Signal to the Other Side

Endoria is a paradise, a planet in the distant galaxy of Santeri. The planet is abundant with greenery, with a few deserts and glaciers, but it holds a unique feature—a massive ocean that divided the planet into three continents. Endoria is home to tens of millions of people. They've formed countries, states, republics, and empires. Over time, the differences between the population layers became distinct.

All inhabitants of the planet strive to find answers about the past apocalypse and to return to the level of development they once achieved. The tragedy of the Germon apocalypse shattered the Great Alliance and sparked wars between governors and sectors. For centuries, galaxies vanished due to the power of human weaponry. Humanity swiftly altered the world and regressed just as swiftly.

Presently, scientists from different states of Endoria are attempting to recreate past technologies to conquer space and their neighbors. But there's something that was never lost—Eden, a force discovered by humanity long before it became an intergalactic race. This force granted people power not only over themselves but over a large part of life. Thanks to Eden, galaxies and other life forms were destroyed. Eden was an inherent part of human nature, present wherever humans were, including Endoria. Here, the great teachings of Eden were preserved, allowing people to control the world instead of the local inhabitants, yet even that was superficial.

The energy of Eden could pulsate through the planet only due to human influence. This energy was responsible for the appearance of the magnetic pole on Endoria. According to the legends of local nations, the first colonists used Eden to transmit information to distant galaxies, thus breaking the known laws of physics. However, the communication technology using Eden was lost, along with the knowledge and power of Eden.

**

"Carl!" It was a pure Republican, Norkian accent. A young girl shouted, searching with her blue eyes for another young boy. Her yellow hair contrasted with the green forest. She and her friend, Carl, had ventured into the forest not far from their village just because Carl was too afraid to go alone. However, when he got here, he ran away, leaving the girl alone.

"Coward!" She barely held back tears, puffing her cheeks, angrily contemplating what her father would do to Carl when she told him everything. But the worst for her was that the sun was slowly setting, and the forest was rumored to be inhabited by dreadful monsters.

Anna tried to find a way out, remembering the path that led her into the forest. But as she started back, crucial memories instantly vanished from her mind, and panic set in. Her head couldn't recall anything despite her efforts.

"Anna, don't go into the woods," she remembered her father's words. "But if you get lost, go against the sunset; it leads to our village," he said. But at that time, Anna was bored listening to those stories, preferring tales of the past and the Alliance that governed the world before the apocalypse, although speaking of it that way wasn't common on Endoria. Her father was a rebellious spirit.

"Go against the sunset, against the sunset," the girl repeated. Walking on the uneven ground was tough, and her little legs were already tired from the journey here. She had to go back all alone, and her legs started to give out. She carefully listened to her surroundings, trying to avoid encountering the Karons, green monsters that moved swiftly in the forest, making a person an easy target.

The sun set behind the horizon, and cold enveloped Anna. Her lips trembled, and panic began to take over. Soon, she just sat and cried, forgetting about the monsters, regretting her decision to follow Carl. She knew he was a coward, and nobody wanted to go with him. But she believed his words and found herself in trouble.

Falling to the ground, she touched a tree and, curling up, began to cry. Tears streamed down her face, and she suffered, not knowing where she was or what would come next. Soon, she felt the ground beneath her fading away, and she started to fall. Hitting her head several times, she managed to avoid serious injury, but before her eyes appeared something incredible, making her forget about the small scratches.

Two enormous columns were drawing closer to each other, and where they were supposed to connect, a bluish crystal levitated, emitting the soft energy of Eden. Anna felt it, and this force protected her. An idea formed in her mind—to take this crystal with her, and it seemed to beckon her.

The kaleidoscopic allure of Eden made Anna forget about the cold, and she decided to take the crystal with her. Her index finger touched the crystal, and in a fraction of a second, an Eden impulse occurred.

In moments, it traversed the entire room and then circuited the planet, resonating with the Eden Field, setting off to explore the cosmos. Meanwhile, Anna's eyes began to perceive the room from a different angle. Trembling hands from touching the crystal were accompanied by a trembling gaze that started to see capsules around her.

Hundreds of bodies were sealed behind ghostly gates; their bodies decomposed, and only a few still had human outlines.

The girl quickly picked up the crystal that fell on the steel floor, tightly gripping it. Its reaction didn't take long— the crystal instantly fixed itself on her wrist as a bracelet. It emitted a weak Eden pulse, much weaker than before, but equally invisible to others. Yet, the energy warmed her, though the surroundings frightened the girl.

The room shimmered with light as long as the crystal was between the columns. But the moment the crystal landed on her wrist, the energy that fueled the room dissipated. Many lights quickly went out, and the capsule doors swung open, throwing out bodies.

The floor trembling beneath her feet urged the girl to find an exit, and she found it quickly, but it was incredibly high. She tried to reach it, but the room began to change, as if its lower levels were rising upwards, creating enormous pits and cracks of incredible depth on the surface, and somewhere there, a bluish light shone on the walls losing their energy, the building rapidly restructuring.

Strange sounds began to reach Anna's ears—it was the Alliance's language: "Alert! Alert! Connection to the Council lost, prepare for battle! I repeat! Connection to the Council lost, prepare for battle!"

Suddenly, the restructuring abruptly ceased, or rather, was cut off, just like the sound that vanished sharply. The bluish crystal on Anna's wrist began to fade, and darkness filled the room.

"Father! Father, help!" she began to scream at the top of her lungs, even the crystal's energy couldn't save her. She was gripped by terror, seeing darkness ahead and piles of bodies within it.

She looked up towards the exit, but at that moment, as she watched the opening in the ground, a silhouette of a head appeared.

"Anna!" It was a horrifyingly familiar and welcomed voice for her.

"Dad!" With tears in her eyes, the girl cried out, feeling terror from the space inside.

She rejoiced in her rescue, unaware at that moment of the changes she had set in motion moments ago...

Somewhere in the "dead part of space," amidst nothingness, in the emptiness of cosmic expanse, a small shuttle picked up a signal. This Eden impulse shook the ship so much that the one locked inside briefly opened their red eyes, but in that same moment, they closed again.

**

"Eden Center signal, report to the mistress immediately, we've finally caught signs of our world!" said a man, turning to hundreds of people who were watching other monitors.