A little while ago we read The Last Cuentista in our Language Arts class. We then got to thinking about what our own worlds would be like and got to writing them down. We worked with local artist, Peg Gignoux, and made akua ink prints with plants. All that is to say, this was so much fun and I hope you enjoy my ideal world.
My story…
I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t want to do this. As you’re well aware, this is supposed to be a report about our planet and what it’s like. And the history. I can name several different people in a different class who would love to do this and contribute to this type of history of whatever the Mors this is. This is a class assignment, so I can’t put this in the actual report, which means I’ll have to delete this. But, hey. I’m going to try, okay? Also, just know I will complain. A lot!
The planet of Initium Novum (in-it-tee-um no-v-um), which means ‘A new beginning’ in Latin, is the planet that few humans could journey to. After Earth’s food supply dwindled down severely, scientists sent astronauts on a mission that turned into a several-decade expedition to find a new planet to inhabit. The scientists worked for years and years to be able to get humans on this planet. The problem was that the solar system that Initium Novum is in orbits a black hole. This caused many space crafts to be eaten by the black hole. But on the third try, the Gaia Project III landed on the Silva Islands in Oceanus Astrum (the constellation ocean in Latin). The biggest problem was that after several Earth decades, the Gaia Project III did not have enough fuel to travel back to Earth. So, the astronauts have spent about 12 years changing and trying to find new fuel for the Gaia Project III (GPIII).
While the few selected scientists were finding a fuel source and making it compatible with the GPIII, others started to explore and started families. Almost all of the land on Initium Novum has been discovered but not inhabited. This is because of the laws set in place by the original inhabitants. There are three laws that every settlement has to follow. 1) For every ten acres of land, two acres must be set aside for nature and only nature. 2) Your settlement must provide basic necessities for everyone who inhabits it. And 3) everyone gets a fair say in the government system or at least the rules of the land. These rules are in place because the people agreed that the Earth would have benefited from these rules. The rulers, representatives, or people in charge of the settlement must follow these rules, or they can be voted out of office by the Representatives of the Nations. This organization has an ambassador from every nation that handles global political matters. It’s much like the United Nations from Earth. At the time of this report, there are nine established countries and three territories whose names are unimportant.
Or at least that’s what I’ve been taught. We were put in stasis for a really long time. I can’t remember how many years they said, but I know it was a lot. We didn’t have anyone out of stasis. Our ship had about nine robots that took care of it. They brought us out of stasis and did the difficult job of steering our ship away from the black hole. They’re no longer in function, but we still have their remains. In fact, at school, they let us try and reprogram them. I had a friend, and she programmed him (yes, they have assigned genders) to make pancakes (they were really good pancakes, by the way). Oh, and if you’re wondering, no, there were no kids on the ship. Well, no alive kids. I was one of the people that they had in an incubator. Okay, *WARNING*, this is something that took me a looong time to be okay with, so if this grosses you out, just know that you’re not the only one. You’ve been warned.
So they put a bunch of human eggs into an incubator, in stasis for years, and then ejected us into humans. And then, BAM, after nine months, here we are.*Jazz hands*. I know, gross. And that comes from someone who handles gross on a daily basis. But let’s change the subject. Have I meant-. Okay, sorry, I lost my train of thought because my parents just called me for dinner. Anyways, back to it.
Initium Novum is about half the size of Saturn. Initium Novum, as said, orbits the sun (Vita Saver, which means ‘lifesaver’ in Latin), and the solar system orbits a black hole. This means that when the cloudy sky on Initium Novum clears (in either day or night), you would be able to see the black hole that the settlers named Foraminis In Aeri (For-a-min-y-us in air, which means ‘holes in the air’ in Latin) or F.I.A for short. Some of the people here have written stories about F.I.A. They called her Mors. Mors (which means ‘death’ in Latin), seen as a goddess of death, exploration, and chance, is said to be reborn every day before sunrise. People wrote that she would never be outshone by the sun. Some people pray to her so that she won’t swallow them up and that she’ll let them make their home in her orbit. In the stories, she was said to be born from a neutron star named Pater (also the star’s real name), and another neutron star called Mater (again, also the star’s real name) were pushed together, exploded, and made Mors. Mors was written to join travelers’ journeys; however, that might end, whether that be in life or death.
Seven-eighths (⅞) of Initium Novum’s surface is covered in water. There are nine oceans, and they all look vastly different. The names are Oceanus Clara (bright ocean), Oceanus Caeruleum (blue ocean), Oceanus Excipio (welcome ocean), Oceanus Astrum (constellation ocean), Oceanus Viridis (green ocean), Oceanus Centrum (center ocean), Oceanus Monstrum (monster ocean), Oceanus Tranquillitas (calm ocean), and Oceanus Profundus (deep ocean). Oceanus Centrum is in the middle of the largest collection of islands called the Collective Islands. Oceanus Astrum is an ocean that, when you look through the bottom at night, it looks like stars on the seafloor. This is because of bioluminescent plants and krill-like animals that swim around. Oceanus Clara has the lightest water because it’s the shallowest. Oceanus Caeruleum has a royal blue tone to it. Oceanus Excipio is the welcome ocean because it has the most islands on its waters. Oceanus Viridis has some of the most vegetation in its waters, making the color green. Oceanus Monstrum has many different species of ocean animals. There are hostile ones and passive ones. Oceanus Tranquillitas is the cleanest ocean. It is the smallest of the nine oceans, so its waters are always calm. Oceanus Profundus is the deepest ocean because of the many deep trenches and underwater caves.
