Underground Communities

They can’t live on Junce right now. That’s because their sun is destroying them.

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.).

Underground Communities

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     A large fireball coming from their nearby sun hits the planet Junce. This time, it hits a group of trees partially surrounding what is left of a small community. The flames from this fireball add to the huge fire already in this community. About 150 Junceans are already trying to put out the other fires there.

     Some of these Junceans have to dive into a nearby water puddle to avoid the latest fireball and flames this fireball has started. As soon as they can, they get out of this water to start carrying large, tall containers full of water from a Juncean-made waterhole that need both their hands and arms to carry to these flames.

     As one group of 25 Junceans in a line of water carriers gets to these flames, they begin tossing the water from the containers into the flames. Another group of 25 Junceans are right behind them, about to do the same thing with their water. After tossing their water, each group heads back to this waterhole to get some more water.

     This waterhole never gets too low on water because of a flexible tube that keeps adding water to it from a large Opening in a nearby mountain. Slowly, it starts to get low on water, though. So low, it doesn’t look like there will be enough to put out these flames. As soon as the flames are out, these Junceans head back to that mountain.

     These Junceans don’t have too far to go after they enter this mountain before they see about a million other Junceans cramped together in this underground community. Most of these Junceans join the other Junceans in this community, but two of them, Hecton and Yenka, head for one of the Juncean-made structures there.

     Hecton and Yenka enter this structure and head toward the leader of this community, Stansor. Stansor is talking to several other Junceans when Hecton and Yenka get to him. He dismisses the other Junceans and turns toward Hecton and Yenka. “You were putting out that fire for a long time. Was there a problem with this fire?”

     “No problems,” answers Hecton. “It just took us longer to put out because a third fireball came down near us before we finished putting out the other two.”

     “Did any of you get hurt or worse?” Stansor asks.

     Yenka and Hecton look at each other, but it’s Yenka who answers Stansor’s question. “About 17 got hurt, a few of them badly, but no serious problems.”

Eight Months Earlier

     “Another fireball from our nearby sun, that’s getting closer to us by the month, is about to hit our region of Junce,” says an Announcer named Ethime. Ethime can be heard all over this community. It’s hard to hear what she has been saying because of the chaos happening there.

     Ethime’s voice echoes all around this community from above. Some of the Junceans in this community stop running to look up toward the darkening sky above them whenever Ethime speaks. “This fireball isn’t heading for our little community this time. It’s heading for one of the communities near us.”

     “I’m not sure if any other community can still hear me, but I think they can,” continues Ethime. “I think our whole region can still hear me, and I’m going to continue telling everyone what has been happening to our planet for the last six months for as long as I can.”

     “There aren’t too many of us Announcers still able to announce what has been happening, but there are a few of us. So far, we are connected to each other so that we can tell everyone on Junce what is happening there.”

     The Junceans who stopped running to try to listen to what Ethime has been telling them are no longer stopped. They are still listening to her with their heads cocked up toward the sky above them, but they are now running with about a million other Junceans toward some mountains nearby.

     Not all of the Junceans running toward these mountains are running toward them. Some other Junceans have stopped running to listen to Ethime. They don’t listen to her long before they start running again. The same thing is happening to most of the other Junceans running there.

     It’s not easy running through what is left of this community. There is debris all around there. Some of it is as tall as the Junceans and the partial structures there, and some is taller than these Junceans and Structures. Most of this debris is also very sharp.

Six Months Ago

     “What has happened to our planet?” Khleim asks a large group of Young Ones between the ages of 7 or 8 and 19, most of them between 10 and 13, especially the females. They are walking around their underground community on Junce. What little walking they can do. After all, it’s hard to breathe in this community, let alone walk around it.

     “I could weaken what I’m about to tell you because you are Young Ones, but I’m going to do that,” continues Khleim. “You deserve to know the truth about what has been happening to us for the past 14 years.”

     Khleim stops walking and looks at these Young Ones, especially the Younger Young Ones. “Most of you hadn’t even been born before all this started. Because of what has been happening to us, some of you almost weren’t born. Luckily, the fireballs didn’t start until about ten years ago.”

     “Most of us were in our underground communities by the time the fireballs from our sun started hitting us,” says Khleim after he and the Young Ones with him start walking again. “The only ones that weren’t in them were the ones fighting the fires from these fireballs, or the ones looking for any Junceans still living on the surface of Junce.”

