“Next month will be the bicentennial celebration festival of the grand exodus when our forefathers left behind a doomed planet in search of a better life here on the moon,” Instructor Limons droned. “In light of the historic event, we will be having a test on the contributing factors leading up to the grand exodus.”
Everyone in the classroom groaned in anticipation of one of Instructor Limons’ tests. They liked to grade on a curve which fostered either intense competition among the class for the top score, or intense laziness to not bother trying in the first place.
“Who can give me one of the factors?” Limons asked. “Ashley, enlighten us.”
A gangly kid stood up at their desk and glanced around the room.
“The lower races over populated, spreading across the planet like the vermin they are. Our ancestors, the High Elves had no choice but to leave them behind, taking only the smartest and most important people to populate the lunar colonies,” Ashley recited.
“Overpopulation of lower races, good, sit down. What else? Casey?” Limons demanded, pointing out another student.
“The atmosphere thinned, allowing solar radiation to cook the surface of the planet and melt the polar ice caps flooding most of the inhabited regions,” Casey contributed.
“Yes, the poor planet was doomed. Only the High Elves had the foresight to save themselves. The test will cover the actions of President Hyperion of the Corporate Council and what influence he had on Federation of States as it relates to survival. Yes, Jordan? This better not be one of your conspiracy theories that you picked up from who knows where, again,” Limons warned.
“President Hyperion is considered by many to be the savior of the Elven race, but isn’t it true that the Corporate Council knew about the problems that the planet was facing for nearly a century? Not only did they keep the data to themselves but they also pushed laws that would speed up the destruction of the planet for short term profits? If they knew for so long, why didn’t they do anything to save the planet or to help the other races? Billions of people and native species went extinct while the Council only sought to line their pockets,” Jordan said with conviction, growing more impassioned as they spoke.
Limons sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose.
“The planet was full of rich and diverse lifeforms unlike here in the nation of Lumos. Even now, we rely heavily on organic matter shipments from the planet from those we left behind in order to cultivate this rock and grow our food,” Jordan added, looking around at their fellow students.
Most of the students paid them no mind as they’d heard Jordan’s rants before. The few that looked their way wore expressions of resignation or boredom. A look mirrored by the instructor. Jordan glanced around the room at the collection of Lunar Elves sitting at desk pods and the Lunar Elf instructor. They all had silver hair that resembled metal wire. They all had large, dark eyes with glowing, yellow irises that easily caught the smallest sliver of light in the dark of space. They all had reflective black skin, engineered to reflect 98% of the harmful cosmic radiation that constantly assaulted their bodies. And they all were descended from genetically modified elves to have both sets of sex organs so that any two pairs could continue to propagate the species.
Jordan was often teased that they would only ever be able to self-propagate, mostly because —stars forbid— they were the curious sort that was fascinated by genetic diversity; rather than everyone looking like slight variations of each other. On the moon, there were no other species than the Lunar Elves. Back on the planet, existed all sorts of people. Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Orcs, even Humans. The elves had decided to save themselves and left everyone else to die, even going so far as to sabotage the efforts of other groups in the name of “survival of the strongest”. Or at least, that’s what the Unauthorized Data Cast that Jordan listened to claimed.
A pleasant tone chimed from some unknown source and all of the students wasted no time in shutting down their holodesks and bolting for the door. The instructor called out specific data packets to review for the test but was largely ignored.
Jordan shut down their own holodesk and tapped on their arm console to sync the test outline before disconnecting from the class server.
“Jordan, I really wish that you would stop listening to those casts. Nothing good will come of willfully butting heads with the historical record,” Instructor Limons warned.
“Just because we don’t like the sound of it, or it paints our forefathers unfavorably, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen,” Jordan countered. “We can’t ignore something just because it makes us uncomfortable.”
The instructor sighed again and waved Jordan towards the door.
“You’re a smart kid, full of curiosity with a thirst for knowledge. You’re seventeen and will be graduating in a few months. You actually already have all the required credits to graduate early. Make sure not to lose that curious drive of yours,” Limons said warmly, shoeing Jordan along.
