2 rings later, Sebastian was finally strong enough to stood under the watcher's gravity after some rigorous exercise. However, the elderly were struggling to keep up with the exercise and they were eventually exempted. Ferdel told the elderly to relaxed because they would properly fixed them once they arrived at their base.
With the exercise finally over, they'll now began learning The Watcher history thought by Ferdel who was actually the Umistric 4th princess and despite her appearance, was much older than all of them.
Ferdel told human that a long time ago, 3 ancient spacefaring civilizations called Anrakyans (they resemble human but with elongated faces); Loricans (a humanoid crustacean-like beings); and Nittoms (A being made of something like stone). Their origins or how they met were mostly unrecorded. At the time, they formed an alliance for prevent war between them, however it was mostly to prevent total annihilation of Loricans and Nittoms because Anrakyans technologies were a league better than them.
Thousands years later, they were joined by 3 more spacefaring civilizations. Durgar (a short humanoid with a thick square beard and hair) ; Obliniad (a savage-looking green humanoid); and Voidron (a white-skinned, tall and hairless slender humanoid being). The origins of the 3 species, as well as how they met were also unrecorded.
"It's a big blunder on our side" said Ferdel, she then continued.
The 6 then established the first foundation for the would be the Watcher by developing rules and standardizing time counting known as the Cycle. They also constructed a large mobile base on an asteroid, which remained the Watcher's home to this day and that's where they are heading now.
The 6 species traveled and mapped the whole galaxy until Millions of cycles later when one of their exploration group were afflicted by an unknown deadly disease from a planet they visited which they unknowingly brought back, infecting the whole base. The affliction didn't had any symptoms until it was too late. They all died except for Voidron, who survived long enough to met with another spacefaring species called Durasyll and Lunluna.
Durasyll was a tree-like being (the giant mushroom on their head made them looked like wearing a hat). Their ancestor were the first deep space exploration team, who had just returned from a long journey only to found their home already devoid of life. They left their barren home to search a new place to live.
Lunluna's home planet was destroyed by their own technology which the event was long forgotten. Their situation at that time were actually quite similar to that of humans, their ship began to break apart due to lack of spare parts. Durasyll was the one who found and saved them. Despite their inability to communicates, Durasyll and Lunluna decided to travel the galaxy together.
Thousands cycles later, they happened to stumbled upon the Watcher asteroid base, which appeared abandoned at that time. Lunluna and Durasyll landed on the base, hoping to found some useful supplies, but instead they discovered thousands of Voidron survivors, all of whom were sleeping inside the medical pod, monitored by their drones.
Lunluna were curious and began messing with the computer, accidentally awakened one of the Voidron. They have an awkward moment staring at each other until the Voidron wore their universal communicator device to talked with Durasyll and Lunluna.
He introduced himself as Sal Sa'lud, then explained the affliction and urged them to leave the base as soon as possible, fearing they would get infected too. However, Lunluna asked voidron to show the affliction, and after seeing it, they deduced that they could make a cure.
With Lunluna's cure, They were successful getting rid the affliction, but it was too late; all Voidron was rendered sterile and despite their best efforts, lunluna weren't able to reverse their condition. Voidron however doesn't mind, because they were granted another chance to observed this galaxy.
Lunluna later discover that the cure had other side effect, which was altering the recipient's DNA and gene, making their body much more suitable for living under zero gravity. They tested it on themselves and then repurposed it as an implant for the future inducted members, which humans will also received once they reached the base.
This unexpected news terrified everyone, including Sebastian. Ferdel assured them that it would be greatly beneficial for human. She explained that the implant basically grows new internal organs that reinforced existing organs, prevents mutations, help regulated body more efficiently, and extend life; there were also additional rare effects such as Voidron who became an immortal being.
"Our ancestor's lifespan before were about 360 cycles, now we can reach up to 1800 cycles" explained Ferdel.
Despite this, they were all still hesitant until Widodo and the other elderly volunteered to be the first to received the implant. Ferdel resumed her history lesson after the matter resolved.
