Twin Earth

As we stepped out into the light, I realised that what had been beaming down on my face was in fact reflected sunlight from huge prisms that lined a central column of an immensely tall building. The building rose hundreds of feet above our heads, creating a stunning display of light, colour and architectural design, which would put any Earth sculpture to shame. Surrounding the prisms were endless rooms, some glass fronted, some hidden away behind colourful doorways, all of which bustled with teams of people coming and going, children playing and having fun or those working hard in various labs, formulating plans or discovering new ideas together. The difference between the quiet, orderly complex in the North was definitely noticeable.

“Wow,” I whispered, staring up to the twinkling ceiling far above our heads. “What is this place?”

“This is our home, or at least one of them. In the South we live underground in vast skyscrapers. It shields us from the harsh sun and arid landscape above. The jungle in the South is much smaller and over-time has become increasingly more arid so we have developed a new way to survive.”

“This is incredible!” Rachel replied, also staring around in awe. “Everyone looks so happy.”

”We are, as much as we can be during such confrontational times. We have tried to create a biosphere of our own, but deep underground. We regulate the temperature according to our needs and the sun-light is reflected deep underground so we don’t live in darkness. Here, let me show you one of our bio-labs.”

We followed Apo down a brightly lit corridor to a vast dome shaped room that was full of trees, plants and even small streams running alongside sand covered wooden pathways.

“This is no bio lab,” I breathed in awe. “This is paradise.”

Smiling Apo led us around to a small grassy area where he motioned us to sit alongside a woman and a very young boy. The woman, unlike the smiling men by her side, seemed unusually quiet and perhaps a little sad, but each time her child pulled at her with a grin on his face, she would turn to him and playfully scold him.

“This is Anoxia, Adom’s wife and their son,” Apo softly announced, hugging her gently as she stood to greet us.

“Oh,” Rachel whispered. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” Anoxia replied, bowing her head slightly as she did so.

“Anoxia is our lead botanist here in the bio-lab. She is also one of the few scientists here who studies the creators as a race.”

“As a race?”

“Most of our scientists here work on developing the creators’ technology that was left behind and studying how it can benefit us, but Anoxia prefers to study them as a people, learning more about them as a culture, as a species and ultimately why they saved our planets yet left us alone to carry on without them.”

“And what have you discovered?” I asked curiously. “Apo stated earlier they are just like us, but from what we have experienced over the last few hours, they are far superior. They’re more like an energy than a humanoid alien.”

“That certainly fits with what I have learnt in recent years from our scientific study of their technology, but when they were here though, in our solar system, they were quite different, much more humanoid in appearance,” Anoxia replied softly.

“Why bother though? Why bother saving our planets? What was the point?” I muttered. Perhaps I was more exhausted than I realised or more likely, simply nervous about what the creators had given me as my next task and I was reluctant to share that information.

Frowning, Rachel eyed me curiously.

“Maybe they were trying to save themselves. Maybe their own planet was dying and they were looking for somewhere else to go. Maybe we are the aliens. Or some descendent of,” Rachel spouted, clearly annoyed at me yet again for speaking my mind.

“Oh great,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Now that would be a twist.”

“It’s not such a far-fetched concept,” Apo interrupted. “Anoxia has come to learn, as Rachel just said, the creators’ home-land was in danger at some point, although we have never quite pinned down exactly where that home was or is, but she believes from studying their art and drawings left behind, that they travelled here and to thousands of other systems all over the universe, saving or regenerating planets like ours. Perhaps to save themselves, spawning them with their own DNA or then returning to harvest them.”

“Harvesting them?” I coughed loudly. “This again…”

“Not in the sense we understand,” Anoxia replied smiling. “I believe that they only harvest life on planets that is not intelligent, but not to destroy or consume it, instead they move it or transport it to other planets nearby to continue the cycle of regeneration.”

”That certainly seems a logical thing to do because why would you have this huge ship travelling the universe that had thousands of different bio diversities on board when you can, as you say, harvest a nearby planet that has already been terraformed,” Rachel smiled enthusiastically. “This is fascinating. What an amazing way to keep your species and other species alive.”

“Exactly,” Apo replied.

“So is there any evidence they came back here?” I asked, “You know, after they saved our two planets from mutual destruction. Where we travelled to, wherever the hell that place was, we met this… turtle thing, and it seemed surprised we weren’t all lizards. It was as if they were expecting us to have evolved from dinosaurs so I guess they weren’t expecting a huge asteroid to take them out, but that also suggests they don’t keep an eye on their little pet projects either.”

“That is interesting,” Anoxia whispered, rubbing her chin and looking down deep in thought.

“That was a hologram though, none of that was real,” Rachel replied. “How do we know that was what the creators were actually thinking?”

“Why bother showing it to me then?” I asked defiantly.

”No, that makes sense,” Anoxia replied. “The creators, I have come to learn, did have a lizard, or as you say turtle like appearance, but thousands of years ago. There is some evidence here that they were planning on returning approximately a few hundred years ago, but I have yet to determine why they did not. ”

“Do you think it has anything to do with the first planet we landed on?” I asked.

”First planet? Do you mean Andromeda Gelix 521? The red planet?” Apo asked surprised.

“So you know it? Not that that rolls off the tongue, but yeah, the whole place was being sucked up into a massive dying star, but it looked like an old civilisation had once lived there. Do you think that affected their ability to travel to our galaxy?” I asked.

“You really think that would be the case?” Rachel asked thoughtfully. “I mean, we travelled there okay? At least for now.”

”But even that mantis alien thing was waving its hands frantically at us, trying to tell us something. Maybe that was what it was.”

Frowning, Rachel shook her head unsure of what to say.

“It sounds like you met one of the creator guardians. They look like praying mantis insects like those we find here and on Earth. A very intelligent and gentle creature that we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting for many years now thanks to the Order, but yes, it is possible that if Gelix is being destroyed now it could mean that we are becoming cut off from the creators, but the creators are such an advanced being that I don’t think a dying sun would stop them. It may just mean a longer trip,” Anoxia replied.

“So this could mean we become cut off from them altogether in the meantime? Why does that scare me?” Rachel asked concerned.

“From what I have learnt, our galaxy is one of the very few galaxies on the very outer reach of the creators’ terraforming program. Why they came this far we do not know, but the fact they seemed surprised at our appearance is interesting. It does lead credence to my theory that most of the creatures born from the creators work are similar in appearance to how they once were. I believe that our solar system is in what I call the volatile spectrum, a class of outer reach planets that are within younger galaxies, which are more prone to things like asteroid impacts. We may have been an experiment or a desperate attempt to further their reach out into the universe. It is possible that we may not even be descended from the creators, a freak of existence entirely,” Anoxia replied curiously.

”That will certainly cause some interest to them surely?” Rachel asked.

“Now, why does that scare me?” I replied sarcastically.

“No, I believe it benefits us. The fact we are so far out may be the reason why they haven’t kept in touch. Now they know we are here, unique to them and in danger, it may play to our benefit. When you met the creators what was their response to our situation?” Apo asked.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask that,” I moaned.