Chapter 1: Legacy

Vellis, a planet with an area four times smaller than Earth, was unknown, even forgotten in the shadows of cosmic silence. The suburban areas were a combination of primordial nature and technological interference. In the cities, vegetation was controlled, but the planet's wilderness areas had no shortage of huge, bioluminescent trees that created a real light show at night. The fauna of Vellis was equally strange.

Huge, transparent insects, the size of a human hand, scurried among the plants, and in the distance one could see majestic creatures that resembled huge, armored turtles with a hint of bioluminescence permeating through them. In some places, bright, color-changing clouds hung in the air, which in darker corners turned to pulsating to the rhythm of some distant melody.

The environment in which she spent hours was a place that seemed unlike anything she had ever seen. On the one hand, the city was full of modern buildings with rounded edges, made of metal and glass that shimmered in the light of the local sun, as if they were something between space and substance. On the other hand, there were gardens all around, where the trees looked like huge plants resembling flowers in a spiral shape, and the grass was thick and ambiguous - once green, once blue, depending on the angle of the light.

Dressed in the lightweight but functional clothing she had been wearing since she left her native lands, she moved around one corner of the city. Her outfit resembled something that might have been seen in that era, when fully functional states still existed on Earth - a tight, dark gray tunic, with holographic accents on the sleeves that changed color depending on her movement. Her hair was long, almost white, reaching her shoulders, slightly wavy, reminiscent of mountain snow as it brightened with the morning sun. Her face, slender and expressive, betrayed not only her youth, but also the conviction that she was more than just an observer. In her eyes lurked a hunger for knowledge that never stayed satiated.

Entering the archives, she felt the vibration of the equipment make her think of a distant aeon when Earth was still a vibrant place. The room looked like a combination of an old library and a laboratory. Everything, from the bookcases with crystal shelves that emanated a soft light, to the digital panels displaying only parts of the records, had something depressing about them. These were documents not only from this planet's past, but also from others, including an unknown Earth to her. That's mainly why she spent so much time there, staring at the forgotten records, trying to discover anything that could explain to her who her ancestors were.

One of the screens showed the words:

"The year 10,000 BC. - Earth divided into two civilizations: Atlantis and Mu.

She held her gaze for a moment. She was familiar with the story, but there was still something about it that made her scratch her head. Something she couldn't explain.

"Atlanta... Mu..." - she mused, drawing in air through clenched lips.

"Atlantis destroyed. Escape into space. Earth does not exist.

She paused, staring at the simple but unbelievable words. She tried to understand what it meant, what could have happened. Maybe it was just a story, maybe just a legend. But something inside her, something she didn't understand, told her that it wasn't just a story.

She collected within herself all the data that could provide answers. She felt that the planet they lived on was like a dusty box that tried to store too many things at once. The technology that surrounded them was vast, but it fell in the shadow of a forgotten war from centuries ago. Earth, it seemed, was but a shadow in history. Nonetheless, she was confident that she would eventually find a way to solve the mystery, if only she continued her search.

"If Atlantis could survive, maybe Earth can too..." - she whispered quietly, and her thoughts wandered to a distant planet that no one talked about anymore.

She still couldn't believe that Earth, a planet that was only a myth in the stories of her ancestors, really existed. Although she knew that science didn't allow such fantasies, something inside her twitched when she came across dusty documents in the old Vellis archives. They were only fragments of records, but to her they represented the key to a mystery. A mystery that could connect her fate to what was left of Earth.

She paused.

Escape to space...

Her ancestors, those who hid on Vellis for millennia, those who once called themselves Atlanteans, became refugees. They stayed here, on this planet, living in hiding, not wanting their story to come to light. But she was different. She was curious. She wanted to understand what her civilization really was. And the Earth... Earth, which had destroyed her ancestors, was the answer to the question that kept her guessing.

