My Human

Chapter 5

I found Xan sitting in the pilot's seat. From the view of Earth still falling apart, I could tell we hadn't gone anywhere. He seemed to be keeping the ship gently floating within the moon's gravitational pull.

On the window, he had what looked like a map that was a virtual overlay. It let him touch different areas and view coordinates. He seemed to be mapping out a route.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sitting down in the seat next to his.

Xan continued to tap and map across the screen, never even looking in my direction.

"I am trying to figure out my next destination," he responded.

"Can't you just return to your planet. What was it called, Tor 17?"

He sighed. "It's not quite that simple," he answered vaguely.

"Well, why not?"

He stopped mid-press and lowered his hand as he now turned to face me.

"Your presence complicates matters."

"Oh," I said quietly, looking down.

"Your planet has always had a protective status with only authorized beings allowed access. All other outer beings were not to pass within G7P3 or its galaxy, seeing as you are the mother race."

I cocked my head in confusion. "Mother race?"

Xan nodded. "Yes, all life forms throughout the 10 habitable galaxies all originated from G7P3"

I cocked my head in confusion. "Then why wouldn't they be permitted there?"

"It was believed to be for two reasons: 1. To maintain the lifestyle of the ancient people and 2. Prevent the spread of environmentally detrimental behavior."

My eyes grew wide. His words were starting to sound more like a government conspiracy. "Environmentally detrimental behavior?" I asked.

Xan nodded. "About 3,000 years ago, there were several great minds that came together to find the next livable planet in the 4th Galaxy, which only became known after breaking past the limits of traveling at the speed of light."

"What's faster than the speed of light?"

Xan smirked. "They called it femtolight. The speed of light to the degree of a femtosecond."

My jaw dropped. "So, that would mean..."

"Galaxies that were light years away were now possible within hours."

I blinked a few times. He sounded crazy. The whole thing sounded crazy. But I barely knew who I was, so who was I to call him out.

"So then what happened?" I asked, trying not to sound completely skeptical.

He tapped the virtual map overlay on the window, drawing a line from our current location all the way to the left, passed what looked to be several suns and moons. His path drew across dwarf planets, giant planets, and even meteor chains, until finally resting on a medium sized green planet. It was 3rd from its sun, just like Earth."

"G4P3," he announced. "That was where they went. They started over. They civilized a new planet. They continued the ideas they had on your planet but built it into something greater. They found new galaxies to explore and new planets to inhabit. The galaxies as we know them now were forged by your ancestors. They're called the Galactic Elders."

He said it like it was something wonderful and to be proud of. I wasn't seeing it that way. It felt more like an elite group of Earthlings took it upon themselves to create their own civilizations while leaving the rest of us behind.