When Ada opened her eyes, she was curled up in her coat, lying on a solid surface, shielded from the wind inside… something with an almond-shaped opening to the outside. She had cried heavily in her sleep and felt as though more than a day had passed in her unconsciousness. She was thirsty.
She had fully intended to die in the mountains, but now that she was truly thirsty, her body told her to live and… to eat snow. She stumbled outside. There was no more snow.
Alpha had taken her over the mountains, through a snowy pass that descended into a valley sloping toward another lake as vast as an ocean. The red sun was setting in front of her: they had traveled west. Alpha crouched by a stream of clear water, poking at a creature the size of a rabbit but flat like a lizard with six legs. No scales, but beautiful green and blue fur shimmering in the sunlight. Another Xeno? Where did it come from?
Ada knelt before the stream, licking her lips. Alpha dipped one of his sharp limbs into the water, scooping some up and miming drinking before encouraging her to do the same. At this point, she had no choice.
She cupped her hands, filled them with the icy water, and drank. It was perfectly clear and pure, and cold—yes! But it revived her. Her body rejoiced. If the bacteria were to kill her, it would be a fine way to go. With hydration came clarity. Other lizard-like creatures frolicked in the stream. Were there animals on Clelia?
Alpha pulled out a sort of gelatinous, bright green wafer from the water. Thick, with the texture of candy. He mimed eating it, then handed it to Ada. Trusting the Xeno, she bit into it: it was hearty, rich with chlorophyll and earthy flavors, sticky in her teeth, and bursting with water. But it filled her stomach. It was a freshwater algae, and she saw that the stream was lined with it. The lizards were pulling them out with their teeth before eating them as well.
Maybe she wouldn’t die in the mountains after all. Alpha wasn’t the most talkative companion, but he had saved her, and she could see herself staying here for a while. The view was stunning. A deep hope swelled in her chest.
She finally turned toward her shelter.
This was no makeshift refuge.
She recalled the fiction she used to watch on Calchas-3, The Crew of Captain Wau. In every episode, as they searched for the Planet of the Blind Gods, they arrived on a new world. Often, it featured Xeno dwellings or even lost human colonies. And sometimes, it was just a boring, rocky planet. But Captain Wau, in his booming, godlike voice, always declared, “Every planet has a secret,” and the episode’s plot revolved around uncovering it.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
This was Clelia’s secret.
A structure of black stone, forming a perfect semicircle, with an almond-shaped entrance. The semicircle was topped with a slender spire of black stone. A Xeno house.
She stepped back into the shelter. The floor was smooth black stone, cool to the touch. Everything seemed new. Strange inscriptions adorned the walls, but the sun wasn’t at the right angle to fully illuminate them. Exhausted, she felt as though she had already mourned her own life. She lay down again, curling up in her coat. A lizard nestled its furry body against her cheek. It smelled of stone and grass. She drifted off to sleep.
In the night, she woke to drink again, and Alpha, tireless, offered her more algae. She still wasn’t sick. She returned to the shelter as if it had always been her home and curled up beside the lizard. Just before falling asleep, her gaze fixed on the mysterious Xeno creature. She realized the fur was actually intertwined feathers. That night, she dreamed of Yelena, the heroine from the League’s fictions, and woke remembering why: Yelena had a genetically modified, intelligent pet bird named Kutkh.
When the sun rose, after drinking, eating, and taking care of her needs, Ada returned to study the shelter by daylight. Kutkh—that’s the name she gave the lizard—followed her routine, curling up in her belt near Léon or nesting in the hood of her coat.
The structure had only three walls, forming a triangle with the entrance as its apex. Only the wall opposite the entrance bore carvings. Ada could have sworn the other two walls had inscriptions the night before. Was it an optical illusion? She ran her hand over them but found them smooth.
“Every planet has a secret,” she whispered.
The carved wall displayed two images and an alphabet she recognized but couldn’t read: the Stellar Language. Small constellations, uniform in size, arranged within hexagons. Three rows of 23 glyphs.
The image to the left of the writing depicted an inverted Tower of Babel, resembling Bruegel’s painting, but upside down—just like in her first dream on Clelia. The other image was an equilateral triangle.
“I need to learn the Stellar Language,” she repeated to herself. She had to understand.
Another day passed. She watched the scenery, observed Kutkh and Alpha, ate algae, and drank the refreshingly cold water. She spent hours in front of the glyphs and images, as if some vanished civilization had left a message for her, Ada, to complete a special mission.
She made a pact with Alpha: he must protect her no matter what.
“Because we have a mission now, okay?”
He seemed to agree, though his eyes remained vacant.
Another day passed. Then, on the morning of the fourth day, she decided to descend back to the HS colony.