Moralastalla

Mean Distance from Oma: 987 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 31 years

Mean Diameter: 93,801 miles

Length of day: 56 hours

Gravity: 6.2 Ethems

Description:

Moralastalla is referred to in the ancient texts as “the Breathing Fekxtah.” The more mystical members of the Elzheni Astronomers Scientific Federacy claimed that this was due to a “being of cosmic proportions, born during the Second Age of the World, living inside the material confines of the Moralastalla Fekxtah.” It is not entirely clear what this cryptic remark means, and, sadly, the author (or authors) do not go into additional detail (or that detail may be contained in some of the Lost Volumes), so current scientists are left to little more than casual (or some would say, wild) speculation.

Even though this ancient tract gives us little to go on, the Fekxtah planet itself does have some peculiarities that lend credence to the “breathing” claim. The planet is constantly emitting huge plumes of gasses from its northern polar region. This creates a massive churn in the atmosphere of Moralastalla and, due to the spin of the planet, it creates a large halo around the planet. The halo has divided itself into a set of separate rings. It is believed that hidden within these rings are many small moons and even lesser (smaller) bodies. There are accounts (again, these are contained in the ancient texts) that “smoke devils” move among these small, lifeless rocky forms. If the texts are to be given credence, these smoke devils have an ability to form themselves into various shapes. They also have an ability to launch at high speeds to travel within the halo of Moralastalla and then have the ability to cling to one of these small moons, or planetoids, to halt its forward momentum, and surround the object. The Elzheni observers, who occupied Moralastalla’s Fekxtah station, recorded contention among the smoke devils for possession of the halo’s moons and moonlets. If two or more smoke devils occupied a moonlet at the same time, they observed terrific storms and churn of the cloudy substance of the devils, as if they were fighting for dominance of the celestial object. In most cases these great battles resulted in the expulsion of all but one devil from the planetoid. In the other cases, the speculation among the Elzheni was that one of the smoke devils had consumed its rival(s).

The halo of Moralastalla deserves much more attention than we can provide here. We must leave it at the idea that the halo is a world unto itself, and is deserving of years of study in addition to what studies may be given to the planet.

In addition to the halo, Moralastalla is surrounded by a naturally occurring belt of rings that rotate around the planet at a highly accelerated rate. The rings approach the planet very closely, within miles of the surface of the Fekxtah.

This brings us to the surface of Moralastalla, or, more accurately to the absence of a solid surface. There is a thick cloud cover that provides the outer shape of this planet. The clouds are in constant movement, and provide a sharp delineation between the emptiness of space around Moralastalla and the clinging, self-entangled masses of clouds.

Fekxtah Station #9:

The Fekxtah Station for Moralastalla is quite large. The accounts talk of it housing hundreds, possibly as many as one thousand, astronomers and workers.

The station sits in the upper levels of Moralastalla’s cloud cover so that it has access to both the planet itself as well as to the empty space around the Fekxtah. Though the station sits in this outer covering, it is anchored to something deep below. The Fekxtah Station is unique among all such stations in that it has this long anchor that tethers it to the planet. The tether is made of a material the Elzheni refer to as gennelith, which is a material the Elzheni crafted from other materials including some found in the outer Fekxtah of Oma’s Family. Gennelith’s properties are a strange combination of strength, pliability, and lightness of the material itself. In small form, that might be held in the hand, gennelith is so light that it is nearly impossible to feel the weight of it and its thin strands are so thin as to be almost invisible.

The ancient texts claim that the giant strand of gennelith is anchored at one end to the Fekxtah Station and its other end is connected to the hard surface of the planet which is thousands of miles below the Station.

During the early days of the use of this station the Elzheni had a vehicle that was able to descend along the shaft of the gennelith tether to carry a small group of explorers from the station to the surface of the planet. It was a terribly dangerous journey due to the tremendous turbulence of Moralastalla’s atmosphere which would often disturb the gennelith tether causing sometimes sharp, uncontrolled movements. In addition to the dangers of the journey, the surface of Moralastalla was extremely hostile. Temperatures were high and much of the surface was covered in shallow oceans of molten rock connected by streams of hot lava. Many Elzheni explorers lost their lives in pursuit of more knowledge about this strange Fekxtah, and, as the ancient texts record, over time fewer expeditions were launched until, at some point, they were finally ended and the car that traversed the gennelith tether was stored away in the least accessible sections of the Fekxtah Station.