Jordan eyed the instructor curiously, they seemed to know something that Jordan didn’t or maybe Jordan was just thinking too deeply about it, looking for meaning where there wasn’t any. They nodded gently and gave Instructor Limons a small wave before heading out the door.
“See you next week, Instructor,” Jordan called over their shoulder as Limons disappeared from view.
Jordan lacked friends and was largely ostracized by their peers for taking “radical views” and daring to desire individuality, but no one openly bullied them. For the most part, Jordan was left on the fringes of groups, neither targeted nor included.
Jordan got home to their family’s Habitation Unit to find the unit uninhabited. Their parents were researchers with high project access levels so coming home to an empty unit was not uncommon. What was uncommon was finding a message disc resting on a stack of travel storage crates and Jordan’s room cleaned out.
With apprehension, Jordan touched the disc to relay its contents. Jordan's parents, Kai and Ari, stood shoulder to shoulder in holographic blue, twitching slightly above the disc.
“Jordan, as you know, we’ve been working on a restricted access project,” Kai started.
“We can’t go into details, of course, but we have some really exciting news for you!” Ari added.
“I can tell you this much: we’ve been granted permission to research natural selection and adaptation data as it relates to life on the planet,” Kai continued. “Unfortunately, we are considered essential personnel and are unable to collect data ourselves.”
“This is where you come in sweety,” Ari interjected, bouncing slightly in excitement.
“You’re going to be our field agent, Jordan. We know how interested you are in genetic diversity and we couldn’t think of a more qualified candidate for this mission. Your things have already been packed and a courier is scheduled to arrive to pick you up at 1800.”
“Good luck sweety! I know you’re going to do amazing things!” Ari bounced.
The message ended and Jordan looked dumbfoundedly at the disc as well as the crates full of their things. A gentle note toned from the direction of the unit’s front door and Jordan glanced at their arm console to see that it was, in fact, 1800 on the dot. Jordan reasoned that it was a good thing that they hadn’t dawdled on the way home. Not that there would have been anything to do between home and the classroom or anyone to do it with in the first place.
A rush of complex feelings swirled around within Jordan as the courier entered the unit with a small skiff and loaded up the crates. On the one hand, they felt let down that their parents couldn’t see them off in person — or even consult them about the mission ahead of time. On the other hand though, the opportunity to go down to the planet and research how life had changed and adapted to the conditions that the elves had left behind was immeasurable.
Jordan deduced that Kai and Ari must have been given the mission parameters at the very last minute along with an impossible deadline to meet from their superiors. Such tasks were often given to Jordan’s progenitors and often were the source of anxiety induced stomach problems in those same progenitors. Still, Jordan refused to judge the opportunity harshly.
They followed, dutifully, after the courier elf through the hallways of their residential node to a small wheeled vehicle where the courier loaded up the skiff onto a small transport deck and climbed into the driver’s seat. Jordan stood uncertainly until the courier motioned with their head at the small passenger seat attached to the back of the vehicle. Jordan chuckled nervously and moved quickly to strap themselves into the small seat.
The vehicle lurched forward, nearly dislodging Jordan before they could secure the buckle but once it got going, the ride was smooth enough. The white plastisteel walls gave way to open stars under the sky dome. Endless black, dotted with the pale light of distant stars beckoned to Jordan. The thought of ever going beyond the dome seemed like nothing more than a wistful fantasy in the past. Once the elves had settled on the moon, they doggedly refused to look back any more than they had to. Maybe this mission would change things though. With the research from Jordan’s parents, maybe the elves could explore ways of returning to the planet or even seek out new homes among the other planets within the solar system. It was an exciting time to be alive, sitting on the cusp of history, as Jordan saw it.
