When they made it to the sector, the two big ships attached themselves together and the Star Hopper slid into the hangar bay of Liva 1. The medical team raced up the ramp ready to work, but when it lowered, Rixon came down in a wheelchair with his arm in a sling.
Everyone went quiet.
Rixon was not scared of the quietness.
"Well done, everyone." His voice carried across the hangar. "Don't worry, I will be able to walk by the time we get where we are going. But I couldn't do crutches and a sling at the same time. Now go and prepare. Sentio has to go over everything soon before we depart."
A collective sigh of relief rippled through the crowd. The murmurs started low, then grew as people broke off and went to their respective positions.
Oyric and Relisis sat on the hangar patio area above the main floor, watching from behind the safety railing. They watched everyone pass Rixon as they departed the Star Hopper. They watched Doctor Sentio step off, say something Rixon didn't respond to, and then roll back into his ship and close the door behind him.
Relisis saw the door close and started to move. Oyric caught his chest with her hand.
"What?" He looked down at her, confused. "He needs someone."
"What are you gonna do? Beat him upside his head while he's in a wheelchair?" She kept her hand firm. "Right now, relax. What he needs is exactly what he is getting."
"What does he need then, Ricy?" He held his shoes in his hands, ready to drop them and move.
"He needs time to heal his broken emotions. So leave him be for now." She watched the closed door of the Star Hopper. "You will see his strength rise again, but he needs time to be weak. If there is anything I have learned from my brother, it is that he understands what he now has the chance to do."
She turned her back and started walking toward the hallway door.
"Ok, love. If you say so." Relisis fell into step behind her, shoes still in hand.
"Yeah, and you think I would let you strip for these bitches? Yeah, not happening, Rel." She glanced back with a small smirk as they disappeared into the hallway.
Rixon, on the other hand, did not stay in his chair.
He rolled to the training studio and used a training pole to crawl out of the wheelchair, lowering himself until his back hit the padded wall. He sat there for a moment, breathing. Then he pulled the simulator remote into his lap.
Before he could start anything, the room's displays flickered. A transmission took over, showing Sentio surrounded by everyone on the other ships. A cam bot zoomed in on his face.
"Alright everyone, this is the moment where I steal the show for the next hour of your time." Sentio's voice filled every corner of every ship. "I need everyone on every ship to stop what they are doing. I know you can see me and hear me because I made sure of it when I remodeled these ships. So no matter where you are on any of the three ships, you should hear me or at least see me. I would say it is in your best interest to do both."
Rixon leaned his head back against the padded wall and watched.
"Now as you all know, I am Doctor Sentio and I come from the place y'all are preparing to call home. Well, it is time I told you a little bit more about myself and the place we are planning to restart and give life another try."
Sentio walked to the side of the small stage they had set up in the assembly hall. Behind him, a massive screen flickered to life.
"Let's start from the beginning."
The place they were headed to was named the Cascade Realm. Sentio explained that even its own people only knew half the truth about its beginning. The story most people of the Inner Ring knew was the reason he was here.
In their solar system there were seven planets arranged in a pattern, rotating around each other in an intricate dance. The planets closer to the sun were called the Inner Ring planets. The ones farther out were the Outer Ring. For a long time, the Inner Ring believed they were alone.
They were wrong.
Over 5,000 years ago, pirates from Delisus made the crossing. They landed and separated, spreading to each planet. But even with their sophisticated technology, technology that should have let them start new civilizations with ease, they underestimated something crucial. Adapting to new worlds changed them. Changed their evolution. Changed how their societies grew.
Each planet, in its own way, started over at the Medieval stage. Knowledge remained, but the infrastructure to use it was gone. They had to rebuild from nothing.
One planet got it worst of all.
Quaytis.
The crews that landed on Quaytis were the greediest among the pirates. When you combine greed with the chaos of colonizing an empty world, you get a recipe for disaster. They went to civil war almost immediately. In the process, they lost most of their technology, the very thing that could have put them ahead.
While other planets slowly advanced, Quaytis entered its own Dark Age. For 500 years, they fought. No intellectual growth. No progress. Just war after war after war. Knowledge had to be passed down by word of mouth, and much of it was lost.
When Quaytis finally emerged from that darkness, it emerged hungry. Their boom was massive, but it was built on conquest. Nations rose and fell. Technology advanced not for the sake of better living, but for the sake of better killing. For 2,000 years, they knew nothing but war, each generation fighting to unite the planet under one leader.
Then came the peace bringers. They convinced the nations that conquest was not the only path. That peace was possible.
