Planet XEE

Back on Planet Xee, Doitoi and Ziddan were monitoring the progress of their youngest inhabitant, Paikhnam, who had been sent to Planet Degrean – Mars.

The young fellow was now an immortal, superhuman. He had been granted special powers by Doitoi, the godfather of Planet Xee.

Billions of years ago, the advanced and developed civilisation on Mars had been destroyed by their own artificial intelligence that taught and guided them towards destruction. Zagnai, the second commander of the abraxs, had installed destructive software to take revenge on Magnai, the first commander of the abraxs, after he had lost a battle against him. The incident caused extensive destruction of the planet. Now Paikhnam Zai had been sent to the planet to resurrect Doitoi’s brother, the inhabitants of the red planet, and Magnai and the abraxs.

He landed on the surface of Mars in the specific place mentioned by Doitoi. Billions upon billions of years had passed, but nothing had changed beneath the surface of the planet. Paikhnam was advised to be careful of Zagnai and the affected abraxs as they were still dangerous. He was also advised not to wake them up, but rather let them remain buried under the surface. It was a dangerous mission. He must beware evil.

He moved forward to the tower and entered the underground shelters. According to Doitoi, he had to take eleven steps down, then three steps to the right. On his third step to the right, he stood in silence and tried to familiarise himself with the dark, cold and barren environment. He sat down and touched the surface to find the way leading him to the ground. He stood up again and moved a bit further, trying to find his way. He saw a shadow moving on his right. He darted back to hide behind the wall of the staircase he just had crossed, but the shadow was a trick by the abraxs to catch him, and as he leaned against the wall of the stairs, something strange and invisible seized him and held him fast with bricks, mud and stone. He turned himself into smoke and released himself and then stood a couple of steps away from the wall. He was surprised to see that there was no wall there, no stairs and no steps. Everything had turned into dust and mud and was moving towards him. Soon he found himself buried in dust up to his neck, so that he could barely breathe. The soft dust and mud then turned into a hard, solid block. He was frozen in mud with only his neck visible and movable.

‘Who are you?’ He heard a whisper that seemed to encircle him. He looked around but could not see anything. The voice grew louder and higher as the question was repeated and echoed again and again. But still no one appeared.

He tried to make sense of the situation and come up with an escape plan and all the while the unseen, echoing voice spoke repeatedly. Nothing was there to answer or to speak with, but suddenly, a burst of light appeared next to him, illuminating the whole place so brightly that he could see every little detail very clearly. The burst of light turned into a beam and moved towards him. In the next moment, his head was severed by the beam of light and fell down, landing a couple of feet away from the rest of his body. Up until this moment, he had been very careful and defensive but now he decided to fight against the invisible enemy. His middle eye appeared, red and blue, and a burst of energy from his new eye spread vivid rays of colour into the hall, making it bright enough to make everything visible. To confuse the enemy, he made hundreds of replicas of his body, all buried in the mud. He then beamed light towards all the replicas to dissolve the mud and at the same time all the bodies started moving towards his head to complete his body once more.

But the hidden enemy was not defeated yet; in an attack of less than one minute, more than half of the bodies burst into flames. Luckily, Paikhnam’s real body remained safe and his body and head were soon joined together again. Paikhnam’s replicas disappeared from the scene.

Now he saw red, black and white flames moving towards him from all directions. He sat down and removed his head from his body, and raised the head up to a certain height. He waved his finger in the air and his head started circling in the air, becoming faster and faster. All the flames advancing towards him were forced to move backwards to their origin. When there were no more flames, he stood up and fixed his head back to his body. He was still defending himself and did not want to attack because he did not know who his attacker was. Could it be Magnai or Zagnai? He had been advised by Doitoi and his father not to kill or even harm Magnai, Doitoi’s brother, or their abraxs.

There was silence for the moment, but he soon realised that the ground where he was standing was slowly rising into the air. A few moments later, he found that his feet were fixed to the ground and his body was floating in the air too. He did not know what his hidden enemy was up to, but after a while, the ground began to rotate on its axis fast enough to spin Paikhnam thousands of times in one second. The red eye appeared on his forehead again; he fixed its gaze on the ground and was able to stop moving.

