Undaa, Hakar, Senes, Stardate 2270.135
"Velekh!"
Velekh had been sitting at the bottom of the staircase in front of Apartment One, listening to the music coming from inside. The music was always playing during this time of the day. Like today, it was usually an old instrumental piece from Ursai, the country the old man who lived in Apartment One came from. It reminded Velekh vaguely of classical music from Earth he had heard before but this Ursai music had a different tempo and clearly some of the instruments used were not the ones used in Earth music. Sometimes the music had loud, triumphant vocals. Velekh didn't speak Ursai so he didn't understand the lyrics, but he was fascinated by them nonetheless.
Occasionally the old man would open the door when Velekh happened to be passing the apartment and Velekh would see him waving his hands in time with the music and humming along loudly. He had been nervous about speaking to the old man at first and used to hurry past him with a nod of the head. Several months ago, however, he had been sitting in this same spot on the stairs and had been so caught up in the music that he hadn't noticed the old man emerging from the door until it closed behind him.
He learned then that the old man's name was Orat and that the young man Velekh had seen coming and going from the apartment was his grandson, Kadren. Orat and Kadren had moved to Undaa seven years earlier from Ursan when Kadren had been slightly older than Velekh was now, which was nearly eleven. Ursai was too cold a climate for an old man like him, Orat had told him. The old man spoke Haka with a thick accent that was sometimes difficult to understand, but he since he also spoke very slowly, Velekh could understand him better than most Hakarans. He was still learning the language himself and sometimes had difficulty following when people spoke too fast. Standard was Velekh's second language but he had found that those Hakarans who did speak it did not speak it particularly well.
Orat had told him he was welcome to stop in the apartment any time to talk or listen to music. His grandson was always out with friends and Velekh knew he was lonely. He was a fascinating old man. Though he had never been off Senes, he was well read and knew about many of the planets Velekh had visited and even much about Vulcan. Sometimes Velekh would talk to him for hours. Today, however, he had not knocked on the old man's door because he was supposed to be on Marhilfan Street by now. He wasn't sure how long he had had been sitting there, listening to the music, but apparently it had been some time because his mother was now yelling at him from just outside their apartment door at the top of the stairway.
"Velekh! Po nam-tor du fam dvun la'? Why are you still here?" She was irritated.
"I'm leaving now!" He pulled the shopping bags off his lap, got up, and, without turning to look back at her, hurried out the front door of the building. She had just wanted him out of the apartment so she could speak to his father via a subspace link. She probably imagined he was hanging around on the stairs in order to eavesdrop, which really wasn't the case. He couldn't hear anything over the music and even if he could, he knew they would just be having the same discussion they'd been having over and over again since his father had left Senes five months ago. Actually, they'd been having that same discussion since about a month before his father left, so it had been going on for six months.
They had arrived on Senes from Rhaandar VI eight months ago. After a few months on Senes, his father had been ready to move on. His mother, however, had decided she'd wanted to stay. There was no restriction on the amount of time off-worlders, including stateless persons, could stay in Hakar and his mother had wanted a break from moving. Aside from the three years they'd spent on Ivor Prime, the longest they were usually in one place was 90 to 180 days, depending on the the planet.
His father had felt that things in Hakar, while stable at the time they'd arrived, were not likely to remain that way. His mother believed his father was exaggerating his concerns over the political situation because he disliked staying in one place for too long and had had enough of Senes. After about a month of repeated discussions on the topic, his father had reluctantly left with the goal of locating a suitable planet for them to settle on for at least a few years. Velekh understood that a few years was the most they could hope for because his father became increasingly restless the longer they spent in any given spot.
Initially, his father had said he would be gone for no more than a month, two at the most. One month turned into two and when two turned into three, a planetwide travel ban to and from Senes had been implemented. If only his father had come back when he'd promised, they'd all be together now. If only he and his mother had left Senes with his father, they wouldn't be stuck here alone now. Not that it was a bad place to be stuck - Hakar had a mild climate and friendly people, and Velekh was fascinated by the architecture. Undaa was full of ancient buildings with thick stone walls, so different from many of the modern buildings on the newer colonies they'd stayed on.
But now war was encroaching from the eastern part of the country. Forces trying to overthrow the current government had launched missile attacks against Undaa. Things remained relatively safe in the capital city, however, due to a highly sophisticated anti-missile system called Sheyhaar. Velekh knew that a few missiles had managed to get past Sheyhaar but that had been outside the city limits and damage had been reported as minimal. As violent crimes in Undaa were rare compared to many of the places they had lived in, Velekh felt completely at ease navigating the old city streets alone.
His apartment lay in the ninth district, on the northwest side of the city, just outside the city center, known simply as the Center. He would need to walk to the Circle, the old wide road that encircled the Center, to catch a tram to the southern part of the Center, where Marhilfan Street was located. There were plenty of stores and markets closer to the apartment but his mother had specifically asked him to go to Marhilfan Street to pick up some spices and a melon from a certain vendor there. He knew this was only because she wanted him out of the apartment for a few hours. She didn't even like melons. He walked past Bennor Street and heard a familiar voice call to him from around the corner.
"Where are you headed, Losha?" It was Kadren, Orat's grandson, a thin young man with very closely cut hair. Kadren's skin tone, like his grandfather's, was lighter than that of native Hakans since he came from a country with a much colder climate. His skin was actually nearly the same shade as Velekh's. In that way, they both stood out among the native population. Kadren insisted on calling him Losha, a Haka name that meant handsome. Velekh wasn't bothered by it - though he didn't know him well, Kadren was kind and he understood he only meant it as a compliment.
"Marhilfan Street."
"I'm going into the Center too. I'll walk with you to the tram stop." Kadren fell in alongside him and they continued on. The had nearly reached the tram stop when a piercing sound hit the air.
"It's Sheyhaar!" Kadren shouted and he pulled Velekh to the ground. The sound, which sounded like some enormous wailing animal, continued on for several minutes as they lay there on the ground. Then there was the noise of explosions, which didn't last long, perhaps a minute. Then there was silence.