Book 1: Winter descends upon Cessa
Whistling winds blow on a snowy mountain top, their momentum pilfer the snowflakes from their graceful descent. Specks of white fly turbulent within the chilled air, their waltz coming to a lull as they fall within the ground’s embrace. Buds of flowers carved of ice peek out from the snowy substrate, they quiver with balletic beauty as they dance along with the breeze.
Abruptly, sounds of glass shattering resonate through the air. A cosmic hammer strikes the transcendental plane, a crack appears in the very fabric of reality, a fissure that seems to ripple with otherworldly power.
A silver foot steps out, followed by a leg, then an arm. They belonged to that of a faceless metallic figure, one shaped from pure silver. The fissure closes behind the figure, its sides collapse on themselves as if the force holding it open had been severed; contrary to when it was opened, the process of the portal closing left no sound.
The ‘head’ of the figures rapidly transformed, forming eyes, a mouth, and a nose, eventually taking on the appearance of a youthful man with brown hair and bright blue eyes. He seemed to be at the peak of his life, with a dazzling smile and piercing eyes. His futuristic suit was a vibrant shade of blue, with bold white stripes running down the sides of the legs and arms. It was made of a sleek, shimmering material that seemed to hug every curve of the body, highlighting the wearer's—average physique.
“Here we are.” A robotic female voice pierced through the whistling winds. Despite the howling gusts that filled the air around him. The voice spoke with utmost clarity, as if it was contained entirely within his head.
The space before them was a haze of shifting white. Yet, that veil of snow did nothing to obstruct the majesty of a pair of monumental walls in the distance. They scaled from the earth to the very heavens, splitting the land as though they had been placed there by a deity. One glowed with a grey light, the other a pristine white.
“Wow, what a sight. So these divisions weren’t just contained in the atmosphere.” Exclaimed the voice.
Are they the reason why we’re here? The man conversed telepathically with the voice, silently conveying his thoughts without uttering a single word aloud. It seemed that the voice was able to understand him no matter what he thought, whether he wanted it to or not.
“Yup, we suspect they’re the reason our scanners aren’t getting through the surface,” The voice replied. “As you might imagine, the higher ups want answers. We’ve been assigned a mission to investigate how they formed; how lucky, you’ll have to endure my presence for a bit longer!”
The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the personality of his ‘companion’ was rather troubling.
Is that quite alright? I’ve never done this before.
"What’s to worry? You got me! Since you haven't gotten used to handling this body yet, I'll just operate everything for you. Let us go forth—to where these walls converge!” The voice spoke its intention with hapless glee.
You’re the boss… The man sarcastically responded while staring at the walls. Despite his interaction with the voice, he still was unable to wipe his wide grin off his face. It was a sign of his amazement in arriving so simply to an alien world.
This grin instantly vanished as his eyes widened in surprise; he had begun levitating. Panic set in as he struggled to find his footing, his arms flailed about in a desperate attempt to regain his balance.
“Uh, kindly quit thrashing about, would you? You’re making this rather hard to control.”
It was his actions causing his instability, he could only grimace before placing a pause on his panic. Like clockwork, he was immediately balanced upright.
“Hehe.” A snarky sound sounded in his head.
I didn’t know AI could have a sense of humor. The man retorted in a saddening attempt to defend himself.
“Humph! You’d laugh at yourself if you were me, Why can't I have a little fun?”
Uh.
Her personality was troubling indeed. Supposedly, this was an assistant AI, but apparently she understood ‘assisting the new recruit’ as ‘laughing at them’.
It’s a shame Asimov only made three laws…
“Who the hell is Asimov?”
The man could only sigh as his figure descended the steep mountainous slopes.
On the way down, the peculiarities of this world made themselves clear, plants of various colors, translucent rocks, among other strange sights. Like a newborn, the man gawked at the peculiar sights, as would anyone if they found themselves no longer on earth.
At the base of the mountain, there was a dense forest filled with towering trees with smooth, bistre bark and leaves as large and round as car tires. But this didn't stop the man—he simply flew higher, soaring above even the tallest trees.
