Warning to the reader, I am a dyslexic writer so expect errors as I do not have my beta reader go through free stories.
Lightning dances across an amber sky, that is turning red on the horizon from two suns setting. The shattered moon starts to appear in the evening sky. The orbiting satellite was destroyed countless centuries ago by the other moon smashing in to it after it was knocked out of alinement by meteor hitting it. This has caused the tides on this world to be out of control and to top it off, if the town is not under a shield it gets destroyed my moon rocks pounding into it almost every day. This has made it turn in to barren world barely anyone lives on it and the ones who remain are stuck under barriers, some of which are beginning to fail, because the ones who built them have been dead or disappeared centuries ago.
An inventor hopes to have come up with something to replace the fluctuating barrier before it is gone completely. The trouble is because the inventor is a man there is no way anyone on his world world take him seriously. The poor lad was going to have to hand it all over to his sister and hope the ones in charge do not think she is too young to invent such a device.
The young lady is a bad of nerves standing in front of the nine elders who decide everything that happens within their town. She believes this is why it is failing because all of them are too old and too tired to care.
She is surprised when the eighth one stops the quarrelling between her fellow ladies.
"Star, go ahead build your invention and see if it will work, because come the ext bombardment there will be no town to save."
The young lady perform a deep bow and answers full of cheer, "Thank you, my lady."
The eighth smiles at as she watches the girl run out of the meeting room.
"Good luck," she whispers.
Star runs all the way home to tell her brother the happy news and he gets started on the full-size project.
For next three days the young lady barely sees her brother leave his workshop. Their parents take him meals and pots of tea. Then one morning he is finally ready to test out the device. He makes his way to one of the shield generators and goes to try and pug in his invention. The young man soon discovers all the consoles are written in a foreign language, one he has never seen before.
"Wait, this is an alien language. If I could find them, they might be able to help the entire planet."
He tries to find anything which could tell him where the equipment was from and discover a star chart that shows three worlds orbiting a double star and a red dwarf.
A bright light on the console next the screen, it appears to be some kind of button. Now the question is what will happen if the lad presses it. There was only one way to find out and gives it a positive tap. The planet with vertical rings starts to flash and an annoying beeping sound begins to emanate through the small speaker, which causes the dust on top to dance from the vibration.
A moment later a screen comes rising out of the desk and flickers on to reveal a room with smooth midnight blue walls with an image of a star chart. The image seems quickly float round until the next thing he sees is a handsome young man, with golden hair rubbing his eyes.
"Hin gan jin sa?"
"I'm sorry what did you say?"
The man's eyes snap open, they are like looking in to a deep clear pool with a hint of light purple at the edge.
"Oh, sorry I was moaning at how early it is. I am Whisper and you are?"
"Sun. I am sorry I will call back later."
Whisper is looking at the read out of the planet. "Wait, you are living on the broken moon, I thought that place had been abandoned centuries. I cannot believe what I am reading, there are seven thousand of you. Why are you still there?"
"To be honest, I have no idea. So, what you are saying is this world should have been evacuated."
"That is precisely what I am saying. Ooh it is too early for this," sighs the man rubbing the side of his face.
Sun bows his head. "I will call back later to discus this further."
"Bless you. Yes, speak to you in two hours. On your world, that is equivalent to three and a half hours."
"I understand," answer Sun and ends the call.
The young man cannot believe it, the ones who rule his world have been lying to them all this time. He cannot wait to speak with Whisper again. Sun decides to head home and for now does not tell his family of what happen. When it is time for him to leave again he comes up with plan to make out he needs recalibrate the shield, even tough he is yet to fit it.
Just after the time they said the screen once again comes rising out of the table and this time it is Sun's equipment which starts to ping. He pushes the button and the screen comes flickering on.
Whisper is now dressed in a nice pale robe with his long golden hair flowing our his shoulders. It is then Sun notices the handsome man is wearing a mask that is slightly transparent. He is only seeing in now because the light is bouncing off some metal attachments near the top.
"I should tell you, I am the leader Moonlight's son. I am in charge of contacting other worlds and helping them in a time of crises. My elders informed me, we got nothing from your world. You refused our help. I am hoping now things have changed."
Sun just cannot get over the man's voice, it shows not one ounce of emotion, yet he is very authority sounding.
