Volume 3 - The Great Migration

*Beep Beep Beep*

An elderly arm reached out from the embrace of the white sheets and hit the top of his alarm clock, finally ending the annoying noise.

He opened his eyes to gaze at the darkroom, “Syliva, start my morning routine” he said in a husky voice of a heavy smoker.

A soft mechanical voice responded [Starting Routine… Good morning Sir Rykler]

Slowly light started to illuminate the darkroom as the electric blinds slowly rose up, revealing the brown clouds outside.

[The weather today in New York is 53 degrees celsius with a 30% chance of acid rain later in the day.]

A robotic arm then appeared in the old man's view carrying a glass of water and a tray with pills. With great effort, the man sat up in his bed and shoved all the pills into his mouth, and swallowed them all in one gulp.

“Sylvia, what is my schedule again? I forgot…”

[Sir Rykler you have a flight scheduled in 2 hours for the Astra transportation hub. A house mover will be arriving in 29 minutes and 12 seconds. Please get ready soon as they hate being delayed.]

Hearing today's plans the man quickly got out of bed and shouted down the hallway “Diana we are leaving in 30 minutes, pack anything you need for the flight!”

A slightly annoyed voice responded, “I know grandpa you are the one who forgot not me!”

Rykler chuckled at his granddaughter's response, as an old man of 87 years old, his memory is slowly escaping him.

“Finally we can leave this hell hole of a planet.” Rykler sighed in relief.

In 2 days a grand conference is being held on the alien planet, Astra. Since his daughter, Diana, is a government official she has been requested to move to Astra.

Although he has little knowledge of this new planet he has been told by the government that it is similar to earth but has mild temperatures and no pollution. Just that was enough to convince this old man to move.

Every time he tries to step outside he feels like fainting in the 53-degree (127f) heat. It's simply unbearable. When you also factor in the pollution that clouds the sky as a brown fog, it's truly miserable.

After getting dressed and having a quick breakfast, Rykler met with his granddaughter outside their home. She has long flowing blonde hair and green eyes. She almost had elf-like beauty and Rykler was very proud of having such a beautiful and capable granddaughter. He always bragged about her to his old friends at the chess club.

They were both wearing comfortable clothes for the journey ahead with backpacks on their backs carrying a few belongings.

Right on time, a black car pulled up and a man with green hair emerged. He was wearing a black suit and had black sunglasses covering his eyes. 

He walked up to Rykler and Diana and handed them rings. The government officials standing behind the green-haired man nodded towards the two as if saying to take the rings.

Rykler and Diana looked at each other with weird looks and picked the rings up anyways.

They had been told very little information about the process of moving to Astra. All they knew is they could only need to take a few belongings with them and the rest would be moved for them. How? They had no idea.

Putting on the rings the man finally started speaking.

“These are language translation rings, you can now understand anyone but for other people to understand you, they also need these rings.”

The man spoke in a language they didn't recognize but somehow they understood the ‘meaning’ behind the words. It was a bizarre experience.

“I will now transport your house to Astra”

Rykler and Diana gave the man a weird look but he started placing objects in a circle around the property.

After a few minutes, he returned and started speaking a command into his wristband.

“Green Agent ID 87693 requests object transfer, Description: 4-bed house with garden and two cars.”

After waiting a moment a voice came out of the wristband

“Agent, your request has been verified, beginning the transfer.”

Rykler and Diana stumbled back in astonishment as they watched blue light envelop their house and moments later the entire house, along with the garden and two cars disappeared as if they never existed.

All that remained was a hole in the ground. Rykler was momentarily stunned but quickly got mad. That house cost millions and was his pride and joy after a lifetime of work! Gone! Just like that?

As if sensing his distress the agent spoke: “Mister Rykler do not worry, the house along with all its contents has been transported to Astra and placed within a good neighbourhood.”

Rykler almost fainted. This was too much for him. But how fascinating! These aliens have developed this far? They can transport things across space in seconds? What sorcery is this?!

He now felt even more excited at the prospect of moving to this alien world. What other interesting things could he find?

“Now Mister Rykler and Miss Diana can you please follow me? You have a plane to catch.”

Rykler then responded with a confused tone “Why not just teleport to Astra as my house did?”

“Hahahaha” The agent laughed at this question making Rykler feel stupid somehow “Your body is much too weak to handle that, you would experience extreme motion sickness which could lead to death in someone as elderly as you and we don’t want that to happen, right?”

The green-haired man wearing the black suit and black-out sunglasses stopped laughing and glanced at his watch. “My time is precious so please come with me quickly, I have 10 more people to move today.”

Rykler and Diana hesitantly followed the man and got into the large government car and headed towards the JFK international airport.

XKARNATION

I end university in a week and will begin releasing a few chapters a week over the holidays!