Nebula 13

In past times when the council of planets attempted to organize a summit, Onyx with many others, who were against the collaboration with the governments he was led to believe murdered his father fought against these attempted summits. 

But now that there is a new and more dangerous element at play he no longer has a choice but to support a summit addressing this more dangerous foe. Like many others, if he doesn’t what little he has left and loves will be destroyed.

The date is 8.12.5590. A commercial passenger transport overhears a transmission from an unidentifiable source; from an untraceable location after the passenger transport has changed course to avoid an electrical storm. The transmission is directed to a location among the 13 planets of the Nebula. The message⎯what little that’s been deciphered⎯to annihilate the galaxy.

How? Is unknown. The communique is coded and the more time I spend deciphering it the more I unravel a message that brings more questions than answers. 

The more time I spend with it the more I come to the conclusion that the people, cities, towns, and villages spoke about in the message are unknown to us. What planets do they speak of? We’ve deciphered that there are 13 planets like this galaxy. A desire to destroy a galaxy is evident. But a large part of the language I translate, or should I say we translate we are still unable to locate the cities, towns, villages, or persons in the communique.

It has been almost a day since the passenger transport has relayed the message to me, Onyx Blake. The translation continues. The search continues. The council of planets wants answers I’m having a hard time producing. My brain is frazzled. I believe that transmission is relaying subliminal messages. My brown skin is dripping with sweat; the temperature is not warm. My eyes are blurred. I believe that message deters me from being focused. 

We’ve sent secret messages to the other twelve governments with what we’ve deciphered to find out if they recognize any names or places. Whether they’ve received the initial message or not we haven’t been informed.

Brielle is the name we’ve deciphered is colluding with this unidentified source. This Brielle is always two to three steps ahead of us. It makes it hard to know where to begin next. I see visions⎯a face I don’t know. That’s the case with all of us.

The vision is of a woman. Could it be this Brielle? I believe so. We all see the same vision⎯height: six feet, fit, brown hair, brown skin, white eyes.

We could find out much faster what is going on inside the galaxy; who that message is going to. But we have yet to work together in almost a decade. 

We being the 13 planets. When I say work together⎯I mean, cooperate⎯share information⎯resources. If I would have gotten the message sooner and we would have had much more time to seek out and locate where and who that message was sent to. But is time really an issue.

Somebody knows who Brielle is. Somebody knows who he, she, or they are working with. Somebody knows a location from where that message came. Somebody knows where it went. We need to be able to search every valley and highrise, every ridge, and every alley. Brielle could be holed up in a cave in some remote wilderness. 

We need to place decades-long differences aside, put together a team that is capable of covering large amounts of terrain in a short period of time, as well as, maintain secrecy, and search together, along with de-escalating without doing the very thing Brielle would like to accomplish.

Still no reply from the other twelve planets. They only thing they respect is the signed original copy of the peace treaty. Only then will there be fundamental cooperation among the 13. The treaty is a relic lost almost a century ago. I need to put together a team to find the treaty that mirrors the same type of team to find Brielle. If we can’t, Brielle will be able to roam to and fro and release a virus on every planet. If the virus doesn’t kill us all every planet will blame the other and the galaxy-wide war will kill us.

The treaty is not simply to prevent Brielle from instantly murdering millions of beings and leaving nothing but a shadow where others once stood, but its principles spoke into the hearts of the Nebula’s earliest inhabitants. Shortly thereafter, the principles that guide the galaxy were burned onto titanium sheets⎯the symbols of the houses of the families were burned onto the cover⎯the top, bottom, and sides of the nine sheets.   

As time marches on, the inhabitants of the galaxy have ceased practicing the principles of peace. In some pockets of the 13, the principles are buried in the past. The positive relationship between the inhabitants has waned. The use of violence to resolve issues is rising⎯the use of diplomacy dying much like the peaceful way of life.

The principals of the treaty have faded from memory.  I must continue to search for the original and bring it’s principles before the council of planets so as to reestablish them back into every valley and village throughout the thirteen. 

Along with the fight with Brielle, there are restive factions that refuse to allow us to quietly seek and locate the treaty. These factions are the ones who didn’t receive their own planet to colonize, so they left. For a while, the thirteen were able to remain in contact with the three factions. For over a decade. But after the final year of the decade, when members of the thirteen went to make their annual contact with the three factions, they had disappeared. 

They left no trace. No messages. No sign of where they traveled to, or when they would return. Two years later strange things began happening to Nebula ships, to moons, asteroid belts, and space stations on the edge of the thirteen. Who is attacking the 13’s shuttles? Why is there no ransom demand? Why are there no bodies, but simply empty floating ships with the essential parts and resources stripped? And the homing beacon activated. They want us to find the ships. What’s the point in stripping the shuttles and then making a point to help us retrieve them.

Whoever did these things⎯what is their plan? We ask because it’s still going on. We’re beginning to pick up traces of who might be responsible. The hijacking, stripping, and kidnapping of our shuttles and freights is masterfully done. That tells us they know us very well. Someone who didn’t know us would have triggered something on the ships...left something out of place that would have exposed them.

Is Brielle from one of these factions? Are these three factions Brielle?