Ray
Ray turned around, conjuring glitter as he prepared to face whatever random threat had come to ruin his day even more. The answer was a very old man that did not look bothered at all.
“I would recommend limiting your mana usage. The cannons don't like unknown forms of energy.” the old man said. Ray stood there motionless, keeping an eye on the ‘cannons’ that had begun glowing again, but still keeping his guard up. The old man was a blank. A void where there should be some feeling, something that Ray could sense with his powers. But even mana seemed to pass right through him, as if he wasn’t even there.
“Were we back on Earth, you would have called me a hologram. But you wouldn’t be there on Earth would you, Fae?” the old man said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Ray.
“Where is the Fae home planet anyway? I find it so strange that most Species, despite having little knowledge of their origins, still have some record of their home. But not you. The Fae might have their interplanetary origins as part of their school curriculum, but not even your King will tell me where you are from.” he said, conjuring a table and two chairs as he sat down, not looking even a bit concerned that Ray might attack him. Was he really powerful enough to ignore Ray’s attacks or was he bluffing? Was he even really here?
And what was this about interplanetary origins? What was Earth and why would people think he would be a hologram? What was a hologram?
“I would like to answer your questions, I really would, but it is far too early in your journey. No, I am here for someone else.” the old man said as a sort of mist cleared on the table, revealing the figure of a single cat in the midst of eating a cookie. Norman? What was-
“Hello, old friend. I am glad to see you recover. The planet has been dull without you. The old man’s eyes twinkled as a mist devoured them both, leaving Ray once again alone with a glowing table.
Ray paused for a second, trying to process what had happened. So, Norman had followed him here. Not surprising given Norman’s rather random ability to straight up bend the rules of magic and get to places. Norman had become increasingly random post the battle in the Xnarthan base, and had straight up disappeared after the battle at the Treasury. Now he was here, somehow still eating cookies while inviting old monsters that spoke strange things and then told him he shouldn’t know it.
The glowing table on the other hand had continued to glow, glowing increasingly bright as its cracks began to practically burn. Ray looked on, not really bothered by it anymore. At this point he would be surprised if something random didn’t happen every other minute. The table finally stopped glowing as a single tablet popped out of the table. Ray watched for a few seconds, seeing if it started setting things on fire or something.
A few seconds later, it became clear that the tablet was at least not going to set things on fire. Ray picked it up carefully, taking special care to make sure that he didn't trigger some random event. The random event came anyway. The tablet's surface began glowing before melting away and revealing a smooth surface with words on it.
Ray looked towards where Nora and the boy had disappeared to, trying to see if they were coming back any time soon. The cannons did not like that. The cannons didn't seem to like seeing him breathe either, but they got violent when he approached the interior. A Human only area apparently.
Ray sighed, looking around for a place to sit, lest he go exploring again. The room sadly did not have much in the way of sitting. The still glowing table perhaps, but Ray was loath to sit on something that could have easily been a death trap. Standing it was. Now to see what the tablet had to say.
Hello.
I don’t really know why I am writing this, it’s not as if I can actually show it to anyone around me, I would be killed in minutes. But I suppose some small part of me can take solace in the fact that some record of the atrocities about to be committed here will remain.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
I am Hiren Smith, an seventh generation Indian American from Austin, Texas, USA, Earth, year 2379, and here is the true record of events that took place during emergency evacuation flight #7773392 from Earth to the New America and New India shared solar system. For those unaware, the two countries could not agree on a name.
Ray looked at the dramatically written article, trying to piece together some information. The author had clearly presumed that the reader would be aware of what Austin, Texas, USA, India and Earth were. But it was also clear enough that the USA and India were countries that were apparently going to colonize the solar system.
Were they perhaps going to different planets? Earth was apparently the planet, and apparently the home planet of Humans, at least if Ray was reading this right. At this point he wasn’t very sure of that. But he could maybe confirm that Humans weren’t from this planet…or maybe he should just wait till later.
On to the rest
The flight in question was organised by the Arseniel corp, a US based corporation that had leased half its space jet to a ‘kelavani mandal’, which is apparently something similar to a charity in India. Or at least, that was what my manager told me. I now wonder if he was lying about that too.
But either way, half the ship was filled with the corporation's employees, about 800,000 Humans, and the rest, a slightly larger number, was filled by farmers, shopkeepers and other low-income professions from India that were sponsored by the kelavni mandal.
Wait. A slightly larger number? Ray had not expected that. A slightly larger number meant that there had to be over 1.6 million people on board. How big was this ‘ space jet’ to hold over 1.6 million people? Ray was now even more curious about what happened to them.
But little did we know, there was more to the trip than we thought. I don’t know how far we have reached, or how far we were when they woke us up, but I do know that we were not where we wanted to be. The Arsenial corp was a front. I thought I knew whose front it was, but boy was I wrong.
Ray was at the edge of his seat at this point, waiting for the author to get to the point so he could find out what exactly went wrong.
The Reverxtons. An ultra-nationalist, racist group that wanted to use this emergency evacuation to ‘return America to its original form’. And the first step, which they are about to take in the next few seconds, is by brainwashing 800,000 Indians on board in a show of strength.
Ray paused as the page ended, not sure if this was the end of the entry or if there was more.
“ Ray.” Nora said behind him, making him whirl in panic, his heart beating rapidly as glitter spontaneously conjured around him.
Nora shadow travelled back, looking at him weirdly. “Just your friend Nora here” she said, holding her hands against her chests, palms open as if in surrender.
“Oh, sorry.” Ray said, drawing the glitter back in.
“What happened to the other guy?” Ray asked, trying to divert attention from his embarrassing reaction.
“The other guy- as you put it, is currently sitting in some kind of transparent chair holding a strange piece of metal after having me identify what language we were speaking. The spelling was wrong, starting with an E instead of an I, but it was the only one that used the same letters. Now how about you explain your reaction?” Nora said, still looking at Ray warily, as if wondering if he had been influenced somehow.
“ I was, ugh, reading something and got spooked.” Ray said, trying, and failing to make it sound convincing.
“And what exactly were you reading here?” Nora asked, not sounding very convinced either.
“A tablet popped out of that table over there after an old man came in and said some weird stuff. Oh, and Norman was apparently here too.” Ray said quickly.
Nora paused for a second looking at him blankly before saying, “ I am staying with you next time. Norman still owes me for all those cookies he stole.”