NationStates Jolt Archive

The void.

Outer space, the harsh mistress that isolated world from world, and bound each and every creature to its home without mercy. Denying any who knew the principles from escaping their shackles and breaking through the barred gates of the heavens.

A freezing expanse, dotted with trillions of points of light. Each shining as though the massive distances involved were simply an oft quoted number, and not a true reality or reflection. Occasionally, a glimmer would be accompanied by a world. Often or not, boiling with fury. Volcanoes spewing the lifeblood of the core into the air. Sometimes, steeped deep in ice, chasms of frozen, cold rock plunging for miles downard, aside splintered mountains of ice.

An ocean world, with only an occasional craggy peak, verdant in lush green betraying the gentle waves that lapped apon it so. A teeming ocean of life fought, died and reproduced out out of sight.

All these planets, as varied as the geneticism of a human to another, were forever barred from each other, as an over-protective parent might their child, by space. Only when advancement in the fields of man allowed the final barrier broken, still it conspired to cause as much ill-travel as possible. Only by attaining knowledge arugable forbidden to any could finally her will be broken, and safety assured for all.




The system was, as its million of likewise cousins throughout- dead.


A cold, rocky sphere orbited its lukewarm, powerless sun. Nothing stirred nor colour showed apon a world whose very atmosphere, whose very life had been stripped and stolen, a thief in the night had wrought an act which even in a billion years would still find this planet dead.

Her moon, a similiar, saddening tale. A smaller form whose surface formed twisting sheets of ice. Furious winds whipped surface snow into a blinding fury that seemed to derive energy from the greiving of its parent, forever dead, and itself imprisoned in a death grasp for all eternity, until the sun finally died a deserved death, and it too joined oblivion.

And another, drifted on. Likewise sharing in the dulland colouring of the bodies that inhabited this system. But this was no planet, or world lost to life and nature. Neither a rock, nor flickering star, almost gone its fantastical nuclear energy.


The blue tinge that marked its surface, betrayed its artifical state.



She drifted trhough, passing the imprisoned moon without a compassionate glance, or concerned thought. Her contours precise and defined. Her structure ordered, her form undeniable.

A starship.



An aura of light percievable, washing over from the drive section lent the most subtle of glows, allowing the craft the chance to fight the overwhelming darkness of space, that sought to hide and prevent. But only this made a change. No running lights, resplendid in alternating colours shone. No bay windows, insights into the lives of those that inhabited the rooms featured were illuminated.

No, she was to all intents and purposes, as dead as the Worlds she passed. And so she drifted on, a dazzling burst of light as her form left the dying sun behind and once more alone. She continued, her path unknown to a select few who were now beyond reach for consultation




http://www.angelfire.com/psy/kaenei0/images/Khandriayata.JPG





~*~




To be furthered...

And where the light, it cannot shine, I will search, for what is mine. Distance immense, time without reason. Here, where I lay as rapid as seasons. Buried from knowledge or understanding, thankless for the task I adhere to. All those who understand are gone, but I wait for a time when they will return. Though I cannot hasten, nor can I truly long, I listen and wait, I wait for my song.




An immovable form. Massive and ancient. Conduits, long frozen solid, and fragile beyond even the graceful touch of an elf. Catwalks long since rendered too damaged to traverse. Handrails and floorings a crystal sheet of ice that would do all it could to lessen friction to nothing more than a speedy slide over the edge, and oblivion.

Yet this was no maze of machinery without purpose. Buried deep beneath the frozen surface of a world whose focus was drawn to one of its sisters, and the cataclysm evolving, on the Jovian moon of Io. No, this apparatus, long since forgotten and consigned to an existance a mere step from death continued as it had been instructed. To do otherwise would invite a creeping madness and paranoia held at bay through dedication to purpose only.


She stirred.


It had seemed, so long since last she woke. Though her chronometer could inform her down to the smallest workable unit the time elapsed, her higher functions adorned her with then longing and sadness that made such information even more agonising than a mindless automaton without.

A routine check, and another log. She knew her time was now reaching a wane. Even with the technological progress and ability she represented, and the best efforts of those long forgotten to her memory centres, she was failing. Every decade brought component malfunctions beyond her abilities to reroute or repair. She would become deaf, and blind. Her final short years unable to exist anywhere bar a freezing void that would do well not to call itself outer space.