The documents she saw before her spoke of two great civilizations that existed on Earth thousands of years ago. Atlantis, home to people who considered technology to be of the highest value. They were masters of engineering, building spaceships, massive cities that would last for centuries, and their ability to manipulate energy made them second to none on Earth. Their technology not only served them to create powerful machines, but also to erect great structures that seemed downright unnatural - monumental pyramids with energy sources, invisible force fields around cities, enabling protection from natural disasters.

However, their ambitions did not end on Earth. Atlantis developed powerful spaceships that went into space, and their goal became not only interstellar travel, but also expansion to other planets. Their scientists discovered ways to control energy in ways that went beyond ordinary capabilities. With these technologies, they became fully independent of Earth, almost ready to conquer space. However, their technology came at a price.

She stared at the archive's display, and a mixed expression of amazement and concern was painted on her face. She was beginning to understand that the history she was uncovering was not just the past of some forgotten civilization, but the beginning of a tragedy that would have consequences not only for Earth, but also for her own history.

In the South Pacific there was a second civilization, quite different from the Atlanteans - the Mu. The inhabitants of this continent were not driven by the need for domination, but by harmony with nature. The Naacals, as they were called, treated the planet as a living organism, whose energy they used. They were able to control the flow of geothermal, wind, solar and, most importantly, planetary energy. Their architecture was organic, not interfering with nature, but coexisting with it. Rather than massive, cold structures, Naacalian cities resembled large gardens, where buildings were constructed of living plants and organic materials. Art, music and mysticism were central to their culture.

Initially, there was harmony between the two civilizations. The Atlanteans admired the Naacals for their ability to control nature, for their spiritual balance. The Naacals, on the other hand, watched with curiosity the development of Atlantean technology, although some of them could not understand the need for constant conquest and destruction of the environment. However, cooperation proved unstable. As Atlantean technology became more aggressive and their interest in conquering new planets grew, conflicts began to arise. The Naacals, convinced of the need to maintain balance and harmony with nature, began to see that the Atlanteans' ambitions could lead to the destruction not only of Earth, but of nature itself.

These tensions built up over the centuries, until finally open conflict arose. Atlantis decided to use its war technology to subjugate Mu. They began producing weapons that could destroy entire continents. However, instead of surrendering, the Naacals began to use their knowledge of planetary energy to create a powerful protective field that protected them from the most dangerous Atlantean attacks. In response, Atlantis decided to use its nuclear weapons.

A war broke out on a scale unprecedented in the history of the Earth. The northern and southern continents were on fire, and the ocean became a battlefield. The artificial islands of the Atlanteans were destroyed by neutron bombs, which annihilated entire cities. The Naacals, despite their attempts to defend themselves, were forced to retreat inland, but were unable to withstand the technological superiority of the Atlanteans. The earth became a place of apocalypse, where nuclear war destroyed almost everything.

Eventually, after the complete destruction of both civilizations, Atlantis and Mu disappeared from the face of the Earth. All that remained were remnants of technology, incomprehensible structures, deserted cities and seas full of destruction. Those who survived were forced to flee. Those who had the technology to conquer space began building spaceships and fleeing Earth, leaving behind a planet engulfed in war.

She stopped scrolling through the text. She stood in silence for a while, feeling how connected her people were to the events. She felt that something was avoiding her, that there was something deeper here. Something that had to be hidden. She knew that this was not just a story. It was their own story. A story that was waiting to happen again.

She still couldn't believe what she had just read. Her gaze wandered across the display, and her thoughts began to stir in a way she rarely did. Earth - a planet they considered a myth in her own society - had turned out to be the field of a bloody experiment in which humanity, capable of erecting mighty civilizations, had gone to the extreme in its stupidity. Although these events unfolded thousands of years ago, she felt that what she was discovering was more personal, as if the stories of ancient conflicts were somehow connected to what lay ahead in her own world.

This war looked nothing like any of the stories she had heard as a child. There were no heroic struggles for freedom or landmark moments. There was only destruction, selfishness and technology that went beyond the limits of common sense.

She stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the vast landscape of the planet. Vellis was calm, almost mesmerizing. In the distance she could see mountainous ranges, which were shrouded in a light mist. Because of the planet's atmosphere, all the vegetation seemed intensely green, and the fauna was full of life, as if nature had found its perfect place in this ecosystem. She felt as if she was standing on the border of two worlds: the one her ancestors had left behind and the one she had yet to discover.

She returned to the stand, sliding her fingers across the glass to read further passages. What she had read earlier still resonated in her mind: the Earth that had been talked about so much on her planet was not what she had imagined for years. The last great war, a nuclear war, had destroyed all that was left of its former glory. On its ashes, a new Earth was born, one that humanity knew only from legends.

She began searching through more archives. What she found only confirmed her suspicions.

- Where did the survivors on land go? - she asked herself. And then she felt something she couldn't define. It was a longing. A longing for something she didn't know, yet she felt it inside her. Maybe it was the same longing her ancestors felt when they left Earth. Maybe it was part of their heritage that still existed in her genes. Maybe it was her own struggle with what she had become.

After the war that destroyed ancient civilizations, there was silence on Earth. The Earth, scarred by the nuclear annihilation, slowly regenerated itself over the centuries. Peoples from the depths of the continents, unaware of what caused the cataclysm, began to rebuild their lives from scratch. At first, they were just small tribes, struggling to survive, living off what nature gave them. But over the years, their civilizations began to develop. New societies, new cultures emerged, and their conflicts with each other created an intricate mosaic of states that slowly began to emerge on the old ruins of previous empires.

Although some remembered tales of great cities and space technology, their historical consciousness was fuzzy. They mythologized the past, creating legends about gods and powerful civilizations. But there was no denying that the Earth was beginning to build a new order. In places where there had previously been only emptiness, new social structures were now emerging. City-states were springing up, competing for resources, territory and influence. In these cities, technological advances clashed with traditions, and civilizations constantly fought for superiority.

As a result of this rivalry, some of these younger civilizations developed their own forms of weapons and technology. At first, these were tools made from available raw materials - stone, metals, wood - but as the years passed, humanity began to discover technology it did not fully understand, but was able to use. Armaments became more and more diverse, and new countries built increasingly powerful armies.

Thus, the first serious states began to emerge on Earth, governed by kings, chieftains, or organized into federations. However, their development was slow, and conflicts between them - numerous and violent. People began to discover new lands, and wars over territories soon broke out.

Man, after thousands of years of development and chaos, was rediscovering his own power, inventing ever new methods of manipulating nature, producing weapons and tools that were no match for those of the past, but allowed new civilizations to be built. And although Earth was never again the same planet it had been before the war, it was a place where people were beginning to reach for their dreams anew.

She held her breath. Vellis. This was her planet. It was here, thousands of years later, that her people lived in peace, in silence, away from all conflicts, although all the time she felt that something about the peace was artificial, inappropriate. She realized that everything she read could explain some of her own questions. What had happened on Earth might not only have affected her ancestors, but also herself.

She clamped her hands on the edge of the desk. After a moment, she changed the screen to see planetary maps showing the Milky Way. And finally, somewhere out there - there was Earth. Where it all began.

- I have to fly there. I have to find answers. - Her voice was firm.

She knew it would not be easy. The past was not going to be easy to uncover, and the future was going to be even more complicated. But she understood that her life, her mission, depended on this return. To understand who she really was and how it all began. She was sure that on Earth she would find the answers. Only that these answers might be much more complex than she thought.

She wasn't sure what she felt next. Maybe it was just an attempt to understand her own identity. Maybe it was a desperation to connect with a history that remained forever foreign.

She closed the screen and sat in silence. The dark light of the archive seemed to surround her like a thick veil, and the chill of the room crept into her bones. She felt as if she had been drawn into something larger, intangible that existed not only in space, but also in time. Everything she discovered was like a scattered jigsaw puzzle whose pieces did not fit together. She had to figure out how to put the pieces together.