Dra Ag Ahaggalla

Mean Distance from Oma: 517 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 18 years

Mean Diameter: 118,150 miles

Length of day: 11.8 hours

Gravity: 4.6 Ethems

Description:

Dra Ag Ahaggalla is Oma’s largest planet. It is in fact so large, and has so many moons, that the ancient texts described the Fekxtah as its own Celestial Family. Only a small part of this planetary behemoth had been explored by the Elzheni. This was due in part because of its enormous size, but also, and perhaps more so, because of its turbulent, and quite violent, environment.

Dra Ag Ahaggalla is swathed in multiple layers of heavy clouds that carry inside them particulates that can eat away at the raw material of anything attempting to pass through them. The clouds form into ferocious storm patterns that extend for thousands of miles and some which circulate across the entire circumference of the planet.

The upper layer of this Fekxtah’s atmosphere is several hundred miles deep with separate, distinct layers lying below it. Each layer has been given its own name by the ancient Elzheni explorers, but we will not recount that list here. It is notable, though, that the sixth layer of Dra Ag Ahaggalla is, unlike those that surround it, an atmosphere that is relatively quiet with storms that are less frequent and more manageable. For this reason it was labeled “The Stillness”.

The layer below The Stillness is as severe as the layers above; however, the clouds of this layer are much darker and thicker than any above it. Parts of it are so thick that they turn from gas into liquid and form temporary oceans that float along the wind currents and then dash into the layer below or suddenly dissipate back into a thick, sticky air. Some of the most extraordinary accounts from the Elzheni explorers tell of creatures that traveled in this heavy layer. Reports speak of tall creatures, hundreds of feet tall (or long), that fly among the violent winds and sometimes dance between them. The Elzheni dubbed these inhabitants of the Fektah the Drawegg in honor of the name of the planet itself.

There are no accounts of direct contact with the Drawegg; however, there were numerous occasions on which these alien beings would be seen close by when damage had just been done to the Fekxtah Station. Huge dents had been made in the outer shell of the station as if a giant hammer, or a hard fist, had battered its thick, metallic skin. Several accounts posited the belief that the Drawegg could speak, or at least laugh, though others argued back that it was simply the wind that they heard.

Below these top-most atmospheric layers the knowledge of the Elzheni becomes more sketchy. A number of brave (or foolish) Elzheni explorers used small vessels to explore the depths of Dra Ag Ahaggalla, but few of them returned.

Of those few that did return, two left detailed accounts of what they saw and experienced. They each made mention that their tiny, one passenger, craft had benefited them. They suspected that it was small enough that the forces of the planet had less effect on them, and that, perhaps, the Drawegg saw them as too small to be of concern. Whatever the reason, each of these ships and their explorer was able to travel thousands of miles into the bowels of Fekxtah. The deeper they went into the planet, the more dense the atmosphere became, and at their deepest extent the dense gas gave way to a sloshing liquid, which was heavy and viscous and seemed to cling to their craft slowing it down. Each pilot reported, independently, that as they went lower and the liquid became denser, it felt as if the liquid was reacting to their ship in an intelligent manner, as if it could perceive them as an intruder. At times the liquid would separate, creating an open, empty space hundreds of feet wide. This would cause the craft to suddenly fall but before it could meet the other side of this space it would be met by a thrust of liquid shooting up from the bottom as if to attack the tiny ship and hold it in its grasp. The pilots’ struggle to regain control of their vessel was significant and they survived only because of their great courage and outstanding skill. Neither of these explorers ever found a solid surface to the planet. They each noted that they believed there was simply no such thing.

We will make note of one other unusual characteristic of the Fekxtah planet Dra Ag Ahaggalla. As mentioned above, this planet has an enormous number of moons. The ancient Elzheni scientists counted over one hundred, and thousands of smaller objects (too small to be considered a “moon”) also circling this planet. Several of the moons are large, almost the size of our own Ethem, whereas the smallest are only a few miles in diameter.