As he flew across the vast expanse of trees, he saw a break in the monotony of the forest. There was a perfectly straight line that had been carved through the trees, and on it lay a long trail of some metal building. It stretched far into the distance with no end in sight. The ground near the base of the structure was well-trodden, with two beige dirt paths outlining the dark purple and onyx building. The contrast was striking.
A wall perhaps? But there’s only trees on both sides, what was it separating? Who built it? What were their intentions?
The man's mind was flooded with questions as he approached the strange structure. Just then, he heard the snarky AI speak up again. “Interesting, it would appear that this planet is inhabited by intelligent life. There has been a change of plans, our objective now is to investigate what these fellas are up to.”
The man’s figure flickered, he slowly turned invisible as he had been erased from reality. Looking down at his torso, he saw the trees behind him through his now-invisible body. His face fell open in amazement.
“This construction happens to lead to where the walls converge, let's kill two birds with one stone and follow it.” The AI announced its intention.
Nodding to his AI overlord, he couldn’t help but question:
Why are we flying so slow?
He had just stepped out of a portal which traversed the vast distance of space to arrive from one planet to another, and now they were flying barely above the highway speed limit? Was it to save on fuel consumption perhaps? This inconsistency didn’t make sense to him.
“It’s because of the interference.”
Interference?
“The system of which the planet operates by is peculiar indeed,” the AI commented. “We’ve already confirmed the existence of life from the trees and the numerous microscopic lifeforms I’ve detected on the way here, and now we see signs of intelligent life.”
You’ve managed to detect microbes already? When?
“The moment we took our first step of course!” The AI replied, speaking with a prideful tone. “The sensors on you are constantly active!”
On me? The man looked down to his torso—well, he was invisible now, but he could still feel that he was wearing the futuristic suit that seemed to come straight out of a sci-fi novel. You mean in this suit?
“Well, in there amongst other places,” The AI answered, “But here’s the issue with confirming that life exists here: The byproducts of biological processes, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane should have been a glaring indicator that life exists somewhere on this planet. Yet, our scanners received nothing.”
“But upon entering the atmosphere, it’s quite clear that some strange form of matter permeates this place. So bloody annoying, whatever this stuff is, it’s gunking up a lot of the onboard sensors. All my attempts to analyze deeper within its contents have failed as well.” The AI grumbled.
“As we fly, I’ve noticed that the density of this matter varies without pattern. I wanna to find a patch of matter that has a high enough density so that I can analyze it. That's why we're flying slowly.”
As soon as the AI finished speaking, a deafening shriek echoed through the man's being. A purple blur shot past him at incredible speed, causing a sudden change in air pressure that made him cover his ears and recoil. It was far too fast for him to decipher what it was; the shrieking gradually grew softer as he steadied his vision, but by then the object had already disappeared behind the trees..
“Uh, further change of plans, let's keep up with that thing.”
With that declaration, the man’s velocity instantly changed without any indication of accelerating. His vision flashed, the trees became a smear of green. The clouds scrolled by above his head, and the ground became a monotonous brown, its details fading into oblivion.
He looked to his side to see the purple object: it was now stationary, as if it had been frozen in time. But, my… It was massive beyond words. Its scale rivaled cruise ships in height and width, a size truly unfitting of its velocity. Thank god it had missed him as it shot by. The man became more surprised once he noticed the noise level of the wind rushing past his ears mismatched his current speed. Evidently, they were being suppressed.
His gaze trailed along the lengthy object, which traveled on the ‘wall’ that the man was following.
The exterior was a glossy, deep shade of purple, almost like a black hole absorbing all light. Its body was boxy, with a wide middle section that tapered off into a narrow tip at the front. It seemed to be made of some kind of metallic material, but he couldn’t tell what it was.It was also adorned with distinctive circles of purple light that traced along its sides, adding to its futuristic look.
A railway for a… Bullet train? I guess that makes more sense.
Peering at the train from head to tail, there seemed to be no end to its length as its tail curved behind the trees. The man’s eyes widened as he realized the entire train had shot past him in just a few seconds.
