"Huh…?" Astra looked down in confusion. "A message, why was this placed here?" The hologram had strange symbols above the English words that were in brackets.
The English words said:
"If you have reached this far, congratulations! You were transported to Earth, from Earth. This is your new home now. Eat, drink, play, live, die, and enjoy life! This world is much better, much larger, and much stranger. :)"
"…How cryptic. How mysterious…I'll move aside the thought of wondering where this hologram came from." Astra's eyes softened as she began analyzing, putting aside the heavy emotions and thoughts of what she just went through.
"It seems like these symbols were translated into English, and those symbols are one of the languages this planet uses. I'll memorize the symbols, and I'll connect them to the English words." Astra quickly memorized the message and the symbols.
"Alright. Now, let me start by what I know first. This message confirms that everyone from Earth was transported here by that hand that opened up the sky. This message also confirms that this is another planet. Lastly, it confirms that there was something in place that was somewhat challenging that all of us had to go through. On the same note, judging by the 'congratulations' , this can imply that there was no safety mechanism in place…or perhaps everyone has to go through that 'void' from before, and that was a test to see if anyone would turn insane." Astra thought of a potential theory, but quickly dismissed that thought.
"No. That wouldn't make much sense. Why would the creature or thing that is behind all of this test to see if we would go insane if we would be transported here anyway? Judging by how it was pointing at me, it's likely that it's interested in me, and made me, specifically, to go into the void. But that doesn't explain the light…it could actually equally be likely that there was a mistake in the transportation process, and that thing had to save me!" Astra sighed.
"Well, none of this is verifiable currently. Plus, everything changes when you consider the fact that there's an equal possibility of the creature being benevolent or evil. Even if you consider the potential reason, there's no way to know what's going on up there truly. I definitely can't even comprehend it."
"Though, from what I know, there are only a couple of logical possibilities in each case."
"For example, there must be an underlying reason as to why we were sent here. It's not logical to assume this was random, given my unease and the fact that the being was pointed at me."
"So let's assume the reason why. In the event that we were sent here as a test, there is something that we have to be tested on, and it has to be challenging. It could be a variety of things, but given the fact that we were given no knowledge and likely no safety mechanism by being here…it's possible that it is testing our adaptability...within reason, and with a degree of luck. Of course, this is only one way, but going off of the idea that this is also 'Earth' and it mostly looks the same with an already present civilization, I can see this as being one of the main ways. It's almost as if the being is telling us, 'Are you able to mess up this Earth too?' Hehe."
"In another way, it could be likely that there is something with this world that made the creature from the heavens want to bring us here, specifically. This world is much more advanced than our Earth. Could it be that there is an energy source abundant enough to make such structures? If so, then my theory about an energy source fueling my hallucinations and the 'me' from that time can be attributed to this world. If it can be attributed to this world, and we were sent here from the heavens, it's very likely that the same energy source that fuels this world is the same energy source that fuels my hallucinations and other strange things about me. In this sense, this means that this world was touched by the heavens! How interesting!" Astra got more excited as she felt as if she's getting closer and closer to the answer.
"This means that if I tie all of this together, it's quite likely that there is an energy source here that is connected to the heavens. We were sent here because and in spite of that energy source, and we have to adapt to the humans or creatures that are able to use this source. In that case, the screams from before we were transported was the 'test', and there not being any safety mechanism is only there to increase the challenge. This also confirms that the screams are from the heavens, more specifically the energy source from the heavens, and we were brought here because of that! This is the underlying reason for the message and why we were here!" Astra thought such things before sighing again.
"That still doesn't satisfy me…" Astra rubs her messy hair. "This still doesn't take into account the void, if it was a glitch, and if anyone else went through it. Though, I'm having a feeling it was a glitch…It also still doesn't explain a variety of factors that may be in place regarding this world, whether the being is benevolent or evil, and various other reasons that I don't understand yet."
"It feels as if I have one piece of the puzzle, but I don't know where to put it, or where the other pieces are, or where the map even is…" Again, Astra looks at the horizon that held the highly advanced and alien-esque city. She smiles.
"Well, my job as a scientist is to figure all of those things out!" Astra chuckles innocently. "That's right, I'm a scientist who searches for the heavens!"
Astra gazes deeper into the hologram. "As for where this hologram came from, I assume it's due to the same mechanism used to transport us here. It also seems to be directed at the people from 'my' Earth, so I doubt anyone from this planet knows about this. Hm. Speaking of that, I don't know what the beings of this planet look like. The message says it's much stranger. Do they look like humans? Do they have the same biology and evolutionary roles? What about the history of this planet? The politics? Are they more in tune with the heavens? What about the physics of this universe? How much bigger is this earth? Is everything the same here?"
As soon as she finished that thought, the hologram disappeared.
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
An influx of information was implanted in her head! It was the language that she memorized earlier!
"Dreamurian…?" Astra rubbed her temples as she had a slight headache. After a few seconds, it stopped.
