Seekrem’s Halo, the Fekxtah Fragments Between Middle and Far

Seekrem’s Halo

Between the Near and the Middle Fekxtah that orbit Oma there is an area of debris that the ancient texts call Seekrem’s Halo. This name derives from one of the most famous of all the Elzheni astronomical scientists, Seekrem Dal. There are fragments of knowledge about her in the ancient texts, but they are scattered (much like the ring of debris that bears her name) and only provide small glimpses into various aspects of her life. What we know of her will be included in a separate volume about the history of the Elzheni race. For our purposes in this document, we will say no more than she was born and lived out her entire life in the City of Angzhelling, the greatest of all the Elzheni cities, and, many would say, the greatest city ever constructed by a race of beings.

Seekrem’s Halo is not a single Fekxtah. Instead it is a vast area of Oma’s Family that comprises millions, or perhaps billions, of objects made of stone, metal, ice, and other rudimentary materials. Many of the ancient scholars considered it to be the fragments of one or more Fekxtah that met a ruinous fate; destroyed through cataclysmic collisions with other Fekxtah or possibly destroyed by their own internal forces. The cause is lost in the vast tangle of time; however, whatever that incipient event might have been, there is no doubt that the objects of Seekrem’s Halo are the remains of one or more extinct Fekxtah. They range in size from rocks no larger than a dwaheely’s hand to small, large, and enormous boulders, and some objects even the size of small planets.

Seekrem’s Halo stretches across an unfathomably wide extent. It begins at a distance of just beyond 200 WA from OMA and extends beyond 350 WA. Though this band of rubble is broad, it is not deep. The ancient texts claim that it is, on average, only a few hundred yards top to bottom, though there are footnotes about “mountains” in this huge ring where the detritus accumulates to create chaotic piles of rubble as much as several miles high. Whatever it might be, it is abundantly clear that it is far wider than it is deep.

As was stated there are millions, or possibly billions (the author favors the latter) of celestial objects in Seekrem’s Halo. However, because the Halo covers such an enormous area the distances between individual objects can easily be millions of miles. The exception to this come from reports in the later entries of the ancient texts that talk of clusters of objects found in the Halo. These clusters might have objects moving around and between each other only miles apart, or sometimes less. The claim is that these clusters were found using a special Energetic device that was able to reflect the image of objects at great distances. The scientists called this device Illidreth’s Reflector and placed it on one of the few planet-size objects found in Seekrem’s Halo, which is the topic of the next entry in this document. These clusters were sometimes referred to as “tribes” though the ancient texts do not make clear why such a term, usually reserved for groups of living creatures, would be applied to an aggregation of lifeless rock floating in empty space.

It was stated that the members of clusters were close enough to each other that travel was possible among them. How one would perform this travel was not explained in the ancient texts, though there was a hint provided for why one might want to do this. The claim was that movement had been detected of creatures that traveled between and among clusters’ members. This discovery motivated the Elzheni scientists (or at least some of them) to find out more about them. The result was that a number of very bold, or very foolish, scientists began a project they called “the chase”, where these scientists tried to capture, or at least come into contact with, these strange phenomena. This claim is quite bizarre, and even the vast majority of Elzheni astronomical scientists were highly skeptical of its wisdom — “If you chase nothing, then that is what you will find.” Even so, the ancient texts included a fairly lengthy account of such a chase (also referred to as a “hunt”), and some description of a creature that had no need of breath or breathing and which had an ability to draw itself toward, and repel itself away from, the fragments.

We include below a short excerpt from that text.

I have been chasing this creature for four days now without rest or sleep. I have called upon Eshree, the Goddess of Endurance, to keep me whole and strong during this hunt.

The creature I chase is a member of the race that I have named the Annastraddem, the race of the lost Fekxtah. The Annastraddem live in these barren outskirts of the Solar System, known to us as Oma’s Family. It is a place that is far from our own world of Ethem, but still within the sphere of Oma’s domination.

The speed of this creature is astounding, and its senses are far beyond what I had expected. At the end of the fourth day, it saw me. I was sitting on a drifting, house-sized boulder that was hundreds of miles away. I knew it was out there, but could not tell its exact location until I saw a flash of sunlight reflected from its sleek form as it hurtled toward another monolith nearby.

At once I launched myself toward its destination, but I was not as fast as it was. The platform on which I sailed and the field of force that surrounded it, and me, kept me safe from the brutally cold emptiness of space; however, it held me back from attaining the speed I needed to catch my prey. I chose to use Walk in a last attempt to catch up. I knew if I did not, it would be gone and the last few days would be for nought. I had trained myself on this skill, but I had not yet used it. It was powerful and it manipulated Physic Energy in ways that were very dangerous. If used properly, I would simply move to a place that I held in my mind, and, with that single step, I would be there, without the need to travel through all the space in between those two places. If I got it wrong, I could be hurt horribly or die, or worse, I could be scattered in parts to many places.

