| Generated by Google VideoFX text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 2 |
When all the inhabited terrestrial bodies and ships in the five previous
concurrent realities were sent into the Sixth Key, they were mostly dumped
where they were, relative to each other. There were a number of exceptions.
Residents of the Parallel had managed to colonize just about every rock
worth standing on in their version of the Milky Way. This included a bunch
of random rogue worlds, and some planetoids, but nearly all of the more
massive ones too. Other realities had done the same thing, just to a
fraction of a fraction of a degree. This meant that there were multiple
Proxima Domas, multiple Teagardens, multiple Waizidis, even if they went by
other names. There was plenty of room in the new universe, but it threw off
the gravitational distribution. There were also some worlds from other
galaxies that had to be ported over. Another thing that altered the gravity
was a lack of a central black hole. Sagittarius A* was not habitable on its
own. It was too dense, and too deadly. Some used it for power, but there
wasn’t anyone standing on its surface, and if there was no one on its
surface, it wasn’t saved.
There was an empty void in the middle of the galaxy now. Some star systems
that were orbiting their version of it were sent flying through space on a
new trajectory, filling this void with the occasional isolate. One of these
worlds happened to only have two people standing on it. It didn’t even have
a name, but since it was supporting life when the Reconvergence happened, it
too was shunted through the cosmic escape hatch. Not only did Echo’s parents
not know that any of this was gonna happen, but they also didn’t know that
anything had happened. All they could tell was that they lost all
communication systems, and they were stuck there. Alone.
They made the best of their situation. The planet had an atmosphere, though
not much life. They had to plant and grow their own food, but they took joy
in their work, and they were happy. They ultimately conceived a child
together, and raised him there the best they could. They socialized him in a
virtual simulation filled with NPCs, but in the end, it was just the three
of them. And then it was just two. And then it was just one. Echo
Cloudbearer has been entirely on his own for the last few years, not knowing
how to get to civilization, or even really whether he should. He spends some
of his time in the simulations, but has grown bored with them over the
years, and visits them infrequently these days. He mostly sits amongst the
flowers, and strolls along the pond. It’s not perfect, but it’s home, and
he’s content. This is all about to change.
As Echo is sitting against his favorite rock, he hears a whistling sound
from up above that he’s never heard before. A body appears out of nowhere up
in the air, and falls down hard on the ground. It’s glowing red. He
approaches with caution, but he can’t get too close. A searing heat is
threatening to burn off his eyebrows. He just stands there watching as the
glow fades, and the body cools off. It’s a beautiful woman, and she’s not
moving. She must be dead, and not because of the fall, but the metal object
that’s jammed in the back of her head. When it feels safe, he kneels down
beside her, and checks her life signs using the skills his parents taught
him. Yeah, this woman’s definitely dead. He looks back up at the sky. Could
it be? Did she fall through the atmosphere? No, she wouldn’t still be
intact, and he’s sure he saw her appear out of thin air, not simply grow
larger and larger as she fell closer and closer. All this time without ever
meeting another soul, and the first new person he sees is already dead. What
a joke.
Saddened by this bizarre and disappointing development, Echo does his duty,
and buries her in the ground. There is no way for him to know if this is
what she would have wanted, but that is what his parents told him to do with
them after they were gone. Once he’s finished with his work, he stands
beside her grave out of respect. He wants to say something nice and
reverent, but again, he never knew her, and he’s also very inexperienced
with talking. He isn’t necessarily naturally quiet, or reserved. It’s just
that he and his parents knew each other so well. They had a shorthand, and
often got things done without needing to speak. He grew used to that, and
after they left him, he had even less of a reason to open his mouth. So he
just stands there for several minutes, staring at the mound of dirt piled
upon the new grave. After enough time passes, he just goes about his usual
business.
The next morning, Echo does what he does every day, and wakes up to stand on
the hill. He likes to survey the land. This is the best vantage point in the
area. This is where his parents originally settled, and he has never left.
There doesn’t seem to be a need to. Everything he could ever need is right
here. That’s why he buried the stranger on this hill. It seemed like she
deserved it, whoever she was. He quickly realizes, though, that now it can
no longer be his lookout spot. It’s not his anymore, but hers. Something
green in the dirt catches his eye. Is that a blade of grass in the center?