"I think you will have to be the judge of that," implies Sun with a smile and goes on to inform him about his invention to deploy another shield or strengthen the current one.
Whisper nods and answers a moment later, "Yes, that will by you some time to evacuate everyone. The problem is you cannot present anything to your leaders."
"It's all right, I have a sister, I know she will be more than keen to help."
Whisper slightly raises his left hand, then disappears off screen.
All Sun can hear are two people talking. It was almost like they were discussing something.
A moment later Whisper returns. "All right, I will be right with you."
Some more lights on the console start to light up and to his right comes the sound of crackling as though something was starting up.
"Jin sa un ka?"
"Tun na la sin."
"Ah, it is looking like the gate on your side needs to be fixed. Follow the blinking lights on the floor."
Sun looks down to see there are indeed red lights going in a patten across the floor. He starts to do as he was asked follow them to eventually reach a round circle.
"Look for a panel on the left," calls Whisper.
It takes a moment for the young man to locate it and realises the smoke he is seeing is coming from within. This makes him quickly unlock it and removes the panel out of the way, to discover an old glass tube is no longer clear. The whole thing is black and sparks seems to be coming through a small hole in the top.
"Damn! I do not think we have anything like that. Unless there are spares down here somewhere. Whisper, have any idea?"
The man on the screen rests his chin on the back of his hand. "As far as I know, they should be stored along side the gate. Gin si."
Another man appears handing him what appears to be blueprints for the gate.
"Yes, down from the panel you opened you should find a draw, the tubes are in there."
Sun has a look and is relived to find the draw fulled with tubes. He quickly exchanges the dead one for a nice new one.
"All right try again."
Whisper gives the same order as before. This time the gate strings into action and a ring starts to rise up from the floor.
A bright flash makes Sun quivckly turn away. The next thing he is feeling is a warm hand upon his left shoulder. The moment he takes his hands away from his face he cannot believe his eyes. There standing right in front of him is the very man who he has been chatting on the screen.
"Whisper, it is really you?"
"Yes, this is not a dream. I have come to help."
The man from the ringed planet is even more beautiful than he looked on the screen. His eyes seem to sparkle and his skin has a very soft hint of pink to it. Th mask that covers his mouth and nose, the metal pieces are engraved with clouds and it slightly steams up when he takes a breath.
"I am amazed we got this old thing working. The last time it was... we were not even born. It is almost like your people have forgotten what you were capable of. It is a good job my mechanic still had the old blueprints."
"What are you saying? My people abandoned technology?" Sun questions watching Whisper looking around.
"Well, it does seem that way. Now let's take a look at those shields."
When he makes his way over to the console Sun notices there is something odd about his back. It is covered by two large, folded pieces of what appear to be skin and bone. As he moves they seem to twitch and reposition themselves so the tips, that end just above the backs of his knees, are just slightly overlapping.
Whisper taps the screen which is giving him a readout of the shield strength.
"I can believe how outdated all of this is, no wonder they are failing. They are simply too old."
Sun goes to his side and asks, "So, you are saying even what I have created will not work?"
Whisper's eyebrows rise. "I do not recall saying that. Go ahead, plug it in to that unit there and let's see what happens."
Sun sees he is pointing to what appears to be some kind of socket which he can place the cable into. The only problem is the plug on the end is different.
"Ah, problem," he says showing it to him.
Whisper half smiles, he reaches in the front of his robe to pull out an adapter.
"Lucky then I brought this, because there is no way we would find one in this mess."
"I totally agree with you. Thanks," answers Sun as Whisper hands him the adapter.
The young man goes on to plug everything in and runs his program when the entire room is plunged in to darkness.
"Oh dear," sings Whisper and caps his hands twice.
A set of emergency lights above their heads flicker on to show everything has shut down.
Sun starts to panic, he tries to get the panels to light up and smacks one in frustration.
"That will get you nowhere," insists Whisper. "You really have no idea what you are working with, because all you need to do is this."
He presses something on the side and all the panels and lights flicker back on.
"Wait, how did you do that?" Sun asks all baffle.
"There is a breaker switch here on the side. That is all you triggered. Hand me your tablet."
Sun does not question him and gives it to him.
"Ah, there is our problem, you have the power set too high, no wonder the breaker flipped. It was like I cannot handle that," says Whisper putting on a slightly higher voice and emits a soft laugh.