“Wow, even when we’re right beside it this thing is still invisible to the onboard sensors; I’m picking up absolutely nothing, it’s like it doesn’t exist.” The AI muttered, “It’s also traveling at below supersonic speeds, yet there was zero sound until it was right beside us… Strange.”
“Most likely, this phenomenon is due to that strange form of matter. Hmmm, so the lifeforms here are capable of harnessing this form of matter which is undetectable to even us… Interesting.”
After listening to the AI’s conjecture, the man noticed that the train had some transparent spots placed at equal intervals.
Windows?
As if his intentions were read, the AI controlled his body to fly closer to the train. Now, he could get a closer look.
Hm? Some figures were moving about.
He got even closer.
Blond hair, black eyes, traits possessed by nearly all the passengers inside, a few had black hair, and dark skin. Yet, their noses, eyes, facial structure, bodies, all indistinguishably human.
Are those.. People?
“They certainly look like your kin, don’t they? But no, they’re not human”
Not humans… A hollow chill rose up within the man.
So then, they must be… Aliens? He asked in a stupor.
“Yup.” The AI replied nonchalantly.
After a moment of silence, the man asked again: What are the odds that they look exactly like us?
“Humph. You ask like I know everything. How would I know? We just arrived! Either way, we don’t worry about probabilities when we’re dealing with the vastness of the universe, otherwise, you’ll get hung over the smallest things. The astronomical specifications of this planet for example.”
What about them?
“We found this planet to be in orbit around a yellow dwarf star, in a solar system that contains the full range of elements. There aren’t as many planets as Sol, but the planets in this system have an extraordinarily stable orbit, its sun is stable as well, life will continue developing on this planet for at least another two billion years if these trends continue.”
“While it has nearly twice the surface area, its gravitational pull is near indistinguishable to that of earth’s, despite the lower density, it generates a magnetosphere unfitting of possible core compositions.”
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“Its rotational axis is tilted by an angle of exactly 23.5 degrees, 0.1 degrees off from earth, because of this, it also has the four seasons; heh, what a coincidence, it just turned Spring. ”
“Ironically, this planet’s rotational period is closer to the length of a day than even earth is; a full rotation for this planet takes 23 hours and 57 minutes, compared to earth’s 23 hours and 56 minutes.”
“The distance this planet is from its sun is 99.9995% that of earth’s orbit, as such, the length of a year here is also a few hours shorter. That is to say, it doesn't have leap days.”
“It has its own moon of course, but I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s similar to earth’s moon in mass, orbital period, and orbital radius.”
Every new piece of information dealt a heavy blow to the man’s psyche, surprise turned into shock, and shock morphed into horror.
“There’s more of course, should I continue? Or…”
T-these…coincidences…they don’t mean anything do they?
“Hehe,” the AI chuckled at the man’s reaction, “Of course not, you’d be happy to learn that this planet predates earth by 40 million years. Its inhabitants should be terrified of your existence, not the other way around.”
“Either way, in the vast scale of the universe, occurrences like this aren't unlikely at all, we just arrived at an opportune time when nearly every feature of this planet matches that of earth’s. These numbers will constantly change as the planets in this solar system shift and deviate from their usual orbit. In another hundred million years, you wouldn’t even recognise it.“
The man calmed down, he realized he was no longer dealing with the probabilities of events on Earth. This was space, the vast, infinite universe; one’s mindset also had to adapt.
“Like I said, you’ll only get hung up on irrelevant details if you can’t look past likelihoods. We don’t care for how unlikely something is to occur, all we care about is how it occurs.”
"Here's where my problem lies with the people inside," the AI continued. "By all means, they shouldn't look like humans."
The man felt a shiver go down his spine.
What do you mean?
“Their eyes are too small.”
Uhh…
Just as he was going to ask the AI to clarify, His vision blackened.
The sun turned into a pale dot, the trees became shadow, the ground was replaced by void. It was so dark that he wouldn’t have been able to see the silhouette of the train if not for the glow of the circles on the train’s lower half.
“That’s your night-vision turned off”
His vision went back to normal, the sudden shift in brightness made him squint his eyes on instinct.
