A Second Venus

At first we assumed them as innocent. Our presumptions were wrong.

They descended from the clouds, at lightning speed, on a large rock. The impact was felt by us below ground. I was assisting a youth, who was having trouble sculpting shape from his mind. I shielded him from the blast as we were thrown from our upright position into a tangled web of arms and legs. The heat quickly rose. The room we were in was only partially dismantled, so I advised the boy to stay and tend to his wounds, as it would help him practice healing.

I hiked a few floors before I entered where most of civilian life was quartered. Several parts of the ceiling had collapsed blocking a few passages. Groups were still laughing and bartering and the elderly were quickly repairing the issues. No one had seemed to notice the heat although it’d become very pronounced in comparison to the floor I had left. I found my sister adding different compounds to water.

“Eserai, did you feel that?” I asked.

“I did,” she laughed as the ice she formed collapsed from pressure, “we all did, Desmin, it was probably just the tectonics again.”

I had considered this for a moment since we were no strangers to abrupt shaking from the plates beneath us shifting. Although it was never forceful enough to cause disruptions or disturb our balance.

“Well I was teaching when we were thwarted from our position, it’s also grown quite hot in the lower regions.”

“Yes I’m sure Desmin, it’s a bit hot here too actually. I’m sure it’s just the militia’s doing or maybe it’s creatures above us parading again!” She laughed and went back to compromising the water.

The bunkers we had placed underground were to minimize interaction with the wild life above. Tall beings with long necks, gnarly teeth and claws, jagged tough skin, and wingspans that stretched longer than our own bodies. Some ravaged others, some spent days reclined in sloth, reaching slowly for leaves of trees, swimming in shade. Before we sought refuge underground we would battle with these beings for recreation, their brawn however flourished in comparison to ours. And though our adults were able to fight, our rivals population grew large and began to threaten our youth, so we retreated into the shadowy depths below the surface. We occasionally left to get our fix of exotic treats for holidays, but eventually we found innovation with our burial.

Our buildings were designed as an inverted triangle, the head of our race sat at the pinnacle, the regal rarely left their quarter to interact with civilians. They remained tucked in a safe asylum without the nuisance of disruption. The general population was respectful of the nobles as they represented us to our neighboring communities. They would spend weeks away experimenting with their own talents to develop elements for us to create with. We found ways to mimic the fruit, meat, gases, liquids, and fabric we had remembered. Eventually, returning above ground seemed unnecessary.

I disregarded my sister’s ease and took it upon myself to ascend to the top. A certain miasma annoyed my senses as I approached the sector where we kept a cadre in case any problems with the life that lived above us arose.

As I entered a room I was surprised to find not a young group of militia but shrapnel.

I probed the floor for any bodily fluids, bone or missing ligaments and found nothing. The quarter was also dead silent aside from a indistinct rumbling that seemed to follow me despite my relocation.

On occasion the militia would sneak away to fight above ground. Most of our infantry was comprised of elders since they were the most acquired to battle. They would usually leave at night, watching stars flee their post in the sky. Instead of practicing with one another they often fought the life above and wore their skeletons as attire.

I paced about for a few more moments before realizing the rumbling was following me between rooms and the room I was in had become hazy.

I braced myself and climbed the few remaining floors that separated me from the surface.

The levels closest to the surface were used for agricultural and livestock experiments. Myriads of water, mineral and compost sat in arrangements according to the potential results. Livestock were violent depending on their parental roots so we kept them near the last corridor to the exterior.

I slipped down the hall, ignoring the incoherent murmurs of animals whimpering and into the room that contained the last staircase.

Prior to the happenings, I had been above only a handful of times, typically to harvest molten to teach the adolescents how to create building materials. I was never motivated to fight the beings above, instead I was rather appalled by their thunderous stomps.

I sprinted up the stairs, realizing the railing becoming fervent as I came to the hatch. I unlocked the latch and poked my head above.

I was met by the sound of screaming, rapid hot debris and calamity. Our militia was flush, running about their stomps striking the earth. I dissolved the composites floating around me into stone and rock to clear the rest of ascent.

I looked about to find the source of shrieking only to not find my people but something much smaller that struck a resemblance to us.

Their height was about that of my knee. Their hair and skin came in a variety of textures and colors. They were astonishingly petite, and by the fluid that was pouring from broken skin, fragile as well. Most were still descending from inside the rock. Its impact had left mediocre crater in the ground and the other beings that previously roamed the area were nowhere to be found. The atmosphere had grown humid, but not as a hot as what I had experienced below.

I turned to a servicemen unsettled by the distress on his face.

“What are these things?” I inquired, knowing that his knowledge was most likely little beyond my own.

“I-I have no idea, they crashed from the sky,” he replied, his skin was blemished from the ash, and dust that was still suspended in air.

I continued clearing the debris until a large mound of rock was formed and the smaller beings climbed it to make their sound clear.

“We are human, we come in curiosity of this planet. Our home Venus, was destroyed within the last millennium. We would like to establish residence here.”

The lot of us stood in awe. Their physique was similar to ours, even the sounds escaping their lips had a similar cadence.

I knelt to what appeared like a woman to our race.

She seemed taken aback by my height, and my ability to create matter, still she handed me an object that slid about on my finger.

“This is a locket, it was the last thing I managed to get home before we left. Venus is a planet fueled by love, and we represent that with a heart, all humans have one.”

It was obvious by their sluggish gait and wounds that we were not the same, though we would not know until later how much they countered us.

Soon after we had established communication, the head of our race, decided we would temporarily house the beings. They were not fond of living underground as they were sensitive of the environment.

We built a triangle for them, this housed their rock, which they frequented for the resources they had brought with them.

When they began to run out of resources, they met with us for more, which excited us.

We bred them their own livestock, and edible plants. They studied our methods of creation, becoming inquisitive with what they called “otherworldly power”.

They adopted a method of communication to ease the disparity in our tongues. They would illustrate depictions, to teach us of Venus, the planet in which they had fled, due to decay and heat.

“Unlike the powers your people possess, we descend from a common ancestor and evolve, our brains advance so while we lack strength, we build tools to assist us. Venus, was quite small, and we grew deprived fairly quickly. We noticed this planet a while ago, back home everyone called it “Eareth”. My father said that if this planet ever wasn’t applicable we would move to Mars, I’d consider ourselves lucky!”

Luck was not in our favor.

The humans began demanding labor from us, threatening our livelihood, stealing experiments we had allocated.

When we refused they began to use devices that they had developed during their time studying us.

Our youth were removed from our homes, and made to work, and even breed with the beings. What they lacked in stature they compensated for in weaponry and numbers. Our nobles and elders were slaughtered in groves, in public, as punishment for our insolence.

I was no longer allowed to make stone, or harvest molten. My sister was no longer allowed to compromise water, our experiments and military were dissolved.

I was to use all the substance to continue building their infrastructure. Our existence was to convenience their transition, while our livelihood was stifled and pirated.