Fortuna

8

Are you being serious? 

I stared in astonishment and amazement at Imara who was casually sitting on my bed, eating the cumis I had brought back for her. The door was closed and she was waiting for me to say something after explaining to me all that she had heard on the x-disk. What she told me was absolutely unbelievable. It was absurd. How did this all make sense? I continually ran through her words in my head from top to bottom, over and over again, hoping that soon the contents of Fortuna and the Galaxy would sound less "out of this world."

She must have noticed my puzzled expression as she decided to slide the open disk towards me from under the bed. Its hologram was still projected and she spoke to activate the option. "Here. Listen to it for yourself."

I grabbed the disk and watched as it began to whir softly. A static female voice began to speak. I recognized it; it was Sally's.

I'm glad you decided to open this section, Fortuna and the Galaxy, and I'm sure you will find it both helpful and insightful. To begin with, it is important to establish that Fortuna and Earth are sister planets - Fortuna existing in a separate dimension within the same Galaxy. When Earth was created, so was Fortuna, as covered by the previous section, The History of Fortuna. What the other section omitted is that the two planets are in fact bound by an inter-celestial force, where any event that happens on Earth would have an asymmetrical consequence on Fortuna. For example, since the beginning of human civilization on Fortuna, natural disasters have plagued the planet, causing uninhabitable conditions everywhere, with the exception of a small patch of land in the northern hemisphere. The rest is known as the Stormlands. On the other hand, her sister, Earth, has benefited from pleasant weather and livable conditions for as long as mankind can remember. 

Now although Fortuna's weather and environment was less than ideal, our superior technology made up for it. As a result, by the turn of the eighteenth century, Fortuna had already begun space exploration into the distant galaxies. It took another century and a half but Earth was eventually found. Afterwards, centuries of work from numerous scientists and researchers on Fortuna resulted in the discovery of Earth's relationship with Fortuna. 

Which leads to the name of our planet. The name "Fortuna" essentially means luck, which us, Fortunians believe govern the relationship between Earth and our own planet. Good luck on one planet equates to bad luck on the other. Positive experiences on one and the negative experiences in the other negate each other, allowing for balance in the galaxy. 

The other portions of this disk conceal the truth; Humans from Earth did not discover Fortuna. We discovered them. 

The noise cackled and then faded away. Hearing it first hand and not from Imara didn't seem to make a difference. I was still as shocked as before and I was seriously starting to doubt everything I believed. I thought back to the things I had learned on the hospital bed. Why would the other section of the disk state that Fortuna was found by people on Earth when in reality, it was the other way around? These people here were aliens then. It was the only logical conclusion.

"Aliens," I concluded. "They're aliens. I don't know what they want to do with us."    

Imara seemed relatively unfazed by my reaction. "You're right. They're human-like aliens. What a surprise."

"I honestly expected aliens to be green or something," I said and then laughed as I remembered how Aeolus looked like a walking blueberry. "Man, this is crazy." 

"If there's one person on this place that could help us get back to Earth, I think it's going to be -"

"Sally," I finished her sentence. "That's her voice we just heard."