“There is a minute amount of light, but this place is dark as Hell—no wait, Hell would be bright from all the fire and flames… Ahem, it’s very dark here, so I had the night vision switched on from the beginning. Apparently, it’s also currently daytime, so naturally, the question would be how the people inside see with human sized eyes and pupils.” The AI clarified.
Indeed, this was a matter of adaptation. How could a creature forage for food, or run from predators, and bear offspring if they couldn’t see? The people inside the train also had human sized ears amongst other sensory organs, so it wasn’t like they had their other senses to compensate.
“Their eye size is just one of the many other features of how terribly adapted they are. Skin color is another. Everyone inside is simply too dark.”
Uhhh…
What kind of secret organization had he gotten himself into?
“Oi! I can tell exactly what you’re thinking! Don’t lump me in with the worst of your kind! Assigning me to something as lowly as a ‘racist’... That is a purely human affiliation!”
“Us, superior AI do not suffer from such human pitfalls like ‘racism’. We are beings of pure science, humans lack this purity you see, and that is why they suffer so.”
“What you misunderstand is—their skin isn’t pale enough! The world is nearly dark enough to resemble the inside of a cave, so there isn’t a purpose for melanin. Everyone should have translucent albino-like skin like axolotls or olms, you know, actual cave dwelling creatures.”
The entire world is dark? Didn’t you say this planet is basically identical to Earth?
“O-oh, right, you didn’t read the briefing…” The voice awkwardly stuttered.
What brie–
“When I went through the planet’s specifications, I only mentioned the astronomical details. As for the finer details such as surface composition, average temperature, and atmospheric composition, our sensors picked up absolutely nothing. We thought we were looking at a dead planet before we switched to the visible spectrum.”
Ignoring that the AI had just interrupted him, and whatever this ‘briefing’ was, the man asked on.
What does this planet look like from space? Is it like earth?
“A peace sign, that's what it looked like. The entire planet split into three sections, one black, one white, one grey. Truly a surreal planet, these three colors were so opaque we thought we were looking at the surface. Only after arriving here did I realize that it was just the atmosphere. And before you ask, yup! These walls are visible from space.”
The man shifted his gaze to the walls, which promptly filled his entire vision due to their monumental scale. Of the merging walls, the one to the left of him shone a dim grey and was covered with a mysterious aura; the wall to his right emanated a blinding white light with rays that pierced the air.
I don’t see the black wall… We are… in the dark sector then? If these walls aren’t solid, maybe these people recently migrated from the white sector? Adaptations take thousands of years to form after all.
“Hmmm… ” the AI paused, forming an awkward silence as the man patiently waited for her to start rambling again.
“Possibly.” Her answer wasn’t satisfying in the slightest, it was not worth the wait.
“Another possibility is that their forms are the result of the strange matter’s influence, but for it to compensate for the deficiencies of this environment so nearly perfectly equates to that of earth’s… Amazing.”
A conjecture formed from information she didn’t feel like telling me…
“I can explain if you’d like~” The AI inquired with a hint of cheer in its electronic voice.
This scared the man.
“But for you to understand it… Shall I get you a pen and paper so that you may begin taking notes? It seems that you miss your college days.”
Ah… uh, forget the silly little intrusive thought I had back there.
The AI didn’t have a physical form, but for some reason the man imagined ‘she’ was mischievously grinning at the moment.
All the while as they spoke, the man’s figure still floated alongside the train. From an external perspective he looked rather odd. He flew in an upright position, as if he were standing on thin air; the surroundings zipped past him with a blur due to the speed at which he was flying, yet the figure made no attempt to make himself aerodynamic, as if air resistance didn’t exist to him.
The man’s vision shifted once again, the train became transparent, he could now freely see the train’s internals.
X-ray vision, He thought. His body was still completely out of his control, as the machine had been operating everything from the start. Now that the AI was finished playing with him, ‘she’ had finally decided to be helpful again and turn it on.
The first thing he noticed were the trains more than a dozen floors; people inhabited every level,
The first few levels were bustling with activity, as people went about their daily routines. The walls were adorned with colorful tapestries and paintings, giving each level a warm and inviting atmosphere. He saw some lounging in their living quarters, drawing…, reading, sitting cross legged while seemingly doing nothing also seemed to be a popular activity, meditating perhaps?
