Planet XEE

Fireworks exploded in a shower of falling stars, as all three moons of the Planet irradiated after one another and the sky stayed black. Tonight, was a special night on Planet Xee. Celebrations were being held across the planet. The youngest citizen on the planet was just turning twelve years old. The young boy, Paikhnam, was the first one to be born for ten thousand years, at the expressed desire of the godfather of the planet, Doitoi. Founder of the planet and the only old man, Doitoi himself was millions of years old. He migrated from another world as yet unknown to the rest of the occupants of Planet Xee. Doitoi’s palace was illuminated by the colourful rays of the planet’s three moons, indicating that tonight was a special night.

All of the inhabitants of the planet were present at the ceremony. Doitoi, wearing a crown of blue diamonds on his head and a white and green robe reflecting the light of the moons, was sitting on a central stage. Paikhnam was seated on his right hand side, while Ziddan Zai, Paikhnam’s father, was sitting on his left. First, the people of the planet came forward to pay their tributes, then the birds sang a Happy Birthday song to the Paikhnam and a group of animals danced before the young member of the planetary family.

After that it was time for the neighbouring planets to come and join the party and extend their best wishes. The front wall of the palace of Doitoi turned into a mirror displaying information about the planets and their inhabitants before they joined the party. The mirror had been especially designed for Paikhnam so that he could learn about the surrounding worlds.

Water Land appeared on the mirror and dozens of creatures showed up on the wall. A goliath animal called Pottapu, with one wing on its back, three legs attached to its abdomen, and three eyes of different colours and sizes, entered the palace to represent the whole of its planet. As it made a flying entrance, its lower body was covered in water as its kind kept water around them wherever they went, and its upper body created flickering flames of fire. It came to rest in the middle of the palace, pouring water on everybody present there– although making no one wet – as a symbol of love, respect and best wishes. The animal bowed down in front of the boy and then disappeared.

Moments later, Planet Bownai appeared on the mirror. The one-inch-long creatures introduced themselves and begged for entrance to the palace. They were duly admitted. Naming themselves Bownaimas, they had two faces – one white and one black – a twinkling eye in the centre of each face, and their tails were about equal in length to their entire bodies. Standing tails upon tails and heads upon heads, they paid tribute to Paikhnam and then adhered themselves to the walls and ceiling of the palace and requested to be allowed to remain until the ceremony was over.

A white horse with a round shining face and colourful wings, from Planet Qavillai, was next to come to the palace. It fluttered its wings in one direction while bowing its head, and with every single movement of its wings, it spread colours into the hall of the palace, changing the hue of everyone’s face. Before it disappeared from the palace, it fluttered its wings in the opposite direction, returning everyone’s faces to their original colour. Moments later, next to appear on the mirror was a flower, which turned into a woman.

‘I am Samarjana from Planet Sheen,’ the woman said. ‘I will come tomorrow to look after you, my boy.’

‘We are waiting for you,’ Doitoi replied and then announced the end of the party.

The next morning, the sun shone upon the surface of the planet, bringing life and the beginning of a new day. Birds started singing the new day songs. Plants and trees poured fresh air in the atmosphere, teemed with life. The colour of the ground began to turn gold – a shining surface ready to welcome, reflect, and spread the rays of the sun to inject the day’s commands and actions into the atmosphere. Soon, everything sprang into life. Every bit of the surface was shining in response to the sunlight; all except for two palaces and they were left in darkness so that a peaceful night still existed for the residents, who were sound asleep.

One palace belonged to Doitoi, the godfather of the planet, and the second one belonged to the Ziddan family. Because of the grand birthday party the night before of Ziddan’s son, Paikhnam, the surface of the planet had been directed not to reflect light on those particular places. Hours later, both places finally received light and the occupants of the palaces woke up. By midday, everything and everyone was fully awake. Melodies were played to say good day to the lord of the planet and the young citizen. Paikhnam walked with his mother into the garden of life wearing a golden crown on his head, especially granted by Doitoi. Flowers bent towards him and presented the best and freshest of their fragrances; birds flew about his shoulders to make him happy; trees lifted their branches into the air and wished him good day.

Paikhnam and his mother sat down in a corner of the garden.

‘I feel thirsty, Mom,’ he said.

