our lore that the planet Earth, Gaia, Terra or whatever else we call it, is our world of origin. We know it is green lands and great oceans. It has but one moon and is the third planet of its yellow star. The blood of Earth’s animals and fish is red.
Earth has never been found. Every claim of finding it has been discredited. Alas, it is commonly theorized that Earth was destroyed and its impending doom is why humanity scattered to other worlds. Regardless, we do not know where Earth is or was.
Ancient ruins of an advanced human civilization were found on the planet Rebus. Most of what we know of planet Earth’s particulars were read from the walls and monuments found here.
In the latter centuries of the Age of the Three Empires the planet Rebus was a province of the Golgothite Empire. The discovered sites were safeguarded and extensively studied. Archaeology revealed Earth’s volume, mass, gravity, atmospheric pressure and lengths of day, month and year but not the planet’s location. It was as if the ancient inhabitants of Rebus had no intention of ever returning to the world of their origin.
The Age of the Three Empires ended as new empires emerged and devoured the frontiers of the old. Rebus was lost to the relentless swarms of the Hive. Since the Galactic War, much of the planet is occupied by the armies of the Phantoms. Now that Lady Dolorous is making peace between the Hive and the peoples of the Great Seen Unseen, the Hive welcomes us humans to again study the ruins of prehistoric humanity.
We, the Many of One, bathe together. We scrub and rinse each other first then we bask in steaming, soothing water. “I would love to visit the Hive temple here in the city,” Meredith Blue mentioned.
Darya Red snapped, “We are forbidden to do so.”
Being a mystical physicist, I understood why. I explained, “We are touched by the Living Darkness. Our blessing would desecrate the particular sanctity of a Hive temple.” Meredith sighed.
We are the kept women of the Great Seen Unseen. We are disciples of the Unheard Whisper. What is the seen unseen but darkness itself? What is unheard but silence itself? They are the gentleness that tempers what would otherwise be blinding and clamorous.
The Living Darkness flowed through our veins as we formed, tempering our rapid growth and cleansing our nature of its imperfections. The Seen Unseen poured through our eyes and its Unheard Whisper endowed us with memories and revelations. The cold of a living world does not chill us. Light does not redden nor darken our skin nor does prolonged darkness render us pale. We have no allergies and are immune to infection. Our wounds, if tended, mend quickly. Our scratches and bruises heal nigh instantly. Though our eyes are somewhat sensitive to bright light we otherwise have perfect vision.
Our blessings are not without curses, however, for there is always loss for gain. We can walk barefoot over broken glass or hot coals with impunity but for our feet to be shod would prove unbearable. Gloves makes our hands maddeningly itch. Warding spells are unusually effective against us and we are easier to detect by means of scanning or divination. We are especially vulnerable to spells and weapons that inflict neural shock. Alas, for all our strangeness we are as weak and mortal as any other human being.
A thousand of us are the 69th Research Battalion yet only five of us were called to a meeting: myself, three other Keepers and our Chief Sentinel. Our Priestess had her goggles and elastic hood pulled back so we did the same. We joined her in a circle on the floor and held hands. We closed our eyes and bowed our heads as our Priestess began the prayer, “Our beloved master, we answer to your Unheard Whisper for we are your kept women. Our pleasure is to please you. Your will be done.”
The five of us repeated in unison, “Your will be done.”
Zendanna Purple the Erudite, our sister and Priestess, began, “Rebus is a world teeming with the remains of an advanced, albeit, prehistoric human civilization. Let us be thankful unto Lady Dolorous of Penumbra for persuading the Hive to allow us to resume the archaeology of our Golgothite forebears.” Zendanna smirked before continuing, “We shall be visiting an ancient site. It just so happens that this particular site was of special interest to the Golgothite Ministry of War. They built an installation for the purpose of researching and utilizing secrets of the ancients. We shall be visiting this installation.”
I mentioned, “The Hive may have already found this installation and looted it of anything useful.”
Meredith Blue added, “If not looted by the Hive anything useful would have been carried off by the staff as they evacuated the planet.”
Zendanna looked to her left. We suddenly noticed what we did not notice before: an alien was sitting nearby. Our Priestess spoke to him, “Dr. Minmax, you were there. Would you please explain everything to my sisters?”
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