had strange history, and their science made no sense to her at all. Much of the things the people of the planet said went completely over her head and it wasn’t until some time that she discovered that this species liked to speak to one another telepathically. In fact, those who only spoke were either children, or those who were way past their prime.
Something that shocked her was the complete lack of females. It was completely run by males known as Alphas, and others known as Betas. Alphas were strong and arrogant, and the Betas took orders from them. Yana, as it so happened, was a Beta.
When asked how they reproduced, Yana had explained that their kind had a specific time—every decade or so—they would meet with another species from another planet to procreate. This species where basically women versions of themselves, but because of strained issues among them, they hadn’t been able to procreate with them for several centuries.
Because of this, the Rusneons had been forced to consider procreating with other species. Ceff was the youngest Alpha Greatest to permit such a travel to Earth in order to locate better breeding grounds. The whole conversation disgusted Tessa, and after some time, Yana left her alone.
Finding out that Earth was certainly on the other side of the galaxy made Tessa nearly pass out in shock. She almost completely missed the part when Yana told her that she had been placed in liquid cryostasis the moment she was taken from Earth. The journey from her planet took six Rusneon years.
The equivalent of two hundred Earth years.
Tessa had outlived several generations in the space of one horrible sleep. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to have Serena and Shalea by her side. Depressed, Tessa resigned herself to silence and hoped that she would die soon.
The Night of the Falling Star loomed ahead and with each passing day, Tessa found herself wishing something would just end it all.
Tessa was force to learn about the things of the planet, and the food she ate only made her feel strange. Yana had explained it was natural but that after some intensive research of her biology, they felt it safe to find foods that would fit with her.
She had been tempted to starve herself to death, but every time she was in a room with any of them, she couldn’t help but want to do whatever they told her.
Still, Tessa did what she could to go against them, make things difficult. She was angry for being taken like this… she was angry for succumbing to Ceff… she wanted to disappear.
Instead, she only grew more and more confused. Each passing day, Tessa beheld the people, saw how they interacted and how Ceff would walk among them. For such a horrible person, he demonstrated an aptitude to treat his people fairly.
Any issue among the people was brought to him in a Chamber within the immense Citadel Tessa resided within. They never spoke, instead sat in a large circle where they would fall into a strange meditative point. Moments later the dispute would be sorted and Ceff would be speaking warmly to his subjects.
Not once was Tessa treated wrongly by any of the people around, even if they did stare at her a lot. Whenever she was forced to go out, Tessa tried to find it in herself to hate them.
She tried so desperately to believe that Ceff was some kind of evil dictator that enjoyed living a life of evil deeds. Instead, his actions contradicted the words he had breathed into her ear that night, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly as evil as she had met him.
“Worse,” she mused to herself.
“He must be so evil to make people believe he is good… while he hides his true nature.”
It seemed like the logical explanation of his behavior. Yet as the days and the nights bled away, she could not find deceit in his actions.
“Our home is one of peace,” Yana sighed one day, trailing his fingers into Tessa’s hair to create intricate knots from the strands.
“You shouldn’t hate it so