His mother looked into the clouds and wished for a drink. Within a few moments, a drink in a golden glass appeared. Paikhnam drank and the glass disappeared back into the clouds. He smiled and felt better after having consumed the water.

Minutes later, a diamond-shaped mirror appeared in the sky, revealing and announcing that a woman, with a purple head and green eyes, was entering the territory to meet up with Doitoi with regard to taking care of the young boy’s health and well-being. She was cleared and permitted to be there. She came closer to Paikhnam sitting with his mother, stopped for a moment, exchanged a smile with Paikhnam’s mother and then left again. Paikhnam was curious. ‘What did she say to you?’ he asked.

’She said: ‘Your son is so charming; I came here to take care of his health,’ replied his mother.

‘She scanned your brain and body,’ she added, ‘to check if anything is wrong. She will report to Doitoi.’

‘Mum,’ he pressed, ‘I want to be like all of you! You get whatever you wish for. You do not express your words out loud, rather you communicate mind-to-mind. You just wish and here the sun is, here the shade is, here the drink or food is. I cannot wait any longer.’

His mother smiled at him. ‘Yes, of course, my son. You will be granted even more power than everyone else on the planet; you will be granted special powers from our godfather. He wants you to be his messenger to the rest of the universe for the betterment of the creatures out there. But you have to wait, as everyone did before you. You have to wait until you turn eighteen. You will be served the drink, Aab e Hayat, the elixir of life, in the presence of our lord. After drinking Aab e Hayat you will be blessed with eternal life. You will then be capable of communicating with us through your mind. You will be able to communicate with and command the atmosphere with just your mind’s power; just by your will, like every one of us does today.’

Paikhnam wished he could have the drink as soon as possible. He found it difficult being unable to communicate with the atmosphere; he couldn’t fulfil his desire for drink, food, shade and sun. His mother continued, ‘Our minds are connected to the atmosphere – we control it with our minds and you will only be capable of that after drinking Aab e Hayat. Don’t worry, my darling, the time is getting closer and closer. Just six years left. Once you have consumed it, you will continue to grow into your thirties. Your physical age will then stop there but you will live forever as every one of us does. We are all more than fifty thousand years old, but we are still young. You will face no trouble in your life. You will remain young and energetic forever.’

‘Yeah I know, Dad told me that, too, but it seems so far away.’ He seemed desperate to be able to control the situation.

‘Listen to me, son… about every ten thousand years, the star Majranta9 aligns with the palace of Doitoi. Look at the top of the palace. There is an arrow pointing to the sky, shining gold. The light of the star will touch the arrow. The arrow will first turn silver, then red, and after a few seconds, when the star is right above the arrow, it will then turn green – a shining green arrow. It will remain green for a few seconds, before it returns to its golden colour. Then it will be the right time for you to drink Aab e Hayat, and that will be it; your life will then be totally changed. You will become eternal. You will live forever.’

Paikhnam smiled and seemed to be anxiously waiting for the moment.

‘I am hot,’ he complained.

His mother looked up and soon a cluster of clouds drifted over him, providing shade. The boy smiled. Actually, he wasn’t that hot but he just wanted to check the power of his mother.

Inside the palace, Doitoi was sitting in a chair that floated in the air. He seemed to be in his nineties and yet he was still young and energetic. He had lost his left eye long ago, and on his left arm was a deep scar, likely caused by crashing into a hard and rough surface.

The woman arrived in his court. She bowed down to him and said, ‘My Lord, I am Samarjana, expert in special species, developing young ones to the highest level of power, intellect and productivity. But as far as I know about your world, not one of you ever gets sick; you don’t even have enemies around you to fight so your men never get injured or killed. Is there any special reason to call me here after thousands of years, apart from Paikhnam’s health and care?’

‘You are right,’ Doitoi smiled. ‘I welcome you to our planet. We have no purpose other than the health of our new planetary member. He is the first one to be born for ten thousand years, and I plan to give him my special powers to look after and help the worlds around us. I have a special mission for him to complete, which I will disclose to him in the near future. So I am extremely concerned about his health and growth.’

‘Thank you for having me here, My Lord. I already scanned the boy’s body and brain. Here are the results.’

She opened her hand and a burst of colourful light appeared on her palm. She dragged the light into the diamond-shaped mirror, which was specially designed to show up data in every direction at the same time so that anyone sitting at any angle could observe the results.