The moons of Dra Ag Ahaggalla were, for the ancient Elzheni, their own separate area of study. They were highly diverse; some being made entirely of water (frozen, of course, at their surface but perhaps liquid deep inside), others a strange accumulation of oddly shaped rock, and still others (though only a few) that were long and wide but only inches thick, like enormous sheets of stone. Sadly the books about Dra Ag Ahaggalls’ moons have been lost to us, or have yet to be released to us by the Heola mayam. NOTE: The Heola mayam are those of their race who devote their lives to the protection of books, in particular, the books of the ancient Elzheni race. In the colloquial language these mayam would simply be called “librarians”.

Fekxtah Station #8:

The ancient texts tell us that the creation of the Fekxtah Station for Dra Ag Ahaggalla was one of their greatest engineering challenges, and considered one of their greatest successes.

This station was built to float in “The Stillness” layer of the Fekxtah. Getting materials to that layer of Dra Ag Ahaggalls atmosphere was a challenge in itself, one which failed many times before a way was found to navigate the hostile storms of the outer atmosphere to reach this less violent place.

The station was built as a large oblong object, with strong, metallic sides to protect it from the planet’s chaotic atmosphere. Inside the Fekxtah Station were particularly advanced Energetic engines that the Elzheni had created just for this purpose. The Engines were powerful, as they had to be to withstand the weather of this strange world, and they had to be constantly attended to adjust for the planet’s constantly changing storms.

There are later accounts that the Elzheni followed their success in building this craft by building several more so that they could position these large ships at various points in the Fekxtah. Of course, we have no ability to verify if this was true, or not. We can only report what the ancient texts claim.

Illidreth

Mean Distance from Oma: 223 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 28 days

Mean Diameter: 1,826 miles

Length of day: 6.5 hours

Gravity: 0.3 Ethems

Description:

Illidreth is a small, cold Fekxtah that is found deep in the expanse of Seekrem’s Halo. It is not large enough to be considered a Fekxtah planet, but neither is it small enough to be considered nothing more than a piece of debris or a large asteroid.

Illidreth is an egg-shaped object. It measures slightly more than 1,800 miles at its longest and roughly 1,300 miles in its middle. It is made entirely from metals all of which are extraordinarily strong and dense. Even heavy rock, such as granite, is missing from this tiny Fekxtah.

The surface of Illidreth looks “a bit like a piece of dark mud that has been roughly worked by a giant’s hands” as the ancient texts say. It has crests that run across large portions of its body that look like an ocean wave that was frozen in place as it reached its crest. Some of these peaks can be quite sharp and run for hundreds of miles along Illidreth’s length. Though there are patches where the surface is coarse, most is smooth, almost glossy, and reflects the distant light of Oma.

The ancient texts tell us that finding a “path” to Illidreth was difficult because of its shiny metal surface and the strange Energetic patterns that are emitted from it, that extend thousands of miles into distant space. This metal object is composed almost entirely of Physic Energy, and of that kind of Physic that makes itself into the hard, impenetrable metals we have discussed.

Though the ancient texts were unsure of this and only offered hypotheses from a small number of scientists, it is believed that as one explores deeper into the interior of this object, the type of metal becomes harder and more compact. Speculation is that Illidreth had been the dense core of a much larger Fekxtah millions of years ago, and that the Fekxtah had been destroyed through forces inconceivable to the Elzheni or to ourselves. One of the things it left behind by the catastrophic event was this fragment of its core. It is also proposed that much of the detritus of Seekrem’s Halo comes from tiny fragments of this ancient Fekxtah behemoth.

The ancient Elzheni had a strong interest in Illidreth for two reasons. The first was that it offered them, potentially, great knowledge about materials that are fundamentally different from any to be found on our own home Fekxtah planet Ethem. Not long before their destruction the Elzheni were engaged in efforts to drill down into the utmost core of Ethem; however, we have no texts that talk of the details of that project, so we have almost no understanding of what knowledge the Elzheni gained from it.

The other reason the Elzheni had an interest in Illidreth was because of how it radiated pure Physic Energy from its body. These invisible tendrils of pure Physic Energy extended thousands of miles out from Illidreth, and the force of these Energetic lines created a complex system of Energy streams whose effect could be felt throughout much of Seekrem’s Halo. It was a great challenge for the Elzheni scientists to understand these streams and their ever changing paths, but it also had the potential to enormously deepen their understanding of the Six Energies, and Physic Energy in particular. There are also footnotes in the ancient texts that mention efforts to “ride” these streams to travel through Seekrem’s Halo, but it was a highly dangerous endeavor.

