Introduction:

I am back! :D Sorry people. I had a domestic flood a few months back…then the holidays came around…then I had to get my house repairs after the flood finished…and then there are the CBA's (curriculum based assessments-schoolwork). Woe is me. :( Nonetheless, I finally have the first real chapter of this story up. Enjoy.

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There's a place called the universe. It's cold, dark, and very, very big.

There are billions of galaxies in the observable parts of the universe.

Each galaxy is known to contain billions of their own stars.

These stars have big balls of rock orbiting them, called planets.

In one of those billions of galaxies, orbiting one of those stars, was a particular little blue and green planet. This planet was run by a bunch of ape-frogs.

These weren't just any garden-variety ape-frogs; they were smart ape-frogs. Their primate hands with opposable thumbs, as well as their big brains, allowed them to ascend from the bestial, maddening spectacle of animal life. They then graduated to the bestial, even more maddening spectacle of civilized life.

These ape-frogs were a peculiar bunch. They had webbed feet, which provided powerful jumping and dancing power. They had beige skin speckled with red and covered in a thin coat of small, prick-like hairs. Their biggest feature was their mind: they were crazy, those creatures. Some were kind, some were thoughtful, and some spent their entire lives devoted to a certain task, like the creation of a really efficient egg-beater. But one factor separated the citizens of this little planet from the normal, everyday animal more than anything else:

These ape-frogs hate.

They hate many things; some hated being denied of what they wanted, even if those things were detrimental to them. Some ape-frogs hated being left out of groups of other ape-frogs. A few ape-frogs hated other ape-frogs just for being different then they were, and proceeded to kill them.

Fortunately, the gifts of civilization have had a profound effect on our ape-frogs; they now kill each other with cool things like guns and rockets, instead of the primitive spear and axe.

So, there's a planet with ape-frogs orbiting a star, in a galaxy, in a universe. But out of the many rank-and-file ape frogs on this planet, there was an individual one who had greater potential then any of his kind had ever known. Namely, the potential to raise himself and his species to a greater level of existence.

This ape-frog was named Jacob, and his potential was revealed when a race of lizard-bugs gave him a visit…

Jacob slowly began to see again, a grey fog filling his field of view. Only moments ago he was on the streets of Willima, a quaint and happy town on the planet Euron-5. Now, following the appearance of a strange disk in the sky and a bright green flash, he was on board what was apparently a ship. Regaining full awareness, he staggered onto his feet and realized he was in a small grey room with too much mist to see anything clearly.

A call rang out from his amphibian lips. "H-Hello? Is anyone there?"

A bright light shone out from the mist. A figure came into view.

Jacob felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. He had heard about alien abductions in the past; how ships shaped like disks would come and steal people, or animals, and sometimes they even stole boxes of precious spice. It seemed like Jacob had a real story to tell his friends and family back at Willima, assuming he would live through this.

Knowing it would be best to maintain a degree of control over the situation, he struggled to keep his calm and managed to get out a question. "Who are you?"

The figure advanced closer. It was very tall and lanky, colored completely black-he couldn't tell if the thing was wearing a robe, or if that was its skin. The head rose up, mist hiding its features.

"You already know me, but you know not my name," Said a deep, ringing voice. "Ironic."

Jacob gave a confused look. "Uh…ok…where am I, and why am I here?"

"You're asking questions…you're fearful. Assuming you're cooperative, we do not intend to do anything harmful to you. Follow me, please."

Slowly turning around, the figure extended a hand towards Jacob, motioning for him to follow. The hand was made of bone-it was exactly like the primate, 5-fingered hand that Jacob's species has, but it was just bone.

Jacob felt an odd compelling urge to follow the alien. He slowly followed, a sense of vulnerability and fear suppressing his curiosity.

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The amphibo-mammal found himself in a long hallway, far longer than the exterior of the ship promised it to be. The walls were reflective, and plated with various wiring panels and metal plates. He didn't know whether to speak in such a bizarre situation, but Jacob figured it would be best to know as much about the place he was in as he could.

"I just want to know why I'm here…"

The alien continued on his path inattentively, walking on a pair of 3-jointed legs ending in claws. "You ask why, but you know not why you ask why, don't you?"

Jacob grimaced. "I'm sorry..?"

The creature gave an audible growl. "You're all the same…every one of you. You're only intelligent enough to grasp the most basic ideas…you're even too ignorant to know how ignorant you are."

"En taro, mesa kar-nak," he added.

Jacob felt insulted, and would have sent a rebuttal if the pair had not come to what looked like a door. They entered a spherical room with a large luminescent ring in its center. Two more individuals, appearing to be the same species as the alien, took notice of Jacob. One whispered to to the other.

"Mela new vista?" one of them asked.

