ESCAPE FROM PLANET TEZ

-Part one of the story-

Rol

Boredom, lack of freedom, and absence of love are the three worst things. In this single sentence, I have said everything, but it is precisely boredom that does not allow me to stop here. My name is Rol, and I have just reached one-sixteenth of my life. That is time enough for me to worry about how the rest of it will unfold.

Life on the planet Tez could be called perfection. Absolutely every inhabitant of the planet has everything they need to live carelessly, without ever worrying if they have enough supplies to get through their entire life without experiencing stress for a single moment. Even the poorest strata of society have enough resources to buy whatever they wish. But on the other hand, they already have everything, so in a way, it is a paradox.

As I slowly get to the point, I would like to emphasize one more thing. As a society, a community, we possess such scientific knowledge and achievements that the entire Universe is in the palm of our hand. Yes, we have mastered travel at the speed of light. Don’t ask me how—I am still too young to explain it, but I know it is so. My parents, schoolteachers, and the promotional materials that occasionally appear on the streets of my city have told me so. It would be far too extensive to describe all the blessings of living on Tez, so I will move on to the essence of my despondency. When you have everything you need, you have no motivation to advance. Every day feels the same, routine becomes crushingly repetitive, and boredom creeps into every pore of your existence.

Why is that? Because it is easier for us to live in fear of the unknown than to embrace it and engage in a struggle with it. When I said the Universe is in the palm of our hand, that is essentially true only in theory. We haven’t traveled anywhere in eons. The pacifism that permeates our society’s ideal gives us no courage to practically explore the Universe.

To explain this with a simple example: a single click on a holo-screen displaying the Universe, a little zooming in, and you run into a planet. You click scan, and all the information about that planet is at your disposal within moments. Anywhere, no matter how distant that planet might be, the scan will do its job. It might seem unimaginable, but there you have it—we have advanced so much technologically that this is perfectly normal to us. The problem arises from the fact that we simply lack the courage to go to that planet. We fear running into a hostile race. Tucked away like this, huddled in our safety, mere observation can do no harm. A journey there has the potential to jeopardize our entire planet.

And so, cocooned in our comfort zone, we rot full of theoretical knowledge and negligible practical experience.

This brings me to the main three problems, flaws, horrors of the planet Tez. I have already described boredom: we have everything, so no motivation for progress exists. The second problem is the lack of freedom. An illusion of freedom exists. But it is a facade. No one is allowed to do anything that contradicts the principles imposed by the Authority. The Authority is the ruling class formed to control every living being on the planet Tez. Any action outside the designated boundaries incurs a penalty consisting of either destruction or life imprisonment. Naturally, no one dares to oppose the Authority For instance, if I wished to leave our homeworld and got caught in the attempt, I could choose whether to die or spend the rest of my life in captivity. That is not freedom; it is fundamentally a prison, but on a planetary scale. And this isn’t the only lack of freedom. There is another: love without emotion. You will agree that this is not love.

Here, the union of two adults is based on an agreement. There are no emotions, only the need to be with someone and to propagate the species—nothing more than that. Do my parents love me? Yes, but it isn’t that love filled with emotion, only a sense of obligation. Whoever fails to propagate the species is likewise subjected to the choice: destruction or imprisonment. Naturally, no one dares to contradict the Authority When I say no one, I am not being entirely honest, because after many sleepless nights, salty tears, angry strikes against the furniture, and fake smiles directed at those close to me, I decided that this kind of life must end. I will break the boredom, I will escape from here, and I will find a person I can truly love. I still don’t know exactly what love means, but I certainly know what it is not.

The endeavor I am about to undertake would be doomed to failure if I didn’t have someone to help me. I am fortunate that the only two friends I have share my aspirations and thoughts: Soana and Mremor. I have known them since my earliest days. Like everyone else, including myself, they were initially under the delusion that we should follow the perfection that surrounded us—not thinking about tomorrow because it was bright, carefree, effortless, and light anyway. I think I was the first to raise the topic of the inadequacy of the life we live. At first, they looked at me blankly, timidly, as if I had uttered a curse or an insult. It took time to present my reasons to them, to push them in the direction I deemed right. Not right—I don’t know what is right. Just the only possible direction given everything I have laid out here.

As I slowly pass the pen to Soana, who will present her viewpoints, a tremor comes over me. I suppose that’s how it should be. When you embark on something unknown, almost unimaginable, and terrifying, your body reacts—with trembling, sighs, nervous movements. What will our parents and society say? We are going to do something no one before us ever has. We will be the pioneers of a movement that will either succeed or fail gloriously. If we succeed, the rules will probably become stricter, more brutal. Control will likely tighten. However, I don’t care about that. Anyone and everyone could have dared to take such a step. The fact that they didn’t is not my problem, nor can it be. Everyone chooses their own path. I am not, and will not be, responsible for the fate of others just because I decided to change my own.

This is not the end of my account. We will take turns writing so that future generations can understand, through the prism of each of us, how and why we reached this moment. These will not be dead letters on paper. Someone will read these lines, study them, and hopefully find the strength and motivation to follow us. If they have the courage.

I hand the paper to Soana, which she takes with a nod and a faint smile revealing her crystal-white teeth. I still don’t know what love is. What I do know is what friendship and respect are. I am blessed to have that awareness and not to be emotionally stunted.

Universe, get ready. A trio is coming soon to caress your boundaries.

-End of Part 1-