Her hands still clung to the edge of the desk, and questions swirled in her mind. How come the survivors didn't mention all this? Why didn't anyone talk about what happened to Earth? All this information she found in the archives was so.... quiet, hazy. As if someone was trying to erase from memory what had happened.

She squeezed her eyes shut. She had to put her mind back in order, as was her habit. She knew that Earth was not a place that had simply disappeared from her history. She had to go back there. Everything in her told her that her mission didn't end with those digital records. Earth was the key, but not just to understanding the past. She felt that something much more meaningful was waiting for her on that planet, something she had not yet been able to grasp.

Completely unexpectedly, she heard a quiet sound in the background - a notification on one of the screens. She approached it, barely breathing. On the screen appeared an image of the planet - Earth. Its surface was full of destruction, traces of wars, but something in this image attracted Astra's eyes. It was not just the emptiness she had expected.

She knew it would be a long journey. She knew it wouldn't be easy to find a way to get to Earth. But now she felt ready. It was no longer just a matter of answering questions about the past. It was a question of her future.

She felt adrenaline start coursing through her veins. The ground was waiting. She could feel it in the air. She felt a deep shock in her heart. Everything she had seen, understood and experienced was leading her to this one moment. She had to fly. Earth was the key to who she really was.

But she knew it wouldn't be a one-way trip. And that not everything she found in the archives was going to prepare her for what would happen there. After all, not everything that comes from the past is ready to be revealed.

She took a deep breath. In a few hours she was to meet Captain Wyrm. This was her only contact with the "old" fleet, one of the last old type of interplanetary ships that could help her continue her journey. Before that happened, she still had to review records that could provide more information about Earth. The last word that rang in her mind was Earth, not Vellis. It was there, the answers awaited.

She stood up, feeling the cold metal of the floor reflect in her feet. Everyone around her was too busy to notice her silence. They lived in oblivion, but she couldn't stop thinking. There were legends of Earth all over her planet - of war, of a power that destroyed everything. And now, after so many millennia, she.... wanted to fly there.

She left the archive in silence, closing the door behind her, which again left her in silence. The air in the corridor was cool, as if taking her breath away, but at the moment she paid no attention to it. Her thoughts were heavy with emotion and anxiety. The ground... Everything she discovered did not leave her alone. She knew there was no way back. She had to be there, she had to find out what really happened.

She walked toward the house, with all the garden, its orderly harmony, which for her was nothing but a trap - not for the plants, not for order, but for herself. The wind carried her hair, though she still seemed to feel as if she had no control over what was happening to her. She moved as if at an accelerated pace, with emphasis, as if each step could stop all the absurdity she was living in. In the space between the house and the garden, the restlessness was still smoldering, turning into dust in her head - like an outdated virus that kept coming back, even though it had been "fixed" long ago.

She entered the villa's main hall - spacious, but the emptiness inside was impossible to ignore. The walls were made of some kind of transparent material through which one could admire the outside world, although it now seemed distant, as if it was waiting for its chance somewhere. The floor was of cold stone, which one could slip on, if it weren't for the fact that nothing in the villa was random. Everything was set up according to strict rules - nothing stood out, nothing interfered with the idea of an ideal space, where something like chance did not exist. Also, her presence here seemed to be just part of that order.

She found her father in the study, busy with his projects. He was an old, experienced man whose eyes still smoldered with unquenchable strength. Although he was already at an age when others would have long since retired for a well-deserved rest, his mind never stopped working. She had no doubt that it was thanks to him that they had survived all those years on Vellis, and it was also through his wisdom that she now had the opportunity to access this information. This time, however, it was up to him to hear her decision.

Her father, the commander, was unaware of her plans. The last thing he would have wished for was his daughter heading for this forgotten planet, where war still thundered in the hearts of humanity.

