The sun began to set over the horizon, bathing the grassy plains with red and orange hues. The light touched a group of figures quietly making their way through the long grass: a dango herder and his herd.
Phillip Hura lazily waved his herder's rod at the five dangos under his care. They were obedient but silly creatures, good for their wool, milk, meat and nothing else. When he got bored, which was often, Phillip talked to the dangos, but the vacant expressions in their eyes quickly made him stop.
What he really wanted was a hound. Hounds were cool, powerful, sleek and very intelligent. But his father insisted they didn't have the money for a hound, especially a trained one. It was cheaper to buy an untrained hound, but untrained ones were much more dangerous. Phillip's grandfather had bought one once. They had to put down the creature after it mauled the old man’s leg.
Still Phillip dreamed of his own hound. Deep down he knew what he really wanted was someone he could talk to who would not judge him. He wanted someone he could tell about his dream to travel the stars and see new worlds.
His family just rolled their eyes whenever he spoke to them about those dreams.
"Grow your herd," they said.
"Build a house."
"Marry a nice girl."
Those were all good things, but Phillip wanted more. He wanted adventure, and action. He wanted to wake up not knowing what was going to happen that day.
The highlight of his life so far had been the day the people from Terra had visited. What a treat that had been? Back then Phillip had gone by the name Falu.
He had spent as much time as he could with the Terrans. He drank in their stories of universe spanning empires and intergalactic warfare. He learned the names of kings, queens, governors and warriors.
And he dreamed, oh how he dreamed. Then the Terrans left. Phillip cried that day, and the Terrans took pity on him. They promised to return. Then they gave him a new Terran name (after he begged for it): Phillip.
He adored the name, and forced everyone in the house to use it. They all humoured him, except his mother. She refused to call him anything else apart from Falu.
‘One day,’ Phillip thought. They'll call me Captain, or maybe General or even commander. He smiled and continued to absentmindedly guide his flock, lost in his reverie.
The sun was still hanging low in the sky when he finally reached the house. The old wooden structure stood out among the swaying fields in the plain. There was no rhyme or reason to the building. It was just a collection of walls and roofs put together by his father and grandfather, but it did the job.
Despite its constant creaking and moaning, it kept the elements at bay, and had housed Phillip his entire life.
Phillip felt a pang of joy when he saw the house. Home was home. He was only a short way away when he heard a high pitched voice cry out.
"Phillip's home!"
The voice belonged to his younger sister, Kalo. She was Phillip's favourite sibling, though the competition wasn't tough. Phillip felt a warm smile touch his lips. The door to the house flung open and Kalo leapt out and ran to her older brother. She danced around the dango, tapping each on the head before leaping into her brother's arms.
Phillip embraced her tightly.
"How was your trip?" Kalo asked as she pulled away. She always asked him this question. Phillip wasn't sure why. His trips only ever went one way.
He would set out at dawn with the dango, and walk over the hills. He would pass several villages along the way and call out greetings to them. Always the same greeting. Always the same answer.
"Happy morning."
"Happy morning to you."
The only variance in his journey occurred close to the end. That was when he passed the Naka village. There was a young woman who lived there, and Phillip's mother and hers were conspiring to get the two children together.
The young girl, it seemed, bought into the idea. And so she always waited for Phillip. She always had on a different outfit and held a different gift. Sometimes she sang, always a different song. That was the only true variable in Phillip's daily journey: a constant variable.
Yet, Kalo was always willing to hear his story.
Phillip rubbed his sister's shoulder as they walked back to the house. Their mother loomed at the doorframe. To be fair to her, she loomed everywhere she went. She was a tall woman with large arms.
She looked at Phillip. "You're early, Falu. You're always early nowadays. Are you slacking off?"
Phillip resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "No, mother. My herd is fatter than it's ever been."
"Your herd of five," she said with derision. She scoffed and walked into the house. This time Phillip actually rolled his eyes. Kalo helped him shepherd his herd to their pens and put out some fresh feed and water for them.
"Hurry!" she cried after they were done. She sprinted towards the house. "Mother said we're celebrating!"
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‘Celebrating what?’ Phillip wondered. It wasn't anybody's birthday. Nor was it a festival day.
He entered the house, making sure to leave his slippers at the threshold. He walked in their living area and suddenly it all made sense. The room was decorated with flowers and drawings of colourful insects.
Phillip smelled incense in the air. It was his first time experiencing this, but he knew what it was. He had heard the stories and read the books.
This was a Staga, the celebratory party thrown for a newly betrothed bride. Phillip's eyes landed on his elder sister, Lalo.
Lalo sat on a small chair at the back of the room. She was dressed head to toe in colourful clothes, and was flanked on either side by burning incense.
Their eyes met and she smiled triumphantly. He knew that to her this was a great victory. Lalo longed to get out of the house as much as he did, but her motives were more traditional than his. She wanted to marry the man who grew his herd, built a house and married a nice girl.
Because of these contrasting world views, they never saw eye to eye. But she was still his sister, and Phillip felt a little sorrow at the sudden realization that he might not see her ever again.
His father burst into the room. "Phillip! You're back! Good good. I told your mother you would come early. We can start."
Brand Hura was a short and round Chintari man. He had a jolly face and a personality to match.
Apart from Kalo, he was Phillip's favourite person in the house. Brand hugged his son tightly, then picked up his stressa.
Brand was a master of the 7 string instrument. He swung its strap over his shoulder and began to strum. The melody burst through the house, elevating Phillip's down spirits. The music teased him, and Phillip felt his body crying out for him to dance, but he held himself back.
