Chronicles of Chaem: Part 3
Sci-fi that I wrote aged 15 and recently rediscovered in my parents' loft
So we were beginning at Randdet, a relatively small planet, but still of enormous power. It was thick with rich purple vegetation, and home to only three species of animals. There were several other… creatures, but they were not legally animals – that’s how far the overruling of the Soquetí stretches. There were reasons…
Have you read 🔗 Part 1 & 2 yet?
Chronicles of Chaem: Part 2
I first visited Ʞæm on my 4th Ʞæmo birthday – making me about 12 by Ærþ years. My family – mother, father, a twin sister and two younger brothers – had an apartment by the sea waiting for us…
Part 3
Record Entry #213: Ærþtime 62209+4f9
So we were beginning at Randdet, a relatively small planet, but still of enormous power. It was thick with rich purple vegetation, and home to only three species of animals. There were several other… creatures, but they were not legally animals – that’s how far the overruling of the Soquetí1 stretches. There were reasons…
While there, we would briefly check over the past inter-planetary transactions of currency, people, time devices and fuel. These were the four Wealths over which worlds would fight, and all I really needed to do was make sure there were no unusual transactions in the past couple of seasons. If there weren’t, there wasn’t much chance of weird battles breaking out while I wasn’t there.
“Eʏᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄᴀɴɴᴇʀ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ.” Finally we had reached the spaceport, and my ID needed to be verified. “Iᴛ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴅᴇsᴛɪɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ɪs Rᴀɴᴅᴅᴇᴛ,” the computer stated. “Aɴᴅ ᴡʜᴏ ɪs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪᴄᴇ?” Dénoxs2 had also placed his eye in the retina scanner, but all the computer could see was a semi-transparent mirror with a micron camera behind it.
“Dénoxs. We work together.” Dénoxs had already been connected to my journey; all that the computer needed was my voice and his voice to verify, which would confirm who he really was.
“Aɴᴅ I ᴀᴍ ᴡᴏʀᴋɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ Tʀʏsᴛᴀɴ,” Dénoxs said, rather too clinically, sarcastically mimicking the veri machine. “Can we get on with it now? My suitcase is very heavy – almost as heavy as a person…”
“IDs ᴄᴏɴꜰɪʀᴍᴇᴅ. Yᴏᴜ ᴍᴀʏ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇ.” Electric green field-shifter beams pulsed down from the ceiling and we were~
Record Entry #214: Ærþtime 62209+4fe
~transported into the next clearance room.
Ow.
“Ow. Damn, the suitcase has gone.”
“You mean Andrya.”
“No, dammit Dénoxs. I mean the suitcase,” I replied, signalling at the ceiling. “Bugs? In the room? They’ll hear us if you’re not careful. I’m gonna have to fix that one robotic neuron I gave you. Pure truth isn’t always the best thing – you need an extra step of judgement.” Or he’d guessed and was showing off his powers of deduction.
After a moment, Dénoxs said, “We need to be in Randdet in only one yut. Right now, is that very likely? We’re still in the verification terminal on Ʞæm, and the journey’s only just less than a yut. The veri’s been awfully slow for several years now… well, since Ærþ hit the dark ages again.” A yut was about half an hour3, but Dénoxs only spoke and thought in Ʞæmo standards; he had been born, brought up and edited on Ʞæm. It was all he had ever known.
I considered this. It wasn’t serious, but if my first impression on my managers wasn’t great, then slipping away into the unknown would become less and less likely.
“The veri’s slowness is just to protect us though; the cause of the dark ages is still unknown, I think. Here we go.” The floor had vanished, revealing… nothing. We were stood on what must have been a—
“Field regenerator. Holds us in line with related external surface projectors, allowing it to traverse anywhere the projectors move. I’m guessing this takes us to the spaceport…” Dénoxs said, completing my thought for me as the invisible platform lurched away, carrying us into the heart of the planet’s biggest transport system. We were now well underground, a good 4.5 Ærþkilometres down, so an artificial sky had been simulated over and around us, designed to mimic reality on the surface as much as possible. Smells of Ʞæmo air, animals and vegetation – distinctly a passion fruit smell – filled the underground atmosphere; projected light formed rays from the two suns, and holograms sat us upon rose-pink clouds. However, there were a few errors in the programming code – a couple of fish shoals swooped past like storm clouds on their way to join a hurricane. On the ground below, which appeared to be an awfully long way down, were specks of virtual animals running wild, dotted amongst the lush bluenery4. Paradise. But, virtual. Slightly too good, and noticeably better than our reality above. Still, it was all us Ærþhumans could achieve for several hundred years, until we managed to clean up our act on Home Planet, and finally learnt to use renewable energy. Renewable like solar, wind, nuclear, water and hydrogen. We took our time – they were never really difficult technologies; we were just difficult people.