Sun also laughs and questions, "So, just bringing it down a bit will solve our problem?"
"There is only one way to find out. Activating your program."
This time everything stays on and they both take a look at the readouts.
Sun is all excited and cheers, "Yes, it worked!"
Whisper takes a step back and frowns at him.
Sun quickly clams himself down and apologises, "Sorry. I am just so pleased it is working with your help."
Whisper's eyes narrow and remarks, "Yes, you have every right to be proud of yourself... Forgive me, you must have gathered by now my emotions are somewhat limited compared to yours. It could be why we, our people never saw eye to eye. We probably seem too strict too orderly."
"Well, you cannot help being the way you are," expresses Sun with a smile. "We cannot all be the same. I bet my emotions are getting on your nerves."
"Oh yes, I find them terribly annoying."
They both start to laugh until Whisper starts to cough and places a hand around the mask.
"Oh my goodness, is there anything I can do to help?" Sun quickly asks.
Whisper shakes head, he takes a few breaths and his breathing returns to normal.
"Sorry I frighten you, that always happens when I laugh too much. It is perfectly normal for me to always be gasping for breath, fighting for my life."
"Wait, you are telling me this, the way you are is not normal?"
Whisper shakes his head and informs him, "This is a genetic anomaly that causes holes to appear in my windpipe. All of them were sealed by an organic substance that comes from that world."
Sun sees he is pointing his hand to the largest planet that has a thin rings around it.
"They also invented the mask I wear," continues Whisper. "The only way I am able to speak to you is by a transmitter that is attached to my vocal cords and the receiver is on the underside of my mask. That is why my voice seems nice and clear."
"It is amazing technology... You are right my world has not advanced along with the rest," admits Sun bowing his head.
Whisper gabs hold of the young man's shoulders. "Listen to me, what you have achieved is amazing. You have given the people of your world time to evacuated. Hopefully this time they will listen."
Sun smiles you are right and as a result gone against every rule."
"Meh... rules are to be broken. My father was not about to allow me to die a painful, slow, agonising death. He reached out to that world based purely on a legend that they could cure anything. He went against everyone and everything to save me. In the process he gain a new court, one that would listen and agree all life deserves a chance."
"Wow! It goes to show he loves you and I bet your mother was very proud of him."
Whisper's eyes open wide and he sort of gasps, "Oh you know nothing about my species... we don't have females."
Sun's eyes blink in shock and he babbles, "H-how do y-ou have children?"
Whisper bits his bottom lip and shakes his head. "We can carry our own children. I guess I am, in your terms both?"
"Ooh now that's interesting. Anyway, emm... come."
Whisper nods and follows him out of the shield generator to a small floating vehicle, that looks like it has seen better days.
Sun climbs on board. "Hop on. Trust me it is safe."
Whispers gets on behind him and then they are off. The land scooter pops and splutters all the way back to town. They continue through a small market that barely has anything to trade or goods to offer. They soon come to a stop outside a small house that is the only one to have some plant life in the front garden.
Sun gets off the land scooter. "Welcome to my home... this is noting compared to what I saw on screen."
"Do not be embarrassed, I am a leader's son. That is why my room was so extravagant. What you have here, is more than adequate."
"I take that as a complement. Come," says Sun opening the door. "Mum, Dad, Star I'm home. We have a visitor," he calls.
All three people enter the poky hallway to see standing beside Sun is a tall elegant, handsome man who is taller than them.
"Family this is, Whisper, he is from the planet with the vertical rings. He has come to help, which he already has."
"You were almost there, you just needed a little assistance," expresses Whisper winking his left eye.
The mother steps forward. "Let's not keep you standing in the hallway. Star, show him through to the sitting room."
The young lady nods and answers all excited, "Yes, mother, this way."
Whisper follows her in to quite a large room that is being illuminated by a single light which is duller than the light that is streaming through the small windows.
Sun pats his new found friend on the arm and asks, "Would you care for... I apologise, you cannot take that off can you?"
"No, not without choking to death. Bless you though for asking if I would like something to eat or drink. It's nice to be included. Not to worry I have everything I need," answers Whisper patting the left side of his robe.
"Right, I will just go and grab something."
Whisper give his friend a nod and watches the Father quickly follow his son out of the room.
"Sun, how on earth did he get here so fast?"