She stood in the doorway, feeling the air around her grow thicker and thicker. Images from the archives swirled in her head, words she had just read. Earth. A place she had only heard about in her childhood in stories, uncertain myths and legends. How could it be that so many people had forgotten about this planet? About its past? About what happened there thousands of years ago?

Without looking at his face. Actually, she didn't have to. She knew that the expression in his eyes now would be the same as always - full of concern, but also that strange, impenetrable seriousness that told her that something was wrong. That there was no room for objection in this conversation. She felt like a child trying to reach for something she didn't understand, even though the world around her was familiar.

The office smelled heavy. It was the smell of old books, polished wood and the silvery, almost metallic air that was everywhere here - in the office, in the garden, in the air that wafted in through the open windows. Places like this were full of memories and tranquility, like antique archives, where every particle of matter seemed to have its own history. From this perspective, the Earth seemed so distant, as if it had never existed.

- You're back," he said, without lifting his gaze from above his screen. His voice was as it always is - calm, emotionless, a little bit like too controlled.

- Yes," she replied, her tone surprisingly firm, yet containing all the unexpected mixture of disappointment and anger. - I came back because I learned something I can't ignore.

- So, as usual, your search leads you to something.... wrong. - His words did not have the same concern in them that a truly worried person would give. It was more of a countenance.

- Earth," she began, without looking at him, although the words hung in the air like the smell of burning wood. - This is our history. The place we came from. I have to fly there.

The man raised his eyes, not looking surprised. He knew her well. Although she was still young, he had the feeling that he had already seen all her struggles, all her attempts to discover things that were unknown to her. The land. The old house. However, what she was talking about was more than simple curiosity.

All that echoed in the room was the sound of the precise movements of his hands, which still had the same unwavering precision in them as in his younger years. The man who for most of her life had been an image of strength and confidence was now silent. He was staring at her obliquely, and his face, although still retaining the same sharp features, expressed something she could not understand. Perhaps fear? Or maybe just sadness?

He stood up from his seat, slowly walking toward the large windows of the study, which overlooked one of the most beautiful gardens on Vellis. In the distance, amidst the luscious greenery, a small river could be seen, its waters glistening in the glow of the setting sun. Flowering trees, plants of colors she had only seen in this world. It was paradise. It was beautiful, peaceful, safe. Too perfect.

- Astra... - His voice was quiet but firm. - No," he added firmly, "Earth is not the place for you. Earth is... destroyed. Broken.

She felt her heart beating faster. She knew it wouldn't be an easy conversation, but she was ready. She looked at him, searching for any spark of understanding, but her father did not look ready to compromise.

There was a power in his tone that left no room for any doubt. She felt those words reverberate through her body, but she couldn't take them in.

The father did not answer immediately. Instead, he moved closer to the desk and picked up one of the prototypes from the past - an old, yellowed card that Astra knew very well. It was one of the last surviving documents from when Earth was still the home of the Atlanteans.

- Destroyed? - She asked, unable to hide her surprise. - But after all, this is our story. The land is ... is our heritage.

The father did not answer immediately. Instead, he moved closer to the desk and picked up one of the prototypes from the past - an old, yellowed card that Astra was very familiar with. It was one of the last surviving documents from when Earth was still the home of the Atlanteans.

- Legacy? - he replied coldly, though with a hint of sadness in his voice. - Earth is no romantic fairy tale. It is a place full of pain, chaos and constant destruction. It is a place that turned to rubble after the war, after that disaster. A war that made no sense at all. The earth has nothing to keep you there.

- The land is our history. Our roots! - she replied vehemently, her voice was full of conviction. - I need to see it, I need to understand what happened. What was so important about this planet that for us it was all erased?