And yet, through a small, airless shaft that spanned the depths of her prison, her only true allowance in a world far from the subterrain, she could enjoy, what at least some might call freedom. Through this, now long since obscured by ice mounds and sloping snow, a towering spire. Thin and angled, containing almost nothing in substance. Through this needle, that pointed skywards, she experienced both the enjoyement of freedom, and the painful reminder of the very bounds that limited her.

From here, she listened. Always, without any other task at hand more important. She waited and listened, for her song. And yet did it now, after four hundred and eighty nine years, appear. A ghostly orchestral she could not identify. an angelic choir that sang out a transcript beyond her understanding. And in the depths of her programming, to the core files that made up the most basic definitions of her being, something stirred.

She felt herself rise, as though only with this soft hymn might she find fufillment. Sensors, and transmitters lost for decades made themselves availible.

She could hear it, her song.

From the surface of Europa, peaceful without the trappings of a civilisation to pollute, or damage. All was calm, and as it should be. And then, it erupted. A great shaft of the most dazzling light seen since Sol was first gazed apon by primitives, tore from the crust. It passed without end, stretching through and beyond the heavens. A shimmering red, of blood spilled against the white snow.

Red, of colour forbidden, and shunned.

It showed no sign of diminishing, or fading. The beacon roared its defiance. It knew very well what it furiously attempted to alert its masters of. Deep beneath the base of this phenomenen, buried with the frozen rock, a barest height above the lukewarm magma that still survived. She maintained the beacon. Her song had arrived, and finally she was complete. She had but one final duty to carry out, a reminder to issue, before she could claim rest for her dilligence.



*******


Killthanus coughed, neither becuase of irritation, nor illness. No, he coughed becuase his nerve failed him. The same steel that allowed him the clarity of intellect to assume first of the Union, the same nerve that allowed him to make and consider decsions that could implicate and affect billions, could not withstand a simple arrangement.


Dinner.


He had stood outside Melyanna's habitation for almost eight minutes. This was ridiculous enough, however to add to his list of foolishness, he was still ten minutes early. He transferred the rapidly warming bottle of Hithaeglir from one hand to the other. Another excercise in futility that he was only to pleased to indulge in.


With a sigh, he shook his head. Finally banishing thoughts that were best left alone to the back of his mind, he prodded the door chime, and felt the constriction of his heart as the chime rang out. With a swish, the door opened obiediently, and Killthanus gasped.

Melyanna stepped forward, and he was entranced. Her long blonde tresses free from a ceremonial headband wore through office and not choice, allowed her locks to fall across her features. Hanging and leaving her shoulders and neckline exposed, a shimmering black dress hung. Her height boosted by footwear, interlaced and complex. Black strands interwove to wrap around each foot individually.


She flashed a smile, beautiful, enticing.


And all Killthanus could think to do, was to stretch out his arm, and in a sequence of events not totally lost on a stone-age man, wave his liquor bottle.

"Do come in." She gestured.

Killthanus had only just contained the blushing that had resulted from Melyanna's joy at the Menelmacar vintage wine he had managed to obtain. Apparently, it was a very good year. He made a mental note to secure a supply of this alcohol promptly. Whilst the young lady struggled with opening the bottle, and finishing her preperations, the acting first allowed himself a prolonged look around the room.

It was sparse, and he expected it. Time had conspired to stop decoration or adornment. A sole painting hung on the far wall. A landscape of snow capped mountains, wrought under a heavy, labouring storm. He knew not the land, but recognised the setting. The northern wastes of the Serene^Union were much the same. Continally wracked and disquiet.

Not the serene peace he enjoyed now.


He allowed his head to rest against the seating backing. Closing his eyes, he listened to Melyanna's movements, breathed in the cooking aromas that circulated, and calmed his racing heart. He didn't care for the time that passed, and only the peace that overcame him, until at last he felt himself stir. Melyanna stood in front, her arms on hips, looking bemused.


"Does my company bore you this much?"

Killthanus practically bolted upright, spying a set table, and a healthy arrangement of dishes. He climbed to his feet, his aplogies profuse.

"I am sorry. It has been, a long day. I am weary, but none the less content to be here. Do not take offence."

Melyanna stepped forward, and took the right hand of Killthanus. Squeezing it gently, she smiled once more.

"I do not take offense, I understand all to well, now come."

Killthanus nodded dumbly as he felt the smoothened grip of the Elf. His hard work at calming his heart in vain, as he felt it beat furiously in his chest. He followed her to the table, his eyes never leaving her form. He tried to break his trance with a sentence, a word, but his throat was irritatingly dry.


She turned, but before a word was issued, the door chime rang.


