Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

7 - A Brief History Of The Past

"What. . . what do you mean? What are you talking about?"

Kori cleared his through before leaning over and resting his arms on his thighs. 

"Well. A long time ago, no-one is really sure quite how long, but that's not really the point. What is the point is that humans have been around a long time. A lot longer than what you think. Back before any of us existed, before the modern age even, humanity was basically the king of the galaxy. You guys were the alphas, the top dogs. You had better technology than any other race, more advanced in almost every way, hell you guys were the ones who discovered bridging."

"What's bridging?" Fischer asked.

"Uh, it's hard to explain, I'll tell you later. Point is, you guys basically ruled the galaxy. You had control of all the trade routes, oversaw the governing of new colonies, pioneered almost everything we use today, you name it."

Kori's words almost seemed to hard to believe. Had he not been sitting in the same room as four aliens, he wouldn't have believed it at all. He felt his jaw drooping open and his brown lowering in disbelief. 

There were ancient humans that discovered space travel? That found new planets? That interacted with aliens?! How was that even possible? How had no-one discovered any of this before?

"Were. . . were we good people back then?" he stuttered.

"You're asking the wrong guy honestly. I don't really know, I'm not that old. But from everything we know so far, yea, you were. You guys ruled with an iron fist, but it was a fair fist. You weren't some sort of tyrannical dictatorship or anything like that."

Fischer found himself breathing a slight sigh of relief. It was nice to know that they weren't as savage as modern day humans. 

"But, there was one thing you guys seemed to be really good at. You always seemed to find ways to go to war with one another. Always in conflict. Seems like when one war ended, another began. It got the point where some races actually had gambling rings based around what human colonies would be the next to start a war."

"Huh. That doesn't sound too far from home now honestly," he chuckled. 

Kori scoffed slightly, grabbing another handful of pich. 

"The rest of the galaxy seemed to tolerate it. But one day, it all just stopped."

"W-what do you mean? War stopped?" Ko asked, finally chiming in.

"Nah. Humanity. Humanity stopped. Poof. Gone."

Quin and Trikka exchanged looks with each other as they observed Fischer's reaction.

"The current theory is almost all the main colonies got into a conflict. The largest one since the divide. Eventually, we think you guys managed to nuke yourselves into oblivion." Trikka said, finishing Kori's sentence. 

Fischer felt his heart sink slightly. He stared on pensively, sliding back into the couch, a look of pure shock on his face. Ko moved a little closer and placed her hand on his shoulder. 

"We. . . we did?" He asked.

The three carcans gave him a slow nod. 

"I-I. . . huhhhh. . . holy shit," he quavered. 

He sat forwards, putting his hands up to his temples. "Everything I know. . . everything anyone knows. . . it's all a lie. . . it's all fake. . ."

"There was no easy way to put that on you kid. I'm sorry. Can't imagine what that feels like," Kori consoled. 

"Wait. But If humanity has been gone for so long, why didn't you guys. . . well. . . you know, freak out when seeing me?"

"Oh humanity isn't completely gone. There were a handful of tiny frontier colonies that remained neutral. They survived on. Humans now days aren't completely gone. We see one or two round every few plates. But you're definitely a rare breed now," Quin explained.

"Speaking of rare breeds. Ko. You didn't even know what race you were from. Care to elaborate?" Kori asked, shifting his attention to the pearly white zapher. 

She broke her gaze on Quin and shifted it to him.

"N-no. Not really. . . I don't really like talking about it," she said sheepishly. 

"Oh. ok then. Sorry to hear that. Well if you ever need someone to talk to, we're here," Quin consoled. 

Ko responded with a fake smile and a nod. 

"I got a question. Trikka earlier you said Kori was. . . going to fall in love with us?" Fischer puzzled.

His question elicited a few huffs of laughter from Trikka.

"Yea, well I'll let these two explain that to you," she stated, motioning to Quin and Kori. 

Fischer and Ko both turned their attention to the carcans. 

"Well, before I met Kori and Trikka I was homeless. . . lived on the streets. Short version of the story is, these two let me stay for a bit, Kori and I got busy with each other, fell in love, yadda yadda yadda, we're together now," Quin explained, leaning onto her boyfriend's shoulder. 

"She's part of our family now. Trik here is a lil concerned that you two might end up here as well. As much as we'd love that, we just can't afford to take in two other people. Especially not when Trik's got a bashed up arm," Kori explained. 

"About that, yea. Mind if I ask how it happened?" Fischer queried. 

"Oven door. I'm a chef, work at a fancy restaurant in the city. Went to go and close the oven, forgot that only food goes in and accidentally slammed it on my arm. Crushed it pretty badly, but it's healing nicely," she explained.

Fischer winced slightly at the thought of having his arm snapped by a huge metal furnace. 

"Yowch. Sorry to hear that. Hope it heals soon."

"Thanks. It's been tough cooking with only one and a half functioning hands but I've managed pretty well so far-"

'THUMP'

"Oh my god! Ko? Ko are you alright!?" Quin screamed.

Fischer snapped his head round and was horrified to see his friend lying face up on the fluffy black carpet, a small gash just above her right eyebrow. 

"Fuck, Ko! No not again!" He wailed. Immediately he jumped off the couch and held her head in his hand. 

"Again? What do you mean?!" Kori asked urgently, kneeling down next to him. The other two also shifted over and kneeled down on the floor.

"This has happened before, a few times, back on Earth. She says she has these visions or something, I don't understand. But it's almost killed her before. She almost drowned!" He fretted. 

"Visions? Like what? Seeing the future or something?" Trikka blurted. 

Fischer gave her a stern look.

"That's the current theory, yes."