According to the record, Voidron, Lunluna, and Durasyll rebuilt the alliance and renamed it Esliky'rha in Voidron language or meaning Watcher of the Stars in human language. At that time their technology were rather limited and they didn't have any spaceship that possess travelling speed capability that match Anrakyan's ship, which hampered their progress.
The previous alliance relied on Anrakyan's technology and that technology was lost with their demise. While the data of Anrakyans technology still exist, they unable to deciphere it to fix some Anrakyans ship that were still remained intact on the base hangar. Anrakyans technology was too complicated, only Obliniad who at that time grasped Anrakyans technology and helped them mass produced it for the alliance.
Despite this shortcoming, they did able to recreate some of the alliance's older technology such as the Universal communicator device and the gravity generator system. Ferdel then took out something like a necklace from her clothes, "This is the universal communicator, each of you will receive it later after we arrive at the base." She removed the necklace and she began speaking with her native language, and she spoke english again when she wore the necklace. "This device instantly translate spoken word, although... this required to learn from the target civilization, thus useless if there's none alive."
Ferdel then resumed her history lesson. Haron were the next to join the watcher. They were in critical condition when they found them. Haron were exposed by the radiation from their planet explosion. Lunluna managed to prevent the radiation from ravaging Haron's body further with the implant, but the damage was already too severe, it even permanently affecting their offspring. Since then, all Haron had to live inside a medical pod until they matured enough to undergoes brain transplant into a mechanical body.
"We were next to joined" said Ferdel "Our home... we never know what happened to it actually. Our ancestor roamed this galaxy for thousands of cycles before the watcher found us. This ship.. is the same ship our ancestor used."
Next to join were Zetronian (Sannekth's companion who wore a metal spacesuit was one of them). They were actually a living electrical energy, and the metal suit were their robotic vessel they controlled. Zetronian were originated from the outskirts of the Eskaba'ar Ra'atu nebula, where they floated blissfully inside the cosmic dust. A group of Watchers came acrossed them one day, they had never seen such species like them before.
Later however they concluded after observing them for quite some time that Zetronian had no intelligence other than basic survival instinct. Unbeknownst to them, several Zetronian snuck inside their ship as they left the nebula.
The team returned to the base, carrying the stowaway. This caused a chaos when the curious Zetronian taken control of the entire base computer. However, they didn't just controlled the computer; they quickly learnt from it and in just a few plinks, they had created their own basic language and were able to communicate with the watcher there. The watcher decided to inducted them instead because they were already too advanced to be returned to their home.
A few millions of cycles later, a species known as Rachnite appeared on this galaxy outskirts. Despite the Watcher's efforts to stop them, they quickly invaded and consumed every world on their path.
"Don't you have any weapon?" a boy asked.
"Well.. we don't. At that time, we had yet experienced any war." said ferdel "Our intention was to reason with them, which didn't ends well.. they also outnumbered us, and.. Rachnite's ship are advanced than us."
Gypherian, the hunchbacked alien, were one of the Rachnite victim. They managed to resist the invasion for a while before being overwhelmed and forced to abandoned their planet with the watcher's help. Despite the initial plan were to relocated them to a new planet, they were eager to join the war and beseech to serve the watcher.
"Watcher rule, we are only suppose to recruit a spacefaring civilization capable of surviving for an extended period of time in outer space. Gypherians were a special case because they were not a spacefaring race at the time; they did had some sophisticated technology, but it was not advanced enough. Saal Sa'lud however admired their conviction and allowed them to join." mentioned Ferdel
For the next hundred cycles, the Watcher attempted to subdued rachnite, but their efforts were always futile. They finally got their chance when they arrived in a region called Sulka'ar Va'as. The Watcher seen an unknown fleet of spaceships outmaneuvered and defeated the larger Rachnite fleet.
They quickly contacted the unknown fleets. The unknown fleet revealed themselves to be Garbitians. Garbitians were a warlike civilization, which was why their planet were destroyed long time ago, due to their own civil wars. Those fleet of 8 clans were the only peaceful element that managed to escaped their doomed world. Despite their peaceful ways, they were still a civilization that values strength and thus always trained in the art of war. Garbitians agreed to lend their expertise if the watcher aided them in finding a new planet to settles.