She had now known the basics of a new language! Her proficiency with this new language was on the level of a 10 year old. She compared the words with this new language with English, and came to the conclusion that the grammar was drastically different and it'd be much harder to learn this language than any other language on the previous Earth. She also didn't know many crucial words in the "Dreamurian" language that she knew in English.
"It's a good thing the information was implanted. It seems like I don't have to worry too much about learning that language…" Astra thought in English.
Astra puts her hand to her chin in a thinking position.
"Now…I know that I'm able to breathe the air of this planet, but I wonder if gravity is the same here." She then jumps decently high, about 5 meters high.
"It seems like the gravity is the same as on Earth. If it's bigger, then it must be less dense…assuming the physics is roughly the same. But the fact that it's much less dense and there's such an advanced civilization here almost defies physics. Well, that also helps my hypothesis."
She lands back down on the rock. She then looks at the normal looking rock with a piercing gaze.
She lifts her right leg up.
Pa!
She stomps on the rock with a decent amount of force, causing slight cracks.
"The density of the rock is the same too? Huh…" Astra looks at the rock with a confused face.
She gets into a thinking position again.
"Well, despite it looking normal, it could be a denser rock than usual. I still only have limited information about the landscape and of the composition of this 'Earth'…"
After a while, Astra looks towards the edge of the cliff and leaps off of it suddenly.
She began to plummet down the cliff, her lab coat and her hair flowing upwards. While in flight, she looked at the water coming down the cliff majestically. She saw no issues with the water, aesthetically speaking.
"There's no difference in air resistance either…"
Splash!
Astra slammed into the small lake after dropping from a height of roughly 200 meters.
After readjusting herself, she floated back up to the surface. Her hair and face was now completely wet, as was the rest of her lab clothing and body.
"The water is also the same. The temperature is also the same as on Earth. It really is almost a carbon copy, aside from the moon, rings and sun. Well, it could also be that the being made our bodies change instantly to be able to adapt to such conditions without dying. At this point, anything is possible, despite it not being likely. But everything was the same as before…" Astra said while floating in the water.
She then swam to the surface and onto the green fields, letting the cool breeze hit her skin. To let some of the water out, she then squeezed her wet hair that was down to her waist, and she promptly shook her entire body that was soaked with water. Afterwards, she looked back at the lake.
"Thinking about it, that was a little reckless. There could've been mysterious creatures in there…ah well." She closes her eyes, falls on her back, and then smiles, taking in the sensory information again that she lost not too long ago.
Adding to the thoughts she had earlier about the cosmic event that transported her here, she begins to reflect on the events right after that. She thought about how felt when she was all alone, and she thought about the feeling of being "pulled" into the void by the ground. She thought about how everything suddenly changed in the manner of hours.
While thinking about such things, the corner of her lips curled up slightly, revealing a soft smile.
Finally, she begins to speak in Dreamurian.
"I need to find a way to properly adapt to this world," Astra says while opening her eyes. "I need to find out how everything works. The people, its languages, its history, its politics, the energy source…all of it. I also have to find who that woman was that I saw, and what that void was. How am I going to do that…" She chuckles.
"What a pain. But this is what I like. You seem to have piqued my curiosity again."
Astra was silent for a while. She heard the birds chirping, heard the nearby waterfall crashing down on the rock, felt the breeze moving past her, felt the moisture from her clothes slowly begin to dry up, and slowly but surely took in and processed the sights and what she was up against currently.
"I also have to find Xavier and Aria, and my mother…"
…
"You think this is someone's garden? How so? This looks like a forest!" Xavier spoke up, the volume of his voice lowering but his tone intensified.
"You think someone would just have a forest in their backyard?" Aria sarcastically asked, though she was in denial.
"I stepped on a fruit. As it did, it smelt like some sort of fertilizer when I put it closer to my face to examine it." Emilia responded, her voice wavering. "And given how we're on a different planet somehow, we don't know the reason why someone would have such a big forest for a garden. Even worse, it could be a farm…"
Xavier and Aria's pupils constricted as they fully digested Emilia's words.
They both had smelt the scent of fertilizer, but their current situation combined with their shock and whiplash had made them ignore that scent.
It was only then when Emilia reminded them that this was actually a garden or a farm that they remembered.
A silence penetrated the atmosphere, with only the sounds being the slight ticking of insects and the leaves blowing through the trees.
Grey clouds then began to cover the sun again, giving the area a slightly gloomy and foggy look.
"…So, what do we do now, guys?" Aria said nervously after the short silence. Sweat was starting to form on her forehead.
Emilia's initially calm demeanor that she exuded from before the transportation was quickly evaporating as she looked toward Xavier with wavering eyes.
Aria looked at Emilia, who was now showing her anxiety on her face, and looked at Xavier, her eyes showing nervous curiosity as to what Xavier would do.
Xavier saw the two ladies looking at him, anxiously anticipating his next move.
"Why are they depending on me all of a sudden…" He sighed in his heart.
He began to analyze, putting his hand to the top of his head.
"We're obviously on an alien planet…but we don't know who or what is on this planet, despite everything feeling the same. It's almost certain that there are unknown species here, and it's possible that they'd be hostile to us given that we would look different." Xavier slightly shuddered as he imagined a scenario where a scary, tall looking alien would attack them.