The wheeled vehicle trundled along, crossing the open fields that grew the staple plants that nearly every food item in Lumos was constructed from. Overhead, small speeders and transport modules flew along invisible lines taking elves and goods back and forth from place to place within the city of Tranquility. Jordan couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before they saw such a mundane sight again. Most goods and elves were transported via the sky lanes so it was odd that they were strapped to a tiny chair bouncing along the fields in a wheeled vehicle. It was certainly the cheapest method of transport, but it was also the method with the least amount of government oversight. The thought did cross Jordan’s mind that Kai may have selected this method to keep Jordan’s involvement hush hush, or that maybe Jordan’s inclusion in the mission wasn’t entirely above board. Such reasoning wouldn’t be unheard of from what Jordan knew of Kai.
Ari always seemed to be very innocent and cheerful to Jordan and absolutely doted on them whenever possible, so the stars only knew what Kai had said to convince them to let their only child go down to the planet.
The open sky disappeared, replaced by plastisteel once more. The sounds of elves and machines echoed in the large shuttle bay. All around Jordan elves bustled about, everyone in a hurry to get wherever they were going. A massive shuttle dominated the bay, though Jordan could only see the upper half of it. Gangways and conveyer belts led to the shuttle as workers tossed personal travel crates into the ship and passengers boarded. Somewhere further down, larger transport containers would be unloaded from the bulk cargo areas bringing needed organic compounds to the moon and empty ones would be loaded back on.
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“Okay, buddy. This is your stop,” the courier said to Jordan as they unloaded the transport skiff.
“It looks like passenger boarding is that way,” Jordan said, confused and pointing to a line full of unhappy elves.
Everyone in the line looked like they didn’t want to be there. Most of them were likely debt laborers that were being sold to the import guild. It was common knowledge that the planet was a wasteland but if it still had resources that could be plundered then then you could bet that the Corporate Council would have a finger in it. Jordan had to admit that tourist trips to the planet surface were exceedingly rare so they had no delusions of traveling in prestige class, though they did expect typical passenger onboarding.
“Nah, you don’t want to get mixed in with that group,” the courier advised. “This way.”
They led the way with the transport skiff filled with Jordan’s possessions down a less trafficked passage. Jordan checked their surroundings but followed anyway. What kind of shady arrangement had Kai made to get Jordan down to the planet?
The courier tossed Jordan’s things unceremoniously onto a belt headed for the shuttle and instructed Jordan to follow after them.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Once you get to the orbital station another courier will pick you up. Just look for this patch,” the courier said, pointing a digit to an embroidered patch of winged arrow head on their jacket sleeve.
“Um, right. Thanks Mix… I’m sorry I didn’t get your name,” Jordan fumbled, scanning the courier's jacket for a name tag but coming up empty.
“We’ll leave it at Courier,” the courier said with a wink before turning and heading back towards their wheeled transport.
“That was decidedly odd,” Jordan thought to themselves as the conveyer belt slid along, delivering them into the bowels of the shuttle.
Inside of the shuttle cargo hold, automated arms grabbed Jordan’s things and neatly stacked them along with several other travel crates. A small bench jutted out from the wall with some questionable strapping that Jordan could use to secure themselves. It didn’t look like anyone else would be coming and shortly after securing the straps, the conveyer belt retracted. The hatch screeched shut with a loud whine and the automated arms nestled back into their storage stations.
Apprehension, fear, excitement, uncertainty, terror; it all swirled around in Jordan’s mind as the shuttle violently shook and rumbled with the effort of take-off. The thought that Jordan, and by extension their parents, had made a horrible mistake played out in their mind. The entire shuttle was, clearly, about to rattle to pieces and explode somewhere out in open space— assuming it even made it out of the shuttle dock.
The nutritional meal supplements that Jordan had last consumed threatened to make a reappearance but eventually the shaking subsided to a gentle vibration. The artificial gravity of the lunar city released and Jordan could feel their body attempt to float off of the small bench. The questionable straps did their job and restrained Jordan, though they could feel their hair lifting off of their ears and waving gently in the air.
