It’s Always Night-Time on Yulm

Yulm has been a Death Planet for multiple centuries. Everything on Yulm is deathly.

What you are about to read is true. That's Not all, though. After all, this has already been translated into a language that we all know and understand - English (German, French, Italian, Russian, etc.).

It’s Always Night-Time on Yulm

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     A human starts screaming as his right hand turns to a darkening black before it falls off his arm after he touches a plant leaf on Yulm. This blackness spreads to his arm until it also falls off. Then the rest of his body soon starts to suffer the same thing. All this only takes a few seconds to happen.

     What has just happened to this human has happened on a large monitor in front of about twenty-five Scientists and Researchers on their spaceship, The Curious. Another human runs up to him. She touches him just before he is a pile of blackness on the ground there. The same thing that happened to him is about to happen to her.

     A few seconds after this happened to these humans, a strong wind scatters their blackness everywhere. They aren’t the only ones that have happened to these Researchers,” says Doram, the Leader of the Scientists and Researchers on The Curious. “About fifteen others suffered the same things. All of them suffered because of the plants on this planet.”

     “How many Researchers were there in this group on Yulm when this happened?” Another Researcher, Pathiun, asks.

#

     Doram stands slightly beside a now black monitor in front of these Scientists and Researchers, who are sitting in a half-circle around Doram. “What else do we know about Yulm?” Doram asks.

     Another Researcher, Tymei, stands up before she speaks. “We also know that out of the twenty Researchers in that group of researchers, only three of them didn’t suffer the same way as the others in their group.”

     “We also know that there have been about a thousand Scientists and Researchers who have come here to Yulm to get some answers to the questions we all have about Yulm,” says another Researcher, Jollianna. “Only about fifty of them came back from Yulm somewhat alive.”

     “Jollianna, what do you mean by somewhat?” Doram asks.

     Everyone who speaks to Doram like this stands up first. “I mean that we know that these individuals were in almost constant fear of everyone or everything, or they were insane in numerous ways.”

     “What else do we know about Yulm?” Doram asks.

     We also know that the plants on Yulm aren’t the only things that can do what we have seen there,” says Pathiun. “The planet itself can also cause something like this to happen there.”

#

     Chrestena, the Head Healthcare Provider on The Curious, walks up to Doram when he enters Healthcare with several other Researchers. “Do you have something good to tell us?” Doram asks even before Chrestena gets to him.

     “I’m not sure yet, but I think I do. Let me show you what this something good is,” says Chrestena as she takes Doram and the other Researchers to several Scientists and Researchers on examination beds there. Every one of these Scientists and Researchers is being given an injection by some Healthcare Helpers.

     “Is that what I think it is?” Doram asks. “Will that keep us alive when we go down to Yulm?”

     Chrestena goes to look at the reading on the monitors behind these Scientists and Researchers. Doram and the other Researchers with him go to these Scientists and Researchers. After she looks at these monitors, she turns to face Doram and the other Researchers. “According to these monitors, no one is going to die on Yulm when we go down there.”

     “That is something good if it’s true. How do you know that it will stop us from dying down there?” Doram asks.

#

     Doram and Chrestena are walking down the corridors of The Curious. The rest of the Scientists and Researchers there are walking right behind them. “You never answered my question about how these injections will help us on Yulm.”

     “It’s because we aren’t the only ones who tried to help us while on Yulm,” answers Chrestena. “We aren’t the only ones who have thought about this. Almost everyone who has come to Yulm has tried to do something like this.”

     “I understand them wanting to know,” says Doram. “But I don’t understand why you think that you have come up with a solution to this problem.”

     Chrestena stops walking and looks at Doram, who has also stopped walking, along with the others there. “Not all the victims of this planet are blown away in the unknown winds happening there. I’m not the only one who has studied these remains, but I think I am the only one to come up with a solution to our problem with Yulm.”

     They all start walking again. A few minutes later, they enter the cargo bay where a space shuttle is being prepared to leave there. Chrestena starts injecting everyone there.

#

     A space shuttle lands in a large open area on Yulm. After the entrance to this space shuttle starts to open, the Scientists and Researchers from The Curious start to leave it. Just before they leave there, they tap a button on their chest. This button disappears, only to be replaced by a skin-tight, almost invisible protective shield.

     After they leave their space shuttle, these Scientists and Researchers break into groups of four to six to start looking for answers on Yulm. It’s not long before they find out their injections aren’t going to stop them from dying on this planet.

     It starts when several Scientists and Researchers start to collect pieces of the plants on Yulm. As soon as they touch these plants, they start to scream in pain when they begin to dissolve into blackness. Most of this blackness gets blown away by a sudden wind gust.