Constructing the Fekxtah Station on this object was a great challenge even for the Elzheni. However, as we know is the way with the Elzheni once they set themselves a goal, they find a way, and so they did with the Fekxtah Station, which we will describe in greater detail below.

There was another task, though, that the Elzheni set for themselves which was equally as difficult. An Elzheni scientist by the name of Chelhanna believed that the powerful, invisible, tendrils of Physic Energy that extended out from Illidreth could be used to create a device that could be used to research other objects in Seekrem’s Halo, and perhaps in Oma’s larger family. This led to a project over fifteen years, led by Chelhanna, to construct this device on Illidreth. It was called Illidreth’s Reflector, or Energy Reflector, because it was able to capture, and reflect, the Physic Energy from other objects at great distances.

Fekxtah Station #14:

As mentioned, the creation of a Fekxtah Station on Illidreth was a particular challenge, even to the powerful capabilities of the Elzheni scientists. It was extremely difficult to drill into the strong metal surface of Illidreth, even using Energetic tools that the Elzheni had used on Ethem to great effect. The ancient texts state that even when progress had been made, and a hole was created, the hole would within days, and sometimes hours, fill itself back in. It was as if Illidreth itself wanted to maintain its shape and resisted any attempt to change it.

Eventually all attempts to drill into the tiny Fekxtah were abandoned. The Elzheni next tried to reshape surface material to raise it up into walls and roofs. These attempts met the same fate, and were also abandoned. Finally, material from Ethem was brought to Illidreth to construct the Fekxtah Station. This, too, had difficulties as most materials would refuse to adhere to Illidreth’s surface and soon drifted away into the dark reaches of space, often carried by one of the Energy Tendrils. After many attempts, the Elzheni did find materials that were able to establish an Energetic attachment to Illidreth’s surface and that lasted. In fact, the ancient texts tell us that, “Illidreth not only accepted these materials from Ethem, but seemed to be attracted to them, and drew them to bind with Illidreth’s normal surface metals.”

The construction of Illidreth’s Reflector was another matter. To construct this large device, the Elzheni brought small metal objects that floated in Illidreth’s proximity as the base material for shaping and building the Reflector. Even more amazing was the ability of the Elzheni to position the Reflector so that it could control the direction and extent of the Energetic Tendrils emanating from Illidreth’s form. Unfortunately, the ancient documents in our possession mention little details about the Reflector. They talk about an immensely complex control room that is a part of the Reflector, but other than that mention they only refer us to other documents which we do not now have in our possession.

 

Seekrem’s Halo, the Fekxtah Fragments Between Middle and Far

Between the Near and the Middle Fekxtah that orbit Oma there is an area of debris that the ancient texts call Seekrem’s Halo. This name derives from one of the most famous of all the Elzheni astronomical scientists, Seekrem Dal. There are fragments of knowledge about her in the ancient texts, but they are scattered (much like the ring of debris that bears her name) and only provide small glimpses into various aspects of her life. What we know of her will be included in a separate volume about the history of the Elzheni race. For our purposes in this document, we will say no more than she was born and lived out her entire life in the City of Angzhelling, the greatest of all the Elzheni cities, and, many would say, the greatest city ever constructed by a race of beings.

Seekrem’s Halo is not a single Fekxtah. Instead it is a vast area of Oma’s Family that comprises millions, or perhaps billions, of objects made of stone, metal, ice, and other rudimentary materials. Many of the ancient scholars considered it to be the fragments of one or more Fekxtah that met a ruinous fate; destroyed through cataclysmic collisions with other Fekxtah or possibly destroyed by their own internal forces. The cause is lost in the vast tangle of time; however, whatever that incipient event might have been, there is no doubt that the objects of Seekrem’s Halo are the remains of one or more extinct Fekxtah. They range in size from rocks no larger than a dwaheely’s hand to small, large, and enormous boulders, and some objects even the size of small planets.

Seekrem’s Halo stretches across an unfathomably wide extent. It begins at a distance of just beyond 200 WA from OMA and extends beyond 350 WA. Though this band of rubble is broad, it is not deep. The ancient texts claim that it is, on average, only a few hundred yards top to bottom, though there are footnotes about “mountains” in this huge ring where the detritus accumulates to create chaotic piles of rubble as much as several miles high. Whatever it might be, it is abundantly clear that it is far wider than it is deep.

