Echo Book 2

1. Interview

"OCTAVIA! LOOK HERE"

"MALAX HERE!"

"OCTAVIA."

"MALAX."

We get in the door. "I told you we're famous."

"Yea, but that was crazy." Nadine takes off her sunglasses.

Thora smiles. "At least we look sexy in the photos."

I check the boys. "Yea, and the boys had their zippers up. Good job."

They laugh and point at each other.

Nadine smirks. "Why you always looking there?"

"Daddy did an entire interview once with his down. I'm scarred for life."

"That would be traumatizing."

"Yea, I have to check them constantly now."

Thora smiles. "Ignore it if you catch her staring at your dicks."

Dipak nods. "Good plan."

"Right this way, ladies and gentlemen."

"Tye, stop playing with it."

"I was checking my zipper."

"She already checked it 87 times. It's fine."

I hold back a laugh as we get seated at a big table. We face 15 reporters. I wave at Mauve. That's who set this up. It's her station. There are a bunch of cameras pointed at us and reporters are ready with their questions. She stands up.

"I don't even know where to start. I've heard rumors of a ring on a certain finger?"

I smile and lift my hand. Camera flashes go off. "Malax and I are getting married."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Do you have a date?"

"I'm thinking 2 years. We don't have an exact date yet."

"What does this mean for school?"

"With everything else that's going on. I'm going to distance learn as much as possible for now."

"Is this due to the upcoming wedding?"

"No. We made a plan for me to go to Epirac full time. We were going to have a house there and here. The marriage will not affect my schooling. But, the invasion did. With the help that we received. I believe I can learn more with them right now. That's where I need to be."

"Malax, congratulations on the engagement."

"Thank you, Mauve."

"During our last interview, we were losing contact with the satellites. You thought it was a solar storm?"

"Yes, the experts agreed, we were most likely looking at a solar storm and needed to wait it out. We were very wrong. The aliens were blowing up the satellites before we could see what was going on."

"45 Seconds Mauve."

She runs up to us. "Sweetie, can you cross your legs at the ankle? 1 of our cameras is getting too close to seeing your underwear."

Thora moves. "No problem."

Then Mauve attacks Marcus. "Your hair is throwing shadows at you. Adjust this light. And the light on him. Lower them." She runs over to a screen. "Better."

"5 seconds."

She steps in front of the camera. "Welcome back. We played some of the footage from the last interview. It was clear they were not positive. A solar storm was the best guess. Are the satellites in place now?"

"Yes, they are. We have the full range back."

"Wonderful. Moving on past that, what happened next?"

"It was determined there was nothing we could do. We attempted to launch new satellites as well as move 3 from the south. We lost contact immediately. Never seeing a cause. Everything pointed to waiting it out. So, I took a team to Crucorix North. We did a few missions there. Octavia and I got back very late. We ended up sleeping in the suppra lab."

"What time did you return?"

I smile. "Unknown. I fell asleep on the suppra table and my suppra disconnected. I woke up at about 10 in the morning."

"It was late. We had a dinosaur in the camp. We had to stay late and sort it out. Our bodies gave out and went to sleep. And it was about 10 when we woke up. We realized there was no power fairly quickly."

"Pause here. I need to recollect my thoughts. So, at this point, you do not know about the invasion? You are noticing the power is out?"

"Correct."

"Continue please."

"We went to my office and upon opening the door, we saw a massive ship in the sky. We then started down the stairs. Octavia put some food together in the cafeteria. Then I made a stop at the weapons locker. We continued to get lower in the building, searching for people. We made it to level 5 and put chairs beside a window. We were trying to see what was going on. At that distance, we were able to see the smaller alien ships on the ground. I realized very quickly they were not friendly."

"Octavia, what do you remember during that time?"

"Malax broke a vending machine."

She nods. "Go on Malax."

"We have a security wall inside the front doors at Phade Enterprise. I wanted to check and make sure people weren't hiding there. I sent a drone with the door code taped to it. If there were people, we could get them inside the building further. They needed to be away from the door. We were able to see a man and his family. We brought them up to the 5th floor with us. It was there we figured out the aliens retreat at night and were able to make a plan to go forward."

"And that plan was?"

"We put together emergency bags. We cleared the kitchen of the canned meat and vegetables. We loaded those bags into 2 vehicles. After the aliens retreated, we left in different directions. He was taking his family north. We were going south."

"Why south?"

"God gave me a necklace. A couple of weeks before everything happened. He said it would always lead me home. We thought maybe it was pointing to my parents. It was the only clue we had. And it was from God."

"Do you still have it?"

"Yes, I knew you'd want to see it." I pull it out of my shirt and hold it up.