For 25 years, Quaytis experienced what became known as "The Deep Breath." A generation with no war. A generation that could finally look outward instead of inward.
And when they looked outward, they found they were not alone.
Satellites detected signals from the planet next door. Winster. Quaytis sent a message and received a ship in return, a ship that froze the entire population when it landed. Not with weapons, but with wonder.
The envoy from Winster stepped out and spoke one of Quaytis's languages fluently.
The Quaytisians were stunned. The similarities between their species were remarkable. Same basic build. Same features. The only real difference was that most Winsters had light brown or darker skin tones, a gift from their desert world. Winster was nothing but oceans and sand, with leafless trees that dropped fruit and animals that lived beneath the dunes.
The Winsters did not trust the Quaytisians. But they extended an invitation anyway. In three years, when all the planets aligned, there would be an assembly of the system. Winster had already contacted two other worlds they knew of: Lumineiha and Pulvreya. The Outer Ring planets were still unknown to them.
For Quaytis, those three years were chaos.
Every nation wanted a say in how they would be represented. Leaders argued over everything.
What they should wear,
What they should say,
Who should say it.
The planetary meeting of leaders went on for consecutive months every year. Some peace bringer nations had leaders who wanted to attend, but they were looked down on. Their countries lacked the resources to back up their words if this meeting ever turned to conflict.
In the end, they chose Geisus Beriza. He was the president of a medium-sized country, a man who had won wars defending his own land and grown rich through trade.
The time came and the ship to Winster was custom built. They checked it three thousand times before launch. Every nation sent at least five representatives, just so they could say they were there when Quaytis met the stars.
When the ship lifted off, everything was a first. First time entering another planet's atmosphere. First time flying through space for more than an hour. First time seeing another world up close.
When they landed on Winster, all 200 representatives stepped off the ship and were escorted to the assembly hall. And Winster was truly a desert world. But it was beautiful. Buildings made from reinforced limestone, engineered to deflect heat and keep the inside cool. Cities rose from the sands like fortresses, their architecture making the desert and the towers look like natural partners. The Winsters had harnessed the sun for power, used their oceans to sustain their nations, and built weapons that fired blaster energy instead of bullets.
When they reached the assembly hall, thousands of cameras greeted them. Reporters from Winster and from the other planets documented their every step.
The meeting began. Geisus held his own, asking questions about how Quaytis could integrate into this system. But as the hours passed, the Quaytisians noticed something. The other representatives weren't taking notes. They were recording everything, transcribing in real time with artificial intelligence that Quaytis didn't have.
It hit them all at once. These other worlds Winster, Lumineiha, and Pulvreya all looked similar to Quaytisians. Same basic form. Same eyes. Same mouths. But the Luminehians had pointed ears. The Pulveryas had orange hair. And they all had technology that made Quaytis look primitive.
They felt tested. Judged. Humiliated.
In the middle of the meeting, a messenger approached the Emperor of Lumineiha, a man named Procius. He read something, and his face went dark. He stood immediately, bodyguards closing around him, and left without explanation.
The meeting was over.
The Quaytisians were relieved. They boarded their ship and left Winster without looking back.
When they returned home, the representatives told their people everything. The shame. The anger. The feeling of being looked down on by worlds that had centuries of advancement on them.
The next assembly was scheduled for fifteen years away during the next planetary alignment.
The Quaytisian World Assembly made a decision. They would sprint. Every year, they would hold a World Convention showcasing new inventions. The best prototypes, the best concepts, would receive full funding. They would compete with the other planets. They would show them that Quaytis could not be dismissed.
For the first time in their history, the nations of Quaytis stopped thinking of themselves as separate. They became one.
When the next System Assembly came, Geisus returned with representatives from every field. They showcased their new technology. They walked in with heads high. The other planets side-eyed them, surprised at how much had changed in fifteen years.
But before the meeting could even begin, Emperor Procius placed a small block on the table. It projected a scene onto the wall. His embassy on Winster. Murdered. The footage showed the attack clearly, dated to the time of the last assembly when Quaytis was there.
"Do you play us weak because we do not have a conquering nature like you bastards on that godforsaken planet?" Procius's voice rang through the hall. "Before this meeting even kicks off, you will answer for these crimes against my people at the Interplanet Embassy!"
The hall went silent.
Geisus looked at the footage. Looked at the accusing faces of the other representatives. Looked at Emperor Procius, waiting for an answer.
If you asked someone from the Inner Circle he frowned and bang the table but actually.
He smirked.
It was said in truth he finally seemed to relax, as if he had been waiting for this moment his whole life. He leaned forward slightly and spoke five words that would echo through history.
"Quaytis answers no one."