Chapter I: Beautiful beings

I wasn't too concerned about finding the right woman... or any woman for that matter... my life had a strange path... I always focused on my career, and, well... it wasn't really that trade that will give you a lot of time to spend chasing the ladies. When you serve in the military, you are more concerned with the struggle to survive... to live and fight for another day. But women... they were more curious than I was... more investigative and interested in intrigue and discovery... I am ashamed to admit, but this was a race that I was meant to lose from day one. No matter how far I distanced myself from them... they simply came after me... or rather... I was thrown towards some women... and I am saying I was "thrown" in a very literal manner.

I already knew what happened. I was lying there, on the frozen mud, covered in a thin layer of snow, feeling warm blood dripping into my mouth. My face was scratched by numerous shards upon impact, opening small wounds everywhere. My left arm was hurting and was likely broken. At least the snow crystals that enveloped me were keeping it numb... and alleviated some of the pain. My eyes were closed and I refused to open my eyelids, for I already knew what happened. I was the only one alive. My ship crashed... and my whole crew was dead. Another group that was taken away by the insatiable war machine.

I left my homeworld with a crew of 17 people. We were regarded by our commander as highly competent individuals, capable of elaborating complex strategies, suitable for the Battle of Sector MW-87, an armed conflict, that was yet to take place. For you see, we left our solar system in the local year of 6233. However, the battle was estimated to commence only when the local calendar would indicate the year 6381. We were all aware of the burden of our duty. Our homeworld, as we knew it, had to be left behind. By the time we were supposed to return home, the local calendar would indicate the year 6529. For what we knew, everyone we have ever met... would have perished, by the time we returned.

But these were the costs of daring to travel faster than light. In our rush to intercept the enemy, we would move through the galaxy at an astonishing pace, piercing a hole through time. From our perspective, it would only be two weeks. From the perspective of the ones we've left behind, it would be 148 years. We were headed for the battlefield, located at about 120 light years away. Of course, this is an estimation for the shortest route. However, this route was crawling with enemy scouts and, small flotillas or moon-based outposts here and there. Our armies were scattered across this... unpromising path, engaging in occasional skirmishes with our foes. It was indeed, a risky path for a ship that carried officers.

That is why... we took an alternate route. A route of approximately 310 light years, stretching across the outer limits of the charted galaxy. The enemy flotilla wouldn't adventure in these regions, and... I doubt that they would expect us to attempt such a maneuver. But I knew better than to expect a smooth course. These external regions were engulfed by hostile entities and hazards... criminal scum, mercenaries, slave traders, abductors, smugglers... and even machines that copied their deeds. Some artificial intelligences observed the behaviors of slave traders and integrated them in their systems. They were originally programmed as automated merchants, that would explore the galaxy and bring exotic goods to our homeworld. However, they were not programmed to obey to ethics. They may not even comprehend that they abduct innocents and sell them as slaves. They simply strive to achieve their objective: acquire exotic resources, through trade. Other than the usual criminals and rogue AIs, we heard rumors of The Hibernating Cluster resurfacing on the edge of our galaxy... a swarm of machineries that converted whole solar systems, repurposing them for the production of automated hunting ships and other machineries. Governments across the galaxies invested inestimable amounts of resources, in order to annihilate most of the clusters. However, some of them are still hiding out there.

Of course... our journey had... a slightly different trajectory. As we sped through the outer regions of the galaxy, we passed through a seemingly abandoned system. A system with two stars... two young stars... that were sparkling blue in the sky. The orbits of the inner planets were... somewhat far away... only one or two planets seemed suitable for supporting life. The place was... very cold and unwelcoming. But, that does not say anything, this description perfectly fits a large amount of the systems in our galaxy. As I examined the sector, keeping the guard up for any potential hostile life form... it happened. An uncontrollable, overwhelming vibration shook the core of the ship. It was a pulse... coming from nearby. For a moment... it faded away, but soon after... it intensified... and before I knew it... in a flash... the ship began to fall towards the nearest planet. Very dizzy and surprised, I still managed to order my crew to prepare the ship for landing. Two of them already died when we were struck by the pulse. I was just too preoccupied with the ongoing emergency to even react to their sudden deaths. That was no time for mourning... I still had to ensure the safe landing of fifteen other people. Fortunately, the emergency landing augments were ready... and the ship set a proper course for landing.