She continued, ‘I am pleased to inform you that everything is going well apart from his eyesight. He is a bit short-sighted. But don’t worry, My Lord, I am about to fix it and the impact on his eyes will be evident when he wakes tomorrow.’

She dragged the scanned image of the body of Paikhnam, zoomed in on the eyes, made particular changes and applied them.

‘I have fixed the problems. If he does not drink Aab e Hayat before time, he will enjoy better sight,’ she said. ‘But after drinking Aab e Hayat through guidance, he will be able to see up to two hundred thousand coasi even with all kinds of obstacles in his way.’ Coasi was the planet’s unit of distance, with one coasi translating to one million miles on Earth.

‘But one thing worries me,’ she added.

The lord looked shocked. ‘Why? What is the matter?’

She smiled, begged his pardon and said, ‘It’s not that serious, really. The boy is desperate to have the qualities of all the others around him as soon as he could dot that. He doesn’t want to wait for another six years and he has decided to drink Aab e Hayat tomorrow afternoon in secret.’

The lord seemed relaxed, as yet he was a little anxious. ‘But it’s not the requisite time for him to drink Aab e Hayat.’

‘No, my Lord!’ she said. ‘Your worries are valid. Nothing too bad will happen, but—’

Doitoi interrupted her. ‘Tell me, what will happen?’

‘The side effect of the drink could cause a sickness of body and mind. He may suffer with certain types of diseases, but whatever the consequences, I will treat him.’ She paused and then continued. ‘If I may…’ she brought the Paikhnam’s brain into focus on the diamond mirror and pointed to a particular part.

‘I can remove his wish to drink Aab e Hayat before it is time. But if I do that, he may not ever wish to drink it again in his life.’

The lord remained silent. After a while, he said, ‘I don’t want him to stop wishing or thinking. Let him have the drink. Whatever the consequence is, we will look for the solution.’

The next afternoon, Paikhnam did it in secrit. He drank Aab e Hayat. He came out of his room expecting to be able to do the same thing with the atmosphere that he was used to seeing his parents doing. Thinking wishing, ordering… but nothing happened. He tried once more in another place, but in vain.

‘There must be something wrong,’ he whispered to himself. ‘Shall I drink once more? Maybe that wasn’t enough.’

He went back to his room where he had kept the drink. He filled the glass again and drank, quickly coming out to test it again, but the results remained the same. He spent the whole day trying the same thing over and over again and desperately walking about. At the end of the day, though he could not achieve success, he still had not given up, hoped that everything would be fine in the morning.

‘It must take at least a day or two to work,’ he thought. But he did not share his secret activities with his parents or anybody else on the planet.

The next morning, he woke up late with a headache. He realised his mistake but it was too late now. He tried to be happy in the company of his parents, but after having his afternoon meal, his headache increased and he had a fever and flu-like symptoms.

Samarjana was called in the presence of Doitoi in his court. Paikhnam and his parents were there too.

‘He drank Aab e Hayat. The pain, fever and flu-like symptoms are side effects of the drink,’ she explained to Doitoi and Paikhnam’s parents as she examined his health in the diamond mirror.

‘Can you treat him and how long will he stay like this?’ asked Doitoi, observing Paikhnam in pain.

‘The boy has not fully matured in this atmosphere and is not as a common member of our society yet. I will try some methods for his recovery. But—’

‘Explain to me in detail, Samarjana!’ Doitoi interrupted.

‘My Lord, as you know, our treatment system is so advanced that it could cause him other kinds of serious infection throughout his life. We cannot treat him with our own system and methods. He is now in the early stages of life as you and your people used to be on Planet Degrean.’

‘Planet Degrean?’ The sound was wired to every one present in the palace but they all remained silent.

She scrolled down the image and pointed out infection in his throat, skin and head. ‘In this case, we have two options available to us.’

‘I want to hear those options. We need to make our child safe and healthy.’

‘Option one: we leave the infection alone until he drinks Aab e Hayat in due time; he will then automatically be cured. We can make him sleep when he feels pain and when the condition is severe,’ she replied.

‘What is the second option?’ asked Doitoi.

‘We have to find similar creatures living somewhere in the universe with these symptoms and observe the way they are treating their young ones. We have to apply the same medicine in the same way—’

‘We will go for the second option,’ said Doitoi even before Samarjana had completed her sentence.