Jordan was too afraid to do much more than exist and so spent the remaining hour of the flight with their eyes closed, thinking about how one might take for granted the gravity that kept the food in one’s body going in a single direction. Quietly, Jordan began to hum to themselves a simple tune, reminiscent of an entertainment feed they watched as a child.
The trip was otherwise uneventful. Jordan was passed from courier to courier, each with the winged arrow patch and none with a name they were willing to reveal. From the shuttle they were transferred to the orbital station where they got a brief glimpse of life out in open space before they were put into the cargo hold of an orbital freight car. One terrifying elevator drop later, and Jordan was finally on the surface of the planet.
Jordan checked themselves several times to ensure that they hadn’t soiled themselves. Outwardly, that did not appear to be the case so they released an exacerbated sigh of relief. Yet another nameless courier guided Jordan from the freight car to a waiting wheeled vehicle. This one was much larger than any of the others that Jordan had ever seen with wheels that were nearly up to their shoulder.
As Jordan stepped out onto the open surface, they were immediately assaulted by the sun. The ground beneath their boots was cracked and hard. Plumes of pale brown dust stirred in the wind. Jordan was not given any time to appreciate the drastic changes from life on the moon as they were quickly shoved into the waiting vehicle. Beyond the window, a wall of dust and wind grew ominously on the bleak horizon.
“What is that?” Jordan wondered, curious about the phenomenon.
“Dust storm. As long as you’re not caught out in it, it’s nothing to worry about,” the courier remarked.
“It looks like it’s getting closer,” Jordan added, apprehensively.
“It is. Might get a little rough.”
“How much further are we till we get wherever I’m going?” Jordan asked.
“You still got a ways to go, buddy. According to this, we’re delivering you to New Sandy Hook. It’s a scavenger port on the outer rim of the tidal basin,” they replied, tapping at a tablet console. “Here, have a nutrition bar and try to get some sleep.”
Jordan took the bar and opened the wrapper. It was very different from the nutritional supplement meals they were used to. They gave it a sniff before gingerly probing it with the tip of their tongue. It tasted weird.
“What’s in this?” Jordan asked, searching the package from some clue to the contents.
“Best not to ask,” came the response.
The trip took four days across scorched, barren land with just as many transfers from vehicle to vehicle. By the end of the trip, Jordan could get down a whole nutrition bar without gagging. They still tasted weird though.
Finally, the scenery changed. Cracked, dead bones of land gave way to an endless expanse of moving liquid. Jordan was stunned by the sight. Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined so much liquid in one place. The liquid churned and crashed against the dead land. Large rocks jutted out of the liquid, worn smooth by the endless slapping.
Once again, Jordan was transferred to another courier. Their travel crates were again loaded onto a transport skiff and taken away as Jordan followed along after. A concrete bridge led out over the crashing liquid and Jordan could see below smaller rocks and the bleached remnants of something organic smashed against them. The bridge led to another large vehicle that resembled the shuttle that Jordan had first embarked on, though this was much smaller and bobbed about in the liquid.
Jordan thanked the nameless courier for bringing them along thus far and boarded the bobbing vehicle. On board, everything felt slightly damp. A musty smell dug its way into Jordan’s senses. It was a smell that they could taste. The flavor reminded Jordan of the nutrition bar and they quickly had to fight the urge gag.
The hatch closed and the relentless sun and dead land were gone from view. Crew members bustled about and directed Jordan to a seating area where they could wait out the trip.
“Where in the stars have you sent me, parent Kai and parent Ari?” Jordan wondered allowed.
“Yer parents sent you here?” a surly looking elf with wizened features asked. “Poor kid. Did you get sold off to pay a debt ‘er something? This tub only goes two places. The surface, and the depths of hell.”
“I’m supposed to be going to some place called New Sandy Hook?” Jordan tried.
“Aye, that’s the place. Ain’t no place for a clean, smart lookin’ elf kid. Nothin’ but lower races down there. We only make this trip when we hafta to collect organic material to ship back to Lumos. We elves belong to the stars, yeah? Poor kid, somebody must hate you a whole bunch.”