     It’s not only the plants that are deadly on Yulm. So is the ground they are walking on, and the caves some of the Scientists and Researchers are exploring. Several Scientists and Researchers are starting to die there in the same way as the ones with the plants there.

###

     An alarm echoes out of the space shuttle from their spaceship, The Curious. Everyone near this space shuttle looks in that direction, only to see it turning to blackness like the Scientists and Researchers on Yulm. “There are caves near here,” someone shouts.

     “Help those who can’t do it, but everyone needs to get to these caves as quickly as they can,” someone else shouts. “Don’t touch the walls of this cave. If you do, you will end up like our Scientists, Researchers, and space shuttle.”

     Within a few seconds, everyone on Yulm started running, limping, etc., toward the nearby cave. Some could do it on their own. Others needed help, but everyone has been getting to this cave one way or another. Within only a few minutes, they are all in that cave.

     After they get to this cave, they start walking through it. They stay in a single line so that they don’t touch the side walls there. When they get to the end of this cave, the ones in front of this line stop. All the others crowd around them. The look on their faces says they are shocked by what they see.

#

     What these Scientists and Researchers are seeing as they walk toward the center of this large cavern in several different directions. They are seeing what is left of a civilization. Of course, there are no Yulmans there, or any indication that their remains used to be there.

     All that remains is what little is left of some of the buildings. “Now we know what happened to the Yulmans,” says another Researcher. “We now know that some of them lived on this side of Yulm. At least they did for a while.”

     “We still don’t know what happened to them or to Yulm,” says another Scientist. “Why is this side of Yulm always in darkness?”

     The Scientists and Researchers have broken up into the same groups they have been in before. They have started looking around this civilization. “There is something else we don’t know yet,” says another Researcher. “I don’t know about the walls in this part of the caves, but I noticed the ground in here isn’t a threat to us.”

     All the Scientists and Researchers around this one start looking around, especially at the ground. “I also noticed that.”

#

     Doram has gathered all the Scientists and Researchers on Yulm into what remains of a large building that’s most likely a meeting place. “We need to talk about what we are going to do now.”

     “As long as we stay in this cave, it appears that we will be okay. At least we will if we don’t touch the walls here,” continues Doram. “I have been trying to contact The Curious, but I haven’t been able to do it yet. Can anyone else contact them?”

     “I have also been trying to contact them,” says another Researcher. “So far, I can’t do it either.”

     Doram notices that almost everyone there is trying to contact The Curious now. It doesn’t look like any of them have been able to contact them. “We need to find a way to contact them. They need to be told not to send anyone else down here.”

     “That’s not all we need to contact them about,” says another Scientist. “We also need to find a way to leave Yulm before we end up like what happened here.”

     “That’s something I have been thinking about,” says Doram. “I think I know how we can do it.”

#

     Neromei isn’t a Scientist or a Researcher. She’s the Leader of their spaceship, The Curious. She is responsible for everything that happens on and off The Curious. Usually, that isn’t a problem, but sometimes it is. This is one of these times. Neromei is starting to get worried about what is happening on Yulm.

     “You still haven’t been able to contact any of the Scientists and Researchers on Yulm,” Neromei asks no one in particular. She just keeps her eyes on the large viewscreen in front of them in Central Control of their spaceship.

     “I have been trying to contact all of them,” says the Communications Leader on The Curious, Queew. “So far, no one has contacted me back. They haven’t even tried to contact us. I have also been monitoring them, and I can’t do that anymore. Their space shuttle is also no longer on Yulm.”

     Neromei looks over at Queew with a shocked look on her face. “What does that mean? Are they still on Yulm? Have they returned to The Curious? I should have been informed when they returned to our spaceship. Why haven’t I been informed of their return?”

#

     Looking through a small tube, Doram can see a large tree just outside their cave. Doram pushes a button on the side of a hand weapons that sends a metal rope that connects itself to that tree. “One of us can use this rope to get outside this cave without touching the walls in here or the ground outside this cave.”

     “I think we can’t contact anyone outside this cave because we are inside it,” says Doram to everyone there watching what he’s doing. “Once I am outside this cave, I’m sure I can contact The Curious.”

     There’s only one problem with that plan,” says another Researcher. “You shouldn’t be the one doing it.”

     Doram wraps the metal rope around a large piece of what remains of a building and stretches it until it’s a straight line well above the ground of that cave. He jumps up and grabs a hold of that rope and starts moving up it with his hands. “This may be our only way to get off Yulm alive.”

     “We disagree,” says another Scientist. She and everyone else there jump up to grab a hold of that rope. They only get about halfway to the surface when their rope turns to blackness briefly. Everyone is still holding on to that rope when this happens.

Word Count = 1,976