- Astra," he began slowly, placing the card on the table. - The earth is not what it seems. Those times are now dead, and those who survived are no longer the people we were. The land has been changed, and we had to leave to save what was left. The people who stayed there no longer have anything of their former ideals. They have become ... savages. It's a world full of destruction. Places that have turned to wilderness, and the rest is just a constant struggle for survival. - His voice sounded as if the words he spoke weighed more than everything that surrounded her in the room. He always had such a tone - deep, heavy, like a stone falling into dead waters. - The earth is destroyed. It's a place full of destruction. You know what it looks like. You know what has happened.

- But I have to see it," she said, although she wasn't sure she should express her desire so clearly. - I need to understand what happened. Where did we come from? How did it all start?

She felt something inside her snap. The invisible line her father had just crossed had opened some kind of internal valve in her. He was no longer just a father. Now he was someone who wanted to tell her that what she believed in made no sense. And that the Earth, which had once been the mother of all things, was now nothing but burning ash. She slammed the book impetuously on the table until the small pages popped off to the sides.

- How can you say that? - She asked, though her voice trembled. - Earth is the place where our civilization originated, the place that could give us answers to everything we don't understand.

Father looked around him, as if searching for the right words. There was a shadow in his eyes that Astra had never seen before. Even though he was her father, in that moment he seemed like someone completely different, someone who knew a truth that she could not grasp.

- Astra, you don't understand. - He said, slowly approaching the window - The earth is not home. Earth is a place that destroyed ourselves. The people who are left there have become wild animals, throwing themselves at each other's throats. They only want to destroy what's left, because they can't rebuild anything. Explosions, wars, constant conflicts. Earth is no place for anyone with even a little sense in their heads.

His words acted on her like cool water. She was silent for a while, feeling those words seep into her mind, like some kind of dark warning that was not going to let her believe the romantic vision of the past. But still something inside her cried out, she wanted to know the truth, she wanted to see the Earth with her own eyes.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, she said, determined:

- I have to. If I don't go, I will live in ignorance for the rest of my days. I want to see it.

Her father looked at her with an expression on his face that said it all: he had seen it a thousand times before. He knew he couldn't stop her, but he still tried.

- I won't let you do that," he said quietly. - I would like you to stay here. Vellis is your home, here you are safe.

Astra felt these words pounded into her like stones. Her hands tightened on the edge of the table. She thought of Earth, of this planet, of the people who had created it. But the picture her father was painting was so foreign that she began to doubt whether she even understood what Earth was.

Anger suddenly bubbled to the surface. Without warning, she bolted from her seat and rushed to the door.

- I have to see it," she said firmly, although her voice no longer sounded as confident as before.

Her father turned to her, his eyes full of pain, but did not approach her. Instead, he said only one sentence:

- Astra, I won't let you fly there. Earth is not the place for you.

- This is not the answer! - she exclaimed, struggling to hold back the tears that were beginning to gather in her eyes. - You talk about the Earth as if it were a dead body. But it's still my roots! My history! You know it can't be ignored.

The man, standing near the huge windows that opened a view of the blooming gardens, did something that Astra found exceptional. He looked at her not as a daughter, but as a grown man. It was apparent that his attitude, once confident, had now faltered. Something disappeared from him at that moment, as if the whole house, full of memories and peace, no longer made sense.

- Astra, Earth is not what you think," he said, and his voice sounded like dried leaves in the wind. - The Earth is dead, Astra," he said. - It doesn't need us. We only need this reality. In this new space we have created, there is no room for wandering into the past. You are no longer part of this planet. Nor am I. Nor are we all.

Astra stood up. She looked at her father, at the stubborn calmness that was now beginning to suffocate her. Every word he said was like a brick being thrown into her heart. But this time she wasn't going to stay silent.

- You are hopeless! - she exclaimed, turning toward the door. - You always say that the Earth is just a ruin, but you don't know what really happened there! We - we have to go back there, we have to find out what went wrong!

Her anger spread throughout the house, like a wave crashing on the shore. She clenched her fists and then, without a word, turned on her heel and ran out of the room, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She slammed the door before her father could say anything, and then ran outside. The house that had been their fortress, where they had spent their entire lives on Vellis, now seemed like a prison to her. A modern villa with large, panoramic windows that overlooked blue lakes and green forests.

