couldn’t have been a beam weapon. This was launched at faster than light speeds. We believe it was a projectile weapon. Possibly a warhead of some advanced design.”

Jedro touched a control on the table and watched the playback of the planet being hit.

“This was definitely a faster than light projectile however it is hard to determine if it came from outside of our solar system.” said Jedro.

“Study that part later.” said Bunta. “Everything you need to collect your samples will be on the frigate. Time is precious and quite frankly the rest of the council is in a panic. For now the panic is contained. This understood, Olnians will start demanding answers.”

“Very well. We are ready to proceed.” said Jedro

“Your transport is ready.” said Bunta.

The two brothers followed the cleric to a central elevator in the vast main hall of the building that had a cylindrical structure that disappeared into the top interior. Bunta, Petch and Jedro entered the cylindrical elevator and went up quickly. The doors opened to a flat platform that was large and wide. Petch looked around wondering where the transport was. There was nothing on the platform. Off in the distance a large structure emerged from the platform. It looked to be a cannon of some kind. The cleric and the brothers walked towards it. As they got closer they noticed an entrance at the base of the cannon similar to the elevator doors they just exited. Bunta stopped just ahead of the structure.

“This is where I leave you.” said Bunta. “This is what we call a jump shot. There is a transport pod inside. You will need to secure yourselves with the magnetic restraints. The transport is similar to that of a frigate escape pod. This pod will be captured by the frigate Nastas which will travel to Kelgus at sub light. Captain Seras is awaiting your arrival. Report to him once you’ve docked.”

The two brothers nodded to Bunta and walked towards the jump shot. Once inside the well lit pod with the white interior, the magnetic restraints emerged from their seats and harnessed both brothers in across the waste and over their shoulders. The two doors closed. Outside, the structure rotated with the jumpsuit barrel aimed at the night sky. Seconds later the pod streaked out of the jump shot and the pod thrusters fired.