Echo Book 2

29. Rogue Planet

We get fancy gowns with crowns and jewelry. Thora makes sure our hair is perfect, then we go to the command area.

Fang comes in. "They are vampires."

"We're vampires."

"You don't smell like a vampire."

"We're on suppra's. These aren't our real bodies." I plop into a chair.

"What?"

"We transfer our mind into this body. Our real body looks like it's sleeping somewhere."

The son stares at me. "That is fascinating. You look so real."

"Yea. It's very interesting technology. What's your name?"

"Hunter."

"Nice to meet you Hunter. I'm Echo. What is your technology like?"

"Nothing like that." He pulls something resembling a phone out of his pocket. It's bigger than what I'm used to, but it's a phone. He flips through some pictures for us.

Tye looks with me. "You have tv, the internet, vehicles. Do you have any vehicles that fly?"

"No. Nothing like that."

Tye shows Dipak a picture. "They skipped the flying part of evolution but seem to have the rest."

"I've heard of it being attempted. We're not there yet."

Nadine smiles. "That's fine. Your planet would still be considered advanced. Do you have a lot of wars?"

"No. More like battles when rogues get stupid. We haven't had any big wars in a long time."

Fang nods. "Not for about 300 years. 300 years ago, the royal family took the throne. We fell into peace. The king is considered the King of Alpha's. We follow his laws. We're peaceful this way."

Thora fixes my crown. "Has the same king ruled for 300 years?"

"No. A king will rule for 50 or 75 years. Then his firstborn son will take over so he can retire."

"Only 50 years?"

"That's a long time to rule."

Thora nods. "How old are you and how long do you live?"

"I'm 92. We live for roughly 200 years. The king will take the throne when he's about 50 and retire before 160."

"How old are you, Hunter?"

"35."

Fang smiles. I must look confused. "It's normal for us. I met my mate when I was 28. We enjoyed some time with the 2 of us. Then we had Hunter. He was our first. I was 57. How old are you?"

"17. NO. I'M 18 NOW."

"She was born human." Tim smirks. "I'm 1,112."

"Immortal?"

"Yep."

"We're ready. Let's head back to the shuttle." Malax leads us down. Fang sits in the front with him and points the way.

We land in front of a huge castle. There's like 500 guards in the front yard. "Did you tell them we're just searching for someone?"

"They're having a gala later today. They always flood the place with guards when they do that." Hunter helps me out of the shuttle. I like him. Then Tim puts his arm around me and doesn't let go.

Eriska takes Hunters' arm. "I don't have an escort here."

Thora looks around. "Me either."

"Hello everyone. I'm King Kyro. I was told you're not from this planet?"

"Correct. We're searching for someone. We believe she may be here."

Dipak gets out his paper again. "Altheena May-Eve Sage."

"Search for her."

"Yes, sir."

"Please come in while they search." The king guides us into the castle.

Nadine points. "Princes."

My eyes go to them. "Why does this planet have such sexy men on it?"

"I have no idea but damn. I'm glad I'm single now. One of them can escort me." Thora waves at them.

The princes come with us. We sit around a conference table.

The king sits at the end of the table and rubs his face. "I don't even know where to start. We've never had visitors from space before. How long have you known about us? Do you visit places often?"

Dipak gets his notes out. "We've known about your planet for a day. We are running a search for werewolf planets. And yes, we do visit planets often."

"Do they all welcome you?"

"Not at all."

"Are we similar to other planets?"

Nadine smiles. "If you mean, land, water, clouds, trees, rocks, animals. Then yes. Are you speaking about evolution? How long have your people existed here?"

"Thousands of years."

Tim shakes his head. "There's no real way to measure how far a planet should be in its evolution. We have planets that barely have fire. Other planets are visiting space without our assistance. It's all about the history of your people. Wars on the planet. What the majority of your people put value in. Is it science? Defense? Cooking? You may be very advanced with weapons, but behind on vehicles. We can't say if your evolution is ahead or behind. It's probably both on different topics."

"You have planets?"

Tim nods. "Planets submit to us. They abide by our laws and rights. We protect them. There's a lot that goes into it."

"We wish to submit."

I shake my head. "We're here to find Altheena. If she's here, you can submit to her. If she's not here, we'll bring her, and you can submit to her then."

"Why would you not accept us?"

Nadine shakes her head. "It's not about accepting you or not. It's about finding Altheena."

Dipak rolls his eyes. "We'll take the submission. But if Altheena's here. You'll be moved to her planets."

"That's fine."

"Let me get someone here to be king." Dipak gets his phone out.

"I'll do it." Thora looks around. "It's only 3 hours away. I want to try."

"I'll see if Frode agrees."

The prince scratches his head. "You would be king?"

"Queen. My mate would be king, if he agrees."

"I would not be king?"

Tye smiles. "You can keep the title. It's whatever works for your planet. Some planets call them planetary leaders or elders. King is fine."

"Frode agreed. He's on his way with Dracul."

"Alert."

We turn to the brain.

Dipak shakes his head. "What alert?"

"Potential collision between 2 planets."

"Which 2?"

"This planet and a rogue planet."

Tre stands up. "How is it potential?"

"The rogue planet is going to travel through this solar system. The gravitational pull may alter its trajectory. Potentially putting it on a direct path into this planet."

