Undercurrents of unrest began disturbing his placid life a few weeks prior to the event, when the marriage proposal was being quietly drafted by the Delegation. They had intended to announce the marriage once it was accepted by both delegates, but somehow the news of its existence leaked. Before long, every starport hub in the known systems was humming with excitement and gossip.

Homo sapiens had been largely missing in action for at least three centuries, their ability to thrive in different environments across the galaxies was severely diminished compared to their various well-adapted cousin species. Because of this fact, there had been small pockets of them throughout the inhabited systems, but they were heavily reliant on assistive technologies and terraforming. Those who chose to remain on Earth eventually died out - their numbers dwindling drastically generation by generation by the waves of people lining up for adaptation surgery. Luckily the Delegation at the time had the foresight to set aside two representative homo sapiens and cryogenically freeze them, to be awakened in the event of extinction for the continuation of the species.

Naturally the buzz was in part tied to the novelty of this new-albeit-old species, the intriguing indentities of these delegates, and of course the prospect of celebration for its own sake. However, many were infuriated by the news. Some were opposed to the inclusion of marriage in the ordeal, rather than a simple pairing off to preserve species. Marriage was seen by so many species as traditionally terran, outdated, and impractical that the concept of the delegates picking each other as their one partner until death was alarming. 

Others were against the preservation of the oldest surviving human species at all, challenging that by supporting the continuation of the flawed and inferior line, the Delegation was implying the current enlightened, synthetically evolved species that now stood on the barbaric shoulders of their predecessor were deficient in some way. Many factions in the known universe held one or both of these opinions, but the group that felt the most convicted to act was the Agna Enlightened, who ironically decided that the best option for protest of the ordeal was to storm the Earth base of the Delegation and get rid of both homo sapiens. 

Kayl was in his chambers studying when the Agna Enlightened blitzed through the massive front gate, when the floor beneath him shuddered and the walls swayed after a heart-stopping blast. Solace burst into seconds after, her dark fur bristled in alarm, and began wordlessly throwing every piece of furniture she could grab to barricade the door while he watched on in confusion and shock. Once they were good and sealed within the room, she went to his bed and tossed the mattress aside, revealing a panel that slid open after scanning her hand.

She tersely ushered him down the shaft beneath the panel, and on their shimmy downwards only spoke to him when giving an instruction. When they had reached the bottom of the shaft, his numbness wore away as he caught sight of four large concrete tunnels in front of them, leading away from the shaft.

Distant booms grew louder. “Solace, what’s going on?” he prodded.

Her eyes glittered as she briefly studied the tunnels, then pulled him into the one on the far left. “The Agna Idiots are here, my lord. I’m taking you to a safe place until the Supervisors call for us.”

As soon as they crossed the tunnel threshold, Solace whistled four notes and a heavy concrete door slid shut behind them, sealing them from the shaft and his room above. Suddenly, muted rumbling and the screeching of metal followed.

The dawning realization of what she had done stirred a sickened dread. “Did you just destroy the shaft-”

She waved him on down the brightly lit concrete corridor, her face expressionless. “Keep moving, my Lord Delegate. Until we return I am responsible for your safety, please comply with every instruction.”

Thousands of questions pended but he shut his mouth and followed his bodyguard obediently. They spent the next hour snaking through the intricate network of tunnels in silence, during which Solace did not consult her gauntlet once for directions. He wondered if the Suprvisors had required their bodyguards to memorize the layout underneath the palace for such an occasion. It was certainly a feat, he would need a year to commit each turn to memory and Solace had been serving him for just less than that.

Suddenly, smooth concrete walls and ceiling stopped, giving way to rough craggy stone. The sealed floor abruptly ended and a gravel path began, leading on through a dim cave. They continued on briskly down the natural, unbranching pathway through the cave where rushing water echoed but not a drop could be seen.

With the diminishing light, his anxieties multiplied. He could feel the profile of each piece of gravel through his thin shoes and the damp seeping into his clothes. The reality of his lack of preparation for the unknown intensified the dread in his stomach. Were they going to hide down there until the conflict resolved? What if it never resolved? What if the blasts penetrated deeper and caused the ceiling to collapse? What if they got trapped? His breaths were as quick as his racing anxieties.

The gravel path widened and finally drew them to a bank where an arrowhead starship floated in its cavernous moor, bobbing with the gently swelling waves. Its hull was strangely tesselated, as if composed of thousands of small mirror panels.

“Engage,” Solace spoke in Thmien, her native language. Immediately a gangway surfaced from below the dark water and the airlock of the ship rolled back to reveal a small two-person cockpit.

Kayl sighed in naive relief: they would not be remaining undergound, but escaping to somewhere safe above. The worst was behind them. 

The irony dropped his focus into the present moment. He fidgeted as his agitation grew. The escape from Earth was a high point compared to the surreal fever dream that followed.