She ran through the garden, paying no heed to anything - to the green of the plants, to the delicate dewdrops on the leaves. She felt the rising anger, anxiety and discontent rising within her, pushing her forward, toward something undefined but determined. There was a sadness in that anger that was tearing her apart from the inside. She felt like she was in a cage, locked in an ideal world that was never going to fully satisfy her.

She still had echoes of the conversation with her father inside her. Everything in her screamed to escape, to find answers that could free her from this endless doubt. Earth. Only there could she find what she was looking for.

She was ready for anything.

Her feet, barefoot touching the soft earth of the garden, felt the chill of the late evening. The gardens around, full of mysterious plants, were a mist-shrouded scene full of colors that faded in the light of the setting sun. It seemed that everything was fine here, but for her it was all too quiet, too safe. What she was looking for was elsewhere.

She ran through the main avenue, passing the stylish columns in the garden, toward the eastern harbor. Each step seemed to her like breaking out of the bonds her father had imposed throughout her life. In her mind she had one goal. The truth was waiting for her there. And she wasn't going to let anyone stop her.

She ran, feeling each of her feet hit the ground softly, as if the ground itself absorbed her steps. She broke the silence of the place. Her impatience was like an alien element in this perfect, almost intact ecosystem. Only the sound of the wind seemed to understand her tension, because in that moment, it, along with her heart, tore apart this perfect picture of peace. With her gaze, she touched the lacy leaves hanging above her head, but did not let the tranquility of the garden penetrate her. She felt she was too far away from it all. And although the garden, this magnificent piece of nature, was her home, she could not find solace in it. Another world waited beyond the wall.

The garden had a harmony that could be envied not only by any artist, but also by a programmer creating an algorithm, where everything had its place and meaning, but why that meaning was precisely missing. And yet this garden, full of colors, sounds and smells, seemed like a place where time could not grow old. At least not in the traditional way. Here one walked along smooth stone paths that looked as if someone had specially smoothed them so that it would be impossible to slip on them, because, after all, there is no room for any slipping in a garden. No chaos, no accidents - just perfect symmetry and complete control. After all, the garden wasn't about life, it was about vision.

The vegetation around was as if taken out of a catalog of the best gardeners of the past. Trees, whose crowns resembled canopies, stretched thin, silvery branches toward the sky, wrapping the sky like a delicate lace curtain that someone forgot to remove in time. The flowers, yes, were beautiful, but a little too diverse for one place. There was no time for daydreaming in this garden - every plant, every leaf knew where to stand and which way to point the petals. There were some natural laws at work here - some sort of rules of invisible order, but which made each of the phenomena a little too alien to reality, to put it mildly.

Astra ran through the garden like a desperate rabbit in a trap. Every step echoed, as if it wasn't at all a matter of hiding, but rather that the echoing noise gave voice to her mind, which still couldn't rest. Sleeves slipped out of her gray uniform, and her light jacket unfurled like wings in the wind. At this moment, in this garden overflowing with order, her body became an unnecessary element, as if she was the one who was not in the right place, not at the right time. If anyone had told her this - that someone in the garden - she probably would have missed it, because why talk to plants, anyway? And yet, somewhere from the depths of the garden came a quiet noise, as if those plants were trying to tell her something that wasn't clear. Maybe it was the same "silence before the storm" that she kept hearing in her ears as she thought about what she had just discovered. About the Earth, about Atlantis. About how the whole order of this reality is just one big mockery of those who try to understand it.

She slowed down. She walked past the pond - the water in it was not transparent, as it might seem, because it was not a place for transparency. The water had something slightly murky. Maybe it was the water that dissolved misconceptions of tranquility, like any well-designed place. Beyond the pond, a shadow shuddered through the wind, as if something was on the edge of existence. Only was it a dream? Or was it something that had no right to exist in this world full of patterns?