The young man goes on to tell his Father everything about the gate to the console he found. Then they hear Star calling for help, they quickly return to the room to find their guest is now on the floor.
"He just collapsed," she tells them all worried.
The father gabs a pillow to place Whisper's head on to and notices there is now a light flashing on the mask.
"That was not flashing before, was it?"
"No... I hope he has one on him. Excuse me Whisper," says Sun as he start to gently pat the outside of his new found friend's robe. "Ah, I think I have found it."
He goes on to reach inside the pocket to pull a clear container that is holding a mask. Sun gets it out and then looks at the one on Whisper's face.
"Right, I think I need to press those two buttons."
"Do it, son," encourage his father as the guest starts to wheeze.
Sun presses the two buttons on either side of the mask, there is a release of air and it comes away. He quickly places the new one on and presses the same to buttons.
A moment later Whisper's eyes open and his right hand grips the mask.
"Oops have I not put it on right?" Sun questions listening to the air escaping.
"No, you did fine, you just needed to press the ones on either side of my mouth to release your air tapped inside. Puff! Dusty, gritty. Lovely... Ooh I cannot believe you are all breathing that. Then again my home-world air feels the same way. It's the problem of living with filtered air."
The father helps him to sit up as he coughs and starts to feel inside his robe.
Star watches him pull out a container that appears to be holding some kind of red liquid. He gives the top a twist to make a straw pop out and places the end of it through a hole that opens in the side of the mask.
Whisper has a good long drink and sighs, "That's better. Why not tell me about the ones in charge whilst you all carry on with your meal."
The mother enters the room with a tray of food and drinks. This makes the father go and help her set set the table.
"They are old, grumpy and refuse to listen to us young people," grumbles Star with a sigh.
"Meh... no different to the elders on my world, until I had them all removed when they went against, not just the people who helped me to live. They also went against something that was way older than any of them," informs Whisper placing his right hand to his left forearm. "I'm afraid she is also not keen on your world."
The family watch him draw back his sleeve to reveal a strange squid creature is living within his forearm.
"This, funny enough, is Star. She is a living ancient creature. We were bonded when I was not much older than you, Star."
The young lady smiles, she reaches out to touch the man's arm when her mother stops her and shakes her head.
"It is quite all right, she can give her stroke. To be honest she like it."
Star gives the guest's forearm a soft stroke, she can feel all of the creature's rigged head and body. She cannot get over the different colours she starts to generate.
"See she is very happy," informs Whisper, also giving his creature a stroke.
Star is about to answer when a bleeping sound starts to emanate from their guest.
Whisper quickly gets out a small tablet and answers it.
"Da, jin jin sa, kun na sa."
Clapping comes through the speaker and a well spoken voice chimes, "Yin yin sa, fu na yi. Hmm... kin la gin fe un sa ka min ta."
Whisper seems to take a moment to think before he answers, "Goon."
The leader laughs, "Goon? Pa na hee yu sa ma."
"Hin na rin sa ma, lo tin tin sa."
"Ah, ka ma. Un ta min to sa ma, fu na yi."
"Da, min to," answers Whisper and ends the call. "Sorry about that. That was my Father, just checking in. He was surprised I said, goon, it means an hour. He was just telling me to not rush things and finished with, have fun and see you later."
"In that case I had better take you to the elders," says Sun going on to finished his meal.
"Please do not rush... I need the bathroom."
The father rises from his seat and answers, "Allow me."
Whisper nods and follows him out of the room, through the house to a small out building.
"Bathroom," says the Father sliding open the door.
"Thank you... What is your name, as I cannot call you, Father, unless you are happy with that?"
"Sorry, my name is Spring and my wife is Lily."
"Lovely names, back in mo," replies Whisper and steps inside.
The bathroom is nothing like home, no over the top decorations or rugs, just plain stone walls and a bare wooden floor, that creaks when he walks across it. Whisper has to gasp when he see the loo, there is no flush, they have to use buckets of water to wash everything away. All the flush meconium needs is a small fuze. He feels in his pocket to bring out a box that contains fuzes, ranging from large to small.
"Let's see... Ah, that one should do it," he mutters placing it in the slot.
The water collator spurts and coughs into life, the trickling water only makes Whisper want to pee more. So, he decides to give it a try to make sure it works. Once he is done he waves his hand over the top and loo flushes.