Jacob's captivator bowed his head. "Nacht."

The other figure, adorned in a blue vest, advanced towards Jacob. The light from the ring illuminated him, and the poor captive got a glance at what the aliens really looked like. They were skeletal, and unnerving in appearance; the alien was coated in a glassy exoskeleton of bone plates, and had a head that curved back like a hammer's nail remover. A set of pincers sat below three blood-red reptilian eyes. Judging from appearance, he had no visible ears or nose. Jacob's eyes widened in fear at the sight, but he attempted to regain his composure and make contact with him (er…whatever it was).

Jacob started to speak. "Um…h-hello? My name is, uh, Jacob. And I, uh…"

"…work for spice mining contracts in your home city of Willima," Stated the figure in blue. Jacob fell silent, while the alien continued. "You have a wife and 3 children, you live in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath housing unit in a large Arcology Habitat, you secretly crave yellow spice, and you lost your virginity at precisely 9:25 PM, Saturday, August 20th of 15 years ago. Also, you are an avid reader of 'The Blue Nation Enquirer', explaining why you are much less tense then the other samples we have previously brought here."

Jacob gave the aliens a long, unblinking stare, fully aware of his vulnerability and lack of control over the situation. The figure in blue spoke, "Now then, I can explain why you have been brought here and what is expected of you. Would you like that to happen?"

He executed a timid nod.

"Good," stated the blue-vest. "Contrary to whatever ideological drabble you have been force-fed, there is life, and plenty of it, outside of your homeworld. Unfortunately, recent galactic activity is causing multiple mass extinctions of life on thousands of worlds."

Jacob summoned the will to speak. "R-recent galactic activity..?"

The alien gave a growl-like sigh. "Gamma, X, and beta Ultraviolet levels originating from the galactic core are mysteriously becoming more intense, subjecting millions of planets to unnaturally high doses of radiological exposure, killing off numerous entire ecological systems. I am fully aware that you are not aware of what I am saying, so for future reference, I would suggest you not ask questions unless I say you can."

The rasping voice clamped down on Jacob, who felt like he was physically getting held down onto the spot he was standing on. The pace of his thoughts and the pulse of his heartbeat slowed down.

Yet again, the alien leader spoke. "You need only understand this: we have a goal, a mission of sorts, and it requires your cooperation. I ask that you stand here and push this button."

He gestured towards what looked like a control panel with a red button prominently placed on it. Jacob warily stumbled forward, pushing the button inward. A flash burst out, temporarily blinding him, and seconds later he saw that a dimensionless grey blob had appeared in the chamber, centered in the ring of light. He could not muster the will to speak up.

The other alien originally in this room, who had remained quiet up until this point, directed instructions at Jacob. "This is a complex device, but it's nothing you can't use with a little help. I ask that you do the following: think back home. Back at Willima. Think of what life was like there…your friends and family…the bustling city."

Jacob's eyes closed, and clear images of his life flashed before his eyes. From when he was born, to the war with Orange Nation (in which his brother died), to the meeting of his future wife.

"Good, good. Now, I want to you remember this: the life there. The animals and plants you encountered every day. Visualize it."

Jacob's mind recalled a trip to the local zoo he had made in elementary school. Crowds of Jujubs, flocks of Bimingos, and the fearful, 6-limbed carnivorous Reaper.

The alien closed his eyes, and these same images filled his head as well. He clasped his pincers, indicating a smile. "Good, good. Now, just do what I do…"

Jacob's hands wandered around the panel without his commands to do so. He started pressing buttons, and the blob in the center of the room started to change shape. It was molded like clay, sprouted limbs, had various growths added to it, and changed color, eventually to the point where it perfectly resembled a two-headed avian Bimingo. His hand pressed a final button, and the bird disappeared in a flash as bright as the one announcing the blob's arrival.

The alien in the blue vest smiled as well. "Excellent," he murmured. "There is promise in these primitives yet."

The warden alien, who had greeted Jacob, gave his species' version of a smirk. "Don't mess up, Rirz. We only have 5 of these things to work with once the job is done."

The alien controlling Jacob gave his own smirk. "Your comments don't help my concentration all that much, Kyre. My noso ich berlquen."

Nevertheless, the alien named Kyre kept talking. "Why can't we just abduct the damn things we need like we do with everything else? We already got this guy on board."

The leader glared at the warden. "Our engineer says we have to conserve energy. Our fuel is almost gone, and we only have enough charge packs for a few stellar jumps. Just go to your quarters until we're done here."

Kyre gave an unknown salute and left the chamber. Over the next dozen hours, Jacob was maintained in his trance, creating replicas of the fauna of his homeworld.

