July 3rd, 2486 - Planet Bungirba, The Kongabaar Jungle

The road to Raven’s Crater wound through dense jungle, alive with a cacophony of chirping and squawking. Sunlight was beginning to pierce the dense foliage more often, splashing the wild green environment with the soft, golden rays of the mid-day sun. Abiona was growing stronger by the second, and her adventurous spirt had entirely taken over. On more than one occasion, Angora had to use his foot to nudge her away from one of the many species of bulbous, carnivorous plants that dotted the landscape, which were more than capable of taking an adult’s hand off with a single bite. Every now and then, an Alcorna would lumber across their path, dragging its long, reptilian tail behind it, and they would have to hide behind a tree until it had passed. Ichiro sweated profusely, and despite Angora’s warnings, the shirt came off after only a few minutes of travel. Abiona found herself purposefully trying to avoid looking in his direction.

‘How much further is it?’ Abiona asked, puffing and panting after an hour of travel. She wasn’t used to so much physical activity.

‘We’ll reach the Jorgan Plains soon small one, then it’s a straightforward path to Raven’s Crater. The air will be cooler once we leave the jungle’, Angora elaborated.

Annoyed that Angora insisted on calling her, “small one”, Abiona attempted to correct him.

‘My name is—’

‘—Abiona, and your companion is Ichiro. The tall one told me as much last night. I don’t care for last names and I don’t need to know yours.’ Angora said, cutting her off.

‘So if you know my first name, why do you keep calling me small one?’

‘Enough talk, small one—don’t tire me.’

Another few minutes of trekking across harsh terrain and they exited the jungle, stepping out into the Jorgan Plains. It was vast, numerous rivers meandering across the flat, grassy land to meet snow-capped mountains in the distance. The plains were mostly silent, save for the gentle, almost musical notes produced by the breeze rustling the grass by the river banks, and the cries of various species of frog and cricket. Ichiro’s shirt came on again; it was much cooler in the plains. The trio walked alongside one of the rivers, Abiona watching dragonflies dance across the clear, sparkling water, and they followed it towards the distant mountains, until they came at last to a steep hill. It was afternoon, and the final stretch up the hill was murder on Abiona’s aching back and feet. She stumbled to the top alongside Ichiro, and gazed down from the summit; below them laid the sprawling town of Raven’s Crater.

*

Olivia panted audibly, the thin material of her shirt sticking to her skin. The heat was becoming unbearable. She fanned herself with a travel guide and reclined cross-legged in her chair, her free hand lifting a glass of iced tea from the table. Café Cottontail was located by the Spaceport and provided some protection from the sun, but none from the humidity. From where she sat, Olivia could make out hundreds of square-roofed, white-washed houses, descending in a spiral along the roadways that lined the crater walls and ending in a small lake at the centre. The spaceport was located above the crater, giving new arrivals a good view of the incredible scenery of the Jorgan plains and the town of Raven’s Crater below.

‘God, I could kill a man for Imperial air conditioning’, Akira Choganta grimaced, collapsing heavily into the chair across from Olivia.

‘Any news?’ Olivia asked, before taking a sip of her drink.

‘Nothing—no-one matching the princess’s description has tried to leave through the Spaceport in the past 48 hours. A few locals mentioned seeing a shooting star over that jungle to the south, but that’s it.’

‘That’s a lead, at least … could be they crash landed … she was with Agent Gorkanja, so she’ll be alive. He’s got to be too resourceful to let something like that kill them, or he wouldn’t have gotten the job.’

‘Well then, shall we take a walk into town, and see if we can’t find someone willing to guide us out to the jungle?’

*

Olivia led Akira down from the Spaceport, along neatly laid out pathways and through heavily gentrified urban environments. Some houses were domed; a couple might even have been described as mansions. Humans were everywhere, filling the streets, driving expensive cars and wearing expensive clothing. The clothes were white and blue; the cars were black or silver. Akira snatched the travel guide from Olivia’s hands, and couldn’t help pointing out the attractions as they passed them; one that caught Olivia’s eyes was the monument commemorating the surrender of the Bungirban natives to the Wulver Empire. It was frankly grotesque in her opinion, erected in marble and depicting a Human soldier standing upright, outstretching a hand to a scantily clad Bungirban woman, who knelt on the ground before him, her ears bowed submissively. Thankfully the traditionalist attitudes that pervaded the Empire during the 30s’ had more or less disappeared with time. The sign at the base of the monument read:

“A Symbol of Change – September 5th, 2433”

It quickly became apparent which part of the town belonged to the humans, and which to the Bungirban natives. They came to a checkpoint, guarded by soldiers with assault rifles, and when they passed through, the environment changed entirely. Human soldiers marched in the streets, and only then did the first few pairs of elongated, furry ears come into view. The districts assigned to the Bungirban natives took up at least three quarters of the town, and were filled with the vibrant greens and violets of Bungirban clothing. Whitewashed as the walls were, the houses themselves were in various states of disrepair; there were no cars, perhaps a few bikes motorised or otherwise, and alleyways were deep and dark. A gunshot sounded in the distance, and a dozen Human soldiers barged past, almost knocking Olivia off balance. Akira held her upright, and ushered her across a crumbling sidewalk, past a post office riddled with bullet holes.

