51 Planets to See Before the Universe Collapses

mugasha (moo-gah-shah)

Scort Muggins, Human Year 3240:

It’s important to note that Mugasha was actually only the second planet that I visited. I was just starting out, and I was too embarrassed to write about what occurred on the very first planet outside the human solar system. But what happened then is directly influencing what’s happening now…

Of all the planets I visited, only Mugasha had more than one dominant species living on the planet. It’s extremely rare because usually as one species begins to develop, it replaces the other species, whether they come into conflict with one another or one simply dies out. Mugasha was rather large and the two intelligent species were quite distant from one another, each having an opportunity to develop an advanced civilization even before knowing the other existed. 

Since it would be confusing to call them all Mugashians, from here on out, I will be referring to each species by the name they call each other - a horribly degrading and derogatory species slur. The belittling, cruel name-calling is in a different language, so it should not offend any readers. 

The Fuhgos weren’t attractive beings. They stood upright, but their backs were hunched and they used their extremely long arms to support themselves. They had four legs that made up about half of their body height. The Fuhgos had fur that always looked sticky and wet and varied in color from splotchy brown to blotchy dark brown. Their faces were normal enough, if not for the six tiny cone ears and giant nose that swung from the top of their forehead to the middle of their chest. The size of their nose and their sense of smell did not seem to be correlated; the Fuhgos smelled absolutely wretched. (See Figure 51.1)

Fuhgos lived in the northern hemisphere of Mugasha. Their society valued science over other things, and they made great strides in technology very quickly, though they had a late start. A Fuhgo family unit was no more than two parents and three children, with the typical family only having two offspring or less. Their species didn’t populate quickly, but they lived long lives due to their advanced medical technology. As their technology accelerated, so did their resource consumption. This sparked a search for more resources, and their species spread out for the first time. That’s when they came into direct contact with the Slunts. 

The Slunts lived in the southern hemisphere of Mugasha. Their society worshipped the land that supplied their food and shelter. Though the Fuhgos considered them primitive, the Slunts were just as intelligent and simply had different societal values. They respected the limited amount of resources on the planet and never asked for too much. They had large families but didn’t mate for life. Love, sex, and gender was fluid. The Slunts were rarely in conflict among themselves and lived a peaceful life on Mugasha, having a special relationship with the animals they shared the planet with. 

Slunts were a light blue color and had powerful bodies that gave them the ability to jump great distances and extreme heights. They moved with ease in the foliage. They had no appendages and were seemingly made of a kind of bioluminescent goo that was constantly glowing. (See Figure 51.2) Their skin had a natural adhesive that would allow them to stick to any surface. They were mobile in different ways - either rolling along a surface or bouncing from place to place. The Slunts could morph their bodies, but only slightly, and it took a great deal of effort. Still, I could make out where their attention was focused as they would elongate their body in certain directions. I couldn’t see where any of their sensory organs were, and there was a lack of orifices. When they spoke, it was almost as if they were emitting sound waves from around their glowing bodies. At one point, I saw seven Slunts piled on top of each other, squealing with pleasure. Ticklefests were a huge part of the Slunt culture. 

When the Fuhgos and Slunts came into contact with each other, there was immediate conflict. The Fuhgos didn’t respect the Slunts and worked to eradicate them. In their minds, the unfathomable number of casualties was a low price for their continued progress and survival. But the Slunts vastly outnumbered the Fuhgos and the two were evenly matched when it came to intellect. The Slunts developed a strategy for a counterattack against the Fuhgos and The War of the Two raged on for more than a century on Mugasha. 

Fuhgo technology slaughtered endless amounts of Slunts, but the Slunts always outnumbered the Fuhgos, and every Fuhgo casualty came at a much higher price. Their small population dwindled. But that disadvantage only sparked wartime technological breakthroughs in weaponry, killing even more Slunts. Whenever the Fuhgos would gain territory, the Slunts would take it back and more. Then the Fuhgos would take that back and more. Neither side was victorious and both civilizations became weaker and weaker as The War of the Two continued endlessly. It was only until the third intelligent species came into play that The War of the Two ended… and the real war begun. 

The Karks, another extremely offensive, derogatory species slur, had been developing their own civilization to the west of the Fuhgos and Slunts, separated by an immense ocean. Their society was pretty big on raping and pillaging and the different Kark communities were constantly battling each other. After thousands of years, all of the Karks on Mugasha were conquered and came under the rule of one Kark Empire. Because they no longer had anyone to rape or pillage, they began expanding in every direction, eventually traveling across the ocean. At the time all three species had become aware of each other, the Karks had taken over half of Mugasha while the Slunts and Fuhgos were battling over the other half. 

The Karks had a hard exoskeleton shell around their torsos and claw-like hands with five pincers each. They had eight tiny legs that crawled along the floor. With their large upper bodies and much smaller lower body and tail section, one would expect them to be off balance, but that never seemed to be the case. The Kark heads were large, and their faces were tiny. They had two eyes that were too close together for much of a depth perception, a mouth that wasn’t any wider than the space between those two eyes, and four antennas atop their head (See Figure 51.3). I assumed the antennas were used for smelling, hearing, sensing electromagnetic currents, all of those senses, a combination of two of those, or none of those. I’m not sure. It never came up.

