“Won’t you get in trouble when she wakes up?” Axon asked.
“I...I don’t know.” Holey chewed her bottom lip. “It doesn’t matter. I think you deserve to know the truth.”
She was looking at Axon now, who’s shock was wearing off.
“Come on then. Let’s get to the ship.”
It took a quarter of a day to get back to Axon’s moon cave. Once we were close enough, Holey showed us a different path to go that led directly to the ship instead of going through Axon’s tunnel system. Instead of going to the entrance with the carved goddess statues, it led us directly to the ship.
We stood there, reverently, in front of the aging technology and waited for Holey to show us why she brought us here.
“This village was our people’s first settlement on Valo Prime,” she began. This is where we landed three hundred years ago.”
Axon squeezed my hand as he took in this information. We’d been right.
“Why were we never told about this village?” he asked.
“I could tell you, but I think it'd be better to let them do it.”
“Them?” Was there someone inside the ship?
Axon grew tense and he held his breath as Holey put the pendant flush against the hull of the ship where the matching emblem was. Then a moment later the door to the ship opened with a hiss.
“Let me show you.”
Holey walked inside and Axon followed her with his tail lashing nervously behind him. The walls and ceiling of the ship were made of a gray metal, while the floor had a purple cushy silicone coatingthat reminded me of those non-slip shower mats.
We entered a hallway. To the right was the cockpit and to the left there were cabinets and lots of closed doors that could have led to the crew’s personal quarters.
“This way,” Holey led us to the cockpit.
“This is what they called the data center.” She pointed to what looked like a computer built into the wall.
“Here, sit.” The young acolyte pulled out two chairs for Axon and I.
We dutifully sat in the chairs and I intertwined my fingers with Axon’s reminding him that I was here if he needed me. His tail wrapped around my leg, and he gave Holey a curt nod, signaling that he was ready.
“Our people didn’t just suddenly appear on this planet three hundred years ago. They came from our home world, Ozinda. Here, I’ll let them tell you the rest.”
Holey pressed a few buttons and suddenly the dark screen before us was filled with the image of a white-haired Sirret woman wearing a robe similar to what Kahina wore. She was also wearing the same pendant.
Holey zoomed out on the image, and there was the ship, and the trees, and to her right was a sirret male using carving tools on a tree. We’d passed that tree as we walked to the ship. It was carved into a statue of the goddess, but this video was so old that the carving wasn’t finished yet.
“Hello. It is the year three thousand five hundred and seventy-six in the standard galactic calendar. I am Yara, the pilot of the ship we named Miracle. My crew and I set out from Ozinda six months ago looking for a suitable world for us to build a new home.
Ozinda has become a dark and twisted place, full of greed, poverty, slavery, and war. We believe that technology is at the root of the vile darkness that has twisted our fellow sirrets, which is why we chose to leave.
We didn’t choose this planet, but I do believe it chose us. Once we entered the atmosphere, our ship’s instruments stopped working, causing us to crash. Fortunately, this is a lush land, full of fruit, and workable soil.”
The woman paused to look up at the sky. The male carving the tree stopped what he was doing and smiled at her. The priestess's cheeks flushed a dark blue, and I wondered if they had been mates.
“This is our home now. We will build a new future without technology, and we will live a simple life as we believe the goddess intended.”
The speaker pressed a button on the recording device and the screen went black.
“That was the first priestess,” Holey informed us. “As you can see, it was their goal to get away from all this.” She made a broad gesture indicating the entirety of the ship.
“Over time, they became more strict aboutthings. Here I’ll show you.”
