Thoughts of Home

Oh, how has Soal changed my life.

 
Not too many years ago, I was swimming with my pod and enjoying the freedom of the waters of my world, Aquaian. Aquaian is a mostly water world. It spins on an axis, in an orbit around Soal, that is slightly out of the ecliptic of the rest of the system. This gives us a strange series of seasons. There are no permanent ice caps on the world, so there are areas of lands that cover and uncover during an orbit. About 20 percent of the world has permanent land masses that stay above the water levels, and none of them connect enough to block the oceans of the world from connecting. One could circumnavigate our world east to west, or north to south.

 
Early in my life I found that I didn't eat or sleep as much as most of my kin. This allowed me time for other things. My parents were concerned that something was wrong, so we saw the healers. They couldn't find anything wrong. I was just different. My genetics were different from the norm, but not so much that I was unhealthy or a danger to my pod.

 
For most Ungali, our skin does some of the work of taking in and expelling the gasses that our cells need to work. We have organs in our chests that also do the same work as most other races. It appears that my system is able to recycle most of these without exchanging with the environment. Our healers and scientists have taken samples of my genetics throughout my life. If they can find a way to replicate what my body does, it could be helpful for those who are unable to leave the water of our world.

 
While many Ungali would be sleeping, I would go exploring. One of the permanent land masses wasn't too far from my pod's regular hunting areas. I would go exploring there. I was able to walk the land for more time than most other Ungali, so I could walk farther on the land than others. Perhaps the time I spent exposed to Soal made changes to my body that I later experience, who knows for sure. The land masses had life on it, but nothing like what lived underwater. There were animals and plants that looked similar to what lived in the seas, and others that were completely different. I enjoyed walking around and studying the life of the land animals.

 
I knew that I was different than most, as I always had an attraction to the surface of the waters of our world. I would float on the surface and listen to the sounds of the air, and study the skies of Aquaian, and the stars in the night sky.

 
Some of our scientists had created suits that we could wear that would allow Ungali to walk the land for more time that even I could at a young age. They carried the Sea with them. So, we knew about the land, but just couldn't explore all of it at a time. I could be out of the water about the same amount of time that our scientists could in their suits. As I grew, I found that I could spend almost as much time out of the water as in it.

 
As I sit in the chamber waiting, I close my eyes and think back to those days. A calm comes over me as I think about lying on my back just floating on the surface of the sea near my home.

 
I felt Soal calling me then, as I feel him calling me now.

 
My mind drifts to my first assignment to the Kazar cast. Aquaian was visited by representatives of the Council of Oqthcal, the central government of our solar system. They visited every season. Tests were done to see where we would continue our work. With my special abilities, I was chosen by the Kazar leader to join one of the mining teams on Soal. A chance to be closer to that which powers our Solar System, feeds our worlds, and powers our equipment.

 
I was still young when I started in the mines. It was hard work, but worth it. I was doing something that benefitted all the inhabited worlds in our system.

 
I eventually learned that my mutation allowed me to survive in many different environments. The heat or the cold didn't seem to affect me. Areas that were dangerous to others without special gear, didn't seem to affect me. I'm not sure exactly why Soal gifted me with these abilities, but he did.

 
I soon found that I had other abilities also. An area of the tunnel we were in started to collapse. I quickly prayed for protection from Soal, and I was able to create a 'wall' of energy that held the collapse at bay long enough for us to escape the area. I was also covered in a shimmering field of energy around my body.

 
One of the transport ships that I was on, had an accident, causing the atmosphere in the ship to be evacuated. I was blown out of the ship, which for most would have been a death sentence, but I found that I could feel the solar winds coming off of Soal, they felt like the currents of the sea, and I found that I was able to 'swim' the seas of the solar system. On one of my rest days, I tried to see if I could swim in the atmosphere of a planet. I was able to do that also. It was such a joy to be able to move freely. Blessed by Soal I was and am.

 
I continued to be blessed by Soal. The more I dedicated my life to its teachings, the more I learned to do.

 
I am awakened from my musing by the entrance of someone into the cell that I am in. I open my eyes, and realize that I am floating off the floor, as I had been when I was young, looking up at the sky from the waters of my world.