A light breeze sweeps across a rolling meadow, lush greenery stretches out in all directions. In the center of the meadow, a large oak tree stands tall. The long branches full of leaves, casts a patchy shadow over the meadow. The tree is named The Evergreen, it gives off mass magical energy and is said to be where the first humans learned to harness the power of magic. The location of The Evergreen was lost to time, though it is said that those who’d witness its greatness would become attuned with magic on a more mystical and personal level.
The Human race has now been exploring the stars and beyond for over 50,000 years and have come far technologically, many discoveries have led to a mass increase in the health and daily life of the Human race. In comparison to a human being living on earth in the year 3000, a human now lives more than 3x as long, things like illness and famine are something found in stories and books not in real life. Wars are still waged but lives are never lost in-.
A synthesized bell sound went off in the distance, Richard looked up from his textbook to see the clock read, 15:00. The bell indicated that his class had just ended, Richard had gotten so lost in his reading he didn’t even notice the holographic projection of his teacher disappear. His fellow students were packing up their things and heading out the door excited for the coming break, a two stellar week vacation in honor of Emperor Kaldon VII’s birthday. A few of Richard's classmates were hanging around as they packed up, talking about vacations their families were going on for the break. Jenny, a girl about five and a half feet tall with puffy bright red hair, had just finished telling the story about how her family was going to Planet Atlantis, the large water park in the galaxy. She noticed Richard looking in her direction listening in on the conversation. She turned away and looked at Richard.
“What about you? I can’t imagine your family will be doing anything interesting,” she said with a satisfied smirk on her face.
Richard was used to these sorts of comments. All the students at his school were of rich or noble families but Richard came from the House of Yorn, who, other than for school or official nobility business, would never leave the house. It’s been this way since as long as Richard can remember, though something tells him it wasn’t always. His father tells him the world is a dangerous place and that there’s no reason to go outside the mansion gates, but his voice is always filled with sadness and regret when he says so.
Richard was about to respond to Jenny with a half-assed remark when his transponder beeped, the name Caleb Barnes appearing on the screen. Richard decided to ignore Jenny and collect his things. He picked up his textbook, a thin rectangular metal frame in which the pages appear as a hologram. He pressed a button on the side and the hologram made a flipping motion as if the pages were being turned, it stopped on the cover page which read, Pre-interstellar Human history. He pressed the button again and the hologram disappeared. He slipped the textbook in his bag, put it over his shoulder and headed for the door. From the corner of his eye, he could see Jenny smiling, clearly satisfied with the lack of response. As he made his way down the halls, he could see different groups of students hanging around and chatting among each other.
Richard never made friends with peers his age. That said, he did have friends. The person he was closest to and the only person he would truly call his friend was his bodyguard, Caleb Barnes, a very big, strong, and serious man with a kind heart. Richard often wondered why someone so kind and nonviolent would choose to be a bodyguard but found it would be rude to ask him. Richard was shadowed by Caleb whenever he was outside the house or the school, which was extremely rare, often though Caleb was the only one Richard could find to do anything with. Usually over the breaks from school Richard and Caleb would play a game of Commandment, a war game that would take days to complete.
Richard reached the front entrance of the school, as he walked through the doorway, he could see the white hover car his dad owned, Caleb was leaning against the side of the car with arms crossed staring up at the sky. Caleb, realizing he was staring off, turned his attention back towards the school. He saw Richard coming down the walkway waving at him, as he got closer, he realized he hadn’t read his message.
“Hello young master, did you see my message?” He asked.
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Richard took a minute to think then remembered the message he got on his transponder.
“I didn’t get a chance, sorry, is something wrong?” Richard replied.
“Hopefully not, but your father was summoned to the palace and is not expected to be back for a few days.” He said with a chill in his voice. Richard could tell he knew more, but decided if he was holding it back it was probably with good intent.
Without saying another word Caleb opened the door of the car and motioned for Richard to get in. After Richard was in the car with his seat belt on, Caleb closed and got into the front seat. The car was an older Forota Air Glide, it had white smooth seats with plenty of legroom. Like all cars outside of those in a museum, the car was completely self-driving, Caleb simply had to give it a destination and it was on its way.
Richard remembered learning in his history class that many of today’s companies used to be much smaller with a lot more fighting to be the best. Sometime in the 4000s, shortly after the collapse of the government control on markets, lots of bigger companies were merging together and buying up smaller companies. This caused a lot of the names of the companies we have now like Forota, Appsung, and G.M.A. Technologies which was a merger of some of the biggest tech empires at the time. These days the only thing technological that doesn’t come from one of those companies are spaceships. If you want to travel through space, you either have to make your own ship or have access to the government’s fleet. Space is a very dangerous place with no government having jurisdiction outside of a planet's atmosphere.
Richard had never been to space, but he was told in school it was nothing special, just an empty void with empty planets here and there. He often thought this concept to be odd, considering he’s learned about other countries than the empire and he couldn’t imagine a city of half a million being all there was. Richard's mind wandered as he thought about all the things in life, he’s been unsure about, he’s always been taught to listen and do as those above him do, but he can’t help but think those above him are wrong sometimes.
He felt the car stop moving, in front of the car a large sleek metal gate stood closed. The gate connected to walls going out either side half a mile, the gate looked nice enough, but Richard knew that there were boobytraps and security measures on every square inch of it. Slowly the gate started to open, it stopped when the space between the two sides was just enough to let the car in. As the car pulled through the gate Richard could see guards on the other side waiting to inspect the car, this wasn’t a normal precaution but with his father gone the security measures tend to be stricter. As soon as the gate closed the guards came to either side of the car peered in, looking at all the details of Caleb and Richard sitting inside. If there was anything that seemed off, they would redirect the car for questioning, but they simply nodded at each other and waved the car on. The car continued down the driveway until it reached a roundabout with a large fountain in the middle. At the other end of the roundabout was a large staircase that led up to the front doors of the Yorn Mansion. The car drove up next to the stairs and came to a complete stop, lowering slightly to allow for a smaller step out of the car. Caleb got out first, then proceeded to open the door for Richard.
“Here we are young master,” he said. They made their way up the staircase and into the mansion. They entered into a hallway that opened into a larger room with a wide staircase in the middle leading up to the second floor. Richard proceeded into the hallway then stopped and looked at Caleb.
“I will be in my quarter if you need me,” he said.
“Very well, supper will be at seven, I will fetch you when it’s ready,” Caleb replied, noticing the tired look on Richard's face he added, “rest well young master.”
Richard noting that his exhaustion must be showing continued down the hall and up the stairs to the second floor. Richard had the entire west wing to himself, but he only used one room, it was the biggest one on the farthest left side of the wing. Once Richard reached his room he pressed a button on the side of the door, and it slid open. inside was a large desk that he hardly used, a nightstand where his alarm clock stood, and a large bed next to the nightstand. Richard, starting to feel his exhaustion, proceeded to take off his school uniform, striping down to his undergarments. He folded his clothes and placed them on his desk along with his transponder. The floor was cold under his feet as he walked to his bed and laid down letting his mind wander as he relaxed. For the first time since he’d gotten in the car, he truly thought about what his father’s summoning could mean, but before he could think more on the matter, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.