by DD White
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Nieniel/Aquari removed her head cover to breathe the fresh nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere after arriving at the Incaprican teleportation station. She had been in the freezing cold ammonia atmosphere lands for most of the day and Aquari experienced relief to be back to a temperature and atmosphere that this body would be more accustomed to. She still wanted to touch bases with an old reptilian friend living where Incaprican civilizations exist on Goag Ralus. There would be one more stop before her teleportation journey for the day could finally be over.
The Incaprican lands of Goag Ralus were warmer and drier than the lands of the Eigalli. The sky glowed reddish, and a completely different Sun named Solkas hung in the sky. Nieniel looked around at the architecture, which appeared distinctly reptilian with displays of very biomorphic shapes and styles. Mammal aliens seem more inclined to build things with geometric lines and shapes. None of Nieniel’s memories were any help however, Aquari had been here before, but nothing anywhere looked very familiar. The reptile city named Zveeden had morphed and evolved like a living being, and Aquari had trouble finding her way. There were at least a couple species of reptiles that were inhabiting the reptile city of Zveeden. One species appeared raptor-like with long arms, and another Aquari noticed looked more human shaped, but with the reptile scales and distinctively piercing Incaprican eyes that intensely studied Nieniel as she walked by. It began to seem more and more to Nieniel/Aquari that she had taken a wrong turn. There were less reptiles walking the narrow streets, yet Nieniel had become sure she was being watched.
There had been crime on Goag Ralus like everywhere else, but less reason for such things existed. There have even been wars on Goag Ralus, but Goag Ralus will not tolerate it and will make the war stop. The beings who inhabit Goag Ralus are all very highly evolved, and advanced in technologies, yet with time and generations of no longer striving for far away stars, many civilizations revert back to less enlightened times. Aquari thought this showed most obvious in these Incaprican lands. There always had been a simplicity to reptilian technology and culture that left it never far from its primitive beginnings. Reptiles embellish the architecture with primitive art, which Earthlings might find reminiscent of the Mayan or Inca ruins of Central and South America. Aquari enjoyed the art show on the Incaprican architecture, which documented a history of their very ancient culture. As Nieniel/Aquari followed the art on the walls she realized she had wandered down a dead end. She turned around to get back on the main path, which then became blocked by two reptilian aliens.
Nieniel/Aquari tried on a friendly smile. “Hello Incaprican friends.”
One of the reptiles lurched to the side to stop Nieniel from passing by. “What isss your bussssnessss here Eigalli woman?”
“Well, I’m here to see a very old friend. Have you heard of an ancient First Born named Svetat who, I think, used to live near here?”
“No Eigalli can be allowed to sssee Sssvetat!”
At that point both reptiles grabbed Nieniel, and began dragging her to a wheeled vehicle. As one slapped a scale-covered hand over her mouth it occurred to Aquari that she possessed telepathic abilities. Nieniel let out a loud psychic Eigalli scream. “Heeeeeeeelp!”
Suddenly as the reptiles began to lift Nieniel up to put into the wheeled vehicle’s back compartment they both just froze. Nieniel/Aquari struggled out of the grips of the frozen solid reptile captors who were now stiff as statues. They seemed to just have been stuck in that moment of time.
“Hello my old friend Aquari. Had I not heard your pssssionic sssscreem I might nave been too late.” A virtual particle vehicle descended to the ground. Aquari saw the head of his old friend Svetat in the open window.
“Hello Svetat old friend. I was on my way to see you. How did you get here so fast?”
Svetat let out a reptilian laugh as he pointed at the image of Aquari still dangling in front of Nieniel’s horn as it had been doing nonstop since Aquari first adapted the body. “I’ve been looking for you ssssince you arrived at the teleporta(sss)tion sssstation. An Eigalli with an Aquari hologram on her forehead issss going to attract atten(sss)tion in the landssss of Incapricansssss. Come, we will go to my place(sss.) I don’t know why you like to inssssissst on walking. You ssssshould have arranged transssportation.”
“I was just exploring to try to find your old location. I recall it wasn’t far from here.” Nieniel/Aquari looked over at the two reptiles frozen still in front of the vehicle.
“Kidssss thesssse daysssss.” Svetat pointed with his eyes toward another virtual particle driven vehicle that arrived. “They will be brought to rehabilita(sss)tion by the authoritiesss. We mussst dissscusssss why they were after you. Come, we can go to my place(sss) and breath rompassss vaporsss.”
They flew to the home of Svetat, which incidentally had not been anywhere near where Aquari looked since Svetat had long since moved. This did not pose any problem for Aquari because Aquari existed as a cosmic being that always had been accompanied by synchronicities, which happen as he stays in synch with the cosmic flow of time. In other words, Aquari had little comprehension of ever being lost. Aquari always showed up exactly where he needed to be when he needed to be there. Even visiting a friend not seen in over 100 Earth years was as easy as arriving at the teleportation station and going for a walk. This has baffled thousands of alien species that know, and have studied Aquari. Everything seems to always happen to Aquari for a pre-orchestrated reason.
Svetat had become a very old being indeed. He appeared different in species than any of the other reptiles living in these reptilian lands on Goag Ralus. Svetat had been a First Born reptile slightly larger than others in these lands. His torso pushed Nieniel close to the other side of the vehicle’s seat just to make room for him. His stumpy fingers wrapped around two accelerator grips to direct the vehicle. Svetat had a collar of spike horns that circled his neck where his head perched upon broad shoulders. What really identified him as a First Born, other than his exaggerated size, would be his ancient eyes that reflected the piercing wisdom of millions of Earth years. Svetat used to be a traveler and adventurer who Aquari knew millions of Earth years ago in the Scuton-Crux arm of Magphoreus. He had learned of the existence of Goag Ralus from Aquari and actually spent thousands of Earth years of his life to arrive here over a million Earth years ago. Aquari imagined Svetat had probably come here to live out his last days. Not even Aquari knew how old Svetat actually had become, but his kind did not live much longer than a few million or so Earth years.
They settled down in a cozy apartment on pillow-like chairs with decorative rugs that were hanging everywhere to give the place an Arabian feel. Glowing rompass vapors were soon hanging luminously in the air as Nieniel/Aquari and Svetat each held a tube connected to a smoldering hookah. They both breathed in the relaxing vapors, exhaling them into the air where the smoke danced a hallucinogenic dance above them, which profoundly mimicked their conversation and thought patterns. It was psionically sensitive quanta-programmed smoke.
Svetat and Nieniel/Aquari Smoking Rompass
“Thosssse kidssss are young and ideological. They have taken issssue with the newsss of what the Eigalli intend to do with the old Dol star-door. They intend to sssstop the Eigalli from powering it up. They thought you were an Eigalli agent who wassss onto them.”
“The Eigalli are three stars away. What do Incaprican youth intend to do to stop them from powering that star-door? I did diagnostics on it, and its in perfect working order.”
“They don’t want to sssee how the star-door will change everything. The Incapricansss are raisssed with a different view of the great Nephaprican ssstar-doorsss from the sssecond age of Magphoreusss. Don’t underessstimate their clevernesssss, knowledge, and determinassssion. I mussst warn you that they intend to ssssabatage the ssstar-door by sssstealing esssssential componentsssss. It’ssss really a missssssplac(sss)ed fear of change and
evolut(sss)ion. You musssst warn the Eigalli of thissss plot.”
Nieniel/Aquari closed her eyes tightly with a determined look on her face. The lump-like horn on top of her head became tinged with a reddish glow, while the circle of light image of Aquari suddenly spun rapidly clockwise. “I just did warn them. Thanks Svetat old friend.
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