The old elf laughed bitterly, perhaps thinking about their own situation. Jordan knew that they weren’t hated, at least not by the parents. The parents loved them so this whole thing had to be a terrible misunderstanding. Jordan was certain that either things would work out, or they could talk to someone in charge to get it all straightened out. The parents wouldn’t send Jordan to hell after all… would they?
Jordan had no idea what was going on outside of the “tub” as the old elf had called it. There were no windows and everything constantly moved, but not in the vibrating way that the shuttle had but in a way that reminded Jordan of riding on Kai’s back as a small child. According to Jordan’s arm console, eight hours passed before the constant swaying ceased followed by loud screeches and thunks of metal scraping against metal.
A crew member led Jordan to the open hatch and out the vehicle onto another bridge of sorts. This one was made of a metal mesh allowing Jordan to see through the flooring and at the dark, sloshing liquid below them. Beyond the bridge, a dirty but brilliant city opened up. Jordan was reminded of home with the sky dome, though beyond the dome there were no stars. Mirky blues and greens clouded the sky dome with a distant light from the sun filtering through. Occasionally Jordan could see shadows and strange shapes beyond the sky dome.
Jordan’s things were dropped onto the metal bridge next to them and the elves from the tub headed back without so much as a goodbye. Jordan was at a loss of what to do next. They could see amazing things beyond the bridge. People were everywhere. All sorts of people. Tall people, short people, skinny people, fat people. People with weird horns and fins, scaled people, furry people, bald people, people with shapes that defied Jordan’s sense of logic. Among all the strange sorts of people, not a single elf to be seen.
An excessively strange looking person stopped at the end of the bridge that Jordan stood on and looked at them. They then looked at a data tablet then at the tub, then back to Jordan. The person had tough looking, non-shiny, brown skin and brown eyes that didn’t glow. Their hair was cut short, shaved on the sides of their head and spikey on top. bits of more hair grew out of their face but Jordan wouldn’t call them “furry”. Their ears were weirdly small and round. The person wore a ragged gray shirt, slightly shiny black pants, and some sort of boots. None of the items had the synthetic look that Jordan came to expect.
The strange person walked up the bridge and stood in front of Jordan, looking down on them. Jordan couldn’t help but notice how much taller and broader this person was than themselves. The person also made quiet whirring noises when they walked and their right hand was entirely made of metal. Why wouldn’t they just have a new one grown if there was a problem with the old one? Their face and exposed skin was crisscrossed with an extensive collection of scars that Jordan found fascinating. What in the stars was this creature? Could it speak? Was it intelligent?
“Since I don’t see any other space elves around, you must be Jordan,” the creature said.
“You can speak! That’s amazing! Despite how you look, you could actually be intelligent,” Jordan muttered.
The creature closed their eyes, pursed their lips, and tapped a rhythm on their finger tips. Was this another form of communication? The creature opened its eyes, reached down, snatching up one of Jordan’s travel crates and hurled it off the bridge and into the liquid.
“What?! Wha— why? That’s my travel crate!” Jordan sputtered.
“Now who’s the intelligent one, dumbass?” the creature spat.
It then turned and headed back down the bridge.
“You gonna stand all day there or are you coming?” it called over its shoulder.
“You brute!” Jordan yelled after it.
Jordan stumbled over to edge of the bridge and feebly tried to reach for their travel crate. They looked around but there didn’t appear to be any means of getting down to the liquid and the stars only knew what was down there.
As Jordan tried peering into the darkness a set of large black eyes peered back at them attached to a very large set of very sharp teeth. Jordan shrieked in alarm and fell backward, flailing against the metal mesh. A large gray hand tipped with sharp, black claws burst out of the liquid and grabbed onto one of the bridge’s support columns. The other hand soon followed, slapping Jordan’s travel crate back onto the bridge and drenching Jordan in the process. The rest of the body immerged, pulled up by those massive arms until the gigantic creature stood on the bridge looking down at Jordan.
