X-Trees| Volume One: Welcome Home

Chapter Six

Summary: Destruction. Rebirth. The cycle continues...

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The D'Bari people have lived peacefully for generations. Underneath the warmth of their only sun, farmers cultivate heirloom crops. Inter-galactic merchants unload wares at bustling space ports. The cities, vast landscapes of metal and glass and greenery, stand as shining testimonies to the harmonious chord struck between natural and man-made. In sprawling libraries, D'Bari's greatest academics imbibe the knowledge of forgotten centuries, chartering a course of enlightenment for the planet's future. Empathy, they have decided upon, and not ignorance, will be the guiding principle by which they live. A cavalcade of Shi'ar ships land on D'bari's shores, depositing royalty who excitedly hope to witness the once-in-lifetime blossoming of the In'zari - an indigenous plant to D'bari's jungles, said to exhibit the life cycle of the star. Beholders of the blooming claim there's nothing like it elsewhere in the universe.

While life continues on, no one pays mind to the shadow skirting in front of D'Bari's sun. It is no more than a speck, and there for only a second, before dipping behind a crop of clouds lazily drifting in the sky. When it becomes visible again, this time bigger, they take notice. Farmers lay to rest the tools of their trade. The greatest of D'bari's minds, set down their books, and cast their gazes beyond the crystalline windows, toward the sun, hands shielding their eyes. Trade in the space ports slows as thoughts of riches recede and curiosity overwhelms. The Shi'ar visitors, stop in their tracks and watch on beneath the dense foliage and swooping vines of the jungle; even the In'zari pause, their stems straighten skyward, and their blooms, so ready to blossom, snap shut.

In the sky, the entity that has captured the attentions of a planet grows larger. It casts field and city alike in darkness, the shadows it creates spreading across the ground like the sharpened talons of a bird of prey. Nervousness swells in D'Bari stomachs, perspiration slicks brows. Shi'ar grow restless as the familiarity of this sight sinks in. Libraries are emptied; the academics take to the streets to catch a better view. Whatever is happening, they wish to experience it to the fullest extent, to better catalogue the events later. Only the In'zari recognizes what is occurring, what fate this visitor from the stars brings them. Its blooms curl and die on the vine, its leaves brown and wither, its stems fall back to the ground, blackened and lifeless.

Overhead, the creature unfurls its massive, red wings, eclipsing D'Bari's sun, and a primordial screech ruptures from its depths. The world trembles. Farmers scatter. They take cover in cellars and underneath farm equipment. Academics and common-folk fall to their knees and through tears, share in prayers for salvation. Strangers huddle together, on the streets, in basements, underneath trees; there is strength in numbers. Mothers hug their children; merchants seek to escape the calamity on their ships. The Shi'ar run deeper into the forest; they'd rather die, limp and mangled in the mouth of one of the jungle's ferocious beasts, then face what comes next while their hearts still beat.

The end.

It takes only seconds to occur. D'Bari full of life one moment; D'bari a blackened, silenced wasteland the next. Cities leveled. Forests turned to ash. Its people reduced to a footnote history is destined to overlook. The sun sapped of its energy, transformed into a rock, harmless, hard, cool. It explodes and silent shockwaves roll into the vastness of space.

A centuries-long hunger has been sated and all it took was the lives of 2.1 billion; sacrificed on an altar of purpose, reaped from the universe so that others may sow.

The harbinger of this destruction floats deftly through D'Bari's remains. It does not mourn, nor feel guilt. It has done what was necessary, fulfilling a part of the cycle all life subscribes to. Creation and destruction. Life and death. Only in one, can the other be found.