     “Why is this happening to us, to Junce?” Khleim asks. “At first we thought it was an alien invasion, and that they were using our sun somehow to destroy our planet. Probably so that they could live on it the only way they can live on it. They also could be destroying us for something, or for something they don’t have on their planet anymore.”

     Khleim starts walking again. Only this time he’s not looking at the Young Ones. He’s looking at the cramped group of adults near them. “We don’t think that way anymore. If this was an invasion of some kind, we would have seen these aliens by now.”

     “Now, we think it’s because our sun is getting closer to us,” continues Khleim after he and the Young Ones with him start walking again. “We still don’t know why our sun is doing this, but we think that it is.”

Only Four Months Ago

     Six Junceans, two adults and four Young Ones, are being dragged out of a partial structure by some Junceans who are looking for other Junceans still trying to live on Junce. These six Junceans are kicking, hitting, and screaming to be let go, to let them live the way they want to live.

     “We are only trying to help you,” says the leader of this group of Helpers, Violenti. “At least let us take these Young Ones to our underground community.”

“I can understand why you adults may want to live on the surface of Junce,” continues Violenti. “Of      course, I can understand why you are doing it. It’s because they are a part of you, but they still shouldn’t be here. Let us take them back to our underground community.”

     Androc, the adult male trying to live on the surface of Junce, breaks away from his two Helpers. “We don’t need or want your help. They are a part of us, and we don’t want them to leave us.”

     “The two male Young Ones look at least 13. They are old enough to decide what they want to do with their lives,” says Violenti. “But the two female Young Ones appear to be 8 and 11. Don’t they deserve to live? They can do that in our underground community, but they can’t do it on the surface of Junce anymore.”

     Evvamm, one of the male Young Ones, also breaks away from his Helper. “You're right about our ages. I’m 13, and Pactrik is 16, and we have decided what we want to do. We also want to live on the surface of Junce.”

     “As for Weoma and Ommei, you are a good guesser of ages for them,” says Pactrik after breaking away from his Helper. “They are 8 and 11.”

     Weoma and Ommei work together to break away from their Helpers. They look at each other and smile. Then they bump into the sides of their Helpers, forcing them to bump into each other. When they do this, they somewhat lose their balance. That’s when Weoma and Ommei break away from them.

     “Ommei and I have been talking about this. We agree with everyone else about us also wanting to live on the surface of Junce.”

Two Months From the Present

     A fireball hits the top of a mountain. It must have been one because it caused the underground community to feel the effects of that hit. Dust and small debris from the sides and ceiling of this underground part of Junce begin to fall on this community. A lot of shaking also starts shaking the Junceans there.

     Another fireball causes even more dust, debris, and shaking to happen to these Junceans. All of them are having problems staying on their feet. Some can’t stay on their feet, especially a lot of Young Ones. The leader of this community, Bremda, steps out of a Juncean-made structure above this community.

     Bremda taps both of her ears to be heard by everyone in that community. “Everyone, calm down. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last time. The closer our sun gets to us, the more fireballs that are sent to try to destroy us. Some of them will be trying to destroy our underground communities.”

     “It’s only a matter of time before these fireballs destroy Junce,” continues Bremda. Her voice echoes down to the Junceans below her. “If it’s the fireballs that destroy us. It may be our sun itself that destroys us.”

     “How long will it be before these fireballs or our sun destroys us?” Bremda asks no one in particular. “We don’t know how long we will still be able to live on Junce.”

     Bremda can’t hear what the Junceans from this community are saying, but she can hear that almost all of them are saying something. “Please, calm down. I can’t answer your questions if you ask them at the same time. If I can answer them, I will, but I can’t do it like this.”

     “The other leaders of these underground communities and I have been talking, and we don’t know what we are going to do about what has been happening to us, but if there is something we can do to stop it from destroying us, we will find a way to do it.”

     “We haven’t only been talking about other ways we can survive being destroyed completely. One of those ways is to push our sun away from us, preferably back to where it has been for millions of years, but we don’t think we can do that until we find out why it’s getting closer to us.”

Back to the Present

     Mannime, the leader of that underground community, walks up to a group of Junceans. “Did you find out anything new about what has happened to us?”

     “Every day you ask us this same question,” answers Dirm, the leader of this group of Junceans. “What do we tell you? It’s just like your question; it’s the same every day. We haven’t found anything new to tell us why our sun is getting closer to us.”