I was determined, though, not to fail my mission and, gathering my remaining strength and one quietly whispered prayer to Eshree, I took a step.

When I opened my eyes I knew I was still whole, and was glad of that. I could also immediately see that I was not where I had been an instant before. Best of all, I could see the creature hurtling toward me only seconds away.

I prepared my net, but as I did, the creature stopped in mid-flight. It had seen me, but even more surprising it had come to a complete halt by simply raising its hand.

Suddenly, all of its arms splayed out from its body in a gesture which I somehow knew was great rage. Every arm stabbed in my direction, and the creature plunged toward me. We were suddenly face-to-face with my force shield being the only thing keeping it and its piercing arms from me. My shield was shrinking, and I no longer had room to cast my net. One its sharp, rocky appendages pierced my field, and then another, and then two more. I put all my concentration into the shield. The appendages stopped for only for a second and then each of them restarted their inexorable movement toward me. I held out my hand, palm up to make a final effort to repel this invader. A small, sharp, steely needle swelled from the end of the arm in front of my palm, and suddenly it savagely thrust the stony length of its arm through my palm, into my forearm, up my elbow. It stopped at my shoulder, but I don’t know why. It took less than an instant and in that moment of time, I thought I saw this creature’s inner self. It was hard and cold and alone. Absolutely alone, but glad to be that. And, it was old. Older than the lands and seas of Ethem. Older than Ethem itself and older than Oma, the Fekxtah star at the center of her family, and Ethem’s siblings. I saw that it lived in darkness; a darkness without limit in space or in time. Then that darkness overwhelmed me.

The next thing I remembered was my dearest friend, Allmeedee looking down at my face with a terribly concerned look on his face. When he saw me wake, he moved forward to comfort me, to tell me that I was safe back in our temporary Fekxtah Station and would soon be going back to the Elzheni Kingdom and our home world. He told me that he had, by some miracle (thank Eshree), found me floating in between two giant boulders, and had brought me back. I tried to reach up to touch his cheek in thanks for saving my life, but my arm would not rise. He saw this and sadly he told me that when he found me my arm was no more than a hard, shriveled cinder of blasted rock, totally without life. It had become like the stone from the fields of Seekrem’s Halo.

The Planet Kullarra

The Planet Kullarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 930 miles

Length of day: 12.5 hours

Gravity: 1.4 Ethems

Description:

Kullarra is the second of the Fektah planets known as “The Twins”, and is the larger of the two. Like its twin this planet has a gravity that is greater than its size would dictate, though not as great as that of Ulgarra.

One of Kullarra’s most distinctive features is its extensive system of tunnels and caverns. The planet was described in the ancient texts as a “honeycomb of passageways” and “more akin to a sponge than a rocky planet.”

The massive system of passages weaves throughout the outer shell of Kullarra. The planet is slightly more than nine hundred miles in diameter and, according to the texts. The network of passages begins just under the surface and extends down as far as sixty miles into the planet. The rock of these passageways is hard and in some cases has been transformed into smooth metals. Some of these metals are a kind of substance that does not exist here on Ethem, and, if we are to believe the ancient texts, not found anywhere else in Oma’s Family. The Elzheni had great interest in these metals because of their extraordinarily powerful magnetic fields. There are also strange accounts of creatures that are by some definition alive even though they are made entirely out of these magnetic metals. Some of the reports talk about metal-monsters that stand on two, three, or four legs (sometimes a few more) and are eight to ten feet tall. The reports claim (unbelievably) that these creatures run across the surface of Kullarra looking for hot areas, usually those places with lava flows on the surface. When they find lava flows that meet their needs (there is no indication what those needs might be), they jump into the lava to be wholly consumed. The reports call these creatures Stalldaggers, and a few reports say they have seen some Stalldaggers that are hundreds of feet tall. These move much more slowly and look for the largest and deepest lava beds on the planet before they will jump in.

The outer crust of the planet has high rocky mountains covering the northern polar region. Some of these are as high as thirty miles. There are also several massive gashes in the outer crust. These deep cuts run for thousands of miles and are constantly bubbling with lava that rises up from the very core of the planet. Several passages of the ancient texts claim that these planet-wide gashes are frequently the targets for the large eruptions that periodically plague Kullarra’s twin, Ulgarra.

Fekxtah Station #7:

It is not entirely clear where this Fekxtah Station is located. The ancient texts mention three stations, and there are indications that there may have been more.

It is the considered opinion of current scholars that there is only one extant station, and it is possible that even that station no longer exists. There seems to be a history of stations being built, and later (sometimes much later) being destroyed. Several times the texts mention that the stations were destroyed by “Ulgarra’s wrath”, a strange phrase to come from such a scientifically-minded race as the Elzheni; however, the passage has been translated many times and there is overwhelming agreement that these words have been translated properly.