As I said, when the sky clears at any time of day, you would be able to see F.I.A. At night, not only can you see the black hole, you can see the three moons, Vita (the closest, the biggest, and means life in Latin), Parvus (the second closest, smallest, and means small in Latin), and Tenebris (the furthest, not too big and not too small, and means darkness in Latin). The moons stay very close to each other and share the same amount of light, so they have the same cycle time. Same as F.I.A, there is another phenomenon that appears in the sky all the time. The rings of Initium Novum are called The Beacon when people refer to it on the surface. Depending on where you are on the planet, the rings look different. Depending on where you are, the rings (purple, pink, orange, deep purple, and yellow) look like a line going from east to west. If you’re on the equator, it looks like a straight line going up and rounding like a full rainbow with only a few colors. If you go north, the rings get thicker and lower down south. And if you go south, the rings get thicker and thicker northward. Although, this is only visible when the sky clears.
The sky on Initium Novum is almost always cloudy. It’s not uncommon for it to rain for hours on end. However, the dark clouds don’t always mean rain. Sometimes, the clouds are light, and even then, it will rain. This is because the light from the sun sometimes destroys the atmosphere, making the clouds seem darker and making people think it’s going to rain. And sometimes it makes the clouds look lighter when they have a lot of perspiration, which means it’ll still rain. When the clouds clear, you can see the blue sky (just like Earth) and the one sun in the sky. The sun, as said before, is named Vita Saver. The planet of Initium Novum is the third from its sun (just like Earth). The planet is the second in its solar system to support life. No one inhabits the other planet (it’s the fourth) because of the planet’s atmosphere. Life has evolved to live there, but humans have not. Outside of the planet of Initium Novum, the color of the oceans changes for various reasons. It’s either royal blue, light blue, cyan, or greenish. The planet, from the outside, is completely blue. Only big islands show up on the surface.
The plants on Initium Novum are much like those on Earth. But there are a few key differences. For starters, almost all the plants are waterborne. The planet’s surface is almost all water. Most life and vegetation happen on the water’s surface or in it. The plants on land are also very used to water because of the constant rain pour. Wherever the plant, Initium Novum has a very large amount of them. The colors also depend on the species, and the species’ color might depend on the rain. There are Earth-like plants, such as a variety of trees, but many have almost no resemblance to Earth life. We see this mostly in the colors. With uncommon Earth colors like orange, purple, and blue, the forests are covered in many colors, like a rainbow.
Almost all of Initium Novum’s land has forests where all different types of life thrive. There are many species, but the ones I’ll explore are some of the coolest, in my opinion. There are cat-like animals with scorpion tales, spider-like creatures with three heads, and human-like creatures. Even though humans did not originate from this planet, some of the creatures evolved to resemble some of them before humans even set foot on the planet’s ground. These human-like creatures are half human, half goat, half human, and half bird. The half-human, half-goat creatures are called centaurs, just like in the myths. They have legs like a goat’s, horns like a goat’s, and eat just as much as a goat’s. The half-human, half-bird creatures have feathers and fur. They have furry/feathery wings twice the size of their arm span, long, furry tales with feathers on the end to help them fly, and the ability to turn their head a whopping 300˚to any side. These creatures fit into society just like any other human would.
The animals that rule the sky are unique, beautiful creatures. My favorites are the ones that look like bees and resemble snakes, yet they have wings. The bee-like creatures have the same yellow body and love to pollinate, but they’re substantially larger and are part of a species category that resembles mammals. The snake-like creature, as said, has feathery wings. The wings and the color depend on the type of snake. If it’s a venomous one, the wing tips are pointed. And if it’s not, the wing tips are a bit rounded. The color of the scales also determines the color of the wings. The size of the wingspan is double that of the snake’s body. They live underground and in trees.
Last but not least, there are many creatures in the seas. There are whales with color-changing skin, octopuses that can be as small as an Earth rabbit and as big as an Earth blue whale, and serpent-like creatures that slither through the ocean with their three heads.
So that’s about it. Writing this wasn’t too bad. I mean, it was just listing a bunch of things that I had to check off on the checklist that my teacher gave me. Then I can turn this in in the morning and have you out of my life. I don’t mean it in a bad way; I just mean I would have loved to read the report that came from Earth and not have to write it myself. Earth sounds really cool. I mean, we live so far away. Maybe when the shuttle gets to Earth, I’ll be out of school… Huh. Anyway, I can’t wait to read the report from Earth—peace (as you say on Earth).