Eventually the job was done, and the leader gave Rirz a nod of approval. "Excellent work. For once, all is going to plan…"

Suddenly, an alarm went off, echoing throughout the chamber and the rest of the rounded ship.

The blue-vest's eyes widened in terror. As his status as the Omnipotent, he was well versed in every coding used in the communication of the few remaining ships in the empire, and he was listening to the second-worst sound a ship captain could ever hear.

A series of high-pitched beeps, punctuated by a loud drone.

The ship was out of power. And there were no energy packs left.

The two aliens burst out of the room, snapping Jacob out of his trance. He stumbled around a bit, disoriented and overwhelmed by the new sounds. "Whe-where am I..."

His senses came back online, and Jacob understood that the situation was a bad one. He didn't know where he was, or who those people were, or why any of this was happening and why he wasn't on the streets of his beloved city. But it was painfully obvious that he was in trouble, and that it would be a good idea to ditch the place as soon as possible. He dashed out of the open chamber, shook nearly off his feet by a large shockwave that rocked the ship. What seemed to be an intercom played a message in the alien language Jacob had heard earlier.

"Warning. Systems underpowered and in state of decay. Combat systems malfunctioning…zzzz…error. Planet-buster launching arrays d-d down…zzzz…error…launching missiles now."

Jacob paused in his running. He had actually understood what the intercom had said? And what's a planet-buster? He decided these questions would be best answered later and kept running, searching for a way to escape the ship.

A sign, while posted in an unknown language, caught his eye: "escape pods".

The room was open to anyone, and numerous pods were gone-the crew of the saucer seemed to have jumped ship. Jacob, trusting the wisdom of the sci-fi movies he's seen, approached a pod and banged what he believed to be the door. It swung open in a burst of steam, and he leapt in.

Panicking, since he didn't know how to work this thing, Jacob began to push random buttons arranged on the pod's control panel. Eventually, after various screens had come to life and several beeps and whirs were heard, the pod door closed and it began to depart.

The emergency craft burst out of its launching bay. Jacob breathed heavily, waiting out a few moments of silence, before a bright light illuminated the outside. He peered into the pod's window.

Holy crap. He was in space. He was in orbit above his planet.

Jacob immediately thought of the Blue Nation moon men, the brave souls who had ventured to the planet's volcanic moon only a few years ago, and had brought home orbital pictures. It was exactly like he thought it was, with a majestic blue and green disk appearing only a few inches across in his field of view. Well, it would be what he thought it would be like, if it weren't for the large exploding space ship directly behind him.

The scene was disturbed by what looked like a shooting star. He squinted at it, and noticed that the object was hurtling towards his planet, away from the wrecked ship. It disappeared on the stellar horizon, still apparently keeping the same heading.

If a person looks at a bolt of lightning, they will notice that the lighting will appear several moments before the thunder does. That rule of thumb applied here; Jacob was very nearly blinded by the light of a million nuclear explosions, then felt himself get thrown against the walls of his pod by a huge shockwave several seconds later.

********

Jacob had spent well over an hour doing nothing but crying. What was the beautiful planet in the distance was now a glowing ball of magma, a corpse still dutifully in orbit around its star. That meant that everything he had ever known was also a corpse, obliterated into thousands of micro-fragments.

Although convinced the situation was totally hopeless, Jacob was a survivalist at heart, and knew he should at least attempt to find a way to get the escape pod somewhere habitable. Recovering from his whimpering, he gazed over the wide array of buttons and switches decorating the interior of the cabin. While frantically departing the ship earlier, he had inadvertently turned on a what looked like a computer monitor. Lines of text were sprawled on it.

System scan in progress…complete. Status report: critical main system damage. Restoring emergency backup data…

Complete. Accessing files. DNA coding for project Genesis is intact. Enough codes are available for distribution to 11 planetwide ecosystems.

Passing the information read to him as unhelpful, Jacob found what looked like a digital map.

In orbit around the Edon system. Recommended landing site: planet Tiberia, heading 224, 352.

Tiberia…Jacob had heard scientists debating if life could exist on another planet a few years ago (and his recent experience had settled that debate). A major talking point was about the planet in the same system has his homeworld-Tiberia. It was a grim world, with pale violet-brown soil and strange green marks on the planet's surface. He assumed that landing on solid ground would be safer then floating endlessly through space, and clicked a key on the console reading "enter".

Heading set: Tiberia. Terraformation project is online. Atmospheric tools, flora samples and genetic coding are located in this pod's cargo bay; preparing for planetwide distribution, setting terraforming tools online.

A new console materialized in front of Jacob, and he felt the pod lurch forward in a new direction. Comforted by the knowledge that he was going somewhere, and that he was alone in peace, Jacob curled onto the deck of the pod, crying himself to sleep.