“Ah. Sorry, didn’t mean to get you all wet,” the creature growled.
Jordan was too terrified to think straight, let alone consider their moisture content. The soaking may have been a blessing in disguise though if Jordan had stopped to think about it. Towering over Jordan stood a creature, easily eight feet tall and powerfully built, covered in muscles. The only clothing it wore was a tight fitting pair of shorts that came down to its knees. Its skin looked course and scratchy but also smooth at the same time. Its chest and belly were pale white in color while the rest of it was dark gray. Its head was streamlined to a pointed snout and seemed designed primarily to hold a disproportionally large mouth filled with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth. Its eyes were black like deep space with no hint of anything beyond predatory violence. A triangular protrusion jutted out of its back along with a long tail that thrashed against the metal bridge. This creature could easily devour Jordan in a single bite if it wanted to.
“You’re the new guy, right? Don’t mind the Captain, he’s a sweet heart once you get to know him. You just kinda said something impossibly stupid and it ticked him off,” the monster said casually.
“The… the brown creature just now is the Captain?” Jordan asked, fumbling around to hug their travel crates while not daring to take their eyes off of that horrific mouth.
“Yeah… that’s the kinda stupid I was talking about. Seriously, who just calls someone a creature? You’d think you never saw a human or a carcharian before.”
“I’ve… only ever seen other elves…” Jordan admitted sheepishly.
“I guess that explains the smell of piss,” the monster said, wrinkling its nose.
Jordan flushed purple with embarrassment, trying to somehow hide their smell.
“Alright, come on bite size. I’ve got a skiff ready at the end of the pier for your crates. I ain’t touching you till you get a shower though. Name’s Rex. I’m the security chief for the Nymph.”
“I see. So Rex, are you the human or the carcharian?” Jordan asked, gathering up two of their crates.
“Wow. We’re starting from there, eh?” Rex said, peering down at Jordan and gathering up several crates in each arm. “I’m carcharian. We’re evolved from sharks. My family descended from bull sharks. You can tell by stocky build and relatively short snout. Also by the shape of my dorsal fin.”
“Of course? How silly of me,” Jordan tried, smiling nervously.
“Captain Stern is the human. I don’t mind so much on account of getting scared looks my whole life and rarely seeing any one that wanted to start trouble, but you’d best leave that elven racist squid crap on the deck if you want to live a little longer,” Rex advised.
“I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t intend to offend the Captain— or you. In Lumos there are only elves. There aren’t even any other animals. All of the elves look more or less the same as me too. From an early age we’re taught to refer to any non-elf as a lower race… I never gave it much thought though…”
“Best start thinking of it then, ‘cause from this point on, you are the only elf that you’re ever going to see. You might also catch some hate on account of lots of folks down here aren’t too happy with your people for what they did some two hundred years ago when they destroyed the planet so they could get rich.”
Jordan pursed their lips and half jogged to keep up with Rex as they pushed the skiff along.
“I can’t exactly say that I’ve got a thick skin, but I’m used to not being welcomed or shunned by my peers. My skin is enhanced to reflect 98% of all cosmic radiation though,” Jordan joked.
“Even space elves got it tough, eh? So what are you doing here anyway?”
“I was told that I’d be researching biodiversity and genetic adaptation, but at this point I have no clue. I don’t even know where we’re going or what is to become of me,” Jordan lamented.
“Maybe the Captain knows something then,” Rex offered in sympathy.
The pair walked along through the city until they reached another metal bridge jutting out over the dark liquid. This time the bridge led to massive vehicle that was much larger than the tub. It was sleek and streamlined, its surface was smooth and black, resembling Rex in a way. Large bay doors opened on the side of the vessel and Jordan could see a variety of people types entering and exiting through the doors with smaller vehicles as they brought boxes and crates on board.
“She’s a beauty, eh? I guess this is your new home now, bite size. Welcome to The Sea Nymph.”