Gabatrix: The Silver Rain

We turn away as your ears begin to catch something in the openness of space. You once again hear another sound. We slowly return closer and closer to the Sol system, but we are still almost a hundred light-years away from it. The Milky Way Galaxy is so enormous that even a hundred light years is nothing but a mere footstep in one direction. Regardless, within this envelope are at least 10,000 stars. Most of the stars are tiny dim red, and brown dwarf stars near impossible to be detected with even the best telescopes of the 21^st century. It is both a wonder and a spectacular view.

The Gabatrix experiment opens the possibilities of the galaxy and universe alone. Human beings have been given the gift to traverse the galactic playground. There seems no limit to what could be found and what couldn't be found out there.

Yet it is a time when things can slow down. Humanity has paid the price to reach it this far. Earth has been given to the T'rintar clan as a bargaining chip as the humans have found new worlds to live on. Survival is paramount, and Earth is a forgotten legacy of past glory. Mars and Cebravis serve as the bastions of human civilizations as they expand outward. The humans had found a few worlds to declare as homes and colonies, but much of the space is ripe for exploration. Progress is slow. War is all around the vast expanse, and the enemy could be anywhere.

Even with this, the void of space is seemingly quiet. We listen to the emptiness as the sounds of stars run around us. You yet hear it, though. Among the many red dwarfs, you finally hear a star that matches that of Sol. It must be another G-Type star. Perhaps here, we can finally be at rest.

We begin to close in on the star in the distance. More stars fly past you as we get closer and closer to our destination. It is getting close to us. Located in the Cetus constellation, the star sings into our ears. Just like a running motor, we have found another system that we might call home. Suddenly an unusual event takes place.

Hmmm.......odd......that noise that just came in. You thought you heard it as well. It was a blip sound. It was not natural, and it is enough for us to stop our journey to this star. The universe is filled with little out there. To hear such an event as this is something that seems essential.

The sound that we heard is not typical at all. It was not electromagnetic radiation but a specific radiofrequency. Our attention is diverted to the source of that blip. We are curious....what would cause such an event to take place?

We instead, convert our hearing to that radiofrequency. You can hear it now as apprehension fills your veins. The frequency is one that you listen to closely. It consists of three short blip tones followed by three longer repeating tones, with another three short tones. There is a pause as the signal repeats again and again.

On ancient Earth, the signal was similar to that of an S.O.S. given out by ships that were stranded or in trouble. Another signal is given out, and it is the voice of a human woman. Her words are garbled. It seems to make little sense, but her words are that of fear and confusion.

"Ship........r.......tack...........please.........way....." are the only words that you can make out of the garbled words. You try to listen again, but all you hear are static. The same S.O.S. tonal blips are on repeat.

This is not the songs of the galaxy--your heart races to the event. The humans apparently have an event going on nearby. There is little that we can do here. Sitting here in the void of space will not accomplish anything.

Is this something that we should be concerned about? Perhaps it should. The galaxy is enormous. The enemy could be anywhere. Like shadows, the enemy has many different abilities. A cloaked vessel could be nearby. The Itreans consume a massive amount of the galactic cluster as it is.

Yet......we stand wondering about this. What is truly out there? The darkness and the light dance together. One cannot exist without the other. Without the dark, we would not know fear and how to conquer it. Survival is paramount. We must continue with our journey. The distress call.....somebody must have heard it besides us.

It is both a good and bad sign. It is unfortunate for that woman but fortunate for us. We instead focus back on the star that is near us. The good sign is that we have found the possibility of other human life. Where an event takes place, more are sure to come. Humans must help out other humans. It is their nature to do so.

We zip closer and closer to the star. Slowly we close in on it as it comes closer and closer. It is indeed a G-Type star. The bright yellowish glow fills our vision. It is slightly larger than Sol, and it seems promising.

The star is known as HD 1461. It is almost 2 billion years old. All that traveling away from Sol, and now we only stand 76 light-years from Mars. HD 1461 is nothing awe-inspiring. Its mass is slightly more than Sol, but it seems to be working very well. It has been under the spotlight of telescopes due to the bright luminosity, even how distant it stood from former Earth. In 2009, it was discovered to have a planet that orbits close to it.