Melyanna excused herself, and sought to answer it. Killthanus could see not who it was, but was granted a view when she stepped aside to admit passage. Instantly Killthanus snapped back to reality, recognising one of his intelligence aides.


"Minister, I aplogise profusely for interrupting you, and the Lady during a social cycle. But I have urgent news for your eyes. It concerns events on Europa."

Killthanus nodded, feeling a well of dread begin to work its way up his spine. He locked down such feelings, and concentrated on the task at hand.

"Solarri^Illumini."

Melyanna instantly blinked as he watched Killthanus's expression change. His eyes widened, and his mouth stooped open slightly, betraying a deep shock. She did not approach, becuase it was not her concern or position of power. She felt the need to comfort, but stopped short of breaking her newfound positional directives.


"You are sure, absolutley sure. It is the beacon?"


"Sensor farms within Llian^Jovia, and orbital transcomms within the First fleet confirm. Presumably, Both Menelmacari and Der Angst sensor suites have detected this also. A visual confirmation was recieved by an overflight via the Gravcraft T^Cryixa. The signal is true. The origin determined. Something from Solarri draws near. We have been alerted."


Killthanus wasted no time, he made the decsion almost instantly.


"Prepare immediate transport to Europa. Ensure all we know is passed along Secure, non-ToY datalines to the WorldDisc. Prepare to induce immediate Isolation. Seal our borders as well as you can. Do not induce panic. And maintin tradelines as much as possible. We must prepare."

Melyanna had heard these orders fully, and was filled with both apprehension, and more than a little excitement.



"Melyanna, you will accompany me, we travel now to the Ice world. Perhaps there we can finish dinner."


Melyanna nodded, her ruined evening plans forgotten.




~*~



To be furthured....

Beyond the reach of Sol, far from even its furthest son Pluto, the craft continued silently. Unaware and unassuming of the sudden clamour to confirm, or substantiate its existance. Dismissive of the frantic efforts being made now to traverse the considerable difference that lay between, and bridge such a gap.

Another system passed, one of verdent green. A canopy fresh and airing, housing wildlife varied and free. Expansive oceans, unspoiled and deep. Its sister, a smaller if not equally lush world. The system star, burning brightly and with a passion shared by its older, yet astronomically young brother, Sol itself. Different in an extreme to the worlds passed a time ago, where there ice, rock and sterility were the order, now teeming life made itself home.

But still, it drove onwards. It regarded nothing it came across. It moved onwards.

Her bulk moved with a slow, methodical method. Though her looks had once been of graceful curves, and lines, and her finish a deepened blue, reflecting the stars, age had conspired with time to strip her of beauty. Her polished hull scratched, and blackened beyond hopes of restoration. Her extended flight apparatus buffeted and distorted until she was a poor, pathetic shadow of beauty.


But only skin deep. She would have to succumb totally, to be violently torn apart, shattered and shredded, vapourised or ransacked to prevent her progress. No, nothing short of retribution from some higher power would slow or stop her progress towards her inevitable goal.




Elsewhere, her presence would attract attention. As she passed the most distant monitoring outposts, automated sensor suites, or related technologies, her lumbering form would easily register. As she closed on the distance between the Sol system and herself. Though she had been unbothered by craft, as she closed on a massive population centre, the chance leapt expodentially.

Deep within the protective, whirling solar winds that buffeted the edge of the system, on the ice world of Europa, trapped moon to the gas giant Jupiter. Her living attendants lavished more attention, deep within the security of Llian^Jovia.


Kristillanna paced, her hair swept back in an unkempt, rather out of character ponytail. Her face was a map of anguish and worry. Unable to sit still long enough to formulate her thoughts, she paced across the office space. Outside, Europa was worringly quiet. Nothing in the way of snowstorms or ice rain had troubled the continent for hours. And then, rising up, from the horizon, the blood red beacon shone.

She watched it, shimmering with a power she didn't fully understand, or wish to. Her hands clasped tightly, she sighed. She knew of it vagely. Solarri^Illumini, or Light of SOlarri. The almost forgotten Kaeneian homeworld, once proud and steeped, now maintained in legend and faded datanode. She, as generations before and no doubt generations after, were almost religiously instructed and armed with all that was known of where Kaenei descended from. Indeed, such rigid understanding was all that could be done to prevent fading, into oblivion all that was once known of our home.