A golden gate appeared several metres ahead – another brilliant hologram – which swung open on the smoothest virtual hinges ever.
I had obviously never seen anything like this and, momentarily forgetting the missing suitcase situation, I allowed myself to feel the euphoria associated with the love and purity of nature. On the surface, one could not get this. It was now terribly dominated by buildings, houses and transport systems. Not the nicest world to live in, and the very reason Andrya was coming with us.
Record Entry #215: Ærþtime 62209+502
“Look around, Dénoxs,” I said – and I had to. Another of his glitches was a lack of observation in cases other than those concerning his welfare or mine. “Quick, before we move on.” The gates were nearing and, looking down, I saw our personal cloud morph into what appeared to be a very large Ærþ-elephant.
Looking back as we stepped off, I saw our elephant run off and join the colourful specks in the tropical-looking trees and undergrowth.
“Tryst, ahh, this isn’t Ʞæm anymore. We’re, like—”
A pure and smooth voice interrupted him. “Welcome to Randdet. Trystan Alexándor and Dénoxs Eiȝt, we hope you enjoy your stay. Please do not touch the animals, and keep your hands and other external limbs inside your atmospheric globe. The planet’s own is currently experiencing technical difficulties, so any protruding articles may be subject to extreme radiation or severe silicon-oxide loss. Thank you for your time.” A flashing neon sign popped up from the ground, directing us toward the Gothic-style veri building of Randdet.
“Looks like we’re already there then. Express travel for business, it would appear.”
Dénoxs set off in the direction of the exit, a blue bubble squelching into existence around him as he stepped over the threshold.
“Yep,” he replied, as I caught up with him after stealing one more glance at the paradisical Ʞæmois landscape we had just left.
A small whump! signalled the creation of my bubble, protecting me from the harmful… ness of the world around us. Nothing had changed in appearance, but it wasn’t all that easy to tell on such an altered planet as this. Not much of all around us was original any more, after the biology had been altered to build an atmosphere through effect. Unfortunately, this had the side-effect of creating a pink atmosphere, and of making the animals prone to random events of nuclear spontaneous combustion (r.e.nu.s.co. for short) – leaving only three legal animal species, who took the combustion time period as a handy time to reproduce. It worked.
We wandered down the silver-chipping gravel5 pathway, which led us to the verification mansion. Looking around, it appeared we could just run off and become illegal immigrants. But appearance is often deceptive, and we both knew that anyone daring to do so would be immediately fried and temporarily paralysed, for inspection and questioning.
Part 4 coming soon…
Missed Part 1 or 2?
Chronicles of Chaem: Part 1
It’s commonly thought that one’s life flashes before their eyes as they come to their death. Only one thing flashed before mine – the air. I fell through the sky; up or down, I didn’t know. But I was moving fast.
Chronicles of Chaem: Part 2
I first visited Ʞæm on my 4th Ʞæmo birthday – making me about 12 by Ærþ years. My family – mother, father, a twin sister and two younger brothers – had an apartment by the sea waiting for us…
Soquetí — /sɔ.qɯeˈtʰij/ — One of the galactic superpowers, believed to embrace and even utilize the Mysteries.
Denoxs — /ˈde.nokʃ/ — my partner in crime, named after the smaller of Ʞæm’s two moons.
yut — /jʌt/ — a yut is around 30 Ærþ minutes, a tenth of a Ʞæmo haq, which is around 5 Ærþ hours.
Ʞæmois vegetation is mainly blue in the tropics, due in part to alien flora introduced from Randdet, and in part to the thicker atmosphere around the equator. Ʞæm rotates so fast that the heavier atmospheric gases gather, reducing light transmission. Ʞæm is so large that its day is still longer than Ærþ’s.
Silver is common as dirt on Randdet, coalescing in the upper atmosphere and returning to the surface in Rain. In mythology, the god of Randdet was responsible for Stuck Merket Crush when she made her maiden voyage to Earth (the fabled ancient name of Ærþ).