As was stated there are millions, or possibly billions (the author favors the latter) of celestial objects in Seekrem’s Halo. However, because the Halo covers such an enormous area the distances between individual objects can easily be millions of miles. The exception to this come from reports in the later entries of the ancient texts that talk of clusters of objects found in the Halo. These clusters might have objects moving around and between each other only miles apart, or sometimes less. The claim is that these clusters were found using a special Energetic device that was able to reflect the image of objects at great distances. The scientists called this device Illidreth’s Reflector and placed it on one of the few planet-size objects found in Seekrem’s Halo, which is the topic of the next entry in this document. These clusters were sometimes referred to as “tribes” though the ancient texts do not make clear why such a term, usually reserved for groups of living creatures, would be applied to an aggregation of lifeless rock floating in empty space.

It was stated that the members of clusters were close enough to each other that travel was possible among them. How one would perform this travel was not explained in the ancient texts, though there was a hint provided for why one might want to do this. The claim was that movement had been detected of creatures that traveled between and among clusters’ members. This discovery motivated the Elzheni scientists (or at least some of them) to find out more about them. The result was that a number of very bold, or very foolish, scientists began a project they called “the chase”, where these scientists tried to capture, or at least come into contact with, these strange phenomena. This claim is quite bizarre, and even the vast majority of Elzheni astronomical scientists were highly skeptical of its wisdom — “If you chase nothing, then that is what you will find.” Even so, the ancient texts included a fairly lengthy account of such a chase (also referred to as a “hunt”), and some description of a creature that had no need of breath or breathing and which had an ability to draw itself toward, and repel itself away from, the fragments.

We include below a short excerpt from that text.

I have been chasing this creature for four days now without rest or sleep. I have called upon Eshree, the Goddess of Endurance, to keep me whole and strong during this hunt.

The creature I chase is a member of the race that I have named the Annastraddem, the race of the lost Fekxtah. The Annastraddem live in these barren outskirts of the Solar System, known to us as Oma’s Family. It is a place that is far from our own world of Ethem, but still within the sphere of Oma’s domination.

The speed of this creature is astounding, and its senses are far beyond what I had expected. At the end of the fourth day, it saw me. I was sitting on a drifting, house-sized boulder that was hundreds of miles away. I knew it was out there, but could not tell its exact location until I saw a flash of sunlight reflected from its sleek form as it hurtled toward another monolith nearby.

At once I launched myself toward its destination, but I was not as fast as it was. The platform on which I sailed and the field of force that surrounded it, and me, kept me safe from the brutally cold emptiness of space; however, it held me back from attaining the speed I needed to catch my prey. I chose to use Walk in a last attempt to catch up. I knew if I did not, it would be gone and the last few days would be for nought. I had trained myself on this skill, but I had not yet used it. It was powerful and it manipulated Physic Energy in ways that were very dangerous. If used properly, I would simply move to a place that I held in my mind, and, with that single step, I would be there, without the need to travel through all the space in between those two places. If I got it wrong, I could be hurt horribly or die, or worse, I could be scattered in parts to many places.

I was determined, though, not to fail my mission and, gathering my remaining strength and one quietly whispered prayer to Eshree, I took a step.

When I opened my eyes I knew I was still whole, and was glad of that. I could also immediately see that I was not where I had been an instant before. Best of all, I could see the creature hurtling toward me only seconds away.

I prepared my net, but as I did, the creature stopped in mid-flight. It had seen me, but even more surprising it had come to a complete halt by simply raising its hand.

Suddenly, all of its arms splayed out from its body in a gesture which I somehow knew was great rage. Every arm stabbed in my direction, and the creature plunged toward me. We were suddenly face-to-face with my force shield being the only thing keeping it and its piercing arms from me. My shield was shrinking, and I no longer had room to cast my net. One its sharp, rocky appendages pierced my field, and then another, and then two more. I put all my concentration into the shield. The appendages stopped for only for a second and then each of them restarted their inexorable movement toward me. I held out my hand, palm up to make a final effort to repel this invader. A small, sharp, steely needle swelled from the end of the arm in front of my palm, and suddenly it savagely thrust the stony length of its arm through my palm, into my forearm, up my elbow. It stopped at my shoulder, but I don’t know why. It took less than an instant and in that moment of time, I thought I saw this creature’s inner self. It was hard and cold and alone. Absolutely alone, but glad to be that. And, it was old. Older than the lands and seas of Ethem. Older than Ethem itself and older than Oma, the Fekxtah star at the center of her family, and Ethem’s siblings. I saw that it lived in darkness; a darkness without limit in space or in time. Then that darkness overwhelmed me.