"Well that's not good." I jump up. "Show me." I watch 2 planets slam together. They explode into molten rock. "What are the chances of this happening?"

"20% chance of direct impact. The trajectory could still be altered differently depending on the mass of the rogue planet. It may miss this planet. We do not have much information on the rogue planet."

Tre nods. "How long until the potential impact?"

"33 hours."

I shrug my shoulders. "20% is fairly low. Go get the information you need from the rogue planet."

"Yes, ma'am."

Malax nods. "How many people are on this planet?"

Kyro rubs his face. "300 million. You're saying there's a 20% chance we're going to die?"

Malax waves him off. "Bring the evacuater ships here. Enough to move 320 million."

"Yes, sir. 6 hour estimated time of arrival."

Tre nods. "This is not bad. We'll have to rush the evacuation if that planet's path gets altered, but we should still be able to save everyone. We'll have 23 hours to get them out of here."

Dipak nods. "Go through the list of the planets that can sustain life. Find the closest planet that will sustain them with no issues."

I smile at Thora. "Queen Thora, we are taking over your planet immediately."

"I noticed."

Kyro nods. "So we're going to die in 20 hours?"

"Potentially." Tre waves him off and reads his papers.

Thora shakes her head. "No. We're watching the situation now. If we need to evacuate you, we will."

Tye nods. "We are projecting to have over 20 hours to evacuate your planet. We should be able to get every single person."

"That's a relief. Should I make an announcement?"

"The ships are 6 hours out. Announcing now, may only cause panic. If you could, order people to get food seeds. Livestock. Enough to breed them for more food. We don't know what will be on the planet you get assigned. For example, if you like chicken, we can't guarantee your new planet will have chickens. You need to pack some."

Thora smiles. "Keep in mind, you're packing for 300 million people. Not only your castle."

A prince jumps up. "WHAT IF YOU CAN'T FIND A PLANET FOR US?"

I wave him off. "Stop yelling. I'll put you on mine for the time being. We can move you later, when we find you a planet."

Thora rubs her eyes. "I don't think I ever want another planet. But bring the shuttles down and start clearing out their stores. I want everything from beds and sheets to noodles." She moves over to the other side of the table and keeps telling the brain things to pack.

I move over to the king's desk with Tre. "Show me what happens if it's not a direct hit."

We watch the planet get destroyed a bunch of times. Tre rubs his eyes. "It's going to have to pass at least 2000 miles away for nothing catastrophic to happen."

"And even at that distance, gravity will still mess with this planet."

"Yep. That's not good."

Malax yells, "WHAT'S GOING ON YOU 2?"

We shake our heads.

"Well, that's not good." Thora rubs her face. "Talk more."

I get my paper. "Direct hit is a global killer." I cross my arms. "Any hit is a global killer. Any near miss is a global killer."

"Why?"

"It's going so fast and with so much force and velocity. If it doesn't hit, it will fly by and produce a massive amount of heat. It will bake everything in seconds."

Tre nods. "Everything will burst into flames. This is not even taking air displacement into account. Explosions everywhere. The 2 gravities would mess with each other. It could pull the planet out of its rotation or orbit. The land masses here would break free from the plates. They would be floating. Earthquakes everywhere. Every volcano would go off. The water would be super heated in a moment. It would boil, expand, and release into the atmosphere."

"The other planet's gravity could steal the atmosphere from this planet. As well as the moon. If it lines up correctly, even without a direct hit, it could still shoot this planet out of the solar system."

"Or into the sun." Tre gets another paper.

Thora puts her hands up. "Stop talking to us now. Thank you for the update."

Me and Tre turn back to the desk. "Show us the map of the planet and sun. Where is the rogue planet? Show me the potential paths it could follow."

"I need it to be this far from the planet, for the planet to still be able to sustain life. Anything inside this mark, consider a direct hit. What is the percentage of a direct hit now?"

"84%."

We freeze and stare at each other.

"GOING FOR FOOD NOW." Nadine shoves us out.

Me and Tre sit at a table. People put food in front of us. We eat it without thinking while we work. I don't know how long we sit there when Marcus puts papers in front of us. "These 3 planets are potential planets for them to take over."

Tre takes them. "All 3 atmospheres are very similar to this planet."

"Any of the 3 would work. I'm eliminating this planet. It's too big."

"Yea, that's like 10 times bigger than the planet we're on. I'm concerned about planet 2 having enough fresh water."

"Yea, that's a lot of salt water. Planet 3 averages 4 degrees colder than this planet."

"That's not bad. They could stay away from the poles. It's almost twice as big. Plenty of land space. Fresh water lakes everywhere. An abundance of trees. Perfect distance from the sun."

"How far is it from earth?"

"5 hours. 8 hours from here. It's in the other direction."

I flag Tim over and hand him the paper. "This planet. Evacuate as soon as possible."

"I thought you were waiting to see the trajectory?"

Tre waves him off. "We waited enough. Evacuate."

"Thank you." He runs off.

Malax runs over. "How long until this planet starts to feel the effects of the incoming planet?"

"We'll work on it."

"Alert: The rogue planet has begun its rotation around the sun."

Thora pushes us out. "Back to office time. Get their papers."

"Yes, ma'am."