"That's a beautiful compass."

"Thank you."

"So, you go in the direction it's pointing."

"Correct. We picked up Rye and checked the Kinnik house and our house on the way out of the city."

"How was traveling?"

I shake my head. "Horrible. It was horrible out there. We did give away most of the food bags though. I think we were able to help some people. We shared information. So many people were trying to flee the city. Things were on fire. The dead were everywhere. Bridges were blown up. We found a little girl whose parents were killed. We kept her with us. We found another man with a small child who lost his wife. He was with us for a while. We helped where we could."

"We were able to listen to a broadcast when we ate with some people 1 night. Our neighbors took the little girl in. The man went north with his child. We made it into the farmland next. We stayed in empty houses and charged the car where we could. We kept going."

"I imagine that is the exact same as most people's stories. Hide and eat where possible and keep moving."

Mauve nods. "It really was."

"Then we made it to the mountains. Some of the villages there sustained no damage. Others were blown apart. We slept in a cave. We made it through to the other side. Still not knowing where the necklace was pointing. At that point, I was thinking maybe her dad had a house on the coast he never told anyone about."

They laugh.

"It pointed us to an empty field. There was a rock. I think I was going to check the rock when the alien showed up."

Malax puts his hand up. "The alien blew up the car. We were able to blow up the alien ship by shooting into its laser. Octavia got the rock open, and it was a ship."

"My home is a ship. We made contact with these people and some others. They said it would take them 14 hours to get to us, and they were on the way. Rye took over at that point. I was in shock and Malax was injured when the car exploded. He was in the medical area."

"What did you do, Rye?"

"Mass produced the brains." He points at them. "Made Octavia get cleaned up. We slept in caves. It was a disaster. It was also daylight. We couldn't leave. It took a while to wind down. Then we were able to get some sleep before they showed up."

"So, you are not from this planet?"

"Correct. I'm from Earth. It's far from here. I was given a ship also. Her ship connected to mine. She needed help. We came to help."

"You're all from Earth?"

"I'm from Terros. My name is Tim. I came with another group of people. There is one other Queen of Queens. She was here for the main attack but could not stay for the interview."

"Queen of Queens?"

"We rule multiple planets. We are bringing unity to the universe." Nadine adjusts herself. "The 3 of us were given the ships by the Gods. There is still 1 more ship that has not yet been found."

"So your full title is?"

"Queen of Queens Hypatia Nadine Sandu. This is Queen of Queens Octavia Echo Kinnik. The missing one of us is: Queen of Queens Kehlani Mayra Sarris."

"And she was here briefly?"

"Yes, they helped us so much. They deserve just as much credit."

"So, you rule multiple planets, Octavia?"

"Maybe someday, but currently I'm trying to put this one back together."

"And that makes Malax?"

"High King." Dipak stretches.

She nods. "Let's move forward with the plan. You arrived and did not attack?"

Dipak takes over. "Yes, if we attacked them in space, they would have ran. We would have lost them. We needed them to be in the atmosphere. We had to wait until morning for the attack. We positioned ourselves and got ready. The attack was successful. Every ship was brought down. None of them escaped."

"And then?"

"We've had meeting after meeting trying to figure out how to get people home and feed them. Get the power back on."

"So many meetings."

Tim nods. "The brains are doing as much as they can. We understand talking to them can be a challenge. But everything is going back together quickly. It's only been 3 days."

"Yes, you are correct about that. They are fast."

Nadine smiles. "We put in the order, and they do it that second."

"Any idea on when the grocery stores will be full again?"

Malax sits up. "The shipping of food from the farmland has been established. However, now we're seeing road blockages. The order to fix them was given 2 days ago. I believe 70% have been completed. The food is coming. Until your local grocery store has food, feel free to eat food from the brains. There is no charge. We do not want people going hungry. It will probably take another few days before all grocery stores are operating at 100%"

"To the representative of Kehlani, Tim, do you know why she couldn't attend?"

"She is setting up the Planetary Commissioners Meeting. It's a yearly meeting for all the planet officials."

"What?"

"Each planet that has submitted to one of the queens, appoints 2 planet leaders. Those leaders get together with us once a year. We discuss anything they want. From new laws to trade agreements. A ball is hosted. It lasts for 5 days this year. She's working on the final arrangements."

"When is it?"

"2 weeks."

"Are we invited?"

I laugh. "No. It's last minute. Let's put us back together. Then we can work out that stuff."

Nadine smiles. "If you submit to Octavia and can elect 2 planet leaders in 2 weeks, you can stay with us. We have extra rooms."

"It's too fast."

"I was going to drag you anyway."

I nod and they laugh.