Are you being serious?
I stared in astonishment and amazement at Imara who was casually sitting on my bed, eating the cumis I had brought back for her. The door was closed and she was waiting for me to say something after explaining to me all that she had heard on the x-disk. What she told me was absolutely unbelievable. It was absurd. How did this all make sense? I continually ran through her words in my head from top to bottom, over and over again, hoping that soon the contents of Fortuna and the Galaxy would sound less "out of this world."
She must have noticed my puzzled expression as she decided to slide the open disk towards me from under the bed. Its hologram was still projected and she spoke to activate the option. "Here. Listen to it for yourself."
I grabbed the disk and watched as it began to whir softly. A static female voice began to speak. I recognized it; it was Sally's.
I'm glad you decided to open this section, Fortuna and the Galaxy, and I'm sure you will find it both helpful and insightful. To begin with, it is important to establish that Fortuna and Earth are sister planets - Fortuna existing in a separate dimension within the same Galaxy. When Earth was created, so was Fortuna, as covered by the previous section, The History of Fortuna. What the other section omitted is that the two planets are in fact bound by an inter-celestial force, where any event that happens on Earth would have an asymmetrical consequence on Fortuna. For example, since the beginning of human civilization on Fortuna, natural disasters have plagued the planet, causing uninhabitable conditions everywhere, with the exception of a small patch of land in the northern hemisphere. The rest is known as the Stormlands. On the other hand, her sister, Earth, has benefited from pleasant weather and livable conditions for as long as mankind can remember.
Now although Fortuna's weather and environment was less than ideal, our superior technology made up for it. As a result, by the turn of the eighteenth century, Fortuna had already begun space exploration into the distant galaxies. It took another century and a half but Earth was eventually found. Afterwards, centuries of work from numerous scientists and researchers on Fortuna resulted in the discovery of Earth's relationship with Fortuna.
Which leads to the name of our planet. The name "Fortuna" essentially means luck, which us, Fortunians believe govern the relationship between Earth and our own planet. Good luck on one planet equates to bad luck on the other. Positive experiences on one and the negative experiences in the other negate each other, allowing for balance in the galaxy.
The other portions of this disk conceal the truth; Humans from Earth did not discover Fortuna. We discovered them.
The noise cackled and then faded away. Hearing it first hand and not from Imara didn't seem to make a difference. I was still as shocked as before and I was seriously starting to doubt everything I believed. I thought back to the things I had learned on the hospital bed. Why would the other section of the disk state that Fortuna was found by people on Earth when in reality, it was the other way around? These people here were aliens then. It was the only logical conclusion.
"Aliens," I concluded. "They're aliens. I don't know what they want to do with us."
Imara seemed relatively unfazed by my reaction. "You're right. They're human-like aliens. What a surprise."
"I honestly expected aliens to be green or something," I said and then laughed as I remembered how Aeolus looked like a walking blueberry. "Man, this is crazy."
"If there's one person on this place that could help us get back to Earth, I think it's going to be -"
"Sally," I finished her sentence. "That's her voice we just heard."
"She has to clear this all up for us. She seems to know a lot," Imara began. "If what she claims is true, then bringing these supposed criminals up here would not make any sense. Shouldn't bad people cause an opposite effect on the other planet? Why..."
I could tell she had trouble believing what came out of her mouth. It sounded crazy, stupid as a matter of fact. Luck was almost something that was completely abstract, something non-measurable and seemingly unbound. I did not believe in karma and I was sure that Imara didn't either. Her logical mind was probably screwing with her. I tried to fight off the feeling of disbelief too but the memories of my profoundly unfortunate week prior to arriving in Fortuna came rushing back to me. Could my streak of bad luck have something to do with Fortuna? It had to have.
"You know, Newton's third law..." Imara's face began to light up, her hazel irises glowing in revelation. "Every force has an equal and opposite reaction."
Her lips bent to form a sly smile, as if she figured out the solution to a complex math problem. For that moment, I was glad that Imara was in my company. It felt like I was in my high school physics class again. She reminded me that on this foreign place, we were the only ones who seemed truly normal. I felt my own mouth begin to form a smile. If I had been alone, I wouldn't have thought of it right away and I sure as hell wouldn't have handled this situation as well as she did.
She caught my smile, furrowed her eyebrows and then she shrugged. "Just a speculation. It's the only explanation I can fathom right now."
I quickly stopped smiling, embarrassed that she had seen my emotions on my face.
All of a sudden without warning, the door jerked open. In a rush of panic, Imara ducked as quick as she could under the bed and I jumped in front of the bed trying to cover her. I held the disk behind my back.
I let out a sigh and relaxed when I saw who it was. It was Max, who was standing at the door frowning. He looked unsurprised at the sight of Imara, which either meant that he must have heard our entire conversation outside or he knew she was here beforehand. He was scratching his head.
Before he could say anything, I quickly rushed behind him and closed the door so others wouldn't overhear. I turned to face him again.
"You shouldn't be here, Imara," he glowered at her as she peeked out from under the bed. It was no use hiding since Max had seen her already. Besides, Max wouldn't do anything to harm us.
"Did you hear everything?" Imara quietly asked.
