When We Saw the Universe

by KKDW

Chapter 3: Xentrill

Xentrill was the first alien planet I set hoof on and it was certainly a lot more pleasant then some of the others I’d end up visiting.

– Extract from When We Saw the Universe by Twilight Sparkle

Twilight had overslept the following morning and didn’t wake up until after the Dominator II had landed at the space port of Xentrill’s capital city. By the time she did most of the crew had already disembarked, carrying some of their personal possessions with them. While she imagined that some of the crew would probably be in rush to sort everything before leaving the ship if they’d overslept this wasn’t the case for Twilight, while she hadn’t gathered together anything beforehand she wasn’t taking much with her anyway, just the book she was currently reading, a second book in case she finished the first, and a clean resistance uniform which she didn’t wear that often anyway. In fact, hardly anyone really bothered with the uniform, not even General En who preferred the uniform or her own military. Twilight and other ponies hardly bothered with it mostly because they very rarely wore clothes anyway. The uniforms were only really worn for official meetings and similar events. The uniform itself consisted of a dark blue tunic and a pair of black pants which Twilight had cut a hole in for her tail, in fact pretty much any race that had tails had done the same thing. The tunic bore the logo of the resistance on the right breast; well actually it was the logo of the Xentrillian space fleet which was where the resistance had spawned from, the logo showed a rather generic looking spaceship flying past a dark red sun. Just beneath the logo was a white rectangle with a series of seemingly random black lines of varying thickness that designated its wearer’s rank. The uniform also came with a peaked cap that was the same color as the tunic save for a black visor, it also bore a metal version of the spaceship from the logo on the front.
Twilight loaded her limited luggage into a pair of saddlebags and headed towards the exit, which required going down in the elevator. As it descended Twilight hoped that once the lights had been fixed that they’d last until the end of their next mission, she was sure they’d broken every time she’d been onboard the Dominator II during its periods space. Well except for the period where they’d attacked the Golgafrincham space station. That time the lights had been broken before they even set out!
The Xentrill space port was quite vast, and also quite empty. Apparently in the past, before the planet had been hidden in Hyperspace and the resistance had begun, the place would’ve been very busy. Full of crowds of people and ships coming and going by the minute. But now the only ship there was the Domiantor II and the only people where either it’s crew and the slaves that had been rescued from the mines or those that worked there. It was a long walk from the ship to the exit.
Nearly everybody boarded a series of coaches that were parked outside, waiting to take them to their accommodation, Twilight on the other hoof preferred to walk. It would take her longer but she didn’t mind, and she had plenty of time anyway and after being cooped up on that spaceship for a month she was taking any chance she got to get some exercise out in the open air. Every member of the resistance had a small place to live in the capital city of the planet, mostly in buildings that had once been hotels. Any slaves that had been rescued from the mines were also given somewhere to live until they could be taken back to their home planet. Twilight had seen many ponies depart back to Pony-Earth, though many stayed on Xentrill, often because they had friends or family in the resistance. Nearly all the ponies lived in a former hotel called ‘The Haliwc’. Twilight hadn’t been able to find out what a Halwic was; she assumed it was either the name of the hotel’s founder or a Xentrillian word that didn’t have an English equivalent.
One thing that had amazed Twilight and Xentrill when she first saw it was just how tall a lot of the buildings were. Back in Equestria the tallest building she’d seen was Canterlot castle, though she’d heard that there were buildings taller than that in Manehatten but she’d never been there and the buildings on Xentrill were several times bigger than the Manehatten ones apparently were. Twilight’s room in The Haliwc was on one of the higher levels of the building and facing the ocean, conveniently the hotel was very close to the coast so there weren’t any other tall building’s getting in the way of the spectacular view.
