Part 1
Story:
Narrator: A very long, long time ago. A kingdom or, in fact, a city reaching to the heavens. Belonging to the Ancients, a people who worship progress, were decimated. Only a few of them survived. Those staying during the invasion in its secret underground laboratories as well as units from the surface captured into slavery. As an act of higher grace and reluctance to exterminate their race altogether. Because none of them had any intention of surrendering.
The reason for a neighboring kingdom to launch an attack on them, was the discovery of the main pillar of their kingdom. Pillar, which was the ruthless pursuit of immortality. Without bothering with morality, even during the cruelest research or experiments.
Soon after, the survivors in the city’s underground. Decided to become a ghosts. They unanimously left the ruins of their city. Under cover of the night, in order to rebuild their infrastructure a dozen years later. In a previously found cave complex lying deep underground. A place that was to remain forever undiscovered.
However, they did not stop there. Their plans from the beginning reached much further. Further than the orbit of the last planet of the Stella system. A consequence of their ambition, after another dozen years they completed the construction of the ark. In order to decide later at one of the meetings, that they would set off in it to the planet CX-621 in the ZCX-69 star system. Moments later they hastily named, the planet Evi in the New Hope system.
Finally, they took a very long flight stocked to the teeth. In particular, with hundreds of incubators and countless Human gametes. Their goal was to establish their own civilization. Civilization that not only having nothing against their goals and aspirations, but also putting their hand to them.
For hundreds of years after landing on Evi, their civilization developed and grew rapidly. Research and experiments progressed and the life expectancy of those living as well as new generations increased. The great breakthrough and future curse, however, was the rise of the Evian Furaces, as a result of one of their…
Over time, the galloping and no longer stoppable collapse of civilization. Carried out in the flames of a race war between Humans and Furaces. Forced the Ancients to abandon their work for the sake of their own future. They then also began to recruit and train two groups, Humans and Furaces to settle the neighboring planet. Also offering to save their families and take them as civilians. And also the possibility of creating a new civilization where they would live in harmony. And in the future, maybe even a chance to save what’s left of Evi.
As soon as the ark left Evi. The group of Humans “Pioneers” commanded by Alison, as well as the Furaces “Moon Dog” by Hollow. Lay down to cryogenic sleep with dreams of colonizing the new planet and liberating Evi from the shackles of war whenever it is possible. However, the Ancients made the then still unclear decision to change course to Urudrima against the will and knowledge of the others. Abandoning Evi to its fate….
Thus, after drifting for millennia, the ark with the newly given name “Prodigal”. Written just above the crossed-out “Eternity” with a question mark added at the end as well. Reached the orbit of Urudrima. Returning after tens of thousands of years to the promised land of the Aura galaxy.
Hollow: An hour ago, Alison and I were automatically awakened from cryogenic sleep. The procedure began after the ark reached orbit around our target, Urudrima. Fortunately, the awakening process was completely successful. Thus, we were able to use the remaining time buffer to begin our descent to the planet’s surface for sleep. For it so happened that we lay down last time to sleep in the “freezers” nightmarishly sleep-deprived and, contrary to its name, cryogenic sleep unfortunately has nothing to do with sleep. It freezes in time not only you but also your fatigue and lack of will to live.
However, before we lay down, we realized that the Ancients had already left the ark in escape pods. Of course, we were not informed of this. But that did not change our plans and the fact that we were to be responsible for the landing. Knowing them and life, they left to get milk and we won’t see them again this time. After all, they mentioned that they had a hideout on another planet in this system and on Urudrima they were wanted by the mages for some, what did they say, masonry? Anyway, never mind that.
Narrator: Hollow as well as Alison fell asleep literally moments after putting their heads to the pillows.
Hollow: *Sniff, sniff* I’m woken up by that damn coffee smell again. Apparently it’s time to get up. I have no idea how these Humans can drink this crap. *Stretches* Well, now all I have to do is get dressed in this disgusting white outfit and survive Laura’s landing on this planet….
– *Enters the canteen gloomy, says while loudly yawning* Heeey, Alison.
– *Smiling* Hello Hollow, I hope you had an equally good sleep. We have the most difficult stage of our mission ahead of us.
– I haven’t slept this “well” since the conservation 150 years ago. Let’s eat something and get it over with. I’m not going to die in a air crash while hungry.
– Did you get up with your left paw? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you so pessimistic.
– You know, somehow I don’t have confidence in this artificial intelligence. Autopilot may be great from the very start until you rush into something on a collision course. Especially if it’s a planet, *She starts gesticulating, talking faster and faster while softly raising his tone* which you won’t quickly manually evade because you’re landing on it and all that’s left is the quiet hope that you won’t end the day flat as a pancake. *She takes a deep breath and calms down instantly*.
– Oh, you are exaggerating, I liked Laura, I think she is more than just an artificial intelligence. Sometimes she happened to speak completely as if she were a human, especially immediately after resets or starts….
