A large ship was shuttling through the vast emptiness of space at light speed. Apart from the various asteroids and distant stars in this strange piece of the cosmos, there was nothing else to keep this ship company.
Aboard the ship, not a soul could be seen moving. The ship was as cold, dark and lonely as the far reaches of this space.
However, in the depths of this ship lay rows upon rows of humongous cryogenic chambers, with numbers exceeding a few hundred thousand.
These chambers were quite massive and also had quite the creepy shape and texture. Apart from their pearly white exterior, these chambers were shaped like bulbous onions which stood at sizes ranging from 18-30 meters tall and widths of up to 15 meters. They looked like rather giant eggs stuffed into a freezer. These things had dozens of large cables connecting them to a massive platform in their midst, which served as a local hub for their consciousness to still stay connected even while slowing down their bodily functions during deep slumber.
After accidentally going through a randomly generated wormhole, the ship had been traversing the endless darkness of space for almost 8,000 years, and by sheer coincidence, their wandering journey was about to come to an end.
...
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[Uncharted planet detected]
[Civilization: Unknown]
[Threat Level: High]
[Recommended to alert the General]
...
Psshewww!
Being released from his chamber, a large round, purple jelly with a diameter of 13 meters and a smaller round head of 2 meters emerged.
Apart from his oddly huge size, he had 12 large round red eyes neatly set in two rows on a full circle on the upper portion of his head from back to front. The lower portion of his head had a mouth that spanned half the head's diameter from side to side. On the bottom section of its body, one could see countless wriggling tentacles flailing about.
...
After floating out of his pod, the "General", made his way to the ship's cockpit and peered deep into space while listening to the AI's report.
[We are currently 400 thousand kilometres away from the unknown planet, sir]
"What about the general distribution? Any sentient beings tried to make contact with us?" The General asked.
[No anomalies detected. The planet fits the criteria for subjugation based on the laws of the galactic treaty]
"Approach cautiously and verify the level of their civilization" the General commanded.
...
The ship circled the planet's orbit for a few months while collecting data samples and feeding them to the General.
After collecting data for a long time, the ship's AI compiled a list of values for the General to finalize his decision.
...
"495 billion kilometres surface area, no signs of civilization, non-sentient beings and large stockpiles of carbon-based nutrients. This is indeed a prime world to devour." The General made up his mind.
"Stop all cryogenic chambers and release the army!" He ordered immediately.
[Initiating]
[...]
...
Psshewww! Psshewww! Psshewww! Psshewww! Psshewww! Psshewww!
One by one, the chambers released compressed air like a compressor on steroids.
Being kicked from their fun activities in the server and regaining the feeling in their cold bodies, these beasts were naturally quite grumpy. So it can be imagined how boisterous and frenzied such a scene of huge monsters would paint.
Small and large ones ranging from 16-30 meters tall, with hideous rotund and wobbly jelly-like bodies started floating all over the place while making all sorts of noises.
"Silence!"
The General floated in while glaring at them with his 6 forward-facing eyes.
"It's been 6,300 years since all of you have been put to sleep. We had to sleep due to a lack of supplies after entering that wayward wormhole. Now, apart from stars and asteroids, we have finally found a planet with suitable conditions for life. In fact, it's teeming with low-level lifeforms at this moment!" The general paused and looked around seriously.
Seeing the excitement and frenzy in his brethren's many eyes, he nodded his round body in satisfaction.
"Now then, let us not dawdle and engage in terraforming. Do ensure to create a zone to simulate the current environment to serve as a farm for the future. Due to how vast this stretch of space is, we have no idea how long we will be staying in this hell-hole! So we have to make a permanent base to ensure that we won't be short of food for the next few thousand years. Any of you found over-indulging will be stripped down and served as rations for 200 years before being allowed freedom!" He looked around while ordering seriously with a dangerous glint in his many red eyes. As a Covetian, he knew that his kind was very gluttonous and covetous, so he naturally had to be very strict.
Rather than feeling intimidated, they were very excited. Doesn't that mean they simply have to not be caught? How large was such a planet? 495 billion kilometres was enough for them to farm for a few hundred thousand years. Not to mention a measly few thousand years!
Gulp!
They couldn't help but swallow basketball-sized mouthfuls of saliva at the thought. Their over 2-meter wide mouths were raring to go.
Although he knew their thoughts, he didn't say anything. After all, he also had been living off tasteless nutrition fluids for the last thousands of years. Who doesn't like delicacies? Besides, isn't it only one of the billions of planets? Who cares if it's wrong dry? Can't they just find a new one?
"Alright, get to work! Ganesha, prepare for landing." The General gave his command.
[Understood]
...
On the unknown giant planet.
A translucent figure was happily playing around with some butterflies and a few deers by the side of a stream.