The most rational theory is that stations were in fact destroyed, but not by some mythical beast, but rather by the rationally understandable scientific principles that determine the behavior of these Fekxtah. The passages that describe Kullurra’s twin, Ulgarra, talk about its instability and the periodic eruptions that plague the Fekxtah. Our conclusion is that these volcanic eruptions are sometimes so powerful that they fling material out into space and that this material has, at times, impacted Kullarra with devastating effect. This would not only explain the repeated rebuilding of Fekxtah Stations on Kullarra, but would also help understand the honeycombed nature of Kullarra’s surface.

Whatever the cause may be, we are led to understand that another Fekxtah Station was built on Kullarra shortly before writing of the ancient texts ceased. This station was built deep under the surface of Kullarra to use its rocky surface to provide at least some protection. The station was built of material gathered from Kullarra itself and that material was used to created a structure inside existing tunnels below the surface. In addition, the station was built in a number of separate parts all connected through strengthened tunnels. It was thought that if there was another eruption that showered down upon Kullarra that at least some parts of the full station might survive. We will likely never know for certain.

Ulgarra as seen from the planet Kullarra

The Planet Ulgarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 3.4 miles

Length of day: 42 minutes

Gravity: 1.8 Ethems

Description:

Ulgarra is one of the two Fektah planets in Oma’s family that are called “The Twins”. The other is the planet Kullarra, whose description follows.

These two Fekxtah are called “The Twins” not because they resemble each other in appearance. They are, in fact, very different in their composition and size. Rather they are called “The Twins” because they closely follow each other in their orbits around Oma. Why this is so was not completely understood by the great astronomical scientists of the Elzheni race; however, there is some description of them as somehow chasing each other. Current scholars believe that to be a purely figurative manner of speech. The attached image shows Ulgarra as seen from the surface of Kullarra, from the entrance of Kullarra’s Fekxtah Station.

Regardless of its relationship to its “twin”, Ulgarra is itself one of the strangest Fekxtah in Oma’s Family. It is a roughly round and, astronomically speaking, quite tiny planet, being slightly less than three-and-a-half miles in diameter. That, however, is not its most unique characteristic. Even though it is the smallest of Oma’s Family of planets, Ulgarra has a Gravity far in excess of its size. When standing on Ulgarra, your body will feel a pull toward the center of this Fekxtah that is almost twice that of our own Ethem!

An additional oddity is Ulgarra’s atmosphere. Most of the time it has no atmosphere at all, as one would expect of an object of this size. However, periodically, at seemingly random times, the planet will extrude a thick vapor from various fissures in its surface. Within a few hours this extrusion has settled onto every part of the surface of Ulgarra. At first it is misty and clear, but soon it becomes thick and heavy, and, in places, almost soup-like in consistency. It is evenly distributed across the surface of this tiny planet, extending from its surface up to six feet from the surface at which point it abruptly ends.

The composition of this temporary atmosphere is even stranger than its appearance. It is a fine mix of wet, sticky substances captured in a dense fog, and there is a tremendous abundance of life in this mixture. It is filled with millions of creatures that range in size from that of an insect one might find in the woods of Yildreth Forest to some that are so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Even though the density of the mist varies across this Fekxtah it is always dense enough that, when enclosed by it, one can only see a few feet ahead.

In addition, the mixture is not static. There are rivers of movement within it that pull on an unwary traveler, and there are documented instances of folk completely carried away by the strength of a sudden current. There are also the equivalent of lakes, oceans, and terrific storms in this atmosphere that arise from seemingly nothing, and nowhere, but appear in sudden bursts inside, and on top off, the mixture. It is notable that some of these large currents (rivers of mist) cross the entire planet, though, of course, that’s not saying a lot.

The very top of the atmosphere is different from what lies below. It is much thicker than the thick mist below it, forming a tough “skin” over the entire planet for as long as the mist remains, which can be many days or weeks. This layer is less than half an inch thick, but upon close examination it will be seen as a tangle of interwoven, stiff crusty cloud-like masses. This layer is called the nellosphere (for reasons unknown to us), and it is so thick that the mist creatures are able to walk on its surface. Above that there is nothing but the cold emptiness of space.

There is one additional, notable feature of Ulgarra that must be mentioned. This planet will, at times, show patches of fire and even volcanic eruptions. It is a world that, to all appearances, is nothing more than a dead rock, and yet, from time to time, it shows that below its surface there is some strange source of heat. It is a heat sufficient to break through the rocky surface of Ulgarra and melt it. The ancient texts tell us that rarely, very rarely, these eruptions are strong enough to fling material onto its close twin, Kullarra.

Fekxtah Station #6:

This station is a tall, featureless cylindrical structure that rises from the surface of Ulgarra along its equator. It has a single door at ground level, which has a strong seal to protect incursions from the atmosphere when it arises. Though the station, at its base, is only a few dozen yards in diameter, it rises to a height of almost 600 feet. From the top of the station one can easily see the curvature of this tiny Fekxtah.