The next thing I remembered was my dearest friend, Allmeedee looking down at my face with a terribly concerned look on his face. When he saw me wake, he moved forward to comfort me, to tell me that I was safe back in our temporary Fekxtah Station and would soon be going back to the Elzheni Kingdom and our home world. He told me that he had, by some miracle (thank Eshree), found me floating in between two giant boulders, and had brought me back. I tried to reach up to touch his cheek in thanks for saving my life, but my arm would not rise. He saw this and sadly he told me that when he found me my arm was no more than a hard, shriveled cinder of blasted rock, totally without life. It had become like the stone from the fields of Seekrem’s Halo.

The Planet Kullarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 930 miles

Length of day: 12.5 hours

Gravity: 1.4 Ethems

Description:

Kullarra is the second of the Fektah planets known as “The Twins”, and is the larger of the two. Like its twin this planet has a gravity that is greater than its size would dictate, though not as great as that of Ulgarra.

One of Kullarra’s most distinctive features is its extensive system of tunnels and caverns. The planet was described in the ancient texts as a “honeycomb of passageways” and “more akin to a sponge than a rocky planet.”

The massive system of passages weaves throughout the outer shell of Kullarra. The planet is slightly more than nine hundred miles in diameter and, according to the texts. The network of passages begins just under the surface and extends down as far as sixty miles into the planet. The rock of these passageways is hard and in some cases has been transformed into smooth metals. Some of these metals are a kind of substance that does not exist here on Ethem, and, if we are to believe the ancient texts, not found anywhere else in Oma’s Family. The Elzheni had great interest in these metals because of their extraordinarily powerful magnetic fields. There are also strange accounts of creatures that are by some definition alive even though they are made entirely out of these magnetic metals. Some of the reports talk about metal-monsters that stand on two, three, or four legs (sometimes a few more) and are eight to ten feet tall. The reports claim (unbelievably) that these creatures run across the surface of Kullarra looking for hot areas, usually those places with lava flows on the surface. When they find lava flows that meet their needs (there is no indication what those needs might be), they jump into the lava to be wholly consumed. The reports call these creatures Stalldaggers, and a few reports say they have seen some Stalldaggers that are hundreds of feet tall. These move much more slowly and look for the largest and deepest lava beds on the planet before they will jump in.

The outer crust of the planet has high rocky mountains covering the northern polar region. Some of these are as high as thirty miles. There are also several massive gashes in the outer crust. These deep cuts run for thousands of miles and are constantly bubbling with lava that rises up from the very core of the planet. Several passages of the ancient texts claim that these planet-wide gashes are frequently the targets for the large eruptions that periodically plague Kullarra’s twin, Ulgarra.

Fekxtah Station #7:

It is not entirely clear where this Fekxtah Station is located. The ancient texts mention three stations, and there are indications that there may have been more.

It is the considered opinion of current scholars that there is only one extant station, and it is possible that even that station no longer exists. There seems to be a history of stations being built, and later (sometimes much later) being destroyed. Several times the texts mention that the stations were destroyed by “Ulgarra’s wrath”, a strange phrase to come from such a scientifically-minded race as the Elzheni; however, the passage has been translated many times and there is overwhelming agreement that these words have been translated properly.

The most rational theory is that stations were in fact destroyed, but not by some mythical beast, but rather by the rationally understandable scientific principles that determine the behavior of these Fekxtah. The passages that describe Kullurra’s twin, Ulgarra, talk about its instability and the periodic eruptions that plague the Fekxtah. Our conclusion is that these volcanic eruptions are sometimes so powerful that they fling material out into space and that this material has, at times, impacted Kullarra with devastating effect. This would not only explain the repeated rebuilding of Fekxtah Stations on Kullarra, but would also help understand the honeycombed nature of Kullarra’s surface.