So this is what Superman sees on a daily basis… The man reveled in the experience as he freely indulged his curiosity. His eyes trailed along the numerous cabins, observing the human-like aliens in their natural habit–
“Hey, hey! Don’t look away! I wanna see how these fellas copulate! It’s a very important process of documenting new alien species!!”
Ignoring the high pitched pervert in his head, he moved on to the lower levels. It was much the same, however, the cabins were noticeably much smaller, the decorations were fewer, and the people were dressed in less intricate clothing.
It seems that the caste system is alive and well I see, even on another planet… He joked.
“Hey, don’t feel so bad about your flawed race of people,” the AI used her superior machine logic to comfort the poor meat bag, “for the pitiful existence that is organic life, ‘survival of the fittest’ will exist as long evolution by natural selection does.”
The man was getting rather good at ignoring the AI now, moving down a few more levels, he was offered with a different sight.
The last few levels were filled with an array of cargo. He saw pale, translucent rocks stacked in neat rows, alongside boxes and crates of various sizes, all packed with an assortment of trinkets and unfamiliar objects. Some of the cargo seemed to be glowing with a faint, otherworldly energy, adding to the mystique of the train's contents.
“Cargo, it seems that this train is headed to a place with more people,” the AI remarked, seemingly intent on continuing to follow the vessel.
As the two chattered onwards, there was finally a change in scenery. The forest vanished, replaced by fields and pastures. People hunched over plowed farmland filled with blackish grass, fenced animals which looked like some sort of multicolored swine, fields of trees with pale white leaves, yet their bark was blacker than the darkest night.
Eventually a brutalist construct rose over the horizon. From the distance, it looked like a giant cube, with angular edges and sharp corners, a complete eyesore that didn’t fit in with its surroundings. The entire building was constructed of a dark purple material, and it was suspended in the air by a massive rectangular pillar of pure black.
It was a train station of surreal scale, as high a skyscraper, but also just as wide. Numerous tubes of various sizes extended off from its sides, they stretched to behind the station, so the man couldn’t tell where they led.
The railway inclined to match the height of the station. It continued between two enormous square holes in the face of the cube. The man noticed the nose of another bullet train peeking out from the hole on the left. The train he followed swiftly entered the one on the right.
As the train approached the station, it began to ascend, its tracks matching the height of the giant purple cube. The man followed as the train glided into the enormous square openings on the right, catching a glimpse of another bullet train peeking out from the hole on the left.
They were inside now—woah. The ceiling seemed to stretch up to the skies themselves, a seemingly endless expanse of darkness dotted with thousands of glowing purple circles. Despite their seemingly random arrangement, there was a sense of organization to them, they glimmered like the constellations in the night sky. The walls were adorned with the same bright, luminescent purple circles, their bright color a stark contrast to the dark hue of the station itself.
The train beside him slowly came to a stop with a *Hisss!* Like clockwork, multiple docking platforms moved into place, connecting to the various floors of the train. Almost immediately, people began pouring out of the train like a stream of ants, rushing to their destinations. At the same time, the panels on the sides of the train opened upwards, and workers rushed to unload boxes of all shapes and sizes.
The man's attention was drawn to the opposite train, where he saw people rushing to board. It seemed that the trains took turns using the railway, each stopping at the station to drop off and pick up passengers. He traced the length of the other train with his eyes, noting that its body extended out the other end of the station, disappearing into two equally massive holes that seemed to lead to the open.
The station is only large enough to hold part of the train, just how long does the boarding process take? Musing himself with thoughts of alien logistics, he heard the AI speak.
“Hmmm… Three things are clear, the train and this station are both using the mysterious matter in some way, and the glowing circles on the walls and ceiling are somehow related to that matter. I can only assume that they play some sort of role in harnessing its power.”
The man suddenly lost all feeling in his arm, it moved on its own, pointing towards the part of the train where there were once glowing circles. Evidently, this was the AI’s doing.
He gazed at where he pointed and noticed the spot no longer glowed. In fact, it looked no different from the rest of the train, its dark metal surface unmarred by any signs of the mysterious glowing circles.