The environment was reminiscent of a paradise one could only find in their dreams. Trees as tall as 2 kilometres with diameters exceeding 50 meters stood erect in rows on both sides of the small stream. Beneath these trees, one could find various shrubbery with fruits of all kinds of exotic shapes and colours. Even some of the legendary immortal herbs were swaying in the gentle breeze peacefully. Various small animals were splashing happily in the stream, while ginseng babies hugged the leg of a large rhino.
The translucent female figure was truly having a good time playing with these small unintelligent creatures.
"Hehehe~"
She couldn't help but chuckle happily upon seeing the ginseng babies' actions.
...
Suddenly, the area around her became dark.
She looked up and saw a strange object landing a few kilometres from her position.
As a curious and intelligent being, she faded away and fused with a tree in their vicinity without them noticing.
She then watched as hundreds of thousands of strange floating jelly-like creatures came out of the other strange but bigger creature that had no breath of life.
She giggled and smiled silently to herself when she saw their "cute" appearance.
Suddenly, she felt sad. She didn't know why she was sad, but the sadness was welling up inside her, to the point of explosion.
Unable to handle it anymore, she could only disengage from her current form and return to the place she felt the safest.
Once she returned to her core, she couldn't stop crying. She could feel it. Her children were dying. And they were dying in droves!
Not being able to withstand such intense stimuli, she fell into a deep coma.
...
After a few thousand years, the young lady awoke from her slumber. What she woke up to was something she had never seen or felt before.
These alien invaders were herding her children like sheep and sucking them like soup once they reached maturity. Even her once luscious green and verdant forests were gone, burnt to wastelands. The streams dried up, and the seas lay stagnant. What a desolate world.
She couldn't accept this!
After wandering the planet like a ghost in her humanoid form trying to think of a solution for this tumour, all she had to show for her efforts were her dead eyes and emotionless face.
What a cruel Reality!
"If I can only watch my children be reared and treated as livestock while you vile creatures slowly kill me, then so be it."
'Let's all perish together!"
She closed her eyes and dissipated with the wind.
Returning to her birthplace, she once again took a final look at all her miserable children and the vile scum that did this to her.
With an emotionless voice, she finally spoke to the unwanted intruders for the first time.
{For 20 thousand years, you have run rampant and destroyed my homeland}
{As I am bound by the laws of the universe, the only way I can retaliate is to drag you down with me}
{Let's perish together}
...
Hearing this voice in their heads, the Covetians were confused. They all looked around curiously, wondering who was wasting mental energy to speak using telepathy.
On the other hand, the General's purple complexion turned white instantly. Without hesitation, he ordered the ship to immediately distance itself from the accursed planet. Thankfully he always found the ship more comfortable, otherwise, he would have to join his brethren in this grave.
...
Looking at the planet imploding on itself, he sighed.
"Ganesha, when did the planet form its consciousness? Why were there no signs?" The General asked furiously.
[...]
[Sir, I suspect it had already been formed before we got there]
[As for why it went unnoticed when we landed... It might have been wandering and then fell dormant after we checked the planet core]
"Even such a thing is possible? How can there be such coincidences?" The General felt incredulous.
"Well regardless, it's already too late now. At least we can pick up a few planet seeds from this. It's a pity that we will have to wander this empty space for another few thousand years. Hopefully, we can find another such planet. Next time we have to avoid such one in a million coincidences."
"When the planet explodes, search for the planet seeds.' The General ordered.
[Understood]
...
{Some of them still escaped... and now they are even eyeing my seeds}
{I would rather scatter them in subspace than allow them to fall into your hands!}
Using all her remaining energy, she dispersed her consciousness and sent her seeds away by warping time and space.
...
Unbeknownst to anyone, her consciousness wasn't fully dispersed. Due to her love and sacrifice for her children she had unknowingly attached broken fragments of her consciousness to the various planet seeds right after her self-destruction and before the seeds were sent into the various subspaces, waiting for one day in the distant future when her consciousness returns.
...
After combing the area in a few light years and not finding a single planet seed, the General and the surviving members of his race could only give up and look for a new inhabitable planet in this stretch of space.
Preferably one without a consciousness...
***
*cough cough cough*
On a small bed in a small ward on the 9th floor of the George Osbourne Hospital in Toronto, lies a fat man dying from COVID.
His dark face with a sickly shade of grey and his black hair and beard half filled with grey hair shows all the signs of a middle-aged man in his early to mid-fifties. Alas, what a mistake. If one does not look at him clearly to see his raccoon patches and the lack of wrinkles on his face, he would definitely be called an old grandpa. Unfortunately, such a gentleman was only in his late twenties. To get a better look at his circumstances, just take a look in his deep black and turbid eyes which lack any sign of focus will tell tales of the darkness he had been through.