With the help of Garbitians, they able to board Rachnite main spaceship and slain their leader, a humoungous Rachnite they refered as Aratuklic or the queen. The original plan was actually to conversed with her, but she was too aggresive and her action had caused some casualties among the boarding party (Saal Sa'lud was among them). With their queen death, Rachnite suddenly stopped their aggression.
It turned out that rachnite were actually a rather docile being. It was the Queen who enslaved and controlled them, using them as a tool to conquered the universe. Their queen's ravenous appetite had consumed their galaxy long time ago.
Saal Su'ud, who at that time just taken the mantle as the new high elder, took pity of them because they have nowhere to went back to, Saal Su'ud offered Rachnite to joined the Watcher despite the protest from Gypherian who were still furious at Rachnite due to the lost of their home.
"Don't worry, Gypherian has long forgiven Rachnite. And 3 of the Garbitians clans decided to join us, The other clans are still living in their new home in the Am'un Sah'ar system."
"Why only 3?" asked Rob
"The other clans, while skilled in war, were more of a merchant and farmer. Meanwhile those 3 were adventurer and hunter clans" explain Ferdel "Hesu, Sasu and Segosu. Each clan has its own unique characteristics. Sannekth, Gersoth and Ammaurith are member of the Hesu clan. You may had seen members of the Sasu clan; there are 4 on Pigen's team, the Gypherian who transports your kin. And.. that concluded our lesson." Ferdel then told them take some rest.
The next plinks, Ferdel told them about their duties as the Watcher. The most important task of a Watcher was to travel the galaxy and record every species they encountered. They were not permitted to intervene with the growth or demise of primitive civilizations that were caused by natural or man-made disasters.
"Unless they are invaded by another civilization from different planet," said Ferdel "Then we are allowed to intervene."
Another Watcher duty was to act as a mediator for a spacefaring species that were not affiliated with the Watcher.
"Currently there are 5 spacefaring species unaffiliated with us, you might encounter them in the future." said Ferdel. "1 of them is haughty, i really hate dealing with them, urgh remembering that time, If only i could punch that Sarsadasians king." Ferdel suddenly furious, she swing her fist violently, she stop after seeing human shocked expression "Uhumm.. lets continue."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Their other duty were to find and recruit new potential members, particularly those who had lost their home planet. The potential candidate will be observed for a few cycles before being considered worthy, while the unworthy candidate will be led in secret to a habitable planet. Sannekth's and his companion had been observing humans for at least four cycles, mentioned Ferdel.
After Rachnite incident, the watcher added a new rule that if an unworthy candidate were deemed too dangerous for this galaxy, they had no choice but to terminated them. So far, no one had been terminated.
After the watcher duty lesson, humans learnt about the watcher current technology, such as the Joturghur Generator, which was an improvement over Anrakyan Jeturgh generator; it was the main power source of all their technology, including the ship they were currently in (it was basically a contained miniature star that generated near limitless energy).
It was Rachnite who assisted in reversed engineering and improving Anrakyan technology. Before being enslaved by the queen, Rachnite was a civilization of tinkerer and inventor. They also developed a better propulsion system, allowing the watcher to travel the galaxy faster, as well as a new shielding technology known as Orie'ra, which was the curtain-like light they'd seen enveloping this ship.
They also learnt about the watcher's standard time, which they named Cycles. There were 20 rings in a cycle, and 1 ring equals to 10 plinks. Humans had no idea how long a cycle if it compared to the earth solar cycle time, but even a plink was quite long, requiring them to sleep at least 6 to 8 times per plink.
"Thats concluded my lesson, there are about few rings left before we reach our base" said Ferdel. Because she didn't had no more to teach, she allowed human to freely do whatever they like. Sebastian used the time to learnt more about the Watcher along with Enid.
