Echo Book 2

30. Different Though

Tre and I stand at the king's desk and watch the rogue planet sling shot around the sun. Its potential path slowly encloses on this planet. It also speeds up. Which we weren't ready for. That's probably not good.

Tre motions the brain. "Enforce mandatory evacuation. Immediately."

3 seconds later, Malax yells, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"The rogue planet is being sling shotted around the sun. It's picking up momentum and lining up to make a direct hit. We'll start to feel the effects in about 5 hours."

"How long do we have before it hits?"

"12 hours. That's assuming it doesn't speed up anymore."

"You just took 5 hours off our countdown until impact."

We nod and go back to watching the rogue planet.

I wake up on the ship. I try to connect back in but Malax picks me up. "Your suppra is still there, but you need food and blood before you go back."

"How long has it been?" I shove food in and chug a whole glass of blood and water.

"You slept for 6 hours. The brains are saying it's 5 hours until impact."

"Is everyone off the planet?"

"People, yes. Brains are still there taking as much of everything as they can. We also moved all the ships, but 1, out of the solar system. I don't want to chance them getting hurt."

I hug him so tight. "I get to stay and watch it happen."

"You can stay until the end, baby. You'll be there with Tre's suppra and a bunch of brains. Try to save the suppra if at all possible."

"I don't think it's possible."

"Me either. But try if you can." He lays me back on the table and kisses my head.

I open my eyes, and I'm back in the king's office. I get up off the floor. The brains took everything. Desk, table, chairs. It's an empty office. A brain stands beside me. I pull it outside.

I see a king ship in the air. "Is anyone alive on that ship?"

"No humans. Brains only. We are taking as much as we can."

I watch as shuttle after shuttle fly into the cargo area, then they fly out and back to the planet.

Tre spins me around. I can see the rogue planet in the sky. It's massive. I don't even know how to process it. It's rust colored with white stripes.

"Gravity seems lighter now."

I jump. It does seem like I can go higher, and it takes longer to land. "This is so amazing."

"It's amazing we get to watch this. Come check out this river."

The water in the river is flowing towards the rogue planet. So fast, it's killing the fish. They're getting slammed on the rocks.

Tre looks at the brain following us around. "Animal life is being killed. Mark this and record it with the time stamp."

"Dipak wants you informed: You are being monitored by multiple ships. Everything is being recorded from as many angles as possible."

"Good."

I nod. "There is going to be a lot of data. Can we get a brain into this river to see what's going on in there?"

"Yes, ma'am."

We walk around for a couple of hours watching the changes. The rogue planet keeps getting bigger and bigger. The water level of the river keeps increasing. It gets windy. Then there's a big explosion. It knocks us on our asses.

"What the hell was that?"

"Unknown."

The ground shakes violently. We're outside in a clearing. Nothing really to fall on us.

"The trees are bending."

"We'll have to watch for those snapping out."

"7 volcanos have erupted."

Tre grabs my arm. "Let's get in the air."

"What is that?" It looks like a hill is coming for us. I tilt my head.

He pulls me into the shuttle and gets us about 30 feet in the air. "The land has waves."

"How is that possible?"

"They've broken free from the plates. The crust is acting like water."

We watch the castle crumble as the land waves under it.

"The planet can no longer sustain human life."

"Why?"

"The atmosphere is being pulled away from the planet."

Tre sits back. "This is unbelievable."

Then something smacks the shuttle. It sends us sideways before we go back straight. Tre evens us out. "What was that?"

"Tree."

I shake my head. "What the hell is that?"

"Tidal wave."

"How far from the ocean are we?"

"200 miles."

Tre shoves me into a seat and sits by me. "That wave is going to swallow us. I can't get out of the way. Hold on."

The shuttle goes up, but the wave is coming in too fast. I grab onto Tre and he grabs a bar. The wave slams the shuttle. We tumble around for a while. Then we land on a lake. I don't know if this is where the castle was or not.

Tre jumps up. "Can you get us back in the air?"

The brain is missing an arm. "Attempting. Energy is filling the air."

I see another wave coming in. "Ut oh."

Tre glances out the window. "Remove our mates from the viewing areas."

Something cracks so loud and I jump. "DID WE JUST GET HIT BY LIGHTENING?"

"I think so. It's turning into an electrical storm."

"Earth wave is coming from this way. Can you raise us any?"

Tre shakes his head. "I'm more concerned about that orange electrical cloud forming. I don't want to go higher."

"Go higher or get killed by land waves in 20 seconds."

"Higher it is." We shoot up.

"TIDAL WAVE. GRAB ON."

He jumps from the driver's seat and grabs me. We land in a seat and everything is perfect.

I stare out the window. It's sunny outside. Quite a few clouds. There's grass below us. "What the hell?"

"There's the castle. It's still standing. It looks different though."

"Where? What?"

Tre lands us. "I have no idea."

Guards surround our shuttle as we get out.

Tre grabs my arm.

"What is going on? There was nobody here."

King Kyro is with the guards. "Where did you come from?"

"Here. We were here. There was a planet about to collide with this one. We evacuated you. How are you here? Did we go back in time?"

Tre shakes his head. "They're not werewolves. They're elves. What did you see, Kyro?"

"A flash of light and you were parked in the yard."

"Is this planet submitted to a king or queen?"

"No. I am the king here."

The brain falls out of the shuttle. "I have no contact with anything or anyone. Unable to locate the ship." It stops moving completely.

I rub my face. "What happened?"

Tre shakes his head. "Are we in an alternate dimension?"

I nod. "Maybe the electrical storm. We may have gotten too close to the cloud you were talking about. It might have been enough energy to send us straight into an alternate universe."

"This is wild."

I cross my arms. "They're elves this time."

Kyro checks the sky. "There is a planet coming to hit us?"

Tre shakes his head. "We know nothing about your dimension. We were getting pulled apart in another one. You have to do us a favor."

"What?"

"Very soon, we're going to drop. These are not our bodies. Our bodies are in our dimension. These are avatars. They're called suppra's. When our mates figure out we're not responding, they will pull us out of these avatars. If we ever show up again, give these bodies to them and tell them; alternate dimensions exist."

"You won't decay?"

I shake my head. "These are not biological bodies like yours. They're man-made. We can transfer our conscious minds into them. But we will not be able to come back. If the us, from your dimension, ever show up. Give them these avatars and the shuttle. Tell them we..." I shrug my shoulders. "Said hi."

Tre nods. "Alternate dimensions are real."

"What were we in the dimension you came from?"

"Werewolves."

"I'm Tre. Her name is ..."

I'm staring at the ceiling in the suppra lab. Malax and Tim pull me up and hug me. "What happened? They said you were gone, but you never woke up. Where were you, baby? Are you ok?"

"Where is Tre? Is he awake? Did he make it back?"

Almost the second I say it, a brain looks at us. "Tre is awake. Is Echo ok?"

"I'm ok."

"Make it back? Where were you, babygirl?" Tim hugs me.

"Tre is requesting everyone to his ship for a meeting, immediately."

I put my arms up and Tim carries me out. "Send everyone on the ship to the shuttle bay. We're going to another ship."

"Yes, sir."