Chapter 13: What happened?
The animal transport ship was not sturdy enough to survive an emergency landing with its shields off. As a result, it smashed into pieces. O’rmon was determined to find every working thing out of scrap metal that the ship was currently. She had a mission for Safo Nur and Kutch in mind. The food fabrication machine and its rough nutrition storage were also out of order.
“Where are we? When did we leave Earth?” Safo Nur was confused by the situation. All he knew is that he was standing in front of a dead skeleton princess and moments later when he opened his eyes he was on a completely different planet. His clothes were ruined and his whole body was wrapped in medical bandages. He felt pain as he was in the gym yesterday after a long break, and today his muscles were healing and growing. He wasn’t a total wimp so he could endure the pain, but he was eager to know what happened.
Safo ran to catch up with Kutch. He can feel their drooping mood. Back in the kitchen when they had a long chat with Kutch, he told Safo Nur that he and his sister O’rmon saved money earned from missions and part-time jobs to buy an old ship. It was the start of their adventures as animal hunters. Brand new profession created after Psiora lost the war against the Empire over the fact that Psiora newborn needed a host to survive. Usually, they used a child of another race, sometimes from orphanages or by mutual agreement. Some of the Psioras tried to take over the children of key families ruling the Empire or other big nations. After a short all-in war both sides lost many lives and made a truce. The number one rule was not to use intellectually developed species as a host.
Psiora newborns in the form of a soul began to usurp the newborn animals of different sorts. By that time new startups popped up like mushrooms after the rain. Breeders with the knowledge and technologies to raise and propagate suitable species. Hunters searched planets and galaxies for new types of animals, better it was high was its cost.
Kutch and O’rmon Woods were hunters. Losing the ship meant losing their job and a source of money.
“We don’t know where we are right now. The first thing that we should do is to try to ask for help, by sending a signal. We must try to find a working communication device in this pile of junk.” By his tone, Safo clearly understood that Kutch was irritated. Safo Nur sympathized with his loss and kept his question unanswered for now.
“Okay, how can I help?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of this.” Kutch went on tossing away motel and broken part, he didn’t bother to look back to answer Safo Nur.
“No, the first thing to do will be finding food. I found our gear, you too go and try to find anything edible.” O’rmon gave a small but bulgy black pistol and a tablet. Then in a low voice, so that only Kutch could hear what she said. “Take him with you, please.”
“Let's go, Safo, I will teach you the essence of hunting.” With a forced smile, Kutch called for Safo Nur. Latter was happy just for the fact that he was having a conversation. Lately, he started to feel that Kutch and O’rmon avoided eye contact with him and were oddly quiet.
Right before their departure, Safo Nur gasped in shock. “Where is Dost?” Dost unconscious robot was not where he saw him last time.
“Don’t mind him. He is not the one who you should be worried about. Do you remember a story about the Psio race that I told you?” Kutch was referring to a story that he retold in the kitchen. Tenga race had a deadly pandemic period of over 50 thousand years. Only by evolving into the Psio race were they able to survive.
Safo Nur quickly nodded. “Apart from Psiora, there was one more race, Psios, who survived the virus. He is one of them.”
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The shock was the first reaction of Safo Nur. He remembered Kutch mentioning that only 25 out of a 10 billion managed to survive. Sadness was the reaction that came after. “He must be feeling so lonely. It is not an easy task to live with that experience.” Thoughts took away Safo Nur for a moment.
“He is immortal, as long as he has some lifeless object he can continue living. So don’t worry. Instead, focus on a mission. As a future King, you have to know all the ins and outs of Psiora life.” Motivational speeches weren't Kutch's best skill, but he tried to sound encouraging. Little by little, he regained his usual, bright mood, self.
Safo Nur heard tons of new information about New Tenga, the war, and about a life that came afterward.
When Safo Nur felt that Kutch is more or less back in his good mood he dared to ask. “What happened on Earth?” Then came another story of Kutch’s.
“When we finally pulled that small ship with the dead princess in it and you saw her, your soul opened. We call it that when a newborn Psiora sees mother for the first time. At that time the soul receives its resources to get stronger. But there is one downside of that process, a resource is too powerful for the body and mind to hold. A mother needs to meet her baby as soon as possible. It is easier for the blank soul, body, and mind to accept its resource. Older the child harder will be the process of opening a soul.
That being said, we made a huge mistake when we assumed that Earth is a wild planet. It is not, it has an owner. And not just somebody, it is owned by the Absolute Dragon Dynasty. A powerful galaxy that can compete with the Empire itself.
They left a group of people called Defenders. They came to interrogate us, apparently, Earth is an illegal or secret property of theirs. When they came you lashed out at them engaging all of us to fight them. And we lost, we lost badly. We managed to teleport to our ship, their fleet was waiting for us. In a second they destroyed our engine and all the important parts. Only by using our trump card, illegal Wild Warp technology we escaped them but the gravity of this planet pulled us here.”
Kutch stopped talking but it took several minutes for Safo Nur to digest the news. Questions one after another arose in his mind. “I don’t remember anything, the last thing I know is the skeleton of Princess Tala. Why can't I remember a thing?”
“That’s another bad news, even though you got your resource, which is a good thing, one of the Defenders locked them back along with a part of your memory. Dost knows a thing or two about sealing power and said that you still will be able to retreat them in the future bit by bit. Most importantly we are alive, meaning we can return to New Tenga.” Kutch tried his best to put a cheerful mask on.
“And what do you mean by “owned”? How can someone own our planet?” Safo Nur suddenly remembered Kutch's words. It was an incomprehensible concept for him. Living his 18 years on Earth he never heard or felt that it was owned.
“I guess you didn’t know. Same as small nations can be conquered by bigger and stronger ones, small planets can be owned by stronger ones. I have no idea why or how your planet is owned but it is true. In fact, your planet has some value given that they sent almost 10 thousand people to defend it. Just their battleships alone cost more than Earth itself, no offense. They were protecting or hiding something or maybe someone. I’m sorry bro but we cannot return to Earth right now.” Kutch heard youngsters using the word “bro” when addressing each other.
Seeing Safo Nur’s gloomy face, Kutch went on. “I’m sorry, bro, that’s our fault. We should’ve thought through first and keep you at a distance from the Princess. There is still a chance that we can negotiate the matters when you will be the King of Psiora.” Kutch tried to give him a sparkle of hope at least for now. As matter of a fact, he knew Why strong nations needed smaller planets especially wild ones. Wild planets were not aware of the situation outside of their galaxy and lack of technological advancements made it even harder to learn. That’s why for more developed planets it was easy to take control over them and use them as they wish. Usually, it was to improve military power by recruiting more soldiers, resources of the planet, slavery, biological experiments, weapon testing, or at last all sorts of entertainment. Kutch didn’t know what was the plan for owning the Earth.
Safo Nur felt a little hope but still was saddened by the fact that couldn’t meet with his future baby and wife, his parents, and friends. He was about to break his promise: never leave his family and loved ones. However, he understood that it wasn’t a time to feel down, he just had to become the King faster and talk his way back to Earth.
Due to the hot day and sun being right above them, Safo Nur was sweating under the bandages. When he started to scratch his skin on his arm a little part of it moved to expose his skin, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
“What the fuck is this? A flower tattoo?”