I was a civilian passenger on the N.C.A. Dentdelion, one of six ships that had left our home world to escape from our society. I was but an infant when we left, so I don't know much about why we were driven out from our planet. I only know what my parents and my elders have told me; we weren't welcome on our world. We rebelled against our government and failed, and in a last ditch effort to preserve ourselves, we escaped into the vastness of space. It's been twenty years since then. I've spent my entire life among an ocean of stars. I'd never known anything besides life on the fleet. That was fine with me: I liked it there. I went to school, I had friends, and I even had a career lined up in politics. For all intents and purposes, it did not seem like we are on the run at all. Life as I'd known it had always been peaceful. The reason we left never mattered to me, and I enjoyed my life as it was. It was only a matter of time, however, before our past caught up with us.
It was the year A.D. 3201, exactly two decades after leaving our home. The captain of the fleet had been searching for a hospitable planet for some time, and had finally made headway in the investigation when a planet showed up on our scanners - Planet X00347, or, as it was commonly known, Planet Aerys. According to the records back home, the planet had been classified as inhospitable due to the high frequency of electric storms across its surface. Upon closer examination, however, it appeared that what we had initially recorded as storms were instead a previously unknown energy source - one that we later identified – perhaps a bit uncreatively - as "ley lines," a source of concentrated energy not found anywhere else in the known universe. Realizing that the planet was hospitable after all, the fleet made its way towards the planet. There was a lot of political disagreement over this decision. Moving into the same space as Planet Aerys meant moving into direct range of our home planet's radar. We had successfully avoided them for so long that many were against moving onto the planet at all. However, our dying energy reserves, and the abundance of energy on Aerys, eventually swayed the decision to migrate in the public's favor. The directorial board agreed to move to Planet Aerys, and the fleet made the jump to the space above the planet.
They were waiting for us. Immediately upon entering into orbit above Aerys, the military fleet of our home planet opened fire on our much smaller fleet. They gunned us down with ruthless efficiency, without warning of any kind. We attempted to return fire, but it was to no avail. The entire fleet plummeted to the surface of the planet below, and many of our ships burned up in the atmosphere. Of our six ships - Gheviel, Golganar, Malaburn, Aeginlight, Elyris, and Dendtdelion - only ours, the Dendtdelion, survived the assault. The remains of the others scattered to the surface below, with none of their crew having survived. I lost many of my friends that day, including my parents, who were stationed on the mothership, Gheviel, at the time. The Dendtdelion suffered permanent injuries, and it would never fly again, but it survived the fall to the surface. Our ship entered the atmosphere relatively intact, and we were able to land our ship on a landmass on the northern edge of the planet with relative efficiency. 95% of our crew survived. The home fleet likely assumed us dead due to their erroneous reports on the stormy surface of Planet Aerys. It was a miracle beyond miracles. Our migration had not gone as planned, and we suffered heavy losses in the process, but it was a success. The technology and reserves of our ship were mostly intact, and, as our ships left with the intention of migration, this would allow us to live comfortable lives on the surface.
I never imagined what would happen next. Planet Aerys was already populated by a species that was, both in appearance and in culture, almost exactly like us!
Their technology was incredibly primitive. They were only just beginning an industrial revolution. First contact was made almost immediately. They did not seem hostile, and we were able to communicate through basic gestures. It was only a matter of time before we began to learn each other's language. Our identical physiology allowed us to do so, which fascinates me to this day. How could a race almost exactly like ours populate another part of the galaxy? As we began cultural exchange, we began to realize that this planet had one key difference from our own; the ley lines that ran beneath its surface. The planet's energy allowed for the physical manifestation of what was previously an intangible concept - the spirit. When citizens of Aerys died, their spirit could be seen physically leaving their bodies. The culture surrounding funerals and goodbyes after death was, as one would imagine, very different. Death was not the end. Death was a joyous departure, and the beginning of a journey to a new and unseen world.
This fascinated us. What had once been an abstract idea was now something that was definitively real. It dramatically changed the philosophies and beliefs of many of our people. Our culture was one that relied on science and technology, and most of our kind only believed in what could be scientifically proven. We immediately began research into the subject. Where did the spirit go? If we persisted after death, was the spirit immortal? If the spirit was immortal, was it travelling to a plane that transcended time?
Could we take the power of the spirit into our own hands?
That was the beginning of the end.
To the natives, death was a sacred tradition. To our dismay, they would not let us research the spirits of their loved ones as they left their bodies, even though we insisted that it may grant us eternal life. Most of us were obsessed with the concept of progress, the idea of immortality, and the power that lie within the ley lines of the earth. And most of us did not care what happened to the natives in pursuit of that power. We began to defile holy ground, we set up laboratories in sacred sites, and we began our research into the ley lines beneath the earth and the realms beyond our own. If the natives resisted, they were put down. They were eventually seen as a liability, and we shut down all cultural exchange between us. It was "us" and "them." And we had the technological edge.
It was not long before we began to persecute them.
We built our own cities with the material from the Dentdelion, which served as our capital. Our cities were grand, sleek, advanced and majestic, like those from our home world. Compared to the primitive technology of the natives, we were as Gods. There was resistance, but it was quickly quelled. We effectively became the ruling caste of the planet. We let them live in their own pockets of land, in their own, less developed cities, but we were always looming over them. Our own cities were placed closely to theirs, lording over them like a vile shadow.
Were we always like this?
Why did we leave our home planet?
I have so many doubts. This cannot be the right course of action. Our greed and lust for power is causing the suffering of so many people. I plan to take my concerns to the senate tomorrow. I may not like what I hear, but I can no longer sit back and do nothing.
-Ryan Sparrow, Medicinal Consultant for N.C.A. Dendtdelion
