The Cycles of Revelation Series
Artifact of the Dawn: Visitors (A Queer Sci-Fi Adventure)
Episode 36: After an intense fight against Druyndar and his forces, the group checks on the mysterious flying craft that landed during the battle.
As they walked toward the aircraft, Jevan took the time to study it. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. The craft was small, with only room for two. It had two sets of wings, parallel to each other. One crossed perpendicular over the top of the craft, and the other underneath. The entire thing sat on two wheels, keeping it angled up toward the sky, as if it were ready to leap back into the air at any moment.
Two male figures stood next to the craft. One looked like he was taller than Jevan, and the other slightly shorter. The taller one had a warm brown tone to his skin, slightly lighter than Jevan, and he wore his light brown hair shoulder length. The shorter man’s skin was much lighter, nearly as pale as an Athla’naa. His dark brown hair, beard, and eyes were striking against his pale skin.
As the group approached, the two men looked at them warily. That was unsurprising, as the pair had been forced to land in the middle of a battle.
“They look Medellan,” Mathias said. “Jevan and I should greet them first.”
“Agreed,” Takyra said, halting for a moment and holding out two small earpieces. “Jevan, when you greet them, give them these.”
“Good idea,” Jevan said, taking them from her. “I’d almost forgotten that we speak different languages.”
As they approached them, Jevan and Mathias moved ahead of the small group. Mathias held out his hand as he was about to greet them when the shorter one stepped forward.
“What in the blue blazes is going on around here?” he asked, taking Mathias aback. “If we had known we were flying into the middle of a war, we wouldn’t have bothered to come all this way.”
“My apologies,” Mathias said. “You have come at an awkward time, but thank you for disrupting their attack. I am Ard Mathias of the village of Yanen, and this is Jevan.”
“I’m Tomas,” the taller man replied in greeting. “My grumpy friend here is Aron.”
“Nice to meet you, Tomas and Aron,” Jevan greeted, also shaking the men’s hands before holding out the small translators. “I’m sorry you didn’t arrive under better circumstances. Could you do us a favor and put these into your ears, please?”
The two of them looked at each other and shrugged as they each took an earpiece. “What are they for?”
“They will help translate the Athla’naa language,” Jevan explained. “Most of my purple-haired friends here do not speak the Medellan language yet.”
“You mean those elves? What… who are they?” Tomas asked as he placed the earpiece into his ear.
Jevan chuckled and gave Ardyn a little reassuring wink before responding. “Yeah, my people call them elves, too. Well, I used to, but they call themselves Athla’naa. Our ancestors encountered them when they first arrived on Vestos.”
The two men looked up at the tower and back at the Athla’naa. “So, these… Ath… laa… naa? They were here before your ancestors arrived?” Aron asked. “Did they build that tower?”
“Yes, and…” Mathias struggled to find the words.
“It’s complicated,” Jevan said, not even knowing where to begin.
“Welcome,” Takyra greeted after they had put the earpieces in. “Thank you for agreeing to wear the translators. As you saw when you approached, we’ve been a little preoccupied with a local dispute. My people haven’t had time to learn your people’s language yet. I’m Takyra, the Chief Technician of the Rahn’naa.”
“You’re the chief of the dawn?” Aron asked with a scowl, after he heard the translation.
Jevan laughed. “I had the same reaction when I heard that. The Dawn is the name of their spaceship that crashed here a long time ago. That is the observation tower of the ship. The rest of the ship remains buried underground.”
“That tower is taller than anything I’ve ever seen before,” Aron said. “If that’s only part of the ship, how big is it?”
“The Rahn’naa originally housed ten thousand of my people, when it crashed here twelve hundred years ago,” Takyra explained.
“Twelve hundred years, and your people came from space? Well, that explains a lot,” Tomas said. “We were sent to investigate after our radar detected something being launched into space from here.”
“What you saw being launched was our subspace beacon,” Takyra explained. “I apologize if that caused your people concern. We did not know that your people had technology advanced enough to detect it.”
“It caused quite a stir,” Tomas admitted, turning to Mathias. “It’s been centuries since your ancestors left, and we weren’t sure they survived.”
“Well, we survived just fine,” Mathias said with a scowl. “No thanks to your ancestors, I might add.”
Aron crossed his arms across his chest defensively. “Well, your ancestors brought it upon themselves — ”
“We don’t have time for this now,” Takyra interrupted. “My apologies, but we just fended off an attack and we need to look after our wounded. You’re welcome to make yourselves at home and we’ll take time later to sit down and discuss everything.”
“I will escort them to the ship,” Mathias offered. “I’m not much use out here right now, anyway. Jevan, will you join us?”
The two men grabbed some packs from their craft, and they all began walking back toward the tower.
“I can help them get settled into quarters near you,” Jevan offered. “But I don’t want to leave Ardyn alone for too long.”
Ardyn came over to him and put a hand on his arm. “I’ll be okay. You take care of your guests.”
“What about our aircraft?” Tomas asked. “Will it be safe here?”
“We had to take down our forcefield when you came in for your landing,” Takyra said. “You couldn’t have known it was there, and we didn’t want you to crash, but we will put it back up once we’ve finished tending to all the wounded. I’ll make sure we extend the forcefield around your craft.”
“A forcefield? I know I’ve heard our science-types talk about such things, but I don’t think we’ve figured out how to create one of those yet,” Tomas said, sounding impressed. “Thank you, I’ll rest easier knowing the craft will be safe.”
“Why did you nearly run out of fuel?” Takyra wondered aloud. “Were you not expecting to make a return flight?”
Aron made a dismissive sound. “We have enough fuel to make it back home, we just needed to land so we could refill the primary tanks. The extra fuel is stored in secondary tanks that we can only switch over to manually when we’re on the ground.”
“That seems like a very inefficient design,” Takyra said. “Perhaps one of my engineering techs could take a look?”
Tomas looked at Aron and shrugged. “Sure, that would be great. This is one of our oldest models. The newer ones don’t have this limitation.”
As they approached the tower, Jevan joined Mathias and led the two men into the tower. He turned back for a moment to watch Ardyn following Takyra, as they made their way toward the injured that still lay scattered.
Jevan pushed away a small knot of worry for his friend as he hurried after the others into the tower. Please, stay safe.
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