Transcending Neptune
Halimede’s colony receives a transmission of unknown origin. Ren is available to catch the transmission. He delivers it to his superior, a half-dragon named Holovel.
Together, they decode it as a warning from the dragons stationed on another world: Nibiru approaches. Beware.
For the people of Halimede, there is no “beware.” They are stuck in its inevitable path.
Ren relays the news to his Other-to-be, Stedla. She takes the news as one would expect: shaking, crying, eyes closed shut, hand over mouth. She spent the night drinking anything that could knock out a dragon. It meant consuming drinks made by dragons, but when you’re so close to dying, what else is there? In her mind, this was her rationale to drinking herself into a coma. Ren was beside her through it all.
A ship, not made for interplanetary travel mind you, retrieves her body and flies her to the hospital.
Ren checks his Holotab. A picture of Stedla’s sister is on the screen. He just ended a conversation with her.
“We’ll look after her,” she said, “be with your family.”
Ren flies a ship home. His family awaits outside. He’s already told them the bad news. They all remain huddled as they watch his ship descend. Father, mother, little brother and little sister. Ren exists the ship and hugs his family. They stay like this, sending comfort to each other, for what feels like a minute.
“I don’t want to die,” says his little sister.
Ren hugs her tightly, and through shuddered breaths he says to her:
“I don’t, either.”
* * *
It takes some time, but the rest of the planet is informed about the inevitable doom. A lot of families opted to stay inside their caves or high rises, evident by the streets bereft of bodies, and the caves full of dragon tails sticking out.
Some sought refuge in the wild, amongst other life forms. Dragons buried themselves in lakes, huddled in crystallized trees, and gathered around nearby volcanoes.
Ren and his family stand atop the highest hill in the region. Other dragons and humanoids came to this spot with the same thought as Ren’s family: observe the end.
Ren puts on his old family poncho, orange with yellow patterns. Ren’s younger brother, Yun, huddles close to his big brother.
Soon, in 48 hours, it will begin.
xxx
Ren discovers a small dot strutting far away across Known Space
he follows it with his broken telescope
watches it, sucks it in and consumes it
A conclusion is reached.
“It’s coming this way!”
Yunven and his sister on the hill.
xxx2
News is delivered to the central observatory in town square
“nothing can be done,” his mother says, “the ships are all gone.”
long gone, ever since the ages when dragons fled en masse, demanding to be shielded in silver eggs from space’s cold grips.
“Just get off our planet!” the inhabitants shouted to them.
Now they wish they never gave in so easily.
they are stranded and without ships.
O, what horrible mercy has vanished.
xxx3
Ren, his mother and the rest of the family stand at the highest hill with hundreds of others.
a crowd that understands
a crowd with nowhere to go
because nowhere is null when the entire planet will be culled and ripped indefinitely.
inescapable.
His brother, Yun, does not understand death.
His mother refuses to prepare him
she is too broken, having spent all evening crying
xxx4
Nibiru is the name. It is the home of those dragons who fled.
“Look who comes now,” says Ren’s father, Zedfelkes, “the dragons who wanted to flee so badly.”
His voice has traces of a hiss—malice, “now you are stranded with nowhere to go.”
“Just
like
us.”
A group of dragons on Nibiru watch as the planet approaches.
xxx5
but those dragons had been long gone.
when another planet crashed into Nibiru
they were eaten by its hot, hot hands that spew lava from all corners.
it was the rocks and gravity that crushed them, not the heat that dragons were symbiotic with
and now this hot, hot world was on its way to claim more lives
and fuse with its missing piece.
xxx6
Who says a planet can’t love?
If a planet has enough instinct to move its rugged tectonic plates then it possesses enough intellect to extend gratitude to the people on its land.
but Nibiru was not love.
it was hatred incarnate.
It could have stopped its raging volcanos
instead it let them feed, bubble and churn
The remains were shat out as noxious gas that terrified the atmosphere.
It could have fixed her trajectory
instead it flew closer, closer, closer still until it was within arms reach of its next meal.
At that time it was already too late to leave.
The gravitational pull dances with Halimede’s in a ritual that culled them from their shells—freeing their souls and giving their shattered bodies new life.
Spinning and spinning until none were left.
xxx7
When the crowd on the hill saw Nibiru’s view shroud the sky they felt it dance against Halimede’s shell.
The ground rumbled and ripped; fire, dirt and bodies mixing together as they were thrown in the air.
Ren feels the searing heat on his skin, then his bones, then his soul that was sent to the afterlife.
He, along with everyone and everything, melted under the gravity of the planets’ last dance.
And then, Nibiru and Halimede were no more.
xxx0
Although the light of the souls is gone from our eyes—the audience from the physical world
the remnant of their lives remains
in the form of a glass person
curled, in fetal position
born from the womb of the stars
and thus, from Nibiru and Halimede.
the color of the glass person began to fill throughout its body
like liquid, it pooled and became ghostly whisps between the glass
brown, orange and peach-white were his new colors
this draconic creature knows all of its past lives—the lives belonging to the inhabitants of the planets.
but now it is alone with no purpose
In the vast expanse of the universe, he yells and offers his voice
to the endless void of stars.
This was originally published as its own ebook. I decided to upload it here and make it temporarily free. there’s two more entries after this, one of which is about the planet’s history. Here’s the notes from that book version:
I crafted this little book after I read about the planet Nibiru and how it was supposed to kill us all in September (the conspiracy theorists say that!).
It sat in my OneDrive for the longest, until today.
I am letting it see the light of day, in hopes that someone will like it and want more from Draconizica.
I have plenty to give.
Oh right, acknowledgements! Thanks to my family, friends, god, readers, encouragers, mutuals and video games. I love you! 😀
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