She walked on, but there was one thing in her mind - she has nothing to do here. And it wasn't the emptiness that remains after something is gone - it was the emptiness inside her, because after all, what she had in her head was a contradiction in the form of chaos. She wanted to know who was holding her back, who was imposing all these restrictions on her, all this, all these rules. After all, in this perfect garden, there was no room for rebellion, no room to go against it all. There was only what went through the planners' algorithms. There was only what had been planned and arranged, like those leaves on the trees - they didn't come up with the idea on their own.

She left the garden without once looking back. Behind her remained not so much greenery, but an idea. An idea that did not match her thoughts.

Everything on Vellis was like out of a catalog for people who couldn't handle the grime of reality. Gardens, houses, cities - everything built in perfect, sterile symmetry. It was as if they were designed according to some rule that did not take into account real life, which, after all, seemed to be governed by its own laws - dirty, full of chaos and randomness. Vellis, like all of civilization, was a convenient, if somewhat boring, solution to a life that had no right to go wrong.

She looked at her hands, which still had that throbbing anger in them. She felt the anger she had so carefully kept in check all these years begin to burn her from the inside out. All this - this peace, this "order," this eternal harmony - made no sense to her. Not when she knew that Earth, their mother, their true heritage, was waiting. She was waiting for someone to find her, to understand her, to reconnect the two worlds that, though separated by thousands of years, were inseparable. Except that no one on Vellis wanted to remember that. To them, Earth was "dead," as her father had said. And sure enough, it was dead - dead from their perspective, locked in a time capsule that no one wanted to get out of.

- And you, old geezer, you don't have a clue," she muttered under her breath, although she knew that no one cared.

Suddenly she felt a hot wind pierce her thoroughly. She glanced up - the sky was dark, almost black, as if something was coming. And it wasn't a storm, at least not a physical one. It was a storm in her head, in her heart. Because she had no idea what to do next, but she knew she couldn't stay here.

She soon found herself in one of the city's underground corridors. A place that never appeared on official maps. It was a command center. Here, under the city, negotiations and operations took place that officially had no right to exist. There were people there who "accepted" responsibility for things that were not public. A brief meeting. Clean, matter-of-fact. And Astra, though with a soul on her shoulder, knew that this was her ticket.

She entered the room, where the smell of old cards, cold technology and a cool, sterile space was in the air. The lighting, though modern, had a retro feel to it, reminiscent of old laboratories thousands of years ago. A stark white spread from the cold metal walls, reflecting the light directly into her eyes. From behind the glass panels, vast, modern archives were visible.

- Tomorrow night," she said briefly to one of the men facing her.

He smiled in a way that was meant to give her the impression that she was the one in control. And in reality, she was just another person in a game whose stakes were higher than she might have thought.

She knew one thing - there was no going back. The stakes were already too high. But she had no choice. Someday she had to do it. She had to find herself on Earth.

When she returned to her room, she again felt as if everything she knew was just part of some ancient experiment. The room had the same coolness as the rest of the house - sterile white, dark, slender furniture that said more about the creators of this space than about its owners. Despite this, Astra felt.... a tad lonely. As if she were one of the last representatives of an extinct lineage, whose only task was to find what had disappeared from the pages of history. But she knew this was her mission. And she wouldn't let it all become another lost artifact.

She arranged things in her suitcase, carefully, with a precision that was not at all her style. She wondered if her father would notice her disappearance. If he notices, it will be too late. Or maybe he won't notice. After all, he had no idea what was going on. And he probably didn't want to have one. What would she tell him? That he was going in search of death? Or maybe life? Earth had long since become just a legend. But something inside her twitched. It was her business, her answer, which she didn't have.

When it was finally time to board the ship, she felt neither fear nor hope. All she felt was that the moment had come to discover - not the Earth, not what had happened there, but to discover who she really was. Or maybe it was never really about Earth? Maybe it was just a smokescreen to dare something more?