It feels like hours pass when you next see movement. The tall and dark creature you saw before reenters the room and bends down to stare at you.

“I have been told that you can understand me now?” You hear in your mind.

You nod your head, “Who are you?”

“We are Pamen. we are your arresting officer, and we are here to bring you to your sentencing.”

“And what are you? The man who was in here, Jesse, said that I was arrested for murdering a Cæ. That's a different species than me or you, right?”

“You are correct.”

“So what species are you?”

“We have told you, We are Pamen. It is our name, it is us.”

“So you're named after what your species is?”

“Species assumes more than a single mind. Pamen are one given order throughout the universe.”

“So a hive mind?”

“In essence. Now come on, we have little time to waste.”

You nod as you stand up off the cot. You see it reach one of its tendrils down to disable the electric bars. The display appears just like it did with Jesse, and just like with him the bars dissipate. Pamen stands back up to its full height as you slowly walk out of the cell.

“Do not try anything funny. You have a chip that's in your body that will electrocute you if you try to run away or anything like it.”

“Okay, I won't do anything,” You say, nodding your head as you fully step outside, taking in the atmosphere of the room you'd been entrapped in for so long. The ceiling extends high up, it is no problem for Pamen walking around as it could be three times bigger and still probably fit. You see other cubicles as you two begin to pass, they're about as big as the cell you were trapped in, but unlike yours there doesn't seem to be any sort of opening to them. You turn your head, “What's with those cells?”

“We don't keep prisoners here for long term. Prisons are mainly Breeton business, but as of the current time they've been relocated to the Inner City. You are a special case because you were deemed a threat to citizens of the Inner City, so you were brought here to the Outer Banks for the time until your sentencing.”

Breeton? Perhaps it was another race you were unfamiliar with. “You said something about a Breeton? What is that?” You ask as you pass another cell, the last on the block it seems. It's then you can see the door, sized ten times larger than you.

“Breeton comprise a large chunk of Sayarian policing due to their build. We are confused at your lack of generalized and common knowledge.” Pamen says.

“I'm not familiar with much on this place to be honest.” You say.

“Well, we are not going to give you a history lesson. We have somewhere to be.” Pamen raises one of its tendrils and presses a switch on the side of the wall, raising the door. You can seem to hear all the inner workings of the door as it raises up, an industrial orchestra working the mechanisms of the door. Light fills the room and the first thing that you can see outside is the purple sky. You remember just how strange this place looks. Sayar, this totally strange planet. Just how far from Earth are you? What happened that caused humanity to leave?

You walk out right beside Pamen, you finally notice that it seems to be exerting a sort of chill in the air. You feel yourself shiver, but decide not to confront Pamen on it. Outside you feel the air on your skin, it feels heavier than you're used to, maybe you're just noticing it now, but it definitely feels heavier. There's also a distinct orangey smell to it, almost like someone threw a ton of them in a blender and hit puree and threw it out into the street.

Walking your way you see two creatures side by side conversing to themselves. One of them is a Cæ, it is a little shorter than the one you killed, Jayon Cæ if you remember correctly. It seems to be talking with a lion beside him. However it is larger than any lion you've seen before. Its mane is more relegated to the top of its head like a clump of hair instead of around its head. A thick fabric covers its body that's outfitted with some weird kind of badges that you don't understand.

“It's almost as if the council doesn't care, Jiarg,” The Cæ says to the lion, its voice higher pitched than Jayon Cæ's foreign tongue. It shakes its head as it steps ahead, “No, you do not understand Kasera, the council must choose what it deals with with extreme caution. If they decide to investigate this without proper cause then the Lunfilios could threaten secession once more, and we don't need that with the trouble we're already having with those rumors,” the lion says.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“The Lunfilios are con men and a half! Surely you see that? I mean, the Garex are fabled for their keen hunches, are they not?” The two stop and stare as you pass by them, Kasera Cæ bends down to whisper to what you assume is called a Garex.

You don't know exactly what is said, but based on the look of her face, that is assuming Kasera is a female Cæ name, but you feel that it is about you. You see the Garex shake its head as it lets out a disgusted sort of sound. You shake a little because you'd be lying if you said the Garex didn't frighten you a little bit. They pass by and you turn back around to face Pamen.

“If I may interject, it wasn't a good idea to have that be how your first impression with a Garex, especially one as short tempered as Jiarg be.”

“You noticed?”

