“This is a dumb idea.” I was really not looking forward to having to do this.

“Come on, this will be fun! This is your last day of leave, and you should try it out” S’kay bounced from foot to foot, on the planet of Eon, which orbited Sirius, one of the 3 planets, with four moons orbiting it. The enormous dome held an entire city, completely self-sufficient. Humans androids and even a few million Cellic. Cellic were a sentient species such as us humans, they were still mucking around in tribes on their homeworld of Feyu when they were discovered half a century ago. Nearly all of them had adjusted to life in modern society, but their traditions remained.

The natural atmosphere of Eon was thick, and had slightly below average gravity. Given gliding suits, one could fly through the air rather easily. That was what S’kay was attempting to convince me to do with her.

“Fine, but I already told you, it’s not going to be worth my Currents.”

“We’ll see soldier boy…” She took me by the hand and dragged me to the registration counter. After a short two minute line, we got through, and ot the suits. Slipping my arms into the wing-like mechanics, and donning the thin vibra-film suit that was both sturdy and comfortable. It was the barrier between air I could breathe, and the atmosphere of Eon that would clog my lungs like a liquid. The air was a light yellow, and I couldn’t see very far through it all, but enough to be able to react to obstacles and such. I lifted off with some turbo jets, and then as I began flapping my ‘wings’, and began flying away.

It was worth the currents. The feeling of flying through the air of my own will was exhilarating and exciting. The murky yellow atmosphere resembled the now yellowing paper of olden times, except diluted and sort of watered down. The blue flames of the jets propelled me through the surprisingly habitable temperatures of this planet’s surface. The chilly atmosphere resembled that of a cold area of Earth, only a negative 28 degrees celsius. The thick air provided extremely stiff resistance, or rather, it would have, except for the quite recent technological innovation of minitiarizable energy shielding. The foot long chrome oval upon the back of the glider suit, provided an aerodynamic shield that let me cut through the thick, resistant, and crushing atmosphere like the artificial butter that was common in The United Governments. Normal animal products were quite rare, and a mild taboo. The overwhelming majority of meat and animal products were grown in growth chambers, at the expense of no animals or livestock.

Then I reached a planetary landmark, the mushroom forests. Enormous but proportionally short fungi covered the landscape with their wide tops. The largely purple but black mottled shrooms held an enormous amount of biodiversity and life. The most common among these was the multiple species of Silac, lizards with six bat-like wings, and a snail-like foot. They blended in with the yellow skies, and could be anywhere from the size of my hand to the size of my 6 foot physique, the genetically engineered height for all humans. Some people choose to be taller or shorter, but most stay the same height. My piercing brown eyes scanned the ‘treeline’, and I saw a few Colo’s, one of the most unique creatures ever encountered. They were thick orbs containing their organs, with various tentacles that were both limbs and sensory organs. They would swing and stick around the large shrooms.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The massive fungi themselves were rather different than those of the mother planet. They had five thin stalks they balanced upon, and emit their spores from the location where the stalks merged into one. Their, there was a small hole, where seed pods dropped out of randomly. These seed pods would be eaten by various wildlife. Then, the outermost layers of the pod would be digested to make it worth the animal’s effort, and a small, hard, spore launcher would be shit out. The launcher would release clouds of spores that flew with the wind, most never making another tree. The ecosystem of the mushroom forests were complex and constantly changing.

Then just as soon as it had come, an hour later, it was no longer visible. I spent a few more hours gliding before I reached the halfway point on my fuel, and began to return. On the return I flew over the Felios sea. The massive body of water was frozen over year round, and contained large amounts of life. Flying over the massive sea I saw a large glacier, and decided to have some fun.

I focused on a large icycle, and connected to The Strand. I connected the middle of icycle and my hand, using a psychedelic, rainbow like tether, and started to hover using my gliding suit. I pulled my hand back hard, and felt the tether strain. I channeled more energy into it, and pulled a little harder.

“Shit this won’t move.” I heaved my arm back, and the icycle came flying. I slowed it down through the tether, it coming to a stop before me.

It was beautiful. The watery surface was mixed with the helium bubbles that comprised a large part of the extremely dense air. It had to be 12 feet long, at least. I lifted it without a movement of my hand, and observed it more through the sunlight.

I then thrust my hand rapidly forward, like throwing a spear. The thick shard of ice flew, the tether having flung it before I snapped said tether. It flew threw the air at insane speeds, shattering on contact with the sea surface over 100 feet way in half a second. Satisfied, I stopped hovering, and begun to speed off, the wings flapping more to compensate for the slight loss of fuel for the primary engines. As I flew away, the cracked ice shimmered and glistened, cracks having spread in a similar pattern to the shards of what was left of the pummeled icycle.

I came back a bit over a minute after S’Kay. She was ecstatic, and had a smile from ear to ear.

“That was so much fun! We neeed to do that again!” She squealed.

“It was fun, but I don’t think I can before my leave time ends. Maybe the next time I come on leave, but you know we have to take that trip to Io!” I sighed. “Those apartments are booked months in advance, let alone the ticket prices to get there!” After the big Jhar Empyrean invasion 41 years ago, the military bought as many commercial transports as they could, and commandeered them and a third of theirs into military vessels. We won that short war, our tech was extremely advanced, and we had stronger troops. We had only taken one system from them, but it was now the primary defense point against the Jhar, and a powerful military system. I had visited it personally multiple times, and Tau Ceti was one of the most powerful systems in the UG.