Titania - Chapter One | Commission: Syndrea

The year is 3402 AD, Earth-Humans have been spacefaring for around two hundred years now. Up until 3203 AD, Earth-Humans were kept in the dark about the existence of other high-level intelligence life until they finally discovered instantaneous travel via wormholes.

Instantaneous travel was the single requirement for a civilisation to be allowed into The Alliance and Earth had finally made it. The possibility to discover infinite worlds opened up to all Earth-Humans as The Alliance provided them with access to The Uninet, the internet for the universe.

One of the many laws set out by The Union was that all planets must have spaceports with wormholes in so other members of The Alliance could have the freedom to travel where they please, assuming they will not somehow destroy the ecosystem of their destination. And, quick as a flash, Earth had beautiful, shining spaceports in every country; even in some homes.

Jasmine, a 34 year old woman from Earth, had tried dating many times since the loss of her husband. However, each attempt seemed to fail, leaving her feeling hopeless. She was thankful that she had her daughter, Laila, around.

Laila was 13 years old, and best friends with her mother, they did everything together. They lived in a reasonably nice apartment in New Germany together on Earth. They had heard so much about the other human-like worlds but never had they visited one. Jasmine was always hesitant to even try the Uninet due to her failed attempts at even dating Earth-Men, never mind men from planets she can’t even relate to!

However, she finally decided she couldn’t take it any longer. She longed for a connection, and so she picked up her laptop and opened up the Uninet. Conveniently, there was a directory for the most used universal applications across the entire Uninet. She scrolled through, finally settling on Gravitinder - The Premium Dating App for Interconnections.

Sitting with her daughter, Laila, on the sofa the two of them created her the perfect dating profile.
Name: Jasmine
Age: 34 Earth Years
Anatomy: Humanoid

Preferred Anatomy: Humanoid

Jasmine made sure she chose Humanoid for her preferred anatomy. She wasn’t interested in anything that didn’t look human, as one might expect. Immediately, a man popped up in her messages and his name was Creuss, from the planet Tania. She had never heard of Tania, and it would turn out that he had never heard of Earth.

To both girls’ surprise, Jasmine and Creuss hit it off immediately in spite of being from different planets. And boy was Creuss a hotty! He had been alive for many more Earth Years, due to his planet's orbit being different to Earth’s, than Jasmine but his body age converted to around 36 so he was perfect. She could use someone more mature, she thought.

With caramel brown skin, rock-hard abs and a face like Michael Jordan, Jasmine melted at the very sight of him. And he was her perfect match. Despite their very different lives: he was kind, caring, attentive and apparently extremely wealthy on his planet. Life had turned around for the two Earth-Women and they could not wait for the future ahead of them.

The couple talked every day, their relationship growing and growing with each word they typed. Things got more serious as the months went on. Texts turned to pictures, pictures turned to audio-chatting, audio-chatting turned to video-chatting. Creuss eventually explained to Jasmine that he had a wife on Tania and initially Jasmine had been heartbroken, he was a cheater! However, their love quickly trumped that as Creuss promised to leave his wife for Jasmine immediately and he very much did.

The two continued their long distance relationship, both dreaming of a day they could meet. No longer having to keep their relationship a secret, Creuss introduced his daughter, Klariss, to Laila and they hit it off. The two of them became fast friends, connecting with each other using their own laptops and talking almost as often as their parents did.

Everyone was excited to meet, and they finally planned the date: on Jasmine and Creuss’ one year anniversary of meeting, Jasmine and Laila would leave their Earth lives behind and start again with their new family on Tania. The day quickly approached.

“So tomorrow is the day!” Jasmine messaged to Creuss, barely containing her excitement as she typed it out with her fingers visibly shaking.

“I cannot wait, babe. I just want to be able to hold you!” Creuss replied. “Remember, our personal wormhole ID is 26256734. You can bypass intergalactic customs when you go to the spaceport, just head to the self-service wormholes and type in the number”.

“I’ve written down the instructions, I can’t wait. I love you so much!” Jasmine replied, tomorrow was going to be one of the best days of her life. Thank God for Gravitinder! 