As soon as the Karks arrived on the shore, everything changed. They continued their raping and pillaging, but this time the Slunts and Fuhgos were the victims. Though their anatomy didn’t match up sexually with the two other species, that didn’t mean the Karks didn’t try. It wasn’t long until the Fuhgos and Slunts called a truce and created an alliance against the Karks. They combined their technology, resources, and numbers to fight off the Karks. After five decades of fighting, The War of the Three came to a stalemate. 

The Fuhgos developed a superior weapon that had the potential of massive destruction and threatened to use it on Kark cities. But the Karks had been working on their own project and developed a similar weapon that they threatened to use against the Slunts and Fuhgos. After the Fuhgos shared the technology with the Slunts, the Slunts betrayed the Fuhgos and built their own destructive weapons. All three species built up their arsenal of missiles to protect themselves from the other two. If the Karks used their missiles, the Slunts and Fuhgos would use their weapons. If the Slunts used their missiles, the Fuhgos and Karks would use their weapons. And if the Fuhgos used their missles, the Karks and Slunts would use their weapons. It guaranteed a sort of... reciprocal annihilation.

Each species in The War of the Three looked to the stars for an advantage. Six moons orbited Mugasha and all three species had teams of beings focusing on developing the technology to be the first species in space and claim each moon as their own.

It was at this point in Mugashan history - their race to space - that I arrived on the planet… in a spaceship. I was first shot down in Slunt territory, and landed somewhere in a massive forest. There was no time to explore or make any observations before I was captured by the Slunts. They took me and my ship back to a military base. I was taken into a laboratory and strapped to a table. A few Slunts rolled over me with their adhesive skin. It tickled and I laughed, which made the Slunt scientists squeal. Like I mentioned previously, ticklefests were an essential part of the Slunt culture. 

I had been there for a week, I think, when I heard weapons firing on the base. I was still strapped to the table, so there was nothing I could do. I just laid there, waiting. I always thought that if I was ever in a life-or-death situation, I’d somehow muster incredible strength from deep within me, fueled by my fear of death, and I would be able to free myself of my restraints and escape. This wasn’t the case. There were many narratives that told tales of impossible escapes from bindings and locked rooms, but they had all been lies. There was no way I was getting off the table without help.  

A team of Fuhgos broke into the lab with protective gear and weapons. They freed me from my shackles only to tie me up again, pull a dark hood over my head, and put me in the back of a vehicle. Before the bag was put over my head, I saw another team of Fuhgos taking my ship. At least I wouldn’t be separated from my only chance of getting off Mugasha. 

We traveled for several hours until I was taken forcibly from the vehicle, brought to another table, and restrained yet again. Fuhgo scientists examined me as their long, horrendous noses slid across my body. This also tickled, so I laughed, but the Fuhgo scientists didn’t join in with me. It was obvious that ticklefests were not part of Fuhgo culture. 

It had only been a few sols in the lab when I was released from the table and led to my ship. I was shocked that they were letting me go. I wasn’t shocked when they instead, threatened to kill me and dissect me if I didn’t tell them how to operate it. 

They hadn’t figured out how to turn on the spaceship. This was my chance to be rescued. I went into my ship and pressed two buttons at the same time. One was the power switch, but the other was an emergency distress beacon that would immediately signal the Human Galactic. As soon as it powered up, I was hit in the stomach and taken back to my table. It wasn’t comfortable, but I hoped it would at least be good for my back and posture.

Two more months passed before I heard weapons being fired again. I was about to be saved by the Human Galactic! The Fuhgos didn’t stand a chance against our superior technology. I didn’t even try to get free from my bindings. I just waited. A big smile ran across my face when the door burst open, but it quickly went away. I was once again being saved and recaptured simultaneously - this time by a team of Karks. They carried me to another vehicle and put another bag over my head, but not before I saw my ship, again being stolen, this time by the Karks. The ship was still emitting the distress signal. 

I was put on a third table, examined, and probed. I prayed that they were just probing. I was well aware of their rape and pillage culture. This part did not tickle, and I did not laugh.

Thankfully, it was only a few sols before I heard a commotion. This had to be the Human Galactic coming to rescue me. Fellow humans burst into the laboratory and cut me from my restraints without putting me in new bindings. They handed me a weapon, and I followed them out. We took out a few Karks on our way to a rescue ship, but I warned the team that the Karks had captured my spaceship. I couldn’t leave it on the planet. It was against Human Galactic law to leave advanced technology in the hands of potentially aggressive alien species. I ran to my ship. It seemed like the Fuhgos had repaired the ship after it was struck down from the sky. I took off and was followed by five other human rescue ships. We were about to escape the atmosphere when they were shot down one by one. They plummeted to the ground below and I knew I would be next if I didn’t leave the atmosphere. 

This was not the end of my story.

RATINGS

Hospitality — 0/10
Food — 6/10
Sights — N/A
Activities — 1/10
Family Friendly — 0/10
Ticklefests — 9/10
Probing — 1/10