THE MULTIVERSAL CRIMINAL

Chapter 16: Descent

Juvo watched the planet get near his ship, from his perspective. It was a splendid green orb categorised by the humans as a superearth. A dense atmosphere, rocky terrain, and oceans of liquid water (most probably) characterised it's appearance. Surrounding the planet were asteroids and planetoids that were identified as moons. There were in total seven of them in stable orbits.

One might expect an advanced race to have space stations around their planets, but Gadiem Von had none. Here, the inhabitants had excelled their technology in bettering themselves- that is, their bodies. Technological advancements were veiled by their organic appearances which caused the ignorant less developed life forms of the other planets of the solar system to think of them manipulating things... by magic, as the actions couldn't be placed logically in the classical sense.

From his research, Juvo had learnt that the planet had Major Gods and normal inhabitants. Major Gods were the wise ones who had chosen to use their acquired powers to help sow the seeds of knowledge and advancement in the technologically less developed planets. A smarter solar system would surely operate better when working unitedly. The normal inhabitants did other work that was restricted to the land and they did not require leaving it. They led normal lives. To them, ships entering and leaving their planet was an everyday affair. These ships belonged to other civilisations beyond their solar system that traded goods and other necessities with them.

But their race did not require ships. Their bodies had built in technology to travel in outer space without it.

Juvo admired how different one civilisation could be from the other, being developed entirely independent of one another. But these secondary Gods had chosen to hasten the process and teach the other developed forms of life occupying their solar system, in their own way. As it was all done while keeping in mind working as a single civilisation, there was nothing wrong in it ethically.

In the traditional sense, humans had visitors from outside that gave them gifts of knowledge in exchange for their loyalty, and worshipping them as superior beings. These Gods were planet hoppers that went from planet to planet for the fun of it, and educating countless civilisations with the basic knowledge that they would require to develop further.

But witnessing their impressive technologies, these primordial civilisations regarded these other worldly beings to have divine powers (some even called it magic) as they couldn't yet understand the technology they used.

Over the centuries they turned into myths; and being orally transferred from generation to generation they changed with time- with spacecraft becoming chariots and what not. A high probability was there that people mixed their own beliefs into the stories and further changed them. As Gods could do 'anything' it was not doubted by anyone, as nobody could prove what was being told.

Superstitions arose from their 'godly' powers and corrupted what could have been a perfect civilisation, for it birthed beings whose races bore the emblem of evil in their blood. Many civilisations ended themselves in war. But those that survived knew balance and continued on in prosperity (more or less).

But many such knowledge gifting races couldn't be traced till date. Many longed to meet the Gods they had worshipped for so long, after developing interstellar travel, but they seemed to have disappeared.

Perhaps their fate ended them in a war too. Or perhaps they had transcended somewhere beyond...

A smile tugged at a corner of Juvo's face. He was going to redefine the meaning of being a God.

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A few minutes past, and the ship was already stabilising it's orbit around the planet. With perfect synchronisation of speed of the craft and gravitational pull of the planet, it assumed a constant height from ground level.