The World Which Had No Shadows

The sky will shine with a thousand of stars. For this heaven will be populated with not one but hundred of suns, like as much pieces of a broken fire. There will be no nights on this world - just an infinity of lights. The World where Shadow will have been banished. This will be the Earth-like world's name - TeraWeatraNeHwmbra, or the World without Shadows.
This world of rocky, sandy deserts will be crossed by so many oceans and rivers that there will be no continents, only swarms of islands so close to each other. It will be on such island that a man will stand, gazing up at the sky. On his thigh will his name be written (just like any other members of this world) with the work of fire: SaerFaeon. And most importantly, this man will be no ordinary human.

SaerFaeon, or Sea-Eagle, will have been banished by his tribe unto the beach-like island of the South. Believed by the Shadow-less people to be Hell, The island will be located at the south pole of the globe, but will be without ice because of the heaven's hundred of suns, which will spread their light unto the poles as greatly as they did unto the equator. The reason for SaerFaeon's banishment will have been his breaking of the most fundamental law of the Shadow-less tribes: never doubt the Myth.

The Myth, as SaerFaeon will recall, will have been told to him as such by the elders of his tribe:

"The Gods created Man. And all Men had a shadow. But the Astarte, the demons of the heaven, were jealous of the God's deed. So the Astarte tricked Men into drinking the souls of all lives in the World so that they may live forever, but they were in fact cursed to die forever. And one eon passed.

The Gods attempted to come back to Men by passing through their shadow. The Sky itself was dark, and the dwelling of shadows; so to prevent the Gods from reaching Man, the Astarte, the demons of Heaven, moved the stars. They took one sun and they multiplied it hundredscore, and the sky was dark no more. And two eons passed.

The Gods knew what the Astarte have done. So one day the Gods went into a great war in heaven against the Astarte, for the sake of Man. The might of the warriors were such that one demon could destroy a whole tribe, and one God could disappear to let arrows pass through without dying. And three eons passed.

And this is why Man may never move into the sky, for the sky is still undergoing the battle, and the sky is still empty of darkness. And with any attempt of Man to touch the sky, shall come the death of Man, and the moving of his soul into the shadow-less suns of the Astarte, the demons of heaven. And thus it is now. "

SaerFaeon will have doubted this myth. He will have suggested that perhaps Man will already be living in the sky, that the World will be surrounded by the sky like an ocean surrounds an island. But such a belief will be dangerous to the Shadow-less tribesmen. For the Myth specifically stated that if but one man was to be in the sky, then all of Man would die.
SaerFaeon will have been banned on the Island of Hell because it will be dwelling in the light of the nearest - and hottest - sun. And although the Shadow-less people will rely on light to get energy, as opposed to eating, this light will nevertheless be a toxic matter if absorbed in too much quantity. And there will be no nights to rest in on a world with so much suns.
And now, this man with a thousand souls will be standing and will be gazing at the sky.

******

There will be something dark in the sky. By account of the Shadow-less tribesmen, it will have been three thousands years since the creation of the World - three eons. And never will have the sky been dark since. Not one dark cloud, not even a speck of darkness - just a blue sky and over-lit white clouds all over. But today there will be a tiny speck of darkness in the heavens, and SearFaeon will frown. The thing will be so small that its shape will lose itself in the blue ocean of the sky. But soon SaerFaeon will realize that the speck of darkness will have wings, like a mythological eagle. And suddenly, the eagle will become very real, for it will be flying right at SaerFaeon.
On a world with no animals and no plants, the sight of one of these will provoke much commotion. The presence of any animals will be considered a mythological miracle. And that is why SaerFaeon will start running, panicked; and yelling to the ocean, in his native tongue:
"I see an eagle! Hear me tribe, I see an eagle! "
But the tribe will be on an island too far to hear him. SaerFaeon will glance back at the incoming eagle, which will be very big - almost fifty feet of wingspan. Then SaerFaeon will hide behind a rock and curl himself there.
The eagle will land with a loud hiss, as its heat will melt the sand. Out of the eagle made of iron will come two people, and one of them will state:
"This is Kyyr Fitzeau, of the Cygnusian Federation, and we come with a pleasant message. The message is as follow: the Astar is around your world no more. "

