by AlaraChan
Genre: Science Fiction
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I. Stealing Fate
There was no fear left in his heart.
Aman touched the cold glass of the viewing deck's walls. The typhoon raged outside in sheets of torrential rain alternated by claps of deafening thunder. Lightning streaked down and sent garish momentary illumination to the otherwise cloaked evening.
In the far distance, he can see the silhouette of the great stone monument. The San San Anka's massive bulk was a proud testament to the city's wealth and prowess. Standing almost a hundred feet above ground from base to top, the obsidian tower loomed over everything in the city and could be seen in all directions. The dark stone reflected light and shone like a beacon whenever it caught the neon lights of the city's arteries. It is ironic that it also housed the city's working class. All the major production of San Khan Khua is housed in there.
The glass fogged with Aman's breath.
San San Anka was his father's life. He was the chief engineer who designed the San San Anka's mechanized prowess.
"Aman." Sawili's voice drifted to his ears as if from a great distance. They needed to go.
He stepped away from the view deck.
"It's time, Aman."
He followed Sawili's lead, both of them darted with light-footed sureness across the shadows of the darkened hallways of the Academitia. Twice, Sawili had to put a hand on his shoulder before he took another step. He followed his companion's silver gray eyes to the revolving cameras on the ceiling. The cameras can only rotate 270 degrees and are aptly called owls. That weakness gave them a window to slip past detection.
In no time they reached the Victor's Salle. The lights have been dimmed for the night. Aman placed his hand on the marble surface and released the restraints on his bio-detector. A pulse rippled out from his hand outward in a mile wide radius. Several beacons lit up on his internal head monitor. The silhouette of several rats in the Salle earned a snort from Sawili. He dispelled the view and concentrated on his next move.
At a signal from Sawi, they both scaled the twelve-foot pedestals on each side of the Salle. Thank the Goddess for the long-limbed mutation of their ancestors that allowed for such things to be possible. Only the Alpha Class are lucky enough in the biological lottery for the heightened senses, long limbs, modified lungs, and enhanced strength. In Prima Earthea they would be classified with primates on features alone, and indeed that is where the original stock came from, but the Alphas have a hundred times the brain capacity of their chimp ancestors. The Beta class had none of their senses, and the Omegas looked no more than the common homosapien race from the mother planet, Prima Earthea. It was a wonder they could survive the harsh climate of San Khan Khua, with its mercurial weather and daily predators. Omegas have it tough.
Now Aman is reduced to being an equivalent of an Omega. He was stripped of his family title for his father's inability to make the Shanikaya work.
He gazed at the Shanikaya sitting as if on a silent vigil in the middle of the Salle. Its silver wings shone like quicksilver against the weak light reflected from the cold marble of the hall. Its bulk ran the whole length of the pavilion. Billions went to the funding of this project — a beacon that will pave the way once more to space exploration. This planet is dying; the same way Prima Earthea did, and the Academitia has tasked his father to make the impossible: space flight.
San Khan Khua's atmosphere made such a thing impossible. The strength of its magnetic core is ten times as that of the mother planet and there is a constant cycle of cyclones alternated by sandstorms that made flight a sure impossibility. It's like when the planet took the remnants of Earth in its bosom, it refused to let go of its children.
But the planet is slowly dying. What meagre food was salvaged and cultivated from the first colonies is slowly running out after only five generations. There was nothing that they could do with the worsening environmental conditions. Only one thing is left to do — leave the planet in search for a new home.
Hence the Shanikaya Project. It was his father's pride and joy.
It was also his downfall.
II. On Silver Wings
He could not forget that day.
The festivities lasted for three days before the actual unveiling. At first he was indifferent to all the excitement. He'd holed himself up inside his room for days and refused any calls from anyone for him to venture outside. Only the loud grumblings of his stomach forced him to take nightly ventures into the kitchen when he is sure everyone is in bed.
He resented the project that forced his father to work unnatural hours in the Academitia when his mother lies in her hospital bed waiting for death. He didn't believe that his father could find a solution in the half-terran deadline. Others have tried for the past hundred years when the first signs of planetary changes occurred. Internal temperature is rising, resulting in violent volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and cyclones with increasing strength.
The planet is in the verge of collapse.
San Khan Khua is not meant to hold life the way Prima Earthea did. The first explorers knew that when they arrived, but what could they do? When Prima Earthea's atmosphere collapsed only seven carrier ships made it out into space, and out of the seven only two managed to survive long enough to arrive at San Khan Kua... three billion light years away from the mother planet. It was a miracle for them to even survive the deadly landing; only one ship made it in one piece while the other was crushed and the hope it carried perished in a rubble of space debris and Terran legacy.
The first two generations were forced to live in the primordial wasteland of San Khan Kua. The air of this planet is too heavy with helium and iron that made it impossible to breathe. The first three generations spent their life in gas masks and domed colonies. Nobody thought they would survive those dark days when any earthquake and sandstorm sent everyone in a state of panic for fear of the structures not holding against the onslaught of the elements. It was on the fourth generation when the mutations occurred and in as little as seventy terrans, the social stratification has produced the Omegas, Betas and Alphas. The Alphas came few and far between but anyone born an Alpha is sure of a privileged life. The wheels of progress started turning once more.
But the wonders that they accomplished had a devastating effect on the already fragile atmosphere. Once more humanity's greed and ambition has overtaken the planet's capability to keep life. What little surface water is receding and becoming increasingly acidic. Another notch on the pH levels will make it unviable to life.