Unfortunately, as we left our guard down and went to check on the deceased officers, we were struck by the pulse, once more. This time, the hull of the ship screeched loudly, indicating that it was approaching breaking point. A third crewmember was almost instantly vaporized by the pulse. The ship began to plunge into the atmosphere... quickly approaching the surface. Nothing left to do at this point... I ordered all my men to get back on their seats and brace for the impact. Just as I sat down, the hull broke... The ship was now torn in two pieces... and one of our reactors exploded... it began to burn and emanate heavy smoke. This was it... the end. I took a final look at Andrada, the woman sitting next to me. She was a young officer, that was recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant. She was not ready to die... not when she was so young and she had a whole life ahead of her. I stared into her eyes... and made an empty promise... that everything will be alright. If her brain survived the impact, we would store her memories into a clone of herself... and she could keep going. Not going to lie... to this day, we don't know yet... if this meant that we would have the same Andrada around or we would simply speak to a perfect copy of her... an echo of a long gone entity. Well... it wasn't going to matter anyway... since she did not survive the crash.

As we hit the ground, Andrada was vacuumed into the depths of the damaged hull. Death was probably instant. And I cannot say that I had a smooth landing either. I don't remember much of what happened... it was all too quick to process... and I was knocked unconscious by the crash. But, I woke up bleeding... with my left arm broken and my legs numb. I was thrown outside of the ship, into a large pile of snow. This was it... I merely bought another hour or two for myself... only to die just like the rest of my crew... What kind of reward was this? I should've died along with them. At least we would adventure together into the final frontier... the eternal abyss of nothingness and... whatever stood beyond... if there was anything after death at all...

I was waiting for it... the end... the last image that will be engraved into my memory, before I fade away into the oblivion. And what was that image? Pure... whiteness... blinding whiteness... all around me... with the occasional snowflakes falling directly into my eyes. I began to slowly turn my head... left and right... whiteness all around me... except for the occasional pieces of the hull, that imposed themselves in a silver-colored contrast. The blizzard became louder... almost covering the noise of the burning reactor. It all began to fade away... being covered by whiteness and deafening silence... this was it... the end. I was beginning to die... And as my eyes slowly closed, I could catch a glimpse of a blue light glowing somewhere near. And then... a few dark silhouettes. Finally... my eyes closed. The end. I could finally rest... forever.

However, you already know that I didn't walk on that path. I wouldn't have much of a story to tell, have I died there. When I regained my consciousness, I was sitting in a dark, warm place... quite a contrasting scene to the blinding, frozen landscape. However... as I began to remember the previous scenery, I was wondering... what was the source of the blue light? It was a beautiful, soothing color... something that obviously couldn't come from a natural source. I've heard tales... about the... Moths... humanoid beings that would be gifted with the ability to bend reality to their own will... they could pierce holes through reality, traveling freely through time and space. The few people that claimed to see them, talked about their light blue, glowing eyes, and their eerie and disturbing presence... There was something so sinister about them... the fact that... no one understood them. And that... that, is the most terrifying image of them all... In a time when we pride ourselves with advanced knowledge about all domains of existence... we are afraid of something... that we simply, cannot understand. Nevertheless, their existence could be mere speculation... or rather, a made up tale of travelers across the galaxy, bedtime stories for their children. And well, I may sometimes flirt with the mysterious and the supernatural... but at core, I am a man of reason... I do not overindulge in these quests of finding the unreal and the unproven. I must focus on what is real... and what is proven.