‘There must be another attack by them,’ he whispered to himself. He was planning for the up-coming situation. He wanted to find Magnai and Doitoi’s brother; he then wanted to kill the rest of them, but until he knew who Magnai, the abraxs and Doitoi’s brother were, he did not want to attack in case he harmed them. But the problem was that he could not yet see anything. He did not know what Magnai and his abraxs looked like, and he did not want to reveal himself to them.

He was still thinking about all of this when he realised that the ground was being pulled from under his feet. The ceiling and the ground switched positions, so that he found himself hanging by his feet. Before he could do anything, his body was cut down in several pieces by a burst of light and for the first time, a beast appeared next to him. The mouth of the beast was wide open whereas the rest of its body was buried under the mud. It was only the mouth of the beast that was alive, moving and open – the rest of the body was fixed in the ground and seemed to be made of mud and stone.

The closer the mouth of the beast came to him, the bigger it became. Paikhnam was lying on the ground, divided into several pieces and one piece of his body was swallowed by the beast. Paikhnam shifted his soul into another piece. The next part of his body was then swallowed by the beast. He was being eaten by piece by piece, but once again he shifted his soul into another torn part of his body. All of his body parts were swallowed by the beast. He was eaten up, but moments later, the beast burst into the air and Paikhnam came out of it with his body fixed and complete again.

The mud and all of its surroundings then turned into liquid and Paikhnam was swallowed up by the water. He found himself in a spacious hall. For the first time, he saw a human being, sitting in a chair in the middle of the hall. There was a massive machine on his right and little abraxs on either side. The man stood up and took a few steps towards him.

‘Who are you and what is your purpose of arrival here on our planet?’ asked the man.

Paikhnam ignored the question and looked around all of them. ‘Which of you is Magnai?’

They seemed confused by his question, but moments later, the machine moved forward, stopping at a certain distance.

‘It’s my old name, the name I had billions of years ago, when I was the leader of abraxs. I have now developed into Maganima. But who are you? Where did you come from and how did you find our land?’

Paikhnam smiled. ‘I am Paikhnam Zai. I came from Planet Xee. I was sent here by Doitoi, the godfather of our planet. He wants to have you on our planet with his brother and your abraxs.’

They were all surprised and suspicious, but also excited.

‘How about Zagnai and his force?’ Paikhnam asked next.

They were even more surprised, wondering how he could know about them all, even after billions of years. They were excited by the name of Doitoi, but still suspicious.

The man sitting on the chair nodded his head towards the machine that had introduced itself as Maganima. Maganima came forward and laid both of his hands upon Paikhnam. Paikhnam’s eyes were taken from his face and fixed to the wall. The eyes turned into a big screen on the wall so that Maganima could confirm and verify that what he had said was true.

Images appeared on the wall, all of Planet Xee and then the face of Doitoi appeared. One thing at a time, it all became clear to them; how Paikhnam had been sent here to save them and resurrect them, and to destroy Zagnai and its abraxs. They were astonished but satisfied with what they saw and also jubilant. His eyes were returned to his face, Maganima bowed to him, followed by all of the abraxs, and the man in the chair introduced himself as the great-grandson of Doitoi’s brother.

Paikhnam was told that Zagnai and his abraxs followers were dead. Unfortunately, Doitoi’s brother, all of his relatives and most of the population had also been killed during the war between Zagnai and Magnai. This had all happened the year after Doitoi had left the planet, at the time when they were due to wake up and return to the surface of the planet after a three months sleep underground. Those who had survived were still waiting for the command of Doitoi and hoping for good news about the people who had left the planet with him.

Very soon, word of Doitoi’s survival spread amongst those who now lived below the surface of Mars. Everyone was excited and eager to meet him again. There were celebrations across the planet that continued for weeks, and then at last they all migrated to Planet Xee with Paikhnam.