“Your ignorance on the Pamen and your outdated language drives even for a human lead me to suspect you were also clueless about the Garexian people. Which if so, they're probably the last kind you want to think anything less of you. There is a reason they're often called the fangs of the galaxy.”

You nod your head and swallow rather hard, you might have to play things a bit more safe from now on. That is, if you aren't already going to be hanged for your crime. That's a real possibility that you have to come to terms with.

You make it to what almost looks like a cylindrical telephone booth. It's a slick chrome shined to a fault. Pamen steps up to the booth and raises its tendril to the keypad just on the side. The door opens up on a pivot, swinging out and almost hitting you on the way out. You have to step back as it opens.

The inside is matted with a light brown sort of cover. It almost looks like leather, but considering the oddity of everything else, you doubt it is something so mundane as that. You realize that it is rather small inside, probably enough to fit three normal sized people, but certainly not a human and Pamen at the same time. Pamen is almost a few feet taller so it'd have to crouch to even get the chance of fitting in by itself. You wish you knew if Pamen were a male or female so you could stop saying it.

“Step inside, this Particle Transmitter will send you right outside of the High Council's chambers. You will meet back up with Mr. Anderson before you go inside.”

“Mr. Anderson?” You ask.

“Step inside. We shall not say it again.”

You step inside the Particle Transmitter, half hoping it doesn't scramble your mind the second you step inside. Just then a fear wells up inside you that maybe there is no high council and this is some sort of gas chamber, a lure to lead you straight to a death penalty without even realizing it. You read that in a book somewhere...but you don't remember where.

Thankfully, you don't die as the door closes. There is, however a low ringing hum that begins. It pulses around your being and then begins to rise in pitch. You feel your stomach start to rise and fall, it gives you butterflies and instantly your mind flashes back to a swing set.

You see a young body swinging back and forth on the magical carriage that took up nearly half of the back yard. A small plot that you could walk from end to end to in less than ten seconds. Just behind the fenced perimeter lies a forest that seemed to extend forever to your young mind. Your face is blurred, you cannot see any detail, but you know it is you. It's gotta be. Small bits of your memory return, but unfortunately you care about hardly any of it. The real meat of it lies locked away somewhere jut beyond your grasp. There is somebody on the swing beside you as well, but you cannot make out any features on them either. You both look to be really young, maybe around the age of five. You both alternate as you seem to race to swing the highest.

“Higher Devon, higher!” your voice calls out. “We gotta go as high as possible to reach space! Mission command needs to go higher!”

“I'm trying!” The voice belonging to 'Devon' replies back. You see him kick his legs out from underneath him and he flies up out of the swing. He reaches his hands out as if reaching for the clouds. Unfortunately, he ends up falling back towards the earth and you hear something precious break. It was his leg.

You see your younger self slow to a stop as Devon's cry rings out. The air is silenced as it echoes throughout your forested back yard. For a minute you worry that you hear a reply from the forest, but rest easy knowing it was just your mind playing tricks on you. You see your younger self walking up to Devon and kneeling beside him, your featureless face aimed right at his leg.

“Aw, come on Devon! Astronauts can't travel space with a broken leg! Come on, now what do we do if we get hurt?”

He stops crying for a moment to look up at you, he's trying really hard to keep from bursting out again, “We...we get back...” he says sitting up, but it is too much. “Owch! Alex it hurts!” He bursts back into his loud wail.

“Ugh, come on Devon! My mom's going to hear you and we won't be able to go to space anymore!” You say, your voice is strained.

As quick as it came it leaves. You hear the familiar sound of the Particle Transmitter, its humming slows to a stop and you feel all kinds of weird. You go to reach for the door to open it up, but it makes a high pitched sound and you back away quickly, fearing some sort of explosion. It doesn't explode, but opens on the same pivot that almost hit you the first time.

Outside you see an enormous building. It extends far past your view and branches off into different spires that dominate all around you. Just in front of the building seems to be its front lawn, so to speak. It's almost the size of three football fields combined into one, and makes quick work of your dinky yard.

In the middle stands a statue ten times your size commemorating eleven figures in various battle stances. You step out of the Particle Transmitter and onto the glass-like street. You jog over to the statue, it seems to grow larger and larger as you approach it. You can recognize that it looks like two of the figures are human, yet you don't have any idea who they are. You can also recognize that one is a Cæ, another a Garex, and also a Pamen. You notice there's also a plaque on the base of the statue with twelve lines of some language you don't understand written in it. What's odd is the last line seems to have been chiseled out, maybe there used to be twelve statues here?