Chapter 3: The Scroll

The acceleration gate sent the spacecraft right in its way as Rydel fell asleep on possibly the most comfortable bed he's ever been on. Despite the fact that Aquarians can pretty much float when they sleep, they still managed to make beds of the highest caliber.

Cellica informed Rydel that the journey will be 3 jumps away plus a trip throughan Aquarian system. That would take a few days and it's perfect for Rydel to complete his data processing.

'Ok so you said the things you see outside of the galaxy is something you don't understand?'

During a meal together, Rydel asked once again. What Cellica describes seemed to be different from what he knew quite drastically, 'isn't intergalactic space just what it is, space?'

'That's what everybody thought.' Cellica point her form and space between the potato wedges on her plate and the ketchup that occupies it, 'we knew gravity didn't work out, we have proven and found dark matter, yet this is something different. It shouldn't interact with us like this. The entire field have been avoiding it's discussion ever since, not because of some conspiracy, but because it's just a total mystery, no hints, no signs, nothing.' She says it as she dips the wedge in and twirled it around to get as much of the sauce on it as possible.

'Could it be the spectrum of light you are seeing?' Rydel asked as he cuts up the soya steak on his plate. The age of meat is long gone as manufactured meat reach an efficiency way above that of animal agriculture.

'Seeing the world in other spectrums is weirder than you can imagine.' Cellica shrugged slightly, 'but yeah I can see all of it. But trying to make sense of what's going on is quite a lot of effort.' 'How's that X-ray vision going along?''Freaky.'

The few days flew past quickly, and Rydel actually got quite a bit of work done. The flexible walls allowed him to actually make a makeshift pull up bar in his room, but Cellica surprised him with a full calisthenics gym set at the back of the space craft under the gentle spin gravity at the back of the ship.

Amidst endless void of space and work, Rydel's entertainment would be talking to Cellica and working out together. Their common past of serving in the explorer sector of the space fleet, or now known as the space force, became a common topic of discussion as well, but Cellica actually took it quite a bit further than Rydel ever did. She loved talking about all the wacky missions she had been on and the crazy sights, formations and phenomenons she had seen, and slowly Rydel started to understand why she is the one that has the eyes.

'I have seen many of the craziest and prettiest sights in the universe...the exploding colour of a nebula, rings of asteroids crossing each other above a frozen planet and gas giants of all shape and sizes. But this was actually one of my favorite planet.' Cellica commented as the spacecraft crawled out of the last of the worm holes they have to travel through.

As both of them stared out of the view port, a purple colored planet appears in front of him. Lines of yellow runs across the lands of purple, making the surface seem like a colour mixer when you stir up red and blue paints together. There are layers of clouds covering part of it, but they only add to the beauty.

Rydel stood there in awe and marveled at the creativity of the universe at play here.

This is Athena 3. Beyond the times when identified planets were named after using gods and mythical deities of various cultures from earth, people started reorganizing them and instead naming galaxies after it as the shear number of discovered galaxies exploded with the technological advancements. Athena belongs to a neutral galaxy situated between the major human and Aquatian settlements. As a sign of good faith (and due to the lack of valuable resources), humans had offered these beautiful but financially unattractive planets to the kind-hearted Aquatians.

They very much enjoyed the swamp planet Athena 2 as well as the colourful rock planet Athena 3. There are no major space ports on Athena 3 but Cellica told Rydel that there are plentiful mining and biofuel processing factories on the planet so there won't be any problem for the ships.

When humans utilized advanced material science to forge the technological greatness that is the space elevator, Aquarians simply used the best of their biotechnology to create ultralight biofuel and hitchhiking the jets of water shooting in between the ice cracks of their North Pole far into the outer space. The kind of energy-dense fuel was something the humans had never dreamt of, nor something their current materials can handle. But there really isn't any point adapting it at this stage since they have managed to skip the fuel part of space travel all together.

The descent was extremely smooth and quiet in typical Aquarian ship's fashion. The craft reshaped into a glider upon entry sails on top of the clouds with grace and ease. There is one major settlement in a basin surrounded by the mountains. There are railway tracks bringing freshly mined biomasses and rocks like veins leaving the organs. They carry away the metabolic products of the planet ruthlessly efficiently. Then large rectangular processing factory that's mostly automated at this stage is the immediate and only stop for the rail. Roughly twenty factories form a cornered U shape leaving an 'exit' where much smaller residential and recreational buildings are situated. At this height, Rydel couldn't see anything else at this rate, but there also isn't anything else to see.

