The Stars Beyond

Chapter 1: The Old World

The train left the station, scattering in its wake the dried yellow leaves on the tracks. And in its wake, it also brought with it the bleakness of autumn. Wang Xuan stared at the departing train until it disappeared from his sight.

This was farewell for a few more of his classmates.

They were each heading their own way after parting ways. No one knew when they would meet again in the future. Perhaps such indulgence might even be impossible.

Around him, some of his fellow classmates were still waving their hands slowly at the departed train. They could not stop. Some of them stared in silence. They were all shrouded in sadness.

This parting of ways was especially hard for them after four years of friendship, bonded over their four years studying in the university.

As the waning light of the setting sun shone down on the scattering leaves, it cast a motley light on the ground, bringing up reminiscence of all the good times that were past.

A pretty looking girl turned away from a scene and silently wiped away the tears on her glasses. In this special era, they would each be set upon their own paths after graduation. It was always a possibility that they would never meet each other ever again in their lifetime.

The dried yellow leaves flutter in the air, scattered by the autumn wind. This season was one filled with hope for some, but was also a bringer of despair for the others.

It had been four months since their graduation. Some of them, with bright futures ahead of them, decided to stay in the city. There were also others among their numbers who were waiting anxiously and clinging on to the hope that good fortune would eventually arrive.

But many more had returned to their hometowns. Carrying with them their sorrows and disappointments and regrets.

Wang Xuan’s mind was filled with concern for his own future as he walked down the aging street covered by the fallen leaves from the trees on both sides of the road.

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He was not alone.

“Why are you not among those who get to stay? Are they giving up on you? This is ridiculous!” his companion exclaimed.

To his roommate and best friend Qin Cheng, Wang Xuan was the symbol of excellence. But much to his dismay, Wang Xuan was not among the chosen when the results were released.

“Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Any idea where you’ll be going?” asked Wang Xuan.

Qin Cheng told him with a voice that only they could hear that he might be headed to Luna Nova.

“Ahh... The ‘New Moon’, a star lying beyond the stars. I wonder if we’ll see each other again.” Wang Xuan stopped in his tracks. Even his best friend was about to leave. The setting sun shrouded his tall, well-built body as he looked at his friend with his clear, determined eyes.

“I’ll be back. We’ll definitely see each other again.” Qin Cheng was a man of sentiments. It was hard for him to say goodbye to his homeland. And the fact that he would be parted with his best friend added more to his sadness.

“Let me know when you’re back!” Wang Xuan patted his friend on the shoulders.

“I really want to stay!” a voice filled with sorrow cut through the autumn wind.

It belonged to one of their classmates. “I don’t want to leave! There’s still hope for me yet! I don’t want to go back just like that!”

He had worked hard during his four years here. But the future that he had planned for; the future that he paid for with his blood, tears, and sweat was still out of his reach. It would never come.

The student burst into tears.

And standing there in the autumn wind, many shared his sentiments.

In a spot not far away, a couple stopped and looked at each other. Tears flowed down their cheeks as they stared at each other in silence. They would be separated not by distances measurable by kilometers or miles, but by the vastness of space.

This might be the last time they see one another.

They held each other in their embrace. There were no words. There was only silence and tears.

The city was what many would consider a large one, but it was old, with many remaining traces of the Old Era, or some might call the Golden Age of humanity. The trees that lined the streets of the city were ancient. Some, they say, were at least two hundred years old.

There were many others just like it. Relics of a distant past that were abandoned, devoid of traces of humanity. Of course, life was not extinguished from these places. It existed in the form of vines and undergrowth that were slowly swallowing the cities.

Students were still allowed to stay on campus even after their graduation until all the candidates had been chosen. Qin Cheng was still livid when he returned to the campus with Wang Xuan. He wanted his friend to fight against his fate. He needed to know why the administration had given up on his best friend.

It was a once in a lifetime chance. The chosen would then remain in the city where they will be shipped off to the colony. The New World or Terra Nova as they called it. It seemed that a great discovery had been made there.

Qin Cheng was not among those who were lucky. Despite his family’s greatest efforts, it only gave him a chance to enter the sea of the stars. He was headed for Luna Nova, a moon orbiting humanity’s new home. It was mankind’s most important outpost outside Terra Nova.

“You know,” Qin Cheng said under his breath, “Even when all we get are nothing but rumors, those who have access to insiders’ news are worked up.”

“So you must secure yourself a spot no matter what!” he continued.

Shadows of trees danced under the moonlight as Wang Xuan stretched himself on the lawn. He was practicing the “Scattered Arts”. It was a technique from an age long forgotten said to be highly practical in combat.

Fallen leaves danced in the wind around Wang Xuan. His movements were quick, and yet his breath remained stable despite him not taking a rest. “I’m still waiting for the final selection.”

Space was a vast place, but it was cold, and it was filled with deathly silence.

Terra Nova was the only inhabitable planet known to mankind other than the Old World. Immigration to humanity’s newfound home stopped many years ago. Commoners from the Old World would find entry to the planet extremely difficult.

It was a name given to mankind’s homeworld when colonization began. The ball of dirt hurtling through space in an orbit around Sol was indeed old compared to the newly discovered planet.

In the past, the planet that was the cradle of humanity was once known as “Earth”.

And “Earth” was indeed old. Its surface was filled with desolated cities devoid of human life due to a war fought in a bygone era. Technology had reached such a height that warfare on a global scale wreaked destruction on an unprecedented and unimaginable scale.

It destroyed the prosperity and wealth accumulated by countless generations and left the Earth in a state of desolation.

This was when a large part of humanity decided to flee into space. But technology back then was not as amazing as many were led to think. Construction of a base on the moon had just begun when war broke out.

It was under such circumstances that mankind began its efforts to explore the stars beyond. It was then that a new planet capable of sustaining human life was discovered.

And it was also a feat that people of the Old World could not fathom until now.

Many questioned the history recorded during that period of time. They simply were unable to tell what led to the sudden boom in technology. It was impossible for humanity of that age to create a stable wormhole nor was it capable of building faster-than-light engines. Faster-than-light (FTL) travel was something that humanity had yet to achieve.

It was a popular theory among the population of the Old World that answers could be found on the moon, but the destruction wrought upon the planet was so great that technology had regressed to a point where even the moon was beyond humanity’s reach.

It took more than a hundred years for the Old World to recover but a mere fraction of its prewar population. Most of its surface even until this day was covered with nothing but barren wasteland as a result of the war.

Mass migration of survivors had also occurred when Terra Nova was newly discovered. The huge drain in talent and manpower lasted for decades until immigration to the New World was halted a hundred years ago.

With an environment so hostile and its population severely depleted, recovery of the Old World had been slow.

Wang Xuan’s movements grew even more rapid under the moonlight. With a loud thud, he left a clear handprint on the trunk of a tree where he struck. The tree shook, and yellow leaves rained down on him.

“Wait, you’ve mastered The ‘Scattered Arts’?” Qin Cheng exclaimed with a clear shock in his voice, “They’ll regret giving up on you!”