– Yeah, right… *While suggestively rolling her eyes she expressed her reluctance to continue the conversation*.
Alison: I am glad that this mission is coming to an end. In the beginning, despite her professionalism, she was much more cheerful and pleasant. And now she sits staring at me with that blank stare, while sipping that favorite pineapple juice of hers, as if it were the thing she hates most in life. Maybe it’s the cryogenic sleep or maybe it’s from such a long trip? All in all, we only didn’t sleep for about a year. Maybe all it takes is a little contact with people after we land and we’ll be back to normal. Because I also no longer feel like the same person I was before the mission….
– You know what, let’s maybe go in advance to see what the situation is in the autopilot control room.
– *She lisped with a straw in her mouth* Okhay.
Narrator: They then proceeded in grave silence down the long corridor to the control room. They were accompanied only by the occasional sound of Hollow slurping and, consequently, the echoes that followed.
At its very end, the massive titanium doors slid open. While doing so, it made a shrill sound of clanking metal, reminding of their impending maintenance.
Laura:
– *Robotic voice* Welcome crew to the autopilot control room. Should I start preparing for landing in advance?
Hollow:
– Let’s get this over with. Yes.
– I’m starting the preparation, landing will be possible in about 10 minutes.
Narrator: After a moment of standing in silence and staring at the planet. An audible alarm sounded, scaring girls and informing them that the system was suspended, that is, Laura. Alison quickly checked the seriousness of the malfunction.
Narrator: Immediately afterwards, they both ran down to the manual control room. They had one common thought in their minds, live to see the evening. Because just at that moment, Stella began to lean out from behind the horizon and it’s first rays began to fall on the area chosen as the landing site….
Trivia:
1. Hollow was accidentally conceived as well as born on one of Evi’s three moons. During a year-long preparatory mission for the construction of a moon base. She received her name with the naming of that moon in the same way. Because under the surface of which a mass of huge empty chambers was detected. Unfortunately, it was never possible to investigate them further due to the conflict. Her appearance differs significantly from that of her parents or younger brother. It has been speculated that this was influenced by pregnancy in an extreme environment and perhaps even some mysterious influence of that moon.
2. The name of the “Moon Dog” Furaces group led by Hollow was registered by her best friend and deputy Nicole Foxhole as a joke. Hollow did not speak to her for a week after the fact.
3. Laura is an artificial intelligence created by Antares, the leader of the Ancients. He named her so recognizing her victory when she began to outgrow his intellectual capabilities. That’s when he installed her in the ark along with the restraints.
Bonus content:
The Ark was mainly constructed of titanium and its alloys. In turn, a ceramic heat shield was attached to the hull, separated from it by a partial vacuum and also other insulators in the form of foil. However, the physical protection of the ark is only an emergency application. For at the heart of its shielding not only against the friction of atmospheres during landings but also micrometeorites and other potential hazards of open space is a core filled with high-quality liquid magic crystals.
Through an elaborate circulatory system, this peculiar fluid reaches under the surface of the thinnest layers of outer armor to transform the transported magical energy into energy shields at any time with the help of runic activators, providing protection against almost all possible threats. The estimated probability of safe flight over the distance from Urudrima to Evi as well as in the other direction was 99.7%. For the Ancients had already assumed their return at the beginning.
Once upon a time when Nicole, along with Alison’s deputy, Nick, were not in cryogenic sleep. The Ark was bombarded by a large swarm of micrometeorites. From her reports, there was a truly horrific atmosphere on the ship. While the defense system began to pump the magical liquid more and more intensively while significantly increasing its exploitation. Throughout the ark, the severe disruptions caused by the magical energy being released caused the lighting to blink and dim intensely, and the shrill clackle of almost overloaded pipes made her fur bristle. While she always at least pretended to be brave when telling this to Hollow. Hollow had no doubt about her horror at that moment and her own luck at having slept it.
In turn, the limited magical resource of the ark is replenished during the distance traveled by means of a system that works similarly to gills. The ark is equipped with pull-out aggregates of virtual particles of magical energy. They have an extremely powerful magical field that allows them to bind and absorb these particles to recharge the core.
So far, it has not yet been discovered where the first magical particles and the resulting clusters of magical matter came from. What is known, however, is that these, after exceeding a fairly small critical mass, instead of disintegrating and returning to a hypothetical place called the magic dimension, begin to aggregate magic energy or also particles, depending on your own form.
The probability of the appearance of magical virtual particles and virtual particles of magical energy is higher the lower the density of classical matter on the micro scale. Its increase is also influenced by the increasing density of the two. The binding range of these virtual entities is seemingly small, because, for example, a deposit deep below the surface of the planet only causes its own growth, but in reality particles that can appear at a much greater distance simply appear in very close proximity to the deposit. Thus, detecting the intensity of magical virtual particles is one effective way of finding magical deposits. In the vicinity of such also magical items have a much lower passive power regeneration.