He kept his composure and kept thinking.
"In that case, we would almost have no form of communication between us to show that we're not dangerous. If we can't communicate with them, who knows what they'd think. What if they heard us and are coming this way right now? Shit…if that's the case, we have to make ourselves appear less dangerous. If the species is intelligent, they'd be able to figure out whether we're dangerous or not. If they're not, and they're dangerous, then we're screwed. If they're not intelligent and they're not dangerous, then we have nothing to worry about."
After some time of thinking, Xavier came to one conclusion.
They have to make themselves small and act mute!
"Why don't we just act mute?"Aria inquired the same idea just as Xavier was about to speak up.
"We don't have any effective communication. If we act as if we don't know how to communicate, and if they're intelligent, they might spare us," Aria had the same thought process as Xavier, aside from the appearing small idea.
"That's great thinking Aria!" Emilia's tone lost some of its earlier anxiety.
"Yeah. We also have to make ourselves appear small." Xavier added.
"Like if we suddenly encounter a bear?" Aria asks.
"Yeah. Playing dead might not work, so I feel like this is a good solution." Xavier responded.
A blue hologram appeared in front of Xavier, Aria, and Emilia.
The trio looked at the hologram confused and astonished, with their faces being faintly lit by it.
They tried to read it, but they didn't understand any of the symbols that were at the top of it. They looked down and saw these English words in brackets:
"If you have reached this far, congratulations! You were transported to Earth, from Earth. This is your new home now. Eat, drink, play, live, die, and enjoy life! This world is much better, much larger, and much stranger. :)"
"Huh?" They all said in unison.
"We're on a different version of Earth?" Emilia asked, her eyes narrowing in confusion.
But before they could even think, every one of the plants next to them lit up and turned a neon green.
Soon enough, the entire area, including the faint fog, was bathed in a neon green light!
A rumbling sound was heard from the ground, as if it was opening up!
As this was happening, the holograms then disappeared from the trio's sights! Immediately after that happened, a terrible headache began to rupture through the heads, causing veins to bulge out slightly!
"Everyone! Down!" Xavier whispered in a serious tone as he crouched down and held his head with both of his hands while looking down toward the ground.
Emilia and Aria did the same.
As the rumbling sound vibrated through the ground, sweat was pouring through every once of their bodies, their hearts beating so fast it was as if they suddenly saw something in a dark forest.
However, due to the rumbling of the ground, their legs were shaking, causing all of them to begin to lose their balance.
A ringing sound was suddenly heard, as if something was hovering above them!
"We're dead…" Aria and Xavier thought the same thing as they closed their eyes, expecting the worst.
"Ow…" Emilia's weak legs gave out first as she fell on her behind.
She finally looked above her and widened both her mouth and eyes in surprise.
It was a tall humanoid figure, floating above her, just a few meters away from her!
No, it wasn't humanoid, it was human!
"Oh?" A deep male voice rang throughout the air dryly.
As Xavier and Aria heard this, they too slowly began to open their eyes and look up.
He appeared to be floating on a light green mist, and his hands were on his chin. He looked only a little old, like a middle aged man, and had pink hair with streaks of silver that was parted 70-30. He wore a black windbreaker with green streaks, and had black pants. He had a well built, tall body, a sharp bearded face and intense, purple eyes.
"What's this? Are you three trying to steal?" He asked, looking straight at Emilia, almost condescendingly.
Emilia, strangely enough, was able to understand what he was saying. However, the confusion in her mind was completely overshadowed by her fear of this man. She was unable to scream, even though she wanted to.
"Hmmm…" The man then swept his eyes to look at Xavier and Aria.
Both of them looked at him with the same instinctive horror that was in Emilia's eyes.
"They're not answering, and instead just looking at me. Are they that scared? Normally, if they were trying to steal, they'd begin running or holding their arms up. Are they acting so that I can be sympathetic? Hm…no. Their emotional state tells me that they're being genuine. It's just pure fear. Along with the weird clothing from the girl in blue, they have no ID's…"
The man could not have found any ID's, even if he had looked. Xavier left his wallet in his room, Aria left her purse in the security's booth, and Emilia's badge fell on the ground in the previous Earth.
"In that case, it's likely that they're immigrants from the Kingdom of Octavia, trying to escape that regime." He sighed. He knew that while he was a few hundred miles away from the border from the Kingdom, he would get one or more people passing through his large garden every two years or so, trying to escape from the country. In such a case, he would have to deal with them.
The man had an emotionless look on his face before raising his arm up.
The trio, who were beneath him, saw this. Their stomachs dropped out of fear.
As he did, a decently sized neon green circle appeared under the bodies of Aria, Xavier, and Emilia, for which all instinctively shrieked. Instantly, it turned into a translucent bubble and swallowed the three of them, and no sound was made.
Subsequently, the rumbling sounds stopped, and the forest turned back to its original color.
The man then began to float to an unknown location under the green mist, carrying the bubble containing the three transgressors.