Thinking about his unfortunate life to date, Alfred Gibbs turned his head to where the table should be. But it doesn't matter one bit, since he can't see jack shit.
"James, did you catch all that I said?" he asked.
Scratch Scratch
Cocking his head to the side he heard something scratching on paper.
"Yeah, dude I hear you. But why do you need a will?" James Jones looked at Alfred.
"..."
"Man, you're broke, jobless and dying. Why are you wasting your time on a will? It's not like your foster family cared about you, or you wouldn't need me to run errands for the last 3 years since the accident" James scowled.
He always hated the Andrews for their treatment of his best friend. Just look at his current condition... a 29-year young man full of greys and looking like the poster model for the elderly.
cough cough
"Dude I'm really dying..."
cough
[ding]
"Damn, I'm even hearing voices in my head now..."
Alfred saw his miserable life flash before his eyes...
Born into orphancy.
Bouncing from orphanage to orphanage while being an outcast by his peers because of his dark skin.
Finally, he was adopted at 8 years of age by the people he thought would show him care and warmth. Only to have reality slap him in the face; they were only after the government child care benefits.
One of the earliest life lessons he was ever taught.
Although he was just cannon fodder and left to his own devices, the Andrews still had to provide shelter and the mandatory three meals per day. So, while life was bitter, he still had a home. But when he turned 16, he was tossed onto the streets in the middle of the night, with nothing but the crinkled clothes on his back.
Alfred sighed.
Ten years of hard life followed him after he was ousted once he had served his usefulness. He worked multiple jobs just trying to survive in the cold and hard streets of Toronto. During winter, he had to check into various different shelters every night to escape the bitter cold.
Life was indeed very hard.
But...
Fate still wouldn't give him a break.
In August of 2019, Alfred found a tumour in his frontal lobe during one of his very few free checkups. Thankfully, Canada was well known for its affordable and accessible health care.
Deciding to take the free surgery offered at the university hospital, Alfred checked in and prayed for a Hail Mary.
Alas!
Fate struck again.
The 1/10,000 chance happened. The surgery failed, and Alfred was plunged into darkness for eternity.
What a hard and bitter life.
'Well, it can't get any worse than this' was his thought back then after the surgery.
Unfortunately, fate has a deep sentiment towards those she had graced with her presence so many times.
COVID struck!
And now he was suffering from the 1% chance of death from COVID.
"..."
...
"Alright alright, let's do as you say" James comforted.
...
10 seconds
...
30 seconds
"???"
"Alfred?"
James hurriedly got scrambling to put on a mask and face shield. He cautiously walked over to the bed while moving aside the sky blue curtains.
"..."
Looking at his friend's ash-grey face and unmoving body, he silently stood there for 10 minutes. James heaved a deep sigh while holding back his sorrows. He turned around and walked off with his shoulders slumped. After reaching the door, he took one last long look, pulling the emergency cable and leaving his murmurs behind...
"I didn't even get to finish it..." he silently dropped off his tears.
***
___
[Initializing]
[...]
[Retrieving digitized memories]
[Time-Space coordinates locked]
[Executing Protocol 0003]
[...]
___
***
Looking at his handiwork, a chubby 6-year-old child with dark brown curly hair and deep black eyes smirked coldly.
Dressed in a mini trenchcoat with silver buttons running on both sides of his rolled-up up sleeves, and black leather shorts topped off with leather boots and a broad-brimmed cowboy hat. He looked down at his adversary.
As for his handiwork? It's nothing more than another well-dressed slightly taller kid sprawled on the cherrywood floor with his arms and face covered in bruises while huffing and puffing.
Xavier Gibbs looked up at the slightly shorter chubby child standing at only 119 cm with complicated feelings. Ever since he could remember, this chubby kid was always a soft persimmon with whom he could do as he wished, so long as his parents didn't see. Hell, even the maids and guards didn't dear speak a word, or else they offend the Gibbs' first young master.
Three years.
He had been kneeding this soft plum for 3 full years ever since the brat turned 2. Now all of a sudden the chubby kid started fighting like an old hand ever since one year ago when Little Alfey turned 5. Now he can't even hold his head high when around his friends. He even has to hide his bruises and lick his wounds. IF, only if he could beat this kid and get rid of this frustrating feeling. How satisfying that would be.
Alfred Gibbs looked at his elder brother and sighed. To think that he, a grown-ass man would be here squabbling with a snot-nosed little kid. Life is really full of surprises.
He opened his mouth to tell his brother, Xavier to just give up and stop torturing himself. Only to have his mind buzz and go blank. Not just him, all 100 billion people and beasts on planet Rivellus' minds went blank at that moment.
___
{My children}
{It's been 120.3 billion years}
{It's time}
{Return to Origin}
___
...