Planet XEE

Doitoi looked around the hall; he found his audience eager to hear about the planet where he was born and brought up and spent the early days of his childhood with his parents. From time to time he had recounted some of his best memories to the people of Planet Xee, but he had never once mentioned their names, conditions or details of his previous life. Paikhnam had been sent to bed, but Ziddan and Shakerast were still present, as was Samarjana along with two hundred thousand people who were sitting in the court or who had specially requested to join the audience virtually. Sitting in his own court, Doitoi was equally present to an audience within a radius of around ninety-six coasi, who were listening to his story while sitting in their own homes with their families. It was a rule that whenever the sun was turned back a few hours or more, these selected members of society were automatically allowed to join the conference.

‘It was a nice, shining day,’ he began, while looking through the diamond mirror, showing him his best memories. ‘We were gathered in the hall of our newly developed town on the north pole of the planet. It was an annual gathering. A chance for everyone to present there, to enjoy and rejoice for the day until it was time for us to go back to our designated cells and remain there for three months, waiting for the harsh weather of the planet to be over. I should mention that, in those early days, the surface of the planet was grim but we were able to stay on the surface for periods of time. However, at certain times of the year, it was impossible for life to survive on the surface. At these times, we would protect ourselves from the solar storm by fleeing to our special chambers, created beneath the surface of the planet. We called this time the period of calm constant stay. Before this happened, we would get together and celebrate and then go for a long sleep underground. Contact with the external world was exclusively through these towers – we used to call them pyramids. They were then the only source of light, filtered air and water vapour required to sustain life underground.’

Doitoi opened his eyes and rays travelled from his eyes towards the diamond mirror. A tall, thin tower constructed from red and blue mud appeared on the screen. The pillar was covered from bottom to top with thousands of small particles of curved glass.

Doitoi looked back at his audience and resumed his story. ‘That was our last day of activities on the surface.’

‘If, during your sleep time,’ said Ziddan, ‘anything extraordinary happened, who to respond and protect? For example, in the case of severe weather changes or an attack from hidden forces or enemies?’

‘We had developed the abraxs… our guards, our own creatures, even more powerful than ourselves,’ Doitoi replied. ‘The purpose of their creation was to make our lives easy, serve us throughout our lives and, most importantly, to source new planets for us to migrate to. Magnai and Zagnai were the leaders of the abraxs; they were both responsible for all sorts of strange occurrences. They successfully found many new planets for us to migrate to and start new lives out there. One of them was Planet Waittas, our next-door neighbour; the Planet Earth.’

It was a pleasant surprise for the audience to hear about the different choices for their new homelands.

‘The Planet Earth was not yet the best choice for us,’ Doitoi continued, observing the curiosity of the audience. ’It was expected to be hit by solar storms, asteroids and, most importantly, Earth was to face mass eradication of its atmospheric life. If it still exists, the reality is that the inhabitants of Earth will face extinction sometime in the future.

’We sent many abraxs to Earth to study it. We sent messages to see if there was any intelligent life there; we sent maps of our tower buildings, as we had built on Mars and we wanted to have at least a communication from Mars to Earth, even if we did not migrate. Later on, our abraxs continued to visit the planet and painted these maps and drawings onto mountain rocks and river beds all around the planet. The purpose of these messages was to guide incoming civilisations to build similar towers, and to make contact with them in the near future.

‘We planned to move to Planet Earth for a short span of time until we were ready to migrate here to Planet Xee. But something happened on the last day of celebrations that changed all that.’

He paused for a few moments and then continued. ’As I told you earlier, we were celebrating the last day upon the surface of the planet; after that we had to go underground for three months to stay in our protected caves.

’The last day on the surface of the planet was our celebration day. The two abraxs leaders, Zagnai and Magnai, had super-artificial intelligence, developed by our forefathers centuries ago. They had challenged each other to a fight to demonstrate their abilities and to decide who was competent, powerful and intelligent enough to control the whole of the planet should anything go wrong. As far as we were concerned, the challenge was taken just for fun. Magnai was my hero and Zagnai was favoured by my younger brother, Zarnai. Finally the day of competition arrived; both superheroes took part in the battle. At first Zagnai seemed to overcome Magnai but later on, Zagnai was trounced by Magnai.

‘It was just a bit of fun. Both of the super-artificial heroes entered into the competition. They both did very well and we applauded the pair of them. By the evening, everyone disappeared and engaged in their underground activities.’

Doitoi went silent for a while. He appeared sad before the audience in the hall.

‘But something went wrong that changed our fate, changed our whole lives…’ He paused again. Everyone seemed to pay even more careful attention.

