Lucatiel
1.
The brittle coldness of the atmosphere steeps into my skin. The endless expanse of the stars lights up the darkness from far far away. I have a steady path to where I’m going but no idea where it leads to. I hope it’s somewhere warm. I pass by many planets big and small. Some are hard as rocks others are merely gas formed. Some are so small you can walk around them in 30 minutes stat. Others are so large that It would take me years to fully survey them. The gravity tends to pull me but I manage to go by without much trouble. Though I wish I could land there. On some of these planets. Like in one where I saw lines upon lines of streaks on them. Maybe canals were made by their dwellers? Or this other one where even when no stars share their light with them it glowed in a wonderous cold glow. The other day I passed by ecumenopolis so large it boggles the mind! I found it very mean for them to not take any notice of me though. I suppose it’s better that way, for my journey, will be over then. My parents would be happy too. That’s what they want really. For me to pass on this message. I’ve kept it close to my heart, hugging it snuggly making sure nothing happens to it. Fatigue caught me a long time ago though, dodging so many of these rock formations has tuckered me out. I get hit by them now more often than not, and it hurts really bad. Maybe I really should stop by one of these planets, rest up and get going again. But I feel like if I sit down I would fall asleep and not be able to wake again. Not that I really can.
There are many scary things as well, I make sure to steer clear of radioactive space dust even if they look pretty from afar. Sometimes I’d see giant scary-looking creatures that are too ugly to describe. They mostly ignore me and I make sure not to get their attention on me. Though one day, I’d like to communicate with one. Maybe they aren’t so scary if you get to know them?
What scares me the most though are times when there isn’t much to look at. All the stars are glowing too far away and the same unmoving darkness chills my skin. I feel like if I look away something bad will happen. So I keep staring at it attentively even if it scares me. I must not be scared. To keep myself company I listen to the message, I don’t understand it but my parents’ voice calms me. It makes me feel less alone. Hearing their voice soothes me, that is enough to make me happy. Far off to the distance in the millions of millions of stars, my parents are in one of them, sometimes they must also look back at me through the stars as well. Thinking it like that, I am able to smile.
2.
“Sir, we have made contact with an unidentified space prob sir.” The man said to the major.
“Where?” The major replied with slight annoyance.
“It’s crashed at center east of Radhan sir just outside of the Garden of Eclipse. We quickly got out and bought it inside. We have it placed there right now.”
“You made sure it was clean of course?”
“Of course sir. Nothing of that sort to worry about.”
“Right. So what are the details.”
“For now it seems to be a generic space prob sir. We are looking into it right now. I thought you’d like to see it first hand.”
“Why is that?”
“You said you haven’t had a good walk in a while haven’t you sir? You said you had no reason to. So I thought a nice slow tour from the capitol to the Garden of Eclips is just what you need, with all due respect of course.” the man said wittily.
“What a fine excuse you’ve come up with.” the major said with a smile on the corner of his face.
“Just thinking what's best for you major.”
“Sure you are.” They both share an impish laugh at their exchange.
From the main station of the capitol the Garden of Eclips is quite far out, but they had discovered a route that makes that journey smaller. However the man and major took their time and slowly reached there in three days' time.
Reaching the Garden of Eclips the guardians there gave all the necessary details about the space probe.
“Sure enough it’s a simple unremarkable space probe” one of the guardians started, “Even so it came along away from home. Nothing of this sort of firmware and structure is from around these parts, our solid guess is it’s from Ganameed. That’s two miniature galaxies away, for a small guy it's a tough one. Seems like its original purpose was to gather various sorts of information but in the end, it launched with nothing but that.” the guardian pointed at the purple roundish disk. “We managed to get it to play. You want to hear it?”
The major nodded and the guardian winded up the disk for a few seconds, after some distorted sound effects a voice started to play, a thin voice, one in a hurry, gasping for air,
“Hello, hello, is this working, by Marika I hope it's working. My greetings whoever you are, I-” a pause “We-WE are the Lumerians. We are from the galaxy Ganameed in the once lush planet called Reeves. I don’t know who you are or where are you from but I bear a tragic message about our planet. We have experienced third impact, the removal of the mass. In a few moments nothing will be left of us, total annihi-” another pause, the voice gasped for air and continued, trying not to tremble their voice, “I want to make a request as your once galactic neighbor. Please know of us. We the Lumerians from the lush planet of Reeves of three moons. Please remember us. Remember that in a faraway galaxy we existed, that we lived and breathed honorably, and that our days were long and our nights terribly cold. That our seasons were varied and our land fertile. The thought of all of it being reduced to nothing brings out a primitive fear in me. We made a mistake and we couldn't live into your time. But we existed and that is not a lie. So please, please remember us. I beg of you please remember our name, for very soon, we won’t be able to ourselves.” the record ended, and then there was silence.