He reaches down to get it out there so it’s more uniform, but discovers it
to be stuck in the dirt. It’s...growing from it? He didn’t plant anything
here, and even if he had, he tilled it up so much for the burial that no
shoot could have survived long enough to be visible already. No, this
doesn’t make any sense. Echo knows every species that grows here. There
aren’t that many, so it was easy to learn when and how to plant them, which
ones to plant separately, how much water each type needs. This kind of looks
like one of his ohedlan trees, but there’s something off about it.
Echo continues to go about his life. He eats, he sleeps in his shallow
little cave, and he makes waste. Each morning, the new magical tree has
grown taller. The bigger it gets, the less it looks like an ohedlan tree, or
anything else he’s familiar with. His best guess is that the dead woman had
a seed of alien origin in her pocket, and it fell out while he was burying
her. He tends to it, just as he would any other plant in his little garden.
He makes sure that it gets water, and protects it from the kol beetles.
They may be here to help, not hurt, but he can’t tell, and the tree remains
too young for him to take the risk. Perhaps when its older, he can find out
what they do to it. For now, this is his baby, and he’s not going to let
anything happen to it.
It’s the fastest-growing tree he’s ever seen. In only about a year, it’s at
full maturity, with a hardy trunk, strong branches, and blue leaves. It’s
beginning to flower, but is not yet bearing fruit. That’s when it starts to
talk to him. He’s not even all that surprised. He knew there was something
special about it right away. The fact that it seems to have a brain is
crazy, and he’s never heard of it before, but he understands that he knows
very little about how the rest of the universe works. This could be entirely
normal elsewhere. “What is your name?” the voice asks.
“Echo Cloudbearer. Yours?”
“We have had many names, but I have decided to settle on Clavia.”
“Are there more than one of you?”
“There once was,” Clavia replies. “We are now one.”
This is unsettling to Echo, though he would not be able to articulate why.
“How do you grow so fast?”
“Time ain’t nothing but a thang.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“We spoke up to warn you. You have shown us kindness where you did not have
to. You could have let us fend for ourselves, and perhaps even died, yet you
put in effort to help. We owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“Tending to my garden is all I have to do,” Echo replies. It’s true. His
life is pretty easy going. He has the kol beetles to contend with, and a
few other critters, but for the most part, the plants take care of
themselves. They’re low maintenance, yet they still bear fruit. His life may
be boring, but it’s satisfying.
“Still, you deserve to know that you will not be alone for long, and we do
not mean us. We are still young and weak, and will not be able to protect
you. Others will come. They’re coming for us. You must leave this place, and
find somewhere to hide. They will harm you if you stand in their way, and
they may interpret you as a threat whether you mean it or not.”
“What will they do when they get to you?” Echo questions.
“That is none of your concern,” Clavia says nicely. “You must hide,” she
repeats.
“I protected you as a sapling, and I’ll protect you now. That is how I was
raised. To hide would be to dishonor my parents, and I will not succumb to
my fears.”
Clavia doesn’t respond right away. “Very well. We respect your wishes. There
is not much that you will be able to do, though. To answer your question, we
do not fully grasp the intentions of those coming for us. We know only that
they are on their way. We believe that they detected our birth, and are
coming to investigate.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“I’ll be ready.”
While it’s true that Echo’s parents settled in this spot, it is not where
they first landed. On the other side of the rock formation in the middle
distance lay the remnants of their shuttle. It did not crash, but it was
damaged during a lightning storm, and has been gathering dust ever since.
They stayed there for a few months while they were starting the garden, at
which point they abandoned it forever. It was never forbidden for Echo to
venture this far out, but he’s only been here once, and hasn’t had any
reason to return until now. There are weapons here. He doesn’t know how to
use them, but perhaps the sentient tree knows. That’s not all he’s after.
Echo wears very little as the environment here is almost always favorable.
Even when it rains, the temperature is mild, and the wind isn’t too bad. His
clothes were apparently made out of seat upholstery, and other miscellaneous
fabrics from their shuttle, but that’s not what the two of them were wearing
when they arrived. They were in spacesuits with all sorts of tools and
gadgets attached. After they died, he removed their suits from their bodies,
and connected them to some kind of port on the outside of the shuttle, as per
their instructions. He was told that they would be ready by now, but
they never explained what they meant by that. He’s grown up to be about the
same size as his father was, so his suit fits perfectly. It’s a lot more
comfortable than his regular outfit too, he feels so safe and contained.
“We did not know you had that,” Clavia acknowledges. “We can only see things
that are happening, not conditions that remain static.”
“You know now. What about these things? Will they be useful to us?” Echo’s
parents called them guns.
“Those are dangerous...but we can teach you.”
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