But still, she had not even gazed apon an authentic replication of Solarri. And now, after centuries, the ghost of her world returned, and tried, desperately tried to communicate to its children. And she, and countless others could not understand the language. She watched, and waited. Killthanus and his part travelled now to join here, on the fringes of Kaeneian territory. A plan would be formulated, something at least must be set into motion. She knew they had an obligation to seek and if possible, retrieve whatever had activated the beacon that now dominated her view.

Feeling oddly exhuasted, though she had done nothing but strain mentally, she sat herself at her desk. Datanodes littered, forgotten reports and insignificant judicial infractions. All could wait, and some needed no real attention in any case. What awaited them, outside the safety of pressurised domes, and deep within the cold of space, simply could not wait.



~*~


To be furthered....

THe glimmering, reflective hull of the Aengelis reflected duly the light of Sol as she slid into orbit above the pink-tinged ice word of Europa. Her drive systems disengaged, the corona of light emitted from the rear assemblies slowly fading, until only running lights, and the occasional navigation beacon allowed anything to cast illumination.


Her path from Terra uneventful, and berefit of the excitement she would now be steeped in, a willing partcipant or not. As she secured herself within the safety of high altitude, preperations were made for landing, and a first hand encounter with the whatever now pointed towards their ancestral home, Solarri.


Without the precious commodity of Oxygen to signal a sound, a shuttle disengaged silently, and willingly plunged downards, embraced by the gravity that fought constantly and pointlessly against its Jovian parent. Performing a spacial ballet almost as it twisted and turned gracefully, though soon a thickened flickering shield of flame obscured it mostly, and allowed it a privacy to disappear from view, from fire to ice, below.




Kristilanna had finally calmed sufficiently to clear her desk of the minor niggling reports that were stubbornly half way between irrelevent and requiring her smallest attentions. Satisfied she could no longer be dogged by doddering civil aides, she chose a moment of relative serenity, her eyes casting out her observation windows once more, to the blood red that dominated the skyline, the beacon that shone as brightly as it had for the past four days.

The Protecteresse placed a hand, delicatley apon the glass. Her touch was gentle, as though by exerting a minor force might breach the pane, and quicken her exit from the living world. Her eyes closed, and though she posessed nothing in the way of telepathy, or mind powers, in her own way reaching out to the beacon, and simply questioning.


What do you show?


But the energised monument replied not, it was not yet time.





*****


Killthanus stifled a weary yawn, his eyelids drooping, a show of defeat to the battle of weariness his mind was fighting with his body. He stretched his neck slightly, gazing at the unremarkable decor of the shuttle roof. He deliberatley avoided a glance at his companion. Though his head was filled with matters of more pressing importance, he could not bring himself to avoid and forget all knowledge of his more personal problems. A slight shudder indicated their entry into the lower, and amusingly "thicker" atmosphere, though still to appear without protection would be to invite a freezing death within seconds. He lowered his had back against the rest, and thought.


Melyanna growled in irritation as she struggled with the ornamental headband. She had never yet managed to adorn it without constant fuss and problems, and it had decided that it did not wish to discontinue this trait. Exasperated, she left it as best she could, no longer caring, in a rather un-elfish way, the end result. She had changed hurriedly, and not been prepared to adopt diplomatic duties so quickly, she shrugged, it mattered not, she did not accompany the Serene^Union for comfort.


The shuttle approached the landing clearance zone, another step in a long chain of events had unfolded, and even yet, none were aware of just what awaited them, outside the comfort of Sol's reach.






Sensors alarmed, sent urgent signals to their masters and commanders. Automated astronomical equipment did not continue without reaction, and duly sent back what they were able to see, and record. But all the attention made no impact, and the dirtied, misshapen starship that had endured the stretch of time and space without crippling effect continued undiminished. Attention did not by design incur interest. Better now that she closed, now barely an interstellar stone's throw from the outer perimeter of the Sol system, and contact.

Amongst those instrument platforms, and scanning relays that littered space like molecules themselves, and of those that listened, recorded and sent back with a compassionless dedication, a not unrelated system watched. Rather unimaginitatively named Sol Suite Vkan^Iy.


However, it was the builders of this suite that would, indeed were desperate to learn more, and had gathered, from Terra to Europa, and waited. Only now would confirmation reach, of scans and images.


They would know what approached, and what had activated the Kaeneian beacon of Solarri.

# The Solarri beacon has been activated. The Kaenians are in confusion.
> I/We have noted such. The situation on Europa?*
# Quiet as yet.*
> Excellent. Continue your vigil, and alert Me/Us to any change.*
# Confirmed.* *