The following day came slowly for Jasmine and Laila as they struggled to sleep. However, it came nonetheless. On that morning, with their suitcases in hand, they shut the door to their apartment behind them for the final time and caught a Tesla to the spaceport.

The two girls were in awe at the scale of the spaceports. They watched in awe as zaps of light bolted into the sky like lightning, the visual result of people travelling to other worlds. They quickly headed inside and went straight to the self-service portals, as Creuss had explained.

Excited to get going, the girls rushed through the launch process. Jasmine mumbled as she scanned the terms and conditions, “we can not be held responsible for your safety… yadda yadda yadda… please do your prior research on your destination… yadda yadda… personal wormhole destinations do not have automated checks for planetary compatibility or risk of death… boring… Accept!”

Jasmine entered Creuss’ wormhole ID and jumped back as the wormhole burst open in front of the two girls. They looked at each other, beaming with glee as the purple plasma swirled before them before diving in head first. They were immediately sucked through the wormhole and felt their bodies turning to what felt like spaghetti as they travelled through spacetime.

As the two girls regained their vision, they looked up at the world around them. It seemed they were in a huge room with a wormhole activator in. Jasmine didn’t have a great feeling about what they had done as she noticed everything was significantly larger than they were.

She had heard horror stories of Titans, a type of human much larger than Earth-Humans and much more sinister. Any humanoid the size of an Earth-Human was considered nothing more than a slave or a pet, or even food in some cases. They had no rights in a Titan world, Jasmine turned around to the wormhole, hoping to run back through it.

Suddenly, the wormhole closed and a loud automated voice sounded, “Welcome to Titania, passionately known as simply ‘Tania’ by its inhabitants”. Jasmine’s heart was in her throat with fear as she realised what she had done. She should have read the terms and conditions more thoroughly. She should have even just researched Tania! What an idiot!

The floor shook as thundering steps from a different room got closer and closer. A gigantic titan entered the wormhole room and spoke, “Jasmine?” He peered into the room but saw nothing. “Hmm, I thought I heard the wormhole…”

There he was... Creuss. Maybe he could still love her, Jasmine thought. She had no choice now but to seek his help since the wormhole was gone, so she began jumping and throwing her hands in the air to get his attention while leaving Laila standing with their suitcases.

Just as Creuss went to exit the room, he noticed something moving where the bottom of his wormhole would have been. Investigating further, he noticed it was two tiny humans. “Urgh, what are you insects doing in my house?” Creuss’ voice boomed as he spoke, his face showing nothing but disgust at their presence.

“I guess you two might make a good present for Jasmine when she gets here”, Creuss said as he headed towards them, reaching down to pick them up. As he grabbed both girls and held them tightly in his hand, he noticed their suitcases. Confused, he looked at them closely in his hand.

“Jasmine?” he asked, praying it wasn’t true.

“Creuss! It’s me! Please help us, we didn’t know you were a Tita…” Jasmine spoke before he squeezed her powerfully, causing her to be silent as both girls wheezed due to the air being forced out of them.

“I have wasted a year of my life talking to you dirty, useless, waste of life bugs. I left my gorgeous, ebony-goddess, Titanic wife for a disgusting, tiny human like you?” he continued, squeezing them to their breaking point. Jasmine cried, unable to beg. Laila’s face turned blue as she struggled to take in air. 

“You conniving, little, ugly rats will make good slaves I’m sure”, Creuss said as he slackened his grip and allowed them to breathe.

Between gasps of air, Jasmine begged, “please Creuss! I love you!”

He threw Jasmine and Laila hard against the wall as she said such a stupid thing. “YOU LOVED ME? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, YOU’RE JUST AN INSIGNIFICANT BUG. LOVE WAS WHAT MY WIFE AND I HAD, YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT LOVE IS”, he screamed to the two pained girls as they hit the wall and then landed on the floor harshly.

Heading towards them again, Creuss picked the two girls up and slid Jasmine into his left pocket. Holding Laila up to his face, he laughed as she squirmed in fear, trying to escape. “Wait until my daughter, Klariss, meets you. She has been so excited for you to arrive and she hates your kind more than I do. She’ll be livid”. And with that, he stuffed Laila into his other pocket and exited the wormhole room.