The rocks bright colors soon became too repetitive to invoke the same amount of awe, and there isn't any more of it as the spacecraft dived into the thick clouds.'Our base is about one hundred twenty kilometers west of the town, and we get our supplies monthly.' Cellica explained, 'that you see there, is the Queen's Diamond. The only major settlement apart from our base. Not much grows on this planet except for geothermal microbes and greens.'

'And that's what you eat?' Rydel turned and looked at Cellica, who's relaxing at the pilot seat as the landing algorithm kicks into place. 'It tastes better than you know.' Cellica winked at Rydel and smirked.

A few minutes later, they pierced through the clouds yet again and slowly descends to some flat grounds next to almost nothing. All the surroundings just looked like the generic Athena 3 landscape and there is no sign of any construction or civilisation even. The air on Athena 3 is just a bit too rich in Oxygen compared to the optimal conditions for humans but the spacecraft's interior environemnts had already been slowly priming for this condition.

If not, artificial lung lining filtering insertion procedure has been one of the most widely applied procedure for anyone living during the post-modern era. It was developed at the dawn of space colonization where nanobots are organized into thin linings of sheets before being inserted into the lungs and help humans adapt to atmosphere similar to that of the earth by modifying the concentration gradient of each gas components slightly. This somewhat negates the need for wearing masks all the time, but true adaptation still takes some time whenever one enters a new planet.

When Rydel stepped off the spacecraft, the true colors of the rock planet finally started to show. The purple rocks with lines of yellow running through it seems majestic and unreal with the texture of sand formations, yet it's solid and hard. Cellica lead the way towards a hill and Rydel followed suit. Just a few hundred steps up ahead lies a scanner constructed on top of a mini rock column that could even be of interest to Rydel. Cellica went ahead to put her hand on top and activated the ID scan. It quickly registered and opened up a human sized opening for her to enter.

In total contradiction to the outside world as well as a call back to the design of the spacecraft they came in, the inside of it was painted snow-white with smooth surfaces lighting the walkway gently all along the sides. At the end, an Aquarian male dressed in total body exoskeleton support stood tall as his figure fills the entire hallway.

'Cellica! And you are...Rydel, I presume?' An atypical gnarly Aquarian voice ripped through the air. Due to the aquatic nature of the species, their voice tend more to round and echo-y like that of human opera singers. This is especially prevalent when using the automatic translators that alter sounds but keeps the pitch. This was the technology that first allowed cross-species communication. Outside of day to day use, linguists have been learning about the Aquarian language ever since the first complete catalog was recorded, but the differently structured vocal cords made saying Aquarian tongues rather difficult and always with a 'human-like' accent.

'Yes!' Rydel replied as he drags the luggage cargo inwards, 'I have to be honest, this place looks really nice!''Indeed it is.' The Aquarian nodded slightly, he dresses a typical Aquarian exoskeleton, which is what allows them to move in dryer environments freely without hindrance. There are also an extremely thin membrane that prevents excessive loss of water. With some basic training, they can control the exoskeleton freely using the nerve attachments as well as inserting their tentacles into fitted cavities, 'and I am Ol Kon, bearer of the Scroll of Expositions, as Cellica likes to call it, I would like to call it the Scroll of Truth.'

'Well, Scroll of Truth sounds a lot cooler.' Rydel agreed with Ol on that department, 'Calling it Scroll of Exposition seems a bit too honest.'

'Funny you say that.' Ol shivered, which in Aquarian culture is the equivalent of laughing and the more violent the shivering the funnier it typically is., 'Now, let me show you your room.'

'Everything is set up for you. Make it your home for the next little bit and then come to the main hall so we can talk.'

When Ol left Rydel in a room with absolutely nothing, he can't say he was too surprised. Rydel pushed the cargo into the corner and unlocked it.

Suddenly, Cellica walked past the door, took a glance and yelled in the direction where Ol headed after leading him to the room, 'Ol! You forgot to show our guest how to set up the bed again!'

'Oh blazing turbs... Would you be so kind to help him with it?' Ol's voice came back.Cellica smiled at Rydel, who is rather amused, 'as you can probably see, this is a really relaxed place. Also Ol is getting very old now so he doesn't always remember that he has humans and Rockies around.'

'I am not old!'

'I am starting to really like the vibe here.' Rydel closed up the cargo lid and stood up, 'so, how do I make a bed?'

All of the arrangements was quickly sorted out. Cellica, being the one with the most military background and definitely the most experience in creating furniture out of walls, demonstrated why many on earth had idolized the Aquarian Culture to such an degree that jokes and memes about it exists before anything else was known.