Twilight made it to the hotel about an hour later. As she got closer she saw Rainbow Dash fly out of one of windows of its top floor, of course the only reason she could tell it was Rainbow Dash was because of the rainbow striped streak in the air she left behind her as she flew. Twilight had often wondered exactly how that happened. After she entered the hotel and signed in Twilight boarded the first of several elevators that would take her up to the 203rd floor where her room was. The Elevators here were a lot larger than the ones on the Dominator II; those could hold about four pony sized passengers while the ones in the Haliwc could hold fifteen in total. It took another fifteen minutes to get to the floor; fortunately her room was very close to the elevator. Twilight pulled out a key card that she kept a small pocket of her saddlebags at all times to open the door and stepped inside. After unpacking, with her uniform folded up on the bed, her headset and one of books sitting on a bedside table and the other placed neatly on a shelf, Twilight took a quick shower. After she’d finished and dried herself Twilight extracted a drink from a small fridge and lay down on her bed to do some more reading.
The room itself was a lot larger then her cabin on the Dominator II which was only as large as it needed to be so as not to take up too much space. The hotel room didn’t have that problem and could be as large as it wanted. The walls had been painted a pale yellow and the floor was covered with a dark red carpet, the bed was a lot larger than it really needed to be, one wall had a desk built onto it with a television sitting on top (which Twilight never used) and the fridge underneath it. The far wall was almost entirely taken up by a large window bathing the room in sunlight with curtains that matched the floor hanging on each side of it. If there’d been a moon or stars visible Twilight would probably have left the curtains open during the night, though she’d been told that since there were so many lights on in the city at night it would be almost impossible to see the stars anyway.
Twilight continued reading for almost an hour, occasionally glancing up at the window when she heard Rainbow Dash flying past. After finishing a chapter she glanced up at a clock mounted on the same wall as the desk, she had a conference to go to in just under an hour. She put the book down, dressed in her uniform and put on her headset before heading out of the hotel. She knew walking there would take too long so she boarded a taxi, one of several that were almost always waiting outside the hotel, to take her to the resistance headquarters building.
The building itself was nowhere near as high as some of others, only coming up to ten stories high. However what it lacked in height it made up with the amount of land it took up unlike all the tall buildings that only took up a small amount in comparison. Nearly all the buildings here were colored gold, which gave it the name ‘The Golden City’, at least that’s how it translated into English. This one however was silver, and its official name was ‘The Silver Center’. Prior the formation of the resistance the Silver Center had been used mostly for either political or business meetings, and in a sense it was still being used for the same thing now. On the inside the building had various rooms of different sizes. The resistance generally made use of the larger ones.
Twilight arrived at the Silver Center about half an hour early, so after paying the taxi driver she decided to get something to eat since she’d skipped breakfast. The Silver Center had a small food court on its fifth floor which turned out to be rather crowded. Twilight just got herself a few sandwiches, though she wasn’t entirely sure what was in them. It seemed rather like cheese, but tasted more like some sort of fruit, and it was purple. While she was eating Twilight glanced around the place, looking for anyone she might recognize. There wasn’t anyone she knew though she did spot a few blue lights, which was what most people called nVVe’s race. She watched as one of them was given their food which just floated in front of it. The blue light carried its food over to a table and set it down. Then it drifted over the foot, completely enveloping it, stayed there for a few seconds, and when it moved away the food was gone.
There were plenty of races around that Twilight recognized, and a few she didn’t. There was one green alien sitting a short distance from her whose head was covered with a large glass helmet and taken up almost entirely by a large green eye, in fact almost its entire body was its head save for the six tentacles it had. In the far corner was a being with two heads that seemed to be arguing with each other. One table had a group of Neyn sitting around it that were all laughing about something. An equinoid with two heads was just departing and hanging from the ceiling were two large bat-like creatures eating chunks of meat and accidentally drooling on anybody who walked right underneath them.
