Xero Chronicle

by Ross Buzzell

  “This food is amazing… We need to establish trade with this world yesterday.”

  The prince says behind a mouth full of a new fruit. Ja nods in agreement as they ravenously engorge themselves on the sweet yet healthy breakfast. They both finish the entire platter; Xero puts his hand on his stomach and lets out a satisfied, yet mildly miserable groan. He had not eaten that much in a long time and was full to the point of discomfort.

  “Uhhh, can I open a wormhole in my gut and get some of this out!”

  he groans as he stands and begins to make his way to the door. Ja laughs at Xero’s dramatics as she follows suit, her hand on her stomach with the same problem.

  “If only we could… Should we go be diplomatic now?”

  She asks as if dreading the idea of having to work on such a full stomach. Xero laughs in lethargy as he grabs the door and begins to slide it open. Once the door is open he jumps back slightly as the sight of the Draronian king standing right there waiting for them like an excited child going to their favorite store would at their parent’s door.

  “You slept ok I hope.”

  The king says, the translator crackling with excitement.

  “Better than we have in years thank you.”

  “And your breakfast?”

  “It was delicious… what was it?”

  “We call it fruit.”

  “It was amazing, thank you, and something that we would like to establish as part of trade between our two worlds.”

  The king nods in excitement; waving his hand he summons a circular pad out of thin air. Even for a species as advanced as they were this still impresses Xero. The king takes a step on, waving Ja and Xero to follow suit, which they do. The second the two do the pad begins to move back down the hallways, exiting the same path that they had come by the night before.

  “Would you like to have more of a tour of our world?”

  The king asks as the pad flies through the dining hall. Xero instinctively wants to say yes but something in his gut tells him the king is dying to see Boron and is just being patient and polite. As the pad moves back into the tunnels and begins to move vertically toward the landing pad Xero shakes his head at the swaying of the pad while maneuvering around corners causes the breakfast to slosh uncomfortably in his stomach.

  “We will have more time for that later Highness. I would like to invite you and your delegation to Boron to begin talks with my father and our High Council to establish trade and broker an alliance.”

  The pad comes to a stop as the landing platform doors slide open for them once again. Stepping out on the platform, Xero’s jaw almost hits the ground as he sees their ship. The once humble circular pod now had a wing structure, extra booster engines on the back, mounted defenses on the front, back, sides, top and bottom overall increasing the intimidation factor of the craft. Xero glances over at the king in mild shock not knowing if he should be impressed or insulted at the liberties they took with his ship.

  “Sire… what did you do to our ship?”

  “We repaired it… then made some modifications; we hope you do not mind. The structural integrity was too compromised for the systems to auto repair and your technology is impressive… we could not replicate the parts we would have needed to do a proper repair so we improvised and added some of our own technology to yours. They were surprisingly compatible. We increased your fuel efficiency, added stabilizing wings to navigate through heavier and more toxic atmosphere with greater ease. And we added twelve omni-directional gun placements that feed off of your main weapons array to help protect you in all directions from any enemy, even ambushes.”

  This is impressive to Xero. At this point all he could do was shake his head and laugh as he begins to walk towards the ship.

  “Well done your highness, I have to say I am impressed… How long until you are ready to fly out towards Boron?”

  Xero asks as he walks under and examines the work. Ja had already run up to the ship and began admiring the seamless transition from the Boronian engineers and the Draronians. How they were able to mimic so closely foreign substances and engineer them to fit a pre-existing ship greatly impressed the two.

  “My delegation is already in orbit awaiting our arrival in anticipation that you wished to leave immediately. I wish to tag along with the two of you and experience your ship first hand… if you do not mind.”

  Ja approaches the back of the ship. Opening it up, she walks in as Xero does the same waving for the king to follow suit.

  “Not at all, please come with us your highness. @e will show you how our ships work.”

  The king eagerly runs into the ship, past Xero and over to Ja who has begun the pre-flight check and systems diagnostics to ensure that everything integrated properly. As the door begins to shut Xero looks back across the valley to see the remains of the Seraph which causes the itch in the back of his mind to return. With one graceful motion Xero turns and walks up to the pilot’s post, glancing over to Ja as the Draronian king positions himself between the two glancing from one to the other as his fingertips tap together nervously in anticipation. All of Ja’Sanfur’s pre-flight and integration checks come back green. Looking over at Xero she nods at him indicating everything looked good. Xero begins to power up the engines as he glances over at the king.

  “Ok so what Ja just did was check to make sure that all of your additions to our ship integrated properly and that there won’t be any feedbacks which would cause the ship to explode and probably kill us all.”

  “That would not be good… how did we do?”

  The king asks in eager anticipation. Ja smiles over at him and nods, impressed at the genius engineering that they were able to pull off. Most other species could not get their heads around the engineering blueprints the Boronian’s would draw up let alone be able to correctly build around such complex machines with a near zero percent flaw and energy waist rate.