'So you pull out a section that's a bit longer than your actual height, make sure it's about knee high and then do this.' Cellica put her hands on top of the surface and started rubbing it back and forth, 'just massage that baby. You know what I mean?'

'I certainly do.' Rydel tried to hold back the weird looks as Cellica fluently worked her way up and down the 'mattress' and it started to glow green slightly. This goes on for a good five minutes before the top of the bed turns into the familiar dark green and rises up.

After unloading most of the things onto makeshift desks and shelves, he walked out of the door, which was just a hole in the wall. With a stab in the dark, Rydel grabbed onto the wall and started pulling it together. And it did close up nicely, like a sliding doorway.

The main hall was only a turn away, and Ol was sitting cross-legged on top of a circular chair. He was facing a massive window which overlooks the landscape outside. The white edges of the window make the view seemed like a painting.

'How's the place?' Ol asked as Rydel walked nearer, 'Come and take a seat.'

'Nice and simple.' Rydel went and sat down on the chair next to Ol.

Ol seemed spaced out for a moment, but Rydel didn't say anything.

'I appreciate that you make the journey. Even though nothing is really of urgency now, the more bearers we gather, the better.' Ol started talking once again, 'Why we do and what we do are equally important unlike what some beings say. We discovered these artifacts and are rewarded with these powers. But there is a purpose, a reason for it.'

'And is ours to fight some sort of greater threat?' Rydel thought about what Cellica said a few days prior.

'That is the case, but I don't think that's all of it.' Ol replied, but then paused a few seconds to reorganise his thoughts, 'When I obtained the scroll, I was in the midst seeking the truth. That was the journey I embarked on...this was the result.'

'And was that the truth?' Rydel was never a religious person to begin with, even as religions had become an important factor in the post-modern human society, he had never given it much thought. But this conversation just got deep really quickly.

'That was my truth.' Ol continued on, 'When I first used it, it answers the questions I have, but only once a day. If I try to communicate with it any more, the response will just be pure gibberish. That's another reason we are here. The days are much shorter than Aquaria, so I can ask more questions.'But I need to be wary. This is truth, as it was proven again and again, but I shall not let it determine my destiny, nor my actions. This merely offer information, and I will be in control. This is what I hope we can accomplish here. I want all the bearers to first be the master of the artifacts, before anything else.'

Rydel seated there in silence a little bit. He had played around with the glove a bit in his own time, but he had no idea the full extent of it's power, or anything else.

'The control you are talking about, do you have anyway to measure, or quantify it?' Rydel's science instincts kicked in as he starts to think about how it can all be done, the so-called mastery over the artifacts.

'Yes. The scroll will let me know.' Ol replied.

'How convenient!' Cellica yelled from afar.

'Ok! That certainly helps.' Rydel retorted sarcastically,but then turned on the serious face, ' But is this thing really that good? It's not that I don't believe you or something, I can bend space for gods sake. It's hard to just take your word for it.'

'I understand.' Ol's obviously been in this position before, 'How about this, you can ask me any questions about anything you want, and I will give you the answer?'

'Sure....What's the real reason I am here?' Rydel crossed his arms and asks with a smirk on his face, unless the thing is a real deal, there is no way Ol would know.

Upon hearing this, Ol closed his eyes and enters a meditation trance briefly before opening them again. He shivers slightly in amusement.

'So?' Rydel provoked Ol a bit.

'You are currently flip flopping between three reasons, if I am correct. The first being that you are currently doing your research project and need to visit multiple planets. This trip saves you in terms of funding so you can have more leeway in other areas. The second is, to quote, to see what kinds of 'cool shit' with the glove.' Ol spilled the beans without any hesitation and left Rydel sitting there in shock.

As his heart races with each reason being spelled out, Rydel asked anxiously: 'and what's the last one?'

'You think Cellica is pretty attractive and wants to see what she is up to.' Ol obviously got the last reason right, 'It was totally wise to send her over to talk to you in the end.'

'Of course it was!' Cellica's voice came from behind as a startled and slightly embarrassed Rydel hurried up. She had a smirk on her face but there is no way Rydel would know the meaning behind it. Now he kind of wishes the scroll was bestowed upon him. If there is any need for truth, interpersonal relationships would be the one.

But what's interesting is that there is a shorter hairy humanoid standing next to her. Despite having a complete outfit, hair still keeps escaping the cover and get to the surface. The dark brown hair colour and smaller stature made it certain that he was a Rockie, a race of expert mechanics from a dry rocky planets similar to the one Rydel is on now.

'Torelamri is my name. The time is limited. We must train!'

Now ain't that a fun character.