Calan - The Immortality Paradox

Chapter Seven: Curse of the Calan, Part Three

CHAPTER SEVEN, PART THREE

Date: 221, OA19,654

Location: Lloches, Prifddinas, Sylfaenydd, Canol system

Beneath the southern edifice of Craith - far from the columns of silicate where the thousands of natives resided in their monotonous cycles of existence - there was a flourishing community of Humans. A heterogeneous society containing nomads and refugees who, deliberately or involuntarily, became the neighbours of Calan instead of their own species. At first, a sanctuary at the edge of Prifddinas for the benefit of wayward civilians, Lloches developed into an entire suburb on its outskirts. Over a thousand cubic shells in a patchwork order nestled at the foot of the escarpment. Apart from the Craigfywyd that buttressed every homestead, Lloches was unmistakeably human. Artificial light and anarchic technology surged from every hole. Its inhabitants bustled from place to place like a colony of ants.

Amynedd Gwyliwr entered from the west, between a fenced-off group of camphor trees and a pixelated sign reading: WELCOME TO LLOCHES, We Are Forever Grateful To Our Saviours, The CALAN, For Their Hospitality. An alleyway ahead was lined with one and two-storey abodes. Rectangular windows radiated light in rhombus shapes along the planet's mantle, illuminating the path. Appropriately proportioned for Humans, the houses were dwarfed by the Calan, whose Coronwraidd reached as high as the rooftops.

Quantum perturbations were futile in Lloches, incompatible with the alien biology of the immigrant species. Gwyliwr resorted to visual receptors instead. Infrared wavelengths swarmed from every direction. The heat pollution was an ocean that blinded the Calan's perception. Sometimes, a lone silhouette separated from the aggregate, but there was not enough detail to discern any identity. Only gradients of light coalesce like the thick particles of mist that are often suspended over Dysgl Gwaed.

One of the gradients grew more robust as a lifeform approached. Their infrared emission was a moving, amorphous cloud. In the visible spectrum, they appeared young and androgynous in appearance. A thin frame supported by spindly legs. Protein germinating from follicles in their head created long strands tied into a neat bundle. Their eyes looked grievously towards Gwyliwr in the typical Human manner.

'Have you found my sister?' The voice was trembling, and Gwyliwr detected a deep longing too. 'She was one of the Disappeared...they said that you could find her...save her.... I don't know how long I can last without her!' The human looked up at Gwyliwr vaguely, another Calan to desperately plead for solutions only a God could provide.

Gwyliwr did not intend to linger for fear of giving any hope. Although they left behind a single assertion. 'Calan do not provide miracles.'

The pitiful mammal called out as the astronomer shifted deeper into the suburb. 'I have seen the Gods perform many!' They did not follow.

The population of Humans grew denser as the homesteads grew taller and the alleyways narrower. People spilt from every crevice in every design of garments. Some were dressed in preparation for a non-existent winter, others as naked as the moment they emerged from the womb. Many carried devices of differing purposes: portable transponders fused directly with their neural network, meta-inducers wrapped around half-conscious bodies leaning out windows and doorways. A gathering of people sang lively melodies as they imbibed entire metric containers of ethanol that gradually pushed them into insentience. Lit by the dimmest of headlights, a dark, columned database centred a group of six immersed beings down a quiet passage. Each was concealed inside featureless helmets and wired to the database, which respired and wheezed like an ancient machine. A digital message shimmered in and out of focus around the column's circumference: WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF FLOSMANIA; ESCAPE YOUR UNIVERSE BY EXISTING IN ANOTHER.