The Dreizhen

This is my final entry for the SciFi Smackdown. The story of Dalon Blyston comes in at about 8k words. I hope it makes you think, I hope you can't put it down, I hope you enjoy it and let me know =) 

Happy Reading-- 

The Dreizhen

SP Parish, (c) 2014 

I remember it like it was yesterday. 

I had just departed my transport from Acht—where I worked, where most of the Dreizhens worked, it was the biggest planet after all—back home to Veir. Veir was the best, in my opinion. The towns nestled in the rolling hills, orange forests bright in the yellow light of the suns. It was the home of the best schools in all the System. Child-doctors flocked to Veir like it was their job. It was the best place to raise a family, and even though Sissy and I didn’t have a family, we were trying.

We had started when we moved to Veir, and we knew it would take a while—we had all heard the stories of the miracle babies after a year of trying—but we weren’t destined to be one of those. We didn’t mind. We had been living on Veir for almost five years. We had a pleasant life, what with Sissy working as a bookkeeper down the mountain, and me traveling to Acht everyday.

I remember it like it was yesterday, but it feels like a lifetime ago.

Except for the pain. Sometimes that hit me like it was happening all over again. Today. In this breath. It rips me open, like a knife up my front, and it’s everything I can do to stay standing at my station, waiting for it to pass.

Like I said, I had just departed my transport, and like any other day, stepped out onto the sidewalk. The fortified soil gave way under my under my soft step. It was always a bit of a thrill to revel in the advances Dreizhens had made in my lifetime and before. Much like the transport I had just stepped off of—a product of my own mind. A small part of it. Doctors and teachers flocked to Veir, engineers flocked to Acht.

Acht was industry.

Sleek, colorful towers shot breathtaking distances into the sky, and pedestrian bridges crossed in complex patterns all the way to the tops. Sometimes when you walked through them, clouds obstructed the view. It was beautiful, a testament to Dreizhen engineering. We all walked a little taller in the midst of our creations.

Each planet in Dreizhen had its defining traits; on Acht it was industry, on Veir, family.

But, Eins was teeming with full-blown cities under its pink waves. Neun’s horizon was punctuated solely by silos and domes that served as signs of life in its food-filled, flat fields. It was too bad that the scientists on Zwolf had not yet figured out a way to stop the storms that ripped through there on a regular basis. They had done other great things though, those scientists. Zwolf was lucky to have them.

As for the rest, Seiben had their music, Funf their minerals, Zwei was the entertainment capital with bright lights and gold streets, and Drei—the smallest of them all—was the home to our explorers. It was quite something to be invited to live on Drei. I was proud to say my brother was there—a shining point for our family back on Sechs, the home of the Colleges.

My heart, however, although drawn to science, was not adventurous like Swen’s. Instead, it longed for the quiet cubicle of Acht and the serenity of Veir. In Veir, the houses were built into the trunks of the trees and the entire planet seemed to echo the quiet, slow pace of the surrounding forests. Everyday, I got my fill of technology on Acht. It was nice—and I was good at what I did—but it didn’t fill me in the same way as some things.

For instance, I really liked to work with my hands.

It was different from piecing things together on a computer screen, actually laying your hands on your creation. It was more involved, as if you left a piece of you inside it. I assumed it was what having a child of our own would feel like some day, but on more of an exponential level. It was something to be proud of, knowing you were leaving things a little bit better then when you came.