His father was so proud to head the team that would accomplish the impossible. He rarely saw him as he spent most his days in the Academitia. His heart bled whenever mother begged for him. He didn't understand why he chose to chase an impossible dream over the short time that they could spend together. He knew mother will not last long; her heart and lungs can only function with the myriad of tubes attached to her body, but can't he spare some time for the woman who had been his companion for the last thirty terrans? Can't he spare a day? An hour? Thirty fucking minutes?
The day of the Unveiling came and Aman did not care. He sat by his mother's side as she breathed her last. The whole hospital was abuzz for the news of the first space exploration since their landing in San Khan Khua. Finally, they will conquer the sky once more.
He turned the TV off just as the sight of his father's smiling face appeared. He couldn't bear to see him while his mother's body is being wheeled out of the hospital room. There will be preparations he needed to do for the funeral.
When news came of the Shanikaya's failure in flight, he was not surprised. He'd seen the first blueprints and knew the engine wasn't powerful enough to withstand a sandstorm. Which is exactly what happened during the field test and the crew only managed to crash land on the Academitia's outer wall. Billions of funding burned away in an instant.
He didn't realize he would find himself orphaned at the end of that day. Orphaned and bereft of status in their society.
Now he gazed at the legacy his father left. They've rebuilt it as close as possible to the original: a thing of fragile beauty on silver wings.
If he could make it work then he could regain his status in their society. Much as he hated it, Shanikaya is his last hope.
"The rain will let up in a few minutes." Sawili broke through his memories. He nodded.
"You didn't have to do this, but I'm glad you are here." He meant it. Sawi is the general's son, and likely to get his father's job in peril if he gets caught stealing from the Academitia, but he could not let Aman do this alone. Aman has been fragile for months, until yesterday he got this gleam in his eyes. Last night he told Sawi of his plans to steal the ship of dreams.
III. The Sky Is Nothing But an Illusion
"You are fucking crazy." Sawili's grin was infectious as they both clambered into the cockpit. Aman opened the interfaced and typed in the password. Why his father chose his nickname, he'd never know. He went to the settings and started modifying the vehicle's output system using the drive he received from his father's effects yesterday. The system would hold, but no Omega would be able to survive the transit to hyper drive. Their internal organs would burst upon reaching the edge of the atmosphere.
"It's either I die here a slave, or I fly up there and be a hero."
He heard a low whistle from Sawi as his modifications appeared on the screen.
"Did it ever cross your mind that your father intended you alone to fly this ship?"
He ignored Sawi's question. That's just stupid. Why would his father do such a thing?
"Check the internal monitors Sawi." He could feel the soft hum of the engines coming to life. The distant sound of sirens permeated even through the ship's walls. Any minute now a team would arrive to apprehend them. "Prepare for a rough take-off."
"Aman... look."
He turned to Sawi and saw him transfixed on the monitor in front of them.
"If you are watching this Aman, then I have succeeded." His throat went dry at the holo frame of his father in his signature white lab coat and spectacles. He looked like he aged twenty terrans since the day he left their home.
"I entrust to you the future, my child. It is not for the likes of me. My heart will always be in San Khan Khua, and your mother."
"Aman!" He felt Sawi shaking his shoulder. The sirens are coming closer.
"There is no more time. We tried and failed. The team has estimated the planet only has a half Terran left before it implodes. The transit will kill any Omega... but you my child would be able to survive. Take the Shanikaya to San San Anka. Fly my child, and the Goddess will protect you."
His skin prickled at the realization... his father's legacy has condemned the Omegas to San Khan Khua. Space flight is not for the weak. But why the San San Anka?
"They did it." Came Sawi's excited whisper.
"They are willing to sacrifice thousands." He remembered the countless faces of the servants who have taken care of him. Their people made life easier for the Alphas. His own mother came from Omega stock and had been the reason why he was shunned in school all his life. "We would have to be explorers once more."
"There is no trip back Aman." Sawi came to a realization. Knowledge of this will probably cause a revolution. The Omegas will demand that they be allowed flight. It would very well be their death.
He took hold of the helm and started the flight initiation sequence. The engines roared to full blast. Aman directed the ship's twin blasters to the far wall. Dust and debris billowed out as the wall gave in. He could hear Sawi's screams as the Shanikaya accelerated from zero to sixty in ten seconds. He could hear gunshots being fired but they did little to penetrate the ship's outer shields.
The Shanikaya tethered on the edge of the hole they created before a massive cliff. Aman felt his heart constrict in his chest. He gazed at the inky sky scored by lighting and pushed the lever. He could feel the adrenalin pumping in his veins as the ground rose terrifyingly close before the engines reversed and gave them the necessary boost. The wind buffeted the Shanikaya and sent it to spiral towards the brewing maelstrom. Aman's eyes found the San San Anka in the distance.
"There Sawi!"
"Are you mad?" His friend roared. "We can't even get stable!"
"Trust me, we need to get to the San San Anka!"
Sawi's eyes were wide with fright. "Trust me, Sawi. We can do this. Send the message to the royal office. Everyone must get to the San San Anka." Sawi still looked unconvinced but he nodded anyway. What could he do?
The Shanikaya took to the sky like an eagle, flying towards the dark beacon in the distance. In the eye of the raging storm, they found their first taste of flight.
Aman realized the truth: the sky is but an illusion. His father just gave him freedom.