     “I know that the surface of Junce no longer exists as we know it,” says Mannime. “The only thing up there are a few thousand Junceans trying to live up there, ashes from the hundreds of fireballs hitting this region of Junce, partial structures, and debris everywhere.”

     Mannime slowly starts looking around this Juncean-made structure. “I thought we got most of our past and present into these underground communities before the fireballs started hitting us. You should have found something by now to explain what has happened to us.”

     “We did get most of our past and present down here,” says Dirm after looking at the other Junceans there with him. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get all of it. The same is true at the other underground communities.”

     “All of us have been trying to find out why this has been happening to us,” continues Dirm. “You aren’t the only one asking us this question every day. We are all asking ourselves the same question. Unfortunately, the answers are also always the same. So far, we haven’t found anything to explain why this has been happening to us, yet.”

     Mannime starts walking around this Structure. Dirm and the other Junceans with him are right next to her or right behind her. “I know that I’m a big pain in the… coming here every day, asking you this same question, but we are running out of time.”

     “Dirm, you aren’t the only leader in contact with the other leaders of these underground communities. I’m also in contact with all the other underground community leaders. We all agree; we can’t solve our survival problem if we don’t know how and why this has happened to us.”

     “If there is a survival problem to solve,” continues Mannime. “We may not have anything to solve because we don’t have a future. Even if we don’t have a future, I still want to know how and why this has happened.”

About Two Months Later

     A male Juncean stands in front of about a thousand working Junceans in an almost empty underground community. This one is different than all the others anyone has seen. There aren’t a million other Junceans crammed in there. “It looks like this underground community is ready to be filled with Junceans.”

     “This underground community is different in another way,” continues Gaffic. “The Junceans who live here won’t be cramped in here. Not only are there structure for these Junceans to live in, but there are business structures like a normal community has.”

     “Now, all we need to do is bring the Junceans from the other two underground communities in this region. Of course, we will need to do that in the darkness when our sun isn’t dropping fireballs on us.”

     Several weeks later, Gaffic stands slightly above about a million other Junceans. Only these Junceans aren’t crammed together. About half of them are standing around below him; most are looking up at him. The other half are in structures in that part of their underground communities. Almost all of these Junceans are looking up at him.

     Gaffim taps his ears, so his voice can be heard by the Junceans below him. “I want to welcome everyone to our new underground community. As you can see, it’s very open here. We won’t be as cramped as we were in our first two.”

     “Of course, we still have our problems with our sun, our fireballs, and our surface being uninhabitable, but we can now live a more normal life. Even if it is a short-lived life because of our problems.”

     “Unfortunately, our sun, fireballs, and surface aren’t our only problems. We still have a problem if we can’t stop what has been happening to us.”

     Gaffim can’t hear what some of the Junceans are saying below him, but he can hear them. “I can’t hear what you are trying to say to me because of you all talking at once, but I think I know what you are asking. You want to know what we leaders have been thinking about.”

     “One thing we thought of to help us survive what is happening to us is to leave our planet, but we can’t do that. First of all, we would need about a thousand ships to get us off Junce, and the only way we could do that is with our underground communities.”

Another Two Months

     “Our sun is no longer a threat to us,” says Raddion, the leader of this underground community, to the other 59 underground community leaders. Raddion sits in the center of this small circle with the other 59 leaders sitting around him. “Our sun isn’t getting closer to us anymore.”

     Several hundred thousand other Junceans are standing around these leaders, listening to Raddion and the other leaders, commenting on what they are hearing. “We still have our problems with the fireballs hitting the daylight sides of our planet.”

     “What does this mean for our underground communities?” A female leader asks.

     “We don’t know what will happen to our communities yet,” answers Raddion. “All we know so far is that our sun has stopped getting closer to us. Unfortunately, it hasn’t stopped the fireballs from hitting us.”

     The other 59 leaders start whispering to each other. “Is there any way we can stop these fireballs?” Another male leader asks.

     “Right now, the only way for these fireballs to stop is to have our sun move away from us. That doesn’t look like that’s going to happen,” answers Raddion.

     “Then that’s what we need to do,” says another female leader. “How can we move our sun far enough away from us to stop these fireballs? Preferably, moving it back to where our sun belongs.”

