Excerpt From “Historical Transcripts: Spaceflight and the Second Colonial Period”
Published 06.12.3079

Following the Third Terran War, a group of scientists from various factions around the war torn globe met to find a solution for the constant international conflicts that had almost destroyed their world. Their premise was to provide leadership that would be universally accepted. Their philosophy was grounded in Nietzche’s concept of the Ubermensch, a superhuman race of rulers who would institute a benevolent monarchy. It was these early plans that eventually led to the system of government which we now enjoy. Our rulers are the descendants of these early leaders, the Blood Royale. They enjoy powers beyond those of the normal human or humanoid alien, but are bred to the responsibility of ruling. We have the system that Plato suggested so many centuries ago in “The Republic”: “Let us find then those who are willing to sacrifice self- interest to the duty of the state, and elect them to rule over us.” So things actually are…

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The Lady Fayeth had lost track of the month and day long before, as night and day lost meaning aboard her tiny, wrecked starfighter. As far as she knew, she was the only member of the Blood Royale to survive escaping the royal planet of Versye after the coup movement had assassinated King Chalr VIII. Even with her exceptional, perhaps even unmatched piloting skills, she had only just made it out through the blockades. Her navigational computer had been destroyed, and her fuel tanks were slowly running out of containment energy, a slow countdown to an impressive death as the antimatter held within drifted into contact with the hull of the ship. Desperate and under heavy fire, she had executed a blind hyperjump, and, through blind luck or the guidance of a Creator she was no longer sure existed, had found herself near this planet where she now lived.
The natives were primitives, human enough, but had lost every rudiment of technology over the several hundred years since their forefathers had arrived. They had named this planet the Forgetful World; perhaps the intent had always been to forget the outside universe. They had been fearful of her at first, watching the giant metal bird crash into the jungle from the sky on a fiery tail, then more fearful when the woman forced the bird to open what must have been its beak and climb out, even though it should have swallowed her like a man swallows a chora fruit.
Then, of course, there were the waters.