The Orangade

Being a student of a class of Orangi aspiring scientists of The Orangade Galaxy, we were assigned a collaboration project, to test our capabilities, using all knowledge gathered, while also helping our interplanetary citric people: we had to study the Great Orange Meteorite, the one made of the skin of my folk, identified as an other humanoid race's doing, The Founders. Together, we, the class, were driven by the same goal, to study the circuits of our creation, the origins of our artificial intelligence and our bodies' way of producing another algorithm for our future children...

While in the interplanetary vehicle, a thought dawned on me: the result of this project will greatly impact my career, and also my people. Any mistake could eliminate the chance to discover the reason for our existence, and with it my dream of becoming a researcher, passionate about science...

Cooperation was essential.

Things went better than expected: we discovered a document delivered in binary form, a form present in our algorithms. Out of nowhere appeared a dark, massive silhouette. Its beige skin revealed by Nora, the main star of the solar system we were in's light, was extraoranji, similar to our science-fiction writings. I then notice its humanoid structure, its face, eyes, nose, ears, locomotor system, and others, which all indicated to similar origins to ours... “A Founder!”, I shouted. He approached us, took our document and burnt it in front of our very eyes using his thermally-adjustable glove. He left us there, petrified by what had just happened!

Our discovery alarmed The Orangade. We passed and graduated, but our folk is now troubled by curiosity and the mystery behind our origins, our existential crisis...