LF Friends, Will Travel

The chasm between us [Chapter 2]

Date: 51 PST (Post Stasis Time)

The city was... magnificent, a shining jewel on the crown of an already impressive planet, visible from space and even better close up. Ruixal pressed herself up against the glass as she stared out in wonder, her classmates behind her, a mass of tiny feathered bodies also trying to get a look through the large window as the spacecraft descended upon the planet, excited children lightly pushing and jumping to get a better view.

Trihalla was the capital city of the Lelzoil homeworld, and had existed in some form or another for the last thirty thousand years. The last ten thousand had been under their own management, and the avians had used every year of that to create something breathtaking. Lights and buildings stretched as far as the eye could see, each of the twelve floating rings gradually increasing in size as they hovered above each other in a row, each section its own city-sized structure where hundreds of millions lived. It reached towards the sky, towards the stars like all Lelzoil buildings did, in defiance of a cold and hateful universe: Look at what we created, look at what we have become, we are now the ones in control.

Whilst the home Ruixal had come from was nothing to sniff at, as any city created by the avians was a technological marvel most species would be lucky to live in, this was an entirely different scale. The lives of billions of Lelzoil could be seen in a single view: lights and movement, high-speed trains zooming along and connecting the gargantuan megacity. The residents of Trihalla living their lives in the technological masterpiece of the Lelzoil empire.

The ship Ruixal was arriving in was a mass of excitement and energy, the kind that could only be created by a group of enthusiastic children who hadn't quite developed the ability to regulate their joy in a more adult manner. The shouting and the noise of hundreds of excited voices bounced off the walls, hatchlings jostling to get a better view through the giant windows that lined the outer hull of the ship, each one wearing a little backpack that represented their school. Older students took to the air to get a better view without having to fight for a position on the ground, a few of them lacking the fine flight control to do so, colliding with each other or the walls instead.

The teachers and responsible adults were there as well, trying their best to shepherd the children, though it was a forlorn task. They knew how it felt to see the city of Trihalla for the first time, a monument to what their entire species was and what they had become through such hardship.

Ruixal had lived her entire life on the snowy colony of Ixil, a quiet, happy place at the edge of Lelzoil space, but like all of her species had done at some point, she was here on the legally mandated school trip to visit Trihalla. She'd learn about her species' history, about their civic duty, and what it meant to be the red-feathered avian species who had taken their place through determination and grit from a cruel dark universe.

Her eyes were alight with delight as the massive structures and sights assaulted her young mind, the ship she was in slowly approaching and giving a better view of the greatest city the Lelzoil species had created. An entire structure of billions, using systems and public transportation that just worked in simple harmonious actions... a sky filled with feathered bodies and birdsong, hovering artificial rainforests suspended in place with nothing more than technological prowess, large sections of greenery interrupting the screens and lights of modern life.

Ruixal's beak continued to press up against the glass, staring at the wonders around her, her childlike excitement beaming as the city of foliage, glass and chrome filled her entire view.

The adults in charge were trying to calm the group down by pointing out locations in the city and explaining their purpose, most of this falling on deaf ears. It was as the ship they were on started approaching one of the many spaceports on the topmost ring of the city that Ruixal spotted it.