’Zarnai, my younger brother, took the game very seriously and took Zagnai’s defeat very badly, in just the same way that he would have felt the loss on the battlefield. He apparently made such a mistake that we all paid for it. He actually supplied his wrestler, Zagnai, with some destructive, furious and disastrous software to take revenge on Magnai. Before that, our abraxs, including Magnai and Zagnai, were assigned to provide the best possible facilities to the whole planet. Their only duty was to make our lives comfortable but after that Zagnai transferred annihilation instructions to more than half the army of abraxs.

’Hardly a few days had passed underground when Zagnai attacked Magnai with his army. At first we thought we were attacked by external enemies, but they were in fact our own servants, had turned into our killers. They killed hundreds of our people, including other abraxs. They destroyed our safe places – our sanctuaries – and I had to do something to save our species before it was too late.

‘I sent a troop of abrax soldiers to the surface and told them to wait for my next order, leaving everyone fighting and killing each other underground. It was not an ideal decision, but I had no other option.’

Doitoi then remained silent for a while. Everyone in the palace, as well as the people in their homes, felt his sorrow at that moment. No one dared to speak.

‘I switched off the mental and physical power of the people fighting underground,’ he said quietly, after a while.

According to Doitoi, the abraxs and the people of Mars, including Doitoi’s brother and other family members, were all buried beneath the surface of Mars. All of them, including their homes, their atmosphere and every single thing they owned became nothing, no more than a muddy mixture of elements buried deep in the planet.

‘Our nearest neighbouring planet was Earth, but she was not able to support life yet,’ he said. ’So we travelled to Planet Xee, riding on the abraxs I’d sent to the surface of the planet before the deadly sleep of the others.

‘We were thousands when we set out, but only a few of us reached Planet Xee alive. Even so, we started a new life here. We had left everything behind us on Planet Degrean – Mars. We had to rebuild our life-supporting atmosphere as well as safe and secure homes and shelters for the abraxs and for ourselves, of course. We couldn’t chance making another mistake and losing our lives, so this time we developed our own atmosphere. You see, everything here is controlled by our mind power and everything we do now works perfectly well. We will never let our abraxs learn or adopt destructive forces again.’

‘How about the people and the abraxs left behind on Mars?’ asked Ziddan.

‘Good question indeed,’ Doitoi replied. ‘I will grant my special powers to Paikhnam, your son.’ He smiled at Ziddan. ‘I will instruct him how to get there, but he will need an extensive care and attention once he is there. All forces will wake up at once – destructive and protective. I want my brother and other members of the planet to be here. I want to meet them once and then I want to sleep for the next ten thousand years. Paikhnam Zai will be my representative here.’

‘That’s a great honour for my son,’ said Ziddan. ‘But we have to look after him now.’

‘I wonder how he is feeling now?’ said Doitoi.

They looked through the wall. Paikhnam was sleeping on his bed. He had red cheeks and a runny nose.

‘You must leave tomorrow,’ said Doitoi.

‘Yes, I have to,’ agreed Ziddan.

Doitoi dismissed everyone and brought time back on track. Only Doitoi and Ziddan were left in the palace.

‘Let me explain your journey to you.’

Doitoi looked upon the mirror. The dark mirror turned into a plain, clear surface, and in it appeared the universe.

‘Here we are on Planet Xee.’ He pointed to a certain place. ‘I will create your replica here. Your actual soul and body will be preserved here while your replica will go to Earth. Your replica will be transferred into the humans’ solar system in a moment through Dark Motion. From this point, Planet Earth’s gravity will attract you to herself. Your speed of travelling will be doubled by Earth’s pulling force and by your wings.’

Ziddan Zai touched his shoulders but found no wings there.

‘Don’t worry, they will grow after you have consumed these drinks,’ said Doitoi, indicating a tray filled with three glasses, which had just appeared next to Ziddan.

‘The drink in the yellow glass is to give you power to fly to Earth and also to return from Earth to your starting point. The faster you go, the bigger your wings will be. On your arrival at the planet, the wings will vanish from your shoulders.’

Ziddan Zai smiled and took the drink.

‘The drink in this green glass will be enough for your hunger and thirst. Once you have this, you will not need to eat or drink again until you are back home.’

Ziddan took the second drink.

Doitoi pointed to the last drink. ’The drink in the red glass will enable you to understand every creature on the planet – their languages, physiology, their attitudes, and you will be able to adopt the local customs, costumes and traditions accordingly.

’In any case, nothing could ever harm you out there, because even if anything happens to you on your journey, we will awaken your original body here and destroy the replica.

‘I advise you not to harm any creatures out there; try to be kind, cooperative and respectful towards them. And now you can see your wife and child. You will be leaving tomorrow morning.’

Ziddan nodded. They both left the hall and the palace vanished into the darkness.