We are not far from the star as we begin looking around. You indeed spot the planet named HD 1461b. It is close to the star and orbits once every five to six days. Another planet called HD 1461c is seen. It also orbits its star once every thirteen to fourteen days.

You feel it don't you? We are nearing the end of this journey. Just like Sol, there are indeed planets that orbit this star as well. It seems to be a constant in the universe. Where there is a star, there are planets and where there are planets........

You don't need to say anything else. Your ears are tuned to the electromagnetic radiation. You want to find it, and now you are close. Is there a planet that has a similar sound as Earth? Are there livable worlds in this solar system?

The answer is simple.......yes.

We zoom closer and closer to the planet. We fly past another orbiting planet named HD 1461d. In the vast distance, you can see another ringed planet named HD 1461e. It is nothing significant but is something noted. Finally, the sound draws us in. We get closer and closer to this world and the end of our journey.

The world has come into your view. It is relatively small. It was so little that it was possible to fly on by and miss it entirely. It does, however, produce similar sounds that Earth makes. It is a perfect sign indeed.

It was named HD 1461f, but it would eventually be called Eutera. It is an odd planet. It is more significant than Mars and smaller than Earth. It is relatively small, even for a habitable world, and it would be much later before anybody would ever find it. Unlike many planets, this one spins almost entirely with no tilt. Earth has an angle rotation of about 22 to 24 degrees. This causes seasonal changes. Without it, there is only one season.

Some would claim that a planet like Eutera shouldn't exist, yet it does. Founded only recently, it became the farthest colony of the United Worlds' Alliance. The world is both beautiful and evident of what can happen to other habitable worlds. Unlike Earth and Cebravis, Eutera is a world of extremes. For a planet of mostly water, the poles are frozen completely solid. Massive ice sheets consist of almost two-thirds of the planet, yet it receives the proper amount of heat from its parent star.

It is a planet where life had developed regardless but in a limited fashion. It is beautiful to look at. It consists of large white arctic poles on the north and south, moderately cold mid-latitudes where the ice still operates, and then the warmer equator. The equator is warm enough to melt the ice. This creates a fashionable ring where life is running from. Small patches of green can be seen from the island continents that are not frozen in the ice. It is all aspects of an Earth-like planet with a mere difference in how it spins.

There are advantages to this type of environment. While it can limit life, it can also help it. Consistent environments can speed up the development of life if there are no changes to that environment. Plantlife was the key for Eutera, even if noncomplex life never developed. It is a world to call home, and humanity staked its claim.

We get closer and closer to the world. The songs of the universe come to a close. We can see several spaceships and warships in orbit, but they do not matter. You can see one of the moons of Eutera, but it is nothing like Luna. It is shaped like a potato, but again, it doesn't matter. The darkness is all around us, but we have found the light.

We fall through the atmosphere as we close in on where our story will begin. We zoom through the puffy white clouds as we are guided towards the equator. We see a variety of island continents that jut from the melted ocean level surface. Instead, we single in on a small island continent south of an enormous continent that interconnects the northern mid-latitudes frozen ice. The world is seemingly quiet as we near the ground. There are trees and plant life, but most are things we are not familiar with. The grass is similar to that of Earth, but the trees are wider and lower in height. The temperatures are around 13 degrees Celsius but somewhat comfortable. It is near the afternoon as we fly by a pair of mountains. The color of the sky is much like the former Earth of long ago.

Once we fly past the mountains, we near the long beach of the grand island. It is here that you see it. It is a wondrous but perhaps insignificant sight. Past an outcropping of a large forest is a collection of buildings. The buildings are high tech and human in design. It is a small settlement where the humans have called Eutera their home. The colony of Eutera has a few things that make it remarkable. Among one of the things is the great colony lander. The CX-2 class colony ship is designed to maximize settlement efforts. As we fly by it, the name "Jen" is written in English and Chinese on the side of the hull. Equipped with every piece of equipment available, the ship is stuffed with colonists and sent to a new world to call their home. Once the lander makes landfall, the vessel can then be dissembled to make new homes or be used as an emergency transport to get the people off-world. Instead, the lander has remained parked near the settlement and left virtually untouched except for an individual or two that use it as a makeshift building and equipment storage.