"Wonderful," he says making his way over to the sink and starts to laugh.
The whole thing is being held up by a piece of wood. Water drips from the waste pipe and there is steam coming out of the top of the hot tap.
Whisper shakes his head and mutters, "People should not have to live like this."
He gets to work, fitting the sink back on the wall, tightens the ring nut. There is no way he can touch the hot tap with his hands to find out what is happening and the other thing is he needs to turn the water off.
"I will leave this to them," says Whisper going on to use the cold tap to wash his hands.
Then a knock comes at the door and Sun's voice comes from the other side:
"Are you all right?"
Whisper pops the towel back on the hook and opens the door.
"Yes, I have just been fixing a few things, that's all."
Sun is shocked and babbles, "You're our guest, th-there's no need for you to do that."
"Did I not say I was hear to help?"
"Yes, even so-"
Whisper quickly places his right index finger to the young man's lips. "Now listen to me, I am always happy to led a hand and fixed things I can easily fix. I am not allowed to do anything like this at home, even though I am a good, well trained mechanic. It is all because of my states and I hate it. That other planet I showed you?"
"Yes."
"Well, there I am treated the same as anyone else. They are wonderful people which I am afraid would find difficult to talk to, because they only use their minds."
Sun's eyes blink and he questions, "You can read peoples thoughts?"
"Yes, the thing is you learn not prey, unless you have to. Star enhanced mine."
Sun does not need to read Whisper's thoughts he can tell just by his eyes and the frown he is not comfortable or happy talking about it.
"I'm sorry, I should not have asked."
Whisper steps out of the bathroom. "No forgive me... what I am is classed as rare on my world. There has not been a telepath in centuries... It is one of the reasons why people tend to ovoid me or have long contact with me. I guess it is what you would conceder fear, even though we are not meant to know what that is. It is clear to me they don't want me scanning them, finding out their secrets, oooh."
He starts to laugh and shakes his head.
"I believe you have every right to scan your people when you are a leader's son and one day take over his roll."
"Oh that will not happen unless he grows tied of it, like his brother did. Uncle is not a man for just sitting around and doing nothing. He is an outdoor man, he craves adventure. Where my father is a hands on person, always happy to help the people and when he has nothing to do, he grows crystals."
Sun frowns and utters, "What is ... a crystal?"
Whisper feels in the left inside pocket of his robe. "This," he answers opening his fist.
There upon his slender palm is the most beautiful white stone Sun has ever seen. It appears to have semi translucent sections that reveal cloud like structures.
"T-that's a crystal?"
Whisper nods. "I know to you it might appear as nothing more than a stone. This helps me to create say, rain, snow, ice or a simply a cloud to block out the heat of the suns."
"I see... it sounds amazing. Anyway, let's get going. I'll just."
Whisper nods and makes his way back to the house. When he sees the state of the garden, all the plants are in need of a good water and shade from the baking afternoon suns. Whisper starts to chant to create a thick cloud that not only does excellent that shade it, it also gives the plants a well deserve drink of rain.
Lily comes out to see all the vegetable and flowers are beginning to look a better. She notices there appears to be something floating above the palm of the guest's hand and he seems to be deep in thought.
Spring rushes over to stop her going anywhere near him and tells his son to stand back.
"Father, do not be afraid, Whisper, will not harm us."
"Only if I have reason to. All this crystal does is heal plants. I knew it would come in handy when you are living under a barrier, those things trap heat in. You do realise you are literally backing yourselves to death. Ooh I am not going to be able to stay here much longer."
"Son, take the roster."
Sun nods. "Yes, Father. Come."
Whisper follows him around the side of the building to something that lies under a cover. He helps Sun to pull it off to reveal a floating car that looks brand new.
They both climb aboard and Sun drives the vehicle at some speed to the capital.
Whisper sees they are fast approaching a large white building with two towers and a large doorway that is being guarded by two women.
Sun slows the car down and backs it in to a parking space, then they both hop out and make their way over to the building.
The two guards are about to cross their swords to stop them from entering, but seem to freeze when they see the extremely handsome stranger.
Sun goes onto tell them the visitor is from another world and makes out his sister trigged an alarm which brought the guest over.
The guards step out of the way to allow them to enter. Inside the building feels nice and cool. They make their way to the main chamber where all the elders who are seated on white chairs gasp when they see the handsome visitor.