An Unknown Past

“An Unknown Past”

A Fiction
Short Story

Written By

PureSciFi aka
SpaceFaction

     The rounded square corners and about two inches square of a SpaceStorm hovers a few inches above a barren dirt desert planet. White puffs that look like clouds about three inches tall lined that SpaceStorm. There was about thirty. And they started out small but got a little bit bigger as they went up. Those puffs swirled around in the opposite direction as the one above or below it. They also shot outward electrical sparks, bolts, and spears constantly.

     That SpaceStorm hovered above the planet for several minutes. Then suddenly it shot into the ground. Going almost completely into it before it stopped. The spinning and the electrical discharges continued. Dirt started flying outward. It flew out in all directions.

     About fifteen minutes after it began the dirt stopped flying, and the SpaceStorm started to head back into Space. After the dirt cloud settled, what appeared to be ruins could clearly be seen.

     “What is that?” Chavic asked.

     Chavic was among several hundred others in a large room. They were looking up at a large Image Monitor that had an image of what that SpaceStorm just discovered.

     MaryAnnia looked at Chavic standing next to her. “They look like ruins to me.”

     “I can see that. But where did they come from? There has never been life on this planet.” Chavic didn’t take his eyes off that image.

     “It looks like we were wrong about there being no life here. There obviously was looking at that.” MaryAnnia pointed at the image.

     “I am a SpaceStorm Chaser, not a GraveDigger. So, what am I doing here?” MaryAnnia left her view out a small round hole at a planet slowly advancing on them to look at her Sleeping Chamber.

     MaryAnnia started walking over to a tall wooden box next to the entrance into that room. As she walked there her feathered arms rustled. Once there she pushed a button in the center of that box. It opened to reveal a bunch of clothing. Two boards at the bottom held what she already had on. But above that floating next to each other was a lot of Outerwear.

     After sorting through it, MaryAnnia selected one. MaryAnnia's face, hands, and body looked human. But her arms, legs, and the rest of her head were covered in different colored feathers. MaryAnnia started by pulling her Outerwear over her head, then her shoulders to let it fall almost to her already clothed feet.

     “I am here for the same reason about forty other SpaceStorm Chasers are. I’m wondering why these ruins suddenly revealed themselves seven months ago.”

     MaryAnnia closed the clothing box. Then turned and walked through the entrance to that room as it slid open when she got near it. “Maybe the GraveDiggers will discover that why after we get there.”

     Slowly MaryAnnia scanned the ruins they were in from in front of a large square rock square frame. From there she could see everything and everyone. What she saw was about two hundred GraveDiggers scattered throughout those ruins. After spotting Chavic, MaryAnnia stopped her scanning. MaryAnnia walked over to where he was shifting through some dirt beneath what appeared to be a partial circle walkway.

     “Did you find anything yet?” MaryAnnia asked.

     Chavic didn’t stop his shifting. “No, we haven’t. We didn’t expect that we would this soon anyway. After all, we have only been here three weeks.”

     “How long does it usually take?” MaryAnnia asked.

     “It can take a few weeks, months, even years before we find anything. Let alone what we all want to know. The reasons why these ruins showed up now.”

     MaryAnnia sighed. “I didn’t think it would take that long. Are you telling me we could be here until the next SpaceStorm comes through here in eleven years?”

     Chavic stopped doing what he was doing and looked at MaryAnnia. “We could be here that long. But I don’t think we will be. I’m sure we will find what we want to know long before then.”

     Suddenly, a loud buzzing whistling sound began, and it was getting louder. MaryAnnia and Chavic looked over their shoulders in the direction that everyone else was looking in just as a bright yellow light filled the center of the frame MaryAnnia was standing in front of not too long ago.

     Between the sun almost being gone and the equipment on the partial circle walkway, that indicated it had been several hours since the light appeared. There were ten Image Monitors with small floating balls above them that were shooting a thin red beam into that yellow light. Behind those monitors stood a GraveDigger. The other GraveDiggers and Observers stood behind them.

     Chavic shook his fur covered head sadly as he walked among the monitors that only showed the yellow light on them. “We have tried everything. And we still don’t know anything about this Wall of Light.” He looked at the other GraveDiggers. “I can’t think of anything else we haven’t tried yet. Can any of you?”

     “There is only one thing we can do,” said an older female with skin that dripped off her face, hands, arms, and visible legs. “We need to get a closer look at it.”

     MaryAnnia walked next to Chavic. “I don’t think you should do that.”

     “You are just an Observer. Who cares what you think,” Dismon said. His skin was blue. But he had different sized green circles all over what we could see of it. He also had no seeable hair either.

     “I agree with MaryAnnia, we shouldn’t do it. But I also agree with Benzae,” said Chavic.

     According to the setting sun, it was only a few minutes later that Chavic, Benzae, and four other GraveDiggers stood in front of the Wall of Light with hand scanners pointing at it. Just then a large quake suddenly started. But only there. Chavic and the others tried to stay on their feet. But within a few seconds, each one fell into that Wall of Light.