  “Your engineers did an amazing job. We may be able to learn a lesson or two from your people. Great job!”

  “Thank you!”

  he exclaims with a nod. His voice brimming with pride as he looks over to Xero. The prince catches it and smirks some before opening his hands over the pad before him. A light scans his hands and for a brief moment two blue orbs of light flicker around each hand.

  “These ships fly based off of hand movement and placement. It used to be a big problem. A pilot would go and scratch his nose and he would send the ship careening into the side of a mountain. Now the ship will only respond if you move your hands a specific way, like so.”

  Xero slowly raises his hands; the engine begins to rev up as the ship rocks slightly before leaving the ground. Xero turns his hands to face the sky; a green line is calculated showing exit trajectory. Slowly moving his hands forward the ship begins to gradually accelerate towards space.

  “See what I mean king? It is rather simple.”

  The king nods as the ship gradually exits the atmosphere and the sky turns from blue to black gently kissed with the lights of trillions of stars before them. Xero drops his right hand back, allowing his left hand to stay forward. As the ship rotates the other three ships, of the delegation, turn to face the same direction as Xero and their primary engines kick in. Ja begins to fidget with holographic buttons that float before her as Xero works on proper calibration and trajectory of the flight pattern in order to reach home after what feels like years. Xero glances down at the Draronian whose eyes are enormous as he is careful not to miss a split second of it.

  Slowly Xero begins to push his hands forward. The ship rocks as the engines kick it. Quickly the Boronian craft catches up to and overtakes the Draronians, who have already activated their engines to follow suit. Gradually the starlight begins to stretch out as if reaching for them. They continue to increase speed and the stars begin to glow blue before the entire cockpit is taken over by a massive blue cone of light before them as the ship continues to accelerate. Xero makes a fist out of each hand. The blue light flashes o
nce more and the prince drops his hands to his side as the ship continues to glide through the vacuum of space fast enough to warp how they see light before them.

  “And from here our auto pilot can take over. The ship has the co-ordinates of Boron locked in and she will slow us down when we get close enough to begin our decent.”

  The Draronian rubs his chin as he observes everything closely, taking in every detail that is presented before him like a child being taught science for the first time.

  “How do you compensate for the ‘cosmic boom’ when traveling at these speeds? Getting this close to, if we are not already breaking, the speed of light would create a massive photonic explosion. All that energy, light and radiation would, at the very least blind inhabitants of nearby planets.”

  Ja pulls up a blueprint of the ship, specifically the core designed to absorb energy and redirect it into the ship as she begins to explain to the king.

  “This device absorbs any energy the ship gives off and redirects it back into the ships systems like life support or shielding. It also feeds off of radiation that we come across in space providing us with near limitless fuel. Configuring the engines and shielding properly, we can actually use the energy given off by our own ship to fuel the craft and propel it faster. Some of my research has shown that the shielding can get so dense it actually warps gravity around the ship technically giving us no upper speed limit.”

  “Have you ever tried that Ja’Sanfur?”

  The king asks while closely studying the blueprints.

  “No, we have not because if our calculations are wrong...”

  She responds, pausing for a moment. Xero continues her train of thought.

  “… and we lose containment for even a nano-second…”

  The king looks back at Xero his eyes wide in fascination as he puts two and two together.

  “Goodbye Milky Way Galaxy.”

  he adds. Xero nods as the ship’s navigations begin to blink. Xero makes his way back to the piloting seat as the cone of blue light slowly fades to a dull pulse on the horizon. The dull pulse dissipates into individual stars before out of nowhere two massive stars, one azure blue the other brown, take up the entire view screen as they slowly rotate around the beautiful crystalline planet that Xero and Ja call home.

  The king’s arms go limp to his sides as the skin before his mouth goes taught as if his jaw had just dropped. Slowly the king approaches the view screen and gently places his hand on it observing the single planet star system. Xero glances up at the sensors to see the king’s delegation appear on the screen behind them. The prince disengages the auto pilot and slowly begins his descent. Ja manipulates the ship’s shielding to encompass the delegation as well.

  “Shielding extended to compensate for gravitational eddies given off by the binary system. Draronian ships are protected and ready for planetary entry.”

  Xero nods. The king does not take his eyes off of the planet. Xero hears him whisper to himself as the craft enters the upper atmosphere.

  “I have dreamt of this day my entire life.”

  The ship soars effortlessly into the lower atmosphere and begins to fly toward Caelum in the distance; Ja retracts the shielding from the Draronian vessels as the face of the High King takes over the screen.

  “My son, why has only one ship returned? Was the mission a success?”

  Xero hands the control over to Ja as he bows to his father.