SaerFaeon will slowly rise up from behind the rock, so to see the newcomers from the sky. A man with dark hair will stand, smiling. Beside him will stand a young woman with hair like fire in the island's wind.
"Are you... gods? " he will finally ask.
"No, I am human and beside me is Hannah, a machine which looks like a human. We wanted to inform you of the departure of the Astar, but you had no receivers to pick up our messages from space. So we had to come here so to tell you face to face. Luckily your poles had a magnetic funnel which enabled us to avoid your many star's particle wind storms. Nice planet. "
"That... cannot be", will say SaerFaeon. "We are humans, you are not. You do not have a thousand of souls. "
Kyyr Fitzeau will frown, and will ponder, puzzled, on the tribesman's words. SaerFaeon will fear he might have angered the gods, so he will start to make a few steps back.
"Oh", will suddenly say Kyyr Fitzeau. "You mean we are not genetically modified. Yeah, we did avoid getting implanted a thousand of species into our genetic material. As for you, my dear, it seems you have the features of all the species of the world in you. I am amazed, I thought it was impossible. "
"'The Gods created Man. And all Men had a shadow. But Astarte, the demons of the heaven, were jealous of the God's deed. So Astarte tricked Men into drinking the souls of all lives in the World so that they may live forever, but they were in fact cursed to die forever. ' That is the knowledge of my people. We are all species. "
"I don't understand. The Astar's Project Escaping God should have prevented you from reproducing, let alone to merge with all the species of your planet. How did your ancestors succeeded in prospering? "
"They did not, at first. But they kept on trying, praying that their Love for each other would pierce the walls of the Curse. Love is the one thing which defies the Astarte's laws. "
"It seems it has worked... somehow...", will observe a puzzled Kyyr Fitzeau.
Kyyr Fitzeau will be trying to understand how two sterile individuals could create a fertile one. Unless... a few random Shadow-less people happen to have the same approximate genetic makeup.
Kyyr Fitzeau will stop as the revelation will ignite his mind. If two individuals happened to be compatible, they could in theory create an offspring which would carry both genetic variances. And if this offspring was to reach maturity, and meet another individual born the same manner, and they both happened to share enough common traits to make reproduction possible, then the resulting generation would include genetic material from all its ancestry - four different genetic variances, yet all compatible to the limit of nature. Which would make this generation even more likely to be compatible to any random individual, no matter what other species DNA this random individual has. The compatibility would explode exponentially, and spread all across the globe, to all individuals. In the end, the whole planet's population would become inter-compatible. Since the original Shadow-less people will have carried representatives of a variety of Earth's species in their DNA, the result will have been, on TeraWeatraNeHwmbra, the creation of a universal specie which incorporated features of all ancestry species.
So, in the end, instead of preventing fertility, the Astar's Project Escaping God will have resulted in the creation of a superspecie, able to prosper even better than humans. Kyyr Fitzeau will smile as he will contemplate the Shadow-less man, living proof that the Astar's three thousand years old project will have failed to reach its goal.

In the end, love will have defied the nature of things, indeed. It will have made the impossible possible.

SaerFaeon will gather his courage, and he will ask the man from the sky an important question:
"Kyyr Fitzeau, of the sky, please... what is the Nature of the World? Who are we, and what is our world? "
And the answer to this question will change the course of the World Without Shadows forever.

******

Kyyr Fitzeau will silently watch the Shadow-less man. His skin will have scale-like photosynthesis cells, his hair will have a few green feathers in it, his tail will be nervously waiving behind him. His thigh will be tattooed - probably as an identification ritual, which will mean that most Shadow-less people would look like him. But the man's mind will be truly human in nature - in the sense that it will be constantly hoping for a meaning to his world. And Kyyr Fitzeau will see alot of the original men from Earth in the Shadow-less tribesman. And thus, after much pondering, Kyyr Fitzeau will disclose the Truth:
"On this day the date is 5438, A.D.; and your world is part of the M13 star globular cluster, and the latter is in the sky, orbiting the Galaxy. You were 'cursed' to carry multiple genetic species three thousand years ago by an advanced civilisation called the Astar Galactic Empire. They moved you away from Earth and into M13, where you (unexpectedly) prospered. About one thousand year ago my people went to war against the AGE, and the Galaxy became a dangerous place to travel in. But eventually we won. Your skies is now free of Astrians, and we are here to invite you all to join my people. "
"You are inviting me to join the gods? "
"We are not gods. We are in fact humans but with only one 'soul' - we are the original specie. "
"What created Man, then? "
Kyyr Fitzeau will smile:
"This is the one question we never fully answered. For thousands of years we have asked ourselves the same thing, and we will probably continue for the next few thousands. "
"But can we move into the sky? "
"Yes, we may invite you on a trip in the skies, amongst the suns, if such is your desire. "
SaerFaeon will hesitate.
"No. We do not wish to travel amongst the star. We wish to see our shadow. We wish for a sky filled with darkness, for Night to dawn upon our world once again. "
Kyyr Fitzeau will ask:
"But... why? "
"One may be surrounded by light, but never see it - it is actually in the darkest shadow that God awaits, for it is in utter darkness that even the smallest light shines the most. "