Eventually there was an announcement that the conference would start in ten minutes and that everyone attending should make their way to it. Twilight, along with nearly everyone else, headed out of the food court, taking care to avoid the puddle of drool on the way. The conference was taking place in the Main Conference room, the largest one in the building and due to its size Twilight wasn’t sure that ‘room’ was the right word for it, maybe there was a slight flaw in the translation. The ‘room’ was almost as big as a stadium, and laid out in a similar way. The seating was laid out in tiers and in ‘boxes’ that contained two seats each. Each box had a large translucent orange screen spread across the front, the same as the visor on the translator headset and doing the same job. Each seat also had a camera and a microphone in front of it, the microphone would translate what was being spoken into it into Universal and the cameras were linked to a series of screens placed on each of the four walls above the seats. One box was raised above the rest; this was where the resistance’s leader, the President of Xentrill, would be. The seats themselves were able to change shape in order to match whichever race happened to be sitting in them, though their default shape was meant for humanoids.
Twilight took her seat and was joined in the box by General En. Twilight greeted the General who only responded with a nod. The two of them were there to make a report on their most recent mission, General En was going to do most of the talking and Twilight was just there to listen, though there was a chance that the General would ask Twilight to contribute something to the conference. Twilight watched as everyone else attending the conference made their way in. Twilight had been to several of these conferences before but she’d still see races that she hadn’t seen before. A box a short distance to her left was being occupied by two beings that resembled pine trees, another was taken by something that looked like a horned badger and in a box on the opposite side of the room was something that looked like a large red blob of slime. There was a lot of chatter filling the room, each conversation being drowned out by all the other conversations. Twilight’s translator wasn’t able to cope with all of them, and only translated those that were happening right next to her, everything else was just a random mish mash of goodness knows how many languages. Eventually the president entered and everyone fell silent.
“Good morning everyone,” he said in Universal. “I shall call to order the 27th Resistance Conference.”
There was a round of applause from the audience members who could applaud; others resorted to slightly different approaches, such as a loud roar. This subsided when the president raised his hand and asked for silence. The president was being displayed on the screens with his name shown at the bottom. While Twilight couldn’t read it she recognized the letters as being Universal, she’d had even more trouble learning to read it as speaking it. The visor of her translator told her it said ‘President Oykxc’, Twilight had never heard his name being spoken aloud so she had no idea how it was pronounced.
One by one the president called on those present to give their reports, first Admiral Oks, then General Ttttt, Commander A19C2, and so on. It was almost an hour and a half before it was General En’s turn to make her report, and another half hour after that before the last report was made. There were mostly all the same, giving numbers of slaves that had been rescued, how many troops had been killed in the attempt, how many of those rescued had agreed to join the resistance and so on. Occasionally they’d have something different to say, such as an encounter with and subsequently a battle with a Bolkarn spaceship. Another reported finding a Bolkarn spaceship that had been abandoned by its crew and taken over by the slaves, apparently thanks to the intervention of the Red Starfighter. One report mentioned that they’re ship had encountered some space pirates, though they’d managed to escape unharmed. Apparently that particular pirate ship was captained by a pony. Twilight decided that she should talk to the ship’s commander, one General Paximat, at some point.
“Thank you everyone,” President Oykxc said once the last report had been made. “And now we must move on to other matters, Commander A19C2, you have the floor.”
The commander stood up again and his face and name appeared on the screens. A19C2 was an android, though he insisted on being referred to as a cyborg. Originally he’d been a humanoid life form and over time he’d had parts of himself replaced with mechanical ones. Eventually so much of him had been replaced that he was now completely mechanical. Even his name had been changed to something resembling a serial number, how and why that had happened Twilight didn’t know.
“I have been receiving information from our various spies and contacts on the actions of the Bolkarn,” while the translators would also convert what was being said into an emotionless monotone this was not the case for Commander A19C2, though this was because his voice was already an emotionless monotone. “They have told me that the Bolkarn have recently been attempting to alley themselves with various other races in order to combat us.”
There was some nervous muttering around the room.
“If they’re trying to recruit allies then that must mean they’re worried about us,” Twilight said to General En. “That must mean our efforts our having some effect.”
“Yes, but if they do manage to form an alliance with other races that could be a major problem for us,” the General replied.