  “High King, our mission was a success but it was not without difficulty. Ja’s ship was destroyed to create enough force to send the other two crafts into space. Without it the mission would have been a failure. E’mellor was lost when we came across a mine that exploded with the force of a supernova. In truth father an armada should have gone in our stead.”

  Xero looks up at his father. The fight was long and hard and the entire team nearly died more than once. He glances over to Ja, then back to his father and nods.

  “We were able to scan an entire star system. We made a new ally and we have even learned things about our world previously unknown. We have the king of a species known as the Draronians on our ship, the other three ships are his delegation. All of the information will be sent to the High Council and we will meet you on the landing pad of the palace momentarily. Xero out.”

  With that the display returns to the sight of Boron, the palace rapidly growing larger before them. The Draronian king stays silent allowing Xero and Ja to concentrate. Ja uploads all the information they had gathered to the High Council as Xero slowly approaches the landing platform which is lined with dignitaries from all around Boron standing next to the palaces stark walls. Slowly Xero sets the ship down at the forefront of the landing pad, the delegate’s craft slowly falls into place behind it.

  Opening the back of the craft, Xero and Ja position themselves side by side as the Draronian king stands close behind the two. Slowly the three exit the ship to be greeted by Xero’s mother and father, the High King and Queen, Judh’Sena, the Emissary matriarch, and each of the Triad Generals along with other minor kings and queens from across the planet. Xero glances back at the Draronian king. He is shaking in excitement, his eyes, his brow and where his mouth would be are all taught with a smiled excitement. Xero chuckles a little bit.

  “You will do great sire. You can calm down, I promise things will go smoothly.”

  The king nods as the three step out into the daytime sun’s light. The cool crisp Boronian air filling Xero’s lungs once more brings a comfort that had been missing since their mission began. The dark scratching at the back of his skull was not gone but at least it was not a distraction at the moment. As the two approach the High King, the entire party bows to him.

  “Father, delegates of the High Council, I would like to present to you the king of the Draronian race. I would introduce him further but he has been waiting a lot longer than we could imagine to meet us, so I will let him speak.”

  Xero turns to the king who nods in excitement, bowing before Xero’s father. The prince steps back as the Draronian introduces himself and his delegation. Ja moves with him.

  “You did great.”

  Xero whispers to Ja who gently brushes the back of her hand against Xero’s. This makes his heart begin to race. The Triad Generals slowly break off from the group as everyone begins to enter the palace’s golden hallways. The leader of the Triad holds a small red egg in her hands; approaching the two she smiles and bows slightly as a sign of respect.

  “Xero Lorian, Ja’Sanfur, you have done wonderful things for our planet. You have achieved something not done in generations and explored new space. As a thank you Xero, I would like to present you with an offer to join the Dragon Rider Corps.”

  Xero laughs and shakes his head. He was a Cryptea and should he leave to be part of the Dragon Rider Corps, he would only get to be part of each amazing military group. Not being one to ride beasts into battle either, Xero has no choice but to stay true to himself, and a promise he had made to Ja all those years ago.

  “Thank you, but I am a Cryptea… The Dragon Rider Corps would be ill fitted for me. Ja’Sanfur would make an excellent rider and I hand my bid over to her for your consideration.”

  Xero’s words make it seem like he was giving them a choice on whether or not to induct Ja but his tone was that of a command. The Triad Generals all nod in agreement.

  “Then what would our prince like as a reward for such bravery.”

  The prince pauses for a moment. Slowly he turns and faces Caelum and adores its beauty. In the distance the judicial building stands strong against the skyline of the city. Xero raises his hand and points at the judicial building.

  “I want all of Boron to know our story; I want them to know of the sacrifice made by E’mellor, the bravery of Ja’Sanfur, and the truth about our people origins. You have the files; the judicial building has the free plots to write on. E, Ja, the Draronians and the Seraphs all get their own panel to show the world the sacrifices made to get us where we are today.”
/>
  The three nod in unison.

  “As you wish sire.”

  Turning to Ja the head of the Triad holds the egg out to her as an offer to join the ranks of the Dragon Riders. With trembling hands, a wide smile on her face and tears welling in her eyes she slowly reaches out and takes the egg from the Triad Generals and holds it close to her chest.

  “I accept this offer and look forward to being part of your forces.”

  With that the Triad Generals turn and enter into the palace far behind the rest of the delegation. Now alone on the platform Ja turns to Xero, a huge smile on her face as tears of joy slowly stream down her cheeks. She walks over to Xero, the prince taking in the beauty of every slow, deliberate step made by the wondrous woman before him. The gentle breeze causes her hair to flow behind her as she draws near to Xero. Without hesitation she leans forward and plants a soft kiss on Xero’s lips. The prince reciprocates relishing the flavor of her soft skin. As she pulls away she looks down at the egg then bashfully back up to Xero.