     The other 58 leaders start giving their comments on what they should do about their fireball problems. They are also asking questions. Raddion has been trying to listen to all their comments and questions, moving his head from each one of them, but it hasn’t been easy to do. He’s constantly moving his head in all directions.

     It’s not just the other leaders making these comments or asking these questions. The Junceans standing around them are also doing it. Raddion hasn’t been responding to these comments and questions. “Everyone stop talking at once. I can’t react to your comments and questions if everyone is talking at the same time.”

     Slowly, the Junceans there stop telling everyone their comments or asking Raddion their questions. “I want to hear all your comments, and answer all your questions if I can.”

     “I don’t know if we can move our sun away from us,” continues Raddion. “That’s why we are here. If there is a way for us to return to living on the surface of our planet someday, we will find it.”

Three More Months Have Passed

     Another underground community has been created. Only this one isn’t a community. There’s only one thing there: what appears to be a missile of some kind, a missile that looks almost done. The leader of this construction, Keremi, is overlooking this missile from above.

     Keremi isn’t alone. Seven other Junceans are standing next to her, three other females and four males. One of these Junceans is Opiam. “It looks like our attack against our sun is about ready to do. How soon will we be able to use it to move our sun away from us to stop these fireballs from hitting us?”

     “I can’t answer that question,” answers Keremi. “That’s because I don’t know how soon we can use it. We still have a few things we need to do before it’s ready to be used. That isn’t all, though. After all, we still need to make sure that it will do what we want it to do.”

     “Do we have the time to make sure it will do it?” Opiam asks. “How long will it be before we can do this?”

     Keremi hasn’t taken her eyes off the missile below them. “We should be ready to make sure any time now.” Just then, the working Junceans stop working on this missile. They turn to look up at the eight Junceans above them.

     One of these male Junceans starts waving his arms in front of him, crossing his arms into a ‘X’ with each pass of his waving. He’s also smiling. “I just got the signal that our working Junceans have finished this phase of our attack against our sun.”

     A few seconds later, these eight Junceans start walking toward the structure behind them. After they enter this structure, they stop. The inside of this structure is like this underground community. Nothing is in there except for some electronic equipment.

     Keremi and Opiam sit in the two chairs in front of this electronic equipment. They start tapping some of the buttons on the control panel under a large Image Monitor. “The two main problems with our Messenger are: can we use it the way we want to use it, and can we protect it until it does what it’s supposed to do? We are about to find out if we can use it to do what we want it to do.”

About Three Months Later

     An explosion takes out the ceiling of the underground community where this missile is. Dust and debris fall on and around this missile. Their sun barely peeks through the large opening this explosion has created. About a million Junceans surround this missile right now. They are close to it, but they aren’t close enough to be killed by it.

     These Junceans watch as this missile takes off. It barely makes it through the large opening there. Some of these Junceans are affected when this missile takes off. None of them appear to be dead, but most have been hurt by it. The ones who have been hurt have been hurt by the flames coming out of the bottom of this missile.

     The Junceans in this underground community can’t see what the missile is doing once it exits their large opening, but about fifty Junceans inside the structure where the electronic equipment is can see it. These fifty Junceans are standing around inside this cramped structure watching their missile as it heads toward their sun.

     “We will soon know if our Protection will protect our missile from exploding before it gets to our sun,” says one of the male Junceans from the Junceans who is watching this missile. “I just hope that explosion doesn’t destroy us.”

     No one else says anything. They just continue to watch as their missile gets closer to their sun. Suddenly, the Image Monitor they are watching goes black. These Junceans can no longer see what their missile is doing. They can hear what their missile is doing, but they can no longer see it.

     “What happened?” a female Juncean asks.

     “Why can’t we see what our missile is doing?” This time, another male asked.

     These watching Junceans are starting to panic. “Does that mean our missile has exploded? Is Junce about to be destroyed?. Another female asks.

     What these Junceans can’t see is that their sun is about to be hit. That’s if this missile doesn’t get red hot and explode before it gets there. The missile is already starting to get hot. Redness has started covering it, and it’s getting redder and hotter by the second. Soon their entire missile will be covered in this redness.

     Suddenly, this missile is hit by two fireballs. This causes this missile to explode. When it explodes, it sends their sun away from Junce. It also sends about a hundred fireballs toward Junce. Will this explosion destroy Junce?

Word Count = 3,934
This Includes 35 Title Words