Andreas Moustakas's Story

Within the Outer Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, deep within the Kos System on a remote planet called Bastion IV, some strange events had taken place, the likes of which involved some unknown tragedies and mysteries that still remain unsolved. Trantor starships and cruisers launched military and civilian patrols into the Multiverse from deep space amidst transporters from the Kos Bastion Research Center above the clouds as Mauhasian scientists conducted their own studies at Campa Taighde Bandrui in the Xamayos Wilds. But the Xamayos Wilds was a very dangerous place to outsiders. It hosted a vast swath of thick, dark, untamed wilderness, inhabited by many large beasts and predators unbowed by the yoke of training. To enter the Xamayos Wilds unprepared was to invite certain death, as one group of interstellar scientists had evidently learned the hard way, their abandoned research center left uninhabited and in ruins.

The Xamayos Wilds had reclaimed the facility, which had apparently been built a very long time ago, perhaps even centuries ago by an unknown agency, race or species which seemed to have disappeared or maybe even gone extinct some untold millennia ago. The buildings, offices, cafeterias, sick bays, corridors and laboratories were completely silent and empty, seemingly devoid of intelligent life even though there was an obvious evidence of wildlife crawling all around. Grasses, weeds, vines and tree roots grew up out of the old decaying tile floors and ceilings, plant life consuming every hall and opening like weaving wooden serpents taking back their homeland by planting and terra forming a natural indigenous landscape of poisonous leaves and flowers, providing a habitat for many native species. A few skeletons resembling homo sapiens had been picked clean and scattered about, along with the bones and remains of other animals. All of the terrariums, ant farms, cages and aquariums had been shattered or busted, but there was nothing inside of them but mold and decay. Outside the facility was a badly rusted, smashed up truck which had also been reclaimed by nature, with a large tree growing vertically out of the truck bed, having sprouted up from the ground and forced its way slowly through the rusting metal over a period of several years, probably even over the course of many decades.

Whatever logos, stickers, decals, names, numbers, written logs, computer data or information that had been associated with the facility was by now long gone, forgotten and destroyed. Was it a government coverup by some ancient foreign institution? If so, which one, as the Multiverse had been running rampant with space exploration projects and top secret warring agencies from countless galaxies and planetary civilizations for as long as anyone could remember. What had happened to the inhabitants that used to run this research center? Was there some kind of accident, perhaps some act of sabotage or unexpected breach in security? Why had no one ever made a report about the existence of this facility? Why had none of the known space nations come forward to re-claim it? Why was it not indicated on any maps or listed in any data bases, or even hinted at in military records? Whatever had happened in the Xamayos Wilds, it left without a trace. Perhaps if someone had discovered it sooner, then a light could be shed on the deep mysteries surrounding the ancient ruins. But alas, too much time had passed and so the facility had been forgotten, completely erased from history apart from the few scattered remains of what probably once existed in that deep dark wilderness.

The only clue to that mystery now came in the form of the most unlikely of creatures. It just so happened on that particular day that a small rodent had been scurrying around the abandoned research center, scavaging and collecting trinkets. The small furry creature appeared to be the size of a lemur, resembling the makings of a squirrel but with one peculiarity that made it very different. This animal was not just a primate, but it was semi-bipedal with opposable thumbs and appeared to have both sentience and sapience, seeing as it was carrying a walking stick and wearing some kind of backpack or basket over its tiny little shoulders. He was scrounging through a pile of shredded leaves and rotten garbage, bones and metal scraps, almost completely submersed in all of the junk and shattered glass. He appeared to be scurrying frantically and frolicking about as he talked to himself in a language that sounded very much like Galactic Common, sifting through the foliage and broken tiles for something he had lost.



"Ohhh where is it, where is it? I know it's around here somewhere, what did I do with it?" he muttered to himself, before poking his head up out of the trash heap to look around for danger. He wiggled his nose and perked his ears up, listening for a moment silently before diving back down into the pile. "Ah hah! Found it!" he said after a moment of pushing and kicking things around. The small rodent-like creature crawled out of the trash heap on all fours before standing up on two legs, holding a bird feather between his teeth that was almost half the size as he was. He took the feather in both hands and placed it into the small wicker basket on his back, next to some other gizmos and gadgets he had collected including a metal soup spoon, a thimble, a rusted pen spring and an old chewed up wod of bubblegum, grabbing his walking stick and flicking his whiskers before heading back into the Xamayos Wilds, walking casually into the dense jungle.