The Book of Petch

In the Andromeda Galaxy on the tip of the fourth spire sits a white star system called Xeros with eight planets. Velga, Orith, Mithra, Kelgus, Cylok, Ruha, Leflos and Besra. Of these planets, five of the eight are inhabited by life. Velga, Mithra, Cylok, Ruha and Besra. Of these planets, the star system is of individual planetary governance with Cylok being the most advanced in spacefaring technology and the largest planet in the system and home to over one hundred different civilizations and a population of nearly one trillion sentients. The radiation from the white sun interacts with the atmosphere to give the sky a purple color only seen in daylight hours. Sitting on the western hemisphere of Cylok is the city of Olna. From the sky, the curved and oddly shaped buildings give off a shiny hematite glow and the city is nearly 2000 miles long in every direction. Olna is part of the continent of Estia. The Estian continent is nearly thirty percent of the planets surface and the largest continent. The city of Olna is one of four cities on the continent to be part of the Sorian order. A governance which ensures that everyone from the any planet in the Xeros system receives everything they need including a good education to serve a purpose in maintaining the cities harmonious civilization. One of the species that lives in Olna are humanoid and derive from ancestry that migrated from the Milky Way galaxy some two million years before, though historians aren't sure where to be exact. The humanoid race known as Alkians are highly evolved. They are generally grey in color with skin that shows transparency to their skeletons. Their eyes are wide and black with tiny nostrils for noses and very small mouths. Their arms and legs are smaller and thinner as they are mostly oblivious to the planets gravitational pull. It is the 8th day of Estias in the twelfth year of Cylo. Two Alkians have just emerged from the wall of Enkus Universerium. A school that specializes in the telekinetic sciences. Jedro is the taller of the two Alkians and is proudly wearing his golden cetra (plated necklace) with a smile on his face. The shorter Alkian is Petch who wears a silver cetra around his neck. Petch beings to speak telepathically.

"I wish that I could....."

"No. Use the old tongue and speak." said Jedro. "You wish that you could...."

"I wish that I could have earned the Enkus Chief Cetra this cycle. I've worked so very hard for it. You've earned it two cycles in a row." Petch's big black eyes stared at Jedro with misunderstanding.

"You could have earned it this cycle if you hadn't orated one word of the pledge in telepathy." Said Jedro. "I realize it is easy to slip from the tongue back into conversation of the mind and in regular conversation outside this universerium, that would be completely acceptable. But, the tongue is our ancestral way and we must preserve the tradition young one."

Petch lowered his head in shame. Jedro gently put his hand under Petch's narrow chin and smiled with his thin mouth.

"The fact that you only earned the Enkus Mid Cetra shouldn't be seen as something shameful little brother. There are many you school with who try for any cetra cycle after cycle and never earn the honor their whole time at universarium.

This cheered Petch up just a little. The two brothers crossed the pass (street) to their dorm towers. They were hour glass curved and shiny against the sun such as most of the buildings in Olna.

"My instruction is complete for the day." said Petch. "We should take hyper transport to the coast and watch Xero set behind the ocean. The reflection is beautiful and I haven't seen it in a long time with the high demand of my studies."

"Feel free to go on your own." said Jedros. "I must return home to help mother with the last of the harvest."

"I thought the harvest wasn't for another cycle" said Petch

"With the mercury in the oceans temperature dropping more and more every year, the firegrain has to be harvested sooner before the flame on the stalk extinguishes." said Jedros. "Mother cannot complete it by herself since fathers passing."

"I can help." said Petch. "Father showed me so many times when he was alive. I can save the sunset for later."

"No little brother. Go enjoy it. You have had your face buried in those nestrums (information tablets) and you should enjoy a change of pace." said Jedros. "Besides, you need to be at least one hundred years of age before the order would permit you to assist in a harvest. You know this."

"Very well" said Petch. "May the light of Xeros see you safely home."

Jedros nodded and stepped onto the hoverbus that pulled up the pass from the lower bowels of the city.

Petch walked though the entrance wall to his dormitory tower, got in the elevation tube and blipped up to his tiny room at the very top of the tower. He put down the nestrums he had under his arm and looked at his reflection in the wall. The cetra wasn't golden but he smiled at the achievement he wore all the same. He took it off and set it around his jewelry orb and took the elevation tube down a few floors to the hyper transport station. The silvery windowed sleek looking train stopped and Petch walked through the trains wall and sat next to the large open window. By hoverbus or floatcar it would take two days to get to Olna's southern coast but that was for Olnian residents who wanted to make a small trip out of it. The hyper transport could get someone to the coast in ten minutes. With the sun beginning to drop, this was the fastest way for Petch not to miss it. The buildings of the city rushed by so fast that the blurry grey hue of the buildings seemed to offset the purple atmosphere in an almost beautiful blend of color. When the train stopped at the sector two station, Petch got off, took the elevation tube down to the pass level and then crossed the pass onto the sparkly blue sand. Petch walked down to the shiny mercury shore and let the shiny metal substance flow over his toes. For just a moment, Petch had the shiniest feet. The mercury was warm against his skin. He hadn't missed it. Xeros was setting behind the metallic ocean. The white sun seemed to be extra bright as the last of it disappeared behind the horizon. He turned around to see the many curved towers of Olna illuminated by the reflection of the many windows of the dwellings, and places of trade and commerce. As the night sky revealed itself, Petch could see the miniature pinwheel of his ancestral galaxy known as the Milky Way. In his 30th year of life, Petch learned that in many billions of years, his own galaxy would collide with his ancestral galaxy. With Xeros now set, Petch could see the suns illumination of the green planet Kelgus. As he looked closer, he narrowed his eyes in time to see a white beam shoot across the sky and hit the green planet. At first, there was no effect but then from the origin of where the beam hit, a ring of amber began to scorch the planet. The ring got bigger leaving a marble like mixture of ember and black rock. It was only a matter of minutes but Kelgus had gone from green and beautiful to as black as space with parts of it smoldering. Petch hadn't noticed that all around him it seemed that every Olnian was now standing on the beach of blue sand, looking up in horror.