As I was contemplating about the meaning of the last scenery... I began to hear someone talking close to me. Shockingly, I recognized that language. It was the most common dialect of Jupis. A language that was usually spoken in some systems of The Exclave. As an officer that was often present in that theater of operations, I learned to speak Jupis. This tongue fascinated me, just as much as its origins and history. Who was speaking over there? And... was it talking to me? It was the voice of a woman... and it seemed that... she was singing. Some... bizarre song that probably... most of humanity never heard before... As I stood there, slightly paralyzed in fear... I made up some of the lyrics. She was singing in repetition these lines:

This man fell wounded, his flesh freezes

Receive my cure, for your pain eases

My sisters, come! Nurse his wounds

But his saviors shall be the seven moons!

It was a ritual. An invocation of divinities, a plead for help and guidance. Back in my homeworld, religion was merely a subject examined by historians. Only now and then you would see the occasional religious fellow... either some... supposedly wise man that decided to isolate himself far away from society, to live a simple and pious life... or some mentally unstable helpless individual... convinced that he is the creator of the universe. Nevertheless, none of us saw the signs of organized religion for centuries.

I finally opened my eyes, ready to explore my surroundings. I was lying down in a cave. Or rather... a settlement, that was built inside a cave. Several dark figures surrounded me... women. Five of them. They were staring at me, occasionally tilting their heads towards each other, whispering a few words, then staring back at me. I could barely see any facial features in the dark. Were they the dark entities that I observed before falling out of consciousness when I was outside? Probably...

They noticed that I was awake... and they seemed surprised. From the little bit of light that swept into our dark corner, I could see their wide open, round eyes reflecting the glow of a nearby flame. They were young... and indeed, physically attractive. As we were observing each other, I heard a whisper:

"Do you think he will understand our tongue?" one of them murmured to the one sitting next to her.

"As a matter of fact... I do." I responded, in a slightly bold manner.

They began to whisper to each other and giggle. They seemed excited and overwhelmed with joy. One of them got up on her feet and stepped away from the group. She reached for a burning torch, sitting on the opposite wall and brought it near us. The light revealed the figures of the women that surrounded me. They wore... well, in my homeworld, we would call it women's underwear... or some nighttime clothing... what would be labeled as "shorts" and "bras". But of course, that's all that these women wore so, it would be inappropriate to call it underwear. They were two pieces of clothing... one of them was covering their pelvis, genitals, buttocks and upper thighs... and the other one was covering their breasts, or rather... the lower part, considering that they exposed some cleavage. Their clothes were made out of some... strange textile material... almost like wool, but way thinner... and of a beautiful brown color. This was a first hint that these women were not as primitive as I originally anticipated. Indeed, they were way behind the technology of The Exclave, but they weren't exactly sitting at the technological level of the cave dwellers... although they were... cave dwellers. If they made those clothes, then indeed, they knew how to sew. However, I didn't look for too long at their clothes... I didn't want to invade their intimacy... although... they didn't seem bothered at all to walk around half-naked all the time. Instead, I took a better look at their facial features and... overall silhouettes.

Two of them appeared to be very young... 24 or 25 perhaps? One of them was roughly in her early thirties... and two others seemed to be in their late thirties. Indeed, their ages and positioning, but also their accessories already indicated me the existence of some hierarchy. The two women in their late thirties were sitting closest to me, by my left and right side. They wore some... particularly strange necklaces around their necks... they seemed to be made out of bones... although they didn't seem to belong to any species that I've ever encountered. Close to my feet, although, at a greater distance than the other two, sat the woman in her early thirties... she was holding a wooden bowl... out of which, a strange, but pleasant smell seemed to emerge. Behind this woman, sat the younger ones, almost as if they were trying to hide away from me.