Whatever the cause may be, we are led to understand that another Fekxtah Station was built on Kullarra shortly before writing of the ancient texts ceased. This station was built deep under the surface of Kullarra to use its rocky surface to provide at least some protection. The station was built of material gathered from Kullarra itself and that material was used to created a structure inside existing tunnels below the surface. In addition, the station was built in a number of separate parts all connected through strengthened tunnels. It was thought that if there was another eruption that showered down upon Kullarra that at least some parts of the full station might survive. We will likely never know for certain.

 

The Planet Ulgarra

Mean Distance from Oma: 94 WA

Orbital Period around Oma: 231 days

Mean Diameter: 3.4 miles

Length of day: 42 minutes

Gravity: 1.8 Ethems

Description:

Ulgarra is one of the two Fektah planets in Oma’s family that are called “The Twins”. The other is the planet Kullarra, whose description follows.

These two Fekxtah are called “The Twins” not because they resemble each other in appearance. They are, in fact, very different in their composition and size. Rather they are called “The Twins” because they closely follow each other in their orbits around Oma. Why this is so was not completely understood by the great astronomical scientists of the Elzheni race; however, there is some description of them as somehow chasing each other. Current scholars believe that to be a purely figurative manner of speech. The attached image shows Ulgarra as seen from the surface of Kullarra, from the entrance of Kullarra’s Fekxtah Station.

Regardless of its relationship to its “twin”, Ulgarra is itself one of the strangest Fekxtah in Oma’s Family. It is a roughly round and, astronomically speaking, quite tiny planet, being slightly less than three-and-a-half miles in diameter. That, however, is not its most unique characteristic. Even though it is the smallest of Oma’s Family of planets, Ulgarra has a Gravity far in excess of its size. When standing on Ulgarra, your body will feel a pull toward the center of this Fekxtah that is almost twice that of our own Ethem!

An additional oddity is Ulgarra’s atmosphere. Most of the time it has no atmosphere at all, as one would expect of an object of this size. However, periodically, at seemingly random times, the planet will extrude a thick vapor from various fissures in its surface. Within a few hours this extrusion has settled onto every part of the surface of Ulgarra. At first it is misty and clear, but soon it becomes thick and heavy, and, in places, almost soup-like in consistency. It is evenly distributed across the surface of this tiny planet, extending from its surface up to six feet from the surface at which point it abruptly ends.

The composition of this temporary atmosphere is even stranger than its appearance. It is a fine mix of wet, sticky substances captured in a dense fog, and there is a tremendous abundance of life in this mixture. It is filled with millions of creatures that range in size from that of an insect one might find in the woods of Yildreth Forest to some that are so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Even though the density of the mist varies across this Fekxtah it is always dense enough that, when enclosed by it, one can only see a few feet ahead.

In addition, the mixture is not static. There are rivers of movement within it that pull on an unwary traveler, and there are documented instances of folk completely carried away by the strength of a sudden current. There are also the equivalent of lakes, oceans, and terrific storms in this atmosphere that arise from seemingly nothing, and nowhere, but appear in sudden bursts inside, and on top off, the mixture. It is notable that some of these large currents (rivers of mist) cross the entire planet, though, of course, that’s not saying a lot.

The very top of the atmosphere is different from what lies below. It is much thicker than the thick mist below it, forming a tough “skin” over the entire planet for as long as the mist remains, which can be many days or weeks. This layer is less than half an inch thick, but upon close examination it will be seen as a tangle of interwoven, stiff crusty cloud-like masses. This layer is called the nellosphere (for reasons unknown to us), and it is so thick that the mist creatures are able to walk on its surface. Above that there is nothing but the cold emptiness of space.

There is one additional, notable feature of Ulgarra that must be mentioned. This planet will, at times, show patches of fire and even volcanic eruptions. It is a world that, to all appearances, is nothing more than a dead rock, and yet, from time to time, it shows that below its surface there is some strange source of heat. It is a heat sufficient to break through the rocky surface of Ulgarra and melt it. The ancient texts tell us that rarely, very rarely, these eruptions are strong enough to fling material onto its close twin, Kullarra.

Fekxtah Station #6:

This station is a tall, featureless cylindrical structure that rises from the surface of Ulgarra along its equator. It has a single door at ground level, which has a strong seal to protect incursions from the atmosphere when it arises. Though the station, at its base, is only a few dozen yards in diameter, it rises to a height of almost 600 feet. From the top of the station one can easily see the curvature of this tiny Fekxtah.