314 Design Studio

My name is Cando, short for Candorius. Not sure where my folks got that from, they told me I’m named after a great Cylirian general from the ancient Empire of Man, never knew if they were joking or not, I prefer the nickname my friends gave me, just Cando.  I don’t know where to begin with this journal.  I never wrote in a journal before, not sure why I am now.  Maybe because it helps me cope……well that is what I keep telling myself, that it will make me feel better to get it all out….one day, I hope I’ll feel better…….

My class went on an extended field trip to Aeropa and the capital city.  It’s the first time I ever left Cyliria, first time I’ve traveled anywhere outside my home town without my family.

The trip started out great, our class got to see the High Council in session, we stayed at one of the best Inns in the city…I mean it was so cool, we had four of us in our own suite.  Who wouldn’t enjoy that kind of lifestyle?  The Aeropan capital was amazing, so much to see and very different from Cyliria.  I had seen pictures on the vids and heard about it from others, but it was definitely striking to walk along the promenade and the avenue of heroes. 

The last night of the trip started great, but ended horribly.  A bunch of us snuck out of the Inn, wanted to see the city night life.  Someone knew of a great club where everyone was our age.  It was awesome, a hypnotic light show, intense music, tons of gorgeous girls.

I did miss my check in call with my mother and father that night.  It was like clockwork for them.  The whole class would have dinner at the Inn’s restaurant or someplace our chaperone would set up, after dinner right on the hour, my folks would vid me in the room to check in on how the day went.  I knew they’d be worried, so I planned on telling them I was tired, went to bed early.  Wish I had known I’d never get the chance to talk to them….see them again.  They may not understand my generation all the time, but they are…..were…..good parents, man I miss them.

The city was pretty quiet when the club closed, the streets were deserted, kind of creepy as we made our way back to the Inn.  It was late, but the city was soo big we couldn’t ever imagine it being so deserted and quiet.  It was probably the part of town we were in.  It was a warehouse district and the club was in an abandoned building.  It’s not like any grownups would be around here anyway at night.  Once we got back to the Inn and walked into the lobby, it was the complete opposite of the streets outside. Even at the wee hours of the night and there were people all over the lobby.  When I saw the chaperone, Sir Margoth, he didn’t even acknowledge that we’d all just come in from outside the Inn.  We also saw the rest of the students, hell practically everyone staying at the Inn was gathered there in small groups looking at all the vids along the walls of the Inn’s bar and restaurant.  Most of the people were crying and consoling one another.  We had no clue what was happening.  It wasn’t until we saw the vids projecting the news that we began to understand what had happened.

Reporters from many different networks were covering the same story, pretty much the same thing was on all the vids…..

“Cyliria is gone, destroyed by a rouge planet. Billions dead.” was the headline…..

I was shocked, I thought to myself it had to be a prank, a sick twisted prank, but as I looked into the faces around me, I knew it was true.  But it was still hard to believe, I mean how do you get your mind wrapped around something like that…….my mind couldn’t process it all……..then I thought of my parents, my family, I rushed toward Sir Margoth and in a weak voice asked him if anyone made it off planet, did anyone escape…I pleaded with him, tears starting to form in my eyes? 

He said yes……both through the Planetary Transport Portals and with all sorts of spacecraft.  But it was all chaotic, some went through PTPs and got to Aeropa or its’ moon Faerun, others ended up flung far across the galaxy to the many other inhabited worlds in the Aeropan Coalition.  He said it would take time to figure it all out.

Before he even completed his last sentence I sprinted to the lifts and then to my room.  I need to see if they tried to vid me, did they leave a message, did they make it off in time?

As I sprinted down the hall, my mind raced ahead of me, they had to have made it off before…they can’t leave me all alone…I’m so scared that I’m cold inside…never felt this way before…please…please…let there be a message………