“I have a list of their attempted alliances,” A19C2 continued. “It includes the Vrel, the Hulming Tars, the Jatravartids, the Un, the Kleptons, the Ooz, the Sorsons, the Zygons, the Silastic Armourfiends of Striterax, the Draconians, the Daxamites, the Zolplastics, the Kree, the Kleptons, the Treens...”
“Wait, didn’t he say the Kleptons twice?” Twilight whispered as A19C2 continued talking.
“There are two races in the galaxy called Kleptons,” En told her.
“Oh... doesn’t that get confusing?”
“Sometimes.”
Twilight thought that she shouldn’t really be surprised that there were races in the universe that shared the same name. Not too long after joining the resistance she learned that there were two planets in the galaxy called Earth, her own and one someone in the western spiral arm of the galaxy dominated by a humanoid race that had yet to make interstellar contact officially, and the Bolkarn had left that one alone so far.
“...the Majesdanians, the Linf, the Syv, and the Mysterons. All these races have so far turned down the Bolkarns offer of an allience.”
There was a loud sigh of relief from most of those present.
“We have also made another appeal to the Galactic Federation to help us,” A19C2 said.
“And do they still refuse to do so?” the President asked.
“They’re not refusing outright, but they are discussing the issue.”
“They’ve been discussing the issue for three years!” someone shouted.
“The Galactic Trig is completely useless!” another cried.
Then the conference room erupted into loud shouts and cries of anger, once again drowning each other out. The president had to shout for silence several times before the noise finally subsided.
“It seems we will have to carry on without the help of the Federation,” the president said. “Commander, do you have anything more to report?”
“No Mr. President.”
“Then I thank you for presenting this information to us,” there was a round of applause as Commander A19C2 sat down again.
“Now, I am sure you are all aware of the recent disappearance of Bandraginus V,” the president said, this was followed by some mutterings. “The Sunlight Rider arrived at the planet’s location a few hours ago, though they have not yet sent any reports on their findings. I now ask if any of you have any suggestions as to what may have happened to the planet.”
General En stood up. “Captain Sparkle and I have a small theory, which I will let her explain.”
Twilight was startled to hear this, yes she knew that she may be asked to contribute something at some point but she’d expected the General to explain the theory herself if she brought it up. Twilight glanced up at the screen on the opposite wall; there she was plastered across it with her name written in Universal. When it appeared she’d heard sounds of suppressed laughter around the room. Apparently unlike some names pony names could be translated into other languages, and some species found the names to be rather silly. Twilight ignored them. She cleared her throat and gave a quick explanation of her Hyperspace theory, including why she thought it might be wrong and General En’s own addition to it.
“Thank you Captain Sparkle,” the president said when she’d finished. “Does anyone have anything they would wish to add to this theory, or perhaps their own?”
A blue light appeared on the screens, Twilight didn’t recognise this one but according to the translation its name was simply P.
“It is possible that the planet could have been illegally demolished,” it said.
There was a gasp and some muttering when they all heard this.
“If that does indeed turn out to be the case then we must find out who is responsible, and when they do they will have to answer for their crime,” the president said, and the crowd cheered and applauded or did their own alternative in response, “Now, are there anymore suggestions in regards to this matter?”
Silence.
“Very well, then I will ask if there are any other issues any of you may wish to raise. If not then I will bring this conference to a close.”
Again, silence.
“Then I bid you all farewell,” with that the president left.
The whole room slowly became filled with chatter once again as they all began to leave. Twilight and General En remained in their seats as the General checked a watch she was wearing.
“It finished earlier then I expected,” she said. “We’ve got a whole hour to spare.”
“What should we do in the meantime sir?” Twilight asked, wishing she’d brought one of her books with her, and then she remembered something. “I thought I should speak to General Paximat about those pirates he encountered.”
“I think the General has an appointment right now Captain,” General En told her.
“Oh.”
“I suggest you and I get something to eat before our next meeting.”
“Very well sir.”
The two of them got out of their seats and exited the conference room, heading for the food court.