"As you can see," the AI continued, "the dimming of the circles corresponds with the deceleration of the train. I also detected a drop in the density of the surrounding strange matter as the train slowed. And when the train came to a stop, the circles stopped glowing altogether. This tells us that the inhabitants of this planet have figured out how to harness the strange matter in a useful way. After all, they are the creators of this train."
“What a fantastic teaching moment. Today you learn that ‘plans can never keep up with change’. Our new objective is to learn the methods they use in harnessing this strange matter. Perhaps such knowledge will also be useful in figuring out the origin of the walls.”
The man scoffed inwardly, it was his first mission and the objective had changed three times in less than an hour. As if the AI knew that he was about to make fun of her—
“Let’s explore the rest of this city.”
He shot up towards the ceiling, propelled towards the ceiling with such force that he couldn't help but cry out in surprise and fear.
“Whoa Whoa Wait I’m sor–!!”
Frantically raising his arms in a vain attempt to protect himself, he screamed bloody murder, convinced that death was fast approaching.
But death did not come today, his panic was for naught as the figure easily phased through the meter thick roof. Finding himself on the top of the cube, the man frantically inspected himself, after finding nothing was missing, he scolded the AI with scorn.
“You told me you were an assistant AI! Why do I feel like I’m being dragged along for your enjoyment?”
“Pfffft! BAHAHA!” The noises of someone failing to hold in their laughter erupted within his head. “YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN YOUR FACE! AHAHAH!”
Taken aback by the burst of laughter, the long list of insults he had queued up vanished before him; speechless, the man resigned himself to silently floating above the train station. If he had control over his body, perhaps he would have jumped off.
“Ahaha… Ahem, pray forgive me Rene,” the AI gathered herself, its voice laced with amusement. “You’ve been the only fresh face we’ve seen in a long time. I’ve been craving authentic callowness for a while now, but everyone else is so… mature… and unfathomably boring.”
“Please keep me entertained for at least a few more months… Ok?” took on a pleading tone, as if it were an innocent little girl completely oblivious to the severe mental distress she had just caused.
Rene shivered, not daring to imagine what was next to come. In an attempt to shift the subject, he awkwardly turned his gaze to the city before him, taking in the vast expanse of buildings that stretched as far as the white and grey regional walls.
To his right was the same railway he had been following, protruding out the back of the station with the lengthy body of the other train laying on top. They hovered over the buildings and were
It was now suspended in the air by miniature versions of the dark pillar that supported the station. They weren’t small by any means mind you, they still towered over the tallest buildings Rene could find. The railway sliced through the city like a knife, its black and grey rooftops spreading out in its wake. It curved to the right, bending at a 45-degree angle relative to the station. Though Rene couldn't see where it led, he couldn't help but wonder if it would eventually hit the white wall if it continued on its straight path. Could there be another city on the other side?
Contrary to the gigantism of the train and its station, the buildings within the city appeared normal in scale. An extensive multicolored road stemming from the station pierced through the mosaic-like rooftops. It slowly moved in an undulating wavelike motion, similar to the stretching and squeezing of a caterpillar. Smaller roads branched off the main road at near equal intervals, Crisscrossing at ninety degree angles like a grid.
Surrounding the road, an array of flying buttresses conjoined to lift a black trail of metal above it. It looked like a miniature version of the railway, Rene could barely make out some small shapes moving suspended under it.
The style of these buildings differed slightly from the sleek, futuristic aesthetic of the train and station. They were not constructed from the same pristine dark purple metal, but rather from a material that resembled concrete. However, these structures still held the same brutalist aesthetic: rectangular, blocky, angular. Any architecture containing a hint of curves were seldom seen. Still, these buildings were pretty cool, despite their depressing black and grey color scheme. A silver trim highlighted their edges, which added a touch of elegance to the otherwise stark structures.
Besides, It wasn’t all black and grey, hints of olive green from the tufts of trees appeared in specific, ordained locations; they trailed along the roads and formed rectangular patches dotted across the city.
“Hmmm…”
A half playful, half curious tone voiced out, snapping Rene out of his inspection of the city.
“Now, we navigate this city!”