Phillip’s mother and Kalo ran into the living room and started dancing. They jumped around Lalo, singing, dancing and shouting.
This was Staga. It was an odd festival where families sang and danced around a bride who sat still.
Phillip couldn't hold himself back anymore. He shouted and jumped in with them singing and dancing deep into the night.
The sun had long disappeared by the time they were done. They ate dinner as a family, then Phillip's mother and father disappeared into their room. Kalo collapsed on the living room floor, smiling as she slept surrounded by flowers and colourful drawings.
Phillip sat outside with Lalo. They sat side-by-side and stared at the stars as they had done as children.
Back then, they had filled the time gossiping about their parents and trying to identify the stars in the sky. Now they sat in awkward silence. Lalo was the first to break the silence.
"I told you I would leave first," she said.
Phillip snorted, and they laughed together. It felt good to share a good moment with his sister.
"You're not really leaving though." Phillip said. Lalo gave him an odd look.
"I'm not staying here when I get married," she said.
Phillip shook his head. "That’s not what I mean. You'll leave the house, sure. But you won't leave all this." Phillip gestured wildly all around them.
Lalo sighed. "Phillip, why do you hate everything?"
The question caught Phillip off guard. He stared at his sister. "I don't hate everything," he said, defensively.
"It's hard to believe that," Lalo responded.
Phillip looked at his hands. "Don't you feel restricted?” he asked. “There's a whole universe out there. There are different types of people. Different cultures."
Lalo laughed. "You can't even grow your herd, and you think you can learn different cultures?"
Phillip's cheeks burned. He started to retort. "I-"
"No Falu! That's your problem. 'I', 'I', 'I'. Never ‘we'. Never 'they'. Always you. Think about someone else. Growing your herd and establishing yourself means safety for Mother and Father when they grow old. It means Kalo is more likely to marry well. Follow the wisdom of the gods Falu-"
"Those gods are dead!"
That got her. She glared at him. Tears began to form in her eyes.
Phillip stared at the sky, unable to look her in the eye.
"You know it's true," he whispered. "Everyone was talking about it. There was a war. But we were all the way out here. We didn’t even hear about it. We didn’t even see it. A Holy War. Everyone saw it, and we didn’t."
"Who's everyone?" Lalo asked.
"Everyone!" Phillip cried. He sprung to his feet, grasping at the air in frustration. "The men in the villages. The travellers. They all talked about it. The gods waged war on the planet and killed each other. And we just sat here, oblivious, like insignificant ants."
Lalo drew her knees close to her chest. "Maybe that's why we lived," she whispered.
"Yeah,” Phillip responded. “Because our lives didn't matter anyway." Phillip laughed, but there were tears in his eyes. "There are still things happening Lalo. History. Legends. Our planet is being reshaped and we are just… existing."
"So what do you want to do? March out of here with your shepherd's rod to fight Kivessa?"
He whirled around and looked at her, shocked.
"Yeah," she said. "I know things too. The guy I'm marrying, gods, you didn't even ask about him. The guy I'm marrying travels a lot. He knows a lot. He told me about Kivessa. Falu, if the things he said about her are true, you wouldn't even make it past the ocean. You would die. Do you hear me? Die. Because that's the truth, Falu. You're not a grand hero. You're a normal person. And there's nothing wrong with that."
Phillip shook his head in frustration. "I'm not saying I'm special,” he responded. "I'm saying I'm tired of being here."
He couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "I'm tired," he repeated. "This isn't where I'm meant to be-"
KABOOM!
The dull night was broken by an ear-splitting explosion. It was accompanied by a massive shockwave that pushed everything to the ground.
Phillip was thrown down. His head collided with the wooden patio, causing stars to pop into his vision. He heard the house creak in protest, but he didn't hear anything break.
A few seconds later, he heard his father and mother yelling for their children. Kalo was crying. Lalo was quiet.
Phillip glanced at her, worried. But he found her still sitting where she had been before, but her eyes were now fixed on the night sky.
It was late at night, yet the entire field was suddenly lit with an undulating orange glow, as if they were basking in the presence of a great fire.
Phillip looked up at the sky and gasped. He had never seen anything like it before. A foreign object cut through the sky like a slow-moving shooting star, except on a much grander scale.
"What is that?" Lalo asked under her breath.
Phillip's heart leapt as he looked closer. There was no mistaking it. He replied. "It's a starship."
-CASH-
Cash Sonet pondered his mission as he lounged in his room on the second continent of the Planet Chin.
In two months, he would be done with everything. It had been a painstakingly slow process but he was sure Lord Silver would be pleased with the results.
Cash had been alarmed when he was told a Priestess of The Order of the First Light was being sent to the Planet. He had been even more alarmed when he found out the Priestess was to be accompanied by Stellar Authority Agents.
But Lord Silver had come through. More specifically, Enko, Cash's colleague, had come through.
Three months ago, Cash had watched as the dot that represented the Freighter carrying the agents had winked out on his starship tracker.
He offered a silent prayer of thanks to Ekon, though he himself didn't believe in any god. No one could stop him now. He would fulfil his mission.
KABOOM!
Cash rocketed up in bed as his room shook with the noise. ‘What was that?’
He listened again but heard nothing. He had his blinders closed and considered standing up to open them when a small sound caught his attention.
It was a beeping sound, and it was coming from his ship tracker. Cash got out of bed and slowly walked over to the tracker.
He had silenced notifications from all the other ships he was tracking. Only a new ship would cause it to beep. But new ships could only be entered into the system by him, unless…
Cash peered down at the console. There was a new signal beeping. A new but old signal.
The Freighter was back.