     “What happened? Are they dead? Did they just disappear? What are we going to do now?” MaryAnnia asked all these questions out loud.

     The quake stopped after the last GraveDigger fell into the yellow light. Now it started up again as the other GraveDiggers begun to approach it. Only that time it was pushing them away from the yellow light. MaryAnnia and several other Observers were brave enough and tried to advance too. But they were also pushed back.

     “The yellow light doesn’t want us to find out what happened to them.” MaryAnnia stopped. So, did a few other Observers and GraveDiggers. The others gradually did. Once everyone stopped, so did the quake.

     MaryAnnia looked at the GraveDiggers. “Now that Chavic is missing or dead, who is in charge here?”

     Dismon looked at the other GraveDiggers. Who looked at each other before nodding their heads ‘yes' at Dismon. He nodded back. Then he looked at MaryAnnia. “I think that would be me.”

     “I hoped it wasn’t you. Considering how you feel about us Observers being here. But I’m not surprised it’s you.”

     “Don’t really care if you are here or not, as long as you don’t get in our way. Why do you ask?”

     “We might not be GraveDiggers like you. But we still have the right to be here. As for why I asked, I want to know what you are going to do if Chavic is dead or missing forever.”

     “Every eleven years that SpaceStorm comes through our Group of Planets. And each time it does it destroys a little bit of the twelve inhabited planets. But it has never attacked the two uninhabited planets, until now.” MaryAnnia leaned against the wall under the partial circle walkway talking softly to herself.

     MaryAnnia looked up at the yellow light. “And now we have this yellow light that kills people.”

     “Did you say something?” Dismon asked MaryAnnia who sat next to him.

     “Nothing I haven’t been saying for the last four days.” MaryAnnia looked at Dismon. “How much longer are we going to stay here until we can go home to our planets before any more of us gets killed?”

     “We still don’t know if they are dead. And I’m not going to leave here until we know for sure that they are.”

     Just then the loud buzzing and whistling sound started up again. Dismon joined MaryAnnia looking at the yellow light. No matter if the other GraveDiggers and Observers were stretching out, leaning against something or someone, or they were just walking around in a daze when those sounds started again everyone looked in that direction. The last of the GraveDiggers and Observers to look at the yellow light did so seconds before the sound effects ended and the six missing came tumbling out. They looked shaken. But other than that, they appeared to be okay.

     Once again, the setting sun indicated several hours had passed. That, plus Chavic and the other five missing GraveDiggers being flattened on the ground in front of the yellow light. A male and female GraveDigger from two different planets/Races were leaning over them with hand scanners passing over their bodies. The male had just finished scanning Benzae and went over to scan Chavic.

     After they both had scanned all six of the missing GraveDiggers, the two medical GraveDiggers talked to each other briefly. Then they cleared their throats to get everyone’s attention. Like everyone wasn’t staring at them anyway. “They are all okay. There is nothing wrong with them.” The female medical GraveDigger raised her voice so everyone could hear her.

     Chavic sat up on his furry elbows. The other five just sat up. “Of course, we are okay. This has all been a waste of time when we should be all walking into the yellow light.”

     Everyone started mumbling to themselves or those around them. It was MaryAnnia who spoke first. “Wait a SunDay. You want us to do what?”

     “If you want to know what’s going on here, you have to go into the light. The light is an entrance into the past of the Race that used to live here. They will also tell you about the SpaceStorms that they created.”

     MaryAnnia and the others stood in the same large room that was on their spaceship. Only a yellow light surrounding them indicated they weren’t there. Some of the others were staring at the image of the ruins. But most, like MaryAnnia, were looking at Chavic and a twice as tall alien.

     The alien had his hand on Chavic’s shoulder. His voice sounded male. But it was coming out of Chavic’s mouth. “This is what our world became because of advancement. We didn’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else.”

     “That’s why we created a SpaceStorm to slow down your progress until you were ready for it. It only started its travels when it detected that advancement.”

     MaryAnnia shouted to be heard. “You had no right in doing this to us. Who gave you the right to do it?”

     Chavic looked at the alien. When he spoke, it was his voice again. “Do you know how many billions of individuals you have killed with your SpaceStorm?”

     “We were only trying to save your worlds so they wouldn’t end up like ours did. Advancement killed us. A SpaceStorm was the only thing we could think of to slow you down. We are very sorry if anyone has died because of it. The SpaceStorm was only supposed to destroy the less populated area.”

     MaryAnnia shouted again. “It did most of the time. But not always.”

     “We know that now because of the six representatives you sent here to talk to me. I have been waiting centuries for you to be advanced enough to reveal myself. That’s one of the reasons why I am here before you now. But the main reason is that I need your help in stopping the rest of the universe from progressing too quickly.”

Word Count = 1,995