Uhlek Badlands
Planetside, 12,112-7
Waist-deep in the calm waters of the stark world, Senator HvHuss stood just ahead of his Arthenean companions. Wading toward them were three figures that had emerged from beneath the surface of the sea, each of them a deep green color, glistening in the bright rays of sunlight. In a stunned silence, the starflight crew watched them approach, strangely floating as they did, just above the turquoise ripples.
They were Leghk.
"Welcome, children of the yellow suns," spoke the sonorous voice from one of the floating gurus. "Welcome, at last, to Hanhala. Long have we waited for the echoes of the lost Empire." For a lingering moment, the voyagers simply stood in awe of the near-mythical beings. Finally, gathering his thoughts, Senator HvHuss stepped forward and addressed the orbicular creatures.
"It iss for a world called Thosss that I have traveled," he said, lifting the globe artifacts from his pack beneath the water. "In passsing whissperss and fleeting, dark rumorsss, my world has known of a place that legend callss 'the town.' I have come seeking the resurrection of my lost civilization". The aging senator gestured to Windfall's crew. "These intrepid explorerss have braved great danger to bring me here, that I might find it."
"It may be that you have found that which you seek," said the Leghk, its reflection shimmering in the placid ocean water. Behind him, another Leghk tapped a command into a data pad and, further out, a vehicle bubbled to the surface. "My name is Volusze. I preside over Hanhala. Your journey is now very nearly at its end--allow us to escort you the final distance."
The three Leghk and their guests boarded the hydroskiff, fastening themselves in as a glass canopy eased down over the passenger hollow. Strapped in, Biggs discretely flipped a switch on his comm talker, which lit up an indicator on Grix's panel. The water jets hummed to life, and the skiff glided across the surface, heading out over the persistently shallow sea. Finally, two kilometers out, the bottom dropped out of the ocean floor, plunging vertically for thousands of meters. What remained was a leviathan cliff that shot down into the blackness of unplumbed depths.
The Leghk pilot steered the hydroskiff on a spiraling course the led into the deep, through schools of brightly colored fish and shifting beams of sunlight reaching from the sky. The travelers sped down along the cliff, a bright garden of ancient coral blooms that ran the spectrum from black violet through foliage greens and yellows to brilliant cardinal red. Amid the living surface, a glint of light reflected up from below, followed by several more, until a series of glass domes came into view, protruding from the underwater cliff. The Leghk skiff slowed amid a mass of bubbles, leveling off to enter a cavernous hangar cut out of the stone. The pilot maneuvered skillfully into a docking collar as the engines shut down.
With the quiet whish of a slight pressure adjustment, the elevator doors slid open, revealing an impressive chamber—an oblong, ovoid dome rising to over thirty meters from the glassy black marble floor. Opposite the entrance, an immense oval window dwarfed the travelers and allowed for the chamber’s only illumination—shimmering blue skylight—to gleam over the columns and arches cut from the walls.
“This is magnificent,” breathed Arella, the sound of her hesitant footsteps echoing through the atrium. Fashioned from precisely carved and polished stone, the grand chamber stood like the inner courtyard of a Florentine royal villa. On column pedestals built into the walls, and flanking each doorway, a series of tall, dignified statues stood looking out toward the fountain in the center of the atrium. “These statues…” Arella’s voice trailed off into thought.
“Yes,” said Volusze, his green translucent flesh reflecting the dim sea light, “they are Thrynn.” The Leghk’s wide face sagged with the weight of grief. “Marooned on this barren world a thousand years ago, our ancestors crashed here in one of the Uhl’s slave ships. Perhaps damaged, the ship had drifted into the gravity storms that blanket this system, freeing the Leghk aboard from the grip of the Uhl’s mind ganglion.”
“It was the greatest fortune that an exile colony of Thrynn had recently arrived on this world as well. They took us and hid us with them beneath the seas of Hanhala,” said another Leghk, floating beside Volusze. “Slowly, they coaxed our addled minds back from the death of enslavement to the ganglion. Ultimately, they taught us the philosophies they themselves held dear. From deep inside the dominion of the Uhl, we joined the Thrynn of Hanhala in preserving truth through and age of darkness…"
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Next: “Aftershock: Wraith”
Long time no Hilsfar! Hopefully there are yet a few loyal fans out there patiently waiting for the concluding installments of Starflight: “Hilsfar & Company—So Long to the City.” Enjoy, stay tuned and drop me a line...
Hilsfar & Company: Can you possibly dig it?