INVICTUS

Year 2200 AD

The sky looks unmeasurable, an endless reminder of our lonely existence compared to its vast chasm of darkness. I suppose that's what happens when you are different, not different as in wearing strange clothing or dancing off to a song beat, but a kind of difference that leaves everyone else who's not like you unsettled. I don't remember earth. In dreams I can almost taste the fresh air, feel the warm heat of the sun and roll in withered grass.
Earth. What a strange feeling to be from there but not of, to exist outside of it though you were meant to live on the same planet as everyone else. A surge of anger settles in my bones like an ache I cannot escape. Anger is a tool used by humans to keep my kind at bay but I am a victim to the same international bullcrap which is emotion. Certainly I have attempted to keep my thoughts at bay. Aguaya V'antal is my name meaning fire just like my split decision personality and drifty attitude. It was given to me by scientists although I wonder why they hadn't assigned me a code name like the rest of us. The others keep busy on the 'ark', seemingly unfazed by our captivity. They don't particularly care that we are called "aliens", "different", "outsiders" but I do. Never is there a greater burden to be made aware of beauty in the universe but to be ridiculed out of believing there is any beauty left.
My kind, according to what bullcrap lies the scientists conjure, once lived underground beneath miles of passages driven in stone. Psychic ability scares humans. Knowing anything beyond a simple mind terrifies them to the degree that they have sent my kind to space, watching us with peering eyes.
It isn't fear itself that scares me, it's what is behind fear that leaves a shiver up my spine. Mother Gaya, a calm woman with a knack for sternness, oversees the 'ark, keeping track of every possible move we make...(continued in book)