5 rings later, they finally reach the base. It was larger than the one Sebastian saw in the record. One of Ferdel's companion explained that the base needed to be expanded to accommodate the entire population, which were currently estimated to be around 3 millions. Rachnites had the highest numbers, followed by Garbitians, Zetronians, and Umistrics. Durasyll and Voidron were the fewest, with Voidron only numbered a hundred.
The spaceship then docked at the hangar. Ferdel and her team assisted humans leaving the spaceship. They were surprised to find a crowds of watcher members waiting for them at the hangar. They all seems looking forward to met with their new member
3 voidrons approached human. The one on the front introduced itself, "Welcome human, I am Saal Su'ud the high elder, these 2 are Faal Iy'ah and Maal Uw'ud " He smiled warmly and extend his hands as if he want to hugged all of them. Saal Su'ud then asked human to follow him.
The crowds also followed and interacted with humans. Some of the Garbitians, durasyll, gypherian, and rachnite carried the younger humans on their shoulder or back.
They grew nervous when they knew Saal Su'ud led them to a medical bay, knowing it was time for their implant. Widodo and the elderly volunteered to be the first. A group of Lunluna stationed there instructed them to entered the medical pod, and as they do so, Saal Su'ud instructed the other to wait outside for their turn.
After quite some times, Widodo finally exited the medical bay, followed by the other elderly, but what was strange was that most of them were walking on their own legs, despite before they had to be assisted. Sebastian also noticed that they were getting younger.
"Grandfather you look-" Widodo's granddaughter was perplexed because he now had fewer wrinkles and part of his hair was turning black.
The others were finally convinced after witnessing the effect, and they all lined up to take turn receiving the implant. Sebastian's turn cames after a while, along with Enid, Rob, and 7 other people. 2 Lunlunas led him to a nearby pod, and he noticed Enid entered the pod beside him. He smiled at Enid as the pod closed.
Sebastian was told to remain still. He felt a pinch and noticed a long transparent needle on his chest, arms, and legs, as well as his back. It then injected a liquid into his body.
The procedure was quick, but Sebastian had to remained inside the pod while Lunluna monitored his health. After they double-checked everything, they opened the pod and let Sebastian out; he didn't feel any changes in his body. He noticed Enid and the other were also stepping out from their pod.
They then exited the medical bay. They were told to go the mess hall at the center of the base, they must rode some kind of capsule. When they arrived at the mess hall, Sebastian was taken aback by the size of it; it was divided into 5 floors. Sebastian saw Widodo there, along with everyone else who had already received their implant.
Sebastian and Enid took a seat on one of the table, then a droid approached them, it gave them a list of menu prepared there, but they didn't understood what its said. fortunately a Garbitian approached them and translated the menu for them. The Garbitians looked different from Sannekth, he was rather rounded and had short orange fur, as well as small black round eyes, he maybe one of the segosu's clan. He recommended leat steak and oka drink.
The droid delivered their order after the Garbitian left to assisted other humans. Sebastian looked at the steak, it's the same blue steak they had before. Sebastian tried the oka drink, which, despite bright red color, it tasted like a green tea. They also ordered something that looks like a french fries, but it's green and a bit soggy, but it's still delicious.
Sebastian noticed that the mess hall were increasingly became crowded; it appeared that everyone had completed their implant. Enid suddenly pointed at something behind him. Sebastian turned around and saw a large monitor showing a movie.
"Isn't that your father ?" said Enid
Sebastian saw his father, the captain, and others building a hut. The scene then shifted to a group of children rode an animal that looked like a bunny but it was massive. It then shown people attempting to ate some king of fruits. In each scene, Sebastian noticed how happy they were. Before the video ended, it shown everyone, including his father, smiling brightly and waving to the departing Watcher.
"Father.." Sebastian couldn't help to smiled, he never seen his father this happy before, ever since his mother passing. Sebastian saw the other also happy seeing their relatives and friend, Eabha was wiping her tear.
After they finished their meals, Saal Su'ud asked human to followed him. They rode the capsule and arrived near a huge gate with an icon of human face silhouette, it was their new living block.