Kyyr Fitzeau will spend the next weeks discussing with Hannah. The Great Eagle made of iron will keep returning back unto the World Without Shadows, sometimes up to two times per days. SaerFaeon will become the leader of a new tribe, a tribe ready for the end of the curse. And then, one day, Kyyr Fitzeau and Hannah will come in a great sky ship, and will land on the World. Finally, it will activate its Coriolis superluminous thrusters, and push against the ground.
"Are you ready? " will ask Kyyr Fitzeau to all on this day.
The Shadow-less people will nod.
"Here we go", will conclude Kyyr Fitzeau.
The Cygnusian ship will push the World Without Shadows right into space, outside the star cluster, and towards the Galactic North. The Shadow-less people will mark this day as their "day zero" in their new calendar. Slowly the suns in the world's sky will fade away, and slowly will they stop burning the sterile deserts and the lifeless blue oceans.

SaerFaeon will look up at the sky. Eight months will have elapsed since the gods of the sky moved the World away from Hell. SaerFaeon and his fellow tribesmen will gaze up at the pitch-black, dark sky, where for the first time since eternity, only a handful of stars will shine like a dozen of distant candles. The World will keep on watching. The dawn of the Galaxy will be imminent.
Suddenly, just over the Mountain of the Eagle, will dawn a majestic galactic arm. Like a cloud filled with smoke and millions of diamond-like lights, the arm will reach up the horizon. And soon, the whole Milky Way Galaxy too will emerge from the horizon, with its Core as bright as a sun in this cloudless sky. Stretching its four luminous arms in gigantic yet delicate spirals, the Galaxy will light the tribesmen. Holding each other's hands, all of the tribesmen will face the Galaxy rise. They will feel the Galaxy's light fill their veins, its white light run through their entire being.

And, for the first time in forever, behind them will the Galaxy cast a shadow.

The first future-tense short story you've probably ever had the chance to read... it is also a sci-fi set in the M13 globular cluster, and 3000 years from now... I hope you like it.

Yes, it was a very good read and thanks for not making it as cumbersome as the 'dune' beginning.

Good story, though I must admit that I did have a hard time sorting trough all the "will" in the narrative.

But once I looked at it as a screen play, it sorted itself out.

originally posted by: TDawgRex
But once I looked at it as a screen play, it sorted itself out.

Ugh.

I almost feel as if I owe you an apology...

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: TDawgRex
But once I looked at it as a screen play, it sorted itself out.

Ugh.

I almost feel as if I owe you an apology...

No need...just a different style of writing. Once I managed to wrap my grey matter around the verbiage, I enjoyed it a lot.

a reply to: TDawgRex

Okay. Many thanks mate!

a reply to: InTheLight

Hehe, thanks mate!

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: InTheLight

Hehe, thanks mate!

You are welcome because it's nice to skim along nicely instead of stopping continuously (like reading 'Dune') and saying 'What the ...?'. Hehe.

a reply to: InTheLight

Well... I can't agree nor can I disagree, for I've never read the novel (of Dune). But in a way you still have a point, as the film itself was so weird too.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: InTheLight

Well... I can't agree nor can I disagree, for I've never read the novel (of Dune). But in a way you still have a point, as the film itself was so weird too.

I think we each have our own preferred reading tempos and levels of ease in reading - like a beat. Even though I like a challenge now and again, but I don't want a steady diet of it.