Near the lander are several shuttles in a makeshift ground port. A small tower building with a massive radar dish has been erected. We fly on past this area as we get closer and closer to our destination. We see people that walk around the small town. The buildings are arranged haphazardly like the trees of the forest. Occasionally, we see large square like farms that have been dug into the ground where food is being grown.

No two building is truly alike in the town. A few are large towers where administrative matters are most likely taking place. There is a large circular area near the center, and a black monument marks this spot as we continue to fly on by.

The people here are not all human. Some of them are Itrean. Some are walking with each other in casual or formal conversation. The recent alliance with the T'rintar clan may have something to do with this. There appears to be no resentment or dissatisfaction with one another. It is as if Eutera has become a new cold Eden for the two ailing races. We even see a human and an Itrean woman that are holding hands together as they are heading towards the great lake of the mountains.

We continue flying until we slow down. We begin to slow down as we near a set of two buildings that are stacked together. It isn't ample for an installation, but you can tell that it is a military base of some sort. There is a large railgun battery installed at the far edge of the facility. A pair of missile silos are also embedded on the other end of the base. The other side of the installation also parks a single military shuttlecraft. We see different artificial lights that illuminate the facility. There appears to be a soldier on duty that is walking around the base, but there is little other activity except on what is going on inside one of the buildings.

Our journey comes to an end as we close in on the smaller rectangular structure. It appears to be a barracks of some sort. The numerous windows are all the same and indicative of the same rooms arranged together in a pattern. The only apparent exception to the building is the sliding door entrance for individuals to enter and leave.

We enter into the building as we zero in on an event that is taking place. There is cheering and hollering going on as we are lured to the commotion going on. There is some sort of music that is heard, but men and women's shouting continually drowns it out as they are gathered around a table. It appears to be some sort of lounge in the barracks. An overhead TV/display is mounted in the top portion of the wall with a series of seats in place.

One person is sitting down on his seat as he has an arm perched around another chair. He seems to be focused on the display screen as it gives a live feed of the news. The man looks like he is trying to ignore the commotion going on in the center.

The center of the room is hard to see due to the number of bodies in the way. The men and women seem different than your typical civilians. Some are very lean and strong by appearance alone. Their shirts and clothing are all indicative of those of military personnel. The famous red and blue shirts of the United Human Naval service are commonplace. The individuals seem to be enjoying their rest and relaxation after a typical day of work, if there is much at all. Some of the men are wearing blue pants, and others are wearing blue shorts. Alcohol and even occasional smoking are apparent.

Past the circle of individuals are a human woman and an Aksren woman busy at arm wrestling. Their hands are locked together as they use all their might to try to pull each other's arm down to the table.

The human woman has a dark complexion to her. Her hair woven into dreadlocks and tied into a bun. There is intensity in her eyes as she gives a look of anger and ferocity towards the hand that she has grabbed. Her tattooed arm is not that much different than the other men and women in the barracks. Written on the tattooed arm is that of "UHN Marine Corp Redder than Blood," a familiar motto also written on other peoples' arms as well.

She seems strong, but her arm and hand refuse to budge or move towards the direction that she wants to go. Clasped to her hand is the hand of an Itrean woman. Wearing a green shirt and green shorts, the Aksren woman, by appearance, had a four-digit hand. Her body was covered in soft scales that consisted of mostly red with hints of green tinge to it. She was slightly shorter than the typical human at about five feet in height. She looked in all aspects similar to an anthro oviraptor. Her most distinguishing feature above all else was a large crest above her beak-like nose.

Like all Itreans, this one had a tail to her. Unlike the Yutilians of the T'rintar clan, however, she lacked the feathers that rode down her arms or tail. This woman was not as robust-looking as the human beings that were either cheering for or against her, but it looked like she was holding firm against a human she was challenging. Her reptilian yellow and green eyes showed her own intensity as her large series of razor-sharp teeth were cringing.