When they entered, they found themselves inside a massive cylindrical structure. A garden was located on the center of the ground floor. There were maybe a thousand of living quarters on each floors. Sebastian, tried counting them, it's probably at least 30 stories high.
Sebastian looked into one of the rooms, which, to his surprise, was an exact replica of their personal quarters back on their old ship, albeit twice as large and furnished with otherworldly furniture. The Watcher also build a larger living quarter on the higher floor for human who wanted to live together with their family, although currently there's none. Sebastian chose a room on the 8th floor, while Enid chose a room at 2nd floor because most of the girls picked the rooms at lower floor.
Sebastian was checking his new room when he hear a beeping sound on his door, followed by a large package sliding from the compartment beside the door. Sebastian open the package to find his universal translator device, which looks like an ear cuff (a note mentions that he can order a custom design), a dozen new clothes, and a wristband that serves as a communication device, a mini computer and displays the cycle time.
Sebastian examines the new clothes given to him; they are mostly casual clothes similar to the ones they wore on their old ship but with better quality. There is also a stack of uniforms similar to those worn by Ferdel and her companion. He tries it on and it fits.
Sebastian then heard an announcement from Saal su'ud, Their new assignment would started after a plink, in the mean time human were free to do whatever they like. Sebastian decided to take a stroll around the base. He wore his translator device and the wristband.
When sebastian head down to the ground floor, he saw enid at the garden, she was talking with bunch of umistric along with the other girls. Sebastian didn't wanted to bothered her so he quickly left the living block.
He looked at his wristband, it shown the map of the entire base, the one nearest was the umistric living block. Sebastian boarded the capsule and headed there.
Sebastian arrived at the umistric living blocks. There's a sign for other species to used the other door instead of the main gate. He opened the door and found himself inside a sealed chamber. There were instruction to wore a breathing gear before entering the main door.
He puts on his breathing gear, and the chamber quickly filled with water. After the chamber fully filled with water, the door opened, and Sebastian swam inside. He arrived at the most spectacular scene, as if he was in a massive underwater cave. Sebastian noticde a group of juvenile umistric swimming towards him, closely followed by their caretaker. The caretaker greeted Sebastian, and the children were intrigued to seen him. The caretaker took him on a tour of the entire chamber.
After swimming around the chamber, Sebastian said goodbye to the caretaker and the kids before leaving. He then boarded the capsule once more and arrived at the garbitians living block.
He opened the gate and found himself on a cliff, from which he could see the block was divided into three sections: a swamp, a desert, and a mountain area. The block also much larger than umistric and human living block. At the center, there's a large hut.
Sebastian carefully climbed down the cliff which made a group of Sasu and Hesu's garbitians laughed at him when he finally reached the bottom. One of the segosu's garbitian approached and told sebastian that there's stairs at the end of that cliff which made sebastian embarassed.
Sebastian thanked her and then went to the settlement belonged to Hesu clan first. Sebastian also visit the other clan settlement, they all live in a hut they called gur made of the fur of their only farm animal they had which was Leat, they resembled a cow but walked on 6 legs and covered in fluffy fur.
Each tribe's leat were distinct; Hesu's clan leat were enormous and had a pair of tusks, Sasu's clan leat had two humps on their backs, and the one belong to Segosu had a green fur that resembled a moss.
Sebastian then went to the large hut in the middle area. He found himself in the middle of a huge commotion, where a group of garbitians, led by 2 very old garbitians dressed in an ornamental leather robe, arguing in front of the large round table. Sebastian noticed a group of Segosu's clan garbitian chilling at the opposite end of the table, the one with the ornamental robe smiling as he watch the 2 argued.
There's a miniature field on the table, complete with trees and hills, as well as a swamp and desert area, there's also buildings and numerous mini figurines.
3 old garbitians in ornamental gowns noticed Sebastian and approached him. They introduced themselves as the wives of the 3 chieftains which were the one wearing the ornamental robe. They explained that they were currently playing a game to passed the time since they becoming the chieftain, as well as for their own safety because they were too old. The other garbitians there were also a group of retirees.