"No, I just heard you two murmuring about God knows what," Max replied in a gruff voice. "I knew there was something up when Hayden took a plate of food back to his room. Why...how are you still here?"
Imara rolled her eyes at me, annoyed, and then directed her focus back to Max. "Dude. I told you. I'm not going to just leave with these guards to some unknown place."
"And you didn't think to tell me you were hiding?"
"I knew you would disapprove of it."
"Of course I would. How long do you think you're you going to be able to hide?" Max challenged, his face getting red.
"Long enough for me to escape!" now both their voices were starting to raise.
"Have you even seen the weapons they have here? I'd rather obey than die a stupid death!"
"I'd rather die a stupid death than be forced to stay like a prisoner, giving up without a fight."
There was a silence after Imara said that and I awkwardly watched as the two of them stared at each other. They weren't angry at each other but rather their circumstances and the differing opinions they had on it. I could tell from Max's words and expressions that he cared for Imara like a good friend but as much as Imara wanted to reciprocate that friendship, Max didn't understand her circumstances - like how he wouldn't understand mine either.
After a while when both of them had calmed down, Max began to speak again. "So what's your brilliant escape plan?"
"We're in the process of figuring it out," I interrupted.
Max turned around, remembering that I was still present in the room while he and Imara were too busy with their confrontation. His anger suddenly seemed to bubble up and it became directed at me. "You. Hayden. I still can't believe you two would keep this secret from me. You could have at least told me Imara was in your room - not make up some stupid lie. I thought we were friends."
I was caught by surprise and his bluntness. "Well, I've only been here for less than a day. I don't know who to trust yet. I don't know much about anything here."
He looked hurt from my comment but then his eyes quickly darted at what I was holding behind my back. "What's that behind you, huh?"
He came over to me and reached for my hands. Instinctively, I stepped backwards and leaned my body against the door, keeping the x-disk safe between. He began to grab me and pull me away from the wall. Up close, I could see his face, clouded in anger and confusion, like a savage dog prying to snatch away his prey. The sheer violence he displayed in that instant had me wondering again if he was some sort of terrible criminal back on Earth.
"Stop that, Max!" Imara shouted. She ran over but she was too late; he had dug his nails into my arm, causing my grip on the disk to loosen.
He snatched it from my grasp and held it firmly, backing away to the corner. "I want to know answers. If you guys don't tell me what's happening, I'll take this x-disk and give it to the guards."
Both Imara and I tried to reach for the disk and steal it back from him but he was too fast, his evasion skills much more developed than ours. He dodged quickly and ran over to the bed. He stood there, standing with his ready stance. He crossed his arms waiting for some answers that he wanted so badly.
"If you want to find out then open the disk," Imara reasoned. "That's how we found out about everything too." She gave me a reassuring nod - the same reassurance she had provided when the night guard came by last night.
Max, seeing that we were not going to stop him, turned his attention to the disk and began to swipe at the surface. While he was distracted, since the disk would not open unless opened by me, Imara and I both lunged at him. He was caught by surprise and the x-disk flew out of his hands as we tackled him onto the bed. The x-disk hit the floor with a thud and bounced a couple of times before settling.
He grunted as he pushed me and Imara off of him and then proceeded to go after the disk. He suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Zzz zzz zzz zzz
We heard the vibrating too; it was coming from the x-disk. We all turned and watched as the object flashed yellow - a colour we've never witnessed on the disk before - and continued to vibrate in intervals.
"Only I can open it, Max," I said from behind him. "Let me open it and show you."
He faced me and sighed. I could see that he was just tired. Tired, confused and hurt. I shouldn't have sounded so uncaring previously. I would have to apologize to him after. He stepped to the side and motioned for me to go for the disk.
I rolled off the bed and walked towards the vibrating object, picking it up and then swiping my fingers over it. Almost immediately, the vibrations stopped and a hologram projected. Max came up from behind me as I cupped the disk in my hands.
Hello?
There was nothing projecting on the hologram but there was a voice. Imara joined me on my other side and the three of us bent forward to listen to the mysterious voice.
Hello?
The voice repeated itself.
"Hey. This is Hayden speaking," I responded to the voice.
Hi Hayden. What was your goldfish's name?
I paused. What was she asking me? My goldfish? How was that relevant in any way? Max and Imara turned to me, confused as well. "Sally." I responded anyway.
All of a sudden, a figure moved into view in the hologram.
"Sally!" I exclaimed.
She put her finger to her mouth to tell me to be quiet.
"Hello Hayden. I see you're with Imara and Max. I am going to help you escape this place."
"How?"
"Listen carefully. There's a huge storm tonight and it will be the perfect time for you to escape. The storm will, without a doubt, interfere with the artificial membrane surrounding the building, causing the door system to glitch. You just have to find the right timing of when the doors open and make sure the guards don't notice you. Once you've escaped, you'll find us."
With that, Sally disappeared from sight and the hologram was empty yet again. Max, Imara and I stared at each other like we couldn't believe what we were just told. Max opened his mouth to speak but a loud clunk interrupted him.
We looked up and saw a large piece of hail fall upon the ceiling's window of my room.
The storm had begun.
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Thanks for the continual support!
This chapter is probably one of my personal favourites.