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Triara Davinus stepped off the ramp and slowly followed her comrades. Feeling the wind on her face only accentuated her conviction that she and most of her race were very close to crossing the ascension threshold, and yet here she was on an alien world trying to establish trade with a primitive and by all appearances brutish race. She felt her soul become...lighter was the only word that came to mind. Their mission to this world, which had seemed so important not that long ago, now seemed childishly trivial. The Tollarian race had experienced mass ascension once before, and enough firsthand accounts of that event had survived that the signs of another impending spiritual evolution were recognized for what they were. However, just like last time, almost a thousand years ago, there were those who would not ascend and who hadn’t felt the impending changes. Her Ship-commander seemed to be one of them. When she and others in the crew had told him that the Change was near, he dismissed their request to return home out of hand. As she reached the group, she felt a vibration in her body that seemed to intensify the closer she got to her fellow Tollarians. Some of them looked back at her. Was it her imagination or did a couple of them actually have blue light coming from inside their eyes?
The harsh, guttural shout from the approaching group of locals pulled her attention from that beautiful blue light. They were armed of course, but her people were armed too. Force seemed to be the only thing these Deimens respected. This was not the first time her people had interacted with this planet, and several demonstrations of Tollarian firepower had been needed to teach the Deimens that aggression against Tollarians would not be tolerated.
She closed her eyes and felt herself levitating into the air. The Change had begun. Everyone else was rising as well; she could feel that without needing to look. Everyone except the Ship-commander of course. She felt sorry for what was about to happen to him. The higher she went, the farther into the future she could see. The Deimens loved to fight, and they were about to throw themselves into a war the likes of which they had never even imagined. But enough of looking down. Triara turned her inner gaze upward, and her spirit soared with delight and awe at what she saw.
Urtur The Great could not believe his luck when he saw all but one of the blue-skinned aliens dissolve into balls of light and rise into the air, leaving their clothes behind. He was glad that he had taken the time to study the history of these strange people, including that other time long ago when 99% of their race vanished in the same way. Recognizing what he was seeing allowed him to react quickly. The lone blue-skinned alien left was clearly surprised by the disappearance of his fellows, and best of all, he himself was not armed. Urtur’s guards quickly subdued him, and Urtur grinned as he saw the look of fear on the man’s face. Urtur then turned his attention to the alien ship standing quietly a short distance away. To the Tollarians, his people must have looked primitive, but they had some technology with heavier-than-air flying craft, armored land vehicles and ships that could travel under water. So the idea of a ship that could fly between the stars, while impressive, didn’t intimidate them. His people would ‘convince’ this quivering alien to show them how to operate the ship, and with it he, Urtur The Great, would conquer the rest of this world before travelling to other planets where these blue-skinned devils lived to see if the Change had taken 99% of their inhabitants too. The thought of a Deimen Empire rising from the ashes of the Tollarian Empire was a thought so intoxicating that he felt light-headed for a few seconds. He gave a loud laugh and patted the alien on his shoulder.
“Fear not, Ship-commander, we will not hurt you as long as you co-operate. Now, tell me everything you know about your ship.” The alien moaned with understanding, and as he started talking, tears rolled down his face.
