May 1st, 2314
The ship inches towards us. As we slowly moved away from the console, a plate on the side of the console started blinking, with the message ”Holo-call received.” playing on it. Searching the plate, we found a button labeled ”answer” on it. When I pressed it, a symbol popped up as a hologram. The symbol consisted of a circle of planets, and stars surrounding two letters GF. After this appears for a few minutes, the image dissolved, and another one, that of a man appears in its place. He had a uniform which neither of us recognized.
”Hello.” He spoke in an unrecognizable accent. “My name is Tran Malik of the Galactic Federation exploration ship Macurach. Please identify yourself and your purpose.” Hesitantly, I stepped moved closer to the disc. ”My name is FN-183. The person with me is named ZN-990. We arrived here, on the run from the regime.” The holo-screen crackled. ”Alright, do you know how to fly that thing?” He asked. “Sort of,” I responded. “I’ve been tasked with a secondary purpose of picking up immigrants.” He says. “I’m going to need you to fly your ship into my docking bay. Can you see it.” Me and ZN pressed our face against the glass. Near the bottom of the Macurach, and a rectangular door opens up. “I can see it.” I responded. “Good He said. “I’ll see you later then.” The Holo-screen flickered and turned off. We truned to each other, incredibly confused before moving back to the console, and starting to toy around with it
With some difficulty, we were able to pilot the small craft into the Machurach. As we flew into the docking bay, the door shut behind us, and we were hit by a blinding wave of light. As our eyes adjusted, we saw a large room filled with massive spotlights. Surrounding us were multiple other ships, some transports, others looking like they were used for war. We were led out by a few armed guards, and the bodies of the man, the guard, and the pilot were soon brought out in stretchers. ZN was given a cabin, while I was given better medical attention for my wound. After a few hours, we were brought into a small room with a table with three chairs, on each side of the table. Me and ZNsat on one side, and waited. Eventually, Tran entered the room with a tablet and a stack of chips under his shoulder. He shut and locked the door before sitting down.
“So.” He said. “I’m sure you have a lot of question right now.” He said, placing one of the chips into the tablet, and turning it on. On closer inspection, we found that the tablet appears to be much more advanced than those in the Ulm system. “Well..” ZN started. “So.” He interrupted. “Let’s get started.” He attached the tablet to a nearby projector via a cable. The projector lights up, showing a map of the galaxy. Two systems were highlighted. One labeled the Ulm system, and the other was labeled as the system we were currently in. He changed the slide to show another map. This one had a key saying which color represented regime territory and the other showing federation territory. While the federation part of the map consisted of a large portion of the galaxy, the Regime's section only consisted of the Ulm system and two surrounding ones.
We both were shocked, but before we could say anything, Tran moved towards us. “It looks like I have some explaining to do, so let’s start from the beginning.” He changed the slides to start showing much older maps. “In the beginning, the galaxy was full of chaos, and infighting. Factions were formed and torn apart. The Ulm system got the worst of the Fighting, as it had lots of resources to take. The core systems,” He motions to the systems closest to the center. “Gathered together to form the galactic federation, to get the order. We spread out, taking system after system, until these systems.” He motions towards the regime-controlled ones. “Rebelled, and pushed our disorganised army back. We fought for years, decades even! But we were unable to make any major progress against them. We signed a treaty, that would stop us from attacking any further, and for us to not interfere in their business. It was not until a few years later when we found out what was going on in there. They were abusing their power, lying to their citizens. So we sent in a few spies.” He switched the slide to pictures of books, that ZN seemed to recognize.” The Free Worlds.” She said, quietly. Tran nodded. “We created the myth to help people escape. We sent in people to pick them up.” He shuts the projector off. “Everything we know Is a lie?” I asked. He nodded silently.
A few minutes later, we were brought back to our room. We spent the journey in silence, as we processed what had just happened. We were dropped of on a planet, where we were processed, and brought for re-education, and temporary housing. During that time, we didn’t see each other much, and not after that. We were introduced to new brands, foods, and history that we had never heard of before. We made new friends and were interviewed many times, as we were some of the very few who had managed to leave the Ulm system for many years. Soon, we were allowed to go free, in an unfamiliar world, and many others like it.Some people were kind to us, some were rude, but I never let that bring me down. I was free, for the first time in my life.
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