‘What the hell was she expecting to find out here?’ Olivia asked, shaken slightly by the clamour of the town and the dirty looks that the Bungirbans kept giving her. ‘This is chaos; disorder and madness. It stinks; I can smell booze and urine in the streets, the people look … dangerous. Why the hell would the Princess want to come somewhere like this?’

‘Who knows—We’ll be out of here soon, Agent Kolla’, Akira said with a grunt. ‘These people … we’ve tried to civilise them, but they’re heartless. They don’t help each other, or themselves… and they dare to say that we take away their freedom. They would be lost without the Wulver Empire- look; they’ve even begun stoning one another. I hope the princess sees this… it should dissuade any further thoughts of running away…’

*

Abiona gasped as the second stone hit Angora. The crowd swelled and a third stone glanced off Angora’s scalp, causing him to double over in pain.

‘Traitor—the traitor's here!’

‘How dare you come back here, traitor?!’

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Abiona yelled. ‘This man saved our lives—’

Angora turned to her, his crimson eyes narrowed with spite.

‘Stop. Don’t associate yourself with me’, he said. 'I wanted to take you further, but you’ll have to make your way through the town on your own. Don’t worry ... they’re good people, I promise … but I wronged them … and for that, I’ll accept any punishment they deem fit for me.’

He turned swiftly, and stepped past the two off-worlders, as another stone collided with his skull, staggering him. Abiona shared a glance of shock and uncertainty with Ichiro.

‘Angora!’ Ichiro began.

‘What did I just say?’ he growled in response.

‘I’m not trying to get involved, but—thank you.’

Angora scoffed, turning away and marching back up the path from which they’d come.

*

If Abiona had turned just then, or if Olivia had looked up from the pavement, they might have seen each other. It was a matter of fate, or perhaps simply coincidence that they did not, the din of yelling Bungirbans muffling any voices that either party might have recognised. The two groups of Humans did not hear each other, and passed each other, completely unaware of the other’s presence.

*

The evening came and brought with it a cooling breeze, which filled the crater and settled Amami into a peaceful stupor. It was a lazy evening, and work was coming to an end across the town; soon people would begin to trudge hungrily home. The sky became blood-red, mixing with the smatterings of indigo peeking through the clouds. Amami was a Doctor by trade, and fully trained too, even if she had never gotten her licence. A desperate Bungirban with a work related injury, however, cared very little for the legitimacy of her qualifications.

Amami had chosen to take a shortcut home through the marketplace that night, still buzzing with the sounds of bartering, and alive with the twitching and folding of ears. She stopped at the bus stop, to take in the ambience and quickly found that she was not alone; two Humans, dressed in traditional Bungirban garb of all things, sat there too. Amami relaxed into the seat, her black ears flopping slightly, and couldn’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation. She chalked it up to professional curiosity.

There was a young woman with dark circles under her eyes, whose stomach growled angrily.

‘Where are we gonna’ sleep?’ the young woman yawned.

There was a young man sitting next to her, his brows furrowed in irritation.

‘One problem at a time … there’s got to be a soup kitchen or something around here…’ the young man said.

‘Tourists?’ Amami couldn’t help but ask.

The two Humans stared at her, as though she had just called them something rude, but then the young woman lit up, as though struck by a sudden realisation.

‘Yes, yes we’re tourists’, she said, excitedly. ‘There was a mix-up and we lost our hostel, and then I lost our luggage, which had our passports and most of our money in it- do you know anywhere we could stay the night?’

Amami was taken aback. If what the woman was saying was in fact true, then the pair were in a pitiful situation. She couldn’t abide leaving them out in the cold like that, figuratively speaking.

‘Well … the Humans won’t put you up- they don’t like outsiders, you see—but I can offer you a spare bed and some food, if you’d like?’ she offered.

The young woman embraced her tightly, and Amami felt her ears shoot up in surprise.

‘You have no idea how much we’d like that’, the young man said.

‘Oh don’t worry about it. You’re in a Bungirban district—it’s our belief that we’ve got to look out for people in need, or no one else will’, Amami replied with a smile.

July 2nd, 2486 - Frontier Space, a Nameless Planetoid

‘O my children, come to me, for I have had a vision.’

The temple came alive at the Holy Mother’s call, and the Sisters of Ulgara lined the chapel in droves. It was dark, candlelight flickering in the gloom. The pulpit where the Holy Mother sat, cross legged, glowed with the searing light of the twin moons above. Suspended in the air behind her, hanging from loops of chain, was an enormous, and ancient, silvery crystal. Sister Clerica knelt beside her sisters in the gloom, dressed in the cyan coloured robes of their order, and awaited the Holy Mother’s instruction. The Holy Mother stood, and spoke.

‘My children … the child of Emperor Finlay Var Oostabar Gan Kuji has left the sanctuary of her metal womb. She has gone forth to the slave world Bungirba, in the region of the galaxy which that disdainful, blasphemous Empire controls. One of you must go, and bring her to me alive. It is the will of Ulgara ... and of your Holy Mother. Rise, Sister Clerica; to you, I give this sacred mission. Bring Abiona Var Oostabar Gan Kuji to me.’

Clerica’s heart skipped a beat. At last, her time had come. She got to her feet in one motion, pressed her robed hands together and bowed to the Holy Mother.

‘It is the will of Ulgara; and so it shall be done’, she said, and all those gathered in the chapel echoed her in unison.