The woman sitting to my right raised her body above the kneeling women around her. She was a black haired woman, with light green eyes... not a pure green, but rather a mixture of green and gray. Her hair was pretty short, barely reaching her naked shoulders. Her body shape suggested me that she engaged in reproductive rituals before... she had generous breasts and buttocks, and long, slightly thick legs. Nevertheless, she wasn't overweight at all, but rather well fit. As I raised my eyes to better examine her facial features, I noticed her raised cheeks, that were blushing... a bright red color. My analysis was suddenly interrupted when she began to speak:

"I am Raxo. The priestess and leader of this settlement. We came to your aid, stranger. What do they call you?"

"They call me..."

I responded reflexively, but I abruptly stopped. My boldness and confidence suddenly faded away. I began to acknowledge the situation I was in. It was so... surreal... One day... I am boarding a military ship with a group of people I've never met before... we leave our homeworld forever, and we are headed towards an uncertain fate. I abandoned the reality of my homeworld for the reality of the battlefield... the chaotic and seemingly endless battle that only served for the conservation of a reality that I was already forced to forget. Soon after, this new reality is also taken away from me and I am forced to forget it... the ones that I've met... and briefly interacted with are now erased... and a new reality is created before my eyes...

"Hector. Major Hector of The Greater Exclave." I responded, after I regained my confidence.

"Hector! A strong name for a strong man. A beautiful name for a handsome man. The name of the man that was gifted to us." continued the priestess named Raxo. "Please... Hector... feel welcomed into our humble home."

These women lived inside a cave... although, they were indeed... way more organized than our cave-dwelling ancestors. The cave had a covered entrance, with a narrow corridor that advanced all the way to the room where I was resting. Across both walls of the corridor, you could see some circular doors... three on each wall. Every door led to a small, separate room, that had both its floor and its walls covered in animal furs. The room in which we were currently all staying was slightly larger... and it seemed to have some rudimental furniture and decorations... but also, an abundance of paintings and engravings on the walls. These were, however... rather primitive accommodations. What intrigued me, was the fact that... this whole place was so warm and comfortable... although, the temperatures outside were well bellow the freezing point. I noticed some small tunnels poking out of the walls of the cave, delving deep into a dark abyss. I asked the priestess... Raxo... about this.

"Our home sits just above a volcano... don't be afraid, Hector... for this volcano is dormant... it's been more than a thousand years since its last eruption. The moons guided us here, during a cold winter, and offered us this gift... a home where we would survive the unforgiving snowstorms."

Raxo's response definitely brought me more questions for one simple clarification. The moons... probably, she referred to the same moons that were mentioned in the ritual from before. My curiosity was indeed aroused, and I asked for an explanation:

"What are the moons you are referring to, Raxo?"

"The seven moons of the planet", Raxo clarified. "The seven goddesses that guide our fate. I will show you one night. But not tonight. The blizzard engulfed our forest and the skies are not very clear."

"What is this planet called? What system is this?"

"Nusquam. In the last system before the great unknowns. Inna will show you."

As soon as she mentioned the name "Inna", the woman sitting to my left got up on her feet and asked me to follow her. It was the other woman in her late thirties... a woman with brown, curly hair that descended down on her bare back and light brown eyes to match the hair color... a short, slightly crooked nose, bloody-red lips and a charming smile. She was slightly taller than Raxo and she seemed more... athletic... however, her breasts were just as generous as the ones of the priestess. She seemed to be the second in command in this hierarchy...

I carefully held my left arm, and managed to pull myself up, with the help of other two women around me. They guided me to one of the walls of the cave... the wall behind me, to be exact... and Inna came closer with a torch in her hand... and then she pointed her finger at the wall. It was... a map... or rather... two maps. To the left... I could see two dark blue dots painted in the center... the two stars that I noticed while in space, definitely. They were surrounded by... twelve planets that orbited around them. A red line was indicating the second planet... probably this very planet on which I've landed. I shifted my attention towards the second map... it portrayed a large mass of land... with a few rivers here and there... and some lakes. A map of the surrounding area, very likely.
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Pub: 18 Mar 2021 18:54 UTC
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