Sebastian decided to watched them play for a while after the arguing subsided, which were apparently caused by Sasu's chieftain stealing a loot from Hesu chieftian while he was busy fighting monsters. Later on, the Hesu's chieftain tricked Sasu's chieftain into opening a monster disguised as a treasure chest. The hesu's chieftain and his wife began making fun of the sasu's chieftain which triggered another fight. They looked like a group of children fighting. Sebastian noticed the Segosu's chieftain smiling at them.
"Justss likess the oldss daysss.." he said
The wife of Segosu's chieftain, who was sitting beside Sebastian, explained that the 3 chieftains were once a companion, and that even in their youth, those two were always been rivals. Sebastian chuckled. Sebastian decided it was time to leave because he had already spent too much time there, and he bid the segosu's chieftain wife farewell.
Sebastian left garbitians living blocks, he then headed to durasyll's living block. They live in a beautiful forest filled with small bird like critter which rest on the durasyl shoulder and head when they were reading a book, Sebastian just noticed that they stored the books on the trees. The Durasyll there offered sebastian a drink made of leaf and roots which taste weird but refreshing.
He then visited Lunluna living blocks. It's pretty much a small village, their house were small and Sebastian had to crouched to enter. They made him a herbal drink and some kind of biscuits.
Gypherian living block were similar to human but their garden is filled with bushes bearing colourful fruit. The place was rather empty, aside from gypherian kids running around the garden taken cared by drones, there were only a couple of elderly gypherian sitting on the bench. Sebastian conversed with the old Gypherians, they asked sebastian to tried some of the fruit there, one of it called fari which tasted really sweet.
Sebastian then visited haron living block. At first he thought he was mistakenly entered a medical bay, because he saw thousands of juvenile haron inside their medical pod being cared by their mechanized kin, they looked like a hairy ball with stubby limbs.
He then visited the zatronian living block but was prohibited to entered the main chamber because it was an artificial nebula, mimicking their home. The nebula is hazardous to other species. Sebastian could see zetronian true forms when they traveled from the chamber to their robotic vessel, they were like a blue or red spark.
Rachnite living blocks baffles sebastian, they live in a futuristic town, full of weird contraptions and equipments scattered around the block. The rachnite there explained that they made those purely for fun, although according to them (They spoke by clicking their mandibles) some of it became the basis of the watcher latest tech.
Next he was about to visit voidron's living block, but it wasn't shown on the map, which was weird he thought, so he decided to check the main hangar bay.
When he arrived there, he was astonished the humongous size of it, however he only saw few spaceships being maintained there by few Rachnite and haron alongside their drones. One of the rachnite there explained to him that the place were usually empty because the observer team only came here for resupply or for major maintenance.
He exited the hangar and proceeded to the power plant block. There were two massive power generators there, but only one was operational. Sebastian assumed the other one was the original joturg generator because it looked ancient.
Sebastian then head to the agricultural block, it's a large grass field and there were also a big lake on the side. There were variety of otherworldly animals and trees being tended by the droids. There are lots of fishes in the lake, Sebastian recognized some of it because they ate it before.
The next nearest block was the manufacturing center which was below the agricultural block. The place was empty with only few droids manning the machine. There's lots of impressive machine there, and it's currently tempering huge parts maybe for ship or something.
Someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder which made him startled. It's Saal Su'ud, he told Sebastian to leave because this place was rather dangerous, Sebastian apologized. Before he leave, he asked saal su'ud wondering why he couldn't find Voidron living blocks.
He smiled. "We don't have any" says Saal Su'ud "Aside from meditation, we.. don't need any rest, an advantage as an immortal. Now it's time to go back to your chamber."
Sebastian nodded. As he about leave, Saal Su'ud called him again.
"Oh! and please tell the other human to form a group of 3 to 5 peoples" said Saal su'ud "and... what's your name, human?"
Sebastian told his name.
"Well then sebastian, good bye now.."
He noticed Saal Su'ud was looking at him until he exited the room.