Read Online Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) by Andy Kasch - Free Book Online Page B

minutes, the lights in the room went off and the video screen came alive with color.
    “It’s like being at the movies,” Derek said.
    The screen exploded with images from space, prompting exclamations of wonder from Derek, who had apparently never seen a modern television screen before.
    “The Milky War galaxy,” the audio voice began. Another obvious mispronunciation. A wide shot of the entire galaxy held on screen for a moment, and then began to zoom in.
    “Warmongers,” Derek muttered.
    The audio continued as the screen showed an impressive scene of accelerating through space.
    “Thousands of inhabited worlds exist within its vast expanse. Hundreds of advanced races have been discovered in our portion of the galaxy.”
    Brandon and Derek looked at each other. Derek threw his hands up in the air in an act of exasperation, and Brandon replied by shrugging.
    “This is like the Twilight Zone,” Derek said. The film continued.
    “Your planet, Earth, is located on the fringe of our region of the galaxy, just outside of what is known as the Erobian Sphere . It is an unstable planet, plagued by natural disasters and orbital shifts.” The screen zoomed in to hold a beautiful image of the earth.
    “As your own scientists have noted, Earth is subject to violent polar axis shifts, which occur approximately every five thousand Earth years. In your time, what you identify as the latter twentieth century, the next such shift was overdue. When these rotational shifts occur, they are extremely disruptive and result in the mass extinction of species on your planet.” The image of the earth began shaking and then turned sideways. The polar caps, which were now on the sides, melted, and new ones formed on the new top and bottom.
    This was actually getting to be kind of interesting to Brandon. He leaned back and put his hands behind his head.
    The screen image zoomed out to a wide shot of the galaxy again, then zoomed in on a different part, which was not that far away on the scale of it all. It stopped on a view of two planets that both looked similar to Earth, but with different continent shapes. They were close to each other, with a star in the background that was about the size of the sun in the sky when viewed from Earth.
    “This is the Tora star system. Tora is a star similar to Earth’s sun. There are seven planets in this system, including the two hydrosphere worlds you see now, called Amulen and Banor . They are sister worlds, actually, twin planets that share the same orbit. Each has its own native population of intelligent humanoid life.” An outline-figure of a man similar to the stick figure that demonstrated the bathroom door appeared on the screen between the two planets.
    “Amulites and Banorians are collectively referred to as Torians. We share a singular solar identity and freely interact with each other in all matters of society and government. The central Torian government is located on Continent 2 of Amulen.” The screen zoomed in to the planet on the left until one of the continents filled the screen, and a large red dot appeared on the continent. Brandon figured that must be where the capital was. He still didn’t believe it was real, but the film was so well done he found he was getting into it some, be it sci-fi or whatever.
    The shot zoomed out again to the planet view. The man-outline appeared on the screen again and divided in two this time.
    “Amulites and Banorians have interbred for thousands of years and have assimilated into one race. However, distinctions can still be made between the two nationalities because of different skin pigmentation resulting from slightly different atmospheric conditions on each planet. Banorians have a bronze-colored skin, while Amulites are silver-skinned. Further distinctions can be made by the brightness of each skin color, which is affected by the continent on which the Torian resides. This is due do the angled orbit of the Torian worlds, which is similar to