Uduak-Abasi

CHAPTER 1

It was considered good luck by all travellers to physically view the planet one is leaving through a physical window, and if your quarters didn't have one then the observation deck is the second best, and third would be getting invited to a room with a window if you knew someone with access to it. Certain rooms in the “Economy-Class-Special” of most passenger ships had responsive faux windows that aggregated a digital view from cameras and sensors located on the outside of the ship that was stunningly realistic and convincing; these naturally didn’t cut it when it came to Saint Mariam-Vehana: the Patroness Saint of journeys, voyages, cruises, going-forths, and all manner of travel both interstellar, Terrestrial, and otherwise (Psychonauts and other drug partakers were also known to implore upon her). It had become a standard practice for Captains to leave the Bridge to their First-mate or Steers-man and to make a show of being present at the observation deck the moment the ship left a planet's gravitational pull; this helped put the entire ship at ease for their journey no matter how short said journey was. 

The ship itself was sleeved in a myriad variety of well balanced and interplaying of shields just as internally, the observation deck of the R.S.S Clarissa’s Touch was enveloped in a respectful semi-silence as the crew and the few passengers it sometimes carried gazed out of the extremely large glazsteel windows that made up a large section of the wall. The three separate levels that rose at increments away from the window made the planet appear as the backdrop in a semicircular stage; the main star was of course not the planet or the view but the Saint Mariam-Vehana who though invisible, was being entreated to guide the ship to safety. After the Purple-Yellow of the holiday planet Ini-Abasi had receded a good distance away, a few people started to leave; they were science folk and had important work to get back to. Eventually the Captain also left officially signifying the end of the Leave-View. Lemlukh was about to saunter off when one of the viewers came up to him and started talking.  

“Quite the planet isn’t it?” Lemlukh had some time to spare so he didn't mind indulging in chit-chat. 

“It really is. Lots of ample data to be collected and collated. A hotbed of unbelievable phenomena for a naturally habitable planet.” She nodded in agreement while looking at the planet as though its mere look from space could tell a lot; which it could for any planetary researcher worth their Tang.

“And to think most of the inhabitants and visitors have little idea of the great value of their planet. They only care about the gold harboured in the Rhodonite and Bonsomite mountains… and also the year-round agreeable weather good for holidays but also botany and agriculture. They love the planet for all the wrong reasons.” Her hands were cupped as though cradling an imaginary rock as she said this. 

“Oh I know what you mean! When it comes to Ini-Abasi, it's always ‘where is there gold in them hills?’ And hardly ever ‘why is there gold in them hills?’ Its mind boggling” He intoned and she nodded again, emphatically with a smile that showed perfect teeth that stood out on her olive skin like finely arranged pieces of White Jade. 

“I’m going by Ya-Zoe but you can call me Zoe or Zee. I’m what you would call ‘in the rock department’. Nice to meet you.” Lemlukh suspected she was a geologist before she started mentioning rocks by name though he kept this to himself. Telling what discipline a scientist was by their look was a skill he had acquired unintentionally and surprisingly quickly. He took the hand she had extended and shook it. 

“I’m Lemlukh, I’m a Priscologist for the Romera Enterprise Initiative aboard The Clarissa’s Touch.” That short statement evoked another nod, this time with a smile followed by a momentary darting away of the eyes. He was used to some similar reactions, but a little number of them were false and premeditated. He couldn't tell yet with her. 

“It's always nice meeting Geologists. I’ll be honest, you guys are very hands on and sometimes ‘touchy’, but also ‘true to a fault’.” She laughed a little at this. The laugh was a light tinkling sound that echoed strangely and beautifully in his ears despite the finely tuned acoustics of the observation deck.   

“If you're not doing anything right now let's go to the bar on level 7 and have a drink. We can both get a Mezmuri Whiskee and chat a little.” Just as he was good at telling scientific disciplines by the look and vibe of the researcher it seemed Zoe was good at guessing people's favourite drinks. She had either done research on him; was simply good at guessing these things. She could also possibly be of a Psychik inclined race like the Thought-Seers of the pink and green Savannah-like planet Margaret.14, or the Mind-Fishers of the icy moon Finn’Igaluk (though she didn't have blue skin speckled with white), she could even one of the isolationist Intuits of the travelling Rogue planet Mela. 

It actually didn't matter, he still had a fair bit of work to do studying all the pictures, scans and data so far collected or sent from the gargantuan planet Uduak-Abasi, not to mention preliminary study of the few objects, statues and tablets gotten from the planet and aboard The Clarissa’s Touch. There was no way he was going drinking at the bar on Level 7 when he could drink and work in his quarters or in the Priscology lab at Level 4.

CHAPTER 2 

“So basically at around 900 years ago, just shortly after the Bakari Engine that allowed Slip-Space travel was discovered and perfected, the Saint Mariam-Vehana was working in Hamilton Ontario in the Astro-Targeting Systems department at the Klopp Institute. One night she had a prophetic dream that showed her the “Way-Lay Algorithm”. It not only sent signals at faster-than-light travel but it also bounced back when it came across hollow geometric structures with mixed material composition. It targeted buildings, buildings meant intentional habitation, that also meant sentient beings which in turn hinted at possibly livable planets. This had a lot of ramifications, especially regarding profit; and that's how many new and powerful companies came to be, including the Romera Enterprise Initiative.”

Lemlukh had not gone back to his quarters or to the lab but was now enjoying some Mezmuri Whiskee at Level 7 with Zoe. They had been talking for a while now and she had asked him about his job. She seemed to know a bit about him but still asked a lot of questions about everything including the company he worked for. 

“The Way-Lay Algorithm you see, changed the whole game. Searching for habitable planets before was like searching for a needle in a haystack of other needles across the seeming infinity of our galaxy. The Algorithm made potentially habitable planets within range of our galaxy to glow and identify themselves.” She smiled coyly as she took a sip of her whiskee.

“I really like how you explain things. It makes me so excited for everything that has happened.” He suspected she was just humouring him but he had begun to enjoy himself before he had even noticed. As a scientist that studied ancient civilizations working for one of the wealthiest companies Earth had ever known that profited from the antiquities market and  repurposed ancient tech, he was used to people trying to get on his good side. 

“It's too bad almost all the civilizations we've come across have been wiped out in one way or the other. The rest don’t have the tech to space-fare or they do and they're extremely isolationist.”

“Well I’m sure with continued exploration something should come up.” She intoned trying to cheer him up. 

“I have to ask. Do I know you from somewhere?” Lemlukh was decent with faces and she seemed eerily familiar. 

“I have one of those faces that stays carved in the memory.” she answered cryptically. 

They had drinks and spoke to each other a few more times after that until she suddenly disappeared after they departed the planet Naeem-Abasi. He looked for her all across the 1000-large ship but found no records of her. 

A short while after that an alarm went out in his department that one of the statues and a few artefacts from Uduak-Abasi had gone missing. When he received the news and the document detailing it, he noticed that the missing statue, ‘U.A-209’ bore a striking resemblance to her. A ship wide investigation was run but, unfortunately nothing was ever found.