"Come on, Zalika!" yelled one of the men. "Are you going to lose against an Itrean?"

"Yeah, Zalika!" another yelled. "You are stronger than her. Take her down!"

It seemed to be an even battle. Wrist was locked against wrist. There was a single moment where the woman with the dark complexion was beginning to falter. Her arm was starting to tilt back in the direction. At this rate, she was going to lose.

"Hey, Bekra!" another man with a black mustache called out to the Itrean woman. "If you win, I will make sure to show you a nice time around the base.....maybe even my room!"

Zalika, the woman challenging the T'rintar clan woman, seemed to get angry. She cringed her teeth as her eyes went to the man and then Bekra. With a deep breath and a heave, she began to push back more and more. She summoned every ounce of strength available. Bekra's arm was starting to go back. Her digitigrade legs and clawed feet were even trying to brace the floor.

"Don't you even think about it, you fucking bird!" Zalika yelled out at Bekra.

The Aksren, in turn, looked up at her. She was now starting to lose the fight. Zalika was slowly pushing back more and more. Eventually, she cried out and brought the Itrean woman's hand to the table.

"Yeah!" the others called out in cheer. A few seemed disappointed as Bekra looked down in defeat.

"Fuck yeah!" Zalika called out in victory. She released Bekra's hand as she grabbed her bottle of beer and began to drink it hard. "That's what it takes. Years of hard work in the gym!"

Bekra seemed to calm down rather quickly. She even gave a slight grin as she put both her hands on the table. She was breathing a little bit hard but was doing just fine.

Zalika almost slammed her bottle on the table, producing a loud metal bang sound. She got up as she still had a look of ferocity.

"Oh, Cruz!" Zalika called out.

"Yes?" the man with the black mustache replied.

The woman balled her right fist. She took it and slammed it into Cruz's face. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't pretty either. Cruz stumbled back in pain. He felt like he was hit with a baseball bat as he put his hand to his face in pain.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Cruz reacted.

"Yeah! Don't harass my friend, asshole! That's my job!" Zalika yelled.

Bekra nodded her head in approval. She seemed content as the others were pointing and laughing at Cruz.

"Hey, Cruz," another person called out. "Next time, go on the porn propaganda websites if you want to have some tail. Maybe if you are lucky, you won't have to go down on yourself next week."

There was still some snickering towards Cruz, but his only reaction was to walk away. With a beer in hand, he began to rub his cheek, still feeling the pain of the punch. He took a big swig as he went over to the seats next to the TV display.

"You seem a little upset," a woman remarked with a Russian accent. "Doing alright, Zalika?"

"Yeah, I am alright, Karine," Zalika replied as she looked over to Bekra. "I just have watch tonight."

"Six-hour watch ain't that bad. Get some sleep now and get some more later on."

Zalika went and took a quick swig of her drink. "Not when I have to deal with a newbie tomorrow."

"Oh yeah," another man called out to her. "We got a rookie coming in tomorrow morning fresh from boot camp. Well, sucks to be you."

Zalika was unimpressed by the man's comments. She pulled out a small bayonet and tossed it on the table. It even startled Bekra a little bit as metal smacked metal. "Hey, Felix! Rusty Cage!"

There were "oh shit" comments that reined around the table as a few of the people walked away to do something else.

"Rusty cage?" Bekra called out.

"Yeah, rusty cage," Zalika said with a snicker looking at her. "I guess the five months you have been here. You have never seen it. They sometimes call it Five Finger Fillet." She turned her head to look at Felix that made the snide comment to her. She grabbed the handle and lifted the point of the bayonet's blade as she stabbed the metal table. "What do you think, Felix? Care to play a game of Rusty Cage? If I win, you get to take up my watch. If I lose, I will take up your next watch."

"Fuck no," Felix replied as his Irish accent came through a little bit. "I wouldn't win against that augmented arm of yours anyway."