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[TakeWalker]

Consider this Chapter 1 or a prologue to something that may never get finished. This just forced its way out of my mind last night, so I had to post it. But I'm so busy, I may never continue it. You've been warned.

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Of all sentient species in the universe, the myriad races of the Lylat system have been, above all others, fated to be spacefarers of the highest caliber. In ancient texts, long since disbelieved by those of the current scientific age, mystic portals were spoken of that transported the ancient peoples from world to world. It is said that these portals, through their great power, destroyed the ancient world called Altaria, reducing it to the asteroid belt now known as Meteo, and that this great misuse of magic led to the portals' eventual destruction, severing the ties which had bound all Lylatians together.

But despite this isolation, the Lylatians remained fascinated with interplanetary travel. As many races stranded on harsher planets were reduced to tribal warfare, fighting over meager resources for simple survival, the Cornerians experienced several ages of Enlightenment, during which they invented methods of watching the stars and nearby planets in their system. They mapped the heavens, developed science, and eventually reunited their long-lost cousins through intersystem stellar travel. Numerous wars broke out as the "native" populations resisted Cornerian domination, were destroyed or subjugated, fought for their rights through politics and protests, and eventually learned to master their masters' technology and rise back to their long denied place as rightful rulers of their own worlds. Thus, the Lylatian races met their fates, and ushered in a new age of space travel.

But our story begins slightly before this new age began. For perhaps no Lylatian ever experienced this fate so personally, and so strongly, as a young Tiburon Carlisle, exploring the woods near his uncle's Verten City home, in the western interior of the Tharn province, on Katina's largest landmass, the Arrescondo continent. It was on a cool night, when the whisper of the wind through drying leaves heralded the approach of autumn, that young Tib was a witness to a fantastic sight.

He had, with his uncle's permission, brought enough supplies to camp out for a night. His main interest was in watching the stars, at first just laying beneath a gap in the tall trees' canopy where he could see each pinpoint of light, not at all like at his parents' home in Katinaport, where the light pollution and smog of the greatest industrial city of Corneria's only equal blocked out all but the brightest of heavenly lights. When he had had his fill of simple stargazing, he unpacked a treasured gift: the telescope given to him for his recent sixth birthday by his father, a man of science and the military who hoped that someday his son might follow in his footsteps. The telescope gave Tib a magnificent view of the dusty stream that marked their galaxy, seen from within. He was even fortunate enough to catch a comet, though for the briefest of moments, in the lens of his magnificent prized possession.

And then his luck became even greater. For, streaking through the sky at that moment, was an object that would forever change the course of Tib's life. It looked for all the world like a meteorite, but the young cougar felt something, entirely inscrutable to his six-year-old mind, that told him this was something special. It impacted very close by; he felt the tremor before hearing it, and was knocked off his feet by a shockwave of hot air. The forest before him was lit by an intense burning light, which glowed like an awesome bonfire, yet held a quality ethereal and entirely alien to his eyes. Packing the telescope back in its protective plastic case, his heart racing, Tib rushed off into the night, bringing with him only a small penknife for protection, not knowing what wonders might await him over the rise that separated him from the newly crashed object.

The heat intensified as he grew closer, until he thought it might singe the fur from his very flesh, though soon after the coolness of the night air began to soften the burning sensation, and he was able to approach rather near to the site of the impact. It was a marvelous crater that he beheld over the ridge, a magnificent wound in the soil of his planet, and in the center was, scarred and blackened, a very obviously artificial metal object.

While it bore no resemblance to the planetary craft he had flown in just a year previously, he knew it had to be some sort of spaceship. The markings on it -- UEASF -- were none that he had ever seen before, and his imagination became incensed as he began to wonder what world it might have come from. He gasped, then, as a door began to open, very clumsily due to the extensive damage to the craft, and a figure emerged. It collapsed immediately, falling forward onto the still opening door, and bouncing off of it to land on the ground below.

Tib was immediately torn between two impulses: to run for help or to rush in and assist the suited alien himself. But he had no time to act before the sound of aircraft overhead signaled that he had not been the sole witness to the craft's impromptu planetary entry. Black suited figures emerged from the treeline, approaching the craft cautiously. Tib crept slowly backwards, now generally fearful. His progress was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder, and he knew that it was all over, both for him and for the alien he had seen not less than a minute ago.

It wasn't long before the authorities identified him as the only son of Dr. Ethan Carlisle, and he was safely on his way back to his uncle's house. While never so much threatened, it was made firmly clear that Tib was to never speak of this incident again. His uncle asked no questions of the military men escorting his nephew to his house, and they recovered the camping supplies and precious telescope the following morning, before Tib went back home. Cowed as children can so often easily become, he kept his word throughout his life. But it was a life forever colored by that highly classified incident. Tib resolved to find some way to explore the stars, and locate the world that cloaked and hooded alien had come from.

The next day, the Cornerian government announced the inception of its interstellar aerospace division.

[Mr. Krystal]

Not bad. It flows well. I just wish you got more of the meat of the story up so I could see the story's big picture.

[TakeWalker]

Like I said, it's a prologue. You don't spill all your apples in the prologue.

[salmon45]

This is a well writen story. I enjoyed reading it.